Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Imagining the Post-COVID19 World: Importance of Educational Reforms


Imagining the Post-COVID19 World: Importance of Educational Reforms
Dr R Srinivasan



COVID19 figures are just under two million as on date and the universe is already concerned about economic down swing. The credit for the concern, justifiably, must be given to our ability to communicate. It is but natural that saving humanity from the scourge of COVID19 ought to be the immediate objective. The real objective, however, should be to get our engines of economy firing on all cylinders from the day COVID19 is brought under control, if not before.

In the developed West the resuscitation may take lesser time since established knowledge and technical wherewithal for such resurgence already exist. Unless political leadership bungles these so badly, the developed nations should get back to their status sooner the pandemic is under control. In the developing and underdeveloped countries, the story is likely to be different and substantially more difficult.

One of the key challenges that developing world faces is in their ability to transform into knowledge economies. Peter Drucker made an important observation when he said, “Traditional economic factors such as monetary capital, physical labor, and raw material, are becoming less important in comparison to the capability of adding value through knowledge development, improvement, and innovation”[1]. Further he summarized the importance of knowledge capital as a key ingredient in economic growth when he said, “The economic challenge of the post-capitalist society will therefore be the productivity of knowledge work and the knowledge worker”.

Research, innovation and application of science in the developing countries needs to be ably aided by a strong educational system from early school onwards which promotes merit. Schools and higher educational institutions in public as well as private sector must be evolved to become world class centers of knowledge with excellent supportive infrastructure. The purpose of education should not merely be to produce graduates but to produce skill at all levels that can be applied for the development of society.

In the light of the COVID19 environment, we find reports indicating that big firms are leaving Chinese shores and that they will search for suitable countries to relocate. Enthusiastic analysts are either hinting at or openly pointing at India as the most favorable destination. Their arguments include India’s economic potential and infrastructure growth in recent years. They also enthusiastically point out that India can offer a larger and younger pool of manpower almost on par with what was available in China. These forecasts are also getting debated and analyzed across social and print media. Scholarly attention obviously is in tow.

Such a euphoric forecast needs to be also analyzed on the basis of certain realities. Without going into elaborate discussion on the educational sector in India (for, such a discussion would go beyond the space limit here), it would suffice to point at the headlines of some reports:

1.      60% of engineering graduates unemployed – Times of India reported on 18 March 2017 that less than 1% of engineering students participate in summer internships, just 15% of engineering programmes are accredited by the National Board of Accreditation and more than 60 percent of technical graduates remain unemployed[2].

2.    In June 2018, the Economic Times reported that 94% of engineering graduates are not fit for hiring[3].

3.   On 21 March 2019, India Today reported that Over 80% Indian engineers are unemployable, lack new-age technology skills[4].

4.      In so far as non-technical graduates are concerned, a survey by Wheebox, People Strong and CII in December 2019 found that employability of Indian graduates jumps to 47% in 2019 from 33% in 2014[5], a rise of 14 percent over a five year period.

As the moral of these reports show, the challenges present before India (or for that matter, any other nation in the developing part of the world) are: how to revamp the education system in order to produce substantial number of graduates who are skilled and employable? More importantly, can that be done in a short while, since the COVID19 opportunity may not come again (yes, we pray that it never comes again).

There is no doubt that the silver lining from the dark cloud of COVID19 is casting its promising glare on India. Hence, educational sector reform is an important aspect India must look at this juncture. This point is equally applicable to any other nation that is looking forward to gaining from this unique situation created by a pandemic. The strength of the educational sector and its ability to produce skilled and employable man power will significantly decide whether in the post-COVID19 phase a country emerges victorious or not.

Coincidentally, India embarked upon certain important reforms in the educational sector in the recent years like granting 'Institution of Eminence' status to three public and three private institutes in the country; making PhD a must for teaching at university level for the entry-level designation of Assistant Professor from 2021; and, introducing Prime Minister’s Research Fellowships at IITs and IISc. The University Grants Commission has even embarked upon evaluating PhD thesis submitted for qualitative content from 2019. Additionally, the government announced a National Skill Development Mission in 2015. A separate ministry with a set of institutions like National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), and Directorate General of Training (DGT) were also constituted. In 2020 Budget, the government set INR 3000 crore outlay for National Skill Development Mission activities. The above initiatives clearly indicate that the government is fully seized of the importance of knowledge as fundamental to economic progress and greater social justice.

There are innumerable challenges in gearing up to be a world class economy, particularly in the aftermath of a pandemic like COVID19. But then, creating a world class economy can never be worth just an ordinary day’s toil. There are other supplementary challenges too that need to be addressed by the society. Commercialization of education must be stopped by voluntary and regulatory methods. The spirit of the reforms introduced by the government must be further strengthened by private endeavor.

India can fulfill its destiny by becoming a world leader for it is endowed with tremendous potential. To do so, our common objective should be to underwrite the purpose that the HRD Minister said while launching Institutions of Excellence Program:

 "The #InstituteofEminence are important for the country. We have 800 univ, but not a single university in top 100 or even 200 in the world ranking. Today's decision will help achieve this. Improving ranking needs sustained planning, complete freedom & public institutes getting public funding (sic),"[6].

Some areas that warrant further contemplation and action in this regard are:

1.     Quality of Public Education: More than two thirds of children in India go to government schools[7]. They need quality in infrastructure as well as teaching staff if they are to realize benefits of economic prosperity.
2.      Quality in Teacher Training: Even though India has about 17000 Teacher Education Institutes with the capacity to produce 94 lac teachers annually, the quality of teachers turned out by these institutes is in serious question. The CEO of Niti Ayog made a pertinent observation in this regard when he said, “reforms must be driven by administrative will and executed through a well-established governance mechanism, clearly establishing ownership and accountability for set work streams across multiple agencies”[8].
3.      Private Sector Involvement in R & D: As compared to developed countries, the number of private sector sponsored R&D institutions in India are few. Also, the number of projects commissioned by them through universities is still fewer. Unless this trend changes where private sector sponsors research not merely in sciences but also in social sciences and humanities, wholesome development of the society will remain an uphill task. In a global comparison, India has a mere 0.63 percent share of Private Sector R&D as compared to Japan (3.28%), USA (2.79%), Germany (2.88%) and South Korea (4.23%) of its GDP[9] [figures for 2015).
Mankind has faced larger calamities and braved bigger storms. Small Pox, plague, Spanish Flu, Ebola, HIV are just few examples. When we look around we find that there are a plethora of other challenges too that we are engaged with. Take malnutrition, for example, which claims millions of children annually[10].
Unless we emerge victorious from COVID19 better prepared for economic revival as a knowledge economy, we would find it hard to address inequality and social justice, in addition to unemployment and lower growth rates. We must remember that history has portent lessons of countries that foresaw their future and worked for it, before actually emerging victorious.



[1] Drucker, P. F. (1993). Postcapitalist Society. New York: Herper Collins Publishers.
[7] 65% of all school-going children in 20 states, about 113 million, continue to get their education from government schools, according to District Information System for Education (DISE) and education ministry data. https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/private-schools-gain-17-mn-students-in-5-yrs-govt-schools-lose-13-mn-117041700073_1.html
[10] UNICEF Global Nutrition Report 2018 says, “Nearly a quarter of children under five years of age, 150.8 million, are stunted, 50.5 million children under five are wasted and 20 million newborn babies are estimated to be of low birth weight. At the same time, 38.3 million children under the age of five are overweight. At least 124 of 141 countries struggle with overlapping burdens, while millions of children under the age of five suffer with coexisting forms of malnutrition”. See: https://globalnutritionreport.org/reports/global-nutrition-report-2018/conclusion-critical-steps-get-nutrition-track/

Saturday, April 11, 2020

COVID19: A Time for Corporate Introspection


COVID19: A TIME FOR CORPORATE INTROSPECTION
Dr R Srinivasan

Introduction
Winston Churchill is quoted to have said “An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity”.
This maxim applies to the corporate sector aptly in all circumstances, especially when the world is locking itself down in the era of COVID 19. World Bank while assessing the global slowdown said, “Global growth is projected at 2.5 percent in 2020, just above the post-crisis low registered last year. While growth could be stronger if reduced trade tensions mitigate uncertainty, the balance of risks is to the downside. A steep productivity growth slowdown has been underway in emerging and developing economies since the global financial crisis, despite the largest, fastest, and most broad-based accumulation of debt since the 1970s. These circumstances add urgency to the need to rebuild macroeconomic policy space and undertake reforms to rekindle productivity[1]. The Corona Pandemic has not helped the World Bank outlook. On the contrary, there are fears that the economic impact will worsen the global economy and take the levels perhaps below the melt down figures of 2008. Kenneth Rogoff said that 2008 was like a dry run COVID19 in his analysis in the Guardian[2].
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 6.3 percent, or more than 1,300 points, to close the day at 19,898.92, its first close below 20,000 since 2017 and the broad-based S&P 500 dropped 5.2 percent to finish at 2,398.10, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 4.7 percent to 6,989.84, reported ET[3].
In UK, USA, Japan, India and EU, business is coming to a halt with hardly a trickle of output. Nations are wringing their hands and placing further restrictions while at the same time trying to reach out or enhance medical equipment producers to supplement national reserves. In the organized sector, corporates have downed their shutters. IT majors have asked their people to work from home. Transportation and logistics chain are standing still except for a teeny weeny segment catering for essential services. LOCKDOWN is translating into lockout, though no employer or government is willing to look at the status as a lockout.
In these times of cataclysm, an unforeseen opportunity is available to the corporations and big brother industry – an opportunity that may well translate into higher productivity when the world turns around firmly from the pandemic. The purpose of this article is to look into some of those vistas that a promising future presents. Broadly, we will consider Production and Processes as the two fields we will explore. It is necessary to emphasize that the scenarios being discussed are in the pre-COVID19 scenario when the corporate, presumably, was in its full form of operations.
Production
Maintenance of buildings and infrastructure. A number of compromises are accepted and even ‘unsafe’ equipment are milked to prudent capacity in order to meet production targets. While we work from home, it would be better that those friendly calls from foremen, those little notes from section heads/junior managers or even work men are pulled out and synthesized. A dedicated team (if one doesn’t already exist in the company) now goes through these in order to make detailed plans, identifying suppliers for replacement, contractors for installation, permits and passes that need to be obtained from various authorities, etc.
We should not finalize the plans just by such expert committees alone. This is also an opportune moment to consult with the people who actually work on these equipment hands on and take their advice if they have a better one.
There are two benefits of doing so: one, the man on the field will feel important. Two, the industry may benefit from a more practical suggestion than those availed through ‘experts’.     
The scenarios presented in the box are representative. The scenarios will be far truer and lengthier when such a focused “audit” takes place.

Processes

Rarely in the daily life of a corporate can the luxury of time be indulged than during the present calamitous era of COVID19. Many a friends of mine who are up to their neck in the corporate world have, however, a different opinion. COVID or no COVID, they just want to get back to their offices fast. The reason stated by them is the cause of this paper. Their ‘video or con-call’ starts at 0800 and continues till about 2100 or more on a daily basis!! They would rather be at work in their office.
There is no activity more damaging to productivity than a prolonged conference. From Harvard to Timbuktu, there is as yet not even an iota of proof that calls and con-calls have produced anything more than humor, some well-intended and mostly acrimonious[4]. Instead of perennial con-calls (my apologies if the way I spell this appears satirical!), the following activities may serve to bolster productivity and help in the reconstruction of business when COVID19 is bid adieu.

Review Performance: Performance Assessment Reports, by whatever name they are called are a standard HR tool to assess retentions/promotions/adieus. However, most of the managers who write them, like the ones who review them, have been chased and hounded over production targets when these assessments were due. This is a time when the appraisal process itself can be holistically reviewed to see whether it matches the organizational objectives or has come to stay as a bureaucratic tool to chastise angels and celebrate demons, (or vice versa if you please). This is also a time when the senior management, assisted by HR, can re-review them to see if they have missed a man who should have been promoted or raised a man who didn’t much deserve. The luxury of contemplation can be indulged now.
Reinforce Sales/Marketing Ethics. Yes, ethics. A number of middle and lower level managers either step to the left or right of this domain particularly when QE reports are due. A review of sales figures can now be undertaken to find sudden spurts in the third month of any quarter. If consistently seen with reference to a particular Branch or office, time to check. In the process, if it is seen that certain procedures for checks and balances need to be strengthened, now is the time. It is also a time when random sampling can be used to contact high value customers to find out their honest assessment about the marketing/sales team as well as the product.
Cost-to-Process (CTP). This is a concept I would like to talk about at this juncture. We are pretty familiar with CTC, cost of production, cost of sales, etc. However, it is not difficult to appreciate that even processes incur costs. Take for example, the need for certain stores in the production line. How does the workman demand? How fast is it processed? The intangible phenomena is actually worked by people who get paid to move this cycle. Can they actually move it faster than now? With time in hand, this question can be studied and company specific models can be evolved for implementation when normalcy returns. Use the opportunity to propagate to the last man down the line that efficient processes and efficacy of business actually mean the same.
T&D. Training and employee enrichment is an activity that can be done at peace. Virtual Conferences and training sessions, limited in time of course, can be formalized to impart training to employees while they sit at home in front of their mobile/tab/laptop/tv screens. Virtual feedback on how to utilize the knowledge for enhancing productivity would pay dividends.
I am reminded of a boss of mine who would insist a personal interview before and after a training program. He had just two questions to ask.
Before the training session: What do you expect to learn?
After the Training Session: State any one point you learnt and tell me how will you implement?
I had seen many of my colleagues opting not to go for Executive Development Programs so long as he was the boss!!
Compliance Regime. The compulsions of time and targets would have resulted in striking compromises in compliance regime in the so called peace time. While waging the war on Corona, it would be good to visit compliance policies and their execution. Take for example, Effluent Treatment. When global warming is threatening life on earth, it would do well to emerge as a Green Company. Apart from advertisement value, the service to community will set you apart. Innovative ideas to emerge as one during these times can pay rich dividends.
Legal Battles. There is no corporate that doesn’t have a folio of cases and a troop of legal minds to fight its cases in courts. It is time now that the senior executives visit details of each case to review the company stand. It is also time to foreclose cases where a bit of generosity to an employee can bolster company image.
Ancillaries/Subsidiaries. This is the time for senior management to interact with them, notwithstanding the wealth of information already available through middle level managers. What problems do they face in interacting with the company, what their observations for betterment, have they faced any specific trouble with any individual employee (in official capacity), how are they coping with the lockdown? Is there that the ‘big brother’ can do for them? These are but few questions. Interactions at leisure now can yield inputs that may help energize activities in future.
Support staff. are actually what their nomenclature suggests – support. COVID19 time is a good time to tell support staff that we are concerned. Even state/provincial authorities can be approached for centralized assistance to their families in terms of medicines, provisions, etc. A dollar spent on them in their hour of need will repay thousands in due course. We must remember that loyalty is a two way passage. What comes down will certainly go up!! Incidentally, we should not forget the housekeeping/security/other such contractors. Since most of their labour is likely to on daily wages, reaching out to them will earn the kind of goodwill that only a challenging time like now can present.
CSR. Nothing builds company image like good CSR initiatives. In other times, top management may not have the time to innovate. But as Churchill said, CSR is the order of the day in crisis times. An assessment of the outlay having been taken, corporates can divert substantial amounts for substantiating medical and paramedical equipment/accessories. Big house can even create medical facilities, donate ambulances, critical care equipment and carry out huge sanitization drives in conjunction with state administration. Smaller entities can supply and add on to these resources in any manner that is feasible.
CSR can also look to providing for SHGs of women who are into tailoring, for example. Such units can be provided the cloth and raw material necessary for manufacturing safety attire, scarves, masks, aprons, etc for the medical community which is fighting to save mankind. Such an initiative will not merely bolster small and micro industries, but will provide financial relief to families dependent on them.
Conclusion
The objective of this article is to rekindle the thought process of corporate minds. Every success story is necessarily written by blood and sweat. More importantly, it is co-written by the capacity to introspect and evaluate one’s own self in times of crisis. Corporates, it is accepted, exist because some business needs to be carried out and profits earned. But beyond those profits, there is a necessity to introspect from an angle that is out of the box, for such introspection when opportunity affords it, can turn the corporate’s business as well as social image gainfully. By avoiding wasteful exercises in merely consuming time in the lockdown scenario of COVID19, much could be changed for better productivity if we avail the opportunities presented by compulsions of time.   

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Tale of Three Cities and Three Women


Story I: Madras

This is a tale of three cities – Madras, Bombay and Calcutta - and three women. In fact these are three stories that together built what would eventually come to be known as “the Crown Jewel of British Empire” – British India.

Madras

Francis Day- for those who are familiar with the history of Madras, along with Andrew Cogan, is the founder of Madras. But then, the raison d’etre for founding Madras was not merely commercial. It was a story of love.
In 1625 AD, the English East India Company (EIC) managed to obtain permission from the Raja of Chandragiri to build a fort on the Coramandal coast 35 miles North of Pulicat Lake, in a place called Durgarajapatnam, One of the main persons who assisted EIC to secure the permission was Arumugam Mudaliar[1] who was the accountant of the village. Grateful to Arumugam Mudaliar, EIC named the fort Armagon – in the manner in which they could pronounce his name!! For the next 14 years, EIC conducted its trade procuring fine cottons, silks and textiles from the areas adjoining Pulicat, including Conjivaram (Kanchipuram).
Francis Day, in his capacity as Factor of Armagon, traveled across the landscape to conduct his trade. In the process, he developed “liaison” with a Tamil lady who lived in a village near the coast of present day Marina beach. His love for the woman grew in time to make it necessary for him to visit her village frequently.
By 1639, Armagon nearly fell into disuse, being struck by malaria amongst other commercial reasons, necessitating the establishment of alternate site since the trade in the area was considerable. So in 1639, 22 August to be precise, Francis Day succeeded in obtaining the grant on lease for two years a ten-mile strip of sand closer to a village called Madraspattinam[2]. In due course, Fort St George was built at the beach by Francis Day. Work on the fort was commenced in 1640[3].
With the establishment of a trading post guarded by a fort, at last, later Sir Francis Day could continue his visits to the lady of his heart without much ado. That Madras, now Chennai, grew into the Presidency town and the seed from which East India Company will go on from a mere trading corporation into the master of Hindustan is of course, a matter of later history.

Story II: Bombay

Bombay

“On 23 June 1661 a marriage treaty agreeing upon the union of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza of Portugal was signed. Catherine brought a dowry of £500,000, as well as Bombay, Tangier and the right of free trade with the Portuguese colonies, and also popularized tea-drinking in Britain”[4].
The map and route to ‘Bumbye’, which was part of the marriage contract, unfortunately went missing though the Lord Chancellor believed it to be somewhere near Brazil[5]. Finally, fourteen months after the marriage, Sir Abraham Shipman with 450 men arrived to claim Bombay for his King. His entry into the port was blocked at gun point since the Portuguese Governor of Bombay had received no instruction to handover the port. It would take three more years and the death of Sir Shipman and nearly two thirds of his force (due to fever and heat), for the Portuguese to hand over Bombay to the British. By then, even though he inherited Bombay as his dowry, Charles II did not want the trouble of ruling these islands and in 1668 persuaded the East India Company to rent them for just 10 pounds of gold a year[6].
Twenty years later, the English had grown bold enough in Bombay to even attack Mughal fleet, of an empire that was in its peak military prowess under Emperor Aurangzeb. While they managed to capture over a dozen Mughal ships in 1688, a year later in 1689, the Mughals retorted by landing a large force in Bombay docks and laying siege to the fort. Hundreds fled and many were killed when the fort eventually fell. Thoroughly subdued, the British sued for peace.
Notwithstanding such declines in its life, Bombay became the capital of East India Company in 1687 and continued as such till 1708, after which it shifted the capital to Calcutta.
Reverting back to Catherine of Braganza, Charles II was advised by many and he himself had shown only a ‘disinterested acceptance[7]’ for the marriage with her. But for this marriage, British possession of Bombay would had had to perhaps wait till the final conquest of Marathas by Major General Arthur Wellesley (Duke of Wellington) in 1803 AD. 
Catharine of Braganza may never have known India personally. But Bombay (Mumbai now) would never have the history it has, but for her.
  
Story III: Calcutta
Calcutta

In the aftermath of the catastrophic battle with the Mughals in 1689[8], Mughals had seized all the EIC trading forts at Bombay, Hugli, Kasimbazar, Masulipatnam and Vizagapatnam. The Surat factory, one of the oldest in India, was also closed. British Factors and their men were arrested and kept in chains in Surat castle and Dhaka Red Fort under conditions insufferable to English pride. It is only when Aurangzeb was satisfied that the English had repented and submitted themselves to Mughal authority, he agreed to forgive them[9].
This fiasco led one young Company Factor named Job Charnock to look for alternate place for establishing a trading post in what would in due course became Calcutta. In August 1690, Charnock began building a settlement in the swampy ground between two villages of Kalikata and Sutanuti in Bengal, with the permission of now condescending Nawab of Bengal[10].
Even though Charnock was accused of even brutality to Indian prisoners and mismanagement,[11]he had an interesting personal story.
Charnock had served as the Company Agent in Patna, Bihar, between 1659 and 1664. While on one of his many trips to procure saltpeter for the Company, he chanced upon the Sati of a young widow. Smitten by her beauty, Charnock sent his soldiers to forcibly take her away from her gruesome fate and eventually married her[12]. At the time of rescue, she was reportedly of fifteen years of age and of a Rajput princely family. Charnock christened her ‘Maria’, though she continued to practice her native faith. She even managed to influence Charnock into accepting practices of her faith so much so that when she died later, Charnock buried her and continued to sacrifice a cockerel over her grave in her memory every year[13]. He fathered many daughters by her and they were married into wealthy English families. In fact, Mary, his first daughter was married to Sir Charles Eyre, the First President of Fort William, Calcutta.
There were raging controversies about celebrating Job Charnock as the founder of Calcutta. Primarily the challenge to this distinction came from one of the oldest families in Calcutta, of Lakshmikanta Majumdar and his descendants, who claimed that the land in question belonged to them and it was merely leased to Charnock for 99 years by Lakshmikanta Majumdar. The Hon’ble High Court of Calcutta instituted a commission of five eminent historians to study the issue. Based on the recommendations of the Commission, the High Court ruled in May 2003[14] that Job Charnock cannot be held as the founding father of Calcutta and therefore 24 August 1690 cannot be held to mark its birthday[15].
But there is adequate historical evidence to prove that the young widow rescued by Job Charnock played a key role in his life.
That brings me to the end of the Tale of Three Cities and Three Women who shaped history of India, whether they consciously knew it or not. 

Note: This story is also published in the Author's Blog at https;//musings-alittleabouteverything.blogspot.com

[2] Through his Dubash (Translator) Beri Timmappa, whose proximity to Ayyappa Naik, brother of Damerla Venkatappa Naik of Wandiwash (Vandavasi), Francis Day procured the permission. Persian Horses and military protection was offered in returned to the Naik. See: The Madras Tercentenary Commemoration Volume (1994), Asian Educational Services, Chennai. Pp 160-164.  ISBN 8120605373, 9788120605374
[3] Dalrymple, William. The Anarchy, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2019. P 21.
[5] Dalrymple, William. The Anarchy, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2019. P 22.
[7] See Footnote 4 above
[8] Popularly known as “Child’s War” named after the British Director of East India Company Sir Josiah Child who believed that the English sword can put the Mughals into place.
[9] Dalrymple, William. The Anarchy, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2019. Pp 24-25.
[10] Dalrymple, William. The Anarchy, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2019. Pp 24-25
[12] Alexander Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies (1727), ed. William Foster, 2 vols (London: Argonaut, 1930), Vol. II, pp. 8–9.
[13] Moorhouse, Geoffrey (1971): Calcutta, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974
[14] Sabarna Roychowdhury Paribar ... vs The State of West Bengal And Ors. on 16 May, 2003 (citation: (2003) 2 CALLT 625 HC)


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