One thing that stays constant in this world is “change”. There is a continuous evolution in nature, science, technology; and sports & entertainment is no exception to that. In pre-independent era the movies used to run for more than 4 hrs, now it has come to 2-2.5 hrs and many movies are about 1.5 hrs. This has happened primarily because people have less and less time nowadays and they want to derive instant success; instant result and they want the entertainment also to be instant.
IPL fits the bill of a popular sport and instant entertainment and hence the nation has got addicted to IPL.
What is the objective of IPL? To promote cricket among a larger base of population who does not watch Cricket due to the lengthy format of the game. The byproducts of this initiative are that
1. More number of domestic player get to earn a good salary
2. Domestic players get a chance to rub shoulders with the international players which improves the game.
3. The players get a chance to show case their talent and increase their chance to be selected to the national team.
IPL is a blessing for the cricket fans, media, cricketers, BCCI, sponsors, franchisee, this is one love story with multiple partners and with a happy ending, everyone is happy. Even the GoI is happy as they get so much of tax in form of IT, Entertainment tax.
If all is well, then why the grouse about IPL. It’s all because of awe and jealously. Many people are not able to accept the affluence being exhibited in open by IPL, but this is what the need of the hour, to promote sports in this country. You need money.
It is very unfortunate that in India, the one time World Champion of Hockey does not get entry into Olympics. Every sport needs money, money attracts talent, talent attracts money, and it’s a positive spiral in action.
We should actually ask Lalit Modi to become the Chairman of FIH (Federation of Indian Hockey) to prop up the dwindling fortune of this game. We need Lalit Modi for every sport.
Is IPL looting money from common man like you and me, NO…Is the money being spent our money…no…then why bother about the same….many complain that IPL has become a business venture and favorite ground for gamblers….if that is a point of argument then the stock market BSE and NSE are the biggest gambling arena in this country and every one of us is directly or indirectly part of this gamble.
If there are certain issues in management of IPL which is not legal that needs to be addressed, make changes to improve IPL further.
Lets see an analogy, you build a beautiful home, and living happily in that and suddenly you find mosquitoes in the house, will you use mosquito repellant or burn the house….the choice is ours…..
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Lacuna in Indian Education System and need of board exam
India has 28 states and 7 union territories following there own method of education at primary, secondary and tertiary level. There are numerous governing boards; we can say confidently that each state has at least one board for framing the policy and syllabus for education. There are 42 Boards of school education recognized by Council of boards of School Education in India.
Please refer the URL http://www.du.ac.in/du/school_education.pdf for the list
The biggest problem of such a diversified system of education is that the quality of education varies from state to state and within a state depending upon the board of education. There is no common platform to evaluate the students in the country. The content of the subjects like science, math vary and in many cases it is found to be outdated and not in tandem with the recent developments in those fields.
The other key drawback of the system is that the students are expected to memorize the formulae and apply it without teaching them how and why the formula is used.
To aggravate the problem further, the government schools particularly in rural areas don’t have teachers in required numbers and many of the existing teachers are not of standard.
Recently, the government has done away with the 10th board exam in CBSE citing the reason of reducing stress on students, they have made this optional. This will be of little help in improving the knowledge of the students given the existing system of education.
There is more than one way to reduce the stress of the students who take board exams rather than making it optional. A few suggestions are as follows:
1. Increase the duration of examination from 3 hrs to 4 hrs so that students can breathe easy and complete the exam comfortably.
2. Keep the duration of the exam as 3 hrs but reduce the amount of questions in exam
3. Provide ample gap between one exam and another; provide 3 day break between exams.
4. Make the exam more of objective questions like multiple choice questions; this will reduce the stress of writing scores of pages.
If India has to compete with China and US then it can be achieved only through quality education and competent students and the government’s decision to make the board exam optional will work only against the interest of the nation.
This will result in a society which appreciates complacency, lethargy and mediocrity; this is equivalent to socialism of USSR which failed miserably.
Why the government is worried only about the stress of students who are taking 10th board exam. There are children who train themselves in many other fields like Cricket, Chess, Tennis and other sports.
If we extend the same logic of reducing stress of kids in other fields then there will be no competition for kids till the age of 17; will this help them in winning medals for the country. Country like China identifies kids at the age of 2-3 for developing them for Olympic Games and put them through proper training and of course they are made to complete from the tender age to make them strong.
The government is trying to address the symptoms of the problem rather that the problem itself which is disheartening. The government should take a hard look at the lacuna of the existing education system and take some concrete measure rather than doing some easy window dressing to cover the problem.
Please refer the URL http://www.du.ac.in/du/school_education.pdf for the list
The biggest problem of such a diversified system of education is that the quality of education varies from state to state and within a state depending upon the board of education. There is no common platform to evaluate the students in the country. The content of the subjects like science, math vary and in many cases it is found to be outdated and not in tandem with the recent developments in those fields.
The other key drawback of the system is that the students are expected to memorize the formulae and apply it without teaching them how and why the formula is used.
To aggravate the problem further, the government schools particularly in rural areas don’t have teachers in required numbers and many of the existing teachers are not of standard.
Recently, the government has done away with the 10th board exam in CBSE citing the reason of reducing stress on students, they have made this optional. This will be of little help in improving the knowledge of the students given the existing system of education.
There is more than one way to reduce the stress of the students who take board exams rather than making it optional. A few suggestions are as follows:
1. Increase the duration of examination from 3 hrs to 4 hrs so that students can breathe easy and complete the exam comfortably.
2. Keep the duration of the exam as 3 hrs but reduce the amount of questions in exam
3. Provide ample gap between one exam and another; provide 3 day break between exams.
4. Make the exam more of objective questions like multiple choice questions; this will reduce the stress of writing scores of pages.
If India has to compete with China and US then it can be achieved only through quality education and competent students and the government’s decision to make the board exam optional will work only against the interest of the nation.
This will result in a society which appreciates complacency, lethargy and mediocrity; this is equivalent to socialism of USSR which failed miserably.
Why the government is worried only about the stress of students who are taking 10th board exam. There are children who train themselves in many other fields like Cricket, Chess, Tennis and other sports.
If we extend the same logic of reducing stress of kids in other fields then there will be no competition for kids till the age of 17; will this help them in winning medals for the country. Country like China identifies kids at the age of 2-3 for developing them for Olympic Games and put them through proper training and of course they are made to complete from the tender age to make them strong.
The government is trying to address the symptoms of the problem rather that the problem itself which is disheartening. The government should take a hard look at the lacuna of the existing education system and take some concrete measure rather than doing some easy window dressing to cover the problem.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Full Capital Account Convertibility thwarted Airtel – MTN Deal
The shelved $23-billion mega deal between Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN would have been the biggest ever M&A transaction by any Indian company. The South African government insisted on dual listing of the companies which came as the stumbling block to the deal.
The dual listing of the stock means that Bharti will be listed in the BSE/NSE as well as the Johannesberg Stock Exchange and for this the government has to make changes in the existing Companies Act, Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and allow Capital Account Convertibility (CAC) of Indian currency.
Indian government has been mulling over the idea of CAC of the currency from the time the Reserve Bank set up Tarapore Committee to make recommendation for the same in 1997. In 2006, the committee had submitted the recommendation with perquisites that have to be satisfied before implementation of the CAC.
The government is in a dilemma due to the following reasons:
Indian authorities would not be able to monitor sectoral caps on direct and indirect investment that are imposed on 13 industry sectors, including telecom.
Entities that are ineligible for investing in Indian companies could have acquired a stake through transactions carried out on the overseas exchange, in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema).
Allowing dual listing would also have weakened the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s oversight of the stock market, led to trading activity being taken away from stock exchanges in India and a likely revenue loss for the Indian exchequer.
The fear of something similar to East Asian Crisis in late nineties which every one feels that was aggravated due to the CAC policy of those countries.
In the current scenario where the Indian companies are scouting for big M&A’s, the CAC looks like an inevitable one.
What are innovative ideas that will help the government implement CAC and safe guard the interest of the nation.
The dual listing of the stock means that Bharti will be listed in the BSE/NSE as well as the Johannesberg Stock Exchange and for this the government has to make changes in the existing Companies Act, Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and allow Capital Account Convertibility (CAC) of Indian currency.
Indian government has been mulling over the idea of CAC of the currency from the time the Reserve Bank set up Tarapore Committee to make recommendation for the same in 1997. In 2006, the committee had submitted the recommendation with perquisites that have to be satisfied before implementation of the CAC.
The government is in a dilemma due to the following reasons:
Indian authorities would not be able to monitor sectoral caps on direct and indirect investment that are imposed on 13 industry sectors, including telecom.
Entities that are ineligible for investing in Indian companies could have acquired a stake through transactions carried out on the overseas exchange, in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema).
Allowing dual listing would also have weakened the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s oversight of the stock market, led to trading activity being taken away from stock exchanges in India and a likely revenue loss for the Indian exchequer.
The fear of something similar to East Asian Crisis in late nineties which every one feels that was aggravated due to the CAC policy of those countries.
In the current scenario where the Indian companies are scouting for big M&A’s, the CAC looks like an inevitable one.
What are innovative ideas that will help the government implement CAC and safe guard the interest of the nation.
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