Poor Remedies To Learning Crisis
Geeta Kingdon | Professor of Education Economics at University College London and President, City Montessori School, Lucknow
The Times of India
Kingdon, while praising the draft National Education Policy (NEP) for recommending reforms such as teacher training, also lists out its “downsides”. First, the draft NEP fails to recognise learning levels as something that urgently needs to be fixed. Second, it “misdiagnoses” the cause behind the learning crisis — poor school and teacher accountability with problems of teacher absenteeism.
She suggests the idea of school vouchers, a form of direct benefit transfer (DBT), as a means to ensure accountability. She highlights the possibility of theft exists when private schools are reimbursed for educating disadvantaged children under the Right To Education (RTE) Act — a DBT mechanism will address this problem.
She also argues against the recommendation of doubling up of public education expenditure. She says instead of such a measure, it is important to address problems of inefficiency and wastage in public education.
We must quantify the value of women’s unpaid work
Rupa Subramanya | Mumbai-based economist
Hindustan Times
Subramanya argues that India’s GDP is highly underestimated with regards to “the value of non-market or unrecorded activity”. Further, within this component, the value of the unpaid household work by women has been largely ignored in most debates on the integration of the informal into formal. This problem of exclusion of women’s unpaid work from GDP calculation is a global problem, she argues.
Indian women spend on average almost six hours a day doing household work, which is at least 40 per cent more than women in China or South Africa. The NSSO, she tells, has recognised this problem and is trying to measure the value of cooking and cleaning by women at home.
Acknowledging women’s contribution to economy through official statistics will not just empower them, but also increase their sense of self-worth, she says.
Cutting the flab
Ayesha Siddiqa | Research Associate, Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, SOAS, University of London
The Indian Express
Siddiqa argues that Pakistan’s recent announcement of defence budget cuts doesn’t imply anything unless “it specifies the total allocation for the military and exactly what cuts are being made”. For instance, she says, in the mid-2000s, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz only “brought cosmetic changes to the defence budget”. This time also Pakistan might simply divert part of the civil works component of defence budget to development projects of FATA and Balochistan.
She notes it is important for Pakistan to create the impression of defence budget cuts to impress the IMF “which is the only organisation willing to provide cash to Pakistan”.
She also says it is actually possible to reduce the defence expenditure — as much as 25 per cent of the defence spending can be reduced without any change in capabilities. For this, it is imperative to preplan a rationalised defence structure, do better human resource planning and cut down on duplication of activities. Inter-services rivalry also needs to be addressed, she says.
A Dialogue of Civilisations
Sudheendra Kulkarni | Aide to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and founder of the ‘Forum for a New South Asia — Powered by India-China-Pakistan Cooperation’
The Hindu
The author argues that in recent times, Samuel Huntington’s “the clash of civilisations” thesis has gained traction once more. He quotes a US State Department official who called the country’s rivalry with China “a fight with a really different civilisation” to make his point.
The author says in this ensuing debate on whether there will be a conflict or confluence of civilisation, three questions are important — “are all civilisations equal”, can dialogue help in addressing big global challenges and “how should nations learn from one another”.
He argues that Chinese President Xi Jinping answered all these questions in his speech at the UNESCO headquarters in 2014. Xi said, he notes, that all civilisations are equal, and no particular civilisation can be called superior to another. The author concludes by saying that India—like China – should also take the lead in promoting an inter-civilisational dialogue.
Open Windows
Palash Deb | Faculty member at IIM, Calcutta
The Telegraph
The author makes a case for allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in India. He says such a move will “have a rub-off effect on Indian universities”, which frequently suffer from centralised governance and politicisation.
However, he says, to attract foreign universities might not be an easy task, and outlines a series of measures which can be taken to overcome the problems.
Foreign universities should be allowed to charge a fee they think is appropriate for their courses. If the fee is set too high, he contends, then “the market will correct that anomaly”. Also, they should be given autonomy on matters of course content, admission policy, granting of degree and overall structure of governance.
He also addresses the concern that foreign universities “might poach the best faculty members from Indian universities”. He argues such a problem will only be short-term, and in the long-term, foreign universities will make academia an attractive career option in India. This will not only attract more talented people to pursue academics as a career option, but will also bring back many Indian faculty members settled abroad.
Whither central bank independence
Y.V. Reddy | Former Governor, Reserve Bank of India
Business Standard
Reddy writes on how the independence of the Reserve Bank of India has been consistently eroded in the last few years. He says the personnel independence was diluted through appointments to the RBI board and of senior functionaries. Financial independence was threatened by demands on the annual surplus and even on the reserves. Operational reserves were eroded by statements of government officials on RBI’s board eventually leading to the “unprecedented act of giving notice under Section 7 of the RBI act.” He writes on how RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has now signalled that the balance will tilt in favour of implicit coordination with the government.
What it would take for India to become a proper space power
Nitin Pai | Co-founder and director, Takshashila Institution
Mint
Pai writes the government’s decision to set up a defence space agency with command over the space assets of the Army, Navy and Air Force is a significant development. He writes that India must protect and secure space assets that belong to the country and those that “are crucial to our economy and national security”. Further, India should develop indigenous capability of accurately tracking space objects. It should also acquire a “minimum, credible offensive capacity across the various types of space weapons, physical, electronic and cyber”. He also advocates a broader space policy with greater private sector involvement.
Modi’s Bt cotton connection and why his govt needs to wake up on GMO
Ashok Gulati | Infosys Chair Professor for Agriculture, ICRIER
Financial Express
Gulati delves into the current controversy surrounding genetically-modified (GM) crops and writes on how Bt cotton may have been the secret force behind Modi’s political success. He points out the growth in agri-GDP seen by Gujarat during Modi’s tenure as chief minister was led by Bt cotton. Gulati says that despite curbs on other Bt varieties, its illegal trade has been thriving with hardly any arrests. He says this points to “massive governance failure” and “connivance with unscrupulous seed companies”. He also wonders if India under Modi 2.0 can “emerge as a leader in bio-farm technologies, including GMO?”