Car Accidents

The Young Man looked at the Official in front of him. The Official's face was motionless, except for the rhythmic, rotational movement of his jowls as he chomped on a plate of biscuits. The room was cold- too cold, even though it was summer; thanks to the monster air conditioner that pumped cold air- almost viciously- the Young Man thought, like a great, exposed heart into the room. His tea which had been steaming hot in it's aluminium glass at the beginning of the hour, was now cold and lifeless, and lay at the tip of his elbow- An act of courtesy, a gimmick, a atmosphere setter, a distraction.

Our Young Man was a college graduate. In college, he had spent most of his time debating and talking about philosophy, ethics, politics- the Meaning of Life- with his friends. He believed he had the energy, and the intelligence to change the world - wasn't college preparation to do just that?

Everything needed to be torn down. The world needed to be built afresh. He was convinced of it. Well graduation was over, and it was time to start! But where? He thought through the causes he was passionate about- animal rights, climate change, water scarcity.. And then a family friend at dinner, happened to mention the number of road accidents in India every year. The Young Man was horrified at the figure. After dinner he looked the number up. They were all true. THIS he decided was his Cause. He talked to his parents about it. His proud father connected him with the Official, who he knew through a friend. And that was how he was here. In this room. Sitting opposite the Official.

He had spent the last hour presenting statistic after statistic of the number of road accidents in India to the Official. The Official had remained the same during the entire presentation- still, silent, except for the biscuit chomping. He had remained silent for almost a minute after the end of the presentation. A minute- measured in 4 injuries and 1 nameless, voicless death due to car accidents in India; the chomping of one Parle G biscuit. The Young Man waited.

The Official finally broke the silence.

"Mr YM, you say our Government does not do enough to protect the safety of our people. Let me tell you this. We have a current mandate that all cars have to have front and back seat belts. it is mandatory for front seat belts to be on at all times. How many people do you think obey this law, eh? Do you think we are a rich country like the US to put policemen at every corner to ensure people are wearing seat belts? We do everything we can to hold our officers accountable. But the people need to learn sense!"

He paused.

"Right at this minute we have a new road safety bill being introduced into Cabinet. We will use all that 'smart metering' and whatnot to ensure safe driving. We are also upping our fines and penalties for driving offences. Does that satisfy you? And yes-yes we are starting our new Indian national new car assessment program. Our roads are not like the ones in Switzerland or US, so we don't need to test cars at the same crash speeds."

The Young Man who was listening intently, burst out earnestly. "Shree O. Your government is certainly on the right track to change the law. However, your crash test is not going to come online till 2017. I know that developing such facilities takes time, but what till then? Most of cars manufactured for India- they've failed the basic safety tests. And even, after 2017, what about the cars currently on the road, sir?"

The Young Man paused and surveyed the Official. "And, sir, without offense, amendments to the 1988 Motor Vehicles Act have always been a long time in coming into force. I urge you sir, to raise awareness about safety NOW. Encourage stricter enforcement of the law."

The Official stood up and ushered the Young man to to door. His eyes widened and he said earnestly, "We will do all we can beta. It is truly heartening to see youth like you who care." The door clicked shut on the Young Man's thanks, his petition, and his satisfaction of having 'done something'. It took the Young Man ten minutes- 40 nameless injuries, 10 voiceless deaths to walk home. He was thinking about his next Cause.

In the mean time, the Official's eyes had narrowed again. His earnestness collapsed. He picked up his file and walked out of the door in his new Mercedes.

2015 Union Budget to the Education System of India

Arun Jaitley, India's Finance Minister recently announced the Union's 2015/6 budget on Feb 28th. Jaitley slashed allocation of funds to the primary school sector by 10%. External consultants have reported that the Central Government may be thinking of transferring the responsibility of providing quality elementary education to States.

The mid-day meal scheme (which provides free lunches on working days for children in Primary and Upper Primary Classes in Government, and Government Aided schools) in particular, suffered a drastic fund cut from Rs 1296.5 crore last year, to a mere Rs 132 crore this year. States will be asked to spend a greater portion of their budget to support this scheme.

Research indicates that this could be a 'messy and unpredictable' move as different states have different capabilities. This will result in huge differences in education systems between states. The mid-day meal scheme has been responsible for increasing enrollment rates in schools, especially for girls. It is uncertain what the effect this budgetary reduction will have on future enrollment rates.

The Budget however, saw a shift in focus to higher education, with a planned increase of 22% for funds in this sector. Most of this increase is reported to be channeled towards building new IITs: Indian Institutes of Technologies and IIMs: Indian Institute of Managements, with two new IITs and IIMS already in the pipeline.

There are several reasons why higher education should be a priority of the government. A British Council report on the state of higher education in India in 2014 states that currently over 50% of India's population is under 25 years of age, and will need to be trained to contribute effectively to the economy. The four broadest challenges currently to higher educations in India are:

1) The supply gap: India has an enrollment rate of only 18% compared with 26% in China and 36% in Brazil. By 2020 the Government aims to achieve a 30% gross enrollment rate by creating 40 million new university places
2) Low quality of teaching: India has a shortage of quality faculty. Schools are beset with outdated curricula. There is a lack of accountability in the education system, and a divide between teaching and research. Ensuring quality education is especially important in attracting students to vocational programs. According to this article, 60% of graduates from vocational training programs remain unemployed. This largely because of the poor quality of the programs. It is feared that this statistic will serve to desist future enrollment.
3) Constraints on research capacity and innovation: India has a very low level of PhD enrollment, and does not have enough of high quality researchers. In 2010-11, only 16,000 doctoral degrees were awarded to schools in India- a minuscule number compared to other countries. This has led to a weak ecosystem of innovation.
4) Uneven growth and access to opportunity: Society in India is highly stratified. Access to high quality education is highly dependent on certain socioeconomic characteristics

The root of these challenges lie in structure of the system. The national policy framework dictates that higher education institutions in India are required to have a not-for-profit structure- irrespective of if they are private or public. This has led to a proliferation of private entities which offer high demand- engineering and management courses, that use their status as 'not for profit' bodies to siphon off profits.

Degree awarding power lies only with universities specified by the University Grants Commission (UGC) under Section 22 of the University Grant Commission Act 1956. This has resulted in a complex system of hundreds of "teaching colleges"-private or public affiliated with public universities. In order to increase target expansion rates, privately funded universities were allowed. They could only be approved by state acts, or by the central UGC authority. This status is very difficult to achieve. Most private colleges are thus forced to stick to the curriculum of the university it is affiliated with. This curriculum is often sub par.

Can the Central Government overcome these challenges by increasing it's allocation of funds to higher education? The IITs and IIMs that the government proposes to build, have a very limited capacity and can only cater to a limited section of the population. I believe that the government should do more to encourage private investment in higher educational organizations to cater to the massive demand.

High standards of transparency need to be instituted to ensure funds are appropriately used, and high quality is maintained.

Private universities are currently frustrated by their lack of ability to control the curriculum and courses they offer under the affiliate system. While regulation of the higher education sector is crucial in India, bigger opportunities of 'self-regulation' through the professionalization of the sector needs to be considered. What I mean by this, is that professional associations could serve to ensure mutually agreed-upon standards are met.

Finally, the government needs to acknowledge, and do more to address to ingrained inequity in access to higher education. This needs to be tackled at the primary school level. These are the changes required.

I do not believe that the government's current plan of slashing funds for the elementary education sector to build more IITs and IIMs will fully address the challenges listed above.