Educating the Nation

Education is one of the surest means in actualizing true human potential. That is, education is one of key ingredient to make human, human resource. The significance of education in a rather realistic tone is aptly put in the following Sanskrit Shloka

“Vidya dadati vinayam vinayad yati patratam 

Patratvad dhanam apnoti dhanad dharmam tatah sukham”

meaning, Education leads to sensibility, sensibility attains character/qualification, from that comes wealth and from wealth (one does) good deeds, from that (comes) joy] - Hitopdesha

As the world is moving more from primary(agriculture) to secondary(manufacturing) and now to tertiary sector i.e. world becoming knowledge economy, imparting education is becoming more national priority. The UN in its Developmental Agenda 2030 recognizing the "force multiplier" effect of education in attaining other goal has made universal education it's central goal (SDG #4 - Quality Education).

However, India's all indicator point a picture that is far from being satisfactory. In a series of upcoming blog posts, I will try to present and analyse status of Indian Education from different perspectives and at different layers accompanied by policy suggestions to improve its quality and accessibility. Here's brief outline : (these will be hper-linked gradually)

• Education - constitutional framework & generic challenges 
• Primary/Elementary & Secondary Education
• Higher/Tertiary Education
• Sectoral Analysis (status, challenges & suggestions) 
• Medical Education 
• Engineering 
• Humanities
• Law
• How to foster the culture of Innovation
• Recent steps : RISE, Integrated Scheme of School Education ...

How to be honest ?

That's a million dollar question? Unfortunately, there is no single answer. Honesty is at best personal inclination to be true devoid of any expectation in return. One has to have earnest desire of being honest. It should be like a habit.

Childhood stories, examples showcased by elders at home, school  etc. can have far reaching consequence on shaping one's character. Lessons of life is the best teacher.

Still, there are measures which can be taken at individual level, societal level and at institutional level to promote honesty in our societies. This requires following interventions : 

Individual level :

• Reading biography of the likes of Mahatma Gandhi
• Minimalism: Minimizing our wants/greed and if not, then ensuring that we always adopt right means to achieve our wants.
• Willingness to inquire about consequence of being dishonest

Societal level :

• Counter materialistic culture 
• The yardstick for measuring success should not merely be wealth but how they achieved it.
• To tackle nepotism, we should not exploit relationship for self benefit rather we must strive ourselves to get what we want.

Institutional level : 

• School: imparting moral education and not just enriching in maths & science.]
• Right leadership : can inspire good character by providing role model.
• Legislation : law makers need to make stricter law against fraudsters & enforcement agency need to catch them.

The approach has to be combination of carrot and stick - rewarding the honest & hardworking and seriously reprimanding the dishonest. 

Impediments in being honest ?

Now that we understand the importance of being honest it is important to know what are different impediments that stops us from leading an honest life.





The impediments are both internal and external to the agency. These are explained below with some examples.

Internal factors:

• Human greed - the root cause of all evils.
• Rationalization of existing malpractices : e.g. mentality which sounds like "small grafts do not matter as long as efficiency is not impacted". This is the deep seated problem.
• Relationship : We have soft corners for our close relatives, friends and well wishers. These relationship breeds expectation and to meet those expectation we might be compromising with our integrity. That does not mean relationships are bad. That only suggest relationship can handicap our honest & impartial decision making.

External factors :

• Societal acceptance : In a developing society like ours, often dishonest people manage to wield power and money. In a world becoming materialistic such people enjoy respect from society irrespective of means they have adopted.
• Ambiguity in laws : rules & regulations needs to be as clear as possible.
• Culture of organisation/ Departmental tolerance : An organisation showing lenient attitude towards dishonest and malafide practices is likely to breed evil tadpole.
• Poor enforcement and organisational oversight 
• Materialistic culture : Material prosperity has become the yardstick of measuring one's success and that, arguably, forces many to amass wealth irrespective of means they adopt.
• Harassing the honest : while one may argue honesty is a virtue and is expected of everyone, for any quality to be promoted in society it needs adequate feedback. Suitable prize for those showcasing honesty must be the norm and not harassing them. 

How to overcome these impediments? Read the next blog in this series. 

A to Z of Honesty

"No legacy is so rich as honesty" - William Shakespeare 

Honesty is the best policy, we've been hearing this dictum since our nursery classes. But what is it, what does it mean in real life, especially in context of a public service. Why be honest? The question has puzzled human minds since time of Plato or even before. Has honesty any considerable utility for the society which is becoming more materialistic? If yes, how so? If not, why we still regard it as essential civic virtue?

In a series of blogs, I plan to put different dimensions of honesty with aim that readers get comprehensive understanding and a sense to truly imbibe honesty as their cardinal virtues .

• What is honesty ? 
• Why be honest ?
• Impediments in being honest ?
• How to be honest ? Different ways to inculcate Honesty in the society ?
• Efficacy of Laws, Rules, Regulations and Institutions in enforcing honesty in governance.
• Is 'Honesty' antithetical to 'Efficiency' in an organisation ?

Why be honest?

Why be honest, especially in context of public service?

There are different arguments for being honest. I critically analyse each of them below :

• Foundation for TRUST in any relationship: private or public "If you want to be trusted, be honest."
• To sleep peacefully : When we adjudicate our duties in an honest and impartial manner we are able to sleep peacefully without any baggage. 
• However, experience shows that such assumption can be highly misplaced. Actor Manoj Bajpayee starer Shool(1999) movie aptly displays how hellish lives of honest officer can become in one's fight against a system that is deep rotten. It would be no exaggeration to say that in being honest one can even lose away life let alone night's sleep(read Satyendra Dubey).
• Therefore, to me, doing honesty for getting a good night sleep seems highly selfish and can frustrate us in very short tenure. And so, "mad" men like Dubey clearly upholds honesty for something higher than good night sleep. 
• To uphold the someone's trust : True public servants gain seats of power through hardwork(be it exam or election) but the power bestowed to them comes with some expectation and in no way grants license for self aggrandizement. Public officials enjoy considerable discretionary powers while discharging their duties. It becomes essential that such officials act with full honesty and impartiality. 
• This is also true in personal relationships. One cannot expect to be loved/respected by their family/friend when one is not true to them in first place. We can run our imagination and see what a society will be like where trust has no place. Chaos and uncertainty would quickly overtake the stability and peace in our society . No wonder why breaking trust is then treated as criminal offence(Prevention of Corruption Act, Adultery law-section 497 IPC).
• To uphold Self Conscience : It is said "There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience." It's hard do something throughout lifetime without our gut feeling being aligned to it. So unless, one's conscience tells to be honest I don't see why one will lose any opportunity to cheat at slightest of opportunity. Conscience act as self imposed barrier against dishonest deeds. However, listening to our conscience and acting towards it, is not an easy task. We tend to easily ignore the inner voice and rationalize the dishonest deeds. For example, I am not taking bribe for my pleasure it's for betterment of my family. Everyone takes bribe so why should I be exception. I have not demanded bribe, s/he offered it on their own etc etc.  

There are of course other moral reasoning to support an honest conduct e.g. Principle of Reciprocity  i.e. treat others as you want to be treated by others. But I have tried to argue on practical lines. Hope it helps you in your quest to lead an honest life.

Please also provide your reasoning(s), if not mentioned above as to why would you want to be honest?

Public Private Partnership for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in District Hospitals

This post critically analyses the NITI Aayog's recent proposal for partial privatisation of district level hospitals for treatment of NCDs .

Main takeaways of proposal

• offering space to private players through competitive and transparent PPP framework.
• facility only for BPL and insurance covered

Argument in Favor :

• Issues plaguing public health system(HR, inadequate infrastructure, finance)
• rampant absenteeism of doctor
• vacancy rate of specialists - govt unable to attract & retain talent
• overloaded tertiary facility
• paltry budget allocation ~1.1% of GDP
• Positives of Private sector
• efficiency, accountability, sustainability
• continues to grow @15% pa
• five fold higher doctor density
• NCD accounts for 60% of premature death
• Cost apprehension is ill-founded as majority of patient already going to pvt facilities
• Benefits :
• Better Access - geographical disbursal of skills required for NCD care
• Quality & Affordability - provide quality care closer home at lower cost.
• help decongest tertiary level health facilities
• The proposal in alignment with new National Health Policy which seeks constructive role of private sector for promoting health.

Arguments against :

• concern regarding cost, equity, quality and health rights 
• pvt hospitals known to overcharge e.g. stents
• service only for BPL and insurance covered threatens UHC, a key for SDG
• continuous monitoring of PPP based services @ local level is weak
• experiment at RGSSH @Karnataka shows huge discrepancies
• US experience of switching to pvt health shows higher administration and transaction costs.

WF : 

• experiment in select district hospitals
• strong regulatory oversight required
• in the long run - 
• medical education - restructure MCI + NEET implementation
• implement RSBY
• greater budgetary support - 2.5%
• focus on outcomes with rankings to measure incremental improvement
• incentivise better performing states

Rising Inequality a deep concern

Some recent stats revealed :

• Oxfam International report titled "An economy for 1%" - the richest 1 % owned as much wealth as the remaining 99 % combined did, with the gap in wealth widening even faster than anticipated.
• In India Richest 1% owns 58% wealth(much greater than global average of 50%)
• WEF's Global Risk Report 2017 also highlights danger of inequality as rising populism. 
• Similarly, Thomas Picketty's work "Capital in the 21st century" highlights steep inequality in India.

Causes of such rising inequality : 

• Globalization - has benefited some(those ready to deal global competition) and weakened some(MSME etc)
• Changing supply & demand for skills
• More unequal access to skills
• Gender pay gap : A/t ILO's Global Wage Report India has huge gender pay gap - exceeding 30% for same job.
• Increasing dependency on regressive indirect tax which hurts poor more. (~50%)
• Poor reach and overall efficiency of anti-poverty schemes.
• Rate of wealth creation(r) >>> rate of growth(g). Resulting in 
• wealth inequality >>> income inequality

Consequences of such unchecked inequality : 

• social - rising protest across the globe - Occupy wall street, Arab spring
• political - rise of authoritarian leaders with divisive agenda fueled by sectarianism, xenophobia
• threatens stability of democracies
• economic - not suitable for free-market economy because it depends on purchasing power of masses
• Naxalite issues has roots in economic deprivation & inequalities in access to resources.

Steps required : 

• Financial transparency in government resource distribution
• Global coordination on wealth taxation
• Progressive wealth tax rates
• Increase direct tax collection capabilities
• Provide life long re-skilling opportunity
• "Technology is greatest leveler"(Sam Pitroda). e-Kranti, BharatNet etc should be fast implemented.  
• Women empowerment - Rashtriya Mahila Kosh , Maternity Benefit Act etc. 
• Rethink trickle down model of growth 
• equity in development
• investment in human capital and public goods
• A conceptual framework has been given by A.Sen - human capability approach
• Other (undesired) ways to redistribute wealth :
• inflation - shifts money value from creditors to debtors
• war
• expropriation

Time has come to move development discourse beyond current discourse of outcomes and opportunity.