The recent firing in Kalinga Nagar, Jajpur, Orissa, India - is a symptom of a disease that is plaguing the development process in Orissa (handled by Govt. of Orissa (GOO)), not the disease itself.
The disease or the real issues are missing from the ongoing debate, too. It may be deliberate or may be just missing because no body thought up or don’t care– I don't know.
Because, I don’t observe in the history GOO of last 60 years, any significant difference among various parties in power at different times and their dealing with the tribal, Harijon or poor. That is, any qualitative difference in compassion for or fairness to, the tribal or Harijon, who invariably happen to be poor. Except may be some, at the time of Late Naba Krushna Choudhury, who abolished the Zamindari system
Be it as it may, but let me define precisely three issues that are missing in this debate, which undermines it’s quality:
A. The failure of successive Governments, turning a PIMBY (Put In My Backyard) situation in to a NIMBY (Not in My Backyard).
B. Dealing with the Bee lines of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signers, at their term and not GOO’s terms. As a result everyone else but GOO who is winning?
C. Neglect of Externalities
a. Cost of restoration of environment
b. The finishing up of resources in one or two generations what is handed down to us through generations.
A. Rehabilitation(R & R):
We see every year hundreds of thousands of poor Adivasis, Harijon and poor in general are moving to Hyderabad brick kilns, Bombay slums, or Surat ship wrecking yards, Assam Tea Gardens, Delhi slums or Calcutta slums etc. If these people are ready to move, with family for a better job / chances of a better living they will relocate for the prospect for a better life. But they are not.
The rehabilitation packages do not even have prospect for a better life for them. The R & R projects have brought no bright future for the displaced persons, both in speed of delivery or access to make them attractive.
The Rourkela land officer has probably got promoted to become Chief Secretary or a Secretary of GOI or GOO but the displaced persons have not got their compensation finalized in 50 years. This has obviously made the R & R package unattractive. Our people are no doubt largely illiterate but wise in protecting their self interest.
Thus the newly proposed displacements are bringing so much resistance. And people have come to believe – they have leverage to negotiate till they move out of land. In addition the land regime of the state did not give settlement documents in 50 years and yet insist on records.
My argument will be incomplete without one issue being brought to light – the issue of compensation, as wrongly thought out by the revenue admin – based on the British legacy and carryover of the Raj.
I have seen it being argued ad infinitum that people are being compensated for their land at market price. Thus is a very challengeable theory based on following facts:
1. The homestead land, the tangible asset: The basis is the land bought or sold in the immediate area in the past, which is usually deflated to avoid taxes with active connivance of the land officer and his office. This is well and widely known.
Due to the deficiencies indicated, some times even having an honest officer is a liability because they are unwilling to go beyond books.
2. The intangible assets: These are never compensated and I think there lies the rub. How do you compensate people for things which can’t be measured in rupees, like living of the extended family in one neighborhood? Childhood friends having home in the same neighborhood and living a cooperative life? Since this can’t be reasonably done – but has to be evaluated to make the R & R package, acceptable and attractive to the displaced.
3. The imperial era tactics of provoking people to violence through show of force, application of force to kill, maim, jail, torture and oppress the displaced people into displacement, distress and submission is a little out dated, in this era of instant communication.
I got the posting on the Kalinga nagar firing within 4 hours sitting 13 time zones away. Appointing commissions and not implementing or making public their reports is another ridiculously out dated policy.
Those citizen who are not involved, whose opinion can’t be bought, are impartial judges of the event, who the GOO has to win over. They are the civil society. They may be supporter of development but they will definitely not side with the GOO, if they are found to be failing due other reasons or if the dealing is imperial. Thus the GOO, essentially its bureaucracy, should realize that only fair, transparent and expeditious acts will win the approval of the world at large, which is closely watching this game.
4. I like immensely the idea put forward in the Bajayanta Panda’s interview in Rediff about front ending the rehabilitation settlement. Because people do move voluntarily given real and measurable economic incentives – particularly the underprivileged and poor. Incentives are always more than what is due – more than the market price, based on tangibles.
Lastly, development should touch the very people who are affected by development and at the end of the day, those displaced must be better off, than they previously were.
I do not agree or accept the false prophet’s preachings - that development has to accept the suffering of a some poor and underprivileged for the greater good of the society. Every life is equally valuable and it is where the Govt. in free market comes in.
B Dealing with bee lines of MOUs, rationally in the interest of people:
The Orissa Govt. has signed 42 MOUs last year, .up from may be 0 or Single digit last year. I am sure no one will argue that it was caused solely by the efficiency of the current Orissa Govt, though it may be one of the factors. The same CM is there for more than 6 and half years now. And the NDA Government at center was more Orissa friendly, as an ally of the BJD. So when you clear your vision and look for reasons, for this success, the market forces stare out at you as the answer. In fact is that world is running out of the unassigned iron and the Aluminum ore deposits. Eastern India is one of the few places in the world where such ore are available. So this self-interested drive to Orissa to tie up the mines – as long term captive mines. It is understandable.
What is not understandable is the naivety of GOO to protect it’s enlightened selfinterest.. They have not been able to protect the interest of the people of the state, one could argue. Instead of following the example of Oil cartel or forming a similar organization with the other ore rich states like Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand (which are part of Indian union) and bettering the term for the state–– it has competed with them and made the terms better for the MNCs like POSCO and Tatas. .
In fact they have brought down the prices of the ore and license fees or at least tied them down permanently so that there is no scope of escalation, in 50 years. This obviously is not a very smart negotiation. The terms should get better when there is more demand and the abolition of steel and coal price equalization policy has given these states built in natural advantage. Instead of taking advantage of they have due stupidity or sabotage acceded to long term fixed price for ore. HAVE THEY FORGOTTEN THE EPISODE OF SELLING POWER FROM HIRAKUD @ 1 KWh PER ONE PAISA TO INDAL, WHEN PRODUCTION COST WAS 6 TO 15 PAISA AT VARIOUS TIMES? And in whose interest they have fixed the price of Iron Ore for 30 years to 50 years when it’s world market price is rising. A few months back there was even a strike by Sponge Steel Manufacturer’s association of eastern India, who wanted to ensure that they get ore at Rs. 2000/ Tonne or at least limit the price to Rs. 2500/ Tonne. So why they can’t use this situation to escalate mine leases?
I would expect GOO make all the MOUs public where it belongs and experts and civil society to analyze whether there is a provision of escalation of ore prices on following accounts.
1. Rising price of steel
2. Diminishing reserve of iron ores and other ores.
3. Or an enormous error has been done by fixing the ore prices in an world where the free market ensures rising prices of items with shrinking reserves.
The pattern of pricing will be very clear if the terms signed to of 42 MOU by GOO are compared with those signed by Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand, as well as themselves: If this has been properly done Orissa will become rich due to it’s natures endowment. Else like Gorumahisani and Badampahad it’s natural resources will be drained but it’s people will remain as is - poor.
It must be kept in mind that these MOUs are one way only. Based on past experience companies can walk away from MOUs under various pretext – for example if price of steel has a free fall. We all remember MOUs signed by Late Biju Patnaik’s government with Swaraj Paul and others in 1990s, is not it?
If we take Oil prices as a guideline however we have seen it come up from $1.28 in 1970 to $70 today and large prosperity of middle eastern countries and others due to Oil. With a cooperation between Orissa, Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand (and being land locked they are more likely to cooperate if not pushed) there is a huge prospect of these states getting enough resources for food, shelter, health, education and clothes in next 10 years.
However GOO is hooked to it’s secret signed document. Not only it’s tenure but it’s successor Governments for next 50 years.
C. Neglect of Externals:
Recently Al Gore, the respected former Vice President of US and Al Blood formerly head of Goldman Sachs asset management, wrote an article with in Wall Street Journal, the prestigious mouth piece of Multinational Business. In that OpEd of Wall Street Journal, dated March 28 wrote about what and how externalities are being progressively handled in the 1st world. In that article they state and I quote:
“The industrial revolution brought enormous prosperity, but it also introduced unsustainable business practices. Our current system for accounting was principally established in the 1930s by Lord Keynes and the creation of "national accounts" (the backbone of today's gross domestic product). While this system was precise in its ability to account for capital goods, it was imprecise in its ability to account for natural and human resources because it assumed them to be limitless. This, in part, explains why our current model of economic development is hard-wired to externalize as many costs as possible.”
“Externalities are costs created by industry but paid for by society. For example, pollution is an externality which is sometimes taxed by government in order to make the entity responsible "internalize" the full costs of production. Over the past century, companies have been rewarded financially for maximizing externalities in order to minimize costs.”
"License to operate" can no longer be taken for granted by business as challenges such as climate change, HIV/AIDS, water scarcity and poverty have reached a point where civil society is demanding a response from business and government. The "polluter pays" principle is just one example of how companies can be held accountable for the full costs of doing business.
Extensive arguments on the processes used to dump externalities and their impact on local populations are presented by Sanat Mohanty.
Without public review the steel bonanza will turn out to be bonanza not for Orissa people but for the steel companies. They contracts must be strong enough so ensure that when the exploitation is finished the ground will be restored. The reputation of the companies of public orientation is not enough.
20 years back Birlas and Tatas were the top companies, today they are not. Reliance is.
But the GOO will be there and it has to pay the price of a bad contract today, like GOO paid INDALCO for 50 years.
Unexpectedly, our discussions are not covering these important missing points. They should show up in these discussions, sooner than later to make the debate meaningful and useful.
Sandip Dasverma has argued extensively for the rights of the displaced. This article was first published on his blog .
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
A how to primer for Spelling Bee and Vocabulary for India
By Sandip K. Dasverma
Spelling Bee and Vocabulary contest run by North South Foundation in USA is now more than a decade old but “Indian Spelling Bee Competition started by K. P. Das memorial spelling Bee and Vocabulary Trust is only 3 years old and this year will be third year of it’s running. It was initially started Sandip K. Dasverma under banner of Diocese of North India, Cuttack. From the inception it is assisted technically by the North South Foundation, Chicago, and it still is done that way. But the conducting of the test successfully the Cuttack team has developed their own do’s and don’ts.
Both the problems and issues are different in Orissa/India, and are as follows:
1. Unlike North America the Indian program have to be school based and not based on volunteers among the parent-teachers and civil society..
2. Unlike America the participant number is high once the kids are motivated.
3. Transport is both expensive and a big hindrance for a separation of even 15 miles distance.
4. Indian English and American English are different both in spelling and pronunciation.
5. In India people are accustomed to get things free so a Rs. 10 entry fee can be questioned.
6. The numbers of participants are usually high because unlike America (only Indo-Americans), everyone is eligible to participate.
I will now describe the process how it is done which is the main question:
1. We sent in a letter to every school we targeted giving a date by which to send the name of the willing participants with a Rs. 15 fee / student.
2. Except a few schools which were under control of the diocese we had to pursue the school English teachers or the Head Master.
3. About 6 English medium schools (3 from Cuttack and 3 from Bhubaneswar) and 3 Oriya medium schools sent in about 500 applications.
4. The preliminary word lists(1000 words each for Spelling BEE and 1000 for Vocabulary) both of which was received from North South Foundation, were checked for variation in spelling, retyped, Xeroxed and sent to each student, as the preliminary word list. This is a very expensive proposition.
5. There was a shortage of good pronouncers and even English teachers did not have good pronunciations. Luckily we had couple of top class English pronouncers in Prof Gopa Das, Nita Das, Farley North, Mr. Stanley Wright, Mariamma Jachak among the teachers of New Stewart School, who took filled in creditably.
6. They conducted some demo competitions in various new schools, where it was not done in 2003. Now it is done through a demo VCD, from this year on wards.
7. We could use a few of parents as judges, who essentially were score keepers. However such practice increased the credibility of the team as they went back to other parents and testified about the fairness of the competition. It worked out to our advantage – we strictly forbade the parents or their friends not being in the room of their wards.8. Each kid was given 3 random words in the beginning, a list of 20 words dictated to them to write and then 3 random words to spell. The cut off for the spelling Bee was decided after both the Cuttack and Bhubaneswar competitions so roughly 20% was invited to the finals. All the score sheets signed by all of the a judge, the Chief judge and pronouncers were preserved – just in case. The 2nd bunch of the 3 words were from out side the list given. Again these words were obtained from the NSF data base and was kept under wraps by the Prof. Gopa Das who shared the list only at the last moment. She had made the necessary correction and duplication of the list.
9. In the finals 78 kids were invited for spelling Bee and some 52 for Vocabulary. They included at least one person from each participating school so they can carry the flavor of the final to their fellow students.
10. In the final same 26 word format – 3 plus 3 given at the beginning and the end by random picking and 20 words were dictated to all students.
11. In the final there were two ties which were eliminated by a tie breaker for which additional words not in the list was used.
12. In the final there were two stages for both. There was a semifinal after which the numbers were reduced to 30 in each category.
13. It was seen that the students came prepared for the finals.
14. Awards amounting to Rs. 22 thousand given away. Rs. 3000 for 1st prize, Rs. 2000 for 2nd prize and Rs.1000 for the third prize in each of Vocabulary and Spelling Bee. Five consolation prizes of Rs. 500 each was given in each category.
Spelling Bee and Vocabulary contest run by North South Foundation in USA is now more than a decade old but “Indian Spelling Bee Competition started by K. P. Das memorial spelling Bee and Vocabulary Trust is only 3 years old and this year will be third year of it’s running. It was initially started Sandip K. Dasverma under banner of Diocese of North India, Cuttack. From the inception it is assisted technically by the North South Foundation, Chicago, and it still is done that way. But the conducting of the test successfully the Cuttack team has developed their own do’s and don’ts.
Both the problems and issues are different in Orissa/India, and are as follows:
1. Unlike North America the Indian program have to be school based and not based on volunteers among the parent-teachers and civil society..
2. Unlike America the participant number is high once the kids are motivated.
3. Transport is both expensive and a big hindrance for a separation of even 15 miles distance.
4. Indian English and American English are different both in spelling and pronunciation.
5. In India people are accustomed to get things free so a Rs. 10 entry fee can be questioned.
6. The numbers of participants are usually high because unlike America (only Indo-Americans), everyone is eligible to participate.
I will now describe the process how it is done which is the main question:
1. We sent in a letter to every school we targeted giving a date by which to send the name of the willing participants with a Rs. 15 fee / student.
2. Except a few schools which were under control of the diocese we had to pursue the school English teachers or the Head Master.
3. About 6 English medium schools (3 from Cuttack and 3 from Bhubaneswar) and 3 Oriya medium schools sent in about 500 applications.
4. The preliminary word lists(1000 words each for Spelling BEE and 1000 for Vocabulary) both of which was received from North South Foundation, were checked for variation in spelling, retyped, Xeroxed and sent to each student, as the preliminary word list. This is a very expensive proposition.
5. There was a shortage of good pronouncers and even English teachers did not have good pronunciations. Luckily we had couple of top class English pronouncers in Prof Gopa Das, Nita Das, Farley North, Mr. Stanley Wright, Mariamma Jachak among the teachers of New Stewart School, who took filled in creditably.
6. They conducted some demo competitions in various new schools, where it was not done in 2003. Now it is done through a demo VCD, from this year on wards.
7. We could use a few of parents as judges, who essentially were score keepers. However such practice increased the credibility of the team as they went back to other parents and testified about the fairness of the competition. It worked out to our advantage – we strictly forbade the parents or their friends not being in the room of their wards.8. Each kid was given 3 random words in the beginning, a list of 20 words dictated to them to write and then 3 random words to spell. The cut off for the spelling Bee was decided after both the Cuttack and Bhubaneswar competitions so roughly 20% was invited to the finals. All the score sheets signed by all of the a judge, the Chief judge and pronouncers were preserved – just in case. The 2nd bunch of the 3 words were from out side the list given. Again these words were obtained from the NSF data base and was kept under wraps by the Prof. Gopa Das who shared the list only at the last moment. She had made the necessary correction and duplication of the list.
9. In the finals 78 kids were invited for spelling Bee and some 52 for Vocabulary. They included at least one person from each participating school so they can carry the flavor of the final to their fellow students.
10. In the final same 26 word format – 3 plus 3 given at the beginning and the end by random picking and 20 words were dictated to all students.
11. In the final there were two ties which were eliminated by a tie breaker for which additional words not in the list was used.
12. In the final there were two stages for both. There was a semifinal after which the numbers were reduced to 30 in each category.
13. It was seen that the students came prepared for the finals.
14. Awards amounting to Rs. 22 thousand given away. Rs. 3000 for 1st prize, Rs. 2000 for 2nd prize and Rs.1000 for the third prize in each of Vocabulary and Spelling Bee. Five consolation prizes of Rs. 500 each was given in each category.
The Case for unsecured loans to bright but poor students of Orissa - by Sandip K. Dasverma
A. Description of the case:
With commercialization of education the access to education for the kids, not born in privileged homes, has significantly reduced.
Orissa is full of such underprivileged homes and first generation kid, in college.
By laws of nature many talented kids are born in economically underprivileged homes.
In addition they can also be sociologically (SC, ST) or religion wise (Muslim or Christian), or gender wise(women), handicapped.
Less than half of the underprivileged kids get to the school, in Orissa.
Only one hundred of every one thousand get to class ten(89 girls out of 1000).
Of these a small percentage of only 10% or less pass in 1st Division.
For any advancement of Orissa we need to offer full academic opportunity, in form of funding access, to every one of these that come in to the school system, to breast the tape of their educational ambition.
In other words, when one is born to an underprivileged situation he needs to have assured funding to fulfill his full potential - else the state(Orissa) will linger in it's present sorry state for a long time to come and progress will be stalled. Thus the need for unsecured loans.
B Actions Taken and results:
o With this in view a team of education enthusiasts of Orissa, Mr. S. C. Choudhury, Customs Commissioner of Vizag Port and Prof. Swadheenananda Patnaik, Director Institute of Mathematics & Applications, BBSR, met the Chief General Manager(CGM) of SBI at BBSR more than two years back.
o The CGM promised to have this problem redressed and
o He assigned a Dy.General Manager (one Mr. S. N. Tripathy) to this job. There was a flurry of letters and meeting with Mr. Tripathy, no results.
o Last year on July 2nd, 2005, SBI sent a special officer (Mr. Kanababu) to a meet of our group of education enthusiasts, to explain and advise them how to apply for Bank loans and what actions SBI has taken(video available):
o He explained with examples and rules, as to what SBI policy are.
o He explained that the meritorious (qualifying mark 60%) and poor (i.e. they don't have property to pledge and low income) will get unsecured loan, if forms are properly filled in.
o He explained that SBI policy is to sanction Bank study loan within 48 hours of a properly filled form
o Based on that criteria 67 kids from NIT Rourkela applied and were recommended by a special officer (who was sent by SBI, Regional office to NIT Rourkela)
o Some of these applications are still pending with the SBI
o None, yes NONE got unsecured loan so far.
C. Our Grouse and case:
o In paper and officially SBI states students are eligible, their marketing papers says meritorious students (60% or above marks) can get unsecured loan.
o Yet when they apply they don't get.
o But the Bank talks something to be their policy and yet it's officers do something else.
o So it is a long struggle going on for 3 years now to crack open the door for the meritorious and needy students of Orissa.
D. Our finding and suggested Solution:
o We have to find out the reasons for denial and have suggestions as to how to prevent it. If there are other solutions banks have found working some where they too are acceptable. Bottom line is sanction of Unsecured Loans to needy students.
o Reasons in our opinion are two fold:
The Corrupt branch managers and officers harass the students to extract bribe.
§ Make them run a few times and they will cough up or give up policy.
o Other officers, honest but indifferent, are afraid to give loan without security to students. They figure out ways, some times simply ignore regional office directives, (don't care whether Kids qualify or not), to avoid responsibility and remain safe.
§ Yes, since they don't gain anything from sanctioning a loan, they don't want to take the risk of being penalized for sanctioning a bad loan. - though their rule books and guidelines state otherwise. Thus they stick to the usual bureaucratic path, where inefficient cringe and corrupt benefit.
o And all the while our students run after them, or from pillar to post to get the loans, and thus fail to concentrate on their studies.
o What this does is that REAL poor can't even dare to try to come out of their morass and misery - because they don't have money to even get admission, unless accidentally some one they meet, who mentor, monitor and support them.
o It is same old story of Late Dr. P. K. Parija(scientist and educationist), in the 21st century, nearly 100 years after he had to go through it.
E…Civil Society Action Inadequate:
Not that we are not trying. We are giving at this time about 30 lakhs worth in scholarships to the deserving students (600 plus students). But that number is just insignificant compared to the size of the problem. The real need is so high that we need institutional finance – like countries where education has been commercialized. Like in USA where if you are meritorious the college will manage to help you out with student loans. Unfortunately, the Indian system has followed the US pattern of commercialization of education but not it's financing patterns.
F. Banks are still behaving the old way:
Loaning money is a favor not a business deal, even today. They say old habits die hard.
Due to political pressures they are forced to let go the big fish (with crores of uncollected loans) - - but they are killing these budding talents for a few crores worth student loans.
We do want BANKs (yes all banks, not only SBI) to help resolve this issue of financial access to the poor and needy but bright and hard working students or Orissa, asap, at least before 2006-2007 academic season, starting this July,2006.
G. Banks need to be proactive:
The banks need to set and meet educational loan goals and sanction at least a fixed quantity of unsecured loans in the coming year, to meet that goal.
A suggested out line for SBI is below but other banks should come up with their own goals and submit them for public view and transparency.
Post Matric – Rs. 6 to 10 thousand – 2000 @ 65 in each of 30 district =1.6 crores
Plus 2 / plus 3 – Rs 10 thousand – 1000 @ 35 in each district = 1crore
Engineering Diploma: Rs. 10 thousand – 300 @ 10 in each district = 0.3 crores
Engineering: 20 to 30 thousand per year - 1000 @ 35 in each district. = 2.5 crores
Medical: 30 thousand per year – 100 @ 30 in each of the 3 colleges =0.3 crores
H. Recommended Solution:
The issue of corrupt branch managers is to be resolved by banks through administrative process, which civil society need not worry about – except if loan scholarship goals are not met they should be penalized and ATR(action taken report) made public.
Not sanctioning stipulated number of loans should be considered a dereliction of duty.
I would even suggest the Branches should have assigned quotas – and they shall be answerable to this state consultancy/advisory body, if they don't meet them. In case of harassment there should be a advisory body of Bank officials and Academia in each district.
It should be made a responsibility of the Banks to release to media applications received and loans sanctioned each month.
48 hours is too ambitious but if they can be sanctioned in 2 weeks time or better it should be considered adequate.
About the fear of other branch managers as "unsecured loans" have no safety net for the Branch Managers. This problem seem to have been solved by Hyderabad Regional office of SBI. This is what they have done:
A person who is more permanent in the area and traceable – a resident of the area who is also a State Govt, Panchayat, Central Govt. or similar gives a written undertaking that in case of the loanee disappearing not being traceable – they undertake to find and give their addresses. The reason is that when kids graduate from destitute conditions to be an engineer or a doctor – they abandon their village and take their either old or economically weak family members to their place of work in far off urban areas, like Mumbai or Delhi. Some times they cut off their contact or their relatives back home don't give their addresses thinking they are doing a favor to their now established ward. Once the address is obtained, all banks have institutional mechanism to collect money, which gets triggered.
The upcoming ID card system in India should make even this process unnecessary – because they can be easily traced in no time.
Banks should share between them any success stories in student loan collection between each other and come up with a standard operating procedure
NIT Rourkela should be declared as an "Institute of Eminence", like the IITs, (which it is being ranked 17th in India) so the loan can be sanctioned at the college Branch of SBI.
Other old colleges like UCE, Burla, S.C.B. Medical College, can and should be sanctioned "Institute of Eminence" status.
A public watch body in each district may be set up to bring misuse of the privileges both by the bank and the students can be investigated and finding reported for correction.
With commercialization of education the access to education for the kids, not born in privileged homes, has significantly reduced.
Orissa is full of such underprivileged homes and first generation kid, in college.
By laws of nature many talented kids are born in economically underprivileged homes.
In addition they can also be sociologically (SC, ST) or religion wise (Muslim or Christian), or gender wise(women), handicapped.
Less than half of the underprivileged kids get to the school, in Orissa.
Only one hundred of every one thousand get to class ten(89 girls out of 1000).
Of these a small percentage of only 10% or less pass in 1st Division.
For any advancement of Orissa we need to offer full academic opportunity, in form of funding access, to every one of these that come in to the school system, to breast the tape of their educational ambition.
In other words, when one is born to an underprivileged situation he needs to have assured funding to fulfill his full potential - else the state(Orissa) will linger in it's present sorry state for a long time to come and progress will be stalled. Thus the need for unsecured loans.
B Actions Taken and results:
o With this in view a team of education enthusiasts of Orissa, Mr. S. C. Choudhury, Customs Commissioner of Vizag Port and Prof. Swadheenananda Patnaik, Director Institute of Mathematics & Applications, BBSR, met the Chief General Manager(CGM) of SBI at BBSR more than two years back.
o The CGM promised to have this problem redressed and
o He assigned a Dy.General Manager (one Mr. S. N. Tripathy) to this job. There was a flurry of letters and meeting with Mr. Tripathy, no results.
o Last year on July 2nd, 2005, SBI sent a special officer (Mr. Kanababu) to a meet of our group of education enthusiasts, to explain and advise them how to apply for Bank loans and what actions SBI has taken(video available):
o He explained with examples and rules, as to what SBI policy are.
o He explained that the meritorious (qualifying mark 60%) and poor (i.e. they don't have property to pledge and low income) will get unsecured loan, if forms are properly filled in.
o He explained that SBI policy is to sanction Bank study loan within 48 hours of a properly filled form
o Based on that criteria 67 kids from NIT Rourkela applied and were recommended by a special officer (who was sent by SBI, Regional office to NIT Rourkela)
o Some of these applications are still pending with the SBI
o None, yes NONE got unsecured loan so far.
C. Our Grouse and case:
o In paper and officially SBI states students are eligible, their marketing papers says meritorious students (60% or above marks) can get unsecured loan.
o Yet when they apply they don't get.
o But the Bank talks something to be their policy and yet it's officers do something else.
o So it is a long struggle going on for 3 years now to crack open the door for the meritorious and needy students of Orissa.
D. Our finding and suggested Solution:
o We have to find out the reasons for denial and have suggestions as to how to prevent it. If there are other solutions banks have found working some where they too are acceptable. Bottom line is sanction of Unsecured Loans to needy students.
o Reasons in our opinion are two fold:
The Corrupt branch managers and officers harass the students to extract bribe.
§ Make them run a few times and they will cough up or give up policy.
o Other officers, honest but indifferent, are afraid to give loan without security to students. They figure out ways, some times simply ignore regional office directives, (don't care whether Kids qualify or not), to avoid responsibility and remain safe.
§ Yes, since they don't gain anything from sanctioning a loan, they don't want to take the risk of being penalized for sanctioning a bad loan. - though their rule books and guidelines state otherwise. Thus they stick to the usual bureaucratic path, where inefficient cringe and corrupt benefit.
o And all the while our students run after them, or from pillar to post to get the loans, and thus fail to concentrate on their studies.
o What this does is that REAL poor can't even dare to try to come out of their morass and misery - because they don't have money to even get admission, unless accidentally some one they meet, who mentor, monitor and support them.
o It is same old story of Late Dr. P. K. Parija(scientist and educationist), in the 21st century, nearly 100 years after he had to go through it.
E…Civil Society Action Inadequate:
Not that we are not trying. We are giving at this time about 30 lakhs worth in scholarships to the deserving students (600 plus students). But that number is just insignificant compared to the size of the problem. The real need is so high that we need institutional finance – like countries where education has been commercialized. Like in USA where if you are meritorious the college will manage to help you out with student loans. Unfortunately, the Indian system has followed the US pattern of commercialization of education but not it's financing patterns.
F. Banks are still behaving the old way:
Loaning money is a favor not a business deal, even today. They say old habits die hard.
Due to political pressures they are forced to let go the big fish (with crores of uncollected loans) - - but they are killing these budding talents for a few crores worth student loans.
We do want BANKs (yes all banks, not only SBI) to help resolve this issue of financial access to the poor and needy but bright and hard working students or Orissa, asap, at least before 2006-2007 academic season, starting this July,2006.
G. Banks need to be proactive:
The banks need to set and meet educational loan goals and sanction at least a fixed quantity of unsecured loans in the coming year, to meet that goal.
A suggested out line for SBI is below but other banks should come up with their own goals and submit them for public view and transparency.
Post Matric – Rs. 6 to 10 thousand – 2000 @ 65 in each of 30 district =1.6 crores
Plus 2 / plus 3 – Rs 10 thousand – 1000 @ 35 in each district = 1crore
Engineering Diploma: Rs. 10 thousand – 300 @ 10 in each district = 0.3 crores
Engineering: 20 to 30 thousand per year - 1000 @ 35 in each district. = 2.5 crores
Medical: 30 thousand per year – 100 @ 30 in each of the 3 colleges =0.3 crores
H. Recommended Solution:
The issue of corrupt branch managers is to be resolved by banks through administrative process, which civil society need not worry about – except if loan scholarship goals are not met they should be penalized and ATR(action taken report) made public.
Not sanctioning stipulated number of loans should be considered a dereliction of duty.
I would even suggest the Branches should have assigned quotas – and they shall be answerable to this state consultancy/advisory body, if they don't meet them. In case of harassment there should be a advisory body of Bank officials and Academia in each district.
It should be made a responsibility of the Banks to release to media applications received and loans sanctioned each month.
48 hours is too ambitious but if they can be sanctioned in 2 weeks time or better it should be considered adequate.
About the fear of other branch managers as "unsecured loans" have no safety net for the Branch Managers. This problem seem to have been solved by Hyderabad Regional office of SBI. This is what they have done:
A person who is more permanent in the area and traceable – a resident of the area who is also a State Govt, Panchayat, Central Govt. or similar gives a written undertaking that in case of the loanee disappearing not being traceable – they undertake to find and give their addresses. The reason is that when kids graduate from destitute conditions to be an engineer or a doctor – they abandon their village and take their either old or economically weak family members to their place of work in far off urban areas, like Mumbai or Delhi. Some times they cut off their contact or their relatives back home don't give their addresses thinking they are doing a favor to their now established ward. Once the address is obtained, all banks have institutional mechanism to collect money, which gets triggered.
The upcoming ID card system in India should make even this process unnecessary – because they can be easily traced in no time.
Banks should share between them any success stories in student loan collection between each other and come up with a standard operating procedure
NIT Rourkela should be declared as an "Institute of Eminence", like the IITs, (which it is being ranked 17th in India) so the loan can be sanctioned at the college Branch of SBI.
Other old colleges like UCE, Burla, S.C.B. Medical College, can and should be sanctioned "Institute of Eminence" status.
A public watch body in each district may be set up to bring misuse of the privileges both by the bank and the students can be investigated and finding reported for correction.
What is Spelling Bee / Vocabulary contest? How it will be conducted?
The Spelling Bee contest
It is an American innovation at which Indians have become very adept. In fact in the last 7 years, kids of Indian origin have dominated the American national contest, known as “Scripp-Howard spelling Bee”, winning 5 times out of 7. In fact most of the years there were more than 2 Indian kids in the top ten, of the event. This contest helps immensely in development of mastery in English language in addition to improving their other faculties of competition, helping in educational pursuit.
Vocabulary contest:
It is a word meaning contest which helps in expanding kid’s word power, thus enhancing his ability to grasp knowledge. This very skill is tested in SAT test, which is a very established way of determining the college readiness and comprehension of the kids.
History of contest in Orissa:
We have started these tests in Orissa in 2003, in English medium New Stewart School, Stewart School, Cuttack, and Stewart School, Bhubaneswar. A few other schools like Ruchika School of BBSR participated in 1st year. About 500 kids participated.
We repeated the tests 2004 again in the same schools plus extended it to a few Oriya medium schools and central schools of Cuttack.
In 2005 the participation was vastly expanded and participation crossed 1000 for the 1st time and reached nearly 1200. Schools from six districts participated:
Cuttack, Khurda, Puri, Berhampore, Jajpur, Bhadrak. Tests were conducted in Cuttack(twice), Bhubaneswar(twice), Sukinda and Puri.
The finals were held in Cuttack. The whole show was lead / managed by Diocese of Cuttack, led by B. B. Das, Diocese Secretary and Farley North, Principal New Stewart School.. It was technically supported by North South Foundation, USA and financially by an NRI, Sandip K. Dasverma.
From day one Prof. Gopa Das, President, Farley North, Secretary and Nita Das, Asst. Secretary and treasurer, have conducted the tests. They have developed enough expertise over last 3 years, to Indianize it, and taken all executive responsibilities.
It has been proven that it does excite kids to master English language and improves their language skills in English, the most important language in the era of “Globalization”.. To do this we need to do things which we have not done so far:
1. Spread it to every Oriya medium school in every nook and corner of Orissa, because it is expected to play a major role in the mission of improvement of English in Orissa. Lack of fluent knowledge in English is hindering Orissa’s development / progress.
2. The basic test should be conducted first by each school, internally. Then 5 to 10 students from each school need to compete in a inter school competition at districts level of the state.
3. Then the final will be at the state level, with big prize and recognition etc. This will be in conjunction with English medium schools.
4. The spelling Bee contest is for the juniors (6 and 7 class) and Vocabulary contest is for seniors(8 and 9 class).
5. The Diocese has done a great job in spreading the awareness and competition among the students of the English medium schools of coastal area.
6. They can and will extend this to the English medium schools in other parts of the state but that is a very small part of the student population.
7. To expand farther we need to use organizations which will complement the Diocese effort and spread the message and expertise, while the core competence and quality is controlled and maintained by a group of experts developed over last 3 years. This is where Lions club can chip in.
8. Lions role is envisioned here in providing it’s vast net work of 70 branches and the organizational expertise to hold it everyone of those towns and cities, and expand it to nooks and corners at one shot.
9. Diocese and Lions will complement each other in the Late K. P. Das memorial Spelling and Vocabulary contest and Trust, each in charge of their core competence areas.
10. Diocese will help in holding them in their own and other English medium schools and Lion in Oriya medium schools except where a combination will be beneficial per judgment of fhe organizers. The expertise and training of the new judges will be with co-operation of Lion, Diocese and the central body of experts..
11. Lion will use its presence in 70 locations, numerous officers, and offices, to help expand the tests to all parts of Orissa.
12. Web sites to exchange information, Post test words, leading to what is called mass customization is a goal to cut costs and maintain uniform quality. An example of what can be done can be seen at: www.rmtsorissa.org/ for improvement of math among rural students of Orissa.
13. Advantage of video technology will be taken to train new teachers and organizers to train them to internalize the modus operandi, of the tests. A Demo Video disc has was made last year to demonstrate “How to conduct” among new schools. It can be improved with better captions or other improvements.
14. Each district center will be it’s own cost center and will be self sufficient, through local sponsorships. They will take an entry fee. The will try to send all those qualified to the central contest, by paying travel expenses as per actual, host lunches for the participants and their parents. Though economically needy students to be supported- no free ride should be given to those who can afford.
15. Local district prizes can be given if funds locally funds can be raised.
16. The central organization will conduct the final, conduct one or two tests to demonstrate to those who want to come, see and learn, maintain quality by setting test questions and practice words. The central organization will also look for sponsors, which it presently has
This is a first draft and other ideas are welcome to improve it/ innovate it.
It is an American innovation at which Indians have become very adept. In fact in the last 7 years, kids of Indian origin have dominated the American national contest, known as “Scripp-Howard spelling Bee”, winning 5 times out of 7. In fact most of the years there were more than 2 Indian kids in the top ten, of the event. This contest helps immensely in development of mastery in English language in addition to improving their other faculties of competition, helping in educational pursuit.
Vocabulary contest:
It is a word meaning contest which helps in expanding kid’s word power, thus enhancing his ability to grasp knowledge. This very skill is tested in SAT test, which is a very established way of determining the college readiness and comprehension of the kids.
History of contest in Orissa:
We have started these tests in Orissa in 2003, in English medium New Stewart School, Stewart School, Cuttack, and Stewart School, Bhubaneswar. A few other schools like Ruchika School of BBSR participated in 1st year. About 500 kids participated.
We repeated the tests 2004 again in the same schools plus extended it to a few Oriya medium schools and central schools of Cuttack.
In 2005 the participation was vastly expanded and participation crossed 1000 for the 1st time and reached nearly 1200. Schools from six districts participated:
Cuttack, Khurda, Puri, Berhampore, Jajpur, Bhadrak. Tests were conducted in Cuttack(twice), Bhubaneswar(twice), Sukinda and Puri.
The finals were held in Cuttack. The whole show was lead / managed by Diocese of Cuttack, led by B. B. Das, Diocese Secretary and Farley North, Principal New Stewart School.. It was technically supported by North South Foundation, USA and financially by an NRI, Sandip K. Dasverma.
From day one Prof. Gopa Das, President, Farley North, Secretary and Nita Das, Asst. Secretary and treasurer, have conducted the tests. They have developed enough expertise over last 3 years, to Indianize it, and taken all executive responsibilities.
It has been proven that it does excite kids to master English language and improves their language skills in English, the most important language in the era of “Globalization”.. To do this we need to do things which we have not done so far:
1. Spread it to every Oriya medium school in every nook and corner of Orissa, because it is expected to play a major role in the mission of improvement of English in Orissa. Lack of fluent knowledge in English is hindering Orissa’s development / progress.
2. The basic test should be conducted first by each school, internally. Then 5 to 10 students from each school need to compete in a inter school competition at districts level of the state.
3. Then the final will be at the state level, with big prize and recognition etc. This will be in conjunction with English medium schools.
4. The spelling Bee contest is for the juniors (6 and 7 class) and Vocabulary contest is for seniors(8 and 9 class).
5. The Diocese has done a great job in spreading the awareness and competition among the students of the English medium schools of coastal area.
6. They can and will extend this to the English medium schools in other parts of the state but that is a very small part of the student population.
7. To expand farther we need to use organizations which will complement the Diocese effort and spread the message and expertise, while the core competence and quality is controlled and maintained by a group of experts developed over last 3 years. This is where Lions club can chip in.
8. Lions role is envisioned here in providing it’s vast net work of 70 branches and the organizational expertise to hold it everyone of those towns and cities, and expand it to nooks and corners at one shot.
9. Diocese and Lions will complement each other in the Late K. P. Das memorial Spelling and Vocabulary contest and Trust, each in charge of their core competence areas.
10. Diocese will help in holding them in their own and other English medium schools and Lion in Oriya medium schools except where a combination will be beneficial per judgment of fhe organizers. The expertise and training of the new judges will be with co-operation of Lion, Diocese and the central body of experts..
11. Lion will use its presence in 70 locations, numerous officers, and offices, to help expand the tests to all parts of Orissa.
12. Web sites to exchange information, Post test words, leading to what is called mass customization is a goal to cut costs and maintain uniform quality. An example of what can be done can be seen at: www.rmtsorissa.org/ for improvement of math among rural students of Orissa.
13. Advantage of video technology will be taken to train new teachers and organizers to train them to internalize the modus operandi, of the tests. A Demo Video disc has was made last year to demonstrate “How to conduct” among new schools. It can be improved with better captions or other improvements.
14. Each district center will be it’s own cost center and will be self sufficient, through local sponsorships. They will take an entry fee. The will try to send all those qualified to the central contest, by paying travel expenses as per actual, host lunches for the participants and their parents. Though economically needy students to be supported- no free ride should be given to those who can afford.
15. Local district prizes can be given if funds locally funds can be raised.
16. The central organization will conduct the final, conduct one or two tests to demonstrate to those who want to come, see and learn, maintain quality by setting test questions and practice words. The central organization will also look for sponsors, which it presently has
This is a first draft and other ideas are welcome to improve it/ innovate it.
Monday, June 26, 2006
List of NRI donors
List of donors for RMTS First Batch (2003 to 2007): 30 Scholarships
1. S. K. Dasverma
List of donors for RMTS 2nd Batch (2004 to 2008): 100 Scholarships
1 Satyabrata and Bijay Laxmi:
2 Purna Mohanty
3 SriGopal babu
4 Lalu Mansingh
List of donors for RMTS 3rd Batch ( 2005 to 2009) : 165 scholarships
1. Shaibal and Yin Leong Roy
2. Neelamadhaba and Sashmita Mohapatro
3. Dr. Debi Mishra(Alabama)
4. Dr.Subhendra and Ranu Mohanty
5. Dr. Priyadarshan and Anu Patra
6. Dhirendra Kar
7. Binod Naik
8. Alok Mohapatra
9. Dr. Chitta Baral
10. Dr. Annapurna Pandey
11. Birendra Mishra
12. Sunil Sabat
13 . Prasanta Behera
14. Dr. Abani Patro
15. Soumendra Mohanty
16. Bijay Mohapatra
17. Ram K. Das
18. Sapan Panigrahi
19. Nishikanta Sahoo
20. Dr. Saheb Sahu
21. Dr. Anjalika Pattnayak
22. Vikas Mishra
23. Satyajit Sahu
24. Sujata Das
1. S. K. Dasverma
List of donors for RMTS 2nd Batch (2004 to 2008): 100 Scholarships
1 Satyabrata and Bijay Laxmi:
2 Purna Mohanty
3 SriGopal babu
4 Lalu Mansingh
List of donors for RMTS 3rd Batch ( 2005 to 2009) : 165 scholarships
1. Shaibal and Yin Leong Roy
2. Neelamadhaba and Sashmita Mohapatro
3. Dr. Debi Mishra(Alabama)
4. Dr.Subhendra and Ranu Mohanty
5. Dr. Priyadarshan and Anu Patra
6. Dhirendra Kar
7. Binod Naik
8. Alok Mohapatra
9. Dr. Chitta Baral
10. Dr. Annapurna Pandey
11. Birendra Mishra
12. Sunil Sabat
13 . Prasanta Behera
14. Dr. Abani Patro
15. Soumendra Mohanty
16. Bijay Mohapatra
17. Ram K. Das
18. Sapan Panigrahi
19. Nishikanta Sahoo
20. Dr. Saheb Sahu
21. Dr. Anjalika Pattnayak
22. Vikas Mishra
23. Satyajit Sahu
24. Sujata Das
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