Lesson from America for Indian industry
The centennial celebrations of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (estb.1908) which have already begun with the institute’s first global alumni conference in Silicon Valley, USA, on June 23, is a timely reminder of the pathbreaking role that private philanthropy has played in the growth and development of higher education in India. Although for the past several decades IISc which is routinely listed among the world’s top 20 research universities has been funded by the Union government, it’s apposite to remember that it was promoted 99 years ago with a generous land grant of 400 acres for the institute’s campus plus an endowment of Rs.30 lakh (equivalent to more than Rs.30 crore today) by industry pioneer J.N. Tata.Such private philanthropy and generosity was not unusual in the early years of the 20th century. In 1929 the pioneer jute and textiles magnate G.D. Birla funded and established the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani. Likewise in Delhi the late Lala Shriram promoted the Shriram College of Commerce and the Lady Shriram College for Women.
Unfortunately this tradition of private philanthropy seems to have become severely diluted in the latter half of the 20th century despite Indian industry having experienced unprecedented growth and prosperity following liberalisation and deregulation of the economy in 1991. Except perhaps for the Indian School of Business (estb.2001) — a joint initiative of private sector captains of industry — it is difficult to recall an education institution on the scale of IISc or BITS, Pilani promoted by any of post-independence India’s over-celebrated industry leaders and entrepreneurs. Certainly contemporary captains of Indian industry who have made huge fortunes in the fast-track Indian economy growing at an unprecdented 9 percent plus per year, are pale shadows of contemporary American philanthropists such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and television chat show queen Oprah Winfrey who have made massive endowments to education and health causes.
For instance it’s shocking but true that in Bangalore which boasts a large number of India’s 100,000 dollar-denominated millionaires, none of them has rewarded the crumbling city which has made them rich with a much-needed public library, or a well-equipped school for underprivileged children. Moreover trustees of the Bangalore School of Music who need modest top-up finance have been turned down by every IT multi-millionaire of the city.
Foolishly the new generation of myopic leaders of corporate India don’t seem to be aware that their social irresponsibility is giving liberalisation a bad name, or that they are endangering resurgent India’s born-again capitalism. They need to note that business philanthropy is a built-in survival mechanism of American capitalism. American industry’s humungous $300 billion (Rs.1200,000 crore) aggregate contribution as philanthropy (2006) is only too evident on the campus of any American college or university. That’s the lesson Indian business and industry leaders need to learn from America. For their survival and sustained prosperity.
Supply side antidote to reservations imbroglio
The unprecedented riotous violence inflicted upon the public travelling the Delhi-Jaipur highway during the week ending June 1, by anti-socials of the Gujjar caste, is a timely warning of the dangerous consequences of reckless indulgence in caste and group identity politics — a popular electoral strategy of the country’s divide-and-rule politicians. The major demand of the Gujjars is fulfillment of an electoral promise by BJP leader and incumbent chief minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhra Raje Scindia, to demote and re-classify the Gujjar caste from its current OBC (other backward castes) to ST (scheduled tribe) status.
In the caste cauldron politics of 21st century India, this apparently absurd demand is not as ridiculous as it sounds. Because under the Constitution, minimally qualified SCs and STs (scheduled castes and scheduled tribes) — traditionally the lowest and most oppressed groups of the Hindu caste hierarchy — are entitled to 15 percent and 7.5 percent reserved quotas in government jobs and institutions of higher education. Consequently they are exempt from the intense competition for government jobs as also from the 90 percent plus cut-offs which are the norm for admission into the best institutions of tertiary education. In a society subjected to bankrupt Soviet-style central planning resulting in widespread shortages in every sector of the economy including jobs and capacities in institutions of higher education, caste-based affirmative action is no small concession. Hence the ‘perverse competition’ for classification as scheduled castes and tribes which attracted adverse remarks from the Supreme Court recently.
The Gujjar agitation of late May is the logical outcome of this continuous pandering to caste and identity groups by the political class. To win the en bloc support of the Gujjar community in the state assembly elections of 2005, Vasundhra Raje cavalierly promised the Gujjars ST status to place the community on a par with the Meena community which because of its ST status, was perceived to be better represented in the Central and state administrations. But the proposed re-classification of the Gujjars has run into opposition from the Meena leaders who anticipate more intense competition for jobs and seats within the ST quota. As a consequence, the Vasundhra Raje government in Rajasthan is trapped between a rock and a hard place. If it redeems its electoral promise granting the Gujjar community ST status, there’s the prospect of an inter-caste war. If it doesn’t, a replay of the Gujjar riots of end May is on the cards.
The solution to the reservations imbroglio which is threatening to derail the fast-track Indian economy, is acceleration of the stop-go process of economic liberalisation and deregulation so that the chronic shortages in employ-ment, education, infrastructure and goods and services, become history. In sum, the antidote to the caste and identity politics virus which threatens to destabilise society, is determined focus on supply-side economics. As chronic capacity constraints within the economy are addressed and removed, the demand for reservation and quotas will abate, and eventually die a natural death.