Page 14 - Education World Dec 2021

Editorial

GOOD ENDS NULLIFIED BY BAD MEANS dian horticulture is dire. India is the
world’s second largest producer of
fruits and vegetables. Yet because of
distribution logistics deficiencies, in-
HE DRAM ATIC REP EAL OF THREE ment of wheat and rice at above sufficient warehousing and cold chain
contentious agriculture reform market price from producers in the infrastructure, over 40 percent of the
TActs of Parliament, viz , Farm- well-irrigated farmlands of Pun- horticulture produce of mainly small
ers Produce Trade and Commerce jab, Haryana and Western Uttar farmers, rots before it gets to mar-
(Promotion and Facilitation) Act, Pradesh in particular, has resulted in ket. The value of horticultural pro-
2020; Farmers (Empowerment and the emergence of a distinct class of duce wasted every year is estimated
Protection) Agreement on Price As- wealthy farmers practising modern, at Rs.50,000 crore. Therefore, quite
surance and Farm Services Act, 2020; chemicals-intensive farming which clearly the country requires greater
Essential Commodities Amendment has produced bumper harvests man- industry involvement by way of con-
Act, 2020, by way of prime minister datorily procured by the public sec- tract farming and rise of a massive
Modi’s national television broadcast tor Food Corporation of India. With food processing industry. This was es-
on November 19, has evoked mixed electricity provided free-of-charge, sentially the purpose of the farm laws
reactions within the minds of right- farmers in these states have reck- which have been repealed.
thinking people countrywide. On the lessly depleted groundwater reserves, It should be noted that the great
one hand there’s no doubt that Indian unwittingly arousing the prospect of majority of the country’s farmers who
agriculture which employs almost 60 desertification. Consequently the ill- have perpetually suffered adverse
percent of the country’s 1.30 billion maintained warehouses of FCI, which urban-rural terms of trade, are well
citizens, needs urgent reform. But the should be storing 40 million tonnes aware of the need for agriculture re-
brusque and hurried manner in which of foodgrains, are averaging 82 mil- forms. But farm reform legislation
this vitally important legislation was lion tonnes. These foodgrain moun- needs to be enacted with their coop-
first presented by way of ordinances tains are rotting in FCI warehouses eration after detailed deliberation in
and subsequently rushed through Par- and feeding the growing infectious Parliament and in consultation with
liament by the BJP/NDA government diseases-ridden rodent population of their trusted leaders.
without debate, tarnished this neces- the country. As Mahatma Gandhi often said
sary legislation ab initio. Foodgrains production and dis- noblest ends must be justified by the
Decades of government procure- tribution aside, the condition of In- means.

CREATE ENABLING CONDITIONS AT HOME ous business enterprises and repu-
tation voluntarily leave home and
hearth, friends and relatives to live in
foreign lands to suffer tolerance and
HERE’S UNDOUBTEDLY SOM ETHING services. Therefore, the prospects condescension, if not outright racial
rotten in the state of India. The of graduates of IITs, IIMs and other prejudice? They wouldn’t unless living
Trecent appointment of Parag top-ranked institutions carving out and work conditions are really bad in
Agrawal, an alumnus of IIT-Bombay great careers and establishing suc- their homeland.
as the US-based chief executive of cessful multi-billion dollar corpora- There’s the rub. The plain truth is
Twitter Inc, USA and successor of tions should be better in India than in that 70 years of inorganic socialism
Jack Dorsey, the promoter-chairman unfamiliar foreign environments. has eroded all social respect for wealth
of this multi-billion dollar hi-tech Yet according to a recent research creating entrepreneurs and business-
social network corporation, is being study, despite sky-high tuition fees men. It has become standard practice
hailed as a great triumph of India and Covid-prompted travel hassles, for post-independence India’s flour-
and IIT-B in particular. Normatively the number of Indian school and col- ishing neta- babu brotherhood egged
this would be cause for dismay, if lege leavers heading for American and on by feckless Left academics and the
not lamentation. Instead, following foreign universities has doubled in commentariat to rubbish wealth cre-
Agrawal’s great vault into the highest 2021-22. It’s a safe bet that more than ators in industry and business. Tata-
seat of power in Twitter, Indian media half won’t return after graduation. Birla who were projected as exploiters
has gone to town highlighting the re- And it’s not only millions of youth instead of enablers of the economy in
markable reality that CEOs of several and young professionals who are the 1970s have been replaced by Am-
of the world’s largest, wealthiest and fleeing India. According to a Mor- bani-Adani as villains, despite their
most powerful corporations, including gan Stanley study, 23,000 high net paying the equivalent of 7-8 percent
Microsoft, Google, IBM among oth- worth individuals (HNIs) i.e, wealthy of GDP into the public exchequer by
ers are professionals of Indian origin citizens who had established success- way of taxes and generating massive
who have received (English medium) ful business enterprises emigrated well-paid employment.
school and undergraduate education from India between 2014-2019. West Therefore instead of celebrating the
in this country. Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra success of Indian emigrants abroad,
With its massive 1.30 billion con- places the number higher at 35,000. there’s urgent need to create living
sumers, contemporary India is the The question needs to be posed: why and working conditions for them to
world’s largest market for goods and would wealthy citizens with prosper- succeed in their own country.

14 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2021