Page 7 - 31OCT2019E

/tehelka @tehelka

Islamabad must shun disciplines, if the country has to economic stability and market
terror to improve image make real progress. Apart from size.
With reference to the online report “21 Indians transforming the educational But where we need to
killed in over 2000 ceasefire violations by system, we need to invest in improve leaps and bounds are
Pakistan this year: MEA” (September 15) creating institutes of excellence. on the security, health, skills
It is apparent that Pakistan has
not learnt any lesson from the kosaraJu chaNdramouli and labour fronts. While skill
damage being caused to its Bihar floods require development has been a focus
reputation as a nation in sup- area for the Prime Minister, we
port of terrorism. The revela- proper media coverage have not made much progress in
tion about the camp indicates With reference to the online report “Cabinet the last three to four years.
Secretary chairs NCMC meeting to review flood
the mind of Pakistan’s military situation in Bihar” (October 1) We should have lever-
establishment and the helpless- It is not new for Patna to be aged our population and large
ness of the country’s Prime waterlogged. For the past five number of youth and gradually
Minister. Our neighbour seems years, the Ganges has been upgraded unskilled labour to
intent on being an irritant at all crossing the danger mark. This skilled ones. At a time when our
times. It is in Pakistan’s inter- year, it has been giving us more GDP forecast is being reduced
est to shed its current policy trouble as it has rained inces- and we are going through an
and join the group of peaceful santly over the last three days. economic slowdown, it is an
nations. A fresh debate has started on opportune time for structural
reforms to create employment
duGGaraJu sriNiVasa rao how safe Bihar’s capital actually through skill development
is. It is a matter of fact that Patna
It’s time to transform is a badly planned city. Most of across the country by choosing
the educational system its areas are congested. hubs and pockets so that we
With reference to the report “Draft National Concrete roads have weak- can create multiple skills at
Education Policy draws road map for major ened soil stability. Now we have all levels.
sectoral reforms” by Sarrah (June 30) Bal GoViNd
Education in India is basically boats floating on the busiest
seen as a means to lucrative roads of the city and water Taxpayers’ money should
employment. That is the reason entering households. What not be misused by banks
why the best of students choose makes the situation more tragic That State Bank of India has
to pursue either an engineering is that we are not even getting written off bad loans amounting
or a medical course. Students coverage in the ‘national media’. to 76,600 crore is bad news.
join the rest of the courses also PawaN raJ A sizeable amount of taxpayers’
based on their perception about Improving competitiveness money has been pocketed by
the relative employment poten- 220 defaulters. Likewise there
tial of those courses. will only boost economy may be many other banks which
Unless this attitude of stu- With reference to the online report “Prime have their share of bad loans to
Minister Modi delivers keynote address at
dents changes, we cannot Bloomberg Global Business Forum” write off. Political meddling in
expect to produce more Jagadish (September 26) the lending policy is one of the
Chandra Boses and G.N. On competitiveness index rank- main causes for bad loans.
Ramachandrans in biotechnol- ings, India was at 63rd position How come banks lend the
ogy field or any other science in 2017, improved to 58th in money without adequate collat-
stream. 2018, and has fallen back to 68th eral security? A startling revela-
The lack of interest and in 2019. And among the BRICS tion is that 960 borrowers have
quality of the students at the economies, India is the worst been listed by the RBI whose
entry level of the degree course performer. While China, which debts of more than 100 crore
is the reason for the “mediocre is also going through a economic each have to be written off.
quality” of the publications. slowdown, still managed to do Taxpayers would feel cheated
Inculcating scientific thinking well. if the government uses the tax
has to start from the school level Though there is no com- collected for loan waivers and
with the right kind of teaching parison in size between the bad loan write-offs at a later
methods and provision of basic economies of Singapore and the date. The government should
infrastructure. US, credit must be given to tiny use taxpayers’ money to create
There is an urgent need to island nation to push the US to infrastructure and strengthen
attract the best of minds into second position. India needs national security.
basic research in various science to take heart from the fact that
we have scored well on macro- kV seetharamaiah

Tehelka / 31 october 2019 7 www.Tehelka.com