EDITORIAL
Learn we must
Why do we revel in making
our environment filthy? We throw garbage wherever we
like. We spit in the open. Instead of using public
toilets we relieve ourselves of superfluous matter close
to the adjoining walls. Less said the better about
half-burnt cigarettes. These are carelessly thrown
around. We don't fight shy of tossing water bottles and
left-overs into lakes. Dal Lake in any case has a large
number of inhabitants. Filth creates stink which in turn
leads to more muck. Without fail one coughs up while
passing through an area that smells horrible. It happens
without one applying one's mind. So mechanical is the
reaction that stomach turns the moment the nose sniffs in
the foul air. If we care to notice we will find that we
don't spew out if we walk by a clean place. In fact, the
irony is that we may hardly notice it. We march forward
merrily and if at all we open our mouths it may only be
to accommodate a song on our lips. An elderly citizen of
this city who travelled through the Untied States some
time back could not help but notice the all-round
spotlessness on roads and in public places in the world's
most affluent democracy. He observed that there was no
need for people to shoot out the contents on their
tongues. This was not only because it was considered
ungentlemanly. Apparently the main cause was there was no
disgusting odour for them to feel provoked and sully
their own surroundings. It is true that we have not yet
attained those high standards of progress and
development. One can't deny either that there is a
considerable population in the State and the country as a
whole that does not have access to modern latrines. Per
force they have to go to agricultural fields and open
spaces near railway tracks and convert them into
makeshift lavatories. This is a serious compulsion for
which the planners and administrators have been trying to
find a suitable answer. Metropolitan cities including the
national capital suffer from this unsightly phenomenon.
In the present instance, however, one is not talking of
fellow citizens who have to live such a miserable
existence for want of requisite facilities. Our immediate
concern is those among us who have the necessary
infrastructure but don't put it to good use. Officially,
for instance, polythene bags have been banned at several
places which include hill stations. In real life one can
see that these are freely available, the forbidden
territories being no exception. There is a legal ban on
spitting in public areas in many cities. Smoking too is
proscribed at quite a few locations including railway
stations. Yet, there is no dearth of persons who treat
the law as if it does not exist at all. Surely we have to
find a method to educate them and to deal with them if
they don't mend their approach.
Essentially it is a matter
of personal conduct. If we don't generate stench in the
first place we will discover that we are not multiplying
it either in any way. We must respect hygiene like a
social practice. Decency too demands that we are
extremely careful while behaving as part of a larger
community. For us in this State it is all the more
essential that we observe perfect manners and follow
cleanliness as an article of faith. We must make a
first-class impression on millions of pilgrims and
tourists who come every year. It is thus for our sake
that we are vigilant. We must learn without further delay
the need to uphold the virtues of a pure and healthy
atmosphere.
Joint
venture would serve defence needs
By Brig.
(Retd.) S.N. Sachadeva
In the capital's
trade fair grounds at Pragati
Maidan, Defexpo 2006 opened on
February 1. On display is a
Patriot III missile with its body
encased in glass to reveal the
electronic innards pointing
skywards. Alongside the most
sophisticated missile defence
system, get a feel also of the
F/A-18 E/F Superhornet and the
Swedish Gripen multirole combat
aircraft from their simulated
cockpits. Policy driven changes
in the defence sector are goading
foreign players into setting up
or expanding businesses in India.
A total of 420 companies from 39
countries are participating in
the event as exhibitors. Several
more countries have sent official
and ministerial-level
delegations.
In the new defence
procurement policy, the
government has made it mandatory
for all foreign vendors to plough
back at least 30 per cent of
values in offsets. The upshot is
that Lockheed Martin and
Raytheon, Thales and BAE Systems
are beginning to talk more and
more to the Tatas and the
Mahindras and Larsen and Toubro.
India was converting its domestic
defence industry from a supplier
to its armed forces to a
competitor in other regional
markets.
India alone is
projected to import $6 billion
worth of military hardware by
2008 - in just two years' time.
In the year 2004, India created a
record of sorts by surpassing
China for the first time in
importing military hardware of
around $5.7 billion. For the
armed forces starved of modern
systems for over a decade, faced
with procedural bottlenecks that
cause fatigue rather than
enhanced war-fighting capability,
modernisation can only be good
news. Faced with security
challenges that brook neither
mediocrity nor a second chance,
they have, in the past, filled
the void through sheer courage
and sacrifice.
As modern warfare
protagonists know, in the age of
a revolution in military affairs,
even courage has its limitations.
The past tells us that when the
moment of reckoning comes, as
happened in 1962 against China or
more recently in Kargil, our
military is ill-equipped. While
our lawmakers have spent
considerable energy on
'Coffingate', one wishes they had
constructively debated on why we
are repeatedly caught in a
situation where coffins or
ammunition have to be imported in
a panic after the battle has
begun!
One could
legitimately ask why our armed
forces should be faced with such
limitations when, on the face of
it, our indigenous defence
research and production
foundations were well-conceived
and laid early on in the
republic's history. In
furtherance of our avowed policy
of self-reliance, we have 51
defence research and development
laboratories involved in
activities as diverse as weapons
and missiles to the life
sciences.
Added to this
formidable base, we have eight
defence public sector units and
39 ordnance factories
respectively producing every
thing from combat aircraft,
warships, tanks to clothing and
the like. With such formidable
capital investments and equally
large recurring costs, the nation
should have been largely
self-sufficient in military
hardware and software, relying on
imports only in a few selected
areas. But as the coffin story
tells us, we can boast of nuclear
weapons, but cannot bring back a
dead soldier with dignity for
last rites, unless we import
caskets.
Military weapon
systems have long design;
development and production cycle
times and are also subject to
technological changes, which
bring about early obsolescence.
The entire cycle is both capital
intensive and risk prone. To cap
it all, the market is both
captive and limited. Only private
companies already established in
the defence sector could face
these challenges. We have none.
It needs recalling that the
foundations of today's
multinational giants were laid
during the World Wars when
governments generously promoted
them. If the private sector in
India is to be encouraged to
enter and then nurtured, it would
not only need a clear idea of
what type of technical risks are
involved, investments to be made
and what assured orders can be
expected, but active support of
the services and the government
for some years before they can
establish themselves with
supporting infrastructure and
research and development.
The starting point
of any weapon system is the
service staff requirement, based
on futuristic threat and
war-fighting perceptions and the
evolving technological
environment. Once committed, the
services should remain steadfast.
Industry often complains that the
services keep changing their
requirements. No sector, public
or private, can assess risks and
costs in such an environment. It
is not uncommon for major changes
to be called for with change in
personalities whose impact
continues to be felt long after
the concerned incumbents have
left the scene. While it is
incumbent on professional
enterprises to evaluate technical
risks at the start of a
programme, they can hardly be
expected to cope with a shifting
goal post.
It is hardly
surprising, therefore, to learn
that in spite of this new policy
having been in existence for five
years, it has evoked a very poor
response from the private sector
and attracted no foreign direct
investment at all. There is a
school of thought that believes
that major arms-producing
countries would not want to
encourage more competition and
hence stymie Indian efforts, but
this misses the point. As the IT
industry has clearly
demonstrated, there are no
emotions attached to successful
private enterprise but cold
economic reality. The industry
will chase efficiency and
profitability irrespective of
national boundaries, as the
examples that follow will show.
The Kelker committee
appointed to look into the
modernising of the defence
procurement system submitted its
first report to the defence
minister early last year. Having
wasted five valuable years, we
are now awaiting action on this
report. While we continue with
these well-meaning, though
repetitive exercises, there is a
silent revolution going on
unnoticed under our very noses.
In an article published in a
computer journal, the author says
that Infosys played a vital role
in designing a portion of the
Airbus 380's wings and HCL
Technologies will provide
software and hardware development
services to the Boeing 787
'Dreamliner'.
Both are next
generation airliners from prime
international aerospace giants.
These airliners are destined to
guide the future of international
commercial aviation into the next
decade or more. Similarly, Tata
Elxsi is reportedly doing
operator envelope design work for
helicopter cockpits for a
Britain-based customer. The list
is indicative and could go on. It
illustrates the potential
strength of the Indian private
sector with its scientific,
technological and management
genius.
For this to succeed
the ministry of defence (MOD),
the services, defence R&D,
the defence PSUs, ordnance
factories and the private sector
all need to be equal partners and
be willing to change their
management styles. With the
support of the government this
partnership can be nurtured till
the public and private sectors
are mature to face international
competition. For a nation
aspiring to join the league of
developed nations in a few years,
we should be aiming to be net
exporters of military hardware,
not the world's highest importer.
INAV
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Revitalizing
AES in hilly areas
By Dr M
P Gupta
The hilly
areas including Jammu & Kashmir
State, Himachal Pradesh, North-Eastern
States the sub-Himalayas and the Western
Ghats regions commonly known as
''Phari-Prant'' constitute about 22 per
cent of total geographical area and
contain 9 per cent of total population of
our country. Despite rich in flora/fauna
and congenial environment, these areas
had been thinly exploited and remained
neglected, consequently the inhabitants
of these areas are economically, socially
and educationally backward in comparison
to their counter-partners in plains.
However, problems of hilly areas are more
or less identical and present
'Agricultural Extension System' is
inadequate to cope with them.
Agriculture
is the main occupation of the people
living in hills and forest areas of
J&K which is subsistence rather than
commercial is infested by a number of
problems, constraints summarizes as
under:
* More
than 67 per cent of farmers in Jammu
& Kashmir State have average size of
land holdings less than one hectare and
that too scattered at a number of places.
* Mostly
lands in hills and forest areas are not
leveled rather these are in terraces,
sloppy and zigzag posing limitations,
restrictions for mechanized farming.
* The
areas in general (more than 76%) are rain
fed and depend on rain for irrigation.
Many a time, it does not rain at all
throughout the season or if rains, it is
scanty, untimely creates drought like
situation. Besides, in some higher
riches, it continously rains heavily,
which is also not good for crops.
* In hilly
areas weather invariably remains
uncertain and erratic which adversely
effects the prospects of crops.
* In hilly
areas infrastructure facilities such as
transport, communication, storage,
processing etc are much lacking and form
a bottleneck in the way of adoption of
improved agriculture.
* Mostly
non-availability of materials/inputs like
seeds, fertilizers, pesticides,
weedicides, sprayers, dusters, drills,
etc to the farmers in required quantity
and on time are a great hurdle in
modernization agriculture.
* Besides,
the people in general of hilly areas are
resource poor, illiterate, innocent,
self-contented, superstitious/orthodox,
lack aspirations/initiatives, less
exposed to media, localite and resist any
kind of change thereby making the
extension work more cumbersome, difficult
and challenging.
Earlier
Attempts
A critical
appraisal of earlier attempts after
independence namely Community Development
(1952); Intensive Agricultural District
Program (1960); Intensive Agricultural
Area Program (1964); High Yielding
Varieties Program (1966) Drought Prone
Area Program (1970); Hill Area
Development Projects (1974); Integrated
Rural Development Program (1975);
Training & Visit Program (1976);
Broad-Based Extension Education Program
(1994) for agriculture & rural
development suffered from the following
important weaknesses;
*
Different departments and agencies were
working in isolation without co-ordinated
efforts.
* The
programs were target-oriented and lacked
emphasis to bring about change in
attitude of the people.
* In order
to achieve physical target, the programs'
efforts were concentrated on big farmers
and major crops while neglecting the
small farmers and the local crops.
*
Multi-purpose concept of Village Level
Workers was in vogue.
*
Extension staff was not adequate in
number and trained to deliver the goods.
* Lack of
technical guidance and supervision of
extension staff at various levels.
* Lack of
critical agriculture inputs and
infrastructural facilities.
* Lack of
research backing for extension work.
Present
Approach
Of late,
Agricultural Technology Management Agency
(ATMA) extension model of Ministry of
Agriculture Govt of India has been
introduced in seven states by 2005, which
is going to serve as main plank for
agriculture development throughout the
length and breadth of our country. It is
a re-organized extension system with a
focus to integrate research-extension
activities and decentralize management of
public technology dissemination system.
As a matter of fact, ATMA is composed of
stakeholders from line or development
departments, SAUs, KVKs, NGOs, etc
involved in activities for sustainable
agricultural development at District.
Among the hill States, Himachal Pradesh
was first to adopt ATMA in phase I,
whereas J&K is at the preparation
stage for its implementation in phase II,
as such the following measures are
suggested to over come peculiar hill
problems for its definite success.
Measures
for Revitalization
i.
Extension system should be involved in
the process of technology testing,
refinement & development through
on-farm trials and adoptive research to
be more appropriate and viable.
ii. Role
of extension will be to transfer &
adopt agricultural technology; identify
different constraints namely;
technological, socio-economic and
infrastructural in adoption process; and
to give feed-back to the research system.
iii.
Extension workers need to educate farmers
about efficient land use planning in
hilly areas. In this behalf, they should
help the farmers in preparing composite
production plans including fruits,
vegetables, cereals, etc in their area of
jurisdiction.
iv.
Location specific technology should be
made available at door-steps of farmers
as well as impart periodic training to
update their competence/skill. Further,
supply of inputs, credit should be made
readily available in farmers and
infrastructure should be stepped up.
v. Farming
system research at National/State level
needs to be geared up in tackling
peculiar problems of variegated climatic
zones of hilly areas. In fact, separate
location specific research
recommnedations relying on low cost have
to be developed to address specifically
to the problems of hill farmers. In this
contest, a separate cell should be
created in Indian Council of Agriculture
Research (ICAR), New Delhi to tackle to
hill farming problems.
vi.
Agricultural Extension System should lay
emphasis on mitigating strategies
including soil & water conservation,
conservation of forests and balance in
eco-system.
vii. In
reaching farmers of far-flung &
remote hill areas, 'farmer-to-farmer
extension' approach should be followed in
ATMA mdoel for better results. Besides,
the improved technologies should be
demonstrated to convince and shun the
inhibitions of hill farmers for adoption.
viii. For
smooth functioning of ATMA, State
Agricultural Management and Extension
Training Institute (SAMETI) at State
Level, Governing Board & Management
Committee at District Level Block
Technology Teams (BTTs) and Farmers
Advisory Committees (FACs) using NGOs to
organize farmers should be established.
Besides, Extension Expert/Consultant
should be provided at State level in hill
States on the pattern of Himachal Pradesh
who will help in planning and execution
of extension programs, maintaining
coordination with allied development
departments and agencies both private and
public. Further, he will undertake
monitoring & evaluation studies to
ensure full adoption and maintain
sustainability of adoption technology.
Conclusion
In nut
shell, no system per se is all perfect
and calls for its revitalization to meet
the problems/challenges of hill
situations.
About 99.3
million people constituting nine per cent
of the total population of our country
reside in hilly areas who are faced with
peculiar problems and need special
attention under ATMA. In this behalf,
emphasis has to be laid on mitigating
strategies; farmer-to - farmer extension
contact; diversified farming to yield
optimum benefits for the vast multitude
of farmers and safeguard against failure
of any crop in dry lands. Further, since
the prospects & problems of hill
States are identical, as such there
should be frequent interaction between
scientists and officers of line
departments of hilly areas for sharing of
experiences for promotion &
development of agriculture including
horticulture, olericulture, floriculture,
animal husbandry, forestry, aromatic
& medicinal plants etc and thereby
ushering prosperity.
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Rahul
Gandhi waiting to step in!
TALES OF TRAVESTY
By Dr. Jitendra Singh
The irrepressible
clamour at the Hyderabad AICC session for
induction of Rahul Gandhi either in the union
cabinet or at a top party position speaks volumes
about the apparent indispensability of this young
Nehru-Gandhi scion in running the affairs of the
Congress party and the party-led Government at
the Centre. This is also an assertion of Rahul's
ostensible claim to lead the nation as its head
in very near future.
But, is this about
all ? Is there nothing more to it than meets the
eye ?
Much water was
flown down the Ganga and Yamuna on the banks of
which and around the Triveni Sangam at Allahabad,
Rahul's great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru grew
up learning, by his own admission, his first
lessons in Indian ethos and imbibing the spirit
of patriotism from the surcharged milieu of Anand
Bhavan. Nehru, as independent India's first Prime
Minister, did not appoint daughter Indira to any
Government office even though his critics like
Ram Manohar Lohiya always accused him of tacitly
grooming Indira to take over the mantle from him.
The preference for dynastic succession, however,
came forth with rude arrogance after Indira
Gandhi took over as Prime Minister. The initial
few years of Indira's reign were spent in dealing
with strong antagonism from the Congress Party's
Syndicate group comprising the likes of K
Kamaraj, Morarji Desai and Nijalingappa. But,
after the victory in Bangla Desh war, Indira
Gandhi emerged with an indomitable confidence and
went ahead no-holds-bar in ecouraging Sanjay
Gandhi to rule the country as a proxy Prime
Minister. The rest is history. Sanjay's
undeterred march awas sought to be halted by an
adverse electoral verdict in 1977 but he again
returned to gain power in 1980 and was infact
India's Prime Minister-in-waiting before nature
stepped in to correct this anomaly. Ironically,
even after Sanjay's tragic death, Indira Gandhi
refused to heed the providential message and now
chose to bring in her other son Rajiv. Rightly
perhaps, Madhu Limaye had described Indira Gandhi
as a more devoted ''mother'' than a Prime
Minister. So, it was actually Indira Gandhi who
institutionalised the preorgative of the dynasty
to succeed the highest office in the country. And
the progeny, both Sanjay and Rajiv who were the
immediate beneficiaries, conveniently ignored the
fact that their father Feroze Gandhi was
vehemently opposed to the prospect of drawing any
mileage from his family linkage with
father-in-law Jawaharlal Nehru and had as a
Member of Parliament chosen to stay alone in an
officially allotted quarter even when wife Indira
left him to join her father at the PM's '''Teen
Murti'' residence.
Be that as it
may, the fact of the matter is that Rahul
Gandhi's hesitation to jump into the saddle is
less out of humility if any and more as a part of
a calculated strategy chalked out for him by his
Italian-Indian mother Sonia Gandhi. Rahul is
neither a reluctant politician like his father
Rajiv nor a rampaging enthusiast like his uncle
Sanjay. Charisma certainly counts but not like in
the days of Indira Gandhi and therefore Rahul has
cleverly opted for a cautious brick-by-brick
approach.
Rahul, like
earlier in case of mother Sonia, had swathes of
party workers at the Hyderabad AICC session
asking for his induction. But he is drawing
lessons from mother Sonia's experiment who
renounced Prime Ministership to end up becoming
the ''virtual'' Prime Minister of India. With the
party support behind him, Rahul knows too well
that it is he who is going to call the shots at
the Congress Working Committee and therefore he
can take the liberty to choose the most optimum
moment for him to step in and take over the
reigns of the party and the Government.
Meanwhile, the
over-ethusiastic Congress leaders may have to
hold on for some more time before Rahul Gandhi
finally takes over. And, the common man may be
spared for some more time the fate of saluting
yet another Nehru-Gandhi Prime Minister while Umapathy
waits to applaud mother Sonia's maternal
dream-come-true with poetic gratification ‘‘
Mere Bachche Mera Khwaab, Mere Awaam Meri
Santaan..........''
Advertising
often doesn't work
By Prakash Nath
In this age of
market economy you can sell your products with
the help of advertising, which was earlier
considered as wasteful expenditure. Till the
early Eighties advertising was criticised as
encouraging 'consumerism', for its influence in
persuading people to buy things they did not
really need and doing this to children as well.
T.T. Krishnamachari and H.M. Patel as finance
ministers proposed to tax advertising but
withdrew when newspapers protested against the
revenue loss. These actions were part of the
austerity and anti-consumption culture of that
command-and-control era.
My learning about
marketing and advertising was through selling
soaps and food products in Indian towns and
villages, and working on brands in England. The
ideas that impressed me were in Peter Drucker's
The Practice of Management. He said famously:
"There is only one valid definition of
business purpose: to create a customer." He
also said: "Marketing is the distinguishing,
the unique function of the business. It is the
whole business seen from the point of view of its
final result, that is, from the customer's point
of view."
Vance Packard's
The Hidden Persuaders introduced the many overt
and covert (subliminal) ways in which advertising
is used to influence the customer to choose
between alternative purchases. In The Status
Seekers he argued that people are continually
straining to surround themselves with visible
evidence of their superior rank in relation to
others. Inequality is what drives people to hard
work. Rosser Reeves in his Reality in
Advertising, David Ogilvy in his books
Confessions of an Advertising Man and others, and
Martin Mayer in Madison Avenue described
advertising creation and how it works.
Advertising must
define and target the consumer group it is aiming
to persuade. This must be as close as can be. It
must develop a unique selling proposition in as
clear and explicit terms as possible. The
chauvinistic advice to advertising people was,
"The consumer is not a moron; she is your
wife," that is, don't talk down to consumers
but reach out rationally, emotionally, humorously
and in every other way that might attract his
attention. These and other such rules are as
valid today in designing advertising that works.
Advertising till
the Seventies mostly made well-reasoned arguments
to the consumer, stating a problem that most
consumers faced and showing why the product
advertised was the best answer. When we launched
chewing gum, a new habit then, I decided to
target children. There was no television. No
specialist medium existed to reach children
directly en masse. Instead of using rational
claims, we tried to develop the idea that it was
"fun" to chew gum. We used a circus
clown as a symbol of "fun" for
children. It worked well.
When introducing a
new throat lozenge to compete with
"Vicks", we used the thought that
adults love candies but are embarrassed to buy
for themselves (which is why they eat up what
they buy for their children). Also, a throat
lozenge has a boy-girl connotation because of the
effect on cleaning the breath and the sucking
action. The idea was executed into press and film
but the product did not sell much. Soon the idea
was changed to a rational one: the product
offered, "Vapour action" to clear nasal
passages.
In the 21st
century, one wonders at some advertising
messages. Attracting attention is one thing,
making people pause to see and understand the
message, and then making them go to buy the
product, is more difficult. Unusual methods are
used to attract the consumer. But many
advertisements today are unclear as to the target
consumer and the message. Humour is many times
forced and difficult to understand. The models
are unlike the majority of consumers. Since
advertising now costs a fortune and failure could
ruin the company, the irrelevance of these
advertisements seems suicidal.
There have been
great advertisements in the last few years on
Indian TV, for example, the light-hearted and
very effective ones for Fevicol. The brilliant
advertisements for Coca-Cola with Aamir Khan in
different roles must have sold a lot more Coke.
Here, the models were either "like one of
us" prospective buyers or recognised as such
because of the brilliance of the actor.
But how does one
explain the long and inexplicable advertisements
for Pepsi as a "bubbly" drink with the
expensive Shah Rukh Khan, a celebrity model who
acts as himself? Despite its length the product
promise is indecipherable. The lengthy,
frequently repeated and hence hugely expensive
advertising for a jewellery store in Delhi named
"PP Jewellers" is unclear on message
and the target consumers. The bunch of girls
dancing and singing a jingle has no connection
with "real" people. On the other hand,
"Chiragh Din" has built a reputation
for being an exclusive, upmarket men's clothing
shop in Mumbai. It makes a virtue out of not
having branches anywhere else. Advertising has
helped to give its clothing a cachet and the
Bombay label.
Of course, many
advertisements today replicate the presence of
the bland upper class models that act in Indian
TV "soaps" with similar stories, one
cast looking and behaving no differently from
another, and with equally expressionless acting.
The stories are uniformly set in wealthy urban
households. The makeup, dress, articulations of
the models are familiar to better-off households
in cities. But do other income groups relate to
them at all?
Over the decade of
an open economy, the consumer seems to have
crossed the threshold and now understands that
almost all products perform their functions
equally. The consumer now looks at the price and
buys the product that offers its functions at a
lower price.
The task of
advertising to persuade the consumer has become
more difficult, because of the 'noise' of so much
other advertising, its high costs that makes
failure very expensive, and because the consumer
is less easy to persuade to pay extra for a
'premium' product. That might explain the decline
in recent years of Hindustan Lever in the foods
business including famous brands like Lipton,
Brooke Bond, Bru, Kissan, Kwality and Modern
Bread, as also some high margin personal care
products. INAV
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