TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA – ITS IMPACT ON INDUSTRIAL GROWTH AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

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TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA – ITS IMPACT ON INDUSTRIAL GROWTH AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Technical Education system is dynamic in nature. It faces many hurdles in response to societal, technological and economic changes in the environment both home and foreign. The debate today is not only about the value and role of Technical education in the social and economic development of a nation but has a broader aspect. Technical education is widely recognized as a vital part of the total education and training system. The real challenge is how to reposition it by shifting towards a developmental paradigm that holds sustainability as its core.

We dwell in an age of mechanics. Technology now rules supreme in a civilized society. Man has mastered largely the forces of Nature through application of technical skill. The day is not far distant when computers and even robots will rule the field of work.In the circumstances, technical education is essential to run our factories and fields of production. That is also financially advisable. There are a few households in an Indian city that do not nowadays depend upon machinery, directly or indirectly. Manual labour is being superseded by steam, gas and electrical power. The mighty forces of Nature are being harnessed to serve the wants of man. We are dressed by machinery, transported by machinery, lighted by machinery, our very catering and amusements are being ministered to by the mechanical contrivances of radios, televisions and cinemas and internet arrangements. Every home has to depend on electricity; every office is equipped with telephones and teleprinters, and computing machines of all kinds. Even the playgrounds have electrical scoreboards and timekeepers. And this mechanization of life will increase and expand as days would roll on.

Technical education, aims primarily at equipping a man for work in the practical sense of getting him fit for a job. We need skilled workers. Manufactured goods worth crores of rupees are being imported every year. There is dearth of food. Our industries are yet in infancy. We need engineers to man them. We need mechanized farming to increase the output of corn. All this is only possible if we give a technical turn to our education and if skilled labour is made available.

At present there are very few good technical institutions in the country. And the reason is not far to seek. Most of our young men have a sort of prejudice against all types of manual labour. They prefer a job in some office to doing work with their hands. They think that manual labour is degrading. Unemployment, therefore, stares them in the face. The jobs of clerks in offices too, are limited. All educated young minds cannot be absorbed in this vocation.

Technical education is only likely to succeed when a large part of the nation has become sufficiently literate. It is an excellent thing to train an electrician’s son in the latest development of his trade, but it is ridiculous to expect him to become a first rate electrical engineer unless he has gone through a primary course in liberal edu¬cation. It is, therefore, not wise to put liberal and technical educa¬tions in water-tight compartments. The proper policy would be to stress liberal education in the early stage, say till Matriculation, and then commence with the main course of technical education basing on the student’s choice of scientific research on aptitude and incli¬nation.

India is rich in mineral resources but most of them have not been tapped. The government is keen to utilize this wealth. More and more technical institutions are, therefore, being opened. A large number of technical hands are pouring out of our universities every year. It is a happy sign of the times but unfortunately our industries are still mediocre and the number of jobs are less. No nation could generate the progress unless it promotes technical aspects in its fields. The technical education produces technicians for all type of industries and it is true that the progress of a country much depend upon its Industrialization without which a handsome economy would not be possible.
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Technical education contributes substantially to the Socio Economic development of the country as a whole. The development sustenance of the industrial sector is entirely dependent upon the availability of trained manpower to perform the multidimensional activities needed to keep the wheel of industry running. Technical Education aims towards making available these trained technically qualified hands to serve the industry and society.

Finally, the point has to be made that technical and vocational education and training alone by itself does not lead to rapid industrialization, or provision of jobs or eradication of poverty. Good government policies do all three. The rapid expansion of technical education in the post-liberalization era has thrown open new challenges including implementing major reforms, feeding the demands for new jobs and further training so that opportunities are created on a sustainable basis to trace and light the path for industrialization and social development. This is the challenge that Indian government and training institutions must rise up to. The only question that remains is, Are they ready?

Computerization of Banks In India

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Computerization of Banks In India

E-commerce and e-banking are the buzz words in the global commercial activities today. E-banking or Electronic banking refers to conducting banking activities with the help of information technology (IT) and computers.

Computerization of banking functions in India was resisted by labour unions for fear of loss of job opportunities. Secondly, computerization needs IT savvy personnel which require intensive technical training. Thirdly, computerization needs heavy capital outlay for purchase of machines.To have effective computerization of banks a large num¬ber of bank branches situated in rural areas need to be connected. Telecommunication facil¬ity at rural areas is slow to reach. For the reasons mentioned above, computerization made a slow entry in Indian banks.

Based on the suggestions made by Rangarajan Committee, banks started initiating measures to computerize their various operations. Public Sector Banks (PSU banks) started identifying important / large branches for full branch computerization.

Banks which had fully computerized some of their branches started inter-connecting their computerized branches using leased telephoned lines or through satellite system. This enabled banks to have a better centralized control over branches besides ensuring comprehensive service to their customers.

Banks started providing for sizeable funds for computerization of their operations. It was necessitated due to financial sector reforms initiated in the early 90s through Narasimham Committee recommendations.

Further globalisation and liberalisation measures introduced during 1990s allowed setting up of new private sector banks and free entry of foreign banks into India. This brought in a different and new operating environment to banks.
The deregulation of interest rate regime, phased reduction in Cash Reserve Ratio / Statutory Liquidity Ratio, introduction of universal banking system, permission to start new banks in the private sector, etc., by Reserve Bank of India encouraged competition among banks.

These measures had pushed the Indian banks to go for state-of-art IT and services and products like " anywhere banking ", " tele- banking" etc. Simultaneously the importance of effective Management Information System (MIS) for control of operations, maintenance of data base, good customer relationship was felt.
Accordingly banks presently cover performance monitoring, decision making, control of branches, administrative matters, submission of statutory returns to RBI, inter branch transactions, reconciliation of outstanding entries in various accounts, funds transfer, credit related information, investment management, treasury operations through money market, fore market, securities market, employees personal data and scores of other operations with the use of IT and computers.

Yet the level of computerization may differ from banks to banks. Today, we may say that 80 per cent of banking operations in cities are computerized. The process is fast picking up even at rural branch level.

Today, the number of computers used with banks in India had crossed 1, 00,000. The total number of ATMs is more than 2000.Thus we can say that computerisation of banks have been quite helpful for the customers and the bank too. But we need to keep on improving and implementing latest technologies for the continuous betterment of our banking sector.

Is Food Security Law necessary for India?

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Is Food Security Law necessary for India?

There exists a linear relationship between economic growth and health and a better economic growth leads to a better health status. When this nation is considered important, food security becomes a sheer necessity. The economic growth of our country has been considerably good in the past decade; however, there has not been any significant reflectance of economic growth on the health status of people in the country.

The economic role of food and nutrition is something which can be looked down upon and this in turn, becomes a rationale for formulating a public policy. A proper food policy hence becomes the need of the hour. A well targeted nutrition policy can create wonders and also provides a way analogous compared to other policies. In this scenario, the National Food Security Bill can turn into something revolutionary and can leave a huge impact in the economy of the country. The Bill can transform and restructure the lives of people if carefully crafted and implemented.

The recent Food Security Bill proposed by the expert committee, headed by Dr. C. Rangarajan, outlines some of the salient features such as providing food grains at subsidized prices at least to 75% of the people in the country, priority households getting 35 kg of food grains at a price of Re. 1, 2 and 3 for millets, wheat and rice respectively. The Bill also assures a constant price and coverage until the end of the twelfth plan period. The bill also highlights the need to rebuild the public distribution system in the country.
Government of India has introduced several welfare schemes like the mid day meals scheme and the food grains needed for it is also taken into the current estimate of the total food grain requirements. A buffer stock maintenance becomes mandatory keeping in view some unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances such as flood, draught and other natural calamities.

One of the best ways to ensure distribution of food grains in the country is through Public Distribution System which runs about 1k Fair Price Shops in the country. However, the distribution system must be competent enough to deliver as the basic objective of the bill is to curb hunger and malnutrition. Identification of beneficiaries should be done precisely and the machinery should be programmed perfectly to assure that the schemes reach the needy.

Unfortunately, the entire system in our country is abetted by corruption and this comes as a major threat to the developmental policies. Political and bureaucratic problems in the country need to be addressed first and it is high time for us to realize that the real-time problems cannot be solved by the stroke of a pen. The darker side of the proposed bill is that it may turn out to be little beneficial and create new avenues for political and bureaucratic corruption. Moreover, the proposed bill may not prove effective in identifying the problems relating to malnutrition, hunger and poverty. Improving environmental sanitation is one of the most preferred tools to reduced malnutrition and that is one measure the central government should adopt.

One of the better solutions for this would be identifying the beneficiaries and the needy geographically. When this is done in a perfect way the rest becomes easier. "Public Health Campaigns" no doubt have a bigger role to play when it comes to enhancing the nutritional levels of children and women.

Hence, drafting a Food Security Bill and passing it in the parliament with absolute majority will alone not solve the purpose of food and malnutrition, but implementation of proper measures to ensure that the schemes reach the beneficiaries properly will only provide a better solution to solve the food crisis.

Foreign Direct Investment in Retail Industry – Its Advantages and Disadvantages

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Foreign Direct Investment in Retail Industry – Its Advantages and Disadvantages

Government has encouraged by the economic policy 1991, has adopted retail reforms mainly as 100% FDI in the retail sector in India. It may benefit by bringing investment in complete backend infrastructure and helps rural and agricultural sectors with a better go to market scenario. They also safeguard the health of the Indian retail sector against competition from the player of global economy.
India is ranked as the third most attractive nation for retail investment among 30 emerging markets with domestic companies like the Future Group, Tata’s Westside, Reliance Fresh, Raheja Group and Bharti Retail competing for market share. Market liberalization sowing the seeds for a retail transformation that will bring more MNCs players and big Indian retail players which are looking to expand their operations which include Pantaloon, Reliance, Lifestyle, Food world, Raymond, Titan, Bata etc. Global player’s access India market through the licensee/franchisee route includes McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Levis Lee, Nike, Adidas etc.

There are so many advantages of FDI in retail sector
1. Boost Economic Life -
This is one of the major sectors, which is enormously benefited from foreign direct investment. A remarkable inflow of FDI in various industrial units in India has boosted the economic life of country.

2. Increase level of competition -
FDI increase level of competition in market. They have to improve quality of products and service in order to stay in market. They enter into Indian market through Joint venture and collaboration.

3. Maximum Opportunity –
FDI norms will open up strategic investment opportunity for global retailers, who have been waiting to invest in India. This may have a significant impact on the current arrangement of foreign players. Employees are well-versed with globally valued skills. FDI also ensured a number of employment opportunities to people by establishing industrial units in India.

4. Advance Technology
Improved technology in the area of processing, grading, handling and packaging of goods and further developments in areas like electronic weighing, billing, barcode scanning etc. Further, transportation facilities can get a improved in the form of increased number of refrigerated vans and pre cooling chambers which can help bring down wastage of food.

DISADVANTAGES OF FDI

FDI feels that liberalization would endanger retail sector and mainly affect the small retailers, farmers and consumer and give rise to monopolies adversely affect the pricing and availability of goods. The entry of large global retailers such as Wal-Mart wipes out local shops and millions of jobs. The global retailers would collude and exercise monopolistic power to raise prices and monopolistic (big buying) power to reduce the prices received by the suppliers. Hence, both the consumers and the suppliers would lose, while the profit margins of such retail chains would go up. It would lead to lopsided growth in cities, causing discontent and social tension elsewhere.
Despite country wide speculation on the plight of various Stakeholders, trading associations, politicians, etc. have given various arguments for and against FDI in retailing. However, such arguments are largely based on perception and there has not been serious academic research in this area. Further, India’s local enterprises will potentially receive an up gradation with the import of advanced technological and logistics management expertise from the foreign entities.

In our view, the government has an opportunity to utilize the liberalization for achieving certain of its own targets- improve its infrastructure, access sophisticated technologies, generate employment for those keen to work in this sector.FDI would lead to a more comprehensive integration of India into the worldwide market and, as such, it is imperative for the government to promote this sector for the overall economic development and social welfare of the country. If done in the right manner, it can prove to be a boon and not a curse.