Tunnel vision as policy

Tunnel vision as policy

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Tunnel vision as policy

Moral of the tsunami story: self-reliance can be the perfect recipe
for self-destruction

Wiser in hindsight as always, India is now considering measures to
protect itself against the kind of natural disaster that rocked the
nation on Sunday. The tsunami brought with it the realisation that it
does not pay to be isolated from scientific collaboration on an
international scale, given the indubitable fact that had we been
linked to systems like the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, we may have
been able to save thousands of lives. Escaping a tsunami is, after
all, a fairly simple exercise which involves running away for a
kilometre or so from the shoreline when it hits. Therefore monitoring
its progress and warning vulnerable communities becomes absolutely
crucial.

But for this to happen India needs, first of all, to discard one of
its most valued mantras which has become a national ideology:
self-reliance. Self-reliance can sometimes be the perfect recipe for
self-destruction, as the recent tragedy demonstrated. We are
justifiably proud of our pool of scientific talent but if it should
result in a fortress mentality, or cause us to reject the option of
benefitting from enormous advances in the technology and methods of
weather prediction, it does not help us. Tunnel vision cannot be
policy, especially in an area like weather forecasting, where
developments taking place hundreds of kilometres away crucially
impinge on national welfare and well-being. At least twice in the last
two decades, India has been the victim of its own ignorance. In 1987,
we were clueless about the El Nino phenomenon and paid a heavy price
because we were unprepared for the unprecedented drought that
descended upon us. While the US had intimation of a major El Nino
visitation at least six months in advance, we were left staring
blankly at the cruel blue skies which signified a failed monsoon. On
Sunday, we had to learn that lesson all over again.

It is time, then, to seriously consider a tsunami alert system for the
Indian Ocean that is linked with the one that is already in operation
for the Pacific Ocean. Such systems read and put out relevant data
which monitors around the world — from undersea gauges to satellite
transmitters — pick up. Indeed the tragedy behind the present tragedy,
as this newspaper has reported, was that 26 countries were alerted
within 15 minutes of Sunday\'s disturbances on the Pacific Ocean floor
but India was not on that list. In our moment of grief and shock, let
us seize the moment and work towards instituting such a monitoring
system which will help not just India but all the nations in the
region.

Sunday, we had to learn that lesson all over again.
It is time, then, to seriously consider a tsunami alert system for the
Indian Ocean that is linked with the one that is already in operation
for the Pacific Ocean. Such systems read and put out relevant data
which monitors around the world — from undersea gauges to satellite
transmitters — pick up. Indeed the tragedy behind the present tragedy,
as this newspaper has reported, was that 26 countries were alerted
within 15 minutes of Sunday's disturbances on the Pacific Ocean floor
but India was not on that list. In our moment of grief and shock, let
us seize the moment and work towards instituting such a monitoring
system which will help not just India but all the nations in the
region.

URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=61729

A Matter of History

A Matter of History
Legacy: Why do our leaders seem so small compared with the World War
II generation? Wait for the secret memos to come out, and Bush and
Blair may someday look much larger than they do now.
By Sir Martin Gilbert
Newsweek International

Issues 2005 - People often ask how history will remember our
generation of leaders in comparison with the second world war leaders
Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Many comment that
today's leaders look small compared with the giants of the past. This
is, I believe, a misconception. In their day, both Churchill and
Roosevelt were frequently criticized, often savagely, by their fellow
countrymen, including legislators who had little knowledge of the
behind-the-scenes reality of the war.

The passage of time both elevates and reduces reputations. Today there
is a cult of Churchill, particularly in the United States, but also
far greater scholarly criticism, which regards him, increasingly, as a
flawed war leader. The same is true of Roosevelt: his recent
biographers are constantly revealing—to their satisfaction, at
least—feet of clay.

Although it can easily be argued that George W. Bush and Tony Blair
face a far lesser challenge than Roosevelt and Churchill did—that the
war on terror is not a third world war—they may well, with the passage
of time and the opening of the archives, join the ranks of Roosevelt
and Churchill. Their own societies are too divided today to deliver a
calm judgment, and many of their achievements may be in the future:
when Iraq has a stable democracy, with Al Qaeda neutralized, and when
Israel and the Palestinian Authority are independent democracies,
living side by side in constructive economic cooperation. If they can
move this latter aim, to which Bush and Blair pledged themselves on
Nov. 12, it will be a leadership achievement of historic proportions.

The leadership of Churchill and Roosevelt in the second world war was
conducted in such a way that only many years after the war were its
true parameters clear. This is also true of Bush and Blair: only when
the secret telegrams and conversations become available will we really
know who did what, who influenced whom. Before the war against Saddam
Hussein, Blair's emissary Sir David Manning was flying almost weekly
to Washington, but it may be many years before we know what decisions
were reached during these journeys. Any accurate assessment of Bush
and Blair must wait, perhaps a decade or longer, until the record can
be scrutinized.

Yet some comparisons are already clear.

Controversy was never absent in the second world war, either. When
Churchill became prime minister in May 1940, he had to struggle to
overcome defeatists who urged a negotiated peace with Hitler.
Similarly, Blair overcame opposition from within his own Labour Party
to the war in Iraq, prevailing over the doubters in parliamentary
debate on the eve of the Iraq war.

President Roosevelt faced a Congress resolutely opposed to going to
war against Hitler. He used every means to circumvent America's
neutrality legislation, and to provide Britain with essential war
material (some of it by the back door, across the border to Canada).
Bush faced no such hurdle: Congress approved the overthrow of Hussein.

It would be wrong to minimize the challenges facing Blair and Bush.
"Even in miniature," Churchill oncewrote, "war is hideous and
appalling." Both men had to deploy all their persuasive skills to make
the case for overthrowing Hussein, despite the obvious evil of his
regime. Hitler's bombing of civilians, including in Warsaw, Rotterdam,
Coventry, London and Belgrade; his submarine sinking of merchant
ships, and his evil racial policies left no room for doubt as to his
nature.

Another burden Blair and Bush share with the earlier generation is
that of explaining the troubled course of the war. Between 1939 and
1945 there were many setbacks that alarmed Britain and America, among
them the Dunkirk evacuation, the Dieppe raid and the loss of the
Philippines, then an American possession. Today, the war in Iraq
continues with daily casualty lists, suicide bombings and rebel
violence.

Churchill wrote and delivered a series of now famous speeches as bombs
fell on British cities (with as many as 4,000 civilian deaths each
week). Those carefully crafted speeches gave people hope. Both Blair
and Bush also address their people in urgent appeals. Blair conveys
his sense of moral purpose in clear, articulate phrases. Bush seems
less at ease with words that, in many cases, others have crafted for
him.

In 1940, Churchill made a point of ending political warfare in
Britain. "Let pre-war hatreds die," he declared. He brought in cabinet
ministers from the opposition, and gave the most demanding wartime
tasks to the most capable. Today, Blair and Bush conduct war in
partisan terms, ensuring a vociferous opposition.

Yet they are great supporters of one another. Bush recently said at a
White House meeting with Blair: "I am a lucky person, a lucky
president, to be holding office at the same time this man holds the
prime ministership." This brings to mind Roosevelt's comment to
Churchill: "It is fun being in the same decade as you." Behind these
words are a hidden wealth of allied cooperation on the future.

Churchill and Roosevelt worked together to shape the postwar world.
The Atlantic Charter, which they both signed in August 1941, set out
the parameters of self-government, free elections and democracy for
all those nations that had been subjected to Nazi tyranny. In Iraq,
Bush and Blair have adhered to the Atlantic Charter concept. Hussein
was overthrown in order that a democratic Iraqi leader could be put in
his place, and both leaders are persevering in this task. One problem
echoes that faced by Churchill and Roosevelt: the opposition of a
powerful ally.

After the second world war, Stalin opposed the return of independent,
democratic states. By force of will and arms, he prevailed over
Churchill and Roosevelt. He used the Red Army to impose Communist
systems on eight states of Eastern and Central Europe, leaving only
Greece on the Western side. Bush and Blair confront a different
opponent: Muslim extremism, a perversion of the Islamic creed. In
November they faced, from the midst of their ally Saudi Arabia, an
edict issued by prominent religious scholars prohibiting Muslims of
Iraq from supporting military operations by American or British
forces.

A final parallel is most telling. Churchill planned a peace conference
after the war, at which he and Roosevelt could persuade the King of
Saudi Arabia to agree to the creation of a Jewish sovereign state in
Palestine. Roosevelt died and Churchill was thrown out of office
before the conference could take place. Instead of a Jewish State
being created with Arab approval, the United Nations proposed two
States, one Jewish, one Arab, with Jerusalem under international
control. The Jews accepted. The Arabs did not, and launched five
armies against the Jewish state: a failure of Arab leadership that has
led to six decades of conflict.

It may be that in our time Bush and Blair will show the leadership
needed to set the two-state solution back on track. Both are now
firmly in the political saddle. Their leadership qualities will be put
to the test in bringing the Israelis and Palestinians together in
working toward an agreement. If they succeed, they will have completed
what Churchill and Roosevelt inspired, and will, without doubt, have
sealed their place in history.

Martin Gilbert is a leading historian. Among his books are "Churchill:
A Life" and "Israel: A History."
© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6728160/site/newsweek/

What's India's Grand Strategy?

What's India's Grand Strategy?

A nation has security, Walter Lippman notes, when it does not have to
sacrifice its legitimate interests to avoid war, and is able, if
challenged, to maintain them by war. India does not meet these
criteria.

K.P.S. GILL

A nation has security, Walter Lippman notes, when it does not have to
sacrifice its legitimate interests to avoid war, and is able, if
challenged, to maintain them by war. It must be clear to any objective
observer of the trajectory of developments in this country that India
does not meet these criteria, and that its leadership has not even
begun to imagine the task of building them into a national vision.

Indeed, for decades, India has even failed to neutralise the challenge
arising out of the malevolence of a single hostile neighbour one-eight
its size.

The disaster of the confrontation with China in 1962 has simply been
pushed out of our strategic perspectives, and the political and
military leadership in the country appears to have convinced itself
that shared economic interests, China's "good intentions", and our
"friendly relations" with Western and other powers are sufficient
guarantee against any future threat from that direction. And given
China's overwhelming size and rising power, in any event, what can
India do?

But why doesn't Pakistan think in this way of India? The truth is,
though there is much talk of India's emerging "great power status",
the strategic vision and the awareness of both the collaborative and
competitive imperatives that this would involve is still to develop
within leaders and leadership institutions in this country. It is
significant that, while we pit ourselves repeatedly, exclusively and
with very limited success against a manifestly inferior adversary,
preparing for an engagement with a superior enemy has been integral to
Chinese military and national philosophy since the very creation of
the "New China" under Mao Zedong's inspired, though ruthless,
leadership. China clearly sees itself as being engaged in sustained
and protracted competition with other major powers, while India sees
itself substantially as little more than a hopeful supplicant before,
and occasionally as an inferior partner with, these.

It is useful to recall that China has confronted and defeated the
United States in two wars--directly in the Korean war and indirectly
in the war in Vietnam--at a time when the new nation was only just
beginning to stabilise after two decades of civil war and a seven year
conflict with Japan. At that time the Chinese economy was shattered,
there was mass distress among the people and the nation's industries
had virtually collapsed. On the other hand, the US was already well
established as the number one power of the world.

Indeed, the earlier victories of the People's Liberation Army in both
the civil war and the war against Japan were also secured against
adversaries who were far better equipped and, at least at some point,
far more numerous. In June 1950, when General Douglas MacArthur made a
daring push towards the Yalu river--the boundary between China and
North Korea--he was confident that China would not dare to intervene
because of America's air superiority and nuclear power status. But
China pushed in more than 200,000 "volunteers", who attacked and
overran the US 8th Army 50 miles south of the Yalu River.

History--even recent history--is replete with instances where
"inferior" powers have prevailed in the battlefield over "superior"
powers, and, at least once, China has been the victim of this process.
In 1979, China attacked Vietnam to "punish" Hanoi for toppling the
Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, but had to withdraw in haste after it
was given a bloody nose by fierce Vietnamese resistance.

In Iraq, today, rag tag bands of insurgents and terrorists are tying
down the Armies of the world's "sole superpower" and it is far from
clear who will emerge the eventual victor.

It is clear that established military doctrines in countries like
India, Russia, even America, have failed to grasp the transformations
in the fundamental nature of warfare that have occurred.America's
overwhelming firepower can devastate the infrastructure of any country
in the world, but it cannot impose the necessary conditions of an
unambiguous victory. There is, indeed, both among great powers and
among "aspiring great powers", a failure to evolve the necessary
concepts of war and of "soft power projection" that can help guarantee
their interests in the new world order.

If India is to rank among the world's first nations--indeed, given its
particularly hostile neighbourhood, if India is to survive over the
long term--its leadership will have to evolve a grand strategy that
will guide the nation into the future. If the political,
administrative and intellectual leadership of this country remains
completely mired, as it presently is, in the chaotic exigencies of
daily political survival and the pressures of the most immediate
challenges at hand, the future of the country is in serious jeopardy.

Within this context, a military doctrine that seeks to prepare the
country only for a "short, intense war--the only kind of ar that we
are, in fact, currently prepared to fight is worse than absurd, it is
a preparation for defeat. India does not appear to have any strategic
minds at least not in the nodes of power--and has manifestly lacked
these for a very long time. The fact is, war has been systematically
and substantially factored out of the Indian political world view in
its unrealistic--often delusional--pursuit of peace. To desire and to
work for peace is, of course, admirable. To fail to prepare for the
wars of the future is suicidal.

The country's leadership appears to have put its entire faith in the
capacity of our limited economic successes (these are a fact of life
only for a microscopic minority in a fraction of the country's
geographical area) to catapult India to great power status. The fact,
unfortunately, is that this success is itself permanent hostage to the
multiplicity of internal and external security challenges confronting
us today.

It is now time to evolve and articulate India's grand strategy, and to
tailor specific policies in every area--the economy, governance,
administration, defence, foreign policy, human security,
development--to the realisation of this strategy. Within this context,
a radical restructuring is needed to create an integrated system of
military and commercial production that would not only directly
benefit both these sectors, but would create the sinews for the wider
task of nation-building.

Defence science has, historically, led national (commercial and
industrial) science in the advanced nations. In India, defence science
lags far behind the commercial sector, despite the billions of rupees
that have been poured into the defence scientific establishment. The
gap between our indigenous defence technology capabilities and the
cutting edge technologies of the modern world is several generations
wide. This is not the case in at least a selection of our best private
and non-military technological enterprises.

We have the scientific capabilities; we are simply failing to apply
these where they are needed because our present security perspectives
and doctrines are flawed. Our technological efforts and institutional
structures need to be redefined by clear thinking on the projected
demands of future operations and conflicts, and not just of current
threats. The development of technologies in line with a comprehensive
and realistic security doctrine could radically alter our entire
strategic and tactical vision, not only on the conventional and
sub-conventional battlefield, but in every aspect of the national
enterprise.

K.P.S. Gill is Publisher, SAIR; President, Institute for Conflict
Management. This article was first published in The Pioneer.

Making our people rich

Making our people rich

By Ranil Wickremesinghe

Sri Lanka and India, working as an integrated marketplace, offer
strong opportunities for potential investors. Together, we can offer
greater economies of scale and build a more competitive commercial
environment.

NEARLY SIX decades ago, momentous things happened in both our
countries [India and Sri Lanka]. We made our people free. We
established institutions and secured a system of Government where the
people were able to elect the Parliament and enjoy basic democratic
freedoms. This was our success story. We did this whilst elsewhere in
the third world democracy failed, or never took off. But just as much
as we have had successes we have also had failures. The most glaring
of which was our failure to make our people rich while many others
around us succeeded.

Consider for a moment what has happened in China. At its inception,
the People's Republic had no reserves. Chiang Kai-Shek had fled to
Taiwan taking all the reserves including gold. Despite years of
failure during which ineffective measures to spur economic growth were
tried, once the free market reforms took place in the late 1980s China
started to grow. Today it is emerging as an economic miracle with a
rapidly transforming economy and increasing prosperity for their
people.

There are other examples. South Korea turned its economy into a
powerhouse before granting her people real political freedoms.
Indonesia was single-minded in improving its economic performance and
has only recently adopted more genuine democratic processes. Even
Vietnam, one of the few remaining communist countries, has been
attracting increasing amounts of foreign investment and looks set to
achieve great economic strides in the near future.

In the 1950s, we in Sri Lanka were at the top of the Asian economic
league. Today we are near the bottom. Once places like Singapore and
Malaysia looked to us as a model but not any more. But why should this
be? For the current, widely accepted view is that a functioning
democracy is essential for sustainable economic growth and
development. Nevertheless, the evidence from both our countries is
that this is not necessarily the case.

Today, as we look forward to the challenges that must be met to
improve the lives of our people, we should look back at the many
changes that have taken place in the global economy during the last 50
years. In the last century, commerce and markets tended to work within
national boundaries. Even when there was trade between countries, this
happened broadly through Government controlled channels. But today we
have a market system, which no longer respects national boundaries in
the same way.

Increasingly we see business taking place directly between customers
in one country and suppliers in another country, with little or no
direct governmental involvement. These changes are best described in a
recent book, The Shield of Achilles, by Philip Bobbitt. He argues that
the "nation-state" that arose with the industrial revolution is in the
process of being replaced by the "market-state". I quote, "In the
market-state, the marketplace becomes the economic arena, replacing
the factory. In the marketplace, men and women are consumers, not
producers... " He argues critically that in future, leaders will be
judged by their ability to provide more and better economic
opportunities to their people. In this new world, goods, services,
finance and even ideas are crossing borders and moving around the
world seemingly at the speed of light. As leaders, either we keep up
with the changes or we become irrelevant to the needs of the people.
To create new jobs and improved incomes both of our countries will
have to accelerate the process of integration with the world economy.
This means removing the barriers to all types of trade and investment.
That is why joint initiatives such as the Doha Development Round
launched by the World Trade Organisation and the growth in bilateral
and regional trade agreements are vital.

It is why we have been working with your Government here in India to
fast track trade liberalisation. Both India and Sri Lanka are seeking
agreements with other potential partners. This suggests that there may
be scope to move towards interlocking agreements and use these as
building blocks for genuine trade liberalisation. If we can do this,
it will benefit the entire region .

Look at the economic map of our region and you will see why Sri Lanka
and India, working as an integrated marketplace, offer strong
opportunities for potential investors. Together, we can offer greater
economies of scale and build a more competitive commercial
environment. Together, we have the potential to emerge as one of the
most dynamic regional markets in Asia and the world.

One example is tea. If India and Sri Lanka tea industries were to join
forces and build on our combined strengths, there could be huge
returns. Apparel manufacturing is another area where both of our
countries have achieved a measure of success. With the ending of the
Multi Fibre Arrangement in 2005, we will face many challenges in
remaining competitive. That is why transport and logistics capacities
to ease the moving of goods across our borders will help our exporters
to make real cost savings and hence improve competitiveness. The ICT
sector is another area where both countries are growing. This is one
of our best opportunities for rapid growth in employment and enhanced
incomes. The more we try to compete in traditional ways, erecting
barriers and maintaining a relatively narrow local perspective, the
less likely we are to succeed. The more we open up and seek to build
networks and integrate globally, the greater are our chances of
success.

As trade and investment barriers between India and Sri Lanka come
down, we can expect that for a great many industries, the core market
will be defined by south India and Sri Lanka. Among the most immediate
benefits from this Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement will
be those realised in the states physically closest to Sri Lanka,
particularly the southern States of India. There are a number of
obvious examples. Tourism is an important industry for both India and
Sri Lanka, with enormous potential for further growth and development.
Within about an hour it is possible to fly easily between many cities
in south India, Sri Lanka or the Maldives. These destinations offer an
enormous range of possibilities for tourists — beaches, mountains,
cultural heritage sites, wildlife and pristine natural settings.
Higher growth in tourism means large increases in employment and
better incomes, especially in the rural areas, where the need for jobs
is greatest.

If we step back and look at this sub-region as a single market, it is
clear that there are many more opportunities that we can offer
tourists. By working together and taking advantages of our relative
strengths, we can develop a much richer and more competitive menu of
attractions with which to build our respective sectors, making us much
more competitive together. Obviously, these are not activities that
can develop rapidly and efficiently on their own at the local level,
but must be part of a larger regional and global process. They will
require improved power and transport services as mentioned earlier.
And they will also require the much-improved communications and IT
services that are emerging today. The world has changed and
integrated, regional markets are fast becoming the means for economic
and political success.

Turning to infrastructure, over the past 50 years we have failed to
provide efficient, cost effective transportation and port facilities.
The cost of such things is very high and can easily become political
liabilities when not made. Yet they produce massive benefits over a
long period of time.

But again let us think regionally rather than nationally. Imagine a
fully interconnected electric grid stretching from Nepal to Sri Lanka,
where countries in the region could readily trade electricity. We
would all benefit from such imaginative regional planning.

Let me finish then by discussing the prospect of building a land
bridge between Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu and Talaimannar in Sri Lanka.
One of the final steps in integration. With road and rail links this
would be a major step towards sub-regional economic integration and
would offer both sides of the Palk Straits huge economic benefits. Nor
do we see the Sethu Samudram project as inconsistent with the
development of the land bridge. Both projects are compatible. Sri
Lanka's role in the sub-regional economy would tend more towards the
provision of services. Not only the ports and airports, but also by
supplying financial, logistics and business development services. Both
building the land bridge and the consequent economic activity,
especially the global marketing base, will provide employment to large
numbers of people and raise incomes substantially in South India as
well as in Sri Lanka. A win-win development that could change the
economic map of our region.

Let us build a common future from our common past. All it requires is
the imagination, the leadership and the commitment to shake off the
shackles of the past, bring peace to this part of the region to make
our people rich.

(Excerpted from the Millennium Lecture-2003 delivered by the Prime
Minister of Sri Lanka. The lecture was organised by The Hindu Media
Resource Centre for Sustainable Development, M.S. Swaminathan Research
Foundation, in Chennai on August 23.)

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© Copyright 2000 - 2004 The Hindu

Reliance - The Loser is You

Reliance

The Loser Is You

The Mukesh-Anil spat has broken the RIL cult of silence. Both brothers
were milking shareholders' funds into little-known companies. But no
one spoke. Updates

ALAM SRINIVAS
Tearing At The Parent:

Family members of Mukesh's loyalists and Anil's close relatives own
firms that have direct dealings with RIL; woven sacks made by Jai Corp
supplied to RIL, the flagship's waste management handled by Polyole
Synthetics, the largest consignment agent of RIL close to Anil.

Rs 3,500 crore commitment sought by Reliance Energy, run by Anil.

Rs 18,000 crore commitment by Reliance group as direct equity,
preference shares, bonds, guarantees and handsets purchased on behalf
of Reliance Infocomm.

Gas commitment sought by Reliance Energy for its proposed project in UP.

Rs 100 crore for pet hospital projects of family members -- Rs 82
crore for one that Nita, wife of Mukesh, is interested in and another
that Anil is.

Huge sums diverted from Reliance Infocomm for investment purposes—the
money was invested in ONGC and TCS IPOs.

The A-serial on the battle between the two Ambani brothers, Mukesh and
Anil, is being directed by media management teams. But each episode is
being scripted by private sleuths. Yes, both camps have hired
detectives to dig out dirt about their opponents. These are men who
rummage official records, take people close to family members to dance
bars to confirm suspicions, and find details of firms owned by senior
aides to the two brothers that have business and financial links with
the Reliance group. Finally, they expose how money was diverted from
the cash cow, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), to finance projects and
charities that were promoted due to personal whims of the family
members and/or their loyalists.

Secrecy is the key in these operations. Even those who deal with the
media go to great lengths to hide identities. One of them uses an
e-mail ID that indicates the sender is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
Another calls from a private mobile number and insists that landlines
are not used by either side; his reasoning: "It's difficult to tape
mobile-to-mobile conversations." A third meets you at innocuous
Barista and Cafe Turtle. All of them send you information on blank
sheets, from faxes that cannot be directly traced to any Ambani-owned,
publicly known firms. Reminds you of the Great Ambani-Wadia Media War
in the 1980s! How times have changed.

You or me—as one of 35 lakh shareholders in Reliance group firms—had
no inkling of what was happening in India's largest business empire.
At some point in time, we ceased being part of the Reliance family,
which the late patriarch Dhirubhai insisted throughout his life we
were. We, the part owners, however small those morsels, lost the trust
of the two brothers who began running their companies like their
fiefdoms. Dhirubhai always kept his common Indian investors in mind;
but today, you could well form the impression that Mukesh and Anil
only seem to be concerned about their personal wealth. Dhirubhai's
philosophy was that running a modern enterprise "is not about
ownership, it's about trusteeship. It's not about amassing personal
wealth, but about enlarging the collective wealth of millions of
shareholders". Those words sound empty today as it's clear the feud is
only about money and ownership.

"The episode has exposed the group, it has shown the distinction
between RIL and other professionally managed companies like Infosys. I
feel cheated," says a Mumbai-based businessman, who deals in jewellery
and owns RIL shares worth over Rs 5 lakh. "I will never touch this
scrip again, even if the company registers great growth," he adds
while revealing he's waiting for the first chance to exit. But many
others are still hopeful. "The shareholders are concerned but there's
such huge faith in Reliance that the group stocks have not fallen as
was expected. My clients call me everyday to find out what to do with
their Reliance holdings," reveals Devang Shah, a Mumbai-based broker.

One can still understand that individual investors were too irrelevant
to be told about the nitty-gritty of RIL's operations. But it's now
quite clear that even the institutions—both domestic and foreign—which
have substantial holdings in RIL, or even independent board members,
knew very little. Worse, did they know about the goings-on and still
remain silent? Why did not domestic and foreign institutions question
the brothers? Why did the so-called independent directors on RIL's
board behave like mere rubber stamps? There are many questions that
expose the apparently glaring lack of corporate ethics and corporate
governance norms in RIL which, claim the two brothers, is world-class
and professionally managed.

"Reliance...endeavours to follow the principles of...full
disclosure...and communications."
Dhirubhai Ambani, June 2001
Who's the loser in this saga of seemingly unethical conduct,
non-transparent dealings and total absence of trust and faith?
Unfortunately, you and me. In the last two decades, the RIL stock has
outperformed the Sensex; while the BSE index has shown a growth of
over 16 per cent on an annualised basis, the RIL stock has scored over
27 per cent. However, in the last year or so, the scrip has
underperformed vis-a-vis the Sensex; in the last month or so,
investors have seen RIL's market cap being trimmed by around a massive
Rs 7,000 crore. "What sticks out in this feud is the lack of
transparency...but the fundamentals of Reliance group companies are
still strong," says Gaurav Dua, senior analyst, Anagram Stockbroking.
Adds a Mumbai-based fund manager who's waiting for higher valuations
to sell his RIL stock, "To hear that the Ambanis took away
shareholders' money for personal gains was very negative for their
credibility."

Today, shareholders don't even know who owns RIL. In his lifetime, we
knew it was the father who controlled the stake held by the matrix of
hundreds of investment companies on behalf of the Ambani family. Now
Mukesh claims it's him. Anil does so too, but he's contesting it on
legal and moral grounds. And no one knows the matrix except a few
select Reliance men who changed it over the past six years (see
'Really Fine Print' in Outlook, December 20). Over the last few weeks,
Anil has asked Mukesh to disclose details, but there have been none.
All that Mukesh claims is that ownership and control of investment
firms, which hold over 34 per cent in RIL, were always with the
flagship's chairman—earlier it was with Dhirubhai and now with him.

Those squarely pitched in the Mukesh camp also contend that the
holding pattern is an investment web for most Indian business groups.
"We have conducted a study which concluded that, except in one or two
cases, control and ownership is held in a similar manner as RIL.
There's a criss-cross of firms and complicated holding patterns
through subsidiaries and investment companies that can blur the real
holding power of the promoters," says Kirit Somaiya, former BJP MP and
president, Consumer Grievances Forum.

In RIL's case, there are irreconcilable differences. Both the brothers
are questioning the other's right to ownership and, hence, it becomes
the shareholder's right to know details. Dhirubhai didn't leave a
will—there's only a deed of separation that dissolves the HUF (Hindu
Undivided Family) and says the members are legally dividing the HUF's
assets which may not include the stakes held by hidden investment
firms. So can anyone claim control over the Reliance empire, except
through legal means or arbitration?

Reliance will...endeavour to unlock value from its investments...for
the benefit of its shareholders."
Dhirubhai Ambani, June 2001
That's exactly what's not happening in RIL's case.Each brother seems
to feel that money generated by the cash cow should be used for
projects dear to him (see graphic on page 43). So, Anil demands that
RIL commit Rs 3,500 crore for projects mooted by Reliance Energy,
which he runs. This also includes the Rs 10,000-crore power project in
Uttar Pradesh; he also expects RIL to provide gas for the proposed
plant and that too in 2006, not 2008. When there was talk that the
younger brother can also run Reliance Capital, he asked RIL to provide
at least a few thousand crore of rupees to turn the company into a
financial giant. (At present, Reliance Capital's annual revenues are a
mere Rs 549 crore.) It's not important whether the UP power plan is
viable or not, and whether Reliance should expand his operations in
financial services.

Mukesh insists he wants to use RIL's coffers for Reliance Infocomm,
his and his father's dream project.Already the group has pumped in
somewhere in the region of Rs 18,000 crore in the telecom company.This
includes handsets (worth Rs 4,000-5,000 crore; each costing Rs 6,000)
purchased by RIL on behalf of Reliance Infocomm and guarantees given
to the latter's vendors and suppliers. What irks us as shareholders is
that money is being routed from publicly listed firms, owned majorly
by RIL, to little-known and private ones for investment. Until
recently, not too many knew about Smart Infosolutions and Smart
Entrepreneur Solutions which together have purchased nearly 13.5
million shares in ONGC's IPO. The two are subsidiaries of Reliance
Communications & Infrastructure Ltd (RCIL), which controls Reliance
Infocomm and has RIL as a 45 per cent promoter. (Just to mention here,
Smart Entrepreneur Solutions' office at 806/807, Embassy Centre in
Mumbai's Nariman Point, is the same as that of Jai Corp Ltd, owned by
family members of Anand Jain, Mukesh's closest friend and a director
in Reliance Infocomm.)

It gets more bizarre. RIL has invested Rs 8,100 crore through
preference shares in Reliance Infocomm. The shares (face value of Re
1) were allotted at a premium of Rs 49. But Mukesh was given "sweat
equity" of 12 per cent in Reliance Infocomm at face value! Well, he's
an entrepreneur who deserves it. Only, does not the same apply to RIL,
which has promoted RCIL that controls Reliance Infocomm?

Today, group investors are caught in a quandary as no one knows
what'll happen to future plans. Anagram's Gaurav is convinced that
he'll take "a cautious view on future investment plans in Reliance
Energy. It's possible that they may be put on hold for some time since
the supply of fuel from RIL to the proposed power plant in UP may be
stalled. This may lead to some sort of postponement or revision." And
what if the family feud forces RIL to go slow on money being diverted
to Reliance Infocomm? If the telecom venture fails, it may bring down
the entire Reliance empire.

Everything can be considered fair if the shareholders benefit. After
all, all business houses use their cash cows to finance future
expansion and greenfield ventures (see table below). Reliance has,
however, not disclosed any details to its investor family. We don't
know about the financials of Reliance Infocomm, which are simply
clubbed with RIL. Only after the fight broke out did we get to know
the extent of its losses and the actual commitments made by RIL.

"I took care of them (the Reliance family of shareholders).... You
have the responsibility to protect and promote their interests."
Mukesh Ambani, quoting Dhirubhai, October 2002

Apart from his two sons, Dhirubhai also expected the six independent
directors on RIL's board to do the same. Anil's camp says that the RIL
board didn't know anything about actual exposure in Reliance
Infocomm.Mukesh's side feels Anil went ahead and announced his
projects—be it the power project in UP or his decision to bid for
airport privatisation deals—on his own without referring the matter to
the board. When Outlook asked two independent directors, they refused
to comment. "I can't tell you anything that transpired in board
meetings; I'll say that for every company on whose board I am, and not
just for Reliance Industries," says 75-year-old D.V. Kapur, former
secretary (chemicals and petrochemicals), who's been RIL director for
four years. In the same vein, 65-year-old Mahesh P. Modi, former
bureaucrat and RIL director for three years, says, "The fight has
caused great anguish for all of us and you can understand that I don't
want to comment on anything."

But without saying whether the board was aware of some of the issues
mentioned above, Kapur is categorical that "all decisions by the board
were through complete consensus.Not one director complained or
disagreed." Which implies that if the board didn't know about certain
things, then whatever problems Mukesh or Anil had with each other's
plans were discussed through personal e-mails and letters.That does
seem to be the case if one looks at scores of mails written by the
brothers even while they haven't been on talking terms for months.

It really didn't matter. Because, as Kapur himself admits, no one
questioned anything anyway at board meetings. As one of Anil's aides
told Outlook last month, "It's only a board consisting of rubber-stamp
directors. They just nod their heads in approval for everything." If
this camp has to be believed, many of the independent directors are
there because they happened to be on the right side of Reliance during
their bureaucratic tenures. For instance, Kapur was the government
secretary that gave the licence for RIL's Hazira plant. "So, you are
saying that they rewarded me 15 years after I retired from government
post in 1986? I never met Dhirubhai during my stint in various
ministries; in fact, I met him two years after I retired and became an
RIL director only in 2001," retorts Kapur.

What were the domestic financial institutions and foreign
institutional investors (FIIs) doing about the happenings in RIL? As
per current information, the former hold 8.77 per cent stake in RIL,
and the latter own 22.85 per cent. Well, one of the domestic
institution heads was apparently playing the mediator role to make the
brothers come to an agreement. And the FIIs were merely praying that
the fight stops soon. Remember one thing, the FIIs knew everything.
They have been obliquely talking about Reliance Infocomm's future in
several of their analysts' reports. Only, they didn't do anything
about it. "We're not active investors, we're typically passive and
don't interfere unless things go bad and in extreme cases of frauds.
We're not managers, we're investors. And if we feel the business of a
company is slipping, we'll exit the stock and find other places to
park our funds," feels the chief investment officer of a leading
Mumbai-based FII.

Only now that the Ambani battle has dragged on for weeks that CLSA
Asia-Pacific Markets, a subsidiary of a leading European bank, has
come out with a damning report on Reliance. Of the key issues the
report talks about, one relates to the dispute relating to "who's the
owner and therefore who controls 29 per cent of the shareholding
reportedly held through a web of investment companies." Another one is
about "corporate governance issues relating to how independent the
board is and whether the interests of the minority shareholders have
been compromised." It continues with stating that "Reliance's
corporate governance rankings have always been on the lower quartile,
and lack of transparency and doubts about board independence have
always been known.However, wide publicity of these issues is something
new."

We have only a few questions to ask CLSA, other FIIs, domestic
institutions and board members. Wasn't it your job to publicise these
issues earlier in a similarly strong manner? Wasn't it your job to
warn retail investors and small shareholders about these doubts?
Wasn't it your job to ensure that investors don't lose their money on
the bourses? Wasn't it...? Well, actually forget it. We don't expect
you to do these things—now or ever again in the case of other groups.
Nice to have known you.

Alam Srinivas, Charubala Annuncio & Saumya Roy with reports from
Suveen Sinha and Gauri Bhatia

A Herculean task made easy

A Herculean task made easy

Arindam Bhattacharyya who secured the tenth rank in the Civil Services examination this year chose to stay in Thiruvananthapuram while preparing for it. He explains his strategy to succeed in the mains.

At the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie.

One of my favourite aphorisms regarding the Civil Services examination is this: five lakh students write the preliminaries, 5,000 make it to the mains, 500 to the interview, and 50 to the desired services. This may be numerically inaccurate even as the years go by; but to the uninitiated, it serves to highlight effectively the force of elimination by numbers. To come in as one of the 5,000 candidates is an achievement in some measure. But it is only a small measure. The successful candidate has, in effect, just jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

Time management

How best to utilise the time between the preliminaries and the declaration of results gives rise to perennial doubts. This is obviously the time to build up on just one area, the General Studies paper, especially the second paper on international relations, statistics and so on, which is deceptively simple.

The first paper comprises History, Geography, Polity, and miscellaneous topics. The advantage is that the study material for this paper is readily available. And, the material is exhaustible. It should be possible for a student to complete mugging up, for cramming is all that is needed here, within two weeks. Now here lies the rub; the human brain being what it is, there is no point in mugging up these portions just after your preliminaries, you will find that you have to do it all over again just before the mains. The cost-effective solution is to leave these portions till the very end. Why?

Because, one, you will not waste time, and two, by the time you are through with your other portions, large chunks of material in the first paper would be covered or acquired effortlessly.

After the preliminaries

So then what should one do after the preliminaries? A good way to prepare for the mains is to build up the skills you need to tackle a subjective mode examination.

Irrespective of whether the paper is General Studies, or one of the optional papers or the essay paper, you are actually doing three things in common in all these - analysing a problem, presenting its determinants in a structured way, and offering a solution or a set of suggestions. Do go through the questions in the recent past, and you will find that the ideal answer to most questions needs these three things.

Now, take this for a gospel truth: one cannot develop these things either at a coaching institute or by mugging up prepared notes in a span of two three months. This could only be done by exercising your mind, either alone, or in good company.

Lateral thinking

Do a lot of free-wheeling lateral thinking in a constructive manner on relevant topics. Take down interesting ideas and concepts that you come across. This sort of thing could occur only in a pressure vacuum, and it is not possible after the results of the preliminaries are declared.

Become the member of a library like the British Council, and read voraciously from the vast resources it could provide.

Setting a target

After you qualify to write the mains, the immediate challenge is to shore up the new second optional and tone up the first one. Shoring up means targeting a mark of around 340 out of 600; by toning up, you aim at a mark of around 380. Spend about three weeks for the second optional. All you need is around 340 marks in this optional, and most of the traditional second optional papers are so easily referenced that three weeks is sufficient enough to start, get initiated and complete the portions. One needs more time for the primary optional because it would require a lot of effort to go from a score of 340 to 380-plus.

Optional papers

A lot of students pay so much attention to the General Studies syllabus that they give up vital time for the optional papers. If you look at the people who have cleared the examinations in the past years, you will find that most of them score around 350 to 370 marks in the General Studies paper.

Now that sort of scoring does not come in the last two months of intense mugging. It is a reflection of the skills of analysing, structuring and offering solutions that was outlined before.

Data crunching

The next hurdle is data crunching. Data includes all the notes that one has prepared, all the statistics, facts and so on. Data of all sorts, and not always coherent or interesting. The solution to this is again in three points: streamlining, structuring and procedure-oriented study.

By streamlining you could cut out needless, difficult to remember data. So, if there is one bit of data that you cannot reproduce, put in something else that is relevant and that you know, and can connect logically. It is as good as the original. Streamlining prevents your memory from over heating during the preparation, and makes the process more efficient. And organise whatever data one chooses to commit to memory. Make structured pigeonholes where one could slot what you have studied, so that retrieval is quick and effortless, and there is no attrition. Finally, do not ponder too much about finishing the process of memorising. Start the process, and focus on a daily quota of study or memorising (yes, one must have a daily rationing system) that has to be done.

Essay writing

A few points on essay writing. In addition to the 200-mark essay paper, you would have to write several mini-essays while tackling the mains. The reason why the powers that be have included an essay paper is to test the candidate's ability in making an intelligent structured presentation of one's own ideas. And that is what a candidate has to provide.

The word `essay' is etymologically related to the French verb for `to try'. While writing an essay, you are trying to put across ideas, and that too your own ideas. One does not have to be pathologically accurate in all the finer points. Read Francis Bacon's essays, easily available at any British Council Library and the point discussed above would become clear. Which will mean a jump from a pedestrian score of around 100 to at least 140.

Preparing for the mains and getting through it is not merely a physical task of note-making and answer-writing. It is a process of developing certain mental faculties, and all serious students should pursue it from such an angle.

Arindam Bhattacharyya

Civil Services examination

Civil Services examination

Selection of subjects

The second part of the series on the Civil Services examination deals with various aspects of preparation, including selection of optional subjects and approaches to studying these.

Students writing the Preliminary examination.

Two crucial factors in the preparation for the Civil Services examination are time allotted for studying and selection of optional subjects.

Time management

When should you start your preparation? A simple answer is difficult. One should ideally start working on general knowledge and English language skills right from high school. Basic general knowledge about countries, capitals, currencies, language, inventions, books and authors, largest, tallest and so on could be learnt gradually over a period of several years.

Current affairs can usually be mastered a few months before the examination. However, there are several successful candidates who have spent just 15 to 18 months on intensive studies for the examination. It is not the duration alone that counts, but the way the time available is utilised. If you start focussing on the Civil Services when you are an undergraduate, preparing for the examination would be relatively easy.

Choosing an optional

You have to choose an optional subject for the Preliminary and two optional subjects for the Main examination. It is convenient to take up the optional subject for the Preliminary as one of the optional subjects for the Main. Although the examination comprises the Preliminary, the Main and the Interview, let us consider the Preliminary and the Main as one single unit for the purpose of preparation. There is an interval between the Preliminary and the Main examinations, when the results of the former are announced. This period should be utilised to learn one optional subject.

While choosing the optional subjects one must take into account factors such as the subject of our specialisation in college, aptitude, the quantum of the subject content and availability of reference material. Students of science or technology often choose subjects such as Public Administration, Sociology, Indian History, Geography and Political Science and International Relations. However, it is not advisable for students of humanities to opt for science or technology. Similarly, it may not be profitable for science students to choose a humanities subject.

General Studies

As General Studies covers a vast area of topics, you may have to focus on certain subjects from the point of view of the examination. Questions of the previous examinations can easily guide you in this regard.

The General Studies paper in the Preliminary examination covers current national and international events, general science, history of India and the struggle for freedom, geography, Indian polity and economy. It also includes questions that test general mental ability. Questions on the Indian national movement, economic geography of India, planning, budgeting, developmental schemes, electoral reforms, amendments to the Constitution, Panchayati Raj, national-level committees and commissions are common. Updating the information available is important for this paper. One should practise doing such tests to get an idea of the questions asked. The fact that the General Studies paper has only half the marks of the optional subject paper should not lead you to neglect the paper. Each mark counts.

The General Studies paper in the Main covers history of modern India and Indian culture, geography of India, Indian polity, current national issues and topics of social relevance, India and the world, Indian economy, international affairs and institutions, developments in the field of science and technology, communications and space, statistical analysis, graphs and diagrams.

Many candidates make the mistake of acquiring all kinds of textbooks and journals, without considering the time constraint.

Concentrate on one or two standard books. Textbooks published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for Classes X, XI and XII have been found to be useful to get a grasp of basic facts and figures. Previous question papers should be analysed carefully so as to plan your approach.

Learning from the newspaper

While preparing for the Civil Services examination, it is mandatory to read at least one English daily. Concentrate on the names of prominent people and places in the news, important numbers and dates. Read carefully and take down notes. The raw material of news should be processed and inferences and conclusions drawn. Analysing news, editorials, lead page articles written by experts, articles in competition magazines, critical studies in news magazines, and live discussions on the electronic media are of immense help.

B.S. Warrier

Clearing the final post

Clearing the final post

The riding ground of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Musorie.

Mastering the techniques of answering objective questions is vital for scoring high marks in the Preliminary examination. But, while answering descriptive questions in the Main examination and in the interview, our analytical skills, sound judgment and ability for objective evaluation come into play.

Engaging ourselves in serious discussions with knowledgeable friends will help develop our skills in presentation.

Writing skills

Although the minimum qualification for entry is graduation, the standard of questions would be of a higher level. It is not prudent to confine oneself to the periphery of the bachelor's degree syllabus. Past question papers will help us fathom the depth of the syllabi. Whatever needs to be studied should be done thoroughly, since cursory answers will not help us. The best success plan involves the rehearsal of writing a few answers in the examination matrix.

Writing an essay for three hours in a competitive environment is no light matter. Even though a number of topics are there to choose from, once we select one, we have to marshal the facts and present them logically, with comments and conclusions.

Writing a few essays simulating the examination atmosphere will make us confident in facing the real test. Do remember that the Civil Services Examination is different from a university examination.

Candidates are not allowed to use calculators for answering objective type questions. They are, however, permitted to use scientific non-programmable type of calculators in the conventional descriptive examination.

Preparation for the examination should be in tune with this restriction. Those who are familiar with multiplication tables will have an edge over others who depend on calculators even for simple numerical calculations.

Officer trainees in traditional dress at the academy

There is no harm in seeking help from a coaching centre or reading competition magazines. We do not have time to garner all the original material required to meet the demands of the examination.

The air of procrastination and intellectual inertia that is common in the preparation for the university examinations has no place in the CSE drill. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) specifies that marks will not be allotted for mere superficial knowledge.

Credit will be given for orderly, effective and exact expression combined with due economy of words. It implies that even subject papers should be answered in good language. Marks will be deducted for illegible handwriting.

Keep anxieties and emotions away during the preparation and the actual examination. This will certainly help us think fast and perform effectively. The fittest do survive.

Personality test

Many candidates ignore the need to prepare for the personality test. There are strategies to optimise our performance. Even the brightest candidate may commit errors while he is attending an interview. We should learn what is expected of a candidate in the CSE interview and prepare accordingly. The object of the interview is to assess the personal suitability of the candidate for a career in public service.

The test is intended to judge the mental calibre. This is an assessment of not only his/her intellectual qualities but also social traits and his/her interest in current affairs.

Some of the qualities that are judged include mental alertness, critical powers of assimilation, clear and logical exposition, balance of judgment, variety and depth of interest, ability for social cohesion and leadership, intellectual and moral integrity.

The nature of the interview is not that of a strict cross-examination but of a natural, though directed and purposive conversation, which is intended to reveal the mental qualities of the candidate.

The interview is not intended to be a test either of the specialised or general knowledge of the candidates which has been already tested through their written papers.

We should not limit ourselves to our special subjects of academic study. We should keenly follow events which are happening around us, both within and outside our own State or country.

Keeping ourselves abreast of the modern currents of thought and new discoveries adds to our armoury.

Attending a few mock interviews held by experts will develop the required skills and techniques, and eliminate mannerisms. Steps for enhancing our overall personality and maintaining our mental alertness at its peak are vital.

It is important to maintain a positive mental attitude. Success comes not by chance, but as a result of total dedication. Emotional stability is important. Further, we should have an ounce of common sense along with tonnes of intelligence. The spirit has to be "I will win".

The Services

The various Services and their functions are indicated below:

Indian Foreign Service: Functioning as officials in the Ministry of External Affairs or Indian Missions abroad, discharging duties relating to diplomacy, trade and cultural relations.

Indian Administrative Service: Framing and implementing policy matters of the Government, in tune with the directives of the political leadership and district administration. Often, IAS officers function as chairperson or managing director of public sector units.

Indian Police Service: Maintenance of law and order. This covers areas such as crime prevention/investigation, public safety and security, and traffic control and also organisations such as the Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation, Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force and the Central Industrial Security Force.

Indian Audit and Accounts Service: The Comptroller and Auditor General, a constitutional authority, is in charge of maintenance and audit of accounts in Central and the State Governments. Military establishments and public sector undertakings come under CAG's purview. There are various units in different parts of the country.

Indian Customs and Central Excise Service: Levying of customs duty on taxable goods brought into the country; and excise duty on goods manufactured within the country.

Indian Information Service: Handling the press and public relations on behalf of the Government. Organising press conferences, fairs and festivals of the Government. Media work in All India Radio, Doordarshan, Field Publicity, Press Information Bureau, Films Division, etc.

B. S. Warrier

The first step to Civil Services

Here is a piece of advice from the tenth rank holder in the latest batch of successful Civil Services candidates on how to go about selecting the subjects for the preliminary and main examinations. "Do not play around with subjects that have been called scoring, or easy to get through."

IAS probationers with the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee.

The steel frame of the Raj still remains one of the much-sought after career options in our country. You may attribute this to a colonial hangover or the licence raj mindset. But the fact remains that becoming an IAS or IPS officer or an IFS diplomat has few equals even today, in terms of job satisfaction, career profile or position in society.

The UPSC examination

The gateway to these and a host of other Civil Services careers is the Civil Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission of India (UPSC), undoubtedly one of the toughest examinations in the world.

The key to cracking this examination lies in two areas -- one, understanding the raison d'etre of the examination and two, leveraging your strengths.

Any discerning candidate for this examination would do well to pay attention to these two points.

Examination-based selections of bureaucrats or State officers had been first started for the Chinese mandarins. But it was the East India Company that defined the reason for this format of the examination.

Lord Macaulay, in charge of initiating this process, reasoned that any person who had

proved his merit in a few selected subjects would have enough acumen to be trained in the processes of administration and the ability to handle all the diverse and difficult situations that would arise in the course of administering his district.

It is precisely this rationale that reflects in the UPSC's current format of the examination and should be at the back of the candidates' mind when they set about selecting their optional subjects.

The UPSC has included, in spite of all the hue and cry, a very comprehensive list of subjects, including obscure ones and professional subjects, to be chosen as optional papers, that covers almost all the graduation subjects available in India.

Thus it is expected that students of all streams of graduation can become civil servants provided they prove their calibre in their graduation subjects.

Therein lies a caveat. The current format of the examination is such that it requires the student to clear a preliminary stage with one optional and the main examination with two optionals.

Choosing the subject

Many students cannot easily read up by themselves a second new subject for the mains. For a rare few, their graduation subjects are not included in the list.

Added to this are numerous myths and wrong beliefs based on perceived statistical trends, of "scoring optionals".

What can be said at best of these scoring optionals is that they are merely subjects for which coaching materials are easily available.

Keeping these in mind, discerning students would do well to choose their graduation subject for the preliminaries, and any of the listed optionals that they are comfortable with as a second optional for the mains.

Do not play around with subjects that have been termed scoring, or easy to get through. They are not, and the UPSC is certainly not biased towards any one subject.

The format

Choose subjects in which you are strong. And this is where my second point about leveraging your strengths becomes important. But before I elaborate on that, I would like to outline the format of the first part of the examination.

Stage one is the preliminaries, no doubt the biggest hurdle of the lot, held on the third Sunday of May every year, notification for which comes out in the preceding December. The preliminaries are in the multiple-choice format and consist of two papers.

The forenoon session is set apart for the selected optionals, which will be different for different candidates, with fewer questions and more weightage in marks.

The afternoon session is a common paper on General Studies, with a few more questions, but lesser weightage in marks.

This is where leveraging your strengths comes to play. From the time you fill your forms in December till the examination in May, you should apportion your study time in proportion to the marks weightage, with time set apart for General Studies not exceeding 3 or 4 weeks.

Remember, your strength is or should be your optional, usually your subject of graduation. Scoring very well in your optional paper is a must because it can offset any under-performance in your General Studies paper, and also because it will pay off in your mains.

For those students who doubt their ability in General Studies, it must be said that though the preparation for the preliminaries need start only by January, the preparation for becoming a civil servant starts much before that. Acquiring proficiency in areas of General Studies should become your hobby at least one year prior to your examination year.

The "hobby" mode of preparing will make General Studies your strength, and not merely another subject. You will find the results rewarding. This is another instance of leveraging your strengths. Realising the rationale of the examination and building on your strengths, clearing the preliminaries thus becomes an achievable dream.

Let not the name preliminaries mislead anyone, for it is probably the toughest stage in the Civil Services examination. Barely 5,000-odd candidates, from among the lakhs who write the preliminaries, are invited to appear for the mains. Maximum elimination occurs here. So, beware, plan and prepare well.

ARINDAM BHATTACHARYYA

The first step to Civil Services

Edge Of Reason

Hindustan Times

COLUMN

Edge Of Reason

Not just Hindu raj, Ambedkar opposed every argument for Partition as well

ANAND TELTUMBDE on B.R. Ambedkar

Amid the heat generated by the Muslim League's Lahore resolution on Pakistan and the extreme reactions across the subcontinent, the sole dispassionate voice was that of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. Pakistan or Partition of India (1940), his full-length book, became a reference treatise for all those engaged with the issue, including the main dramatis persona, M.A. Jinnah. For others, however, it remained unduly controversial. The book was such that any casual or motivated reader could easily pick up stray pieces to support his own hypothesis. Hence, many distortions are in vogue but the commonplace impression is that Ambedkar supported Partition.
For Ambedkar, Muslims were not the worst victims of the Hindu society. They had a better deal compared to the untouchables.	On the contrary, he demolished all arguments for the creation of Pakistan. Admitting the communal antagonism between Hindus and Muslims, he demonstrated that it could not be a valid reason for a partition of the country. With examples of Canada, South Africa and Switzerland,

where antagonistic communities lived amicably under a single Constitution, he dismissed the inevitability of Pakistan merely on the grounds of a communal divide.

The two-nation theory as the basis for Pakistan was also refuted by Ambedkar. While noting that Muslims were advancing from the state of community to that of a nation, he contended that it did not necessarily constitute the basis for Pakistan. Even if the Muslims were assumed to be a nation, it did not warrant a Pakistan since India had not yet lost its 'organic filaments'.

While admitting that India too was not a nation, he disagreed with those including Jinnah who thought that India could not become one. Those who argued for Partition, he wrote, were guided by colonialist writers who emphasised differences between people and ignored the forces that bound them together.

Ambedkar also thought the Muslim apprehension that Swaraj would become a Hindu raj untenable because the Muslims had already reconciled to living in the more rabid Hindu raj sustained by Hindu princes against whom the Muslim League had never raised any objection. He did not see much substance in the political objection of the Muslims that Hindu society was undemocratic simply because they were not its worst victims. The Muslims, he observed, enjoyed a much better deal compared to people from the untouchable castes.

While he was skeptical about the innate imperialist characteristics of Hinduism creating accommodative conditions for the peaceful coexistence of minorities, he did not spare the Muslims for their own minority communalism. For him, the abolition of parties like the Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha and formation of a mixed party of Hindus and Muslims was the only effective way of burying the ghost of Hindu raj. He did not perceive much difficulty in the formation of such a party based on the material conditions of the majority. In fact, such political unity was achieved between 1920 and 1937 when in most provinces the Muslims, non-Brahmins and depressed classes worked as a team under the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms.

Having dispelled the validity of the Muslims' misgiving that they would be persecuted under Hindu raj, Ambedkar did not rule out the possibility of the emergence of the latter when he prophetically declared: "If Hindu raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt be the greatest calamity for this country. No matter what the Hindus say, Hinduism is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity. It is incompatible with democracy. Hindu raj must be prevented at any cost."

Ambedkar struck at the root of the Muslim argument that the creation of Pakistan would solve the communal problem. He termed the Muslim League's Pakistan scheme a political perversion because instead of solving the problem of minority Muslims, it made them more vulnerable and favoured the majority Muslims who did not need or deserve it. Pakistan was unnecessary for Muslims in areas where they were a majority and worse than useless for Muslims where they were a minority.

On December 15, 1946, in his maiden speech in the Constituent Assembly, he hoped that some day the light would dawn upon Muslims and "they, too, would begin to think that a united India was better for everybody." Secularism and democracy were the sole basis of coexistence. In the crowd of small and big villains of the Partition drama, Ambedkar stands out as the only hero, a true statesman.

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(Mumbai-based Anand Teltumbde is the author of Ambedkar on Muslims.)

Shipping cos see higher Q1 net despite soft spot freight rates

Date:11/08/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/08/11/stories/2005081102030300.htm

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Shipping cos see higher Q1 net despite soft spot freight rates

Amit Mitra

Mumbai , Aug. 10

DESPITE the softening of global shipping spot freight rates across all asset classes, Indian shipping companies notched up significant increases in their incomes and net profits for the first quarter of the current fiscal as compared to the year-ago period.

The companies have attributed different factors to the jump in their net profits, including a sharper focus on period charters, which earned better rates than the spot market.

The other factors were higher revenue days, sale of vessels and improved day rates achieved on spot fixtures.

Except for Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), most of the major shipping companies have reported an increase in their income and net profit.

SCI's net profit came down from Rs 318.50 crore in the first quarter of last fiscal to Rs 274.07 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005.

Its income also flagged from Rs 894.81 crore to Rs 815.92 crore during this period.

Analysts have attributed the fall in SCI's profit to a drop in its tonnage, as the company, bound by Government restrictions, had not been able to buy ships, while it had to scrap some of its vessels.

Also, unlike other companies, SCI could not sell any of its vessels.

The private sector shipping companies, on the other hand, raked in significant increases in profits.

Great Eastern Shipping reported an increase in net profit of 245 per cent (from Rs 102.43 crore to Rs 353.42 crore).

Mercator's jump was 102 per cent (from Rs 20.66 crore to Rs 41.92 crore). Varun Shipping posted a 268 per cent (from Rs 7.29 crore to Rs 26.81 crore) and Essar Shipping recorded a 263 per cent increase (from 30.37 crore to Rs 110.37 crore).

These increases would look significant, if the fall in global spot freight rates are taken into account — normally, a shipping company's earnings are directly linked to freight rates. Analysts say that tight oil markets during the quarter had resulted in the spiralling of oil prices.

At the same time, tanker demand growth was unable to keep pace with the 1.9 per cent growth in the tanker fleet, resulting in a sharp fall in spot freight rates.

The worst hit was the very large crude carrier (VLCC) segment.

While the average VLCC spot rate for the first quarter of last fiscal was $53,290 per day , it tumbled to an average of $26,519 last quarter.

Similarly, the rates in the Suezmax segment fell from $39,069 per day to $29,670.

The Baltic Clean Tanker Index, which was 1,276 on April 1 2005, settled at 1,122 on June 30, 2005.

The dry bulk rates also softened during the quarter, primarily due to an increased fleet growth and reduced port delays.

Most of the shipping companies could partly offset the fall in spot freight rates by increasing their focus on period charters, which are booked in advance and hence fetch better rates than those prevailing in the spot market.

In this, G.E. Shipping benefited the most, with its operating margin at 82 per cent being the highest as compared to other shipping companies during the quarter.

The operating margin of Mercator was 51 per cent, while that of SCI was 43 per cent. Varun Shipping posted an operating margin of 55 per cent and Essar Shipping, 58 per cent.

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