Tagore and Humanity

The Eclipsed Sun

Second Edition

Rajat Das Gupta

From the publisher:

“Mr. Rajat Das Gupta as a great devotee of Tagore, through The Eclipsed Sun , has rendered a yeoman service to non-Bengalis like me by exposing us to the works of Tagore through his apt and appealing translations. It is my earnest desire and hope that TES receives vast and large readership so that more and more aficionados emerge to keep Tagore evergreen in the readers consciousness.
….

Mr. Rajat Das Gupta as a great devotee of Tagore, through The Eclipsed Sun, has rendered a yeoman service to non-Bengalis like me by exposing us to the works of Tagore through his apt and appealing translations. It is my earnest desire and hope that TES receives vast and large readership so that more and more aficionados emerge to keep Tagore evergreen in the readers consciousness.”

http://www.cyberwit.net/publications/620

 http://www.amazon.com/Eclipsed-Sun-Rajat-Das-Gupta/dp/819281873X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387522980&sr=1-1&keywords=9788192818733

“The First Freedoms and America’s Culture of Innovation explores how the triangulation of the First Freedoms, open and competitive marketplace, and global brain-and-muscle-inflow into the Unites States generates spaces for Americans to become constant tinkerers, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Innovation at the highest level is a form of creative transgression that generates entrepreneurial possibilities and opens up opportunities that make up the aspirational society.  If history has a pattern of decline and fall, the First Amendment is the monkey wrench that breaks the pattern.” 

(Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013)   

Prison slaves - Slavery: A 21st Century Evil - Al Jazeera English

China Slave Labor


Prison slaves - Slavery: A 21st Century Evil - Al Jazeera English

Hear the White Tiger growl

Hear the White Tiger growl

Narain D Batra | May 6, 2012, 06.10AM IST 

From the Sunday Times of India

News media often report as to how in the midst of a growing economy, hundreds of thousands of children in India remain malnourished. Images of emaciated children in slums are heart wrenching, more so when juxtaposed to high-tower gated communities in Gurgaon and other cities.

When you see a child standing on a garbage dump looking for something retrievable, competing with dogs, cranes and vultures, you wonder where the storied economic growth has been going. With food and oil prices going up, the government sounds ingenuous when it trumpets gross domestic product without making sure that the benefits of economic growth are distributed equitably.

Even if one accepts the Planning Commission's recently released poverty metrics that 29.8% of India's 1.21 billion people live below the poverty line, it still means about 360 million people presently live in poverty, a shockingly high number that includes-let's not forget- millions of children of rural farm workers, city casual workers, adivasis, dalits and Muslims. Neither welfare programs, nor a quotas system will be totally effective for poverty reduction on a sustainable basis even when 8-9 % economic growth is regained. How many five-year plans will it take to lift these invisible people above the officially declared poverty survival level? The government alone cannot fight poverty-partly because it is incompetent; but more so because it lacks sympathetic imagination.

Corporate India has been growing at a phenomenal rate since the liberalization of economy and must contribute its might toward poverty reduction . With economic power comes wider social responsibility and corporate India cannot keep itself aloof from the travails of the common people.

Corporate giants cannot afford to be content feeding only their shareholders' bellies, especially when most global corporations in the US and Europe have accepted that their social responsibility goes beyond profitmaking. Today hardly anyone pays heed to what Chicago economist Milton Friedman erroneously argued in 1970: "The social responsibility of business is to its profits." Democratic marketplace capitalism is the last best hope of India but it cannot survive on greed.

A few years ago, H Lee Scott Jr, former chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores, said, "People's expectations of us-and of corporations in general changed.... It is clear that today people look at Wal-Mart as a solution. And we want to be seen that way. We want to act that way." With more than $421 billion revenue in 2011 and two million employees worldwide, Wal-Mart has earned notoriety for buying cheap wherever it can; nonetheless, it boasts of always selling at low prices. A few years ago, the retailer was perceived as one of the worst global exploiters . But today with its avowed mission of protecting the environment and an affordable $4 prescription drug plan, its image has improved along with its profits.

That's how corporate India should be adjudged-albeit making global mergers-and-acquisitions of mega steel mills or bringing Jaguar/Land Rover to India and thus fulfilling the fantasy of the elite about India becoming a superpower is not a bad idea at all. Corporate India will flourish more by sharing the burden of poverty. Sustainable growth, affordable healthcare and poverty reduction are the chief concerns of India, which corporate leadership too must accept. There is fortune to be made at the base of the pyramid, the late management guru CK Prahalad used to say. I see million-fold brainpower awaiting development.

Corporate social responsibility is a form of business-to-people savoir-faire , social adeptness to win the hearts and minds of the people. Some corporations use their social responsibility activities as a means of building social capital, which comes handy when they are hit with crises.

According to an Oxford Said School of Business report, corporate social responsibility"penetration in India is relatively high with over 80 percent corporations administering some kind of corporate social responsibility program." But unfortunately these scattershot goodwill philanthropic efforts have no visible impact on the invisible people.

Corporate India must develop new business models that enable companies to join hands with local communities and civil society in creating opportunities for inclusive, sustainable growth- growth that generates jobs and enriches human capital.

Civil society can spawn transformative changes by focusing on the poverty-reduction activities of Indian companies. Constant information flows and the software to manage them have increased the ability of civil society to uncover corruption and inequities in decision-making by governments as well as corporations, and identify left-behind disadvantaged groups. Smart use of IT by civil society could impact corporate governance and the politics of economic inclusion.

As political and economic power devolves, India's everyman with his video cellphone will watch corporate India hungrily for social justice. Somewhere, there prowls Arvind Adiga's ferocious beast, The White Tiger. Does corporate India hear the growl? I do.

The writer teaches communication and corporate diplomacy at Norwich University, US

On slippery ground, but India needs both Israel & Iran

Times of India

Narain D Batra |

Feb 19, 2012, 04.54AM IST

Iran is India's biggest diplomatic challenge today. The Chabahar Port in Iran along with a very strategic railway link offers India direct access to Afghanistan and the energy-rich Central Asia. But the allegations made by Israel that a recent bomb attack on one of its diplomats in Delhi was perpetrated by Iran sympathizers, adds to the problems in a already- complicated relationship.

As a responsible Indian Ocean power, India must help resolve an international crisis, particularly in the Middle East where it has heavily invested, especially in human capital. Six million Indians living in the region send home more than $40 billion annually.

That said, India and Israel too have growing relations in several fields crucial for economic development, including defence technology, agriculture, R&D and tourism. India must be a safe place for Israelis to visit and do business.

Trade, investment, and diplomatic influence are highly correlated, and India needs to be innovative and aggressive. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Chicago late January, quickly followed by foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai's Washington trip, the India-European Union summit in Delhi to expedite broad-based trade and investment, and ongoing negotiations with Saudi Arabia and Iran on energy issues highlight the urgency of economic diplomacy to serve India's long-term national interests.

Addressing the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Mukherjee urged his audience of some top business leaders to "contribute to our collective prosperity," especially when India has embarked on colossal infrastructure building projects that will require one trillion dollar investment during the next five years.

Mukherjee touted India's "calibrated approach" to capital account convertibility; the success of external commercial borrowings policy in maintaining external debt at sustainable levels; the robustness of India's banking sector; diversified export markets; and the robustness of the financial sector due to optimal regulatory mechanism. Financially, India stands like a rock.

With the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and other similar projects in mind, Mukherjee explained the government's manufacturing policy to create 100 million jobs in the next decade by establishing special zones with world-class urban centres, to make Indian industry globally competitive. This will be done by instituting a supportive framework to facilitate business, including availability of skills, technology, finance, and "compliance based on self-regulation," with minimal government intervention. Mukherjee came as close as he could to promise that India will be as business-friendly as China.

While courting American investors, Mukherjee did not hesitate to assert India's position on two vital issues - Obama's outsourcing policy and Iran sanctions. Obama's plan to limit outsourcing through tax incentives is counterproductive and will hurt both India and America. Of course, the best way for Indian IT industry to combat the looming outsourcing "protectionism" threat is to offer products and services so compelling that corporate America cannot refuse.

On India-Iran trade relations, Mukherjee was unequivocally frank: "It is not possible for India to take any decision to reduce the imports from Iran drastically, because among the countries which can provide the requirement of the emerging economies, Iran is an important country." Buying Iran oil does not mean that India condones Iran's nuclear ambitions other than for peaceful purposes. Maintaining stability in the Middle East to enable an uninterrupted flow of energy is a global challenge.

Later, on his visit to Washington DC, foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai told his audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, that, "while Iran has rights to peaceful uses of nuclear energy, it must also fulfill its international obligations as a non-nuclear weapon state under the NPT." India's voting record on Iran in IAEA is unambiguous.

But Mathai also focused on Iran's geopolitical importance to India. Iran, apart from providing India with 12 % of its oil needs, worth $11 billion annually, also enables access to Central Asia including Afghanistan whose long-term stability and prosperity is vital to India; as it is to the US especially when it plans to withdraw its combat forces in 2014.

India's forthcoming trade negotiations with Iran should have twofold aims - first, to negotiate the oil deal at best prices entirely in rupee terms. Rupee oil trade agreement will boost Indian exports to Iran. Besides, it will open up opportunities for other countries to do trade in rupee, further stimulating Indian exports. Although Indian economy is based on domestic consumption, international trade generates tremendous diplomatic leverage and influence - see what China is doing with its massive trade surplus and foreign currency reserves.

Second, India should use the opportunity to persuade Iran to resume negotiations regarding its nuclear programme since it claims its programme to be peaceful. In fact, during the recently concluded India-EU free trade talks, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso pressed India to use its leverage with Iran to return to the negotiating table.

India needs to make a large and meaningful diplomatic gesture for international cooperation without compromising its economic interests.

The writer is professor of communications and diplomacy at Norwich University

Telepresence

“The 'Arab Spring' had its technological genesis in Silicon Valley-generated social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. But the same networking technology enables American jobs to be done by anybody anywhere. And so Arab authoritarian regimes see their bloody streets as nothing but an American conspiracy while many American politicians blame the continuous loss of American jobs on the rising tide of digital civilization…”

Read more …

Disconcerting Telepresence

Times of India

25 January 2012

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Disconcerting-telepresence/articleshow/11619069.cms

Offensive-Defensive National Security

COMMENT
The Devil Is In The Detail
May 28, 2011

TOI Crest Edition

Narain D Batra

America keeps a constant hawk-eye on potential terrorists. Less than two weeks after the Abbottabad commando operation, six people, including two imams of Florida mosques, were arrested for providing material and financial support to the Pakistani Taliban. For about two years, 2008 through 2010, according to the indictment, the accused provided money, financial services, and other kinds of support to the Tehrik-e Taliban of Pakistan.

It is the daily nitty-gritty intelligence work that has been keeping the United States safe since 9/11 rather than the shock-and-awe SEALs operation that killed and clawed Osama bin Laden out of his Abbottabad lair and sent him to his watery grave. This is not to diminish President Barack Obama's courageous decision;nor is it to take away from the valour of the Navy SEAL commandos trained for do-or-die missions and the hitherto unknown radarevading stealth helicopters that sneaked past Pakistani vigilance. But these are not foolproof measures.

Such daring missions do go bust. With one helicopter down, the Abbottabad mission got lucky. A similar audacious mission on April 24, 1980, authorised by President Jimmy Carter to rescue 52 American hostages held at the American Embassy in Tehran, ended in humiliating debacle. There have been other disasters too, for example, in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993, where the Navy SEALs' two Black Hawks were shot down, requiring a rescue operation.

Just as we admire the US Navy SEAL operators, it will be a mistake to underestimate the Pakistanis;they have created the indestructible Taliban, the progeny of a most ruthless secret service, the ISI, which through selfmultiplying lethal cells and self-sustaining charities dominates Pakistan and casts its deadly shadow beyond its borders. The former British prime minister, Gordon Brown, on a visit to Pakistan, called it "the chain of terror that links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of the UK and other countries around the world."

Ponder over the well-organised Pakistani sea-borne commando attacks in Mumbai in 2008. Not only did the Pakistanis do a tremendous job of training do-and-die commando-style terrorists but they also used some of the most modern means of communication including GPS, Google Earth, satellite cell phones, Skype, and Vonage. Somewhere in Pakistan, every movement of the terrorists must have been monitored in real time. President Obama and his team were doing the same in the White House situation room when the commando operation was in progress.

India should not think of fighting terrorism with USstyle commando attacks into Pakistan territory even if it is capable of doing so. And it should ask its military commanders to keep their cool and remain taciturn when provoked by the news media. Terrorism has to be fought with anticipation, intelligence, and persistence.

Every so often, the US Homeland Security authorities revisit and update their plans to meet new contingencies. In 2006, for example, authorities discovered a plot to blast and cripple the underground tunnel system that connects New Jersey with New York City. The discovery was not serendipitous. The security forces were on the lookout for terrorists in order to pre-empt any attack. Besides the Homeland Security, every state has contingency plans. Federal and state governments work meticulously, and closely, to fight terrorism.

In the United States as well as in Europe, there has been a paradigm shift in thinking about terrorism. The strategy is to eliminate terrorism at the neonatal stage by establishing an early awareness system, which is different from an early warning system. The guiding principle is: what can be anticipated can also be prevented. Preventing terrorism at the inspirational and "aspirational" stages is the goal. For example, the plot to bomb Sears Tower in Chicago was at a stage "more aspirational than operational, " according to the FBI, when the terrorists were nailed down in June 2007.

Following the preemptive policy of dealing with terrorists, former US Attorney (for the Northern District of Georgia) David E Nahmias said, "We no longer wait until a bomb is built and ready to explode. " That's what India should do.

Europeans have been following similar antiterrorism strategies. In December 2008, for example, the Belgian police arrested 14 people on mere suspicion of suspected terrorist links. Six of them were charged with being members of a Belgian branch of al-Qaida. What prompted the pre-emptive measure was a concern to secure the European Union leaders' two-day summit meeting, which might have become the terrorists' target. The federal prosecutor in Brussels, Johan Delmulle, was quoted as saying, "We don't know where the suicide attack was to take place. It could have been an operation in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but it can't be ruled out that Belgium or Europe could have been the target. " Instead of sending commandos into Afghanistan or Pakistan, they combed their own backyards and got them.

US security laws allow intelligence and law enforcement authorities to trawl through places of worship, activities of charities, communications of suspected militants, and even their shopping patterns. The strategy "provides a common framework" through which not only the federal, state and local governments work but also "the private and non-profit sectors, communities, and individual citizens" are actively included in Homeland Security's efforts.

Outstanding intelligence gathering, pre-emptive and preventive measures, and anticipatory disaster plans will go a long way in eliminating the scourge of terrorism in India. India needs to create a culture of preparedness and alacrity that pervades all levels of society instead of planning commando attacks against a country with which, in the long run, we have to develop working relations.

The writer is a professor of communications and diplomacy at Norwich University

National Anthem & Rabindranath Tagore

How many countries owe their National Anthem to Rabindranath Tagore?

The pat answer will come- Why! two; India and Bangladesh.; owing ‘Jana Gana Mono Adhinayaka…” (= O lord of the populace) & “Amar Sonar Bangla” ..(=O, my golden Bengal) respectively to Tagore as their national anthems.

But, according to the following translated letter to the Editor of ‘Bartaman’, a Bengali daily (published on 12^th May 2011), it is three.

“The rank and file readers like us knew for many years that National Anthems of two countries were composed by Rabindranath Thakur (=Tagore). Few erudite readers, researchers and historians know the real history. But, after hearing the National Anthems of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the arena of the World Cup of 2011, all knew that all the National Anthems of all these three countries were creation of Rabindranath. That history of Sri Lanka is being elaborated below.

Some student from Sri Lanka named Anand Samarkun came to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore to study in the Art & Music Dept. Till 1940 he took lesson in Visva Bharati (University of Tagore). In 1938 Anand made an earnest request to Gurudev to write a National Anthem for Sri Lanka. Rabindranath did not disappoint his student and wrote one in Bengali the first line of which is – “Sri Lanka Mata…” (=Mother SriLanka). Anand translated the Anthem into Sinhalese language in 1953 and gave it to the then President of Sri Lanka. The President was charmed and approved of the song as his country’s National Anthem. Anand Samarkun had translated a good many essays, poems, short stories and novels into Sinhalese language and had become famous for that. It is needless to mention that Rabindranath had set tune to both the National Anthems of India and Bangladesh. Similarly, the Sinhalese National Anthem is sung in the tune set by the Poet in the original Bengali version composed by him.

No song other than Rabindranath’s was accepted by Sri Lanka as their national anthem. The Poet had visited Sri Lanka several times. It is known that Sri Lankans are mostly Buddhists. From the time of Emperor Ashoka they adopted Buddhism and generations down they had their ablutions in this religion. The students of history know, along with other religious priests the sons and daughters of Emperor Ashoka also visited Ceylon to preach Buddhism. At the time of visiting Ceylon Rabindranath had dissertated elaborately on Buddhist theology and spirituality in various gatherings with eager participation of numerous people there. As in India and Bangladesh the World Poet is equally revered in Sri Lanka. At the Poet’s 150^th Birth Anniversary also he is hailed in that country as elsewhere in the world with undiminished reverence. Paeans are still sung with deep respect and inquisitiveness. Daily he is researched in many countries.

Yours etc.

Satyaranjan Das

Retd. Head Master

Bharatpur Higher Secondary School

Raigunj, North Dinajpur.

Free speech in the age of 9/11, Twitter and Wikileaks

Free speech in the age of 9/11, Twitter and Wikileaks

THE ECLIPSED SUN

THE ECLIPSED SUN


By Rajat Das Gupta

“The book comprises translation by the author of some Poems / Songs and other works by Rabindranath Tagore (Nobel Laureate of 1913) in Bengali language.”

Read more….

http://www.indoindians.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=39&Itemid=120

Rabindranath Tagore’s Indonesian experience

Java-Yatrir Patra

Rabindranath Tagore’s Indonesian experience

Read more:
http://www.poonamsagar.com/2011/04/java-yatrir-patra-–-rabindranath-tagore’s-indonesian-experience/

Tagore and Vaishnav Hinduism

How Vaishnav Hinduism influenced Tagore literature

Rajat Das Gupta (Kolkata)

rajatdasgupta@yahoo.com & dasguptarajat@hotmail.com )

My book of Tagore translation THE ECLIPSED SUN (TES) was published in January 2002 more on insistence of a few North Indian friends of mine while I went there on an Audit assignment rather than my creative urge as a literary quack while my Audit profession put me poles apart from the aesthetic world. Conscious of my shortcoming, as a rule some explanatory note preceded my translation of every piece of the poems/songs I laid my hand on to prepare the mind of my prospective readers who would generally be wider apart than me from the lofty height of Tagore’s dispensation due to linguistic barrier. Yet, my quackery was sometimes naïve and I had left out some important dimensions of Tagore literature which a real erudite certainly would not.

I realized such an omission of mine in TES while in March 2011 I happened to have in hand an article by Dr. Jaba Chatterjee in the faculty of Bengali literature at Rishi Bankimchandra College at Naihati (an hour’s journey from Calcutta). Subject of her article was influence of the Vaishnavite cult on Tagore’s literature which I totally omitted in my TES, very unpardonably. In her dissertation Dr. Chatterjee particularly mentioned the following 2 songs by Tagore which are part of my TES, to illustrate impact of Vaishnavite cult on Tagore. So, I shall try to make good my earlier lapse by restructuring my the then introductory notes related to these songs with the historical context which Dr. Chatterjee’s article reveals. The songs are as follows :

1) Tomay natun kore pabo bole

Harai kshne khan

O mor bhalabashar dhan

……………………………..

…………………………………

[Note: With our limited perceptions we lose sight of God in our daily life. However,

we do glimpse Him at times to realize that He is our dearest who had created

humans to whom He occasionally flashes the mysterious intent behind His

wonderful creation of life, but only to be left again to the mundane. Is this

hide and seek His mirth, never giving us the final answer to our eternal

quest of mystery behind our existence? Now, the problem with Tagore’s

poems and songs often is, we cannot freeze it to any particular

interpretation and because of occurrence of the lines “Endless Thou art /

So delude as null to covert”, I am tempted to invoke the scientists’ Big Bang

theory here behind Creation if of course it means that the debut of myriad

manifestation in Nature, as we see, started from explosion of a single atom

and the Universe, now in an expansion mode will start shrinking again

as it will reach the maximum possible physical inflation and then will start

its reverse course to be again reduced to an atom, maybe this process to

continue ad infinitum. My earnest request to the readers is they may please

take my interpretation of the Big Bang theory with many a pinch of salt, if

not with a lot of laughter too. However, assuming I have even marginally

grasped the Big Bang, are we not still dwelling on the mundane? Where is its

spiritual dimension? I got a lot of spiritual stuff in the said article by Dr. Jaba

Chatterje.

In her article she has mentioned the following song of Tagore and also

another close to it ( No: 2- To Unite with me / Is Thy eternal journey)both of

which are part of TES and both as an impact of Vaishnavite cult She also

gives examples of a good number of other songs of Tagore influenced by the

Vaishnavite poets (e.g. from Joydeb’s (12^th Century) Geetagovina.(in Sanskrit)

& Bidyapati of 15^th Century (who wrote in Maithili) and quoted them in their

respective languages in original, in vogue in those periods in Eastern India,

including Bengal.

The crux of Dr. Chatterjee’s paper is, though human enigma about

evolution of life on this earth is primordial going with an awe, the devotional

blend in it assumed Tsunami height in Bengal, history of which is nearly a

millennium old whose impact deeply influenced Tagore literature since mid

19^th Century onward which may be noted in a large number of his songs/poems

of which, quite a few in my TES occur (besides the 2 nos. mentioned in this

passage), unwittingly hitherto of their Vaishnavite link, and the reader

may hopefully relate this introduction to those also. I am thankful to

Dr. Chatterjee for making available her erudite paper to me without which my

introductions would remain deficient as in my original TES.

To get anew again

I lose Thee now and then;

O my precious love, Thy flight

Is only to be back to my sight.

Thou art not to remain,

Endlessly behind the curtain;

Mine Thou art for ever –

Drown in the temporal for frolic mere.

On Thy search trembles my mind,

Passion waves my love thou to find.

Endless Thou art

So delude as null to covert;

Such is Thy pleasure

To leave me in desolation tear.

2. Amar Milan lagi tumi ascho kabe theke

Tomar surya Chandra tomay rakhbe kothay dheke

…………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………….

[Note: Since his evolution in nature Man is trying to grasp the mystery of Creation or God and that supreme hour of His perception is nearing us more we delve into

His obscurity.]

To unite with me

Is Thy eternal journey;

Thy moon, sun and star

Between us can’t be a cover.

Many an evening and morn

Convey Thy footsteps’ vibration;

Pass Thy secret messenger’s call

My heart to enthrall.

O Traveler! My heart inundates

As Thy heavenly joy there resonates.

Does there appear

The supreme hour;

My bindings are all over

With Thy fragrance the breeze does appear?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Unlock Their Minds

Times of India

Unlock Their Minds

Narain D Batra

Monday, March 21, 2011

University campuses in the United States are increasingly becoming wireless, enabling students to use their laptops or mobile devices from anywhere. Classrooms are getting “smart” in the sense that teachers can connect to internet sources from their classrooms, besides using other instructional tools. Many professors put up their class notes and other teaching materials online. Online discussions and wikis are becoming common teaching tools. 



An institute of higher education with graduate and postgraduate research programmes needs a sophisticated environment of virtual learning that allows its students and faculty to access not only its own databases but also global intellectual resources. Some universities such as MIT, Yale, Carnegie Mellon, University of California at Berkeley, for example, have made available their courses including video lectures online to the public. Through their open courseware, these universities have established global collaborative relations with other institutions and in the process built up their social capital and enhanced their reputation. 
 
MIT offers more than 2, 000 free courses online, including many courses on India, for example, “A Passage to India: Introduction to Modern Indian Culture and Society” and “Music of India”. As of today, its open courseware site has received 70 million visits from 215 countries. Some of its faculty members have become global brands. 
 
India’s technology elites are not lagging behind. Taylor Walsh, in a recent book, Unlocking the Gates, has profiled India’s “National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning” a collaborative project of seven IITs and IISc, Bangalore, which at present offers 229 courses mostly in science and technology. 



Making a classroom “smart” and globally available requires the university to have a professional studio/ staff to help faculty members to digitise and upload their lectures and other teaching materials online, apart from having enough server space to accommodate requests for access from the general public. It is an expensive undertaking. Some universities have developed virtual campuses for their graduate programmes, supplemented with periodic on-campus residencies during which students and faculty members make presentations, hold symposia and seminars. 
 
Of the various instructional methods used for teaching by American professors, the use of computer-aided instruction especially at the undergraduate level is limited to PowerPoint or video primarily to break the monotony of a long lecture. PowerPoint gives teachers an illusion of mastery of their subject matters but its excessive use can be a barrier to engaging students in class. Some students resent the technology because it tends to shut them out of live exchange. No one has come up with an equally good alternative to the lecture-discussion method that has been at the heart of the teaching-learning experience since ages. 



Lecturing is done primarily to establish an intellectual and personal relationship with students even if the same material may be available in the textbook. Sometimes lecturing becomes a necessity especially when a tough topic and fundamentals have to be explained. When the textbook along with supplementary readings is brought to bear upon a discussion topic in the classroom, you see the beginning of learning, which is further enhanced through projects, term papers, weekly essay assignments and the stimulus of quizzes and midterm and final examinations. 



Nonetheless, online teaching is raising some interesting possibilities. While in classroom discussions some students, especially girls, hesitate to participate, I have found that most students participate very enthusiastically in online discussions. Many of them express themselves freely whenever free-style discussion is encouraged. Online discussion creates a level playing field between the extrovert and the shy type. 



Of course, students and professors miss a lot when there are no face-to-face encounters, dramatic moments which occasionally result in witticism, humour and other delightful confrontations that enhance teaching and learning, and make the dialogue such a joy. 
 
Information technology causes stress on the campus because no one can always keep up at the cutting edge of technology. Even younger faculty members who have grown up with the internet feel stressed; information technology is not always user-friendly. 
 
Teaching online requires a different attitude because communication between students and teachers is asynchronous. Many adult students find working on their own time a great advantage. But how to get one’s point across without facial gestures and vocal cues is a challenge. Classroom liveliness and vibrancy, the thrill of being with students, are absent online. Lecturing is performance and some of us become teachers because it gives us a sense of participation in the learning process. 



Physical presence and face-to-face meetings can bring out the best in students. The adrenaline rush that one feels in the class when there is something unexpected, the laughter, the body language and voice inflection and the instant feedback, all are absent in the virtual classroom. How to bring one’s personality into the virtual classroom is a serious challenge. 



Global exposure can be an incentive for some professors to improve their teaching but the jury is still out on whether a smart online presentation is all that we mean by good teaching. But how can one disagree with the MIT’s motto “Unlocking Knowledge, Empowering Minds,” whatever it takes, virtual or real? 



(The writer is professor, communications and diplomacy, Norwich University)

Corruption in India

COMMENT

It's a matter of trust

Narain D Batra | January 8, 2011

Times of India The Crest edition

The challenge for India, a growing economy, a rising nation that wants to play a global role, is how to go beyond the trust based on family ties, old boys' networks, caste and religion - especially in a diversified and multicultural world - so that investors can repose their faith in the system.

The system must be so open and transparent that it creates verifiable trust and trustworthiness. There lies the future of India. 

Erosion of trust is a global phenomenon.

President Barack Obama sees the rebuilding of public trust as one of his major challenges and, therefore, the subject of transparency reverberates in his public communication. What is good for the government is equally good for corporate governance. 

Doing business is essentially building social trust, which is imperative for foreign direct investment (FDI), especially if a company is dependent upon global customers as many Indian companies are increasingly becoming. When enterprising families join hands with government, business growth can be rapid in the initial stages, because regulatory constraints and market accountability can be waived to access credit and investment.

The rapid growths of companies like Satyam, for example, was not due to the miracle of unique Indian entrepreneurial spirit but because of the government-family nexus of economic interests, contemptuously though rightfully called crony capitalism. 

Although crony capitalism is present in every society, it flourishes best where the flow of information, both economic and political, is limited.

This has been the pattern in most Asian countries and India fits into this pattern. India is a double-book nation and those in the accountingauditing profession do understand how big India's shadow economy is. The protected family-based business system reaches its limits of growth when it needs infusion of technology and capital for expansion, which can come from sources outside the family. Investors, especially now when they have many competitive opportunities available all over the world and can electronically transfer their investments instantly, demand sunshine, transparency, openness and accountability. You cannot separate business from politics, global corporate from global politics. 



It is possible to create trust beyond the family-based business system but it can be done only under the supervision of an independent watchdog authority that creates a level-playing field for all. In the United States, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) monitors business corporations and stock markets. Markets are complex but fragile systems, which do not thrive on family ties but on honest and open communication with investors. But even the best system is open to abuse, as we have been painfully observing what has been happening to some legendary banks and financial institutions. Trust is in deficit now. Rebuilding global trust is the biggest challenge for corporate and political leaderships in the age of uncertainty. And India is no exception. 



Economic growth of more than 8 per cent during the last several years had made us temporarily forget about corruption until the slew of scams that were outed last year. Ordinary Indians pay a bribe of about $5 billion (Rs 21, 068 crores) a year for "availing one or more of the eleven public services in a year" according to a 2005 Centre for Media Studies/Transparency India Report. Can you imagine how much people of the super class - those who breakfast in New York, lunch in London and have dinner in Mumbai - must be paying to speed up their business deals? 

Initially, as the legend goes, the foreign exchange crisis of the early 1990s forced India to open up its doors to market economy. But India was pushed into globalisation by the information revolution.

The other India, its diaspora, especially in the IT field, began to show ingenuity for developing new products and services as well as for solving complicated problems, including the killing of the millennium bug. Bangalore was able to liftoff in spite of its poor infrastructure and in the process transformed itself into a cyberspace module that expertly docked with the emerging digital universe, partly thanks to Indian satellite technology, which was paradoxically seeded during the era of self-reliance. 

While the spectacular success of Bangalore and India's IT industry showed how much the Indian entrepreneur could do for the world, it also exposed India's vulnerabilities, its sluggish rural economy, massive shortfalls in investment for infrastructure development, high illiteracy levels, and a high rate of underemployed and unemployed people. The world began to look at India's underside. Indian policymakers and intellectuals began to grapple with the problem of economic growth, but they did not pay attention to the culture of corruption, a yoke on the poor. 

Sadly, the news media in India has not been playing its watchdog role robustly enough. Public accountability through news media exposês and relentless investigative reporting, especially through internet blogging and television shows, as the American experience shows, is a strong antidote to corruption.



What would make politicians and bureaucrats more accountable and responsive to public needs? Individuals who exercise political power should be made answerable for not only how they use the power vested in them but also whether they achieve goals with clean hands. Some problems facing India are systemic and call for structural changes. The system as a whole has to be geared up for growth, which means the development of a Grand National Strategy that covers every region.

Booming Gujarat and a depressed North-East cannot be part of the same country. 

If India were to build global trust and take its rightful place in the world order, it must fight corruption as seriously as it is fighting terrorism and insurgency. 



The writer is professor of communication and diplomacy at Norwich University