A Government to Control Onion Prices?

Have you ever wondered what made you go out there and vote for your representative in the last election, if you did i.e.? Did we vote him so that he could go and sleep in the parliament? Did we vote for him to go and bargain fuel prices, or worse-still, bargain for onion (among other vegetables) prices in our locality? Well, the latter is nearly what is happening at the central govt. of India lately. An excerpt from Governance Now of 21st Dec 2010 goes as below:

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today expressed deep concern over the sharp rise in onion prices and said effective steps should be taken to bring down the prices to affordable levels.

What steps is our Prime Minister hinting at here? Although the question immediately apparent from the PM's above comments is "What can the government do?" the question we the people should really be asking is "What should the government do? And what it should not do?" In other words I wish to ask, why should a government, elected by a people after spending 1120 Crore Rupees, interfere in the fixation of prices of onions in markets across India? Now the reason I ask such a question may not be immediately apparent. It becomes easy to decipher when one gets to know what are the typical tools and moves available to an elected government in correcting a market! Subsidy, for instance, is a commonly used deadly weapon by governments to 'subside' inflationary prices but little do many people know where those subsidy moneys come from, and what adverse effect such subsidies could have on the creators of such commodities - onion farmers in this particular case.

The "Street" has only two curves - Supply & Demand.

Irony strikes, of course, when the left front in the parliament (CPI et al.) alleges the government's pro-market policies to be reason behind this "defeat" of the governing side to market forces! On one hand are the ruling parties unaware of the real structure of a pro-market government, and on the other hand, we have a (part of the) opposition, with a much acute ignorance about pro-market governance, that believes the government has "totally surrendered" to market forces. Interestingly although such a situation is required for a healthy market, it would be better termed as co-existence instead of a surrender to market forces.

Given all this, will you cast your vote to someone to go out there and "play" with our markets? Will you cast your vote to the best bargainer of onion prices?! Or will we vote for those who know what a market is, and help keep it sacred and separate from governance? In democracy, like in a market, there's no free lunch. Unless we the people put in our efforts and get educated and use it, our societies and markets will not get better.

Worse still...
Just before publishing this, found in today's Kannada Prabha was this snippet citing Mr Veerappa Moily, our home-grown lawyer turned union law minister, commenting against the Karnataka state's stance in this regard just because he sits on the other side of the table in the Parliament! Stuck between the jaws of such governing machinery is our market and we, the customers. I guess its time we peeled the onions in this regard.

This ATM tells Hindi before Money

Quite sometime ago I had seen this on someone's T-shirt : "My Dad is an ATM." Good joke, but looking at most of our ATMs in Karnataka (like the one in the pic), I feel most Dads in our state still have long time left before real ATMs replaced them! Why? Because the ATMs in our state are hard to use and employ an alien language even today. Shockingly, this Bangalore ATM believes it has given its users a language choice!

A HDFC ATM in Bangalore (Photo taken in Jun '09)

The Indian government, under the Rajbhasha prerogative, regulates the national bank, RBI, to instruct all Scheduled Commercial Banks of India to follow a language policy in their operations; a policy fleshed in Hindi but clothed by the fabric of consumer welfare. Now, where in the democratic world, running a market economy, would a government regulate banks to use a particular language in their functions, operate their ATMs in a particular language? What such banking regulation and packaged goods rules prove is the existence of scrupulous efforts of Indian policy makers in spreading the blanket of Hindi imposition as wide across the society as possible. And all this, at the cost of every commoner's hard-earned money.

That a consumer's language has been exiled and replaced by Hindi in these ATMs is not the only concern here. The biggest concern is really about the customers' wallets! A concern about dwindling funds of customers when banks end up having to make unnecessary expenditure towards upkeep of all those Hindi implementation programs in their operations; programs while seldom serving any purpose to a majority of customers in India, has also caused harm in many an occasion. Of course that doesn't include stray incidents of losses customers incurred because of faulty transactions due to miscommunication and language mismatch! In a time when every Rupee is considered valuable in investing towards a better future, each such Rupee wasted because of such language policy is but a wastage of people's hard earned money and a crime no less.

The question we as citizens need to ask (ourselves first) is 'did we elect a government so that they could spend our moneys on imposing an alien language such as Hindi on us?' If not should the government not stop elevating Hindi as opposed to our language in banks in our own locality too?

Flying... With Strings Attached

In the last post I talked about the confusion apparent in airports and aircrafts of India, and highlighted the confusion that I witnessed in some of our international airports.

I wish to dive deeper to understand the root causes for this confusion in our airports, and unravel what lies beyond this mirage of confusion.

Amidst the fast expanding global liberal markets that have resulted in influences deep into societies across the world, Indian governance machinery appears peculiarly suspicious of the power of market forces, and continues exercising its power by means of regulations, constraints, guidelines and circulars on businesses through complex & innovative combinations of committees, regulatory bodies, departments and sometimes dedicated ministries. One such combination is that of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Airports Economic Regulatory Authority, Civil Aviation Ministry, and the quintessential Indian flagship - the Department of Official Language.

At the outset, isn't it itself startling that the Rajbhasha department (whoever needs it?) is even listed in the affairs of an authority responsible for Indian airports?! Being a super biased yet powerful department that it is, it is not surprising how this department finds an influential spot in the airways market in India. It is empowered to monitor and influence the deployment of Hindi in AAI, among other central government undertakings. This deployment has incorporated Hindi in examinations and interviews, Hindi literacy is now a key pre-requisite for employment in many of its agencies. These agencies, in turn strive to press indirectly and repeatedly on the AAI and related departments the need for having Hindi in all possible uses of language - the interiors of airports and flights not excluded from this list. As a consequence of such machinery aided by the who-asked-for-it three-language formula we've all become mute evidence to confusion lurking in our public places.

The final casualty of all this is doubtlessly the common man, and the customer in his respective market. It is reasons such as these behind market ill-health that we need to wake up to, not get used to the filthy situation itself. It is the customer inside each of us who can poke businesses to strive to get our markets back to good health. After all how far can one fly with strings attached?

Our Airports, very confusing!

Welcoming the world via elaborate airports is a new found fashion of every country. This is a trend one can notice today - in an era when a globalized economy seems to be the destiny of every nation and embracing a higher flux of people across its borders a desired consequence, reasons manifold.

With this as background, I happened to take a quick glance at a couple of Indian airports. In fact the following few illustrations are sequences one would commonly witness when passing through some of our country's airports and when flying in planes run by some of our airline companies. (Please note, I am referring to those airlines that are registered on Indian soil, and come under the purview of rules applying here.)

Tamil comes first in Anna airport in Chennai

Ambient Language
While the ambiance and services an airport offers to its passengers could be a mere cosmetic artifact, the real charisma is embedded in the cultural richness the airport stands to represent, a culture the airport apparently opens doors to. Its an easy guess about the important role the ambient-language of the airport plays in making it this cultural tableaux.

The picture to the left illustrates two informative boards inside Chennai (Anna intl) Airport, marked significantly in the Tamil language (on top), followed by Hindi and English. Although the question about the need for three languages remains unasked here (too), common-sense seems to have prevailed though, clearly prioritizing communication in Tamil. This pattern of signage appears uniform across this airport making it clear that Tamil is the language that represents the culture of that land. This airport certainly has a bright future.. all such airports I mean.

Near invisible Kannada on boards in Bengaluru Intl airport

On the other hand, the picture on the right taken in the new Bengaluru Intl Airport illustrates its dismal state of affairs when it comes to clarity in communication. Ambivalence and poor understanding of the real culture of Karnataka seems to be advertised shamelessly in every such placard inside BIA. Notice the clear difference in the sign-age methodologies between these two airports of neighboring states. Bengaluru being the capital of a Kannada state, this situation in BIA confuses the daylight out of its visitors with every such board!

More Confusion mid-air

In-flight directions - a rather risky confusion this!

Going ahead, this picture inside a plane further demonstrates how worse this confusion about language use (in a market) has become and how troubled and confused it leaves the common man participating in such markets. Consequence - this flight between Bengaluru and Chennai is evidently missing languages of both cities involved in this flight! Even here, English and Hindi swap positions between boards, reflecting the confusion even these airliners seem to be in when it comes to providing vital communication to passengers!

Why, I ask myself, does this confusion prevail in a market that has been functioning since longer than many other world markets. Let to itself, will our market not figure out which language is best placed in which market? Will the customers in those markets not want lesser confusion?! Who is voting confusion to rule here, after all? Let us find out...

(to be continued)

ಯಾರ ಲಾಭಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಈ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆ ?

ಕನ್ನಡದ ಒಂದು ಹೆಸರಾಂತ ದಿನಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯೆಂದು ತಮ್ಮನ್ನು ತಾವು ಕರೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಕನ್ನಡ-ಪ್ರಭದವರು ಮೊನ್ನೆ ತಮ್ಮ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ಮುಖ-ಪುಟದಲ್ಲಿ "ತಾಯಿ ಕನ್ನಡತಿ, ಆದರೆ ಮಕ್ಕಳು...?" ಲೇಖನ ಮೂಡಿಸಿರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಏನೀ ಲೇಖನ? ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಇವರು ಸಂದರ್ಶಿಸಿದ ಸುಮಾರು 6000 ಹೆಂಗಸರು (ತಾಯಂದಿರು) ತಮ್ಮ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಕಲಿಕೆ ಕೊಡಿಸಲು ಯಾವ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮವನ್ನು ಆಯ್ಕೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ, ಮತ್ತೆ ಹಾಗೆ ಮಾಡಲು ಏನು ಕಾರಣಗಳು ಎಂಬ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯ ಫಲಿತಾಂಶ ಪ್ರಕಟಣೆ ಇದ್ದ ಹಾಗಿದೆ ಈ ಲೇಖನ.

ಇರಲಿ.. ಈ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯ ಕಡೆ ಗಮನ ಹರಿಸೋಣ. ಈ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆಯ ಕಾರ್ಯರೂಪ ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಬಹಳ ತಿಳಿಯಾಗಿ ಕಾಣುವ ವಿಷಯವೆಂದರೆ ಇವರು ಮೊದಲೇ ಒಂದು ಉತ್ತರವನ್ನು ಮನಸ್ಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದು, ಅದನ್ನು ಜನರ (ತಾಯಂದಿರ) ಬಾಯಿಗಳಿಂದಲೂ ಬರುವಂತಹ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಬುದ್ದಿ ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸಿ ಅವರ ಮನಸ್ಸುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಅದನ್ನು ಬಿತ್ತುವ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡಿರುವ ಹಾಗಿದೆ. ಈ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಎಲ್ಲರ ಮನಸ್ಸಲ್ಲೂ ಅಡಗಿಯೇ ಇದ್ದರೂ ಇದನ್ನು institutionalize ಮಾಡುವ ಹುನ್ನಾರ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದವರಾದ ಇವರದ್ದಾಗಿದೆ.


ಸುದ್ದಿ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದ ಜವಾಬ್ದಾರಿ ನಿಭಾಯಿಸುವ ಹೆಸರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದದ್ದನ್ನು ಇರುವ ಹಾಗೇ ಹೇಳಿ ಮುಗಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಹೊರತು, ಅವರೇ ಹೇಳಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಸಮಾಜದ ಏಳಿಗೆಗಾಗಿ, ಉಜ್ವಲ ಭವಿಷ್ಯದತ್ತ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುವ ಜವಾಬ್ದಾರಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ತೋರಿಸಿರುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಕಾಣುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ಇಂದು ಕನ್ನಡ ಏಟು ತಿಂದಿರುವ ತಾಯಿ, ತನ್ನ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಅನ್ನ ಉಣಿಸಲು ಅವಳಿಗೆ ಆಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲವೆಂಬುದನ್ನು ಬಿಡಿಸಿ-ಬಿಡಿಸಿ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಆದರೆ ಈ ತಾಯಿಗೆ ಮಲಾಮು ಹಚ್ಚಿ, ವಯಸ್ಸಿಗಿಂತ ಮುಂಚೆ ಸಾಯದೇ ಇರುವ ಹಾಗೆ ನೋಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಜನ ಮುಂದಾಗಬೇಕು (ಯಾವ ರೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ) ಎಂದು ಕನ್ನಡದ "ತಾಯಂದಿರಿಗೆ" ಕಿವಿ ಮಾತು ಹೇಳಬಹುದಿತ್ತಲ್ಲವೇ ಈ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದವರು? ಬದಲಾಗಿ ನಿಮ್ಮ ತಾಯಿಯನ್ನು ಈಗಲೇ ತ್ಯಜಿಸಿ, ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ತಾಯಿಯನ್ನು "ದತ್ತು" ಪಡೆಯಲು ದಾರಿ ತೋರಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರಲ್ಲ ಇವರು?


ತಾಯ್ನುಡಿ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಅತ್ಯುತ್ತಮ ಕಲಿಕೆ ಕೊಡಿಸಬಲ್ಲದು - ಇದು ಜಗತ್ತಿಗೇ ತಿಳಿದ ನಿಜ. ಇನ್ನು ಮಗುವಿನ ತಾಯ್ನುಡಿ ಕನ್ನಡವೇ ಇರಲಿ, ತಮಿಳೋ ತೆಲುಗೋ ಯಾವುದೇ ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆ ಇರಲಿ, ಇಂದು ಆ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಲಿಕೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಮುಂದುವರೆದಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂಬುದು ಗೊತ್ತಿರುವ ವಿಷಯ ಮತ್ತು ಆಯಾ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಜನ ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗಿಸಬೇಕಾದ ವಿಷಯವೂ ಹೌದು. ಇನ್ನು ಯಾವುದೇ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯೊಂದರ "ಸಲಹೆ"ಯನ್ನು ಆಧರಿಸಿ ತಂದೆ-ತಾಯಂದಿರು ತಮ್ಮ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಯಾವ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದ ಕಲಿಕೆ ಕೊಡಿಸಬೇಕು ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಧರಿಸುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಆ ನಿರ್ಧಾರದ ಮೇಲೇನು ಈ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ಪ್ರಭಾವ ಇಲ್ಲದ ಮೇಲೆ, ಅನಾವಶ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಆ ವಿಚಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ಜನರನ್ನು ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೆಣಕುವ ಗುರಿಯೇನು? ಇವರಿಗೆ ಜನರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಕಾಳಜಿ ನಿಜವಾಗಿಯೂ ಇದ್ದರೆ ಅದನ್ನು long-term ಪರಿಹಾರಗಳತ್ತ ಕೈ-ಮಾಡುವ ಮೂಲಕ ತೋರಿಸಿದರೆ ಒಳಿತು. ಕನ್ನಡದ್ದೇ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯಾಗಿ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮ ಕಲಿಕೆಯ ಸಲ್ಲದ ಗುಣಗಾನ ಮಾಡುವ ಮೂಲಕ ಜನರು ಇವರನ್ನು ನಂಬಬೇಕಾ ಎಂಬ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗೆ ಸೊಪ್ಪು ಹಾಕಿದಂತಾಗಿದೆ, ಅಲ್ವಾ? ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದ ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ಬೆಳೆಯುವುದಕ್ಕೂ ಕನ್ನಡ ದಿನಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ವ್ಯಾಪಾರ ಕುದುರುವುದಕ್ಕೂ ಸಂಬಂಧವೇನಾದರು ಕಂಡು ಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆಯಾ ಈ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯವರು?


ಪ್ರಜಾಪ್ರಭುತ್ವದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಬದಲಾವಣೆ ಮೂಡಿಸಲು ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳಿಗಿರುವ ಬಲ ಇವರುಗಳು ಅರ್ಥ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡರೆ ಚಂದ. ಆ ದಿಕ್ಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಸಮಾಜದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಬದಲಾವಣೆಗಳತ್ತ ದುಡಿಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ಕೈಗಳ ಬಲ ಇಮ್ಮಡಿಗೊಳಿಸುವ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನಾದರೂ ಇವರು ಮಾಡಬಹುದಾಗಿದೆ.

Its so easy laa...

Yes. This is without doubt the answer you'll hear upon asking any localite of Penang, Malaysia how it is to learn his language - Malay. Everyone in town says "Malay, ah, its easy to learn!" And well it sure is, as long as somethings are in order. Let's see..

Learning on the move
Just the other day I was trying to start a conversation with my taxi driver using whatever little Malay I had gathered from a few weeks' stay. Trying to stitch a sentence using the hand-countable Malay words I knew, I think I only confirmed the driver's opinion about me, formed by now by the looks of my face! He was now sure I had no clue of spoken Malay and seemed to prepare to teach me already! I asked him if he had seen any visitors learn Malay and if I'd be able to pick it up quickly, to which came the prompt response from the front - "Its so easy laa". And easy indeed he has been making it since then.

Interestingly, on further observation of people's behavior around I figured this was a common trait among locals here - to believe by heart that it is easy for anyone to learn their language. While there’s no absolute meaning of a language being tough or easy to learn, I gather this psyche has played a major role in taking Penang where it is today - where regardless of the origin of people and their immigrant ancestors, Malay is perhaps the only language known to every single resident of this island, and perhaps the only language when spoken in can bring a smile on any Malay's face.

If you make it seem easy, it becomes easy
This very important perception of easiness created around learning Malay has helped immigrants and locals alike. It has formed basis of people's homely psychology while approaching others - strangers and friends alike, thereby giving Malaysia the reputation of a friendly tourist country. Thanks to these prevailing conditions the first language of choice for public use is Malay. What's more, television channels airing non-Malay programs don't fail to scroll Malay sub-titles, and Malay channels provide sub-titles in English making the language ladder easier to climb. Advertisements in all media are predominantly carried in Malay to capture the benefit of its reach. Essentially there are several such factors that make learning a language easy, and they only need to be in place to make it easy laa.

This could well be a leaf to take for us Kannadigas, especially in our rapidly growing towns where assimilation of immigrants into the mainstream needs to be energized by the presence of a supportive environment – an environment that only Kannadigas can help create.

(Trivia: laa happens to be one universal suffix used by Malaysians while speaking. This typically seems to give a friendly & affirmative tone to the end of a sentence, and is characteristic of any Malaysian's style of speaking!)

The Idiot Box: Government Controlled Mass Media and Hindi Imposition

The radio and TV media have helped the Hindi protagonists the most in imposing Hindi upon the vast unassuming non-hindi speaking population of India in the last couple of decades.

DD National is a channel Doordarshan started with an intention of telecasting TV programs (99.99% Hindi) to the entire nation. Of course regional language movies were telecast on Sunday afternoons. The very choice of this poorest of poor time slots - Sunday afternoon i.e. - for a TV program shows the degree of neglect shown by the channel towards other Indian languages.

Why does DD National feature only programmes in Hindi? And why should DD National be the only channel receivable across the country without a booster? And who's funding all these things - we the people - there's a big chunk of public money being allocated for Prasar Bharati (which also runs DD National, Vividh Bharti FM station etc.) every financial year. It is because of policies of Prasar Bharati combined with the Rajbhasha policy all such channels are obliged to carry most content in Hindi. Why else does one hear Bangalore edition of FM Rainbow featuring so many Hindi songs while the Bangalore FM market is so heavily bent towards Kannada entertainment? Isn't it amply clear that the Rajbhasha policy is here to bulldoze all the other bhashas of India? Will we, the people, let it bulldoze our languages lying down?

Getting Deeper Into Consumer Affairs

The Indian Ministry of Consumers Affairs includes a department taking care of consumer affairs and their welfare in India. Under its aegis, a set of rules has been listed to regulate consumer information, safety and comfort. Among these rules is this peculiar one that particularly addresses the importance of good packaging of consumer goods.

Under Chapter II, Section 9 (4) refers to a particular way in which Declarations on packaged consumer goods must be made. What this says is that the declaration must be either in Hindi (Devnagri script) or in English, but of course, the central government through this rule doesn't preclude usage of any other regional language on the package, as long as Hindi is not missed out. What's so official about language used on consumer goods?

While this presents a clear case of myopic thinking on the part of policy makers, to every individual consumer, this translates to an additional indirect expenditure of no avail, especially in non-Hindi speaking states. So going by number of people living in these states, nearly most of India (around 60+%) is bearing the additional burden of expenses on packaged goods which come with the mandatory Hindi Declarations as well.

All this doesn't mean the Indian government is sitting quiet observing all these wasteful expenditure incurred by its subjects & corporates alike. It is also, in turn, spending money to educate people and make them Hindi Literate - thereby creating a virtual less-lossy environment for corporates. As a by-product, of course, all other languages (and cultures associated with them) are rapidly going down the drain, thereby shaking the very pillar of our unity - cultural diversity.

So what're all these costing the common non-Hindi speaking consumers? Much. One - for a consumer to learn a new language only to be a consumer. Two - always bear the extra costs of packets with multiple languages, because, come what may, Hindi would never fully be absorbed by tens of Crores of non-hindi speakers in India (stats for this are available everywhere). Three - the true consumer's interests are being compromised with, businesses cornered-in with misplaced polity intervention. At the end these are only driving consumers into a pit of confusion amidst multiple languages - something that will invariably follow when policy makers get so deep into consumer affairs.

Welcome!

Welcome to my Brand New Blog!

Here I plan to think aloud, and share somethings that I come across in life, with a hope that it will make an interesting (and intriguing?) read. So, do come back; you never know, there might be some surprise waiting for you here.

Till then..