Tuesday, June 10, 2008
West Bengal
A recent article states that West Bengal is caught in two scenarios. Kolkata and its suburbs are benefiting from the buoyancy of the urban job market, thanks to largescale outsourcing. But the districts present a different picture. Majority of the college graduates there aspire for jobs at government schools or offices. For many, new economy jobs are too alien.
There are no statistics available; but most college graduates in the districts cannot write in English, let alone speak. Even their proficiency in Bengali is suspect. Computer literacy is dismal. In sum, they are unemployable. If they are not ready to make use of the new opportunities, self-fulfilling pessimism will set in and opposition to industrialisation will grow.
It is time to reform our schools and colleges, to impart marketable skills and to reorient the youngsters to harsh reality of private sector jobs.
IMO: With many reservations, it looks as if the above may be about right. Whether industrialisation is the right thing for West Bengal is certainly another matter, however. All these grimy and energy-wating SEZs are not going to do the sacred Ganges delta any good, and local agriculture worldwide will continue to gain importance on an international level. By world standards, for example, Indian rice costs are far too low and the result has been suicide and despair to farmers, and the effectively enforced re-use of farmland for worthless new industry - I have to say, like the worthless gasoline fuelled Tata Nano. Must India make the same mistakes that China is starting to live to regret ? Surely the Tata company, with its beneficial history of enlightenment, should be above making the gross errors it is making - and the inevitable long term consumer backlash ? A lot of problems here, and nobody to resolve them.
A recent article states that West Bengal is caught in two scenarios. Kolkata and its suburbs are benefiting from the buoyancy of the urban job market, thanks to largescale outsourcing. But the districts present a different picture. Majority of the college graduates there aspire for jobs at government schools or offices. For many, new economy jobs are too alien.
There are no statistics available; but most college graduates in the districts cannot write in English, let alone speak. Even their proficiency in Bengali is suspect. Computer literacy is dismal. In sum, they are unemployable. If they are not ready to make use of the new opportunities, self-fulfilling pessimism will set in and opposition to industrialisation will grow.
It is time to reform our schools and colleges, to impart marketable skills and to reorient the youngsters to harsh reality of private sector jobs.
IMO: With many reservations, it looks as if the above may be about right. Whether industrialisation is the right thing for West Bengal is certainly another matter, however. All these grimy and energy-wating SEZs are not going to do the sacred Ganges delta any good, and local agriculture worldwide will continue to gain importance on an international level. By world standards, for example, Indian rice costs are far too low and the result has been suicide and despair to farmers, and the effectively enforced re-use of farmland for worthless new industry - I have to say, like the worthless gasoline fuelled Tata Nano. Must India make the same mistakes that China is starting to live to regret ? Surely the Tata company, with its beneficial history of enlightenment, should be above making the gross errors it is making - and the inevitable long term consumer backlash ? A lot of problems here, and nobody to resolve them.
# posted by uv : 7:36 PM
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