Jail Reform

When a talented actor goes to jail, it is worth giving a thought to the event. I have no specific comments on Sanjay Dutt’s jail term that begins today, but feel that there are questions that go beyond his case.

A jail sentence can be thought of as a punishment as well as a correctional step. There is rigorous imprisonment which goes beyond denial of freedom and inflicts physical labour as a punitive measure. Depending on the crime, convicts serve fairly long terms like 10 years or more.  It is worth asking to what extent a jail term acts as a correctional device. In a vast majority of cases, convicts are poor and not well-educated individuals. In addition to correctional education/training, training them to do something economically useful will equip them to take care of themselves and their family after coming out.  In exceptional cases, Indian jails have shown flexibility and have given opportunities to convicts. Nalini was originally handed down a death sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case, but she was allowed by the jail system to study for and earn a Master of Computer Applications degree.  

I would like to raise a question about prisoners who are going to spend years in a jail. If they are young enough to be able to study, is it not fair to give them opportunities to undergo part-time education? If the system is a true correctional system, should it not motivate the bulk of them to benefit from such a scheme? I do not plead for any reduction in workload that is required by their sentence. Let them do the work that is specified. But if they have any spare time left, they should be free to use it to learn something instead of being merely locked up like caged animals.

The TV Channel “National Geographic” offers episodes from a series named “Banged up Abroad” dealing with real life stories of people who do stupid things like smuggling narcotics and get caught in countries which have very harsh laws. They usually suffer terrifying conditions in jails. The episodes use a variety of presentation techniques, letting them tell their story, using staged flashbacks, using interviews with members of their family etc. to throw some light on their crime and the punishment they got. There is no preaching, but I am sure that the episodes make a very useful impression on the viewers. 

I wonder for a minute if Sanjay would be allowed in this country to use his spare time in jail to trigger a series like that about crimes and prisoners in India in general, and contribute in some way to it being made. If he goes to a jail with several hundred inmates, many of them would be willing to tell their own stories. Perhaps a nearby film institute could create the series.

A truly correctional system should not reduce a creative human being to do mindless repetitive work only.  He should be free to do the prescribed hours of that and do something in addition involving his talents - as a contribution to society, without any benefits, special privileges or payments.

Srinivasan Ramani

    

Amitabh Bachan on Caste

Karnataka State Election results came out on the 8^th May. TV channels showed off their skills in Caste Arithmetic. This was a sorry sight in a country that decided decades ago that the practice of caste had held us back for centuries. But here was caste on steroids. Visit http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/specials/news/They-will-caste-their-vote-Karnataka-still-remains-extremely-caste-conscious/articleshow/19773104.cms Caste consciousness is on the increase and not otherwise. Graphics showed what region of the state had what percentage of Lingayats, Vokkaligas, etc. The anchors expounded on how a leader had defeated his former party by taking away the bulk of the votes of people of his caste. I do not know why the discussion of caste in the context of election cannot be banned by the Election Commission. This appears to me to be the worst form of corrupt practice in elections - to manipulate caste feelings and to seek votes on the basis of caste.

Amitabh Bachan was on Headlines TV this evening and happened to mention how his family did not respect the notion of caste. When his father admitted Amitabh to school, he was asked to mention the student’s caste. The father wrote “Bachan”, which in fact was the pseudonym under which he wrote poetry – not “Srivastava” which had been the family name. I remembered a well-known computer scientist of Indian origin, Arvind, who had also chosen to drop his last name which would have been a caste name.

Amitabh added another example of how his father was above these narrow loyalties. His mother had been a Punjabi – one of the first Punjabi brides to set foot into Allahabad. 

He (Amitabh) went on to say that a few years ago, the census taker had insisted that he should record his caste name. Amitabh had to stand firm to avoid this. This reminded me of my own experience over 30 years ago.  I had told a census taker that my mother tongue was English.  (To this day, my mother speaks in English to me). The census taker told me that he would not accept my declaration. He suggested that I mention any language I wanted to – Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, etc., but English was not acceptable! He warned me that I could be arrested for giving “false” information to a census taker!  Satyameva Jayate!

Now, come back to caste. Why don’t we invent a new synthetic caste name, for example, “Daata” meaning a donor or giver! We could invent an incantation like “We will not let evil netas divide us in the name of caste”. To become a member of this “caste” one needs only recite this incantation and donate Rs 10 or more to a Society to Eradicate the Evil of Caste. 

What use will this be? Will the census taker accept it? Forget him. It is enough if a man or women could declare his/her caste to be Daata to the chosen partner.

Tamil Nadu had adopted the custom of dropping caste names long ago. This worked in most cases. Why can’t the rest of India follow this excellent idea?

Srinivasan Ramani  

Forthcoming Elections in the State of Karnataka, India

I don't know why, but I took some time to hunt out the list of candidates who are competing for the Legislative Assembly seat in my constituency. The site that helped me was:

http://electionaffairs.com/karnataka/assembly_elections_2013/ac_wise_nominations_karnataka_assembly_elections_2013.cfm?recordID=169

(Warning: This may not be an official website of the government).

As the next step, I wanted to see the affidavits filed by candidates in my constituency. They need to share information on their wealth, education, involvement in court cases if any. The following URL is supposed to give that information. 

http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/CurrentElections/ge2009/Affidavits_fs.htm

But when I selected Karnataka candidates, it said 

Server Error in '/' Application.

---

The resource cannot be found.

Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly.

Requested URL: /ge2009affidavits/ge2009affidavits.aspx

That is absolutely clear, isn’t it?  Like a law-abiding citizen, instead of griping about such things, I saw the affidavits of candidates in a few other constituencies like Karimnagar. What difference does this make anyway? Candidates in one constituency are very much like candidates in others!

Having worked in the computer field, I have a doubt though! Many computer applications land in trouble if you enter numbers beyond the range that the programmer has provided for. Perhaps, the Election Commission should ask its programmers to review if they have provided for an adequate number of digits for candidates to report their assets. The fact that these numbers could fit during the last election does not mean they will fit this time. You can get an idea of these numbers involved by looking at

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/326533/common-wealth-crorepatis.html

No one can say India is not a rich and prosperous nation. Jai Hind!

Srinivasan Ramani

Fraud on banks by defaults on educational loans

I have always argued in favour of liberal educational loans in India. So, I was delighted when I was given some details on this by an acquaintance in the banking sector. It is mind-blowing – if you have earned admission in a degree-granting program and have 60% marks in the Plus 2 exam, you can get an interest fee loan of Rs 4 lakhs to pay for your education. (If you are going to study for a professional degree, or going to study abroad,  you can borrow a lot more.) For details, visit http://www.canarabank.com/english/scripts/otherprioritysectorloans.aspx

I am sure that every public sector bank has a similar scheme; I chose the Canara Bank because it leads all the others (in alphabetical order)!

I don’t know the interest payable on the bigger loans, but I heard from my acquaintance that the interest payable on the 4 lakh loans is ZERO!  The government subsidy takes care of that.

This is the happiest news I have heard in years. What is the amount of bank credit extended through this route? I won’t tell you here – you might fall off the chair when you hear the huge number! Visit http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/banking/dont-reject-educational-loan-application-on-technical-grounds-rbi/article4081443.ece

I don’t complain about the large amount. There is no better way to help a society develop than to lend it money for education.  

But I ran into disturbing news when I probed further. About 25% of our grateful youth, after enjoying an interest free loan, decide that they do not have to pay back the principal of the loan either, according to my acquaintance. Some of them it seems have been heard saying that they can afford to pay; but so many of their friends have not paid, so why should they?

Who benefits by letting public sector banks bleed like this?  We know the predominant background of the netas who run educational institutions in the name of public charitable trusts!  But, how does RBI allow this? What is the quantum of money being looted by educational loan defaulters?

The bankers will, no doubt, have their excuses – no collateral, no effective surety in most cases, the scheme is meant to benefit the poor and the youth, etc. Besides, anyway it is not your money!

Why should we worry? Because, if we recover the money due, we can spend more on real education. If we do not do something about this problem, we would continue to teach every graduate that government subsidies can be easily looted by dishonest elements.  At the national level, sloppy banking practices can bring a nation down on its knees. Look at what happened to Greece and Cyprus even without loan defaults. 

There is a way to tighten up on all this, if there is a will. Demand that loan applicants have either an Aadhaar card or a passport to qualify for the loan. Ensure that the defaults are properly reported to the credit information system. Defaulters should be disqualified for access to credit cards, bank accounts etc. The defaulters should also be prevented from using their passports for leaving the country.

Srinivasan Ramani

Save Electricity – Turn that Geyser Off in summer

Bangalore might have been a garden city in the old days, but nowadays my indoor thermometer reads 31 degrees Centigrade most of the time.  So, I felt guilty when I went to turn on the geyser! Absurd, I thought. Am I a creature of habit?

My estimate shows that hot water shower costs me something like Rs 4 per day. My electrician says that I am charged almost Rs 6 per unit because the geyser power comes from a 3 phase connection. He says that others may be paying a fraction of that if they use only single phase wiring.

I don’t know how many of the 120 Crore Indians take hot water showers. Assuming that 5 Crores of them do, the electricity used could be worth about Rs 10 Crores per day. If we can persuade them not to use their geysers for 150 days/year, the country could save about Rs 1500 per year. More than money, it is saving of a scarce resource for more meaningful uses. Our electrician says that a lot of electricity can be saved even in winter by families minimizing the number of hours geyser are on. Ideally a geyser needs to be on only for 30 mts per person in the family.

The numbers I have quoted above may need some correction. I would welcome suggestions, but the key point is that we can avoid or at least reduce waste of a scarce resource. Besides, the general opinion is that taking a shower using unheated tap water offers you significant health benefits.

Why don’t you get up and switch that geyser off!

Srinivasan Ramani

Keep the Wikipedia Going

It is amazing how often we consult the Wikipedia, and how useful and satisfying that consultation usually turns out to be. Initially, I had thought that the Wikipedia is based on a counter-intuitive idea – that people would donate their time to create something of value to humanity in general and make it freely available.  Perhaps, it is not so counter-intuitive after all. When it comes to sharing information, humans have been doing it for a long time. GPS, or no GPS, most strangers to any Indian city would never find their way to their destination but for the “Wikipedia editors” on the roads. These are the guys willing to offer information when asked, and also correct the two other guys whose answers are not as good as theirs. Some of the true Editors will say “follow me, I am headed that way”!  

What is amazing is that this spirit has been shown to work in the world of IT, which is to many professionals the “science of monetizing anything and everything computers and cellphones can ever do”!

I don’t think that this is the end of the road for the co-development of altruism and a sub-culture of IT!  Once the basic idea has been demonstrated to work, I am sure that a number of new developments triggered by the original demonstration would flourish.

Wikipedia’s growth has been amazing. It is already one of the most important “books” in human history. It is particularly impressive because it is a living thing, constantly improving its scope, updating its information, and getting rid of its errors.   

These are the thoughts that ran through my mind when I read an appeal for donations to Wikipedia. I made a modest donation and received a thank you note that suggested I could use social media to tell my friends to consider donating too! I can’t pack all that I have said above into a tweet, and hence this blog post. Donate, write and talk about it! Wikipedia is truly the common wealth of us all!

Srinivasan Ramani 

Indian Union and the European Union

The Lisbon Treaty defines the objectives of the European Union as follows:

• the promotion of peace and the well-being of the Union´s citizens
• an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers
• sustainable development based on balanced economic growth and social justice
• a social market economy - highly competitive and aiming at full employment and social progress
• a free single market

My question in this posting is about the Indian Union. Is it without internal frontiers? Is it a free single market? Does it give its citizens the freedom to move to any part of the union and seek a job there? Does it have simple and uniform laws that allow goods to be transported all over the union without paying 5 to 10% to corrupt border guards over many of its internal frontiers?

Let me tell you about people moving from one state to another. 

A friend of mine was born in Hosur when it was a part of the Madras Province including what is now Tamil Nadu and what is now Karnataka. Seventeen or eighteen years later, when he started seeking admission in a professional degree course, things were quite different. His father, a state govt employee, had elected to join one of the states into which Madras Province was split into – Tamil Nadu. But he was unwelcome there, as his birth certificate showed that he was not born in Tamil Nadu. Karnataka did not want him either, as he had done his high school in Tamil Nadu. 

He survived all this and turned up at a US university a few years later. After standing in the queue for paying the fees, he found a lady at the counter asking him if he was a resident of the state. No, he said, having arrived in that state only a week earlier. “No problem”, she declared, “you just pay a non-resident fee this semester; from the next semester you will need to pay only a resident’s fee”. She explained that the residence requirement was that you should have spent 3 months in that state. My friend had described this experience to me a few years later when he was visiting India. At last, I understood where my state was, he said! So much for the mobility of citizens in India!

All Indian institutions do not respect internal frontiers! Anna Hazare and Arun Kejriwal may not recognize it, but corrupt educational institutions in India do not discriminate against candidates from outside the state! All Indians are equal as long as they pay them Rs 2 Crores per seat! 

Srinivasan Ramani