Recently (in early Mar 2012, as per ibnlive.com) we had a nasty discussion in the media as to the right Poverty Line (PL) for India after the Planning Commission said, "People consuming less than about Rs 29 per day in the urban areas, and about Rs 23 per day in the rural areas are below the PL".
The uproar is quite reasonable. Because one simple midday meal costs about Rs. 40 and the one day Metro Pass costs about Rs. 30 in any mid sized city in India. Then how come BPL is less than Rs. 29 per day? The person has money to buy just one meal a day, and he/she has no money to buy cloth, pay for shelter or travel in the city.
Dr. Montek Singh Ahuwalia, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission came across very defensive. His point was that this BPL had no bearing on the Policy Decisions of Subsidy for the Poor People. He says, irrespective of the BPL, the Food Subsidy is given to about 46% of the population.
I totally disagree with him. My point is Rs. 150 per person per day is the most appropriate level. This means the person can eat three meals a day, but still he is poor because he/she can't have money to pay for cloth, shelter or travel. On this level, about 91% of Indians are poor and I call them India91% and the rest will be in India9%.
In the US, a family of four making less than $23000 a year ($15.75 per person per day) is considered below the PL.
Clearly, using the official exchange rate, even Rs. 150 ($3) per person per day PL is quite low comparing to the US. I refuse to use the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in all this discussion because it is seriously flawed. Official rate is readily accepted by any bank any time. PPP is for political discussion, and I believe it is inappropriate for serious economic or financial transaction.
Thinking that 91% of Indians are poor is very shocking to me... What's the root cause of this? I posit that it's the skill level obtained thru very poor education in India. Only about 7% of Indians have a high school pass education level or more!
The Solution naturally lies with Enhancement of Skill thru Quality Education.
More later on this....
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
How Do Indian Students Fare in International Evaluation Test?
Indian students fare poorly in international evaluation test
Do our teeth become cleaner and cleaner the longer and harder we brush them? This was followed by two small paragraphs on how to brush your teeth quoting an expert on tooth brushing.
Only 53 per cent students from Himachal Pradesh and 63 per cent from Tamil Nadu were able to answer correctly during the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 plus exams held last year by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) where India participated for the first time as an additional participant. Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are among the best performing States in the country but even then very few 15-year-olds could fully understand these two simple paragraphs.
This was an example of a simple reading item administered in PISA 2009 where girls significantly outperformed boys. This was in line with the results where Indian students remained at the bottom with only Kyrgyztan performing worse.
But in a comparison between the two States, students in Tamil Nadu attained an average score on the PISA reading literacy scale, significantly higher than those for Himachal Pradesh. As against 17 per cent of students in Tamil Nadu who had proficiency in reading literacy to participate effectively and productively in life, only 11 per cent children in Himachal Pradesh fell in this category
Students in Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu attained a statistically same average score on the mathematical literacy scale with 12 and 15 per cent respectively of students proficient in mathematics at least to the baseline level at which they begin to demonstrate the kind of skills that enable them to use mathematics in ways that are considered fundamental for their future development.
In Tamil Nadu, there was a statistically significant gender difference in scientific literacy in favour of girls as compared to Himachal Pradesh, even though 84 per cent students in Tamil Nadu were not proficient enough in science at which they begin to demonstrate the science competencies that would enable them to participate actively in life situations related to science and technology.
“GIRLS NOT ONLY TENDED TO ATTAIN HIGHER READING SCORES THAN BOYS, THEY WERE ALSO MORE AWARE OF STRATEGIES FOR UNDERSTANDING, REMEMBERING AND SUMMARISING INFORMATION,” ACCORDING TO PROFESSOR GEOFF MASTERS, CEO OF ACER.
The OECD-PISA is an international comparative survey of 15-year-olds' knowledge and skills in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. PISA seeks to measure how well young adults have acquired the knowledge and skills that are required to function as successful members of society.
A major goal of PISA is to untangle the factors that are associated with educational outcomes and to guide governments in constructing policies that improve these outcomes.
BACKGROUND QUESTIONNAIRE
As part of the PISA 2009 survey, students completed an assessment on reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy, as well as an extensive background questionnaire. School principals also completed a survey describing the context of education at their school, including the level of resources in the school and qualifications of staff.
SCHOOL LEVEL FACTORS
“Students, who are highly aware of effective strategies for learning and also regularly read a wide range of material, tend to demonstrate better reading proficiency than those who either have a lower awareness of effective strategies or read a narrower range of materials regularly.” Professor Masters said, adding that while school level factors account for a considerable proportion of variation in reading performance between schools, much of this is associated with socio—economic and demographic factors.
“This suggests that policies around governance, accountability, the investment of educational resources and the overall learning environment are influenced by the social and demographic intake of the school,” Professor Masters said.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
What's the Research & Development Muscle of India?
A few days of ago (9 Jan 2012) Sagarica Gosh of IBN CNN had a segment on the output of Scientific man power in India. Nobelist Amartya Sen participated, and gave his perspective on the State of Science teaching & research in India. He was stressing the need for Equity and Excellence. For me more than anything else, Equity is the most important factor in a poor country like India (where I was born and raised till age 28).
For comparison, there are about 155,000 people engaged in R&D (both academia and industry) in India, while in China the comparable figure is 1,440,000 and in the US it's about 1,500,000. Roughly, China has 4.8X fewer people than the US; India has 7.75X fewer people than in China. On this basis, you may say that the US represents the First World, China represents the Second World (Ex-Communists & their satellites) and India represents the Third World.
The US spends about 2.45% of her GDP on R&D, while China spends about 1.7% of her GDP and India spends about 1.2% of her GDP on R&D.
Dr. Manmohan Singh wants to increase the R&D expenditure to 2% of the GDP in the coming years.
My anxiety is how much MORE they want to spend at the Bottom of the Pyramid? About 26% of the total population (312 million Indians) is totally illiterate, and the figure is nearly 50% if you take women alone. This means they just can't read or write in any language, and can't do simple addition and deduction of math.
This bothers me the most....
More later.
For comparison, there are about 155,000 people engaged in R&D (both academia and industry) in India, while in China the comparable figure is 1,440,000 and in the US it's about 1,500,000. Roughly, China has 4.8X fewer people than the US; India has 7.75X fewer people than in China. On this basis, you may say that the US represents the First World, China represents the Second World (Ex-Communists & their satellites) and India represents the Third World.
The US spends about 2.45% of her GDP on R&D, while China spends about 1.7% of her GDP and India spends about 1.2% of her GDP on R&D.
Dr. Manmohan Singh wants to increase the R&D expenditure to 2% of the GDP in the coming years.
My anxiety is how much MORE they want to spend at the Bottom of the Pyramid? About 26% of the total population (312 million Indians) is totally illiterate, and the figure is nearly 50% if you take women alone. This means they just can't read or write in any language, and can't do simple addition and deduction of math.
This bothers me the most....
More later.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
How Many Indians Are Really Poor?
My criteria for assessing poverty is whether a person can earn at least $2 per day and whether he/she is hungry or not. On that basis, I would estimate a full 90% of Indians are poor - about 1080 million people.
Arundathi Rai's (a Booker prize winning very controversial writer) recent remarks confirms this number, although Nobelist Dr. Amartya Sen thinks very generously that as much as 20% of Indians are "privileged", which leaves 80% are "not privileged" meaning poor, I guess.
Dr. Sen observes that in spite of India's GDP growth in the past 20 years, the tangible measures like infant mortality, childhood immunization, girl's education and life longevity take a beating in India (ranks second worst) comparing to the immediate neighbors like Srilanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan etc.
But if you turn on the TV or media reports (printing and electronic) most of the news coverage is about the very small faction (10-20%) of the total population - "the privileged" faction, and not about the vast majority.
Why?
I thought the Majority normally veils the power to dominate the discussion on a local and the national level in Democracy where Majority Principle is the ruling force.
I charge that in India, somehow, Minority has grabbed the media and the political process to shut out the poor - the Majority.
Is this NOT a conspiracy? This bothers me....
More later....
Arundathi Rai's (a Booker prize winning very controversial writer) recent remarks confirms this number, although Nobelist Dr. Amartya Sen thinks very generously that as much as 20% of Indians are "privileged", which leaves 80% are "not privileged" meaning poor, I guess.
Dr. Sen observes that in spite of India's GDP growth in the past 20 years, the tangible measures like infant mortality, childhood immunization, girl's education and life longevity take a beating in India (ranks second worst) comparing to the immediate neighbors like Srilanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan etc.
But if you turn on the TV or media reports (printing and electronic) most of the news coverage is about the very small faction (10-20%) of the total population - "the privileged" faction, and not about the vast majority.
Why?
I thought the Majority normally veils the power to dominate the discussion on a local and the national level in Democracy where Majority Principle is the ruling force.
I charge that in India, somehow, Minority has grabbed the media and the political process to shut out the poor - the Majority.
Is this NOT a conspiracy? This bothers me....
More later....
Friday, January 6, 2012
India's Problems: How many are high school graduates in India?
I was astonished to find that only 15% of the students even enter the high school education and only less than half of this really graduate from the schools.
This means in the India's population only about 84 million (7% of the total) have a pass from the high schools. A very small portion of this go to college/university and graduate. The estimate is about 10 million Indians are college graduates.
My estimate, then, shows that vast majority are without even a mere high school education. Most of these people are in abject poverty, that they can't earn more than $2 per day per person. The numbers in this category is as many as 1116 million Indians.
This is the reason the average GDP is just about $1667 per person per year, which appears to be nearly 3.5 times LESS than that of the Chinese across the NE border.
It appears that about less than a million Indians are considered "Rich", about 10 millions are considered as "Upper Middle Class", about 80 millions are labelled as "Lower Middle Class" and the rest are "Poor".
This figures bother me a lot.
More later...
This means in the India's population only about 84 million (7% of the total) have a pass from the high schools. A very small portion of this go to college/university and graduate. The estimate is about 10 million Indians are college graduates.
My estimate, then, shows that vast majority are without even a mere high school education. Most of these people are in abject poverty, that they can't earn more than $2 per day per person. The numbers in this category is as many as 1116 million Indians.
This is the reason the average GDP is just about $1667 per person per year, which appears to be nearly 3.5 times LESS than that of the Chinese across the NE border.
It appears that about less than a million Indians are considered "Rich", about 10 millions are considered as "Upper Middle Class", about 80 millions are labelled as "Lower Middle Class" and the rest are "Poor".
This figures bother me a lot.
More later...
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