Well said Sachin
On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 2:07 PM, SACHiNe SATVi <wagh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > <shared via chain mail > > > *Is the appointment of Satya Nadella a feather in India's cap or a slap in > the face for the Indian system?* > > > > While Indian newspapers were over the moon about Nadella's elevation, with > some justification, there is another side to the story we need to consider: > why is it that India's tech and other geniuses flower only in the US or > Silicon Valley? > > Why is it that every India-origin person to win a Nobel after independence > in the sciences is not an Indian citizen any more? Hargobind Khurana won > the prize for medicine in 1968, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar for physics in > 1983 and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan for chemistry in 2009. All of them > flowered only because they left India, and not because they were Indians > per se. They left India behind. > > In fact, Ramakrishnan was downright rude when Indians called to > congratulate him in 2009. He said: "We are all human beings, and our > nationality is simply an accident of birth." He also complained about "all > sorts of people" writing to him and "clogging up my email box. It takes me > an hour or two to just remove their mails." > > While his immediate reaction may seem churlish to us, underlying it all is > the real issue: our "Indian" successes abroad have little to do with the > fact that they are Indian. They succeed because they abandoned India. > > We need to ask ourselves: why does our system kill future heroes, while > the US helps raise even ordinary Indians to iconic levels? It would not be > out of place to mention that it is well-nigh impossible for 99 percent of > Indian aspirants to get admissions even to an IIT or IIM, but it is far > simpler to get into an Ivy League institution. If you don't get into an > IIM, you try Harvard. > > The true value of an IIT or IIM is not the intellectual capital they > produce, but their filtering expertise - which keeps all but the > superlisters out of these institutions. When the people entering the > institution are the best among the best, they will shine no matter what the > quality of faculty or the curriculum. > > Perhaps this comes from our caste system, where castes try and keep others > out, but we are stuck with this system of exclusion. > > Our system encourages talkers rather than doers. We think this makes us > "argumentative" and democratic, but what this actually makes us is > obstructionist rather than problem solvers. Our politics is about > name-calling and running others down, not about doing something yourself.A > Narasimha Rao and a Vajpayee who achieved something are voted out; a > UPA-1 which did little beyond distributing taxpayers' resources is voted in. > > This is one reason why we celebrate the rare achievers so highly: TN > Seshan, who armed the Election Commission with real teeth, Vinod Rai, who > made CAG a household name, and E Sreedharan, the former boss of the Delhi > Metro. And yet, we find the political class carping about them and calling > them dictators. > > This is also the reason why we prefer autocratic rulers rather than > democratic ones: we know we talk more than we act. To get things done, we > prefer an autocrat to rule over us rather than exercise self-discipline as > democrats. All our successful political parties are one-person shows. The > latest heading in that direction is BJP - which was all talk and no > achievement for 10 years in opposition till Narendra Modi came along and > was lauded for being a doer. > > If leaders emerge from our system, it's due to a historical accident. As > Ramchandra Guha points out in his book Patriots and Partisans, if Lal > Bahadur Shastri had lived five more years, Indira Gandhi would not have > been PM and Sonia Gandhi would still be a housewife. > > We are risk-avoiders rather than risk takers. This is why we prescribe > endless paperwork and bureaucracy for simple things like opening a bank > account or buying a mobile phone connection. A terrorist would have used an > untraceable mobile number - after which every Indian buying a mobile will > be put through hoops to prove he is a bonafide consumer. This does not > catch any terrorist, but the idea is for officials to avoid the risk that > fingers will be pointed at you saying you did nothing to prevent terrorism. > So orders will be issued to tighten the system and make things worse for > everybody. > > A scam will happen somewhere. Suddenly files stop moving in every > ministry. Forest clearances will take ages - or never happen. The risk of > being seen as doing something wrong is great. And so the buck is passed to > someone else in the system. > > Sonia and Rahul want to be seen as do-gooders. So the dirty work of reform > will be handed over to Manmohan Singh - who is another risk-avoider. He > will do nothing and allow the A Rajas to loot the exchequer rather than do > his job. Doing nothing is safer than asking tough questions of his babus or > ministers. > > The BJP and other opposition leaders know that populist laws like the Food > Security and Land Acquisition laws will damage the fiscal balance. But they > too avoid risks by keeping quiet when wrong laws are passed. > > As a people, we are risk-avoiders as well. We know the IITs and IIMs are > the way to big jobs. So when our kids want to become artists or cricketers, > we tell them to forget it and study for IIT-JEE or CAT, never mind your own > passion. > > Our engineers stop being engineers and start coding; they then opt for > doing an MBA and become lousy man managers. Meanwhile, our engineering > companies are starved of engineers. > > We are simply unable to tolerate success. If Modi talks about a Gujarat > model, everybody has to bring it down. If Rahul claims his government's > biggest achievement is the RTI, everyone will belittle it. If Chidambaram > claims high growth as UPA's success, the Left will say this growth is not > helping the poor. If we say poverty has reduced, others will say it hasn't. > If it has, our definition of poverty must be wrong. > > We celebrate mediocrity, rather than excellence. Our system kills > initiative rather than engender it. We want pliable yes-men and > non-achievers around us, not non-conformists and people with ideas of their > own. > > Our successes are more the result of accident than real effort. The 1991 > external bankruptcy forced us to reform and liberalise. Manmohan Singh's > reformism ended with that accident. Another accident made him PM in 2004, > but he did little to use this chance to reform further. We are paying the > price for his risk-aversion. > > A Satya Nadella, who is from Manipal , would never have made it big in > India since he is not from the IITs. But even IITians don't flower much in > an Indian corporate or academic environment; they leave India and prefer > working with foreign firms. > > If Satya Nadella had remained in India, he would probably be working as a > coder in Infosys or TCS. Earning a high salary no doubt, but an unlikely > candidate for CEO. > > > > Read more about Satya Nadella : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Nadella > > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > AYUSH Big Achievement! : Soon Tribal Community will get Intellectual > Property Rights for Warli Art, Its in final Stage now (know more at > www.warli.in) > > Subscribe AYUSH YouTube Channel (Viewed more than 1,20,000 minutes): > http://www.youtube.com/user/adiyuva?sub_confirmation=1 > > Learn More about AYUSH online at : > http://www.adiyuva.in/2013/10/ayush.html > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "AYUSH | adivasi yuva shakti" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to adiyuva+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to adiyuva@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/adiyuva. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/adiyuva/4187ac3f-84d8-4275-a445-b189517ce82e%40googlegroups.com > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- AYUSH Big Achievement! : Soon Tribal Community will get Intellectual Property Rights for Warli Art, Its in final Stage now (know more at www.warli.in) Subscribe AYUSH YouTube Channel (Viewed more than 1,20,000 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/user/adiyuva?sub_confirmation=1 Learn More about AYUSH online at : http://www.adiyuva.in/2013/10/ayush.html --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AYUSH | adivasi yuva shakti" group. 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