Spreading educational support by Engineering institutes

It is irony that country with very low number of graduates is suffering from vacant seats at engineering colleges. This is because there is shortage of proper educational facilities  and awareness at primary and secondary level of education, specially in districts. Though some of the educational groups like Techno have downward linkages like Schools. But there is need of more awareness.

These institutes should organise more discussions and seminars in district towns by engaging local schools and educational institutes to increase awareness about the prospective careers among the prospective students and guardians. They can also advertise various scholarships offered by them for meritorious students.

Better awareness about the careers and scholarships will influence the students and guardians in districts towns to focus in right direction and help the colleges to attract more students.

Reviving Economy

The commodity crash is the indication of severe recession looming. Some countries exporting commodities are in dire straits and demand de-growth affecting the exports of manufacturing. This can be used as a blessing in disguise for the Indian Economy. We must not let the opportunity go by and just involve in scoring brownie points.

It is no secret that our budget for education is very low. We must also not underestimate the growth in per-capita income for educated class. Thus we spend a little more without having much impact on fiscal positions.

Further, it is well known that interest outgo for both states and union government is the biggest expenditure in budgets. On the other hand, both states and union governments own large number of merchant establishments apart from PSUs, both listed and unlisted. It makes sense to sell these assets to pay off debts to minimise the interest outgo. It is easier said than done, given the capacity of Indian Private Sector and overall leftist mind set of masses.

But some serious beginning has to be done. We have seen the listing of some PSUs despite the opposition. We have seen gradual privatisation of ICICI, HDFC and UTI. Thus, it is possible given the will at the establishment.

To begin with, both states and union governments should identify companies, which want to grow and offer them the option of divestment and fresh raising of capital. This will help the government to secure the support of top management of these companies. Further, investors should be assured that they have say in appointing independent directors. This can be done by having voting rights to non-government shareholders for at least half of the independent directors. This will make the PSU disinvestments attractive for prospective investors. More presence of private sector (not just family owned) will change the public mind set too.

At present, companies like NTPC can raise funds to takeover distressed private sector power companies. Even companies like ONGC, OIL and oil marketing companies may raise funds to acquire cheap oil assets overseas.

At domestic level, we need more cities well connected by air, road and rail for spreading IT companies all over the country to boost domestic demand.

We must act fast to seize the opportunity.