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At Random
Rambler
Domestic death, global trap
With liberalisation of the economy, the domestic private industrial sector has witnessed a maximum number of closures, retrenchments and lay-offs during 2002. An analysis of the statistics in this regard reveals that out of 213 closures, 211 were in the private sector while two were in the public sector. As many as 10,025 workers were affected by these closures, whereby 9,991 workers belonging to the private sector and 32 workers to the Central were affected. The largest number of 93 closures were reported from Uttar Pradesh. The maximum number of closures took place in industries manufacturing basic metals. As many as 98 retrenchments were reported during 2002 of which 80 per cent were in the private sector; 35 per cent of retrenchments were reportedly caused by lack of demand for products and the remaining retrenchments were due to financial stringency, breakdown of machinery and other factors. The retrenchments affected 2,279 workers in the private sector and 1,596 workers in the public sector. More than 27.84 lakh man-days were lost due to 249 cases of lay-offs affecting 30,030 workers; 80 per cent lay-off cases took place in the private sector, 16 per cent in the public sector and the remaining 4 per cent in the cooperative sector.
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Central Vigilance Commissioner, P. Shankar is away on a month's foreign visit.
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The Director-level posts are now no more the exclusive rights of IAS officials only. The officials from other services have also started trying to make it difficult for the IAS to get one.
Sarkari communalism
Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh is putting all his sarkari effort to woo the Muslims as his ministry has now constituted a Standing Committee under the National Monitoring Committee for Minorities? Education (NMCME). This committee will study reports of previous committees, which have gone into the issues of minority education and welfare and suggest ways and means to implement the recommendations/conclusions of these committees. It will advise the NMCME on terms of reference of the Committee for Minorities Education proposed to be set up to provide affiliation of minority institutions to Central universities. It will suggest contemporary approaches towards modernisation of traditional institutions like the madrasas.
This Standing Committee comprises of Zafar Ali Naqvi, former minister, government of Uttar Pradesh as chairman; Prof. Prithipal Singh Lapur, former Pro-VC, Guru Nanak Dev University as member; Dr M. Ishaq Jamkhanawala, president, Anjuman-e-Islam as member; R. Chenraj Jain, chairman, Shri Bhagwan Mahavir College, Bangalore as member; Maulana Anzar Shah, Vice-Chancellor, Waqf Dar-ul-Uloom University, Deoband as member; Maulana Mohammad Wali Rehmani, of Bihar as member; Hisam Siddiqui, editor, Jadeed Markaz (weekly) as member; general secretary, All India Association for Christian Higher Education, as member; joint secretary, Planning, Department of Secondary and Higher Education, MHRD as member secretary.
Red tape economy
Due to red tapism in the government, around 300 Central projects, each costing Rs 100 crores and above are running behind schedule increasing the cost of projects by about 25 per cent. According to sectoral analysis, these infrastructural projects in 14 different sectors were originally estimated to cost Rs 201,286.19 crore but the amount later rose to Rs 224,226.89 crore. Among these 14 sectors, Lalu?s Ministry of Railways has the maximum number of 113 projects, followed by Road Transport and Highways which has 83 and the power sector has 51. As per the Flash Report on these projects for the month of July 2004, the currently anticipated cost amounts to Rs 246,793.93 crore, representing an increase of nearly 25 per cent. The cost overrun has been the maximum in the case of power sector with nearly Rs 19,000 crore and this is followed by Railways with Rs 15,000 crore. Except for fertilisers, steel, petroleum, power, health and family welfare, the percentage of achievement in the remaining nine sectors has been almost nil.
Arjun's NCERT choice
Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has appointed Prof. Krishna Kumar, professor, Central Institute of Education, Delhi University as the new Director of NCERT. According to official orders his tenure will be for a period of five years from the date he assumes office, or until further orders, whichever is earlier. In 2003, the Delhi government appointed Prof. Kumar as Chief Advisor to the NCERT for preparation and publication of new textbooks in all subjects for Classes I to VIII. But the irony is that even today, the Delhi government school students are in search of books as these are not available in the market. What is most amusing is that there were great lapses in history books prepared under his ?able? guidance. Now it is NCERT?s turn.
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