Leader dares to inspire social change

Freelance writer JANE MILBURN meets supercop Kiran Bedi during a study tour to India

There is no room in Dr Kiran Bedi’s head for negative thoughts. As an agent of change working with the rural poor in India, Dr Bedi focuses single-mindedly on a positive future and how she can do things better today than yesterday.

“Literally here and now, you need to be a traffic manager in your mind and drive your own self,” Dr Bedi told Course 16 of the Australian Rural Leadership Program during a study tour to India earlier this year.

“This is not theory. You need to practise every day – being conscious every moment, here and now, you are literally listening to yourself, observing yourself and monitoring yourself. If a negative thought comes there is no room for it because it gets surmounted by the rest of the positive energy that says – there is no place for you, get out. You need to be continually steering yourself. It is a very conscious habit and you nurture it by good reading, good deeds, good environment and doing the right thing,” she said. Breaking new ground and searching for innovative ways around challenges and obstacles has been the story of Dr Bedi’s life – from student to tennis champion, senior police officer, prison leader, social justice campaigner, motivator and social change agent.

In her book I Dare!, Dr Bedi outlines how she resolutely faced obstacles placed by powerful opposing forces and emerged stronger after each ordeal, including her stymied quest to become the first woman commissioner of Delhi Police and her appointment instead as inspector general of prisons at Tihar Jail in New Delhi.

From her descriptions of breakfast with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to hugs from Mother Theresa, Dr Bedi tells her story of innovative and reformative policing and is a compelling lesson in positivity and commitment to the greater good.

In approaching any problem, Dr Bedi advises looking over, under and around it. As a reformist police and prison leader, she applied herself to thinking about crime solutions. This eventually led to the setting up of Navjyoti India Foundation, to help the impoverished move towards self-reliance through skills and opportunities.

ARLP course 16 visited Navjyoti (meaning, new light) based at Gurgaon, on Sohna Block south of Delhi, to observe its work with women and children in disadvantaged rural communities.

Through the integrated community, women and rural development programs, Navjyoti is providing education, skills, mentoring and support to enable and empower.

“This program is the product of an attitude to crime prevention because I started this when I was a serving cop in 1987. It was a solution to a problem, the problem of drug abuse – the problem of children involved in drug peddling, problem of women and drug traffickers, and the problem of police officers and women,” Dr Bedi said.

“I had a whole constituency of drug addicts who were committing crimes and here I was, a cop who was charged with preventing crimes. The drug addict is a problem to me because he is an addict. If I catch him and send him to jail for five days, his drug abuse is not gone, he comes back with more friends in prison where he linked up with robbers and thieves. I am only increasing my problem by sending him in there. Something in me thought there must be a better approach.”

“Navjyoti was born from that – it was a problem-solving approach. You have got to break the cycle of crime – crime, drugs, jail, bail and back to crime. You have to get to the root of the problem.”

Dr Bedi’s solution was to set up drug abuse centres for men, vocational training centres for women and schools for children to help people deal with crime-related problems. Crime fell by 50 percent.

“I didn’t read it in a text book, I had a problem and I looked for a solution,” she said.

“The police station became a healing centre and people started to flock there for treatment. I had a huge number of volunteers I could ask for help because it was a selfless asking. All I did was put up a big barrack and the centre was ready.

I was surprised, but all the good deeds and good intentions started to give rewards”.

“After two years, I was to be transferred and people thought I had to institutionalise this work. Navjyoti was born in 1988 out of people’s demand, not my intention. For five years we operated with no government grant and I would cash in my goodwill cheques. I would tell people, I am doing this for them, what can you do?”

Dr Bedi says the ongoing success of Navjyoti requires it to be absolutely transparent, participatory, truly democratic and totally directed to always looking for solutions and not stopping at the problem.

“It is reaching out to the problem, not waiting for the problem to come. Our rule is to start from the field, don’t start from the office. Reach out where your instinct takes you,” she said.

In a nation where men own the land and still control most of the opportunities, Navjyoti supports disadvantaged women and children to be the best that they can be.

Reflecting on her creative and positive approach to life, Dr Bedi says some are born with a positive mental attitude and some acquire it.

“I was born with it and never unlearned it. My approach is to think about how I can do better than yesterday, not how I can defeat people. I have to be a winner for myself and work out how to do it”.

Dr Bedi’s story has been captured in an award-winning documentary Yes Madam Sir by Australian film-maker Megan Doneman http://www.yesmadamsir.com/

Kiran Bedi’s philosophy of life

Kiran Bedi outlined her convictions on life in one of her books I Dare!, which is in its second reprint in 2010 after being firstpublished in 1995. Below is a short extract. On childhood Values learnt as a child stay on, unless consciously and persistently unlearnt.

On life Birth, being by destiny or accidental, should be considered a basis for take-off and not for relaxation or repentance.

On time management Time management and value for time learnt as a child are two of the most valuable assets earned early in life.

On women As long as women continue to be in a position of receiving rather than giving, they shall continue to bear injustice.

On controversy Decision making, in certain situations, is always controversial. The only way one can avoid this is to take NO decisions and leave the problem as it is. Seniors who do not solve a problem become a part of the problem themselves.

On leadership Leadership is a trait that entails responsibility, not merely a position. It is a workshop for doing things and getting things done.

Tough times go, but the tough stay on. On service Service in government is a service of trust. Anyone not doing all that should be done is liable for prosecution for breach of trust.

On the police One of the strongest safeguards of democracy is a professional and humane police service.

Jane Milburn is being sponsored on ARLP by Rural Press Ltd.

catches up with OP Bhatt, Chairman of the State Bank of India who was in Sydney recently

Most people would expect the stereotypical banker to have one of two different looks: pin-striped suit, sharp tie and slick-back hair with a touch of white (think Gordon Gecko), or slightly overweight with rosy cheeks and a mop of white hair (think conservative British).

OP Bhatt, the Chairman of India’s largest bank, the State Bank of India, fits neither of the two appearance codes.

Tall, lean, with thick peppery hair, he looks more like a university academic than the man in charge of the bank which proudly states that “every Indian has banked with it”. But when he starts speaking and reels off facts and figures about India’s economic potential and its accelerated growth fuelled by increasing consumption demands of the middle class, Bhatt mesmerizes the listeners. One can well imagine the power this man wields as he works out multi billion dollar deals between India’s largest owned government bank and the exciting opportunities available to foreign investors in a country which he himself believes will be in the top 5 in the world by 2020.

Om Prakash Bhatt, the Chairman of the State Bank of India, was in Australia recently to attend his first board meeting with the Insurance Australia Group (IAG). The State Bank of India with its 80,000 distribution points has recently tied up with IAG to sell general insurance in India. Even as he was in Sydney, the SBI – IAG joint venture had sold their first general insurance policy in India.

Speaking to Indian Link, Mr Bhatt expressed satisfaction with his new partners. In what is widely acknowledged as an excellent deal for the SBI, IAG paid a share premium of Rs 400 crores for its 26% stake in the joint venture.

“India is an exciting place to invest and IAG won this business after beating off strong competition from other overseas general insurance companies. With the Indian middle class market to grow and with the distribution might of the State Bank, there is a very compelling story for people to partner with us”, Bhatt said in an exclusive interview with Indian Link. “We undertook a global tender, did our due diligence, our risk and technological analysis and found that IAG was a good fit for our expansion in this area. We are extremely pleased with the way this relationship is progressing,” he said.

While IAG was the main reason for his visit, his time was also taken up with the Macquarie Group Ltd.

Through MGL, State Bank has created a US $2 billion foreign investment fund to invest in infrastructure products in India.

“Again, we did a world wide search and found that the Macquarie Group with their expertise in infrastructure funds had a unique ability which we were keen to tap. We have already met our subscription levels for this fund; we will be looking at other options in the future. As you are aware, India’s needs for infrastructure are enormous”, he said.

“The Indian economy is growing and it is the people who are driving this economy. It is their aspiration to do the impossible. The Indian mind set is very young; of the 1.2 billion population, 60-70% are below the age of 35. These youngsters are in a hurry, they want the best of everything yesterday, not today or tomorrow.

The Indian Premier League is one such example which has galvanised people.

“Never has an idea been put into place so quickly in India. It was a native idea which now has given birth to an exciting competition which the world wants to copy,” he had earlier stated at a public dinner at the Hilton Hotel.

In the same speech, he also praised the Indian political leadership. “Politically speaking, India is very stable. We have some of our wisest leaders at the helm and they have the correct attitude towards reform. Due to this economic opportunities are coming up all across the country. Small and medium enterprises are booming in India as India becomes a manufacturing hub. India is praised for great growth and greater employment opportunities”, he told the hushed hall of over 300 business leaders.

Later speaking to Indian Link, he agreed that the Indian businesses, Indian banks and Indian government need to move faster to take advantage of the global opportunities.

“India is already doing it in the areas of coal and gas, the Steel Authority of India is also exploring international opportunities. We need to understand that India is a democracy and though it takes time to move, they do move forward in a sustainable and sensible way,” he said.

Mr. Bhatt was scathing in his comments about big bonuses paid to bankers on Wall Street.

“If bonuses are structured in a manner that performances will be driven only by them, then those organisations are at risk and it is a recipe for disaster. The other issue is how much money can you pay to an individual at the top - you hear of stories of people being paid hundreds of millions of dollars so what is it that the person brings other than sitting at the top” he said. “I am saying this from the Indian experience because the Indian public sector is paid peanuts compared to these Wall Street bankers and yet the Indian banking sector has stood out at this time of crisis as an island of stability and success at the times of the global financial crisis,” he added.

And because of these qualities, not a single seat was empty on his Monday night speech to Australian business leaders at the Hilton Hotel. This spoke volumes of not only India’s allure to these business leaders, but also to the respect and awe in which the Chairman of the State Bank of India is held even in Australia.

“Killing machine Kasab deserves death”

Ajmal Amir Kasab is “Satan, a devil” and “a killing machine” and deserves the death penalty, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the court a day after the Pakistani terrorist was held guilty in the 26/11 terror mayhem in Mumbai.

India’s quest for justice for its most wounding terror attack culminated recently with a special court pronouncing Pakistani Ajmal Amir Kasab guilty on all 86 counts for the 26/11 slaughter, while acquitting the two Indian co-accused - Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed.

Winding up the year-long trial into the Nov 26-29 terror siege of Mumbai that ended with 166 Indians and foreigners getting killed and 244 injured, Special Judge M.L. Tahaliyani also found the involvement of 20 other Pakistanis.

Among them were Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed and Abu Hamza, three of the men who used a complex network of agents and killers to mastermind a terror attack that shocked the world.

Kasab, 23, the lone Pakistani captured alive during the Mumbai carnage, was held guilty under nine Indian laws for murder, waging war on India and a litany of other crimes. He listened attentively with his head bowed while Tahaliyani read out the 1,522-page verdict for almost three hours in a special courtroom in the high-security Arthur Road Jail.

His conviction was based on CCTV footage showing him striding across the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus with an AK47 and a backpack. The prosecution had called 653 witnesses to testify against the LeT operative born to poverty in a village in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

The judge ruled that Kasab was guilty of directly killing seven people and a total of 59 with associate Abu Ismail, who was shot dead after running into a police picket at Girgaun Chowpatty early Nov 27 - shortly after the terror assault began in the heart of India’s financial capital on the night of Nov 26.

Kasab, who faces a possible death sentence, sat through the hearing quietly, witnesses said. When the judge read out the guilty verdict, Kasab listened with his head bowed. Judge Tahaliyani then asked the defence counsel to explain the details to Kasab.

The process of sentencing had begun as this paper went to press.

Indians Ansari, 36, and Ahmed, 25, also showed no emotion as they were absolved of involvement in the attack that derailed relations between New Delhi Islamabad.

Ansari, from Goregaon, and Ahmed, from Madhubani in Bihar, had been charged with conspiracy by preparing maps of the targeted locations in Mumbai and handing them to LeT operatives.

While Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily extolled the trial as a “victory for the judiciary, a victory for the country”, his colleague Home Minister P. Chidambaram said it underlined that India was a “country governed by rule of law”.

“The judgment is itself a message to Pakistan that they should not export terror to India...,” Chidambaram said in New Delhi, adding the acquittal showed the “independence and integrity” of the Indian judicial process.

“The tragic dastardly incident of 26/11 has really disturbed the psyche of the entire nation. The manner in which the trial was held, the manner in which witnesses have been examined, it is one of the outstanding cases,” Moily said. “As far as this case (is concerned)... this is a victory for justice, this is a victory for the country,” the minister told reporters.

pride”.

“The terror attack had shaken our pride and we had decided that we would not spare anybody. I welcome the judgement,” Patil told reporters.

Questioned about the acquittal of Indians Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, Patil said the duo got the “benefit of doubt” in the case. “However, after the final judgement is received, the government will take appropriate steps in the matter,” Patil said.

Special Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam was taken aback by the release of the two Indians. He said the acquittal would be challenged in the higher courts.

He maintained that Ansari and Ahmed were “notorious terrorists” and active members of the LeT.

The judge accepted the 42-page confession Kasab had given after his arrest. Kasab had later sought to deny his involvement, but the judge was not swayed by the half-hearted denials.

Besides various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Kasab faced charges under the Explosives Act, Arms Act, Passport Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Properties Act, Customs Act, Explosive Substances Act, Bombay Police Act, Foreigners Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The 60-hour audacious attack that began on the night of Nov 26, 2008 and went on till

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, the iconic Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, the nearby Hotel Oberoi-Trident, the Cama Hospital and the Chabad House, a Jewish prayer centre, and Leopold Café, a hangout popular with Indians and foreigners.

“We want to see Kasab hanged!” was the dominant sentiment in Mumbai after a Special Court pronounced Kasab guilty of murder in the 26/11 terror attack.

Almost 18 months later, survivors and family members of those who were killed said judgment day had left them satisfied.

Survivors of the traumatic Nov 26-29 mayhem as well as family members and friends of those killed in the attack greeted the guilty verdict against the Pakistani.

Everyone was insistent that no leniency should be shown to the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist, and most were rooting for death sentence. Deepak, son of assistant subinspector Balasaheb Bhonsale who was killed, said: “No pity should be taken on him. His death is the only way to pay tribute to those policemen who laid their lives fighting the terrorists.”

Manasi Shinde, widow of a senior railway police inspector who was killed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, was confident Kasab would get the death sentence.

“I am glad Kasab was found guilty. I will be at peace only after the punishment to is out and the accused (Kasab) has been found guilty, I want to see him hanged to death,” he said. “He killed my sister’s husband at CST.”

Among other things, Kasab has been found guilty of killing 59 people directly and indirectly in the carnage that saw 166 Indians and foreigners slaughtered. Another 294 people were injured, many seriously.

Ragini S. Sharma, widow of another slain railway officer, Sushilkumar Sharma, added: “This is what Kasab deserves. But the verdict will be acceptable only if it is a death sentence.”

The lawyer fraternity reacted similarly when it came to the verdict against Kasab, but on the acquittal of Ansari and Ahmed, they were reserved in their comments.

“Special Judge M.L. Tahaliyani is a very respectable judge. I am sure there were very convincing reasons to acquit them,” said Abad Ponda, an eminent criminal lawyer.

Another criminal lawyer, Samsher Garud, said he saw the acquittal of Ansari and Ahmed coming. “There were no eyewitnesses or direct evidence. This was bound to happen”.

“As for Kasab, there has to be a death sentence. We might be setting a wrong precedent otherwise,” added Garud.

Madhuri’s acts caused “no security compromise”

A junior Indian diplomat Madhuri Gupta has been arrested on charges of passing on information to the Pakistan intelligence agency on April 27. According to officials, she came under suspicion months ago and was called to Delhi on the pretext of helping to prepare for the SAARC summit that ended in Bhutan recently.

However Gupta has denied the charges, claiming she is being framed.

According to a police official, Gupta said she was not a senior officer and could not have passed on sensitive information to her contacts in Pakistan where she was posted in the Indian High Commission. But she had revealed the identities of Indian undercover agents in Pakistan.

Madhuri Gupta was a lonely spinster with a taste for life’s good and extravagant things. She also bore a grudge against her superiors. So when she got a chance to work on her Urdu language skills at the Indian mission in Islamabad, exposing her to virulent anti-India propaganda from rightwing Pakistani media, it didn’t take long for the junior Indian diplomat to turn against her own country. Piecing together information from her confessions and a dissection of her e-mails, interrogators have profiled a woman who fell for blandishments and non-financial lures to sell her country’s secrets as she indulged in her weaknesses. The 53-year-old, who was second secretary in the press and information section at the Indian High Commission at Islamabad, also saw it as an opportunity to get even with her bosses at the external affairs ministry who would not even grant her paid study leave she thought she was entitled to.

So she used her knowledge of Urdu to familiarise herself with the issues that bedevil bilateral issues, kept her eyes and ears wide open for the vital and the trivial and made frequents trips to New Delhi to bring herself up to speed with the current thinking on Pakistan, giving her insights from what she was able to gather on the peace dialogue, SAARC, terrorism and military issues.

She also visited LOC in the Kashmir region only weeks ago.

But just as curiosity killed the cat, her “unusual” eagerness to inform herself about military matters of concern to Pakistan earned the suspicion of the defence attache’s office at the Indian High Commission who then trapped her with false leads that ultimately led to her undoing and her arrest.

“It was this undue curiosity of things that did not concern her that proved her undoing,” said a well-informed source with access to her interrogators’ reports.

But it is yet unclear what Gupta got from her handlers, who included members of Pakistan’s Intelligence Bureau leading perhaps up to the notorious Inter-Services Intelligence, as her bank accounts have not revealed any unusual transactions or large deposits.

“She does not seem to have done this either for money or love,” the sources said, adding that the jury was still out on her and more secrets might come out in the course of further interrogation and investigation.

The possibility of Gupta acting as she did just to “get back” at her “tormentors” in the MEA is not altogether being ruled out, but the gravity of her actions and the sustained period of several months for which she played the mole for the Pakistanis is making counter-intelligence authorities here delve further. They are hoping that the reading of her computer hard disc would throw up more evidence and clues.

There is little doubt that the Pakistanis played on her psychological insecurities: a lonely woman, with no parents, her only sibling a brother not much in contact; a woman who drank and ate heavily, had flamboyant tastes in clothes and jewellery and was susceptible to pampering with personal gifts.

Her knowledge of Urdu that exposed her to major Pakistani newspapers, particularly papers like the Nawa-i-Waqt, owned by Majid Nizami, widely believed to be connected to Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed also with known links to the ISI, proved potent motivational influences for her, officials said.

However, it is unlikely that she was able to pass on reports of any significant or sensitive nature other than the high commission’s activities, and till now there is no indication that there has been any serious security compromise or that important documents were traded, knowledgeable sources added.

A thorough study of her mails revealed that she was a “faithful reporter” of the events and schedules at the Indian High Commission, giving daily and weekly reports of the engagements of the high commissioner and other staff and other schedules which she diligently kept track of.

“We are pretty certain that no serious damage to India’s security interests have been caused (by her transgressions),” a senior security official admitted, speaking with full knowledge and authority.

“To the best of our knowledge, she has not passed on a single document to her handlers,” the official said. “Most of what she said was pretty routine stuff.”

Gupta, a member of the secondary cadre known as Indian Foreign Service-B, was employed as an Urdu translator who also mixed with Pakistan’s Urdu media journalists by being in the media department of the mission. She had earlier worked with the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a foreign policy think tank, besides missions in Kuala Lumpur and Baghdad, before she was posted to Islamabad. She had then shown great keenness to go to Pakistan citing her fluency in Urdu.

The official said certain sections of the media, particularly TV, were having a free run in their speculation of what Gupta was up to and how much of India’s security may have been compromised by her actions, but said given the sensitive nature of the issue little can be done to counter what were essentially “blatant falsehoods and half-truths”.

He said the electronic media was only “feeding on itself” and was trying to make things as dramatic and salacious as possible in their familiar game to garner TRPs.

In parliament, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said Gupta did not have access to highly classified material but investigations were continuing and she was cooperating with her questioners.

“I rise to inform this august house that as a result of our counter intelligence effort, we had reason to believe that an official in the high commission of India in Islamabad had been passing information to the Pakistan intelligence agencies,” the minister said in a statement in the Lok Sabha.

“The position occupied by the official did not involve access to highly classified material. The official is cooperating with us in our enquiries. At this stage, for national security reasons, it is not possible to divulge more detail about the information that may have been compromised or to comment on this case as our investigations are continuing,” she added.

IGNOU to waive fees of sex workers, street children

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), one of the world’s largest universities, has decided to waive the fee of sex workers and street children enrolling for its courses to help them become educated and empowered.

Disclosing this at a media meet recently, IGNOU Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai said the university’s Kolkata Regional Centre ran a study centre at Durbar Mahila Samannya Samiti, an organisation of 65,000 sex workers, to educate them as also their wards.

He said the university has recently tied up with the Cochin International Airport Authority to conduct focused management courses in aviation and airport infrastructure and technology, after realising there was a paucity of aviation industry professionals.

He said, “The University had been working on a series of new and path-breaking ideas to meet the diverse and often daunting expectations of a large number of learners who cannot afford to acquire education from a conventional university. Many of the new programmes are being expressly aligned to the needs of industry.”

Pillai said IGNOU was very keen to reach out to the victims of violence and help them resurrect their lives through education.

It has also started a short term training programme for school head masters of the Sunderban region initially on a pilot basis to develop skills of the concerned to serve more effectively.

Pillai said the placement cell of the university was gearing up to meet employability demand through planned industry presentations and contact drives, and by working out a system of enhancing communication and personality skills, which have been identified as key need areas for several students.

Is the new school evaluation system adding to stress?

Is the government’s new move to make education more meaningful and less academics-oriented adding to the burden of the already stressed child? Most students feel so, but there are also supporters who say “just give it some time”.

CCE, or Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation as the new system is called, is a pet hate word of Apoorva Ghosh. A Class 9 student of a leading public school, Apoorva hates CCE for the “shackles” it has put around him - daily studies, endless projects, surprise tests and, what is worse according to him, he can’t talk and joke loudly with friends any more.

“CCE, CCE...I detest this new method,” mutters Apoorva, a fun-loving boy, as he toils through daily studies and hurries to finish a pending Hindi project. He has just handed over a mathematics project, and “has no time to breathe” as he has to finish the Hindi project.

“What is worse, now teachers openly warn us, ‘If we see you with your shirt outside your trouser we will give you low grades’, or ‘If you shout or speak loudly, we will reduce your grades’,” recounts the 14-year-old.

His mother Madhumita told IANS: “The new method has pushed my child into sitting for hours and studying or finishing projects

Continue on page 26 every day. He is quite a laidback student, but now I find him scrambling to finish his work, he doesn’t want low CCE grades. The pressure is certainly there on the child to perform.”

Launched by Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal last year in a move to do away with purely academics-based studies and the Class 10 board examinations of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the CCE also aims to include the child’s talents as in singing, theatre, debating and art as part of the assessment.

It does away with the marking system, replacing it with grades. Like - A1 for 91-100 marks, A2 for 81-90, B1- for 71-80, and so on till D - 33-40 marks - and finally E2 - 0-20 marks.

However, this has had a welcome fallout for Rishabh Krishnan, a Class 10 student of Apeejay School, Noida. His delighted mother Jayanti said, “The CCE has some good effects too. My son is an average student, but since the CCE takes other factors into consideration, he has got A2s in his report card, which feels so great.”

On the flip side, there are the bright children who are unhappy with the grading system. “Now there is no difference between a student who gets 100 and 91, both get an A1. What’s the use of killing ourselves studying to become top scorers?” wonders Sangeeta Chibber, a Class 9 student of a public school who has always been topping her class till now.

Under CCE, each term will have two Formative Assessments, which includes grading on the projects, the surprise tests, behaviour of the child, extra-curricular activities and the school unit test - based on

50 marks, and a Summative Assessment or a term examination - based on 50 marks. While the schools have implemented the CBSE scheme and the teachers and students are grappling with the new method, most parents are at sea.

“My daughter now speaks in abbreviations like, ‘Our FA-1 begins next week and after that we will have FA-2, and the SA will be in September’. When I asked her what it means, she got impatient and said I should know it!” said Joyita Mathur, the mother of a Class 9 girl.

For teachers, the CCE means devising new methods of drawing the child’s talents out and thinking of interesting projects.

“It has just kicked off, but in the long run it is good for the child because now the child is graded for extra-curricular activities. So even if the child is poor in academics but good in sports or singing, that will fetch the child good grades. Academics is not everything under the new system,” said a teacher at a public school declining to be named.

An enthusiastic votary of the new system is Usha Subramaniam, a parent. “Initially, such things take time to settle down and there is resentment, but just wait and watch, it will do wonders for the education system.”

Bill passed for mandatory care to emergency patients

The Lok Sabha recently passed a bill that will make it mandatory for doctors, hospital and other clinical establishments to treat emergency patients and not turn them away on baseless excuses.

The Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill, 2010, was moved by Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in the lower house of parliament, which passed the bill, amidst din and vociferous protests by the opposition members over allocation of 2G spectrum.

The legislation makes obligatory for clinical establishments to provide treatment and stabilise anyone who comes in an “emergency medical condition”.

The legislation also sets up a national council which will classify, determine and develop standards of clinical establishments and also develop standards.

Besides, with registration of clinical establishments to be made mandatory, the council will also compile and pubic a national register.

As per the text, the bill, once passed, will apply to all clinical establishments belonging to any recognised systems of medicine, as well as single doctor establishments with or without beds.

Each state will set up a multi-member state council of clinical establishments, while the registering authority will be a multi-member body at the district level.

There will be two types of registrationprovisional and permanent, which will be provided after standards have been notified.

The legislation also ensures that all transactions under its purview would be transparent and in the public domain.

India has great media potential: FT

The Financial Times (FT), among the world’s leading business newspapers, is looking for opportunities in the Indian market as the country holds a “great potential” for print and other news media.

“India holds great potential for print and news media,” said John Ridding, FT chief executive officer, adding that his organisation is trying to breach into the Indian market as well as the other emerging markets of the world.

Addressing a session on ‘The Internet and the Crisis Confronting the News Media’, organised by the Aspen Institute India and the FT recently, Ridding said the potential for India in terms of print, television and internet media is immense.

“The amalgamation of the three can not only regain the readership that is being lost to the new forms of digital media, but it could also be the next big innovation since the printing press,” he said.

He emphasised that the internet can bring back the era of true journalism as it is hardly affected by the external pressures such as advertising and corporate partnerships.

Internet journalism can help achieve transparency in issues such as elections, governance and corruption, three of the major issues affecting the interaction between media and the people of India, he said.

“Internet does not hold to any national boundary which allows it to be one of the greatest mediums of information sharing. Businesses should change their models and tweak their strategies in order to achieve a better market share.

What publication corporations could not provide, the internet could. The cost of news and information on the Internet has always been free and thus more appealing to a majority of readers. In recent years, the internet has become the primary choice as it provides a platform for direct engagement between the readers and the journalists unlike in the print media,” he said.

According to him, the internet is a tool that corporations need to harness rather than shun.