Why Isn't India's Economic Progress Steady?

Indian economy has brief and intermittent periods of growth and going back. The growth periods would be periods of liberalization or other economic reforms. During these growth periods the persons closely associated with this growth amass great fortunes of their own and disappear or they continue to be in the administration for a few more years. When things begin to come out exposing them, the economy reverts to its former position of stillness. But within that time a considerable portion of national wealth would have reached Switzerland, the Kay Islands or the Bahamas. Therefore, paradoxically, it is wise for India to have no such periods of growth. India’s money and India’s resources would stay in India by not growing this way. No economic growth of India has ever stayed with the people or has advanced the country’s economy at least through a decade. There is no dearth of economic planners in India. The simple way the Indian authorities find to escape from the allegation of too many people remaining below the poverty line there is to draw the line further below 23 rupees per day and move others to the ‘above poverty line’. It is that simple. And this discovery of an Indian family living well with 23 rupees per day having the middle class status was made by the Planning Commission of India whose members live in delusion and who spend 23 lakh rupees for renovating just three lavatories in their headquarters! They roam the world capitals for gathering information and holding discussions on how to plan India! How much far can an Indian official go to live with people’s money and cheat the nation? This Commission is the finest example. What planning did they do in all these years? It is they who planned tele-conferencing for overall co-ordination of development. Why don’t they themselves tele-confer instead of touring the world? There is this story of an ancient Indian prime minister who served Chandragupta Maurya. His name was Chaanakya who was the person who discovered Chandragupta from anonymity, trained him in war techniques, enabled him to defeat his co-brother and emperor Nandagupta and become himself an emperor. It was him who formulated the laws and rules for administering a model nation which later became famous in history as Chaanakya Rules. This prime minister lived on the outskirts of the city in a hovel. One night the emperor visited him to seek advice on some national matter. No sooner he mentioned a matter concerning the administration of the country than Chaanakya put out the oil lamp he was burning and lighted another. His student, the emperor, asked him why he used two lamps. The prime minister’s answer was that one was for his domestic uses and the other was for conducting national business. Oil to be used for discussions on the nation’s administration shall not be used for personal discussions! That was India before 2500 years and the Mauryas planned and ran their nation well.

India's Slow Economic Development Is A Blessing

A country which is not developing as fast as other countries expect means only one thing: their natural resources are not being depleted as fast as other countries. The people living there are wise enough to store as much resources as possible for their coming generations. This is what happens in India. Indian mothers are notoriously famous for eating too little to survive and setting aside almost all they cook for their children. India lives in her thousands of villages, not in the great cities. In this aspect Gandhi was absolutely right and his belief that what industrialization needed for India is the production of articles needed for the people of these villages is right and justifiable. Agriculture and rural industries were what he emphasized as the way to the progress of India. What industries he envisioned did not need the support of large infrastructure, would not have needed large investment and would have eradicated unemployment in the villages. But the steps of India faltered when the socialist Nehru, under the inspiration and influence of the Soviet Union, decided to turn to heavy industries as the pathway to Indian economic progress. He did not live long enough to see the soviet economics collapsing in their own Russia. Neither did he envision his successors in the party and in the administration selling out these state-owned heavy industries to private rich men and these private rich men selling out India to the world corporates. It was foolish of India, who was once noted for the export of tea, cotton and steel, to converge on software outsourcing which flopped when the main customers in Europe and America dropped in business as each wave of share price downfall struck. Large numbers of students were encouraged to study these things which never have a domestic demand and they did get great salaries inconceivably high in Indian standards for a time. But when the tide collapsed and their income shrank, being unable and untrained to cope with such sudden set backs in career, many of these bright students became preys to depressive moods and eventually many became psychiatrically disturbed. Marriages collapsed and hospitalizations increased. None has ever studied the impact on software employees of this phenomenon of getting prestigious jobs and huge salaries for a time and suddenly falling from this fine financial position to nothingness. No notable products were turned out by the Indian software industry and many Indian software companies lost their contracts through sloppy work. India has never wished to become a super power, and they have never wished to have a higher growth rate, except those politicians who wished to have a place for them amongst the world’s national leaders.

Eastern economics is not something which is focused on over-exploitation of resources in the nature. Think about a people who ask the tree’s permission and forgiveness for cutting it for inevitable purposes. Tree worship or Animism was and is prevalent among Indians the equivalent of which can be seen in history only in the aborigines of the American continent. Even before polluting a river for catching a few fishes for the unavoidable dinner, long rituals of prayers, flower submission and even sacrifice of some living creature to appease the river would have been over. It was when Michel Jackson startled the world with his ‘Save The World’ video that the ignorant world countries recognized the hold and usefulness of this cult, in the modern times. It was not Michel Jackson’s discovery but the custom and cult are there existing through the generations. If some soil has to be removed from the upper crust for cutting a trench and constructing a house or a canal, there are other intricate poojas. Does the world know that the Indian Space Research Organization engineers before launching world class satellites and the very advanced Indian Navy Commanders before putting a new sub or ship to sea holds very long and ardent poojas in their prayer rooms? It is not because they are not advanced and civilized but because they are advanced and civilized that they do this. Traditionally and historically, the Indians are a god-fearing and nature-obeying people. Their economy and politics also is developed in a like manner from the same cultural sources. The world economists do not understand this and they never can. Malthus and Caine and Adam Smith and Marx never touch the lives of the Indians. They have their own economic heritage. When Russia and China embraced Marxism pretending that they had no mentionable economic heritage, they were digging their own burial pits for their traditional economics because no nation having a long history of traditional economic advancement can stray long from the beaten down path. We have seen the bookish economics thrusted on Russia collapse and we will soon witness the un-Chinese economy which enslaved China also withering away. No one need grieve because it is the destiny of unripe economic philosophies crowned upon the heads of ancient people. Major economic research houses of the world like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs needn’t be told that India is far behind in economic growth. They themselves have reported otherwise many often. These research houses which generally cater to fund managers who just have to achieve their targets are not relied upon much by the long-term investors like those who are expected to invest in India. When all have looted their share, there would not be much in India to accelerate any growth in the future. Let India close her doors. Enough for a century has gone out to corporates.

First release title: What Does A Country Not Developing As Fast As Other Countries Really Mean?

 

Will China Hold Referendum On Communism?

Many people think China is prospering but it is a momentary rise because it is unaccompanied by a resultant cultural rise. No great literature, art, music or philosophy is emerging from China. Economic prosperity unaccompanied by cultural upliftment is hollow, unstable and absurd. It is like developing the muscles of a single hand through rigid, non-stop exercising while those in the legs, abdomen, shoulders, back and neck remains as of yore. It is kind of unproportionate, unnatural, unstable state of psyche, close to sickness. Great philosophers in India, China and Greece condemned such development. Many modern day philosophers also have taught the dangers of unspiritual prosperity, which was what brought the mighty Roman Empire down. It is the mind, free thought and unhindered will that brings about, nourishes and retains a healthy civilization. So, what economic development we now are shown from China is ballooned up, a mirage which will vanish and expose the harsh realities, just like the underlying poverty of the Big Brother in Russia was exposed once the state’s suppressive propaganda collapsed. It is a real fact that majority of the Chinese population oppose their government’s almost all actions publicly or in their minds. Where there is a vent, their anger steams out. The world also knows that it is because of the brutal policing by the Chinese Communist Party that the government there is not toppled by people. By no standards is it now a peaceful and quiet nation. Indeed China was a mighty, trustworthy, civilized great nation, before Chairman Mao came into power. The cruelties and murders of the millennium old dynasties were nothing when compared to the mean, treacherous slaughters of the Communist Regime. Then they began to export not communism but cruelty to other peaceful nations. India, Nepal, Tibet, Burma, Hong Kong, Philippines- all these nations and their people well know that China is a mad rogue nation now, becoming very similar to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran, perhaps more despotic. Gauging from the present rising of people’s protests, where is democracy, communism and socialism in China? Is the world willing to tolerate and allow yet another timid aggressive nation among them? What the world hoped would prevent the aggression of China were the two great democracies in the world- America and India. But heavy Chinese investment in their nation made the Americas passive. Prospects of arrival of huge capitals as Yuan made India silent. Embracing Dalai Lama and shaking hand with the Premiere on the back is the foreign policy of these two nations. It was the American Freedom Struggle that inspired Europe to freedom. It was the Indian Struggle for Independence that liberated Africa. What is a few soiled Yuan notes when compared to the glorious moments in human history? But the world people now have learned about the pact between these great democracies and the last existing autocracy. That is why people now turn to the online internet highway as a last measure and that is exactly why China deletes people’s websites. The world well knows, it is people versus government there, unsupported by the world.

No one will deny that the totalitarian China witnesses more people’s riots than India. Lack of civil rights and poverty are the main causes. The people of China joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1945 to fight and defeat the 5 million strong Kou Min Tang and their new slave masters devised the commune system which enslaved them. Without people’s support, the CPC could never have beaten the Kou Min Tang and without the commune system, the Chinese could never have become slaves of the state. China accuses Tibetans to have been made natural slaves by feudalism. The Chinese invented through their communist party the commune system which enslaved them. The Communist Government in China forced people in 1950 to experiment with the commune system, which in modern times, existed only in the printed books. It took them 28 years to find out that this system won’t work. In 1978 it was discarded and China somewhat opened up. But what justification was there to compel and force a great hardworking people to loose 28 years from its history to seek a nowhere-existing philosophers’ stone? The communist administration in China from 1949 to 1979 was totally different from the administration from the 1980s to the present times. Atrocities and mass murders committed by The Gang of Four and the great folly of the Great Leap Forward are past but not unforgiven. Who will answer for the lost decades in Chinese people’s lives? More people in a nation mean more heads in the nation to think. In this respect India is not behind China, in fact, far more advanced, because the Indian heads are absolutely free to think what they like, unlike their brothers in China who are just suffocating for free thought. How will they think sincerely for the state if they are suffocating for freedom? And who says the Chinese are happy about the slavery to state they are committed to in the present political structure of the country? Even though China has more people than India, the collective thought of the nation is far less creative and productive than that of India. If a referendum is conducted in China on whether communism shall continue or democracy need be adopted, it would be a 0: 100 vote.

First release title: Will China Hold A Referendum On If Communism Is To Continue?

Why Deny Mutation Of Dengue Viruses In Kerala?

Mutation Of Dengue Viruses Happens In Kerala But Experts Deny It.

National Virology Institute in Pune, India was entrusted by the government of Kerala with the responsibility of studying possibilities of gene mutation that might have been happening to Dengue Viruses in Kerala. This disease has been spreading in Kerala at unprecedented rates and following people's alarm and continuous protests, the government was forced to do this. The team from Pune consisted of so called experts in the field such as Dr. Kalpana Beruva, Dr.B.V.Tendale and Dr. Ratnakar Sahu. The Institute has a sub centre at Alappuzha, the data collected and information available where was handed over to the team of experts. They also conferred with Rajeev Gandhi Institute of Bio Technology Centre, Trivandrum.

Blood samples collected from 100 dengue patients were sent to their mother lab in Pune. The team inspected the most-dengue-affected areas and the hospitals in those areas. Their conclusion is that there has been the least possibility of mutational change to dengue viruses in Kerala, based on the facts that it will take at least 10 years for genetic mutational changes to happen to dengue viruses and dengue began to spread widely in Kerala only since 2006.

The World Health Organization classifies dengue as a Zoonosis. ‘A zoonosis or zoonose is any infectious disease that can be transmitted between species from animals to humans or from humans to animals. Agents that can carry infectious organisms that may be zoonotic include dogs, bats, horses, monkeys, mosquitoes, fishes, pigs, sheep, flies, goats and humans. Infectious agents can be bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses. Of the many zoonoses than can be contacted to human beings, the most common are anthrax, brucellosis, chagas disease, cholera, cow-pox, dengue fever, ebola, H1N1flu, hantavirus, nipah fever, plague, Q-fever, rabies, salmonellosis and yellow fever. The major factor contributing to the appearance of zoonotic diseases in humans is increased contact between human and wildlife. Either human activity can move into areas of wilderness or wild animals can move into areas of human activity. In the past the latter happened due to anthropological or environmental disturbances but in the modern times it happens due the man’s habit of keeping animals in homes as pets’. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, ‘Zoonosis is any infectious disease transmitted between humans and other vertebrate animals. The term was originally defined to describe a group of diseases that humans may acquire from domestic animals. This definition has been modified to include all human diseases that are acquired from or transmitted to any other vertebrate’. 

Flaviviridae Flavivirus is the virus which causes Dengue fever. ‘The Flaviviridae are a family of viruses that are primarily spread through arthropod vectors, mainly ticks and mosquitoes. Most of these viruses are transmitted by the bite from an infected arthropod, mosquito or tick, and hence, classified as arboviruses’. We know, evolution and mutation are a continuously happening thing in nature and human intelligence is still now unable to halt, check, control or modify its course, especially when it is happening in the world of microbes. Pluto was a satellite of the Sun till two or three years ago but all of a sudden now it is not. Even Cambridge Book of Astronomy has to be modified on this account of a few observers’ views and opinions of celestial bodies. Today a flavivirus responsible for dengue is considered to be belonging to the category of diseases transmitted only through mosquitoes and never through dogs. Many others of such diseases were also thought to be so, till they acquire the ability to get transmitted through the secondary intermediary vector, independent of the primary first. Something that is yesterday transmitted through mosquitoes today gets transmitted through ticks and tomorrow it will develop itself into establishing independent animal transmission routes, defying mosquitoes and ticks. Mutations and evolutions do not wait for scientists to prove or for academics to classify and record. Microbial mutation and evolution occurs at multiple rates of scientific progress, every day, every hour. That is why millions still die out of microbial infections, scientists and physicians standing helpless. In the story, the Martians die on the earth because they are encountering microbes for the first time in their lives. In the real world, men die in millions because even though his body is seasoned against microbes, he cannot cope with their fast-rated mutation and ever happening changes in their ways of operation.

First reported on 30 July 2013 

Move Moral Policers To Mental Hospitals

Moral policers in Kerala are delusional and need treatment.

The curse of Kerala is teachers like Prof. Joseph Mundasseri not becoming education ministers, doctors not health ministers and engineers not public works ministers. Political parties do not prefer educated professionals to become party members, contest in elections and represent party in the state cabinets. As long as it does not happen, Taliban-inspired state ministers will, according to their religious agenda, try to bring about moral policing in schools and colleges. Is this state minister bold and committed enough to allow police enter campuses when law and order of this country is challenged there? A few anti-social elements are born with the inherent tendency to harass, intimidate and exploit students who are peacefully learning in the educational centres in the state, expose these sacred institutions to betrayal, hatred and violence and prepare way for terrorists to come and go freely in these sacred establishments of society. This decision by the state educational authorities is plainly religion-inspired and harm-motivated to constitute moral police wings in schools and colleges. When every other way to facilitate terrorist organizations’ tricks to invade Kerala were closed by the brilliant officers of Kerala Police and National Security Agencies, they came up with another plan to make the same thing possible by influencing and ordering politicians in their payroll to create administrative support for this idea. If properly inquired into, it can be proved that this idea was discussed and hatched in religious institutions. In Afghanistan 150 girl students were recently poisoned through drinking water by Taliban to prevent girls from getting educated. Here in Kerala also the same objective is aimed to be achieved by making campuses hell for decent and obedient students and girls can thereby be ordered to not go there. There are people behind this move who have perfect training to disrupt the tranquillity in Kerala’s social life. A few years back, there was this Arabi Nikkahu when the Arabis came to Kerala, gave money to poor parents who could not send away their daughters in marriage, married those little girls and spoiled them and when the Arabis had to go back after a few weeks, simply deserted them. It was safe prostitution disguised as marriage. When consciousness of Kerala roused against this, it stopped. Then came the Love Jihad from the same quarters when Hindu and Christian girls were systematically captivated by trained young men, given a child and abandoned in the expectation that such children born out of wedlock would be rebellious enough to join the ranks of terrorists when they grow up. Literate Kerala exposed this and police intervened in many places and it lost its speed. Then came the Moral Policing which was another word for blackmailed prostitution. When it was duly exposed it also waned. Now this state minister publicly approves the rightness of moral policing even in schools! Whom does he represent?

Someone in the Education Department of Kerala wants to introduce something like a Dharma Sena to watch up teachers and students, the job supposed to be assigned to parents. This is clear indication of the education department being run by the nervously broken down. It is strange to note that moral policing factions, who had been looking into the cultural, political and marital activities of people in the northern districts of Kerala, never looked into the most prominent feature of the social and political life in Kerala-corruption. Never once did they block a single government official or politician who is notoriously noted for corruption. They centred on man-woman relations in targeted families where they liked to see some kind of immorality which they could not make use of directly by blackmail. So they turned to moral policing, in strict imitation of the abhorrent Skimmetty Rides described in Thomas Hardy’s novels. This makes clear the source and inspiration for this wave of moral policing-bribery and corruption gangs that wanted to divert people’s attention away. And money offered by anti-national elements for causing disruption in social life was an added bonus. Corruption is the only field where some kind of policing is needed and no state minister in Kerala has ever come forward with a genuine formula, invention or scheme for blocking corruption. How can one deny one’s roots and lifeblood? If cricket bats and hockey sticks are going to the law enforcement tools for moral policing, what if acid bulbs and gas canisters are used by defenders? Taliban says they are moral police. Does the state education minister of Kerala who publicly support moral policing in schools deny that moral policing is Talibanism or Talibanism is moral policing in disguise? If police can’t curb social crimes using the national civil code and the criminal procedure code, or if the police force of the state has become too much of a hindrance and obstacle to law breakers, is it not legalizing moral policing in schools creating parallel policing, fulfillment of the long cherished dream of religious fanatics and outside-the-nation-terrorists? Political parties in Kerala have been doing this moral policing through their goon gangs the last of which was conducted at Onchium village in North Kerala, resulting in the manslaughter of a rebel communist party leader. In whatever name moral policing is called, it is violation of criminal procedure code, something to be booked under. No one has the right to teach others what is right and what is wrong, unless he violates something that is proved as violation by a constitutional body and also no one has the right to monitor a student or a teacher or a parent unless warranted by an act of suspected crime. Privacy of neither a child nor a grown up man shall not be violated by hr new goons. Even cabinet ministers, parliament members, diplomats and Supreme Court judges are charged with sexual harassment, seduction and rape. Who are these clean people of Kerala the education minister and education department are going to constitute the Moral Police Force or Dharma Sena or whatever it is called, with? 

On some occasions, when some particular kind of news reaches people, they would however be forced to say that some kind of people’s policing is necessary at some places. Trivandrum has a very good avenue running between Kawdiar Palace Junction and the Vellayambalam Governor’s Residence. The road is wide and tree-lined, thanks to the earlier Maharajas. Rich boys from the families of high ranking police officers and administrative service personnel roam this road in their high priced motor cycles and cars at all hours of the day, defying speed limits and killing street walkers. It was also the hobby of these boys to race along side young girls going to tuition classes in the very early mornings. Nearby homes could never rest or sleep peacefully. Dozens of fast motor cycles and cars revved up Kawdiar Street day and night and people thought: Had the Maharaja was still ruling, all these boys along with their fathers would have been hanged even without a trial! Even the home minister or the chief minister did not interfere. When conscientious police officers interfered and booked a few chasers and racers, telephone calls from their superior officers came, asking them to release the boys at once and escort them back to their assembling cafe. At last people gathered and beat the boys one by one mercilessly when the fathers became furious and ordered the police to book the people. Receiving people’s money as salaries, growing up their sons as biting dogs and ordering subordinate officers to arrest people who dared to touch their sons: that was what these rich officers did. It was plain abuse of authority. So the local factions of a couple of youth organizations including this DYFI entered the scene and beat the boys publicly. Now the officers and their sons are silent because it would the abominable corruption stories of the fathers that would be coming next in newspapers. It is incidents of governmental non-interference like these that boils the blood of local people to organize themselves as moral police and fight back. A man selling adulterated food, a person peddling drugs, another accepting bribe for doing his official duties, a gang of government officials doing corruption in ingenious ways, a group of elites doing obscene dancing in an all night club, such persons have never been moral policed by anyone. It is two people walking hand in hand in a park, a lady wearing a scanty dress, a lady suspiciously standing in a bus stop waiting for someone, who has ever been moral policed. This denotes only one thing- the suppressed sexual frustration of the moral policers. Moral policing expresses itself in the form of abuse and assault on the supposed offender; it has never taken the form of halting the supposed offender in his act till the police arrive. Therefore it is never a form of correction but only an outlet for venting the anger and frustration of the mentally disturbed. Had they stopped where the law could take over, it would still have been justified.

The conviction of morality depends on the culture, tradition and upbringing of a person. What he considers as moral would be immoral to other individuals and communities. It is our frustration over our own miserable state of affairs that make us intolerant to other persons’ views and opinions and mind not our own business. Each community in the world will have its set of morals. In some communities it is taboo to eat pork and in some communities it is eating the cow’s meat that is taboo. In most temples in the Hindu community, fish is forbidden inside the compound but there are a few temples where fish is offered to the deity inside the shrine. Most communities consider a man marrying his sister’s daughter a crime but many communities permit only such marriages. Most religions deny polygamy but there are a few which freely promote it. So, what one community considers as a crime would be the accepted moral in another community. A community which exists by doing only the wrong things will not exist for long, thereby eliminating the need to correct them. Thinking that our community’s set of morals shall be accepted by all other communities and subverting other people’s fundamental rights to believe in his own community’s set of morals is defying the rule of law in the land. Judging one’s actions unilaterally, deciding he has wronged and meting out punishment by civilians is something outside the machinery of law and order. Wherever such an offence occurs and police is not booking those persons under the law, the police are simply not in the right tracks there. No need to emphasize the importance of police, but to reform it to become people-friendly is the only option. Those who like to moral police someone, are advised to police themselves, or go to some asylum to get treatment without wasting time. But political parties, parliamentarians and police officers associating themselves with criminal minded persons and eliminating or silencing enemies through brawn power is what influenced people, set the example and moved them to this path. Moral policing was actually devised to prevent free dissemination of ideas. When a few writers made statements or wrote books which were condemned by religious fanatics, especially Muslim fanatics and terrorists, they issued Fatwa, ordered destroyal of those books, hunting those writers and if possible, eliminating them. Once the taste of this kind of uncontrolled vandalism was enjoyed, it became irresistible to be called back by anybody, even by those who originated it. So, it turned to other channels of venting frustration and transformed itself into moral policing. It is an accepted fact that only persons with an immoral side to their character have ever tried to become a moral police. They actually cloak their evildom with pseudo morality. Where constitution of a country allows freedom of speech and freedom of expression, someone attempting moral policing should immediately be arrested and removed from society.

A man selling adulterated food, a person peddling drugs, another accepting bribe for doing his official duties, a gang of government officials doing corruption in ingenious ways, a group of elites doing obscene dancing in an all night club, such persons have never been moral policed by anyone. It is two people walking hand in hand in a park, a lady wearing a scanty dress, a lady suspiciously standing in a bus stop waiting for someone who have ever been moral policed. This denotes only one thing- the suppressed sexual frustration of the moral policers. On some occasions, when some particular kind of news reaches people, they would however be forced to say that some kind of people’s policing is necessary at some places. Trivandrum has a very good avenue running between Kawdiar Palace Junction and the Vellayambalam Governor’s Residence. The road is wide and tree-lined, thanks to the earlier Maharajas. Rich boys from the families of high rank officers and administrative service personnel roam this road in their high priced motor cycles and cars at all hours of the day, defying speed limits and killing street walkers. It was also the hobby of these boys to race alongside young girls going to tuition classes in the early mornings. Nearby homes could never rest or sleep peacefully. Dozens of fast motor cycles and cars revved up Kawdiar Street day and night and people thought: Had the Maharaja was still ruling, all these boys along with their fathers would have been hanged even without a trial! Even the home minister or the chief minister could not interfere. When conscientious police officers interfered and booked a few chasers and racers, telephone calls from their superior officers came, asking them to release the boys at once and escort them back to their assembling cafe. At last people gathered and beat the boys one by one mercilessly when the fathers became furious and ordered the police to book these people. Receiving people’s money as salaries, growing up their sons as biting dogs and ordering subordinate officers to arrest people who dared to touch their sons: that was what these rich officers did. It was plain abuse of authority. So the local factions of a couple of youth organizations including DYFI entered the scene and beat the boys publicly. Now the officers and their sons are silent because if they dare book members of these youth organizations, it would the abominable corruption stories of the fathers that would be coming out next in newspapers. It is incidents of governmental non-interference like these that boils the blood of local people to organize themselves as moral police and fight back.

News first reported in July 2012

Victers Educational Channel Falling From The Sky

There are hundreds of educational channels in the world. Organizations like BBC, ABC and You Tube also have theirs. In India, since 1989, there are quite a number of government-owned and private educational channels. In Kerala also there is one- Versatile ICT Enabled Resource for Students, or Victers Channel, funded by central government and run by state government. An investigation into it reveals unexpected corruption, mismanagement and favouritism, making this good dream vanish. 

Opinionated pea-brains sent to remould the channel in the lines of caste, community and religious fanatics.

Kerala is the highest literate state in India. Keralites live and work in every part of the world. They are educated, intelligent and hard working, as their neighbours and employers in whichever countries they work in would say. The world’s largest electronics and software forms are proud of their Keralite employees. Therefore it is unbelievable that a government educational channel in their native land which was expected to have served well their children deteriorated through corruption and mismanagement and became a haven of cheap fortune-seekers and political gamblers. The irony is that this situation was brought about by the caste, community and religious elements in Kerala’s education minister’s office who sent an opinionated pea-brain to head this institution and remould it in the lines of caste, community and religious fanatics, and that is whom this represents now. There are thousands of Keralites in India and abroad who are able to lead this educational channel to success and brilliance but the Kerala Government and the Education Department want it to remain in a wormy pit- Kuzhi in the native language of Malayalis. 

The idea is to make the whole country a great class room, linking from remote hamlets to the great metros.
 

The idea of educational channels in India is to prepare exam-centric capsules on physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and languages and air them through satellites to prepare students for regular examinations and competitive tests. Content from School Examination Boards, Universities and Technological Institutes would be made available for this purpose and beamed across space through satellites, capsulizing them into real-time lectures. The whole country would become a great class room, from remotest villages and hamlets to great cities and metros, linked through digital networks. That is the conception behind Information and Communications Technology-Enabled Virtual Class Rooms. 

Education broadcast space is steadily being filled up with stars. No one will say the future of e-learning is dark.

Terms like E Learning, Virtual Class Rooms, Flexible Learning Frameworks and Educational Broadcasters are becoming common. Launching educational channels, establishing production houses and providing technology-driven learning solutions are now everyday activities even in under-developed countries. Of course, getting regulatory approvals is hard in many countries but educational broadcasts are now a priority with many governments. Conventional education systems of countries are not much interactive, while young population is increasingly tech-savvy and interactive. That is how, and why, interactive web-based education is gaining momentum in the world. Telecom companies provide services in Direct To Home and Internet TV formats, which are liberally being used by educational channels. There are subscription-based channels with least advertising, and private channels have paid portals and free portals. Contents are made available through desk-top computers, lap-tops, palm-tops and mobile phones. There are 24-hour channels and morn-to-night channels. Also content is made freely available in You Tube to watch online, or download and watch in leisure at homes. Recognizing good potential, more and more institutions, companies and organizations are entering this segment. Education broadcast space is steadily being filled up with stars. No one will say the future of e-learning is dark. 

The operation of every educational channel in India is governed and supposedly regulated by three departments of the Union Government of India.

Under the current policies of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, government departments are not permitted launch Direct To Home channels. At the same time, the Ministry of Human Resources Development has been calling for at least a 1000 educational channels to be established, to provide quality education to remotest villages. As a compromise, it was decided that the Human Resources Department can start educational channels by signing up with Prasar Bharati Corporation, the owner of all government channels in India, a part of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. Under this agreement, HRD can start and operate channels but broadcasting licenses would be held by the Department of I & B. Prasar Bharati will not sign MOUs with individual channels but only with a consortium of several educational channels. Transponders for airing programmes will be provided by the Department of Space under this agreement. So, the operation of every educational channel in India is governed and supposedly regulated by three departments of the Union Government of India. 

Educational channels in India, unless registered under the Companies Act, cannot attempt DTH transmission.

Setting up of TV Studios in states was the first step for this massive mission and the HRD Ministry allotted amounts, initially Rs. 50 Lakhs, from the funds of National Mission on Education through ICT to each studio, on the assumption that ‘there would be 20-25-minute live lectures by eminent faculty across prominent institutes, and students will be able to put queries to teachers; they would be able to SMS queries on a given number and the teacher will be able to answer right away.’ When in 2011 HRD was very near to launching 1000 educational channels, new guidelines came into force in 2012, according to which only companies registered under the Companies Act are permitted DTH transmission. So, now, educational channels in India, unless registered under the Companies Act, cannot attempt DTH transmission. Government departmental institutions cannot even think about airing anything other than pre-recorded programmes up-linked to Edu Sat, to be received in schools using only special receivers. Why should educational channels have to air live programmes instead of pre-recorded ones? Looked from every angle, it is unnecessary. Even after hundreds of universities and thousands of schools are linked with bandwidth, live programmes are still spendthrifts for government educational channels. They are not only unnecessary but expensive also. Government educational channels do not need live telecasting unless they are competing with private and commercial channels which they are not expected to do. Why should they compete with commercial channels, unless to satisfy the rotten egos of their directors? 

Victers Channel broke every rule of the Government of India, to please local religious fanatics.

In India, according to the norms of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, starting an educational channel is not easy. In present circumstances, such channels cannot broadcast live. They can only produce prerecorded visuals, uploaded to the exclusive Educational Satellite Edusat of India, which could only be received and viewed in schools using special receivers. This Victers Channel in Kerala dared to break every rule of the Government of India and broadcast live, even though their pages would never load, due to incompetence in running and managing. Also the schools in Kerala have no computers and no broadband connectivity. Government would explain that thousands of computers were purchased for schools, which is true, in a way. They indeed were purchased in thousands, for pocketing commissions by departmental purchasing officers. None of them worked in schools and most of them did not even reach the schools. The schools do not have funds for getting the non-working ones repaired or getting the inoperable ones replaced. Broadband were connected to schools in noisy and pompous inaugural functions with state ministers present but were disconnected when payments defaulted. So now most of the schools neither have working computers nor connectivity. Even though Victers Programmes uselessly steal a lot of teaching time, teachers still try to make them available for students as it is the only channel allowed in schools. As school computers and connectivity are namesakes, a few parent-teacher organizations in parts of Kerala begged local Cable TV Providers to connect this government channel to schools and that is what is going on now. It is just a threadbare presence this much-dreamt-about educational channel has in schools now. 

Escape from exposure of corruption by involving media in corruption.

Which is the easiest way for escaping from exposure of corruption, mismanagement and abuse of authority? Certainly it is pleasing news paper men and television channels men, and if possible, carrying on corruption involving them. That was just what Victers Channel in Trivandrum did. They brought about a clandestine programme named Fourth Estate to hide their own corruption by involving media in a diabolic plan conceived in the Public Relations Department. It is not strange that the media in Kerala, which is very quick and sensitive in reporting corruption and favouritism in other government institutions, did not report any of the corruption in Victers Channel. 

The answerable department has no control and the controlling department is not answerable!

Government aimed to create virtual classrooms in remote villages using computers and satellite relays. The Government of India gave each state a television production station and facilities for up-linking programmes to educational satellites. These television stations in state capitals are well-equipped, to produce literally anything, thanks to the liberal assistance with central government funds. In Trivandrum, running of the Victers Channel is assigned to the IT At Schools Mission under the Department of Education of the Government of Kerala. The Director of Public Instruction is answerable for whatever happens in this channel, but the DPI has no control over this channel. It is run by another government department, the Public Relations Department, which is not answerable for the activities of this channel. The answerable department has no control and the controlling department is not answerable! That is the clever set up created by government secretaries and ministers in the capital, to make possible their own private agendas and corruption in this channel. 

The least-qualified man the better to lead an educational channel!

1. Victers Channel: Interface Not Working

Who will be selected to head this educational channel in the state, normally? A person with exceptional skills in the fields of academic instruction as well as in the entertainment field would be the first choice of anyone. If a bureaucrat with these skills could be found, it would be suitable for government. But such talented and brilliant people needn’t always be fit to carry on corruption and favouritism at the order of political gurus and motivated authorities. So, they decided to send a person with no particular qualification to head a channel- a minor Public Relations Officer on deputation- to lead Victers Channel.  

Two public relations men meet, conspire, plan projects, execute jointly and pocket money of two reputed public institutions.

Two Information Officers of the Public Relations Department are sent on deputation to two institutions which are partly or fully enjoying government funds. We shall see what happens next, which is typical in Kerala where bureaucrats are involved. Mr. V. Salin of PRD is deputed as Head, Edusat, State Project Office, State Council for Education, Research & Training, Poojappura, Trivandrum, to govern Victers Channel and Mr. N. P. Santhosh on Additional Charge as Secretary, Kerala Press Academy, Kakkanad, Kochi, renamed since then as Kerala Media Academy. They come up with this idea of producing a television series on journalists titled Fourth Estate utilizing the manpower of Victers Channel, relaying it for thrice in the channel and then storing the digitals in the Academy Archives. This programme wasted channel manpower and materials but the digital rights to the end products were to be owned not by the channel but by the academy. And no money came to the channel funds too. If the academy has a product with them, they pays, as is in government. These digital articles were not a gift from Victers Channel to the Press Academy. So, logically, we can assume that the academy paid for the material, the payment did not reach the channel, and the two officers pocketed the money. The Director of Public Instruction and the Director of Public Relations did not think it necessary to take any disciplinary action against these two officers and remove them from the posts. We can guess this has been going on for a long time.

2. Public Relations: Officers On Deputation

What is such tempting in Delhi Trade Fair for an educational channel to sacrifice Schools Science Fair?

This was not a singular incident. Someone wanted a full digital video coverage of the New Delhi Trade Fair of December 2014 and was willing to pay. This Victers Channel Head jumped at the chance for making money. Staff, equipment and funds of the channel were diverted to cover this fair at New Delhi which had nothing to do with educational channels. The team including the director stayed around two weeks in the country’s capital and returned with a few hours’ rushes as video cassettes. Because staff, equipments and funds were not available in Trivandrum due to this Delhi affair, the School Science Fair- an important event in Kerala’s educational sector- could not be, and was not, covered. Rushes of the Delhi Fair must rest with the channel, unedited, making people believe it was just a mistake in deployment of manpower, materials and money. It was not a mistake. The party who wanted that footage wanted only an unedited copy of the footage which they must have got edited beautifully by professionals. No doubt they paid which must have been pocketed. The unedited rushes at the channel were a decoy to make people think they were never used by anyone. Look, how much damage was done by a decision of a Channel Chief- multi faceted damages- resulting in unnecessary coverage of a Delhi fair, abandon of a much necessary coverage of a School Science Fair, and pocketing a considerable sum unlawfully, abusing one’s authority!

Shame to a million Malayalis world over.

On the occasion of the National Teachers’ Day of India on September 5, 2014, the Prime Minister decided to address the students of the nation through all Indian channels. Victers Channel in Kerala was the only educational channel in India to decline to air the Prime Minister’s speech to the country’s students. As a gesture of challenge, they telecast the State Education Minister’s pre-recorded interaction with students at the time. The government of Kerala did not care and did not bring this to the notice of the Government of India. The DPI and the DPR did not consider this as a crime but continued to use channel authorities as convenient tools for personal objectives.

Programmes polluting the sensitive, fresh and innocent brains of Kerala’s children.

There are dozens of regular programmes aired through cyber space by this fallen channel to pollute the sensitive, fresh and innocent brains of the little children of Kerala. A close look at just three of their regular programmes would warrant a closer and thorough examination of all their programmes- approved and rejected- and activities.

Light House is a live Question and Answer Phone-in-Programme, attended by professional doctors, aired every Friday from 2.30 to 3.30 PM. It was meant to discuss the everyday little problems of children- their physical and emotional inabilities generally- presented by parents. As each week passed, it became more and more vulgar, unfit to be aired to schools, with more sexual questions and perverts taking over. Lack of decent etiquettes and morals, lack of home work and lack of dedication on the part of channel authorities caused this demoralization of the programme.

Kids’ Question Corner (Kutti Chodyam) was designed to inspire students by interacting with inspirational personalities by bringing students and leaders from the various strata of society to interact with each other in the channel studio. At first these inspirational personalities were fine cine actors, lyricists, playback singers, playwrights and writers revered by all. Then they became tarnished state ministers whose names were frequently read, associated with corruption. Then came cheap politicians whose unruly behaviour in public causes uproars. It proved only one thing- the cheap and worthless things the director of this channel was a slave to, intellectually. The channel authorities failed in realistically anticipating what questions an intelligent child might ask in Kerala. 

Fourth Estate was an endeavour to select a few media men, ask them questions and bring out their views and opinions. Had they brought a TJS George or a TVR Shenoy to the screen, it would have been inspiration for children. But they brought to studio yellow-paper pen-pushers, asked them ridiculous questions and received back answers which were more ridiculous. This farce has been going on for years. If it was journalism they intended to cover in this programme, it was never touched. It is just a confusing programme, of dubious origin. Fourth Estate is aired at 7 PM every Sunday. 

News Channel! Kerala state already has dozens of news channels. In the midst of these news channels, Victers Channel diverts precious time, money, man and materials to produce news and telecast. And, in the name of news, they show state ministers’ and politicians’ irrelevant functions. It continues for two years, pleasing camera-hungry rogues.

It is time this misguided entity be wound up, or revamped and saved through the wise and timely interference of the Government of India.

Images:


1. Victers Channel: Interface Not Working
2. Public Relations: Officers On Deputation

Tags: Educational Channels, Victers Channel, IT@School Kerala, Corruption In Kerala, Essays, Articles, Investigative Journalism, Media In Kerala.

[By arrangement with the author]

Who Created Beggars?

Who created beggars is a question authorities do not like to be asked and people generally do not like to listen to. Poverty which most often leads people to beg in the streets is a product of the shortsightedness, corruption and dereliction of duties of the Administration and Governance of the country. When policies fail, the streets receive more beggars. Wreck of life overnight won't leave people with options but compel them to beg. Newspaper archives will vouchsafe Wall Street Crash was the incident in history that sent the greatest number of people to either beg in the streets or jump from their balconies. It is no use turning faces away from bare truth. No mathematics proves that in share trading, accepted and taken for granted by governments as an instrument of definite economic progress, what money one makes is not exactly what another lost on the other side. Even the recent world economic crashes also did exactly the same thing-sent even more people to the streets. It is still continuing. Wars no more make beggars because they no more happen in a large scale. Unless this modern day system of raising capital through sale of shares is not done with, begging will continue, whether we give money to beggars or not. Approximately three fourth of the world is in poverty, distress and disease. It is the plight of people in these poverty-stricken areas leading people to begging that is to be discussed, not the occasional scene of begging for money for pot and ale in the economically rich nations. Dozens and dozens of countries in the continents of Asia, Africa and elsewhere are in the grip of poverty, sending hundreds and hundreds of their citizens to the streets each day to beg before fellow citizens. Gradual impoverishing and depleting of revenues will not send a man to the streets to beg. He will find means for a decent living during the long period it takes to lower him to nothingness. It is the sudden and unexpected twist and turn of things that send multitudes to the streets to beg. Those who are afraid to beg, jump from their balconies, simply suicide and vanish. Even in welfare states and in economically advanced countries, begging continues.

Pictures of Oil Paintings on wood by Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller, an Austrian Painter who lived during 1793-1865, tell us how the world happily helped the needy in the past. A travelling family of beggars being rewarded by poor peasants, a scene of charity from our bygone era and a scene of eviction are the most noted among his paintings. There are hundreds more of such scenes, carefully recorded in paintings by talented geniuses for the posterity to remind them that their fathers, grandfathers, forefathers and great ancestors all gave alms to those who needed or that they made their living out of begging. The forefathers of all of us either begged or they gave alms. Looking at these pictures, we can see how proud the sufferers were and how magnanimous and humane the givers were. The children depicted in these pictures are world citizens who shall not be deprived of their right to live. They are not peddlers or dope addicts. The loveliness and innocence of their faces forbid us to condemn the good practice of alms-giving on all days, without limiting it to one single day of Sakkaatth or Christmas according to our religious traditions. Tell the World and European Laws to go to Hell! The world, especially the poor peasant families, has always been kind to those needy poor people because the wise of the world always knew what produced beggars: diseases, attachment of properties, eviction from land and home, etc. It was people who saved money for building homes, for treating their beloved in hospitals and for sending daughters away in marriages who were robbed of everything they possessed by wrong economic policies of governments and sent to the streets. Board-Room Economics and War-Room Politics were what created millions of beggars. Nowhere does the poor man in the street come in this picture of power game. Governments wish to hide their crimes and follies, so they enact laws for forbidding begging in their beautiful streets, trains and parks and arrest beggars and remove them from the streets. Then through public relation media, they bark about the supposed existence of a business of organized begging, the beggars' inferior social standards, their uncleanliness, and the stench coming from them. It is when the administration of a country becomes thickly-packed and saturated with stealers, cheaters, and cut-throats that beggars appear in roads and trains. Because they are mostly uneducated, they do not know how to dethrone these drones from authority. So, suppressing the pangs of betrayal, with downcast eyes, and with shame humiliation and indignation, they beg in the streets, because life is such precious, and hope is still endeared. I really miss the human beings forcefully removed from my Trivandrum City Streets. There were sisters, mothers, kids, old men among them. I wonder where they all have gone, and what they are now doing, dead or living. I know the situation is the same all over the world. As long as there is one single person in distress there, no country in this world is humane, whatever ostentaceous pseudo welfare schemes they have devised. I also know, the uniformed officers who only are obeying orders from the blind brutes also are pining in their hearts for arresting beggars.

First reported on 8 April 2014

Why Don't South Asian Countries Say China Is Occupying?

Why Don't South East Asian Countries Say China Is Occupying?

In the modern day world, a nation claiming rights on another nation is considered as aggression and encroachment. Countries with far lesser crimes were isolated and punished by the U.N. and the world community. But here when a great exporter, though leaving its native population deprived of essential commodities, does a greater crime, all the world countries remain neutral in action, but occasionally embracing Lama for fear of world. Recently China has been claiming Tibet as their own, Hong-Kong as their own and a considerable part of even India as their own. A nation where millions of their citizens remaining without rights to vote in elections and students who protest are brutally beaten up and fired to death, do not deserve the sympathy of the world. The world has gone far ahead. Emperor Bharatha ruled the lands comprising of Rathnadweepam, India, Nepaalam, Brahmadesam, Apaghanasdhanam and Syama Raajyam. Will China consent to India claiming Ceylon, Nepal, Burma, Afghanistan and Siam? India is contended with what she is having at present. That is the greatness of India. China's aggressive behaviour is isolating her among world people, whoever including America support her human rights violations. Where was China standing watching when Communism was discarded by the world and she becoming the last standing post of Pseudo-Communism? Communism was conceived as the highest language of the human heart. But wherever it came to administrative power, people were incarcerated, tortured, brutally beaten, murdered, raped, mutilated, chemically brain washed and made to vanish. For whom was it all? Why do Chinese leaders live in luxury and opulence? Lenin said that those who do no work shall not be given food. What job, according to communist principles, are the Chinese Communist Leaders doing? Where is it said in communism that leading a party and governing an administration is an employment? The Chinese communist leaders know that they have gone far with their crimes against communism and socialism, and that the world's revenge is soon to come upon them. That is why, to divert attention and to bridge the really collapsing internal economics, China turns to invading and encroaching countries with resources. What we see now in that part of Asia is the flame leaping up before totally dying out.

News: Reports on Chinese aggression. 8 April 2014.

Leave Alone That Ancient Practice Of Tobacco Smoking

Since mankind discovered the uses of this plant, tobacco has been chewed, smoked and eaten as social ritual and as curative stimulant for gastric and digestive disorders. Bone and tissue remains unearthed in excavations from primitive sites suggest that whatever diseases now are alleged to be associated with tobacco smoking never existed then. Where it was extremely cold, when it was gloomy, it was used to relieve mental stress, to heat the ice-cold interior of the lungs and to give something for the impatient human hands to do. For centuries, this peaceful habit has been doing silent services as a social ritual and an individual involvement, causing no particular harm on its own. When modern day parliamentarians began to fear that people will turn against them for corruption, bribery and misadministration, they devised this trick of enacting safe laws such as banning tobacco smoking, prohibiting sleeping in peaceful parks and lolling in groups along highways, so that their national crimes would go unnoticed by people and people will think they are making great laws. It is not smoking tobacco that causes diseases but the habit of drinking not enough water. A tobacco smoker will need more water-intake than the ordinary man to compensate for energy loss and to restore the oxygen content that he exhausts. When one breathes, oxygen goes into the lungs where hemoglobin in the blood capillaries in the lung walls is sitting ready to receive it. Oxygen combines with hemoglobin to form oxy-globin which reaches every cell in human body when blood circulates from the heart. These cells receive this oxygen and release carbon dioxide. Hemoglobin has equal affinity to nicotine as it has to oxygen. When we smoke, nicotine vapour replaces oxygen considerably and combines with hemoglobin to form nico-globin and reaches everywhere. Due to a considerable volume of ingoing oxygen been replaced by nicotine, there will naturally be a resultant downfall in the energy level of the body, which, drinking great quantities of water will supplement. Had man drank enough water, there would have been no problem from moderate smoking. But man normally is reluctant to drink water nowadays. If we question the afflicted, they will tell us that they drink only one or two glasses of water each day, where the problem begins. Why doesn’t the WHO tell the world to drink more water and never to drink iced water and coca cola which is the real villain? When Arboviral infections like chikungunya and dengue break out, WHO tell the world that mosquitoes are responsible, hiding the fact that these viruses complete their life cycle in the body of dogs. No dogs, no dengue-that is the fact. They are all amorous dog-lovers. Who will believe WHO anymore? Man has the intelligence to decide what he shall drink and what he shall smoke. Don’t interfere. Leave alone the ancient social practice of tobacco smoking. Go after consumption of liquor, if they do not fear retaliation from liquor magnates.

News: Tobacco banned.
Response: Leave Alone That Ancient Social Practice Of Tobacco Smoking
Date: 9 April 2014

Who Will Catch Fake DMOs Who Catch Fake Doctors?

A District Medical Officer of Kerala caught a fake doctor in the private sector. But who will catch fake DMOs in the Kerala State Health Services Department? Justice M P Menon Commission that enquired into the fake mark list and MBBS certificate cases in the 1980s concluded its report by saying that the Commission, with its limited resources, time and staff, could only catch and expose a few fake doctors and the majority of them might still be working in the Health Services Department as Assistant Surgeons and Civil Surgeons. No follow up action was ever ordered and undertaken by the Chief Ministers, Health Ministers, Health Secretaries or the Directors of Health Services of Kerala. Most of them were duly promoted and some may have eventually become DMOs and other key Programme Officers. And it is, was, not the end of faking certificates and bribing for appointments. Things became only easier since then with the advent of computers, laser printers and other advancements available to those who want to fake things. Where do they actually verify the certificates a person claiming to be a doctor produces? There are three major recruiters in government sector- the Kerala Health Services Department, the Kerala Medical Education Department and the new, free, liberal and open route, National Rural Health Mission. In the last, anything is possible with its non-accountability. In the first two, there is no initial verification before appointment; everything is taken as gentleman’s word. After appointment, when the supposed doctor goes to the concerned institution to join is the SSLC Certificate and MBBS Certificate physically verified for proof of age and entry qualification, by a lowly clerk. They rarely hand over these to the clerks but just ask them to prepare a covering letter to the Accountant General without seeing them. A clerk in Trivandrum District once reported this to his superintendent and the superintendent said: ‘this person, from Sooranad, did not show them to even me, then how would to you? Anyway, give him the covering letter.’ SSLC Book of another doctor from Karunagappalli revealed that she secured 5 marks for English I Paper and 8 marks for English II Paper in Eighth standard. How will she ever become a doctor? When these facts were reported to higher authorities, the then Deputy DMO, DMO and DHS were very, very, very eager to suppress news; after decades, they sent this clerk away without four higher grades, promotion as UD Clerk on attainment of 50 years age, gratuity or even a pension, even though he had a corruption-less service of 32 years and was recruited through PSC. (Documentations are available online). They are such long-remembering and spiteful. So, before arresting others for faking, every doctor in the Kerala Health Services Department in Kerala, including the Director, has to prove before the public that they are not fakes. Let them put relevant details with scan copies of certificates in their official website and let people verify. Let IMA and KGMOA officials do it first.

First reported on 26 October 2014

Fake Health Observatory Surveillance Project Of Kerala

Who Were Behind The Abandoned Health Observatory Surveillance Project Of Kerala?

The first news report to mention Kerala Health Observatory And Basic Surveillance Project was by The Hindu National Daily published on 23 January 2013 which involved Health Secretary Rajeev Sadanandan saying: ‘The State Health Department is putting in place a Health Observatory formulated by the department to track the morbidity and mortality pattern in the State through a survey, covering 2.3 lakh households or a population of 10 lakh covering all panchayats. It is one of the largest armies in the world to track all health-related data. The project is taken up by the Health Department, with technical support from the Population Health Research Institute of McMaster University, Canada under formal technical collaboration, supervised and supported academically by the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, Health Action by People, and the Department of Community Medicine at the Medical College. McMaster University will assist in data management and analysis as the State has little experience in handling such mammoth studies. The proposal is to pilot the project in April, by surveying data from two clusters of 55 households each in urban and rural areas in all districts. Health workers will visit the designated areas and administer the questionnaires prepared by a team of experts. The questionnaire will be pre-loaded in a tablet PC so that the health workers need not spend more than 20 minutes in a household for data collection. Personal information on all members in a family will be collected. The tablet is GPRS-enabled so that the supervisors can determine if the health workers are entering the data from the field. The data will be uploaded in a server to be maintained here, ‘a Health official’ said. The training for health workers for administering the questionnaire through tablets will begin in February. The pilot is expected to be completed in a month after which the project will be formally launched. The 28 tablet PCs to be used for the pilot study will be provided by McMaster University. A proposal for supplying tablet PCs to health workers for their field work is being taken up with the IT Department.’

The second news article to come up was what the Times of India published on 18 March 2013, ‘Canadian Expertise To Create Database Of Diseases’, which further revealed that NRHM would fund the survey and the diseases caused due to extensive use of alcohol and tobacco, the food habits of the people, the rate of obesity and its reasons, the rate of prevalence of diabetes and blood pressure, the diseases caused due to lack of exercises and the reasons behind the deaths occurring in the state, would be investigated.

For one full year nothing was heard of this project in news media though everything was happening with the project. It was on 23 March 2014 that Times of India printed Kerala’s Opposition Leader Mr. V. S. Achuthanandan’s allegations on this project, under the heading ‘V S Says Govt. Clarification On Drug Tests Misleading.’ We must note that, by this time, the words Basic and Surveillance had dropped out of the title of the project and we know why. They are dreadful words, attracting the attention of vigilant inquisitors. The news article said, according to Mr. Achuthanandan, ‘the government’s clarification on allegations of drug experiments on citizens was misleading, health minister had not denied receiving money for the survey conducted among 1,540 families across the state for a Canadian organization, the minister had only said that the health department has not accepted any remuneration for the survey and the minister has yet to clarify how an NGO received money instead and why such an initiative was undertaken without the permission of the Government of India or the Indian Council of Medical Research. The Opposition Leader also alleged that a memorandum of understanding signed between Kerala Health Observatory and Population Health Research Institute of Canada had led to handing over of lifestyle and health details of people of the state to the Canadian organization, the health minister and former health secretary Rajeev Sadanandan were involved in the matter, and that the Head of the Department of Community Medicine, Mr. Vijaya Kumar, was receiving the remuneration through a non-government organization of which he is the secretary.’

The New Indian Express also on 21 March 2014 reiterated this allegation of the Opposition Leader that ‘the State Government is conducting dangerous drug trials on people in collaboration with the Canadian Government, people were being treated like guinea pigs by the State Government project Kerala Health Observatory and the Population Health Research Institute in Canada and that under the guise of this experiment, the Canadian Government was being gifted details about the lifestyle and health of the people of Kerala. He also alleged that the Health Department assigned five health inspectors and nurses for this job for over the past one year. Under the agreement signed between the Kerala Government and the PHRI, this is not merely an observation programme, but a scheme to intervene in the health status. This means, drug tests could also be a part of it. It is understood that data collected from 1,540 households in the 14 districts have been transferred to the Canadian Government. He said this is not just illegal and immoral, but also a source of corruption and demanded the State Government to clarify as to what exactly the Kerala Health Observatory Project is. The government should explain whether the subjects were informed that the data would be handed over to Canada and whether the scheme had the clearance of the Union Health Ministry. It should be explained as to how the remuneration is being paid to the organization ‘Health Action by People’. The government should also explain whether drug tests have been conducted on people, he said. 

The Hindu National Daily, on 31 March 2014 reported, in a different tone, that ‘the Opposition Leader’s recent criticism of the so-called drug trials conducted as part of the Kerala Health Observatory Project has caught many public health activists by surprise. Many officials in the health department wonder what caused the octogenarian leader to suddenly raise the issue’ when Health Minister had announced in the Assembly sometime ago that the project, which never involved any drug trial, had been shelved, the minister having had also clarified that the project, sought to be conducted in association with the Canada-based Population Health Research Institute, involved only collecting details on the morbidity and mortality patterns with regard to the high prevalence non-communicable diseases in the Kerala population and advisory body comprising of top health officials and well-known academics and public health activists having overseen the entire exercise, the findings of which having not handed over to any foreign entity.’ According to this news paper, ‘many officials wondered privately whether the Leader of the Opposition had been briefed wrongly about the project by sections not disposed well towards such Health Department initiatives, since allegations regarding drug trials have always been a politically sensitive topic in Kerala.’

We, readers of all these news articles, will now have a few questions of our own in our minds which will have to be answered by the government and a few names printed on our conscience which we ourselves have to clear. The most relevant questions which spring up in our minds have already been asked by the Opposition Leader. The names which trouble us, which we ourselves have to clear, are Kerala Health Observatory Project, Government of Kerala Health Department, National Rural Health Mission, Medical College Department of Community Medicine, Population Health Research Institute Canada and McMaster University Canada, Health Action by People, Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, Trivandrum and a few names which come up when we search internet for Kerala Health Observatory Project. 

Kerala Health Observatory and Basic Surveillance Project

To tell the truth, the name Kerala Health Observatory Project does not come up anywhere, associated with any credible research institutions. Only news is there, cultivated, planted or officially released. It exists nowhere. It has left behind only paper trails- vouchers, letters, cheques- all conveniently shelved now, to be opened only when an investigation starts or a judicial court summons. It left no electronic trail. Searching the internet with the key words kerala-health-observatory-project leads to nowhere, or to whatever is only there (See the picture below). It leads to the names of only two ladies. Everyone escaped clean, except two young ladies whose names are left there alone on the broad sky of internet for all to view. One is a consultant whose Linked In profile shows she is engaged by Health Action by People since April 2010 as Consultant, holding the responsibility of coordinating their international study funded by McMaster University and other responsibilities including searching out funding options for their research projects. The website of Health Action by People also shows her name. The other is that of a Computer Assistant in the Medical College Hospital, Trivandrum whose Linked In profile also claims she has been associated with Kerala Health Observatory Project. Medical College Authorities do not have Computer Assistants on their pay rolls except those, if any, appointed on daily wages basis by Hospital Development Committee. None of the other governmental and non-governmental organizations’ digital fronts mention anything about this project. Even after questions having been raised by prominent legislators, health minister having answered questions and reputed news papers having reported grave allegations, it is inconceivable that electronic searches for this project lead only to two young women who did not think it prudent and wise to keep back from publicly associating their names to a project which was doomed to be abandoned and hushed up later.

Health Action by People

Health Action by People started near Mutharamman Kovil, Pettah and then moved to near Medical College, Trivandrum. It was founded by the prominent Dr. C.R.Soman of Trivandrum, the late health visionary of Kerala. He was a professor at Medical College, Trivandrum, noted as a trainer of health workers in the state. After his demise, Dr. Raman Kutty, a professor at Achutha Menon Rsearch Centre became its Chairman. Dr. K.Vijayakumar, Professor of Community Medicine at Medical College, Trivandrum is its Secretary. They have two professors from the Achutha Menon Centre in their Executive Council, including the Chairman, and four professors from the Medical College, Trivandrum, including the Secretary. They do have a Dr. Rajasree Gopinath as Consultant. When they say they are committed to serving the people in the field of health and that their organization is led by a group of professionals sharing a common vision and ideal, why should we unbelieve?

Government of Kerala, Health Department and National Rural Health Mission

Government of Kerala through its health minister has admitted that an agreement was signed between the Canadian Organization and the Government which along with everything else was shelved after a time. It has not yet revealed who in Kerala were involved and how much money was spent on this project before its shelving. Also it has yet to answer the specific questions raised by the Opposition Leader of Kerala. The Health Department did involve itself in this project by deputing staff, if they did depute. This department has to answer who were deputed to do what, when and where and what their financial commitments were and who gave them the authority to depute personnel, spend money, collect people’s data and hand over it. The people of Kerala know well about the activities of NRHM. It is a central agency housed in the state, working with a lot of money, living a lavish life like kings and accounting to no one. The central government directed NRHM to create websites and post every activity including daily expenditure so that people can evaluate how they spend public money, following continuous allegations of misappropriation of money were reported from all states. They were even directed to post the names of who work where on which day so that people may check. They totally disobeyed this for fear of peoples’ interfering and public comments in websites. That is why it is said they account to no one and live like kings. Their websites have a few photos of persons, a few telephone numbers, a few links here and there and no information. Whatever is there is available in any government diary. Every dubious project which springs up in Kerala in the name of health is financed by this agency, if it has ‘considerations’. Every ambitious educated entrepreneur set out to make quick money come up with projects for this agency, for they do not provide links in their website to projects undertaken or amounts spent on each. If they are funded by the government of Kerala in any project, the government will not have details of this money once it leaves government coffers. If someone asks details from the government under the Right To Information Act about the money they gave, the government will say details are available only with the NRHM and not with them! In this particular case of Kerala Health Observation and Surveillance Project too, as reported, it was NRHM who was to finance (or distribute money to?) this survey, no wonder. Every unaccountable spending is now delegated to NRHM. Man, even defense establishments are now accountable to people! 

Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, Trivandrum

The Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies is the Health Sciences wing of the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, Trivandrum. They train professionals in health research and health policies. Government of India recognized this wing of Sree Chithra as a Centre of Excellence for public health training. The AMCHSS does have an ongoing research project, the Principal Investigator of which being Dr.V.Ramankutty: Prevalence Of Type II Diabetes In A Rural Community. The path to this project is: Home > About SCTIMST > Organisation > AMCHSS > Projects > List of Ongoing Projects- 12. Apart from this, they mention nothing about any research project undertaken with Canadian partnership or assistance. They do have visiting faculties from abroad and an affiliated WHO Fellowship Programme and there might be Canadian citizens among the scholars who have come and gone, but their official website has zero information on Kerala Health Observatory Project. Perhaps, their name was unnecessarily dragged into this by those who came up with this project. One of their professors, Dr.V.Raman Kutty, is also the chairman of Health Action by People in Trivandrum, incidentally. And another of their professors is in their Executive Council also.

Population Health Research Institute in Canada

The Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) was founded in 1999 as a joint Institute of Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation and McMaster University. Their declared research programs include studying the causes and prevention of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, vascular complications, and stroke. They have a global team of collaborators with researchers from eighty countries in six continents, including North America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Latin/South America, according to their public relations. Their Lead Investigators are noted as Dr. Salim Yusuf, D.Phil, FRCP, Canada, Professor of Medicine at McMaster University, Director of the Population Health Research Institute, and Vice-President of Research and Chief Scientific Officer at Hamilton Health Sciences and Dr. Clara Chow, a post-doctoral research fellow.

But their official website does not have information on any projects undertaken in Kerala. In European standards, with the strict European Information Commissioners, if they do not have anything to display on Kerala, it clearly means they do not have any official deal with Kerala. If there does exist a connection, it is personal and out of office. It is very easy nowadays for someone to sign Memorandums of Understanding and mislead institutions, if there is someone in that institution who is prepared to turn head the other way in return for favours once received or offered. 

So, we have to assume that the name of the PHRI was either unnecessarily dragged into this project to boost project profile and secure government support and finance, or the PHRI withdrew from partnering with the project, on wise second thoughts. News reports say that they only intended to provide guidance and expertise, not finance. The PHRI which has undertaken so many research studies in so many countries is unlikely to sign genuine agreements officially and withdraw from them if the projects are feasible, viable, legal and righteous in their evaluation. Then who did sign the agreement for them? Did they sign it with Health Action by People or with the Government of Kerala? What were the terms of this agreement?

We know whoever approved, promoted and travelled along with this project and claimed it as their own has now disowned it, like they do to a leper. The involved establishments did spend money, depute personnel, collect data, hand it over and everything else associated with carrying out a project like this. It was, we can guess, brought forward by private persons, who got eminent institutions and scientific personalities involved, got politicians to speak for them and get favour from government, until it became a government project with government funding. We can also guess it violated so many principles inviolable where two countries, a state government, and sensitive data of people are involved. It all started in 2013 and ended in 2014 within just one year, the same period when people with guts in Kerala were playing with state politicians and bureaucrats and technocrats like playing with dolls and puppets and got projects approved and purses un-stringed. We have seen so many scams not to wonder. Why did the Kerala Government actually abandon this project and shelf it suddenly?

First reported on 15 April 2014