Watching Poverty Grow

Re: # 53
Dost Mittar
The policies started by the British have not been replaced to reflect the real needs of society. In Pakistan, they veered off on a different course of state-propaganda in text-books by trying to re-write history in a politically advantageous manner. Higher education in Pakistan is still sub-standard and employers pay higher wages to foreign qualified individuals. State investment in education is reflected by the measly 0.8% of the budget allocated for the whole thing.

People need to take control of their own lives and solve their own problems otherwise nothing will happen. Situation in India started to change not because of government action it was because when government got out of the way of people to act in their own enlightened self interest. The only thing the government is needed for is to ensure a level playing field and that is all. The minute people start solving their own problems watch how the politicians and bureaucrats line up to ‘help out’ so that they can claim credit for all the good that is done.

American system has relied on a deep and abiding distrust of the power of the federal government where every action however benign in appearance is looked at with suspicion as an attempt to usurp our rights and restrict our liberties.

Re: # 54
Language is another problem concerning education. Provision of basic education in first language is not available. Sindhi could perhaps be the only language that has a curriculum besides urdu and english. Pashto, Baloch and Punjabis must learn urdu and english. There are no text-books and no education imparted in these languages at any level, as far as I know.

malik:

I had this maid in Delhi during my winter stay there. She told me that she sends her daughter to the "english medium" school and not a government school. In all probability, the so-called english medium private school is much worse than the government school, but such is their reputation that even the maid did not want her child to go there.

malik:

In India, primary schooling is the responsibility of state governments and the situation would vary from state to state. In general, one does not hear great things about primary schooling; in cities, they are so held in contempt that even a lowly clerk would not think of sending his kids to the government school. With the middle class having abandoned these schools, both the teachers and parents are indifferent. Teachers are interested only in their salaries -which they get whether they teach or not- and parents too are unconcerned for the most part. In villages, the situation is worse and frequently schools lack even basic necessities such as black boards. Still, some programs, such as mid-day meals have improved school attendance, especially of girls. Some state governments have special incentives for girl child going to school.

I think that the basic wrong decision was made during Nehru's period which gave more priority to institutions of higher learning than to primary education. I looked at some records during the British period and, even then the proportion of university to primary school enrollment was higher than in western countries. This is why even back in the 1950s, graduate unemployment was regarded as a major problem.

Health care indicators in India look worse than Pakistan because of the basic issues of nutrition and sanitation where India is lagging most of its neighbors.

India is worse than Bangladesh and Pakistan when it comes to nourishment and is showing little improvement in the area despite big money being spent on it, according to Indian Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed.

According to UNICEF, India is making progress in providing sanitation but it lags considerably behind most of the other countries in South Asia including Pakistan, Bangladesh and even war-torn Afghanistan.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Re: # 50
Dost Mittar
How is public education in India?
Pakistan presents a sorry picture regarding basic education. Rural areas are the worst hit. There are schools on government records but they actually do not exist. Lack of teachers and facilities and the sorry state of maintenance is obvious at schools that are public funded.

malikrashid:

The situation in India is only slightly better. Although there is a large number of government hospitals, they are not well maintained. Even when they have the latest equipment, it sits there for lack of repair and maintenance. Their hygiene is so poor that even a healthy person is likely to get sick if one has to spend some time there.

Re: # 47
There are a few government run hospitals providing supposedly free treatment. With government assistance at such a low these hospitals usually can not do much. There are 3 hospitals for 17 million residents in Karachi that run over-full, under-staffed and under-supplied.
Education and health-care have never been the priority for any government in 62 years. The helplessness of the poor and sick is a tragic story.

#47

Dost, how can PuffedUP Madrassa Alumnus "Worldwide" and his ilk even consider learning ANYTHING from India?

He "Invented" the 80386 like Al Gore "Invented" the Internet. That makes him Wiley Coyote the "PuffedUP Super Genius"

Malik saab:

Considering that only 0.2% of the budget is allocated to health and less than 1% is allocated to education, it is a miracle that infant mortality rates and illiteracy are as low as they are; indeed this can happen only because, I assume, there are a large number of khairati (charitable) hospitals and madrassahs. I think that the govt. should seriously study the school lunch programs in India to improve literacy rates. The Benazir scheme seems to follow the Indian NREGA program and should be lauded, except that I don't know if it can be afforded without improving revenue collection.

As I keep saying, until Pakistan addresses the issue of low private household savings, it will have to keep depending upon external sources for development, whether they come from expatriate pakistanis or courtesy of friendly -and sometimes not so friendly- governments.

They say thar will be big plant but will need huge water why they need huge amount of water ?
Thanks

#44

Dude, I have more bad news for you. Lookup the following

1. Kishenganga
2. Bhaglihar II
3. Pakal-Dul
4. Sewa-II
5. Uri-II
6. Bursur

This year, India increased power generation by 3,500 MW which was abysmal. However, by next June all the projects that were delayed this year will come on line that is 7,730 MW. In addition, we will get close to 3000 MW Nuclear Power in. We will get there. It will just take a little longer. It ALWAYS takes a little longer in India. We are used to it.

I can speak with authority about Bangalore. Every medium sized factory or workshop has a generator. Almost all the Hospitals, hotels,shops and offices have their own generators. Even most middle class homes have the tiny Kerosene/Petrol driven Honda generators. The power shortage does not affect running of the city, The lights go out for just an instant before the generators kick in. It just costs more because the privately generated electrical costs are passed on to the consumer.

Only those homes without a generator have to make do without electricity. Even that is few and far between. It was far far worse a few years back.

BTW, who cares if India is shining or not? Indians don't care. They also did not buy the BJP line. They kicked them out 5 years ago and did that to them again this year.

Pakis like you who have an incurable inferiority complex do and know very little about India desperately grab at straws continue to harp on it. Please continue to harp on this. :-) I am afraid the joke will be on you...:-) It already is...

Pakistan clearly has serious power shortages right now that are hurting Pakistani people and the economy very badly, for the reasons I have stated such as 30% power theft, low or no ROI for investors etc. And yet, there are several power plants under construction that should add tens of thousands of additional MW starting in about a year.

When completed over the next several years, some of these plants, including Nandipur (425 MW, Thermal), Guddu(800 MW, Thermal) and Neelam-Jhelum(1000 MW, Hydro), Chashma (1200 MW, Nuclear) will add more than 3000 MW of power generating capacity for the energy-hungry country. Pakistan is currently facing a deficit of 4,000 to 5,000 megawatts, resulting in extensive load-shedding (rolling blackouts) of several hours a day.

China has already installed a 325-megawatt nuclear power plant (C1) at Chashma and is currently working on another (C2) of the same capacity that is expected to be online by 2010. The agreements for C3 and C4 have also been signed. The United States has objected to China supplying C3 and C4 on the grounds that any Pak-China nuclear cooperation would require consensus approval by the NSG, of which China is now a member, for any exception to the guidelines. The US is applying double standards since it supported and got approval for such an exception from NSG for its own nuclear deal with India.

Under another agreement, China has agreed to invest about $600 million for setting up an integrated coal mining-cum-power project in Sindh. The project will produce 180 million tons of coal per year, which is sufficient to fuel the proposed 405 MW power plant. Pakistan is currently world's seventh largest coal-producing country, with coal reserves of more than 185 billion tons (second in the world after U.S.A.'s 247 billion tons). Almost all (99 percent) of Pakistan's coal reserves are found in the province of Sindh. Pakistan's largest coal field is Thar coal field which is spread over an area of 9100 square kilometers, and contains 175 billion tons of coal. So far this coal field has not been developed but efforts are underway.

But, just for CoolAl's inflated ego, here's the story from Shining India:

Come summer and India is reeling under power cuts. As mercury is rising, anger is rising among common Indians who are forced to stay without electricity for hours. Angry residents have attacked power utilities in Delhi, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh. In Kanpur, Union Home Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal joined angry protesters demanding electricity for the city that was reeling under 16 hours of power cut. Almost every state in the country is facing grim power situation.

Delhi is facing 30 percent shortage in power. Maharashtra on an average has 8 to 10 hours of load shedding every day. Madhya Pradesh has 26 percent power deficit. In Gujarat, while the requirement is 5,500 Mega Units, availability is 4,780 Mega Units. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are facing 2000 Mega Units of energy deficit and Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir have 1,500 and 1000 Mega Units of power shortages respectively.

The real problem for power shortage in the country emanate from poor generation capacity and distribution and transmission problems. While the public sector is unable to generate enough funds for investment in the power sector, lack of return is acting as an impediment to the private players to step in this sector. Despite stringent laws, to add to the woes, power theft is continuing unabated. Power sector is the joint responsibility of the Central and the State governments. With the bulk of the transmission and distribution functions lying with the state utilities the State governments are chiefly to bear the blame for the power crisis.

http://www.indiadaily.org/entry/rising-power-shortage-fuelling-power-rio ts-in-india/
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

XXXXX Hit by 18-Hour Power Outage After Transmission Failure

Guess which city it was. It happened on June 18

A. New Delhi
B. Mumbai
C. Kolkata
D. Chennai
E. Bangalore
F. Hyderabad
G. None of the above.
H. All of them -- PuffedUp Madrassa Alumnus Worldwide's answer

Check this link for the real answer...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a.ZeQq7hS3k 4

Anil that has always been the case. It is basically a confluence of technology combined with bureaucratic legacy that is to blame. Both things are surmountable and will be done. India today is very different from India of even 5 yrs ago....the scale is so enormous that it requires a much longer lead time for insfrastructural changes. Vaisey the capital taps are now open again....yippee!