The Violence at the Panjab University Campus – The malaise is deeper.
The recent and repeated incidents of violence at the Panjab University Campus and at its affiliated colleges in Chandigarh mask a deeper malaise. The attempts to combat violence by students by a law and order approach will not work until and unless parents and society as such join in to control the situation. A law and order approach is certainly required to combat the violence with a firm hand before the university joins the likes of various universities in central & eastern India with a tarnished reputation. Already the university has lost ground and its flagship courses do not attract talent or employers with the same enthusiasm as earlier. The violence if left unchecked due to various factors will simply hasten the process of furthering the slide of the university. Panjab University also seems to be afflicted by a diffused sense of responsibility between the Vice Chancellor and the Senate, in any case a sense of a vision towards which the university is working is absent atleast from the public eye. The issues however go deeper; these are primarily societal in origin and are germane to Punjab and even the North West region as such.
Since the process of liberalisation began, we have witnessed tremendous changes in certain regions of India. Entrepreneurship has sprung primarily from the middle class after being rooted in quality higher education. Infosys, Mphasis etc spring to mind as do cities such as Chennai, Bangalore, Vadodara, Pune, Surat, Rajkot, Tirupur etc. Even Jaipur is now being touted as a major centre for employment. But beyond Delhi in North West India, where is the entrepreneurship and the success due to education of the middle class, especially in the technology or services sector. The rare stories that do exist are of individuals who were well connected as such already and then built up the scale to generate corporate success.
The pertinent point is that a respect for intellectualism coupled with a need for quality in education has been markedly absent from Punjab for quite some time. Put another way, reforms in the governmental education sector are urgently required with an insistence on results and quality. A leading business magazine while ranking Chandigarh quite highly in quality of life also went on to state that being a landlord and real estate and to some extent retail seemed to be the primary employment opportunities or occupation in this area. Entrepreneurship seems to be low key, particularly in high end technology industry as also services. For this the current crop of elders, from whatsoever field or sector, have a lot to answer for. While the south and west of India have articles and clips in papers devoted to need for technology as a tool for varied developmental issues, and business as also exports, our papers are full of debates on politico religious issues, language issues, khap panchayats etc. Its not that the other regions are heavens of opportunity but it is high time we in Punjab or north west India punctured our own misplaced sense of well being and superiority and analysed our shortcomings. We cannot measure the well being of a society from the number of upper segment luxury cars sold in a city or pure physical infrastructure indicators. Soft skills are equally important for the progress of any society in the long term and need to be addressed on priority by the leaders and the society they represent.
Students brandishing guns, firing them and thinking they are the last word in virility are absolutely in the wrong but so is the society which refuses to condemn their actions unequivocally or the police force which dithers in clamping down. If unchecked, the slide downwards can be too fast while the already rapidly developing regions of India move on. Virility and a misplaced sense of being masculine by violence and muscle power has been ingrained in us since long but now needs to be controlled. The real developmental and economic action in India is now south of the Vindhyas except the NCR belt and it cannot be passed off as central largesse as it’s primarily driven by private sector players and private equity. Just as an aside, a leading private equity player told me informally that very few entrepreneurs in this region could make a coherent presentation on need for funds or a business plan vis a vis the south or west. Bankers who have worked across India would substantiate this. Pertinently, reforms in agricultural practices and experiments in new varieties are more often reported from the south of the vindhyas. The organic linkages with quality in education are obvious.
This issue can be approached from another angle, the number of institutes ranked highly from this region or rated highly by HR officials from well known corporates in the Management, Information Technology, Engineering or even Fashion Technology sectors. The institutes are just a handful, primarily as the intellectual capital itself from such institutes which imparts knowledge is not rated highly. The techie from south of the vindhyas is a mix of a bit of a joke and awe in the north but unless we in this region respect academic knowledge and intellect again, we cannot match the progress and employment opportunities being generated in the regions referred to.
Our present mores in the North West seem to place a high value on connections, money or physical prowess and a quick return on capital with a minimal concern for human capital. It should rather be on support and respect for knowledge, technology, ethics, entrepreneurship and a concern for the human resources. This will generate stable long term employment opportunities.
Strangely, we lionize our NRIs; the amount of regard for NRIs in our region certainly seems unwarranted as such considering their minimal contribution to boosting intellectual content and knowledge as also investing in high technology industry or services. The inclination of NRIs seems to be more for gaining importance, both political and economic here rather than in their adopted homelands, of course with exceptions. Likewise, the corporate leaders from this region seem to exhibit normally an unseemly haste to migrate to the NCR once their operations scale up. This deprives us in the north west of valuable corporate intellectual capital at the senior level. The factors to shift head offices and operations seem to be many but a primary factor seems to be the reluctance of senior valuable potential employees to work from cities in the north west. We need to re-examine ourselves to retrieve the situation.
A minor point, the mores of the youth seem to place more importance on the thanedar or even patwari rather than the corporate brain!. I am not decrying certain professions but suggest a change in social mores to respect a wide range of professions as also transparency in governance. Another pertinent point, how many major well respected corporate houses are now owned by Punjabis. The large number of youth seeking to reach the shores of developed nations by payments of hefty sums also point to deep rooted desires for employment and quality education.
The states here do state that the expansion, modernisation and reorientation of Technical Education and Industrial Training systems to match with the needs of modern corporate is a priority but this is yet to be apparent on the ground. 361 Colleges, 7 architecture colleges, 4 biotech colleges, 48 engineering colleges, 40 management colleges, 38 law colleges, 6 mass communication colleges, 4 universities etc in Punjab are just the physical aspect. What is the quality imparted and what value is placed on their pass outs by potential employers is the real test of the quality of education. Just as an aside, how many papers have been contributed by educationists from this region in leading journals of their professions or how many respected management experts have emerged from here? Also, the few that do emerge rarely get the respect from society and stakeholders in governance they actually deserve.
The situation as of now is retrievable and needs to be addressed urgently. There are large number of students who even now are obtaining places of merit in the government and corporate sector as also professions by individual merit and efforts. This however cannot be the norm unless there is an institutionalization of respect for the world of academia and societal mores change.
As already explained, we need to balance our societal value systems and mores; achieving goals or power by violence or unethical behavior needs to be condemned as also a desire for quick money. The stakeholders in governance also need to condemn strongly and openly the misplaced respect for violence which is taking root and attempts to condone it as youthful excesses when done by so called student leaders. We need to debate these issues honestly and with commitment. At stake is the social & economic prosperity of our region, specially for its youth.
====================================================
Dinesh K Kapila is an ex student of Panjab University and is a developmental banker by profession. This article is written strictly in his personal capacity.
====================================================
The recent and repeated incidents of violence at the Panjab University Campus and at its affiliated colleges in Chandigarh mask a deeper malaise. The attempts to combat violence by students by a law and order approach will not work until and unless parents and society as such join in to control the situation. A law and order approach is certainly required to combat the violence with a firm hand before the university joins the likes of various universities in central & eastern India with a tarnished reputation. Already the university has lost ground and its flagship courses do not attract talent or employers with the same enthusiasm as earlier. The violence if left unchecked due to various factors will simply hasten the process of furthering the slide of the university. Panjab University also seems to be afflicted by a diffused sense of responsibility between the Vice Chancellor and the Senate, in any case a sense of a vision towards which the university is working is absent atleast from the public eye. The issues however go deeper; these are primarily societal in origin and are germane to Punjab and even the North West region as such.
Since the process of liberalisation began, we have witnessed tremendous changes in certain regions of India. Entrepreneurship has sprung primarily from the middle class after being rooted in quality higher education. Infosys, Mphasis etc spring to mind as do cities such as Chennai, Bangalore, Vadodara, Pune, Surat, Rajkot, Tirupur etc. Even Jaipur is now being touted as a major centre for employment. But beyond Delhi in North West India, where is the entrepreneurship and the success due to education of the middle class, especially in the technology or services sector. The rare stories that do exist are of individuals who were well connected as such already and then built up the scale to generate corporate success.
The pertinent point is that a respect for intellectualism coupled with a need for quality in education has been markedly absent from Punjab for quite some time. Put another way, reforms in the governmental education sector are urgently required with an insistence on results and quality. A leading business magazine while ranking Chandigarh quite highly in quality of life also went on to state that being a landlord and real estate and to some extent retail seemed to be the primary employment opportunities or occupation in this area. Entrepreneurship seems to be low key, particularly in high end technology industry as also services. For this the current crop of elders, from whatsoever field or sector, have a lot to answer for. While the south and west of India have articles and clips in papers devoted to need for technology as a tool for varied developmental issues, and business as also exports, our papers are full of debates on politico religious issues, language issues, khap panchayats etc. Its not that the other regions are heavens of opportunity but it is high time we in Punjab or north west India punctured our own misplaced sense of well being and superiority and analysed our shortcomings. We cannot measure the well being of a society from the number of upper segment luxury cars sold in a city or pure physical infrastructure indicators. Soft skills are equally important for the progress of any society in the long term and need to be addressed on priority by the leaders and the society they represent.
Students brandishing guns, firing them and thinking they are the last word in virility are absolutely in the wrong but so is the society which refuses to condemn their actions unequivocally or the police force which dithers in clamping down. If unchecked, the slide downwards can be too fast while the already rapidly developing regions of India move on. Virility and a misplaced sense of being masculine by violence and muscle power has been ingrained in us since long but now needs to be controlled. The real developmental and economic action in India is now south of the Vindhyas except the NCR belt and it cannot be passed off as central largesse as it’s primarily driven by private sector players and private equity. Just as an aside, a leading private equity player told me informally that very few entrepreneurs in this region could make a coherent presentation on need for funds or a business plan vis a vis the south or west. Bankers who have worked across India would substantiate this. Pertinently, reforms in agricultural practices and experiments in new varieties are more often reported from the south of the vindhyas. The organic linkages with quality in education are obvious.
This issue can be approached from another angle, the number of institutes ranked highly from this region or rated highly by HR officials from well known corporates in the Management, Information Technology, Engineering or even Fashion Technology sectors. The institutes are just a handful, primarily as the intellectual capital itself from such institutes which imparts knowledge is not rated highly. The techie from south of the vindhyas is a mix of a bit of a joke and awe in the north but unless we in this region respect academic knowledge and intellect again, we cannot match the progress and employment opportunities being generated in the regions referred to.
Our present mores in the North West seem to place a high value on connections, money or physical prowess and a quick return on capital with a minimal concern for human capital. It should rather be on support and respect for knowledge, technology, ethics, entrepreneurship and a concern for the human resources. This will generate stable long term employment opportunities.
Strangely, we lionize our NRIs; the amount of regard for NRIs in our region certainly seems unwarranted as such considering their minimal contribution to boosting intellectual content and knowledge as also investing in high technology industry or services. The inclination of NRIs seems to be more for gaining importance, both political and economic here rather than in their adopted homelands, of course with exceptions. Likewise, the corporate leaders from this region seem to exhibit normally an unseemly haste to migrate to the NCR once their operations scale up. This deprives us in the north west of valuable corporate intellectual capital at the senior level. The factors to shift head offices and operations seem to be many but a primary factor seems to be the reluctance of senior valuable potential employees to work from cities in the north west. We need to re-examine ourselves to retrieve the situation.
A minor point, the mores of the youth seem to place more importance on the thanedar or even patwari rather than the corporate brain!. I am not decrying certain professions but suggest a change in social mores to respect a wide range of professions as also transparency in governance. Another pertinent point, how many major well respected corporate houses are now owned by Punjabis. The large number of youth seeking to reach the shores of developed nations by payments of hefty sums also point to deep rooted desires for employment and quality education.
The states here do state that the expansion, modernisation and reorientation of Technical Education and Industrial Training systems to match with the needs of modern corporate is a priority but this is yet to be apparent on the ground. 361 Colleges, 7 architecture colleges, 4 biotech colleges, 48 engineering colleges, 40 management colleges, 38 law colleges, 6 mass communication colleges, 4 universities etc in Punjab are just the physical aspect. What is the quality imparted and what value is placed on their pass outs by potential employers is the real test of the quality of education. Just as an aside, how many papers have been contributed by educationists from this region in leading journals of their professions or how many respected management experts have emerged from here? Also, the few that do emerge rarely get the respect from society and stakeholders in governance they actually deserve.
The situation as of now is retrievable and needs to be addressed urgently. There are large number of students who even now are obtaining places of merit in the government and corporate sector as also professions by individual merit and efforts. This however cannot be the norm unless there is an institutionalization of respect for the world of academia and societal mores change.
As already explained, we need to balance our societal value systems and mores; achieving goals or power by violence or unethical behavior needs to be condemned as also a desire for quick money. The stakeholders in governance also need to condemn strongly and openly the misplaced respect for violence which is taking root and attempts to condone it as youthful excesses when done by so called student leaders. We need to debate these issues honestly and with commitment. At stake is the social & economic prosperity of our region, specially for its youth.
====================================================
Dinesh K Kapila is an ex student of Panjab University and is a developmental banker by profession. This article is written strictly in his personal capacity.
====================================================
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