The Hindu Business Line : An unattended tender generation may go wayward

Story so far: During a visit to Bangalore, I get a chance to meet the foreign coach of the Indian cricket team. While on one side we take help from foreign experts, there is much opposition to having them assist in the country's planning exercise. Does a hand that helps suddenly become foreign, I ask myself?

Episode 96

Last week, I had left with you a straight question: What's your take on the `foreign experts' issue? "It is unprecedented that any foreign agency has been appointed on a formal panel of the Planning Commission," writes Kishan Jammula, an IT Consultant from Bangalore.

"It just goes on to show that we are intellectually bankrupt and have no strategy of our own for economic development and are, therefore, banking on foreign advice. First, it is difficult to believe that these agencies could provide sound and dispassionate judgment on economic policies on which they are well known to have very specific (and remarkably unchanging) views.

"Second, even if these views need to be heard, there is a substantial difference between requesting them to provide their opinions formally in a separate context, and providing them with a different degree of legitimacy as `independent' outside experts on a par with others who are genuinely independent. This provides these institutions a platform to present their views in a manner, which bears the imprimatur of the Planning Commission."

There's a lot more that Kishan has sent, which I'm reserving for later reading.

Experts deliver, don't they?

Expertise in any field is theoretically welcome, but, in practice, it is not so, writes Mamata. "If it is okay to let `foreigners' work for the poor, set up business in India, start foreign banks to serve Indians, why is it necessary to `throw out' foreign experts from the Planning Commission? What will the `scientific' President and the `economist' PM of a country do if they are not allowed to choose their team?

"I feel if the agency hiring such `experts' is framing policies, application of which translates to the interest of the nation honestly, as an ordinary tax-paying citizen it does not matter to me if they are Indians, foreigners, or persons of Indian origin settled abroad, as long as they deliver what is expected. The issue is being politicised to keep the Government on tenterhooks.

When will we accept that the country needs professionals so that quality of life improves for ordinary citizens!" Genuine concerns.

Indian conditions alien to them

We Indians have an inferiority complex when it comes to dealing with the whites, writes M. Radhakrishnan. "Where we lack expertise we can take assistance from outside, as in the case of sports, because the basic rules are same wherever it is played. India lacks proper facilities or coaching to develop good coaches, so it is always better to have a foreign coach in sports.

"Whether we can extend the same reasoning for appointing foreign experts for planning our economy is a big question? Our economists are in no way inferior. There are many in the likes of Amartya Sen in our country. Conditions prevailing in our economy are quite alien to foreign experts and they will go by theory. Further, as someone said, `An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.' So, why increase expenses by engaging foreign experts?

"We don't lack skills in framing the policy. We lack the willpower to implement what is stated in the policy. What we need now are efficient administrators who can deliver the policy. If we ask foreign help to implement the policy, than a question will arise, do we deserve independence? Are we not capable of running the country efficiently, and so on?" Fundamental questions!

We're the best among peers

Do we need even foreign coaches for Indian sportsmen, asks Kamal Anil Kapadia, a Mumbai CA from PwC? "Why do Indians have to accept any foreign lifestyle, culture and so on? Don't we have any good coaches in India? Why do we have to depend on foreigners for everything? However, you may be right in supporting foreign coaches after our dismal performance in the Olympics. I have always challenged myself to be the best amongst my peers and have always succeeded. Let's try on our own rather then depend on someone!" Quite forceful, I'd say.

We need foreign experts

Do the Left parties have a definite agenda for the country's growth, asks M. Thangavelu? "We welcome the experts in sports because we still do not find a single sportsman in administration who rises above regional chauvinism.

"For foreign coaches, the main motive is good pay and respect. As long as these are provided, they work hard to achieve results, so that their contracts can be renewed. Foreign experts are doing a wonderful job in Rajasthan, so that our dependence on oil from abroad is minimised. In tourism also we have not achieved real growth; foreign experts can help us leap forward."

That should make our foreign friends happy, I'm sure. As if to concur, Sachidanandan calls the move, "A Himalayan blunder!"

Sports and planning are different

Foreign experts in the consultative committees and having them coach sportspersons are different, says C. Ramesh of Keeramangalam Village. "It is an open secret that many of the programmes/projects have been included in the Plan only to pacify the international donor agencies. In this scenario, foreign experts from these agencies will be inclined more to test whether the terms dictated by their respective agencies have been fulfilled, than looking at people's welfare.

"Also, foreign experts can hardly play a role in `evaluating' the performance. Though they may be experts in economics or in some other discipline, they may not understand poverty and other problems peculiar to India." I wish we could claim that we've understood these problems.

**********

Out of the way

This happened about a week after Gandhi Jayanthi. I had some free time in the forenoon, and so decided to drive past the statue of the Father of the Nation. The road adjoining the beach sand was lonely and I was relishing the breeze and the expanse of the sea.

However, as I passed by two parked auto-rickshaws, I had a gut feel that something was fishy. In one of the vehicles, I could see a girl of about 15, wearing the uniform of a school I was familiar with, seated with the driver. There were occupants in the other vehicle too but not visible because of the tarpaulin screen that hid the doors. As if to keep watch, there were a few youths near the autos. I rode fast to the main road, hoping to alert any cop I could see, but alas there were none for almost a few kilometres. By then, however, I was turning off to the road that lead to my office.

I felt sorry for the parents of those schoolgirls who, I guess, should be working in some office unaware of the goings on. Or am I imagining too many things? But I felt guilty that I didn't try to intervene and help the kids out. What do we do about things like this? Send in your thoughts by Friday.

Swati_CA@hotmail.com

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