In order to savour the taste of the outer world and prepare for the coveted institution called ‘school’, my little daughter was lately inducted into a ‘play school’, as they name it these days. Play schools were not heard of, a decade or two back and now they have mushroomed all over the place. You might find one in your friendly neighborhood. With dreamy eyes and expectations  no less than a Harvard student, you set out to get your child to embrace the new world.

Hallucination meets reality once the child frequents the ‘school’ for a couple of days, and makes you ponder if it was a desirable decision. The school, where majority of the times children are left alone to play with little or no attention. If at all you get to hear some music in the school, it’s the latest Bollywood number, and the teacher with their wannabe students dancing away to it’s tune. Talk about Nursery rhymes, any.

Fewer schools have play grounds and fewer still extra curricular activities and sports. You may squabble and contend, “Why not knock the door of the next big school, offering quality education and development of a child”. Differ, I claim, as my right, for the mass doesn’t have the might to chose the right, instead a change in these foothills of education is the need.

I introspect my days in school, where not analytical and reasoning but test of memory was the Caesar. Memory enrichment skills was the prime, be it the pristine Kindergarten or the High school. Pupil with higher memory staked claim to all the accolades and were the chart busters of sorts. Stronger does my belief gets when I recall my yesteryear classmates, now orthopaedic surgeon in Gangaram hospital and another a barrister in Delhi’s High Court, who never saw a mention in the toppers list through out.

Cut to recent and the trend is not worthy of a praise, if not lambaste. Ever growing need for specialized coaching to conquer the epitome of Indian education, vis-a-vis the IIMs, RECs & IITs, are adequate attestation of the education, the young students are being doled out. Ranking system and not the much needed grading system still in use. It’s disheartening to know India’s expenditure on education, is a meagre 4.1% of GDP, 82^nd of 132 nations. India produces 2.5 million graduates each year -of which 350,000 are engineers, twice the number produced by the US. Contrast this with the success rate of these graduates. Depressing are the number of these graduates who pursue higher education and PhDs, contributing to only 2% of the world’s research.

Our education system is dated, and need for an immediate overhaul would be to say the insignificant. The impending revolution in education can be brought about, when corporates and individuals join hands with the government and establish Universities which can rise to meet the talent, ambition and intelligence of Indians. Until then the brain drain may continue and the west will bear our fruits of labour.

With the progression of time,as my daughter inches closer to mainstream education, my soul prepares and warns me to the imminent risk of type casting her in the age old mould of our education system and produce, may be, just another housewife or money minting machine!

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A Recession is a prolonged period of time when the nation’s economy is slowing or it is the reduction of the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) for at least six months. The producers and consumers are the two basic people upon whom the whole economy revolves. The value of goods and services is determined by supply and demand. In case the price is too high there will be less demand and the producer reduces the price to increase supply.

Increasing demand leads to an increase in the production thereby increased supply which in turn results in increased labour ,materials and overall increase in price.Now the general feeling is good. You want to make investments and consequently the stock markets go up.

Consequently this leads to overproduction and the supply exceeds consumption.Now the attitude of the people changes to saving mentality and this can lead to a contracting economy.People spotting a negative trend on one area fears the same to happen in other areas and suddenly RECESSION is on.

In a market economy the market is determined by demand and competition putting it beyond any control.A government has the fiscal and monetary policies in controlling the recession.While the former is on collecting and spending money and latter on manipulating the available money. Both can either improve the situation or worsen it.

According to the Halfway Rule past recessions lasted only for 13 months. So continuing with the trends the present recession is predicted to last till 2010.

A recession in US should worry India as it has major outsourcing deals.The strengthening rupee is another cause of concern.Oil prices coming down is at present keeping inflation down.The way out of the present crisis is only through a massive fiscal stimulus either by monetizing or by tax cuts.Indian Government is relying on private investments and resurrection in agriculture.

But the stress should be on public spending as advocated by Keynes who argued that the solution to recession is through reduced interest rates and increased public spending.

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What is a recession? The generally accepted definition of a recession is two successive quarters of negative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

It’s a known fact that we are in deep recession, deeper in US, UK and other developed nations as compared to the developing countries. Developing countries are not immune to this, as the consumption and demand from these would be impacted as a result of recession and hence a cascading affect across the globe. China reported 20 million job loss and it’s premiere has been making rounds other side of the world to ensure the ‘doors are not being shut on them..’ India reported 500K plus job losses in textile, jewellery, auto and manufacturing. IT saw a marginal growth, however NASSCOM did lower the growth expectation from 21-24% to 17%, (may be a breather for some in the near  term.)

Defence budget put under scanner, budgets tightened, expansion plans seen the door at a faster pace than one could imagine. Recently Britain, shelved a plan to buy a £13 billion naval warship.

All said and done, we are coming to terms with it and we have no choice.

So why recession?

The right question to initiate a blame game, to blame it all on the financial decisions that grossly went wrong, made by the once gurus of financial world. The same DNA that made them last for more than a century? There’s more to it than that meets the eye.

Let’s go back and glance at our economics books which states product is an accumulation of labour. Unless there is labour there is not going to be any product. Over the last decade, growth in entertainment, luxury, & multiplexes across the length and breadth of the country has out paced the growth in any other industry. There is a mad rush for the latest gadgets, to achieve the zenith of luxury and live as much a comfortable life as one can possibly imagine, hoping that this will continue forever.

Something to ponder and introspect on.

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