Tuesday, March 8, 2016

What's wrong with Hillary's campaign?



First of all, let me admit that I am still undecided. Finding it difficult to relate to the Republican candidates. So, at least my choice now is binary- Bernie or Hillary? As I watch the results pouring in from the Democratic Primary in Michigan, the following thoughts come to my mind about Hillary's campaign especially after watching last night's (7th of March) democratic debate.

I switched on the TV half way through the debate and as expected, the candidates were talking about the same stuff (over the last few months). Finally when both candidates were asked to present closing comments, they did their thing and I dozed off. When I got up this morning, I could remember Bernie's closing comments verbatim- super pack, 1% stuff, criminal justice.  Can't remember a word from Hillary's message.... Well..  I remember something about making America "Whole". What the hell does that even mean? Ironically, I still remember the closing comments from Trump's debate a few weeks ago- Wall, Repeal Obama care, lower taxes, attack ISIS and block Muslims from entering US.

Hillary is missing the basic element  (and common sense) of election campaigns. They are about rhetoric than policy. In a democracy like US, extremes are never going to be possible even if one of the other candidates win the general election in November. Simply put,there will neither be a Wall between US & Mexico nor the country will embrace socialism. Secretary Clinton needs to quickly get together with her communications team (or find a new team) and come up with a crisp message that appeals to the '144 character generation' because that demographic will decide her fate as confirmed from the Michigan result. I was stunned when I saw her reply to young female voters that it doesn't matter if they don't support her and that she still supports them. This could be good play of words but is simply not acceptable.

Branding is everything, Madam Secretary! You may still become the Democratic party candidate but you will find it hard to fight against the super polarizing GOP candidate.


Thursday, February 18, 2016

We need balance of ideologies in educational institutes

According to the JNU website, the tuition fees for pursuing a Graduate degree (Masters and PhD)) is about 500-600 Rs or 10$/ year. I believe room and board is about 500 Rs/year (10$/year).
Govt spends around Rs. 2,30,000 or 4000 $/ year/ per student i.e money from tax payers (mostly middle class people).
http://www.jnu.ac.in/admission/fees.asp
http://www.jnu.ac.in/DataFactSheet/

I have looked at other institutes like Jamia Milia Islamia, HCU, etc and they have similar fee structure.
Basically 3 or 4 points on this. Incredible and Shocking!
1. It is indeed incredible that we have such institutes in India offering free education with great faculty, fantastic environment that fosters innovation and creative thinking ! As a nation, we need to keep our promise to students in spite of being a poor nation. 
2. Its a also shocking that we may be subsiding education for folks who don't need it. Is there a need for subsidising the fee to all the students. I am assuming 50% of them can pay. Instead of a blanket subsidy, can we put in a tier based scholarship model? I am not against free education (I am for it, but we are not Germany with high per capita income).
3. How can we get some accountability back on students side? rational thinking, questioning the status quo, etc are all fantastic and glad that the universities are encouraging the students to do that. But, how can we stop students from falling into the trap of political parties, non state actors, etc and be used to score political points.
4. Thanks to Jawaharlal Nehru's Congress (and its dependence of Communist and socialist parties to stay in power for 60 + years), these great universities have been infested by Leftist idealogy. Most of the appointments in academic and administrative posts went to left ideology. How do we bring back some balance? There are other autonomous institutes that offer free education, foster creative thinking, develop leadership skills, etc in India with balanced perspectives that can provide campuses like JNU some perspectives and ideas.