Its implications for the Global Players--MNCs, FFIs & Direct Foreign Investors
Supreme Court’s direction to the medicos to end strike--which I predicted (vide my e-mail to the webmaster of spandan.com) if the medicos were to appear before the Court, came true on Wednesday (May the 31st).
The reaction which I predicted from the International business community (vide my Article posted at the spandan) has now been vocalized by Simon Long, the author of 'A Survey of Business in India' and currently the South Asia Bureau Chief of The Economist. He says:-
Talking to newsmen in India, Long said that reservation was "bad in two ways... it gives an impression of a backward and inward looking India preoccupied with caste ... as far as expanding seats in education institutes to make everyone happy, its hard for people outside to believe its being done without compromising on quality."
Simon Long, currently the South Asia Bureau Chief of The Economist, said the policy of reservation could create huge problems for the business world, which explained the strong criticism from the industry to such a policy.
The Indian industry was already facing a crunch of skilled technical workforce, the survey pointed out.
In principle, it was easy to talk about reservation but it was difficult to practice it, Long said, while noting that affirmative action has worked in the West.
He suggested that New Delhi should create an environment for private capital to deliver education, health and other services.
Long's comments come in the wake of the government proposing to provide 27 per cent reservation to Other Backward Classes in higher education institutes, which would take the total quota for the underprivileged to 49.5 per cent.
And now it is most likely that on 12th June the Supreme Court will wash its hands off the PIL-in-question by dubbing it as “premature”—all assurances made to the striking medicos to the effect that their grievances will be looked into, slyly overlooked.
N.B.: Please peruse my e-mails which are with the webmaster at: http://www.spandan.com/board/index.php?