In the acquisitive society being shaped by India’s post-liberalisation new middle class, the ugly face of me-first capitalism is incrementally turning whiter. Over several decades since it first established a trading outpost in India in 1931, the Mumbai-based consumer goods market leader Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL — annual sales revenue:Rs.11,060 crore) has built itself an impressive reputation as a model MNC (multinational company), committed to national development in a spirit of enlightened self-interest. In particular under its first Indian chairman, the late and much lamented Prakash Tandon and his native successors, HLL transformed into the mirror in which the growing number of MNCs planting their flags on Indian soil fashioned themselves.

But in the post-liberalisation period with competition in the national FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) marketplace hitherto effortlessly dominated by HLL hotting up, a foreign amorality seems to have invaded the sanitised corridors of this model MNC. This new corporate culture is exemplified by its unrestrained big-budget promotion of a skin whitening cream branded Fair & Lovely.

Through carpet-bombing advertising in the media, particularly television, this product which reinforces colonial norms of beauty and which would be banned for its racist, colour-prejudiced connotations in the US and Britain, has emerged as HLL’s premier brand accounting for an estimated 10 percent of the company’s annual sales. Not only is the brand aggressively promoted on cricket chat shows, it has prompted the establishment of a Fair & Lovely Institute of Beauty, if you please. And such is the money muscle of HLL that cricketers and commentators darkened beyond redemption by the sun, compere Fair & Lovely chat shows without any trace of embarrassment.

The Fair & Lovely Institute’s latest innovation, reportedly the outcome of big-budget research is a ‘fairness meter’ which measures skin whitening following consistent use of F&L. According to sources inside Hindustan Lever House, the fairness meter is the outcome of in-house testing in the highest echelons of the company. Evidence of its effectiveness is reflected in the progressive ‘fairness’ of its chairmen. When the product was first introduced into the market, HLL’s chairman, the feisty T. Thomas was well, very dark. His successor Dr. Anil Ganguly was perhaps a shade lighter. Ganguly’s successor, Keki Dadiseth was several shades lighter as was his successor Vindi Banga. But quite obviously F& L Institute’s researchers have perfected the product because Douglas Baillie, the new chief executive of HLL is completely white, even if not lovely.

No doubt research professionals of the F& L Institute of Beauty are working on it.

Facile solution

While all over the contemporary world elected governments and ministers work overtime to generate employment, in Uttar Pradesh — India’s most populous (166 million) and by many yardsticks most backward state — its self-proclaimed socialist chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has hit upon a facile solution to the problem of a growing pool of educated unemployed — largely a consequence of government control of higher education.

On June 16, he handed out the first 30 cheques to almost 52,000 unemployed graduates. Under the state government’s scheme, all graduates and postgrads registered with unemployment exchanges are eligible for Rs. 500 per month. Eligible candidates include doctors and engineers, lawyers upto 35 years of age.

Inevitably given the administrative incompetence and corruption for which Uttar Pradesh is famous, one intrepid journalist was gifted a cheque in the name of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda terrorist killed two weeks ago in an American air strike in Iraq. Over-stressed officials in the employment exchanges readily handed over blank identity cards to applicants, asking them to affix photo identifications at home. Also since there was no way of verifying whether the recipients were actually unemployed, many gainfully employed youth also acquired the coveted pink cards to be issued only to unemployed graduates.

Although the per capita annual income of the state in which over 40 percent of the population lives on less than $ 1 per day is Rs.9,765, the state government has created a supplementary budget of Rs.400 crore to cover the scheme, which unlike similar schemes in Haryana and Kerala does not restrict the dole to the educated unemployed below the poverty line. All unemployed graduates and postgraduates as well as those with technical qualifications between the ages of 21 and 35 registered with the employment offices are eligible.

That’s governance socialist style.

Information conundrum

Although s.4 of the Right to Information Act 2005, mandates the Central and state governments to disclose certain categories of information suo motu or voluntarily, a study conducted by the Delhi-based Centre for Civil Society (CCS) indicates that the education ministries of most state governments are non-compliant, and even those complying are providing the barest minimum information. CCS’ damning study released by Wajahat Habibullah, chief information commissioner of India on June 13, reveals that compliance with a DTP (duty to publish) index of 106 points in seven states including e-governance savvy Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, is zero. Of the 31 states and UTs, only 15 have more than 10 percent compliance, with Pondicherry ranking first with 48 percent.

In the education sector only 29 of 85 education agencies or organisations of the Central and state governments have posted updates of their activities. According to CCS, in the developed nations of the first world, legislation is implemented because most of the information needed by citizens is readily available. The authors of the study suggest that India’s Central and state governments follow suit to save time and resources of government and citizens.

True, but perhaps the blindspot of the study is that the education ministries, agencies and departments of the Central and state governments can comply with the provisions of RTI 2005 only if they complete assignments or initiatives. How is this possible when the overwhelming majority of educrats are moonlighting or scrambling to create parallel income streams?