BY THE TIME YOU READ this despairing editorial, polling in General Election 2014 will have commenced with the world’s largest electorate of 814 million citizens having begun the month-long process of voting away their future.  For discerning observers of the political landscape despair is inevitable, because in mid-May a coalition government defined either by kleptocracy, communalism or anarchy will assume office in New Delhi. Whatever the election outcome, the citizenry is set to experience turbulent times.

Although it’s normative and politically correct to praise the wisdom of the electorate, the plain truth is the citizenry and particularly the nation’s youth, have invited the forthcoming tsunami of troubles. Unfortunate but true, citizens insufficiently appreciate the right to vote and freedom to engage with the political process endowed upon them by the founding fathers of the Constitution. Casually they will vote in a Central government led either by Congress, BJP or AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) which will be steeped in the sins of reflexive kleptocracy, divisive communalism and irresponsible anarchy.

Strangely, despite half the population of India being made up of children and youth, none of the major political parties have promised to implement the report of the Kothari Commission, which recommended an annual outlay (Centre plus states) of 6 percent of GDP for education way back in 1966. Neither is there a credible commitment from any party to increase public health expenditure from the pathetic 1.4 percent of GDP outlay (cf. 9-10 percent in OECD countries). Nor have issues such as shockingly adverse police and judges to people ratios, pervasive child malnutrition, public housing and sanitation which are debilitating the nation, received any emphasis in the declarations or manifestos of mainstream political parties.

In this connection, the involvement of India’s estimated 400 million youth in the age group 18-34 with nation-building is especially disappointing. They seem unconcerned about making considered political choices despite the patent reality that politics — as it is being practiced currently by the mainstream and regional parties — is likely to impact them the most.  It is submitted that it’s the citizen’s responsibility to proactively seek out and vote in political parties and formations with genuine and credible national development programmes, rather than passively choose the best of a proven bad lot.

If citizens were to discharge their electoral obligation proactively, the newly registered Children First Party of India which promises to transform the nation into a child-centric society, would have received greater support. However, this new political party promoted with the most credible and comprehensive national revival agenda hasn’t attracted any support or encouragement from the media or the public. The fault is not of its committed promoters or programme, but of an indifferent electorate steeped in oriental inertia and despair.

A second chance for india inc

The imposition of a mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure obligation upon Indian industry by the new Companies Act, 2013 offers India Inc an opportunity to redeem itself for its inexplicable half-hearted engagement with Indian education over the past half century. Under the Act, every company with  a net worth of Rs.500 crore or more, or revenue above Rs.1,000 crore or a net profit of Rs.5 crore-plus is obliged to spend at least 2 percent of its average net profit of the past three years on CSR activities.

Although it’s undeniable that early 20th century business leaders such as  J.N. Tata, G.D. Birla and Lala Shri Ram among others, generously promoted and endowed landmark institutions of higher education such as the Indian Institute of Science, BITS, Pilani and the Shri Ram colleges in Delhi, and this tradition has been continued by a few latter-day business tycoons like Shiv Nadar and Azim Premji, the reality that contemporary India’s higher education system can accommodate only 18 percent of youth in the age group 18-24 as against 28 percent in China and over 60 percent in developed OECD countries, bears testimony that neither the Central nor state governments or India Inc, have paid sufficient attention to the growth and development of higher education.

The indifference of India Inc and the establishment to education attainment and excellence is also evidenced by the even worse condition of early childhood and primary education systems. The Annual Status of Education Report 2013 published by the highly-respected education NGO Pratham, indicates a steady and precipitous decline of learning outcomes in the country’s 700,000 rural — particularly government-run — primary schools.

Surprisingly, leaders of Indian industry who have to make do with poorly developed human resources have maintained a complicit silence while the human capital of the nation has been destroyed. The mandatory CSR obligation imposed upon profitable business enterprises offers corporate India a second chance to redeem itself for its sins of omission and commission vis-à-vis Indian education.

However, given the history of government over-regulation of industry and business in post-independence India, fears that the new legislation will translate into yet another opportunity for government officials and inspectors to harass and extort bribes from corporates for trivial procedural lapses in discharging this obligation, are not unfounded. Therefore the new legislation needs to be liberally interpreted, with wide latitude given to corporate managements to discharge their CSR activities as per their discretion. Curiously, India’s business community has been reluctant to invest in public education and health despite it being almost axiomatic that the prime beneficiary of a healthy and well-educated population is inevitably business itself. The new mandatory CSR obligation offers Indian industry another chance to rectify this blindspot.