From the Desk of the Chairman

July 2024

Published Jul 1, 2024

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On 5th February 24 when Narendra Modi sought formal permission from the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha for speaking a little longer, the gesture on his part seemed a mere formality. The speech that he made that day was something significant and indeed longer than usual.? That day he launched a blistering attack on the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty for all the ills the nation faced.? He also declared, without saying so, that the target for the BJP in the forthcoming elections was four hundred plus seats!? Not many questioned his target nor was any question raised as to why he was targeting the grand old party. Subsequent developments, however, clearly showed us why he was saying what he was saying.? Just before the campaign for the elections started Modi and his Party seemed a shoo-in for a third time.? In retrospect, it is safe to assume that his vitriolic attack on the Congress was not only justified but was also necessary for the ruling Party.? Now in retrospect, that line of relentless attack looks justified by the fact that the Opposition led by the Congress indeed emerged as a formidable challenger to Modi’s hegemony over the top job. I would assume that Modi would have collected this feedback from his own sources. Till that time, people were wondering why Congress is being singled out for this kind of vicious attack.? As far as the numbers are concerned his pegging the figure at four hundred proved to be a major fiasco.? Even in corporate circles if you set unrealistic targets the followers either become complacent or the efforts to achieve the target remain with the person (read Modi here) who sets the target.? Aspirational figures are like double edged sword. Subsequent figures showed how an unachievable figure cost the Party the election.? For me, it was one of the takeaways of this election.? There are a few more lessons too that I learnt from the election.? The entire nation came to a standstill from April 19 to June 4 - all of 82 days!? Other statistics associated with the elections are no less stunning. 543 politicians to be elected by 969 million voters, 5.5 million electronic voting machines in 1.05 million polling stations!? The 2024 elections are estimated to cost a whopping Rs 1,00,000/- crores!? Who says India is a poor country?? Be that as it may, what are some of the other takeaways in the mammoth exercise that we all celebrate as the dance of democracy?? The most important one is that the efforts by the Opposition to discredit the electronic voting system appears to have passed the acid test. Going back to paper ballots would have been a retrograde step. Another interesting development of this election was the strategy of voting en masse against the ruling dispensation by the Muslims.? The ruling alliance ended up with 240 seats, well short of their aspirational target of four hundred and way below the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha necessitating the BJP to look for allies in government formation. ?Power sharing does not come naturally to BJP under Modi.? It remains to be seen how the future unfolds on the coalition front. In India predicting the poll outcomes is a hazardous exercise. So it was, in this election too.? The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the BJP did not waste any time post elections in levelling criticisms against the latter for the election loss primarily because of the alleged arrogance shown by BJP.? The biggest embarrassment for the Party was that it not only failed to get any votes in the name of Lord Ram, The Lord got the BJP to vacate the Ayodhya seat also. Embarrassments do not come in instalments, it appears. ?Modi is not one to take slights lightly especially from God and especially after constructing a Temple in His birthplace.? When last heard, he had already deserted Lord Ram in favour of Lord Jagannath.? This was evident when the Party assembled in New Delhi to celebrate its victory and Modi invoked the latter before his speech.

In the US one of the seminal events in the run up to the presidential elections is the one-on-one debates that are telecast on live TV. These are times when people make up their minds in terms whom to vote (and more importantly whom not vote).? This also gives a chance to other countries to know what they could expect when one of the contestants eventually become the Commander in Chief of the US.? Beyond all these debates give an extraordinary chance to the contestants to impress and influence the voters. This year, though the expectations from the debaters were low in terms of their performances, the stakes for the debaters were never higher.? For Donald Trump the stakes unimaginably high. ?He has to win this election in order to stay out of jail. If he wins, he will be in the White House and if he loses, he will be in jail for one or all the many crimes for which actions are afoot.? Joe Biden on the other hand, has to prove to his constituents that he is fit enough to be back in the Oval Office.? Trump is 78 Biden is 81! If Trump is trying to remain fit, Biden’s senility has already become an elections issue.? Biden is known to be poor even having a normal conversation. with his advanced age, he either gets frozen or forgets his lines.? All this in addition to his tendency to lisp. During the debate he often failed to recall some specifics or had problems in remembering names.? Trump by not being his normal self of demeaning his rivals was seen to be condescending to his adversary to a fault.? He need not have worried.? The President was digging his own grave for all to see.? Biden was passively watching the former President uttering one falsehood after another without fear of being contradicted.? Another debater in the place of Biden would have made mincemeat of Trump.? It was an enormous opportunity lost not only for Biden himself but also for the Americans in general.? Trump being a convicted felon, was an easy prey for anyone standing in front of him!? Biden forgot to criticise Trump for his conviction or on important policy issues like abortion.? Biden missed numerous opportunities to fact-check Trump who had a field day without being challenged. Biden let himself and his country down in not being able to hold Trump account in the people’s court.? The Debate stage is likely to prove Biden’s Waterloo.? ?The Democrats are in panic now, not knowing what to do with Biden who is sure to continue his campaign. In another seven months’ time you will have a committed felon in the White House and Biden will be remembered as the one who facilitated that process.?

India has a fetish with scale.? Larger the scale, more are we proud.? Never mind the quality behind the quantity.? The largest statue in the world, largest voting population, largest digital payment systems, the list goes on.? Unfortunately, the list of biggest-and -largest met its own nemesis recently.? The reason. The authority under the Central Government NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) is the one authorised to conduct the test that determines who the doctors of tomorrow would be.? A whopping 23,33,297 students appeared for the test this year. After the qualifying examinations NEET offers more than 1,00,000 seats to eligible candidates.? This examination not only decides as to who treats you when you are sick ?(it also decides who is the most ideal partner suitable for you in your life, that is another matter).? No wonder, therefore, that people move mountains or try to cut corners to qualify.? This racket in itself has become a huge industry.? Everyone knows that things are not above board in the conducting of these examinations.? But with the connivance of the politicians and with the crime syndicates providing the necessary cover, competitive examinations have become the most lucrative business in India.? Larger the better - more moola for the same efforts.? Everything appeared hunky dory till someone in the system became avaricious and found ways of giving grace marks in return for bribes.? All of them are running for cover now and the government agencies that patronised them are caught in the act.? Our National Testing Agency (NTA) is the second largest examination conducting agency in the world – yes in the world, next only to China. Note our fascination for scale.? Today with so much happening to NEET this is one claim to fame that the country and its government is not proud of. When there are 211 future doctors aspiring for each seat, this situation can only be explosive.? That is exactly what happened. The details are known to all to warrant a repetition here.? From the academic world it has already spread over to the political domain with the newly invigorated opposition parties jumping into the fray, all in the name of the hapless students who are denied their rightful seats because of the widespread corruption.? As far as this issue is concerned these are early days to comment upon except that the cancellations of a number of competitive examinations and arrest of number of suspected culprits only have reinforced the suspicion of people of large-scale malpractice, something that we have not seen in the education sector before. With the newly enacted Public Examinations Prevention of Unfair Means Act 2024 in place now the offenders could face up to ten years in jail and a fine of up to rupees one crore.? Even this is of little consolation to the young minds who have put everything that they have in these highly competitive examinations. We have no option but to wait it out, now that thing have unravelled this far. Again, the same refrain - we deserve better.

The world has a new corporate star – Nvidia Corporation. It is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Nvidia is a leading provider of GPUs for gaming.? Nvidia's GPUs are integral to the development and deployment of AI and deep learning models. Their CUDA architecture and software libraries, such as cuDNN and TensorRT, have become industry standards.? Nvidia GPUs are popular in the cryptocurrency mining community due to their efficiency in performing complex calculations required for mining. Today its chips power ChatGPT.? The AI frenzy the world over has made Nvidia the most valuable company in the world. Chip-maker Nvidia became the world’s most valuable company after its share price climbed to an all-time high on Tuesday.? It is now worth $3.34tn (￡2.63tn), with the price having nearly doubled since the start of this year. The stock ended the trading day at nearly $136, up 3.5%, making it more valuable than fellow tech giant Microsoft. It overtook Apple earlier this month.? The Californian company's meteoric rise has been fuelled by its dominance of what analysts call the "new gold or oil in the tech sector" - the chips needed for artificial intelligence (AI). India is considering striking a deal with Nvidia to procure graphics processing units (GPUs) from this American manufacturer. The GPUs could then be provided to local startups, researchers, academic institutions, and other users at a subsidised rate as part of a Rs 10,000 crore programme to set up for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the country as per the Economic Times.? ?Nvidia CEO?Jensen Huang?said that his conversations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlight India's need to become a part of AI value addition rather than just exporting India's data to train super-sized large language models. If the plan goes through, it could boost the AI sector in India providing local players with access to cutting-edge technology. Afterall, you are known by the company you keep.? Pun intended.

“Birubala Rubha died”.? This statement can engender two questions besides the customary words of condolences.? The expected questions would be like “When did Birubala Bubha die?” and “Who was Birubala Rubha?”? The answer to the first question is – she died a month back on 13th May 2024.? She was 75 and she died of cancer.? From this answer you can more or less make out that you know who she was.? More than the answer to the second question as to who she was, it is sad that one did not know about her till now.? Sad indeed.? She was an Indian activist who campaigned against witch-hunting in India. She was based in Goalpara, Assam. She travelled from village to village in Assam and adjoining areas fighting against the practice of witch-hunting.? Women have been routinely accused of being witches and punished harshly, even killed. Witch hunting has been a scourge throughout India, preying on mostly village women who are often single, widowed or otherwise isolated and involved in property or marital disputes.? When she died the Economist carried an article on her. Her crusade against witch-hunting began when her son became a victim of it and died after which she proactively got involved in the campaign thereby saving many people.? She was a Padmashree awardee. Even after her passing away, Birubala remains a beacon of hope for those persecuted in the name of witch-hunting in Assam’s villages because of her tenacity to fight this social evil despite a multitude of challenges coming her way. Up above wherever she is now, she can live without fear of evil witches and evil men.? May her soul continue to inspire millions of others who are continuing to do the work that she had left behind.? May her soul rest in peace.

When all these developments are taking place and when one is logically expected to feel depressed, here comes the news just when I complete writing this piece – India won the ICC World Cup! Like every other citizen of the country let me also raise a toast to the champions. I hope the Indian team makes winning these trophies a habit.? It was quite fascinating to see that both the winners and losers crying openly on the ground after the final match – one from disappointment and the other from relief!? A win is a win even by seven runs.? Well done, India.

Thank you.

Venkat R Venkitachalam