Since the politicians cannot see reason as long as they see votes, and since deserving students see no hope as long as politicians can't see them, Jaytirth Rao, the youngest Citibank countryhead ever and the chairman and CEO of Mphasis, has a plausible solution for the reservation impasse.
Let's privatise affirmative action, he says. Let educational entrepreneurs set up reservation-free colleges in Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Singapore, Dubai, etc, where "the decisions of our honourable Central cabinet, the diktats of our feudal-socialist HRD minister, the directives of our much-amended Constitution do not apply".
"Trust me, the holders of 'unreserved' foreign degrees will command higher wages than holders of 'reserved' domestic degrees. The immutable laws of the labour market shall prevail and once again our cabinet of central planning aficionados will be made fools of, albeit after adding transaction costs to the economy and unbearable and avoidable angst to thousands of deserving 'non-backward' students who are not rich enough to cross the borders to the new colleges that spring up."
I was never a big fan of Jayatirth (Jerry) Rao… until now !!!
Finally someone who does not mind speaking his mind without fear. He has no political axe to grind.
He hit it right on the head. Other countries will benefit from this. Ditto if reservation is forced on the private sector.
May his tribe increase.
Incidentally a year back or so, I had suggested to our friends that why don’t we have a group of critical mass like minded people from different profession to put up certain money to buy an island and settle away from all these single sided, illogical rules that govern us. This island can be run like a professional company and be self sufficient. Any takers !!!!!!!
shanks
Are there any islands available?
Pray how will these be different from the several colleges that simply run on the basis of buying power of carers and parents and not at all on the 2merit2 concept. This man seems to be just a businessman screaming foul. A honest discussion on the idea of reservation is needed undoubtedly but the questions are
Who would lead the discussion- the shrill, selfish and myopic Corporate sector ?
Would there be a honest appraisal of this thing that we call Merit
I doubt it very much.