Subscribe
Home Blog Page 421

Commercialization of Higher Education: An Analysis

By
Syskool
-
1

The notion of a market for higher education is recognised as a global phenomenon and its application has encouraged academic debates on the central issues of degree to which higher education ought and can, support the knowledge economy. The marketisation, commercialisation of higher education is contentious. This is dangerous for the country in allowing the marketing concept to change institution’s mission not on educational or even economic grounds but on competitively defined marketing concepts. In first consider¬ing marketing in education we very swiftly articulate general questions such as : “just what makes our school or university different ?”, “who exactly are our customers ?”, and “how can we compete with other providers ?” Marketing in education is nevertheless receiving increasing attention in the educational mana¬gement literature. Educational systems face a wide array of chal¬lenges. including : (i) demographic change, (ii) economic development and liberalisation, (iii) technology, and (iv) all the facets of globalisation. There are in particular a number of forces shaping the direction of higher education toward an appreciation of the student as a ‘customer’ and consequently for higher education marketing. Probably fundamental to this trend has been the inability, or lack of desire, of governments to continue to fund universities without stringent accountability. The first step is for governments to intervene for the benefit of those on low incomes, rather than providers themselves being charged with this role.
1. Features of Services in Higher Education
Goods are first produced, then sold and then consumed, services are first sold, then produced and con¬sumed simultaneously. Marketing evolved through products to service, from buyers to customers and from exchanges to relationships. These ideas have currency now in most academic marketing literature but their application to education and especially higher education is very problematic. Consider the following features:
1. Student admission and retention, widening participation, recruit¬ment of star academics and fund raising through Research grants, endowments ar[d sponsorships all contribute to conceptualisa¬tion of the universities as busi¬nesses with a commercial ethos and mission. This approach has struggled within an ideology of consumerism to retain a distinc¬tive notion of education and has re-categorised higher education into a form that it is appropriate for its marketisation, thus making it more vulnerable to substitutable offerings. ,
2. In the educational context, marketing is necessarily linked to the ideology of the market as a decision making and resource allocating device deigned to be neutral to any claims other than merit. Yet the evidence in all but the most basic commodities is that the market fails to do this and distorts any moral value in the fairness of market distribu¬tion.
3. The bureaucratic, machine-like modern university where it is no longer customary to find teachers and students but rather ‘suppliers’ and ‘consumers’ with all that this system entails, where to be is to be an item of resource, an entity able to be used and marketed. The application of the concept of marketing to educa¬tion has tended to emphasise control of satisfaction and efficiency in the immediacy of the knowable present.
4. The university has now become ‘learning factory’. Commerciali-sation in recent years has embraced the technologies of the discipline and not fully ques¬tioned the direction of its travel. This has led to the operationali¬sation of customer needs as extrinsic and instrumental. The desire to make profits through the amoralism of the free market has encouraged this techne rather than phronesis as the guide to marketers’ judgements. In this marketers are culpable of replac¬ing well-being with a self serving notion of satisfaction.
5. Most private funded institutions of higher education now recog¬nise that it is indeed necessary to ‘market’ to Higher Education themselves. Educational institu¬tions are rapidly identifying themselves, conceptually and in their discourse^ as agents of national and international markets. This is indicative of a general shift from public social policy that construed higher education as a ‘public good’ to a position where social policy is viewed as an extension of self- interested economic policy.
6. Marketers envision higher educa¬tion marketing as advertising and promotion and see their role as promoting higher education as a commodity in an environ¬ment that is one of consumerism. Marketers saw students as thfeir prime target audience for their activities.
7. For centuries, universities were institutions that offered educa¬tion to those who could meet their prescribed entry qualifica¬tions. High student demand and scarcity of supply meant that it was a supply-side market : that is, universities had to do very little by way of advertising and promoting their institutions. This situation was supported, of course, by the fact that university education and secondary educa-
tion was sponsored or provided by the state. It was, in a sense, a monopoly market environment. But with the breakdown of state funded and controlled institu¬tional framework this monopoly and increased availability and variety of education options, the supply-side marketing approach may now appear obsolete. In its place has come a realisation that universities have to tailor their courses and education options to better suit the student-customer. A demand-side approach to university marketing has emer¬ged.
8. The consequence of the demand- side approach is that presentation materials and marketing encoun¬ters are now increasingly focussed on the benefits of university education as perceived by the student. Students are no longer led to feel that the univer¬sity is doing them a favour in accepting them. Quite the reverse, universities now seek out new students by attracting them to* the ‘quality’ of education, the ‘recognition’ and ‘standing’ of the degree programme, the ‘teacher-student ratios’, and the value added extras such as student life, student support services, exchange programmes and security and safety in the university. Above all, of course, universities now find themselves having to defend the employ¬ment potential of their degrees as a primary marketing tool. In short, the student-customer is wanting results and in approach-ing a higher education option asks the fundamental question, ‘what can I get out of it ?’
2. The Essence of Higher Education
Education is a right for all and not one that needs to be traded through the market mechanism. It is a moral obligation to enable indivi¬duals to realize their potentials through their personal freedoms and, in a culture that values the notion of humanity, to be precursor to engag¬ing in informed economic activity. Experts make strong argument for the provision of basic freedom so as to allow, in a democratic environ¬ment, the practices of civil rights and political liberties. Our concern about the invasiveness of the markets and its demands on higher education institutions to be successful through commoditisation, packaging and selling courses as products became acute. An injustice for those excluded from higher education, those enticed through provocative advertising and those promised something that the marketing has to interest in providing educated people.
One should look at the deve-lopment of higher education from the perspective of transformative educa¬tion rather than the market seeking an alternative of a marketing created model of higher education. This is one based on a notion of practical wisdom or phronesis. Gadamer define phronesis as a form of moral knowledge that offers an intentiona- lity to act. The theme of phronesis and its link is established in Aristotle through the common goal of educa¬tion and phronesis as human well¬being.
University produces both private goods (i.e., education, employment) public goods (e.g., research output, a better educated workforce; and social benefits for society). Student may not be fully aware of the externalities or spill-over benefits such as investment in education and in society as a whole, and therefore it has always been thought reasonable that govern¬ment should contribute towards the cost of such societal benefits.
3. Marketing in Higher Edu-cation
Marketization in education refers to the adoption of free market prac¬tices in running colleges and univer¬sities. These include : (i) the business practices of cutting production costs, (ii) abandoning courses and program¬mes not in demand howsoever they are important for the country and the society, (iii) offering more popular programmes and facilities, and (iv) advertising to increase brand image, sales and the profit margins : such business language and culture was unfamiliar in HE decades ago.
The cornerstone of most market¬ing planning had been the 4 Ps and the concept’s expansion as an alliterative device. Consider three ‘pillars’ that can support the notion of relationship marketing in education. These are learners’ ‘existential trust’ in the learning process, learners’ tem¬porality and learners self confidence as a learner and practitioner. When marketing-particularly advertising- has a primary intent to persuade rather than inform. The issue of the marketisation of education began to focus on the nature of education and the moral implications of marketing.
Market is successfully turning the university into a manufacturer of economic value for the student and surplus value to the exploiters. The whole structure of present day higher education rests with the edifice of profit maximisation and fundamen¬tally the system lacks quality of education.
There are eight conditions for a market and all of these conditions tend to facilitate competition between institutions and organisations and place an emphasis on freedom to make decisions. From a providers’ point of view they should have : (i) freedom of entry to the market¬place; (ii) freedom to specify the product; (iii) freedom to use resour¬ces; and (iv) to determine prices. From a consumer point of view :
(i) customers should have freedom to choose a provider and the product;
(ii) have adequate information about the costs and the quality; (iii) should be paying directly, and (iv) prices should cover costs.
4. Conflicts of Marketisation in Higher Education
There is a feeling of discontent with the shifting towards the market philosophy. This is based on the veracity of what might be offered to the students within a transformative model of higher education, with the purpose of increasing the public good, is difficult to configure from the existing marketing models. In the social context the market orientation debate the reduced the level of trust in higher education, polarised the value of the reputation of institutions and damaged the collective percep¬tion of the level of the awards achieved by students.
The main generic disadvantage of the free-market economy is the unequal distribution of wealth. The limitations of the theory of markets are that: (i) higher education ‘confers both collective (public) and indivi-
dual (private) benefits’; (ii) there are difficulties in obtaining and dissemi-nating proper information about quality; and (iii) the amount of ‘product differentiation can be a problem by virtue of the product life cycle’. Further, there lies the potential for producing policy conflict and confusion based on : (i) opposing goals; (ii) opposing motivations; (iii) the problem of price and value; (iv) the notion of excellence;’ whether -government-control increases or decreases; and (v) serious concerns about the social polarisation effects of markets. The goals of education and the market are contradictory in significant respects.
Although markets are seductive because they promote autonomy enabling all participants to make decisions for themselves—markets are also myopic, offering people what they want rather than what society might identify as a need. The market, therefore, masks social bias—it reproduces the inequalities which consumers bring to the market place. The market is, therefore, a crude mechanism for social selection and reinforces the pre-existing social class order of wealth and privileged.
Although non-profit higher education at large has been slow to adopt many practices that are standard in the corporate setting. However, the culture of the Univer¬sity has begun to change. Ultimately the goal always was and always will be to serve the student by making available an education that opens personal and professional doors. Within this framework, the possibil¬ities are limitless. Although efficient at producing some products and services, however, the free market system often fails to produce effective education.
5. Globalisation and Higher Education
The last few decades have seen major changes taking place in univer¬sity sectors across the world. Two of the most important have been the Marketisation and International- lisation of higher education, both of which have been driven by the phenomenon of globalisation. Marketisation has largely been the result of the liberalisation of world economies which have sought to open up and exploit trading oppor-tunities between nations beyond national borders without the tradi¬tional fuss and restrictions imposed by previous state controlled regimes. National institutions including those in higher educations increasingly operated within a free trade and profit motivated environment and government across the world began to reduce spending as individual intuitions had to gradually take over financial responsibility for running their own organisations. Many factors like : (i) choice, (ii) competition, (iii) league tables, (iv) consumerism, (v) private purchase of education services, (vi) customer satisfaction, (vii) loyalty, (viii) value, (ix) supply and (x) demand and customer centeredness dominated the new education discourses as institutions made the transitions from state constrained to freely operating orga¬nisations.
Added to this is the emergence of the Internet and the unlimited possibilities this offers to global learning options. Not only will universities everywhere come to offer online instruction to students on campus, but also off campus. The notion of geo-centric learning, as understood for thousands of years, becomes considerably weaker. In the very near future may be it wil| no longer matter where a person lives or studies. People will perhaps no longer travel to the geographical location of the university in order to gain a degree as lectures, tutorials and assignments are communicated through computer services. So, essen¬tially, education is becoming a border¬less commodity and marketing an international exercise.
The Internet and global commu-nication have specific implications for global marketing and this will be an increasingly important aspect of the evolution of university education and the marketing process.
6. Issues in Higher Educa¬tion Marketing
As education is being redefined, so is business and even government. It would seem that business and commercial prospects are growing in their dominance of social life, yet business itself is having to come to terms with the power of knowledge and communication. The manage¬ment of information and communi¬cations management are going to be fundamental issues for business schools to address in the future. Marketing strategy has a number of distinct components, conventionally referred to as the five Ps : product, place or distribution strategies, pric¬ing, promotion, and people.
Product—The economic and social environment has driven the emergence of an impressive array of educational products (programmes of teaching, research, consultancy and others). Groups of closely related programmes, perhaps offered by the same departments/faculties or offered to the same target audiences, constitute the product lines. The product mix is critical as it will strongly shape the image of the whole institution in the eyes of the consumer and the public at large, the relative balance between teaching, research and other activities in an institution’s product mix is a funda-mental decision. The most funda¬mental question to ask about a particular product is ‘what is its essence or core ?’ i.e., what exactly is the customer seeking ? What precise need is being satisfied ?
Place or Distribution : For
higher education this translates into questions about the location and design of campuses and even the number and distribution of cam¬puses. Programme delivery has to be
considered  where do students
study to complete their programme ? On one or more campuses ? At home ? At work ? All of these ? What resources and materials have to be made available for each of these options ? Developments in IT and communications are powerful tools which can be used to create a wide array of distribution options for educational institutions.
Pricing—This refers to both the explicit and hidden prices the customers has to pay. How are price objectives set and what objectives are selected ? Is maximisation of profit, market size or cost recovery going to shape pricing decisions ? These objectives are not always consistent. The next stage is to select a pricing strategy. Should this be one based mainly on costs, or in demand, or alternatively on what the competition is doing ?
Promotion—Whatever the
quality of a programme, it is of little value if people do not get to hear about it. Communications have to be designed to convey appropriate messages to prospective customers, the tools available to do this have never been more varied, but cost- effectiveness will undoubtedly be a primary concern and makes choice of the medium of communication and of timing an important task. It is appro¬priate to emphasize the enormous opportunities of the Internet in this respect.
People—Trend towards mana-gerialism to more entrepreneurial organisations and to markets, mean that a reconsideration of human resource issues is necessary. In the new organisational environment of higher education a whole new set of skills are now at a premium which were not previously part of the academic curriculum vita. They include, for example entrepreneur¬ship, communications and informa¬tion technology, financial manage¬ment, contracts management, and of course, all aspects of marketing.
The process of change required to cope in the new environment involves far more than simple changes in terminology [e.g., students redefined as customers).
7. The Future of Higher Education Marketing
William Annandale forecasts some trends and techniques that will be centred to HE strategy on the years to come. He predicts high flying marketers joining the sector and has made five predictions for the future of HE marketing. Universities are not the same, but that is not always how it seems to the outside world. Many traditional universities, both redbrick and post-war new universities, make very similar claims, based on teach¬ing and research, and offer very similar courses. Post-1992 universities tend to be oriented more towards the world of work and have a more vocational leaning. The supply side of higher education is, therefore, crowded with groups of broadly similar offerings. A fundamental change in the attitudes and behaviour of students, parents, and schools^
in a much more financial and com-mercial edge than has historically been the case. The five predictions about the future of HE marketing are :
(i) HEIs will become increas-ingly divergent and differentiated : All HEIs need to think clearly about their proposition and how they can differentiate themselves, particularly those that do not currently have a strong rationale. Importantly, this should be addressed from the pers¬pective of target audiences : an outside in rather than inside-out approach.
(ii) Investment will increase significantly-—An increase in invest¬ment in higher education marketing and communications, both regarding staffing and activity, this will become an upsurge in the coming years, as competition for students intensifies.
(iii) Marketing high-fliers will be attracted to HEIs—A number of HEIs will seek to recruit from outside the sector, to access a new and different skill base, take on learnings from other markets and try to move their marketing on to a different level.
(iv) The use of Customer Rela¬tionship Management (CRM) will become widespread—A CRM approach and technology allows HEIs to create and manage relationships with applicants, students and alumni. This is already the practice of some universities.
(v) Measurement of marketing effectiveness and return on invest-ment will become increasingly the norm—Measurements such as ‘value for money’ and ‘effectiveness of individual activities’ being typically mentioned. As investment increases, HEIs will need to focus more atten¬tion on outcomes and how greater effectiveness and efficiency can be achieved, and where resources are best deployed. Effectiveness measure-ment should be one of the first ques¬tions in a marketing plan. Measuring marketing effectiveness and return on marketing investment is notoriously difficult.
Conclusions
Creating a mass education system that retains the notion of prestige and operating a market system that seeks
because of socio-economic factors is a challenge, especially at low cost to the consumer. Conflict is likely to ensure based on notions of fairness and equity. As HE begins to move towards not just McDonaldisation but simultaneous the Louis Vuittonisa- tion. Given that HE is ‘baggage’ that an individual cannot simply replace by walking into a high-street store, the outcome of a free (unregulated) HE market could be long-term social dissatisfaction and mistrust of the social good of HE.
With the increasing focus in education on responding to the demands of those with the ability to pay and increasing stress on the 3E’s of economy, efficiency and effective¬ness, it is perhaps sad that the fourth ‘E’ for equity has gone out of fashion. The changes that are taking place are so immense that they are actually creating a new civilization. While, the agricultural era was replaced by the dominance of industrialisation, so now the world is witnessing the emergence of the information age. The flow and management of information now define the world economy. The flow of money is preceded and controlled by the flow and management of information. “What is happening is nothing short of global revolution. A quantum leap in social intelligence. We are the final generation of an old civilization and the first generation of a new one.”
Knowledge and management of knowledge is the fuel for the emer¬gence of a new-world era. In this new world, knowledge replaces money as wealth. When property was the symbol of wealth in the agricultural era and money was the symbol of wealth in the industrial era, so now knowledge is the symbol of wealth in the information era. Accordingly, wealth and poverty are redefined as the poor are not those who have no money but those who have know¬ledge. The ‘have nots’ are redefined as the ‘know nots’. This, of course, has tremendous implications for education, information management and government initiatives in build¬ing information and human infra¬structure. Finally, success in the mar¬ket is based, in the end, on differences rather than similarities between alter¬native providers

Political Transition in Myanmar: Recent Ethnic Clashes and Road Ahead

By
Syskool
-
0

With Myanmar attempting to make the transition to democracy from one of the most repressive regimes on earth, recent rising ethnic hatred and attacks’ mild turn the country into a twenty-Ss^t century version of post-Cold War Yugoslavia. This anti-Muslim sentiment [and, at times, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, and anti-anyone who is not ethnic Burmese] has clearly been intensi-fying in Myanmar, one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse countries in Asia over the past two years [Still, Buddhists comprise by far the majority of religious groups]. The 969 Movement has been giving anti-Muslim speeches, holding anti- Muslim rallies, and distributing DVDs full of vitriol for at least a year. Meanwhile, the Myanmar Internet, though only accessed by less than 5 per cent of the population, already is overwhelmed by hateful screeds against Muslims, Indians, Chinese, and other ethnic minorities, among others. Even in Suu Kyi’s prodemo¬cracy National League for Demo¬cracy, there are worrying levels of prejudice against Muslims—com¬prising about 5 per cent of the population and those not from the Myanmarese ethnic majority group.
Myanmar has had a long history of xenophobia and inter-ethnic tensions, exacerbated by the British colonists’ use of divide-and-rule tactics and then by the army’s oppressive five-decade rule over the country. In 1962, the government forcibly expelled many Indians from the country, and since gaining independence in 1948, the military, dominated by Myanmareses, has fought more than fifteen ethnic minority insurgencies. While Myan¬mar has made great strides in the past three years of reforms, without more proactive measures to halt ethnic and religious violence, the country could descend into chaos.
969 Campaign
The most crucial element is the new ‘969 campaign’ invented in early 2013. The Myanmar numerology has a powerful appeal. ‘969 campaign’ is a mass-based movement led by extre¬mist monks including a firebrand named Wirather. The number ‘969’ was derived from Buddhists tradi¬tion in which the Three-Jewels or ‘Tiratana’ is composed of 24 attri¬butes (9 Buddha, 6 Dhamma, 9 Sangha). However, it is said by the movement to follow the model of the Muslim ‘786’ which is only used in South Asian Muslim tradition, as a representation of a holy Quranic phrase—”In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the ever merciful.” This is the correct interpretation of ‘786’. But, the hardcore Buddhists of Myanmar have long misinterpreted ‘786’, as Muslim conspiracy to take over the world in the 21st century, as they see 786 to represent 21 (7 + 8 + 6 = 21). In opposition and reaction to 786, the fundamentalist Buddhists invented 969 as a symbol of religious movement. The movement is spread¬ing with the help of flags and stick¬ers, pasted on the houses, shops and taxis.
The campaigners argue that 969 is about protecting race and religion by peaceful means. But in practice, it is explicitly an anti-Muslim campaign in which the shops, commercial orga-nisations, firms and factories owned by Muslims are being targeted. Muslims in Myanmar are being port¬rayed as dangerous foreigners who came to Myanmar only to dominate its every aspects and exploit the natives. Muslims are accused of domi¬nating the economy, destroying the cultural fabric of society by spreading Islam in every way possible. The hardcore Buddhist monks propagate that the Myanmarese race/nation will become extinct if liars, aliens, ruthless people and those who bite the hands of their own masters are not expelled. In this way Myanmar has entered into an era of domestic hatred and violence. The communal tension is rampant.
Myanmar in Political Transi¬tion
Burma, or Myanmar as it is called by the Military Junta, is passing through the critical stage of political transition. On April 23, 2012 newly elected members from the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), including pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, took up their seats in Myanmar’s national legisla¬ture. That didn’t seem to happen when Suu Kyi and her party boy¬cotted the assembly of the union’s first session over the wording of the oath, which requires members to ‘safeguard’ rather than the NLD’s preferred ‘respect’ the 2008 consti¬tution. The NLD finally acquiesced to the wording and were sworn into Parliament. But the semantic dispute signals a rocky start for Myanmar’s more inclusive brand of parlia¬mentary democracy. While the NLD’s temporary boycott generated global headlines and expressed the party’s dissatisfaction with what it views as an ‘undemocratic’ charter, the party will need to choose its points of contention wisely to be an effective opposition, particularly in considera¬tion of their small numbers in the 664 member bicameral legislature.
Roots of the Crisis
Myanmar hasn’t had a conven¬tional government for almost half a century. Over recent decades other countries have, of course, experienced military dictatorships—but usually they are seen, even by their sup¬porters, as short term temporary expedients rather than semi-perma¬nent arrangements. But Myanmar’s military dictatorship is different for four historical reasons—a strong
military tradition, a relatively weak civil society (diversity of ethnic groups), a long-standing fear of national disintegration and an equally long-standing fear of foreign intervention.
Unlike most Asian and African countries, Myanmar did not win its independence by conventional civilian-based political agitation. Modern Myanmar was born partly out of an Allied military struggle against Japanese occupation—a strug¬gle which, by 1945, also involved Myanmar’s forces led by the leaders – of what became the country’s post¬independence army. However, throughout all these politically- induced changes in nomenclature, the embryonic Myanmar’s military was led by modern Myanmar’s greatest national hero—Aung San. Indeed it’s his iconic status that sustains lot only Myanmar’s military tradition (and therefore to an extent the c&rrent military dictatorship) but also> the status of Myanmar’s main opposition leader, his daughter Aung San Suu Kyi now leading NLD. ,
Ethnic Diversity and Remedy
Myanmar is home to more than 135 ethnic groups some of which are situated in geographical areas known to hold highly valuable natural resources. Post-colonization, the issues of ethnic minority’s separatist aspirations was a main reason for the military take over of the country and centralized control in 1962. Certain ethnic groups have been at war with the government for over five decades. To break the deadlock and open dialogue towards peace negotiations with various ethnic groups govern¬ment assured ethnic group leaders of socio-economic development in their respective, often impoverished regions, a role for their groups in the new Parliament and that the 2008 Constitution could be amended to meet their agreed demands.
Thein Sein’s government has made great advances with ethnic groups, including new announced ceasefires, to bring an end to border clashes and provide ethnic leaders with an opportunity to voice their ideas about the transition towards democracy. Yet there is still much uncertainty about how these policies,
including promised economic deve-lopment for ethnic territories, will be translated in concrete terms.
NLD, Democracy and Beyond
The historic bypolls in Myanmar have been concluded and Daw Aung Saan Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has been declared victorious by a huge margin. This has led the country to a point of no return in terms of credible reforms which will make the civilian government a lot more trustworthy internally as well as globally. The bypolls were conducted following the resignation of the members of the parliament who were elected in the November 2011 national elections and were nominated to the Council of Ministers (as specified in the constitu-tion). The NLD decided to re-register itself as a political party and contest these elections after the civilian government amended certain party registration provisions to which the NLD had earlier objected.
Although the NLD, having won 43 of the 45 contested seats, will only have a limited representation in the parliament, there is sufficient opti¬mism that Suu Kyi’s would be a strong presence. The USDP and the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party won the final two seats. Suu Kyi will be representing her constituency of Kawhmu near Yangon, most prob¬ably from July 2012, when the lower house of the parliament starts its new session. With only 37 out of 440 seats in the lower house, the NLD may not have a big voice, but it will be the largest individual opposition party. With these results, the NLD will now have 37 seats in the lower house, four in the upper house and two in regional assemblies. Suu Kyi has heralded these results as a “triumph of the people, who have decided that they must be involved in the political process of this country.” So far, no indiscretion has been reported in the polling process.
Timeline : Recent Reforms in Myanmar
Year 2010
# November—The main military-
backed party, the Union Soli¬darity and Development Party
(USDP), claims a resounding victory in the first elections for 20 years. Opposition groups allege widespread fraud and many Western countries condemn the vote as a sham. The junta says it marks the transition from mili¬tary rule to a civilian democracy.
• A week after the election, Aung San Suu Kyi—who had been prevented from taking part is released from house arrest.
Year 2011
• January —The government authorises internet connection for Aung San Suu Kyi.
• March—Thein Sein is sworn in as President of a nominally civilian government and the transfer of powers to the new government is complete.
• May—The new government frees thousands of prisoners under an amnesty, but few political prisoners are among them and the move is dismissed by one rights group as ‘pathetic’.
• August—Ms Aung San Suu Kyi is allowed to leave Rangoon on a political visit; days later she meets President Thein Sein in Nay Pyi Taw.
• September—President Thein Sein suspends construction of controversial Chinese-funded Myitsone hydroelectric dam, in move seen as showing greater openness to public opinion.
• October—More than 200 political prisoners were freed as part of a general amnesty. New labour laws allowing unions are passed.
• November—The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed that Myanmar would chair the grouping in 2014. Ms Aung San Suu Kyi agreed to contest to parliament, as her party rejoined the political process.
• Aung San Suu Kyi and Timeline of Important Developments
• 1989 : Put under house arrest as Myanmarese junta declares martial law
• 1990 : NLD wins election; military disregards result
• 1991: Wins Nobel Peace Prize
• 1995 : Released from house arrest, but movements restricted
• 2000-02 : Second period of house arrest
• May 2003 : Detained after clash between NLD and junta forces
• Sept 2003 : Allowed home after medical treatment, but under effective house
arrest
• May 2007 : House arrest is extended for another year
• Sept 2007 : First public appearance since 2003, greeting protesting Buddhist monks
• May 2008 : House arrest extended for another year
• May 2009 : Charged with breaking detention rules after an American swims to
her compound
• August 2009 : Sentenced to 18 months further house arrest
• November 2010 : Released from house arrest
• April 2012 : Stands for Parliament for first time; wins and become Member of Parliament.

• President Thein Sein signed a law allowing peaceful demon¬strations for the first time. The NLD re-registered as a political party in advance of by-elections for Parliament held in 2012.
• Myanmar’s authorities have agreed a truce deal with rebels of Shan ethnic group and order the military to stop operations against ethnic Kachin rebels.
Year 2012
• January —The government signed a ceasefire with rebels of Karen ethnic group.
• A day later, hundreds of pri¬soners were released—among them the country’s most promi¬nent political prisoners, includ¬ing veterans of the 1988 student protest movement, monks invol¬ved in the 2007 demonstrations aitd activists from many ethnic minority groups.
• April—Taking part in an election 7for the first time since 1990, the
NLD won 43 out of 45 seats in landmark parliamentary by- elections seen as a major test for Myanmar’s reform drive. The polls are thought to have been generally free and fair.
• The US responded by easing sanctions on Myanmar. The EU also agreed to suspend most sanctions in Myanmar and opens an office in the biggest city, Rangoon.
International Reaction on Myanmar’s Political Transi¬tion
UNO—U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a landmark visit to a fast-changing Myanmar to encourage its government to carry out more democratic reforms and shore-up peace deals with ethnic rebel groups. Ban’s trip was his first since a reformist; quasi-civilian government took office a year ago, ending five decades of authoritarian military rule and frosty and frus¬trating ties with the international community.
Thein Sein government has started overhauling the tattered economy, easing media censorship, legalizing trade unions and protests, freeing political prisoners and agreeing ceasefires with more than a dozen ethnic rebel armies. Ban met Thein Sein and other former generals who were part of Than Shwe’s inner circle but now seen as key drivers behind Myanmar’s stunning facelift, which has led to an easing of some sanctions this month by the European Union, United States, Australia and Canada and a resumption of aid and debt relief by Japan.
European Union—European
diplomats are reported to have reached a preliminary agreenient to suspend most European Union sanctions against Myanmar. The final decision will be taken later on at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers. But senior sources in Brussels have told the BBC they expect that there will be agreement to suspend a ‘big chunk’ of the current sanctions. Only the arms embargo would stay in place, they said. Aid and development money would be allowed into the country, as would investment into key parts of the economy particularly the mining and logging sectors. Exports from these industries would be allowed into the EU. There is also talk of establishing a preferential trade agreement with Myanmar.
EU foreign policy Chief Cathe¬rine Ashton met with Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as she became the latest in a series of high-ranking international figures to visit the country. Recently, British Prime Minister David Cameron also visited Myanmar and called for a ‘suspension’ of the suffo¬cating economic sanctions slapped on the military rulers.
The United States—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said some travel and financial restrictions would be relaxed, with Myanmar’s leaders allowed to visit the United States. Mrs. Clinton, who paid a visit to Myanmar last year, praised President Thein Sein’s ‘leadership and courage’. “We fully recognize and embrace the progress that has taken place and we will continue our policy of engage¬ment,” she said. Under the moves, the US will name an ambassador to Myanmar and establish an office for its Agency for International Develop¬ment in the country. The US would also begin ‘targeted easing’ of the ban on US financial services and invest¬ment in Myanmar, added Mrs. Clinton.
India and Myanmar—India, by contrast, has the most ground to make up, having neglected its eastern neighbour for years. And it could yet prove to be the country most affected by Myanmar’s opening. Certainly, India can draw on the ties of history. Millions of Indians settled and prospered in what was then called Myanmar when it was part of Britain’s vast Indian empire. Even after mass expulsions of Indians by Myanmar’s new military governments in the 1960s, there are still thought to be up to 3 million people of Indian descent in Myanmar. This is the sort of

December—US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited and met Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and held talks with President Thein Sein. The US offered to improve relations if democratic reforms continue.

Career Article To Crack Civil Services Examination, You Need Courage and Intelligence

By
Syskool
-
0

Marks of Last Recommended Candidate (CSE 2012)
General OBC SC ST PH-1 PH-2 PH-3

A Glance at the Marks Secured by the First Rank Holders in
Past Five Years
Year of Examination Name of the First Ranker Marks Secured
Written Total Marks-2000 Interview Total Marks-300 Aggregate Total Marks-2300
CSE 2012 Haritha V Kumar 1013 180 1193
CSE 2011 Shena Aggarwal 1128 210 1338
CSE 2010 S Divyadharshini 1109 225 1334
CSE 2009 Shah Faesal 1136 225 1361
CSE 2008 Shubhra Saxena 1161 210 1371

As usual the month of May- proved to be important as it began with big news-Civil Services Exami¬nation 2012 results arid later, the Preliminary Examination 2013 kept the excitement level high for aspiring candidates.
UPSC announced the Civil Services Examination 2012 result on May 3, 2013. A total number of 998 candidates have been recommended for selection.
By now, you must have heard and read a lot about Haritha V Kumar (AIR 1, CSE 2012), Sriram V (AIR 1, CSE 2012), Stuti Charan (AIR 3, CSE 2012), Alby John Varghese (AIR 4, CSE 2012), Ruchika Katyal (AIR 5, CSE 2012) and many other names that have made headlines in past one month.
Once again, I have been on move to meet the new conquerors who have really made it big. It has been pleasure and wonderful experience to know the success strategies of a few of them; whom, I am able to reach out to in last few weeks.
With a grueling exam-plan, Civil Services Examination is tough and emerging successful in the mother of all examinations as it is called is no small feat. For me, it has become a passion to meet the passionate youngsters who are revered for their knowledge and guts.
Once again many-many cong-ratulations to all successful candi¬dates and their parents, family mem¬bers.
CSE 2012 Result : Details of Marks-Too Many Surprises
With prior announcement, the details of marks for Civil Services Examination 2012 were released by UPSC on May 20, 2013.
The stage was set for many disclosures when marks for Main Examination (Written & Interview) were revealed by UPSC a few days back; but, the kind of marks in indivi¬dual subjects that have come in sight are really shocking and exceptional.
The fact comes on fore that cut¬off has been low that does not give confidence to write more about it.
Now, with 936 marks in General category, one has got place in the merit-list whereas a few years’ back with such marks in Main Examination (written), many candidates were not able to have berth in final stage of the examination – Personality Test.
Decline in Marks Originated from the Top Most Rank
The most striking thing about the result is always the marks secured by the topmost candidate and people remain curious to know their marks to ascertain the benchmark.
The list below gives details about the marks secured by the candidates occupying the topmost rank in last five years.
If we look at the total marks secured by the first rank Haritha V Kumar (1193), you could sense that marks secured by the top-most candi-dates have seen a sharp decline. In CSE 2012 result, this trend drifts down from, top to bottom of the merit-list.
The table above clearly indicates that the aggregate Haritha V. Kumar amassed in Main Examination (Written) has been approx. 100 marks lower than past years’ topmost candi¬dates.
Another observation is that Haritha has got 180 marks in Per¬sonality Test while in past years, score of 200+ is common among those who topped this coveted examination in recent years.
I have been analysing such inter-esting facts and figures and contribute regularly at www.iaspassion. com where you can get many more motivating stories that can help you in your preparation.
Now, a little about the Prelims 2013 that was staged on May 26, 2013.
Civil Services (Pre.) Examina-tion 2013 : Analysis of Paper I
The Paper I (General Studies) of Civil Services (Preliminary) Exam¬ination has the similar number of questions 100 that it had on earlier two occasions. This time the General
Studies Paper gives a total traditional feel and a lot of candidates found it relatively easier than previous papers in last two years.
To face Civil Services (Pre.) Exam confidently, hundred thousands of highly energized candidates prepare themselves to undertake an intense grind; but, to their surprise, this time they faced a question paper that is truly traditional in nature.

Yes, Preliminary Examination Paper I (General Studies) is donning a look that gives a feel that it is once again a conventional piece of work that truly evaluates the conceptual knowledge of the candidates.
Paper I is so straightforward that some candidates are feeling upbeat about it and hoping to secure a seat in Main Examination.
It may look uncomplicated but, it is not that simple that one can rejoice as UPSC is known for making simple questions tricky. This intention was clearly visible in last years’ paper as well when at first look candidates termed it ‘easy’.
A Balanced Combination
What most of the candidates perceive and prepare for is that they are going to face some questions that totally stump them; but, to their solace, this time there seems nothing that a serious Civil Services Examina¬tion aspirant is not exposed to. Be it any constituent, there is not a single question that would have created insidious challenges to any well prepared candidate. *
This question paper establishes this fact again that breadth of know-ledge and information is quite essential in handling General Studies paper effectively in Preliminary Examination. All the clever strategies are nowhere near without an effective preparation as your awareness level is measured in such a smart way that one feels that it is quite easy to crack Prelims; yet, it is not that effortless to decode this examination.
Once again, in many questions process of eliminating wrong answers would have helped candidates to work out the correct alternative.
The questions from the most important constituents Polity and History are in plenty and can be simply termed easy. A number of questions relating -to Constitution would have given confidence to a lot of candidates.
The questions from economy section are again without doubt can be termed simple if one is clear about fundamentals and relates familiarity with the current affairs. Most of the questions are practical in nature and really measure the observation and capability to relate the information to what you come across in day-to-day life.
One may call the questions from Geography section and environment/ ecology little complicated but, it would have been easier to handle some of the Geography questions for those who would have made exten¬sive use of Atlas during preparation.
As usual questions from Science as general and application based and would have really tested the range of information candidates possess.
UPSC has maintained its impar-tial approach and this would have helped many to solve this question paper without any prejudice. It is a balanced paper and I don’t think any candidate from a particular back¬ground stands to gain more.
To sum up, I would say that this paper assesses the depth of under-standing of a candidate and sets the stage for talented and deserving can-didates to get berth in Main Exami-nation.
Civil Services (Pre.) Exam 2013 : Analysis of Paper II : Aptitude Test
UPSC has retained same number of questions (80) in Prelims Paper II; the question paper continues to be on the same format except share of some constituents going little up or down.
Now, a trend is set for Preli¬minary Examination Paper II as most of the questions are on expected lines. As happens in Aptitude Tests of this nature, Prelims Paper II is a pure mind game and your intelligence is tested with use of common sense, presence of mind and apt time management.
Yes, UPSC has found a straight-forward way to evaluate the aptitude of aspiring candidates and now, in this third edition clearly depicts in the rhythm it has attained. In the morning shift, Paper I did not show any surprise; likewise, Paper II is on similar lines and has nothing that could send shivers down the spine for any candidate.
The level of difficulty was easy to moderate and the candidates from humanities background even those from Hindi/vernacular languages would have responded very well provided they had done little practice. It is a balanced paper and I don’t think it has given edge to any candi¬date from a particular background. Everybody seems to be on equal foot¬ing.
The question paper shows a balanced dose of questions from Comprehension that has some direct questions. This time questions from Comprehension are less tricky rather more stable which would have given confidence to the candidates. Presence of passages with 2-3 questions and having questions from other sections in between, would have given little respite to candidates who were expecting it to be in abundance.
Mathematics, logical reasoning and analytical ability questions and data interpretation questions are in plenty and their difficulty level is easy to moderate. Even the questions from syllogism are simple and com¬mon candidates would have found these reassuring as these can be answered with little intelligence and common sense.
English Comprehension is just a cinch and simple English with plain questions would have given relief to candidates from Hindi/vernacular languages.
Only a little surprise that has come this year is from questions relating to administrative aptitude as there were only six from this section. In 2011 examination we had 8 ques¬tions from this section whereas in 2012, it had 7 questions. Even these questions have some story narration to establish the landscape that took more time to read. To answer these questions, clear understanding of the situation and analysing things with open mind would have helped. If one is able to think impartially as an administrator, it would not have been difficult for candidates to select the correct answer.
If something one has to complain about this Paper II is only about the length of the paper which continues to be extended and many candidates found it difficult to answer all ques¬tions in the stipulated time.
Looking at the paper one can easily understand that for an out-standing performance in this paper if

one requires anything in addition to the required skills is only ‘practice’ which makes one proficient in working out answers just by reading and understanding questions.
In Paper II, candidates have found a place where they can score much more than Paper I. The capable and well-prepared candidates under¬stand the importance of this oppor¬tunity and I hope they would have taken the full advantage of this paper and would have performed well.
Now, What Next ?
As the Prelims gets over, you need to be back with your study-plan as there is no point in wasting time waiting for Prelims result.
Civil Services Examination pre-paration is full of uncertainties and you should continue your prepara¬tion that requires greater attention this time as the pattern for Main Examination has just been trans¬formed.
New format for Main Exami¬nation has come to life with Civil Services (Main) Examination 2013 that would commence from Decem¬ber 1, 2013. Looking at the needs, you should make a sincere attempt to cover it in stipulated time.
Understand the new format for Main Examination and the related requirements. No doubt, the pattern for Main examination is new that requires a fresh approach and would necessitate constructive use of time.
So, keep preparing and keep moving towards your goal.
Once again, wishing you luck and success !

IBSA Dialogue Forum: A New Initiative of Developing Countries

By
Syskool
-
0

IBSA Summits
S. N. Summit Place Host Country Time
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth Brasilia
Tshwane
New Delhi
Brasilia
Pretoria
India Brazil
South
India
Brazil
South Africa New Delhi September 2006 October 17, 2007 October 15, 2008 April 15,2010 October 18, 2011 June 2013 proposed

India, Brazil and South Africa or IBSA is a new forum of three leading developing countries of the globe. These three countries represent the three continents of the world—Asia, Latin America and Africa respecti¬vely. Also, these three members are the leading regional economic and political powers in their respective regions. IBSA is declared to be a trilateral developmental initiative between India, Brazil and South Africa to promote South-South Co¬operation and exchange. The idea of IBSA emerged during the discussions between the Heads of Government of the IBSA countries—India, Brazil and South Africa at the G-8 meeting that took place in Evian in 2003. As a follow up measure, the Foreign Ministers of the respective countries met in Brasilia on June 6, 2003. At this meeting the Foreign Ministers of three countries—Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma from South Africa, Celso Amorim from Brazil and Yashwant Sinha from India, signed and adopted the Brasilia Declaration and form¬alized the launching of the IBSA Dialogue Forum.
Besides establishing IBSA, the Brasilia Declaration, 2003 also raises the following points—
(a) The reform of the UN parti-cularly expansion of the Security Council in both permanent and non¬permanent categories.
(b) To promote social equity and inclusion for fighting hunger and poverty in three countries.
(c) Trilateral cooperation among three member countries for pro¬moting their social and economic development.
(d) Reversal of trade distorting practices and protectionist policies by improving the rules of multilateral trading system.
(e) Commitment to pursue policies to make the processes of globalization to be inclusive, inte¬grative, humane and equitable.
PD/August/2013/266
These points help to understand the nature and activities of this newly formed group of three leading deve-loping countries.
Objectives of IBSA
On the basis of Brasilia Declara¬tion and other pronouncements of its leaders the main objectives of the IBSA Dialogue Forum could be summarized as follows :
1. To promote South-South dia-logue, cooperation and common positions on issues of inter¬national importance;
2. To promote trade and invest¬ment opportunities between the three regions of which they are part, international poverty alleviation and social develop¬ment;
3. To promote the trilateral exchange of information, inter¬national best practices, techno¬logies and skills, as well as to* complement each other’s compe¬titive strengths into collective synergies; and
4. To promote cooperation in a broad range of areas, namely agriculture, climate change, culture, defence, education, energy, health, information society, science and technology, social development, trade and investment, tourism and trans¬port.
Administrative Arrangements
These objectives of IBSA are realized through the consultation and collective action at three levels :
Senior Officials (Focal Point) level, Foreign Ministerial level (Trilateral Joint Commission) and Heads of State / Government level (IBSA Summit). IBSA has also evolved mechanisms to facilitate interaction amongst editors, academics and other members of civil society.
The meetings of the Trilateral Joint Commission, attended by the Foreign Ministers of three countries are held on annual basis. It supervises the implementation of the decisions and Programmes of IBSA. So far, its Six Ministerial Meetings have been held—First, at New Delhi on March 4-5, 2004; Second, at Cape town on March 10-11, 2005; Third, at Rio De Janeiro on March 30, 2006; Fourth, at New Delhi on July 17, 2007; Fifth, at Somerset West (S. Africa) on May 11, 2008; and Sixth, at Brasilia on August 31, 2009-September 1, 2009.
IBSA Summit is the highest decision making body and its meet¬ings are held each year. So far five IBSA Summits have been held. The Fifth IBSA Summit was held in South Africa in Oct. 2011 in Pretoria.
Fourth Summit: Brasilia
Declaration
The Fourth Summit of IBSA was held at Brasilia on April 15, 2010. It was held along with BRIC Summit at the same place. The Brasilia Declara¬tion issued at the end of the Summit* highlights the following points :
1. It called for reforms to the security council of UN and other international financial institu-
tions like World Bank and IMF to address the representation of developing countries.
2. In the interest of poor people of South, the declaration resolved to achieve the goal of inclusive socio-economic development under globalization.
3. The Declaration laid emphasis on the comprehensive process of women empowerment and wel-comed the formation of Human Rights Council for the better enforcement of human rights.
4. It demanded the early conclu¬sion of Doha Round of trade negotiations with focus on the development, as provided under the original mandate of these negotiations.
5. While welcoming ongoing finan¬cial recovery, the declara-tion demanded that the concerns of developing countries should be reflected in this recovery.
6. It called for early conclusion of climate change negotiations based on the principle of ‘com¬mon but differentiated respon¬sibilities’.
7. The leaders condemned terro¬rism in all its form and called for early conclusion of compre¬hensive UN Convention on terrorism. They demanded a comprehensive, impartial and verifiable process of nuclear disarmament.
8. IBSA resolved to deepen the process of South-South Coo¬peration as a development partnership based on equality and respect for sovereignty of nation.
Fifth IBSA Summit October 18, 2011 (Tshwane Declara-tion)
The Fifth IBSA Summit was held in Pretoria South Africa. The President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, The Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh, and the newly elected President of Brazil Dilma Rouseff participated in this Summit. The leaders noted that the IBSA brings together the people of three continents—Africa, Asia and South America as a purely South-South grouping of three large pluralistic, multi-racial and multi-cultural societies. They are committed to inclusive sustainable development of their people. They underlined the importance of principles of IBSA- participatory democracy, respect for human rights, and the rule of law. The three leaders signed a 102 point joint declaration. The Declaration delibe-rates on contemporary global issues such as ongoing financial crisis, reform of IMF, early completion to Doha trade negotiations, climate change and sustainable development, disarmament and nuclear security, South-South Cooperation, terrorism and transnational organized crimes, food and energy security, health and gender equality.
The leaders also discussed certain regional issues like conditions in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Arab- Israeli peace process, NEPAD deve¬lopment process in Africa, working of IBSA Fund Facility for Poverty Alleviation, sectoral cooperation and people to people contacts among three member countries and IBSA Satellite Project sponsored by India. The Sixth IBSA Summit is likely to be held in India in June 2013.
Areas of Cooperation
IBSA has identified sixteen areas for trilateral cooperation.
These areas are : agriculture; climate change and environment; culture; defence; education; energy; health; human settlement; develop¬ment; information society; public administration; science and techno¬logy; social development; tourism; transport; and trade and investment.
Sixteen Working Groups have been set up to study and plan joint programmes for cooperation. As per the expertise of the member coun¬tries, they are designated the lead countries in respective areas. For example, in energy sector, Brazil is designated the lead country in biofuels and ethanol, South Africa in coal liquification and India in solar and wind energy. Similarly, in the field of Science and technology,
S. Africa is a country in TB and biotechnology, India in nano-techno- logy and HIV/AIDS and Brazil in oceanography and malaria. India has also been designated as the lead country in the area of education.
The formal shape to the process of cooperation is given by signing a number of MoUs between the member countries. Some of the examples of such formal agreements are : Tripartite Agreement on Tourism; MoU on Trade Facilitation for Standards, Technical Regulation and Conformity Assessment; MoU on Environment; MoU on Human Settlement Development; Five Year Action Plans for Maritime Transport and Civil Aviation; and MoU on Women’s Development and Gender Equity Programmes.
Besides, IBSA has also facilitated the involvements of Track II actors like academics, editors, business leaders and other civil society groups in the process of mutual cooperation. During the Second Summit, the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh wished that IBSA should emerge as a ‘People’s Movement’.
Role and Activities of IBSA
If we analyze the entire spectrum of activities of IBSA, we can identify three category of roles which it is destined to play.
(1) Articulation and Repres-entation of Views of Developing Countries—IBSA is primarily an association of developing countries. It has the potential to represent their voice on various global issues which affect their vital interests. Such a role was needed for long time since the weakening of other forums developing countries such as NAM and G-77. This happened in the face of emerging international order in the era of globalization and rising tendencies of regional economic cooperation. In this scenario, IBSA as a compact group of three advanced developing countries representing all the three continents of the South, is better poised to perform this role.
The uniqueness of IBSA lies in the fact that it is small and compact in functioning as well as global in approach while representing the views of developing countries. The added advantage of the members of IBSA is that they are also the mem¬bers of Outreach G-5 under rich nations’ club G-8 and G-20 groups. As such, they are in regular interac¬tion with the leading countries of North. Under this role, IBSA represents the collective voice of South on different global issues at various international forums. IBSA has successfully articulated the voice of the South on various global issues such as global governance, realization of Millennium Development Goals, climate change, sustainable develop¬ment, biodiversity, human rights, UN reforms, Doha Development Round, Disarmament and nonproliferation, peaceful uses of nuclear energy, terrorism and food and energy security etc. Accordingly, it calls for making the structures of global governance more democratic and representative of developing coun¬tries; increasing Official Development Assistance by developed countries to 0-7 per cent of their GDP; UN reform and expansion of Security Council to reflect the contemporary realities; management of climate change crisis on the basis of the principle of com¬mon but differentiated res-ponsibi- lities and respective capabilities and transfer of financial resources and technology by the developed coun¬tries due to their historical responsi¬bility in global warming; emphasis on development objectives of Doha trade round and eliminating the protec¬tionist measures in multilateral trade; and devising a comprehensive, universal, non-discriminatory and verifiable system of non-proliferation and disarmament. Thus, IBSA has provided a new forum for articulat¬ing and expressing the views of developing countries.
(2) Trilateral Cooperation among member States—The second set of its role is the IBSA Sectoral Cooperation Programme, which involves the identification of various areas of their mutual interest and devising mechanisms to share their expertise under various programmes of deve-lopment and cooperation. IBSA members have identified 16 areas of mutual cooperation and benefit. The trilateral cooperation has the potential to work as a model as well as a window of opportunity for other developing countries to enlarge the scope and reach of the South-South Cooperation.
(3) South-South Cooperation— IBSA has been billed as the potential forum of South-South Cooperation by many observers. After the failure of Cancun Conference of the WTO in 2003, the countries of the South felt the necessity to strengthen their co¬operation and to adopt a coordinated approach towards the trade, invest¬ment and economic diplomacy. This is one of the major objectives of this association. IBSA’s role in South- South Cooperation is to enlarge the scope of its activities for the benefit and development of poor countries of the South. It effectively involves other regional groups of developing countries in the process of such cooperation. The IBSA Facility Fund for Alleviation of Poverty and Hunger, created in 2003, has initiated, with cooperation of host countries, a number of development Projects in poor countries like Burundi, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Laos and Palestine. This is likely to bring other developing countries within the ambit of South-South Cooperation. Again, the IBSA has proposed a Trilateral Trade Agreement between MERCOSUR, SACU and India. MERCOSUR (Mercado Comun del Sur or the Common Market of the South) created in 1991 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay under the Treaty of Asuncion. MERCOSUR is home of 250 million people and accounts for three-quarter of eco¬nomic activities of the continent of South America. Similarly, SACU or South African Custom Union consists of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, which is most economically active area in Africa. This trade agreement would not only expand intra-South trade but would widen the horizons of South- South Cooperation. IBSA has also extended its continued support to NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) programme of African Union.
The nature of issues raised and the discussion in various Summits of IBSA prove beyond doubt that the South-South Cooperation has emer¬ged as the major focus of its activities.
Changing Nature of South- South Cooperation—However, the present nature and dynamics of IBSA’s role in South-South Coopera¬tion displays some distinct tendencies not visible in the earlier phase of South-South Cooperation in 1960s and 1970s. The following distinctions are more pronounced:
1. The first phase of South-South Cooperation in 1960s and 1970s was more inspired and moti¬vated by an ideology of anti¬colonialism. In the present phase, no such ideological inspiration is visible. On the contrary, it appears that the ideology of neo¬liberalism, riding high on the process of globalization, has taken hold of the entire world including the member states of IBSA. Therefore, the present phase of such cooperation can be pursued only on the basis of the interest aggregation of the developing countries in the face of emerging global conditions.
2. Unlike the earlier phase, the present initiative of South-South Cooperation is spearheaded by only three advanced countries of South, which are well integrated with the prevailing global eco¬nomic order based on globaliza¬tion and free economy. As per the requirement of globalized economy, these countries have also changed their domestic economic policies. Earlier, the initiative of such cooperation was taken as a collective endeavour of all developing countries.
3. IBSA’s present approach to South-South Cooperation is a ‘Top-Down Approach’, in which the fruits and processes of such cooperation would gradually
percolate gown to the other countries of the South. It appears more as imposed from above rather than an initiatives of all developing and Least Developed Countries.
Problems and Prospects
IBSA as a new forum of three leading countries of South faces some potential problems, which are dis¬cussed below:
First, the nature of Cooperation between them is bilateral rather than trilateral in nature. Their efforts for deepening South-South Cooperation have been more in the form of declarations and pronouncements. The concrete programmes of action are far and few between.
Second, many times they have displayed diverse interests and per-ceptions on various issues. The trade data reveals that the IBSA members have more trade and business with rich countries than among them¬selves. They have opposite interests as far as trade related issues are concerned. During Doha Round of trade negotiations in July 2008 India and Brazil ended on opposite sides. The safeguards demanded by India and other poor countries to protect their Agriculture were not included in the proposals supported by Brazil and rich countries. Brazil is interested to gain access to the US market for its agricultural products. Again, India is not ready to open its markets for agricultural imports, whereas two other members do not have any such reservation. They also have diverse regional interests. India is the only nuclear power in IBSA and faces the problem of terrorism and other two members may not go along her in this regard.
Third, besides competition in :rade, the Continent of Africa has become a theatre of competition among three countries to promote their interests and area of influence. The competition is acrimonious and tough as China has also a vigorous programme to increase her influence in Africa.
Fourth, however, the biggest challenge before IBSA in deepening the South-South Cooperation is to bring the poor countries of the South within the ambit of such cooperation. At present, IBSA is more integrated with rich countries in global economy rather than with the poor countries of the South. The litmus test for IBSA is to balance the opposite interests of the most poor and the most rich in the globe.
The ongoing phase of South- South Cooperation is conditioned by the number of political, economic, technological and other factors, which provide numerous opportunities for such cooperation. The potential opportunities are given below :
1. The members of IBSA are the large and advanced developing countries, representing the three continents of South and holding a dominating position in their respective regions. These three countries have the total com¬bined population of 1-4 billion and a combined GDP of more than 3-2 trillion dollar. These factors make IBSA as an effective mechanism of South-South Cooperation.
2. IBSA members occupy a middle position between the developed North and the poor South. Their approach on various global issues is compatible with the vital interests of other develop¬ing countries but at the same time they are better poised to effectively articulate and represent the interests of deve¬loping countries at various fora of North-South Dialogue like the UN, G-20 or the G-8 grouping. India, South Africa and Brazil along with Mexico and China are the active members of G-5 Outreach countries, which hold regular interaction with rich countries. We should not forget that the South-South Coopera¬tion is not viewed as a substitute of but as a complementary pro¬cess to the North-South Dialogue.
3. IBSA members have a diversi¬fied and developed economic and technological base. It makes their economies, trade and tech¬nological expertise, not com¬petitive, but complementary to each other. Consequently, the intra-IBSA trade among three countries has increased grad¬ually from $ 3-7 billion in 2004 to $ 10 billion in 2008. They have decided to raise it to $ 10 billion by 2010 and $ 25 billion by the year 2015. There are various facets of their economic and technological complementarities. Brazil has developed expertise in the alternative sources of fuels like ethanol and bio-fuel which may be of immense interest to other two partners. Similarly, India has developed capabilities in the field of solar and wind energy and South Africa has gained expertise in coal liquidification technology. India has shown keen interest in the production of ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil as India is also the second largest producer of sugarcane after Brazil. India has also much to offer in the fields of software technology, peaceful use of nuclear energy, satellite manufacturing and launch technology and expertise in mass education.
4. The process of globalization has widened the gap not only bet¬ween the developed and deve¬loping countries but also among the developing countries itself. However, this also provides an opportunity for developing countries to pool their collective resources and capabilities to protect their interests in the globalised world. They have the greater need to articulate a common stand with respect to major global issues like UN reform, climate change, trade negotiations and so on.
On the basis of above discussion we can conclude that IBSA is not merely a forum of trilateral co¬operation among member countries but also a potential forum for South- South Cooperation. It is also true that the nature of South-South Cooperation has changed over the years. In the globalized era, IBSA has the potential to emerge as a bridge between the rich North and the poor South.

India-Africa Partnership in the Era of Globalization

By
Syskool
-
0

India and Africa are two ancient civilizations. They both share a com¬mon colonial past and ideological orientation. India’s engagement with Africa in modern times goes back to the pre-colonial period. Since the British colonial rule was also esta¬blished in many African countries, they became instrumental in initiat¬ing the interactions between the two peoples. For the purpose of colonial exploitation the cheap labour from India was brought in many African countries to work as plantation workers. It was in this context that many Indian workers were brought to South Africa as plantation labour. As the British government followed the policy of racialism in South Africa, the Indian labourers were subjected to various forms of racial discrimi¬nation. It was in this background that Gandhi went to South Africa in 1893 and launched his non-violent Satya- grah against the racial policies of the white regime. This became the inspiration for future struggle against colonialism and racialism in South Africa in future also. It is not a chance that the symbol of fight against racialism Nelson Mandela is known as African Gandhi.
India was one of the first colo- nialized countries to get indepen¬dence from colonial rule. The second phase if India’s engagement with African countries started with India’ persistent efforts to resist colonialism and racialism in Africa and else¬where. The new foundation of Afro- Asian countries was laid down by Bandung conference 1955, which later led to the development of NAM in 1961. As the leading member of NAM, India came at the fore front in the fight against colonialism and racialism in Africa. India was the first country to raise the issue of apartheid in the UN. In 1964 alone, many African countries became indepen¬dent from colonial rule. The NAM became a popular and natural choice for the people of Africa. Next was the issue of development. India suppor¬ted the cause of the New Inter¬national Economic Order (NIEO), 1974 which aimed at developing a just and equitable global economic order. India also launched various development programmes in African countries under the rubric of South- South Cooperation.
The relations with African coun¬tries became lukewarm in 1990, as India was recovering from the econo¬mic crisis and the disintegration of Soviet Union presented new global conditions before India. As India gradually emerged from the condi¬tion of post-cold war uncertainties, she tried to renew her development partnership with African countries. The process of globalization has not worked well for the benefits of African countries. The socio-political conflicts hamper the process of development in African countries. It is in this context that India has strengthened her efforts to develop mutually beneficial partnership with countries of Africa. This continues to be the cornerstone of India’s present policy in Africa. While, IBSA was formed in 2003 to address the collective problems of South-South Cooperation, India has intensified bilateral efforts to strengthen deve¬lopment partnership with African countries. The two India-Africa Forum Summits in 2008 and 2011 should be seen in this perspective.
It is not only that India has helped African countries in their development efforts, but india has received their valuable support on many regional and international issues. India is in search of the energy security and Africa provides a good opportunity to ensure that as it is rich in energy resources. India has expanded her economic engagement with Africa to include investment and development assistance as major policy ingredients.
A. Political and Strategic Co-operation
Africa has 14 per cent of the global population and contributes 53 members in the UN. Out of 53 countries, 34 fall in the category of Least Developed Countries or LDCs. For a long time it has suffered the worst form of colonialism, racialism and exploitation of human and physical resources by colonial powers. The independence after the World War II gave new ray of hope for better future. In spite of the best efforts for its modernization and development, it has been suffering from many ills like ethnic conflicts, political instability, various forms of authoritarian rule, poverty, hunger and disease and poor infrastructure for development. However, it is rich in natural resources. Of late, many countries have shown the promise of progress. In last decade there has been satisfactory economic growth in some countries. In general, the globa¬lization has not produced desired benefits.
India and Africa have many common grounds to forge political and strategic relationships. Imme¬diately after the World War II, India and Africa stood together to fight colonialism and racialism under the common platform provided by NAM. India supported the freedom strug¬gles in African countries. After their independence, India forged mutually beneficial partnership with African countries. India, with the help of bilateral as well as multilateral measures, strived for the peace and development of African countries. Also, both shared a common pers¬pective on a large number of global issues. Both came to hold similar perspective on various regional and international forums, United Nations was just one of them. India received valuable political support to her external policies and programmes
from African countries. India has been elected record seven times as the non-permanent member of Security Council only with the support of African countries.
However, with the end of cold war and the disintegration of Soviet Union in 1991, a new global environ¬ment has emerged, which forced both to review the existing paradigms of interaction. The globalization pro¬vided new opportunities and chal¬lenges for both. In the initial phases of globalization, Africa was left to her fate. However, the new challenges of our time like terrorism, climate change, energy and food crisis, human rights, trade and development imbalances, poverty provide new opportunity for strengthening their partnership. At present, if Africa needs India for her development and growth, India needs Africa for a number of factors. India has provided substantial development assistance to African countries, contributed in the human resources development, made substantial contributions to food aid and peace-keeping personnel through multilateral institutions, especially the United Nations. There are many strategic attractions for India in Africa. First, India needs the political and strategic support of African countries to perform a larger role in global affairs. India’s global profile has been raised in last few years. Such areas of common interest are the reforms on the UN and other finan¬cial institutions, climate change nego¬tiations, international trade negotia¬tions and so on. Second, India is a fast developing economy and, it needs new markets for the continuing growth. Third, India is in search of assured and safe sources of energy supply and Africa has ample energy resources. Thus, both are poised to develop strategic partnership in future. In 2003, India helped to establish IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) forum, which is fast emerging as a potential mechanism for South-South Cooperation.
India has shored up her foreign policy priorities in all parts of the world in the changing global condi¬tions. In a policy statement issued in 2007, the Prime Minister of India outlined India’s priorities in Africa. He emphasized that there is a need to share experience on effective strate¬gies for sustainable development, poverty alleviation, healthcare facili¬ties and universal education. There is also a need for more cooperation in agricultural research, water manage¬ment and food processing.
India-Africa Forum Summit
A new mechanism for high-level consultation between India and Africa is India-Africa Forum Summit. The first India-Africa Forum Summit was held in April in New Delhi. This was to some extent motivated by China’s increasing presence in Africa. China held similar Summit of African countries few years back with good response. Fourteen African Heads of State and the leaders of all eight African regional groupings participa¬ted in the first India-Africa Forum Summit. The Summit concluded with the adoption of the Africa-India Framework for Cooperation, which contained measures to elevate the scope of Indian-African partnership of mutual benefit. The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, announ¬ced a ‘Duty Free Tariff Preference Scheme’. Under this scheme, India will unilaterally provide preferential market access for exports from the Least Developed Countries, including 34 LDCs of Africa. India also com¬mitted over $ 500 million in African development grants and announced to double India’s lines of credit to $ 5-4 billion to African countries by the year 2013.
Second India-Africa Forum Summit: May 2011
The Second India-Africa Summit was held in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia on May 24-25, 2011. The two day Summit advanced the pro¬cess of high level consultation initiated in 2008 for developing mutually beneficial partnership bet¬ween India and Africa. The Summits are to be held after every three years. The Second Summit produced two documents : the 32 point ‘Addis Ababa Declaration’ and the ‘Africa- India Framework for Enhanced Cooperation.’
Addis Ababa Declaration—The
main points of this Declaration are :
(a) It reiterated that the partner-ship between India and Africa shall be based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit and historical under-standing among peoples.
(b) It recognized the ongoing changes in Africa as a good platform for partnership and India’s contri¬bution in the development in Africa in recent years.
(c) On global affairs, it calls for the cooperation on common global challenges like climate change, Millennium Development Goals, South-South Cooperation, Doha round of trade negotiations, the reforms of the UN Security Council, fight against poverty and terrorism and universal, discriminatory and verifiable disarmament.
(d) They hoped that this Summit would help in realizing the vision of self reliant and economically vibrant India and Africa. The next Summit would be held in India in 2014.
Africa-India Framework for Enhanced Cooperation—It is a four year partnership programme between India and Africa. The programme identifies seven areas for enhanced cooperation between the two sides, as given below—
1. Economic cooperation with focus on agriculture development and small scale industries;
2. Political cooperation in the area of peace and security, good governance and human rights;
3. Cooperation in the field of science and technology, research and development;
4. Cooperation in the field of social development and capacity build¬ing;
5. Cooperation in health culture and sports;
6. Cooperation in the field of tourism and media; and
7. Cooperation in the fields of infra-, structure development, energy, and environmental protection.
The Framework for Enhanced Cooperation proposes to establish 21 capacity building institution in various countries of Africa.
B. Economic Partnership
The economic cooperation between India and Africa has long history and has expanded over the years in the post-cold war period. It has become diverse and covers all parts of the continent. It includes trade, investment bilateral and multi¬lateral development cooperation, human resource development pro¬grammes, credit lines and conces¬sions in debt and imports and so on.
1. Trade and Investment—There are three broad features of India’s trade and investment relations with different parts of Africa : increasing volumes of trade and investment both; state support for the private sector; and the increasingly diverse nature and profile of India’s state-led and private sector economic engage¬ments with Africa. It is estimated that trade between India and African nations grew from a value of $ 3-39 billion in 2000 to $ 30 billion for the year 2007. It was less than $ 1 billion in 1991, when India initiated her economic liberalization programme. The trade between the two sides was $ 36 billion in 2010 and has reached to $ 60 billion in 2012.
In order to boost trade volume, the high-level business conclaves are being organized by the Confederatibn of Indian Industry and the Export- Import Bank of India in association with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, and the African Development Bank. At the first conclave in March 2005 the ‘India-Africa Project Partnership’ was launched and over $ 14 billion worth of projects discussed. These conclaves were repeated in Novem¬ber 2005, October 2006 and March 2008, 2009 and 2010. Many projects have been finalized in these con¬claves.
Indian investment in Africa has also grown and diversified in recent years. India investments are made by both the public sector and the private sector. India has recently adopted the policy of encouraging private sector investment. The Indian investment ranges from the small family firms and small and medium enterprises to the large-scale bids by Tata, Essar and Bharti Airtel and Mahindra.
2. Development Partnership—
After its South Asian neighbours, the African countries have traditionally been the second largest recipients of India’s development assistance and cooperation. The main instrument of this cooperation is the Indian Tech¬nical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, which was launched in 1964. ITEC focuses on providing short training programmes in areas as diverse as small and medium-scale industries, rural credit programmes, food processing, textiles and women’s entrepreneurship; IT and computing skills. The scheme runs in 159 countries and majority of them are African countries. Indian government offers about 3000 place¬ments under this scheme, of which more than 1000 are offered to African governments. More than $ 1 billion funds have been channeled through ITEC so far and majority of it going to African countries. At present, India offers the assistance of ? 500 crore per year under this programme.
ITEC has six components, viz., Training (civilian and defence) in India of nominees from ITEC partner countries; Projects and project related activities such as feasibility studies and consultancy services; Deputation of Indian experts abroad; Study tours; Gifting /Donation of equipment; and Aid for Disaster Relief. The training programmes have contributed to capacity building and human resource development in many parts of the world.
In Africa, another Indian deve-lopment programme is the Special Commonwealth African Assistance Programme (SCAAP), which also offers project bound development assistance. This programme covers only Commonwealth countries of Africa. The notable feature of these programmes is not the colonial mentality of imposing the assistance. Instead, India asserts the claim of ‘partnership for mutual benefit.’ It is implemented as need based pro-gramme of African countries, assisted by India. Another facet of India’s development cooperation in Africa over the last few years has been the growing provision of concessional Lines of Credit, which are managed by India’s EXIM bank. So far India has provided $ 7642 million as Lines of Credit and majority of it is directed to African countries. India’s develop¬ment assistance also includes debt write-offs. India recently cancelled $ 24 million of debt from Mozam¬bique, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana and Zambia. China has also written off debts in Many African countries at much higher scale.
3. Capacity Building and Human Resource Development—The focus on skills and training in part reflects that human resource development is one of the priorities of India deve¬lopment assistance in Africa. India has earned huge goodwill in Africa because of her human resource development programmes. African leaders remark that though China is doing more in terms of trade and investment, India is doing better. But this role also reflects the expertise and high quality provision available in many Indian universities, training centres and institutes. India initiated the Pan-African e-Network in Africa in 2004. This scheme aims to provide facilities for tele-education, tele¬medicine and network video con¬ferencing for heads of state in all 53 members of the AU. The network will also connect 53 learning centres, ten superspecialty hospitals (three of which are in India), 53 other hospitals and five universities (two in India). In 2009, this programme has been exten¬ded to cover all 53 African countries. In these endeavours, India provides expertise in creating ‘knowledge eco¬nomies’ for sustainable development in Africa. India has also stepped up the production and supply of cheaper pharmaceuticals and ‘Triple a tech¬nology’ (affordable, available, adapt-able) that is better suited to African peoples than offered by western competitors. India is now focusing on the small scale industries develop¬ment programme, which involves schemes of skill development also.
C. Cultural Cooperation
Both India and Africa share long cultural contacts. In the modern history, Gandhi’s stay in South Africa provided an important link between the two. Besides, the India Diaspora in African countries has contributed to the growth and development of Africa and earned goodwill. India’s cultural objects like dance, drama films are very popular in African countries. Indian films are very popular in East African countries. India has been providing a large number of educational scholarships to African students for study in India. At present, both continue to maintain regular cultural exchanges at various levels. The Indian council for cultural
relations organises may cultural exchange programmes to promote better understanding between the people of India and Africa. As a push to her public diplomacy, India has opened cultural centers in some African countries. India enjoys huge cultural attraction and soft power advantage in Africa.
Challenges and Opportunities—
Africa constitutes 14 per cent of the global population, but its share in global trade is just 2-5 per cent. Africa also suffers from poverty, lack of infrastructure and technology, food insecurity and social and political conflicts. India has been a political, cultural and economic partner of Africa since the days of colonialism. India’s ongoing development co¬operation in Africa assumes signi¬ficance in view of the above facts. Africa is also rich in energy resources. It suits in India’s search for energy security. At present India imports 75 per cents of her energy requirements. India’s present focus on energy sector in Africa may’ be viewed in this background. On the other hand Africa needs India’s development assistance to face the challenges of globalized world. African countries as members of African Union place focus on the economic integration of
Africa. They emphasize on the African-owned and African-managed development process. India can be a useful development partner of Africa in this regard. African Union’s Golden Jubilee Summit was held at Addis Ababa on May 19-27, 2013, where India was represented by its Vice-President Hamid Ansari. In his address, Ansari cited India’s role in the elimination of colonialism and apartheid in Africa in past years. India’s role at present in the human resource development in African countries is well appreciated by all.
Again, Africa contributes largest numbers of members in the UN. It may help India in her support for her claim for permanent membership to Security Council. However, India is facing challenges from the other actors in Africa, particularly China. In recent years, China has also stepped up its presence in various economic areas like trade, investment in Africa. In comparison to the volume of operation, China is much ahead of India. However, India’s engagements enjoy edge in the area of human resource development. India has to assess the development requirement of African countries and employ a country specific approach to develop a meaningful development partner¬ship with African countries.

1...420421422...441Page 421 of 441

Subscribe for exclusive content

We have a curated list of the most noteworthy news from all across the globe. With any subscription plan, you get access to exclusive articles that let you stay ahead of the curve.

Subscribe

Copyright Syskool.