At 150kmph, but backwards

(Hmmm interesting title, I have absoulutely no idea what I am going to come up with in the next ten minutes of this literary journey. But why stop let the words flow. Last time around I talked about wasting away life, now i talk about going 150kmph but backwards. Ummm!!! sounds the same isn't it. )

Among the student community these days (this includes all those who have passed out in past 4 years), the reservation issue has raised quite a few eyebrows. I mean it seems to be taking up most of our talking time. Here I am not really interested in talking about reservations in IIM's and IIT's as its of no use. Its going to be passed anyway without a soul in the parliament raising an objection. Ok there will be a little bit of whining by some of the pro upper caste parties and it will just die away. Why simply because you and me do not form the substantial votebank that can win them an election. As one of my friends rightly put it, Quote" With an IIM graduate getting a placement worth one crore annually, you think it would not make the government think about the votes they could garner with reservation in higher education", unquote. I mean come on give me a break, it took the government 16 years to come up with it. You dont get me, "the Report containing the recommendations of the Mandal commision", the root of this entire problem was published in 1990. So all those who got through before this year 2006 are damn lucky, aren't they? But as i already mentioned, its just a waste of time talking about it.

Let me come to the reservations, I do want to speak about. That is Reservation in the Private Sector. Now if I haven't diverted your mind from the topic already, you would certainly want to know why "AT 150 kmph, but backwards" should be an apt title for the followin essay. Read on and you will know why.

It is very enlightening to know that except for big wigs from 4 companies namely Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, Narayan Murthy and Azim premji(Not sure about him) have come out into the open with reference to the reservations in the IIT's and IIM's. I presume it will be only these four who would want to say anything when it comes to RESERVATIONS in the PRIVATE SECTOR either.

P.S:- Forgive me for my blatant descrimination of the IT sector .

In today's India for most engineering students see jut one Industry that is the IT industry. Well other industries do exist, but who cares. Will shall view the case of other companies a little later. Ya so what i was saying is we only see IT IT and IT. So I was just wondering would it really matter to them. I mean come on more than 90% of these companies are service based. And most of the employees are into business outsourcing and documentation work to do. Which as one IT friend of mine put it, Quote:-"Anybody can do it", Unquote. I mean come on the people who are going to get through these companies by reservation are going to be competent enough. I mean just look around yourself, at your mates in college who are sc/st/obc's . . . . .. Well now you will get what I mean, they are definitely eligible and may even have marks better than yours. So in other words, they are definitely competent enough to do "the WORK ANYBODY CAN DO". So the moral of the story is "QUALITY IS going to deteriorate is total . . "hmmmmm as uncle scrooge(in christmas carol) would put it is BAAAAAAA HUMBUG !!!!!! Let me add on something to this. When I was in my last semester, I was in contact with a Bosch employee who told me about how things work in their company and most of the other MNC's so to say. He told me that all the work there was delegated. All decisions were taken in Germany (ok nothin wrong with that), all the instructions came from there too. So more or less spoon feeding. Give me a break, so its obvious these people who take reservations will be good enough to do this much. So again does the quality deteriorate?? Definitely no !!!! So the moral of the story is if you are not an SC/ST/OBC, brother its going to be even more difficult to get a job.

Ok now that I am done and dusted with the IT Sector, let me shift focus on the other companies. Ok now when the talk comes to other companies, we may all argue that technical knowledge is quite a necessity. Hmmm yes very true. But i guess most of us also know that almost 40% or even more of the jobs are got by reference or even with the payment of cash. Now that's interesting . All that the reservation is going to do is SC/ST/OBC's will show their caste certificates as their reference letters. Again where does the quality go nowhere. It does not matter anyway. I mean there are chances that the OBC/SC/ST's would be better than people who made it through reference.

Now that I proved on both points that quality is defintely not on the line. In fact it does not really make any difference at all. And about the big article which supposedly came in the TIMES OF INDIA, I guess these companies are here to stay and they are not going anywhere. And besides, this may look absolutely ridiculous to most of you reading this post. These companies now have a very good reason to decrease your salaries in the name of compromise of quality. So basically its a win-win situation for all of the corporate world. And we are just waiting our time debating about all this.

But after reasoning out and convincing you that it does not really matter, in the next few line I may definitely end up contradicting myself. Well most people feel that the top most thing in education in India is The IIT's, IISc's and IIM's. Yes very true nothing like it. But its not necessary that the person in IIT's is the most intelligent person in the world. I mean there might be people around with an IQ greater than that of IITian. Possible definitely !!!! And besides all of us know that more than 65% or more of the IITians get placed abroad or move on there for higher studies. And so it is with the IIM's. That makes you think that whether its the IITians who make up for most of the software companies in Bangalore, Hyderabad and say even Pune or Noida. The answer is no. Most of them are from the Local colleges around the state not from the IIT's. So basically for the common graduate all this reservation in IIT's and IIM's does not matter. And on the private sector reservation, I have presented my case already.

But where does it really matter!!! Well its with students who are looking for higher studies as an option. Or a high flying cool 10lakh an annum job, thats where it would matter. Why for a simple reason that students would rather take a GRE/TOEFL and shell out enough cash a cool 15-20 lakhs. With loans given these days, not a big deal it wont be such a burden on the parents since the ROI(Return of Investment) abroad is pretty good. So it will be time for Brain Drain again. And though however unlikely it seems, there are chances that people would even opt out for a foreign undergraduate degree. Hmmm you never know anything is possible. So basically the problem would still remain Brain drain and not deterioration of quality. Why simply because with about 3 lakh or more engineers graduating every year, picking out a few from a few of these colleges would not be such a big hassle.

So finally i am back to where i started so will India, if the bill is passed. . . It will be back to how it was before the IT boom, travelling at 150 kmph but backwards.

(Of course i do agree that I did speak as much about reservations in the premier institutions as much as the private sector, but was just to prove my logistics thats all)