This Urban Medical center (UHC) is bang on the periphery of the affluent IT district in Hyderabad. We went on a visit to the center after knowing through the news media that such a center catering to the daily labor and the surrounding slums is defunct.

The place is desolate and looks like a place to catch a disease rather than to get rid of one. There are some 5 contract nurses who have not been paid for 16 months whiling their time away. They give medicines for minor ailments to the occasional visitor. The facility itself is big one with decent infrastructure which is unused and rusting. No doctor visited this facility for 5 months. There was a young house surgeon who is mandated to spend 2 hrs/day for a month in the facility, she was looking at her watch to get out of the center and probably get into one of the swanky private hospitals to learn more about her trade.

So much for the governments focus on primary health care. We need not even talk about the PHCs in the rural areas, conditions must be depressing there. It is unfortunate that health care and education are not serious political issues in the country as yet, hence we see no political party interested in putting these on their agenda except for an occasional stir. They do not win and lose elections on these issues. Therefore there is no accountability in the system. 80% of the country does not have reach to primary health care, they are forced to go to the Private clinics and pay beyond their means.

The government is pouring so much money into health care the impact of is not quantified and measured, they keep throwing data on HIV,TB, cholera cases but no significant improvement is seen in the infrastructure on the ground. It is a messy relationship between the government and private hospitals; one of the government schemes “Arogyasri” allows BPL citizens to get medical care in private hospitals (this in principle worked to some extent) but the usurious private hospitals loot the exchequer with higher charges and conducting needless procedures on the patient. Definitely not a way to handle health care for 800 million poor citizens of the country.

There is utter despondency in the area of health care. We will file an RTI and get this center up and running for a while but who will do it for the country, who will wake up the sleeping “Health Ministers”.

Bengal between rock and hard place

Mamata’s victory is a welcome news in west Bengal after 35 years of indifferent rule by the communists. At the end of 35 years communists are leaving a state which is dilapidated and ranks low on most developmental parameters.

The communist’s significant achievement is the land reforms act “operation barga”. The small farmer (share cropper) was given ownership rights and much of the land which was under cash crops like jute was brought under food production, making the state self sufficient in food. This ensured their longevity.

For an outsider West Bengal is a poor state where there are frequent bandhs and government does not work. Post liberalization West Bengal is one of the big states which has lost out in putting the state on fast track (look at Maharashtra, Gujarat, AP, TN etc). The lefts dogmatic approach to privatization and inviting private capital for development ensured that all the engineers and other professionals left the state to pursue jobs in other states.

The current chief minister tried to change the thinking in the communists and pushed for reforms but it was too late. They made a mess of the Nandigram, Singur and the Netai incidents which meant the left has become arrogant and lost touch with the common man. The urban voter has deserted the communists’ long time back, with the above incidents even the rural voter rebelled against the high handed behavior of the left.

Beyond the land reforms the communists mishandling of vital issues of state - like industrialization, education, the centre-state relations etc alienated the people. Prakash Karat and gang harassing the Manmohan singh government on the Nuclear issue and forcing a vote in the parliament was not taken well by the people and is a reason for its downfall.

One is not sure if Mamata is the right alternative to the communists, she too has copied the lefts tactics of bandhs, hartals etc to beat them in their game. Her handling of the Railway ministry is nothing much to write about. Can she put West Bengal on the path of rapid development, can she shake up the lackadaisical administration and push other important reforms? One needs to wait and see, but she definitely needs to be congratulated for breaking the lefts grip on West Bengal.

Sell it or Shut it

There is no one reason for the mess in Air India, it is a combination of mis-management, political interference, employee hostility and lack of conviction on part of the government to either make it a successful business, divest it or lock it down.

From buying aircraft, over-expenditure and general mis-management there is nothing going right at Air India. The latest CAG report slams Air India for 'wasteful expenditure', 'inefficiency', and 'excessive delays' in repairing and overhauling its fleet's engines, resulting in huge losses for the airline.

The merger of Air India and Indian Airlines to create a company called NACIL is a marriage between incompatibles said the Parliamentary committee, the combined entity turned out to be as loss making as the separate entities. ”The Maharaja had become a pauper a long time ago,” said Capt Gustav Baldauf, who was brought specifically in to oversee the merger of Indian Airlines with Air India. He has been kicked out for asking the government not to interfere in his job.

With total accumulated losses of USD 3 billion, bank loans worth USD 10 billion and millions more to be paid to the oil companies it is a story of throwing good money after bad.

It definitely has a social role to play, flying to non-profitable domestic routes and provide help in evacuating citizens during calamities. But we have a situation where the airline management has opted out of profitable routes. Is there a surreptitious attempt to make the airline unprofitable to kill it; is there an attempt to aid the private operators by doing so? A particular minister was suspected of hobnobbing with private airline owners. It was the top carrier in the Indian skies a decade ago today it share is a pathetic 16%.

No one seems to own the beloved Maharaja, neither the politicians, nor the management, and not even the unions. Everyone has their own vested interest and no one is serious to save it.

Can Air India be profitable ever? It is basically a management problem which can perhaps be addressed and a turnaround made possible but only without political and government interference. Is that a possibility?

The next question is can the government find a buyer for the loss making airline? The economic environment will be a deterrent for potential bidders. Should the airline be stripped down and sold in parts and let the government run a smaller corporation to address only the social obligations. I think this is possible solution.

As long as the government keeps inducting equity into the airline without a radical shift in its strategy of running this business it is throwing money down the drain, we need all this money to build schools, hospitals and Infrastructure in the country, not to keep feeding this white elephant.