PHILANTHROPY: Ratan Tata makes $50 million gift to Cornell

FROM CORNELL.edu: Alumnus Ratan Tata and President David Skorton after signing their historic agreement that will provide an endowment of $50 million to Cornell for agriculture and nutrition programs in India and for the education of Indian students at Cornell. PHOTO: Robert Barker/University Photography

What economic crisis? Here's news of a big new philanthropic gift to Cornell University from Chronicle of Higher Education:

Ratan Tata, an Indian industrialist and Cornell University alumnus, announced today a gift of $50-million to his alma mater to help recruit top Indian students to the campus and to support joint research projects with Indian universities in agriculture and nutrition.

The gift from the Tata Trusts, a group of philanthropic organizations run by Mr. Tata, chairman of the business conglomerate Tata Sons Ltd., will allow Cornell to establish and expand partnerships with Indian scientists that build on its strength in applied agriculture research. He graduated from Cornell in 1959.

The donation will also be used to set up a scholarship fund to bring more Indian students, who may be discouraged by Cornell's price tag, to the university. The gift could eventually help support as many as 25 Indian undergraduate and graduate students at a time.

"We want to have our doors wide open and accessible to the best students, regardless of their capacity to pay," said David J. Skorton, Cornell's president.

Here's how the gift came to be:

The Tata gift grew out of a trip that Dr. Skorton and other Cornell administrators took to India in January 2007 (The Chronicle, March 2, 2007). The visit, he said, helped make clear the need to improve academic and research linkages between American and Indian universities.

Dr. Skorton, who calls Cornell the "land-grant university to the world," says the Tata funds will expand on its previous work to improve the productivity, sustainability, and profitability of India's food system. Faculty members in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have conducted research experiments and exchanged scientific information with their Indian counterparts for more than 50 years.

The precise type and scope of the efforts, however, will be decided by an advisory panel to be chaired by Dr. Skorton and Mr. Tata. They will work "shoulder to shoulder," Dr. Skorton said, to ensure that the projects reflect both Indian and American needs.

For his part, Mr. Tata, who also received an architecture degree from Cornell in 1962, says he did not want his donation to finance "bricks and mortar."

"I didn't want my name on a building," he said.

Mr. Tata says he recognizes the "enormous value" of his university education and wanted other Indian students to have a similar experience, regardless of their socioeconomic background.

The gift greatly expands Cornell's capacity to offer financial aid to international students. The endowment for international financial aid is about $1.5-million a year, said Doris Davis, associate provost for admissions and enrollment.

The Tata scholarships will be offered to six to 10 students annually, depending on level of need. Although the goal is to award the grants mainly to undergraduates, some may initially go for graduate-student stipends.

Read more at the Cornell website. What do you think? Post your comments below.

Earlier on SAJAforum:

• PHILANTHROPY: Largest Donations by Desis in the U.S.
• PHILANTROPY: IIT Bombay gets a $7 million gift

Comments

[Steve]

Say I am a multimillionaire and I was going to make a scholarship fund to give to kids to go to college.

BUT

To receive that scholarship one must be male, white, Christian, naturally blond, and have blue eyes!

What would you think of me?

What would you call me?

[Jaya Kamlani]

Steve, in the hypothetical case you describe, I would say that you are trying to buy the institution with your millions of dollars. A scholarship should have no such strings attached to it. That's why when I first read this article I was shocked. But you see, buying an institution or a politician with your money is a common practice in India. That's why we have so much corruption in India. I would just hope the rich Indians would not bring their unethical practices to America.

What I am even more shocked about is that Cornell University decided to go along with Mr. Tata's suggestions. In India, such things are called bribes. That's why it is imperative that we do away with lobbyists in Washington, because I can see them parading at Capitol Hill after the elections.

Most Indian-Americans will not speak up against such unethical practices. But I have lived here long enough to know that this is unethical. Tata's is one of the richest and diversified companies in India, and they yield a lot of influence in India and America, because they have Tata Consulting Services, a very popular company for offshoring jobs. The word 'philantropy' generally has strings attached to it. No rich guy is going to part with any of his money without some gain, especially a businessman.

Jaya Kamlani

[Jaya Kamlani]

I hope Tata's work with Cornell University on a joint agricultural project is done to alleviate poverty in India. Seventy percent (70%) of Indians live in poverty. Most don't have enough food to eat, and many young children in the villages die of malnutrition. So, I hope Tata's is doing this for a good cause, and not to get any richer, or monopolize the agricultural industry in India.

Jaya Kamlani

[Linn Cohen-Cole]

Cornell, in combination with Monsanto, has already been bad for India.

http://www.grain.org/research/contamination.cfm?id=167

More than any other corporation, Monsanto is wiping out sustainable agriculture (including with rBGH) so this line from a Cornell magazine is downright Orwell-speak:

"Will the use of the bovine growth hormone (rbGH) highlighted in a study conducted by Cornell researchers and professors and the agricultural company Monsanto usher in a new era of sustainable agriculture for dairy farmers?"

Tata's donation to Cornell (and thus to support biotech and Monsanto) is really terrible news for India which is trying to fight off genetic engineering just as Europe did. But I guess the white wealthy world can demand pure food and non-contaminated land and non-patented seeds and the third world folk who are too stupid to know better end up with their own people making "donations" that will make sure they end up with that crud?

There is rice with human DNA growing now in Kansas, and the biotech people want food crops to grow drugs and even industrial chemicals. You want that next door to you? You, vegetarian, and are you okay eating human DNA?

Wake up, Indians. You think the British contaminated India with cartridges using pork fat? You think Mangal Pandey had reason to be upset? What about every vegetarian in India who never thought that nature itself would be treated like this and human beings would be eating human DNA in blessed rice?

Meanwhile farmers and consumer groups and the Association for Indian Development and other groups are knocking themselves out to keep Monsanto from doing more harm to India, though it is spending huge amounts on university programs (Tata is not original in subverting universities and science).

The campaign in India to stop Bt-brinjal is called "I am not a lab rat." The Bt that is imbedded in the brinjal, to be eaten by everyone - small children, the ill, the elderly, the pregnant, the people just wanting safe food - is 1000 times stronger than what is sprayed on plants.

rBGH - one of Monsanto's already in place GE-gifts in the US, a "fabulous and safe thing" they create laws to keep unlabeled- is now associated with a hugely increased risk of breast cancer, a large increased risk of prostate cancer, and an increased risk of colon cancer.

And what else has biotechnology done to milk, that most basic of human foods?

They've taken the Vitamin D out of it. And made a small substitution. Though vitamin D is heavily promoted by corporations as good for you and a big reason why you should drink their milk, they have actually removed it and replaced with a "scientific" synthetic version ... which doesn't work. http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/84/4/694

Meanwhile it turns out that vitamin D is not only good for you bones but is utterly essential for fighting cancers and many other dread diseases.

Just how important is vitamin D - the one the corporations have replaced with their modern, high-tech, disfunctioning lab version?
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=34992

And what about the dirty ole milk - the old-fashioned, straight from the cow, non-pasteurized, non-synthetic kind - the stuff that hasn't been "improved" for our benefit and safety by "biotechnology" and "genetic engineering and pasteurization?

Yale has just shown that those little bacteria - you know, what we have been taught to be terrified of, the kind straight from the filthy cow, the kind that we are so desperate to get pasteurized so every single one of them die, protects against type 1 diabetes.
http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-1/Friendly-bacteria-protect-against-type-1-diabetes--Yale-researchers-find-4978-1/

And that same fresh milk is just chock full of REAL vitamin D, the kind that actually works.
http://www.westonaprice.org/transition/dairy.html

Welcome to what is going to happen to India, a third world country already taking trash from Japan, already used to being used. Tata's "philanthropy" is not.

Speaking of Tata's donation to Cornell - already in bed with Monsanto - the following just came in today from Maharashtra, where Monsanto's "biotech" brought a taste of its promised "wonders" to India:

Killer Bt. Cotton fails again in Vidarbha

Narendra Ch

19 October 2008, Sunday

THE KILLER Bt.cotton has once gain failed in the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra as 60 per cent of the standing crop which was earlier affected by the mealy bug has now been destroyed by a 'Lalya attack" that suddenly appeared in rain fed areas where standing Bt. cotton crop gets completely damaged.

The helpless farmers vexed with the government's lack of initiative are now threatening to go on a "fast unto death" agitation from October 26 demanding immediate action at least by opening centres for procurement to stop falling prices.

Meanwhile, nine more suicide by farmers has been reported in the last three days. This year the damage is much larger as areas under Bt.cotton cultivation is under more than 12 lakh hectares and losses are to the tune of Rs.2000 crore. All victims of farm suicides belong to backward Dalit and tribal families who were in debt and in acute financial crisis due to sudden crop failure.

Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti president Kishor Tiwari said the government also failed to come to the rescue of the farmers by providing remunerative price to their remaining crops. According to him in the last fortnight cotton prices have fallen from Rs.3200 per quintal to Rs.2300 per quintal and local traders have started cotton procurement below the minimum support price MSP.

He said the farmers are forced to sell the cotton at throw away prices in distress sales as the Maharashtra government failed to start its procurement centres on October 2 as announced earlier. In addition, there is no action at the level of the state run cotton marketing federation to start its centres before Diwali. He said that cotton growers will face huge losses resulting in more suicides in Vidarbha.

He said that if the government failed to procure the farmer's cotton at MSP then its move to raise the MSP would be ridiculed and will create more complications to the existing agrarian crisis.

[Sanjay kothari]

It is an act of great generosity for some of the most neglected people on the planet. I wish other rich Indians including all of us ( who are very rich compared to those farmers
who routinely kill themselves ) would do something other than criticize others who actually do something. Steve, your analogy is completely off.The white male with or without blue eyes
represents the most powerful and priviliged people on the planet. What mr Tata is doing will benefit some of the least priviliged and most neglected ( by India ) people on the planet.
Sanjay

[Jaya Kamlani]

Linn Cohen-Cole: Thanks for the update on Monsanto and the destitute conditions of farmers in Vidarbha. I am very familiar with this issue. However, your posting shows that the situation is bad even today, in October 2008.

Sanjay Kothari: I have to disagree with you. Donating money for scholarship and directing it to be spent only on one group of students is inappropriate. It's like an Indian philanthropist donating to a SAJA journalism fund and asking that it be only used for top journalism students from India. It would exclude all other South-Asian groups like Pakistani, Nepali and Bangladeshi students. That would be considered unethical too, because SAJA represents all South Asian journalists. I find Mr. Tata's donation to be more of a business deal than philantropy. He is an astute businessman. It would be like Bill Gates making a donation that would benefit the Microsoft empire.

Jaya Kamlani

[Sanjay kothari]

SAJA may represent south asian journalists and so how does that become the reason Mr Tata should donate to all South Asians??

[been there!]

Okay Ta-Ta Bye Bye!

How narrow, how shortsighted, how sad, how infuriating. $50 million to support perhaps 25 students? I am a Cornell Product, a child of the Fulbright in India program and a Fulbright scholar myself. It is preposterous to allow such a narrow use of a gift. I agree with Steve. If Tata has such a great love for his alma mater, why not create a scholarship to support students of every ethnic origin? Hmmm, will Tata allow his money to go to Pakistani and Bangladeshi students? After all, Pakistan and Bangladesh came from India..................................

[Anahita]

Jaya Kamlani,
Re: your comment: "But you see, buying an institution or a politician with your money is a common practice in India." Can you give a single concrete, proven instance of someone with money having bought an INSTITUTION in India?
Re: your comment that in India, "most don't have enough food to eat, and many young children in the villages die of malnutrition." Do you have any facts and figures, any reliable statistics to back these claims? Otherwise, you owe an apology to readers of SAJA Froum for making wild and outrageous statements and you must desist from posting any comments on this site in future, please!!!!

[Jaya Kamlani]

Anahita,

It is no secret that the Indian government officials are in the pockets of the rich industrialists of India. I have read many such articles. Now let me tell you about the NGOs (non-government organizations). There are over one million NGOs operating in India. NGOs are supposed to do public good. Although there are some very good NGOs who do a lot of good for the citizens of India, especially the needy, many NGOs are set up as tax havens for their businesses, or places where they can divert their money. This includes NGOs set up by politicians and rich bureaucrats and industrialists, which are set up to only benefit them and their extended families. In fact, I read CID was investigating some of these NGOs. I have been working with some NGOs lately and discovered this. I am also in contact with many people who are doing a lot of good for India.

On the subject of the poor in India and the malnourished children, let me tell you I have been doing immense research, even as late as this week, including today. I have been reading up reports by the World Bank, Institute of Food Policy Research Institute and many others, including President Kalam's initiatives for rural India. I have also read newspapers going back several years. I have also done immense research on the farmer suicides of India and traveled through 30-plus villages and several city slums of India this winter. So I am not making up any material. All what I say is from newspapers, reports published or personal knowledge and projects I have worked on. I am in touch with many people and with NGOs who do a lot of good for the people of India. The reason being that I am writing a book on rural India and the people left behind in India's booming economy. P.S: I also grew up in Bombay (Mumbai) and visit India frequently. The reason I speak up is because I want to see change in America and in India. Change for the better, where the ordinary man/woman's voice and concerns are heard.

Just today, someone who runs a research institute in India, and is presently visiting America, called me today to touch basis. I had spent a week on their campus this winter.

Anahita, I am no greenhorn. If you don't like my posts, you don't have to read them.

Jaya Kamlani

[ashish dimri]

Dear SAJA,
We all feel,he could have used his hard earned money on something relevant.

Had he used it for many downtrodden kids who languish in hinterlands and urban slums of India, he would have earned respect of the masses!
A big portion of Indian students don't enjoy luxuries of good books,teachers and other facilities.

As a result,one may find growing rate of unemployment,crime rate and social unrest!
Why should he squander away his money on some talented guys who hardly need it!

Afterall, these are not mediocre students who can sail through trials of financial turbulence!
Will any of this 'talent pool', ever go back to join a relevant social cause!
Some of them will simply join Tata Administrative services and become another Sahib!
But as they say- King can do no wrong!-Ratan seth won't pay heed to commoners!
regards,
yours,
ashish dimri

[Jaya Kamlani]

Sanjay Kothari,

I did not want to go into details to explain the parallels in my comment to you. What I was trying to say is that in America, when philanthropists donate money for a scholarship to an educational institute, they cannot say that the donation applies only to Indian, or African, Chinese, Korean, or Mexican, or any specific group of people. The scholarship could be for specific studies, such as arts or science, journalism, or sports. But they cannot request that the journalism scholarship be only awarded to students from India. That would not be considered fair by other students. Students have to apply for these scholarships. Sometimes 'needs scholarships' are awarded to "poor" students who have excellent grades but cannot afford the tuitions. At least, this is my understand of scholarships.

Ratan Tata would have been better off just paying for the tuitions of these Indian students, and not classifying it as a student scholarship at Cornell. I do commend him for his kind deed to these students, but there is a clear distinction between scholarship funds donated to a university for public good, versus doing a good deed to help a few.

Jaya Kamlani

[Anish Gupta]

It is ironical that Mr. Tata has gifted this impressive sum to Cornell University to support research projects with Indian universities in agriculture and nutrition after having allowed one of his companies, Tata Motors, to destroy nearly 1,000 acres of supremely fertile agricultural land at Singur, in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, to build a factory to manufacture the world's smallest car, the Nano. The Tatas pulled out of Singur late last month following stiff opposition from a section of farmers facing displacement. But Singur's highly rich farmlands have been laid waste.
An article on the following link could tell you more.
http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles_various/Singur.asp

[Jaya Kamlani]

Ashish Dimri, I agree with your comments.

This summer, I was asked by a magazine editor from Bangalore, India, if I knew of any source that could pay tuitions for twenty potential college students he knew. He forwarded me a list of these youngsters along with their qualifications. I told him I did not know of any such source, but I might some day post it on SAJA. Well, here is my chance. These are very qualified students who cannot afford the tuitions, not at Cornell University, but at a university in Bangalore or another town in southern India.

REQUEST for Mr. Ratan Tata: Dear Mr. Tata, could you please help pay for these students tuitions and a bit of their expenses? I can ask my editor friend to forward you this list of bright students. Could you be the beacon in their lives too?

Jaya Kamlani

[anahita]

Jaya Kamlani,
My simple question to you was whether you can name even a single concrete, proven instance of someone with money having bought an INSTITUTION in India as you have categorically asserted in your first post. Yes, we all know as you have said in your reply to my question that "it is no secret that the Indian government officials are in the pockets of the rich industrialists of India." Not only the Indian government, we also know that Bill Clinton rented out the Lincoln bedroom in the White House to anyone who had money and was willing to give it to the Clintons when he was president. We know how Senator McCain took all sorts of favours in what is known as the "Keating" scandal for which he was pulled up by the ethics panel on Capitol Hill. Why, only this week, we saw the spectacle of alleged corruption against veteran Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska in a Washington DC court. We know how Boris Yeltsin was literally bought up up the Russian oligarchs. We know that president Jacques Chirac was insulated against corruption investigation only by the immunity for him when he was French president and the same applied to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. So it is not only "Indian government officials (who) are in the pockets of the rich industrialists" but politicians in the US, Russia, France Germany, Japan...
But my question was about your firm assertion that "buying an institution...with your money is a common practice in India." I repeat, can you name one institution in India that has been bought with money in a dubious or questionable manner? NGOs, dear Jaya Kamlani, are not institutions. They are as their acronym says, "organisations." Cornell is an institution. I hope you know the difference between an organisation and an institution.

[alapalathy]

Bravo! Bravo Anahita!
These Indian Americans (and many Indians who live in America), like Jaya Kamlani, think they have arrived in the land of the pure where there is no corruption and all is well!!
Thank you, Anahita for giving Jaya a reality check. Actually India is learning corruption from America. India always had small time corruption, but big time corruption is now coming from the US. Slowly, lobbying is coming to Delhi. Jaya is talking of NGOs. Who brought the NGO culture to India? It came from the US. Jaya has probably not read the recent investigative story in Washington Post about how none less than a member of the Bush cabinet set up NGOs which rented his properties for projects that were funded by his department. And then Indian Americans blame Indian businesses for setting up NGOs as tax exemption outlets on the US model!!! Bravo!

[Jaya Kamlani]

Anahita,

You just said yourself in your last statement: "Cornell is an institution."
By giving $50 million to Cornell University, what do you think Ratan Tata is doing? If an American were to do that and then state that it be used only to help a selected few from his town, how do you think he would be labeled?

If you have been reading all the comments I have been making in the last couple of years on SAJA, especially related to our elections here in America, you will notice I have spoken up against corruption in America as well. Why do you think we are in this financial mess in America? Because of greed and corruption. I think it is best to speak up when you get a chance, and not sweep such issues under the rug. Both our countries have corrupt and greedy politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists who are there only to pad their pockets. In America, we call them the Fat Cats. And they are the ones who have brought America down. I am not going to name the Fat Cats for you in India. That's for you citizens of India and the Indian media to do so, that is, if you want your country to improve. However, I do read about tremendous corruption there.

I am not going to talk much about my book or my research. I have just started to write the book, so it will take time. But it will also show what many good people of India are doing for the poor because of the UN mandate to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which I read cannot be met until more like 2025. I think we should see our countries for what they are, and not camouflage them to hide their blemishes. Only by recognizing the failings can we find solutions for improvements.

Anahita, before I started writing a few years back, I worked in the IT corporate world. For many years before I retired, I used to examine my client's business processes, find the weak areas and see how their businesses or computer systems can be improved. I would draw flowcharts and define business processes in front of executives to re-engineer their businesses. I am taking the same approach for addressing the country's problems. You have to define what the problems are before you can go around solving them. By you and me arguing over these issues, it is not going to solve America or India's problems. Best to acknowledge that they exist, and then decide what to do about them. Although we don't have the power to bring about that change, we can at least voice our concerns and pray someone is reading or listening.

Jaya Kamlani

[Velki]

Anahita/Jaya,
In all the postings by the two of you, I still haven't found the answer to the question that Anahita posed at the start: Can Jaya name one institution in India that has been bought with money in a dubious or questionable manner? If no institution can be named, Jaya should honourably withdraw the assertion in Jaya's initial posting that ""buying an institution...with your money is a common practice in India."
Instead, Jaya keeps on an on about NGOs. But as Anahita points out, NGOs are not institutions, they are organisations. Yes, Cornell is an institution and let us assume Tata has bought it up with his "bribe." But Jaya, you still cannot name a single institution in India -- repeat in India -- that even the most corrupt of businessmen has bought up with his money, ill gotten or otherwise. If you cannot, then your statement is false.

[Jaya Kamlani]

Alapathy,

Can you post the link to the Washington Post article about the corrupt NGO linked to the Bush administration? I am not familiar with it, and would be interested to read it.

The only reason I talk to some large NGOs reps or visited some of them in India is because I am writing my book, and they took me around to the villages they sponsor. They are based on Gandhian principles, one of them even on Swami Vivekananda principles. In fact, I made a mistake. I should NOT refer to them as NGOs. They are really "social organizations", almost like institutions with campuses. They cater to the poor of India and provide them education and vocational skills that would help them find job opportunities in the villages, and even help them in farming. The Indian-Americans and the Indians in India I communicate with are the ones who are doing selfless work for the poor, donating their time and money.

On another note, I think the reason we got into all this discussion on this posting is because the donation by Mr. Ratan Tata is mis-labeled as "PHILANTHROPY: Ratan Tata makes $50 million gift to Cornell". Mr. Tata's money to Cornell University is not philanthropy or a gift. It is a business deal. If the article were written with that in mind, I think I would have no objection to it at all. By labeling it as a gift, and having strings attached to it, makes it an inappropriate gift. Best to call it a 'business deal'. I am fine with that.

Jaya Kamlani

[Jaya Kamlani]

Velki,

Please address your question to the journalists in India. I am sure they have plenty of answers for you. The journalists in India investigate and report. I just read about it. If there was no corruption in India, do you think that 70% of its population was living in poverty? These are the reports I am reading which will be quoted in my book with the source of information. All I am saying is you have a chance to make India a wonderful country, just as we now have a chance to make America a wonderful country it once was. Let us not cover up the issues, but face them and find solutions. No need for your attacks, or those by Anahita and Alapathy. At least in America, we are not saying there is no corruption. In fact, there is major corruption at the financial institutions, and among the politicians. That is why we are in the mess that we find ourselves in. I don't want to get into any more debates with you or your colleagues, because you refuse to acknowledge that you have problems in India.

Jaya Kamlani

[Steve]

"just as we now have a chance to make America a wonderful country it once was. "

Jaya, we don't have a chance to make America a wonderful country as it once was. In four years we might have, might have a chance to make America a wonderful county as it once was but not until then.

Oh, and as to who you should vote for. Write in Bobby Jindal. Sure he won't win this time but I believe you said that you live in New York. New York isn't a battleground state. It will clearly go for Obama. So voting for Obama or McCain won't change things there anyway. SO, you might as well vote for someone who actually deserves your vote.

[Anahita]

Your assumptions about me, my dear Jaya Kamlani, are as way off the mark as your assumptions in your first posting. Both are full of errors.
I am not Indian, as you readily assume. Before you write "both our countries have corrupt and greedy politicians..." you don't even ask where I come from. Then you go on to write: "That's for you citizens of India and the Indian media to do so, that is, if you want your country to improve."
I am Afghan, Jaya Kamlani, not Indian. But now I live in the US. My only link with India is that I studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi and then lived in Kerala for some years.
If this is how you do your research, let me tell you well in advance that I am not going to waste my money buying your book when it is written. And as Velki points out in his posting, you still have no answer to my original question. Now you want to change NGOs into SOs or social organisations. Maybe if you change their names to non-governmental institutions NGIs you can get out of the deep hole you have dug for yourself in here with your ill-considered first posting.

[Jaya Kamlani]

Anahita,

I am not changing the NGOs to SOs (or social organizations). Many organizations that were once being referred to as NGOs in India are now calling themselves 'social organizations'. When I traveled to India, I learned about it. Because the term 'social organization' has a better ring to it, as many of these organizations are really doing good work for the poor. But the Indian-Americans with whom I communicate sometimes still refer to them as NGOs. Go figure. Whatever they want to call themselves is fine by me. I am not a member of any NGO or SO, or whatever they want to call themselves. I am just a writer. I do my research and write about it.

I am sorry I thought you were an Indian. Anahita sounded like a sweet Bengali name to me. I meant no offense to address you as an Indian. I shall keep in mind that you are an Afghani living in the U.S. But feel free to correct me if I address you as an Indian again. I am 61 years old, and at my age I tend to forget so many things, because I have too much on my mind. I hope all is well in your country (Afghanistan) and with your extended family. Since you are not from India, I don't think it should matter to you about the corruption in Indian institutions. I include corporations in this category... just like we call Wall Street companies 'financial institutions'.

Yes, there is much corruption in India that you don't know about, and that I hear or read about. There are recent books written about it too, one on Bombay by Suketu Mehta, which I glanced through. If I am not mistaken, I believe it was from his book that I gathered how much mafia involvement there is in Indian corporations. There are countless news articles of corruption in India. Even the last World Bank executive, Mr. Wolfowitz, was investigating the money that was given by the World Bank to India, but the money was embezzled by the state politicians (If I recall correctly, it was given to the Andhra Pradesh govt. intended for a project for the poor. In fact, I posted a link to that article myself on this forum).

But Anahita, this posting is not about corruption in India. It is specific to Ratan Tata and his donation to Cornell University, and so we shall stick to the subject and to the scope of the article at hand. I just wish the news article had read "Ratan Tata strikes a deal with Cornell University" or something like that. No harm done if it was a business deal. After all, business people do make business deals. If they didn't, they would be out of business.

Jaya Kamlani

[akak]

Alalpathy says:
"India always had small time corruption, but big time corruption is now coming from the US."

I guess you weren't around for the huge Bofors scandal or Tehelka's expose of George Fernandes.

Or Narasimha Rao buying himself a parliament majority?

The difference is that corruption is business as usual in india - everyone knows to grease the chaprasi's hand, the file clerk, the secretary, his boss and his boss to get anything done. And it goes all the way to the top. Except that is little remarked on.
Look at Mayawati, how is she worth $13 million now?
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/30/world/fg-mayawati30

[Jaya Kamlani]

Hi Steve,

It is so good to be talking to you after all this exhaustive debate with the others on this panel on corruption in India. I could have spent all that time and energy working on my book. Yes, I could have even had a V8 !!!

Well, if Bobby Jindal does a good job bringing Louisiana back to life, I shall certainly consider him for the next election. Meanwhile, whoever wins this election, let's wish him well and hope we are not driven into a deep, deep recession as they are talking about.

You know when I finished writing my memoir last year, I had an Emmy-award winning journalist and professor friend of mine read it. He loved it. When he was done reading, he said to me, "Jaya, despite all that you have gone through, there is one thing that comes right through this book about you. And you know what it is?" I looked at him and waited for him to go on. He said, "It's your optimism. You always think that things will work out in the end." How true. He had judged me right. That's how I always think. Steve, that's why we have to think positive. We have to think America will come out of this financial crisis and recession. We will struggle and survive. Americans are survivors. It's times like these that build our character... By the way, I do NOT live in New York. That was a long time ago.

Jaya Kamlani