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Day 33
Reading Material

In an epic year for the English Premier League, a look at its transformation

The English Premier League today sees its most absorbing title race since 2011-12
enter its final few weeks. On May 12, we shall have a winner. Manchester City is
aiming to become the first team to defend the title since Sir Alex Ferguson’s
Manchester United did so in the 2008-09 season. Liverpool is refusing to give up or
go away, its season ignited by the dream of a first top flight title since 1989-90. But
if it cannot make it in the end, Liverpool will become the team to have finished
second with more points than many champions in the Premier League era.
Elsewhere, another exciting race is afoot in the league: the sprint for the third and
fourth places. Tottenham Hotspur, led by Mauricio Pochettino, the most feted
manager to have never won a trophy, led this particular race for most of the
season. But at the moment, all the bets are off. Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester
United, all with new managers, make up the rest of the field in this sprint to the
finish. Come end of the season, two of those four teams will be denied a place in
the top four, and, therefore, Champions League football. You could barely insert a
cigarette paper between the sides in this contest. Not for years has this particular
fight been so frenzied. So much can change in so little time.
Of the other big leagues in Europe, only the German league has some interest left
in it although the inevitable — Bayern Munich winning — seems to be forthcoming.
Juventus has sewn up the Italian league. For the eighth time in the past 11
seasons, Barcelona’s hold on the Spanish title is assured.
In comparison, the English Premier League remains a cauldron. Anything, really, is
possible in the three weeks ahead.
Your ideal companion as you immerse yourself in the taut, enthralling final stretch
of the campaign should be just as absorbing a book: Michael Cox’s The Mixer: The
Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines. I don’t know what
the publishers were after with that subtitle. It is plain misleading. The Mixer does
delve into tactics. But it is really the story of the Premier League, the fascinating
tale of the transformation of the English top flight, of how it went from being, as the
Sunday Times once put it, “a slum sport played in slum stadiums, increasingly
watched by slum people” to what it is today: awash in obscene amounts of money,
a cosmopolitan, globalised TV spectacle with a following across the world.

The book derives its title from the English predilection, in the pre-Premier League
era, for defenders to “put it in the mixer”, that is, to hit long balls upfield targeted
at a brawny striker hovering near the opposition’s penalty area (also known as
Route One). How things have changed. Cox traces the change in tactics (both the
how and the why of it), talks about various formations, the ball playing defender,
the marauding full back, inverted wingers and false nines, but nowhere does he
sound dry or pedantic.

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This is because he sees all this through the prism of characters and personalities.
The Mixer is particularly good when it deals with the men whose transformative
influences made the Premier League what it is today. We read about the impact of
managers such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho or Rafa
Benitez. We learn about the imprint players such as Eric Cantona, Thierry Henry,
Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand or Denis Bergkamp left on the league. We revel in
the monumental achievements of teams that defined and brought something
unprecedented into the league such as Arsenal’s Invincibles of 2003-04,
Manchester United’s treble winners of 1998-99 or Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City,
title winners in 2015-16, overcoming 1000-1 odds. The book most comes alive
when dealing with these tropes, and in relating them to the overall expansion in
allure of the Premier League.
The Mixer was first published in 2017 to mark the 25th anniversary of the
beginning of the Premier League. Two years on, at the closing stages of one of the
best and tightest seasons in the league’s history, it remains an entertaining,
compelling read.
Lanka attacks: S Asian nations must join hands against terror

This cooperation must extend beyond counterterrorism efforts and fight all kinds of
religious radicalisation

Ten years after winning a decisive war against terror, Sri Lanka is under attack by
terrorists once again. The attack has indeed been devastating, reminding Sri Lanka
of its horror of Tamil Tigers’ attack on its Trade Centre tower and airport. But there
were no Tamil Tiger signatures, though suicide terrorism was involved, on the
serial bombing in Colombo and other places on April 21. These attacks are a class
by themselves, in their organisation and precision. Hotels and churches were
attacked in eight blasts, killing nearly 300 and injuring nearly 500 people.
Possibility of further attacks are not ruled out. Intelligence alerts were sounded on
April 11, but they were not heeded seriously. One of the hotels under attack was in
the close vicinity of the Indian High Commission building as well as Temple Trees,

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the official residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. This suggests that
such important targets were also on the terrorists’ antennas. More than two dozen
arrests have been made. Sri Lanka has been put under emergency regulations.

A little-known Islamic extremist group, National Towheeth Jama’ath, has been

officially named to have been behind the attacks. This group comprises Syria
returnees and was held responsible for vandalising Buddha statues in Sri Lanka. It
was in conflict with the radical nationalist Sinhala Buddhist group, Bodhi Baal
Sena, who had been campaigning against the Rohingyas. However, on Tuesday,
Islamic State claimed responsibility. The group’s Amaq News sent a tweet citing a
‘security source’ as saying the attacks were the work of “fighters of the Islamic
State.”

It is, however, intriguing that the targets in this serial bombing have not been
Sinhala Buddhists. They are the Christian community and the foreign tourists
expectedly living in five star hotels. This points a finger towards the attempts of the
terrorists to send a message to the West that Islamic radicals are alive and kicking.
This is perhaps an answer to the pressure on the Islamic State in Syria and
elsewhere. The US is extracting an assurance from the Taliban in Afghanistan in
the process of working out its own exit and a peace process, that the Taliban will
not provide shelter and support either to Al Qaeda or Islamic State extremists. A
vague assurance has already been extended by the Taliban in the last Doha round
talks to the US representative, Zalmey Khalilzad, that it will try its best in this
respect.
The Islamic State links for the Sri Lankan terror are strongly evident. It is possibly
trying to state that the US efforts to root it out will not succeed. The Sri Lankan
blasts also suggest that the Islamic State has developed its base in south Asia. It
may be recalled here that more than a couple of years back, the Islamic State had
announced opening a South Asia Chapter. The Rohingya exodus from Myanmar
must have provided new recruits to this chapter. There have also been repeated
reports of Maldives feeding the Islamic State and Maldives has diverse and multiple
financial and political linkages in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s failure in responding to the intelligence alerts against possible terrorist
attacks speaks poorly of Sri Lanka’s law and order preparedness. This could be due
to political confusion and differences within the Sri Lankan ruling coalition,
especially between the President and the Prime Minister. Lapses on the part of Sri
Lanka’s defence establishment, which is directly under the control of President
Sirisena, have been publicly criticised by Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. It is time
that such political differences and confusion, if any, may be addressed keeping in
view the possibility of more such terrorist attacks. Sri Lanka has the principal
responsibility to be fully prepared to confront the new challenge of terrorism.
The international community has solidly stood by Sri Lanka in this hour of crisis.
India has come forward to extend all possible help. In fact, the April 11 security
alert had been shared by India to the Sri Lankan security establishment. This
includes China, though it was a bit late. Shangri-La, one of the hotels attacked,
had been built only recently by the Chinese in Colombo. One hopes that this attack
will prompt China to think seriously on Islamic terrorists of south Asia, and not
compromise on them for political exigencies of friendship with countries like
Pakistan. The Sri Lankan development prepares a solid ground for countries like

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India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Maldives to work together and more
extensively and effectively to counter terrorism in the region. This cooperation must
extend beyond counterterrorism efforts and include fight against Islamic and all
other religious radicalisation.

Destroying our environment for short-term political gains suicidal

One evening in a private club in Gurugram, I asked one of our most erudite
politicians, a guest speaker for that evening, why the environment was not a core
issue in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. His answer was depressing but not
shocking. He said issues such as air pollution, water and forests were important,
but development had to come first. Yes, I said, but at what cost? I requested the
politician to step out of the air-conditioned cocoon of the club, and our lives, to
breathe in the toxic air in the city we live in. Gurugram, one of the most developed
and most polluted cities in the world, is also the place where the very air we
breathe can kill us. In 2017, at least one in eight deaths in the country was
attributed to air pollution. India has the highest child mortality rate due to toxic
air, followed closely by water contamination.
Instead of taking urgent and concrete steps to confront this health emergency,
governments make it worse by shearing the city of its tree cover. Both in Delhi and
Gurugram, thousands of trees have been destroyed with impunity. In Gurugram,
more than 14,500 trees have been felled in the two years between 2016 and 2018,
as per the official figures. The actual number can be higher. Nearly 13,000 trees
have been cut down between 2015 and 2018 in Delhi only for government projects.
The water crisis is scary too. Twenty-one of India’s major cities will run out of water
by 2020. Delhi-NCR is among those cities, as is Bangalore and Hyderabad.
The fact of the matter is that India is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis
that threatens our health, livelihood and development, all of which are dependent
on natural resources. Yet no political party gives the environment due importance
or even has the vision of safeguarding it.
I have worked as a conservation journalist and conservationist for nearly two
decades. I can say with confidence that while no government in this period,
including the earlier United Progressive Alliance(UPA) , has a stellar record of
environmental concerns, the last five years have been the most destructive. Space
limits me to list the reasons, but I will briefly elaborate on a few relevant issues.
In December 2017, the government eased pollution regulations for thermal power
plants, one of the most harmful sources of toxic emissions, allowing them to release
pollutants in violation of the earlier limits. A year earlier, the environment ministry
removed air and water pollution regulations and withdrew the need to assess the
environmental impact for the construction industry, one of the main contributors
to pollution in Delhi-NCR.

What especially worries me is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s promise to fast-track

the river-linking project, which will realign the natural flow of 37 of India’s rivers
and link them, as though they were pipes, by constructing canals. The idea is to
dam the rivers that have ‘surplus’ water and direct the flow into ‘dry’ rivers. For

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one, there is no concept of surplus water in rivers, each drop performs an
ecological function, like recharging groundwater, influencing micro-climate,
diluting pollutants. Besides, which of our rivers, already heavily over-exploited for
industrial, agricultural and domestic use, have surplus water?

The idea of linking rivers in a bid to solve our water crisis is hubristic, unscientific
and a social and environmental disaster. Expected to cost a massive ₹5,60,000
crore, it will submerge at least 27 lakh hectares of land, drowning fertile lands,
villages, homes, forests, wildlife sanctuaries and tiger reserves.
Why does this matter? Because, these are part of the common, collective natural
heritage of the citizens of India. Forests bind soils, influence monsoons and
climates, and nurture rivers — the bedrock on which our civilizations develop.
Destroying our natural resources for short-term gains, which enrich a few, is
suicidal. We are chopping the branch we are sitting on.
So what should be our manifesto for our city? For that, stay tuned for my next
column.
(Prerna Singh Bindra is a former member of the National Board for Wildlife. She is
the author of The Vanishing: India’s Wildlife Crisis.
To improve learning levels, stop labelling schools

Several studies have shown that the learning levels among India’s students are
poor. And yet, plans to improve the quality of education remains vague and
unintelligent. The 2019 Congress manifesto expresses concern about the outcomes
and proposes use of technology-enabled teaching methods to redress the problem.
The BJP refers to quality of learning only once in its manifesto and plans to remedy
it by improving teacher training and capacity building. But NITI Aayog, the
government’s think tank, in its 2017-20 action plan, said teacher training or
technology-enabled solutions in isolation are not effective to solve the learning
outcome deficit.
While we need many reforms, we must move away from labelling schools as
recognised, unrecognised, government and private. Instead, we must create a
system of recognition that attaches the highest importance to learning outcomes.
Both the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) conducted by the non-profit,
Pratham, and the government’s National Achievement Survey provide district and
state-level data. However, the two data sets don’t offer any insights into the block,
village, school, or child performance.
This means that all decisions by the government to fund or regulate, and for
parents to choose schools, are made without any information on a school’s
performance. Parents can talk about the universe of school education — midday
meals, fees, uniforms, books, infrastructure — but discussions on outcomes are
neither easy nor instinctive. In the absence of credible information on school
performance, parents may assume a school to be adequate when it is not the case
or be swayed by other markers of performance.
The government has no information advantage either: U-DISE — the Education
Management Information System — provides school-level information on the

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teacher-student ratio, blackboards, buildings, number of toilets but negligible
information on learning outcomes or student-teacher interactions.

So, what can we do to bridge this gap? We need to hold every school accountable
for minimum benchmarks of learning. The first step to achieve this is to measure
the performance of schools against benchmarks regularly. Globally, this is
implemented in different forms, for instance, privately administered standardised
tests in the United States, national census-based student assessment in Uganda,
and league table ranking of schools in Dubai, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Second, we need to introduce systematic school self-evaluation practices, validated
by a third party, to ensure that the road we take to improve outcomes is child-
friendly. Introducing school self-evaluation (in addition to standardised
assessments) is a low-cost alternative to the current inspection system.

How should this information be used? The simplest accountability tool is to create
school report cards with information on fees, outcomes, environment and facilities
that can be used by parents to decide and the government to regulate. The
government can use this information to grade schools, and thus provide parents
with more than just the label of recognised/unrecognised. This is important
because parents are not passive clients of education. They are alert to matters of
quality and want value in return for the money they spend.
Structural reforms have changed the social sector

As the world’s largest democracy goes through its multiphased election process, it’s
important take a step back to maintain a clear line of vision on what eventually is
of key importance: the ease of living and access to satisfaction of our citizens. A
series of structural reforms have transformed India’s social sector. One of India’s
biggest challenges has been, and continues to be, the state of our social capital.
The systematic modus operandi has been to move away from a macro policy, and,
instead, to address the grassroots needs, leveraging massive advances in e-
governance and ICT tools.
Nutrition has traditionally been left ignored despite the daunting challenges we
face. According to a National Family Health Survey (NFHS4), nearly one in every
three children is stunted and every other woman is anaemic. Taking into account
the multiple determinants of malnutrition, the recently launched POSHAN
Abhiyaan is an overarching umbrella scheme that brings together a comprehensive
package of intervention and services focused on the vital 1,000 days of a child’s life
delivered by multiple ministries through an appropriate governance structure that
fosters sectoral convergence. POSHAN Abhiyaan further ideates a Jan Andolan
through involvement of local communities to push for a Social Behaviour Change
Communication (SBCC), since focusing merely on the supply side without
convincing families of the need to avail of the required services would
understandably yield diminishing returns to government investments. The Pradhan
Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana is a conditional cash transfer scheme for pregnant
mothers and lactating women that would reinforce the SBCC strategy. The
beneficiary cost norms of the supplementary nutrition programme under the
Integrated Child Development Services has been revised substantially upwards,
and indexed to inflation so that the entitlement in real terms remains impactful.

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Mission Indradhanush has ensured that in the lowest quintile 201 districts, full
immunisation coverage rates have increased by well over 10 times.

The landmark Ayushman Bharat scheme has transformed India’s health care. In
just 200 days, 20 lakh patients have received insurance treatment worth more than
Rs 2,600 crore, with more than three crore e-cards having been generated. These
are staggering figures.

Providing high quality education remains a mammoth task. An Ernst &

Youngstudy on higher education points out that by 2030, India will be the
youngest country in the world, with 14 crore individuals of college-going age. World
class education, especially higher education, remains one of our biggest challenges.
There have been key outcomes in the sector. The categorisation of universities for
graded autonomy has been initiated with well-performing universities so that they
can be awarded various dimensions of academic, administrative and financial
autonomy. Another outcome is the strengthening of the accreditation framework,
which enables additional agencies to be empaneled by a credible and independent
Accreditation Advisory Council (AAC). All accreditation reports must, therefore, be
made public online for transparency.
In schools, states have successfully synchronised academic initiatives with
administrative reforms to create an enabling environment for these new practices to
take root, aided by technology for learning outcomes and monitoring/evaluation.
The focus has been on a systems approach towards improving learning outcomes.
These are being replicated by all states. NITI has also developed the state-level
School Education Quality Index which seeks to make improvements in learning
outcomes a focal point of governance by ranking states and putting the rankings in
the public domain.
A lot of work is happening on introducing innovation to education through ICT so
as to reach the farthest corners of India, and this sector is a key one for growth in
the next 10 years. A unique example is of Banka District of Bihar which has
utilised mobile telephony to spread education in schools.
The Aspirational Districts Programme was formed to comprehensively address the
development needs and transform 115 districts across 28 states that require the
most progress on various development parameters. These districts account for
more than 20% of India’s population and cover over 8,600 gram panchayats. The
programme’s emphasis is on improving districts on 49 indicators across five core
indicators: education; health and nutrition; financial inclusion; agriculture; skill
development; and basic infrastructure. The programme is based on real time data,
constant monitoring and is a collaborative project between the Central and state
governments in partnership with various philanthropic foundations and the larger
civil society. The main attempt is to prioritise resources, concentrate efforts,
address governance and capacity bottlenecks in order to accelerate the pace of
change in the human development indicators.

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