My point in writing this review is not to fill up another 8000-plus characters ranting about reservations. I wish to humbly put to use what I learnt in my graduate studies in commerce stream to discuss why such reservations will not solve the problems that the Government ostensibly seeks to address. - the problems of poverty, unemployment and inequality. In my review, I will have to use a lot of economic jargon. Don’t worry, I’ll try to explain these terms in simple language. First some basic statistics about the employment distribution in India. 57% of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. 20% of the population depends on industrial sector for their livelihood. Remaining 23% depends on service sector for their livelihood. 93% of employment is in unorganised sector. What kind of jobs are associated with unorganised sector - porter, construction worker, hawkers, etc. 7% of employment is in organised sector. If you work for Infosys, Tata, Birla or any such registered company or the Government of India, you are employed in the organised sector. Source: Economic Survey - 2003-04 I guess things haven’t changed much in the span of two years, so relax! Here is my simple argument which, doubtless, Mr.Arjun Singh and Mr.Arjun Singh alone, can possibly answer in any proper fashion : Do you need to study in IIT or IIM to work in the unorganised sector? The answer is no, you certainly don’t need to max JEE or CAT to pull handcarts. Therefore, any move to increase reservations in IIT and IIM can only benefit the minority who work for the organised sector. In fact, the proportion of population which studies at IIT and then takes up a job would be well below 1% of the population. So is this how the UPA government, the aam aadmi government, plans to help the poor out of poverty? The only way to change the skewed employment situation in India is to approach the problem from either of the following angles: 1) Focus heavily on the unorganised sector. Try to improve income levels and quality of life of those who perform odd jobs. The problem with this approach is that it will lead to a general sharp increase in prices all around. With crude oil prices going up every moment, the last thing India needs is inflation. 2)The other, more difficult, option is to increase the employment generation capacity of the organised sector and therefore to ensure substantial and rapid expansion of the industrial and service sector. This will entail providing various incentives to industries to improve their competitiveness, throwing open the gates to foreign capital and competition, thoroughly overhauling the infrastructure and drastically curtailing corruption and red tapism in the administration. But, yaar, if the government spends time and money on such useless things, who will pay for all the important subsidies that the government doles out to rich farmers and agricultural landlords to keep their votebank happy? As you can see, India’s pressing problems have to be tackled in an entirely different manner for which the Government lacks necessary appetite. If even Manmohan Singh lacks appetite for much-needed reforms, then God help India! By introducing a proposal to increase reservation for backward castes in IIT and IIM on the eve of assembly elections in several states, the Government is distracting public attention from its failures and is sharply dividing the people of the nation along caste-based lines. There is no point in reminding the Government that the ostensible purpose of these reservations was to remove the divide and put all citizens on an equal footing. As shiva pointed out in his review, there is always the insensitive media to add fuel to the fire. So, Mr.Arjun Singh, I don’t see that your specious move is anything but a phoney device to make people forget that as a nation India has a long way to go and a lot of work to do and the Government is sleeping over its responsibilities. If this is how you hope to keep the secular brigade alive, my best wishes to you and your Government. I express my heartfelt desire to see the people make you pay heavily for this in the 2009 Parliament Elections. s to anyone who clicked on this link expecting to read a review.