Social Accounting

The net has totally transformed our life. Work that took hours can now be done in minutes through the net. But there are risks attached to such transactions as prowlers abound the net. This is a new form of crime that is rising fast. Mental alertness is necessary as bills are paid and financial transactions made. Older people are particularly vulnerable due to mental frailty, a consequence of aging. On the other hand, lures of various kinds abound as prowlers try to attract the users. The enthusiasm of the young make them vulnerable.
Once, I received an invitation to attend a conference. This was sent as I was head of a department at the university. Such invitations were normal for being member of international associations. The expenses were to be paid by the sponsor. Everything was agreed and I waited for the day to leave the country. A few days before departure a mail arrived for booking accommodation at a hotel. The fees had to be paid in advance. I did not need to stay at the hotel as I had made alternative arrangement. When informed, I was told this was not possible due to security risks as there were some high-profile speakers. That was the end of it and I did not make the trip.
Other ways of such deceit include phone calls about mistaken deposit in an account. It begins with an OTP. As you respond to their queries, money is taken from your account. Regulators cannot help as the money is swifty moved into fictitious accounts such as happened with Bangladesh Bank in an attempted billion-dollar heist. Other means of fraud include tempting offers. Once taken, you are trapped.
Given the situation as it is, what do we do? Close the highway? That would be something like cutting off the electricity line as someone got electrocuted. The Internet highway has opened newer and better ways of doing business. There are more users and newer uses. As a result, businesses today have gotten richer, rising from million to billion and now trillion. The same is happening to personal lives, both rich and poor. This is how the world breathes today. Breathes better.
But all changes are not necessarily good. We look at one such aspect of change. The academic programs have gone through much changes. A yearlong term of the olden days is now divided into trimesters. Courses are divided into components to fit the trimester length. Exams are held at the end of each trimester and once done the corresponding courses disappear from the to-do list. As a result, students graduate faster and results are better. But there is another side to it. Consider the olden days when the exams were held at the end of a programme, almost four years,under broad subject areas. That was difficult as it required better comprehension of the subject area. A compromise between the two systems can help. Speed is not necessarily good in all areas of activity. No wonder the poet wanted to 'go back to the wilderness leaving behind speed of the city. He valued sanity over rush.
I remember my mother's persuasion for going 'to bed early' so that I can 'rise early'. I was glued to a television serial after dinner at the time. It was behavioural norm of the time. My children prefer studying late at night as it is quieter and the Internet faster. According to Aesop's fables 'slow and steady' wins the race. May not be so in this fast-moving world where speed is the essence. With so many changes in our life, how are we doing? Not good, as can be seen in our performance against the competitors.
We are a nation of extremes. We indulge in either too many or too few of most things we do. For example, consider the private sector banks and universities. We have too many of them, even compared to some developed economies. This is in spite of being a small country with meagre sources. The consequences are severe as can be seen from the failure of some banks to honour customer cheques. This is a regulatory failure as well as that of management. The bloated number is a reason. I recall an experience at a selection board meeting for a bank. There were twenty candidates for a few executive positions. Almost a thousand took the written test. Of the twenty who passed the test,less than a quarter were from private universities, a couple of them, in spite of there being over a hundred of them. This is very different from the neighbouring countries where private universities are highly rated. Correction may begin with regulatory interventions. So much to do and yet so little is done. Rephrasing a Tolstoy quote it may be said that there are many roads to failure but only one to success. Some such roads need closure.
chowdhury.igc@gmail.com