Dark side of liberalization?

Many have asked me the reasons for the Inflation in India is showing as less than 2% while the ground reality of food prices at the ground level is that the inflation is anything between 12-18%, if not more.

The reason is simple. India measures national inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI). The weightage for food items is just above 15%. However, if one were to calculate the Retail Price index, food items have more than 57% weightage. Hence the disparity.

However, this do not explain the real reason for the shortage and high prices of food items in India. True, the monsoon failed. But monsoon has failed before, but India has not felt the pinch in earlier years. Onion is selling at Rs 38 per kg as compared to Rs 15 a month bag, rice is vanishing from the market and pulses are scarce and expensive. The production shortfall due to poor monsoon do not justify such a price hike at the retail level.

The blame has to be placed at the Government systemmatically destroying the public distribution system (PDS) over the past decade and a half. India had one of the better public distribution system of essential food items, despite complaints of pilferage and poor quality. Today, perhaps only Kerala can boast of the PDS and its chain of maveli stores that gives relief to the poor and the middle class. It is time Government had a serious look at restructuring the PDS at a national level, so that this can be used as a Plan B in the event of spiralling prices. The other main culprit for the rising retail prices is the Retail majors like Reliance etc. Since the farmers are producing enough, but not getting additional payment and there being a scarcity at the retail level, one has no choice other than to point fingers at retail chain giants, who are purchasing in bulk, but storing them and not releasing sufficient stock whereby creating a shortage artificially. Since most of them are big corporates, people are afraid to call them what they used to of wholeseller banyas in olden days -Hoarders and Blackmarketers!

Are we seeing the real dark side of liberalizatoin???

Shame on you IIM & CAT

25 years ago, I had gone all the way from Palghat to Bangalore to write the Common Admission Test (CAT) for entrance to the IIM programs. It was one of my first experience in an event being organized at a large scale and without a hitch. And the reason for admiring IIMs and wanting to join them.

It is also why I am apalled when I read that the online CAT exam conducted yesterday was a disaster, with many students not being able to take the exam across the country with the servers crashing. And what is more galling is the response of the IIM to it. (The highlightings are mine and my comments in brackets).

Convener of Common Admission Test (CAT) said there is no widespread server crash for their first ever online test but just delays (is it acceptable that there was one server crash and a few delays. Has our IIMs heard of Six Sigma?). "There are no widespread server crashes. What is happening is there are delays due to many process that we require to fulfill," Professor Satish Deodhar convener of this year's CAT said.

"This is the first day of the first on-line test. Such an attempt to take an on-line test of 2.41 lakh students in the span of 10 days is being carried out for the first time in the world," Deodhar said.

"We must understand that there are bound to be some problems on the first day of such an huge exercise but the exams is going on and it will go on for the next ten days," he said. (Oh! so we are to understand that there are bound to be some problems on the first day for an exam conducted by the so called only 'World Class' Elite Management Institute in India?)

More than 2.41 lakh students are appearing for the test across the country for admission in different IIMs and other management institutes. "There were delay in processing of candidates finger prints and photographs which are required. (Why should there be delay? Was CAT not aware of the logistics involved?) There is also delay as our test file are taking long to get download due to strict data security provision given to them.( So this is not a glitch but poor and bad Test process design. Did someone not take the trouble of running dry tests before trying it out on the poor students?). Students are also not familiar with the system," Deodhar said.(Ah! now blame is on the students!) "But we hope that from tomorrow it will become more smooth," Deodhar further added. (Again note that he only 'hopes' it will become smooth but cant give a categoric assurance)

Sad to see such a 'Chalta hai' attitude in an exam that is supposed to select the best of the students to the supposedly world class management Institute in India- Shame on you IIM and CAT. What kind of inspiration and values are you spreading by the shoddy conduct of a prestigious exam like CAT? How can we believe that IIM is the best when it comes to management education, when you cant manage your own entrance exam? I would have appreciated if CAT administrator had offered an unconditional apology and accepted responsibility, instead of hiding behind 'these things happen' silly ramblings.

Random thoughts on odd news items

1st Anniversary of Mumbai Blast - Damp Squib. More of a media managed event than anthing else. One year on, Government has not indicted a single person, other than Kasab, and not a single official has been held accountable for the mammoth security lapse.(By the way, when did Indians start emulating the western culture of lighting candles to mark an anniversary? Don't we have any Indian traditional way of doing this. So disgusting).

India's Test Win against Srilanka - Typical Indian victory. Win toss, score huge and then bowl out the opposition twice. Couldn't help wondering what if Srilanka had won the toss instead? Murali, Mendis and Herath would have run riot on day 3 and 4. And, Welcome back Sreesanth and nice to see a genuine left arm spinner in the squad after a long time. Ojha acquitted beautifully in the Test.

Manmohan Singhs visit to US - Long on wine and dine, short on substance. No major gains, but then nothing was expected.

Barcelona vs Inter Milan (Champions League Football match on 24th Nov) - The first half of the match was one of the best I have seen for a long time. The Barca mid field was magical and it was wonderful to see Inter's defense (reputed to be one of the two best organized in Europe) kicking at thin air time and again. Barca kept possession and passed with such assurance that Inter's defence comprising of Luciao and Maicon were running ragged for 45 minutes.

Dubai Government's debt problems - We had all forecasted the bursting of the Dubai economic bubble for a long time now. The Dubai economy was built on weak fundamentals - fancy accounting, too much hype, too little substance, not backed by assets, drug and crime money and totally dependant on services. The only issue is why it took such a long time for the bubble to burst.

Flying without wings

There is a joke that went around during the Emergency Period.

The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her late son Sanjay Gandhi (who was the real power behind the throne) were flying over rural India afflicted by floods. They could see thousands of upturned faces of poor villagers.

"They would be very grateful to us if we were to throw 100 sacks of rice from this plane" , said Indira Gandhi.

"You are wrong. They would be more grateful if we were to shower them with Rs 100 notes. Money is more important to them than Rice", her son Sanjay Gandhi chirped.

To settle the issue, they turned to the pilot, who happened to be none other than Rajiv Gandhi, who calmly replied, "They will be eternally grateful if I were to throw both of you out from this Aircraft now"

Now why am I reminded of this story when read this in todays papers?

"History will be created in Pune on Wednesday morning as Pratibha Patil, 74, President of India, takes flight in a Sukhoi 30 MKI supersonic flight"

Wishful thinking!!!! What if, just if, she were to be thrown out at 7,5oofeet, at Mach 0.9, without the aid of a parachute!!!!

HMV

Barrack Obama and USA rubbed our nose to the ground recently when Obama visited China. In fact, Obama has been pillored by his own countrymen for bending his knee so much to Japan and China. In fact, he has been accused of reducing the global stature of USA during his recent Asian Trip. To please China, Obama signed a joint statement where he sought for China's mediation in Kashmir, a grave insult to an emerging power like India.

One would have expected our Prime Minister to flex his muscles while he is in USA. The time was right. USA economy is in pits, Dollar is sliding alarmingly, and both economically and militarily USA has been weakened considerably.

Everyone's uncle and aunt knows that Dollar is in serious trouble as an international currency. And it was to our national interest to tell Obama and USA where they stand. After all, we have been at the receiving end of a condescending USA for decades and they have lectured us regulary as to how to run our country and economy.

If Dr.Singh had made the right noises about weakeing dollar, this would have sent shockwaves across the world, for the world sees him as a 'qualified' economist. But instead, this wimp had to go and give an interview to CNN endorsing Dollar and the US economy. If he thinks that a grateful USA will view India with a favourable eye after his shocking interview (and think of it! this is the guy who dare not give an interview to indian media about Indian Economy!!!), he is living in a fools paradise. Because USA has time and again shown that they can use India as a doormat and will not hesitate to do so. For them, Pakistan, China are the only two countries that matter in the Region.

Just for the heck of it, I had a look at the resume of Dr.Singh. I reproduce the main jobs he has held with the Government and have given my own comments in the bracket. This will puncture the hot air balloon that he is a top notch economist,

1971-72: Economic advisor, ministry of foreign trade -(Nothing Earth Shaking happened to Foriegn Trade during this period)

1972-76: Chief economic advisor, ministry of finance - ( A period which set India back by 20 years. Massive nationalization, followed by retaining his post during the notorious Emergency in 1975-76, when even private sector companies were harassed and taken over left, right and centre. This was the beginning of the notorious licence raj. So much for his reform credentials)

1976-80: Director, Reserve Bank of India; Director, Industrial Development Bank of India; Alternate governor for India, Board of governors, Asian Development Bank; Alternate governor for India, Board of governors, IBRD - (Changed his economic ideals on its head by opening up the sector for small and medim industries during Janata Party period and reverted back to Indira mode of license raj in 1980 within the blink of an eye. In short, he held important economic posts during the crucial 70s when our economy was taken to the cleaners)

April 1980 – September 15, 1982 : Member-secretary, Planning Commission

1983-84: Member, economic advisory council to the Prime Minister

January 15, 1985 – July 31, 1987 : Deputy chairman, Planning Commission - ( Again he was in crucial positions in 1980's where he could have made a difference to the economy, but hardly made any contribution and by the end of it all, India was in deep deep trouble. )

Now one might argue that he unleashed the reforms. But I beg to differ. He was just being obedient to his Masters, the USA, World Bank and IMF. He carried out what they wanted him to do. It is no secret that IMF virtually dictated to PV Narasimha Rao that it will not accept anyone other than MMS as Finance Minister. Also, two decades after reforms, we still have 60% of the people below the poverty line, which is a crying shame and an indicator of the 'spectacular success' of the MMS led reforms. Inflation is sky high, food shortage is looming, GDP growth has slowed down, fiscal deficit has increased alarmingly, government has taxed everything under the sun that there is nothing left to tax other than sex, and black money is ruling the economy. And we still sing paens about our 'economist' Prime Minister!!!

So, I am least surprised by his statement supporting the dollar. That is precisely what you expect him to do. Be the HMV (his masters voice - remember the logo?).

Isn't it ironic that we shunned USA when they were becoming a Global Super Power and now court them when they are declining at bullet train's speed??

WTF News item of the day

Harayana governor Jagannath Pahadia has caused much consternation and mirth in the state with an unsual request. He wants a bulletproof bedroom in the governor's mansion. The state administration is not quite sure how to handle the request. You don't usually turn down a governor. But how do you provide a bulletproof cover to a bedroom?

I can imagine of at least 5 subsidiary requests that may emanate from him, if the request for bulletproof bedroom were to be accommodated. But this being a family blog, I do not dare mention them. WTF, anyway!!!

Free Speech

We, Indians, are a strange lot. We just cannot accept a view point that is contrary to ours. And we tend to attack individuals than issues.

Take the case of the interview Sachin gave. He was asked a loaded question on Mumbai belonging to Marathis. Knowing the political implications of the answer, Sachin gave an answer saying he is an Indian first, then Maharashtrian and Mumbai belongs to all Indians. Well! He could not have given a different answer. At best, he could have side stepped the question. Once he has given the answer, then he should know what to expect as the sons of the soil issue is foremost in Maharashtra today.

Bal Thackeray in an editorial countered this by telling that Sachin was talking rot. Frankly, having adopted the sons of the soil argument, he had no choice other than to condemn Sachin on this issue. In a free society, that is his prerogative.

What is not acceptable was every other so called leaders jumped in and attacked Thackeray, not on the issue, but on speaking against Sachin. This is wrong. They can join the issue with Thackeray and say he is talking rubbish, which he is. But to tell him that he cannot oppose anything Sachin said just because Sachin is a national icon is rubbish. Sachin is an exceptional cricket player, but that doesnt mean that whatever he says on any issue should not be challenged, by anyone else.

This is the same case with Sonia and Rahul. Congress says that any view points expressed by them is sacrosanct and cannot be questioned. This is absurd.

We need to have healthy, issue based debates. The person and the issue should be delineated. That is what free speech is all about.

Shame of FIFA

There is a clear distinction between NEETI and NYAAYM.

NEETI is Justice, and the various laws that goes with it in any organization.

NYAYAM has a wider meaning. It denotes ethics and morality. Or simply the RIGHT THING to do.

NEETI is to ensure NYAYAM. It is a means to achieve an end, and not by an end itself.

But many a time, we get to see people hiding behind Neeti, forgetting that enforcing the neeti may not ensure nyayam. This is blatantly wrong and unjust.

Take the case of the World Cup Qualifier between Republic of Ireland and France. What was at stake in the second leg in Paris was the chance to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa. Towards the end of the match, the French Captain Thiery Henry, blatantly handled the ball twice in the penaly box before passing it for a goal to be scored. The referee was unsighted, as was the linesman. The goal was allowed thereby allowing France to equalize and win on aggregate 2-1. Television footage clearly showed Henry handling the ball TWICE, first accidentaly but second time clearly with intent when he pushed a bouncing ball back to his feet before effecting the pass.

At the end of the game, there was an obvious furore. Republic of Ireland protested and even the whole of France conceded they didnt want to go to South Africa this way, being labelled cheats.

You would have expected FIFA to at least annul the goal, punish Henry on Video evidence, reverse the result from 1-1 in second leg to 1-0 for Ireland, thereby making it 1-1 aggregate. And they could have ordered a one match play off to decide who goes through. This would have ensured NYAYAM for all concerned. It was the right thing to do morally, ethically. But no way! FIFA hid behind a NEETI (law) that says Referee is the final judge on the field with matters pertaining to allowing goals and results, and rejected the request of the Irish for a play off.

What a shame for an organization that mouths platitude about Fair Play!!!

Off the cuff

"Our cities are dirtiest cities of the world. If there is a Nobel prize for dirt and filth, India will win it, no doubt", said Jairam Ramesh, Environment and Forest Minister - That is all fine , Minister. But pray tell me which party was in power for nearly 5 of the 6 decades since independence and hence responsible for this? - If you are unaware, it is Indian National Congress, YOUR party!!!

True! it could be worse!! But it could as well be better!!!

The much respected M D Nalapat, who was the editor or Mathrubhumi and resident editor of Times of India, has made thought provoking points about Literacy drives and Indian School Education. It is only fair that I reproduce extracts from his article in his own words,

A national trait in India is to start brilliantly but end poorly. This is what has happened to the numerous literacy drives launched by a medley of government and state agencies. With substantial effort, an illiterate is taught to read and write, only to suffer a relapse into illiteracy within a year because as yet there is almost no literature commonly available for neo-literates. Many lack the money to buy any kind of book in the first place, while those agencies that taught them the alphabet move on elsewhere, to "further reduce illiteracy". Unless a follow-up programme lasting at least five years is devised for neo-literates, India will continue to be a country where half the population is alphabetically disadvantaged.

The rot in the schools begins at the point of recruitment. In some parts of the country, more than three-fourths of all school management (including those in the government sector) select teachers after getting a cash bribe from them. The candidate able to pay this may not always be the best, and is usually among the worst-skilled of the applicants. Because the job has been secured for cash and not competence, there is seldom any effort to enforce standards or mandate improvement. Mediocrity reigns, and spreads to the unsuspecting students.

To attend a classroom in India is usually to fall asleep. Classes are conducted in a monotone from notes that are frayed with long use and remain unchanged for decades. Questions are discouraged, and the pupils very soon understand that their teacher anyway knows little of the subject besides what he or she is reading out to them, hence they stay silent. That is, if there are teachers at all. While a few states (in the south and west) have teachers in almost all schools, in other parts of the country about a fifth of government schools remain without teachers for long stretches of time. Often, a single teacher takes multiple classes and several subjects, to the forfeit of quality.

With such a large number of students opting out of the regular school system before long, thanks to a combination of poverty and abysmal teaching, there ought to be a substantial number of vocational courses. Sadly, because of the numerous regulatory hurdles that the education bureaucracy has put in place, less than a fifth of those working while still in their youth have undergone any sort of vocational training. This figure of 20 per cent is optimistic and-as is the case with numerous statistics in India-unsubstantiated by any comprehensive examination of the facts. The actual percentage of those with vocational training may be much less.

In such training as well, it is mediocrity that is taken as the norm. Take the example of nursing. India has several million young ladies who have the innate ability to be excellent nurses, as indeed many are in hospitals across the world. The problem is that the outflow is confined to what gets described as "C" and "D" grade hospitals and other facilities, and locations such as old age homes. The modern hospitals (the "A" and "B" class) do not recruit nurses from India because the training given in the country does not give access to the latest in patient care and in diagnostic and therapeutic equipment.

As yet, neither the government nor the private sector has set up a training facility that can equip India's nurses for jobs in the best hospitals worldwide. Everybody seems satisfied with the suboptimal.

After all, it could be worse! Yes, but it could as well be much better.

Tight 2010

One of the strange things that happened during the Global Finance Crisis was that the Rural India did not feel the pinch of the crisis. In fact they were better off. The Farm Sector, which anyway did not have much surplus, was not affected by the demand drop. There is more work in the rural areas these days because of the partial success of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which assures 120 days of work, though the implentation is very very patchy. We have cases of reverse migration happening from cities to rural areas of late.

Indian economy has to be thankful to the resilent rural market for not being affected by the GFC. Figures show that fast moving consumer goods, such as shampoo and toothpaste, are growing faster in the villages than in the cities. Rural India’s purchases of chyawanprash, an ayurvedic paste that eases digestion and bolsters the immune system, outpaced urban India’s by over 6% in the second quarter. And Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest carmaker, more than doubled its sales in rural areas in the year ending March 2009.

But this could change this year. The poor monsoon followed by floods has really dampened the mood in the rural areas. Agricultural production is expected to shrink between 6-8% in the year 2009-2010, thereby affecting the rural purchasing power.

The drought and flood is expected to raise the food prices, adding to inflation, which is very high already at the retail level. India is already the only big economy where consumer prices are rising faster now than they were before the crisis. The price of pulses rose by 20% in the year to August 28th; the price of sugar by 35%. Reserve Bank has already given indications that interest rates are on the way up, which will further slow down GDP growth. With Bank Rates expected to touch 9%, you will see more and more people prefering Fixed Deposits thereby sucking liquidity out of the system. Credit will also be very expensive, further dampening urban spending. It is expected that interest rates will raise by almost 2.5% to 3% during the next one year. Spending on drought relief will also add to the government’s already uncontrollable fiscal deficit, which will exceed 10% of GDP this fiscal year, if the budget gaps of the state governments are included.

All in all, we can expect a very tight 2010.

Degrees not worth the value of the paper it is printed on

Excerpts from a news report reproduced below is self explanatory and quite worrying. The rush for Degree Certificates without focussing on skill enhancement and knowledge acquisition will, unfortunately, lead to this ,

State Bank of India, the country's largest bank, faces a huge dilemma. It has 11,000 clerical posts on offer, but has received 3.4 million applications. That's about 300 applications for every vacancy. The bank can afford the luxury of being extremely choosy - a vast majority of the candidates who have applied for the Rs 8,000-a-month clerical job are engineering graduates and MBAs, even though the job specified only Class 12 as minimum qualification criterion.

It's not that there aren't enough suitable jobs for good-quality engineers and MBAs. There are countless stories of how leading Indian companies are visiting engineering and MBA colleges in interior parts of the country to add to their basket of employable graduates but are returning empty-handed.

The main problem is that of employability. Studies have indicated that only one in four graduates from India's colleges is employable.

A Nasscom study found that India still produces plenty of engineers - 400,000 a year. But most are deficient in the required technical skills, fluency in English or ability to work in a team and deliver basic oral presentations.

Companies say this mismatch between qualification and quality of job is inevitable in a country where everybody and his uncle is either an engineer or an MBA. The quality of teaching in most of the second-rung institutes is poor.

Indian Institute of Technology alumni have repeatedly expressed serious concern over the mushrooming of engineering colleges that are being run as "business ventures" by contractors, builders, coal dealers, brick-kiln owners and sweetmeat sellers. Two years ago, an assessment of the country's higher education system by the University Grants Commission (UGC) found that as many as 25 per cent faculty positions in universities remained vacant; 57 per cent teachers in colleges did not have either an M Phil or PhD; and there was only one computer for 229 students, on an average, in colleges. The assessment was conducted on 123 universities and 2,956 colleges across India - an estimated 60 per cent of these institutions were private, the rest government-run.

Now, look at a couple of rungs further down in the job market pyramid. India's vocational training institutes produce six million students every

Even more worrying is the fact that only 2 per cent of the workforce has skills training and 80 per cent of the rural and urban workforce does not possess any "identifiable" market skills.

What is also worrying are the findings of the India Labour Report prepared by TeamLease - it has found that over half of employed youth suffered some degree of skill deprivation, while only 8 per cent were unemployed. In all, 57 per cent of India's youth suffered from some degree of "unemployability".

Does losing 80% of the seats constitute a great revival scripted by Rahul Gandhi in UP?

That our media pussyfoots when it comes to Congress party is a known case. But this must take the cake.

One newspaper claims that Rahul Gandhi has scripted a tremendous Congress revival in the UP by elections. I was bemused, because I remember reading to the contrary. To be on the safer side, I double checked the data and was soon laughing my head off at the blatant attempt of the reporter to highlight Rahul Gandhi. The facts are,

In UP, elections were held for 11 Assembly Seats and 1 Lok Sabha Seat. True, Congress won the one Lok Sabha seat from SP. But, out of the 11 Assembly Seats, BSP won 9 seats, Congress won 1 and an Independent who was with BJP won 1. Now 1 out of 11 cannot be considered to be revival of any sort. We can consider it a revival if Congress had come at least a close second in the seats it lost. No way. They were runner up only in 2 seats and lost their deposits in 4 others. In fact, a union ministers mother came a distant third.

So where is the great revival scripted by Rahul Gandhi?

Sporadic Blogging

Blogging will be sporadic till 20th November due to preoccupations with work.

Shall, however, try and post interesting titbits during the course of the next one week.

More serious analytical stuff has to wait till 20th

Getting parole (away) with murder!

A superbrat son of a rich Congress politician, Manu Sharma, shot dead a model, Jessica Lal, in a night club in Delhi in 1999. And worse, he tried to cover up the murder by burning the corpse in a tandoor. This case shocked the nation. Despite the powerful father, an ex-union minister, doing his best to tamper with the witness and evidence, his son was finally convicted of homicide and sentenced to life imprisonment.

You would have thought, justice has been done. No way!!. You have not reckoned without his powerful family and a very pliant Congress Government in Delhi and in the Centre. The family has a legacy of being dealers and fixers in politics. As this shows. They pulled their strings to get him parole for doing the final rituals of his departed grandmother, look after his ageing mother (it is another fact that she is chic, hale and healthy campaigning for Congress in Haryana and conducting a press conference on the eve of a womens cricket match in Chandigarh) and to look after his business interests (why we should give parole to a rich brat of a murderer who killed in cold blood to look after his business interests baffles me).

Parole was approved against the recommendation of the Delhi Police, as you can see here. This same Delhi Government that is dragging its feet for 4 years now to give a recommendation on the clemency petition of Afzal Guru, moved with lightning speed and Manu Sharma was given a parole for one whole month, which was later extended by one more month. For 2 months, a hard core murderer was out on the streets with no police supervision. Forget 2 months, even one week parole is not give to life convicts even to atted family weddings. The reason why they are give life improsemet is that they should suffer the loss of basic things like attending weddings and business meetings or being with near and dear, which they have denied to their victim by killing them.

Now, the parole rules clearly states that Manu Sharma has to be confined to his house in Chandigarh. What does he do? He drives down to Delhi, and at 2 am walks into a bar, picks up a fight with another drinker, who unfortunately was a senior police officers son. This became a big scandal, and Manu Sharma was advised by his coterie to return to Jail on his own to avoid punishment.

The question here is, will a common man, in similar circumstances get these same privileges? No way. So , are we in a banana republic where we have one set of law for the rich and another for the poor. It appears so. Shame on us.

My beloved State!

After its pioneering record in achieving cent-per-cent literacy, Kerala is set to emerge as a role model for the country in computer literacy and e-governance with a host of state-sponsored programmes underway in the state. Read the full article here.

The problem with Kerala is not one of knowledge, literacy, intelligence or skills. The malayalees have this in abundance. But the average Malayalee, who is much respected for his hard work when he is employed outside the State, is notorious for his attitude towards work and society when he is in Kerala. He is more aware of his entitlement than his responsibilities. He refuses to take ownership for his faults but tries to blame the Government and the Society for all the ills, forgetting that he himself is a part of the society. This is one of the major reasons, why the State, that should have taken leaps and bounds in its journey to become a knowledge economy, continues to languish, despite being ranked high in almost all socio economic parameters.

Some of the blame has to be with the coalition politics that is in vogue since independence. With every coalition pampering to the demands of pressure group of parties most of whichare based on religious or caste ideology, there is none to take leadership on issues relating to the overall development of the State. What Kerala needs today is a strong visionary, who can spell his magic amongst its people. Who can give it a major thrust in the direction it should have moved to two decades ago. It is still not too late.

There are still many like me who feel strongly for the State and would love to see it attain its rightful place in the economy,

"BHARATHAM ENNU KETTAL ABHIMANA POORITHA MAGANAM ANDHARANGAM, KERALAM ENNU KETTAL THILAKKANNAM CHORA NJARAMBUKALIL"

(Loose translation - When you hear the word 'Bharatham', you should swell with pride; but when you hear the word 'Keralam', blood should boil in your veins)

Slap that resonates

MNS MLAs today created a ruckus in the Maharashtra Assembly after SP MLA Abu Asim Azmi took oath in Hindi despite their call that all legislators take the pledge in Marathi, with one of the members from Raj Thackeray's party slapping him - The issue behind the slapping is silly and no one in right mind would support such a cause. But I am sure there are millions who wished they were the ones who slapped an MLA or MP, any MLA or MP. These parliamentarians had it coming for a long long time as they have been totally insensitive to our sensibilities and needs.

Remember the shoe throwing incident during the Parliamentary election campaign?

And these guys rule us.Sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Food prices to decline after winter crop", said Union Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar - What gems of wisdom!!! Do we need a genius like this most incompetent Minister who has destroyed the sector over the past 6 years to tell us such obvious things. Even the most poor Bihari famers 3 year old great grandson knows that prices of food grains will drop after harvest.

Beleaguered Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, who was in Delhi for three days to search for a solution to the deadlock threatening his government, broke down before TV cameras on Saturday. As reporters quizzed him on his next move, the CM started to cry as he recounted the troubles he has faced for a fortnight. - At least some of the participants HAVE TO CRY in this Reality TV show that has been running in Karnataka for the past one month.

Sacrificial Goat

Geeta Koda, wife of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda — who is accused of laundering Rs.2,500 crore — sacrificed 11 goats at a temple here for her husband's well-being - I think we got it wrong. We should sacrifice 11 Kodas for the nation's well being.

Of the people,.................. - Oh! forget about it

Abraham Lincoln's famous speech at Gettysberg, on November 19, 1863, though brief is a gem that will be remembered for a long long time. It has become part of folklore since,

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Our leaders should be reminded that they are running a Government of the people, by the people and for the people. Unfortunately, of late the whole purpose of democracy seem to be of the politicians, by the politicians and for the politicians. If it were not, this would not have happened,

The family of a kidney patient on Tuesday alleged that he died as their vehicle failed to reach the emergency section of PGIMER hospital here due to tight security measures for the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The family of deceased claimed that security personnel, including those from Chandigarh Police, deployed at the medical institute, did not allow their vehicle to reach the emergency and kept diverting them from one place to another for about two hours. "When we came near the PGI, he (Verma) was alive, but his condition deteriorated as we were made to run about for two hours on the plea that the movement of other vehicles had been stopped in view of the movement of the Prime Minister's convoy. The patient was 40-years-old.

The Government has quickly ensured media downplayed this incident and more space has been given to the PM apologizing to the family and giving Rs 2 lakh to the family. He has also given an advice to his security people to be less obstrusive to common man - fat chance of that happening!!!. And any way, does it require a tragedy leading to the death for our PM to 'know' how inhuman the people in the security detail behave to common man and inconvenience him??

P.S: I am living in Kuwait for more than 8 years now. And never have I been inconvenienced by VIP Security. At the most, the road is blocked only for 2-3 minutes to allow the Amir or the Crown Prince to pass. They are very efficient. Police Cars are parked on the road side at strategic locations and are intimated 2 minutes prior to the arrival of the Royalty. They quickly block the roads using their car and then release the traffic within seconds of the motorcade passing. Even the motorcade is not more than 4-5 cars long. And many a time I have seen the Prime Minister just passing by on the fast lane with a car in front and back with sirens blaring. All you have to do is just move over to the middle lane and let them pass, while driving on. And it is not as if the security threat for Amir and Crown Prince is any less than those of Indian leaders.

Farm Sector in a crisis

We are in for tough times. The impact of the failed South West Monsoon is more severe than was expected. The country is headed for a grave shortfall on Foodgrains and other food products.

The revised estimates are as follows, Rice expected production now is 69.45 MT, target set was 86.00 MT, Pulses projection now is 4.42 MT, target set was: 6.50 MT, Sugarcane projection now is 2,494 MT against a target of 3,400 MT.

Coming on top of less than targetted foodgrain production in 2008-2009 year, the situation appears to be bordering on a calamity. Inflation is expected to hit the roof and poor agricultural production will lead to poor rural consumption, affecting the manufacturing sector adversely.

There are many reasons for this. All of which cannot be attributed to the failure of monsoon. The Agriculture ministry has been spectacularly mismanaged by Sharad Pawar over the past 6 years. No effort has been made to increase food grain production, or improving storage or marketing. India has not built up on the benefits of the 1968 green revolution, with our agricultural sector languishing in a time warp. Besides, arable land under cultivation has dwindled due to pressure on housing and traditional farmers are moving towards extinction or facing penury.

The sector cries for a dynamic minister who will be a harbinger of change. But is anyone listening?

Assorted

Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax sleuths, on the trail of former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda, have hit a jackpot. They have uncovered details of transfer of at least $110 million (about Rs 550 crore) to a frontman in Dubai for overseas investments and acquisitions by Koda’s associates - For those uninitiated who don't know who Madhu Koda is, he was an Independant in the previous Jharkand Assembly and UPA propped him up as the CM, to topple the BJP. The guy ruled for 2 years and this is only a fraction of the money he looted. He got caught only because he was not part of the big parties. If an independant can make so much money in less than 2 years in one State, just imagine how much money various CM's and Ministers must be making all over the country and hushing it up using the political clout of their parent parties?

The International Monetary Fund announced on Monday the sale of 200 tonnes of gold worth 6.7 billion dollars to India's central bank to shore up IMF finances - Just about 18 years ago, the self same IMF forced India to sell its Gold to raise foreign exchange. How the world has changed? What this sale indicates is that IMF is broke and that is an extremely good sign. For far too long, IMF has been used a lever by the USA to shackle the economic policies of the Third World. The only thing going for USA is that they still consume the maximum in this world and the Asians concentrate on saving than spending. Once this scenario changes, the doom of the fiscally indisciplined USA can safely be predicted.

Air India pilots threatened to go on strike from evening of November 24 and served management a 14-day notice to meet their demands, including payment of all outstanding dues and bringing about a pay parity between AI and erstwhile IA pilots by November 10 - When will we close down AI, which is a national disgrace, destroys Brand India and reminds us of the horrors of the 70s and 80s?

Crooked ingenuity at its best (worst)!!

There is an old story about a corrupt minister in a Kingdom, who was the Queen's relative. He was extremely corrupt. The King gave him 5 different portfolios, but in each of them he made money through naked corruption. The King got fed up with him, but couldn't remove him as a Minister for he didn't want to displease the Queen. Finally, the King thought of an ingenious idea - the Corrupt Minister was allowed to retain the title, but was given the job of sitting on the sea shore and counting the waves. This, the King thought, would put an end to the ministers corrupt ways as he felt it was impossible for someone to be corrupt doing nothing but counting the waves.

The King had unfortunately underestimated his ministers ability to make money. Within a week of him taking charge as "Minister for Counting Waves", the fish started becoming dearer in the Market. This created considerable panic amongst the people, as being a Coastal Kingdom, Fish was the staple food. On hearing about the scarcity and rising price of fish, the King ordered an enquiry and to his dismay found that the Minister was running a huge racket on the beaches by terrorising the poor fishermen. He was threatening them that, since he was asked to 'count the waves', the fishermen were standing in the way of his duty when they launch their boat, as he claimed that the boats were cutting and destroying the waves!!. And further, anyone who wanted to launch his fishing boat has to pay a hefty 'mamool' to him!!!!

Our bureacrats are like this corrupt minister. They will go to any extreme to scuttle a good initiative. The Right to Information Act (RTI) was promulgated with great fanfare by the UPA Government, with an aim to create transperency. RTI gave any citizen the right to ask for any information from the Government including confidential files. That the Government itself diluted and stonewalled giving information under this Act is well known, but it took the geniuses at Punjab University to find an ingenious way to turn the table on the petitioner, as reported in TOI below,

When it comes to asking a question under Right to Information Act, be careful about what you wish to know, as you might just get the answer. A Panjab University LLM student, Varun Malik, who sought detailed replies for 19 queries including one regarding fines that hostellers had to pay over the past five years, has been asked to provide Rs 12.22 lakh as fees, because the varsity’s answers will need more than six lakh pages. Rs 2 per page is the charge that the questioner has to pay under the RTI Act. Malik alleged that the university’s move was intended to discourage him from seeking information that could cause various scams to surface. “It’s surprising that it would take so many pages to provide me the details,” he added. PU has sent two reminders to him for the payment and it has been mentioned in the letters that photocopying of the pages is almost complete. The university has also advised him to avoid using unparliamentary and threatening language while talking to its officials. Malik had asked the 19 questions on August 10 and replies were provided on September 9. However, not satisfied with the answers, he sought comprehensive information regarding all the questions. In one of their letters, PU authorities told Malik that as the kind of details sought by him could only be provided through photocopies of the relevant documents and for that, he would have to pay the requisite amount. Malik said he consented to paying Rs 2 per page for extra information at the time. However, he added that he was not told about the replies stretching into six lakh pages. He added that PU was pressuring him for the money and threatening him that they would have to take action for recovering the amount from him.

Last resort

Taking a tough stance, home minister P Chidambaram has warned Pakistan against meddling in India's affairs and said any more terror attack from that country will be retaliated "very strongly". He said he has been warning Pakistan not to play with India and that the Mumbai attacks should be the "last game".

After I have finished laughing on reading this at the naivette of our Home Minister who is part of a Government that has been remarkable for its spinelessness while dealing with Pakistan, I was reminded of an old story.

A Namboodhiri was very hungry and knocked the doors of another Namboothiri and asked him for a meal. In olden days, a hungry Namboodiri was never turned away. But the house owner was a miser and refused to give food.

Our namboodiri raised his voice and said, "In that case, I have to adopt the last resort. Better you dont force me to do it".

The neighbours of the miser advised him to give food lest our namboodiri does something drastic that might bring disrepute or a curse on the household. They pointed out that the miser had 3 girls of the marriageable age and he didnt want to risk some curse on their future. Reluctantly, the miser concurred.

After eating the sumptious meal, the neighbours politely asked the Namboodiri what the last resort in fact was.

He calmly replied, "Oh that!. I would have tightened by Dhoti, drank some water and walked off to the next village in search of another house. What else could I have done?"