Singing National Song with Deep Regret!!!!!!!

There is a scene in one of P G Wodehouse's Books on Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, where Jeeves narrates the rioutous scene on a village school annual ceremony. He explains the scene where Bertie Woosters friend Augustus Finknottle, under the influence of liquor while addressing a village school gathering, enters into an argument with the parent of a student, leading to an acrimonious exchange. Jeeves abruptly rounds it off by saying " Then they sang the National Anthem". Bertie wonders how the two antagonists can think of singing the national anthem when they are about to come to blows, and Jeeves clarifies to him that the Principal decided to end the charade by asking the School Band to sing the National Anthem as a prelude to closing the function. The absurdity and hilarity of Bertie wondering ("Jeeves! Surely not..............." were the words if my memory serves me right) how they can think of singing the national anthem at such a time is beautifully illustrated by PGW.

I was reminded of this, when I was watching the absurd proceedings in the Rajya Sabha, just prior to the Mid night adjournment. Vice President Hamid Ansari was in the chair, and the decibel level in the house was at its peak. The time was already past mid night, and Ansari was admonishing the members as to how they are lowering the dignity of the house (as if it has any dignity left!!!), and how proceedings couldnt continue because of the din. Then he abruptly said, "I have to say with deep regret........... (Pause).........National song" and then 'Vande Matharam' was played.

The first absurdity was the VP, hassled, having no control of the House. The second was the need to sing the National song (which is a practice) after the members (mainly the Government) having done its best to not pass the Lokpal Bill, which was being watched by everyone in the Nation. And the third absurdity was Ansari's words in effect coming out as he is asking National song to be played with 'deep regret'!!!

What else can we expect from a bunch of criminals, clowns, self serving politicians led by a nincompoop Prime Minister who gives a damn about Nation and the people they are supposed to represent???

Greetings in poor taste

Come New Year time, my Mail Inbox is flooded with E-Greetings, either in the form of E-Cards or in the form of Mail Greetings.

I have reservations regarding both. The E-Cards are sent through E-Card sites, that offer them free. What the sender doesn't understand that nothing comes free in life. The E-Card sites makes a living out of selling our E-Mail ID's, both the Sender's and the Receiver's to Marketing Companies. This results in these companies sending unsolicited promotional offers to us, which adds to SPAM. Thus, by sending E-Greetings, the sender is condemning himself and the intended receiver with an year of SPAM.

My main grouse with the New Year Greetings send as a mail, is that the sender does not take the trouble of sending a Personal Mail, but rather drafts a one liner like "Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year" AND THEN SENDS IT TO ALL IN HIS ADDRESS BOOK as a single mail. Thus my e-mail ID, which is personal and given to the sender in confidence is revealed to all in his address book, which is incorrect. It also adds to SPAM, as many in this address list sends a one liner reply greeting to the sender, using the reply all option, which means my ID automatically gets registered in his address book. Come another occassion, this guy starts sending bulk e-mails. Leave this aspect. The idea of sending a greeting, is to indicate to the receiver that he is remembered on a joyous occassion, and the sender wishes him from the heart. But I cant understand how wishing 100 people from the address list, without even knowing who is in the address list, gives an impression that the sender remembers me!!!. I have nearly 700 plus people on my gmail contacts!!.

The greetings have to be personal, and marked only to the intended recipient. Can't we spare one hour in an year to remember our friends and to send personal greetings?

Anything other than this is in poor taste.

Re 1 Rice Gaffe

The Food Security Bill is on hold for now. This pet project of the Sonia led National Advisory Council (a wasteful body, comprising of a few left liberals, including a know maoist sympathiser on bail, and who has absolutely no accountability to anyone) basically called for nearly 60% of India's population to be given food at highly subsidised rates of less than Re 3 per kg. This would have resulted in increasing the subsidy burden of the government by another One lakh crore, though more realistically it is closer to Two lakh crore. On the one hand Government has been taking a tough stand on reducing subsidies on Petroleum products or fertizers claiming it cannot afford, and on the other hand it wants to increase the subsidy on food. We do have a major supply side constraint on food. The farmers are not getting fair prices for their produce making them move away from farming. The area under cultivation is dwindling, and with the Government hardly taking any initiative on the second Green Revolution, the per acre productivity has remained stagnant. With the Food Security Bill in place, Government would have found it extremely difficult to increase the support price of food grains, adding to the woes of the farmer.

And would the poor have benefitted. Not in the way Government expects. If Sonia and NAC thinks that poor will buy and consume Re 1 or Re 2 rice, they are living in blunderland. Poor have more dignity than what these clowns assume they have. And the basic food the proposed bill is aiming to give are essentially Giffen Goods (google it if you dont know what a Giffen Good is), the purchase of which wont be compromised by the poor (and consuming poor quality Re 1 rice is a compromise for them). And this beats the fundamental economic principle that the same good should not have differentiated prices in an undifferentiated market!

I was reminded of a story narrated by a Tamilian Taxi Driver. He used to depend on small roadside hotels and iddly shops to eat iddly and dosa, while on duty. As anyone knows, some of these small roadside iddly shops serve delightful iddlis and dosas, and are very inexpensive. But ever since the Tamil Nadu Government started doling our Re 1 rice, the quality of these iddlis and dosas have deteriorated sharply to such an extend, that they are unpalatable, as per this guy. The reason? The poor happily collect their Re 1 rice from the Fair Price shop, and then, instead of taking it home to cook, they make haste to the nearest iddly shop to sell it at Re 4 or 5, pocketing the difference (because the Re 1 rice is of such a poor quality that no one will even dream of eating it). Thus, if he gets 35 kg of rice, he makes a profit of Re 140, and use it to buy 10 kg of higher quality rice, which he doesnt want to give up, as it is a giffen good!. The shop keeper is pleased because he gets rice at Re 5, against the market price of Re 15, and his cost of inputs have gone down substantially, increasing the profit margin, which was getting squeezed due to inflation. But in the bargain, quality is given a go by, which affects his business in the long run. But hey! who cares. One of these days the Economic PM shall allow FDI in Food Retail, which will anyway make him redundant, like the FDI in retail will do to the petty shop owners!

Preoccupied with work

Really preoccupied with work. Do not just have the mindspace to come up with a blog post. Bear with me

The classic diversionary tactic!

So the FDI in retail sector is rolled back!

The government and congress party has achieved its purpose of diverting the attention from 2G, Corruption, P Chidambaram, Jan Lokpal, inflation and the crumbling economy.

Half the Parliament session is gone. Now even if the opposition wants to, it cannot stall the parliament anymore on the above issues, as the public mood is against the MPs now.

And Congress and Government lost nothing as anyway FDI in retail was never a critical issue.

Remember the old adage of where to hide a leaf? In a forest.

Likewise how to hide a problem? Create another problem as a divertionary tactic!

FDI in retail ..... Unwise and untimely

I doubt the sincerety of the Congress party in allowing FDI upto 51% in multi brand retailing. The timing stinks.

The economy is in a mess. Government is cornered on corruption. It has given up on controlling inflation. Its credibility is at the lowest. Anna Hazare is waiting to pounce. It faces a whitewash in UP. Some of its ministers are in jail. The PM is a lame duck. And the parliament is in session,with opposition belligerent.

The Congress needs a diversion badly. It knows all the political parties are against it and there will be a big hue and cry that would drown the protests against all the other issues. And that is why they went ahead with the hasty decision to allow FDI in retail.

The western world doesnt have money nor do they have the markets with purchasing power anymore. The western retsilers desperately need the Indian market than we need them. We opened organised retail to Indian Corporates a while back and it ended up in disaster. Neither the consumers nor the farmers benefited. The same arguments that is offered in favour of FDI was trotted out then. But the ground reality was different. Hence, my pessimism on the new initiative. Also, the current food inflation has its roots in the decision to allow corporates to enter organised retail.

That the indian supply chain fron farmers to consumers is rotten is beyond doubt. But is the FDI route the solution? I doubt.

What is eequired is an initiative involving the private sector in streamlining the supply chain.

But this callous government, an uncaring PM, a secretive irresponsible party chief and a psychofantic party is interested in filling its coffers at the expense of common man.

I do not agree .................................

Why cant our MPs discuss matters of national importance like inflation, rupee depreciation, 2G scam, black money etc in a civilized manner inside the parliament. Government creating diversionary tactics or irritating the opposition with a non consequential issue and the opposition boycotting the proceedings or blocking the working of the House has become a rule than an exception.

It is not that our MPs are incapable of quality debate. One has to only witness the debate on lokpal bill and Anna Hazare last session to know how good they are at it, when they want to or more cynically, when they feel threatened.

Is it because we, as a nation, are intolerent to any any thoughts other than ours. Just switch on any national english news channel program that debates current issues. It is a slanging fest, sans any rules or valid points. He or she who shouts loudest gets more air time. Just contrast this with any debate on BBC, and you will know what I mean.

This intolerence has led to the creation of a generation of people who just wouldnt listen to others. This needs to be corrected at school level. Kids should be encouraged to debate, taught to argue logically and educated in the art of disagreeing to agree, without losing their composure and decorum.

After all, did not Voltaire say that "I do not agree with what you you have to say, but I Will defend to the death, your right to say it"

Where is the next Gandhi to liberate our bright young students?

Despite all the noise made by the Education Minister, Kapil Sibal, on overhauling the education system in the country, the vested interests have ensured that he didnt make much headway.

The higher education is in such a mess, what with the UGC proving to be highly ineffectual and corrupt. The problem with our higher education is not just that it is far too rigid and structured, but it just does not provide an opportunity for the student to explore different areas of knowledge. That it fails to provide the necessary soft skills required for the student to be employable is another major lacunae.

Let me give you an example. Let us assume that a student wishes to enroll for B Sc Mathematics. He has very limited option other than to opt for the combination of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, with English and a Regional Language. In some colleges they offer Statistics instead of Chemistry. I did B Sc Physics, with Maths and Chemistry as subsidiaries. I can understand the logic of tying Maths with Physics, but to date dont know why I was burdened with Chemistry, which I hated. I could have and would have opted for Accountancy or even Statistics. Or for that matter, why couldnt I have studied Psychology?.

The above is possible if the Universities were to go by the Credit System. In such a system, the student shall have the freedom to get a Bachelors or Masters by adopting any combination that gives him the total credit required for a course, as it should be.

Why Indian Universities opted for the rigid system long long ago was to basically support the nascent Colleges that have limited seats, and fewer students. Hence, the University was forced to adopt the rigid structure so that the Colleges are able to have sufficient occupancy levels for each class.

But in todays scenario where the Colleges are overflowing with students, any College can easily have an academic calender that can schedule lecture for varying subjects, with the students being given the option to choose the topic and the lecturer of his choice.

The British had a vested interest in cloning our bright young minds. They did not want to encourage creativity and individuality, but rather wanted a sea of youngsters who are obedient, rigid and ideally suited to work as subordinates of the highly structured British Administrative System.

It is a pity that 64 years after independence, we have not yet liberated our students from the shackles imposed by the British, whose strategic objectives were totally different, and who never had the students and India's interests in mind.

But then we have replaced White Sahibs with Brown Sahibs!!!

Where is the next Gandhi to lead a movement that shall liberate our bright young students?

IPL and Congress Party

Congress wanted to use IPL 2 which coincided with the 2009 General Election as an advertising platform, as it felt it could gain a competitive advantage amongst the younger voters, apart from promoting Rahul Gandhi as a youth icon. But Lalith Modi, the IPL Commissionaire would have none of it. He didnt want his baby to be a medium for political dog fighting. Also, he was sympathetic to the then Rajasthan CM, Vasundhare Raje Sindhia. Congress never forgave him. First they thought they had Modi cornered by refusing to give security clearance to IPL at the last moment. But They under estimated Lalith Modi. He shifted IPL 2 to South Africa in 2 weeks, and cocked a snook at Chidambaram and Co. Congress was mad as a hatter. They bided their time. Also, they couldnt bear that they didnt have a hand in the pie of the richest event.

Come IPL 3, they ensured Lalith Modi was hounded out, and ED filed a stew of cases against him. Lalith Modi was no saint. But 2 years down the line, the cases against him has reached nowhere. So the real purpose was for congress party to control IPL. Modi was replaced by the timid Chirayu Amin, who in turn gave way to,guess who? Rajiv Shukla. And who is he? He is a Congress Party General Secretary, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and a close confidante of Sonia Gandhi!

This is a small example of how Government abuses its power for petty gains!

India, a land of gluttons!

This is the season of ridicule.

PM says inflation is a sign of development and high food inflation is due to increase in yhe prices of egg,milk and meat, rather than foodgrain. His claim is that rural india is eating more healthy food. If that were true how is it that the latest figures show 76% of indians malnutritioned? All the indices of poverty are on the rise.

The PM who rarely opens his mouth on any issue-major or minor- waxed eloquent on the need for hiking petroleum prices and warned of hikes of other petroleum products. While conceding that there could be under recovery for oil companies which justifies the hike, why hasn't the government not taken the decision to forego its share of the additional revenue by way of taxes? More than 50 % of the petrol price are taxes. This gives lie to the government claim and inrentions. And the PM did not even have the guts to make the statement while in india. He gave the conference when he was abroad, giving lectures as tohow IMF, set up to support developing economies, should bail out rich european countries, who are in a debt trap because of overspending! He really is one rotten economist.

Our FM,Pranabda, doesnt concur with his boss. His take is that the food inflation is high because of the festive season, as if festivals are here for the first time in india's history.

He, PM and Montek Singh all want us to believe that indians are swallowing food by buckets leading to food inflation!

When was the last time any of them visited rural or semiurban india? If they had, instead of sitting in the ivory towers of Delhi, they would realize why everyone in this country have nothing but contempt for them.

Hike before it is too late

Why did the government raise the petroleum prices?

(if you believe that oil companies took an unilateral decision in hiking the prices, as UPA spokespersons tell you,then you are as cuckoo as them!)

Congress party knows that,with assembly elections to 6 states coming up in 6 months time,this is the last chance for them to raise the prices and mop up additionalvrevenue. Remember, government stands to gain 50% of the hiked price as revenue throughtaxes whenever there is a price hike. With revenue collections not likely to meet the targets for the fiscal, and with spiralling expenditure, and government unable to print more money in view of inflation,any additional income is welcome.

With opposition unable to organize popular protests, and limiting their activities to mouthing meaningless criticisms in the TV studios,the Congress party and UPA is getting away with murder. They think that the common man has a memory span of 3 days in this era of visual media, and would forget this price hike by april, when the assembly elections are due. They have not learned from history. The aam aadmi has a long long memory, and has shown that their retribution is severe.

Never have we had such an uncaring, unpopular government. Not even during the Emergeny period.

Need to recalibrate peoples expectations

With the demise of both capitalism and communism, world is desperately searching for a viable economic model.

But the question that remains is whether it is a case of these two models being flawed or like in most instances, it is the failure of the people who man the system. There is a saying that any system is only as good as the people who man it. While the power hunger of a chosen few land the repressive measures they adopted in their countries led to the demise of communism, sheer greed for money and the urge to grow rapidly led to capitalism being discredited. Both the models are great in principle, but both had utopian visions - a totally welfare state with no private enterprise where the resources belong to people and the wealth is equitably distributed is wonderful to dream about, but hardly practical to implement. The system needs someone to man it, and they took advantage. At the other end of the spectrum, no governmnent intervention and survival of the fittest is what any human being wants, but such a system lacks control mechanisms, that could and did lead to anarchy.

So, is mixeed economy the answer? I doubt, as it is at best a compromise and I dont believe in compromises.they dont ever produce the desired results.

Maybe, just maybe, the solution lies with reshaping the economy that currently depends on large business houses doing large scale production, to smaller business clusters that better use resources and ensures equitable distribution of benefits. But for that to happen, we need to manage the peoples expectations and retune their mind set away from thinking only in terms of economic growth as the only path to happiness, but rather to learn to live within means but be happy, as our grandparents were.

National consensus need of the hour

There must be something drastically wrong with our system of governance and planning if we cannot find solutions for a problem, that has become chronic over a period of 3 years - I mean the inflation.

The warning signs were there in late 2007 and early 2008. I was going through my blog posts during the period, when we were echoing the same sentiments about inflation, as we are doing now. You may read those posts just by typing 'Inflation' in the search window of this blog.

If there is one thing that affects people across the country, it has to be inflation. High inflation also has a direct bearing on the election results. And Congress is aware of it. Then why are they on such a suicidal mission of not doing anything about it.

Well they can't do much, even if they want to!

A good amount of money, that should have otherwise gone for plan expenditure, is being spent on unproductive, wasteful social sector spending like NREGA. I am not against social sector spending, but the delivery mechanism is so corrupt, that the cost benefit analysis of such schemes reveals a dismal picture. One can safely expect a waste of 40% in any average inefficient organization. But in this case, the waste is close to 85%!!. An organization cannot expect to not land in a financial crisis with such an amount of waste!!!

Then there is the case of Government unwilling to adopt cost cutting measures to bring down the fiscal deficit. There is absolutely no will to do a Governmental re engineering, that will downsize various departments and ministries, and help to abolish redundant posts. The Ministry itself is bloated with 80 odd ministers, out of which nearly 55 dont have anything to do at all.

Finally, the tax cuts and rebates given to the industries. Much is made of the subsidies given for petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG, along with those given to the farmers and the poor. But this pales in comparison to the tax benefits given to the industrialists, who have become billionaires at countries expense. It is one thing to support the poor, but quite another to pamper the rich. The argument that rebates given to industrialists motivate them to create more jobs just does not hold water, as the figures on unemployment do not reflect the additional job creation.

There needs to be a national consensus if we are to really grow as an economy, on the way forward.

Or else we will end up like Greece.

Alarm bells are ringing loud and clear, but is there anyone listening?

The RBI on Tuesday hiked repo rate by 25 basis points. The 13th hike since March 2010 will put further pressure on economic growth. The 12 previous hikes has not had any impact on controlling the inflation, and neither will this. The new repo and reverse rates are 8.5% and 7.5% - This is way too high, and very alarming. We are almost back to the state of financial anarchy of the late 1980s. The Government spending is uncontrollable, the fiscal and revenue deficits are increasing, and the black money in circulation is on the high. One of the reasons why the repeated rate hikes have not had an impact on the inflation.

Food inflation rose sharply to cross double digit levels at 10.6% for the week ended Oct 8 as against 9.32 per cent in the previous week. The headline inflation based on the wholesale price index was recorded at 9.72 per cent in September, according to the latest official data - And one has to understand that the period is just post harvest, when the inflationary pressure should be at the lowest, due to increase in supply.

Inflation has remained almost near double digit since January 2010, despite an aggressive monetary tightening by the central bank and the claims of a series of fiscal measures by the government - That is precisely my point. The 12 previous hikes has not had any impact whatsoever, then why hike again. The saddest part is, while the RBI (Government) is tightening the monetary policy on one hand, the moment inflation starts coming down, they do everything to ensure it stays high. Just see the recent interview with the Economic Advisor to PM, Rangarajan, who said that Government is waiting for the inflation to come down, so that they can increase the Diesel price. This is absurd. I can understand why the Government wants to increase the Diesel price, as it wants to cut down on subsidies. But this Government has done precious little to reduce wasteful expenditure. Money has been thrown down the drain on unproductive social sector programs, just because it is suggested by Sonia Gandhi and her non constitutional National Advisory Council comprising of unelected representatives, all of whom have an agenda of their own. The Revenue deficit is spiralling because of the undeserving sops given to industries, who have used them to cover their weaknesses rather than increasing productivity. Between the irresponsible socialist 'do-gooders' and the 'crony capitalists', the treasury has been bled dry, leading to the current fiscal mess. And add to this the supply side constraints. Food inflation is high because we have a non functional Agriculture Minister, who want to relinquish his post more than a year back!!! While the world has grown leaps and bounds in high tech farming, Indian farming is, by comparison, at primitive level. The so called Green Revolution of late 1960s is almost half a century old. We have hardly seen any new sustained effort to improve our farm productivity. The Government just sits back, hopes for a good monsoon, and then do nothing. The rural marketing system is a disgrace, and agriculture sector is totally neglected as it is not glamorous, along with Education and Health Care. But these are the three areas that make a difference to the majority of the population. But hey! who cares?

However, the rate hike has shown its negative impact on the economic growth. Industrial production has slowed down considerably in the past few months. It was registered at a sluggish 4.1 per cent in August rising a bit from the 3.8 per cent seen in July -- its lowest in almost two years. GDP growth slowed to 7.7 per cent in April-June period, the weakest in six quarters.With rising cost of inputs and high interest rates, industrial output is likely to remain subdued in the coming months. According to a recent survey by the Confederation of Indian Industry, business confidence, especially among smaller firms, has declined in recent months - This is no surprise, as the rate hike is meant to affect the industrial growth rate. Our much pampered industrialists are busy investing overseas, after taking all the benefits from this country.

The economy is being sustained by Services and black money. As a country we have been spending more than what we can afford for the past 5 years. This is not sustainable. It will be at least another 6-8 years, and that too after a concerted effort on the policy makers part to enforce fiscal discipline and to have a clear cut long term strategy in place (which is not even being discussed about) for Indians to feel comfortable.

As of now, I dont see a light at the end of the tunnel. The way ahead is dark, and littered with thorns. The alarm bells are ringing loud and clear. But the Government and the policy makers are playing deaf.

Sathyameva Jayathe

Quarter of a century ago, when I was Sales Officer of HPCL in Coimbatore, a Sales Area notorious for adulteration and corruption, I decided to take on those Petrol Pump owners and Tank Truck owners who were party to the adulteration. A few of my colleagues in our own storage facility were also involved in this. It was a racket. Diversion of Kerosene, adulteration of Petrol with Kerosene, adulteration of Diesel with Kerosene, replacing original lubricants with duplicate ones and finally Short measure while delivering were quite rampant. Not all the dealers were corrupt, but at least 35% were, with another 25% being fence sitters,  happy with the extra money they make by indulging in short delivery of 25 ml per litre, a relatively minor offence. My predecessor Sales Officers have over the years turned a blind eye to this racket, and some in fact benefitted by it.

I decided to clean up the Sales Area. I called a Dealer Meeting and read the riot act. Few took me seriously. Then I deliberately did an inspection of the biggest crook, who was also politically powerful, and suspended Sales for 15 days. Despite getting threats against my life, and considerable pressure from my superiors, I stuck to my decision, and the Retail outlet stayed suspended for 12 days, when in view of an impending festival, I lifted the suspension unilaterally. But this act of mine sent a message to other dealers who felt, "If XXX couldn't get  the suspension lifted despite his political and official connections. what chance do we have, if we get caught?".

Added to this, I also suspended one LPG distributor and found considerable malpractice in another's dealership.

I had a relatively smooth period for the rest of my tenure. But when I started the campaign, my father advised me to maintain highest standard of ethics, and be especially careful with small issues - like accepting dinner invitations, using the car of a dealer for official/personal use, taking small favours from dealers etc. He said that I am more likely to be caught on such things which will undermine my moral right to fight corruption. I was very very careful. If I went with a dealer for lunch, I ensured that I took him out another day, when I paid. Even when I took a stamp from a dealer for Rs 2, I paid for it. And when I filled petrol in my car, I paid and collected the receipt and kept it with me as a record. I booked my own hotel rooms while travelling and paid for it. Of course it helped that I had no vices, for I am, then and now, a teetotaller.

And I never regretted the advice I received. I have tried to maintain this high level integrity through my life. While I was teaching, my students knew that it doesnt pay to try and influence me. Obviously, when you teach a lot of students, some are bound to be closer to you than others. But come Assignment valuation time, all the assignments were treated equally. In fact, I used to be a little tougher on students who were close to me. Though, there were some odd allegations of favouritism raised by some disgruntled students, who got poor grades, none of it stuck on me as those who heard them laughed it off, for they knew I was bloody objective while doing valuation.

I was reminded of this, when read stories about how Kiran Bedi fudged her Airfare bills, or Arvind Kejriwal still owes IT Rs 9 lakhs. When you take a moral high ground, as the Anna Hazare team does, it is important that you be impeccably clean, because the whole fight is at an elevated ethical level. Any tiny slip or crack is bound to have serious consequences. One can laugh off saying the amount involved is small, but it is not the question of amount, but the thought and action behind it. Kiran Bedi is not lily white. There were allegations how she misused her position to get a medical seat for her daughter some  time back. And despite Kejriwals honesty, he still needs to explain how he ends up owing the Government so much money. If he doesnt owe them, then he should defend himself by dragging the Government to the Court. Small things do matter.

Though I fully admire Anna Hazare and his mission, I still do feel that the cause they took up was good in intentions, but week in Objectives and Goals. The Jan Lokpal Bill, which is imperfect (but a great improvement on the Governments Jokepal Bill), is not a panacea for the ills of corruption. Corruption in India has deep roots. While it gets you good TV time if you take on the powers that be, sending a few politicians to jail (which should happen in any case) will not make a dent. What is required is creating considerable awareness about the ills of corruption at all levels. One need to have a mechanism to handle corruption at the village level or at any government office level. This is going to take time - at least a generation. The first step would be to reduce bureaucracy. Second step will be implement local self governance. Third step would be to go for e-governance in a massive way. Why should a villager be dependant on village officer for getting a Caste Certificate.? He should be able to print it out for any kiosk. What is the need to have a police verification before issuing a passport? Everyone knows it is a sham. Either make it a proper verification or scrap it. Why dont we privatise Electricity Distribution? The power theft in India, with the connivance of the EB employees, is close to 20% (The loss to exchequer as per a latest report is Rs 70,000 Crores per year!!). Privatise it, and the private party will ensure this is taken care of, as such high losses will have an adverse effect on the bottom line. Why should the LPG consumers be tied to a particular distributor? Since Gas cylinders are standardised, he should be able to pick up a cylinder from any distributor of his choice. Why is the Government pouring money on loss making State Road Transport Corporations? The Private Bus operators are running much more efficient services and making profit too. The STRCs are haven for corruption- from purchase of vehicles, to appointments, to theft of fuel and spare parts to god knows what. Ditto for Air India or Doordarshan, which no one watches. Why do we have check posts on the State Boundaries. Is it not simpler to have a uniform tax structure across the country, and allow free flow of movement of goods. We are talking of Globalization and reduction of import barriers. What about reduction of removal of Trade barriers between States? Charity should begin at home. The corruption in check posts is disgusting. Abolishing them will also allow the government to reduce its fuel import bill, as the fuel lost in check posts is mind boggling. In fact, if you abolish many of the taxes, and rationalize the tax structure, life will be cleaner for the citizens. Finally, reduce the number of ministers and ministries. Once Government adopts the role of a facilitator, it is suffice if we have just 15 ministries and a total of 30 ministers. In any case 50 of the 80 odd ministers have no work, especially the junior ministers. Reduce the ministries and corruption will reduce exponentially. Finally, allow legal funding of political parties. The illegal fund raising by political parties is the root cause of corruption in India. We have a case of accumulating disproportionate assets against a CM, that is being heard in Bangalore. But why have we never heard of a case of disproportionate spending by a political party. Every election, EC goes about videographing the constituency. Even a kid knows the money spent by each candidate is way way over the limit set by EC (which is ridiculously low). But to date, not a single candidate has been disqualified for this reason. We have laws, but the implementation is poor.

Finally, increase the number of courts and judges 4 fold. I am sure a rapidly growing country like India can fund it easily. We need speedy , timely justice to fight corruption. And rewamp our judicial process. There are far too many appeals, far too many adjournments and delaying tactics. You would have noticed that I have not mentioned about revamping the police force. I did so deliberately, because even the creator Brahma cannot do anything about our current police force, which is politicised, corrupt and a disgrace to our country.

 This is the country which has as its motto 'Sathyameva Jayathe'. Let us ensure it is so. Corruption is anti sathyam. Lack of ethics is again asathyam. Let us not leave it to others to solve the issue of corruption. Let us make a beginning at home. Let us all maintain highest level of ethics and probity in our lives.

Master at Mouthing Inanities

I had taken a decision to not criticize the Prime Minister, as it is futile to do so. But I couldn't hold back when I read the inanities he mouthed yesterday regarding inflation management. The article is produced below, with my comments within brackets,

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today expressed confidence that inflation would come down by the year end - (And he took care to not mention how much it will come down to. Well, even if it comes down by 0.0001%, he can claim credit for it!!!!)

Talking about inflation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said the meeting he had held last Saturday with top officials, including Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, RBI Governor Subbarao and PMEAC C Rangarajan was aimed at discussing steps that could be taken to check price rise.

"The purpose of that meeting was to explore ways and means of how we can bring about a moderation in the rate of inflation," he told journalists accompanying him back home from Pretoria after a three-day visit. - (This inflationary trend started in 2007. And he is holding a meeting after 4 years to 'explore' ways and means of how to bring it down!!!)

The purpose of that meeting was to "understand from the experts in the Government of India the various forces which are at work, which have been fuelling inflation, and how we can bring inflation under control," the economist-Prime Minister said  - (Now it gets better. Government is, finally, trying 'understand' the various forces at work!! And this guy is 'supposed' to be an economist!!!)

Giving an overview of how the government planned to curb inflation, Singh said, "we have several instruments, the monetary policy instruments, the fiscal policy instrument, public distribution instruments. We have to use all these instruments together to bring about credible price behaviour." - (My dear PM, any one who knows the basics of Macroeconomics knows about these instruments. Why, even my MBA students knows about this. The problem is Monetary policy instruments have not worked, as evidenced by the failure of 20 odd interest rate hikes in the recent past. Our interest rates are nearing the 1991 high!! Less said about the fiscal policy, the better. Government has failed to control wasteful expenditure, has taxed anything and everything, and its fiscal and revenue deficits have raised at an alarming rate. It will take 5-7 years to bring the deficity under control. Finally the PDS- Congress party has been responsible for systemmatically destroying the PDS system in the country through 1990's and 2000's. In most of the States, with the exception of Kerala, TN and West Bengal, the PDS is in shambles. Again, streamlining the PDS distribution system cannot be done overnight. It took Congress party 15 years to destroy it, and you can well imagine how many decades it will take to rebuild it. The long and short of it is that you nor your high flying economic team, who sit in ivory towers like Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has no clue as to how to contain inflation)

Asked when an impact of these measures could be felt, he replied, "Well I am confident by the end of the year you would see some positive results."

He said factors, both on the side of demand and on the side of supply, have led to "an inflationary environment" - (And pray tell us, WHAT these factors are? This is a typical bureaucratic reply, that there are 'factors', without naming them, which one would expect from an 'economist' PM)

The international environment has also not been very helpful because of the energy price rise, and the fact that the exchange rate has recently depreciated, Singh said, adding that complicates the task of controlling prices.- (Of course, of course. When you dont have a clue, blame energy prices and exchange rate, both of which common man has no clue about. But the Energy Prices are high because you have taxed them to the eyes and beyond leading to higher inflation, while exchange rate depreciation is a direct result of an economy on crutches, and because we are just not exporting enough. And why are we not exporting enough? Because the inflation and higher interest rates have made our production non competitive!!! Inflation leads to higher wages, and higher interest rates pushes up the cost of capital. Even a kid knows this)

On criticism of the RBI's monetary policy, the Prime Minister refused to comment, saying it would not be proper on his part as the subject is the "preserve" of the Reserve Bank.- ('Preserve' of RBI, my foot! RBI Governor doesnt even breathe without the consent of the Government. Who is our PM trying to fool?)

One has to learn from Manmohan Singh to learn how to mouth absolute meaningless rubbish inanities

In the name.......................

"Mumbai priests use iPad for daily prayers - Technology and religion may be unlikely bedfellows but the Catholic Church, for one, is encouraging the union. After the Vatican's approval of an iPad application that encompasses the missal (a liturgical book containing prayers, instructions and texts for the celebration of Mass), city priests are eyeing it. While the iPad has still to make deep inroads, the missal available on the internet from various Catholic organizations has become extremely popular. It is noted that an increasing number of priests in Mumbai are now using the internet and iPad for the Catholic missal as well as to fine-tune their sermons" (Times of India)

"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and...........Steve Jobs!!!!"

PM's insomnia

Was sitting at home in front of the laptop when 'poof', our dear friend Budhirakshasan appeared out of thin air.

"Where have you been all these days BR?"

"Oh! here and there"

"What is brewing in the corridors of power in Delhi?" (As you know, BR is the ultimate fly in the wall)

"Manmohan Singh is worried"

"Obviously he would be. The economy is in deep trouble, the 2G scam is getting uncomfortably close, even his pet Nuclear deal is in trouble with all the protests against N Plants in the country, the Chinese are aggressive in the border, there is an escalated terror threat perception, Global recession is bound to affect India, Anna Hazare movement has eroded his credibility and finally there is the Rahul Gandhi Sword hanging over his Prime Ministership and then there are the rogue coalition partners, not to mention the Brutuses of his own party"

"No No Swamy! You have got it absolutely wrong. He has never worried about any of those things and never will"

"Then................"

"He is worried stiff about all these stories of Narayanamoorthy and Anna Hazare for the Presidentship in 2012"

"Why should he be?"

"Ah! MMS's only aim now is to somehow pass the next 9 months till the Presidential election, when he will be 'elevated' to a post for which he feels he is eminently suitable. He has proven to be the 'ultimate rubber stamp' since 2004, and is 'Her Majesty's pet Poodle'. He had always felt that these two qualifications would ensure a nice sunset for him. And now, suddenly he has competitors in Narayanamoorthy and Anna Hazare. And this makes him lose sleep for the first time since a terror attack during UPA1 when he had insomnia worrying about the welfare of the terrorist."

"I never thought of it from that angle. But if he is elevated to the Presidentship, then who will be the PM? Pranab or P Chidambaram or AK Antony?"

"None. Pranab is too smart and efficient for the liking of queen bee. PC has a mind of his own - a definite disqualification. Antony would have been ideal. He is another MMS in the making, but he is a grassroot politician - a rare species in Congress top ranks. Also, his being a christian will be held against him."

"But there will be still 2 more years to go for the Elections"

"The best bet is Meira Kumar, the current Lok Sabha speaker. She is Babu Jagjivan Rams daughter, a woman and a Dalit. And she will do the bidding of the G- gang (oops! family) without any murmur. For a party that has made a mark out of symbolism, there could be none better than her. Also, she will be an ideal foil to counter the MMJ threat"

"But MMS is surely no threat"

"Swamy!!!! not MMS, but MMJ - Mamatha, Mayawati and Jayalalitha"

'Poof' and he was gone.

How does the food price get inflated?

The food inflation has been hovering at around 10% even post kharif harvest. This is the official figure, which is based on wholesale price. The situation on the ground at the retail level is much much higher, and varies from 15-35%. The Government talks of higher demand due to better pay in the rural areas (due to income from NREGS!!!). Or in other words, the rural india is eating more, as per the wizards sitting in Delhi. If such is the case, then logically, the farmers should be getting higher returns from their crop, which in turn logically means better wages for the farm workers. And if they do, then the poverty levels should be lower in the rural areas. This is not the case. Rural India is struggling to make both ends meet.

So where is the problem.

The problem has always been with the inefficient agricultural marketing and distribution system. There are many levels of middle men, who, without providing any value added service, take a huge margin and thus pushing up the prices.

I used to give the examples of the Coconut pricing while giving lectures on Macro Economics for MBA Students. A coconut is purchased from the farmer in a thanjavur village for Rs 2. By the time it reaches the local mandi, the price becomes Rs 3.50, and Rs 6 when it reaches Thanjavur, a  District HQ. The State Capital Chennai is 300 kms away, and the selling price ranges from Rs 15-20. And when it is exported to, say, Kuwait, it is sold at 0.400 fills, which is approximately Rs 70. The only value addition is removing the husk, and then there is the transportation cost. But by no stretch of imagination one can have a selling price of Rs 20 (In India) for a  product (which is non taxable) which costs Rs 2.

The above example is only illustrative. The story is replicated in the case of all agricultural products. The support price for a Grade A paddy in Tamil Nadu is Rs 11 per kg, which means this is what the farmer gets. But the retail price of rice, when sold in bulk, is Rs 35 (at least for the rice that comes out of a Grade A Paddy). And this is in rural Tamil Nadu. The price is higher in cities. The value addition is limited to converting the paddy to rice, which doesnt cost more than Rs 2 per kg.

For an unbranded product, a reasonable marketing cost should be around 30%. Which means if the rice were to be sold at Rs 40, then the farmer should get 70% of this, which is Rs 28. But he gets Rs 11. Of course one has to add the cost of processing the paddy to rice. Even then he should get Rs 26. And this 30% marketing cost is inclusive of the margins. So where does the difference between Rs 11 and Rs 26 go to?

It goes as supernormal profit to the long line of middle men, who dont add any value, and who ultimately fund the political parties. One also has to understand that hardly any tax, either excise or sales or income, is taxed on anyone in this chain.

Why the Government cannot proactively create a well streamlined marketing system to market the rural produce, is beyond by imagination!

Ask Why Should'nt I? , instead of Why Should I?

Three decades ago, when I missed an Engineering seat by just a couple of marks (those days there were only 6 Engineering Colleges in Kerala with a total intake of around 1500 students in a year), it was as if my world has suddenly become dark. I was one of the top students in the district, a National Merit Scholarship Holder for 6 years, but a freak illness led me to underperform in the Pre Degree Exam. I was bitterly disappointed, and my father was empathetic. Not bearing to see me not become an Engineer, and he was an Engineer, he offered to get me a seat by paying Rs 25,000 under the Management Quota in our home town Engineering College. I was all of 17 then - a puny, lean lad weighing under 40 kgs. Rs 25,000, though a big amount, was definitely not beyond our financial capabilities, as we were reasonably well off.

But I had a mind of my own even then. I looked at him squarely in the eye and told him that I wont join any course which I have not got through Merit. It was my choice and he respected it, though my mother demurred. But he silenced her with a look and I could see that he was quite pleased. Not because of the money, but because I had a strong value system, and I was prepared to go any length to uphold my values. I joined B Sc Physics, then went on to do MBA (getting one of the 7 merit seats in University of Calicut with a Scholarship of Rs 20,000 to boot. In fact, I actually paid for my MBA and handed over more than Rs 6,000 from my scholarship to my father on completion of the course, after my expenses) and later in my life M Phil. There were only two institutions offering MBA in 1984 in Kerala- DCMS-Calicut University and SMS Cochin University. SMS was the older and more reputed of the two institutions, and much sought after. I had already joined DCMS, as the SMS admissions were delayed due to a legal wrangle, when father travelled 140 Kms to my campus to show me the SMS admit card. I knew he wanted me to join SMS. I looked at it, and told him I am continuing in DCMS, for Reasons 1,2, 3...... He didnt mention about SMS again in his life.

It was not that he was a weakling. He was extremely tough, very hard working, a seasoned professional, a top Senior Engineer in Kerala State Electricity Board, a hard task master and dreaded by his subordinates. He was also highly opinionated. But he let us choose our destiny. In fact he did the same with my brother, who after his BSc Chemistry, joined MSc Chemistry in the prestigious Christ College in Irinjalakkuda, studied for a month, quit, joined NSS Engineering College, studied for one year, quit, joined SMS Cochin for MBA, studied for 6 months, quit and joined Indian Overseas Bank as a Probationary Officer at the age of 22. And never once father tried to change his mind, though he always regretted that my brother did not do a Post Graduation, despite getting his chances.

This was not the case only with me. Almost all my friends took decisions on their own. When I joined Pre Degree (+1 now), B Sc and MBA, my father nor anyone else ever accompanied me. I bought the application, went to fathers office to get the SSCL book and Marklist typed (no photocopies then) and had them attested by one of the Gazetted Officers. And I went alone for all the admission. In fact, we could hardly see any parents in the Admission Hall, except the parents of some girl students coming from the rural areas. Even they stood under the trees, far away from the Admission Hall. Contrast this with what is happening today!

I really feel, this was the foundation in which our characters were built. We were opinionated, spoke fearlessly, had a mind of our own, had strong beliefs, and stood by our beliefs.

Why am writing about this? I was watching a Regional Channel yesterday, where a leading poet-teacher, now retired, lamented that today's children have less strong value system, and are afraid to voice their opinions. And this is the reason for the general fall in the ethical behavioural standards in the society.

Recently, while searching for the Engineering College seat for someone close to me, one of the options was a leading college in South Karnataka, well reputed. Another close relative of mine had graduated a couple of years ago from that college. When he was asked for his opinion upfront, he did not give any negative opinion. Ultimately that college, as an option, was discarded. Later, this boy rang up and asked what happened. On being told that it is now out of the list, THEN he opened up and said the College has a lousy culture, and a haven for drug addicts, and he himself found it very difficult to survive 4 years!!! This boy is now employed in one of the leading private sector firms in India. I was furious when I was told of this. I said "What the bloody hell! Why didnt he tell this upfront?". If I were in his place, I would have told straightaway that this is the situation and I wouldnt recommed the college. I really had nothing but contempt for him, for having not given the right feedback, which he should have as a relative and well wisher.

I could understand him. He adopted the 'Why should I?' attitude, while we, then and now, always take the stand "Why Shoud'nt I?". And the difference between the two is tremendous.

Today, no one talks about Merit. This is what happens when our UGC and State Governments do not put emphasis on creating 'Gurus' or 'Quality Teachers', but rather allow the Institutions to recruit Teachers and Lecturers by accepting Lakhs as Bribe. Till such time we reverse this trend, pay excellent salaries to the teachers and professors, recruit talented people in a transparent manner without asking them to pay lakhs, our kids and society will continue to self destruct itself.

Ask Why Should'nt I? , instead of Why Should I?, every single time.

How much lower can Congress sink?

Nothing exemplifies more the criminal nexus between the Politicians and the Big Business Crooks, and the Congress partys attitude towards corruption, than this shocking statement from the Law Minister of the Country, Mr.Salman Khurshid

At a time when the judiciary is seized with cases concerning corruption, black money and the 2G spectrum scam, Law Minister Salman Khurshid has said that the judiciary needs to understand the “political economy” in the country.

Speaking to The Indian Express, he said: “What will affect the functioning of the government is if other institutions do not understand the kind of political economy we are faced with today: what is needed to encourage growth and investment? If you lock up top businessmen, will investment come? What optimal structure should be put in place for investment to come?”

Asked if he meant the judiciary when referring to “other institutions”, he replied: “Yes, judiciary is as important a player in the entire effort. Each of the three wings — judiciary, legislature and executive — has to understand the political economy and respond to it. The judiciary can’t be immune to the demands of society in changing times. The judiciary has been making positive interventions in the field of environment, fight against corruption, protection of human rights and social welfare, but it also has to understand the political economy.”

Mr. Khurshid! Judiciary is not locking up HONEST BUSINESSMEN. It is locking up bloody crooks who, in association with the ilks of you, have bend every rules, looted the country of thousands of crores and have not delivered.

For every crooked businessman who is jailed, there are thousands of other honest businessmen who are allowed to operate without any hindrance.

Or is it the Honourable Law Ministers take that people like Ramalingam Raju, Maran Brothers, Hasan Ali, Suresh Kalmadi et al should not be judged by the law of the land, just because their jailing for trial will prevent investment?

It is such a ridiculous and shocking thought process from a senior minister who is constitutionally obliged to uphold the law of the land as the law minister. He is virtually exhorting the Judiciary to go soft on Businessmen. If that is not contempt of court, I dont know what is. Well, what else can one expect from a Minister of a party, which once talked openly about committed judiciary????

How much lower can Congress sink?

Let us fly!

There are lot of similarities to developing a blog and bringing up your child. Both reflect your thoughts in a way and is a mini replica of you.

It is said that the  The first four years of a child's life is quite critical for the development of the child and one has to take care to inculcate the right value system in him/her.

When the child is 5 year old, there is a bit of sadness. For, he/she wont be with you all the time, as he/she has to attend the school. The child is no longer dependent on you totally, and he/she sees the world through a wider prism. New friends, new environment, new knowledge - and the child is no longer the same any more. It is as if a part of you is suddenly detached from you.

But once the initial shock dies down, you can sit back and enjoy the child attaining a personality of his/her own. The child is in the process of becoming a boy/girl and then a man/woman.

The blog Rajadharmam you have been patronising, has completed 4 years, and is celebrating its 5th birthday today. When it was born the first sounds were 'Hari Sree Ganapathaye Namaha: Avignamasthu"

Well, the time has come for the blog to break free and explore new worlds. The bird is ready to flee from its nest.

"When your children are young, give them roots.

When they are old, give them wings to fly"

More variety in topics, more original thinking, and less verbose posts shall be the order of the day. At least I hope so!

Let us fly!!!

Vakdevathaye Namaha!!!

AUM VAGDEVYAI CHA VIDMAHE

KAMARAJAYA DHEEMAHI

TANNO DEVI PRACHODAYAT

Making the poor feel guilty

There is an anecdote that talks about how US President while travelling in a train in an Far East Asian Country, claimed how one could see till the horizon industries if one were to travel in USA. To this his Russian counterpart claimed that in Russia, one could see wheat fields instead of industries. Noticing that Indian PM Nehru was quiet, they turned to him and asked what could one see till the horizon, if one were to travel in a train in India. With an impassive face Nehru replied "Shining Bottoms".

It is sad that 65 years after independence, we have still not made any progress. In fact, it has got worse. We tried to cover up during Common Wealth Games as I wrote in the blog then. Read it here.

Yesterday, on Gandhi Jayanthi Day, our Rural Development Minister, Jayaram Ramesh, said 'Open defecation is a blot on Indian Society'.

And typical of our uncaring ministers, he has just blamed the people without giving one solution to the problem. And he is the Rural Development Minister!!!. People dont defecate in the open because they love it. They do it because they dont have proper toilet access. And while we have lakhs of crores to give as incentives to Industry and the rich, we dont have a few thousands to build toilets in every house in India. A 5 year plan to ensure there are toilets in every house in India, will easily solve the problem. And it wont make a dent on our excequer. Instead of doing that, he is doing what Congress has been doing all these years - making the poor feel guilty.

What else can you expect from a party and government that has abdicated all its responsibilities towards the people of this country?

Omana Thingal Kidavo...............................

Omana Thinkal Kidavo.................by Irayimman Thambi has always been my favourite, as it must be of many malayalees. Any parent who hasn't sung this lullaby once to their kids, just dont know what they have missed. Over the years, with the advent of TV, people have started to pay less attention to the lyrics - even of such a wonderful piece as Omana Thinkal Kidavo...........

For all those who love this song, I am reproducing the lyrics so that you may sing it correctly next time to your toddler (my apologies to my non-malayalee readers)

I leave it to your sense of Neethi and Nyayam

Case 1- Suppose I am in a room where my colleagues are conspiring to rob a bank. For some reasons, I keep quiet, though I am fully aware of the plan. They go ahead with the plan and get caught. The right thing for me to do would have been either to stop them or to intimate the police. I didnt do both. Am I guilty then, for being a mute spectator to the conspiracy? You bet I am. (If you have any doubt, ask Sudheendra Kulkarni - LK Advani's aid in the cash-for-votes scam. He didnt take the money, he didnt offer the money, he was not directly part of the sting but only facilitated the expose - but he is behind bars now!!!).

Cartoon sourced from web

Case 2 - You are a senior manager in an organization with joint responsibility for creating a major policy that could generate revenue for the company. You consciously do not follow sound advice, but support a decision that has been viewed with apprehension by the advisors and warned by them that it would cause loss to the company. You still go ahead, over ruling them and prompty the company loses millions of shareholders money. Do you expect the company to still retain you? Definitely not. Company will, at the least, suspend you pending an enquiry, and block all your service benefits and think of recovering a part of the lost money in the event of your being found guilty.

Replace the protagonists in Case 1 with Dr.Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, and in Case 2 with P Chidambaram, the Home Minister, and see what should be done, and compare it with what is happening currently.

I leave it to your sense of Neethi and Nyayam.

Investment Advice

Where to invest in these troubled times?

Equity - Too risky and unstable in the current scenario. But if you are prudent, you can wait and watch, and buy good scrips with long term potential/holding. But do not indulge in short term trading.

Debt Instruments - Considering that the interest rates are rising and expected to rise further, it is worth parking some money in one year debt instruments like Fixed Deposits with Banks.

Mutual Funds - Strict no on generic MFs. You may try sector specific Mutual Funds that have good prospects. Lay off infrastructure based MFs. I am worried about Infrastructure sector, due to the policy paralysis. Land based, precious metals based MFs can be considered.

Gold - I wish I am wrong, but I get a bad feeling about investing in Gold now. I have always been a proponent of Gold as an investment,  but I feel the current prices are on the higher side and unsustainable in the medium term. Wait for the prices to fall, and then invest, but with a caveat - never invest in Gold Ornaments, but invest in Gold Bars, coins or Gold Stocks.

Land - This is the ideal investment as of now. Invest in small pieces of land that you can sell easily. Look for lands in Tier B and C cities or outskirts.  Avoid buy large tracts of land as this would affect your liquidity.

Buildings - Strict no.

Modern chicken and egg story

How Indian bureaucracy harasses honest citizens is illustrated as follows.

Suppose you buy a new Flat in a town, which is not your native place. And since it is a flat, your registration document is only pertaining to the land. Now the problem starts. You dont have any proof that you are living in that Flat. Suppose you want to open a bank account. Well you cant, as Banks want a proof of residence. Suppose you want to apply for a telephone. You cant. As they want a proof of residence. Fine. Now you think you can solve this by changing the address in your passport or driving license. They want, not one, but two proofs of residence. Only way for you to have it is by applying for a ration card or voter id. And in India, you can forget about getting yourself enrolled and issued one for one year.

It is a typical chicken and egg story

Bear with me

A bit pre occupied with work, and mind is blank.

Shall be back here in a couple of days. Bear with me

Aam Aadmi - No place to go to!

Fundamental economic theory propounds that inflation is caused due to excess money chasing fewer goods. Hence, Central Banks adopt the stand of increasing the interest rates to suck the excess liquidity out of the system. How this works is as follows.

When interest rates rise, Banks offer higher interest to the depositors, which makes it attractive for the investors to invest in Bank debt instruments like FDs', rather than in other areas like Stock market, land etc, and they curtail spending to save. If the Central Bank also decides to increase the SLR and CRR, then Banks are forced to retain additional cash in the system. Another consequence of raising the interest rates, are that Banks are forced to raise the lending rates, making it unattractive for the industry and business to go for debt financing for their expansion schemes. The alternate route of raising through stock market is ruled out as investors, as I said earlier, has moved away from the more risky stock market to the less risky debt instruments. Thus industry is starved of funds, forcing them to cut production or at the least withhold expansion plans (you have to remember that an inflationary economy is good for the industry, as they are getting more value for their products in the market). The reduced production, coupled with liquidity being sucked out of the system, means economy slowing down, less money chasing less goods (same goods) leading to reduction in prices.

But then with RBI increasing the interest rates 12 times in 18 months the inflation has not come down one bit. Why is this so?

One of the reason is that Government has allowed Indian industry to raise money, through equity or debt, from the Global Markets which are currently under recession, and the western countries have abysmally low interest rates. Thus the industry has enough and more money to fund their expansion, and this money finds its way to the market one way or other, leading to further inflation. And with double digit inflation prevalent, they are laughing all the way to the banks, as their products are selling at higher rates day by day.

Only people who are affected? The common man, mainly the middle class, who find their EMIs on housing and vehicle loans going up month after month, with no relief in site.

I was once the franchisee of a leading IT training company in the 1990's. Their only objective was to ensure that whenever I clear by debts and start earning some profits, by introducing either a syllabus change or introducing some scheme, they will ensure that the money is taken from my pocket to theirs. At least I had the option of exiting the business then, which I did, but the aam admi of India has no place to go to.

PONC around us

Philip Crosby, the Quality Guru coined the term PONC - Price Of Non Conformance.The price of nonconformance puts a Rupee (Dollar) value on all waste and wasted effort caused by a lack of quality. Examples of the price of nonconformance include reprocessing, expediting, unplanned service, computer reruns, inventory, customer complaints, service after service, downtime, reconciliation, and warranty. In manufacturing, PONC typically falls between 20 to 25 percent of sales, while in service/administrative organizations, PONC averages 30 to 40 percent of operating expenses. This means that a company making $100 million typically will spend $30 to 35 million in nonconformance costs. And if the company is making a net profit of 20%, i.e $ 20 million, just by reducing waste by 50%, the company can earn an additional profit of $ 15 million. We do have PONCs even in our personal life. For example, every time you buy from a hyper market, you end up buying 20-30% more than what you actually want. Often companies talk of reducing cost, when actually they should be concentrating on reducing waste.

I was exposed to PONC early in my career when I attended a Quality Management Program.

Recently, on a visit to India, while noticing the happenings around me, I was amazed at the price a common man has to pay as PONC in every walks of life.

The Government Schools did not offer the kind of quality education that they were supposed to give. This resulted in parents having to pay higher fee to put their children in relatively expensive private schools. This is a PONC. Further, the private school is not doing a proper job of teaching, forcing the students to take private tuitions. Another PONC.

The Government did not use the tax revenue properly in building good roads. This resulted in roads disintegrating at the first sign of rain (God! I was in Kerala recently, and the roads were an absolute disaster. And I am talking about NH47!!). The time lost (it took me 3 hours to cover 117 kms from Palghat to Nedumbassery Airport), the damage to the vehicles (I saw a jeeps axle breaking into two in front of my eyes), and the fuel wasted are all PONCs. And just because the Government did not do its job properly and squandered the money elsewhere, they had to go in for Private Players like L&T to build roads. And these private operators collect tolls, which we have to pay!!. Another PONC. While admitting that the roads built by private operators are very good, it begs a question as to why the Government cannot or did not lay such roads in the past. The technology and skill sets are available!!.

There are many such cases one can see around us. The Inverters one has to keep in the house just because the Government cannot ensure 24x7 supply of uninterrupted power, the Voltage Stabilizers we use at home because the the Government cannot supply unfluctuating electricity, the higher price we have to pay for Bottled water, because the State cannot supply pottable drinking water...........................the list is endless.

Wish we could do something to reduce all these waste, as that would mean our country growing at > 15% per annum

Divine Retribution

Of the two key people involved in the Cricket Match Fixing Scam at the turn of the Century, Hansie Cronje died a tragic death in an accident.

But it was felt that Azharuddin got away scot free. He even became a Member of Parliament. Now the long hands of divine justice has reached him too in the form of an accident which has left his teenaged son fighting for life.

I can cite many examples of such retributions from my HPCL days, where the crooked amongst the petroleum dealers, who made pots of money through adulteration, paid heavily at some stage in their life - one had his painter daughter married off to an industrialist, only to find that he had send her to a living hell, for the guy was a wife beater. Another had a film actress swindle all his wealth, yet another was forced to kill his wifes secret lover and later on in his life saw his only son commit suicide after a failed romance. Then there was the case of one of the officials from HPCL, who after an era of corruption, having retired had just driven his family in a car from Kerala to Karnataka, only to find his only son having died in the car on the way. With hospitals refusing to even check him, as it was a DOA case, the old man was forced to drive all the way back to Kerala - a 10 hour drive, with his dead son leaning on the shoulders of his wife. He also  had the mortification of seeing his daughter, whom he married with great fanfare, being tortured by his son in law, who turned out to be drug addict.

The long hands of divine justice catches up with you in one way or other.

What the poor wants - Life with Dignity and basic amenities

The Governments, both at Centre and State levels, have got its priorities absolutely wrong.

The politicians and law makers assume that giving one time doles like TV, Grinder, Mixie, Laptop, Sarees during festival is the way to root out poverty, and win votes. They think the poor wants nothing but this.

They are sadly mistaken.

What the poor wants is not rotten rice which is sold at Re 1 per Kg. They buy it from the PDS, but promptly resell it to the street side hoteliers, who make iddly and dosa in a push cart. The poor go out and buy rice at market prices for their consumption, as the rice given at Re 1 per Kg stinks, and infested with worms.

What the poor wants is to live with dignity. They dont want to be told that they are being given a charity and are living on doles. They want reasonable quality goods made available at  affordable prices.

They want their paper works to be done without hassles at the panchayat office level.

They want the Courts to give them speedy justice, as they cant afford a lengthy legal process. They would appreciate the State giving them good legal aid at reasonable prices, so that they are not fleeced by the lawyers, who make deals with the counter party behind the back.

They want to be able to go to the Police Station without fear and register a complaint. And they want the confidence that action will be taken against the offender, whoever he might be.

They want their children to get good, decent, simple education at Government Schools. They want these schools to have basic infrastructure, adequate teachers and books at subsidised rates.

They want reasonably affordable medical care at their door steps - in the primary health centres and district hospitals.

They want clean water, sanitation, drainage, electricity, and good roads (even if they are not black top).

They want micro financing to help them tide over their financial requirements

They want a workable small savings scheme, and someone to guide them as to how to make their money work.

They want a shelter with basic amenities.

They aren't asking for much.

Is it not a shame that, 64 years after attaining independence, they are still waiting for these things, which should have been made available to them decades ago? Their plight is worse off than what it was all those decades ago.

But I am afraid someone from Government will read this, and then pass a Right to Live with Dignity Bill in the Parliament - as if passing a bill will solve everything.

Evide thirinjonnu nokkiyalum, avidellam pootha marangal mathram..............

Onam is special to Malayalis not because it is just a harvest festival from a bygone Agrarian era. Those days harvest denoted the end of the 4 months period of toil in the field, during which people were forced to tighten their belt just to survive. The harvest brought paddy, vegetables, money, dresses etc to the household, and one is always happy when one has plenty of those. The month of Chingam is also hence considered auspicious to commence commercial activities, housing projects, and more importantly, now that rains are behind and there is plenty of money around, one can plan functions like Marriages, House Warming et al. Onam signifies prosperity, abundance, plentifulness. Even the nature expresses this wonderfully by decking the entire State with lovely flowers. With harvest on, there is considerable activity, jobs for the poor, disposable income on hand to fulfill their long standing wishes. It is the season of hope, a period to satisfy one's needs and to enjoy the fruits of one's labour. It is also why Onam is the festival looked forward most by Malayalis.

Much has changed at the ground level as the State  moved away from an Agrarian Economy to a Services Economy, or rather a foreign inflow driven economy. But still there is joy abound as the whole State is on a holiday mood, people take a welcome break, have additional income from the annual bonus issued at around this time, and the NRK's (Non Resident Keralites) fly home in droves with suitcases bearing gifts to  their nears and dears.

The period before this Onam has seen Kerala get copious rains, the Dams are full, the harvest is good, and there is much to look forward to.

Let People be Happy for the ten days at least. There is much to worry about during the rest 355 days. This is the time to recharge one's batteries and hope for a bright future.

The beauty of nature during Onam is wonderfully captured by Changampuzha  in Ramanan

Malarani Kadukal Thingi Vingi,
Marathaka Kanthiyil Mungi Pongi
Karalum Mizhiyum Kavarnu Minni
Karayattoralasal Grama Bhangi
(A loose translation - The forest of flowers is thick and dense, and the nature is radiating with the brilliance akin to those emanating from Emerald (Emerald is green and here the simile is with the greenery of Kerala). The heart and eyes are attracted and shining at this sight of blemishless beauty of the rural areas)

But the lines which has stayed in my memory from this poem, right from childhood are,

Evide thirinjonnu nokkiyalum
Avidellam pootha marangal mathram
Oru kochu kattengan vannu poyal
Thuru Thure poomazha ayi pinne
(Wherever you turn to and look, you will see only trees/plants in flowering state. And by chance if there were to be a gentle breeze, then it will be a rain of flowers)

Ha! Only Changampuzha can pen like this!!!! The description of the rain of flowers as Thuru thure poomazha ayi pinne has stuck a chord in me, never to be erased. It captures the beauty of the nature during Onam, like nothing else.

Here is wishing an year of peace, prosperity, abundance to all my Readers.