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.