Harvesting Cancer

Bhakra dam at 740ft is one of the highest in Asia. When it got commissioned in 1963, it changed the fortunes of the farmers in the region, and little did they know, lives of their future generations. The farm productivity of the irrigated land increased by 39% to 43%, compared to the rainfed plots. Increase in agriculture productivity however came at a very heavy price. People of the region literally paid for it with their lives. Cancer rates sky rocketed in 30 years, so much so that Punjab is now called cancer capital of India.

Intensive agriculture, aided by canal based irrigation, has enabled not only multiple crop cycles, but agriculture of unsustainable crops like paddy, resulting in tremendous stress on the soil and water. Soil is sought to be rejuvenated by use of increasing quantity of chemical fertilizers, where as water is increasingly getting pumped from the ground, getting depleted at an ever increasing rate.  Further, to protect the yield, farmers take no chances, and poison the produce and the soil, with pesticides. Concoction of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and multiple crop cycles, is resulting in dangerous levels of harmful chemicals in the blood of the locals.

Punjab has only 2.5% of total agriculture land in the country but uses more than 18% of all the pesticides used in the country!

South of Sutlej River in Punjab, called Malwa region, also called cotton belt - Batinda, Mansa, Faridkot, Ferozpur, Muktsar, Moga, Barnala, Sangroor  - is the worst effected by cancer. Other regions of Punjab - Majha (North of Beas and Sutlej till Jehlum) and Doaba (Between Beas and Sutlej) - are fast catching up on this dubious distinction.

Irrigation enabled green revolution. However, in the scramble that ensued, short term objectives got way too much weightage, compared to long term and sustainable objectives.  The problems range from the abuse of fertilizers and pesticides, resulting in poisoning of the soil and the produce, to unsustainable crop cultivation. Cultivation of paddy is resulting in water logging and soil turning saline, in places that are close to the canals, and dangerously depleted ground water table in other places.

To think of it, Bhakra Dam, besides many other ingredients, is a key input to the "harvest of cancer" in the region. 

The Land of Nalanda

When Nalanda was being destroyed in India, Cambridge was getting established in England. The story has unfolded on predictable lines since.

Here in Patna for Badminton National. Arre nahi babumoshaye, not me baba, for my Son.

Well, the idea of this post is not to bore you with where I am and what I am doing, it is to share the sheer darkness that still pervades this place. I have come back after 17 years. Last time I was here, it was for one of the cricket world cup matches in 1997. My recollection from that time is, sea of rickshaws every where, moving, rather crawling in all directions. The only change between then and now is the fact that rickshaws are replaced by auto rickshaws. The filth is still there, all pervading, omnipresent. Roads never existed earlier, they don't exist even today. Tons of people, just busy, doing their chore, oblivion of the dust, smoke, stench in the air. Samosas, litti with chokha, is being fried right next to open gutters, which has doubled up as garbage dump, which is there every few yards. Don't get me wrong, these garbage dumps are not by design, they just spring up impromptu, based on where ever someone, anyone, wants to throw garbage.

Chief Minister came to inaugurate the tournament, and with him came the Sports Minister of the state and couple others. They addressed the gathering. In the list of uninspiring / inaudible speeches, these, in my opinion, would top the charts. A few things that all the speakers did not forget to mention, before they started their respective speeches, was to welcome the participants to the land of Buddha. I was like, did you not drive on the roads that we took to come here? Why do you make mockery of Buddha's name by continually referring to him? If the reference is to be made, it should be like, hey we are sorry, that we have abused this land of Buddha, sorry that we have destroyed generations of people, sorry that we have taken away hope from the people, sorry that people here don't dream, they only have nightmares.

However I know, the land that once had a university like Nalanda, thinkers like Buddha, has the potential, if only the leaders stop raping it, looting it, for their personal benefits.

I look forward to my third coming, hope to share picture of a land truly becoming of where Buddha attained enlightenment.

Na Nar ke Na Narayan Ke (Neither of human nor of God)

A Sadhvi, who is also a Union Minister, made this comment, "Aapko tay karna hai ki Dilli mein sarkar Ramzadon ki banegi ya haramzadon ki. Yeh aapka faisla hai".

When a person makes this kind of remark, it tells me that the person does not have the basic goodness and calmness, in short does not have Godliness to be called a Sadhvi. The remark also suggests that it is depraved of basic etiquette, common sense and intelligence for it to be coming from a Minister. Hence in my opinion, she should be stripped of both these titles, forthwith.

unfortunately, this is becoming more of a pattern. Some overzealous BJP associates think that the majority that BJP got in the Lok Sabha, came on the back of vast majority's alignment with BJP religious ideology. Hence they think they have a licence to not only continue down their earlier path of religious bigotry, but in fact go down that path with renewed fervour and speed. In truth, the Lok Sabha mandate is more for economic progress, aspirations for better living standards and just plain fatigue with the status quo that Congress was pushing.

The danger is that as the time progresses, as the Modi government's honeymoon period wears off, and as the government comes under pressure, which invariably all governments do, these vitriolic voices are going to get shriller, plus more of BJP & Co may join this hate bandwagon to play to the galleries.

This evil must be nipped in the bud. Any later than now, Modi government may not have the political capital to stop them.

The Last Mile!

The tiles fit snuggly into each other, as they were laid out on a flat foundation of sand. The workers, the mason, the material and the whole jing bang was there. The dirt pavement, which was such a hazard during rainy days, and such a dusty place to walk on otherwise, was finally getting a makeover. Walkers mostly preferred to walk on the road, making the road even narrower for the vehicular traffic and in the process risking their lives. Now things would be different, walkers would finally get their space. After enduring a few weeks of construction material on the road, all the noise, dust and the traffic jams that ensue, finally the pavement was ready. It looked neat.

But then, it started, one after another, in quick succession. There was recesses in the pavement at every few meters for the rainwater drainage inlets. The vertical tiles that separated the pavement from the road at the corners of these rainwater drainage inlet recesses started falling. They had not be secured properly with enough adhesive or the angle was not proper or both or something else, but they fell. They always do! As they fell, the beautifully laid out pavement tiles that were sitting so snuggly intertwined with each other loosened. First the ones at the corner loosed and fell, and then the next row followed, till the corners just collapsed. It looked like a pile of rubble. Soon, the loose tiles where gone. The corner looked like a mud slope from road to the pavement, of what was left.

Not that money was not spent, not that labors or masons were taken away from the spot before they could finish. No, nothing of that. It was simply a question of not taking care of the last bit, not doing a proper job of tying it up and sealing it properly.

Everywhere I see, I see that enough money is being spent, but it is the last bit, the last mile that which not done properly wastes the entire effort and the money.

The story repeats, weather it is the pavement, or the cover of the drains, which do not fit the opening properly, or the railing along the side of the parks, which are fixed so flimsily that you know that they will fall if given a push, or electric poles which have the naked electric wires hanging out of the small opening at the bottom of the pole, with the door to the opening, invariably missing or hanging/dangling.

Following Pareto's advice, I had definitely put this in the bucket of 20% things that if done right have a potential to provide 80% positive effect! 



 

To the detractors of Kejriwal

I understand where you are coming from. If I may, I can categories your objections broadly as follows -

a) process and procedure for introducing the bill
b) about Kejriwal's grand ambitions, with an eye on Lok Sabha
c) about running away from the responsibility of governance

Here's my point of view -

a) Processes and Procedures - For last 67 years, we have seen how these processes and procedures have been used by the "System", the "Government Machinery", what ever you call it, to deny the country men what is duly their right. Right at the top of this Govt Machinery sits the elected bodies (loksabha, rajyasabha at national level and legislative assemblies at the state level), filled with politicians. So it is no surprise that they set the tone. You go to a police station to get a complaint registered or ask for verification for the passport, or go to local municipality to get your building plan sanctioned or get an electricity connection, procedures and processes are waved in your face. Ever thought why? Because, by making it complex it is easier to scare the people into giving the speed money to get things done. Processes and procedures are used to reward or thwart the efforts. I do not think Lokpal bill is a panacea, but I do believe it is one of the things that needs to be done besides so many others. I hope even the detractors agree with this fact, so why not let the processes and procedures take a back seat and let a good thing get passed.

b) Kejriwal's grand ambitions - First, let me say that it does not bother me. For me that is not even a question, as I look at what he is trying to do now or plan to do for the country and for the people. That is all that I am focused on. Having said that, let's assume that he indeed is ambitious. So, what is wrong with that? Are we all not ambitious? In fact I am happy that an honest, intelligent person, with integrity is ambitious and wants to do something at national level. Is that not good? Would you much rather have a criminal, dishonest person running the country?

c) Running away from the responsibility of governance - Mahabharat, Chanakya Niti, basic texts on governance, all of them cover this extensively. The basic principal is not only to have the good of people at heart, but the ability to deliver that as well. In the present setup, though the Kejriwal govt took the office, it was up against the challenge of entrenched opposition, that wanted status quo. The govt did what it could in last couple months, however, it was clear that the moment it goes after the big guns, or tries to implement the big ticket items on the agenda, hell will break loose. It did. The response of the government, in my opinion is a smart one, instead of becoming a lame duck government, not being able to deliver what is good and is promised, when it found itself stone walled, it quit. The calculation that would have gone into this action would be something like - re-elections are going to be called along with the Lok Sabha elections, the party will come back with majority and then carry on with its agenda of cleaning the system. Smart, isn't it. Also, at the same time, Kejriwal and the team can put their energy in planning for Lok Sabha elections, getting the right candidates etc. So, what is wrong? If a good thing can get bigger, all the more better.

The "I" in "Me"

For a long time I have struggled with one question - "Who is the "I" in "Me"? My brain, thru' the exclusion principle, had reasoned that it itself, that is my brain itself, must be the "I", since it is the store house of my thoughts and my thoughts is what makes me who I am. I was comfortable with that idea, since it seemed rational, however, I was not comfortable for long. If that is all that is there to be known, if that is the ultimate truth, I should have been at peace with myself. As I had reasoned, knowing the ultimate truth will bring me peace, it will make me calm, it will quench my thirst, my brain will quieten down. Well, I was nowhere close and still ain't.

Hindu philosophy offers another explanation. It says, "I" is the atman. Atman is not any part of the body, not even brain.  It further says, it is not possible to know the "I" thru brain. An analogy to explain it more vividly - one does not need any light to see the sun, sun is seen in its own light, similarly, one does not need brain to see "I" the atman. Seeing atman is like self awakening. Seeing in this case, ofcourse,  is not the seeing thru' eye, it is to know, to experience, to awaken, to become self aware, to realize that "I" is different from the body and "I" is the only constant, hence it is the only truth.

Question is how to get to this "I" in "Me". Hindu philosophy says, you get there thru' guru. Guru, it says, is the only way.

The key takeaway for me has been that brain is not the way to get to "I". All this while I have been thinking that brain/intellect could be a way to get to the "I" in "Me". It was a revelation to me, when I heard what the Upanishad's say, that this is an independent path.

A pile of rat shit!

53%  of India ‘s land is arable, as per 2011 world bank report.  In hectares, we have 2^nd largest land area, under cultivation, after US. That is huge. No wonder, this region nurtured an ancient civilization that found it perfect to settle and grow. It was a sought after land for many intruders, who wanted to conquer it and then settle down here to enjoy its riches. However, we in the present are wasting the natural bounty. Infact we have made this huge fertile land our bane.

India is the 2^nd largest producer of rice - 23% of entire worlds output; 2^nd largest producer of wheat - 18% of worlds production, 2^nd largest producer of fresh vegetables – 10% of world production.

What do we do with this bounty? We let it rot! Why, because we want the food to be available for our own countrymen. So, the government buys the food and stocks it. Does not matter if we do not have storage space, we just stock it in open. Does not matter if the food spoils, we still have a pile to look at from a distance and feel happy that we have a pile, even if it most of it has turned into rat shit!

In financial terms this is how it translates – Farmers spend money to grow the agriculture produce, farmers use fertilizers, subsidized by the government to the tune of INR65,000 cr. Farmers get free electricity, in most parts of the country, to pump ground water for irrigation, this translates to approx. INR30,000 to 35,000 Cr. Then there is subsidy on diesel, subsidy on seeds and other miscellaneous schemes that keep getting announced from time to time. Add to this the cost of the effort put in by 50% of our population, which is engaged in agriculture, approximately 600million people.  You are looking at a staggering bill! However, this is just the cost of production. 

Now, comes the procurement time. Government again spends money to buy the produce and stock it. Government has administrative machinery to organize buying and purchasing of the agriculture produce. Government machinery costs money.  For stocking, government creates storage spaces, though grossly inadequate and substandard, these storage spaces consume a lot of money to maintain (at least on paper). Government has many organizations to manage this infrastructure, and logistics of movement of farm produce from one region to another, like FCI. These organizations are overstaffed, inefficient and corrupt to the core, these eat more money.

Then what we do? We wait. We wait for the food pile to turn into a pile of rat shit, so that the cycle can start again!

Am I making case for no food buffer?  Absolutely not. We most definitely need some. But, typical of us, when we do, we overdo. There is a reasonable limit for actual food buffer and there is a way to manage that buffer. Beyond a certain level of actual food buffer, we need to create a financial buffer for food.  We can sell excess food in the world market, pocket that money, invest that money in safe securities, which will earn interest as well, and use it when we have to, during the rainy days, when our buffers run low or when the production in lower.

Women - How frustrating it must be!

How frustrating it must be, when one realizes that most of your decisions are not yours to make, that most of your life choices are picked by someone else, that you have a voice, but someone else speaks for you. That, in short, is life of a woman in India.

It starts right from birth - whether a female foetus will ever see the light of the day, to growing old respectably - whether she will be taken good care of or not, and everything that happens in between.

The birth of girl child is dependent on the sex of other children the parents may have, the beliefs of in-laws and the society that she is taking birth in. The chances go down considerably, if parents already have girl child and the in-laws are overbearing.

Once born, whether she will get good food or good education depends on whether there is enough left after male sibling's needs have been taken care.

Nearing marriage age, whether she gets a compatible partner or not is all about chance. In our arranged marriage system, it is true for the boy as well, but in case of girl, it is more so. She has to really count on her good luck to land into a good, considerate and loving family. She does not marry a man, she marries an entire family. Hence forth, it is not just the husband who makes the decisions for her, but his extended family members consider their right to do so too. Whether she is able to pursue her ambitions, interest or professional carrier, as she desires, is dependent on how others in the family feel about it. When to have children, when to go to her parents house, when to relax during the day, what day to wash clothes and hair, what to cook, how to cook, what to wear and countless other items, are handed down to her as advice, that "must" be followed. If she dares to not follow the advice and the so called "culture" of the family she married into, she opens herself to cold stares and barbs, at the least, and unspeakable consequences, at the worst.

The most frustrating, I guess, is the time and stage when the oppressed takes on the role of an oppressor. This happens at middle age in life of a woman. During world war II, Nazis had appointed Jews as guards at the concentration camps, these Jew guards were many time more ruthless on their fellow Jews than the Nazis. Something similar plays out here. The executioner however can never be at peace, can one?

Later stage in life, the roles reverse one more time, now the oppressor is again weak and meek. There is new lady master in the house, and the cycle goes on!

 

Tackling Poverty

Key is agriculture reforms. However, there is very little that has been done in this area. Huge workforce is engaged in agriculture, but they are under employed. Too many people keeping themselves busy, doing too little. Not that they are lazy, just that there are not many opportunities. Govt must create an environment where the percentage of population involved in agriculture comes down considerably, allowing consolidation of farms, enabling mechanisation and adoption of efficient farming techniques, resulting in improved productivity.

It is a waste of time and effort to make small farms productive beyond a point. By throwing small handouts to them from time to time, their misery is only being prolonged. Suicides will continue, even with Minimum Support Price regime, free electricity, no tax and waiver of loans from time to time.

Effort should be made to move people out of agriculture into other sectors of economy. Migration of population to urban economic hubs should be encouraged and facilitated. Government on the other hand has been trying to just do the opposite, with schemes like NREGA. Government pays to keep the people poor!

Government should set a growth target of 5% for the agriculture sector, up from dismal 1.5 - 2%. This can not be achieved by throwing money and some crumbs at an inefficient system. The system must be overhauled. It starts with putting someone in-charge, who has the zeal to fix it. Not someone like Pawar, for who agriculture is one of the many things that he does on the side, while he gets some time from Indian politics and International cricket politics.

Till the time that Indian agriculture does not pull its own weight, it will remain a drag on the overall Indian economy, keeping people in perpetual poverty. I wonder what is government's long term vision, if there is one.

Indian Economic Revival - Another Chance Squandered?

Under the political stewardship of the father of India's economic reforms, it is surprising that this government has violated some of the very basic good economic governance principals.  Or is it that this government became so delusional about the amount of wealth or the consistency of maintaining the growth of the heady days of 2006 and 2007 that it took gamble with its finance, which are now coming back to haunt it. Or is it that the people who pushed for some of these economic programs (Sonia Gandhi and Coterie) came from non economic backgrounds and with no leadership vision to see what is right for the nation over next many decades vs. the here and now. Have we again squandered our chance of providing decent living to our people that is not based on grants, but rather on providing people the opportunities to earn it themselves?

Government came up with a bill NREGA - National Rural Employment Guarantee Act - 2005, that guarantees 100 days employment to any adult in the Rural area. However, it is missing one crucial component, guarantee of commensurate output from the States/ Municipalities that execute this program. For all practical purposes, central government just provides wages to people, if they show up for work, even if there is no work.

On one side, people get paid for doing mostly nothing productive, on the other side, the productive part of economy is being starved of labour. People from the farmlands of Punjab and Haryana can testify this. No labourers for the sowing and harvesting seasons.Whosoever is available asks for wages that are many times over what was normal. Labour intensive construction industry is hit equally bad.

It is a double whammy, while the govt is spending tax payer's money on unproductive work, that too something that is locked down for years to come, it is creating supply side constraint for productive part of economy that depends on flow of labour. In a labour surplus country the government policies are creating labour shortage. We are squandering our only competitive advantage in the world, large pool of cheap labour. It is not surprising that we see high inflation in these areas.


Another bad economic decision - Petro products price regulation - When UPA came to power in 2004, under Manmohan Singh, it brought the petro product priving under government control. Contrary to what one would have expected from an economist of Manmohan Singh's stature, he turned the economic logic on its head and killed the open market that was created by the previous NDA regime for the petro products. Many private companies lost their investment and many foreign companies that wanted to enter India, in petro retailing, just pulled their investments out. Now, for last few years, the government is trying to undo its doings by deregulating the petro prices. Once step forward, one step back and a decade lost.

There are so many such instances of economic blindness that it is not funny. 

Courage

Courage is often described with reference to someone doing something heroic, under some very stressful, risky or threatening situation. But that is hardly a true measure of courage. Even the most docile of the creatures may exhibit courage, if faced with life threatening situation and left with no option. Courage, in my opinion, is the ability to walk the path that one believes in, when other easier alternatives exist. Courage is displayed by seemingly very ordinary people doing very ordinary tasks. Courage is to do the right thing, when you know the right thing.

China's manufacturing Vs India's service jobs

Between 2004 and 2008 oil prices went up from $30 to $150 per barrel. Guess what it did to the price of all the merchandise that China exports and the price of the raw material that it imports. Transoceanic shipping cost tripled.

In 2000 when the oil was at $20 per barrel, the transportation cost across pacific  was equivalent to an average 3 percent US tariff. At $100 per barrel, the transportation cost worked out to an equivalent of 8% US tariff. At $150 per barrel, the tariff equivalent was 13%.

On the other hand the bandwidth prices have been declining 20 to 25% annually!

Trend is clear, oil is going through the roof, bandwidth prices are falling through the basement. What does that do to the economies of China and India. While over a period of time oil prices are going to put brakes on China's booming manufacturing economy, the ubiquitousness of cheap bandwidth will continue to fuel and grease India's service economy. Place your bets cautiously! 

The stats for this piece came from "Why Your World Is About To Get  A Whole Lot Smaller" written by Jeff Rubin

Only when the shit hits the fan

It took full blown balance of payment crisis in 1991 for the government to realize that the then prevalent model of economic development was no good.

This time, rating agencies were giving final touches to their communique, reducing India's credit rating to junk, which prompted some policy action.

Economic prosperity comes when we grow at a rate substantially higher than inflation. In our case, however, we have to work even harder, we have a huge backlog to clear. We have to lift existing people out of abject poverty, we have to account for new people we are adding to our population.

Our collective psyche has been shaped by our distrust of foreigners who ruled us, used us and left us in economic ruin. Earlier, we were fighting between ourselves and allowed outsiders in to come and take advantage of us. This time, we are fighting among ourselves and shutting them out and letting opportunity pass by.

It would be so nice if political parties who dispose of a specific policy action can come up with an alternative as well. It is so easy to destroy or reject something, it is extremely difficult to come up with an alternative. Let all political parties share their economic plan of getting India on a 9% +  GDP growth path. Let these plans be scrutinized by eminent economists. Let there be debate on the over all economic plans of these parties, vs street fights on a specific policy action.

Let us not wait for the shit to hit the fan every time, for us to take action!

Cutting the nose to spite the face

If there is one word for the phrase "Cutting the nose to spite the face" it is "Bandh".  Who loses the most - the weakest in the society - daily wage earners. They just won't earn anything on this day. They have to depend on their savings, if any, to scrape through. Common man is the next, as the factories shutdown, they produce less and the produce gets costlier, we don't feel it immediately, but that is the net effect. However, Bandhs do not just mean stopping activity, it is in fact a license to destroy what we have. Bandhs are not considered successful until, a few buses and trains are burned, few shops are looted,  pitched battles are fought with the police, a few firing incidents happen. Band is historic when a few die! Netajis on their part court arrest. They are very respectfully taken in special police vehicles and put behind bars. They are fed and then given a drop to their residences before their favorite prime time serial starts in the evening.

Government registers a case of sedition against the cartoonists for disrespecting the national symbols. What about the netas and political establishment that disrespects the humans and takes away from them their lively hood.

Estimated loss to the economy because of today's Bandh - Rs2000 crore. If we add up all the losses that the country has suffered because of negative political activism till date, it will put to shame all the losses from all the scams put together. 

Mamta Vs Manmohan - economically speaking

When it comes to politics, Mamta wins hands down. 

I watched her press conference announcing withdrawal of support to UPA. Trigger for the decision, as she mentioned, were two issues - diesel price hike and FDI in multibrand retail. Both the issues economic in nature. 

Question -  does she know more about economics than Manmohan Singh? Should Mamta decide country's economic policies?

A quick comparison, (from wikipedia)-

Mamta's educational qualification - 

Banerjee graduated with an honours degree in History from the Jogamaya Devi College, an undergraduate women's college in southern Kolkata. Later she earned a master's degree in Islamic History from the University of Calcutta. This was followed by a degree in education from the Shri Shikshayatan College. She also earned a law degree from the Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, Kolkata.

Manmohan's educational qualification -

He attended Panjab University, Chandigarh, then in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, studying Economics and got his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1952 and 1954, respectively, standing first throughout his academic career. He went on to read for the Economics Tripos at Cambridge as a member of St John's College. He won the Wright's Prize for distinguished performance in 1955 and 1957. He was also one of the few recipients of the Wrenbury scholarship. In 1962, Singh completed his studies from the University of Oxford where he was a member of Nuffield College. His doctoral thesis "India’s export performance, 1951–1960, export prospects and policy implications" was later the base for his book "India’s Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth"

Mamta's early career - 

Banerjee became involved with politics while still in school, joining the Congress (I) Party in West Bengal and serving in a variety of positions within the party and in other local political organizations. As a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks to become the general secretary of the state Mahila Congress (1976–80).She was a college student in the mid-1970s.

Manmohan's early career - 

After completing his PhD, Singh worked for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 1966–1969. During the 1970s, he taught at the University of Delhi and worked for the Ministry of Foreign Trade with the former Cabinet Minister for Foreign Trade, Lalit Narayan Mishra. As the Minister of Foreign Trade, Lalit Narayan Mishra was one of the first to recognize Singh's talent as an economist and appointed him his advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Singh and Mishra first met, coincidentally, on a flight from India to Chile. Mishra was on his way to Santiago, Chile to attend an UNCTAD meeting.

In 1982, he was appointed the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and held the post until 1985. He went on to become the deputy chairman of thePlanning Commission of India from 1985 to 1987. Following his tenure at the Planning Commission, he was Secretary General of the South Commission, an independent economic policy think tank headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland from 1987 to 1990.

Mamta's track record  -

In 2009, Mamata Banerjee became the railway minister for the second time. Her focus was again on West Bengal. She neglected her duties as a railway minister to concentrate on electioneering in West Bengal.

She led Indian Railways to introduce a number of non-stop Duronto Express trains connecting large cities besides a number of other passenger trains, including women-only trains. The Anantnag-Qadigund railway line of the Kashmir railway that has been in the making since 1994 was inaugurated during her tenure. She also declared the 25-km long line-1 of Kolkata Metro as an independent Zone of the Indian Railways for which she was criticized.

Reuters reported that "Her two-year record as railway minister has been heavily criticized for running the network into more debt to pay for populist measures such as more passenger trains."The Indian Railways became loss-making in her two-year tenure. Even before stepping down as railway minister to become the Chief Minister of West Bengal, she declared that she would be able to handle both the portfolios together. Her nominee Dinesh Trivedi from her party succeeded her as railway minister.

On 14 March 2012, Dinesh Trivedi announced the annual rail budget 2012 that included an all over hike in passenger fares, ranging from 2 paise to 30 paise per kilometre for reasons of safety, along with network expansion and associated modernisations. The rail fare had not been hiked for nearly a decade  putting Indian Railways in ICU as far as its financial viability was concerned. The proposed fare hike would have added 4200 crores to railways income, which while paltry compared to its expenses, would still have saved railways from becoming bankrupt. The budget received enthusiastic support from a wide cross section of society including the general public, industry groups and all five Rail Unions. However, the fare hike proposal in the budget was fiercely opposed by Mamata Banerjee. Although Trivedi initially tried to defend the budget by pointing out that it was necessary for making Indian Railways stronger, Mamata Banerjee forced him to resign as Railway Minister on 18 March 2012

Manmohan's track record -

Following the advice of International Monetary Fund in 1991, Singh as Finance Minister, freed India from the Licence Raj, source of slow economic growth and corruption in the Indian economy for decades. He liberalized the Indian economy, allowing it to speed up development dramatically. During his term as Prime Minister, Singh continued to encourage growth in the Indian market, enjoying widespread success in these matters. Singh, along with the former Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, have presided over a period where the Indian economy has grown with an 8–9% economic growth rate. In 2007, India achieved its highest GDP growth rate of 9% and became the second fastest growing major economy in the world.

Singh is now a strong supporter of globalization, seeing India's immense labor capacity as a path to delivering Indian goods in a worldwide market and eventually relieving large-scale poverty.

Singh's government has continued the Golden Quadrilateral and the highway modernisation program that was initiated by Vajpayee's government. Singh has also been working on reforming the banking and financial sectors, as well as public sector companies. The Finance ministry has been working towards relieving farmers of their debt and has been working towards pro-industry policies. In 2005, Singh's government introduced the value added tax, replacing sales tax. In 2007 and early 2008, the global problem of inflation impacted India.

Now, I let the readers draw their own conclusion. A litmus test for each one of us though, if you were to send your kids for economics education, who would you send them to - Professor Mamta or Master Manmohan? 

President - A useless expense!

What good is a President for? President has zero power, but a whole retinue of staff and huge paraphernalia that goes with it, all paid for by tax money. When Pranab Mukerjee was eyeing the Presidential position he was looking at it as a retirement home, that has exclusive gardens and lawns! I for one do not want to pay for Mr Mukerjee's morning walks in perfectly manicured gardens.

President is a  rubber stamp, a constitutional necessity. It is a position that is given as a reward for loyalty and is a complete drain on the national exchequer.

Would it not be a good idea to merge the position with the position of the executive head of the government, that is the Prime Minister? We can call this position by what ever name, but there is no sense in having a constitutional head, with zero power, that is different from an executive head.

To make the entire government setup accountable and answerable to the people, the executive head of the government should be directly elected. So we, the people, know who is going to lead the country. Today the situation is such that if you want to know who would lead India after next general elections, you have to either read Madam Sonia's mind or get into the head of RSS Chief or wait for M3 (Mulayam, Mamta and Mayawati) to make their mind!

President for all practical purpose is useless, only time there is a real need for the President is when the government is transitioning. I am sure those functions can be performed by Chief Justice. Let us make the government leaner and efficient. Let's start from the top!

Teachers Day - What courses can our Parliament run?

The entire legislative machinery is stuck, parliament is not functioning, important state matters and legislation related to economy, which have real material impact on the well being of large population of the country are pending. However, even in this situation political parties are able to push  a bill reserving quota, based on caste and creed, in promotions. You may ask - How low can they fall? Well, the digging is on.

When you think you have seen the lowest, they surprise you with their ingenuity of going even lower. Politicians should patent this process of finding newer depths to which one can fall. They can sell this IP to the corporates who are also falling over each other to get part of the spoils. In fact Indian parliament, as a whole, can probably run some courses, with formal degree and all, to share their collective knowledge of defrauding a nation and make some more money. I am taking a stab at the courses that they may want to offer -

a) Maximizing ROI - How to make multiple times the money you spent on getting yourself elected
b) The art of disguise - How to be religious but completely immoral
c) Self development - How to kill your self conscious
d) Innovation - How to find ways to make money where none seems to exist
e) Team work - How to team up with rival political parties of diametrically opposite ideology and make money

The candidates who pay premium on top of the regular fee will get the best seats in the parliament's visitor gallery to see the practical on the floor of the house.

I invite the readers to add to the above list of courses that our parliament could run. You see, on Teacher's day we must contribute our bit so that the great leaders could share with the rest of the nation their hard acquired practical knowledge of bleeding the country dry.

True Federalism

Is India not too big, too complex, too diverse, too varied to be driven by one set of policies and one vision.

Different parts of India are at different development levels, they are grappling with different set of problems, priorities are different. Trying to impose same set of policies whether economic, or for social development,  from a central command and control structure is not working. It is slowing those parts of the country that can grow faster and is compromising those parts of the country where focus has to be on the basic social development.

There is too much control with the center, it is time to restrict that and give states the authority  and responsibility to chart out the course that suits them the best and hold them accountable.

Let the center only handle defense, foreign affairs and ministries related to strategic research and development, for the country as a whole, rest everything including the finance and economic policies should be with the states. There is perennial fight going on between the center and the states with respect to dividing the tax money. Let the center only levy the minimum that is required to maintain the  ministries under its control, rest of the taxes should accrue to the state that is generating the commensurate revenue.

Today, numerous policies and programs are stuck just because not all the states agree to them. Even if the programs and policies are good, they get stuck because they seems to be pushed from outside (center) and because of partisan politics.  We can change that. The states should be able to decide what they want implemented and what they want to block. FDI in retail, insurance, policy on natural resources, reforms in banking, in agriculture, list goes on, all of these should get decided at state level. A mechanism must be created where even if only one state wants to implement a policy it should be allowed/enabled to do so, without waiting for the rest of the union to agree to it. It should be possible to create companies / business entities /legal entities that operate in a state, as if they are operating in an independent country.

This will make state governments answerable to their electorate. Today, bucks gets passed around, state governments blames center and center blames states, development and hence the people suffer. No one knows if the poor development in the state is because of faulty union policies or faulty state policies.

State elections should become more important than the union government elections. The political parties should focus more on putting their best candidates at state levels, they should focus on governing the states better, making them competitive, and improving the lot of people in the states that they govern. This will only happen if the states become more powerful and manage more of their affairs themselves.

I know the present state of the state governments and their governance record is pathetic. In fact, that is precisely the reason why I am suggesting, that we change the structure such that we take away their ailbi of always blaming the center for all the ills. The first principal of good governance and good management is to hold someone unambiguously responsible and accountable for it

It is clear and has been clear for a long time that our current system - both political and administrative - is broken,  what is required is overhauling of the engine and not just change of oil.

Before Status Quo takes over

Manmohan Singh,
Finance Minister,
Government of India

Subject: 6 things to do before status quo takes over

Sir,

Congratulations on taking over the additional charge of Finance Ministry! (Thank God, Pranab Mukerjee is out and so, hopefully, the 1980's economic thinking).

People expect change. They have high hopes from you. Don't let this opportunity slip by. If you wait, status quo will take over. Here are some of the items that you may want to start with.

Get rid of the changes in tax laws with retrospective effect. Make a statement, or come up with a policy stating that changes with effect from back date won't happen going forward.  

Get rid of GAAR, it is arbitrary, ambiguous and open to interpretation. If you must tax transactions that happen abroad but involve assets in India, then make it mandatory for the asset to change hands in India as well, to a newly registered entity. Let that asset gets valued independently and then tax it as per exiting norms. What I am proposing may not be best possible solution, as I am not an expert, however the idea is to take out ambiguity, arbitrariness from proposed GAAR.

Untangle the wires in telecom sector. One of the showcase sectors of our economy, a sector that is an enabler for larger economy, is now bogged down in procedural and legal hassles. The guilty must be punished, but please don't look at maximizing the money thru' auction  and cripple the growth of this industry. Don't kill golden egg laying goose.

Announce a plan to completely get rid of diesel subsidy. Put a timetable in place, clearly showing, when the entire energy sector is going to get decontrolled and deregularized. The money thus saved, should help reduce fiscal deficit and some should get pumped into research for renewable energy.

Implement GST, all the work has already been done. Give it a final push and get it implemented. Roll out multibrand FDI initiative, at least let those states that want to implement it get started. But ensure that those states don't go back and force the businesses to shut down, when the government changes. That will be a kiss of death for the Indian economy.

Put better administrators in charge of government departments. Put some kind of status reporting mechanism in place for all government employees. Hold them accountable. Inefficiency is rampant. Meetings get pushed. Leaves are taken in good measure. Holidays are plenty. Now and then there is a strike.

You know more than anyone else, it is a lot about sentiments and feel good factor. Restore it.


Your Truly,

Socially Yours

Love it or hate it,  but you can't ignore it. Social networking is here to stay. To some, social networking is antisocial, making people not mingle in person, to some, this is the best thing since sliced bread.

Most of the educated humanity, with means, seems to have congregated on it already. Whosoever has not, is increasingly feeling isolated and under tremendous social pressure to jump on the bandwagon.

Businesses can not afford to ignore this congregation. However, the rules of this congregation are very different from any that the business has ever dealt with in the past.

Traditional marketing techniques don't apply.  New rules have to be learned, new techniques have to be mastered. However interesting thing is the new rules and techniques are not clear either.

There are so many of these sites, what to do? Which circle to use what face to spite? On which site to put up the official business page? How much to tweet? How much to share?  How to track who is saying what about the business? How to respond to good or bad comments? How to know and track the influencers and influence them? How to know what your competition is doing? How to track and measure the effectiveness of your social media strategy?

There are answers to all the above questions, however, the interesting part is that the answers have a shelf life. Today's correct answers won't necessarily be correct tomorrow. The landscape is not just changing, it is getting created, at a rapid pace. Hence, the techniques used to address this congregation of people in the virtual world today, would not work tomorrow, that is almost a certainty.


As a first step, businesses would do themselves a favor if they recognize the importance of social networks and virtual communities.

Stay tuned for more....