Governance paralysis adds to Economic woes

When the whole world is fighting abnormal Economic upheaval and finding fast remedies so that it becomes equilibrium. However, in India we are seized of various issues for which undue focus has been forced upon, with the result that there is a leak in our vessel of economic woes. The governance of the country is not with the executive, but with others who see no reason to indulge in removing the litters that the economy has left behind. Alas, we are at discomfort with the reality. Government’s dithering and hesitation to act because of coalition’s compulsions left a void in economic recovery. We are not even at the cross roads. Every planning prophecy made need alteration. Growth has gone dismal. Industrial production has trespassed to negative territory. The Rupee continues its slide with venom. Interest rates remain prohibitive. GDP growth during 11th Five Year Plan was expected to garner an 11% growth. This year’s growth if it achieves 6.5%, it would be remarkable. These show negativism in the Economy. They do not show a positive sentiment for the economic growth. But no alarm bells rung. We should be worried, and alarmed at the state of affairs to declare a financial emergency. But we accept difference in every idea, that in every action all the political parties agree to dissent. True, we should not concern only in growth figures, but look at lackadaisical industrial and economic climate, scams vitiating pro investor policies, focus on corruption, and only on corruption, negative monetary prescriptions like interest rate increase 13 times in 18 months, hikes in petroleum products periodically making planning inconsistent, roll back on FDI on retail sectors which has sent a wrong signal to foreign investors. This has put a halt to FDI and FII and repatriation of investment which has created the dollar crisis. Rupee devaluation has hit the roof with as much as 20% slide against the greenback at a time the Dollar is vacillating. This increases input costs, import cost of capital goods, prices of petroleum products. RBI says the crisis has been caused by Euro crisis, instability of the American dollar, intense buying of dollar within the country, repatriation by FII, FDI, re-payment by Corporates of their External Credit Borrowing, higher import costs of Petroleum products. RBI has been clearly in the wrong with its monetary policy. Raising interest rates caused narrowing in the Spread between the interest on what banks pay to its customers and what interest they get from the corporate debtors. As per RBI, In Table 6.4 of Statistics, in 2011(Nov 14, 2011), the Banks had provided additional advance to 24.11 lakhs accounts (including direct and indirect agricultural advances) @ Rs 42,414 Cr. The total advances to agriculture and indirect agriculture is estimated as 339.32 lakh accounts with a Credit of Rs 4, 14,990 Cr. This poor advance to the agricultural sector has been responsible for agricultural growth failing to achieve a modest 4% growth envisaged under the 11th Plan. The Banks should give a new boast of fuel to that leg of the priority sector. Credit growth, best predictor of financial crisis, said an eminent Economist. Debt inflows could pick up only if differential monetary policy stance is adopted by the Central Banks in developing Economics against advance economics. Our central Bank inaction is the only action taken so far. Coal Sector, Kundankulam Nuclear Power project, crisis at Mullaperiyar, infrastructure deficit, country’s export related problems, including inflated country’s export by $ 9 billion (April-Oct) by DGCI&S, poor investor confidence, policy paralysis, needs exemplary solutions. Fundamentals are strong, says Finance Minister. Where are our fundamentals?

Indian Economy- any light at the end of the tinnel?

Utopian Indian Economy? Indian economy is in the doldrums. The caretakers of the Governments (Ruling coalition) and the watchdogs (Opposition parties) have been creating a near riot, and the economy, if it is not contained will hit gloom. The tsunami has already been formed, and to liberate the economy from its low would be an impossible and Utopian task. Companies are not performing to their capacity. There is a big gap between the installed capacity and working capacity due to idle capacity. Government has made RBI to commit all the economic flaws, impersonating the very same mistakes other nations in similar circumstances adumbrated. Our economy is slowly entering into a ‘debt trap’. Handsome foreign trade achievement. Between April- August 2011, despite the continuing meltdown and slakness of the markets, Indian exports generated Foreign Exchange to the tune of US $ 134502 million (Rs 602031.90 cr). A growth of 54.21% in dollar terms and 50%in Rupee terms. The export sector delivered a growth of 50% in Dollar, Rupee terms. Imports, necessary and unnecessary devoured US $ 1, 89,393.77 million (Rs 8, 47,987.07Cr) notching up a BoP position of the trade balance standing at (negative) $ 54891.23 million. The Rupee is fast depreciating against the Dollar (which continues to be weak). Corporate have borrowed in debt instruments more than US $ 50 billion but due to over heated Rupee, their gains have turned losses. Rupee is at its highest depreciation. The Commerce Ministry has been expressing hope that all is not lost, there would be no “w” growth, but momentum will see a gradual change by March 2012. Our Oil companies continue to bleed the consumer. Having monopoly status, every market affliction will be faithfully passed on to the consumer. There is a week Oil and Natural Gas Ministry at present, which cannot diagnosis the symptom with the result turning to be incorrect. Inflation has been mounting. Food prices are rising with alacrity. Oil prices are unbearable. It is very difficult for a middle class man to make both ends meet. Indian economy has become a candle, and due to the worst reign ever, since independence, the candle has burnt more than 70%. Fiscal deficit continues to haunt the government. Yet, the Finance Ministry is persisting with it, so that the continuum has made a spin off to the vulnerable sectors. Bank Credit rates increased 13 times in the last 18 months, has put India’s liberalization twenty year backwards. That too, when the architect of Indian reform, who’s Economic Revolution, made India one of the faster growing economies? Why is the economic clock turning anti clockwise? Why? Dismal financial conditions? Low down Economy? Depressed economic scenario? Our ineptitude handling? Prices skyrocketing, economy is struggling dragging its feet, industrial production has gone awry, industrial clusters wear deserted look as production has slipped to 50% with the growing of idle capacity, common man continues to be burdened and over burdened without any relief, expenses are mounting like Tendulkar’s batting, fiscal deficit is growing momentously, FII, FDI has come to a near halt, and the stock markets continues to fickle instead of dazzling. Our debt burden is likely to reach Himalayan proportions if we do not rein in the negative out flows. But we cannot stop imports. In spite of all these negative signs on the economic landscape, the mandarins in the Government profess to cough off all these happenings as a mild headache which can be corrected. Priorities are distorted, no course correction to direct the economy towards positive direction. There requires an attitudinal change on the part of the ruling Party especially the men who control the nation. The opposition also have a moral duty to prevent an economic collapse. Balance the economy is the imperative need, and any dithering will be catastrophic to the economy as well as the Nation. Better late than never.

Content in Reputation economy & Social Capital

While some believe that the World without money but with reputation economy and social capital will bring all round happiness, others deem wealth as an important ingredient than ethics and decency. Real wealth is in each of us, and value addition to life and environment is greater than monetary wealth one can acquire. “Content makes poor men rich, while discontent makes rich men poor” (Benjamin Franklin). When some Indian is included in the Forbes list of millionaires, which goes on enlarging, the percentage of growth in terms of new entries gets news space. Plethora of previews about the millionaire, varied views regarding their capacity, reviews of their work and interview to elicit their riches story, all make headlines. Some are born great, some achieved Greatness. This tribe belongs to the second category. Monetary wealth gives them the reputation of being the lucky few, who get the lime-light and make them famous. What is their value addition to Life? The rich gets invitation to the Chambers of Commerce, gets their Honorary Membership, toasts from Community Organizations like Rotary, Lions, and others, gets invited to Clubs where the rich and mighty Socials meet and they are introduced in the Hall of Fame. They might beget some Padma Awards as well, invitation from Rashtrapathi Bhavan, Governors House for Republic day tea, or a dinner meet with some dignitary from abroad. Look at the contrast. The Below Poverty Line person is given a definition. A person who spends Rs 32/- per day. And for he will spend the Rs 32/- is quantified. For him, no body is bothered except those mighty Politicians during the eve of election canvassing Votes promising him the Moon, but after elections, he has to moan for his discomfort. He is evicted out of the House, even though he had resided there for two generations, and there was nothing in it except the man in the Forbes list found the area lucrative to expand his industry. He was investing capital, providing wages, spending money on goods and services, which will make money, circulate, and he would sow the seeds of development so that our Gross Domestic Product would grow by double digits. This growth would make India surface as one of the most emerging economies of the world. The poor man who was displaced, uprooted from his home where two generations spent their years, living on an arithmetic sum to be called ‘Poor’ would continue to live elsewhere, with the same adjective, and meager means, while the land where he lived will breathe prosperity. When the bank increase the interest rate, the Forbes millionaire who has invested money out of the borrowed capital, and his tribe would make hue and cry, and though undesirable to the Government which gave him everything, he will make a popular speech at the expense of Public discourse, frequently misinformative. Squalor and valor have different connation in different circumstances. When the world works for its betterment without money, value addition to life changes from monetary wealth to social wealth. When reputation is wealth, only those, who do good and well unto others, are the richest. There is a Science to creativity, after all. Men are rated by human qualities, on a person to person basis, and not in terms of the Bank balance running into their SB account. When reputation is wealth, only those who do good and well unto others are the richest. When the Poor talks about his poverty, the rich always say something about another having nil gross value except it gets published in news-papers and telecast! Issues which are worthless. Well, India needs to focus on Reputation Economy and Social Capital rather than on materialistic pursuits and maintain its rich traditiona

Where do you take the Monetary Policy from here?

When the going gets tough, we need to get tougher. After failing 13 times to evaluate the reason for the acceleration of inflation, the RBI seems to be persisting with the theory of higher interest rate. The poor should have money to live and eat, when the market gets costlier and costlier. Market prices, it appears are determined in North Block in Delhi and RBI, Mumbai. Petrol prices hikes have been jacked up, knowing fully well that there will be spirilling inflation. Import is becoming costlier, and subsequently imported prices too, due to faulty policy of the exchange rate mechanism(by RBI) from 2002. If we continue like this, we will hit the ceiling. The Government has failed to achieve the promised Growth rate, it has failed to keep the fiscal deficit at 4.2%, inflation continues to rise, Rupee continues to plummet. Our Government seems to be in total darkness over Monetary Policy which seems to be driving the economy of the country to the brink, with inflation exceeding 9% for the last straight 11 months, food inflation crossing to 11%, North block seems to be unaware of the economic earthquake which is in high percentile on the Richter scale. Appreciating Dollar is probably adding and continues to add to the national woes. RBI is watching the situation with calm alarm! Oil Companies gleefully add Rs 2/- to the oil price but when things change in the international market like the recent decrease in price of oil per barrel, they cold shuddered Government’s admonition to reduce the oil price by Rs 2.05 paise, instead reduced it reluctantly Rs 1.85 per litre (petrol). With oil companies holding monopoly, they have been conferred right to increase the oil price as they choose by the Government which wants to shed responsibility and blame and wash off their hands of the price hike. Fiscal deficit has hovered beyond the Finance Minister’s 4.2%. How much it would over-shoot has to be seen. Banks has been raising interest rates, thirteen times in the last eighteen months, while the base rate concept remains off bank’s implementation calendar, yet the resultant inflation rate has been growing to touch the double figures. Inflation swells, interest rates are going up, money has to become dear but becoming dearer up-setting the monetary theory propounded by RBI. How and why? Credit squeeze has resulted in slowing down of the output of Goods and services while not necessarily driving demand upward. Increased cost of deficit has an impact on the industry in two ways- one, industries who were expected to go in for expansion have shelved the proposal, no new proposals for release of primary market shares, FIIs selling their stakes and repatriating, which has put the pressure on the Rupee. Our Country which imports 70% of petroleum products and 150 lakh tones of edible oil is increasing its Balance of Payment position by increasing the cost of import. While the Planning Commission, Finance Ministry, Prime Ministers’ Advisory Council rant that things will make correction by March 2012, slippery slopes of a vicious stagflation cycle is visible; it would be very difficult to break it. The avalanche of price rise is cutting the common man. In a developing economy like ours, money supply grows faster than the economic growth, but in reality RBI’s breaks slows growth of money supply. Reserve Bank should realize money supply is not the villain, but the artificial inflow of black money which has been flowing to our system is causing upward inflation. Even a Bank demand draft became exchangeable currency. Monetary policy and monetary tightening need innovation and clever anticipation. Tightening of money supply alone cannot help lowering inflation. The Rupee devaluation against Dollar’s appreciation was visible in 2002. But RBI’s inability to stem the riot in the bud has cost the nation heavily.

Telecom Revolution

India’s XI Plan had projected a telecom services growth, but in reality, but the growth rate exceeded planned projections. In the matter of telephony, India attained the near impossible of more than 75% in density. India’s rural areas were widely covered, giving access of telephony to a large number of people in the rural areas. Though the growth was sensational, there were some policy lapses pertaining to the award of licenses and the matter is seized by the Courts of Law, hence sub judice. There are charges and counter charges. 2 G Spectrum is sparse and naturally, its use should have been made under harsher conditions and upper value. Many experts believe that the licenses were given at rock bottom prices. Though different agencies like Comptroller and Audit General, Central Bureau of Investigation, TRAI, Government of India had given varied figures regarding the revenue that would been acquired if 2 G Spectrum was auctioned, and the revenue that actually came in because of grant of licenses on First-cum-First-served basis. The comparison made by the various authorities must have been made on a base, and that base has to stand the test of law of probability under the eyes of Law. There were certain agencies who calculated the increased revenue by comparing the value received in 3 G auction, some calculations were made on the disposal of shares by companies who had fetched the license (based on the market value of shares), one company had quoted a pan-India value for receiving the license in Court and that value was taken etc. There have been economists and experts who had argued that the ‘base had to be on demand of tele services and the cost to the company to service a customer including cost of investment to be incurred in the new services that would have resulted in ‘x’percentage of growth’. The mean value of that would have accurately and fairly determined the demand for the Services on the basis of which the revenue should have been based. The growth of the Telecom industry in India during the 3rd millennium was reckoned as 40%. Expansion of a service and its acceptability of the same depend on its cost effectiveness. The example of dramatic market expansion in the Telecom industry proves the above concept. When mobile telephony started, the total number of subscribers in India was around 40,000. Telephone instrument costed Rs 40,000/-. The in-coming and out-going charges were Rs 18/- and Rs 32/-. All the Service providers were making huge losses. Today, on an average 5-6 million customers are added and the cost of the calls is very low. Instruments are available from Rs 500/- onwards. India has the World’s second largest mobile phone users at 865 million (August 2011). Teledensity is 73.97%. By 2014-15, it is expected to grow to 1 billion (84%). Wold’s 4th largest internet customer is India with 100 million users (Dec 2010). Internet hosts are 45, 36,000. 40 million use internet through their mobile phones. 10 million are employed in the industry of which 2.8 million are on direct employment and 7 million on indirect employment. In 2005-06, the Revenue through mobile phones at factor cost at constant prices was Rs 32,000 billion, but in 2010-11 it went up to Rs 57,600 billion and in 2015-16, it is expected to yield Rs 103,680 billion. Telecom equipment segment sold equipments worth Rs 1,17,039 Cr (US $ 23.74 billion).ARPU(Average Revenue per Mobile User per month) and the total income has been calculated on the basis of Gompertz model of mobile phone diffusion in India. Government receives Regulatory charge, Service charge from each mobile user. Government Regulatory charges are 13%(This is far more than Pakistan 4.5%, Sri Lanka 0.3%, Malaysia 6.5%, South Africa 5%) Service tax (which no other country charges) in India is 12.24%. The revenue to the Government for 2005-6 at factor cost at current prices would be Rs 53 billion (Regulatory charges) + Rs 41 billion (Service tax) fetching a value of Rs 94 billion. In 2010-11, it was Rs 156 billion +Rs 187 billion = Rs 343 billion, while in 2015-16 it is quantified using the Sigmoid Curve(S-shaped Growth curve) at Rs 324 billion and Rs 388 billion = Rs 712 billion. [The Diffusion of Mobile Phones in India by Dr Sanjay Singh, IIT, Kanpur]. 4G Mobile servicing with LTG Tech will be introduced in 2012. All this will take the nation to a telecom revolution. This is the reality. The annual recurring income revenue to the Government has to be noted.

Pre-historic India was ultra Modern

History is more or less bunk, felt Henry Ford. Those who cannot remember the Past are condemned to repeat it, prophesized George Santayana

. We cannot retreat from the search for knowledge or new explanation- either in this world or beyond. As a species, we are approaching maturity. Are we? People are unwilling to confront mysteries which cannot be eventually explained or incapable of theoretical explanation in terms that they can understand. It’s more spiritually comforting to be able to recognize what we may face on the perimeter of the physical World than to face an unknown threat. If the Phenomenon cannot be explained, the best response is to ignore it- a more reassuring course of action, and, in a way, more innocent. The only explanation we believe is no explanation! Ancient records, there is reference to the reign of Gods, before the First dynast, a time of superior civilization and miraculous powers shared in memory and records of the most ancient World Cultures, considerably antedating Greece and Rome, possessed Knowledge of astronomy, advanced Mathematics, the calculation of time and the measurements of the Earth and Solar System, thousands of Years before these same facts were described or re-established in modern History. To have come by this information, the ancient Culture or Cultures would have to have had telescopes, other sophisticated instruments sufficiently precise as to make the extant calculations. The cyclic theory of Civilization, prevalent in the ancient World and still, to a certain extent in Asia, is in marked contrast a ‘Progress Theory of our own Culture’, with its pre-occupation with the passage and pressure of time, and the constly forward march of Civilization and Scientific development. As our own knowledge increases, however, we may find that what was suspected by observers in antiquity will be shown to have eventually transpired. World catastrophes and destruction of entire Civilizations may have previously resulted from a variety of causes, several of which face us today, however, resolutely we may refuse to contemplate them. Outstanding among these is the question of Overpopulation, atomic tests, nuclear waste, environmental pollution of air, water, imbalances of ecology, etc. Effect of a man-inspired melting of the Polar ice together with tidal waves and flooding of sea-coasts throughout the World is reminiscent of what we now consider to be the far from legendry Flood of pre-history which covered surface lands. Spillage of Oil would cause large-scale melting of Polar ice. Extinction of so many species of animal life will predate the human species elimination in its totality! We find mention in the records of antiquity in Mahabharata that the sub continent suffered from strangling overpopulation. Ancient religious legends of India betel nine crisis of the modern World. The earth is strewn with works of pre-historic engineering connected with the use of Polar magnetism. Within the ruins of an ancient structure whose vast size has hitherto rendered it invisible- linking together the great stone remains of pre-history still standing on the Plains, mountain deserts, in the jungles and under the Seas of the World. That defies the Laws of Science- we do not understand today- the stresses and pulls that represent the hidden forces of the Earth, Planets, Sun, Moon and the Stars! That a knowledge of spherical trigonometry and the use of geodetic instruments of excellent precision, and the possibility that they were originally plotted during a period approximately 8,000 to 10,000 years ago , many many centuries before our own recorded History, show that they knew all that we are presently inventing and discovering! Einstein’s space-time continuum, Newton’s theory of Gravity and Laws of Motion were known to them. Subjects discovered in Mahabharata, Ramayana, Samaraganasutradhara, Vaisesika School of Science Philosophers of anicient India, and other well-known Indian Philosophical books contain unexpected reference descriptions in complete detail on atomic warfare. These precious works which escaped destruction and burning covered subjects such as

relativity of time and space, cosmic rays, the law of gravity, radiation, the kinetic nature of energy, atomic theory, etc. These scientists knew that earth was spinning on its own axis

. They not only knew the shape of the earth, but its rotation itself. These Scientists have also recorded that atoms were in incessant motion. They subdivided the measure of time into a series of incredible fractions of seconds, the most infinitesimal being considered as the period taken by an atom to traverse its own unit of Space. Their knowledge of airships, enemy aircraft, tow-storey sky chariots, modern weaponry, artillery, rockets, agneyastras (cylindrical cannons) depicted that they were well versed in the modern type of war fare. They also knew how to release fog dart dense camouflage, use of different kinds of artillery, bullets of iron, lead shots, explosives of saltpeter, Sulphur, Charcoal, rocket bombs, etc. Ramayana describes travel by Vimanas describing the aerial view, which are precise and balancing view of part of Srilankan and Indian Coast. There were cresting and vanishing waves of Civilizations. Scientifically advanced civilizations have vanished leaving no trace except in legend. It may presently be a preserved memory but references of the Past describe a Pre-historic scientifically advanced civilization which brought about their own downfall!

Relationship between Inflation,Growth,Capital

India is a growing economy, set to join a League of Nations (BRIC) to emerge as one of the emerging economies by the middle of the third millennium. It had an impressive growth rate, upward of 9%, its Foreign Exchange reserves enlarged more than 7 times of the figure in 2003-4, its trade grew to beyond three century mark, its poor slowly were growing and had better living conditions, the purchasing power of the middle class grew, and consumption began to drive the economy. Inflation was at its lowest, in contrast to the high growth returns. India was on the red carpet growth to prosperity. India slowly emerged as a economic powerhouse with investments from abroad soaring in making it the favourable foreign investment destination. Ever since March, 2008 there has been a constant increase in the rate of inflation. In Nov 2008, it touched 10.45%, in Dec 2009 it was 14.97%, in January 2010 it went up to 16.22% and in September 2011 it posted 9.72%. The Government, made a monetary Policy amendment by increasing the low Bank interest rates, which has seen revision more than 13 times since the last 18 months. Relentlessly, the Banks went on expanding the interest rates with the hope that they would be able to slide down the inflationary impact on the economy. More they tried, more difficult it became. India’s war against inflation resulted in sacrificing its growth which came down to 7.5% and may slip to 7.2%. The Government gave the Magna Carta to the Oil companies to decide the petrol prices. The Petrol prices have been increased repeatedly, so that it increased the percentage of inflation. It has become very difficult to tame inflation as it has gone beyond a point. Our markets have seen a lull. Foreign investors do not beseech India like before. There has been a fall in percentile of investment. American economy is creating a Permbra situation in the Indian economy. When markets are lull, it passes on the feel to the Economy. Interest hike has seen the Non performing asset of Banks increase by 20% in the period, June-Sept 2011 (Rs 16,132 Cr). All the Public sector restructured their loans and 17% of all the advances show that it had turned bad. Many Small Medium Enterprise are turning red or closing shop as they are not able to get proper and timely Credit. A propped up credit at 14% makes availing loans unviable for units. Big Corporate companies can opt for External borrowings, but with the Indian Rupee turning meek against the dull Dollar has made foreign loans costlier than before (Rs 49.70= 1 $)(from Rs 40 = 1 $). They are indeed, waiting for some threshold. The aviation industry is in the dole drums because of this. The Exporters are also facing brunt on this front. Their dollar worth of goods account for more rupees while the expenses in the domestic market has gone sky high. The cost of credit through Foreign Exchange for Packaging Credit is not sustainable. Conflict over Policy objective higher level of well-being, that is means of achieving it- by higher growth or by lower inflation, trade-off is necessitated; both cannot be achieved simultaneously. Government intervention in financial and goods markets, due to macroeconomic rigidities has caused market failure and microeconomic instability. Inflation is harmful rather than helpful to growth. Policy implications will see inflation- growth nexus. Negative co-relation between inflation and growth in the long run would result in the influence of the former on reducing investment, productivity and growth. We are in the thick of core inflation, inflation on the basis of CPI, food inflation, low asset creation, declining value of parity (Rupee- Dollar parity), monetary inflation, and price inflation. There was a semblance of over heat in the economic growth and its irrational exuberance has seen the trajectory of growth going hay-wire. More than the fiat currency (paper currency), over supply of bank notes has resulted in depreciation of their value (Classical Economists David Hume & Ricardo). This may perhaps be one reason that the Draft which had a life of 6 months was traded in the market between persons. (This was treated like commodity money). Money is what money does. Money is transferable. It is constantly exchangeable. So long as money is in circulation, money gives equal value of other goods and services. Somebody may invest money to make some product. He employs workers and other managerial persons who look after his unit. They buy the raw materials out of the funds from their working capital and manufacture end product for sale to some wholesaler or retailer, on receipt of which he pays the money towards the cost of the goods which are demanded on the basis of Invoice. He pays the money and takes the consignment and sells the same and makes money. Again, he places the order. These steps are repeated. The money received is put in the Bank account. Salaries are paid to workmen, other staff on duty. Bills of Raw material supplier, embellishment supplier, packaging supplier, transporter, telephone bill, electricity bill, other temporary staff bill, other bills towards purchase of merchandise, etc are all paid, and they in turn pay for goods and services. There is circulation of money. Bank charges interest rates. The owner takes the Profit. Money capital is recycled again and again, and another session he will restart the cycle of reproduction with the aim of accumulating more capital and its disbursal. Suppose, the businessman feels that he does not want to continue his industry, so he sells his company to somebody and puts the entire corpus in the Bank. Instead of putting his money-capital back into commodities, he invests it in the bank. He now holds in his hands a claim to capital, perhaps in the form of a bank-account, or a bond, shares or whatever, rather than capital as such. Now his money lies idle in the bank vault. But his claim to the money is secure. However neither his claim nor the money itself are capital as such and can earn no interest, because the money is not in circulation. By its being in the self, it is not expected to produce more money. The Bank, need to loan this money to somebody. May be one person. Or many persons. The persons who have availed the loan should use it productively to earn a return by which he can circulate the money, pay interest, instalments due to the Bank out of his profit. The Bank should pay interest to the depositor as well. It should also make profit to be in business of banking. However, as the class of speculators, bankers, brokers, financiers, and so on, grows, as is inevitably the case wherever the mass of capital in a country reaches a sufficient scale, what happens is, for example, the bank finds that it is able to loan out far more than it has deposited in its vaults; speculators can sell products that they do not possess, “the right kind of person” is good for credit even when they have nothing, .etc., etc. Thus one and the same unit of productive capital may have to support not just the one retired industrialist who deposited his savings with the bank, but multiple claims on one and the same capital. If the bank accepts one million as Savings, but loans out ten millions, each of those ten millions has equal claim to that same value. This is how fictitious capital comes about. Fictitious Capital is value, in the form of credit, shares, debt, speculation and various forms of paper money, above and beyond what can be realized in the form of commodities. The ability of the bank to make unsecured loans is dependent on “confidence”, and at times of expansion and boom, the mass of fictitious capital grows rapidly. Then, when the period of contraction arrives, and the workers can no longer feed the voracious appetites of all these capitals, the bank finds itself under pressure and calls in its loans, defaults occur, bankruptcies, closures, share prices fall, and things fall back to reality – fictitious value is wiped out. In times of recession, even good, useful commodities cannot be sold because money and credit has become scarce, and the commodities prove to be valueless. Fictitious capital is that proportion of capital which cannot be simultaneously converted into existing use-values. It is an invention which is absolutely necessary for the growth of real capital, it constitutes the symbol of confidence in the future. It is a necessary but costly fiction, and sooner or later it crashes to earth. Roughly every ten years, the mass of fictitious capital grows while trade is good, and then, as the capacity of the workers to sustain the mass of hangers on reaches its limits, the downturn gathers momentum and fictitious capital is wiped out, and the cycle begins again. The scale of these crises grew continuously until the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression and the War which followed wiped out all the accumulated mass of capital so that a new cycle of reconstruction could begin again in 1945. The New Deal in the US, Keynesian economic policies and particularly the international monetary arrangements set up at the Bretton Woods Conference of July 1944, created conditions for an exceptionally long period of growth after the War. The particular mechanism for the creation of an unprecedented mass of fictitious value in this period was the role assigned to the US dollar as the medium of international exchange in lieu of gold. Under the Mashall Plan, Europe was rebuilt and the US capitalist class further enriched by the labour of all those workers who did the rebuilding. But capital could not organise that reconstruction other than by creating a new mass of fictitious capital, in the form of inconvertible dollars. Today, we are seeing the declining value of the Dollar. There is currency depreciation. By the mid-1960s this mass of fictitious capital began to collapse and world entered a prolonged period of crisis. The mass of fictitious capital circulating in the money markets, futures exchanges and so on today is, however, far greater than ever before. 98% of the value of monetary transactions in the world is speculative, only 2% involve actual use-values. Capital continues to exist by means of the delicate balancing act performed by all the governments and banks of the major capitalist countries, staving off the collapse of this gigantic and parasitic fantasy. The collapse of Banks due to ‘mortgage crisis’ can be attributed to this fictitious capital. The Banks could not recover the debt as the value of property had shrunk. Money is substitute to Capital (Tobin effect). Money, according to Stockman, is complimentary to Capital.

India's flip flop scientific Temper

Ancient India produced a lot of good science. Theorems attributed to Pythagoras are described in Indian texts that predate the Greeks. Foreign subjugation for around 1,000 years has discredited India’s ancient texts including the Vedas which contained many stanzas which were really ‘more advanced than the modern Science’. Since these texts were written in Sanskrit, and the statements were concise that it was difficult to expand the verses. Even as Indian economy continues to grow at a fast clip, several other statistics indicate that there are many challenges that will need to be taken in stride if the growth is to be sustained. Of them, arguably, one of the biggest challenges is the fact that India has the world’s largest number of uneducated children. These children can be India’s scientists, astronauts, doctors, engineers, economists, journalists and even politicians. Our educational system continues to be lacking in spirit. We lack continuity. The amount government earmarks for higher education, Research, etc is inadequate. All that the Government Research bodies do is present papers at international fora. None of their models have been tested on the ground for successful results. None of their suggested outcomes have come true. There are fundamental flaws in our approach to Research and Development. Statistical data released by these experts are found to be fallacious resulting in our continuing with the same Policy though it required a change. Wrong predictions result in wrong diagnosis which again fails the Policy, however, well intended it may be. Scientists are at a superficial level, equipped with knowledge but not in terms of feeling. The depth in scientific temper is found wanting. India does not attach importance in nanotechnology, information technology, biotechnology, space technology, cosmology, astrophysics and astronomy, etc. It is a sad fact that we have allowed our universities to degenerate. Most of the money goes to special centres, which have high connections. Research centres like agricultural research, economic research, product development, packaging and design technology which are the monopoly of the highly influential get government grants running into tens and thousand crores of Rupees. But the outcome is not visible as we see studded growth everywhere. If you want to excite young students to do research they should see research being done in an environment where they are studying. Only a handful is doing research in universities. In Institutes where there is reasonable amount of research being done, they are very few students. If the research institutes were on university campuses, then things might have been different. We should try to link university students and teachers with research institutes more closely and intimately. Indian universities lack scientific temperament. Experimenting is not their forte. Scientists get a spiritual high from science; they feel connected to the universe; and intellectual challenge is often their goal.

Rule of Law is extension of natural justice without discrimination

Law, Rule of Law, Natural Justice Judicial activism is desirable in a democracy, but it should not water down the Natural Justice which forms the core and crux of Rule of Law. The Law holds no discrimination and equality of all persons before Law is a basic right, a human right, a fundamental ingredient of Natural Justice. The established principle of Criminal jurisprudence that in the absence of specific countervailing factors, there is a general perception in favour of bail in all cognizable cases. This legal covenant is a natural extension of Rule of Law that presumes that all are innocent until proved guilty. The maxim “let hundred guilty escape punishments, but not a single innocent be found guilty.” In a recent case involving grant of bail to Ms Kannimozhi, one of the accused in the 2 G scam, the CBI Court despite not opposing bail of one accused woman was denied bail by stating that the benefit of Sec 437 Cr.PC was not available to her as she belonged to the upper strata of the Society. Sec 437 Cr.PC does not differentiate between classes of women. The benefit of gender justice seems to have been interpreted differently by the Judge when there is no distinction in the Constitution or the code of Criminal procedure regarding class distinction. This is a mistaken conclusion. Further, the Judge says that the ends of Justice would be better served, by incarceration in jail during the trial as the accused can influence the witnesses. No where in the IPC or Cr.PC such a course is prescribed. The charge sheet is filed, and the case against her is mostly circumstantial, evidence being the various records which are in Court’s custody, and the chances of intimidation of witness looks far fetched. Further more, the Supreme Court had asked her to appeal for bail after the filing of the charge sheet. The same judge who denied her bail gave her good certificate by saying that he had to reluctantly deny her bail as he found her dignified in her conduct within the Court room. The Judge has quoted the Sathyam judgement of the Supreme Court for refusing bail. The same Supreme Court has enlarged all the accused in Sathyam case including Ramalinga Raju. Therefore, the ends of Justice would be better served,if the legal issues which vary from case to case are decided on merits. The judiciary should not get swayed by public opinion, and public sentiment, as Public perception is based on little known facts and liable to change.

The Petrol price oligopoly?

We see a whipsaw market performance, huge runaway inflation including core and food inflation, bank’s already high interest increased 13 times in the last 18 months, poor contribution of government sector banks in nation building, unfair credit/colossus saving rate policy which is not conducive to Saving, freezing of administered prices of petrol in June 2010 has seen greedy and competitative Oil companies raising petrol prices at least half a dozen times- these are myxovirus that hurt India’s economic mobility to the top as an emerging market. We also see a government which is insensitive to Public reaction .The salaried class is epitome of woes of escalating prices. Government’s obsession with Growth rate, and reduction of fiscal deficit, as the main formula of public Policy, and privatization of all administered price regimes so as to reduce government’s subsidy allocation, is a retrograde step contemplated by the Planning Commission to change the edifice of economic policy followed by the architects of Indian economic growth. Momentum of growth depend upon the increased output of manufactured companies who should be given a level playing field with the foreign investors, the high growth in exports (US $ 275 billion) added the Foreign Exchange Reserves, but the industry’s perseverance to grow is cut in the bud by the insensitive support given by the Government with its oscillating Foreign policy which is self defeating. Gross Domestic Product is calculated on the Expenditure method, and thanks to the social sector schemes with huge outlays, excessive liquidity in the system creates inflation. Another factor that adds fuel to the price is born again retail Trading houses which were mega Wholesale super markets, withdraw some of the daily use item causing artificial scarcity, causing too much money chasing two few goods. Prices soar. When domestic banks raised interest rates, Government allowed the Corporates to raise funds from foreign debt markets at low LIBOR rates as the limit of borrowing was increased from $ 20 billion to $ 30 billion per year. But the exchange parity rate did them in, as Rupee depreciated to Rs 50 against a Dollar, making the loan costly. Corporates deserted the external markets. The cost of 1 barrel of oil is $ 110 in the international market. 1 barrel is approximately about 160 liters. The cost of Refining 1 litre of Crude oil costs around Rs 34.09. There is Central Excise levy, Customs duty which is around Rs 5.148 per litre. There is an addition of State levies, and the states have been opting for nil additional duty. One Crore litres of Crude is refined every month. This huge refinement of oil would bring down the per capita cost to negligible percentage. According to the statement of the Finance Minister in the floor of Parliament, more than Rs 8,000 Cr is given as subsidy to IOC, Rs 2,000 Cr to Bharat petroleum, and Rs 1500 cr to Hindustan petroleum. Last year, according to the balance sheet published by Indian Oil Corporation, the net profit after tax was Rs 10,000 Cr! The CEO of IOC went on record two days ago, and made a comment that under recoveries came to Rs 2500 Cr. What has necessitated an increase of Rs 1.80 per litre according to these oil Cos? One, cost of under recoveries need to be embedded in the sale price. Second, the appreciation of the Rupee (Rs 50 = $1) need to be compensated. Just like private exporters, the exchange fluctuation is a market phenomenon, and the Oil companies cannot ask the public to compensate it for the fluctuation. When all along it was the other way around, what concession you have provided, the oil companies must answer. PSUs should cut the cloth according to the cloth and not resort to Arab Spring tactic to raise prices at will. Reliance and other private sector companies also cannot make market phenomenon responsible for enhancing market prices indiscriminately. If you are in the market economy, you should try to adumbrate market perfections. When the profit of PSU is given back to the Government, it goes as Government’s receipts. Why don’t the government reduce Customs duty just as they have done for private players who are getting edible oil from certain countries at “nil” customs duty? If they can favour private cos, why not the PSUs who are essentially government run companies? When the administered price mechanism was dismantled, the Oil Companies should obey the tenants of the market. Since these PSU hold monopoly, they cannot form a cartel and rob the public in the name of factoring in imaginary losses as they may appear from time to time. The problem with the oil Companies is that their expenditure is beyond comprehension. Their operative expenses should be reduced. The quantity of import and the quantum of sale, there should be a match. What is the carry over stock? If an audit is conducted, many Skeltons may fall. Government should always opt for hard options and not easy options. All Companies should have due diligence on expenditure. It would also include the maximum percentile return of refined from the Refineries. What is the cost to the company to work out the sale price? Follow expenditure per customer centric mode and not per employee centric. Even after giving Rs 80,000 pm plus perks to the Government Secretaries, the output of Government babus have not under gone even 1% higher productivity. Higher economic growth would mean je ne sais quoi, unless they reflect in the poor graduating to the next higher class by begetting higher income. It must not be an empty rhetoric and lot of economic jargon explanations. The administered pricing of Petrol must be reinstated, as Companies are going haywire without accountability. They are not mature to handle pricing on their own. Market prices must be determined by competitative pricing and not monopoly pricing. The gap of 30% between Budget Estimates and Revised Estimates should be introspected; government expenditure must be reduced. Let us not be a Jeremiah, predicting discontent!

Conservative and derided Indian Middle Class?

The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class. Could the Great Indian Middle Class be the Great Indian Mythical Class? A persistent source of confusion surrounding the term "middle class" derives predominantly from there being no set criteria for such a definition. From an economic perspective, for example, members of the middle class do not necessarily fall in the middle of a society's income distribution. Instead, middle class salaries tend to be determined by middle class occupations, which in turn are attained by means of middle class values. Thus, individuals who might fall in the middle ground on a societal hierarchy as defined by sociologists do not necessarily fall into a middle ground on an economic hierarchy as defined by economists. As a result, intuitive colloquial and journalistic usage of the term casts a wide net and does not necessarily coincide with an academic sociological or economic definition. National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has held that a family with an annual income between Rs 3.4 lakhs and Rs 17 lakhs (at 2009-10 price levels) falls in the ‘middle-class’ category. Applying this arithmetic, NCAER hold that the middle-class households would be 53.3 million (267 million people). This unwieldy definition base puts the statistics to ridicule. The same way, Planning Commission calculated poverty as per day spending equivalent to Rs 32/- in urban and Rs 26/- in rural area. The absurd methodology adopted by these bodies to calculate the basic statistics is to arrive at a high figure in the case of ‘middle-class’ and a lower figure at the Poor category of the Population. Growth rate has never been able to reduce the unemployment rate which stood at 9.4%(2009-10) while average quarterly growth rate has been averaging around 7.45 % between 2000-11, even though in Q3 of 2003, the growth was 11.8%, Q3 of 2002 was 1.6%. Rob Peter to pay Paul. This seems to be the economic philosophy of the Government. In spite of persistent, consistent, aimless designed social security programmes with outlay of Rs 1 lakh Crores end up incomplete with neither the physical nor the monetary targets accomplished. The Policy editors have narcissist temperament, deceptive assumptions and outrageous greed. Against laudable objectives with which the Scheme was ambitionally lodged the Result is dismal emptiness, creating an un-necessary class war. The Poor continues to be poor, and the generation gap sees another poor taking over from his ancestor (Munishi Premchand’s famous story), when our well worked Planning Economics take us half way to zero, mathematics no longer work! Horizontal organizing, democratic decision making challenges, technocratic governance driven by credentialed experts, takes Indian economy to the dark jungle economy of wealth for none! The term “middle-class” is a classical example of a semantic plot! It is a widely misused term. People of the ‘cattle class’, legacy of the Victorian era, is it not linguistic outrage? The rich are busy counting their cashes. The Poor, darling of the political class, social scientists and so called intelligentsia, while, the ‘middle-class’ forlorn and uncared is without a Patron or a God-father but increasingly, the Finance Minister wants him to buckle his shoes by making him pay dear and dearer. His salary is cut in the mode of Tax deducted at source, service tax clamped while Government is pretending to be lax in collecting taxes from their favourite Corporate who enjoy plethora of tax concessions and benefits and in case of trouble can approach the ‘settlement commission’ The income earned by the Cricket Board which vulgarly displays wealth is exempt from taxes. What public purpose they serve, only the North Block die- herds know. Tap funds from these people who figure in Forbes list, increase the tax slab for the high rich, those who build houses worth Crores Float high interest Government bonds and compulsorily make these corporate houses to purchase them, so that the additional income earned can be used for reducing fiscal deficit. World Bank has pointed out that Indian Government is very liberal with low taxation base at the higher income slab- only some 15-16% of the GDP is collected as direct taxes, mostly they are the ‘middle class’ who can be meddled in any way to shell out, as compared to 25-40% in developed countries, enough taxes from the taxable lot. But the Corporate rich, who play the victim card, say that the jealous Indian Middle mentality in them feel that they want to take somebody else’s ‘Cadillac’ for nothing! In India, the middle class is a neglected constituency. Hike, hike, hike in the domestic interest rate on a regular level, while allowing the Corporates the luxury of availing Credit from External markets at low rates, increasing the prices of petrol incessantly, not because of high crude world prices but for making the Public sector navaratna bulge their profits, tinkering with indirect taxes, and reducing the taxable portion of income from the Corporates while hiking the rate for the middle-class. The population share of the rich is shrinking, the Poor is shrinking but the middle-class is growing. This augurs well for the prophets of high, higher, highest growth in the Indian Economy.

It is Never Too Late

Many people believe that their best creative days are behind them -- that they could have accomplished great things if only they had started sooner and that they are "too old" to take on a big, hairy project. Try to get a whiff of what some extraordinary people accomplished late in life. You may not be a Michelangelo or Stradivarius, but so what? You can still accomplish miracles. All you need to do is begin (and let go of the thought that "it's too late.") Nothing is late to make a new beginning. Michelangelo designed the dome in St Peter’s basilica when he was 72 years old; Frank Lloyd Wright designed Guggenheim Musuem while he was 91; Gold Meir became Prime Minister of Isreal at 72, Peter Drucker wrote the “Management Change for Turbulent Times” at 89, Gandhiji won freedom for India when he was 77; Nelson Mandela ascended the President ship of South Africa at 75(Courtesy: The Creative Age by Gane Cohen)” “My only Love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen, unknown, known too late! Prodigious birth of Love it is to me, that I must love a loathed….” (Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare). Juliet is saying,” My only love springs from my only hate! I saw him too early when I didn’t know him, and now I realize who he is too late...” We learn about ancient cultures in our History classes. Most of the old civilizations are gone. Some have left little behind except ruins and rubble. What happened? Where are the people, their music and ideas? Why are they nothing more today than a collection of stones visited by tourists, anthropologists and curious historians? The answer, of course, is not the same the world over. But Arnold Toynbee, in his work The Study of History (1987), says that the great lesson of history is this: civilizations that changed when confronted with challenges thrived. Those that did not change died. In other words, when life got hard, it killed off those who didn't make needed changes. The key to survival is often about "change." What about us and the need to change in contemporary ages. What about all of us? It's good to accept ourselves as we are, but when an unhealthy attitude or a destructive behavior gets in the way, when we wish we could change something about ourselves, we had better change. People who embrace change thrive; those who resist it do not shine! If you have been waiting for a propitious time to make that needed change, this may be apt moment to usher in that change. It is never too late to be the person you might have been. It's never too late to be happy. It's never too late to do something different or to do something better. It's never too late to change a habit. It's never too late to do anything that brings a sustainable change. Begin making that necessary change today. Then tomorrow, and every tomorrow thereafter, can truly be different. All of us feel in one way or the other that if we are given a new life, we could start fresh altogether new. “It is Too late now to alter our life Course” feel most of us who missed one or the other opportunity. A school drops out rues his decision when in his mid life he does not get good jobs. I wish I could go back to School to study, he laments. But he consoles himself saying, it is too late now. Somebody who had drinking problem wanted to conquer alcoholism and begin again. But, she was affected by an incurable disease and so he felt that “it is too late now.” When two thick friends break away, both do not take the initiative to hold out an olive branch. Then the rift becomes unrepirable. It is too late to patch up by making amends” feel both of them. But this is escapism. It is never too late to begin anything. It has been said that, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." The rest of your life is not yet written - it can be whatever you want it to be

Democracy is for the People

The Athenians, was a Country which followed the democratic norms just when the Christian era was about to commence. Periclus, was an important functionary of Athens, and under him, we had the “the age of Pericles under Athenian history was a golden age, 2000 years ago.” Athens practiced democracy, or the form of collective decision, in the remote age of History. After the Athenias had driven out the tyrant Hippias in 510BC, they tried to work out methods to prevent the establishment of anther tyranny. Once a Year they set up an opportunity for a vote that was aimed not at electing someone, but at exiling someone. Each Athenian could write down the name of a Politician whom one felt was growing too dangerously powerful for the good of the State. If a total of 6,000 votes were cast and one man received a majority, he was forced to remain away from Athens for ten Years. It was not a disgraceful exile; his property was not confiscated, his family was not mistreated, and, when the decade was up, he was welcomed back. He understood that he had been sent away to be kept from the temptation of trying to upset the democracy. Athenians practiced democracy, when they had no Constitution, and even perhaps a similar one to Act of Settlement of 1701. They did not have the ‘Rule of Law’ which connote that no body was above the Law. They practiced democracy, 2000 years ago in the spirit of for the People, by the People, to the People. In modern day India, a democratic Republic, with a written Constitution, and a Powerful judiciary, an active media, could not practice the perceived democracy which Athens professed and followed! The commitment to democracy of Athens was inborn while Indian democracy is enthused. There, lies the difference. Yet, some protagonists wanting moderation in electoral reform by introducing, Recall of Elected Representative, Referendum to gauge Public opinion, have failed to perceive that we have universal adult franchise in India. Even the percentage of voting in an election is generally below the 50% of eligible voters. We can move with the times, but we cannot run ahead.

Judicial activism and Rule of Law

Today, one of the complex causes that affect the common man is the delivery system of Justice, which if delayed is tantamount to justice denied. The judicial reforms are overdue. The one crucial aspect of judicial inter-dependence is the continuity in thought, expression, expeditious disposal of Cases. The Supreme Court, in the Keshavanatha Bharati case, reversed the Special bench’s ruling that Chapter III or the fundamental rights are paramount, and hence, Parliament under Article 368 of the Constitution could not alter them. In the Bharati case, the Court propounded the ‘basic structure doctrine’ and ruled that any article of the Constitution which did not affect the basic structure could be amended by the Parliament, holding that there were no” implied limitations of the amending power by Parliament”. Was the fundamental Rights, inter alia, not a basic right extended to the citizen. While observing that ‘judicial review’ formed a crucial edifice of the ‘basic structure’ , the learned Judges did not look beyond time, to consider what would happen in posterity, if the state unnecessarily encroaches on the Citizen’s right? Will not habeas corpus right devalued, if fundamental rights are curtailed? Writ of Quo Warranto? Writ of mandamus? If Parliament has overwhelming 2/3rd majority, can’t there not be a arbitrary approach which results in removal of the law on Rights guaranteed , as the Parliament is empowered to change or cause amendment to any Article or clause in the Constitution. When the government subverted the judicial review by giving blanket cover to certain amendments placed in 9th Schedule, Court clearly made it known that 9th Schedule came under Judicial Review. Emergency in 1976 nullified Keshavanda Bharati judgment by inserting sub para (4) to Art 386 limiting the Court’s interference and sub clause 5 of 386 placing the sovereignty of Parliament paramount. However, a bench headed by Justice Y V Chandrachud in Minerva Mills case (1980) held clause (4) and (5) of Article 386 as invalid. The Janata Government under Morarji Desai passed the 44th amendment, deleting the Right to Property from Art 19(l)(f) and 31 of Part III and was made into Artcile 300-C. It excluded remedy under Art 32 of the Indian Constitution, as Right to Property ceased to be a Fundamental Right. The High Court of Madras stayed the execution of 3 convicts of late Rajiv Gandhi citing undue delay at the hands of the president for deciding their ‘mercy petitions’. The Right of clemency was vested in the President. It was subjective. However, the SC held that President could not exercise that power independently as he was always bound by the advice of the Council of Ministers.Power of granting clemency was a power vested with the President, to be used by him in discretion. The Council of Ministers come when Policy decisions are involved. After SC has confirmed a death sentence, on the basis of theory of seperation of Powers, President was the head of the three reservoirs. Hence his power was paramount. When politicians deal with this provision, discretion is not exercised, she is taking a political decision. Supreme Court need to revisit this Judgement. Various Chief justices of the Supreme Court had stated that the SC will sink under the weight of the cases pending disposal. There is a case which is more than 400 years old, stayed by the Supreme Court (Ayodhya Case). Bhopal Gas tragedy case? There was another case which was adjudicated after 40 years. The longevity of cases range from 20 years to one year. Would the action or adjudication go irrelevant because of time consumption beyond one’s reach, time and capability? Justice V R Krishna Iyer in Indira gandhi Vs Raj Narain case, reserved the judgement after hearing both the parties. Nani Palkhiwala told him that if he did not give stay immediately, there would be vaccum as the stay of the judgement of Allahabad HC expired the previous day. Justice Krishna Iyer made a revelation that if an appeal is preferred, and if stay is granted, it has restrospective effect. From the date of hearing of the case, the order becomes valid. By the same token, President's rejection of Mercy petition takes effect retrospectively but since it is execution, it is a prospective exercise that has to be under taken. The time gap is to be ignored because you cannot set a limit for clemency. It is a discretion. The most important abuse of litigation is the appeal to Supreme Court preferred by the Insurance Companies against Motor Accident Tribunal judgments to deprive paying compensation under the sly. They are held up for years in the SC. Justice V R Krishna Iyer introduced what is called the ‘Public Interest Litigation’ in what was known as Ratlam Municipality case where Varachand & Others was the petitioners. Traditional rules of ‘locus standi’ were the hall mark of a right to file a writ petition. Relaxing procedural Rules, if the Society as a whole rather than a specific individual feels aggrieved, Social action litigation or Public interest litigation could be resorted to. ‘Epistolary jurisdiction’ of United States was the precedence bed rock on which Justice Krishna Iyer based his new theory, which was known as ‘Judicial activism’. A step taken in a new direction is fraught with the danger of being a likely step in the wrong direction. Pressure on the Courts is already overloaded. The pending cases are mounting. Unfettered jurisdiction to review anything and everything is not good in a flourishing democracy like ours which has theory of separation of Powers. Under Art 32 and Art 136, a citizen can approach the Supreme Court including filing PIL if it involves fundamental rights. High Courts have wider powers that under Art 226 and 227, any question of law can be raised under a writ petition. Court and the Judges need to make critical subjective and objective assessment of their role as torch bearers of democracy. “Reading down” action of a judge which depend upon outlook or philosophy of a Judge can change a cause and its remedy: if certain provision of Law construed in one way, consistent with the Constitution, and another renders the construction unconstitutional, the judge rules in favour of the first, which is constitutional is based on Judge’s reading of the vocabulary. Accountability is an essential part of the Rule of Law. It has to accept checks and balances and does not have unfettered rights. Self restraint is a very important rule than an exception.

Supreme Court's supramacy

Two Supreme Court judgements, 1) I C Golaknath, Ors Vs State of Punjab (AIR 1967SC 1643 (1967) 2 SCJ 486)(Special bench of the Supreme Court) delivered on Feb 27,1967 with a 6:5 majority ruled that, “Parliament has no power to amend Part III of the Constitution so as to take away, abridge, curtail the Fundamental Rights. This is the pericardium of the written Indian Constitution; the 2) Keshavanda Bharati Vs State of Kerala (AIR 1973 SC 1461 (1973) 4 SCC 225) which was heard by the 13 judge bench of the Supreme Court, delivering its judgement on April 24, 1973 with 7:6 majority introduced the ‘basic structure doctrine’ by which any article of the Constitution can be amended with altering its basic structure. 6 judges held that “Article 368 does not enable Parliament to abrogate or take away fundamental rights, including the right to property, because there are in Article 368 inherent or "implied limitations" in that it does not empower Parliament to alter or destroy the "basic structure" of the Constitution.” While the other six gave unbridled power to Parliament to amend any clause in the Constitution. Now the 13th judge, “. Subject to the retention of the basic structure, the power of amendment is plenary and includes within itself the power to amend the various articles of the Constitution, including those relating to fundamental rights as well as those which may be said to relate to essential features." Prof. Dietrich Conrad, a German jurist remarked that any amending body organized within the statutory scheme, howsoever verbally unlimited its power, cannot by its very structure change the fundamental pillars supporting its constitutional authority." Article 79(3) of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, adopted on May 8, 1949, , bars explicitly amendments to provisions concerning the federal structure and to "the basic principles laid down in Articles 1 and 20 (on human rights and the "democratic and social" set-up). The cardinal principle of the Constitution was to reiterate the Rule of Law as its guiding principle, for if there was no rule of Law, then there is no equality before Law. Chapter III guarantees fundamental rights. The golden triangle of Article 14, 19 and 21 is the basic feature and the touch stone of the basic structure doctrine is Art 21 read with Art 14, 19. When the Supreme court gave unbridled power to Parliament to alter the Constitution , the Government amended Art 368 by inserting clauses (4) and (5) which proclaimed the sovereignty of parliament (5) of 386 and restricted any amendment to be questioned by any Court of Law (4 of 386). The judicial review (Article 32 and 226) which was centre piece of the Basic structure doctrine enunciated by the Judges was sought to be taken away by the 42 nd amendment during the internal emergency which was declared in 1976. Schedule 9 was blanket cover for government which again was beyond the pale of Courts. However, clause (4), (5) of Art 368 was over ruled by the bench headed by Y V Chandrachud in the Minerva Mills Case in 1980. The 44th amendment by Morarji Desai government, removed ‘Right to property’ which was a fundamental Right -19(i)(f) and Art 31 out of Part III and made as Article 300 c. This change made the citizen forfeit remedy under Art 32 as 300 A is not a fundamental right. The SC also held that 9th Schedule inclusion can come under judicial review, if need be. The major innovations introduced by the Indian Supreme Court like the ‘basic structure doctrine’ and ‘public interest litigation’ has won kudos for it in the juristic circles. The Courts need to play an equally important role to bring down the Cases, end litigations, pronounce judgments, while upholding the Rule of Law.

Poverty, double entendre

We always measure certain things, by fixing certain variables. The depth of the ocean, the time taken for the sun’s rays to fall on the earth, etc. What is the total height of the sky from the earth? How many stars are there in the sky? Various mathematical formulas, theories made by scientists, economists are broadly used with mathematical precision and inferences arrived at. How will you measure Poverty? By a measurement scale? The incidence of poverty? There is also a difference between ‘Below Poverty Line and above Poverty line’. A line distinguishes them. If you get 35 marks, you pass, but if you get 34, you fail. What is the difference between Pass and Failure? Poverty is measured in terms of spending of Money. What is money? Money is what money does. That means, if you get something which has a price, you have to pay money having equal value. Money is measured by the value it fetches. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US $ 1.25 (Purchasing Power parity) per day. Another report placed ‘moderate poverty less than $ 2 and not more than $ 5 per day’. India’s all powerful Planning Commission which plans for the development of the Country and ear-marks segment wise budgets for Plan schemes, appointed Suresh Tendulkar Commission to redefine Poverty using socio-economic parameters so that a methodology could be devised to assist these people by providing with Food Security. This Commission came out with a Report depicting 40% of India’s population as coming within the clear definition of Poverty. It further found that 3 out of 10 in urban area and 4 out of ten in the rural area were BPL. In order to arrive at the figure, they had worked out a mathematical formula which was based on the spending level. This spending level was used as a measurement to calculate BPL and APL. In one case which was currently on before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, the Court asked government to distinguish BPL and APL in clear terms. The Plg Comm. Filed an affidavit in which it categorically stated that if a person spends Rs 32/- per day per person, he was Below the Poverty Line and if he spent Rs33/- he came under APL category. This was considered as a fax paus. Pandemonium greeted this, and in desperation, Government said that it did not subscribe to this arithmetic. The Plg Comm also distanced itself against the numerical it had provided saying that they calculated poverty on the basis of Tendulkar Report. Further, they clarified that Central government scheme did not confine itself to BPL, APL, but had universal applications. The storm in the Tea Cup has not subsided. Poverty is the scale as to one who lacks a certain amount of material possession or money. Absolute Poverty or destitution refers to being unable to afford basic human needs. There is unequal distribution of wealth and welfare. Lacking a usual or socially acceptable level of resources or income as compared with others within society/country is termed as Poverty level. Low incomes and inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival and dignity is the hall mark of a huge population in a developing country. Life expectancy, decrease in child mortality rate, proportion of per capita food available, disproportionate usage against supply shrinkage causes higher incidence of poverty levels. Poverty line need to find the total cost of all essential resources than an average human adult consumption in a Year. It must be need based, record minimum expenditure needs necessary for survival and dignity. The Poverty threshold or Poverty line is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard. People in different circumstances- with different household size or demographic compositions or living in different places- naturally have different levels of economic welfare at the same level of income. They have different needs. A Poverty line should reflect these differences. There are a number of formulas to arrive at the Poverty line, poverty cycle, and Relative poverty. Poverty statistics is used to measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship.

Indian Angrazi

Language enables Communication. To be communicative implies, there is an expression of speech which says what is intended. The word "language" has two meanings: language as a general concept, and "a language" (a specific linguistic system, e.g. "French").Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication . The English language has outgrown its borders, destified, that English spoken is no more British English. There is a wide chasm between prescriptivists’ who adhere to the grammer, and ‘descriptives’ who want to take the language at face value. Angrezi has undergone insouciant adaptation, like ‘chamcha’, ‘dossara’ (Murali’s armour). English words like, ‘politics’, ‘corruption’ and even, ‘my dear’ has permeated to every Indian language. What a funny language? The Computer has American spellings and words have an American flavour. Do not mistake, “Indian Summer” has no connection with India. It refers to American dry warm weather in late autumn. ‘Faint’ is from French, feigned, simulated. Gossip is from old English god sib, God parent, sib means relative. Later the word meant ‘indulging in idle talk’. The word ‘laconic’ means austere lifestyle, from Laconians of ancient Greece. Booth capturing, propone, item girl, are slangs that have crept into English, coined as a result of many recent events. Have you heard Patel shot? It is not a cricketing shot of Patel, but a candid photograph with a person in the foreground and a place or object of interest in the background. Indigestion means bad digestion, incompetent is not competent but, invaluable is not having any value but having high value. Having tasted ‘Rasam’, the English dictionary adopted the word, “mulligatawny” (Rasam+pepper water). You say ‘housewife’ but do not say ‘househusband’. The word Emden was a new word added to the South Indian words, meant ‘big and powerful’, in Malayalam ‘thallipoli” (useless). Emden- German ship, which created devastation off Madras coast. Sustain (injuries, damages, concussions) and nourish (skin, spirituality, embryo), two similar words, one is given as synonym for the other. Sustain illusions, hope and belief, while more likely to nourish things like soil, souls or earth. Two words, Principle (basic principle of Commercial law, stick to your principles) while Principal is also known meaning most important, sum of money lent or invested, etc. depict the diversity of the language. Compliment and complement have different meanings. Kumbakonam is a sacred temple town in Tamilnadu, but adoption in English meant, decit, cheat, dubious. Palindrome means reading the same spelling backward as well as forward. Examples civic, pop, noon, level, Madam, receiver. Malayalam, Amma and Appa are Palindromes. Homonym, one of the group of words that share the same spelling, same pronunciation but different meaning like bark(dog),bark (skin of a tree), bank(of a river), bank (eg Canara Bank), Rose(flower), Rose(rise). There are also words used as units rather than as labels like Recurring dreams, dreams recurring, or Able was I ere I saw Elba. William Shakespeare has invented phrases like, Sweet Sorrow, “Sea Change (tempest), Salad days (Antony & Cleopatra), and ‘Milk of Human Kindness (Othello) ‘Elementary, my dear Waston’ was never used by Arthur Conon Doyle but used by P G Woodhouse as ‘Exactly, my dear Watson”. The language’s prowess is known by the number of new words added, and its active usage. Indian Angerzi is the state language.

Is Indian Economy going haywire?

Letter to the Finance Minister of India: Mr Pranab Mukherjee, India’s present FM may be a trouble shooter for the Congress, and is a loyal Congressman having been the chip of the old block of its party cadres of the Indira era. He has his own disappointments in his Public life having failed to achieve his due, many a time. There is a Congress divide, internal squabbling, which has risen to commendable proportions due to the weakness of statesmanship and upmanship of many Scholars within the party who think they are full of wisdom. When the economy is in the cross roads, when growth is going haywire, fiscal deficit is taking a turn for the worst, when liquidity is a problem forcing government to borrow atleast around Rs 62,000 Cr to offset Income: Expenditure of the budget, when headline inflation has pervaded to increases the price line, food inflation has grown without common sense, when the watch dogs have to increase interest rates 12 times in last 18 months, when the greedy oil companies have been raising the price of petrol every alternate week, making one litre priced Rs 70/- when it was Rs 45/- an year ago Planning Comm on the eve of the 12th Plan estimated that it would be adequate for an Indian to go to above poverty line if he spends Rs 32/- per day, forgetting that somebody made the calculation in 1950, and present scribbling just scribbled it. Sugar, milk, wheat, rice, vegetables, egg, tea powder etc , even if you buy 200gms, it will cost you Rs150/-The Planning Commission seems to be in a mirage, inside an air-conditioned glass house throwing stones. It is Economics of the American kind suited for safari suit clad CEOs. Too bad and very sad, indeed. In a country of 1.2 billion, not even 10% are in the direct tax net. Very bad. When tax collectors become creative, the taxpayers become indigenously clever with inventive ways to avoid them. India’s core of taxes does not come to the exchequer. No body wants to part with their hard earned money. Large corporations dodge artfully while the less vulnerable sits in their stupour. The loop holes in Law help the evaders and the honest is prosecuted. Many of the millionaires amongst the Politicians, how much taxes are collected? Finance Minister, when wealth multiplies, the chances of getting more taxes from this tribe look much bright. Probe the income of the political class without discrimination. It will yield a rainbow. Settlement Commission is a tool where the rich corporates get off the hook squarely, with the country being the loser. Only the salaried class, is getting his pay deducted at source (TDS), service tax is lavished on him, hike after hike, year after year, in your budget. This lot is the sheep for your butchering. Now let us look at some ways by which you can raise the taxes without getting any fierce opposition from those who paid taxes forcefully. The Government of Bihar employed bands of singing hijras who sat outside the house of defaulters. The tax payers made no compliant. They paid up. Eunuchs demanded 4% commission for their work. The entire tax was collected. They never harassed anybody. Staged sit-ins, beat drums outside the homes of reluctant tax-payers and achieved exceptional results. Employment to hijras and money to the exchequer. There are many in India who are offering mystical services. They cast their spells tax free. The loss to the treasury is Rs millions. Theare are many others who do such services, and whose income is in five digits- kuttichattan seva, tarot, astrologers, ink astrology, star gazing, fortune telling. There are mediums who charge Rs 15000-20,000 for a sitting to talk to the dead. There are palm leaf manuscripts called nadi astrology where they will read your life with 100% precision and accuracy at Vaideeswran Koil. All of them feel that by paying taxes what they get in return. Any quid pro quo? Striptease dancing, is an art form and a form of theatre, hence it is not Service said a foreign Court. What about reality shows shown in television? Your predecessor came out with innovative idea to increase the Post card rate to 60 paise for competitive Post cards. Chinese authorities thought about an innovative method to collect taxes. Children of Parents who paid the highest taxes got bonus marks in the competitive exams and school public exams. In Philippines, it is a raffle. You send a valid tax receipt, it becomes an entry in the lottery. If your receipt is one of the 5 lucky ones to be picked up, you will become an instant millionaire. If you pay taxes, you get preference in admission. How many people will get into Tax net without Govt of India spending Rs 1/-. What about our Yoga Guru Ramdas who owns an island. He is the King of the Place, and his island a soverign state where Indian government cannot put its pie on. Any island outside the international waters is not the property of GoI nor does it have jurisdiction. Tax heavens need not be Banks. It can be such islands outside the international water limit. There are dogs, pets, and other animals, which is bequeathed wealth. But the ubiquitous taxmen touch it? Any list available? There are atleast Persons of Indian origin and expatriates in various parts of the world. In Africa (28 lakhs Indians), Middle East (42 lakhs), Europe (17.69 lakhs), North America (51 lakhs), Africa (5.10 lakhs), etc. 40% of population in UAE is of Indian descent. The emigration rate of growth is estimated at 0.8% by UNDP. If each person is asked to pay $ 100 and given an identity card for preferential services, it would earn billions of Dollars. Instead of the easy way of collecting higher revenue of Service Tax, petrol hike, interest rate hike, which look pedestrian, the Finance Ministry should go for innovative forms of taxation which will hurt nobody. There are small and marginal businessmen, traders, micro units, who fall within the taxable bracket but do not take the trouble to pay because of lack of escort service. Why does not Income Tax department recruit 1000 volunteers all over India, assign them territories, and give target to them, to introduce 1,00,000 new tax payers every month. To enlarge the tax base by 12 lakhs per annum. Every canvasser will get a commission and rewards for performance. Tax audit and investigation into tax not paid but hidden should simultaneously go with prudent tax net widening. This can be done quietly with rewarding results. Finance Ministry should become innovative, pro active and project a human face. ********

India Economists confused?

When you forget fundamentals, think of India’s Economy?

To dilute inflation, in the last 18 months, the Reserve Bank increased the interest rate almost a dozen times, to see the percentage of inflation growing menacingly. Monsoon was fair and timely, hence the yield would result in buffer stocks, translating into higher prices for the farmers causing deceleration in Food inflation. The Food inflation for the week ending Sept 25, 2011 was 9.41%. The headline inflation too, hovered above 9%. This is causing consternation, India’s Finance Minister bemoaned. Cereals, vegetables, are still costly.

Interest rates have been steadily going up so as to arrest inflation, which has seen volatility of the liquidity. Bank’s credit is growing in spite of re-payments. Debt portfolio has been increasing. In spite of huge repositioning of interest rates, the price rise has been increasing menacingly causing alarm bells in higher expenditure, slow down in credit availability, increase in unemployment, and slow down of economic activity, discouraged savings, leading to hardening of the currency.

Only a few days ago, Economists praised sky high Indian economic policies and reforms which they said would take India to a growth trajectory and will make it the most important emerging market. India will be an economic super power by 2050, while today’s developed economies will take a lower place in the growth table. When America and Britain were trembling with economic crisis, India managed to withstand global onslaught and came out unscathed. See India’s airports, which have international and modern ambiance. Delhi’s beauty can be compared to any capital in the world, its huge buildings, sky rappers, enchanting gardens, with historical peripherals make it a dream Capital.

On the one side, you see the river in full flow, and on the other, India’s other face emerges. In spite of the growth of 10% higher growth, more than 40% of India’s people live on less than Rs 32/- per person per day. 1990 saw the golden year of India’s liberalization of its economy, and after 15 years later, India’s poverty percentage continues to soar. While Government has been concerned about 9% or 10% economic growth, the people of the country do not get a square meal that out of the 88 countries tabulated, India stands at the 67th Place. The Planning Commission people, who are here to change the image of India through economic planning, say that the Poverty line is capped at the expenditure of Rs 32/- per day. They say, Poverty is confined to Food alone. Food is the key detriment of Poverty definition. With a high food inflation of 9.41%, food would it include Kerosene, Oil, sugar, vegetables, tea, milk, egg, bakery items, etc. Our Harvard and London School educated men who occupy the Planning Commission know all these things. Food also would mean protein food, as infant deaths are high in India.

India’s policy has been, import food stuffs by giving them free leeway in Customs levies, allow the imported stuff to monopolize the domestic market while domestic indigenous products take their own time to increase their productivity The land is converted into non agricultural land, and all disincentives be provided to the domestic industry so that they would not venture to produce more. This has been the philosophy of the Food & Agricultural Ministry. They procure food grains at fancy prices, fix Minimum Support Price which is neither scientific nor fair, import in excess of demand by inflating the demand, and provide imported oil through Public Distribution System to benefit foreign manufacturers. The procured food stuffs were rotten and were infested by rats in the food Corporation of India. When the Court ordered its release, the Government said that they cannot provide food grains free. Even if it rots, no problem, but no distribution amongst the needy.

Unable to make both ends meet, a number of farmers committed suicide. A number of retailers and small traders who depend upon bank credit are suffering and there are number of suicide deaths causing consternation. There is an irrational increase in Petrol prices which also was raised in as many as a near dozen times. From Rs 45/ per litre increased it to Rs 70/- a litre. The oil companies contend that they are in a loss, while their fancy balance sheets show record profit made by them. They are giving flat dividends and the beaming Finance minister is shown receiving the dividend cheque which is in excess of Rs 10,000 Cr. The cries of the people are inaudible, as Oil Company executives flatten their purses by increasing their perks.

AL Basham called the nation, as ‘Wonder that is India’. The wonder has seen India shine. India going to be a economic super power by the middle of the third millennium. But the litmus test is – whether higher growth rate is it barometer of the Poor graduating to haves, and their condition of living improving to take 3 square meals a day, with Free Education, free medical aid, social security to enable them to spend their old days. Buddha envisaged a poor less society in the 3rd BC. Is it Utopia?

History is a Seven act Play?

History is the seven act play of the heroic description of the past, golden ages, of the splendid and worst times, eras of the Past. History is about War and Peace, rage and hate, prejudice and grievance, hope and despair, tyrants and saints, geographers and plunderers, good, pure and true events of People, of their religions, cultures, a sort of scoreboard of achievements. Karl Marx felt that ‘history itself was nothing but the activity of men pursuing their purposes’. Another thinker, Ralph Waldo Emerson was of the view that there is properly no history but only biography. Cicero characterized History as the witness that testified to the Passing of time as illuminating reality. Wright Morris felt that past was useless which explained why it was called past. Arnold Tony bee, was of the opinion that, “civilization was a movement and not a condition, a voyage, not a harbour”. According to him, of the 22 civilizations that have appeared in History, nine-teen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now.

Then is History is a back dated memories of the past clad in antiquity. A sense of the Past. There have been great Historians and thinkers like Arnold Tony bee, AL Basham, Thomas Carlyle, HG Wells, and others, who wrote capturing poignant expressions of empires, rulers and the ruled emphatically. Would anybody for that matter call Antony and Cleopatra as fiction because, William Shakespeare wrote their history in prose. Crossing the Rubicon is ascribed to Julius Ceaser (49 BC) even though there might have been many who would have crossed the Rubicon. Ceaser’s crossing the Rubicon is an historic event. Edward Clalleth Carr would like to call it as ‘hist oriography’.Is American Revolution, really a revolution or a War of independence where the England troops led by Cornwallis lost to George Washington in the Batlle of York. America became a Free Nation. If British historians had no problem with American Revolution, why did they call the 1857 up-rising as a ‘mutiny in India’ and not first war of independence. Is today’s Indian National Congress a continuation of the Indian National Congress of 1885 founded by A O Hume? Carlyle wrote The French Revolution: the History and Charles Dickens had adopted many incidents for His Tale of Two Cities from Thomas Carlyle’s book. Fidel Castro made a great speech, concluding it as, “History will absolve me”. The same History, will it absolve Mikhail Gorbachev, who was responsible for sweeping reforms in USSR, but his successor Boris Yelstein was a willing tool to the West as he dissolved the Confederation, and followed the Politics of Dismemberment. The British Empire were sun never set, adhered to the Politics of dismemberment of India into India and Pakistan. Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan, even though the majority of people professed Islam, because they wanted Sonar Bangla. Korea, Vietnam, Germany, which was balkanized, turned one. Palstine is still vulnerable.

Did Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, the theme of the French Revolution, create stability in France after the Revolution. It required a Napoleon, who proclaimed himself as the Emperor to restore authority. Oliver Cromwell (1653-1658) ruled England as Lord Protector at the Head of the Commonwealth after beheading King Charles I in 1649. But was he not a greater autocrat than Charles?

Winston Churchill became the powerful Prime Minister of England on the resignation of Neville Chamberlin in Sept 1939. He was one of the greatest prime ministers Westminster had ever seen. Did he not lose elections to Labour enabling Clement Attlee to become Prime minister? Why did people loose faith in Churchill? Franklin Roosevelt was the President of America. But when the Second World War came to an end, it was a beaming Harry S Truman who represented America as its President. It has been said that Allies had powerful leaders like Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and many others while Axis only had an Adolph Hitler. After War, Stalin who was a powerful ruler fell into infamy. Gandhiji was one of the greatest apostle of Peace yet he did not win a Nobel for Peace.

There were many who felt that China should not be awakened. Let the sleeping giant sleep. When Nixon and primarily Kissinger made the voyage to the country of Dragon, the country woke up. The Sleeping Giant woke up.

If Shakespeare’s work Ceaser and Cleopatra was the centre piece of history of the Romans in the remote days of the Christian era, likewise, Poet’s description makes up for many events re-constructed with the help of novels. Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Nehru’s Discovery of India and Glimpses of World History, whether they were plots from History or created plots for History, only researchers can pin point. Socrates was sentenced to death for asking provoking questions in pursuit of truth during the Golden age of Athens ruled by Periciles. Alexander in the remote time of History knew geography to invade India. Adi Sankara in the 8th century AD set up monasteries in different parts of India when travel was by Road, and he died when he was 32. Layfatte is said to have participated in both the French and American Revolutions. There is a Layfette square in New York. Cornwallis is said to have fought the Battle of York in New York against geogre Washington (defeated) and against Tipu Sultan in the Battle of Mangalore in 1799(won).

Samuel Johnson correctly stated that, there are in every age, new errors to be rectified and new prejudices to be opposed. Even though History may be history of men and matters, it shows precisely a different era, in different surroundings. History repeats!

Government Babus are still in the Colonial Past

UPA II’s most talked out mission to provide exclusive and independent Identification to every Indian was as unique as the programme to take computer literacy in every nook and corner of India through a technocrat Sam Patroda envisaged during Rajiv Gandhi’s prime Ministership. India’s technological face today is Nandan Nilekani, the most well known Indian technocrat who took Indian software to the world through the firm founded by him along with Shri Narayana Murthy from scratch known as Infosys. Naturally, his enthusiasm to do something for the Country was quiet instantaneous. He was asked to head the Unique Identification Project from inception.

A well known face in business circles and elite company, Nilekani must have thought that it was an easy task, already done, if the top layers of the Government like the Prime Minister and others persuaded him to invent a model which would take care of one document that would provide a unique identity card for every Indian. It was a far sighted step. In began Nilekani earnestly, consistently, with a purpose to turn his idea into a Product. Its introduction will have far reaching dimensions. Wide acceptability of the UID would help people to identity themselves instead of having multiple identity cards which may not have all over acceptance.

After having done the preliminary, including creating software and putting it on-line with the Computer in Yojaana Bhavan, the team led by Nilekani estimated the cost to the Government at Rs 14,841 Cr and requested for ear-marked outlay from the 12th Five Year Plan slated to commence from the sun rise of April 1, 2012. The Planning Commission who was the mother department of UIDAI was the first to create a turf War; it wanted financial control over the funding of UIDAI, and insisted on placing an Integrated Accounts department which will monitor demands and undertake implementation by routing correspondence with Planning Commission and not directly routing requests, file papers, wants to the Finance Secretary, directly. Any direct action which required speedy execution was put under a colun. Home Ministry came into the picture raising objections on the reliability of the Unique Identification Number, and insisted on cross checking for duplication as Security angle was involved. This would result in procrastination. Reserve Bank of India’s last straw that UNIDAI would not suffice as a document to open Bank accounts or verification proof has put a big question mark over the utility of the Project itself. How will the project take off, if the concerned Ministries who cannot devise its own methodology to evolve a fool-proof mechanism where to kill a project which had all the projected queries to the reservations.

It was expected. One under Secretary can torpedo the entire Scheme of the government proposes by putting many questions, or probing questions. With Right to Information Act in place, it is for anybody to get the noting to establish that Government went out of the way to placate somebody or gave extra importance to a Scheme. I was appointed as a Consultant on such terms and conditions with a Job description, and my performance was audited by an autonomous body which was under one of the Ministries at Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi. The Ministry used me at the slightest pretext, made me reply Parliamentary questions, and give inferences and ideas requests made by PMO asking the Ministry to process a request, etc. I was also responsible for preparing a Scheme, presenting it before various Ministries including Planning Commission, answered insipid queries raised by other Ministries, amend the Scheme based on norms specified by other Ministries, attend in person the Expenditure Finance Committee meeting which is exclusive to Secretary, Jt Secretary of the Ministry only, etc to argue about the Scheme authored by me . The Scheme was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs headed by the Prime Minister. I had brought the industry under the various Schemes of the Commerce Ministry, made their projects eligible for Duty Drawback, and got over Rs 1.5 Cr released for organizing a reverse buyer-seller meet which saw participation from 120 business visitors. Now, my job with the different ministries was appreciated and I started getting importance. After 3 ½ years, the Government asked the autonomous body as to under what authority they appointed me, and their Internal Finance department, whose officials I would have met at least 2 dozen times to answer a volley of doubts, concluded that my Contract appointment was unauthorized.

Government of India and its officials can do anything under the sun, which cannot be finite and depended upon. They quoted an irrelevant and outdated clause to refuse me fair compensation for the Job I did . When I saw the contradictions surfacing on various issues like the administrative note of Finance Ministry, affidavit of Planning Commission, many other notings by officials on files which are available on the Public domain show that intelligence and sincerity is not a virtue of the various departments of South bloc, North bloc, Krishi bhavan, Nirman Bhavan, Yojana Bhavan, Sanchar Bhavan, or any bhavans in Delhi. A man publicized to the hilt by the media, for the highly pompous schmee to make available a single identity card which would serve all purpose, should have been put to the embarrassment of this nature by the modern day babus who still live in the colonial Past. Shame indeed.