Post Dated Cheque

Men of The Queen realised India's importance as an ally during the Second World War. They had sent Sir Cripps on a mission to persuade India to enter the war and help them. Well it was sort of Mission Impossible as Indians were eyeing nothing less than Independence. Turns out Cripps wasn't even close to Cruise. Mission failed. Gandhiji commented on British proposal as, "Post dated cheque drawn on a failing bank."

History is a remarkable subject. It tells us tales about the past and gives us a second chance only for us not to repeat the same mistake. Albeit the mistakes and opportunities can never be the same. It is upon the wise to draw inferences or parallels, learn from mistakes or the successes of the past and act according to the situation to grow from strength to strength. 

Whats the bank which is failing here? It is our ability as a Nation to provide quality education in Government run schools especially for North Eastern states. 'May' could well be the shortest month when you spell it but that's the only best and cute part. It is the time of the year when usually class X and XII results are declared. Mercury soars not just externally but internally as well making it one of the lengthiest month. What did the waiting culminate into for students of 73 Government Schools from Manipur? A failure. Ok if CBSE is relatively tougher than State Board examinations. Consider the following results from Nagaland.

               

If 35 is a pass mark, Government run schools haven't even passed the examinations! Consider Meghalaya for the last 5 years the pass percentage in state held Xth standard examinations has never crossed 60%. Out of the 11 Districts 5 Districts have under 50% pass percentage. The pass percentage of 10th and 12th standard students from Guwahati region is also the lowest amongst all other regions with 64.9% and 60.2% respectively.

While it is imperative that standards for education in the North Eastern region has to be improved significantly, a similar trend of Government schools not doing well could be observed across the nation as well. Consider the % candidates scoring 10 CGPA.

Stark contrast in Results

It is high time we stopped ignoring the seven sisters and make strides for an inclusive growth. One of the asset any state would want to possess and be distributed equally as much as possible amongst its citizens is the amount of knowledge. This knowledge divide is increasing YoY between Rest of India vs North Eastern India and time to act is now. By the time we realise the importance of North Eastern region of India, hope the solutions wont be post dated cheques!

Sources:

http://thetypicalindian.com/news/cbse-10-results-73-schools-in-manipur-have-zero-pass-percent

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/CBSE-X-boards-Huge-drop-in-Delhis-pass-percentage/articleshow/52485669.cms

http://www.belvoireagle.com/education/nbse-hslc-class-10-hsslc-class-12-result-2016-declared-www-nbsenagaland-com-21526.html

http://cbse.nic.in/attach/PRESS%20NOTE%202016%20FOR%20CLASS%20XII%20(stat).pdf

http://cbse.nic.in/attach/Press%20Note%20for%20class%2010th%20-%20Stat.%202016(2).pdf

http://megresults.nic.in/sslc_abstract.pdf

Expired Medicine

Its a cliche that Boy / Girl friends come with an expiry date. Though its an overused term and lost its original effect, it does signify something, if a relationship is not mutual and is not an equal give and take it will plunge and may eventually end.

Though a Government needs to take care of all its subjects equally, there should be special consideration towards working class who pay taxes. This Income tax is in turn one of the prime source of income for Government. Its a concerted relationship where working class and Government benefit from each other.

Coming back to reality from theory, one realises that some of the benefits an Indian worker gets for working in India are wildly unreasonable. These benefits would have worked well in 1960s. One hand we are talking about Make in India, world class technologies, Mangalyaan but our acts are not in sync with our thoughts.

Recently Union Minister, Hon. Arun Jaitley proposed to levy tax on Employer's contribution of Provident Fund, clearly a proposal which wasn't well thought out. His office had to later come up with several iterations and after some violent protests in Bangalore they had to roll back the proposal. People at the age of 58 or 60 should be treated as adults. Instead of touching one of the 'Exempt - Exempt - Exempt' category benefit, if Government's intention is to provide its working class a corpus post retirement it should create opportunities to save more at present times. After all the value of a Rupee today is far greater than a Rupee several years down the line.

Consider House Rent Allowance, a Benefit which has partial tax exemption. In 1960s India would have boasted four major Metro cities and would have been fair to give an exemption of 50% for people residing in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. Even after 70 years of Independence if we still have just 4 metro cities it clearly shows the lack of India's glorious growth or the statistics are merely numbers on paper.

Should different cities have different HRA exemption rates?

Consider Bangalore, it levies highest Service Tax, Road Tax in the country. Tenants shell out 10 months of Rent advance. Its population will soon be the highest in the country and people living here are from various parts of the country but still a 'No Metro status'. We are planning to construct smart cities, now should smart cities be given Metro status only Government has to answer.

My high school fee in 2002 was INR 250 per month. It gave some tax relief for my Father. In 2016, the Tax relief on Children's education fee exemption is guess what? INR 200! A Lifetime imprisonment in India ends after 14 years! Even if the exemption is increased from INR 2,400 Per Annum to INR 4,800 Per Annum it will be a relief but it won't aid in savings because the reality is on 50,000th Floor!

Quality vs Compromised education!

These are just two points. There are other ludicrous benefits like LTA, why should someone be restricted to have their holiday within the boundaries of India? These benefits when being offered often leaves us Indians with a feeling that the government is giving its people a dosage of expired medicine which doesn't cure the ailment.

(For starters:

Pratibha Patil Foreign trips

"We are not committing a big crime...don't you send school children on vacation?"  - A response from Karnataka MLA

Study (read as junk) report by Karnataka MLAs )

Or why should dependent status be given to girls till they get married and is on the basis of age for boys? Hello there Deepika!:D 

It's high time we realise that the medicine subscribed to us during the 60's expired long back. Its time we look at a medicine that will revitalise the relationship!

PS: I have written a note to PMO office through http://pgportal.gov.in and Registration Number is PMOPG/E/2016/0174433. I shall update the post if I hear back from the authority.

In case you want to share your ideas / suggestions you can use the following toll free number 1800-11-7800 and record your message for the Prime Minister in either Hindi or English

Why are villages important?

What is one major problem which India has herself got into? Extending Reservations beyond agreed time period. For what joy? Not for Tinder Joy, Not for mockingJay! Its for Votes. What did it lead to? First phase of Massive Brain Drain. Its one part if people left the country for better jobs or for better living conditions, but, people also left us for availing of good education! Does the name 'Nalanda' reverberate in the background?

Now, if you step back a little and observe, we are staring at the Second phase of Brain Drain coupled with Grain Drain. This however is internal, Sociologists term it Urbanisation. For a country which has a rich heritage and has its roots buried deep into villages, the following statistics may sound alarming: By the beginning of the 20th Century, 11% of India was residing in Urban areas, where as by the beginning of 21st Century the percentage clocked at 31% and is rapidly increasing. Cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad have witnessed close to 100% population growth rate in the last 10 years! Its one part if people migrate to cities which are equipped and ready to handle such huge inflow but its entirely a different story line if they are migrating to cities which are half crippled themselves! All the knowledge which dwells in the villages will slowly lose its way in the mazes of the Urban jungles and will never be found again. This will be a double whammy!

The problem is primarily two fold: 1. Dwindling Arable land and 2. Migration

Fortunately or unfortunately India is an Agrarian based economy. We should strengthen and always guard our foundations. Sadly, every year 30,000 Hectares (74,131 acres) of arable land is turned into non arable land. What's the opportunity cost? Even if we assume that per acre production of Cereals in India is 2,953 Kg per acre (avg production of last 4 years. Source: Worldbank); it translates to 21,89,08,843 kgs of grains! If an average person consumes 8 Kgs of grains per month, 21.89 Crore kg grains could be used to feed 22.8 Lakh people per year. 

Grain down the drain not an uncommon sight

Adding to reducing arable land woes are the storage facilities. It is not an uncommon sight in India to see the produce being dumped at Market yards for the lack of support through Minimum Price or over produce.

Thanks to various conditions, Tropical unfavourable climate, Internal government inefficiencies, Globalisation etc., India is losing 2,000 farmers every day. That is not a great news for a Country whose Glorious Past, Magnificent Present and Stupendous Future depends on its villages, for you save villages India will be saved.

Imagine a body builder with thick muscles, if we puncture him with a needle, won't he feel the pain? He certainly does. However hard you may work to strengthen your outer muscles, your core remains soft. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that we stay in the global competition by looking at the country from a Macro-Economic perspective. The growth should radiate from with in by strengthening the domestic demand, financial inclusion and building necessary infrastructure.

For the staunch believers of John F Kennedy's quote, let's see if there are some ways, how you can build Rural India.

Sources:

http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/with-population-on-the-rise-and-agricultural-land-shrinking-india-might-become-food-deficient-254964.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cultivable-land-continues-to-shrink/articleshow/21852689.cms

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Agriculture/Cereal-yield/Kg-per-hectare

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.YLD.CREL.KG

http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/GzUIDPQXzktVDBEiE2ZPfI/Per-capita-nutrition-supply-in-India-among-the-lowest-in-the.html

http://worldfood.apionet.or.jp/alias.pdf

http://cpsindia.org/index.php/art/123-articles-by-jk-bajaj-and-md-srinivas/food-consumption-in-india-and-the-world

http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0172e/x0172e04.htm

http://mospi.nic.in/mospi_new/upload/nsso/63R_1.0.pdf

http://in.reuters.com/article/india-wheat-food-malnutrition-crops-idINDEE86101620120702

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/2400-MT-wheat-rotting-in-govt-granaries-for-past-2-years/articleshow/19924192.cms

image: https://www.yahoo.com/news/indian-wheat-rots-open-bumper-harvest-082549835--finance.html

Assumptions: The figures mentioned in the post are taken from various publicly available materials and assumed correct.

The Biased Indian

Imagine a scenario, there are 3 Men, two White and a Black. Apocalypse has arrived and there is a Space craft ready which can carry two people safely to a distant planet. The question is will a White man choose another White man or a Black Man? Or Vice versa.

This is a question which all People who club and advocate Equality and Democracy at the same time have to ask themselves. In a country where not every one has an equal opportunity to contest elections though being part of Nationalist parties (Yes contestants are decided by parties basing on candidate's caste! very rarely merit) and we are fairly happy assuming that Democracy gets us equality.

Now, if I were to ask you the same question as above, will an MP work for the benefit of his / her own community or for every member in their constituency, given the fact that, the very basis on which s/he was chosen was because of the 'caste' and they came into power basing on caste based votes?

Its ironical that we keep preaching 'Equality' everywhere but the very basic government form that we adopted is tampered enough into a rotten system. Five years is sufficiently long period for the all the 'Netas' to serve and damage the system. One particular group of Society will continue to grow stronger and establish Monopoly over a period of time exploiting all the opportunities. One or two groups may reach a position of close contenders and the resultant situation would be Duopoly or Oligopoly. This is true especially when Politicians have vested interests in Businesses. Any Democratic form of government plagued by corruption allows unequal distribution of Wealth, Power and Income opportunities.

So where should equality preaching prophets turn to? Socialism? Aren't we Indians tilted towards 'Equality', heavily biased towards an imperfect Democracy? Where Rich will almost always kiss ??!!

PS: This post though it might have started on the basis of Racism. I do not see any difference between them though :) Couple of my friends asked me to add more content, well for the moment this is just to spark a thought. Will beef it up when time permits.

CON TO BE, IN YOU BE

This is a responsive post and an attempt to meet a friend's challenge.

Right, here goes the story:

One day, Adi Sankaracharya was walking along a river bank. He was stopped by a man in his early twenties. He bowed reverently to the Guru and spoke, "My name is Mimamsa, I have couple of questions on your Advaita Philosophy. With your kind permission, I shall ask them. Could you, Oh embodiment of Knowledge clarify my doubts and lead me to the path of knowledge?"

The monk smiled and nodded his head.

Thus with the monk's permission, Mimamsa asked the following questions:

1. If Soul is eternal, why do I need to take a human form?

2. Why should there be any sufferings?

3. Why doesn't god intervene whenever there is a suffering?

Thus replied the monk, "Let's start with you. Currently you're in a human form and alive. What happens when you're dead? A life form, let's call it soul, will leave your current body and sets on its own course. It takes a new body and starts to live in the moment again. The soul never dies. It's the bodily forms which perish. Depending on the past and current actions of yours, you may be born as a human or in some other form. So, no one but you and your own course of actions decide what you'll be. You're the creator of your own destiny.

To ensure all this is done properly, there is a Supreme soul, God. Like drops of Rain which shower on Earth, with an ultimate purpose to join its origin, the Ocean. The routes taken by each drop could be different but the destination is same. All souls, try and reach the Supreme Soul. The course could be different but ultimate objective is the same.

During the course of this journey, you'll face certain difficulties. These are like different check points. It is to ensure your learning. Imagine a class of students who are being taught sword fight by a Master. He will shower his knowledge equally on all the students, it is the ability to grasp and to practice the learning which separates leaders from the herd. A Master doesn't intervene when he is testing the capabilities of a Student or if he assigns a particular task with an increasing level of difficulty because he knows that, all the hardships which his student will go through will only make him better. In lieu of such students who earned full faith of master that they will finish a task, he concentrates on students who are faltering, he corrects their stance, teaches and concentrates more on those who need him. Sometimes Master lets the best student lead the class too! At such instances, students realize that they are no different from Master. In fact they are not different from Master but they are the Master (That which is I)

The better you deal with difficulties, the lesser you'll depend on God. The lesser you depend on God, you'll realize that you and God appear to be separate entities but in fact are the same.

Well that's end of the story. For those who read the above and thought Wtf!?

Imagine you're playing a video game with 100 levels each with increasing level of difficulty. You're on level 99. How difficult should the ultimate level be? Not easy right? Here is where a quote from Swami Vivekananda makes lot of sense, "No knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside".. you have the knowledge of clearing 98 levels, so the summation of your current knowledge (1+2+3+..97+98) is much more than the knowledge required to clear level 99. When you failed initially during all the levels till 98, you haven't given up. Have you? Why should you give up now? Smile at the adversity and keep moving ahead.

Image sources:
1. azquotes.com
2. quotesmessages.net

The Next Gen Benefits

Why do you think Pavlov is darling for many? He brought out an important concept, 'Conditioning'. What should Government ideally be using this concept for? For the benefit of greater good. Really? How? We are in a country where fortunately or unfortunately we are low on civic sense. Let us accept it and face it.

According to Confucius, "Government Exists for the Benefit of the Governed".  Ideally rulers to induce good behavior adopt several practices. 1.Constant reinforcement of  good practices 2. Provide incentives to people who display Good behaviour 3. Penalise the subjects

One of the serious problems which world faces today is Pollution. What solution did Delhi Government come up with? Odd and Even! How does it solve the problem? It probably prevents further damage, but the problem is left hanging in mid air. It also will have a probable damage - Those who can afford and currently with an 'Odd' number registration, will buy a second car with an 'Even' number registration and guess what Pollution levels won't come down! Will they? When constant reinforcement and levying taxes doesn't work, Government should realise that there could be a third way of addressing the problems - declare incentives to people who adhere to law and respect Natural Resources.

As an example, let's take power consumption. Climate change is it for Real? Yes. Almost all Governments agree too. The fault with current Government slabs is that, it doesn't incentivise people with Good behaviour and those respecting Natural resources.

Scenario

If in a state with 85,500 citizens, if government revises slab rates across, it is a loss - loss situation. 1. The over all consumption of people won't come down because they don't see any motivation to do so and 2. It is an erosion of that much extra wealth of citizens on expenses.

Are the current solutions of reinforcing people with switching off lights or levying extra burden by increasing prices working? No. This is where, Government should take measures to increase good behaviour by pulling in more people to  the bracket where they consume lesser Natural resources . Consider the following table:

Pulling in people towards lesser consumption

If through some measure, people's consumption comes down, you could see a significant reduction in expenditure and so will be the usage of Coal over a period of time

How do we achieve this? As a solution, consider not increasing prices for citizens under "0-100" slab. Pass the additional burden upwards. That should motivate people to reduce their power consumption as they see an incentive to be in the lower pool of consumption.

Incentives

As a hypothetical situation, it serves as a punishment for those who neither realised the importance of Natural resources yet nor respect them. If the entire country is a team, those with lesser income are allowing their better off counter parts to use resources and are receiving rewards. In the end, this post is an example of how we could look at solving problems differently but the time is definitely ripe to look at offering benefits differently.

Which Colour Do You Hate? Vikram and Betal Series 1

The intrepid King Vikram more resolved than ever reached burial ground yet again, lifts the corpse on to his shoulders and started walking back. Betal inside the corpse pleased with the king's efforts thus spoke, "O king! usually I am the one who narrates you the story. Tonight let me ask you a question, can you tell me the world's problem through colours? If you do not speak even though you know the answer, your head will break into 1000 pieces."

Thus answered the king,

"When you're walking under scorching Sun, you hate Red and love the shade provided by Greens

yet, when the World sees Green it shivers and chides, why?

The Greenery which is pleasing to the eye, looks up to the clouds with anticipation, why?

White Clouds, to become full look up to the Red Sun and smile at the Blue Ocean, why?

When Nature doesn't have any favourite colour, why should "you" get stuck with and influenced by "one" colour?"

As soon as the king finished speaking, Betal with the corpse vanished again.

                 

A conversation over wine!

Right, so over the weekend, my friend and I were having a conversation over lunch sipping wine.

Friend (F): "So, you say you blog?"

Me (M): "Yeah. Once in a while, when time permits."

F: "What do you blog about?"

M: "Nothing in particular. Whatever interests me at that point in time"

F: "Can you then write a story, reading which I should feel, 'Probably', 'What the F**K' and 'I should continue to believe in my own beliefs'?"

M: "Fine. I shall try this in 3 attempts."

F: "Okay."

So that's a brief introduction to posts which will follow.. Cheers!

             

Best RBI Governor India ever had

India was fortunate to have several intellectuals holding the coveted position of the India's Central Bank Governor role and any comparison between them is by all means comparing Apples to Oranges. This post is to pick the best amongst those intellectuals. Am sure, all of them would have responded to various Financial situations according to the need of the hour but the Best Man RBI ever had till date is Dr.Raghuram Rajan.

What are some of the factors that set him apart from his class of Elite men?

Internal

Non Performing Assets (NPAs) - India was always proud of its robust Financial system and strong Fundamentals. If with all the robustness and strong fundamentals, Banks espesially Nationalised Banks, accumulate and keep accumulating Thousands of Crores as Bad debt each year, whose fault is it ? It's the System filled with Venal politicians. A particular Bank issuing Mr.M 400 Crores as loan against a flying bird's symbol? Another Bank issues money to buy a Debt laden company, which is in a sector where one in a million makes profit? A third bank issues loans in spite of Mr.M not repaying loans and paying salaries to his company's employees on time? Its many more ugly transactions like these that have led to bad debts and in a way they have turned White money into Black. Even shareholders of these Banks are least bothered about the norms on how Bank issue loans. They have full faith in Government that it will inject money when needed and rescue them. And guess what, they are right 105% of the time! What salaried class need to understand is, how will any Government ultimately get their coffers filled? It is by pegging Petrol and Diesel cost at levels higher than a 'fair' rate. By levying higher taxes. Imagine a day in future, when Government decides not to inject money and allows a bank to file for a closure - can you see scenes of Public (currently they act teeth-less) outcry and back lashes?

Doesn't this call a need for privatizing National Banks so that all of them act more responsibly and sensibly? Why does Government not allow it and just point a finger at one man who is trying all his best to avoid the situation to worsen, as though no one else can see what is happening?

Inflation

Why should Potatoes and Agri commodities be allowed to trade?

            


At least part of the Inflation in India is because F&O is allowed on Vegetables and essential commodities. Why Should this be allowed? If people of the country have money, let them invest in Stock market. Time and again, we get to read classics like these, which absolutely makes no sense. This shows the kind of vested interests different parties have in Indian market.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/10/17/india-should-have-an-onion-futures-market/#cb19869506dd

Where as US realised the danger in 1950s and banned this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act

To tame Inflation, to an optimum level in spite of the pressure from Government to ease the rates several times, nonsensical practices and suggestions like above the RBI chief did a very good job in steering the country's monetary policies in the right direction.

External

Thanks to our closed door policy till about 1990s some of RBI governors never had to face External demons to the level what their successors are facing today. Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation also brought with them a can of worms. External markets are even more complex and are so interlinked today than before. While Greece is almost dead; because of the Glutton of Crude Oil production by US, Arab countries - Countries like Venezuela and Several Oil companies are counting their days.

China has huge trade offs, What will it do with all the Paper (Read as US Dollars) it accumulated? Pollution vs. Production? If it stops accepting payments in USD who will purchase their Goods? If China is down who will purchase Raw material from India? If China comes up with alternate currency, should India go with China?

World needs good leaders, especially from US. Depending upon who gets elected as US President will have a significant impact on the world. It is a battle between a bruised Old school Christian male population vs the Entire world.

There is no need for celebrations that India has replaced Japan in terms of Purchasing Power. We should bear in mind, the Population figures of both countries. India still has a long way to go. India is now in such a position, where, when all other countries' economies are travelling by bicycles or going by foot, we have the luxury to travel by car, but hold on, its an Old car!

The top Banker has proved his mettle with his perfect grasp of the situations and understood the car well. Times will not be easy for his successors as all the chief could do is to hand over an old car, they will be under tremendous pressure. When in doubt, they can certainly look at their Senior and learn a thing or two and pick up solutions from his work.