INDIAN GOVERNANCE COMES ONLY THROUGH COURTS

India is perhaps the only country on this globe where the total polity and the governments in states and centre, day in and day out are busy yelling at the top of their voice that they are working overtime for the benefit of the poor citizenry of the country and the governance is solely aimed at improving the lot of have nots. The basic fact however remains that Indian government is a government sans any governance and is busy filling up personal and party coffers through actions which on paper are people centric and for the good of the country and its hapless millions.

Whatever iota of governance comes is because of the intervention of the courts, be it in the small matters of preventing pollution, safety of drivers, cleanliness and collection of garbage or bigger concern of corruption, graft and bribe. This has been going on for umpteen years and is still going on. The two recent examples, namely, providing of toilets in all schools in six months  and the time and petrol wasted at Delhi Gurgaon toll plaza speak of little concern by the governments to the woes of people and country. In another case where the court had to step in is the case of bringing 348 drugs ( National list of Essential Medicines ). This has been pending with the government for the last 9 years in spite of intervention of the highest court of the land. The court has made it amply clear that it cannot run the government but still even for small administrative decisions it has to intervene and force the government for taking decisions for the good of the country and its masses. The irony is that the ruling class and polity of all hues is always claiming to be working for the benefit and welfare of common man.

GLOBAL SUPER POWER IN WAITING CRIES FOR POWER

Two massive grid failures halt Indian economy and the government and planners of this global super power in waiting tend to ignore it as a one off occurrence. They seem to be hell bent on reforms on FDI in retail, aviation and insurance as if these will take care of all the woes Indian economy is facing today. Good economics is certainly not at the back of these initiatives as it can at best decrease the current account deficit. to a limited extent as the foreign investors will be far too wary to invest in a country which cannot ensure power to factories, cold storage and even for logistic support.This route at best could be termed as good politics for the resistance to these measures by majority of political parties is well known and the ruling polity can emphasize on the fact that they were not allowed to carry out reforms by those opposing them during next general elections.

If the government succeeds in providing excellent infrastructure in terms of movement of goods, means of communication, uninterrupted power supply, cold storage facility and backing to large retail chains, there is enough capability in the Indian corporate sector to excel in this huge economic activity which will provide benefits of organised sector to a very large workforce and creating enormous wealth for the country.

Coming back to power sector, it is a harsh fact that the executive of the country including legislative executive  neither has the will nor the expertise to take on any mission on concurrent activity model. The consequences of serial implementation of power capacity additions are there for the whole country to see. The planners laid all accent on generation capacity additions so much so the transmission and distribution aspects as also the fuel linkages were not even thought of. Add to this the increase in the international prices of coal and gas and the sad result is that about 30000 MW can not be utilised for want of fuel, transmission lines and proper distribution network. In the bargain country is reeling under the pressures of acute power shortages affecting the lives of millions as well as Industrial production, all because of the inability of planners and executors of the policies of the country to work in a coordinated efficient manner.

UID: The only Aadhaar for Good Governance in India

Last few days a lot of hue and cry was raised regarding Unique Identification Number (UID) project, the only viable aadhaar for good governance in India, regarding the matters of its efficacy and dangers to the national security. It is seldom that Indian Government comes up with a thought process which can in reality change the very shape of things to come.Luckily for the country the impasse has been resolved with the intervention by none other than the prime minister. There can be little doubt that an exercise of such a magnitude will not have shortcomings and loopholes but it is the duty of the government to plug those shortcomings and loopholes. The main purpose of both UID and  National Population Register(NPR) is to give a foolproof identity to each and every citizen of India and to ensure that all social programs of the government reach the target group effectively  without any leakage and pilferage at minimal cost to the exchequer in the shortest possible time and to help reduce black money generation and its recovery.
There are two main categories which need to be covered immediately if the government is aiming at giving a semblance of a good governance. Firstly, Below Poverty Line (BPL) families who are all having a voter card, supposedly a very authentic document and secondly financially better off strata of the society who have PAN, Passports, Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) and Autonomous body I cards, government service I cards and a voter card as well. With this kind of huge data bank already available in the country giving a biometric identity to all these groups should easily cover more than 95% of the population in a small time. The rest can be covered by making UID mandatory for property acquisition, vehicle registration, admission to schools and reaping benefits of government schemes.
The country will appreciate and will be grateful to the Indian polity if this exercise is completed on a war footing in about a year or two for the stakes are too high. After all the government's subsidy, social and welfare programs are worth more than Rs3,00,000/- crores annually and a leakage of about 50% as per latest study of the world bank is too large a figure not to merit war scale national mission attention. In fact a much higher figure of about 70% loss was mentioned by an erstwhile congress prime minister of the country.
Similarly keeping a tag on economic activity of the main generators and guzzlers of black money through e-governance and UID linking, a huge sum can be generated in the government kitty. The government by dilly dallying on not taking immediate effective steps in having a UID system in place is missing golden opportunity of propelling the GDP growth levels to mid teens.

Corruption Mitigation and Good Governance - The Biggest Growth Engines for Indian Economy

The Indian dream of becoming an economic superpower and a prosperous nation appears to be a distinct reality in the light of government's compulsion to address the expectations of the masses and the compulsions of the advanced industrial nations of the world to move manufacturing bases to low wage economies with strengths of a broad based human resource and large captive markets. The resulting Indian growth story is here to stay for the next three decades provided the Indian governance can take care of the stumbling blocks in the path of this growth trajectory with correct policies, financial and administrative reforms, human resource development, massive up gradation of infrastructure and above all good governance.Out of this large wish list, Corruption Mitigation is perhaps potentially the biggest growth engine with a large weightage and can contribute 50% extra towards annual Indian budgets in the following manner.Corruption Mitigation and good governance are interdependent and measures like strict policing, quick judicial disposal of economic offences backed by corruption mitigating administrative reforms are the very backbone of this fight against corruption and black money.

• The direct and indirect tax collections will increase by a minimum of 25% annually for the next twenty years.
• The overall subsidy budget comprising of gas, oil, food etc can reduce by 50%.
• Through the same annual budgetary allocations for infrastructure, an extra 25% infrastructure development can take place.
• The annual maintenance cost allocations for infrastructural assets of the nation could be reduced by 90%.
• The annual savings on petrol, diesel and repairs of vehicles could be as high as 25%.

This effort alone can catapult the Indian growth story potential into growth rates of low teens.We can only hope, wait and watch how the Indian polity puts into action corruption mitigation programs for which a lot of rhetoric has been raised by one and all of the Indian polity. On top of it India can manage to recover a substantial amount of black money stashed in foreign countries as well as in Indian households and businesses, the miracle of propelling India into the developed nations' club will be realised much sooner.

What Ails India and Remedies Thereof

There could be a never ending list of what ails India but on the top of the list is the insincerity and lack of will on the part of the legislature and executive to remedy the causes. This is reflected everywhere, be it the governance, economics or politics. Every action on the part of polity in the country is done keeping only one thing in mind and that is how to keep the government intact and how to ensure the government's future. No doubt this has to be the sole object of a political party but then there has to be a limit to compromising your policies and political agenda. in no case resorting to dubious means for economic empowerment of the party, its cadres, stooges, cronies and clout can be allowed.

Politics, Economics and Governance

The basic principle adopted in Indian Governance both by the union and states all through has been to keep politics above economics.Strangely the rulers in the country have refused to realise that good economics and good politics could co exist through good economics with far better results both in politics and economics. The political class of this country in entirety is very vocal in its concern for the country's economic, political and military power as also for the social and economic upliftment of the weaker section and poor masses but strangely precious little is being done in this regard. The subsidies, freebies, reservations and quotas doled out have been nothing but vote bank politics with the sole purpose of garnering votes in the name of a community, caste, religion etc. etc.. without reality doing anything substantive for the community. There are about 500 million people below poverty line i.e. about 200 million adults. Indian polity is noble and benevolent enough to see that they have a stomach which needs to be filled up but fail to see their two hands which are a big asset to any country if put to constructive use. They can as well do away with all subsidies and doles and provide them a job for 25 days a month and further do value addition to their earning power by training them to become painters, drivers,plumbers,electricians,masons etc and strengthen blue collar worker's club which will be a laudable step in the development of the country and unskilled workers. These people will then walk with their heads high and they will be in a position to provide medical care, education and other basic amenities to their wards.
Governance and Corruption
No amount of laws can weed out corruption till such time the nation has a will to do so. We all know "Where there is a will There is a way" If there is will to mitigate corruption there are plenty of ways of doing it and if otherwise there are plenty of ways of not doing it. Somehow our ruling classes have taken a fancy to the latter, for the country has enough laws and enough powers vested with the executive to take care of graft, corruption and black money. All that is needed is good intentions and proper operationalising of these laws.Good intentions and good governance can control corruption to a large extent which is responsible for:

• Reducing India's tax collections by almost 50%
• Adding up to 50% in annual black money generation
• Escalating  maintenance costs by minimum 200% annually
• 30% Loss of revenue from sale of electricity
• Adding 50% to nation's subsidy bill

Judiciary and Investigating Agencies
Strengthening both organs by the desired extent so that any legal case does not take more than 2-3 years starting from lower courts to high court/ supreme court as the case may be.
Monitoring different asset classes
Devise and adopt a mechanism so that the total assets of any citizen comprising of land and real estate, gold, shares, and bank deposits etc. are available at the end of each financial year on the click of a computer button along with his income and tax deposits
Doing away with discretionary powers of executive
Discretionary powers no doubt are the essence of any administrative schedule but in India they are always used with ulterior motives and hidden agenda. In the light of this all discretionary powers should be done away with in all commercial matters, allocation of immovable assets, doles in the form of extensions and after retirement appointments, for in a country of 1 billion plus there is no dearth of qualified and competent experts from within the active serving people. The nation may suffer in a few genuine meritorious cases but controlling motivated wrong doings in more than 99% cases will perhaps be a significant step in graduating to bad governance from the existing corrupt and motivated governance.

ECONOMICS, GOVERNANCE AND INFLATION IN INDIA

India perhaps is the only country in the world which boasts of economists of international repute at the topmost levels of governance. All the efforts and solutions on the part of government are not yielding the desired results on inflation in India. At the same time they have resulted in considerable deceleration of economic growth. Why?

• These economists have failed to keep in mind the basic principle of "Demand and Supply of goods". They are concentrating only on demand and supply of money which is not working to the nation's expectations.
• The small decrease  in the rate of inflation is only a mirage, for it appears to be a result of high base effect and glut of farm produce and vegetables that is witnessed in winter months.

In Indian economy in present context, there is little scope of controlling the money supply in the hands of consumers.

• Firstly, because it is a result of NREGA disbursements to the poor workers and leakage of funds to the on ground managers of the scheme.
• Secondly, per capita income increase in the country as a result of GDP growth.
• And lastly, the graft and bribe money in the hands of government officials and additional illegal beneficiaries of much talked about Inclusive growth as well as Social, Political and Economic empowerment planks.

Out of these money supply resulting from graft, bribes and corruption is the only one which can be minimised through good governance, whereas the other two are desirable to meet India's goals to become a prosperous nation in a decade or so. Therefore the right approach to fight inflation lies only in increasing productivity and more supply of goods in the market. The actions required to do the same need no elaboration as they are well known to government and its functionaries.

A few reminders to the government of super economists.

Good Economics and Good Governance is Ideal
Bad Economics and Good Governance is A Compromise
Good Economics and Bad Governance is Undesirable
Bad Economics and Bad/Corrupt Governance is A Disaster
Also all experts of a field must remember the importance of non expert opinions for arriving at the correct and ideal solution to problems for they are totally engrossed in higher sciences and tend to ignore/overlook common sense solutions if available.This is amply demonstrated in the following:

• In all work study teams presence of a non expert is mandatory along with the experts to enable them to consider common sense approaches also to arrive at best possible solution.
• Albert Einstein, a noted physicist had to be reminded that his small cat could also get in and out of the cage through the big door provided for the big cat and did not need a separate additional small door.
• Henry Ford assembled his first prototype car in a room with a small door which along with the wall had to be broken to get the car out for its first trial run. After parking the car in the same room after the successful trial he assured the owner that he will get the room repaired to its original state, little realising that he will need to take the car out again and again for subsequent test runs.

INDIAN ECONOMIC GROWTH : GOVERNANCE Vs GLOBAL OPPORTUNITY

The last few years have seen Indian economic growth at 8% plus and the government has been claiming this to be the result of their growth oriented policies and positive economic environment through good governance. How unrealistic and untrue can the government claims be, is borne out by the fact that in spite of policy paralysis, high rates of inflation, Reserve Bank actions to curtail money supply, likely high fiscal deficits, rampant corruption and government inaction in the matter, India will achieve a growth rate of 7% plus. 

This is only a pointer to the fact that Indian economic growth is a result of global opportunity that beckons the nation. Firstly there is an economic lull in the developed economies because of non viability of growth avenues in industry, financial sector etc. because of lack of requirements and a very high labour cost. These nations have abundant capital, technical competence, know how and engineering backup through which they are securing their future. India has emerged as one of the favourite nations for their investments because of the following:

• An insatiable demand and requirement for all kind of goods and infrastructural inputs for the next two decades at least.
• Availability of cheap labour, technical manpower and management resource.

It is imperative that Indian government takes some immediate steps to do some value addition in the fields of infrastructure improvement, providing friendly and favourable environment for investments,coherent policies, sincerity in governance in tackling corruption, graft and black money to achieve a better economic growth rate. The global opportunity is certainly there for the asking but will not be there for all times to come as with passage of time other countries may become more lucrative for investments and technology transfers.Let us not forget that during the last three decades China in spite of being a communist country, and smaller countries like Turkey, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia etc.without a very promising human resource were more favoured nations for the developed world.

Corruption, Black Money in India : Aadhar the only Viable Solution

Corruption amongst politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats, other government functionaries and corporate world is rampant in India. Though the cases that come to light through media everyday are a minuscule sample of the menace of Corruption, Black Money and Bad Governance, the government and the polity have shown scant concern in this regard. A few raids, some action on the part of vigilance authorities and once in a while expose by media efforts cannot produce any meaningful dent on the extent of corruption, black money and bad governance malaise which is deeply rooted in all aspects of Indian economy, governance and day to day lives of all Indians. To whatever extent we may reinforce our anti corruption machinery, judicial system and laws we can only manage to put a scratch on the problem. The real fight against corruption and black money will come through good governance and administrative action only.
Aadhar project of the Unique Identification Authority of India can be the real aadhar of the nation's fight against corruption and black money. The project was given concurrence by the government as an exercise to give identity proof to 1 billion Indians. Slowly and slowly when the total repercussions of the Unique Identification Number started unfolding themselves, the polity seems to have developed cold feet suddenly.Firstly because it takes away the punch from the slogan of inclusive growth and social, economic and political empowerment and secondly it puts their survivability in politics in question as major support to elections comes through these cadres and such tainted money. The amounts involved are simply mind boggling. A sum of Rs 1,50,000 crores which goes into corruption and black money through leakages, bribery and pilferage in welfare benefits such as subsidies, pensions, NREGA, India Awaas Yojna, mid day meals and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. After all these are the only sops that can be offered to their political loyalists at 2nd and 3rd level. In this country who wants to have power without any financial gains attached to it? Who wants to serve the nation and its masses free of cost? The UID project has come under attack from all flanks. The very basis of of unique identification number i.e. procedures for data collection and potential errors therein as well as concerns over privacy are being challenged. What kind of hidden agenda or ulterior motives are behind this, is any body's guess.

Real estate along with all other asset classes is the other main source of corruption and black money. The only viable solution seems to be through linking of all immovable and movable assets with UID number. These assets will include all commercial and residential property, all agricultural land, gold and jewellery, all vehicles ( commercial and private ), all luxury items, DMat accounts, investments in commodities, banks and mutual funds etc. etc.. Along with these linkages the following steps are also a must.

• Government should have the power to acquire about 5-10% of real estate deals in the secondary market by paying 10% premium to the declared value of the deal.
• Practice of power of attorney in respect of real estate should be abolished.
• All Discretionary powers in the hands of government functionaries should be withdrawn because in India they are always used for one's own hidden agenda and ulterior motives.

Once the investment avenues of ill gotten money are plugged, we can see a ray of hope in improving the living standards of Indian masses at a much faster rate.

BAD GOVERNANCE IN INDIA:ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE

Roads, highways and expressways are a very important mode of transport in a country and have enormous impact on the economy and connectivity of people and places. The sector demands a priority from the government for approvals, land acquisition, funding etc. which are not forthcoming at a pace India requires to achieve double digit growth of economy and bringing in some aspects of comfort and conveniences in the day to day lives of its people. All because of bad governance i.e. not having an integrated approach between various agencies involved. All this has affected the pace of development of the road network development in a big way.

The state of Roads and their maintenance is  invariably substandard so much so that during and after monsoon months they are not worthy to be called metalled roads ( pucca roads ).On roads full of large pits and eroded rough stretches, no vehicle can move even at speeds of 30 kmph resulting in longer and inconvenient travels. The petrol consumption for the same journey is almost double of travel in normal conditions. This condition prevails all over India for about 6 months in a year meaning thereby that petrol consumption during this period is almost double.What a waste of our our precious foreign exchange! How much it will contribute to subsidy burden and annual fiscal deficit? On the top of it the wear and tear, break down damage cost to the vehicles and the annual repair bill of these roads costs to the nation a few thousand crores . Bad governance in India and insensitivity to the woes of its citizens and little concern for nation's assets is the hallmark of our governments.

BAD GOVERNANCE IN INDIA:POWER SECTOR

Power is the back bone of industrial growth and improving the lives of masses of a country. It is surprising that despite of talking big on Energy Security and massive plans to increase India's installed capacity from the present 1,60,000 mw to 8,00,000 mw in 15-20 years and to 16,00,000 mw in about 30 years, we are sleeping on introducing energy management concepts in this sector.The various aspects of this sector are grossly mismanaged and need immediate attention on the part of both, the government and consumers.

• Power production - Majority of country,s power plants are running at a maximum  of about 75-80% of installed capacity.
• Energy transmission loss and thefts account for 30-35% of the installed capacity.

These two factors alone account for about half of the installed capacity. While the industry, business consumers and the household consumers are crying for more and more of quality power supply, our governments are not bothered to address any of these concerns.

• Massive Energy capacity addition plans have been announced and approved during the last few years but without any concerted effort on the part of various government ministries, departments and agencies. Large sums of money have been invested but additional electricity is not available to industry and other consumers, sometimes because of issues related to environment clearance, acquisition of land, non availability of coal, gas etc, and finally because of transmission facilities not being in place. With all the expertise available, with all the good and sincere intentions of the polity and government, with all the concerns for the nation and its poor millions, we are mute witnesses to this bad governance.
• National grid not being in place, requirement of additional power needs at one location cannot be met with the availability of surplus power at another location in the country by diversion and the surplus power is a total loss.

Lastly the consumers from all walks of life - government,business establishments,industry and household sectors should be encouraged to  have solar passive architecture, heat insulation technologies and adopt non grid electricity sources where ever and when ever possible.

Indian Governance:Motivated and Guided by Corruption

The menace of corruption should only be talked of and should never be addressed to is the guiding principle of all political parties in India. If it were not true we would have seen some measures, some activity to fight it and reduce it over the last six decades. If only our rulers were  a little sensitive to this problem or in fact not motivated to let it escalate for their personal,  party or political gains, it would not have grown exponentially. Even to day when we have a very large parallel economy affecting the achieving of social and economic goals  at the desired speed, there seems to be little effort to put even a symbolic control on corruption, an effective control is perhaps expecting too much from our motivated politicians.
Corruption results in black money which in turn is a result of discretionary powers vested with the authority in our country where discretion is only motivated by self interest rather than the good of organisation and country. This fact is known to all those in power whether in States or Centre but self interest and political interests and compulsions force them to keep their traps shut and make them insensitive to the demons of corruption and black money.The total polity of this country talks only of black money stashed in foreign banks, for getting it back is a long drawn affair and is riddled with so many international complications and the time so gained gives them a golden opportunity to carry on endlessly in mud slinging on each other and keep all avenues of earning ill gotten money for themselves, their parties and their relatives, friends, cronies and political clout.
We have never heard of 10 to 15 lakh Crores of black money being generated every year which is almost equal to our annual budget and it requires action solely by the Centre and State governments. Surprisingly no politician of this country has ever talked about it. The reasons for not doing so are best known to them but do not require any rocket science for a common man to guess their ulterior motives. Imagine how fast  poverty eradication, education and health care for one and all and giving a comfortable and meaningful life to the have nots of this country can progress if our annual budgets can be doubled through controlling black money generation.
Sisters and brothers of India, whether from villages or cities, from  any religion, caste or creed,rich or poor, don't be taken in by any of the tricks of politicians, for end of corrupt people  and corruption will be the end of your poverty and miseries.Your poverty is a direct result of  corruption  by  those in authority and power.

Chance of a lifetime - A piece of wisdom to the unwise polity of India

You guys have looted this country for six decades at a stretch. You have played with the policies, rules and regulations, power of discretion, absolute misuse of authority to further your monetary interests, to further the monetary interests of your city, town, village and street level political goons who ensure victory for you in elections.You people get remuneration and unlimited perks from the government funds. What benefit these associates get legally? You give them the access to fill their pockets through graft, corruption and black money generation making use of your powers unabashedly.

Gentlemen , it is a wake up call for all of you. It is God sent opportunity to get your names in the history of this nation. It is an opportunity to ensure government for yourselves for maybe next fifty years.And above all an opportunity to eradicate poverty and giving an enviable life style and conveniences to the billions of common citizens of India in just five years. The choice is entirely yours for you are the ones who are responsible for the neglect and miseries of these billions through a combination of your corrupt governance and bad governance over the last sixty years.

The 5-8% growth in GDP that too for the last few years only, that is being boasted of by the government could be catapulted to 15% and beyond if only corruption and black money could just be halved. This is beyond my imagination as to what level of growth we could hit upon if corruption and black money could be eradicated and black money stashed abroad could be brought back. Gentlemen, this is the opportunity that is beckoning you.

Find out just one man who is INCORRUPTIBLE  in the true sense of the word ie. who could not be bought for  because of his lust for money, lust for wine and woman, lust for power or lust for having a great name. I understand there is danger of being deserted by more than 50 % of these fair weather friends if the right kind of administrative and judicial reforms with an absolute sincerity and honesty of purpose are put before the parliament. Let the bills be defeated . Let the government fall. But in the ensuing elections if you put up a stone as a candidate, people will see to it that it emerges as a winner and the people who oppose these measures will find it difficult even to walk on the streets of this country.

Indian Governance - A Corrupt governance

We have heard of good governance and bad governance. A good governance is desirable to achieve best possible results, a bad governance can be forgiven and tolerated to some extent for in this case the decisions of the government do not originate out of ulterior motives but are the result of wrong judgement. The agony of Indian Governance is that all decisions are a result of corrupt motivation in one form are the other.

The scams like 2 G, CWG, Adarsh or the mining scam in Karnatka and other states are just a few samples of thousands of such scams going on in this country where the country's resources like minerals, land, spectrum etc. and tax payers money is being wasted at whims and fancies of political bigwigs using all discretionary powers to favour themselves directly or indirectly. The present day government takes credit for the action taken by it in these cases. But imagine the  amount of effort that was needed to convince the government for action by media, opposition, civil society, CAG, CVC and even the Supreme Court. The extent of involvement of judiciary, CBI, and other government organs only suggests that they cannot handle five more such cases in a reasonable period of time particularly looking into the attitude and sensitivity of the government in all these cases.

The discretionary powers of the authority are meant to safeguard the interests of the nation, whereas in all these cases discretion was used to favour one party or the other. The nation is given to believe that in 2G spectrum allocation, the decisions were taken in the light of of prevailing government policies on the matter, the policies which were framed some fifteen years back looking into the requirements of that time. These powerful politicians and bureaucrats bend the rules under the garb of discretionary powers to help themselves, their near and dear ones or their favoured ones when looting this nation but when it comes to do the same for the good of the nation they behave worse than clerks even and go verbatim by the rule book. The motivation for doing so is not very hard to understand.
The CAG report on CWG mess is said to be pointing out to procedural irregularities only and there is no mention of the word scam. Even a clerk in the government won't succumb to procedural irregularities unless and until he has his axe to grind. The motivation on the part of of all bigwigs involved to commit such irregularities is not hard to understand. Incidentally even if no procedural irregularities are resorted to, there is still a corruption margin of 30 % of the project cost because of use of less quantity, substandard materials and not adhering to construction specifications which cannot be checked once the civil work is finished.
To control such occurrences we require some sincerity of purpose on the part of those who rule this country. This cannot happen till such time we advocate the motto ' Loyalty to the chair and not to the nation ', and the political parties do  rely on persons wedded to moral ethics and who have some substance, sincerity and honesty of purpose in their thought process and not on persons who have been bestowed only with extraordinary gift of the gab to defend even their wrongful actions. Incidentally majority of spokespersons of all political parties are advocates who adhere only to professional ethics where their utmost priority is to defend their client irrespective of the fact whether the client is right or wrong. The moral ethics take a back seat in their profession and they carry the same during their governance stints also.
As a first major step towards fighting corruption let us do away with all discretionary powers so that we graduate into the realm of bad governance from the present state of corrupt governance. By doing so we will only be causing damage to government kitty that too in some cases and will not be filling the coffins of corruption money which has spiraling damaging effect on the economy.

Indian Governance - A Sham

Some views of Indian Polity on corruption

The asking for a meaningful Lok Pal Bill by Team Anna has been termed as a danger to democracy, tyranny of the non elected and non electable. If this is so we are all proud to escape the slur of being  Electable.
Anna has no right or business to talk of corruption in this country because there are charges of corruption against him.The basis for this charge is the observation of a commission some 7 years back. Why no action by this honest government? What was the motivation of no follow up action ? Honesty I believe !

Those tainted with corruption have no right to take up the cause of fight against corruption. That is perhaps the reason our politicians are so insensitive to this cause and are not taking action against it. True to their convictions at least ! 

Fundamental rights are not absolute rights in the context of fast and Satyagrah by Anna Hazare on fight against corruption by the party who claims to inherit values from Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy.

Good Governance : Subsidies - Let Us Forget Them

In India 37% population of the country i.e. about 45 crores or 10 crore families live below poverty line which means an earning of less than Rs10/- a day per person. It is imperative on the part of the government to help this large chunk of population to enable it to live above BPL and contribute effectively to furtherance of development process.For this government provides food subsidy, fuel subsidy and has embarked upon programs to provide houses, drinking water and sanitation, rural roads, health, education and minimum employment guarantee program.

All these programs are wonderful and the intention is also commendable. It is not understood why the authorities are blindly following the subsidy route when they all know that not even fifty percent of the subsidies reach the target group and more than half the amount in such activities is the administrative cost. Also why we  only see 45 crore mouths to be fed and not 20 crore hands who can revolutionize the fortunes of this country in no time. Perhaps it gives a feeling of greatness to politicians and inflates their ego to a level where they feel that they are the 'Ann Daatas' ( food providers ) to such large section of humanity. Or simply put, this methodology is more vote catching than actually looking after the welfare of poor class Or the lure of partaking in the accompanied loot encourages them to toe this faulty line. 

Let us assume we adopt the methodology of providing employment to 10 crore family heads for 25 days in a month at a daily wage of Rs100 on the lines of NREGA. This gives a daily earning of Rs 17 to each member  of 45 crore BPL family at a total cost of 3,00,000 crores to the government. It places 2600 crore more man days at the disposal of government in addition to 400 crore man days likely to be generated through NREGA (yearly allocation of Rs 40,000 crores ). This huge sum of Rs3,00,000 crores can be made available by rationalizing government expenditure in the following manner.

• No need of any food subsidy from centre and states making available a sum of 1,25,000 crores a year as it is food worth Rs 25000 crores reaches the target group, the rest is absorbed by administrative costs, pilferage and going into wrong hands.
• No need of any subsidy on kerosene, thus saving Rs16,000 crores which largely goes as administrative cost, theft and adulteration in diesel.
• Rationalizing subsidy on diesel. This should be made available only for agricultural sector use and goods movement through trucks. By doing this an amount of Rs 30,000 crores can be saved on the diesel subsidy and used for this noble mission. Use of subsidized diesel by passenger cars, government ministries like railways, defence, road transport etc., industry and power generators is a colossus waste of government resources.
• Rationalizing subsidy on cooking gas by taking out home users paying an annual I Tax of Rs 5000 and above and stopping pilferage for use by commercial establishments can result in a saving of minimum Rs20,000 crores in this subsidy.
• Annual funds of Rs 40,000 crores earmarked for NREGA will stand merged into this activity.
• Government spending of Rs 58,000 crores on Bharat Nirman will carry a manpower expenditure of about 20%, adding another Rs 11,600 crores.
• The other social sector allocation of about Rs 1,00,000 crore along with the social sector spending of all states can easily cover the balance Rs 58,000 crores out of envisaged Rs 3,00,000 crores required for providing a meaningful above poverty line existence to our people. Still where ever necessity of providing help is felt direct cash payments could be resorted to.

A few musts to achieve definite success in this program :

• In such an endeavor the NREGA wages and direct cash payments where ever or when ever necessary should be linked to inflation index.
• All payments should be paid into the bank accounts of beneficiaries. For this banking sector has to gear up in a big way otherwise the Indian innovation will see to it that there are lots of pilferages and manipulations.

Such a program will have a bigger chance of success as there is least chance of pilferage for only one authority is involved in certifying work done and paying into the account of the worker. With the help of UID linked bank accounts the payments can be monitored effectively. All these families could be linked to ESI scheme and provided healthcare benefits We will have 45 crore additional Indians with their heads high and a feeling that they are living on their own earnings and not on the doles and freebies provided by politicians and  other mighty and powerful of the society.

Corruption and Black Money In India:Control Through Good Governance

The Finance Minister and the Indian Government is all the time boasting of a GDP growth rate of about 8.5% per annum and a promise to maintain the same for coming few years. Can they in the same breath talk of any one  particular value addition in this process excepting one fact that they have not totally frittered away the national resources in doling out concessions in the name of Aam Admi in form of subsidies, freebies etc. etc.. The golden opportunity that the compulsions of high wages in advanced nations has given to India with its cheap and qualified work force with the right demographic profile as also the limited privatisation in the early nineties is certainly not being properly utilised. Imagine if the opportunity is backed by good governance as was done by Japan and Singapore, where we will be after a decade or so. Needless to emphasize that presently we are being plagued by real bad governance.

A few suggestions from an Aam Admi which can catapult the GDP growth and fate of  have nots of this country in a manner much beyond our imagination.

• Declare a war on Corruption & Black Money. ( All Political Parties and MP's should not have any objection to this for it cannot come in the way of their political and economic agenda )
• Make necessary arrangements to get back all black money stashed in foreign countries.
• Do away with Quotas and Discretions of all political appointees and officials.
• UID project should be given topmost priority so as to be completed in two year time. ( Make available all resources and money ) Its role in achieving better tax compliance, controlling subsidy leakages and midday meal program leakages cannot be undermined as it can certainly reduce them by 25%. But what about the balance 75% and we can make an even bigger dent in such dubious earnings if only we make it a point to link UID number to all immovable property and all major asset classes as also luxury items like cars, motor cycles, refrigerators, tv's, watches etc..
• Government should acquire powers to buy minimum 2% of property and land deals in secondary market every year at 1.1 times the declared value (chosen by a random number generation technique).
• Power of attorney in respect of immovable property should be done away with.
• All reinforcement directorates to be beefed up many folds.
• Three tier checks on economic status of general public individuals, government officials, politicians, business and corporates.
• Reinforcement of judiciary to take care of economic offences and disputes to a level so that no case hangs in the courts for more than nine months.
• And lastly all rags to riches stories and exponentially growing businesses should be reviewed for ascertaining their tax compliance.