INDIAN BUDGET 2013 : WHAT COUNTRY NEEDS ??

Annual budget is a yearly exercise of the government to take stock of the financial activity of the government for the year gone by and present what the nation should expect in the coming year. All these years it had been more or less an administrative effort in accountancy without any coherent and rationalized approach to the future of the country and its citizenry. It has always been  an exercise of reducing and increasing some taxes or in other words a simple balancing of collections and expenditure. The directions will depend upon the whims and fancies of the government, the urge to please one sector of industry or the other or the necessity to fool common man for his only asset 'the vote'.

The country in general and the common man in particular has waited patiently for umpteen number of years for some magic to happen because of the so called all sincere efforts of the rulers of the country but alas we are neither moving towards the status of a global superpower nor towards the often repeated slogan of poverty alleviation. At best India's journey all these years can be described as a journey towards some degree of industrialization, that too in patches and in fits and starts which has failed to impact the lives of the poor in any significant manner. In fact it appears that the economy is simply directionless as far as Indian chance of becoming a global superpower is concerned. India has all the where with all in terms of all natural resources including a huge human resource, managerial, technical, skilled and unskilled with favourable demographic mix coupled with a fairly large economy. Still if India fails to get its rightful place in the next decade or two, it will be because of the absence/lack of wisdom, vision, far sight and statesmanship in the polity.

The country's economy is in a spin and is riddled with the problem of high inflation and dwindling GDP growth rates accompanied with continuous rupee devaluation vis a vis other currencies. Everyday one hears about the wish list of expectations of various groups from Indian budget 2013. The stock market guys want some measures to improve the feel good factor, different industry sectors want sops and concessions to their own sectors, the middle class expects some concessions in direct taxes and fuels, while a vast majority of Indian polity which survives and thrives only on its ability to dole out freebies, subsidies and sops to the poor have nots out of the public exchequer is gunning for this vote catching rhetoric. There are no quick fixes to  the problem of high inflation, rupee devaluation and slowing down of growth. In a scenario where the economy needs solution to the problems of high inflation, current account and fiscal deficits:  

• The first and fore most concern of the finance minister ought to be bringing down inflation considerably as a matter of fact much below the so called tolerable limit of the economists of the country. By now the ineffectiveness of monetary actions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the huge slowing down of economic growth rate thereof should set the polity thinking on an integrated approach to  ECONOMICS, GOVERNANCE AND INFLATION IN INDIA
• Current Account deficit should be the next priority of the government and a temporary fix might be achieved somehow or the other but a long term and  permanent solution will emerge only when a solution to the thorn of oil economics in the Indian growth story  along with reducing gold imports which thrive on the black money availability, is found out.
• Topmost priority to the next gen growth engines, like

1. Corruption Mitigation and Good Governance - The Biggest Growth Engines for Indian Economy:  Whole of India is aware of the corruption and the resulting black money. In fact if by any sincere means the government can mitigate it and bring back major amount of parallel economy to the mainstream economy, the Indian growth story can be hastened up tremendously along with wiping out the demon of fiscal deficit.

2. Infrastructure and Human Resource Development: Next Gen Growth Engines of Indian Economy : The right mix of rail, road and waterways for transportation of men and material has a multifaceted beneficial effect on the economy in terms of job creation, increasing demand of steel and cement, efficient, low cost and timely movement of industrial goods and agricultural produce, and above all cutting down of oil and fuel costs. Priorities in human resource development to increase the earning capacity of an individual alongwith increase in productivity will go a long way in poverty alleviation and growth rate sustainability.

3. Indian Energy security - the next gen growth engine : Nothing can be achieved with shortage of electricity in the growth story of the country and the aim of providing a comfortable and meaningful life to a common man.

POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN INDIA

Alleviation of poverty has been the biggest concern and vote catching slogan in one form or the other right from the day India became independent and embraced democracy. With all the planning for growth, it could manage to achieve some success towards industrialization in all sectors but the demon of poverty has stayed on for a vast majority of Indian masses. So much so that even the elementary basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, drinking water, medical care, education etc. have eluded our masses after 65 years of independence and planning of economy.It is definite that Indian governments and planners have gone wrong somewhere.
A cursory analysis of ground realities points out to

• Inflation and rupee devaluation as the main culprit whereby the wages/earnings have not grown in the real terms. In fact gold prices have risen more than 600 times, car prices have risen more than 120 times, majority of food items prices have risen by more than 100 times, petrol prices have risen by more than 100 times and the prices of a house or shelter may have risen by a whopping 1000 times. In comparison the salaries have risen by 50 to 60 times even in the best of the organized sector. In fact in India about 90% of the workforce is in the unorganized sector and their wages have risen by only about 35-40 times.So in India every worker is getting poorer day by day and the only class that is gaining is the people who thrive on corruption, tax evasion and black money.

The only way forward is to rein in inflation, rupee devaluation  and corruption,tax evasion and black money if poverty alleviation has to be the main plank of our development model.But who is going to bell the cat? The big guzzlers and creators of corruption and black money and corruption and black money centres are known to every one and more to the people who are seen on the media channels day in and day out scoring brownie points over each other. Incidentally all these guys who are the spokesperson of one political party or the other are mostly from the legal profession and belong to business hubs of metropolitan cities and there cannot be anyone better than them to know about the centres of corruption and black money. But for some strange reason known only to them they either choose to keep quite over this matter of great importance to the country or engage each other in shadow boxing without aiming to produce some meaningful results.
Next to reining in inflation and black money Indian politicians must exhibit some far sight and vision to be in the reckoning for the next global economic superpower and not miss this god sent opportunity which is unfolding as the world realizes the need to shift from twentieth century energy sources. The country needs some out of the box solution to its transport needs, power needs. The solutions have to be found in anything other than all fuel based technologies. In a big and vast country like India, electricity has to be provided to remote dwellings, villages small and remote and industry if country sincerely wants to alleviate poverty at an early date. Let wisdom and national interest prevail on Indian politicians and nuclear technocrat lobby so that India does not fall prey to US and French interests and in the bargain lose its chance of leading the world in the transition to renewable energy solutions. Let India make best use of our being backward in per capita consumption of energy. It is a fact that US, Europe and China will not add or replace 8,00,000 MW which India is planning to add during the next decade and a half. It has the opportunity of fine tuning wind and solar energy technologies and cut down their costs through development of large scale manufacturing facilities without having to bother about its earlier investments in any energy field becoming redundant and superfluous (excerpts from http://veekay-indiandreamsvsreality.blogspot.in/2011/04/energy-security-nuclear-energy-worst.html ).

BLUE PRINT TO A PROSPEROUS INDIA

India as a nation is marching ahead on the road firstly to poverty alleviation and subsequently to prosperity and global economic superpower.No doubt the path is riddled with obstacles at each and every step but the final goal can be certainly achieved through relentless, coherent and sincere efforts by the rulers of the country  This requires balanced good politics, uncompromising good governance and  good economics powered through good governance.We do hear once in a while that good economics is good politics also but never heard from any quarter that good governance is the key to everything and is in fact the mother of good politics, good economics and subsequent march to prosperity. Total attack on the problems facing the country which are impediments in the path of journey to prosperity requires reforms like legislative, administrative, judicial, election pertaining etc. etc. and appear to be extremely difficult in the light of fractured mandates and compulsions of coalition politics even if there is will to do so. But still a lot can be achieved within the framework of existing rules and regulations and by attacking problem areas whole hearted from all angles rather than finding a patchwork solution which at best will provide some relief in the short run.

• The first and foremost step towards making of a prosperous India lies in ensuring long term proper and sound fiscal health of the economy. The two important parameters namely the current account deficit and fiscal deficit must be kept within a tolerance band so that the inflation and rupee exchange rates do not completely nullify the effect of GDP growth on per capita income and instead of contributing to poverty alleviation contribute to poverty elevation as is happening during the last few years.

• Education and human resource development is the next most important step towards bringing prosperity in India. Monetary and fiscal measures do help in improving the sentiment for investments but to realize the full potential of investments and the economic health of the country as also to fire up these sentiments, a lot of value addition is mandatory in the field of human resource development. A country where only 20 % of manpower pouring out of universities, business schools, engineering colleges, technical diploma schools ( polytechnic colleges ) and Industrial Training Institutes ( ITIs ) are considered to be employable along with the vast majority of manpower who can only boast of two hands without any particular skill can never become the preferred investment destination by the international community.

• Corruption mitigation and good governance is potentially perhaps the biggest growth drivers of the Indian economy and  in fact can catapult the Indian growth story to a level much beyond the normal comprehension. Indian rulers have to exhibit a deep sense of devotion to the Indian cause and rise above the short term attractions of so called good politics.

• Infrastructure development : Development of  roads, rail, power plants, power transmission, ports, airports etc. can lend a lot of momentum to Indian growth story and race to prosperity.

• Reforms in all sectors be it electoral, financial, judicial, administrative must be taken up immediately. We have been hearing about them for a very very long time but somehow are the other the total polity of the country develops cold feet when it comes to implementing them, on one pretext or the other.

INDIAN GOVERNMENT, A GOVERNMENT SANS GOVERNANCE

Governments of countries are meant for administration, governance and necessary legislations to increase the government revenues so that the same could be employed for the betterment of country's economy, and its masses.The present Indian government has failed miserably on these counts because of policy paralysis, its failure to curb inflation, current account deficit, fiscal deficit and above all mitigation of corruption, graft and black money. In fact the Indian government is a government sans governance. In fact sometimes I wonder whether the small phase of 8-9% GDP growth was just a providential jackpot thrust on the nation because of compulsions of advanced western economies. Any value additions on the part of Indian government through far reaching policies, administrative and governance positives does not appear to be a reality.

Statesmen think of next generation and create opportunities, Leaders Seize opportunities that come their way, while Politicians think of next elections and fritter away these opportunities and dirty politicians simply mess up everything.

In fact the Indian polity and leadership falls in the last category of dirty politicians and they are leaving no stone unturned to make a mess of everything and are hell bent not to use this unique opportunity window that has been thrust on India because of global economic woes.

Governance through courts : The courts have been forced to intervene in normal governance functions for the political process and the government's will was found deficient.The court interventions have grown to such a proportion that it has become a cause of concern as brought out in Disturbing trends in judicial activism but were absolutely necessary in the face of inaction by the government. Some excerpts are highlighted below:

COURT INTERVENTIONS

• In the interest of preventing pollution, the Supreme Court ordered control over automobile emissions, air and noise and traffic pollution, gave orders for parking charges, wearing of helmets in cities, cleanliness in housing colonies, disposal of garbage, control of traffic in New Delhi, made compulsory the wearing of seat belts, ordered action plans to control and prevent the monkey menace in cities and towns, ordered measures to prevent accidents at unmanned railway level crossings, prevent ragging of college freshmen, for collection and storage in blood banks, and for control of loudspeakers and banning of fire crackers.

• The Court is made the monitor of the conduct of investigating and prosecution agencies who are perceived to have failed or neglected to investigate and prosecute ministers and officials of government. Cases of this type are the investigation and prosecution of ministers and officials believed to be involved in the Jain Hawala case, the fodder scam involving the former Chief Minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Taj Corridor case involving the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati, and the recent prosecution of the Telecom Minister and officials in the 2G Telecom scam case by the Supreme Court.

• Matters of policy of government are subject to the Court’s scrutiny. Distribution of food-grains to persons below poverty line was monitored, which even made the Prime Minister remind the Court that it was interfering with the complex food distribution policies of government. In the 2G Licenses case, the Court held that all public resources and assets are a matter of public trust and they can only be disposed of in a transparent manner by a public auction to the highest bidder. This has led to the President making a Reference to the Court for the Court’s legal advice under Article 143 of the Constitution. In the same case, the Court set aside the expert opinion of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to sell 2G spectrum without auction to create greater teledensity in India.

• The Court has for all practical purposes disregarded the separation of powers under the Constitution, and assumed a general supervisory function over other branches of governments. The temptation to rush to the Supreme Court and 21 High Courts for any grievance against a public authority has also deflected the primary responsibility of citizens themselves in a representative self government of making legislators and the executive responsible for their actions. The answer often given by the judiciary to this type of overreach is that it is compelled to take upon this task as the other branches of government have failed in their obligations. On this specious justification, the political branches of government may, by the same logic, take over the functions of the judiciary when it has failed, and there can be no doubt that there are many areas where the judiciary has failed to meet the expectations of the public by its inefficiency and areas of cases.

• Economic Governance Through Reserve Bank ( RBI )

The Indian economy appears to be in a mess. Inflation rates are uncomfortably high. We have rupee valued at a all time low value in international markets. We have high current account deficit along with high fiscal deficit and the GDP growth is moving downwards continuously. Strangely, the government has left the answer to all these problems solely to RBI whose actions are leading to a catch 22 situation because of the interdependence of these problems when tackled through monetary policy actions. These patchwork solutions will only give some breathing period for the government to act with long term measures to have lasting solutions and alone will take the country nowhere and will only delay the impending disaster. The real answer lie in 

• Inflation control through increasing the availability of goods and not through raising the interest rates which will only reduce the growth rates.Economics, governance and inflation go hand in hand and are the only permanent remedy to inflation and growth rates.
• Current account deficit and fiscal deficit are dependent on Indian Oil Economics in a very big way and requires immediate attention on the part of government to seek a long term permanent solution in reducing the quantum of oil imports as also the subsidy burden in the light scenario of ever increasing   international prices of crude. The path of raising the prices through reduction in subsidies can give respite in the short term but reducing demand, pilferages, thefts and mismanagement of subsidies has to be accorded topmost priority to find a lasting solution.

But the Indian government has chosen the path of 

• Disinvestment in Public Sector Units, a decision country is going to regret in the long run
• Foreign Direct Investment
• Policy of wait and watch  

1. hoping international crude prices will cool off thus reducing the oil bill of the nation
2. western economies will improve and our exports to these countries will grow.

• And lastly Raising oil prices partially but good economics and good politics will never go hand in hand and ultimately good politics will rule supreme. The answer has to through a combination of good governance with a 60% weightage and good economics and good politics with a 20% weightage.

These actions can provide some relief to the Indian economy in the short run but the long term solutions will emerge through good corruption free governance, increasing efficiency, stopping thefts and pilferages and meaningful austerity measures. Alas, no effort in these directions is forthcoming from the Indian government and sadly it remains a government sans governance.

INDIAN DREAM AND EXPECTATIONS Of INDIAN MASSES From INDIAN POLITY

Statesmen think of next generation and create opportunities, Leaders Seize opportunities that come their way, while Politicians think of next elections and fritter away these opportunities and dirty politicians simply mess up everything.

65 long years have passed since India got independence and in spite of all the so called sincere efforts of politicians of different hues reigning in different parts of the country, we still have 500 million people living below subsistence level in terms of poverty, hunger and all basic amenities like drinking water, electricity, shelter, medical facilities etc. etc..All that one witnesses in  Mera Bharat Mahan is some action favouring one particular class of people, a class which thrives on corruption, bribery and graft, tax avoidance, sucking government exchequer through legal and illegal perks, discretions and allotments of  national resources like minerals, spectrum, land resources etc.. This class comprises of a vast majority of legislative executive, executive, political leaders small and big, businessmen of all stature. Surprisingly this is seen and felt by the general citizenry of the country in their daily lives but the rulers , the lawmakers, the enforcement agencies and anyone and everyone who matters in the governance of India very conveniently turns a blind eye to all these facts largely because they are the beneficiaries and in a few cases as passive onlookers.
In the light of all this, the poor Indian is left with only the Indian dream and his expectations  from the Indian polity, hoping against hopes that one day some miracle will happen and his plight will take a turn for the better.The common masses couldn't care less for the rhetoric of hi fi planning and economic governance, all that he wants is quick visible solution to his basic needs and necessities. And there can not be a better solution than corruption mitigation and leaving the path of corruption motivated governance.The poverty alleviation and ultimately prosperity will automatically follow and that happens to be the real Indian dream and expectations of Indian masses from Indian polity.We all understand that this is more than asking for the moon from the present generation of Indian rulers. If the political class of the country has an iota of concern for the nation and its hapless millions, let it take a few decisions governed and motivated solely by these two considerations rather than dirty political gains and scoring brownie points over political rivals. Political gains will accrue through positive actions also.
The choice lies with the suffering citizenry of India. Decide whether you want to live as beggars subsisting on doles and freebies provided by these rulers out of  your money or demand what is your right by taming these politicians and controlling their wrong doings.

CARBON Is PRECIOUS: SAVE It For FUTURE GENERATIONS

Carbon is the fourth most abundant element on our earth and is mainly found as  fossil fuels and in all forms of plant and animal life. Carbon available in plants and animal life is a part of the all important ecosystem and is reserved exclusively for food chain and carbon cycle so very essential to all life on our planet.Carbon of fossil fuels is the only Carbon available to mankind to fulfil its overall requirements of metallurgy, hydrocarbons, plastics and the much sought after strong and light materials. For energy and electricity requirements the use of fossil fuels should be the last priority. 

In the light of limited resources of fossil fuels available to this world, barely sufficient to last, may be for five decades at the most, it is mandatory that we start curbing the use of fossil fuels for energy requirements which is terribly harmful to environment and tempers with the carbon cycle by enhancing green house effect thus contributing to global warming. All electricity requirements can be met easily by non fuel clean energy sources.In metallurgical industry,carbon should be used exclusively for metallurgical requirements of reduction of various ores to metals and the heating part should be looked after by energy from a renewable source.

Transport industry is another guzzler of carbon fuels and in transport/ traction industry the efficiency is highly dependent upon the weight of the vehicle. This weight can be drastically reduced by switching over to light weight high strength carbon fibres thus achieving an almost 50% increase in the fuel efficiency resulting in a two way advantage of reducing hot CO2 emissions and using carbon for a better use.

Hydrocarbons, plastics, solvents,organic fibres have a unique place in the advanced society and the world in future will be incomplete if it does not have access to these materials because the present generation depleted carbon resources by burning them recklessly.

INDIAN BUDGET 2012-13: A DAMP SQUIB As USUAL

A lot was expected out of Indian budget 2012-13, but sadly enough it is turned out to be a damp squib and is devoid of any far sight  on the part of collective wisdom of Indian rulers  to give a concrete shape to the dreams and aspirations of teeming poor millions. It is plain and simple exercise in big talk, all politically motivated with an eye on votes and votes alone without any real concern of improving the quality of life of Indian citizens.

The estimated fiscal deficit of 5.1% of the GDP is going to be the single most irritating factor to the Indian economy and is likely to be exceeded during the run of the financial year with centre and all states vying with each other to fritter away tax payers money in the form of doles, freebies, and subsidies and the associated corruption in all these activities.The resulting inflation because of fiscal deficit and  increases in petrol and diesel prices in the light of high international prices of oil will dictate Reserve Bank decisions on softening of interest rates, thus affecting growth finally resulting in lower tax collections.

The nation would have appreciated some out of the box thinking on the part of Finance Minister particularly in application of food security and food subsidy. No nation can  ever afford to satisfy hungry mouths and empty stomachs as well as unemployed people with doles and freebies. The country must extract accountable work out of this huge manpower and pay them wages for their contribution at rates linked to inflation index thus saving the nation a lot of expenses that go into pilferage and administration/management costs as well as benefits going into non deserving hands which according to many admissions of political leaders account for 75% of the budgetary provisions made for this purpose.

The Finance Minister did talk about black money stashed in foreign countries because the failure of the government in bringing back this money can easily be attributed to international laws and complications. Why does he not talk about corruption and resulting black money available in the country itself, for that will require only an executive action which is well within the purview of the government provided it is sincere in its motives.

With these two inclusions the damp squib could be converted into an economic dynamite which could revolutionize the economic growth path as well as poverty mitigation programme of the government.

INDIAN QUEST FOR ENERGY SECURITY: A CORRECT PERSPECTIVE

EAS  SARMA

As appeared in
tHE SUNDAY TRIBUNE, CHANDIGARH

fEBRUARY 26,2012

ON THE RECORD BY
SURESH DHARUR

The ‘foreign hand’ guides govt more than the people

ACTIVISTS are up in arms against the government for pursuing the nuclear energy option, “disregarding public concerns”. The former Union Energy Secretary and a leading environmentalist EAS Sarma rubbishes talk of “foreign hand” behind the public protests. The retired IAS official spoke at length on different aspects of energy security.

The Prime Minister has blamed NGOs for engineering protests against Kudankulam nuclear plant. What is your response?

The Prime Minister’s statement was ill-advised, devoid of a realistic appreciation of the ground realities and lacked appreciation of genuine public concern over the potential dangers of nuclear technology, as reflected by the catastrophic explosions in the reactors at Three Mile Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima 2011. It amounts to belittling the voice of dissent in a democracy like ours.

The “foreign hand” argument applies more to the government than to the people. Is it not the foreign hand that forced the UPA government to push through the Indo-US nuclear deal to serve the commercial interests of another country rather than promoting self-reliance? Has not the country been pushed into a permanent state of dependence on imported nuclear reactors and imported fuel for no compelling reason?

Has the government followed any competitive bidding procedure for deciding the reactor suppliers for Jaitapur, Kovvada and the other nuclear power complexes? Has this not imposed an undue cost burden on the electricity consumers of the country? Is it not the foreign hand that compelled the government to pass the civil nuclear liability law to shift the burden of accident liability from the foreign reactorsuppliers to the tax payers in India ?

What safety issues do you think the government needs to addres?

The PMO had assured that safety audits and action taken on existing plants will be placed in the public domain. More than nine months have lapsed and yet DAE/ NPCIL have remained secretive. DAE should take people into confidence. It should order risk analysis studies, assuming human and mechanical failures, as well as seismic events. In the Deccan plateau, which was considered stable, we had the Koyna disaster and the Latur earthquake, in which thousands lost their lives and homes. Our knowledge of the impact of low-intensity radioactive exposure is also incomplete.

Can we afford to abandon the nuclear route to meet our power needs?

It is a fallacious argument put forward by energy illiterates. A 10 per cent saving in Transmission and Distribution losses in India through additional investment on T&D network will save 1,56,000 MW of capacity, which is more than 2.5 times of the 60,030MW of nuclear capacity projected up to 2030-31 in the Integrated Energy Policy (IEP) report of the Planning Commission. If a 20 per cent efficiency improvement is realised in our lighting devices, which is within the domain of possibility, we can similarly do away with most of the nuclear capacity addition planned.

What alternative scenarios do you propose?

Germany, where 26 per cent of electricity comes from nuclear sources, has decided to do away with it in a decade and shift to solar and other renewable sources. In India, hardly 2.5 per cent of electricity comes from nuclear. We have much more of solar insolation and sources of renewable energy.

What ails our energy policy?

Our energy policy should be based on demand management, efficiency improvements and renewables as the first priorities. When I talk of demand management, I talk of changes in urban planning, transport planning, building architecture and so on. For example, a tonne-km of freight traffic requires seven times of oil products by road compared to rail. We therefore ought to think of “golden quadrilaterals” of rail rather than highways. Similarly, one passenger-km of passenger traffic in a city based on cars and two-wheelers consumes twice the oil consumed by buses.

Indian Reality:Rudderless Education system

Successive governments have been telling us that education is the foremost priority for them. In spite of that we still have millions of illiterates even after 64 years of independence. The first and foremost priority must be accorded to literacy drive and simultaneously evolving an education system and infrastructure that could do some value addition to the earning prospects of an individual and his contribution towards the growth and prosperity of the country.
We are producing graduates and post graduates in large numbers and a majority of them in mere IIIrd division. We do not realise that we are wasting our money and scarce resources on these people. All such students or candidates get through in examinations because the universities as well as teachers do not want to have low pass percentages. Additionally it encourages discretion, graft and favouritism etc.during selections in jobs and puts sub standard candidates on government posts.
Our education system produces about 3 million graduates ( B.A.'s ) , about 1 million technical graduates, 0.18 million MBA's, 0.27 million polytechnic diplomas and 0.75 million ITI's. Out of all these so called educated and qualified class about 80% are simply unemployable. Instead of contributing towards India's progress, they are just a drain on the system as a lot of government money is spent on these colleges and institutes. These people invariably find jobs in the government sector wherein utter discretion is used in the name of  'Interview' and a lot of money changes hands in the form of bribe. One is not surprised to read reports in newspapers that over 8000 teachers in Bihar failed class V test. Only 5% of our Information Technology graduates are employable in the real sense and when it comes to Engineering Graduates and MBA's, a vast majority of them get placed at sub 1.00 Lakh annual packages. So far for the story of white collar job aspirants.
In the Skilled manpower segment which is the essence of progress of productivity of a country the situation is all the more worse. Firstly the quality and standard of skilled labour and supervisors is simply not up to the mark. Secondly we have a very distorted pyramid structure when technical manpower is in question. Imagine for 1 million engineering graduate pass outs per annum, we produce only 0.27 million diploma holders and 0.75 million ITI's. On the top of it we have about 200 million unskilled workers who just have two hands as their competence. There is an urgent need to convert these hands into Semi Skilled ones or Blue Collar Manpower  which includes Plumbers, Masons, Carpenters, Electricians, Drivers and workers in leather, jewellery and textile industry to name only a few. It is only in India that in these categories we have only 2% of manpower with any formal vocational training. In Industrially advanced countries more than 90% workers have proper vocational training which helps increasing the productivity and quality of produce and earnings of the individual.
This is the result of collective wisdom of our elected representatives who claim to have only nation's interest and the welfare of poor masses in mind when they form policies. The fact is that they have not shown any sincerity or concern towards the country or its Aam Admi during sixty years of meaningless and politically motivated governance. My Country men, it is time to wake up, for only good, selfless, sincere and honest people at the top can guide the nation and its poor millions to prosperity in less than a decade.

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.

Corruption and Black Money:The Ultimate Solution

Various scams like CWG scam, 2 G scam, Adarsh Housing Society scam and the cases of huge wealth accumulation by Hasan Ali, Shahid Balwa and many others are just the tip of the iceberg of this menace.After engaging all the enforcement, vigilance, investigation and judicial authorities of the country we are still not sure as to what will be the outcome of this. These are just a few isolated cases of something which is rampant in the country and out of which only these few have come to light somehow. In fact the the scale and magnitude at which corruption and black money generation is going on in this country may be tens of thousand times the combined scale of these scams.

The colossus effort involved in unearthing corruption and black money and the time frame in which something can be done can be gauged by the number of agencies involved, number of persons to be interrogated and the amount of raids carried out in dealing with these few cases. For Commonwealth Games with a budget of few thousand crores, top bureaucracy, CPWD, DDA and other officials were interrogated and many times raids were also conducted on their premises. Imagine if similar problems of CPWD, DDA, and their counterparts in all states and other ministries like railways, defence, road transport and highways etc. are to be dealt with, where the construction and infra development budgets run into lakhs of crores of rupees. The quantum of corruption money and black money generated in this activity can be easily assessed through a small basic calculation. A meagre 5% extra derived from the rates, 5% from the measurements and another 10%  from relaxation of specifications and material quality and quantity used makes available a whopping sum of Rs 50000 crores as the loot being shared between contractor, political bosses, bureaucracy and technical personnel involved in various facets of  the activity. It will be worthwhile to add that these percentages are  almost impossible to detect and prove but are a routine in these activities. The only way they can be checked is through strict monitoring of assets of connected people. Similar loots are going on in excise and taxation, income tax, food subsidy, midday meal scheme. Imagine how difficult it is to keep a check on millions of people involved in this loot. Even if we increase our enforcement staff and judiciary tenfolds we may end up by reducing this menace by a small 5-10%. Therefore some innovative and sincere methodology should be thought of in fighting this demon.

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.

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.

Energy Security:An Indian dream

India is the fifth largest producer of electricity with an installed capacity of 1,65,000 mw. When it comes to per capita consumption of electricity we are ranked amongst the poorest nations of this globe with an annual consumption of about 600 kwh which is a meagre 10% of the per capita consumption of the developed world. If  we really want to raise the living standard of our poor millions we have to increase our power generation ten folds in a reasonable time span of 20-25 years. This can only be achieved if we put this in a national mission mode with an unbiased earnest approach both by our planners and technocrats.

An earnest national approach is all the more important in the light of recent earthquake and tsunami disasters in Japan. The nature, intensity, fury and location of natural disasters cannot be predicted or fathomed by present day science and technology. However, as well meaning citizens it is our duty to ensure that natural disasters do not lead to man made secondary disasters.If some nuclear expert compares the probability of a nuclear accident or calamity with the probability of an accident while walking or driving on a road or travelling by a train, he is being untrue to not only the nation but his profession also, for an isolated accident and a catastrophe are entirely different things. while all efforts should be made to reduce the accidents on road a catastrophe should be avoided at all costs.

In the light of all this the energy security should be thought of in the face of following facts. We should primarily concentrate on all Renewable Sources of Energy.

• The Hydro Electric potential of India is estimated to be 1,48,000 mw out of which only about 32000 mw has been harnessed so far. This is a clean and renewable source.
• The Wind Power potential of our country is about 1,00,000 mw and so far only about 10000 mw has been utilised.
• The Solar Power potential of about 35000 sq km of Thar desert alone is estimated  to be a huge 7,00,000 mw. Country's total potential of this source is absolutely mind boggling even if we exploit only those areas which have already been utilised for road and rail corridors, canal network etc which run into lakhs of kilometres can offer thousands of sq kms for use. Additionally a 10 km radius ring road around even medium size cities can offer about 4-5 sq kms of area sufficient to generate about 80 mw.
• We are producing about 1,10,000 mw of Thermal Power wherein we are moving tonnes and tonnes of coal by rail incurring huge cost on logistics and straining our limited transport means simply because we do not have a national power grid in place.
  

Additionally the following thought process should also get the topmost priority from the government to give a meaningful direction to our policies on energy security.

• National power grid as a first priority.
• We are losing about 30% of our generated power through theft and transmission losses which can be brought down to about 10% through better engineering and good governance.
• All major buildings should incorporate energy efficient architecture and design.
• Save our fossil fuel and carbon resources for metallurgical purposes and futuristic requirements of synthesis of organic compounds which have become such a major requirement of our daily lives.
• The use of Nuclear Energy should almost be the last resort and kept at a level warranted by our military requirements.
• The exorbitant cost of producing electricity, presently Rs10-11 per unit for wind power and Rs 18-20 per unit for solar power could well be reduced significantly if scales of production matching to our requirements are kept in mind

Indian Dream:Our Chance To Become World Leaders

For long India has been the country of people who have been denied and deprived of prosperity and modern day comforts of life. When we take into account any of the prosperity indices like per capita earnings, per capita consumption of steel, electricity, cement, milk, cloth or for that matter any other parameter, we are no where near even to post world war II figures of advanced nations. This huge gap and magnitude of increase that is required to fulfill the dreams of one billion people is a God sent opportunity to make this country technology leader in many fields. Let us not waste this opportunity by bringing in prosperity through a route which has evolved in this world because of the then limitations in the field of science and technology and material development.

Electricity generation and connected technologies should be topmost priority as its consumption index is the mother of all other economic development indices and we have to increase its production manifold to catch up with the western world. Surprisingly our politicians and technologists both have chosen a path where we will all the time be following the developed nations and be dependent on them. It is not that developed nations do not understand that ultimate answer lies in the Renewable Sources of Energy. These nations themselves will also ultimately  switch over to these sources when their present power plants and plant manufacturing technologies become obsolete and they have squeezed full value by selling them to nations like India. Till such time the use of renewable energy will be kept at exorbitant price. It is for us to seize this opportunity and make power from these sources at prices comparable with power from present day conventional sources through research, technology innovation and scale of production. We should not forget that even with our meagre per capita consumption of electricity we are fifth largest producer in world. Therefore our targeted yearly additions in power production are far more than the yearly obsolescence of American Plants. Since they have all the technologies for setting up of conventional and nuclear power plants available in house they will not be interested in large scale spending on researches in the fields of utilizing renewable energy sources at present.

The present world leaders in science and technology are at that position not because of sheer coincidence or stroke of luck but because of long term vision and thinking on the part of their leaders and technocrats.If only Indian counterparts are true and earnest in their approach to fulfilling the aspirations of masses in the field of power generation we will become world leaders in harnessing renewable sources of energy in a decade or so.

Corruption and Black Money - 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 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 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.

Indian Dreams

INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY: Talk to any Indian. He dreams to see India prosperous, mighty and a comfortable place to live in. This dream can just be realised in a decade if only the drags imposed by the system are taken care of by the government. We have abundance of agricultural resource, mining wealth, human resource, human intellect, finances etc., etc.. All that is needed is to channelize them properly.

We have seen the growth stories of China, Japan and Singapore, to name only a few. But the leaders and governments of these countries had the will to succeed and they have made best use of the resources rather than coming out with lame excuses and showing indifference to the problems faced by under developed nations. Mao Tse Tung saw two working hands of every new born child rather than the extra mouth to feed. Japanese and Singapore leaders laid priority on the human intellect and moral responsibilities of every citizen towards the nation resulting in innovations in the areas of technology and  manufacturing and strict tax compliance.

In India we talk only of problems. Problems like huge population, corruption, black money, lack of education, lack of finances etc. and the list goes on to defend our relative non performance in the last fifty years. Believe me whatever changes have occurred are the result of bare minimum measures like a bit of privatization and global necessity of shifting industry to areas of cheap labour. In fact there has been Zero Value Addition to the process of bettering the lot of suffering masses of our country by successive governments. If only these governments had put their might behind better tax collections, conquering the black money demon, concerted efforts towards improving education, infrastructure, healthcare needs of society etc. to name only a few, we would have been standing along with these developed nations by now.