FARMER WOES IN INDIA

 About 50% Indians depend on farming sector in India, about 13 crore farm owning families along with farm labour and those involved in farm related activities. However, the farming sector contributes about 15-17% to the national GDP. Another basic fact to be noted is that out of these 13 crore land owning families about 12.5 crore own less than 1 Hectare of land. We must understand that this chunk of 95% of farmers even with a small family of 4 persons can only live as extremely poor on the basis of the produce from his holding of about 1 Hectare. ( Say anything between Rs 50000 - 60000 ). 

Now, any measures to improve the lot of this large chunk of about 50 crore people should be fair to one and all and has to be thought of in the light of following facts. 

• Minimum Support Price ( MSP ) covers only a small fraction of farm produced commodities, some 25 odd commodities only and there also the procurement of about 5% of the total produce is bought by union government. 
• We should never ignore that no farmer can live solely on the goods produced on his farm. In fact a majority of any farmer household's kitchen, food and clothing requirements also come from the market.\
•  If 50 crore are dependent on agriculture produce, there are 120 crore consumers of this produce. This additional 70 crores comprise of all labour and workers, small vendors and businesses. Their additional earning requirements because of food price rise could result into the prices of everything spiraling upwards, thereby erasing the gains of the farming community.
• Agriculture has been a state subject, i.e. it forms a part of the state list of our Constitution, which essentially means that states are supposed to address all the issues related to agriculture. But on Jun 20, 2020 Entry 33 in the concurrent list limits the power of states in agriculture and empowers the Centre by stating that both the state and the Union government can legislate regarding production, trade, supply and distribution of a range of foodstuffs and agricultural raw materials.

A big majority number of states and the country as a whole has been at the mercy of one particular party and its allies for all but 11 years and they have failed the farmers, Dalits, other poor and minorities even because they resorted to the model of creating and empowering  Philosophy Of Corruption Empowerment - Bane Of Seven Decades Of Independent India  which resulted in the Birth and Rise Of Corruption Empowered Cabal In India and controlling these big vote banks through the weapons of Saam, Daam, Dand, Bhed and hollow slogans wielded through these cabals without caring for the plight and welfare of hapless masses.

Now that these parties are no longer in power and they themselves and the elitist as well as all levels of empowered cabals have lost out on their illegal earnings, they have started their campaign with following nonsensical suggestions. 

• Firstly these parties want 100% of farm produce to be procured by union government from the present 5% being procured. Great idea but why did it not strike them when they were enjoying the power. Because either they did not know that value of 17% of GDP i.e. Rs 27 lakh crores exceeds the annual budget of India. And supposingly Indian government procures it, then who sells it to the market. Or perhaps they just want to  criticize the government of India to justify their salaries and perks.
• Secondly these parties want that total produce should be sold by farmers in Mandis at Minimum Support Price. Since they are ruling in majority of states and the state governments can formulate such policies as per constitution , why are they leaving such a welfare measure to Modi to take credit and win future elections?????????

In the light of all this, what is the real answer to the farmer woes in India? First and foremost any subdivision of individual holding below one Hectare is catastrophe for a farming family. This clearly implies that the country has to not only put a control on population but also wean away a few tens of millions from these farming households to industry, services and other professions to maintain present parity.

    Secondly, the country has to find solutions to losses of farmers by natural calamities like floods, hailstorms, famines, as also man made problems of rotting of grains and perishable items because of lack of infrastrucure such as normal storage, cold storage, quick movement of produce from areas of abundance to areas of shortage, development of adequate food processing and losses because of rodents, pests, disease etc.

    Thirdly, saving the farmer from the clutches of inspectors, Aahrtiyas, middlemen, commission agents, wholesalers, retailers etc. In short, a system has to be evolved where the ratio of the price which a farmer gets and the price which a consumer pays is not less than 0.5.

India And Coronavirus Catastrophe

Two months have passed after the lock down as a result of Corona Virus (Covid 19). On one hand the political agenda has given birth to a debate on whether India should have gone ahead with lock down or not? On the other hand questions are being raised on the timing and preparedness required before putting the nation under lock down. Both these questions have a common answer in the fact that catastrophes and calamities are not planned activities and hence the response actions and planning will go hand in glove with each other and is in essence a trade-off between economy, loss of life, preparedness in both logistics and medical facilities and the speed of onset of the calamity in all kind of likely scenarios emanating from the nation’s understanding and response to the problem.

        All analysis of the problem, be it by Polity and Political analysts, Economists, Journalists, Industrialists and Intelligentsia has been done keeping in view one’s own self interest, hidden agenda and selfish motivations and fails to give a rational and unbiased assessment to a normal citizen.

       It is a well known that corona virus infected patients grow rapidly and exponentially. In the light of unfortunate fact that neither a cure nor a vaccine is available to mankind at this juncture, the only plausible solution at this is to slow down the growth chain and break it if possible, much like a nuclear reaction is controlled in an atomic power plant by removing/absorbing a large a large number of neutrons from the chain fission reaction, thus avoiding the catastrophe of a nuclear bomb explosion.This controlling/ breaking down the chain required an imposition of a complete lock down on all kind of activity along with building up an infrastructure to help fight and control Corona virus on a war footing. The results of any delay and let up would have been as catastrophic as that of a nuclear explosion. While the nuclear explosion limits itself to a maximum radius of 100 Kms or so, Corona misfortune would have been on the national scale.
       The trade off available was very simple. A maximum of Rs. 15 to 20 lakh crore of GDP loss coupled with a lot of misery and sufferings to the poor masses or accepting  a potential of a couple of lakh deaths and a couple of million covid-19 patients with the level of infrastructure created today so painstakingly in the last 2 months and barely enough for maximum 2 lakh patients. The war would have neither been won nor finished after this. But I can venture out to say if there was no lock down from March, the exponential growth of corona virus patients and its collateral damage effects on industry, commerce and services because of randomly falling sick of key workers, closing and sanitizing of premises, its demoralizing effect on business and workforce would have definitely led to an even greater exodus of workers ( Unplanned equally if not more ). And a completely haywire and directionless nation would have suffered many many times more.In case the nation went in for a lock down after giving a fortnight of preparation time as many have been professing, a sudden explosion of corona virus cases would have been simply unmanageable as has been seen in many advanced, educated, law abiding and prosperous nations. 

       Needless to emphasize that the social distancing, use of masks, soap and sanitizer, quarantine etc. are all containment efforts aiming at minimizing the loss and certainly not means of finding an end to the corona virus. The  finding out of a vaccine and achieving herd immunity can give a lot of respite and comfort to the global citizenry but in true sense the war shall be deemed to have won only after the humanity finds a cure to the disease..

INDIAN GROWTH STORY: THE WAY AHEAD ---- PART II

After having taken care of all fakes and duplicates in the population nos., voter list, list of all kind of state and central beneficiaries, property, gold and other asset holders, tax payers and tax evaders, the nation should look towards a remedy to the following governance issues.

• Discretion: Discretion is the biggest strength of governance if utilized with honesty and sincerity. But as the Indian system has been taken over by Corruption Empowered Cabal , ( the lick my boot/ scratch my back variety ) and where discretion is either used to extract money from all helpless and compelled citizenry or incur favours on one's cronies, stooges, relatives, masters and fellow travellers. It is time that Indian governance chooses to live without this word till such time we understand the real meaning of honesty, sincerity and character.
• Reinforcement of Corruption Control Machinery of States: The Indian states combined together have control over a yearly budget which is at least 1.5 times the Central budget. But sadly the central government can talk of CBI and ED originally set up to investigate bribery and governmental corruption ( Its efficacy and intent has always been in question in our corruption mired society ). As far as the states are concerned, they are the hot beds of corruption and a safe and sound source of illegal earning for polity of all hues and colours and the saddest part is that they are never in the eye of the storm in this great nation of Honest Politicians, Super Honest Intelligentsia, Beyond Doubt Journalists and Media. Hope we soon have somebody to plug the backside of this golden egg laying hen.
• Reinforcement of  Law Enforcing, Investigating Agencies and Judiciary: India Spends Only 0.08% Of GDP On Judiciary, Crippling Reforms. As of 2018, the judicial system was functioning with a lower than sanctioned number of judges, the report stated. While judicial vacancies against sanctioned posts stood at 23.25% at all tiers, the report pointed out that in 2016-17, high courts had a judge vacancy of 42% and subordinate courts of 23%.Police vacancies run at about 22% of sanctioned numbers, according to the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) report published in January 2017. The most acute vacancies were reported in Uttar Pradesh--at 53% for the constabulary and 63% for officers (2017). Similarly, nearly one-third of all prison posts remain unfilled across the country. Uttarakhand and Jharkhand had the most poorly staffed jails. Uttarakhand, for instance, recorded the highest vacancies among cadre staff, at 72% (2016). As of 2019, only 79% of the district legal service authorities had full-time secretaries to manage the delivery of legal-aid.             These poor numbers are not a sheer coincidence but are a direct result of birth and rise of the corruption empowered cabal . An increase of Rs 85,000 Crore out of a total combined budget of  67 lakh Crore ( Both Centre and States ) is not going to play havoc with the Indian economy but it will be a big asset in controlling corruption and black money, increasing the happiness quotient of general masses. Of course it will be like striking lightening on all members of corruption empowered cabal.
• Human Resource Development: The role of human resource development : the next  gen growth engine has been talked about extensively during the last two decades. Respective governments have been boasting of the great work done in the field of education and human resource development. But what is the reality. Indian Reality is that we have a Rudderless Education system.                                                                                                                                                   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.                                                                                                                                                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 for white collar and blue collar manpower. The concept of pink collar manpower is yet to take off. This is a very specialised cadre and the about 30% of manpower has to be absorbed in nursing, secretarial practices, beauticians and all kinds of  service industry.          Needless to say that we as a nation have to create ways and means to wean people away from villages and agriculture,  to have more and more people in the tax net as also in the organised sector.

The need of the hour is to have somebody who could say with Charles de Gaulle, "In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate". It is a pity that political masters of India betray both, the country as well as electorate just to be in power by all kind of foul means. How one wishes that Indian polity too has some statesmen in its ranks, for 
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 who are the core of Indian polity simply mess up everything and this is what separates wise men from men, men from boys and boys from impudent louts in the realm of changing fate of a nation.

INDIAN GROWTH STORY: THE WAY AHEAD ---- PART I

The first two decades of independent India should have given the country a sound agricultural footing, the basic infrastructure, a pool of scientific, technical and managerial personnel, a fairly good human resource of blue, white and pink collared workers and adequate financial resources. India was doing reasonably well on all counts up to about 1967 but then we were stuck by the malaise called corruption empowered cabal . Theoretically, every Tom, Dick and Harry of Indian polity and intelligentsia would describe the next gen growth engines of Indian Economy, namely, Infrastructure and Human Resource Development - Next Gen Growth Engines Of Indian Economy, Indian Energy Security - the next gen growth engine, Corruption Mitigation and Good Governance - The Biggest Growth Engines for Indian Economy .But  THE BIRTH AND RISE OF CORRUPTION EMPOWERED CABAL was so fast and overwhelming that the minuscule number of honest and uncompromising individuals of India want to forget these four decades as a bad dream.

During this period, one prime minister remarked that corruption was a universal phenomenon and India and Indians should learn to live with this. Another prime minister remarked that out of 1 Rupee given as a welfare measure by the government only 15 paise reaches the beneficiary. Needless to emphasize that the rest is gobbled by this cabal.Many of this cabal will point out the increase in GDP and per capita income during this period but will not tell you that India could have been more than a conservative 10 trillion Dollar economy instead of 1 or 1.5 trillion.

We have lost about 10 years of the great opportunity window that came our way in the form of energy security disruption and disruption in vehicle industry coupled with the great demographic dividend we possess today, to become prosperous. What ever is gone is gone. We still have 2/3 rd of the opportunity window available to make amends.  Ideally no nation  should ever forget the following lines which are passed down the line generation after generation in the text books of wisdom.

Good Economics and Good Governance is Ideal; 

Bad Economics and Good Governance is A Compromise;

 

Bad Economics and Bad Governance is A Disaster; 

Good politics, bad economics and bad governance is A Catastrophe.

We as a nation have to strive to raise ourselves from the level of Good politics, bad economics and bad governance to the level of Good Economics and Good Governance. With Aadhaar and computerization nothing is impossible in the realm of corruption mitigation and good governance, if the national will is there. 

• Start with the Census of India. Ensure no duplicates, no fakes.
• No fakes and duplicates in the population of India and its citizens.
• No fakes and duplicates in voter lists - Aadhaar linked
• No fakes and duplicates in PAN Cards -  Aadhaar linked
• No fakes and duplicates in Bank Accounts - Aadhaar linked
• No fakes and duplicates in ration card holders - Aadhaar linked
• No fakes and duplicates in other doles and subsidies - Aadhaar linked
• Linking of all real estate with Aadhaar in case of individual property owners 
• Linking of all real estate with some unique no  in case property owned by non individual
• Linking of all other Asset Classes like gold, equities with Aadhaar 

The corruption empowered cabal entrenched in polity of all hues, bureaucracy, judiciary, media, businesses, self employed persons and the so called intelligentsia is sparing no effort in delaying the process of computerization and linking of Aadhaar to all Indian human beings, all subsidies and payments  these guys receive from all government and non government entities, all their assets movable and immovable etc., etc.. Privacy and no other objection to these measures should come in the way because nation has the right to know whether any list contains fake, duplicate or names of dead persons. And it is the prime responsibility of all organs of the government i.e. legislature, bureaucracy and judiciary to curb and mitigate all practices that are contributor to theft and evasion of taxes, corruption/bribery, black money generation.

THE BIRTH AND RISE OF CORRUPTION EMPOWERED CABAL IN INDIA

In 1947 when India got independence, Indian polity and bureaucracy were by and large an honest and God fearing community. There could be some biases, likings, putting in a good word for some favour but nothing was ever done in exchange of money. Bribery and corruption were almost a taboo in the society. Tax compliance was an honour. With the passage of years, bribery, corruption, tax evasion all became accepted norms in the society and those who stayed away from these activities were ridiculed for not being worldly wise and daring. 

How did it start? Why did it start? The shift from pre independence era poltician's mindset of a servant of people to the mindset of being the ruler/king hardly took two decades. Once this rot set in, the necessity of having faithful servants in all positions arose. The lust of power immediately brought in the lust for money, riches and a desire for all baser elements of life.  The desire for power coupled with the desire for riches pushed the Indian politicians to the real long established definition of poltics. "It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first". These are the words of Ronald Reagan, the Ex US President and he couldn't have been more apt and correct, particularly when you see present day breed of the Indian Politicians.

Nobody can taste the fruits of  power and riches all alone, whatever may be the mode of governance. Kings/Dictators had their own faithful and powerful men in key positions, left regimes manage through party cadres and in a multi party democracy the leader has to share the spoils with a much larger group and to have them faithfully glued  to your side must close the eyes of the system so that they prosper. That propels the lick my boot, scratch my back model in reality. The resulted in the birth of corruption empowered cabal which encompasses the length and breadth of all walks of life , which grew exponentially in the next four decades, the colour of ruling polity being of no consequence.During these years no leader, no  politician , no intelligentsia, no bureaucracy, no judiciary, no media/ journalist, in fact nobody of any consequence from amongst 'The Haves of Indian Society' took cognizance of this malaise. In fact they are all guilty of enjoying the fruits of the birth and rise of corruption empowered cabal and are solely responsible for delaying the INDIAN CHANCE TO BECOME AN ECONOMIC SUPERPOWER They failed the nation in sorting out the CHALLENGES BEFORE INDIA , THE POTENTIAL ECONOMIC SUPERPOWER OF THE 21st CENTURY . 
The opportunity windows are a once in lifetime phenomenon in the history of a nation and India is in the midst of this window. Western European countries, Japan and China became prosperous before getting old. Let us resolve that we will not let the present corruption empowered ecosystem thrust upon us by this cabal deny us the prosperity/ happiness that can be ours if we utilize this opportunity judiciously. Let us not forget that 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 and this is what separates wise men from men, men from boys and boys from impudent louts in the realm of changing fate of a nation.

We as a nation have our tasks and priorities well defined and well cut. Let us fight for the end of this cabal and not fritter away our date with destiny which is just a decade away.

PHILOSOPHY OF CORRUPTION EMPOWERMENT - BANE OF SEVEN DECADES OF INDEPENDENT INDIA

After India attained independence, a lot was expected from the governments of independent India. India was a very prosperous country during the period of middle ages and attracted the traders, philosophers and looters/ invaders from 1000AD onwards. India became poor and backward as a result of loot/ arson , barbarism and cruelties by firstly Muslim invaders and rulers and finally by British Colonisers.

     India attained independence in 1947 and about the same time Germany, Japan, France etc started building up their war wrecked nations with the help of Marshall Plan. China started its march towards prosperity from 1949 onwards after the communists came into power. India also started around the same time. Western European countries and Japan became prosperous by 1960. But sadly India remained a poor and under developed country and continues to be the same even after seventy odd years.

      Where did we fail? We had the wherewithal for becoming prosperous but we squandered all the opportunities to become prosperous. In this failure two things stand out and even today unless we mend our ways we will keep on rotting and yearning for a  reasonably comfortable life for our masses. The first and foremost failure on the part of Indian polity of all hues, belonging to any of the left, right or centre ideology was the ability to keep a largely honest and God fearing nation as a corruption free nation. In fact the polity of independent India gave the nation ' The Philosophy of Corruption Empowerment ' , so much so that the CORRUPTION EMPOWERED CABAL  that came into prominence in all walks of life is fighting tooth and nail any effort to mitigate this ecosystem - the bane of seven decades of independent India . Many people from amongst the haves of India will tend to disagree but cannot deny the  crude reality of India that no government, no bureaucracy, no judiciary, no intelligentsia, no media has ever raised its voice for bringing the problem to light, leave apart finding a solution to destroy this demon.From time to time every class has talked of corruption by their opponents, not for punishing the culprits or finding a solution to mitigate this devil, but to gain an access to power so as to enable themselves to be the share holders in this national loot.The second failure on the part of India has been in seeing only the stomach to be fed with every human being rather than  two hands that can add to the earnings and prosperity of the nation.This can either be a case of  WRONG ECONOMICS OR WRONG INTENTIONS. The unintentional wrongs can be rectified after some time but the continuity of thought process and the lack of will and effort in making the list of  genuine beneficiaries devoid of duplicates and fakes is a strong pointer to the deep faith in the philosophy of corruption empowerment.  

       It is time the nation and the leadership understands  the importance of  Corruption Mitigation and Good Governance - The Biggest Growth Engines for Indian Economy. Now that we have the Aadhaar platform and the power of computers, information technology and data management available in the country, we will have to blame ourselves if we do not force the government to cleanse the system of fake and duplicate everywhere, be it the census, citizenry, ration cards and subsidies, voter lists, bank accounts, PAN accounts, real estate owners etc., etc. , the resistance and excuses from CORRUPTION EMPOWERED CABAL   in the name of privacy not withstanding.

My last appeal to the hapless masses of India.

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 tricks of politicians, their cronies, stooges and s breed of corruption empowered haves in authority /power, in ranks of so called intelligentsia, in businesses,in media, in self employed people. Please understand that 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.

MUMBAI AHMEDABAD BULLET TRAIN : A MAJOR STEP FORWARD TO THE INDIAN GROWTH STORY

Ever Since Indian government has taken a decision to introduce a bullet train ( High Speed Rail ) between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, all hell has been let loose by the opposition parties of India in decrying this decision om PM Modi which has the capacity to transform the Indian economy and the lives of common citizenry of India in a decade or so. The government is being touted as anti common man but India has a history of terming most of the progressive measures as repressive. Computerisation was supposed to be anti workers, so was industrialisation. This was generally the view of left parties but today even the centrist party like Congress which was the initiator of the computerisation and industrialisation has joined in the unholy alliance of decrying bullet train through its leaders and  large number of crumb getters who earned the title of intelligentsia through its patronage.

I will give three examples from railways which were outstanding efforts of the crumb givers of this intelligentsia and they rightly sang praises of the effort of the then Indian Government.But today their wisdom seems to have eluded them and they see everything wrong with this path breaking step by Mr. Modi.

a)  Rajdhani Express was introduced in 1969, for providing fast connections (up to 140 km/h or 87 mph, speed variation depending upon the particular track section) from New Delhi to the capital cities of various states in India.
b) Under the aegis of Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation and Indian Railways, Palace on Wheels was introduced on January 26, 1982. ... Thus, with a view to promote tourism in Rajasthan and to provide the world travelers a royal experience of traveling, Palace on Wheels was launched in the year 1982.

c) Rajdhani Express was introduced in 1969, for providing fast connections (up to 140 km/h or 87 mph, speed variation depending upon the particular track section) from New Delhi to the capital cities of various states in India.

But there are some sane voices also. The truth about bullet train has been reflected by Suresh Goel in The track to success: on the bullet train project . There are three advantages from the HSR project: economic benefits, including infrastructure development and job creation; technological development, in which Indian companies imbibe the new technologies and potentially also become suppliers to HSR contracts worldwide; and cultural transformation through a demonstrated ability to implement large projects and improve safety.

Investment in infrastructure development has always acted as a catalyst in the economic growth of India. This project could provide an important boost to public investment. The soft funding of the project by the Japanese government is an additional advantage, which brings the two countries together and provides significant economic benefits. In addition to creating demand for local industry, the project would also generate significant employment for a large number of skilled and unskilled workers. The HSR system is more energy- and fuel-efficient. Studies show that HSR systems are around three times more fuel-efficient than aeroplanes and five times more fuel-efficient than cars. Given the traffic density in this corridor, this project could lead to a significant reduction in India’s carbon footprint.
Equally sane and eye opener is the article How Japan's bullet train can transform Indian Railways into a global leader in size, scale & skill. which lays stress on the spinoff benefits. it is a different level of technology and India can ill afford to ignore it at this stage of its national development. A network of HSR in the longer run would facilitate travelling with enhanced passenger comfort, safety and environmental benefits. An HSR system would also release capacity of existing rail lines, enabling faster movement of freight and passenger traffic on the existing lines. The HSR system also releases capacity of airports as short-haul flights get curtailed. This capacity in turn could be utilised for longer duration flights that improve economics of air transport. In addition, development of new cities, promotion of manufacturing to supply equipment and components for the HSR system would provide employment to a growing and better skilled workforce. Investment in HSR is a highly beneficial system because of its various spinoffs, including infusion of new technology in the country which in the long run would lead to improvement in the operations of the existing railway network also. The project is being structured in a manner that it leads to large-scale manufacturing of rolling stock, signalling systems and other electrical equipment and components under Make in India. Additionally The highs peed train will act as a huge social and psychological change act — it should change the mindset of Indians, particularly the Railways, and teach them the art of excellence, safety, punctuality and perfection.