Killer Hospitals

Fire at Calcutta AMRI hospital has consumed 90 lives, there is lot of grief and anger in the country, there is wide spread condemnation, there are calls for justice and some blame game. We had the same grief during the Uphaar cinema fire and during multiple building collapses in Delhi, Mumbai, Surat and Hyderabad. But as a nation our grief is fleeting we forget and move on till the next disaster happens. Our governments are blind and deaf.

It boils down fundamentally to the rotten system we have created, fully corrupt municipal administrations who certify buildings for fire safety closing their eyes. Corrupt town/urban planning officials who let buildings violate all rules (and regularize them after couple of years). All across the country business houses and greedy officials collude, take advantage of the lacunae in building permits and laws and violate all rules with impunity. These departments stink of corruption.

Surely AMRI authorities will face the law but I am afraid they may get out of the case with lighter sentences like in the Upahaar case. The struggle to ensure safety in public spaces and create accountability for innocent lives lost remains a distant dream in India.

There is space for the Mall and the Kirana

Cricketer Mohinder Amaranth once called selectors a “bunch of jokers”. One cannot but have the same feeling looking at the way our parliamentarians behave, stall debate and progress in the country. One has to give it to the ineptness of the ruling party’s political think tank for messing up issue after issue and creating political confrontation with the opposition and allies on almost all critical policies. The opposition is equally obscurantist but the onus of opening a healthy debate and consensus is with the party in power. Middle ground is a forgotten term for our elected representatives.

FDI in retail, there is no doubt it will benefit in development of infrastructure (cold storages, ware houses), improve supply chains and finally benefit the farmers (middle men are hurting the country’s farmers), ultimately it will bring done costs to the consumer because of efficiencies across the chain (there is no way we can compare the cost efficiencies of our malls to that of Walmart or Carrefour etc) malls in India are for the upper and middle class and they are taken for a ride by the mall owners). There is enough proof of the success of FDI in retail contributing to growth in china (100% FDI limit), Brazil, and Singapore etc. In china itself 600 + hyper marts have been built over the past decade leading to large scale employment, employment in the sector in china rose by 100% between 1992 to 2001 (from 28 mil to 54 mil). Are we anywhere near China or Brazil in the retail space – our pathetic infrastructure destroys fresh produce and more than 30% of the fresh produce is thrown as waste. On products other than fresh produce we are inefficient in costs.

Folks who are fighting for the neighborhood kirana shop are raising a bogey, kirana will survive or transform itself if the big retailers are ever going to have an impact on them, I think there will be no impact, shopping habits are hard to change and we will still walk across to the kirana shop to buy the toothpaste and dal. The same bogey was raised when KFC and Pizza hut entered the Indian market, they have in fact contributed positively to the economy by generating employment. At the same time Saravan bhavan’s, Kamat’s and Nirula’s are still doing their business briskly. We are big country and there is space for the kirana and the mall. Ultimately our objective should be to generate quality employment for our millions and at the same time invest in improving our infrastructure, technology, supply chains etc.

The ongoing ruckus is going to have an impact on FDI in aviation, this sector is struggling and badly needs cash infusion and strategic partners. Delay in formulating and rolling out a forward looking aviation policy will hurt the private players which is unfair. Why keep pouring public money in Air India while we penalize the private players with whole host of regulations?

A Slap on the face of Public

There is unanimous condemnation by one and all on the slap gate incident involving Sharad Pawar. All of us agree, civilized societies are not supposed to encourage such behavior. The shoe throwing incident in Iraq on George W has ignited the imagination of people globally, since then all sorts of material has been pelted against public leaders (read politicians). It is now a common practice worldwide rather a best practice. Coming back to the incident, I am sure a significant portion of the population would not really have the sympathies for our political leaders being humiliated in public. As Anna said tongue- in- cheek” Just one slap” would have been the refrain from most countrymen.

This is not about Sharad Pawar, he happened to be at the wrong place, this feeling is against politicians in general. Why is there a sense of victory when such incidents happen, there is a sense of achievement, quiet glee. It is an incorrect way of protesting but there we go. There is a general frustration in the society on the overall governance and against politicians in particular for they place themselves above law and are not accountable for delivering on promises once elected. They slap the general public on a daily basis, a slap on their stomachs with the uncontrollable inflation, a slap on their purse with rising prices. Pranab da post the incident said “I don’t know where the country is going” I agree it is time government wakes up and acts on issues like inflation, rising fuel and food prices and corruption that are making life difficult for the common man. Public anger needs an outlet and someone like Harvinder will keep doing such acts. A divided polity who place themselves above the country deserve collective condemnation and ....

Movement at the cross roads

There is a sense of smugness in the Congress now that some muck has been thrown at the Anna’s team. Minor transgressions by Kiran bedi’s NGO etc. Basically to prove even you are corrupt so don’t preach. Anna’s team should have expected this, government will use all its good offices to get even. The good news is that even though attempts have been made to damage Anna’s personal reputation he seems to come out clean, it is good for the Jan Lokpal movement. It is not about the core committee it is about the movement and its symbol Anna.

Coming to the core committee itself they are definitely not doing themselves any favor by committing political blunders, Prashanth Bhushans Kashmir comment will not be taken kindly by any well meaning Indian ( his opinions are well regarded on anti-corruption not on all and sundry issues). In the same way Kejriwal’s Hisar trip and taking sides is no way to cultivate popular support. Having tasted success during the Ramlila fast they may be falsely assuming that public are behind them for all the issues they espouse, they need to be more grounded and understand that the public support they are enjoying is issue based. Indians are fed up with corruption and will hitch on to any group that is fighting for the issue. Anna may be advised to get rid of some of the core members who have foot in the mouth disease. His battle is better fought being apolitical, he will lose the battle in the political arena.

What next for Anna, I think his movement has lost some of its sheen due to political color the issue has taken. Digvijay singh and team have ensured to raise doubts in the mind of public about team Anna’s credentials.

Anna himself is the person who can save this movement; he should lead from the front once again to garner public support for the most important issue in post independent India. There is a definite impact of this movement which can be seen in the high profiles arrests and investigations that are going on in the country, but will these arrests culminate in sentences, we have not yet seen that in India. Hence it is important that Anna’s mission is successful and only he can save this movement. Meanwhile his team should practice what he is doing “moun vrat”. There is a lesson here - In silence Gandhiji achieved much

TTD and Mis-Management

Indians like Pilgrimages, our gods are spread far and wide across the country and many of us try to cover as many pilgrimage locations as possible in a life time. In the most popular ones there is a perennial rush of pilgrims. Temple management for all the important shrines is under the control of Government (Devadaya, Dharmadaya Sakhas). Like in other areas of governance, temple management is corrupt, unimaginative, lacks in focus on pilgrim comfort and safety, devoid of focus on tradition and heritage and is mostly a commercial proposition. They ride on the gods in their money making endeavors.
Perhaps the most famous deity is Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati since he is known to bless his devotes with abundance (aapada mokkula vadu, which means that he is the lord who hears to help you in misfortunes) The temple is the richest pilgrimage center in the world, after Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, of any faith (assets over INR 50,000 crore) and the most-visited place of worship in the world. The temple is visited by about 50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims daily (30 to 40 million people annually on average), while on special occasions and festivals, like the annual Brahmotsavam, the number of pilgrims shoots up to 500,000, making it the most-visited holy place in the world. Despite all the richness the management lacks vision to provide for a holistic pilgrim experience. The aspects of safety, sanctity etc, they are bothered more about the VIP experience than the commoner experience.

I visited the temple town of Tirumala/Tirupati last week on the last day of Brahmotsavam. I took the steps to reach to the hill top. After waiting for 5 hours in the general queue (dharma darshan) we were led to what is called Pilgrim holding centers (vaikuntam complex). I had no qualms standing for whatever time in the queue to have the darshan of the lord (it is worth the effort for that fleeting experience of bliss for the devout). I used the time to understand the queue management and safety procedures in place at the vaikuntam complex. My conclusion is once you enter the complex you are basically entering a building without any fire safety, crowd control and fire exit facilities. It is amazing that so many people go in and come out of this complex every day and the temple administration has not paid attention to this crucial aspect. Instead of investing in infrastructure and implementing end to end queue/pilgrim management models TTD is basically boxing people into compartments without any fire exits and fire safety procedures and basically playing with lives.

Such a shame for the world’s richest temple body to treat its visitors. One can understand the overwhelming rush but there should be methods to have an end to end view of the entry and exit of the pilgrims with safety.

Governor of AP has congratulated TTD for the successful conduct of the Brahmotsavams, he must instruct TTD to conduct a study of safety procedures in the temple queue and see for himself the thoughtless ways of TTD.

A loosing proposition

Farmers are the most exploited community by our politicians, every politician and political party shed crocodile tears for this extremely hardworking class and use them as vote banks. On an average a south asian farmer works around 3000 hrs/year doing hard physical work in the paddy fields. This is the highest in terms of hard physical work compared to any other profession. Yet this community which feeds the country is often taken for a ride by the government. Jai Jawan Jai Kisan (hail the soldier and hail the farmer) a slogan given by the late Lal Bahadur Shastri equates the responsibility of a soldier who defends the country to that of a farmer who carries the burden of feeding the country.

While nature, pests, insects pose unavoidable challenges in this profession, it is the policy, implementation and political issues that hurt the farmers most. Take for example the recent issue of paddy procurement and minimum support price for the farmers. When there was a bumper harvest of paddy this year, government did not or delayed procurement of the crop and at the same time set a minimum support price which is far below the real cost to the farmer, added to the insult they banned rice exports making life even difficult. Farmers in the Krishna and Godavari deltas (which are the rice bowls for the country) could not make a decent profit despite a good harvest. Most farmers sold paddy in a fire sale and the beneficiaries are the middlemen and export companies (their stocks are doing great) who are raking in the moolah due to the recent lifting of the export ban.

The farmer suffers either ways, during a drought and worse even after a good harvest. They are in a perennial debt cycle. Once in a while government throws some money on the poor farmers to keep their mouths shut but they never try to address the real problems affecting the farming community. Creation of supply chains, Mechanization for higher productivity, modernization of canals, creating markets, forming strong co-operatives and making exports competitive in the world market are issues that are addressed half heartedly.

The issue is closer home since I see my father going through the grind from start to finish year after year. The pain starts right from procurement of seeds and fertilizer for which government is directly responsible. With amazing irresponsibility year after year they make farmers life hell by not releasing the requisite seeds and fertilizers on time and in enough quantity. They seek pleasure in the pain of this hard working community.

India is still an agrarian economy with 60% of the population making a living on farming. India’s success in reducing poverty is deeply connected on how we tackle the agrarian crisis.

Anna Hazare was apt when he said “Naache bandar khaye madari” about the state of farmers during his recent fast. These folks are always on the loosing side.

Two extremes of emotions in 24 hrs one of a modern, efficient and developed India and one uncaring, brutal and apathetic. We all go through these emotions on a daily basis, working in swanky corporate campuses, shopping in beautiful malls to an immediate change in scene to broken roads and general administrative apathy in our country. A switch to extremes in minutes, It is truly “Incredible India”.
A ride in the Delhi Metro last week made me feel that we have arrived, a day later a visit to Secunderabad rail station caught my attention on the plight of two elderly citizens struggling to make it to the train, disillusionment again whether we will make it to the top.

For the Indian Railways to be truly world class, it is definitely not about resources alone, it is about having a vision to be world class and the government taking necessary steps in that direction. The annual Railway budget is a joke with the only objective of introducing new services on the already stretched and broken infrastructure with total disregard to safety of passengers. This annual drama should be stopped and precious paper saved. Does it strike to the Railway board that there are things like Passenger amenities, Passenger safety linked to modernization, automation of Infrastructure that need to be carried out immediately. They have plans to do it while some more accidents keep occurring. Talk about ostriches burying their head in sand.