Holy cow in the Air

30,000 crore more for Air India to turn it around. Hope against hope to make this airline profitable, at least the cabinet thinks it can be done. Will this be the last tranche of support for the ever ailing Maharaja. Can it be ever turned around to make it viable and sold out. Only its real estate will be attractive to a buyer, its core operations are mis-managed.

We are perhaps the only country to have a minister for civil aviation whose most important job is to manage Air India apart from setting civil aviation policy. Civil aviation ministers suffer from megalomania, we can add the Rail ministers too to this category. With 63,000 cr debt this institution is surviving because the government has no other option. There is proof around the world that Airline business is difficult to run and the most well managed private airlines are barely profitable. By that standards Air India can never be profitable, its history over the past 2 decades is a proof.

30,000 cr is a lot of money that could have been better put to use by the government. Build quality one room + kitchen houses to 12 lakh poor (2.5 lakh/house) or develop Infrastructure in hundreds of villages.

3 years down the line after spending some 10,000 crore we will be back to the same discussion on how to turn around this white elephant which is constantly bleeding the taxpayer. Meanwhile our politicians and babus must be relieved that their holy cow in the air has survived once again. Else like anyone of us they would have to suffer standing in line to check in and be on time for the flight or shown the door.

Civil aviation industry in India is suffering due to lack of coherent policies and adequate government support. Designing progressive policies, their regulation and monitoring should be government’s job not running unprofitable businesses with taxpayers money.

Open the doors

Supreme court's yet another positive intervention in upholding constitutional validity of RTE - Right to Education is most welcome. It is criminal to deny education for our children and there is no doubt that every delay will result in delaying India achieving full literacy and all round development.

Government run public schools will not have an issue in implementing the directive. This is about 80% of the schools in India. However with the poor infrastructure and lack of accountability quality outcomes are not expected from these schools. Here's where the government needs to plough in funds and make the public schools vibrant. Education is the primary responsibility of the government and they should not pretend to have outsourced it to the private sector.

Coming to the private schools they have too many problems with the judgement, their objections are silly. Fundamentally they operate for profit and hence their objections for doing anything which is not profitable, their back of the envelope calculations with 25% seats reserved would have shown their profits come down. Also they do not want the daughter of a maid to be in the same class of the owner. They are ridiculosuly class consicous. These institutions should be audited for fraud and class discrimination they subscribe to.

Having said that the real problem of the directive is, practicality of its implementation and more importantly governments intent.

An incident that happened two days back will give us a dose of reality on the issue of child education in India-

I was on a visit to Delhi along with my friends and went to chandini chowk area for lunch in "parathe wali galli". We were served sumptuous parathas by a boy named pappu. Pappu was young and sprightly and i could not stop asking him why he was not at school and why he was working.He talked about the familiar story of father being drunk and his support needed for the family to survive. Mean while the eatery owner was upset that i was talking about education and started shouting on Pappu. There are many such boys and girls in restaurants and shops across the country who are missing the road to quality life. Who will put these boys and girls in schools ?

If you are following the liquor scam in AP it is yet another example of how low down governance has gone in the state. It is not unknown that cartels run the trade and there is much give and take between the cartels and politicians but the money changing hands in terms of deal payoffs amounting to INR 750 cr is a shocker.

ACB raids have shown direct and indirect linkage between the liquor barons and many serving ministers. An embarrassed government has done the next best thing of transferring out the man in charge of the raids Mr. Srinivas Reddy to a low profile job.
Liquor business is and has been a money spinning trade for politicians in the state, auctions are fixed, selling over MRP is overlooked, Benami ownership is rampant (in some cases holders of “antyodaya cards “are shown as the owners of the liquor shops (antyodaya card holders receive 35 kg of rice every month, they are the real BPL as per definition).

It is a sordid tale of unscrupulous politicians and bureaucrats conniving together to make money out of the hapless citizen. There is no rule and rhyme in giving out the licenses, there are liquor shops within 100 mts apart, there are shops on the highways and cartels run the trade all over the state.

The increasing consumption of liquor and its effects on health is not even up for discussion; our leaders are busy doling out more licenses. They want the citizens to be in an intoxicated permanently. Go to any village and suburb, working class and poor people are spending away their hard earned daily wages on liquor. It is a vicious cycle of liquor consumption, family, health, poverty etc. Politicians have kept the masses under their thumbs.

One should read what Aacharya Chankya said about control of liquor business in Arthshastra. Decidedly his views are more cogent and socially responsible than the current bunch of selfish leaders. Our state excise minister himself is accused of being a cartel member. He should read Acharya chanakya -

“Aacharya Chanakya has described the rights and duties of Suradhyksha in his Arthshastra as below :
Suradhyksha should give permits to only those experienced traders who have sound family background of liquor trade in Durg, Janpath, Skandavar (Cantonment). Suradhyksha could centralize or decentralize the trade of liquor. One who is found producing, selling-purchasing or consuming liquor outside the fixed place should be fined 600 Panka (coins). Suradhyksha should make arrangements to stop intoxicated people going out of village; to each other’s houses or to public places. Only citizen who’s good conduct is known to Suradhyksha could take liquor stamped with Rajmudra in little magnitude as -- one fourth Kunduv half Kunduv, one Kunduv, half Prashta or one Prastha. Those who were not allowed to take liquor outside could drink either in Bars or at vends of liquor. If any drunkard tries to purchase liquor by mortgaging something or paying illegal money (owner of which is not known) or makes payment through precious liquidity etc. then the shopkeeper should send him to some other place and hand him over to police with the help of liquor officer. A person who spends more than his income or does not save anything for future because of drinking liquor may also be handed over to police.

Lambada's in Andhra Pradesh

Lambada’s the migrant people can be found in almost all states of India. Their wealth is cattle and they live in settlements called “Thandas” in groups. Classified under scheduled tribes they speak a mixture of Sanskrit, Marathi and Rajasthani, there is no written form of their language.

Some among the community have progressed well and moved on do to well but significant majority of the lambada’s are still illiterate and suffer economically. Due to their migrant nature no one seems to own their problems.

I met a group of lambada’s in my village who came with their cattle herd from a different district in search of work during the offseason. I talked to their leader Mr. Bhikhu Naik who talked about lack of help from government for their community.

My interview with Mr. Bhikhu is posted at http://youtu.be/cFZuraCbh3o.

Elections and Debates

Last couple of weeks we saw the political drama unfold in the election going states, we can be proud of managing such complex electoral challenges (every other election in the world dwarfs to our elections in terms of size and complexity), a true tribute to the spirit of democracy in Indians. Unfortunately our achievement ends here, we are yet to mature in having real issues come out for debate in the electoral process.

We are happy to see our political leaders slug it out in the open and through abuses and allegations against each other but not engaging in real debate on the issues that impact the citizens on a daily basis. Political parties are fine doing this way since they do not have answers for the issues that need debate. They are comfortable belching out rubbish on their opponent’s day in and out.

For example In UP it is Muslims Vs Hindus (Hindus vs. Yadavs vs. OBCs vs. Dalits) vs. Regional parties vs. Regions. Political parties spend time only in managing caste and religion equations. There is no time for real issues. They know it is futile to discuss real issues. 50% of the electorate in the country is still illiterate and they are gullible, our political parties are aware of that. In UP it was promises about reservations for so and so group not about universally common issue regarding child mal-nutrition, female foeticide or education.

Parties have silly manifestos which basically promise everything to everyone.They themselves junk it post declaring the manifesto.

This is going on for a long time and is a cause of worry, when do we discuss real issues - not in the electoral process, not in legislatures (there is hardly any real debate), not in municipal councils, then where. Our aspiration to be a developed nation will take longer if we do not change the debate.

I was watching Hans Rosling’s “New insights on Poverty” – he talks about elements of “dimensions of development “ namely - Human rights, Environment, Governance, Economic growth, Education, Healthcare and Culture. All relevant for a country which aspires to be a super power, but who is talking about these.

Governance is at the heart of all the above dimensions, are we not sure that we are perhaps one of the most poorly governed country. Take any dimension of governance we will fall short.

Having said that kudos to the Election Commission for having added one more feather in its cap. EC and RBI are examples of how strengthening institutions will lead to positive outcomes. They are two shining exmaples in an other wise listless list of institutions that govern this country.

Lake Encroachment - Burgulkunta - Gachibowli - Hyderabad

We Indians are good at forming committes to look into a variety of aspects and so there is one commitee called LPC ( Lake protection committe) formed by Hyderabad Metro authority to protect and take action on Lake encroachments. They have web presence at http://www.hmda.gov.in/lakephotos4.html. They talk about some 10 lakes while there are 100s in and around the city.

As usual they keep kidding citizens about the actions they are taking on Lake encroachments. I have posted a video about Burgulkunta Lake in the heart of Gachibowli economic zone. It is a straight case of criminal negligence by the authorities while the Lake is dying. Fishermen used to fish in the lake and sell their wares in the weekend market. All fish died beacuse of sewage being dumped into the lake by a hotel and apartment complexes.

The video of the sad state of the lake is posted at this address - http://youtu.be/irUNnbRm8LY.

Land sharks eating up lakes in Hyderabad - A video about Bachukunta lake, Chandanagar, Hyderabad

Natural resources are plundered with impunity across the country on a daily basis. Lakes in cities are an object of fascination for the real estate and construction companies, they build so called“Lake view villas and apartments”.

Hyderabad city is dotted with many lakes which used to be the source of drinking water and acted as reservoirs. With rapid urbanization most have these lakes have been encroached upon. Most of them have vanished and whatever are left are being destroyed with housing complexes coming around them.

It is the filthy collaboration between municipal authorities, builders and politicians that is destroying whatever natural remains in our cities.

The enclosed video is about the sad story about the death of “ Bachukunta lake” in Chandanagar, Hyderabad.


http://youtu.be/QgckmW5qoHg