Mango People in India

Robert Vadra should not forget apart from himself and the may be another 5% rich in India rest of us are all mango people. It is a country for the mango people ruled by the orchard owners (political parties). Since we are mango people he was able to go ahead and earn his riches like the rest of his ilk in the political class.

Obviously Robert Vadra did not have an idea about what his mango people comment can do in terms of damage, in the first place the banana republic he calls India as is governed by the party he belongs to and secondly same mango people have voted his party to power in 2009 and 2004.

His comments can be attributed to political arrogance which is on the rise in India. This arrogance spans across political spectrum. The feeling that they are above law makes them behave irrationally. They are aware the laws are for the “mango people”. In such a situation it is important for new political outfits like IAC to be successful to bring balance into the debate.

Mean while Robert Vadra should start seriously working for the cause of mango farmers in the country. India perhaps produces the best quality mangoes in the world but our farmers are not able to make money due to middle men, lack of storage infrastructure and inability to export. I am sure Robert can use his good offices to do something good here for the mango men in India.

Crony Capitalism and crooks

IAC (Arvind kejriwal) has come out with allegations of corruption against Robert Vadra. Given, he is not guilty until proven but the way Congress and Cabinet ministers lined up to defend Vadra raises suspiscions on the deals he had with DLF. Vadra joins the long list of politicians and political families who have benefited from their connections. Mr. Vadra is yet to respond to the allegations except for some feeble facebook notes. Will be there be an investigation on the specific charges?

Incidentally there is one Jagan Mohan Reddy who has done a something similar but atleast created some physical enterprises, he too blatantly exploited his father's position to strike mindboggling deals with business men. Then there are A. Raja, Kani, Suresh Kalmadi and others who basically moved money across borders etc. Most of them are under trail and not guilty but only the guillible will believe otherwise.

It will be interesting to see what more news Arvind is going to dish out, next is Maharastra and some of the politocos must be praying it is not them.

Dont be afraid of all things foreign - they will go back ayway

First there is 2G and then Coalgate and multiple other scandals UPA 2’s world was falling apart. Policy inaction, faltering growth along with unbending food inflation was putting pressure on the government. To wriggle out the prime minister has played the only card he has left – reform card. It is not about reforms actually it is about getting out of the pressure created by the ongoing scandals. Deflect attention and create a debate within the country so that the focus is elsewhere. Dr. Singh has already achieved that and he can breathe easy. He also manages to retain his reformer economist title.

The opposition is in playing to the script and “opposing” FDI. Do they know if money is not pumped into the aviation sector (read private) our airlines will be dead. With unrealistically high fuel tax and landing charges in major metros airline business is only for the chivalrous. Of course the government instead of taking responsibility for creating a positive policy environment for domestic aviation has opted for the easy way out of opening up FDI in aviation. Anyway no foreign airline is in a hurry to put money in the Indian aviation sector. It will be a while before a billion dollars is invested in the Indian aviation sector by outsiders. So one need to worry about FDI in aviation.

FDI in retail – no one knows what is the end result of such foreign investments. There are studies which suggest both ways (good and bad). The focus is on farmers and small traders. Farmers are anyway not doing well in this country from the times we know. They continue to be tools in the hands of politicians who promise them heaven in the name of gram swaraj ( basically our villages are caste and sect divided with pathetic infrastrcuture and no hope, their existence is hell even now. So will FDI make their existence even worser, I am not sure. But I know one data point that 40% of the produce in the country is wasted due to lack of proper infrastructure ( cold storage, transportation etc), so if someone else is ready to help us why not ? if we had the wherewithal to do it why have we not done it till now ?

Small traders –mom and pop stores I guess will be impacted as per data (Walmart has been driven out of New york recently). Walmart is not hugely successful out of the US anyway. By that logic can they occupy India – if that is the fear. I think after the initial euphoria dies down it will be just another shopping place. They will wind up and go back since their “Every day low price” will not be low enough for most Indians, we will still throng to our weekly trade bazaars to buy stuff.

So open up and let the money come in.

Robbing Peter to Pay itself

Government has increased the diesel rates and will be rationing cylinders to control its subsidy out go. It is some action by a government struggling to get things going. The increase in diesel will impact food prices and transport costs which are bad for the common man already reeling under high food inflation for about 4 years now. Rationing of gas cylinders may be justified since the real poor do not use gas for cooking purposes and there is a rampant misuse by the high and mighty as revealed in a recent report (MP Naveen Jindal's home got 369 refills last year and many others).

Having penalized the citizen it is governments turn to set its house in order. What are its plans to reduce expenditure, will the M.P’s and Legislators’ voluntarily reduce their office perks,will the government stop giving free cars and fuel to its officers who often misuse the service for personal needs. When will it stop giving free money to Air India for its “revival” (Dream liner or not Air India will bleed money). Actually when will Government sell “Air India” to save future money. There are other corporations like “ITI” , “HFC” and other companies which government keeps investing at a loss. Finally when will it make from the natural resources it is giving away to M.P's and cronies and make money for itself and the communities.

The aspects of making money through sell off’s , higher tax collection and optimizing its spend should go hand in hand, government is focusing on the easier thing of robbing peter to pay itself.

Where is our Julian

Julian Assange with all the wrong he has purportedly committed is a hero. Perhaps an anti-hero who had the courage to take on the might of the US and the Western world and exposed damning evidence on serious stuff like war crimes and silly banter that takes place in the diplomatic circles. His fight for freedom will be a long drawn affair, hopefully good sense will prevail upon the European Union and the UK to let him go to Ecuador.

I like Julian because we lack such courageous folks in our media. Media houses in India are hardly independent most of them cultivate some party or political leader. Less said about our TV anchors they keep throwing softballs as tough questions to our politicians and bureaucrats. TV debates during prime time are laughable. Some of them like Arnab Goswami and Rajdeep are vociferous and just about that.

I would say that the best investigating journalist in India is Government's own CAG. I doff my hat to Mr. Vinod Rai for taking on the government. He may be wrong on some points but he does have a view. Natural resources allocation should be based on sound policy and not based on whims and fancies of politicians.

RTI has thrown some heroes who have taken up issues with the government and were successful; some of them were eliminated since they were asking uncomfortable questions. Now the government has come up with whistle blower protection act. Will it help.

We need hundreds of Julian's in India, we need an exposure daily, and there should be tremendous pressure on the political class to reform themselves. There should be electoral reforms and cap on election spending.

But is it doable, they have tarnished a person like Anna, they created confusion in the minds of people to start suspecting Anna's movement. They are a dangerous lot and the only way we can get an upper hand on them is to expose their underhand dealings. Let there be a hundred Julian’s in Indian media.

Super Power or Super Hype

While our cities are broken and untidy we can see some glimmer of development on a couple of well done streets, up market localities and swanky malls. These pockets of relative excellence make believe the city dwellers that one day we will be a developed country. At least a façade we create in our mind and this is what our politicians keep telling us, India will be the next super power, investors around the world are going gag about our growth story and all is good with our politics and economic policies. India is definitely shining for our politicians; we can have a look at their asset declarations with the election commission. Their assets are growing.

All the India shining story becomes desperation once we move out of the cities into the rural settings, this is where 70% of the country lives. It is India shaming in these unattended parts of the country. I keep going back to my village often and return as quickly discouraged.

Most of our villages are stuck in a time capsule. They cannot progress since they are invisible to the government. Dilapidated school buildings, dis-interested and de-motivated populace looking for government succor for existence and nothing called Infrastructure in these villages. Most elections are about how our politicians will bring panchayat raj, gram swaraj etc to villages and create a utopian land where our farmers will be producing lots of food with lots of cattle and making lot of money. This is one more façade they create in our minds. There is abject poverty in our villages and it is far from utopian images we have in our minds. Only film makers and politicians manage to create an image otherwise.

We should ask our bureaucrats and ministers to spend time in our villages; they will suffer from malaria, diarrhea and exhaustion due to lack of clean drinking water, electricity and flies.

So when our TV anchors and media talk about stock market high and dips, FDI and other fancy stuff let us give a thought to our fellow citizens in villages nothing of this is going to impact them or at least has till now. They need basics roads, electricity and their children should go to school. There is no plan on how we will get kids from villages to cities and industries to make them productive. A lot of youth and middle age men and women are wasting their productive years in our villages, desperate and disappointed.

Let us stop the hype about being a super power and get our basics right, create a civilised existence for ourselves.

Revamp the Railways

Ever try to book a train ticket with Indian Railways, go to a counter or on the internet I promise it will be a painful experience. Being the monopoly Railways treat passengers with contempt. There is nothing like customer service and no concern for passenger’s travails. At their counters there will be long winding queues with passengers waiting patiently for their turn. All of them carry a piece of paper containing their travel information, the officer on the other side who is supposed to guide and advise the passengers will behave as if he is doing a favor by issuing a ticket.

Even more frustrating will be booking a ticket online, the online portal is unresponsive and excruciatingly slow. I am sure Railways management is aware of this but not doing enough to upgrade the hardware and software, why the delay no one knows. There are allegations that the online system is rigged to favor agents. This should be investigated.

All in all for the Railways passengers go to it and seek service so go and take a hike this is the quality of service I will give you is the attitude.
Having said that there is no doubt IR operates a complex network carrying over 30 million passengers and 2.8 million tons of freight daily. This institution literally carries India and does a phenomenal job with the available resources and constraints. But should that be the reason for lack of customer care and safety focus by the Railways.

The recent accident at Nellore which consumed 50 lives is a case in point, such incidents happen quiet frequently and we wait for the next one to happen. There is a real need to look at the passenger safety by the Railways. It is almost like it is ok for an accident to happen we get away with an ex-gratia payment of 5 lakh per victim.
Recently Jairam Ramesh said that Indian Railways is the largest open toilet in the world, this is known for ever, what is the Railways doing about it. They still want 5 years to make all the passenger compartments fitted with bio-degradable toilets. When will they stop carrying passengers like cattle?

IR may be providing the most economical fares in the world per/km of travel, we are a poor country etc but that cannot be a reason for the lack of safety, hygiene and customer service.

The enormous assets possessed by IR should be put to good use, capital should be raised using these resources and passenger amenities and safety improved. A large and prospering Indian middle class will pay higher charges for a decent service.
Finally a general compartment should not mean making passengers seat on wooden benches. IR should move on from their age old British definitions and provide more comfortable facilities for all passengers.

IR should be revamped to reflect a modern and prospering India not like a beaten up and depressing institution.