We the Indian

- The distance is around half the world, this is one of the most peaceful country..it's 3 am in the morning ..but there is no chance of sleep.
I am still feeling like I am in Mumbai ..since last 42 hrs..

I don't know what kind of feelings I am going through.and I am not alone..perhaps all the Indian..
Despair, anger, sadness or all..
And at the same time when I just imagine a group celebrating success of seizing 1 billion of Indians, the blood is more than boiling.

How many times..how many people ...what is the final price we are going to pay.
How long we the Indian, are going to accept it? When are we going to hold people accountable for their action whether domestic or external??

One thing is certain..
Our idea of a nation and an open and free society is not going to remain hostage..
Let us make this clear in most certain way..

Few random numbers on Indian economy

Some Hard Facts:

1. 828 million people living on less than $2 a day in India
2. 43% of children go hungry and a woman dies in childbirth every five minutes
3. If Bihar was a country it would be the 12th most populous and the 10th poorest
4. Income average per day for people in Bihar - 28 Rs (Indian average is around Rs. 110)

Some of the actions by Indian Gov.
1. Rs 1233 per day is the income level Indian govt has fixed to consider people in creamy layer for OBC quota.
2: Only 23 percent of farmers have access to institutional credit. In 2008 budget Union govt waived 60,000 Crore of loans.

And I wonder for which section of people our governments care for..!!!

Socialism in Capitalist world

Not long ago, crawling with Hindu rate of growth, we were getting lessons on free, market driven economy. For my generation, western world was a fascinating example. Alas the lesson didn’t last long! Not for me at least.

So here we are...the greed of unregulated financial world has created havoc in world economy. I will leave the scrutiny of this mess to more accomplished commentators. But here are some simple facts...

- A self regulated, free market is a myth

- In this inter-connected world no one is insulated

- There are still many bubbles big and small.

It was just surprising how people managing macro-economic policies overlook few common facts. Facts like –

Easy credit cannot ensure perpetual growth; Prices of investments like real estate need not give you positive returns always;

And most importantly, in the inter-connected financial markets you cannot have unregulated institutions (read Sub-prime market, Investment banks, and some insurance agencies) closely coupled with primary banking and other better regulated institutions.

Chain remains as strong as its weakest link.

As far as India is concerned, we should take some valuable lesson out of this. We have just started building our financial system outside the government controlled sphere. Though in the long term, it is difficult to restrict our exposure to international financial market, it is important that we place a smartly regulated framework in place. It should limit the exposure in one particular sector and amount of risk a firm can take. Sound framework will ensure sound institutions.

In current scenario, we might face more selling pressure in equity market, probably some investment outflow also. But we have a healthy saving rate. We are still not a credit driven economy and in future also we need to avoid that path. The domestic consumption itself can keep Indian economy healthy.

We cannot exist in economic isolation but at the same time we can ill-afford an artificial bubble or lopsided growth of the economy. We have a long path to travel just to provide basic necessities to our people.

We should not travel on Iceland's path.

Indian Democracy - Who is electing our rulers

The basic foundation of democracy is that the people elect their representatives and rulers. Whether they are most suitable people to govern is itself a debatable question.
Let's understand it in the context of parliamentary democracy of India. People select their representatives who in turn are assigned the task of selecting the executive branch.

In many ways, Indian constitution and democratic system is unique and there are differences with established and functioning democracies around the world. Compare it with its closest cousin, the British system. Unlike India, people in Britain have their option very clear during the time of election. They know who is going to lead the executive branch. Not only that, in most of the cases the ministers are also well known due to their shadow role and policy positions.
Take the case of USA, they are directly electing both their legislatures and also executive heads. That is not the case in India. The indian consitution is an amalgam of British and USA system and the 100 odd amendments have not tuned it for Indian realities.

Just see few examples to understand the whole point. I am not questioning the intelligence and abilities of Mr. Manmohan Singh, but did Indian people elect him as decision maker? What about Mr. Deve Gowda or Mr. I.KGujral or even Mr Chadra Sekhar? What fraction of total votes they secured?
Situations at state level is more gloomy. How many people of Jharkhand elected Madhu Koda to be their Chief minister. There are numerous other cases but this was the summit of all. An independent MLA elected without any party identity or policy position made his way to the top post of the state.

Hence the basic principle of democracy is not in practice. In many cases, people are not electing their actual rulers, at least not the executive branch which is given maximum power.
So that limits people representation to legislative branch. Are our legislature doing any legislative work? It is a big joke in our democracy. I am not aware of any significant law authored by a single or a group of legislatures. In any case getting a private bill passed in 545 member parliament is next to impossible. The law dept of the government introduces a bill on which the ruling party is suppose to support and others are suppose to oppose that bill. If you disagree with your party position, party whip is there to discipline you.
There is hardly any parliamentary committee doing any significant work.

So here we are. We are not electing our ruling part of the government and the legislators are hardly doing any kind of work their name suggests.
What is the solution? I have some ideas. We need our parliament and state assemblies an effective legislative bodies. One way could be reducing the number in Lok Sabha, increase the number of hours in session, remove the whip system.(In any case people switch sides when they feel/allured to do so..)
I know it still does not gurantee that we will get the right people to these bodies. But even then it will make more sense than the current system.
If we get an effective legislative body, that will automatically control the executive branch. Additionaly we need to make sure that it is more representative.

Why only 'Sorrow' for Bihar

I still remember those days..text books of Govt. schools. We just used to memorize without understanding. In one of the books there was an interesting adjective about 2 rivers. The adjective was 'Sorrow'.

1. Huang Ho is 'sorrow' of China.
2. Kosi is 'sorrow' of Bihar.

Last 15 years, I never heard anything about floods in Huang Ho. All you hear about China are the big dams they have built.

Can we say same thing about Kosi and Bihar??
Flood is nothing new to Bihar. Growing up in Bihar, I am as familiar and accustomed to floods as Eskimos are to ice. And 2008 is not the only year Bihar is flooded. It is an yearly ritual.

Only difference is this time scale is bigger ...way bigger than any flood in recent history. Also it is not going to be temporary either.
And the Sorrow is back in the news though I hate accusing the river for our sorrow.

-Sorrow is apathy of rulers both in state and in Delhi towards the warning signs.
-Sorrow is sheer negligence by Water resource Mgmt dept of Bihar for not raising the red flag and not warning the affected people.


This was waiting to happen. But who cares?? 2 helicopters will drop few thousand packets for million of hungry people.
That will also happen only if the choppers are free from ferrying the VVIPs.
There will be some grant from center, some bandhs will be organized by opposition parties and we will move on. To wait for next year flood. (Just to remind the readers - lot of Bureaucrats and Politicians depend on this relief. Remember award winning convicted District Magistrate of Patna!!)

I have seen it for quarter of century and there is no end in sight.

So when do you think Kosi signalled us about its mood?
Well..not one year, not 2 years..at least 4years back, the expert on Kosi study warned about this.
Please see Dr. AB Thapa's article published in 2004.
http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/englishweekly/spotlight/2004/jun/jun04/opinion.htm

And here is the exact words from that article:

"The detention basin upstream of the Kosi barrage near Hanumannagar is going to be very soon full. After that the embankments would be ineffective to prevent the lateral shifting of the Kosi. It is predicted that the Kosi would again take its 1732 course. The farthest position of the new course of the Kosi is expected to be about 120 km away from its present course. The swing of the Kosi river to the east could be sudden and almost unexpected because nobody yet exactly knows when it is going to happen. "

Sounds familiar to the current situation?

To continue from the same article

" It does not need to be further explained that such shifting of the Kosi to the east would be a biggest disaster for the whole region. Generally, the flood damages are temporary in nature but the Kosi flood damages would be widespread and also permanent in nature. Mr. Shilling Feld an expert on Kosi, has warned a longtime ago that the eastward movement of the Kosi will be in one big swing accompanied with great loss of life and property."

And what have we done about this??
It is time for all of us to introspect. To fix responsibility and take responsibility.

How ‘Socialist’ is our Republic

I wonder how many of you have seen visual clips of Barack Obama traveling. Well..it is a very small observation but a significant one. Many a time he carries his own bag/suitcase.

You might ask so what! Have you ever seen any Indian politician carrying his/her luggage? I have never seen even a Panchayat politician doing his own stuff forget about MPs. They are always surrounded by their supporters who are eager to do anything for them. (There is a special word in Hindi for them ‘chamcha’.)

Post-independence India remained obsessed with socialism, so much so that we added the word ‘Socialist’ in the preamble of our constitution. (42^nd Amendment, 1976). If only we would have practiced a little!

And how are socialists doing currently? Well…there are hardly any, though some political parties claim to be. They have shifted from socialism to caste based politics. The most ironic moment was one when a party named as ‘Samajwadi party’, after aligning with the current government prioritize favor for its biggest corporate ally.

So while we aspired for socialism (social and economic equality) we drifted away from it in course of time. Now no one even bothers to talk about this forget practicing. Sad demise of a noble aspiration!!

What to do with these governments...

Sudan, Kenya, Zimbabwe and the latest entry is Myanmar.
I just wonder who the governments in these countries and serving to.

The shocking details of the cyclone and apathy of Junta is not only a blot on humanity but questions the rationale on which some countries support the rulers of Myanmar. The ordinary people are dying without the relief and the military government is busy seizing the relief material and conducting the farce referendum. Who are they trying to fool with the voting?
If only we can build a world-wide movement against these illegitimate power grabbers and force action from ‘Guardians’ of the world order!!!

Why “Nano” is a special

True to their words, Tatas have delivered what many bigger and established players in the automobile industry termed as an unviable idea. Only they can see business sense in acquiring brands like Jaguar, Land rover and starting Nano. Something like “World’s local company”. Great going Tatas!!
So how good is our lakh rupee car? Based on the first look, it is better than nearest rivals who are all priced much-much higher. Needless to say it will be interesting thing to see it’s progress in the Indian market vis-à-vis Maruti.
More than the business, the bigger impact will be on society, public services and environment. Tatas have made it possible for lower middle class to buy a car. And I mean ‘buy’ only, because the cost of fuel is going to create bigger problem maintaining it. On positive side, I hope people will demand better roads, parking facilities and exercise a better traffic discipline. Some of the western newspapers are wondering whether we have the required road infrastructure to handle so many automobiles. No we have not, but I am sure the mass pressure would at least highlight this need.
Many intellectuals are suddenly worried about the pollution it is going to add. Well.. gentlemen, your private vehicles were already doing that. Let ‘not so fortunate’ people also enjoy a ride. Meanwhile you can help us better by suggesting and innovating reliable public transport and clean alternative fuels.
Till then let’s enjoy bustling Indian Roads.