We need more real cities and not current slums that passes as cities

Posted on by

With EU economy getting into trouble one would expect that our country, which has been one of the dynamo for world growth would show a path out. Unfortunately, the Congress led UPA government, instead of standing up to this challenge, is fighting the label of most corrupt govt. since independence. This has adversely affected our growth and we are beginning to see signs of slowing Indian economy. India has always been portrayed as a country with potential. And, after many decade, for the first time we really felt that we are beginning to fulfill that potential. But with the current slowdown, it feels like we may again go back to be a country with potential.

The saddest part is that our growth and our property is because of the poor choices our governments made in the past. India being a very you country (by young I mean age of its population), will have large working population in coming future and unless we take right steps that would generate jobs for these aspiring youth, we may be staring at a disaster.

There have been many suggestion by many smart people on what we can do to drive the growth. Especially, now is the time the government should get into over drive mode to drive the economy. We need to get most of our population out of agriculture. And, urbanize the country. This process itself would generate enough growth for coming decades. One article that caught my attention is “It takes a city” by Edward Glaeser. Glaser clearly shows that future of India lies in its cities and not its villages. Fellow blogger Atanu Dey has been arguing about this for a long time. Per him, instead of face lifting current cities, we ought to take a path of building 300 brand new cities that follow a charter city model. This would generate employment for people who get out of agriculture and also provide them with urban facilities. Most economies in the past have come of major economic slowdown on the back of building and re-building, and this is the path we also need to take.

Crime, Laws, and its enforcement in our society

Posted on by

Fellow blogger, Shantanu Bhagwat, has a post Of a dastardly crime, laws and the “system”. This post disturbed me a lot and got me thinking. I still do not know what should be the appropriate response for the outlined incident. This post should make every right thinking person to wake up and put thoughts and what kind of society we are becoming, and what we can do to change things for better. Here is what I wrote as a comment to the post.

—————————————————————————————————————————
Shantanu,

Although, the right thing for parent of the girl is to go to police and file complaint, based on my personal experience of the last two years in India, I would not fault them for doing what they are doing.

I had to visit a local SP’s office and local Police station many times in the last two years as my four year old daughter, who was born not in India, requires police certificate to live in the country for more than six months. Leaving aside the stupidity of getting a four year old registered with local police station, experience of visiting a local police station or SP’s office, to put it mildly, is an unpleasant experience. Having spent major part of my life in India, I went with a full expectation that the service was not going to be courteous and I made sure to keep smiling all the time. And, although I tell story of my visits to my friends and have good laugh but seriously public servants in India seem to thrive on lack of knowledge of general public. I was literally asked to produce right from Birth Certificates to my marriage certificate. Asked all kinds of questions (even what my salary was!). I knew very well where this game was going and I played along. After sitting for more than 4 hours twice, the clerk finally gave up and did the paperwork. It took me another three visits to the SP’s office to finally get the certificate (which was valid for only six months!). While sitting at the police station, I saw money being exchanged openly for petty permissions such as playing loudspeakers for Birthday parties.

I shudder to think how these guys would treat me If I ever needed a real service. Coming back to the incident above, following are probably the causes why our society is in such a bad situation:

First, there seem to be no fear, or little fear, among people about the consequences of their actions. There is no fear of law as most people think that they are connected and can get out of any legal trouble. There is no fear of God (or higher being) either. Couple of generation ago people at least used to fear about their wrongdoing and believed that even if they do not have to pay for their wrongdoings immediately, they will have to ultimately pay for it in some other life or form.

Second, process of criminal prosecution in our country is murky. Media, who is supposed to educate people in this regard has has really let us down. Arrest is equated with prosecution and bail is equated with acquittal. There is no talk about real prosecution in the courts, where public prosecutor and police work together to get real conviction.

Third, lack of accountability. Sometime, you wonder who is police accountable to? By their action and behavior they do not seem to be accountable to a local community. Nor they seem to have public interest in their mind. Their actions are not overseen by a committee of elected representatives. They do not report to Mayor either. It seems that they are accountable to a elected person (or few people) sitting in the state capital. Instead of living in localities where most people live, they have special colonies, which goes by police colonies/police lines. Also, who is public prosecutor accountable to? How are they appointed? Who reviews their conviction rates? As a common man, we hear about a crime committed, a person (or few people) arrested, and then the case goes to a black hole, and more often than not, after couple of months (or years), we hear the person got out on bail. And, the case goes on and on and on, and one fine day the person goes free on this or that technicality.

We seem to have myriad of laws in the books but we seem to lack the capacity to interpret and enforce these laws as per societal norms. A graph in the book “The fortune at The Bottom of Pyramid” by C.K. Prahalad appropriately compares various countries on their abilities to have system of law and institution vs capacities to interpret and enforce regulations (page 82). Although, the graph is for market economy, the same can be said for social laws too. Per this graph, India has well developed laws and institutions at par with USA, Japan and Germany. However, at the interpretation and enforcement level it is behind these countries and even behind China and Russia.
—————————————————————————————————————————

Division of society in the name of reservation has got to stop.

Posted on by

Indian Express, a mouthpiece of the Congress party, unilaterally claims that case for subquota for minorities within OBC is very strong and should have been implemented and blames the UPA govt. for failure for its implementation. Fact of the matter is that AP High Court struck down this proposal by the Congress govt. multiple times in the past. Moreover, even the Supreme Court has put to reset religion based reservation.

After implementing one of the boldest and most comprehensive affirmative action program in the world, it is probably high time we take account of what we have achieved so far by following this policy. Reservation as a concept should be targeted and given to only those who really are in need of this. I am yet to come across a report that shows how each community got uplifted by reservations. Not even a simple report that compares class XII/PMT/PET rankings between Open/SC/ST/OBC. I personally compared pre-medical admissions ranking in the state of Maharashtra many years ago. And, I saw that most OBC candidates who got admission, would have made it even without reservation. Although, this quota based reservation might have benefited certain communities, but it has clearly divided our society. Currently, strong perception is that the reservations, meant for needy, instead have become entitlements for creamy layers. So, 65 years after enacting affirmative actions, it is probably high time we need to re-evaluate the whole reservation policy and take steps to start repairing the divisions that has been created within the society because of its farcical implementation.

Debunking a myth – domestic LPG is subsidized

Posted on by

It is very fashionable for the supporters of recent petrol price increase to claim that it is also because LPG, Kerosene, and Diesel is subsidized. It is claimed that LPG subsidy is in the tune of Rs 480 per cylinder. A household typically pays Rs 400 for each cylinder of gas which lasts a small family for a month. I have heard this argument number of times but it never fully convinced me. I performed a quick google search and found that domestic Natural Gas price in the US is approx $10/Mcf which gives you 1.5 cylinders equivalent of energy. Where available, natural gas in the US is used for cooking as well as heating the water and house. I did further research and found that people who live in an apartment in the US have a monthly gas bill of around $10/month (other than winter months when the bill is little higher). I assume that the gas is not subsidized in the US, and the utility companies that sell this NG are very profitable. Which clearly shows that Rs 400/cylinder is a more than adequate price for the LPG a household pays. Based on this I feel that “LPG is subsidized” argument is nothing more than bunkum

My data versus yours

Posted on by

MK Venu in the Indian Express writes: “survey conducted by a scholar at the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies shows that Dalits are indeed moving towards self-employed entrepreneurial activities in and around places like Panipat, Karnal and Saharanpur. The study quantified 321 Dalit entrepreneurs in these small towns running shops and providing other forms of skill-based services in construction, etc. The bulk of the self-employed entrepreneurs have come up in the last 15 years. According to Surinder Jodhka, who conducted the study, “Dalits have developed the capacity to diversify into occupations other than those they were traditionally employed in.” They are also helping other Dalits enter these services.” Read More.

What next? Uniforms to attend Gandhi event!

Posted on by

The Times of India reports that the security men and officials turned away chappal wearing students, who came to attend event of Rahul Gandhi. Officials feared that students might hurl chappals at Mr. Gandhi to protest. The story is also reported here and this seems like a pattern now. This is kind of little funny and at the same time little insulting. Students should simply boycott such events, which places such idiotic restrictions. In a free country like ours such restrictions should not have any place. What will they come up with next? Uniforms!!

Police corruption is the way of life

Posted on by

The Deccan Herald reports about a survey, conducted by the police department and the Public Affairs Centre, an NGO, which reveals 48% of the staff in 1020 police stations in Karnataka demand bribe. This should not come as shocking to the reader as everyone who lives in India knows very well that corruption is a way of life now. You are in tiny minority and considered a irritant if you try to fight against it. Recently, I had a hilarious exchange with a cop in Pune. I parked my car on side of the road of a very crowded area, called Nanapeth, to pick few things from a shop. The parking was for not more than 2 mins. By the time I came back I found a cop standing there asking me for PUC papers. When it was shown to him, he told me that I should pay fine (basically he was asking for bribe) for parking on the crowded street. To which I agreed, and politely asked him to give me the challan receipt for the same. He was in hurry (it was his business time) and was in no mood to give me the receipt and finally asked me to leave without any payment. We drove away laughing, but this got me thinking later that the system has become so corrupt that they do not even bother doing things right even once.

Supressing open thinking

Posted on by

The Indian Express lambasts the health ministry for going after the scientist who discovered anti-biotic resistant strain of bacteria, called superbug. The scientists chose to have name New Delhi in the name of the bug, which made the government go hysteric and noises were made that it was a conspiracy to malign India medical tourism industry. But the real point was cleverly overlooked. Now, the government via Drug Controller is going after the scientist asking them why they did not take permission to conduct their research! There is a stalinist strain in the Congress party which time to time shows up its ugly face and this incident is one such. The Indian Express rightly says “This is a health bureaucracy that’s out of control. Do we wish our scientists merely to repeat government talking points, in the approved Stalinist manner?”. However, the Express would have been seen as true champion of free research and thinking had they also published similar articles when the security researcher from Hyderabad, Mr. Hari Prasad, was arrested for exposing flaws in the electronic voting machines. This episode was covered here, and here.

“BJP’s progress report”

Posted on by

Nirmala Sitharaman in the Asian Age writes: “It is fairly well known that the per capita income of Muslims in Gujarat is the highest in the country, and access to education for minorities in Gujarat is better again compared to any other state in the country.?
On the three reported critical measures — growth, employment and minority welfare —BJP-ruled states have shown their performance. Good governance and not appeasement brings benefits. Benefits for all.” Read More.

Interestingly, when the BJP ruled states are providing good governance while being on right of the center, why the central leadership tends to be on the left of the center.

Let the food grain waste and we’ll make sure it never reaches the needy

Posted on by

Recently, the Supreme Court of India ordered the Ministry of Agriculture, to distribute food grains rotting in the godowns of the food corporation of India (FCI) to the poor and needy for free. The FCI procures grain from farmers based on the support price set by FCI. These procured food grains is supposed to reach the public via the public distribution system (PDS), which people avail via their ration shops on subsidized price. If one were to visit the ration card office in their town one would realize the extent of corruption (i.e the whole PDS system is corrupt to the core). I personally experienced it when I tried to get ration card made for my family. I was given an option of using an agent who would have made sure that my ration card was made within a week, and the other option was indefinite wait. I waited for full two months and finally managed to get the ration card. In any case, that is not the crux of the story. It is about how the PDS system is so screwed up. At the end of the day this system benefits everybody but the people it is intended for. Interestingly, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Sharad Pawar thanked the SC for suggestion and said he would take decision on the matter. The SC replied that it was not a suggestion but an order. The Indian Express feels that by ordering this the SC is encroaching into the executive function. The fact of the matter is that the executive is repeatedly failing the country. Mr. Pawar instead of running his ministry efficiently, is more interested in running Cricket around the world. Mr. Pawar who has a strong agricultural roots and is darling of farmers of Western Maharashtra became Agricultural Minister riding on the high hope that he would solve many problems faced by farmers. But he has proven himself to be totally useless as Agricultural Minister. The other article in the Indian Express argues for direct transfer of money instead of the PDS system. But before abolishing the PDS system, shouldn’t government first auction all the food grain stored in the FCI godowns first? This auctioning process would atleast rationalize the food prices in the open market.