Support FDI in retail!

As some may ask, why am I blogging instead of looking after work related to the marriage? Well, we have a ceremony which in Telugu is called pellikodukuni cheyyadam. It literally means making/preparing/getting ready the groom. Post this apparently I am not allowed to step out of the house. The reaction from one of my friends, a girl, was "caged for life". Maybe this internment is meant to be a preview of married life ;-)

Now moving on, whatever may be its other faults or merits I like the present government for its initiatives like MGNREGS, RTI and the bills mentioned in the previous post. I commend Manmohan Singh's government for having guts, at least in some aspects. The decision to deregulate fuel prices, his firm stand against the Left with respect to the 123 Agreement with the US, and now the decision to allow FDI in the retail sector.

I have been disenchanted with the right wingers for having been very sore losers since the time of UPA 1. They are still intent on disrupting proceedings in the Parliament. One good thing wrt the FDI in retail decision has been that the FDI limit is 51%.  Management control would be with the MNCs but Indian ownership would also be there. Now the government has to ensure this does not get diluted via things like cross holdings. For eg say Bharti has a tie up with Walmart. Now the government has to ensure that Walmart does not get any additional stake via a different company in the ownership structure. I do not know whether this is even possible, and if it is I am sure this is but one way of reducing Indian shareholding. Also another surprise has sprung up recently. Apparently there was a clause that 30% of sourcing has to be done from the SME segment. Many ministers in the central govt itself thought this referred to Indian SMEs. Now it has been clarified that these SMEs need not be Indian. I hope no further surprises like these spring up.

The Indian agricultural supply chain is in sore need of improvement. Every year huge quantities of produce go waste simply because there are not enough proper storage facilities available. In addition there are a large number of middle men between the producer and the consumer. Consider a very simplified illustration in the cases of pulses in a city like Kolkata. The produce is brought to a place (I think it is called Dal Patti) where some basic processing is involved (removing the husk, splitting the seed etc). Then this is sent to a wholesale market like Posta Bazaar. From here the pulses are bought by retailers who in turn sell them to the customers. In this simplified chain itself we see three layers between the producer and the consumer (processor, wholesaler and retailer). There are brokers at each level to facilitate meetings between the buyer  and the seller. Granted there are some good aspects. For e.g. the broker in addition to acting as an all-important source of contacts also acts as a guarantor for the quality of the material. However imagine the increase the price by the time the item reaches the consumer. Mega institutions can help cut this number down or at least integrate them into a more efficient supply chain (consider ITC's e-choupal for instance). This is what India needs today. We have crossed the billion figure in our own country and this number is only going to increase in the near future. As lots of people George Bush Jr, Manmohan Singh et al) have pointed out Indians are demanding more nutritious items as part of their diet to our increased purchasing capacity. The government has to seriously think about how to feed this population. For how long can the RBI address the demand side without the government doing enough on the supply side? The agriculture minister needs to get cricket out of his head, at least for some time. Money attracts politicians like honey for flies but we must remember that flies can cause some serious diseases.

Also why are we so insecure about our domestic players? I believe there were similar fears when India was opened up in 1991. I don't think we are today anywhere close to annihilation as feared by the critics then. In contrast we are looked upon as an emerging economy (or as Obama said as an emerged economy) of great potential. The street-end kiranawalla has the advantages of proximity and familiarity which a modern retail outlet does not have. I am pretty sure that our mom and pop stores can take care of themselves. Anyway in the US I believe these hypermarkets are located in the suburbs and people simply drive down there. This kind of culture is not that prevalent in India, at least today. Imagine a middle class housewife taking a vehicle (bus, two-wheeler whatever) to a hypermarket which is 20 kms from her home, standing in queue and lugging the luggage back all that distance. I am pretty sure she would prefer the local grocery store any day. In India if the hypermarket is to be located in a more accessible location there are property rates to be considered. This might make sense for a clothing store, but would not exactly for a grocery store.

The problem in India has been and still is that our implementation leaves one wishing for much more. Many schemes might be well intentioned but the beneficiaries do end up getting a raw deal, and not rarely (leakage in MNNREGS and the PDS for instance). This has to be kept in mind wrt the FDI in retail decision also.

An obituary for Indian democracy?

Just check the list below, this is with regard to the Indian Parliament

Bills slated for discussion in this session

1. Lokpal

2. Judicial Accountability

3. Food Security

4. Land Acquisition

5. Education

Sample what happened in the Lok Sabha today - the Rajya Sabha was adjourned after obituary references

1. Left - wants to corner the government over inflation

2. BJP/NDA - wants to corner the government on inflation, corruption (and black money)

3. TRS - raised the Telangana issue in Parliament today

4. Samajwadi Party - unhappy with the proposal to divide UP

5. Shiva Sena - trooped into the well, I don't know why

6. Team Anna - is prepared to re-start the agitation

This truly represents a government under siege from all directions. If the discussion entail voting the government is probably not sure whether or not it will win the motions. If I am not mistaken every hour of our legislature costs the government about INR (when will the Rupee symbol be incorporated into keyboards?) 2 lakhs. I am part of the hapless population that pays taxes. I don't want to finance these incidents (if I call them or especially the perpetrators anything rude, what I actually might want to, I might have a case against me, in spite of India being a country with "free speech").

The bills slated for discussion are historic to say the least. Corruption is a burning issue in India today. No one outside the judiciary probably completely knows how or why it functions the way it does. We are talking about providing subsidized food to a large part of our population (with money about which I have no idea as to where it is coming from). Vital projects have been stalled across the country due to land issues. Education is an urgent requirement of what is probably among the world's youngest nations. But are we doing anything useful? No! Why should we? 

Our politicians' "appraisal" comes only once in five years. Sufficient time for (at least some of) them to have amassed fortunes which will comfortably last a few generations. Why the hell am I working my ass off in a private sector job?

When will our democracy rise from its ashes (make no mistake, I believe it keeps dying regular deaths)?

On the institution of marriage

By now, I think I have told most if not all the people I know that I am getting married shortly. This topic was going through my mind and I decided to put pen on paper, or fingers on keyboard, to be more precise.

I happened to attend the wedding of two of my friends (as in the bride and groom both were my friends). This was a love marriage. On the day of the wedding the guy had a look of glee on his face while the bride had one of gloom. We (a few friends) who had attended were gesturing to the blue bride to smile! I unfortunately could not attend the wedding of another very good friend of mine, but she also told me that in the wedding her fiance was looking quite happy while she looked as if she could start bawling any moment. Both these couples were and are blissfully happy before and after their weddings (and may they continue to be that way). The gloomy expressions were reserved only for the day of the wedding.  Going by conventional wisdom, I believe the situation should be the other way round! Sample these -

1. Aadmi shaadi ke baad sher ban jaata hain, durga ma ke paas jo hota hain, wo! (After marriage a man becomes a lion, the one that Goddess Durga rides on, the wife being Durga here :D) - this gem from a senior of mine at work.

2. Marriage is an institution when a man loses his bachelor's degree and a woman gains her master's!

3. Shaadi (or Delhi, I am not sure) ke laddu khaane se bhi pachtaaoge, nahi khaane se bhi pachtaaoge (I am not totally sure I have understood the meaning of this till date).

What might be the explanation? Does the woman suddenly realize the change that will take place in her life? But in that case the same is the situation in the case of the guy. In the olden days the bride used to accompany her husband to his parents' place. However often this is not the case today. Owing to work pressures many children, whether guys or girls are already staying away from their parents. Maybe guys are wired to handle (or suppress) their emotions better? Maybe this is at the root of the entire issue?

Then we come to the issue of love vs arranged marriages. As we all know there are love marriages which have gone bad and there are arranged marriages which have thrived and vice versa. There can be some debate on whether or not, and if yes, for how long, a guy and a girl should get to know each other before the wedding. In the olden days there have been many instances when the two did not even see each other before the wedding! Today's generation is different. There are many who want to know the guy/girl for at least a few months before they say yes. Even though this reduces the chance of friction what is the guarantee that the friction would not occur. I have had the luck (privilege or whatever) of seeing many happy marriages. I know of some unhappy ones too, but I still believe in the institution and sanctity of marriage. I met someone recently in the line of my work. We were unwinding after work and the topic moved to marriages. This person has had quite a colourful life and has also seen some weird relationships. This has led to a fear of marriages in him, though his parents are currently on the lookout for a suitable match.

Further education and financial independence have opened up entirely new scenarios today. I heard of a case where the guys' parents got him married as there would be somebody to take care of him and cook for him (I am sure this was only one of the considerations). The girl then told him that she could either do house work or be employed but could not do both. A second income is always helpful and the guy wanted her to work. He asked her to and the end result was that he started cooking for his wife also! Then there are guys/girls today who are very determined about what they want in a partner and would like to continue their search till they find someone fitting that description.

I am nobody to say one way is right or the other wrong. In my opinion all that matters and should matter is whether the constituents of the couple are happy with each other, whether they are willing to compromise (note, I do not say settle) and understand each other to live happily together. How often have we not heard the saying that the husband and the wife are like the wheels of a chariot. If either one does not function the way it should the chariot (or the marriage) cannot progress. That, in my opinion is the key to everything.

Born privileged, will blunder!

Rahul Gandhi's advisors must surely be hoping they could turn back time. He launched his UP campaign on the birthday of his grandfather. However as has been highlighted by the media, two things have occurred which the Congress could have done without.

One was the kicking of the opposition workers who broke through Rahul's security cordon. Granted, he is under SPG protection and is a high profile target. However the intruders could have simply been pinned down and taken into custody. But we saw political leaders queuing up to kick the SP workers. Apparently an FIR has also been filed against these leaders.

The other was Rahul Gandhi's use of the term begging. Bihar and UP contribute a lot to the migrant labour force in the country. This is still no reason to call the people of UP beggars. There is such a thing called dignity of labour. The Congress might say the labourers would not be in that state if other opportunities were available. However is this true? Due to the MGNREGS there is a shortage of labour throughout the country. A farmer with small holdings might opt for menial work in construction, manufacturing etc during the off-season to sustain himself. However with the scheme in place he is assured of work for 100 days. If he is satisfied with his income there is no incentive for him to take up further work. 

Both incidents show a certain arrogance in the young(?) leader. He did not stop his over zealous party people from indulging in violence. The beggar remark shows the political immaturity of the Congress leader even though he has such qualified mentors and has spent so much time in the public eye. One can only wonder if this person is suitable to be the leader of this country, for it is a granted thing that unless he sacrifices the PM's post a la his mother he will become the PM of this country one day. Coming back to the title of this post - only Rahul Gandhi can probably commit such blunders and still escape unscathed, for it is the sycophancy of his party members that will sustain him throughout his political life.

Apparently the Government can Bribe

All of us have heard about police informers. I do not know whether these people can be considered to be "employed" by the police in the usual sense of the term. Apparently the income tax department also depends on informants to unearth information to conduct raids. Now this article says that some informants are disgruntled people. It clearly mentions that the funds used are secret and the IT department has to part with money to get information. Now the secrecy is justified. If I rat out a powerful real estate developer for tax evasion I do not want him to know that it was I who exposed him. 

However to my mind this entire practice seems suspiciously close to bribery. So is it ok if the government bribes its own citizens for a "good" cause? The irony is that these bribes are used for unearthing black money! So if these funds are secret, what are they, black or white? I am not saying what the government is doing is wrong. It is being pragmatic. However I just want to point out the irony. Also, the government keeps spouting Mahatma Gandhi's name often. I wonder what his take would have been on this classic case of the ends justifying the means.

This is entirely(?) unrelated, but what is Robert Vadra's name doing on the list of people exempt from frisking at airports? Does anyone know the logic?

A Nation of Apathy

Yet another incident shows how insensitive we are towards another man's suffering in our country. This comes after the Keenan-Reuben case where the two young men were killed because they came forward to protect their female friends from some inebriated goons. Related to this issue, the Supreme Court has also said that medical care is the first priority in an emergency. Till then there was a (justified?) fear that helping a person who was the victim of an accident or personal attack would lead to legal complications to the good samaritan. In spite of the Supreme Court's directive we see the situation continuing. In the article, the link of which is provided above we read that onlookers just well, looked on, as a man burnt, and that for quite some time.

We in India are taught from childhood to respect our elders. Probably as an extension to this and as an extension to our struggle under the Britishers we have come to fear powerful people and/or those in authority. In the cases mentioned above this would refer to the attacking goons. This and probably the fear of the legal process are what hold back people. I cannot think of any other logical reason. My mother was in fact rescued from such a situation via the kind act of a person, who alas I have not been able to meet. My mother met with an accident when I was in Intermediate. Till date, she does not know how that happened, and neither do we. We only know that luckily for her, a person who was working in a government hospital happened to pass by the crowd that had gathered after her accident and rushed her to the hospital. When asked, the crowd simply said it was a woman, and they did not want to get involved!

This probably is also an explanation of our tolerance for corruption or any other evils in our society today. We live under the impression that it has happened to "someone else" and not to us. Do I actually realize that to others, I am the "someone else"? One is reminded of the story where a person does not protest when Jews and people from other communities were targeted (it was either in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia). He does not say anything as it was someone else being targeted. In the end the government comes for him and he finds no one left to defend him. I might be paraphrasing but this is the gist. 

So I think first of all the Supreme Court's directive needs to be widely publicized to assure people that they will not get into legal tangles by helping others. Further probably because of our population there are not many resources to pass around, and we tend to get close-fisted. Ironically we are the country that produced the tales of Shibi, Karna and Bali. Also, remember the story of the mongoose with golden fur from the Mahabharata (this will be my next blog post). So there also seems to be a need to inculcate the quality of sharing and helping others in our children via their families and their formal education also, for it is today's children that we hope will become tomorrow's dutiful citizens.