Now What?

First the Old Surd was considered absurd.
Incapable of holding the high office where he was put .
He was considered a person who would not open his mouth even to a dentist.
Ahluwalia and SMS were considered the true and original Santa Banta.
The Govt. was rightly talked about has having a policy paralysis.

...TAKE II
       ....
Diesel prices go up by Rs. 5, LPG is restricted, FDI is liberalised in Aviation, pension, cable and multi brand retail.

...Again the politicians sitting IN and OUT for last 8 years are ion business of protesting.
Looks like the unemployment rate has come down , for at least a section of the population, even if the inflation and prices have gone up.

Point is, who is going to decide what is to be done for the people.
That should not allow the ruling coalition to go Scott free either. If this steps were correct - what were they doing for last 3 yrs. Why were they playing with the economy - that's criminal!
...the opposition is doing it's job well. It is opposing everything that is done ... good bad and ugly!


 

The Anti Kassab mentality

What is it with the world?
How can we get so short sighted.
How can we ignore the obvious.
How can we only chase the shadow and forget the object?
How can we love to hate the weapon and forget the hand.
How can we hang Kassab and forget the  hands (whoever and where ever they are).
Political lives are abound with conspiracies and counter conspiracies.
Why should we aim at these midgets when our own representatives have done far worse for their own public.
We hate Kassab's biryani and 5-star jail when we should be targetting the contractors and officials who have provided him with them.
We are indeed so naive and uninformed and we simply form half baked opinions and post them on FB and call it a Right to Speech and expression.... pathetic.

THE SIXTY FIVE YEAR OLD WOMAN

On this day a lot of people have flogged themselves and the country and also the administrators of the country.
I agree with them that what we are undergoing is something very sad and pathetic.However blaming the entire 65 years of existence on someone else is something totally unwarranted.
How many of us have not been able to live upto the expectations of our parents and how many of our parents have not lived upto the expectations of their parents.
Further how many of us have actually been able to FORCE our childfren to live our dreams (if that is correct at all).
How many joint families do we live in anymore.

There are so many couples getting divorced after 15-20 years of marriage.
What I'm driving at is that in our small lives and small families , how many of us have been able to achieve an ideally desirable state .
If not how can we ever think of expecting some of us to rise to the positions of power and achieve a state of perfection .
If Japan rose- after 1945 it had to do with the national character of the common man.
If US achieved something of greatness- it was due to the inherent pride of the common man.
If Germany after WW II it was due to the decadence in the society which bred hatred.

In essence what we can achieve in our personal lives- will in turn determine what we will achieve as a nation.
We as middle class made a crore for the first time- well our leaders made a few thousands of them too.
Why? Because they are us. It is I who is up there.
If lacs of crores are stashed abroad , it is because the small unit of the country started making black money in their small deals. Whether it is land deals or small amount via Hawala from abroad.
How many of us small time earners from abroad changed our $s in the black market /
The intention is that whether it is a Raja or a Kalamadi- they have arisen from us in OUR lifetime and rose to dubious fame.
It is not them that we should hate - in fact we don't hate them - we are jealous of them. My God! Why could I not do the same thing?
Moment someone achieves his 100 crores we either idolize him or start admiring how a stupid fool could make so much money.
We are not different from the country that we live in.
We are not becoming because the country is corrupt and inefficient.
The country is so(if it is so) because of us,
Across all ages we have waited for a messiah to deliver us from OUR sins.
Now how convenient is that. we sin and wait for the Ganges to come to our doorstep to wash away our sins.
Pls promise yourselves if you have to .
Because if you want to see a change- you have to be that change.

TALK ABOUT ANOTHER SOOTHSAYER OR DOOMSAYER. I CAN'T FATHOM HOW THIS GUY IS ANY DIFFERENT THAN THE ONES WHO ARE PREDICTING THAT THERE WILL BE NOTHING AFTER 2012.
UNFORTUNATELY , THESE GUYS PREDICT EVERYTHING BUT DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO IMPROVE THE CONDITIONS.
NOBODY HAS WRITTEN A WORD ABOUT THE MARVELOUS GOVERNOR OF BANK OF CANADA, WHO HAD VERY PROACTIVELY STEERED CANADA AWAY FROM ITS NEIGHBOUR. 

The idea in life of most of the journalist is to create furor,mayhem and scintillating headlines- that attract attention.If someone has done something right it does not make any news.
It is for nothing that the Noble Prize for Economics has not been given to the only Governor of Central Bank of the only country of the developed world- CANADA.
Not once have aI read anything - good or bad, about Canada.
Is that a oversight or deliberate

 

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

Reply to a friend who in response to yesterday's post about decline of west- asked me- WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Hello XXXX
It’s true that the article does not tell us anything new that we don’t know.
However it is what is not written that is important.
It is the concept of Organic growth as opposed the fast track.
It is the Indian psyche to be a bit laid back and believe in the karma- we’ve been doing it and will continue to do it.
The average Indian out there still believes in the Five fold path of Buddha- even though sub consciously.
When that farmer grows groundnuts in his farm and cultivates to sell it to another man who will roast and sell it on a small cart- it will happen to be the basic step in economics. The first principle as in differential calculus. The very concept of growth will start from there.
He’s done something that the doyens of Wall street cannot do- produce a good.
After the wheels of entrepreneurship are set into motion everything will happen.
India’s strength is not it’s population but the ability of the population to give themselves job and save some money from that.
That is why in a country where we retail YSL and Chanel we can also talk of minimum daily sustainance at Rs.28.
We are headed in the right direction irrespective of the 10 crore population that will be trained by the National Training Council in next 10 years- or not.
The CEO of Franklin Templeton once said in a TV interview 12 yrs back- In India the industry starts first, then the govt. forms rules and forms the regulatory body.
It is a fact that, if we need to move ahead we’ll have to be original.
We’ll have to shake off the pre meditated conditioning that is provided in MBA colleges.
Just like Japan defined its own code of management. We’ll have to be original in our scope and outlook.
At the end of the day whatever goes up must come down (a fact of law of gravitation)- however it is often overlooked that the faster you go up, the harder you fall (I think that would be First law of Motion).
Now you can look at it either from a philosopher’s perspective, scientist’s or even a economist’s. It has to hold good.

Sorry but my talk has given me a headache- b4 it does something to you I’ll stop.

Why the decline of the West is best for us – and them. By R Vaidyanathan, Professor of Finance, IIM Bangalore.

Why the decline of the West is best for us – and them. By R Vaidyanathan, Professor of Finance, IIM Bangalore.
by Ishwar Jha on Monday, November 7, 2011 at 10:17am

Ten years ago, America had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. Now

it has no Jobs, no Hope and no Cash. Or so the joke goes.

Only, it’s no joke. The line is pretty close to reality in the US. The

less said about Europe the better. Both the US and Europe are in

decline. I was asked by a business channel in 2008 about recovery in

the US. I mentioned 40 quarters and after that I was never invited for

another discussion.

Recently, another media person asked me the same question and I

answered 80 quarters. He was shocked since he was told some “sprouts”

of recovery had been seen in the American economy.

It is important to recognise that the dominance of the West has been

there only for last 200-and-odd years. According to Angus Maddison’s

pioneering OECD study, India and China had nearly 50 percent of global

GDP as late as the 1820s. Hence India and China are not emerging or

rising powers. They are retrieving their original position.

The dollar is having a roller coaster ride at present.

In 1990, the share of the G-7 in world GDP (on a purchasing power

parity basis) was 51 percent and that of emerging markets 36 percent.

But in 2011, it is the reverse. So the dominant west is a myth.

Similarly, the crisis. It is a US-Europe crisis and not a global one.

The two wars – which were essentially European wars – were made out to

be world wars with one English leader commenting that ‘we will fight

the Germans to the last Indian’.

In this economic scenario, countries like India are made to feel as if

they are in a crisis. Since the West says there’s a crisis, we swallow

it hook, line and sinker.

But it isn’t so. At no point of time in the last 20 years has foreign

investment – direct and portfolio – exceeded 10 percent of our

domestic investment. Our growth is due to our domestic savings which

is again predominately household savings. Our housewives require

awards for our growth not any western fund manager.

The crisis faced by the West is primarily because it has forgotten a

six-letter word called ‘saving’ which, again, is the result of

forgetting another six letter word called “family”. The West has

nationalised families over the last 60 years. Old age, ill health,

single motherhood – everything is the responsibility of the state.

When family is a “burden” and children an “encumbrance,” society goes

for a toss. Household savings have been negative in the US for long.

The total debt to GDP ratio is as high as 400 percent in many

countries, including UK. Not only that, the West is facing a severe

demographic crisis. The population of Europe during the First World

War was nearly 25 percent and today it is around 11 percent and

expected to become 3 percent in another 20 years. Europe will

disappear from the world map unless migrants from Africa and Asia take

it over.

The demographic crisis impacts the West in other ways. Social security

goes for a toss since people are living longer and not many from below

contribute to their pensions through taxes. So the nationalisation of

families becomes a burden on the state.

European work culture has become worse with even our own Tata

complaining about the work ethic of British managers. In France and

Italy, the weekend starts on Friday morning itself. The population has

become lazy and state-dependent.

In the UK, the situation is worse with drunkenness becoming a common

problem. Parents do not have control over children and the Chief Rabbi

of the United Hebrew Congregation in London said: “There are all

signs of arteriosclerosis of a culture and a civilisation grown old.

Me has taken precedence over We and pleasure today over viability

tomorrow.” (The Times: 8 September ).

Married couples make up less than half (45 percent) of all households

in the US, say recent data from the Census Bureau. Also there is a

huge growth in unmarried couples and single parent families (mostly

poor, black women). Society has become dysfunctional or disorganised

in the West. The government is trying to be organised.

In India, society is organised and government disorganised. Because of

disorganised society in the West the state has to take care of

families. The market crash is essentially due to the adoption of a

model where there is consumption with borrowings and no savings. How

long will Asian savings be able to sustain the western spending binge?

According to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal (10 October

2011), nearly half of US households receive government benefits like

food stamps, subsidised housing, cash welfare or Medicare or Medicaid

(the federal-state health care programmes for the poor) or social

security.

The US is also a stock market economy where half the households are

investors and they have been hit hard by bank and corporate failures.

Even now less than 5 percent of our household financial savings goes

to the stock market. Same in China and Japan.

Declining empires are dangerous. They will try to peddle their failed

models to us and we will swallow it since colonial genes are very much

present here. You will find more Indians heading global corporations

since India is a very large market and one way to capture it is to

make Indian sepoys work for it.

A declining West is best for the rest and also for the West, which

needs to rethink its failed models and rework its priorities. For the

rest—like us—the fact that the West has failed will be accepted by us

only after some western scholars tell us the same. Till then we will

try to imitate them and create more dysfunctional families.

We need to recognise that Big Government and Big Business are twin

dangers for average citizens. India faces both and they are two asuras

we need to guard against. The Leftists in the National Advisory

Council want all families to be nationalised and governed by a Big

State and reform marketers of the CII variety want Big Business to

flourish under crony capitalism. Beware of the twin evils since both

look upon India as a charity house or as a market and not as an

ancient civilisation.

R.VAIDYANATHAN

PROFESSOR OF FINANCE

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

BANNERGHATTA ROAD

BANGALORE

INDIA_560076

TEL: 91-80-2699-3086

FAX:91-80-2658-4050

E mail:vaidya@iimb.erne

OF IIT AND OTHERWISE

With unfailing regularity some member of the country’s elite wakes up and passes a comment on the IITs and IIMs. Now the poor and ignorant masses have to listen and gobble the Goebbelian truth for two reasons :
Firstly, because except the 5 odd lakh people who appear in JEE and CAT nobody knows what it takes to prepare and qualify for these exams.
Secondly , because it is always fashionable in an open society to have divergent views howsoever outlandish they maybe.
What is very interesting here is that everyone comments about the engineers and the engineering graduates in IIMs. When was the last time someone commented upon the selection procedure of medical students , or the falling standards of CAs.
This could be because of two reasons, I believe:
For a doctor, you know , he knows a little more about YOUR body than you do.So if you make too much noise – well you could be under the proverbial sword tomorrow.
This theory somehow even applies if the doctor (most of the times)ensures a wrong treatment or even kills your patient- rarely does anybody pull him to court and question his competency (at least in India).
For other professions- well you need them so much in daily life, that you really don’t know if they doing your good or bad- even if it’s a next door insurance agent who just sold you a ULIP with 35% upfront charges.
Now going back to the IIT graduates. Surprisingly everyone is concerned about the 2500 odd graduates who are entering and a few less(minus suicides) who are passing out of IITs. No one is even bothered to check that a 10 times the no. is passing out of NITs which are also publicly funded and a 100 times from the private institutions- that are not.
To talk of the IITians, people question there over zealousness of pursuing high salary jobs in the private sector both inland and offshore. This attitude is in a country where the focus on joining IAS or any less Babu department is to make that fast buck- in as less a time as possible (before Anna finds out).
We say that they have no contribution to the society. How ironic is that- when we don’t even know about the contribution of the freedom fighters in our own towns. We say that IIt graduates are too self-centred. Well try counting from Arvind Kejriwal- backwards and you’ll have a long list.
Now getting on to their poorer cousins from NIT and Private Institutions- well the public opinion will be severely dented if they found out a large no. of engineering graduates are manning the public and private sectors in not only administrative ranks but as inventors and innovators. Not only are they creating wealth for the society but contributing to the public welfare.
Incidentally the first of the known whistle blowers who was mercilessly killed was from IIT.
After making his contribution to the society people like Mr.Narayanmurthy decide to adversely comment upon the newer generation- that too miles away from homeland. We sure have a crab like habit boss- pulling down others who try to climb up the basket.
Why doesn’t Mr.Murthy contribute creatively by suggesting how the exam papers must be designed. By being on the moderators panel. At least Mr. Sibal can be credited with trying some creative steps in that direction.
The problem is that we don’t understand that an engineer is not about opening nuts n bolts and building bridges. An engineer is one of the most innovative and creative creatures developed by the society. Not only can he run the country for you, he can even make missiles, manage your fund corpus exceeding the GDP of a developing country- he can even move the governments to mind it’s step… and as Linda Goodman about Leos… if nothing else he can fix that broken doorknob if you marry him.