Musings of an eternally-curious, hyperactive, film-loving, sport-loving, tech-loving foodie!!!
One weblink & 4 pieces of communication should be enough to clearly elucidate the filthy stinking financial cesspool that ‘India’s most trusted brand’ has been covering up for all these years…
The article:
http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/the-tempest-prannoy-radhika-roy-ndtv
Ram Jethmalani & Chidambaram’s back & forth…
190072062-Ram-Jethmalani-s-letter-to-P-Chidambaram-in-NDTV-money-laundering-matter
And here is the 2nd pair of letters – Between Prannoy Roy & S Gurumurthy
Electronic manufacturing in India
2014: ₹11,198 Cr.
2017: ₹1,43,000 Cr.
#MakeInIndia
Mobile Banking in India
2013-14: 94.7 million
2017: 722.2 million
#DigitalIndia
Sanitation Coverage
2014: 42%
2017: 64%
#SwatchhBharat
Solar Power Generation
2014: 2,621 MW
2017: 12,277 MW
#CleanEnergy
Number of new LPG connections
2004 – 2014: 5.3 Cr
2014 – 2017: 6.95 Cr
#CleanEnergyForAll
WEFs Travel and Tourism Ranking
2014: 65th
2017: 40th
#IncredibleIndia
Coal Production
2013-14: 462 Million Tonnes
2016-17: 554 million Tonnes
#ShortageToSurplus
Optical Fibre Network (Including Rural)
2013-14: 358 Kms
2017: 2,05,404 Kms
#DigitalIndia #DevelopedIndia
GDP
2014: 6.6%
2017: 7.1%
#IndiaGrowthStory
Rural Road Construction
2011 – 2014: 81,095 Kms
2014-2017: 1,20,233 Kms
#RapidGrowth
Fiscal Deficit
2013-14: 4.6%
2017: 3.2%
#EconomicPerformance
Inflation
2014: 11%
2017: 4%
#ProPoor
FDI
2014: $24.2 USD
2017: $56.3 USD
#IndiaGrowthStory
New toilets Construction
2013-14: 49.76 Lakh
2016-17: 2.09 Crores
#SwatchhBharat
Short-term gains of demonetisation:
Data from multiple sources – Mint, Swarajya, DB Post, RBI circulars, PIB circulars…
On Women’s Day today, here’s one of the best songs I’ve ever heard celebrating womanhood.
SHE
-by Elvis Costello
She may be the face I can’t forget
The trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay
She may be the song that summer sings
May be the chill the autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day
She may be the beauty or the beast
May be the famine or the feast
May turn each day into a Heaven or a Hell
She may be the mirror of my dream
A smile reflected in a stream
She may not be what she may seem
Inside her shell
She, who always seems so happy in a crowd
Whose eyes can be so private and so proud
No one’s allowed to see them when they cry
She may be the love that cannot hope to last
May come to me from shadows of the past
That I’ll remember ’till the day I die
She may be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I’m alive
The one I’ll care for through the rough and ready years
Me, I’ll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes I’ve got to be
The meaning of my life is
She.
“So how do you feel now that the Prime Minister’s demonetisation drive has failed?” asked a ‘friend’, someone who is St Stephens educated and is generally left-of-centre for no other reason than as it is the ‘cool’ thing to be. She (This is a real person btw; name withheld on purpose) equates being left with being liberal.
“I don’t think demonetisation has failed. I think it has not achieved as much short-term success as it could have. And I don’t feel great about that.” My reply was prompt, as it is what I believe and I didn’t need to invent a lie.
“Why do you think that is. Is it because the PM took the decision on his own without even the RBI knowing about it and hence the RBI was unprepared?”
pat came the reply almost as if she had not heard my answer.
While I was still contemplating how someone who is ‘educated’ can still be so idiotic to think a PM would leave the central bank of the country out of the decision-making process of the world’s largest-ever remonetisation exercise, I remembered that India’s high-school & Stephens undergraduate education does not necessarily teach common sense & logic.
I give her the benefit of the doubt that she had also missed reading Urjit Patel’s multuiple statements that the event was planned since early 2016 and for the past year or so, Raghuram Rajan used to have weekly meetings with the PM (6pm every Friday) on this issue. (http://indianexpress.com/article/india/talks-with-govt-on-demonetisation-began-early-last-year-rbi-governor-urjit-patel-4480447/). I brought the same to her attention, including showing her the website.
“What do you mean by Short Term? What was really the reason for this exercise? I mean there were so many reasons given.”
Pl note the rapid goal-post change
I took a breath, cursed the lack of teaching of analytical skills in our education system and proceeded to reply:
“This is not a fortune cookie, to have had just 1 objective and that too explain it to you in under 10 words. Monetary Policy is complex and the economic, social, financial & security-related reasons for demonetisation are plural. There were plenty of reasons:
1. To attack the ‘black’ economy & make sure people can use the cash generated by it, only after tax has been paid on it. Further, once all the cash goes through the system once, each note will will now have a name tagged to it and the income generated behind that note can be tracked to check for legitimacy.
2. To reduce the liabilities of the RBI (each printed note is a liability on the RBI). The hope was that people will discard some (if not all) of their cash stock of black money, under fear of being criminally charged for it and that frees up some of the RBI’s liabilities which can be used to spend on education / healthcare / poverty alleviation, etc etc.
3. Move the country to a non-cash economy, thereby making it easier to track transactions and ensure appropriate taxes are paid thereon.
4. Eliminate the current stock of counterfeit notes floating around in our economy which is the weapon of choice of our lovely neighbour to wage economic terrorism on India. It is never going to be possible to avoid fake notes absolutely but this is a worthy attempt to eliminate everything currently in stock, in one stroke.
5. Drastically reduce the ability of the maoists / naxals to cause death & destruction (they all operate on cash only. Its not like they accept cheques / have bank accounts or carry credit card swipe machines when they go around extorting people for money).
6. The increased liquidity caused by reduced cash usage & increased digital usage would enable banks to lend more, and provide a stimulus for growth.
Some of these were short term / immediate gains and some of them are long-term gains. Some of these goals were achieved, some weren’t.
You know, complexity is not not a virtue.”
A deathly silence ensued as she contemplates how me, a ‘bhakt’ had successfully challenged someone as ‘intellectual’ as her. Either that, or the double negative I used tripped her up.
Anyway, I ignored her gaping mouth and continued
“I think demonetisation will not end up being as successful as expected in the short-term, because of 1 primary reason:
1. Everyone (PM, RBI) underestimated the degree to which so many Indians can be unscrupulous thieving treacherous asswipes & cheat the country. Underestimated the lengths that people will go to, to launder their ill-gotten wealth on which they have not paid their dues to the country (almost as if it is their right to not pay taxes on that money). They assumed that a sense of ‘duty to the nation’ may emerge in all Indians and they would pay their fair share to the country.
The plan faltered in the same place where things mostly falter in India – in the ‘Last Mile’.
The last mile in this case was the bank branch manager. They (the blank money holders) managed to corrupt this one individual; or in many cases, this individual offered himself / herself up to be corrupted; & was at the cornerstone of the low success of the drive.
The first clear indicator of this is – The number of new bank accounts (including Jan Dhan accounts) being opened since November 8 and the plurality of those accounts with significant amount of cash being deposited and the subsequent closure of the same on a steady basis.
The second, which cause so much of the cash availability chaos in the run up to December 31st was the plurality of the amount of cash that has disappeared from between the cash-chests of each branch and the ATM / cash counter. This cash ended up being given off to the HNI clients of the branches and is borne out by the number of cash caches of new notes being discovered with individuals by law enforcement on a weekly basis.
However, these 2 points are about the lack of effectiveness just one of the several reasons for demonetisation (Point No 2). All the other 5 reasons still hold good and have borne fruit.
Point No 1 has happened and the IT department is already reviewing this and the right questions are being asked to both Banks and Account holders. Given the plurality of the country, it will take some time. While some of this has happened already under the amnesty scheme that was launched alongwith demonetisation, this will also pay off in terms of increased taxes in the next couple of years or so.
Point No 2 is strongly underway with the new cash-economy ‘normal’ having settled at almost 50% of the old normal. Increased non-cash usage will give us results for the next 5-10 years on a consistent basis.
We can already see Points no 4 & 5 bear fruit. In Kashmir, Malda and the naxal-infested areas of India.
Point no 6 is happened. We see borrowing rates drop and home loans have crashed to a historic low of <8% and personal loans have hit a low of <11%.
Over & above this, the one thing that has been a windfall gain for the government is in back-taxes collections. Between 30,000Cr & 40,000Cr of back taxes were paid to the respective governments (centre, state & city) over the 50 days of demo…
With all this, if anyone still treats demonetisation as a ‘failure’ and ask for that one unified reason for it, then I really question their basic intelligence, common sense and understanding of basic economics.”
With that, I turned around and limped (I’ve broken my ankle) off towards my life of Saffron-filled bhakt-ness to light a agarbatti in front of the image of PM Modi that I have in the makeshift temple i have created in his name in my office (sic).
Ms Liberal is still standing somewhere with her mouth open, I think…
There’s a phrase – “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
The last category sometimes happens because we set the bar of ‘greatness’ just too low, simply because that is the general quality of talent available in the world at that moment and we incorrectly grade greatness on a bell curve.
Virat Kohli is that kind of ‘great’ right now.
In my opinion – batsmen are great only if they qualify the 3 BIG tests:
1) Test cricket away from home,
2) Memorable innings in tough conditions and
3) Making runs when other batsmen look clueless
And based on those parameters, we have had only three truly great test batsmen: Gavaskar, Tendulkar and Dravid. None else.
1) Tests Away vs Home – average
Gavaskar: 52.11 vs 50.16
Tendulkar: 54.74 vs 52.67
Dravid: 53.03 vs 51.35
Yes, all three have a better average away!
And Kohli? 44.61 vs 58.41
2) Memorable innings in tough conditions – seaming in England, bouncy pitches in Aus and SA or turning wickets in the sub-continent. I can think of many innings achieved by the three greats. And Kohli – not proven in England, not proven in SA, moderate success in Australia, not yet proven on a rank turner.
3) Making runs when other batsmen look clueless. A measure could be ~50% of the team’s innings total. Not happened with Virat yet.
Don’t get me wrong. I would LOVE to see Kohli become great. And I pray to The Force that he does.
But until that happens, I request the stupid media and India’s cricket ‘experts’ to please not thrust greatness upon him. And please don’t insult the
– Edited & adapted from a post from the wall of Shireesh Joshi
Not sure if all of these exist today, but approx 20 yrs ago, these were flourishing and were the true educators of students in that pink, dreary government building.