Should We Start Building Our Own Defence Equipment?

The Augusta – Westland deal (3,500 crores for 12 helicopters) is yet another case of corruption in the Indian system. New names keep cropping up regularly in the case, leaving the Defence Minister A.K. Antony wringing his hands in helplessness.

The calls for involving private sector companies in building defence equipment in India are getting louder. India has become the world’s largest recipient of arms in recent years. On the other hand, China, which held the top spot in 2006, has now fallen to fourth. Several TATA group companies, L&T, Mahindra, Reliance and others are showing increasing capabilities in developing defence equipment. The army, however, doesn’t seem too excited.

The Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO), Defence PSUs (DPSU) and ordnance factory boards (OFBs) hold virtually a monopoly in supplying arms to the Indian army. However, these entities are plagued with corruption, inefficiency and bias. Less than 3% employees in the DRDO hold a Ph.D. An acquaintance of mine has visited the DRDO a few years ago and said a lot of time is spent by employees chatting, sleeping or lazing around. All this while almost 30% procurement and 100% R&D for arms lies in the DRDO’s hands. The DPSUs and OFBs are no better. This is a large point of concern.

3,500 crore for 12 choppers - Augusta Westland deal

Senior officials say middlemen thrive in defence deals because foreign companies do not have the bandwidth to wade through red tapism and corruption in India. India must start developing in house defence equipment. We can’t build all equipment ourselves; some arms still need to be imported. But by doing this, India will reduce dependence on other nations and corruption in this field. We are easily the best software exporters in the world. That expertise can surely be utilized by the defence sector to develop state-of-the-art arms and help India stand shoulder to shoulder with the world. Our soldiers deserve to be better equipped wherever they are deployed.

What do you think?

Congress Now Fighting Terrorism For Us?

Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab hanged within 80 days! I don’t know what’s more amusing; them being hanged or how gleefully we Indians have lapped this up.

Where did the Congress suddenly get these balls from? Until a few days ago, this very party running the government was ordering lathi charges on citizens. It sat twiddling its thumbs while the youth demanded justice for the gang rape victim. The Congress sat on its huge ass since 2009 while the Indian economy almost hit rock bottom. Policy paralysis was talked about daily in newspapers. The government failed to bring about a consensus on retail FDI, GST and other policies which should have been implemented long ago. CWG, the telecom spectrum, coal mine allocation... all these scams and more came to light when the Congress was in power since 2009. Mamata Banerjee dumped the Congress, Mayawati’s support was listed by dropping CBI investigations against her; there was no respite from the Naxalite issue either. Instead, the Congress went around trying to implement Section 144 and banning books which they claimed hurt religious sentiment. Pakistani soldiers beheading Indians was also publicized in the media to distract the Indian population from the Delhi gang rape issue. It was easier to make Pakistan look the villain and shift focus from a matter we called our government to action on. Did that party really find the guts to hang terrorists; something which wasn’t done since 12 years?

Kasab & Afzal Guru hanged?

The biggest terrorists are Congress party leaders themselves. In this article, I’ve pointed out how twisted and malicious Sonia Ghandi is. The news of the terrorists being hanged is a political gimmick. Just like the Americans claiming to have killed Bin Laden and buried his body at sea. So fucking predictable! Why would the Indian government have the terrorists hanged and burn their bodies in a hush – hush manner? Wouldn’t they want to display the dead bodies to showcase what they’ve done? Isn’t that normal human tendency? In my opinion, the jailed terrorists have not being hanged. They are alive and well; probably moved to secret location. The government merely wants to earn some brownie points from us citizens ahead of the 2014 elections.

The Congress has repeatedly violated my motherland in this stint. True, other parties have done and will do the same. But when awareness has increased, why must we behave like we used to a decade ago? The Congress needs a jolt like one they got when they lost out to the BJP. They must realize that they can’t take their power for granted. The jolt in 1996 was enough to galvanize them to action when they came to power in 2004. Our GDP grew substantially and people started predicting India’s bright future. Where are we now?

One thing is certain – I’m not voting for the Congress this time. Fuck that, I’ve never voted for them. Instead, I vote for some independent party worker who will be more passionate about development in my area. We need to show politicians that they cannot live their lives battling accusations of corruption, allow crime to continue and try to distract us from core matters by focusing on petty ones. We expect them to provide us a secure environment – economically and personally. What are you going to do?

image: Courtesy Google Images

Inflation, India & Politics (IIP)

There’s one thing common between inflation and the Indian government. God damn them both!

Very quickly, inflation is the increase in price of an item sold versus its previous price. The inflation could be measured on a month – on – month basis or a year – on – year basis (the price during the same month in the previous year). Inflation has 2 indices viz. WPI (Wholesale Price Index) – price of goods sold in the wholesale market and CPI (Consumer Price Index) – price customers pay for buying goods. The Indian government conveniently uses WPI to measure inflation in order to show numbers far less alarming than the actual ones. CPI (the price we citizens pay) is inclusive of chains of retailers, service taxes, excise duties and more. It’s probably 2 – 2 ½ times the WPI.

Inflation & the Economy (c) colourfultimes.com

While we're busy debating over IPL match fixing allegations, SRK's ban from a cricket ground and stupid actions of Siddharth Mallya, fuel inflation has increased 7%+ as compared to the previous month, while vegetable prices increased a mammoth 61%. IIP (Index of Industrial Production) is gloomy, export figures are being fudged, and the current government is mired in scams. And just a couple of weeks ago, corporate India was begging for rate cuts due to the slowdown in growth. Right! This would give people more money to buy, reduce operational cost of corporate houses and make them profit while we foolishly spend on stuff we don’t need.

The present predicament is also called stagflation, where growth slows but inflation stays high and it’s very 

bad news for a country’s economy.

Yes, fuel inflation is justified because it depends upon the global price of crude. But food prices?

Arresting inflation (c) economicnoise.com

I’ve discussed some reasons for inflation here. The price of primary food items has shot up more than 80% in the last 2 – 3 years. These are essential for survival of a country’s citizens; rich or poor, urban or rural. But precious little has been done to address this. India, in 2011, sat on a 75 – million tonne supply of food, about half of which will get wasted while about 50% of our population will stay malnourished. Sub standard warehousing and storage facilities, infrastructure, transportation & logistics and more contribute to this inflation conundrum we’re facing. Then there’s the huge chain of middlemen and wholesalers. The increase in lifestyle cost has prompted them to hoard food supplies which lead to price rises. And yet, we vehemently oppose FDI in retail – something that could improve these circumstances – easily fooled by the political rhetoric of kiraana stores losing their livelihood. Political parties propose this reform when in power and oppose it when in the opposition. Why? Simply to show how pro – reform they are when in power. Supporting the same when in the opposition will mean potential loss of bragging rights in campaigns running up to the elections.

The government has already stated there will be no major reforms until 2014 (read elections for the Union Government). And what will they offer? Fuel cost cuts, subsidies in food and other incentives which will squander tax payers’ money. All this while, the ‘India Shining’ story is gradually fading away. A 1% drop in GDP leads to loss of 15 lakh jobs in India. And we’ve fallen 2 ½ % in the last 2 years. Should we really vote this government into power again? The Congress needs a jolt! One that makes them realize not to take their seats for granted. Agreed we will lose out for the next few years again due to an even more inept party coming into power, but it things will get better in the long run. Remember how we grew when the Congress came back into power after the BJP lost their incumbency? Politicians are not incapable; they simply don’t want to support growth for fear of loss of voters who depend on their meagre handouts. Maybe they should take lessons from the late YSR Reddy, Naveen Patnaik, Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar and others.

Unparliamentary Behaviour, Really?

I will focus my attention today from daily musings to a phrase in English – ‘Unparliamentary Behaviour.’

I was fooling around in office one day, pulling people’s legs (something I’m good at) when one of the copywriters told me to stop my ‘Unparliamentary Behaviour’. And that’s when the discussion started.

I am not the 1^st to question this term; it’s been questioned by a lot of people before. But how did the people who coined the term agree to it in the 1^st place? Yes, ‘Unparliamentary Behaviour’ is a term to describe unruly behaviour on the part of a person/people. Quite a paradox, that! Not just India, parliaments across the world have witnessed various instances of more than mere unruly behaviour while the house has been in motion.

It’s hard to find images of unruly parliamentary behaviour online, but Isreal, Zimbabwe, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, etc. have all seen many instances of vandalism in the parliament. Research states that about 22% of the parliament’s time is lost due to such misbehaviour. Australia and some other countries have proposed a fine on politicians who misbehave and cause damage in the parliament. This should rein in those hooligans. Pity it won’t work in India, though...

So, is ‘unparliamentary’ an apt term for unruly behaviour? You would agree it should be the opposite, isn’t it? ‘Parliamentary Behaviour’, right? But it’s highly unlikely this change in diction will be implemented because it’s gonna be a major blotch on the so – called image of these politicians.

I still don’t get it! Do these politicians & bureaucrats assume their behaviour is an example for us? Where is the correlation between misbehaviour and behaviour of bureaucrats?  My office colleague and I are still scratching our heads. Someone please make sense of it for me! :(

India's New Generation Impatient?

India’s economy is growing at a record rate! All business channels are talking about India’s ROBUST CONSUMPTION STORY! The young Indian is unafraid, impatient, knows what she wants and gets it! That’s because Indians have started earning good sums of money. And those Indians want to spend on luxury, enjoyment; on what they deserve. We Indians are living up to our expectations! We’re buying expensive gadgets, going on expensive vacations, compromising on nothing less than elite brands for perfumes, clothes, electronics, mobile phones, laptops...

There are 2 concepts in economics – Conspicuous Consumption & Conscientious Consumption. The former is applicable when brand equity overshadows value for money as buyers want to be seen using snob value goods. This was applicable in developed countries until recently. However, it’s now more applicable in India while the latter (conscientious consumption) is applicable today in developed countries. Conscientious Consumption is when value and functionality of goods have more weightage in consumers’ minds than the brand.

People today are encouraged to buy more than they can afford because of loan schemes being offered on everything. So we buy all we want, keep paying off the loans and live on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis. But what’s the ulterior motive in this?

We shell out dollops of our hard earned money to buy things we want. We seemingly take pleasure in using high quality commodities thinking they provide respite from our mundane work lives. The big guns (politicians, big industrialists, etc.) are covertly having the media drive into us the logic that we can buy expensive iPads, cars, Sony BRAVIA TVs, etc. to enjoy the spoils of our earnings. This, we’re made to believe, will make the frustrations at work feel worthwhile. But whose coffers are these filling? The sellers', loan providers' and invariably - through various taxes - the government's. So who thinks they’re richer? We. But who actually grows richer? Those people suck the money out of us.

This logic gets me to another point. In the desire to own more, we start putting up with all sorts of crap. True, we hop jobs… but we’re still working for others. This yearning for money to buy more ensures we do what the higher ups want us to, the way they want us to, when and how they want us to. Some of us try being entrepreneurs, but how many of us seriously risk all we have for something we’re passionate about? The fear of losing it all has been instilled in us. So we toe in line and do not venture off in directions which might make it hard for corporates to retain talent for less. This is the same reason why the education curriculum does not get revamped either. They (politicians, big industrialists, etc.) want us to retain the mindset of learning all we NEED to for a JOB. We focus on placements, salaries, etc. We continue doing work they have chalked out for us to fatten their pockets. We are exposed to redundant educational curriculum to ensure we learn doing things the way they were and are being done. Innovation is barely ever encouraged, unless it makes money for the big bosses.

We’re being conned gradually, and we don’t even know it. The bigwigs don’t want us to think. They act like they’re offering us a lot of freedom, but it’s all well orchestrated. We spend; we make money for banks, industries, the government. Savings in U.S.A. have come down drastically from 8% of the GDP some years ago to less than 0.5% now. The repercussions are that the average American is $22,000 in debt. All this leads to rallies like Occupy Wall Street. The format is now pilfering down to us. Are we prepared to see the truth the way it is? Or are we going to learn the hard way! I guess only time will tell…

Some Unsung Heroes of Our Daily Lives...

They drive buses all day (and most of the night). They put up with crazily potholed roads and stop go traffic almost every minute. It’s a part of their routine. They transport hundreds of people in every journey from one place to another. They are pressurized to deliver a certain amount of fuel average (2.5 kmpl in the case of B.E.S.T.). They do not behave like notorious rickshaw drivers who refuse most passengers; on the contrary they pick up and drop more people than they can. Their buses are in pathetic conditions. Other drivers abuse them for rash driving. Other drivers turn abusive (and sometimes violent) when they don’t (or can’t) give way. They sometimes suffer from heart attacks due to the amount of stress endured. They get paid peanuts compared to the amount of work they do.

And yet, they continue doing it everyday. Sometimes they are vocal about their pitiable conditions, but more often than not they take it with a pinch of salt and move on. They continue doing this thankless job day – after – day without expectation of gratification. They, along with train motormen are the lifeline of India. This article is dedicated to the government bus drivers across India. Whatever people think, I salute you and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you have done and continue to do!

Photograph © - Rohit Hariharan