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…

Seems We Humans Are Living On The ANIMAL FARM!

Read the book “Animal Farm” by George Orwell? Animals on Manor Farm can think for themselves and talk. They decide to rebel against the injustice meted out to them by humans. They succeed in taking over the farm and think life will get better. It does, for some time. Enter politics and vested interests. The pig (Snowball) which wants to improve life for animals on the farm is driven away by a tyrant pig (Napoleon). The latter then chastises the former, claiming Snowball was hand – in – glove with the humans. Everything known about Snowball is portrayed as if he was the defector. Napoleon flaunts all the rules laid down by the farm. He makes his own to suit himself, his family and his type (pigs). He exploits animals and cruelly discards them when they’re rendered useless. The world admires the Animal Farm for the way it works, but the animals’ wish for a good life remains a distant dream.

Have we seen instances like in life? George Orwell has magnificently laid out the plot of politics and power struggle in this classic. 2 instances come to my mind. One was in MOTOGP, when Valentino Rossi & Max Biaggi got into a fistfight in the change room. The 2 were reprimanded by DORNA (the governing body of MOTOGP) and requested to stay away from the media. Rossi obeyed, but Biaggi didn’t. He portrayed himself as a victim and Rossi as the problem in front of the media, whilst the scenario was probably vice versa. Biaggi has maintained a bad reputation before and after that incident, which is why most of us give Rossi the benefit of doubt.

Cheers India... 5 - 0

Did we really whitewash the Englishmen 5 – 0? You can bet everything you have we did! And we thumped them, mauled them, butchered them... you can put in all the verbs you want! We ran through their entire batting line up in 4 out of the 5 matches. Those 4 matches ended up being totally one – sided; only one match was closely fought viś –a – viś 2 matches when India were in England.

India were still missing their big guns. We were without, amongst others, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Zaheer, Ishant and Yuvraj. The average age of the team was 24. Quite a few youngsters debuted in this series. Gambhir was batting one down instead of his regulation opening slot. Mind you, all this with the British team at almost full strength. However, performances stood out in all aspects of the game; batting, bowling & fielding. Praveen Kumar batted for the 1^st time in the series in the 5^th ODI. Kohli, Gambhir, Dhoni, Jadeja, Raina and others were in sublime form. Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar bowled with real pace (in the 140s) and successfully troubled a lot of English batsmen. Ashwin and Jadeja not only tied down the Englishmen with their spin, but also were some key contributors in picking up wickets. The fielding was one par excellence. Tiwary, Jadeja, Raina, Kohli led the way and all others (including the Indian bowlers) followed suit.

The team must have been under enormous pressure before this series. India had badly suffered at the hands of the same opposition a month ago and were still missing their big guns. The youngsters surely wanted to prove themselves. Many Indians were under fire; Dhoni for his captaincy, Raina for his batting, the bowling and fielding had been criticized. But none of that showed in the matches. Dhoni was the shrewd, nonchalant captain that he has always been. His mental toughness was commendable and rubbed off on all players and they delivered. He marshalled his troops beautifully in batting and bowling. The Brits were dismissed twice for below 200 and only once did they manage to score above 250. The English bowlers could not bowl the Indians out in even one match.

India showed why they deserve the World Champions crown. Many may argue that the team is a lion at home, but the same applies to England and Australia too, doesn’t it? How many teams have been able to beat India in our den? We salute you, dear Indian cricketers. You have been sensational, nothing short! We’re sure you will continue to give your best on the field.  We look forward to similar performances when you go overseas also. We will never lose faith in you. For us, you are INVINCIBLE! Thanks for this awesome Diwali gift. Happy Diwali everyone.

Why "Occupy Wall Street"?

Michael Moore said “This was inevitable! We’ve rewarded greed until now. 1% of the population gets 99% of the pie, and the remaining 99% is expected to fight over the left over 1%.” He was just reiterating the well known fact – 96% of the world’s wealth lies with 4% of the people, and 4% wealth is left for the remaining 96%.

“Occupy Wall Street” as phenomenon, spread like wildfire across the world. Rebadged “Indignant” in Spain, this movement has spread to UK, Rome and many other countries.  What started with a mere dozen protestors in New York now has hundreds of thousands of participants rallying all over the world. These demonstrators in nine hundred cities protested against corporate greed and wealth inequality. Protesters from London to Sydney echoed the anti-capitalist, populist rhetoric of the Occupy movement in what was deemed a "global day of protest" (TIME).

Is it unjustified? Are we going to claim that the governments are being arm – twisted by citizens, like quite a few people stated about the latest protests in India?

Well, unemployment continues to hover around the 10% mark in the US. GDP is growing at 0.4%. The 2 Quantitative Easing programs implemented by the US government have barely done the country any good. A mounting European sovereign debt crisis has contributed to ongoing market volatility and fears of another global economic recession. Joblessness is on the rise everywhere; be it Nokia, or HP, CISCO… the list can go on and on! Research reports have stated it was greed and malpractices on part of certain banking institutions that led to the sub – prime crisis and the Greece default. Legitimate action against any perpetrators is still pending.

The Great Depression, according to the documentary Zeitgeist, was engineered by certain powerful banks in USA. So were the recent recession and the financial disasters in European countries. The famines in India in the 70s, the tyranny in Egypt and Libya, relentless terrorist attacks in Pakistan; all have been orchestrated by powerful entities which wanted to fill their pockets at the extent of common man. A handful of powerfully connected and wealthy entities continue to push common man against the wall.

The Indian media declares this Occupy Wall Street movement to being spurred by the Anna Hazare anti – corruption campaign in India.  But I would beg to differ. This has been the Year of Revolutions. Starting with Egypt, revolutions spread to Libya, the Gulf, Yemen, India, US, UK and now Europe. Karl Marx had theorized that there is always one point in society when the labour class goes at war with the bourgeois. Malcolm Gladwell, in The Tipping Point writes that there comes a point when a sort of saturation level is reached and the balance of the scale tips. This tip in scale brings about actions to counter the existing norms; be it violent or non – violent. Are we seeing the beginning of one such revolution in human civilization now?

Some Interesting Pointers About Sonia Gandhi...

Dr. Subramanium Swami, in his letter to Dr. Manmohan Singh asking for permission to file a legal case against Sonia GHANDI, brought out some interesting facts (Yes! I know they've not been proven in court yet):

1. Sonia Gandhi manipulated Rajiv Gandhi to abet the crime in the Bofors gun purchase committed by Ottavio Quattrocchi against the nation. She stationed her brother – in – law, Walter Vinci, in Sweden to influence her husband to finalize the deal.

2. When the law started catching up with Ottavio Quattrocchi in the early 90s, the Congress Government (led by late Narasimha Rao) allowed him to quietly escape India. However, his accounts where money was stashed still stayed frozen. Subsequently, under pressure from Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the UPA, the CBI quietly allowed Quattrocchi to withdraw the money stashed in India. The then Solicitor General of India was sent to London to facilitate the deal.

3. Sonia Gandhi holds money in Switzerland (more than $2 billion in 1991) as a legatee, the corrupt money which was banked in the name of her late husband or deposited by her of funds obtained from the erstwhile KGB, or by sale of illegally exported antiques into the country. Many intelligence reports in the 80s stated that Rajiv Gandhi had received a lot of money from the KGB of USSR as bribe and kickbacks.

4. In 1972, Sonia Gandhi was exposed as functioning as a benami insurance agent of public sector insurance companies and giving her address as that of the Prime Minister of India. Consequently, Mrs. Indira Gandhi informed the Rajya Sabha that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi resigned from that agency earning commissions.

5. From 1973 – 1975, she held the position of MD of Maruti Technical Services on salary despite it being an offense against FERA. Later, she became MD of Maruti Heavy Industries Pvt. Ltd. with an even bigger remuneration. Justice AC Gupta found her guilty of multiple offences under FERA & IPC.

6. Sonia Gandhi acquired Indian citizenship at record speed in 1983. She did not submit documents from the Italian government to relinquish her Italian citizenship. In 1992, she retrieved her passport which effectively means cancellation of her Indian citizenship.

7. Sonia Gandhi was interested in applying as prime minister in 2004. Her citizenship made her application void, but she was willing to override that using 340 party members for support. When Dr. Subramanium Swami brought out this clause of her nationality, Dr. Manmohan Singh was brought in to save face at the last minute. Thus, the so called SACRIFICE of hers was actually an eye wash.

8. These facts were put together under a full page advertisement in New York Times in 2008 by NRIs. The Congress Party filed for a $200 million defamation suit against the NRIs, but Sonia Gandhi refused to appear in court and be cross examined. Therefore the case was dismissed.

9. Sonia Gandhi gave a sworn affidavit as a candidate that she studied English at Cambridge University. According to Cambridge University, there is no such student ever.

10. Sonia Gandhi was one of 13 benefactors from pay – offs in the Iraqi Oil – for – Food scam of 2002. She received oil for support from the now deceased Saddam Hussain for support for Iraq. She sold the oil at market price through Mark Rich, a notorious swindler who was convicted by the US court for 350 years.

11. Hassan Ali, currently being protected by the Congress, was involved with Adnan Khassogi, the international arms dealer, who was found to have supplied arms to the LTTE for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

12. He, who had nothing 10 years back, had billions in his and his associates accounts by 2006. The probe into him was rendered directionless which indicates the government was keen, even desperate, to bury the Ali case.
 

13. On the next day after the raid on his house, Ali’s collaborator Kasinath Tapuriah told the ED that two senior Congress leaders had been protecting him and introduced both of them. Hassan Ali, who was hiding from the ED/IT Department, stayed in a Lonavla bungalow from July to December paying Rs. 5,000 per day.

These facts have not been proved, but the GHANDI family (please note Indira was also never a Gandhi but a GHANDI) has never disputed these allegations and others. Just makes one want to reflect on whether we really want HER son to take up the PM position in future.