Budget 2012

A look at the budget this year reveals pitiable state of affairs. One third of the revenues comes from borrowings. When Mr. Mukherjee became FM we expected him to have left behind the socialist baggage of the 80's. He seems to be the same old man passing strictures on tax issues in retrospective effect, raising import duties on gold and diamonds(thus causing the flourishing jewellery exports to be dented) etc. The markets and investors have reacted negatively to GAAR and i feel instead of postponing it for next year it should be completely done away with. What use is all that if you are not going to reopen old cases. While expanding tax slabs is welcome, the stick that comes with the carrot, i.e the withdrawal of stimulus and raising of excise and service tax rates would be a bigger burden. The 20k that could have ben invested in infrastructure bonds was expected to be raised to 30 or 50k but the benefit has been completely taken away. A new rajiv gandhi equity scheme which is meant to encourage small investors to invest in stocks is good but not that productive i believe.

In all likeliehood this year the diesel prices are going to be deregulated and hence raised. Petrol prices have been raised. This would fuel inflation. While crude prices are not under control of our govt. exchange rates have worsened undoubtedly due to policy paralysis. The economic survey admits that since agricultural growth has not been up to the mark and industry is growing at a slow pace all the growth is expected from services.

The expenditure target of 13 lakh crores last year has been breached and we ended up spending 14 lakh crores. This budget has been the least imaginative of all and does not even mention about GST or DTC. Pranab da neglected the SEZs and said that MAT will be applicable to them as part of DTC. SEZs were replaced by NMZs. This is policy flipflop and sends a wrong message to the investors. It looks like the minister is pleading for time and hoping that things will be set right on their own. Now from here there can be two ways we could go. A growth path of 7.6% as predicted for next year and higher the next year with inflation under control or a growth of 6% or lesser and uncontrolled inflation. The second path looks to be more probable among the two and the economy might languish at about 6% growth for many years to come.

The telecom mess caused by the supreme court verdict of license cancellations has spooked the investors. We are now viewed as unworthy of being in the BRICS. S&P has downgraded us from stable to junk. I feel pranab da should vacate his FM post for lack of performance and a suitable replacement found. May be he would do better in the rashtrapathi bhavan. It would be good for him. 77 yrs is a good age to say good bye to politics. Is sonia ji listening???

How do we learn IT?

It’s interesting to know how people learn to use computers. What is all the more interesting is senior citizens who have crossed fifties and have been introduced to computers for the first time, do not pick up the essential skills to survive in the digital age(I do not mean to disrespect them in any way, they were from a different generation). I heard from my parents who both worked in banks how computerization would make their life difficult. They were touching fifties then and have since retired. We now know that computerization in banks is near total and it’s been a great success but at first there were apprehensions. They did not know whom to approach when there were problems. They were jealous of the younger colleagues who picked up the skills fast. There were stories of unhelpful colleagues.

I recently was called to help my neighbor who had returned from UK. His son had given him a laptop to learn using internet. He showed me a memory card that contained photos of the places he visited in UK. Instinctively I plugged in the card into the laptop and copied all the photos into the hard disk. His next question baffled me as he asked “How did you get the idea to copy the images into the laptop”. Now I know the storage capacity of a memory card is limited and that on the laptop is relatively more and I thought images in the card can be deleted to make space for new ones. He seemed to understand that as he asked me if I have deleted the images in the card which I had not done. The question he asked seemed to go beyond just the photos and seemed to sound like “How do you guys get to know what all can be done with computers”?.

To confess in private I myself am curious to know the answer. I mean some people do great work and others fall behind. When social networking sites came about they caught on the imagination of the people. Before even logging into one we instinctively seemed to understand that we can search for our friends on the site and form a group. That idea comes to us before we log into the site for the first time. We all were interested to know whether all of our friends were there on the site and they were. It was a great feeling to be participating in unification of some sort.

Meanwhile in my neighbor's house, I was actually called there to help him play a DVD of sai bhajans. The problem was that windows media player did not play the DVD for want of some decoder. I assured him of getting FLV player installed in his laptop, something which I never did. He had lectures of swami nityananda, whom he regarded as a great saint, in his laptop, and they opened. He told me had plans of launching a website on spirituality and healing. I grew conscious using his laptop and turned it towards him and instructed him to open “my computer”. He asked me “should I double click or single click?”. Opening by single click or double click is something we learn't very early in computer usage. We know that a single click on a folder in the side pane of explorer would show its contents on the right pane. We also learned that an icon can be double clicked to open or launch it. The problem was he was asking me every time if he is supposed to single click or double click and is not learning from past experience at all. One more thing i would like to add is in retrospect i now know double click is way too taxing on the fingers and the more number of times you are expected to do it, the more the pain. Esp when you look at the time between two clicks in order to be recognized as double.

All this I had experienced earlier while teaching my father how to use computers. He somehow does not understand that he needs two things, his mail id and password to log into yahoo. I have to remind him both. It was a difficult experience to teach him to tap on our laptop touch-pad. He knows how annoyed i get when people play pranks with me. I must confess i was pissed off the first time he came with "Teach me this". We all immediately “get it” the moment we see the cursor moving while we move our finger on the pad and on tapping it when the cursor is on an icon or button. We all would have tested it to see how it distinguishes the two events of lowering the finger on the pad with intent to drag or to tap.

I was once teaching my mother the T9 mode of typing a SMS on the mobile. This I was doing purposefully to let her know that there is a dictionary of words embedded. She was spot on with the question “How did it know I wanted to type “and” when I pressed the buttons marked ‘abc’ ‘mno’ and ‘def’ ”. She was in awe of the advances in technology.

This of course is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many such devices like the TV remote, DVD player and playing music on mobile and others which have some complexity as far as their UI is concerned. Xerox Inc and Apple Inc have done some great work on more intuitive UIs. The technical jargon I heard about this is "Device Level Human Factors". We seem to forget that we were in the same situation before we learned how to use them. The question my neighbor asked me is not an ordinary one and holds relevance to everyone no matter what their skill levels are.

Is this what education is?

There is a famous quote by H. Narasimhaiah about quality of teaching. It is said that a poor teacher complains, an average teacher explains, a good teacher teaches and a great teacher inspires. There is one more saying which goes somewhat like a great teacher does not teach but raises relevant and thought provoking questions. He causes students to get interested in the subject at hand and makes them learn, often out of their own interest. A teacher with passion towards learning and original thinking lays the foundation for a student’s career. There are hundreds and thousands of topics in literature that can be called fertile and rich in which original research can yield great success.

It is unfortunate that our education system emphasizes rote learning. Facts are presented in a bland and tasteless way. Students are encouraged to reproduce sentences exactly the way they are in text book. This is different from teaching in some countries that emphasize contemplation and reflection on what is learnt and on original thinking. There is an alternate method of teaching that focuses on ideas and tracking their influence on newer ones. Such a teaching method actually is proven to produce thinkers who have gone on to enrich the world of science. While a little bit of history is involved in narrating sequence of discoveries, the subject matter is presented in sufficient detail for the student to relate to its importance and applications. South korea is a country that has made great strides in manufacturing. Companies like hyundai and samsung have brought fame to them. I find in literature that south korea invested heavily in heathcare and education soon after gaining independence. Education in our country comes nowhere to the international standards.

Often students are found lacking basic knowledge of the subject when advanced topics are taught. Sometimes students hate some subjects thinking of them as either theoretical or uninteresting. Sometimes students fear some subjects where there is a perception of them being tough and difficult to clear. Sometimes the students take up studies mearly for the sake of degrees. Half baked bread is as good as none. Apathy and disinterest is contagious. These are all symptoms of a faulty education system.

Students should have the freedom to choose the subjects they are supposed to study in a course. Imagine the strategies a student might choose to pick subjects. Some may try out most difficult first, some may go for the most interesting ones, while the careful ones might pick easiest first. Such active interest from the students in choosing subjects makes them think of the applications and the subject's relevance to their career. There should be a minimum number of credits that he/she has to earn in a particular semester. Each subject should have some prerequisites which the student should have studied. There is also demand from some to make the duration of a subject course vary according to the pace of learning. Students are made to choose their branch when they have very little idea of what each of them contains. The world over students choose their branch after one year of study. This can be inplemented in our case too. At least i can testify that i did not know what computer science is when i opted to study it. Most colleges do not give any options to the students in choosing electives. Such steps are taken to reduce work load on the faculty and also to ensure a minimum strength in the class. 

A class with less than ten students is awkward to conduct unless students show interest. On the other end of the spectrum the student-teacher ratio which should be 13-17 students for every faculty is sometimes as high as 20. Teachers face problems in controlling a class with huge numbers. Despite shortcomings bright students have gone on to rise above competition and get recognized. The other category of average students sometimes has struggled to be employed at respectable pay packages.

A small poem somewhere in the answer booklet of end semester examination fell upon my notice during valuation. Every post of mine has been inspired by some event or idea. This post is triggered by the angst in this student’s life. It speaks about the drudgery in education.

Lots to write, lots to read

This is the truth I accepted in deed

Word by word I write in pain

But as usual all my efforts end in vain

This is all I have to tell

For all I want to do is leave this hell

I must read, I must write

Till there is an end to this fight.

Poribartan everywhere

With women winning in WB and TN the country has voted against communists and corruption. The war cry of Ma,Mati and Manush has overcome the communists who occupied power for 34 long years in West Bengal. The whole country is awaiting the new cabinet there and the policies it will follow. Amit mitra is tipped to be the FM in WB. It would be interesting to see who will be the new railway minister at the center. After the decay which set in during the communist rule it would be difficult to repair the finances of the state. West Bengal was compared to Gujarat as an example of two opposites in development. Presently the country is savoring the extermination of the communists who had held many a governments to ransom at the center.

In Tamil Nadu the situation is much brighter. TN is a leading state in terms of development. The only problems it has have been in the power sector. The only hope is that the freebies to be given away by ADMK should not put the states finances in trouble.

Yeddyurappa seems to have overcome the danger to his seat the third time. the 16 rebel MLAs have agreed to support him again. This seems to be a good news to the BJP. The first BJP government in Karnataka will complete its full term. Political commentators have labeled his government corrupt but he seems to enjoy the support of the people as evident in the re-election results.

Today was a special day for Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as TOI columnist Chetan Bhagat wrote to dispel the negative image of him. What caught my eyes was the observation that Gujarat has been a developing state due to the entrepreneurial nature of its citizens and not due to Mr. Modi alone. This seems to be somewhat true but it takes away the credit for providing a stable administration conducive to industry from Mr. Modi.

As every one knows Bihar is going from strength to strength under Nitish. The only state yet to come out of problems and uncertainty is Rajasthan. Democracy has ensured that the best administrators among the lot are chosen to head the states. This portends good omen for the country and is an indicator of the things to come.

Three Cheers to INDIA

In the three month period since my last post many positives have happened for india. We won the world cup second time
and veteran gandhian Anna Hazare's war against corruption soon after the world cup victory gave the country some hope that corruption would one day go away from the country. The New Jan Lokpal bill is expressly created to bring to book the corrupt bureaucrats and lawmakers who are having a field day under the sun with their unchecked loot of the masses.This new law would create the same kind of revolution that was created by the RTI act. People started becoming activists and found huge amounts of corruption. Now such acts of omission and commission would become an offence that can be complained to the Lokpal which would bring the perpetrators to book.
There was one more reason to be happy because the census results showed the net addition to the population was less this decade than the last one albeit by just one million.Between 1991 and 2001 the population increased by 183 million and between 2001 and 2011 the net addition was 181 million. We are now 1210 million in numbers which was 1029 million in 2001 and 846 million in 1991. Decadal rate of population increase is reducing as its now 17.5% against 21.6% earlier. At this rate our population would be 1360 million in 2021(12.5%) and 1475 million by 2031(8.5%) and 1563 by 2041(4.5%) and 1609 million by 2051(3%) after which the population would stabilise.
Increased Literacy is a big positive to come out of the present census as literacy has increased from 66% to 75% nation wide. I expect literacy to come up to at least 85% in the next decade. On the flip side sex-ratio has reduced and this implies that female foeticide and infanticide continue unabated. India is now in much better condition than it was a decade ago. We are at least better than sub-Saharan africa in literacy now. Three Cheers!!!

Unionism in VTU

Before you consider me ultra liberal or neo liberal or a wimp or too condescending  i would like to make it clear that protest should be of a different kind and striking work should not be one of them.
It is unfortunate that valuators have boycotted the valuation of answer scripts in VTU. The results this time will be delayed and the valuations will continue even after the start of the even semester. While it is true that the pay in colleges in karnataka for lecturers is less compared to other states striking at valuation centers is a wrong thing to do. Fees in colleges will invariably go up if sixth pay is implemented and the demand for seats will reduce. Many seats are already vacant in smaller colleges and more will be left unfilled in the years to come.

Today the valuation work seems to have started and there is no guaranty that it will not be interrupted in between with more strikes. This Unionization in VTU bodes trouble for the teachers themselves. While higher pay will bring temporary relief ,it would be risky to the college finances in future as there will be uncertainty in admissions.

Some pending Reforms

The UPA-2 government has been branded as left-leaning despite the absence of left parties in the alliance. Dr. Manmohan Singh has been a man of great foresight and vision but maintained a stony silence in addressing urgent reform issues like retail and subsidies. The ideal case would be if Dr. Singh takes things in this stride and announces some hard nosed and urgently needed policy decisions. There are a host of sectors in which reforms are essential and some of them are labor sector, Multi-Brand Retail sector,Fertilizer subsides, Decontrol of Administered prices of petroleum products and decontrol of Sugar sector.

India has restrictive policies on hiring of labor. Industry experiences cycles of boom and bust. It is difficult to sack employees due to down turn in the industry. This has held back companies from hiring larger number of workers. Such rules which restrict companies from firing employees have to be relaxed.

Fertilizer prices in India are controlled by a strange set of rules which effectively restricts fertilizer supplies. It has been ages ago that a new fertilizer plant has been started and the existing ones are making losses. The government should allow differential pricing of fertilizers and allow two categories of fertilizer sales. One subsidized and sold only to poor farmers and other category of Non-Subsidized or commercial sold to larger farmers and in the open market. Also the government should allow imports of fertilizers and sale at market determined rates. Fertilizer is an essential ingredient of agriculture and adequate quantities of them have to be used in order to achieve higher productivity.

There have been discussions on opening up multi-Brand retail to foreign players.The government should go-ahead and open up the sector to large retailers so that the ensuing competition leads to lowering of prices. Presently the retailers profiteer when prices of some vegetables goes up. This is because there is little competition in retailing. Consumers are at the receiving end of all this. Kirana store owners are already so rich that they can support themselves without any earnings in the future. Opening up of retail sector to multi-nationals will not harm them much and consumers who are being taken for a ride will get relief.

Reforms in petroleum pricing is currently under way and petroleum companies who have been burdened with subsidies have to be provided relief by rolling-back subsidies completely. Simultaneously taxes on petroleum products should be reduced both by central and state governments to reduce price rise for the end consumer.

Finally farmers producing products such as rice, wheat and sugar cane should not be forced to sell their produce to government agencies, such as FCI and crushing factories, and the minimum support price should be just that, a recourse to be taken by farmers when market prices of farm produce is too low.

These are some of the sectors in which urgent reforms are essential to set right the wrongs that have been committed in the past.

A compelling case for the twelve digits (UIDAI, UID Project)

A unique identity number or aadhaar for every person in the country is expected to yield enormous efficiencies for banks and government departments. A recent McKinsey report suggests potential five-yearly savings of 1.4 lakh crore for the government. The report contends that people benefit to an extent of 14 lakh crore in a five year period from the government and a conservative estimate of ten percent savings is made here. Central to the project is the twelve digit Aadhaar and surrouding it will be a plethora of applications some of which are listed below.

1. There are clearly, immense benefits from a mechanism that uniquely identifies a person, and ensures instant identity verification. The need to prove identity only once will bring down transaction costs for the poor^[1].

2. A clear identity number would also transform the delivery of social welfare programs by making them more inclusive of communities now cut off from such benefits due to their lack of identification^[1].

3. It would enable the government to shift from indirect to direct benefits, and help verify whether the intended beneficiaries actually receive funds/subsidies. Among the merits and rationale of this project the most compelling one is the accountability in distribution of benefits whether it is discounts on grains, school fees for children under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA), pension payments for the elderly or Conditional Cash Deposits(CCD) such as the Janani Suraksha Yojana(JSY).

4. A single, universal identity number will also be transformational in eliminating fraud and duplicate identities, since individuals will no longer be able to represent themselves differently to different agencies. This will result in significant savings to the state exchequer^[1].

5. Several banks are trying to issue a customer ID so that they can track their customers interaction with the bank. Until now a customer can choose to apply for a new ID in case he wants to hide the fact that he has made transactions with the bank earlier. AADHAAR will clean up the customer databases of the banks and help in their marketing pitch. It is also going to benefit the credit information bureaus which can track a person’s credit history^[2].

6. When Aadhaar is linked with PDS and authenticated sale of grains is made, the fair price shop(FPS) during the replenishment cycle will be allocated an amount of grains equal to the actual sale made and not the planned amount of sales in the next cycle. The government is guaranteed to save at least a few tens of thousands of crores in PDS alone^[1].

7. A student tracking programme would help admit street children and destitute children into schools. Continuous assessment through UID linked score card would benefit children when they migrate from one school to another. A truly cumulative report of a students performance can be hosted at a suitable government portal^[3]. There are reports of a system where fingerprints are to be logged for attendance of teachers in schools. This is not a new phenomenon as most colleges have implemented biometric scanners to log attendance.

8. Issue of Aadhaar numbers is expected to precede rollout of a host of E-governance initiatives such as linking land holdings, PDS benefits and LPG and petroleum subsidy with Aadhaar and a nationwide rollout of a network of MicroATMs to perform cashless payments and banking services(Funds transfer, Micro credit, Micro pension, Micro insurance). The MicroATM network, estimated to be at least two such devices per village for six lakh villages, would mean 1.2 million branchless banking points. Add to this a few tens of millions of Point of Sale terminals at kirana stores and other establishments to service the purchase requests through cards issued by banks^[2].

9. In an increasingly cashless economy Aadhaar linked bank accounts could be used to promote cashless payment transactions thus aiding the capability of the government in monitoring money flows and resources^[2].

10. It was reported last year that Apollo Hospitals had written to the UIDAI and to the Knowledge Commission to link UID numbers with health profiles of individuals and offered to manage the health records (Business Standard, 27 August 2009)^[4]. It has already embarked on a project “Health Superhighway” that reportedly connects doctors, hospitals and pharmacies, who would be able to communicate with each other and access health records. With Aadhaar efficacy of medicines can be monitored real time whereas presently after human trials medicines qualify to be administered and there is no way a case by case report card could have been prepared. Medicines, once dispensed, such a note can be made in the person’s medical records and should be open for audits by other doctors. This might lead to evangelism in doctor profession where the brand of medicine prescribed will be openly known to the system and the doctor can be held accountable for any bias towards higher priced medicines. The government and health insurance companies can tie up to finance the cost of consultations and medical expenses. Government doctors could be paid through a system where they are expected to attend to a minimum number of patients.

Controversies are not new to the country and some of them have been successfully quelled by UIDAI.

1. When the controversy over whether UID is designed only for citizens of INDIA and is intended to throw out illegal immigrants arose Mr Nilekani categorically stated that UID is for identification and not as proof of citizenship, the first hurdle was crossed.

2. When the problem of enrolling infants without biometric details arose UIDAI chose to link the parents biometric details with a sort of shell UID with biometric details to be posted at a later date when the child is 5 years old or later.

3. When people whose fingerprints have worn out have to be enrolled and authenticated the use of demographic details to authenticate would have left a gaping hole in the security system of the AADHAAR authentication, Mr Nilekani and team chose to authenticate such people through passwords.

4. When people concerned about privacy raised doubts about the security of the database UIDAI dispelled all doubts by making it clear that demographic or biometric data will not be shared with anyone and authentication requests will be served with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ response only.

Criticism not yet addressed

There have been concerns from civil rights activists about surveillance that the government can potentially impose on the residents. Recently the home minister announced a project called NATGRID under which twenty one databases with the government such as ration card holders, Voter ID card holders, PAN card holders, provident fund accounts, Driver’s license holders etc will all be linked with each other with the help of the Aadhaar number. The reason this is done is to detect patterns, trace sources for monies and support, track travellers, and identify those who must be watched, investigated, disabled and neutralised. It is obvious that criminals and undertrials would also be enrolled under the scheme. Someone even suggested that a DNA bank of criminals will be created. The police under pressure to solve cases might impose needless authentication on the civilians. Anyone with Aadhaar would be a suspect which would be a serious breach of privacy.

Another serious issue which is yet to be resolved is the potential of internal sabotage or misuse and external breakin of the CIDR. The under discussion bill seeks to impose hefty fine on anyone who is caught with such a ploy. The fine is mentioned as upto one crore whereas the value of data in the CIDR would easily exceed a few hundred crores. With inflation eroding the value of the rupee one crore a few years from now would be next to nothing. Mentioning a maximum quantum of fine in the bill would invite periodic amendments, which have never occurred, for which we have evidence in other outdated criminal laws. Instead a fine amount should be decided by the courts on a case by case basis.

References:

[1] UIDAI Strategy Overview Document 

http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Front_Page_Articles/Documents/Strategy_Overveiw-001.pdf

[2] UIDAI Micropayments 

http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Front_Page_Articles/Strategy/Exclusion_to_Inclusion_with_Micropayments.pdf

[3] UID and Education

http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Working_Papers/UIDandEducation.pdf

[4] Apollo begins project to connect health players

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/apollo-begins-project-to-connect-health-players/368246/

Charms of a Resurgent India

While it might have become ample clear reading all my blogs that I am a nationalist and most of them have a splash of patriotic fervour which never ceases to abate. All of my posts relate to the trials and tribulations our nation has faced and which has taken a dramatic turn towards the better in recent times. It has been a Topsy-turvy ride of sorts since the days of liberalisation and doordarshan. What I have set out to write is something of a feel good factor that sets in when the going gets smooth. The years of good economic growth such as '96,2003,'06,'07 had some charm in them. They signalled an India on the path to prosperity. The miracle economies of south-east Asia have experienced such times and passed through phases of blistering growth. It's now our turn and surely we will go the whole distance.

While officially we are growing at 7.4% last year(2009-10) and 8.8(target) this year our actual growth in inflation adjusted real terms is somewhere around 4-6%. The number of poor living below the poverty line of 2$ a day is nearly 830 million out of 1190 million. That leaves just 360 million people in the middle class and a small percentage of about a million people in the rich category. A poverty line of 1$ a day means there are 20% poor whose absolute number is about 240 million. These are large numbers of poor indeed and should have been a cause for worry in themselves. The silver lining is that these numbers are reducing steadily. Five to ten years of continuous 9% and above growth would surely make a large dent in the poverty numbers.

Our GDP in nominal terms is 1200 billion, growing at 8-9% we will reach 2 trillion by 2016 and 3 trillion by 2022. Per-Capita income of $1050 per year is going to double to $2000 by 2016 and treble to $3000 by 2022. This means that an average Indian will be earning about Rs. 90,000 per year in 2016 and Rs. 1,35,00 per year in 2022. Poverty has been so much a part of our existence that we stand as a benchmark for other countries. Perhaps when faced with the prospect of unbelievably low levels of poverty the developed countries were forced to redefine the poverty line to $2 per day from $1 exclusively meant to keep a large population in India below poverty. It is pretty much clear that when Mr. Obama exhorts the American students to study science and compete with Indian students, He is ignorant about the pathetic Indian education standards.

With more money in our pockets we Indians would splurge like never before on food, clothing, housing, consumer durables etc. Only sky is the limit for land and property prices. Population density of about 340 per sq-km will rise to 500 per sq-km causing huge burden on natural resources like water. Energy prices already sky high will rise further causing wide spread inflation and starvation. Petroleum stocks the world over are expected to end in another twenty years. Developed countries being more reliant on energy would be more impacted with reduced fuel. While this situation looks grim at the outset, there is lot of hope as renewable energy sources will save the day for the world and might circumvent a recession.

As far as India is concerned we sit in a pretty position as we still are not that dependent on petroleum products as much as others. Indians are lucky that our growth is peaking at a time oil sources are dying out. This will cause a shift in our growth to favour renewable energy.

Implementation of the Aadhaar would lead to prosperity among the poor. The UID project would then be copied by African countries and most of the countries will have biometric based identity systems the world over. Out of the entire history of India this is the best period to be born into as so many social and economic changes are happening and there is all-round development.

And now PCs from india

India was once a country renowned for a variety of products such as cotton,spices,textiles,gems and jewellery. A brief period in the history,when we were ruled by the British, caused a lot of suffering and misery in our country-men's lives. We came to be known as a third world country and our country was plundered and looted of the many riches that people owned. After about sixty years of independence we have now almost completely erased the memories of this brief episode of poverty.

It comes as no surprise that now personal computers are being assembled in our country not only for domestic consumption but also for exports. Indeed we have come a long way now that our country is in no way a third world country and on the way to get a developed status. The pace of development seems to amaze everyone. Our people were unsure of their next meal just a few decades back. It is with bated breath that i am awaiting to see the poverty levels fall below 20% in India (currently at 26%). Now we are self sufficient in agriculture. But we have a few issues that need to be tackled well. It will be a challenge to anyone who will be running the affairs to steer the country out of problems of inflation, food scarcity and law and order. It is also thrilling to see India making a mark in the computer field and also our country launching a mission to the moon which finds water there. Many predict that the world will have serious energy crisis with petroleum stocks ending soon.

World population is at a very high level and this might not be sustainable. Eight to nine billion people in the next ten to thirty years might be too near the tipping point for any comfort. There might be mass starvation and deaths in case alternate sources of energy do not fulfill the demand. Global warming in all likelihood is true and we are already experiencing the fallout of this. Sea waves are expected to eat away a large part of the shorelines of almost all countries. Acid rain will reduce fertility, depleting ground water will cause desertification and reducing forest cover will increase temperatures.

With such a bleak future humanity has to steer on a narrow path. A mistake will be catastrophic. Urgent action needs to be taken to save the forests. Developed countries have exploited forest cover in poor countries while keeping their own forests untouched. Developing countries should stand up to this exploitation and ban export of timber. We should also make efforts to reduce our population growth. We should reduce our reliance on ground water by conserving rain water. Electric vehicles should be encouraged. A planned phase out of fossil fuel should be coordinated worldwide. Rich and poor countries should unite in their efforts to contain global warming. One way for that will be to reduce demand for product shipment by locating manufacturing plants near to the market.This would have a side effect in reducing the income disparities between the rich and the poor. Mahatma Gandhi's vision of small scale industries might come true as transportation costs increase.

India has a great future because we are a country of hard working people. We have the demographic dividend of a relatively young population and we are going to be the second largest country in terms of GDP in the year 2050.

Laloo and chidambaram at a discussion

Chidambaram: Laloo ji, When will the railways build modern coaches that don't spill excreta on tracks.
Laloo: PC saab aap rail mein toilet ke hole ki baat karte hain, pehle budget mein deficit ke hole ko bharne pe dhyaan lagayiye. Jis tarha deficit ke hole ko bharne ka technology hamar desh mein nahi usi tarha toilet hole ko dhak ne ki technology bhi nahi.

My Wish List from UPA

I have a few things that i would want the UPA to do in this tenure. The detailed tasks for each ministry i think should be are
Railways: I think mamata is surely going to destroy railways. I wish she sees my blog and does what i have written here. Anyways I want the railways to build modern coaches which do not spill excreta on tracks. I want them to improve the in house service and electrify all of the tracks. I also want the railways to invest their surplus in metro rails of various cities.
Law: I think veerappa moily will get this. I want him to speed up case disposal and create more court rooms. More judges should be recruited at all levels. Facilitate electronic filing,handling and disposal of cases.
S&T: Create genuine interest in students for science. Create a contest for talented students at the national level similar to ones in USA in the fields of physics,mathematics and engineering. Privatize CSIR or atleast stop funding the salaries of junk scientists. Hold ISRO accountable to tax payers money and make it self financing/profitable in launching commercial satellites.
HRD: Free schools from language restrictions and let them choose their medium of instruction. Permit more schools to operate and encourage competition between them to control the menace of donations. Link pay hikes to Govt. School/College teachers with performance.
IT: Make E-Governance top prioroty. Train government employees computer skills. Computerize every government office and land records of rural and urban areas. Employ IT in Law, Healthcare and Administration. Issue unique Identification number to every citizen(not neccessarily a card).
Healthcare: Network all Hospitals and store patient records in a common database in collaboration with private hospitals. Improve services in Govt. Hospitals and open more medical colleges and research facilities.
Agriculture: Free the farmers from cumpulsorily selling to FCI. Make FCI profitable by reducing Wastage and Pilferage. Recruit talented managers into FCI. Free the prices of fertilizers and pesticides. Let their prices be determined by market forces. Encourage trade in commodities.
Transport: Complete NHDP golden quadrilateral and NSEW corridor project. Broaden national highways wherever needed. Encourage metro rail in every city and connect the nearby villages with cities though them.
Civil Aviation: Corporatize AAI. Hold it responsible for all expenses. Modernize airports owned by AAI if not possible, sell them. Encourage goods trade by air.
Mines and coal: Let private companies own mines. Privatize all coal fields and allow entrepreneurs to invest in modernizing them.
Petroleum and Gas: Unwind the APM. Free petro companies to decide the price of products.
Housing and Realestate: Encourage housing by subsidizing land. Grant tax holidays to housing companies.
Telecom: Close down DOT.
Power: Charge all consumers for use including farmers.
I hope someone reads this post