Occupancy,forfeit

Times have changed. Days of Adda politics at kerb side tea stalls are over. Today the visual media rules ones mind and perception. The DelhiDharna continues to rail many a neta  past their thespian best..There was a plethora of causes close to the hearts of an average Indian that the monitor of Opposition ,the  BJP ,could have put to telling emotive use and yet it  chose to be vociferous from TV studios .For sure, the  image of Kejriwal curled up on Lutyen's street   on a terribly wintry night ,scored a more enduring and deeper impression . The latest  opinion poll only bears this out. Polished linguistics or shrill rhetoric  alone do not suffice. The emotional connect is extremely important and the AAP supremo appears to have as mastered the art to near perfection.Mr. Modi cashing in on the tea vendor image or Rahul having a frugal meal with a dalit family can never be as durable as the picture of  a scarfed and razai clad Aam Aadmi in front of Rail Bhavan. It is sad  these political  biggies  now carp  on AAP usurping a mere  six feet of road space  for a night ,to far greater effect than  riotous marches over  entire streets, that end up showing  more of muscle and less of an inner conviction that could hold a commoner;s imagination,hostage
Pub Financial Express Jan 30
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/letters-to-the-editor/1221639

View AAP with pragmatism and hope

.It is surprising that  seasoned dons  bemoan that AAP is still in  ' movement mode ' when it ought to be graduating to a party. Any  political  entity  that  eschews   constant movement ,be it in terms of  introspection  or dynamically moulding itself to external socio-political changes,loses the very ethos of its sustenance. Political pundits ought to herald  the welcome change in the big ticket entry of a party born out of value based tenets ,as the AAP professes to be, unlike parochial genesis of Shiv Sena, the class based Left and a plethora of  caste / creed oriented outfits that have brought our political discourse to such straits  .Identity crisis recurs in every party ,even far older ones, and that is part of growing up . An year old AAP too will  learn to cope and expand its potential.Political commentators must begin to worry when and if ,the AAP abandons the core content of its crusade of value based politics  vis a vis  public life, only to join the   divisive and opportune stream  that others have for long  managed  thrive in and in the process, contaminate.

A maturing democracy

Good that the President spoke what he ought to.It is a measure of   a maturing democracy that we have the CM of Delhi sitting in a Dharna in open  protest against the Centre and the President being  equally frank in airing his views in his  national address.Earlier  while such political aberrations in governance and political management had been distinctly more covert and hence unbecoming,so too  had been the silence of the First Citizen . By muting a debate , the nation had to continuously revisit the same issue for decades on end to no purpose  except   pandering  to  transient needs of one party or the other.  This year's R Day speech hopefully opens up a genuine debate  and that  the depth of our free traditions helps us to keep it both  contributive and meaningful, rather than staying  high on rhetoric and partisan stances. Surely we can expect this much from ourselves after six decades of wisdom and progress.

Pub  The Hindu ;Jan 28
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/letters/against-anarchy/article5623805.ece
Pub Economic Times Jan 28
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=ETM&showST=true&login=default&pub=ET&Enter=true&Skin=ETNEW
Pub Mail Today Jan 28
http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=2812014
Pub -The Telegraph Jan 29
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140129/jsp/opinion/story_17869912.jsp#.UuhgNT26Zkg

It is a rat race

The ongoing rebound in western economies is only re railing our IT sector that had lost on its turnover.This is no pointer to  days of bright sunshine in the longer term. Our IT industry remains largely  strait jacketed  into Application Development and Maintenance (ADM),  at 60% of our total revenues.  Increasing competition, lower billing rates and low-end ADM services should compel us  to  move up the software value chain, be it product development, R&D, social media, analytics, cloud computing and so on. Sadly the industry's Engineering and R&D services contribution has remained  negligible as has been  our software patents, Indian IT brand  is urgently due for an upgrade.Today's IT is not even about  tomorrow but the day after and beyond .Indian IT talent is avant-garde and what it needs is a petri dish to nurture it.While bread and butter earnings are a must and our IT majors are at it, the government and NASSCOM must generously seed breakthrough  start ups as also promote  top class Centers of design and innovation, in the IT sphere.Else we risk  technical obsolescence given the fast paced , ever changing and  futuristic nature of this esoteric technological interface. Facebook,Twitter et al, were nowhere even  in the cosmos a decade ago , today they rule perhaps to vanish the day after.If India does not leverage its distinct  IT edge to leap frog, we will be relegated to   providing  no more than clerical services to a demanding  global IT Office.

Left, can it return ?

.Post-independence, the Left came on aboard,  to run state governments. But quirks of its ideology saw development playing second fiddle to the mythical superiority of Red ideology.  While it applied its mind with success to cause of the tiller,it later led the industrial worker astray to the point of abandoning them.  Setting  up  modern Education systems ,new era Industries as fountainheads of job creation  and being sensitive to  good and effective Administration, all succumbed to the unbending ideology and  armchair dictats.The greatest weakness of communists across the globe and across time,has been the refusal to admit to their mistakes. An all inclusive socio-political dispensation does require a  Left bias but in today's global economy, growth and development are sustained by as much of a  swing to the Right. In seceding from the UPA on the US nuclear deal,the Left hastened its political phasing out ,duly enabling  fledgling liberal set ups as the AAP to fill its place, perhaps permanently .Lack of political pragmatism has compelled Left to lose hold, gradually in some countries and dramatically in others.

 Pub -Indian Express; Jan 20

Status quo is anodyne

                          There is a need for a rational thought on Monday's goings on in the capital.  The misnomer  of Delhi as  a regular State,is at  the root  of its ills..It can neither superintend law and order in its precincts, nor free to enact laws without approval of the Centre, reducing it to a large municipal corporation akin to Mumbai. With a  budget at 35000 CR ,Delhi is but  a pseudo state  comparing  in every measure with the  Mumbai corporation under its Commissioner operating a budget of 28000 Cr. CMs of Delhi hitherto were content with a titular privilege but quick to deny onus over the Capital's  spiraling crime graph .The Delhi citizen was regularly falling between two stools as the police ,unlike even other states was reporting to the Home ministry, with a vague chain of command. .The present CM,Delhi rides  on the wave of change,proves its efficacy and acceptance at the hustings and decides to upend the moribund setup that his predecessors had tolerated in silence.Let us not be diverted by the methods but stay with the objective.For this laid back nation  Status quo is anodyne and change is a chimera. A unified responsibility over law and order can only help the citizen.Either empower Delhi as a full fledged state or  revert it to a Corporation.Mumbai has a better crime record than Delhi,precisely because there is a single point responsibility for civic services on one hand and law & order on the other.
Pub Business Standard Jan 22
http://epaper.business-standard.com/bsepaper/svww_index1.php

Roads to Destiny

In these  political times there are a quite few  brands on offer to a nation that is looking for an elixir which would magically combine progress with  social , political and economic equity. The Congress with its PM   at his  twilight , is attributing ongoing economic slowdown to autonomous institutions as the CAG ,CVC et al. even as it led  an entire nation for a decade with more inclusiveness than  growth . The BJP, has its election campaign spearheaded by the CM of Gujarat,who scrupulously eschewed a Lokayukta  to run his state for a decade  and more, to earn pre-eminence in his party  posters .The nascent AAP led by its CM of three weeks standing , in burning mid night oil essentially to recruit and place a Lokpal for his city state,  has had little  time to ponder over his largesse on utility subsidies ,that tend to  throw  basics of macro economics overboard .In a gist, without " interfering " constitutional oversight institutions  one  can run a state, better still with   " caged " versions  run a nation or in  subliminal reverence to the Hoi polloi,  pursue idée fixe like a picture perfect Jan Lokpal  and in the process struggle to run even an  oversize municipality, like Delhi. National elections  2014,  has brought us to a fascinating  tri-junction. We now choose the course of our destiny. Whether we are guided by the mind or by the heart, or by a prudent mix of both , is the question.

PUB  - BUSINESS STANDARD ;JAN 20. 

l

AAP - Big bang and evolution

The birth of the Universe might be  credited to the Big Bang, but political entities of import across the world,have taken an aeon to fruition from germination.The modern day exception the AAP, was born   overnight from movement hardly a year old.Not having evolved from a classic  embryo ,it has still to acquire the  instincts of survival .Still  to outgrow its baby vestments, it  is compelled to don   robes of wisdom.Delhi ,a urban megalith with pretenses to being a State ,may serve as a safe cocoon for a politically green AAP,but the LS elections is threatening to expose it to highly inclement weather.The AAP having heavily underlined  its contours  with anti corruption pen,finds it now difficult to significantly add either depth or content in order  to present a more larger and balanced profile for itself.The cohesion it found in launching its movement, is eluding it  in managing a party and  perhaps could even be lost in running a government.Its experiences in urban management thus far may not be replicated on a pan- Indian canvas, given the sheer size.It is already into contradictions over economic or issues of national security,  In a  time compression to don national colours and as the AAP is  flooded with men and women of all strata and tenets,the ambiguities can only increase.Political acumen is not known to be bestowed at birth but earned the hard way, over time.

 Pub: Deccan Herald Jan 17
 Pub: Mail Today Jan 17

Genie in a bottle

In hindsight, the downright presumptive and astronomical price tag of 1.75 lac crore  put on a yet to be understood  2G saga, seems to have  set in dysfunction  far beyond  proportion, in  every national institution be it the government;- endless executive paralysis ,the judiciary:- straying into policy prerogatives of the executive, the legislative process :  politicising every vital economic issue troubling  our economy ,supervisory watchdogs as the CAG :- already stumbling on an ill defined role and now permitted foray into  vague territories as well.Through its recent  ruling on the revenue audit of private telecom firms, the judiciary would appear to have  acquiesced to an era of Big-Brother Audit,as in this developing economy there is something of the government in any and every productive activity of the nation. Then there is much to be said about auditing itself.Are we equipped with the  immense complexities that modern day  domestic and international business,trade & commerce, intricate channels of financial flow ,varying global accounting norms and so on.Audit  to  stay relevant and contemporary, needs to keep with today's exploding pace of knowledge and technology. The PWD  genre of auditing based on ledger entries is too primitive and would suffer investigative limitations, in this day and age.The 2008 /09 collapse of the US economy was  triggered by doubtful home loan mortgages morphed into tradeable securities and pedigreed auditors / regulators had little clue.. There is  clearly a case for a holistic upgrade of  the science of auditing itself.Opening up new fronts for battle without state of the art  ammunition can only bring  disillusionment to both the auditor and the audited. On both counts, it is  the economy that would suffer.

Back to Vibrant and bi-polar democracy

 Lasting democracies need to be bi-polar,much like a battery where current flows only when both poles are healthy and stay connected through the consumer.Depending upon which  polarity  collapses, it is either a rebellion or an autocracy, leading to dysfunction .As take the JP movement that seeded the Emergency and in turn the rout of Indira Congress after which democracy was re-railed. The post 2009 scenario  however, ushered in an era of inexplicable and simultaneous dereliction both by the ruling dispensation and the Opposition.Each was content and even happy for reasons of its own, too see the other go callously non-functional.That this could go on for as long as two years amidst a depressed global economy , was inexcusable.An inactive battery was bleeding power without fresh charge and every economic index was tumbling down.With both the  poles in inert decay ,mercifully this democracy had found resurgence from within to restore a state of political normalcy.This new found  genre of a democratic backlash however comes unannounced and with many unknowns.How the new and existing polarities would be managed to meet both political and economic ends in these turbulent times,should be matter of both concern and interest.So long as we are able to restore a strong bi-polar polity in this nation,it would remain a question of toil, never of dread.
  (published FE;Jan 9 )
http://epaper.financialexpress.com/210859/Indian-Express/09-January-2014#page/6/2

A House for Kejriwal

It is amusing to see Kejriwal leading  seasoned BJP politicians on a merry chase from one house to another,in the Lutyen's city.Even in rejecting a house he consults his followers keeping them in the loop of the Capital's politics !.Happy in these little victories in Delhi against Kejriwal  over insignificant real estate,BJP is  frittering away energy and time ,blissfully unaware that the AAP chief has long since selected his House , modest enough  to accommodate his extended family of perhaps 272 plus and working hard at it .By the time wisdom dawns on BJP and others,this House may have been largely taken.Chief ministers in Mumbai  lost their political plot chasing sea facing apartments.Real estate bubbles mauled the US economy as also elsewhere, but in India its damage is assuredly ,political.
 ( Published DNA;Jan 6)
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/story.aspx?id=57861&boxid=34680&ed_date=2014-01-06&ed_code=820009&ed_page=4

Declining in Silence

The Congress ought not  to have held this drab press conference of its PM, who came off no better than the assessment of his worst critics. It was a sad farewell speech,   more so when this economist when heading the UPA-I, had largely delivered .But the politician in him remained  enigmatic as he never went to town on his good performance. The  unexpected windfall of 206 seats for Congress of UPA-II only helped remove inhibitions within, to open up inherent fault lines in the party and its allies.It was every one to himself thereafter  and Dr Manmohan Singh soon enough, lost grip on his prime ministerial oversight  and indiscretions prevailed all round.As in UPA-I the PM remained not only tongue tied but inert to boot. That the  UPA-II  could last for two long years since late 2011,ought to be ranked as a political miracle that a coalition government alone can perform , ably aided by a sulking BJP,in  disarray.Even on the eve of his fading tenure , we saw  apologetic references to the decade of achievements under his watch.Frank to admit Dr Singh had never intended to make history ,but only to be judged by it. The damage  done, the outgoing PM is content to warn of a greater one should BJP's nominee take the reins next !.Little consolation for a nation with its hobbled economy and a bewildered polity.
  (Published ET;Jan 4 )

 ( Published BS;Jan 6 )
http://epaper.business-standard.com/bsepaper/svww_zoomart.php?Artname=20140106aT012101004&ileft=240&itop=1331&zoomRatio=182&AN=20140106aT012101004.

Moulting of political skin

.Perhaps the AAP is still less of a party than a movement.But so it was just couple of weeks  before Delhi went to polls,And then it happened and even Kejriwal calls it a miracle .The instant and  interactive feedback mode of operating  a political outfit ,in person and sensible use of IT, was received with a pragmatism by the electorate that stunned the older and traditional votaries of politics In fact AAP itself was built that way.Such an universal model  stands to transcend application beyond Delhi.It has already gained purchase both on the demographic dividend and a gamut IT enabled social interaction . It has pioneered  a sort of  seamless weld between the elector and the elected ,that ensures a mutually shared onus and a stake in dynamic politics. A tone of political simplicity of the fabled Kings in our  classics, has been set by its nascent leadership , which is here to stay.  The modern day ego of office that so far had been  the prerogative of the elect, now stands appropriated by the elector  and this will largely mould our political discourse in future. There will be an impact on business sentiment , every major election does that. But  as the LeItmotif of the AAP appears to be underscored by a touch of the libertarian, the consternation is natural and palpable. Hopefully that should pass as economics overtakes politics ,particularly since the AAP is a meeting ground , not of ideologues steeped on the Red or Green books ,but  a disparate band of men and women thrown up from the DNA of ordinary citizens eager to strike newer paths. The elector and the elect must note that the political curriculum stands replaced today and  that and the  pace of change is destined  remain, both unfamiliar and hectic