Reclaiming a PM

Three months into this new government,no holistic picture emerges on our political dispensation. The pattern is uneven and many ends stay loose. On the one hand Modi's party and Parivar seem to be driving non-growth linked agenda ,be it  Art 370,slant in  Education policies,LOP ,judicial appointments ,independently and on their own steam. As the PM stays  quiet through all this they  can come under the notion  that Modi has been commissioned by them for the exclusive and  limited purpose of  delivering on growth that would yield high  dividends in 2019.
     On the other hand , Modi perhaps  in his primary zeal for avant garde governance for growth , has decided to don the suit of CEO India Inc.,keeping  the PM's wear in the closet. Modi's penchant of operating through the bureaucracy rather than his ministers, is a double edged sword.His  Secretarys to GOI  seem to be eager to compress time without factoring in larger socio-political aspects that need to be sieved through by experienced minister- politicians.That filter is seemingly getting bypassed. 
         In both cases ,an  impression  that others could over time succeed in wielding the PM and not the other way around , could soon  gain ground. And worse,the lack of opposition numbers  removes one more check on both policy and execution  The nation will do well to quickly reclaim Modi ,its elected PM.

Pub Fin Express --Aug 12

http://epaper.financialexpress.com/319626/Indian-Express/12-August-2014#page/8/1

Is government being juvenile ?

 There is an undue haste in seeking to reduce the legal limit for juvenile delinquency /crime from 18 yrs to 16.This raises questions on the state of our mindset as a nation of yore. Clearly  modern society is in a phase of abdication as opposed to  involvement  in upgrading societal mores,that our older generations preached and practiced.In an era of the live-in mode where even  the two  partners owe nothing to each other ,how do we expect to own up ,nurture and guide our growing minors. In typical disconnect ,we overnight decide to abandon the sub-eighteens to perdition by  arbitrarily lowering the age of prosecution  for" serious '  crimes.Our   firman  is no wiser than Marie Antoinette ordering a switch from bread to cakes ! A society that does not  to uplift itself through introspection,perseverance and wisdom must end up  in severe asphyxiation  to eventually die.Price for today's hasty politics will be paid by tomorrow's generations.
Pub Asian Age Aug 10
http://onlineepaper.asianage.com/articledetailpage.aspx?id=786061

Mirage of insurance reform

 On Insurance reforms, is there any difference in what UPA-I   did to NDA and NDA did to UPA-II and now that Congress is doing to BJP. Do we seriously believe that any political party is for reforms in this sector.The state owned LIC alone plans a corpus of 32 lac Cr by 2020, from current level of 14.8 lac Cr ,of which around 15 % is into equity . This fiscal alone it will invest 60,000 Cr in equities.The power of the government to control investments both for its purposes and for selected equity prop ups is too tempting to stand dilution and competition. The first post Independence scam related to LIC and there have been more.One has a feeling that Corporates too are rather cold to external agencies that would be more professional and exacting.Who better than the  common man to be left holding the bag like it happened in Unit 64. Much noise and activity will continue in Insurance reforms,but hardly concrete action 

Pub Business Standard Aug 7

http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/letters-insurance-sector-reforms-114080701457_1.html

WTO- Regulation not by deterrence

From the GATT era of battling tariff barriers in International Trade,the universal perception across trading nations has remained strait jacketed. Post  2008 global downturn ,disagreements still continue in the WTO,particularly in agriculture subsidies .The developed countries give $400 billion of subsidies every year to farmers but are still considered compliant with WTO rules because they opt for income support to their farmers instead of providing subsidies like India.In these skirmishes the larger battle for expanded wold trade is lost.  While individual nations would gladly tap into the advantages provided by  globalisation ,they show reluctance to share common problems in the interests of increased  trade.  Global trade has steadily weakened,  almost  stagnant in the last six months.  In good times, the trade generated by a country’s growth bolsters global growth.  As growths decline it is  followed by a decline in trade  thus  setting up a vicious cycle that skews progressive  discussions in trade fora,that sees deterrence as an operative part of trade  regulation. 

Pub Economic Times Aug 4

http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/NasData//PUBLICATIONS/THEECONOMICTIMES/BANGALORE/2014/08/04/PagePrint/04_08_2014_012_f570bdc571ad7f4443f7e724d2ac8240.pdf

Flipping quality ?

Flipkart, with an eye popping $ 1 blln venture funding enters the club of E-Retail  with a bang and adds to the competition. These Companies seem to be selling everything under the sun.With such variety and vast outsourcing is there a system of quality assay in place ?. Just because goods are priced  cheaper, is the customer  resigned to getting  pot-luck quality .These companies offer to take back goods from an unsatisfied customer ,but  mere return is the worst  professional approach to customer servicing. There could be a rider on licenses for E-Retail, requiring Quality certification and Audit akin to say an ISO-9000 on products they sell,to guard customer interests.Companies that  fashion their trade to customer concerns  will  stay in reckoning, others might fold up over time .Investors and venture promoters  would hopefully keep this in mind.

Pub Business Standard Aug 4

http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/letters-quality-check-in-e-tailing-114080300720_1.html

BRICS- Owning a bank invites responsibilities

.With  more nations touching higher growth trajectories, endemic economic blocs are being created with common goals ..BRICS , was founded for encouraging commercial, political and cultural cooperation between its member nations who represent  18 percent of the world economy.,in comparison to EU at  23 percent  Brics bank has now come into being like the ECB  for the EU. But the EU also had a  single monetary policy  along with individual  fiscal policies and thus over time , was plagued with both monetary imbalances and trade deficit disparities within.The BRICS  on date ,has no  shared monetary platform.
           The economic base within BRICS  remains varied; Brazil,Russia and South Africa are highly dependent on raw material  / energy exports while China and India are  largely manufacture and service centered. This sets up a nice closed loop for a healthy and progressive trade within its members. If  BRICS  does gel , the bloc's economic growth can be rapid. United they may well be in their frustration with an omnipotent dollar ,the world's reserve currency ,in reality each BRICS nation  has prime bilateral relations with the United States ! And more importantly,each is entangled  as much, in the resultant global politics as  global economic concerns. There is need for caution. 
       Now that BRICS has a  central bank  it may tempt the Bloc  to  position itself  far too soon as an alternative to the ollar driven trade and bring into the equation the hitherto dormant monetary part of BRICS operations .An early  temptation  to go in for a common trading currency would  tilt the scale  in favour of China  whose economy is not  transparent enough  to merit the tag of a stable tender either for for  sectoral  or global transactions , For the present ,Brics Bank must be seen only as a useful but limited tool for combined prosperity and no further.

Pub Fin Express Aug 2

Quality trailing in E-tailing

 Flipkart, with an eye popping $ 1 blln venture funding enters the club of E-Retail  with a bang and adds to the competition. These Companies seem to be selling everything under the sun.With such variety and vast outsourcing is there a system of quality assay in place ?. Just because goods are priced  cheaper, is the customer  resigned to getting  pot-luck quality .These companies offer to take back goods from an unsatisfied customer ,but  mere return is the worst  professional approach to customer servicing. There could be a rider on licenses for E-Retail, requiring Quality certification and Audit akin to say an ISO-9000 on products they sell,to guard customer interests.Companies that  fashion their trade to customer concerns  will  stay in reckoning, others might fold up over time .Investors and venture promoters  would hopefully keep this in mind.

Namaste-A posture of isolation

Scientists find shaking hands invites transfer of germs There are  far contagious  transmissions  from handshakes.With an American we get the ills of capitalism, the Russian passes on communism, the Latinos give us raw socialism and the Chinese pass on  cheap imports that skews the balance of payments and erodes our industries. Of course they in return, get  from us  most of Silicon Valley start ups at the one end and almost all the Nurses on the other. But In politics ,as shaking hands necessarily involves ones arms,  we unsurprisingly  end  up with greater exchange of fire power  soon after. India and Pak ;Palestine and Israel  et al ,will vouch for that.

          The best way to greet would of course be with the folding palms in a Namaste . It unambiguously signals an isolationist stance like we  managed to convey in the recent WTO .This may come  handy in future too.But  a mere Namaste can not enable copious inflows of FDI as perhaps  a  handshake would, even if we were to raise  participation limits from 26 % to whatever figure that captures the fancy of the  government's  of the day.

Pub Economic Times Aug 1

KNOWLEDGE OVER PERCEPTION

The government's hesitation in going ahead with  trials of genetically modified crops could well be construed as erring on the safe side. But the fact remains that our own range and depth of research in bio-engineered crops is in  infancy and  we are unable to compare notes with  indigenous research nor adduce well  substantiated data from  endemic studies, that could help steer a  scientific view either way.Nor are we able to get over the fears that we would be forever committed to buying seeds under perennial monopoly. Our experience with Bt Cotton ought to give us  confidence to systematically  try out one or two secondary crops.We are  an agro-centric economy and amidst global spurt in agro - innovation forced by climate change, the crux should lie in upgrading our own research skills to be able to judge the  use of newer technologies with greater confidence.

Pub Business Standard AUG 1
Pub Fin Exp Aug 11
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/letters-to-the-editor-loan-waivers/1278224/0