"Up And Running Again"

It’s been a long time since I have written an article, so I thought of restarting that exercise all over again, but this time with the changed purpose and perception. Believe me when I say that I have really missed writing here as it was an integral part of my daily routine to come here and blabber in the starting months of this year. But then with new job and tight schedule at work, I could barely find enough time to come here and express my views.


Approximately 20 days away from probably what is going to be the biggest and the most important day of my life, I think it’s the right time to get this blog going again with a promise that I would be staying here irrespective of what happens in 20 days or a year after that, or a year next to that. I will be coming up with an article shortly. Till that time, keep enjoying the festive season. 

Is Indian banking on the verge of temporary collapse?

As most of the public sector Indian banks came out with their Q4 results along with the annual results for the fiscal year 2013-14 last week, a sense of despondency gripped the Indian banking market with red alarms ringing in RBI and Govt. offices. The reason behind this alarming response to the annual results of the various banks, according to the industry experts, was quite simple. More than 23 of the 27 nationalized banks had their NPA’s increased in the period 2013-14 with actual profits realized being less than expected profits. More than 5 public sector banks had their profits in red. Except for Bank of Baroda and a few other banks (Q4 result of State Bank Of India hasn’t been announced yet), which managed to salvage and restore some confidence among the investors in the banking industry with their positive results, all other banks struggled to keep the momentum going. 

So, what all this turmoil in India’s banking industry convey us? Is India on the brink of a temporary financial/banking collapse? The answers to the above questions seem ominous and menacing in short. Increasing Non performing assets (NPA) has been a major problem that India has faced for quite some time now. The NPA’s have increased to 3.02% of the total credits in 2013-14 as compared to 2.27% in 2012-13. These percentage numbers might not look haunting until we have a clue of the total credit numbers that we are dealing with. The total credit that we are dealing with is Rs. 56.57 lakh crore. Yes, you read it right. That amount is equivalent to 4 times of India’s budget for the year 2013-14. Further, with the performance and profitability of the sectors like textiles, infrastructure, basic metals, and chemicals, which account for more than 60% of the total outstanding credit, going down, we can expect the situation to get worse. 

So, how did we reach such an adverse situation? Banking industry reached such a dire state today because of our excessive and blind focus on opening more and more banks to achieve the goal of financial inclusion, without empowering our banks with the opportunities to compete in a fair manner by giving them the chances to absorb profits. 27 nationalized banks competing along with numerous private players, in the form of private banks and NBFC’s, for a share in a market and economy which was still in a nascent stage killed the growth of our banking institutions and ultimately led to losses. Instead of allowing a few banks to operate and expand their businesses, we opened a large number of the banking institutions at the same time in order to achieve our long desired goal of “financial inclusion”. In running for that goal, we increased the competition beyond a feasible limit for the industry to be profitable. Banking is an industry which requires a huge amount of operating costs accompanied with higher risks. Therefore, it is next to impossible for small banking institutions to compete with larger players in the market and hence continue making profits. This affects the overall credibility of smaller banking institutions, which is definitely not good for the health of the Indian banking industry. Hence, it is imperative on the central bank of the country i.e. Reserve Bank of India to be prudent and wise while trading off between achieving financial inclusion and maintaining stability of the banking institutions. Stability of the banking institutions can’t be sacrificed for a unidirectional aim of realizing financial inclusion. There has to be a balance between the two. Hope this balance is maintained.

Corporate Social Responsibility: A new dimension to corporate functioning

During 1950’s and 60’s, when American capitalism was at its pinnacle, a need was felt among different sections for more participation and engagement from the corporates in the cultural, social and environmental development of the society in which they operate and earn their profits. To make corporates more responsible and empathetic towards the society, primordial notions of governments being the sole proprietor of the development and upliftment of the society had to be squashed away. 

To achieve this feat, a phenomenon known as “Corporate Social Responsibility” came into existence during 1960’s to make corporates more liable towards the society and trigger a massive change in the dimension of their functioning. Though, in Indian context, it took more than 5 decades for the phenomenon to assume relevance. With the enactment of the new companies act, 2013, India has officially made it obligatory for the firms operating on and through Indian soil to comply with CSR norms. 

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

Corporate social responsibility is basically defined as the responsibility of the corporates to undertake certain actions, which go beyond the personal profits of the firms, to do social good and hence benefit the society by engaging in the development process with their contributions. In India, firms, having a net worth of more than Rs 500 crs, or having a total turnover of more than Rs 1000 crs, or having a net profit of more than Rs 5 crs, have been asked to spend atleast 2% of their last 3 years average profit on society development as part of their CSR compliance. 

CSR is a step in the right direction for a highly underprivileged society like India where majority of the population is still sulking under poverty. According to the various estimates, CSR contribution from corporates in India would stand at something in between 15000 to 20000 crores for the year 2013-2014, which is not even 0.1% of India’s GDP. But still, a contribution is better than no contribution. It is important for any prospering society to share the burden of the development. Just relying on the govt. to do all the development work won’t do a lot of good. Hence, the onus rests not only on the corporates but also on us to share that burden. Purchasing items of a brand or a company which regularly engages in CSR activity can be a one to start with. 

National Rural Health Mission – The way to move forward

When in April 2005, National Rural Health Mission was commissioned and initiated by the Govt. of India to address the deserted health care issues in rural areas, the purpose of the mission was to ensure the institutionalization of a functional and efficient health care system in those areas. But, some critics, as they always do, rendered the targets envisaged by the mission to be too idealistic to be achieved in such a short span. Others accused the mission’s targets of being devoid of any realism and rationality. 

Finally after 9 years, we can say that those critics were absolutely right. But still, we are proud of what the mission has achieved in such a short span. Yes, we might not have accomplished our desired goal of making the health services accessible to each and every part of the country. Yes, there is still a huge dearth of good medical facilities, hospitals and doctors in rural areas. Yes, women still die while giving birth while children still succumb to basic health diseases. But, the mission still remains a success, a minor success for that matter. The conditions in the interiors have definitely improved which augurs well for India. 

Broadly speaking, the public health centres which had been dysfunctional for so many years have showed signs of improvement. The participation of the community in the health sector activities has showed resurgence after years of indifference. Availability of the therapeutic drugs for primary health care in the govt. sponsored medical outlets has improved. Similarly, the availability of the generic drugs has helped in reducing the cost of the treatments in rural areas which makes it more viable for the people living in those areas to go and avail medical treatments. Huge recruitment and deployment of accredited social health activists and “Anganwadi” workers have helped in amputating the bottlenecks by creating awareness among people about the benefits available to them under the scheme. These social health activists and anganwadi workers play a role of a coordinator between the people and the public health centres, which helps in penetrating in those areas which can’t be reached through formal organizational structures. 

All of this has improved the accessibility of the medical/health services in rural areas, which is quite evident from the decreasing number of people dying due to the non-availability or the lack of the health care facilities. It is true that we are quite far away from our mark, it might take us another 50 years to make health service accessible to each and every citizen of this country. But, a start is always better than no start.

The unsaid role of judiciary in Indian system

During 1947-50, when majority of the members of the Indian constitution drafting committee were busy framing the contours and guidelines of our broad exhaustive constitution, which we today irrevocably admire, there was a still a section of members in that committee who were skeptical about the degree of independence and power that had been granted and endowed to the judicial system. Those members were basically concerned about the extreme powers that were handed out to the judiciary that it could even supersede and repudiate the govt. of the day or any other constitutional/ statutory body except for the honourable president on certain issues. Their claims that concentrating so much power in a single body/institution would lead to dictatorial rule in India, raised many eyebrows among certain sections of the society. But, it was the grit determination and the resilience of the members on the other side who persuaded those skeptics in favour of the need of a powerful judiciary. 

Today, those who endorsed a powerful judiciary at that time stand vindicated. Their foresightedness regarding the preeminent role that judiciary would be playing down the years in the Indian system now stand validated. Today, judiciary in India, apart from its normal functions of promoting social justice and equality of law, is playing an important role in protecting the constitutional rights of the people. The recent active participation of the judiciary in compelling the executive and legislature to do its work properly comes across as a harbinger of hope in this era of inefficiency and mis-governance. Whether it was the judgement giving the right of “NOTA” to the voters or the judgement prohibiting the convicted people from fighting the elections or the judgement asking the govt. to set up a standing committee to review the corruption cases or the judgement lambasting the govt. for its indifference to women security, the cases are many where the Indian judiciary has stood up for the rights of the people against the incompetent and inert governance. 

Some people might criticize judiciary for constantly encroaching on the rights of executive and legislature or for interfering with the functioning of the govt., but what one would expect judiciary to do if the executive and legislature are not performing their duties properly. Surely, judiciary can’t just sit back and see people suffer at the incompetence of executive and legislature. There is a fine distinction between encroaching on somebody’s rights and asking somebody to perform their duties properly. If executive and legislature had been more vigilant on these issues or concerned about the rights of the people, judiciary wouldn’t have felt compelled to interfere in their functioning. There are not many institutions in this country on which people from all sections put their trust. Judiciary has been able to garner the confidence of the people because of the way it has handled itself in the last 60 years, and I hope it continues to do so because this country deserves atleast one institution of credence.

Blaming Hindu Nationalism for the rise of Mr. Modi in India is despicable

Over the last 2 months, most of the west dailies have targeted Hindu Nationalism for the sudden ascent of Mr. Modi in India. They have outrageously portrayed all Hindus as rabble militants, murderers, slayers who go about killing people of different religion on a daily basis. I know there are certain parts of our history which are reprehensible and sinful. There can be no possible justification for what happened in 1984 in Delhi or 2002 in Gujarat. I was not even born when 1984 happened and was only 10 when 2002 transpired but still when I look back at our country’s history today, I stand apologetic and guilty for what eventuated or played out in those yesteryears in our so called world’s largest democracy. This all marks in me a yearning desire of rewriting the history if I could ever. 

But, keeping that emotion aside, blaming and targeting Hindus and their nationalism for the rise of the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Mr. Modi, is atrocious and egregious. If majority of the Hindus are backing Mr. Modi, it’s not because he is a Hindu nationalist or personifier of Hindu nationalism. It’s because of the lack of better alternatives at the centre for the corrupt, rotten, debauched incumbent congress government. 

Congress has transcended all barriers when it comes to mis-governance. Indian economy under congress govt. has been in complete doldrums with growth numbers plummeting to the rock bottom without any hope of when and how would it revive. Unemployment and inflation numbers have been at all time high during congress regime along with the ever increasing fiscal and current account deficit. The condition has been so poor at the economic front that many rating agencies around the world have turned India’s outlook negative. The shinning growth story has been turned into a farce and mockery. Another five years to them, and we would find our-self next to Africa.

In these gloomy times, Mr. Modi has come out and presented himself as a harbinger of hope and revival. Setting aside the 2002 riots, he has done fairly well in almost all departments, atleast better than congress. No riots have taken place in Gujarat since 2002 which should be considered as a success of Mr. Modi’s tenure as Gujarat had quite a history of riots. Moreover, the lack of national level political alternatives in the country has tilted the battle in favour of Mr. Modi. So, blaming Hindus for Mr. Modi’s sudden upsurge is absolutely wrong. If Hindu nationalism had been so much active in the country, no Muslim, Sikh, Christian would have ever become the President, Prime Minister in the country. But, that’s not the case. We have learned to set aside our religion divergence to live like equals, i.e Indians. In the last 66 years, we Indians have tried hard to outstrip the barriers created by religion, caste. Let’s not fall back into it. Blaming Hindus is not a solution. Let the voters in this country decide the Next PM. 

Industrial Growth turns negative, all eyes on farmers to keep the numbers floating.

India, a nation which once promised to be the world’s harbinger of growth and development, has now slowing and steadily turning into a laughable stock. All those clamouring of impressive growth in the last decade seem to be fading away, as India is fast falling into an arena of despondency and hopelessness with no exit route.


This is what became glaringly evident when Central Statistics Organization (CSO) came out with the industrial growth figures of India for the month of February. The figures read something like these

Industrial Growth numbers for the month of February.

	Feb (2013-14)	Feb (2012-13)
Overall Growth Rate	-1.9%	0.6%
Manufacturing	-3.7%	2.1%
Electricity	11.5%	-3.2%
Mining	1.4%	-7.7%

The Industrial growth of India for the month of February, 2014 came out to be -1.9% as compared to 0.6% in the same month preceding year. Yes, you heard it right. India’s Industrial growth has turned negative. Something which seemed impossible a decade back has been achieved quite smoothly and quickly by our government and leaders.


What is more shocking and outrageous is that India has reached such a dire state when two of India’s best economists, Mr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. P. Chidambaram, have been in charge of the proceedings. While India on the whole is struggling, there are a few states which are still registering impressive growth rates.

	Growth rate of 2012-13
Bihar	15.05%
Madhya Pradesh	9.89%
Goa	8.47%
Kerela	8.24%
Odisha	8.09%
Gujarat	7.96%

The chief ministers of these states are not any renowned economists. Some of them even hadn’t studied economics, still they are outperforming two of India’s best economists. So, the first question which arises in our minds is why this is happening.  


The answer to this may vary for others, but for me personally, it has been the lack of conviction and faith shown by the govt. in domestic entrepreneurs, while giving excessive emphasis to FDI. Indian Govt. needs to learn that FDI is no magic wand which would troubleshoot all economic problems. It can boost growth slightly, but during tough times it won’t propel growth. The focus instead should have been more on promoting and strengthening domestic entrepreneurs and companies, which we sadly haven’t done. If we consider the American growth model, this point would become quite evident. America didn’t grow because of FDI, it grew because of the advancement of the american domestic companies, which today are considered as the benchmark for others.

We might be able to save our-self from the blemishes on the back of record agricultural production this year, but to be frank, this is not the India which we have dreamt of.

Polio Free India: An achievement we can be proud of

In 1994, when India started its “Polio Free India” campaign to eliminate wild polioviruses from India, WHO’s president mocked the campaign by saying that India won’t be able to achieve this target by the end of 21st century and even if it somehow manages to achieve and become polio free, it would be the last nation on the planet to do so. But, it took India just 16 years to eliminate polioviruses from India to become a polio free nation.

The success that India has achieved in eliminating polioviruses has been acclaimed globally. Until early 1990’s, India was rated as hyper-endemic for polio, with 800-1000 children getting paralysed daily. The situation was horrid and ominous, as polio is a contagious illness which can spread easily from person to person. The challenge was not just to eradicate polioviruses but also to sustain and contain their spread. 

In order to eradicate polio from the country, a comprehensive campaign was started by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 1994 with the focus on improving the penetration of the availability of polio vaccines to every nook and corner of the country. The aim was not to let any child go unvaccinated. Initially, the programme didn’t succeed because of the inability of the vaccine to fight against polioviruses. This led to the development of ultra anti-poliovirus oral vaccine which was not only more efficient in eradicating and preventing the spread of viruses, but was also cost efficient. 

The second biggest problem that the campaign faced was in its execution part due to the shortage in numbers of health care volunteers. As the campaign required pan-India penetration, therefore more volunteers were required. For this, many NGO’s and self help groups were contacted to get the required no. of volunteers for the job. Slowly and steadily, the movement picked up across the country. 

Also, the regular funding of the campaign by govt. helped in sustaining it over the period of time. Bringing in Mr. Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador of the campaign helped in creating awareness among people about polio. 

It has been more than 3 years since last case of polio was recorded. India was accorded “Polio-free” status by WHO a week back. This success of India should be rightly attributed to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 12.3 million volunteers, 2.1 million supervisors, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan and everybody associated with the campaign over the last two decades. This is an achievement we can surely be proud of.

Expectations from political parties as world’s largest democracy goes to polls tomorrow

On the coming 7th of April, world’s largest democracy is going to polls with over 815 million registered voters are expected to make the use of their right to vote over a period of one month to choose their future leaders and hence the future of this country. As always, elections in India generate a lot of interest from all sections of the society as people ponder and debate over the main issues for the elections. This time around also there are certain issues which have risen and become central to the upcoming general election. I would be mentioning three most important ones out of them. 

1. Corruption – Corruption in India has been one such issue which has affected people from every sphere of life. The enormity and prevalence of corruption in Indian system have been atrociously high. This widespread presence of corruption in the system not only has hampered the growth as the funds assigned for the welfare activities have been swindled away by wicked, nefarious evils, but has also led to inefficiency in the bureaucracy. In the last 5 years or so, we have seen numerous corruption cases involving eminent political personalities whether it was the 2G scam, CWG scam or coalgate scam. People have become frustrated with corruption and averse to corrupt people. They are looking for transparent, corrupt-free governance. That’s the reason why movement like “India Against Corruption”  gained so much prominence in the last 2 years. Corruption has definitely become one of the significant issues for the upcoming election and the party which would show the inclination to tackle it will definitely gain some advantage over others. 

2. High inflation and lacklustre growth – High inflation, along with the lacklustre growth and development performance, is seen as the issue which has the potential to decide the winner in the upcoming election. India’s growth story which was seen with so much optimism around the world five years back has turned into a farce. Lacklustre growth with no concrete development plan from the govt. has tarnished the reputation of India as one of the fastest developing nation. This economic slowdown has also resulted in high levels of unemployment as the investments in the market have taken a hit. Moreover, the govt.’s inability to tackle the rise in inflation has worsened the situation even more for the people who have been let to suffer. The party with clearer vision and a more realistic plan to revive India’s growth story would surely be favoured in the upcoming elections. 

3. Women safety – Women safety has become a key issue in this election for a change and that change is surely welcome. After so many years of blatant ignorance of women issues, this time political parties are heading towards a positive advancement by mentioning women safety as one of the significant points in their manifestos. Since the 2012 “Nirbhaya” gang rape case, people have become more sensitive to women and their concerns, and therefore, this has compelled political parties to incorporate these matters in their election campaigning. Women safety is one thing which we all expect from the govt. irrespective who comes to power.  

Knowing our PM candidates : Mr. Rahul Gandhi (Part-3)

Today, I am posting the profile of Mr. Rahul Gandhi, the last in our list of PM candidates.


For Mr. Arvind Kejriwal’s profile - http://newlightforlife.blogspot.in/2014/03/knowing-our-pm-candidates-mr-arvind.html


For Mr. Narendra Modi’s profile - http://newlightforlife.blogspot.in/2014/04/knowing-our-pm-candidates-mr-narendra.html


Profile of Rahul Gandhi


Name -  Mr. Rahul Gandhi

Age – 43 years

Birth Place – He was born in Delhi, the capital of India on 19^th June, 1970 as first of the two children of India’s ex prime minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi.

Current position -

He is presently the acting vice president of Indian National Congress (INC) and the chairperson of Indian Youth Congress. He is also regarded as the second highest authority in the congress working committee after Ms. Sonia Gandhi.


Educational Qualification -

Mr. Gandhi did his initial schooling from St. Columbia’s School, Delhi before moving to the Doon School of Dehradun from 1981-83 for better education.


Mr. Gandhi was then home-schooled from 1984 till 1989 because of the security concerns against the backdrop of the assassination in 1984 of the then prime minister of the country and his grandmother, Ms. Indra Gandhi.  


In 1989, Mr. Gandhi joined the St. Stephens College, Delhi University for his graduation. But, within a year, he was moved to Harvard University for security reasons.


In 1991, when Mr. Rajiv Gandhi (his father) was assassinated, he was again moved from Harvard to Rollins College for security reasons. Finally, he completed his graduation in 1994 in B.A from Rollins.


After completing his graduation, Mr. Gandhi went on to complete his M.Phil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1995.


Work Experience -

Mr. Gandhi, after completing his M.Phil from Cambridge, started working at a management consulting firm, Monitor group, in London.

In 2002, he became one of the directors of Mumbai based technology outsourcing firm, Backops service Private Ltd.

In march, 2004 Mr. Gandhi decided to enter into politics by expressing his desire of fighting the May 2004 general elections from Amethi seat. He won the seat easily, making him a member of the 4th consecutive generation of Gandhi family to enter the parliament.

On 24^th September, 2007 Mr. Gandhi was appointed the General Secretary of All India National Congress Committee in a party secretariat reshuffle. Along with this, he was also given the charge of Indian Youth Congress and National Students Union of India.

Currently, Mr. Gandhi is seen as the future of Indian National Congress. Many senior party leaders have expressed their desire of making him the prime ministerial candidate for the upcoming 2014 general elections.

 
Achievements -

Youth Politics -

In September, 2007 when Mr. Gandhi was made the general secretary of the Indian Youth congress and the president of National Students Union of India (NSUI), he promised to overhaul and reform the youth politics in India. He tried his best by giving more space to deserving youth in the party which added to his popularity among youth. Under him, both IYC and NSUI saw a dramatic increase in the number of youth members. He has constantly vouched for the need of bringing more youth into the politics.

Political career -

Mr. Gandhi has been in active politics for around 10 years now as he was first elected as a member of the parliament in 2004. Since then, he has been actively involved in strengthening the ground level base of his party.


Criticism -

One of the criticisms that Mr. Gandhi consistently faces is his lack of experience in administration as he has never held any office. He has always been reluctant of taking charge of any of the portfolios in his party’s govt., which seriously weakens his candidature against other competitors.