Poor Indian Rupee

As if there were no woes on the political front for the Congress Govt. due to varied reasons (Corruption, scams, and political opposition for virtually any attempt to improve governance), rupee seems to pile up on their miseries in an attempt of fiscal consolidation. A one off dilemma for which the highly distinguished leaders of the nation seems unresponsive .Two month back who could have imagined a free fall in Rupee that takes it down to 64.08 per dollar as per the closing rate today. A depressing scenario for the Indian economy but there are a few smiling faces in BJP electoral improving their chances in the next general election.

One way of diagnosing this situation of rupee’s depreciation is tracing back the path when our political leaders boasted about India’s GDP growth rate but disguised the common people by concealing the building up Current Account Deficit (Value of {Imports- Exports}) which can now be no longer tolerated. It (CAD) forms the major ingredient in the cooking of Junked State of India’s Economy. The concept of CAD is simple, when an economy borrows more than it lends .It is on a debt, a debt that it owes to the economy from where the borrowing exceeded than the lending, and that unfinished business imposes a rate of interest on the debtor that grows compounded in a course of time making the debt rising exponentially. In India, imports kept on growing and so did exports though not commensurately enough to match the pace of imports. No steps were in place to keep CAD in check and now it’s beyond their control relying on market forces and buying some time to get the economy back to its pre-deprecating stage. Even South Korea has larger imports in terms of value but they manage to pay for it by their large manufacturing units which we are certainly lagging. Streamlining our manufacturing policies with theirs could bring some relief.

 Nutrients of CAD – The main constituents of CAD are Crude oil and Gold imports that comprises of more than half of the total imports of our economy. In case of oil, you can’t wish it to go away, it will exist .But our obsession with gold implied serious consequences. Nevertheless , it made sense to invest in gold when the market has remained stagnant in the past years when projections of no returns in equity market, mutual funds and never relaxing inflation seemed credible. With no choices in their hands, people invested in gold but it would have helped the economy had they invested through legitimate channels (Banks and industries) as it will help gold not being reduced to non-performing asset and at the same time provided larger forex reserves hence better stability.

After the US went open with their strong economy statistics making a stronghold for their currency, the speculative market further aggravated rupee’s depreciation with the FII’s pulling out their reserves worth Rs.18,000 crores. Rupee would have bounced back to its earlier position if the investors played more sensibly but it  ironically duped our markets stupendously by 40 billion USD due to sudden fall in the Stock Exchange which has a causal relationship with the prevailing negative sentiments.

 After all the lows that we had to witness in the past month , we still see a silver lining  which brings an opportunity to our Economy. Its a trick which has been the modus operandi for China to regulate its exports.  China is tagged as the biggest currency manipulator for devaluing its currency and thus spurting its exports .But India has a natural advantage here. Since our currency has depreciated by almost 20 % , it makes exports more competitive in international market and more profitable to start manufacturing in India for large manufacturers . Also it makes imports dearer thus curbing them. But there are strings attached in order to capitalize on this opportunity.

First the export duty should be brought down to a level that incentivizes producers and exhort more of them to come to the fore and secondly, sending the right signals to prospective investors.This prescription is more important than my first suggestion as India ranks way down in the list for ease of doing business report by the world bank and the recent pulling out of Arcelor Mittal and POSCO steel plant setback our economy by 80,000 crore corroborates this report.

Its laudable that our Finance ministry has taken some concrete steps to get rid of this situation with increased duty on gold and the RBI intervening in between setting up a higher MSF rate for the commercial banks,selling Gov securities .But much needs to be done not just on part of govt but ourselves as well if we foresee our economy competing with the likes of heavyweight as China and US by 2035 as per the various projections in economic reports.

The Lost Purpose

In a world where many of us have lost the very essence of our lives, it’s hard to discern ourselves from primates or even animals for that matter who nevertheless pose no harm but are useless to the society.

As time began to blur since the outset of unfruitful days in the journal of my sojourn here, I doubted my ability to recall things .Even recalling what I had in breakfast a day before was difficult. And then after stretching this exercise to a span of the past few years made it evident that I had few things wanting to be reorganized on my priority list. It shocked me how could I not remember the prime years of a person's life, the same time on the foundation of which I hoped to build the superstructure of the next stage of life. But as it turned out it was not my cognitive ability jeopardized rather the monotonous passage of time that hit a part of my functioning ability to recall things.

 Time seemed collapsing and pacing at a very fast rate as if compressed by a very large factor .Giving that unit (TIME) due significance seemed like overemphasizing it. Spent those years sitting in a cubicle in front of a screen taking on requests from client filling up various excel sheets , each day blended unmemorably into next and vanished. More or less it was the same weekly routine and presumably the routine for years to come. Better were the college days when every new experience, every day counted. Apprehension for those days is vivid, strong is retention when each activity implied something to be learnt from. But now the days and the weeks smoothened out in contentless units and the years were hollow as this new experience in the first few months on the job mutated to an automatic routine. Human life is much valuable than being stagnant, living to clients expectation of meeting deadlines with no prominence for independent thoughts and no satisfaction.

 As a pioneer philosopher J.S.Mills puts it- ”Its better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.”

   These thoughts made me contemplate over the same rudimentary questions that govern our existence.After figuring out the answers for myself, I concluded that having continuously lived for my susteanance , I just made a livelihood for myself merely for the sake of surviving without any significance, contribution and would have ostensibly made no difference to this planet if my existence was done away with. As the journey moves ahead, circumstances dispelled me from the job ,made me independent and evolved me into a better human ,making capable of taking every stride forward with an earnestness of purpose for the existence.

Misrepresenting Facts..

Cynicism  of politician has become customary if not a rule . They don't get from the state what is DUE to them without cautiously thinking of the consequences and the verbal attacks they might ostensibly face .This "due" refers to that right which they directly derive from the Indian Constitution under Article 19 .1(a)  ..But time and again the utter disregard for using  this justiciable right is made conspicuous by recent speech made by the BJP spearhead Narendra Modi in Fergusson College (Pune) by misrepresentation of  facts about India's share of GDP on its education compared with China's.

The entire basis of being expressive for the citizens or P.I.O. or any foreigner is derived from the  Fundamental premise of Right to free speech and expression.

This right becomes all the more significant in context of public figures especially ..Politicians...The rationale that forms the PITH & MARROW of the said argument  being the elected representatives they should be aware of the unintended impact it would have on their followers .But the question here is not that tilted against the followers but on the politicians itself.

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Here is my personal take on this issue. Its a matter of serious concern as manipulating the minds of the people based on careless reference to any topic can result in  misguiding the youth in comprehending those matters leave alone the uneducated people who trust those people blindfold ( convincing them can be a child's play for Politicians). Its unfortunate that no one has taken notice of instances consisting such presumptuous remarks and if anyone did but not giving it a thought. 

Its easy to conceive of our parliament's lack of concern for such matters as they will be amongst the only being targeted but the buck should have stopped with the supreme court taking cognizance of such falsified statements and intruding in between as it forms the basis on which parliamentarians get elected and usurp power .Thus making use of illegitimate and false means to find their way

The prescriptive theory I propound  is :-

   Firstly , there has to be a demarcation which on the one side forms the bulwark of what's appropriate and what's not on the other .The other side should be  the more accentuated one as what not to subsume can be comparatively easier than what to include.And the transgression of this line to the other side should impose penalties. Although its a very generalised argument that I put forth and might be difficult to formulate on paper since it lacks any form but its importance couldn't be anyhow underestimated considering its implications.

  Secondly , the least that should be expected of  such persons is to offer public apology for flouting their privileges enshrined on them by the constitution and a cap .

  Thirdly ,not to mention the weakest link for exercising a law i.e. the  implementation of any such law if formed which I hope it will, shall not allow the offender to get away with any impunity .

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend till my death your right to say it". Though I concur to this ideology  but it needs to be amended in context of Politicians with T&C applied.  

I think the solution in addressing this problem is in filing a PIL and see if my discourse gets responded by.

Learning Curves

                                               
Last night with a little mulling over the series of actions I took in the past few years made me ponder on my ability of making the better choices in my life.

6 years back , the vacillated state of mind coupled with no one’s aegis to guide the way forward  formed the dichotomous factors of my present gnawed state .As in 3 idiots , Virus says,"Life is a race".,Its the same race of which the very ESSENCE I had lost . I think of  my friends who were on the same line at the start of the race but their diligence took them miles ahead of me. Its not like I envy them for their current status but my lack of concern for my career back then  implied serious ramifications for me now due to which questions like ,“What if I couldn't make it !! ” creeps up into my mind. I could have certainly stopped contemplating over this thought had I not digressed from my goal at the start line.If anything I could take  from them is the sheer hard work they have put in achieving their goals.

2 years back ,  I was  made  an in-vogue FORCED engineer as many of us do , joined AtoS and thought I “Nipped the Bud”. And as it turns out , that was an ensnarement as well  for another two years  due to a host of reasons .(to be discussed later).
 I couldn't make the most of my time .It went on and on and I believed in status quo complacent with the way things were going allowing the destiny to mend my way.

 Time and again I  reiterated similar mistakes and now I stand on the crossroads from where I have to take some harsh decisions in these exigent circumstances  since the countdown (a month from now I will be on my own )  has begun for me.

Quoting  Marcus Tullius Cicero,”Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error”.  Although it disheartens and jades me that I have  to begin again from the starting line due to the precarious  attitude I accrued to in the past 6 years but keeping that in mind   I will try not to be an idiot this time and embark ahead with better planning ,decisions and cling onto my motive until  I touch the finish line.

Is this year's Budget worthwhile?

Finally after a seemingly long week I could afford to manage some time for a  look at the Annual Receipt of FY 2012-13 which I must commend is very well propounded with consideration for  most of the sectors if not all .
Our beloved FM has tabled on  the last working day of Feb a budget that might not ostensibly be a populist one but keeping in view the exigent state of our economy , he took the right action and might have left many deepening their disliking of congress.To talk of the positives first , here is what I put forth.

1.  Tax being the most  significant part of the budget ( in contrast to the general perceived notion of budget being all about tax) has inclined  in favour of the lowly remunerated tax payers for the incentivised rebate and the exempted home loan interest although the terms make it dubious to claim its full benefit but that's why I took a special mention of lowly remunerated tax payers. And he managed to break the tag of a pro rich congress by imposing and surging every duty that came under his ambit on the rich that was made a gimmick after these taxes were abolished in 2009  .Ex-Surcharges and excise to name a few
2. Increase of duties on mobile phone and high end SUVs and imported cars would do us two favours .Firstly  it will vasten the revenue base of our CFI and limit our current account deficit.( Kudos to you for knocking on the right door of the affluent class .These people ought to be reminded of their obligation to the society in return.
3. An all women bank acts as a SHG's sentiment booster that will reprieve the shackled part of the Indian society to enhance their creditworthiness and  will reduce all the tantrums of the erstwhile common banks to which the women kept imploring if they don't have something to vouch them.
4. FIIs will get a sigh of relief after the speculative TRC that would have become sine qua non for investing under SEBI's ambit .The only reason for hullabaloo was to evade from the tax over the capital gains and to benefit out from the India Mauritius Double Taxation Avoidance agreement

 Negatives:

• A superfluous defence budget as usual.What's the point in laying out an stupendously massive budget when the economy is in doldrums .Although I concur for not leaving any opportunity to anyone for marching over our nation but the CAD alongwith the widening fiscal deficit chasm seeks for higher attention.Sir there are many other priorities that equals defence if not more .If your govt would have given a chance for privatising the manufacturing industrial base which is  hitherto not sanctioned , you surely would have saved big bucks and spend it on some of your flagships. Hope to see this topic gets debatable in this session of parliament.  
• Your concurrence to JDU' s demand for special status to Bihar was uncalled for given the high GSDP it has achieved in the last decade and still growing .It is also a contravention to the existing provision of our constitution in which special status is meant for a state having irregular terrain , international borders and population density of which nothing is compelling .Also it will add burden to your pockets for the grants to the state and will ask for a constitutional amendment . And other underdeveloped states demanding for accruing with  the same privilege is worth mentioning.
• Although I would have loved to see some stringent mechanism to reduce imports of all the unproductive assets , gold in particular and to lower the education cess which takes a toll on my lowly remunerated savings account as well as I misread the tax clauses and lost out on some 5 grand extra .

In a nutshell ,a prudently thought out budget in a precarious scenario with almost everything subsumed under the ministry's purview .Question is if he can bridge out the Fiscal Deficit gap and contain it to the target estimated unlike the past year's squandered budget.

Tax Legitimacy

With the last working day of February, as the Indian constitution enunciates has arrived the more anticipated annual financial statement of the Union(GENERAL BUDGET) than the railway budget.Ostensibly good it will be premature of me to cling onto it now.Hope to discuss it tomorrow.

And after a not so usually easy day at my workplace ,I pondered over a small argument with a friend.Today being the day for our remuneration , I came across a few dropped faces as if they were duped knowingly of their money and couldn't do anything about it.(INCOME TAX).Although agreed in pecuniary affairs its hard to get a conviction when someone goes against you but I find it obscure what the cribing was all about provided all the tax they paid including me legitimately belonged to our censured government. Even after achieving means for tax evasion(illegitimate means) they were not content for still a substantial share going away from their pockets to the Consolidated Fund of India.
For some point even I had empathy with their thoughts but folks let us understand this is the money which keeps our economy running .And then a counter came ," Why would I pay to a corrupted narcissist  government trying to wash their hands of our money".
True I couldn't have refrained but isn't India a democracy and the onus rests equally on our part as does on the govt. and bureaucracy..

LOGICAL PART:
1) 530  members of the Lok sabha are chosen by us out of 9k person who registered as nominees in the election commission.RATIO -1:19.  Now of these 19 person there would be atleast 1 person not yearning merely for power .Can't we opt him who would vouch for us and work for public interests ..That's very easy as all the info in relevance to the candidate could be very well taken out (many sources ...use internet) .Even EC rolls out candidates details.

2) Okay .Let's hope not but somehow a few preposterous folk are appointed to the Lok Sabha.Even then they are governed by us . So many laws have accrued into our constitution that authorizes us to use that tool for our betterment.  RTI, Lokayukta ( Lokpal just a matter of time) , public debates,citizen initiated contact , recall to name a few.

3) The very notion that government is doing nothing for us is  a misconception .Look around you especially to all carrying business , don't you feel blessed enough when bestowed with all the infrastructure and other incentives given all the money hiding beneath your bed and not contributing at all and finding means for tax evasion , avoidance and mitigation.Even we (the lowly remunerated taxpayers) with such paltry income contribute more than you do .

Then there will always be a question of WHY ME FIRST . I think we have become more of a followers today than being a leader .For our economy to work everyone would have to play his role and let's do our part leave the remnant for others.

Its easier said than done and in this milieu circumstances are such that it won't allow to direct you with my ideology  but I have hopes from my country and would uphold my opinion for some time to come.

As Gandhiji puts it  ," Be the change u want to see in your society".
I have subsumed this metaphor for quite sometime and see no reason
for mitigating the situation today if enacted ubiquitously