Rogue Journalism & Dementia of the Fifth Estate: Rajdeep Sardesai going Rogue not just Wrong

Rogue Journalism & Dementia of the Fifth Estate: Rajdeep Sardesai going Rogue not just Wrong

1. Personal view / opinion / bias surfacing repeatedly in the work of any journalist makes him counter-productive for the audience / consumer of news. Since in the name of Freedom of Speech there will never be any regulator for taming rampant misconduct of media professionals, such conduct will DEFINITELY make the people full of dislike for such so called professionals who are not only indulging in such conduct for DEFINITELY some gain (why else they would risk compromising their professional stature. Come on no one tell me that ANYONE is so committed to his beliefs that he will risk his career or standing). When such professionals become mad and full of themselves with an existing political axis and become too full of themselves, they run into psychological problems of not being able to accept the change.


2. Once the so called Godfathers of such professionals are no longer Gods, crisis erupts in the life of such professionals.


3. Fine, we do have Freedom of Speech, but no one said it can be practiced irresponsibly. Try out hurling abuses in a traffic snarl up and you will know what one means by responsible freedom of speech.


4. So whether a journalist or a non-journalist each has a RIGHT to Freedom of Speech & must be practiced responsibly. Some Journalists taking a poetic license too far and terming new phrases such as Freedom of Press are living in a Fool's Paradise.


5. When a democracy has collectively elected a leadership, for any journalist to remain in a pre-election mindset and continue to "paint" his ranting and diatribes as either news or editorial views is seriously damaging, unsocial and totally unprofessional. Why as a Citizen Rajdeep Sardesai had 1 vote and he may or may not have casted it. What right does he have to deride my democracy?


6. To keep singing a stale song of Godhra is ridiculous again and a clear breach of the law of Contempt. If Supreme Court decided on the matter, everyone must accept it. If anyone is an interested party then ONLY one can go to apply for a revision to a Higher Bench of the Supreme Court. All other ranting and particularly by highly visible media is total disregard of the law of land. Such a behaviour is contemptuous of the court on one hand and displays a level of arrogance no civilized society will tolerate.


7. When mis-use of power (media is a potent form of power & influence) is no longer backed by power, frustration sets in.


8. To indulge in a street-fight under any situation is a clear sign of psychological problems.


9. Tapes clearly show who got physical first.10. Tapes also show RS said, "You are an arsehole too". This clearly suggests he lost his head beyond the limits of logic also apart from civility. Such a statement from him if taken literally means he admitted in the first place that he himself was an arsehole.


11. Atop all this the sheer chicanery and debauchery of having taped something and bragging that it’s good to have captured the idiots on tape and to show the idiots is good is a total collapse of Rajdeep Sardesai's personality. This is hypocrisy beyond limits. Shame.


12. India Today a respected media group MUST FIRE Rajdeep Sardesai Immediately for abuse of his position, unprofessionalism, unethical conduct and for being a ROGUE JOURNALIST.


13. If Media Industry deserves to restore some of its respect it should stand up together and condemn this gross misconduct of Rajdeep Sardesai and ensure that he is not employed by any media house. Just because there are some creatures like Rajdeep Sardesai who have hood-winked the "system" so far and gotten away with it does not make it a birth-right of the media industry and the birth-right of every other media professional to either support such creatures so as an aspiration that the FIFTH ESTATE will continue to beseech power over the minds of the masses. LASTLY & MOST IMPRTANTLY: TO every Media PROFESSIONAL: Public ka khaate ho, public ki bajao mat. Jis thaali mei khaate ho usme gandh mat karo. Be respectful of people. It is the masses who made you to be stars in the first place by having respect for you and if you have become a victim of your own creation to believe that you are going to be able to brain-wash masses ad infinitum then you are at a total loss of realizing a fact that India is no longer going the path of becoming a Banana Republic. Some rogue journalists who did not fulfil their DUTY to be WATCHDOGS of democracy and aided as mere tail-wagging dogs the conceit and treason perpetrated by the Banana Republicists are going to be in for shock after shock.

Open Letter VIII to Shri Narendra Modi: Cold Storage, not Cola is the answer

To
Shri Narendra Modi
Prime Minister
India

Dear Modi Ji, 

With utmost humility I beg to point out that mixing fruit juices with cola will mar the pleasure of both the juices of the fruits as well as of the colas. I prefer to have each as an original. Those who may enjoy such interesting drinks can surely always mix them at home and savour the concoction. 

The problem of farmers is real. The problem of consumers is also real. The erstwhile Congress Government and its illustrious agriculture minister have wreaked havoc in mismanagement of prices. The farm to retail pavement shop price gaps are monstrous. The fluctuations in prices are equally demonic and are happening so often that one feels a deeper Kaliyuga has set in. This situation is identical even for vegetables. 

With unbearable price shocks being given so regularly, the consumption of fruits and vegetables has declined on a per capita basis, rapidly. Our nation is suffering therefore from all angles on this phenomenon. In any case, a small percentage of the population enjoys colas and a much much smaller fraction of that my enjoy the interesting recipe you have proposed. 

We cannot ignore at all, the impunity with which every retail market in India today is flooded with imported fruits. There is a failure of developing fresh farm sales logistics in our country. This alone explains simultaneously the phenomenon of hungry farmers, hungry consumers and imported fresh farm produce on the pavements. 

A simple common-sense solution from the mind of a "bania" economist as me is: 

1) Investment Corporation for Farm Dis-intermediation: Create a corpus fund of a 1000 Crores, at the least, for a such a new entity. The only roles of this entity will be to:
a) Extend equity and debt funding to budding entreprenuers who will create world class cold storage facilities across the nation. 
b) Sourcing latest technologies for refrigeration and cold storage retail outlets, transportation units etc. & 
c) Incubating manufacturing units that will make cold storage equipments and transportation and storage units. 

All such cold storages should be competing with each other to offer the best storage and Indenting services DIRECTLY to the farmers. No cold storage will act as a principle whether as a trader or as a broker. Strictly every cold storage will only earn a fixed percentage for services rendered directly to the farmers direct sales co-operatives. No harm if big business wants to get into the business of creating cold storage chains. They too will ONLY act as Agents and never as principles. If big business can find value in assured returns by investing in mega projects for power, this too will be a viable and attractive business for them. 

2) Encourage and incentivise DIRECT FARM SALES co-operatives throughout farming communities. Such co-operatives can be regional and around specific crops etc. etc. 

3) Let the culture prevalent in more progressive economies such as Singapore etc. where people take even a slightly longer walk to go to a cold storage for buying fresh, hygienic, nutritious and of course much more beautiful looking fruits and vegetables (God resides in cleanliness. Cleanliness is beauty too). This will also solve a big source of filth, unhygienic markets that will aid you in moving India to become a cleanliness driven nation, too. 

4) Let the farming direct sales co-operatives compete with each other to DIRECTLY RETAIL their produce to final households. The Cold storages will NOT BE ALLOWED to become traders. The only two sources of revenues for the cold storages will be to provide storage, handling services on one hand and to provide indenting services on the other. Indenting services in the context of the Cold Storages will allow them to act as agents of the DIRECT FARM SALES CO-OPERATIVES and will never act as principles, traders or brokers. For a fixed fee, they will receive the farm produce against Bill-T and the banking system will clear the payments. Given the nature of the produce is perishable and if the pricing is determined by the farmers then too there is low risk for all involved. Since in a cold storage the shelf life of the produce is much much more, the risk of wastages is low even if prices are higher than what consumers can absorb. As the next consignment will be ready to get into the cold storages, automatically the farmers will have to cut prices to a level where supply can be absorbed by demand. The risk of hoardings in a smoothly flowing logistical system is low. Only where masked middle-men flourish the hoarding kills the farmers, the consumers and even the produce!  

5) The middle man today acts at endless layers providing Indenting, financing, brokerage services. They are the ones who never become visible to the end consumer and yet they are the one's who must be the most organised set of players in the entire eco-system of farm produce retailing. The most organised player in the food-chain then gets the fattest and clearly at cost and peril of both the producers and the consumers. Time perhaps, for India to move this middle-man out from the middle of the affairs of our fresh farm outputs. 

Vande Mataram,
Jai Hind

With all the Love & Respect to you! 
Sushil Kedia

Open Letter VII to Shri Narendra Modi: Simplify our taxes to put India on the global economic leadership orbit

To
Shri Narendra Modi
Prime Minister
India

Simplify all the taxes that the Government levies. It will not only raise compliance, but will actually start achieving the goals of taxation.

We have been modelling our governance, as a later age democracy, on the basis of what the West has had been doing.

Income Tax: If the goal of anyone aspiring to achieve growth and progress, whether an individual, a society, a nation or a civilization then having progressive Income Tax defeats the basic premise of undertaking any economic or business initiative. In a progressive Income Tax regime those who produce larger incomes and larger wealth face a rising rate of punitive taxation. Such a tax regime is a deterrent to respecting the process of income and wealth generation. Its a hypocrisy, particularly in the Indian civilization that likely is the only civilization in the present day that worship Mahalaxmi -- the Goddess of all wealth. Income Tax must only be a contribution towards governance and not a punishment for having generated more and more income.

A clear intention, by way of a policy announcement to bring down Income Tax rates to a FLAT 15% for everyone in five years, reducing progressively 3% tax each year is going to put India in a totally different orbit.

The root cause of black-money is intolerably high Income Tax rate. At the core every human being seeks growth and progress. High Income Tax rate do not deter the enterprising from making money, but only deter them from declaring how much they are making because the progressive Income Tax regime is disrespectful to the goal of wealth creation.

Soon as such a policy is announced, it will make the Discounted Cash Flow value of putting up new enterprises in India way more competitive than almost every other nation. If a tiny island as Singapore with frugal and limited resources could become the abode of Laxmi where capital continues to flow from the haven of Switzerland, then India with its endless human resources, every soil type, every mineral resource, a very large captive consumption market will be the haven. Not only we will create a compelling superior alternative to China in making India accepted as the world's next factory, we will also emerge rapidly as one of the most important intrepots and trading venue of this world.

Consumption Taxes: Excise and Sales Tax are effectively taxes on production and sales. Again there is a bad paradox here. Why should any philosophy of taxation penalise those who "produce"? There should be a unified Consumption Tax policy where there is no seggregation between Excise, Sales or Service Taxes. Anyone living in a family who consumes more than a fair share of the larger family's resources is looked down on and anyone who produces more is looked up to. Same way, once having straightened out the Income Tax regime where larger earners are respected, there is a need to have a progressive consumption tax regime.

For example, a Nano Car may have a 5% Consumption Tax, but say an Indigo may have a 10% tax and say a Tata Safari may have a 17% tax and say a mid-market sedan may have a 25% tax and say an entry level Mercedes may have a 35% tax and say a Land Rover may have a 50% tax and say going all the way to a Lamborghini it may have a 300% tax.

This thinking is not at all new. If Tobacco products have a very high rate of indirect taxation, the same logic be applied to each and everything. Necessities are untaxed or barely taxed. Conveniences are taxed more. Luxuries are taxed heavily and ostentatious indulgences are taxed punitively.

Same should apply for services. Visit to a General Physician be untaxed. Visit to a General Hospital be untaxed. But if anyone has to go to an expensive private sector hospital it may be taxed with heavier service taxes.

In the coming regime of GST, a single unified Consumption Tax regime is completely feasible.

Global Trade Taxation:  Anyone from the old Bombay Club squirming at the thought of low taxation regime bringing in more competitive manufacturing from overseas and ruining Indian industry is just plane wrong. Let everyone in the universe open more and more factories in India and create endless jobs and endless new products. However, if there is a progressive consumption tax for any sales done on-shore by any manufacturer, whether such a company is owned indirectly through portfolio holdings by FIIs or a much more clearly fully owned subsidiary of a global manufacturer, our nation will not be consuming incorrectly. The best manufacturers who can provide the best products will be available to our citizens. That would raise the consumer surplus in the hands of every microscopic economic agent. In such a regime it is entirely possible and likely that the hedonistic producers such as the Lamborghinis of the world may sell only a tiny portion of their Indian produce (yes why will they not open their factories in a nation that has one of the lowest income taxes and every other resource) on-shore and make very large exports.

The need to regulate what should be allowed to be produced in India and what should not be will be totally perfunctory thereon. A progressive Consumption Tax regime will automatically, by the forces of the market-place, align the production basket of every manufacturer and thus of the nation.

Import Duties: Progressive Import Duty structure be put in place. Raw materials such as minerals or commodities may have a nil or near nil import duty to facilitate the most competitive manufacturing. Any intermediate goods that have a value content of production over and above the absolute raw material should be taxed progressively. In a progressive Import Duty regime, anyone who indulges in screw driver assembly business by importing semi-knocked down kits will be unviable. White-collar smuggling that is passing through until now as creative business structuring will be unviable.

Say for example, if anyone wants to import any type of sand, if there is a claim that enough good sand is not available in India for making semi-conductors, let them import it at a very low or no import duty. But if someone is importing refined silica, it should happen at a higher import duty. If someone is importing any semi-conductors then it should happen at a rate of duty that rises more than the rate of value enhancement from refined silica to a semi-conductor. If someone imports a fully fabricated chip then it must happen at a progressively even higher import duty. The fear that such an import duty regime that will make DVD players or computer or laptops much more expensive compared what they are priced in the Global market is totally unfounded. I will explain why.

There is a tax arbitrage in such a progressive Import Duty structure, for every global manufacturer. The more value creation such global manufacturers do in India the more profits they will make by converting Silica into RAM chips on the shores of India! The power of incentives drives economics. The process of gubernatorial intervention drives economics crazy, on the other hand. Let a progressive Import Duty regime thus incentivize more and more value creation on-shore.

Yet when you notice the combined effect of such a progressive Import Duty structure with a Progressive Consumption tax structure, then a simple example will illustrate the power of this simplification.

Say, a manufacturer of electronic cameras such as Nikon that would have to put up a factory in India, were to choose between importing its circuitry and memory chips from Samsung's Taiwan facilities at a higher import duty in India or will be able to buy a similar quality chip from a Samsung that would manufacture the same chip in India at a much lower price.

In the same chain, if Nikon were to sell a camera of 8 megapixels on-shore to Indian consumers that likely qualifies at today's standards as a convenience good at say a progressive Consumption Tax of 20% but will be able to sell a 32 megapixels camera on-shore that qualifies at today's standards as a luxury at a progressive consumption tax of 40%, then we have setup the world's perfectly taxed super-factory called India Inc. Why? Isnt it clear that Nikon India will prefer to buy from Samsung India than from Samsung Taiwan and yet Nikon India will prefer to export out its ostentatious produces while being keen to sell the convenience produces in India. In all the scenarios the low flat Income Tax rate will be compelling for Nikon to not only manufacture the cameras it intends to sell within India, but also the cameras it wishes to sell everywhere else in the world, from its Indian factories! If jargon is necessary to convince the erudite and the scholarly and for the economists, then this is a simple and a very lucid illustration of how Producers' Surplus will also go up in India. 

A unified tax policy as this is arguing humbly to be able to raise both -- the Consumer Surplus as well as the Producers' surplus! 

Anti-Dumping Duties & Trade restrictions: With utmost humility Sires, I wish to submit that the persuasive skills of big business at influencing Gubernatorial decisions world-wide are far more effective than the skills of any single Government in convincing any other Government. Lets abandon the mind-set of managing Trade Treaties and Inter-Governmental pressures. The pressures of the market-place and particularly Free Trade are far more fair and persuasive.

To conclude, I wish you closely evaluate that our civilization has been raising the slogan of "Vasudhaivaya Kutumbakam" for too long. For a change, why do we not take the lead in demonstrating to the world that not only our civilization believes that the entire Vasudha (world) is one Kutumb (family) but we do have the courage, conviction and clarity to lead the change and set right the wheels of growth, progress and value creation for this single One World. By the time other nations that may come close to our level of sophistication and diversity catch up with this philosophy and begin to implement it, a few decade would be more than enough for our India to be propelled atop the economic accomplishments rampart.

I will refrain from consuming your precious time in enlisting the endless multiplier benefits such as a far faster GDP growth due to compliance in income disclosure, appropriate consumption, much larger investments etc. etc. in this letter since I have enumerated them at length in my prior open letters to you. This simplification of our entire tax policies will bring in a quantum leap on both the level of value creation as well as its valuation for India.

Let me get an India that leads the world in according the fair respect to those who produce, those who generate value and pushes back those who consume unfairly. At the core of any challenge, the solution that is best is actually the one that is simplest. I urge, India rises to the simplicity of "Satyam Shivam Sundaram". The truth is basic and thus beautiful.

Sincerely Yours,
With Love & Respect,
Sushil Kedia

Open Letter VI to Shri Narendra Modi: A Novel Sovereign Fund, the India super ETF

To
Shri Narendra Ji Modi
Prime Minister
India 

Respected Modi Ji, 

India is a sovereign entity. We have wealth. Why should we not have an India Sovereign Fund? Why should we restrict our imagination only to how the West does some things? 

In answer to these two simple questions, here is a lucid solution:

1) Transfer each and every single share in every PSU, irrespective of whether any specific PSU is loss-making, profit-making, strategic or non strategic into the India Sovereign Exchange Traded Fund. 

2) An ETF is an open-ended fund, by definition. Liquidity to the units of such a fund are provided by market-makers. The more liquid the units of this fund will become in time, the more liquid an asset the Government of India will be sitting upon. By common-sense, the more liquid an asset is the more useful, portable and thus valuable it becomes. The Balance Sheet of the Government of India will be cleaner, more liquid and thus more effective in meeting many endless goals. 

3) If the Government of India will not participate regularly in buying and selling units of this Super ETF, then too, all kinds of investors and traders, wheather local or global, whether short term horizon seekers or long term value merchants, will participate. This creates an enormous investible basket and a new venue in financial markets for competitive capital allocation. Indirectly, the Government will have a liquid large pile of near cash with such a simple manouver. No need for going through intensely political, slow and often sensitive divestments that have sapped the momentum out of the reform process time and again. In a single stroke, display the readiness to disown the entire public sector. The conversion of all the holdings in the name of the President of India into an ETF is not divestment or disowning the PSU, but a preparation to do that in any proportion across the board in a diversified manner, continuously over time. A signal from the sovereign is good as the actions to come! 

4) Whenever markets are in euphoric extremes, the Government of India can readily encash its liquid holdings of the units of this India Super Fund or the India Sovereign ETF. Whenever markets are drowning, if appropriate and timely encashment cycles have been utilized in the prior periods, the various vehicles of the Government of India can buy into "cheap" prices of these units. Over time, a net net divestment cycle will be smooth, regular, without any innuendos and conundrums. 

5) Even if some PSUs may still not be listed, a professionally managed super-fund as this can cause listings, over time. 

6) Tax arbitrage be made available to those investors in the super-fund who would on liquidating the units of the fund collect shares of the underlying holdings in proportion instead of cash and continue to hold such underlying shares through the cumulative holding period of 1 year eligible for long term gains. The benefits of hedging on these individual shares be allowed too. Benefit of such a structure is that without increasing the floating stock of the highly valuable PSUs, contestable price discovery will continue. This will likely ensure a higher Valuation Band for the PSU companies over time, than would be if such a structuring is not offered. 

7) The decisions regarding when the Government of India liquidates any holdings of units in this Super Fund and when does the Government of India buys any units of the Super Fund be left to in the independent discretion of the Reserve Bank of India. Central Bankers that trade currencies world over are above any suspicions or allegations of Insider Trading. This should be good enough a reason for all to trust the Central Banker of our country in trading the holdings in PSUs purely based on its own macro assessments and its own estimates of the cash-flow needs on the Balance sheet of the nation. 

8) Let us seriously examine the possibility of deleveraging the Balance Sheet of our Nation with this move. With an initial listing of the ETF, on the average six months' price of the ETF holdings of the Government of India a transfer should be made to the Reserve Bank of India and an equal value of the outstanding bonds of the Government of India should be retired out. A far healthier balance sheet of India will likely only improve our rating, than otherwise. 

9) If such a large reduction in the Government debt comes by with this move, there will be a unique situation. Prices of Government Bonds would have moved up without throwing in any additional cash into the markets. Can interest rates therefore not come down and the risk of inflation in essentials will still not go up! If at all, this mechanism is exporting the inflation risk from consumables to asset markets! 

I urge, you delegate this simple thought process to each key stake-holder in Governance, for a close inspection. 

Sincerely yours, 
With respect & love,

Sushil Kedia

Open Letter V to Shri Narendra Modi: India at crossroads, green-shoots in social equity

Shri Narendra Modi

Prime Minister designate

India

Dear Modi Ji, 

Your slogan that you wish to create an India where every Muslim youth will have a computer in the other hand while holding the Holy Quran in one hand has inspired a new metric of thought around the dimension of social equity. 

Reservations, whether for Muslims or for any other community, caste or religion have only caused crippling of mind-sets and dirty politics in the long term, despite having some merit for the short term. 

I urge an open-minded examination of the following simple ideas, for all under-privileged communities including Muslims, for a period of 20 years from the day this policy is announced such as any future governments will have the courage to tinker with them at the cost of the overwhelming derision of the populace on one hand and for ensuring continued Human Capital Development across at least one full generation if not two: 

1) Grant of exempt from Income Tax status for each male child / youth undertaking accredited education (say from a school affiliated to CBSE or ICSE) of at least 2000 INR per month, up to higher secondary education level.  

2) Grant of exempt from Income Tax status be double for girl / female children at 3000 INR per month, up to higher secondary education level. 

3) For college and higher level education and restricted up to the age of 25 years these numbers for boys and girls respectively have to be 50% higher, i.e. 3000 INR and 4500 INR respetively, per month. 

4) These exemptions must be Inflation Indexed so that there is no need to tinker with the continuity of this policy for a period of two decades. Each future year, the exemption level will be the next higher 100 Rupee round figure for ease of computations. 

5) For students at Graduation & Post Graduation level, the State must guarantee Scholarships at these equivalent rates to any student who is able to produce proof of lack of familial income and if that applicant has an academic achievement score that is greater than 1 standard deviation of the results of all participants in the immediately prior public examination (such as that of a University or an Educational Board). This must be kept at par for even students of non-OBC, non-reservation communities. Talent, hard-work must be guaranteed a pathway to progress irrespective of the familial financial competency. That truly was the goal of the thinking on social equity and distorted in vote bank politics of reservations and appeasements. 

6) Not just the State, but the financially well-endowed and concerned citizens including corporates and big business, anyone who donates to Prime Minister's Social Equity Endowment for Education (lets establish one such now) receives at least a 100% exemption of this amount from taxable income. Section 80G is ineffective as it only grants 50% exemption and that is a point for another letter to you, in the future. The concept of Gupt-Daan, wherein anyone can donate totally anonymously without any details of the donor being captured in the system or any questions being asked must be made truly effective. Every Bank Branch in India should have the facility for anyone to walk in with cash earnt by whatsoever means to donate anonymously and to ensure that such funds indeed reach the Endowment, a receipt must be issued by such bank counters with unique serial numbers which when punched on the website of the PMSEEE produce confirmation details of the amount, time, place at which donation was made. 

7) I urge, you deploy your charisma to convey across a point to every stake-holder of our civilization that India will have endless Akhadas for helping create Mohammad Alis. So what if as Cassius Clay he was famished, under-nourished and deprived, if he could find his way through to the training, the hard work he put up he indeed became the Champion. No dole-outs or distributions merely because one was purportedly unlucky to be born a Muslim or an Adivasi but has therefore become entitled to live a life of dependence and mind and soul crippling reservations. The point must become absolutely clear to the psuedo-secularists, the clergy and the entire population of India, that we are that civilization where every Cassius Clay has the opportunity to be a Mohammad Ali. 

8) Reservations on one hand only provided a temporary relief to certain types of people but has been endlessly diluting our competitive and performance DNA as a nation. We have to become a nation of Mohammad Alis and that too grateful and happy Alis! So far, the political class has in the post-Independence India never focused on making Mohammad Alis, but only keeping the challenged Cassius Clays as challenged and dependent, permanently. I need you to empower every driven, motivated Champion to reach the goal of his destiny, that is to be the Champion that Allah / God / Bhagwan wanted him to be. 

9) If education is the fore-bearer of all social equity, creation of ability and thus handling the un-levelled fields of opportunity, then we cannot leave behind the acknowledgement much more desperately due for the profession of teaching in India. Compared to any other profession, our teachers earn the least. A Guru has one of the noblest respnosibilities of inculcating values and create much better human beings than just teach medicine, engineering, management, mathematics, statistics, accountancy, geography or history. It is well understood in the Indian Civilization that "Bhookhe Pet Bhajan na honhi Gopala". So, until the competitive synergies sweep our nation into a state of much higher excellence, I urge you to consider a 20 year policy for having Income Tax Slabs that are at least twice at each rate of taxation for anyone who is a full time teacher with an accredited Educational Body, right from nursery education to the post graduate level education. Let the Governance of this nation eventually and now bestow the credit, respect and care that has always been undertaken by every admirable Raj-purush in our Ancient Civilization on the Gurus, the Rishis and the Sadhus. Our teachers are likely the true Gurus, Rishis and Sadhus by their karma. If we are indeed keen on a varn-vyavastha that is based on Karma and not Janma then I am very hopeful that your Government will make early moves in according the rightful economic upliftment as well as the moral and emotional respect for the entire teaching force in our country. 

Vande Mataram, Jai Hind

Sushil kedia

Open Letter IV to Shri Narendra Modi: Har Aam Aadmi ko ab Khaas Bana do

Respected Modi Ji,

A moment when endless number of Indians are holding their breath in constructive anticipation of you taking over the helm of Governance of this Nation, I place some humble thoughts for you to evaluate so that growth, opportunity, entrepreneurship can be percolated down to every single unit of our population.

For many decades, oganisations such as the World Bank kept on coaching the whole world that countries such as India need to control their population for getting on the growth curve. We know by now, it was incorrect. The real assets of any civilization and every nation are its people. Let nature determine which soil helps flourish what population size. Yet, what is true is that if each and every unit of any population can become self-reliant and achieve the DNA of entrepreneurship then the larger the population the more prosperous a nation begins to become.

Here is a simple point by point plan:

1.      

Creation of the Ministry of Growth & Development: A new ministry, directly under the PMO, be created focusing on Growth & Development. A co-ordination ministry that will work along with all other ministries, every District Collector, every PSU chairman, every Revenue, Intelligence, Enforcement head with a singular focus of expeditiously moving forward any and every growth and development agenda.

2.   

    Power of Incentives: Let there be a corpus of a minimum of 542 Crores of Rupees, corresponding to the 542 Districts in India. This corpus shall only be for rewarding District Administration level officers of the Government of India on a competitive basis for their results and efforts in bringing growth and development in their respective districts. Incentives work more than anything else. Let the new model of Governance recognize the power of Economic Incentives. Let there be tremenduous respect in the pursuit of growth at every level and let there be pride awaiting to ride on the shoulders of the minutest level of Administrative machinery. This corpus be spent in awarding, incentivizing and monetizing the measurable growth and development at the district level. Let the culture be established where the District Collector of each and every district is the Chief Entrepreneur of his district, if not the Chief Executive Officer of his district. Let there be an upwards pressure from each district to seek resources, solutions and results for each district. Let there be a new class of highest civilian honours and awards, such as the Param Visisht Vikas Medals to celebrate the achievements of administrative officials who would produce trail-blazing results of growth and development within their domains and impact the most number of lives constructively in empowering them to create Swarojgar. The endless Swarojgar Yojnas christened with the names of various political luminaries of yester-decades is best discontinued with immediacy.

3.  

     Incentivise Micro-Finance & bring it into mainstream investment model: For decades there are tax breaks on investments in Equity Linked Savings Schemes or by way of Long Term Capital Gains or in Infrastructure Bonds. Let India in its new form under your leadership be the first country in the world to recognize the power of empowering the most microscopic economic apparatus in any nation, its lowest economic denominators – the human beings who have no capital, no land, but they do have an under-developed human capital. The Human Capital is the source of all wealth. A piece of gold or a piece of land has no monetary value if human beings do not accord it value. Hence, any other physical form of wealth is at best a mechanism for storage of wealth, whereas all sources of wealth are the human aspirations, abilities and persistence. Let us get to the core of all wealth creation, i.e. to have a world class apparatus for developing the wealth and income generating ability of every human being. The post Independence political discourse has off and on appealed to emotions of the landless by balking at the varied ideologies of land reforms. Why do we have to limit our imagination for our rural brotherhood that unless and until they have land they have no other abilities? Why? Each and every rural under-employed, landless or capital-less individual has a far more powerful capital, that of being a human being.  Lets create the mechanism, resources, opportunities for ensuring this human being flourishes. Competitively structured Micro-Finance Corporations run by professionals be encouraged to be established. It should be modeled on the lines of a Mutual Fund or Unit Trust. Any contributions from individual assessees up to 1 lakh Rupees per annum and upto 10 lakh per annum from Corporate Assessees in such corporations be allowed as a deduction from taxable income. Let there be no monopoly ever in any layer of this new growth orbit. Competition allocates resources best.

4.   

    Establishment of Skill Development Corporations: At each and every District level there must be one Skill Development Corporation at least. If there can be more such corporations in any single district to compete with each other even better. Let these be established by the private sector, with a motivation for profit. Let them be supported actively by the District Collectorate in the same way that State Industrial Development Corporations have nurtured new industry in any state. The Skill Development Corporations will study, evaluate, configure the suit of skills that are in the shortest supply in any district and create Vocational Training Programmes. Un-employed, under-employed individuals with no capital or land can come to these VTPs run by the SDCs with total responsibility on themselves. Let the individuals be financed by Micro-Finance Corporations to undertake these courses. Actively in collaboration the MFC and the SDC should hand-hold the trained individuals through the entire entrepreneurship life-cycle. Say for example if an individual is trained in providing cellphone repair services then right from selection of the location of his small “bhakhda” to branding it, to promoting it, to creating customer delight, there be Continued Entrepreneurship Education (the same way that a Chartered Accountant or an Investment Professional has to undertake ongoing Professional Education).

5.       To expect that Government can and will do everything is in any case wrong. It also becomes the origin of sloth, corruption and negativity. The power of incentives will keep private enterprises on their toes to compete amongst each other in investing very well in the human skills of under-privileged India.

6.  

     As this gathers momentum and as a time comes when on an average 50000 successful new entrepreneurs are created in each district giving India a total of two and a half crore new entrepreneurs, we would have built a formidable base. The multiplier effect of such income generation, consumption and savings is baffling and can hardly be over-emphasized. At such a stage the MFCs and the SDCs can join hands to foster endless number of co-operatives based on what are the unique productivities of each district. If one Amul could change so many lives and if one Lijjat Papad could create livelihood and respect for so many, what can these privately funded and publicly owned co-operatives with bare minimum gubernatorial interference achieve is beyond anyone’s ability to imagine. At such a stage if the brands and intangible assets created in such collectively owned establishments can be structured into separate companies and those companies are listed on the stock exchanges, then we would have reached a goal of creating a country-wide institution of producing millionaires in every mohalla, every bye-lane.

Many variations are feasible of this simple idea. The core of such thinking is Land Reforms have been a much abused political slogan. Let us go deep within the core of all wealth creation, i.e. raising the value and stock of our human capital.

Jai Hind & Vande Mataram,