VOX POPULI

by

S Kamat

as

Aam Admi

Issue: 210                       Date: 17.07.2017

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1.      Has ‘Retail Inflation’ Figure Been Managed To Show Inflation Is Contained?

2.      The Killings of Pilgrims Bound for the Amarnath Yatra

3.      BCCI: The Times Are A Changin?

4.      Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times – India Adaptation

5.      On Venugopal Appointment As The Attorney General of India

Has ‘Retail Inflation’ Figure Been Managed To Show Inflation Is Contained?

The papers are full of the news that the June 2017 CPI is just 1.56% higher, the lowest rise in the last 20 years or for more impact since 1978 as we are told. The fall in CPI as one is led to believe is linked to the prices of food like vegetables, milk etc. dropping. This index is being taken as justifying the argument that inflation has been contained. This is absolutely not true. Why are we talking about CPI since the media reports carry the information that ‘retail inflation’ has been stopped in its tracks? This is yet another attempt by government to confuse the issue so that the common man at the first instance does not link the two. In any case ‘retail inflation’ is the old CPI indexed to 2012 though the basket of commodities in it may be different now. Thereafter the WPI figure has been released which shows just a modest increase of 0.9% thus reiterating the argument that price rise has been capped.

As for stopping inflation in its tracks, we have all seen how prices of tomatoes have been spiraling over the last 7-10 days and the same media carry news that this vegetable is being sold at some places in Mumbai at Rs. 100 per Kg. Not only that just yesterday I bought ridge gourd and string beans at Rs. 70 per Kg. in Goa which has been shooting up for the last month or more. So one wonders where this government gets its figures from about the fall in prices of vegetables. Do they at all visit the market to cross-check the figures that they are being fed by official agencies to make the government look good? The traders in the market will tell you traditionally prices of vegetables go up during the first part of the monsoon with the onset of rains. Not only that the Chief Economic Advisor has the temerity to quote that eggs in June 2017 went down by 0.08%. Now is that a figure to be quoted? What difference does 0.08% make to anybody? Is this government splitting hairs to support their contentious arguments.

Thus it is clear once again that the CPI figures have been massaged to support the government premise that inflation is under control where it is not. On the same page you have the June 2017 IIP being shown as sluggish and growing at just some 1.7% having been pulled down by the manufacturing sector among others. In fact this matches the CPI growth being in the same region sustaining the argument that these seem to be all ‘managed’ figures. Why are they doing this? To put pressure on RBI to cut interest rates which argument is derived from the fact that inflation is under control and that investment needs to be stimulated given the sluggish manufacturing.

The RBI should not succumb to these pressures like they did at the time of Demonetisation but take an independent decision whatever it may be which they are able to back with economic data and the past basis of similar decisions. The Indian economy judged by any standards is in a shambles what with GDP growth being hit by measures like Demonetisation and employment growth being stunted. Independent assessors of the unemployment scene in the country have said that Demonetisation, the H1B issue in the IT sector and the impact of GST that is still to kick in, are likely to show negative growth for jobs. The impact of Demonetisation on the small and medium sector and the informal sector where data comes on a 6-monthly basis and which is more than due now should show what the measure has done to these sectors and specifically to job losses and units having to be shut down altogether.

In summary, the Narendra Modi led government has no clue in which direction the economy is going and is shooting in the dark by unleashing economic measures one after another which is inflicting miseries on the common man. 

The Killings of Pilgrims Bound for the Amarnath Yatra

The Kashmir situation is going from bad to worse what with the killing of the 7 Gujarat pilgrims who were on their way for the Amarnath yatra. For long it has been known that the pilgrims on this yatra are a soft target for militants. The fact that the pilgrim buses were attacked with a hail of bullets shows that adequate security was not provided and/or shows up the lackadaisical attitude of our security forces on duty. The focus of the attack once fatalities occur of innocent pilgrims shifts to the sentimental aspect as covered by the media. Then like vultures the politicians descend for photo opportunities. We have our Home Minister waxing philosophical about Kashmiriyat at this time when he has failed at his first job of protecting our citizens. Every time we have a terror incident like this our administration and security forces throw up their hands and say - 'What could we have done? It just happened. Next time we will take adequate precaution.' This is the ongoing refrain repeated after every terror attack. And then the blame game starts as to who did not do their job? Whether it was the intelligence that failed the police, whether it was Centre or State etc. etc. The main issue of protecting the lives of innocent citizens is lost in the dust of recriminations that is blown up. This will not do. Our governments and through them the security forces should follow a 'zero tolerance' approach towards terror incidents. Where is the Chief of Army Staff now? Just about a month ago he was talking of giving our enemies a bloody nose, but he has been outwitted by a terrorist organisation at whose command the resources are not even 0.0001% of what the Indian Army has. Gen Rawat should pull up[ his socks and ensure that our Army completely seals off the borders with Pakistan and PoK. This will limit the number of cross-border attacks and those that originate in Pakistan. The Indian Army should understand that it is not enough to camp in a State like Kashmir and seek unlimited powers under the AFSPA act and still fail to perform their primary duty of keeping the enemy out of India and protect its citizens. When incidents like the above killing of the Amarnath pilgrims  occurs and watching the aftermath, one gets the disgusting feeling that all concerned be it the Army or the other security forces, the State and Central governments etc. etc. want such incidents to happen to get their two minutes of fame in the arc-lights of publicity and to lobby for resources, the victims be damned.

BCCI: The Times Are A Changin?

Finally Ravi Shastri has been appointed the India cricket team coach. One cannot say that the process was 'fixed' but one can safely assume that it was 'arranged'. The difference between the two words is that apparently due process was followed. However, the appointment of Ravi Shastri was a foregone conclusion. What with Sunil Gavaskar making the right noises once it was known that Anil Kumble was on his way out and that Shastri was being thought about. There is no doubt that Shastri has the  right credentials for the job. Added to that he gets along well with the players given that he has had a stint of team director before Kumble took over as the coach. But the entire process of decision making though it is made out that they have gone by the rules smacks of the working of an Old Boy's Club. Consistent with this premise Ravi Shastri’s task as coach seems to be constrained by the appointment of Rahul Dravid as the batting and Zaheer Khan as the bowling consultants. Then what is left in cricket, only fielding for which surely Bangar will be roped in. So what does Shastri actually then do as coach? In an Old Boy's Club everybody is accommodated to keep them happy and then if someone becomes disgruntled, then with a wink and a nudge they are asked to manage! Also deferring the decision of the coach appointment by a day as Ganguly explained so that the Committee could get the captain Virat Kohli's views is rather new. Since when have captains been consulted about coach appointments? Some years ago the captain had no say even on team composition and had to go in with the playing eleven chosen by the selectors. But like they say times, they are changin'!

The fact that BCCI is an Old Boy's Club has been brought home many a time to the discerning thinkers that follow the game of cricket in India. Otherwise we would not have a Committee of Administrators managing it at the present time. You scratch my back and I will scratch yours, is the common rule that is followed in the BCCI. Ramachandra Guha, one of the members of the above CoA, realised at the point of his resigning from the Committee when he raised issues of conflict of interest of some of the ex-cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid among others. These personages don different hats for the BCCI while at the same time involving themselves in the IPL and their own commercial interests leading to questions of insider trading like situations and playing favourites to further their own interests in the choice of players etc. When Guha came out with his missive to the CoA spelling out his views in these matters, it was Gavaskar who took umbrage since he felt that he was always doing the right thing and in the interest of Indian cricket. But he forgot that there could be other interpretations to his work or that others may not see it the same way as he sees it. Thus Guha's long letter of resignation rocked the boat but the effect was minimal. Dravid the gentleman that he is and as reported in the press, was the first to give up his IPL roles and remain satisfied with his assignment as the coach for the India U-19 team, a BCCI position. Otherwise nothing has changed at the Old Boy's Club. There was a Guha ripple but things have settled down to the old normal since he is done and gone. 

What one feels is that the Old Boys at BCCI are just biding their time until the CoA runs out of steam or members whichever is earlier and they can come back to the driver's seat and run their fiefdoms as they please. 

Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times – India Adaptation

For those who have seen Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, there is a somewhat Chaplinesque spin on what is happening these days in our country. This has to do with Narendra Modi and his governance supported by his prominent side-kick, Arun Jaitley. It is a story of incompetents and misfits who are playing with this country's future and slowly but surely taking it down the path of degradation and ruin. Take the initiatives highly touted by the BJP government of Demonetisation, Cashless Society and the latest in this line, GST. In all this taking a cue from Modern Times, you will find Arun Jaitley hammering away at a machine trying to fit a peg into a hole. Not being successful, he continues in exasperation to hammer away in Charlie Chaplin-style. We have Narendra Modi in the scene looking over Jaitley’s shoulder scratching his head all the time and muttering to himself – ‘Why is the Gujarat model not working?’. A close-up of the action shows Jaitley trying to fit a square peg into a round hole! This is evident from the fact that under Jaitley's instructions the RBI during the first 50 days after the 8th Nov 2016 Demonetisation issued more than 50 guidelines to the banking system on how ‘not’ to handle currency notes. The Cashless Society that is losing steam and the GST the results on which are yet to come initiatives though laudable are something which India is not yet ready considering the lack of computer literacy and the irregular and unreliable computer networking across our wide and disparate country. Given the present awareness of computers in the country there is a need for a large amount of hand-holding that is required for users to get aboard the system networks. You cannot operate on a Take It or Leave It mode. The exasperation is seen in all this by the number of threatening strictures and conditions that are being imposed by government on common people and the trading community. Where the carrot is required to be proffered, it is the stick (nay, a danda!) that is being shown to a bewildered citizenry. Back to the Modern Times – India Adaptation, we find Jaitley trying to justify to Modi about the punitive measures being taken. But Modi continues to look at Jaitley non-plussed. All the while he is scratching his head and continuing to mutter to himself, is seen to be walking out of the room. But this time he is saying under his breath – ‘Wish I had someone to take Jaitley’s place.’ The End - Modern Times – India Adaptation.

On Venugopal Appointment As The Attorney General of India

Lately we have had news of K K Venugopal having been appointed as the Attorney General of India. The news reports detail a long list of his achievements in the legal field and mention that he has been awarded both the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan. We are also told that he is in his eighties, some papers put him at 82 while others say 86. If so given his long and distinguished career as a legal luminary where was the need for him to accept the post of AG? Considering his age, should he not have gracefully declined the offer and told the government to give the position to someone younger and deserving? If people like Venugopal and Ram Jethmalani continue to be jealously attached to their profession in their 80's where will the younger lawyers go? At least Jethmalani is involved in private practice while Venugopal is accepting an official government position and that too following in the footsteps of Mukul Rohatgi a much junior person of the same profession. There is no problem in Venugopal in continuing his legal practice and guiding juniors or even taking up an advisory role to the government but taking up the assignment of AG seems to be a little incongruous.

************************************

VOX POPULI

by

S Kamat

as

Aam Admi

Issue: 209        Date: 10.07.2017

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1.      Goa CM Parrikar Should Have Known Better

2.      Stand-off with China at the Border near Sikkim-Bhutan

3.      Amit Shah Lying Through His Teeth on Cow-Related Violence

Goa CM Parrikar Should Have Known Better

Manohar Parrikar visited South Goa last week for the first time after taking charge as Chief Minister in his new term and while speaking there he is reported to have said that development in South Goa has not been adversely affected though the region did not vote for BJP during the last Assembly elections. Immediately after that we have the desecration of the crosses in South Goa and also  that of a temple n the same area. This is continuing with more incidents of cross damage in the last two days. The coincidence with Parrikar's statement  and the damage to crosses thereafter is rather strange. Not only that Manohar Parrikar further continues with his comments as reported in the local papers calling the desecration as a conspiracy and that the government and the BJP while denouncing the attacks will get to the bottom of this. When the situation in Goa and that in South Goa was quite normal, one cannot understand why Manohar Parrikar should have made the first comment as above. People holding important positions in governance particularly at the level of ministers and a Chief Minister at that should be careful with what they say. Since as later events have proved it has had a deleterious effect on law and order. Parrikar's statement would have incited pro-BJP elements to teach South Goa a lesson which is what common logic derives from the consequent cross desecrations. Further compounding the situation by calling it a conspiracy puts a spin on it implying that pro-BJP elements may not be involved in the actions. This situation could have been easily been avoided by Manohar Parrikar remembering that he is the Chief Minister of Goa and not of its North or South. The investigation on the incidents is being pursued but look at the cost of it constituting a rapid action force, round the clock patrolling etc. etc. All this could have been easily avoided if the CM had not stirred things up. In any case the perpetrators should be brought to justice irrespective of which political colour they sport. Where there is communal harmony in Goa, there was no need to have these sentiments aroused since we have enough of such things happening in the country and we need not import these into Goa maybe just because we feel left out of the mainstream of things.

Stand-off with China at the Border near Sikkim-Bhutan

The stand-off with China at the border near the Sikkim-Bhutan region is indicative that all is not well with the relations that we maintain with our neighbouring countries. With every country on our borders we have problems with Pakistan being major and then continuing with Nepal, Bangladesh and lastly, Sri Lanka in the order of lessening severity. Thus Modi's foreign policy dominated by hugs and dropping in for tea unannounced does not seem to be working. Even in the latest visit that Modi made to the US, you can see in the photo that Donald Trump is cringing away from a 'hugging' Modi. The latter seems also to be in supplicant mode and hugging Trump in desperation, probably believing that the hug is more important than national pride. 

As for China, there is no doubt that the incident on our borders with them is more in the nature of game-play to show that India cannot do a thing to it with or without US support. The recent apparent bonhomie in India-US relations is unacceptable to China. Added to that India has been making noises about patrolling the Indian Ocean and maybe even the South China Sea where China has a major confrontation with the US. Hence the flexing of muscles by China to show who's boss and to put India in its proper place. As our foreign policy it is rare that we anticipate situations like the imbroglio with China now and try and defuse it. More often than not it seems that we walk into a situation unaware of what's going on. This is a rather sad state of affairs  where we constantly see India getting upstaged, first it was by Pakistan and now by China. Sometime back when it was reported that China was building multiple dams on the upper reaches of the river Brahmaputra and this would reduce the water flow of the river drastically as it flows through our North East region, there was a lot of umbrage in India. But ultimately India accepted that China could build these dams but there was no news that whether a quid pro quo  was sought in guarantees on water flow. Confrontation is not always the desired path in international diplomacy and should be used as a last resort when all other methods of conflict resolution have been exhausted. Alertness and preparedness should be the hallmark of India's foreign policy. 

Amit Shah Lying Through His Teeth on Cow-Related Violence

Amit Shah while in Goa claimed that lynchings in general and related to the cow in particular were more in the 3 years preceding 2014 than in like period thereafter. Independent data puts this number for just the last six months as 20 which is set to cross  25 for the whole of last year. The same data puts 97% of the cow-related attacks between 2010 and 2017 of 63 having happened after May 2014. Additionally 32 of the 63 attacks happened in BJP ruled States. Amit Shah was trying to defuse the irate public opinion on cow lynchings that have erupted across India with the latest in Haryana and then Jharkhand. His approach is the typical bluff and bluster style adopted by most BJP leaders these days. It is as if they have the privileged access to all the 'correct' information in the world and all the rest of the citizens of India are stupid and dumb. This may work among the illiterates which is their major constituency who believe that any words coming out of the BJP leaders mouths particularly Narendra Modi and Amit Shah is 'Ram Vani'. Not only that the BJP is quite capable of manufacturing the figures since when they have fudged the GDP, CPI, WPI, IIP ETC. so what's with some numbers related to cow lynchings. We are living in the era of fake news and managed information and finding out the truth will need sifting through many layers of obfuscation and disinformation which is the specialty of the present BJP government.

**************************************

VOX POPULI

by

S Kamat

as

Aam Admi

Issue: 208         Date: 03.07.2017

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1.      Double Standards In Loan Waivers - Farmers vs. Industry

2.      Exempt Senior Citizens From Renewal Of KYC At Banks

3.      The Grandstanding Approach On GST

4.      1600 Pennsylvania Road At 7, Race Course Road (now Lok Kalyan Marg)

Double Standards In Loan Waivers - Farmers vs. Industry

The newspapers are full of multi-page ads on the initiatives taken by the Modi led BJP government in agriculture since 2014. However, the little thing they are missing is the statistics of the number of farmers who committed suicide in these last 3 years, which has been distressingly on the increase. This figure should also have been put in the ads to bring up the other side of the story. 7 farmers took their own lives in the last 15 days in MP according to newspaper reports. It is not the number of schemes that the government has which is important but what benefits have accrued out of them to the farmers. If the farmers have been so much benefited by these measures, then why are they committing suicide? Most of the credit for the improvement in agriculture production goes to the monsoon and has nothing to do with Modi or his policies. But the problem is that the Modi government does not know what to do when there is a glut and neither did it know what to do when there was a scarcity because of drought some time back. Looking very objectively at the farmer problems across the country, one feels that the path of industrialisation that Nehru followed for the country may not have been correct. In contrast Gandhiji's rural based economy model would have probably been more apt. At the time of Independence in 1947 with the majority of the work force involved in agriculture, if we had put the emphasis on village based economies supporting farmers, then their lot today would have been different. This is not to say that we should have neglected industry but the argument is that more emphasis should have been given for agriculture so that we would have farmers given equal status as city dwellers while today a farmer is looked down though he plays a significant role in our economy. 

More alarming is the manner in which farmers are being treated by the government. While professing to be their friend, when it comes to looking at waival of their loans, all kinds of questions are being asked. And all kinds of hurdles are placed in their way. These range from the philosophical like waival of loans in principle is bad. Is this applicable to farmers alone? Or are other sectors of society included? Like for industry is loan waival a good thing? That is exactly what the banks have been doing from the time they started operations. On the pretext of the loans gone bad, the banks have been writing off these from their books each year. This has encouraged industry to have bad loans reach alarming proportions in the last decade, more so in the last 5 years, where the NPA's have reached humongous proportions. This has prompted everyone from the Finance Minister, the RBI and the top management of the banks to get into the act to find a solution to the problem. While rushing in to resolve industry's loans, there is no one to look at resolving farmer's loans. Granted that write-off of loans is not a good practice and will only encourage more default. But then this rule should apply equally to all who take loans. You cannot preferentially waive loans of one sector and then throw the rule book at another sector. Thus you cannot have one rule for the goose and one for the gander. Therefore waive the farmer loans this time and make it clear to them that this thing will never be done ever again. Parallely ban loan waivers across the board for all sectors of the economy.

Even after State after State announcing waival of farm loans starting from UP, the farmer is at his wit's end to find who exactly will give him the relief. The Maharashtra government has tied itself up in knots on the farmer loan waival scheme and in that process put the farmer at the Centre of a maze of rules and asked him to find his own way out. This has not helped the farmers accept the scheme and the farmers are thinking of going back to agitation mode. This is being done when the farmers are the most deserving for the loan waivers. They are the ones who put food on your table on which not only their survival depends but also yours.

In contrast when it comes to industry as per the latest news in the financial papers the government is thinking of bailing out the Adani and Tata groups for their projects of shore based  STPP in Gujarat that are dependent on imported coal. With the price of imported coal sky-rocketing, these plants have become unviable and are in distress. If the government does not step in the plants may have to be shut down. The investments run into thousands of crores like the Vijay Mallya Kingfisher dues. The data on the employment and investment figures for the 2 plants with figures on number of persons employed if examined  will show that farmers debts, their number though huge have a per capita debt that is low. Since by any logic whom should this government have been looking to provide relief? But whom are they actually bailing out? The big industrialists with deep pockets! This clearly establishes the rationale of this government and that of its institutions where instead of spreading happiness they indulge in crony capitalism.This also is the contradiction that persists with this Modi led government. In speech they claim to be pro-poor but in action they are blatantly pro-rich!

As said earlier this Modi led government is actually anti-poor if you look at their policies. Like even for the latest disaster that they are unleashing on the Indian economy without adequate preparation is the GST. Under this hundreds of small businesses that supply to manufacturers will get wiped out because they are not able to provide the documentation that will enable the manufacturer to set off the input taxes. In the same way the government has been going on a publicity blitz on how for the common man GST will be a boon and reduce cost of living. While  government banks PSB's have been sending their customers messages that Service Tax is going up under the GST regime and to be prepared for it. What stopped the government from being open about  GST and have the true picture to the people. As for crocodile tears shed by this Modi led government a confirmation has come from Rajasthan. Under Hitler in Nazi Germany and in their occupation of Europe during WWII the houses of Jews were marked with clearly visible signs on their front doors so that this community could be easily identified. Eight decades later in Rajasthan under Vasundhara Raje's BJP government, the houses of poor who avail subsidised food grains through government schemes are marked with yellow paint with visible letters that they are - Garib or Poor. This is very much consistent with the present BJP government both at the Centre and at the States where they are in power that thrives on the India Shining theme of catering to the needs of the rich and the yuppie class and decimating the poor. Could our officials in the State administration and senior politicians like Raje not have handled this matter more delicately? We hope that the Nazi pogroms will not follow!  The random lynchings about beef are not the precursor to more terrible times for our poor.

Exempt Senior Citizens From Renewal Of KYC At Banks

I am a Senior Citizen and have been banking with  Banks mostly PSB's for the last 50 years across the country where I have been resident for various periods of time during my professional career. In this connection it is my considered opinion that Senior Citizens above the age of 60 years should be exempted from the submission of fresh KYC at scheduled banks for existing accounts. This is completely unnecessary since the appearance of Senior Citizens rarely changes every 2 years after which fresh KYC is to be submitted as stipulated by banks currently. Copies of documents like Aadhaar cards etc. which are already with banks for existing accounts, to be re-submitted only adds to the wastage of paper. Sometimes copies of photos are not easily available with Senior Citizens. In this day and age of soft copies why e-filing is not implemented for photos etc. if at all the KYC process is to be followed. However, Senior Citizens should be exempted in any case from this KYC process for their existing accounts since this is a needless activity putting people like us to strain and unnecessary inconvenience. Regulations need to be made in the context of clear necessity and not for the sake of complying with some meaningless regulation. If this suggestion is accepted then it will also reduce this clear avoidable workload to the banking system. I have emailed both RBI and my existing PSB Bank, Canara Bank on this issue. However, it is 10 days now and I do not have a reply let alone an acknowledgement. When on the RBI website when I posted the above suggestion on their Help/Contact Us/Feedback option, I got a standard reply which has no relation to my input to them. The same is attached here for your information. This goes to show that RBI is just responding to close the query rather than tackle the suggestion in any meaningful way. Postscript: The approach here is for some bad apples in the basket, all apples are being considered bad with the onus on being certified good lying with the good apple.

The Grandstanding Approach On GST

The GST ICBM: Jaitley’s Advice – Grin & Bear It

Arun Jaitley was bent upon the grandstanding approach when the BJP government had a midnight session of Parliament to launch the GST regime. GST is an economic measure and was not deserving of being accorded the status of a midnight Parliament session for its launch. About the timing, no wonder that the Agriculture Minister was taken unwell midway through the session. The Finance Minister was probably not considering the fact that the last time his government launched anything at midnight, it was on Nov 8th, 2016 when Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of the Rs. 500 & Rs. 1000 notes, which has proved to be a disaster to the economy. Going by the same precedent GST should not unleash the same fate on the nation and tie up the economy in knots. With the multiplicity of rates and the lack of readiness with computerisation among the small traders community and issue of Internet connectivity across the entire country, there does not seem much hope beyond yet another fiasco. By all logical reasoning it should have been pushed out from 1st July 2017 when people were more prepared for it both infrastructure and equipment wise. Or it could have been launched in stages big business first and then the small businesses categorised by turnover over a couple of years. The stubbornness of this - Now or Never approach puts a lot of strain on the common people who want to get on with their livelihood.  

GST will also sound the deathknell of small traders and hawkers. These are the people who will now join the endless line of the unemployed. With no jobs for the people and with the lynching mobs rampaging in the country we are in for troubled times. The emphasis on computerisation is what will sink the GST. The government has not learnt its lessons from the one day strike by pharmacies against the new procedure which laid emphasis on computerisation or the cashless economy which is fading out fast. If pharmacies a better class of shops cannot accept computerisation then how can we accept kirana stores to use it? While claiming to support the common man and the poor this  government is pulling the rug from under their feet, all in the interest of big supermarkets and malls. An example here is that in Goa with great fanfare e-mahiti ghars or information and assistance kiosks were opened across the State about a decade ago particularly near the  government offices to assist the common man to get various documents from the administration. Last month they were all officially closed since patronage was dwindling and the computerisation in the government had not kept pace leading people to continue thronging government offices to meet officials and sort out their issues. 

Narendra Modi while in the US also talked about GST but in India he had rarely spoken about it. He called GST a game changer and asked US management schools to study how it will be implemented. But surprisingly he did not touch upon Demonetisation and asked US colleges to study this massive reform measure he brought in. Maybe this is because he looks to the future and rarely sees the trail of pain he has left behind him! This BJP government has unleashed another WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction) or WMDI (Weapon of Modi) on the Indian people in the form of GST. First it was the Demonetisation that took out the steam from the growth of the Indian economy, then it was the failed fizz of the Cashless Economy and now the biggest reform of it all, as claimed by Arun Jaitley, the GST ICBM. From all this bombardment there is also no place to hide what with this government having forgotten to build the bomb shelters. The problem with this BJP government is that they think big but fall flat in implementation of any measures and rarely think through the impact of their initiatives. GST will one suspect meet the same fate. 

Modi and his government are obsessed about two things black money and revenue generation. No one is denying that these are important issues but while tackling them they should target their guns properly and aim at those that break the law and are involved in these nefarious activities. This initiative should be isolated from the mainstream of life of the people of India. But the approach of Arun Jaitley is that everyone is a criminal until proven otherwise. This is a rather sad state of affairs of a government that is of the people, by the people and for the people. 

1600 Pennsylvania Road At 7, Race Course Road (now Lok Kalyan Marg)

Don is reported to have given our Domi (a corruption of Modi) a walking tour of the White House. Mark my words Domi will want a spanking new residence for the Indian Prime Minister on the lines of the White House. Spend maybe another Rs. 100 crores on it at Lok Kalyan Marg! Another nail in the coffin for India's farmers and the poor. While they starve and commit suicide, we have our politicians gallivanting on foreign tours and splurging money on luxuries. Even the lowliest MLA today drives a SUV costing a minimum of Rs. 8 Lakhs these days mostly paid for or subsidised by the government while the farmers have to beg for Rs. 10,000 to buy seeds during the sowing season. Ram Nath Kovind, the NDA nominee for President reached Patna Airport in a Mercedes on his way to meet Modi upon being nominated. Why all this colonial ostentation?  Where is the good old Ambassador car?

*************************************

VOX POPULI

by

S Kamat

as

Aam Admi

Issue: 207        Date: 26.06.2017

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1.      Develop Solar Power & Other Eco-Friendly Means For Electrical Power Generation In Place Of Nuclear

2.      BCCI Should Have Sacked Virat Kohli From The Captaincy After The Champions Trophy Final

3.      Ram Nath Kovind's Candidature For President

4.      Cow Sanctuaries A Bad Idea

Develop Solar Power & Other Eco-Friendly Means For Electrical Power Generation In Place Of Nuclear

Solar power prices have dropped to Rs. 2.44 per unit which is almost 40% lower than the equivalent lowest unit prices for electrical power generated from coal. For a sunshine rich country with vast areas of barren land like India, solar power is the answer to generating cheap power. This method also happens to be eco-friendly. In fact the downward trend of solar prices are likely to continue. This may not be at the rate at which it has happened in the last 5 years. This was the period when prices of solar panels had fallen dramatically because of technology changes and economies of scale. Over the next few years the emphasis of manufacturers of solar power systems is to try and reduce costs of the Rest of System (RoS). RoS relates to the other components of the system apart from the solar panels. Thus the further drop in prices for solar power may be more gradual. When this is the situation with one of the most eco-friendly sources of power, India is unfortunately pursuing the nuclear route. 

Lately the government has announced that it will implement 10 nuclear power plants with indigenous technology at various locations across India each of 700MW capacity. The reliance on our own technology is good since one can say it is proven considering the long history that we have in nuclear power generation with technology having evolved from BARC. But there is an issue here and that is while world-over reactors are being made currently to deliver power in excess of 1000MW, typically 1200-1400MW, we are limiting ourselves to 700MW. This has an impact on cost per unit of electrical power being generated. Though Indian energy costs from indigenous nuclear power plants is the envy world over with comparable plants around the world, there is still the element of economies of scale which give dramatic reduction in costs once plant capacities cross 1000MW. Not only that nuclear energy because of its linkage with national security in India has always had a curtain drawn across its operations and therefore the costs of operation and from that the derived costs of tariff are very suspect. Apart from this the nuclear power reactors that are currently in operation and the ones newly proposed will need expensive imported uranium fuel. This fuel is also difficult to obtain and therefore the continued running of our nuclear power plants will be suspect. The bottleneck in getting access to regular supplies of uranium fuel from around the world has been the entry of India into the NSG. China has been consistently stonewalling this membership including at the latest meeting last week in Berne, Europe.  Russia continues to be the only reliable supplier of uranium fuel because of the good relations that India enjoys with Russia and the Indo-Soviet treaty. The support to India’s nuclear program by Russia is also considering their interests in the Kayamkulam nuclear complex expansion. It is to be noted here that the existing Russian plants at Kayamkulam are all above 700MW and even the new ones likely to come are in excess of 1000MW. So if Russia is doing things right, then India is either obviously doing something wrong or it has a technological limitation to go beyond 700MW. This latter limitation needs to be addressed. The approach of the nuclear establishment in India has earlier always been - We know what is good for this country and if we say it is good enough for us, then it is good enough for us. Such kind of bullheadedness will not work anymore and we need to be more open in the working of our civilian nuclear programs.

As raised earlier the continued foreign dependence of uranium fuel has to be broken for reasons stated above. We have the largest deposits of thorium in the world from which plutonium can be made. Why our reactors cannot use thorium or products derived from it like Plutonium or Uranium is something that needs to be answered? Additionally we have been working on fast breeder reactors which uses plutonium as fuel and therefore one is unable to understand why we are not pushing through with this technology breakthrough since then with the above two options we become independent of our sourcing issues for nuclear fuel and consequent linkage with the constraints imposed by the NSG, NPT etc. etc. 

At the time when India was announcing its plans to construct another 10 x 700 MW reactors of its own technology the world was moving in the opposite direction. India's commitment to go ahead with this large scale expansion was the first initiative anywhere in the world in the area of nuclear energy since the Fukushima disaster in Japan. Countries like Germany, Italy and others have been eschewing the use of nuclear clear technology. At this moment India is the only country which is jumping on the bandwagon of nuclear power in a big way. Projects in the US and Finland have all been running behind schedule with major cost overruns relating to the reactors of Toshiba- Westinghouse and the French co., Areva. In fact Westinghouse with difficulties on its US based projects in its deep South has filed for bankruptcy proceedings. These Cos. were supposed to be major players in the expansion of India's nuclear power portfolio with their plants. However the triangulation issues related to the NSG, NPT and the non-activation of the Indo-US nuclear deal has put the spanner in the works in these foreign power plants coming to India.

Therefore given this uncertain scenario would it not be wiser for us in the interim to concentrate on solar power considering that they have a shorter gestation period than nuclear power plants and where the costs per unit of electrical power are also lower. Moreover they are safer and we will avoid the risks of nuclear disasters which may prove to be very harmful to the high concentrations of population that we have living near the sites of the proposed nuclear plants. 

BCCI Should Have Sacked Virat Kohli From The Captaincy After The Champions Trophy Final

BCCI is continuing with the personality cult culture in supporting Virat Kohli over Anil Kumble in the should-we-say celebrated spat but 'no spat' between the two considering they have not been on speaking terms for the last 6 months as reported in the media. Just for blowing the match against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final Virat should have been sacked from the captaincy. He could according to his choice have been part of the team and looking at his age he would have capitulated to the BCCI decision. Ashwin is up to the captaincy and could have easily taken over the reins with Rahane as vice-captain. Alternately if there was even an iota of professionalism in Virat he should have himself resigned for losing the final. Aggression is fine but refusing to understand the aspect of a big occasion and looking at what the team needs does not speak of a mature head on the young man's shoulders. In contrast in the Champions Trophy final Virat put every one in the team both batsmen and bowlers andhimself to needless pressure. This comment is  without taking anything away from Pakistan's excellent all-round performance. By letting Virat off the hook the BCCI is allowing the one player albeit the captain to dictate terms.This is not likely to do any good to Indian cricket and will only lead to more such issues with Virat himself and/or the other players as time goes by.  As for Kumble he is well-regarded in the cricketing fraternity and apart from a rigorous commitment to discipline and work-ethic, you cannot fault him. His contribution to cricket is remembered and so will his stint as the Indian coach. 

Ram Nath Kovind's Candidature For President

Ram Nath Kovind's nomination as the NDA candidate for President has less to do with his qualifications and stature for the post except for the fact that he is a Dalit. The NDA is reducing the appointment of the President to just deriving political mileage out of it. The fact that upon nomination Kovind decided to call on Narendra Modi at Delhi also indicates that he is indeed obligated to the Prime Minister for having been nominated for the post. One may say that this is nothing new since we have had heavily politically obligated Presidents in V V Giri and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. But Kovind one feels should have stayed away from the Prime Minister since if elected as President in India's democratic pecking order, his position will be higher than that of Modi. Like they say at that level it is all about subtle signs and the atmospherics. 

Cow Sanctuaries A Bad Idea

It was reported in the newspapers that a Central Minister ostensibly related to Animal Husbandry has said that the government will put up cow sanctuaries on the lines of tiger sanctuaries across India. The minister has probably no earthly idea why tigers need sanctuaries or where tigers stand in relation to the jungle food chain. An interesting dichotomy will emerge if the tiger sanctuaries are contiguous to cow sanctuaries and if the tigers stray across and eat some cows because they are 'easy meat'. Then our present dispensation would probably kill the tiger and with one cow at least already dead, should we not have just killed the cow after its useful life. This would have had at least saved the tiger. This concept of saving the cow and the methods being mooted are absolutely illogical. We should be practical in these matters. The cow is a domesticated animal and is best protected in a closed environment like a gaushala or better still as part of a dairy. So the minister should try and establish a co-operative movement or fit it in with the existing dairy industry like call in the management of Amul, the largest and most successful of the co-operative dairies in India, and have them institute an integrated complex where cows apart from giving milk for distribution are also looked after once their useful life is over with the profits that they have generated in the past. If the scheme of mooting cow sanctuaries is to make money like Lalu did with fodder in Bihar and the same thing was repeated in Maharashtra lately when the amounts given for feeding cattle in camps during famine was siphoned off by the officials and politicians, then there is nothing much to say.

***************************************