In my opinion, allowing multinational companies in retail is wrong. It will kill the local industry over time. Nothing stops the MNCs from undercutting the local retailers and once they have gained dominance they will keep prices high and be able to profit from their dominance, this has been seen in all the countries which have allowed big retailers.

The West is interested in India opening up retail sector since it sees profit in it, it is not interested in building the industry neither does West have any concern for Indian consumers.Whatever infrastructure that the retailers will set-up it will be for their own use, they will not be interested in building public infrastructure.

Will retailers be ok with the concept of retaining & reinvesting profits from India within India? I bet not.

Everybody is talking about the benefits of FDI in retailing:
- More jobs
- Better prices for Farmers & small Producers
- Lower Prices for public

I suggest everyone who thinks on the above lines must read this article in Business Line (click here) It gives a good perspective of what will most probably happen.

The same author has written a series on impact of allowing Foreign retailers in India.
- Why the Indian model is superior (June 17, 2011, Business Line)
- Recipe for unemployment (July 5, 2011, Business Line)
- Reality belies the hype (July 6, 2011, Business Line)
- Remember the Salt Tax, anyone? (August 4, 2011, Business Line)
- How the world burnt its fingers (August 25, 2011, Business Line)

My opinion is instead of allowing foreign retailers to set-shop in India citing improved supply-chain infrastructure & better prices – Government could drive towards improving the local industry – make it efficient and competitive that retailers will then not oppose foreign players setting shop here. Government should encourage investment in improving the supply-chain and also compliance by retailers to the tax regime (sales tax, VAT, GST). In the long run that would benefit the nation more than allowing foreigners to just mint us.
This Government seems to be supporting the profiteers and ignoring the welfare of the nation.
Arguments about the so-called benefits of liberalisation since 1991 as hollow – probably today we have more poor than every before. Government has still not learn to balance between public welfare and private profit motive.

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More to read – Amul’s MD’s views – click here

In my opinion Fare hike was necessary for a viable public transport system. I hope that the undesired & hidden rise in fares that public saw in the past few years, in terms of reduced buses running on normal fares & more of delux & express buses running on all route but with all the stops of an ordinary bus, will make way for a more organised transport system with marked difference in the bus services based on types – atleast 40% as ordinary services and the rest a combination of LSS, Express, Delux & AC services.

Over the past 5 years all the long distance buses have been converted as Express Services so that they could charge extra. However they used to stop at all the stops, in fact the no. of stops have increased with more towns/villages en route making the buses stop in their places also. A trip to Tiruvannamalai from Chennai on Express Bus about 5 years back used to take 3.5Hrs with the bus stopping at only 2 places after Tambaram. Then out of the 120 odd services in a day we had express services every half hour/ on the hour. This made the service very popular for travelers going all the way to Tiruvannamalai. Today all the services in the day are run as Express Buses with no ordinary or LSS or even PP services. And the time taken has increased to 4.5Hrs to 5Hrs. Express Buses now stop at all the places that Ordinary Buses used to stop, making the travel worse for end-to-end travelers.

If the Government restores the structured bus services and increases the no. of buses then I believe this Bus Fare Hike is well justified.
On the long-distance buses, Government can introduce high-end buses that compete with omni-buses, considering the margin that omni-buses make and the demand for such services, Government can easily make money from such services which can be utilised to introduce more lower fare buses. Trains from Chennai to rest of Tamil Nadu do not cover even a part of the total passenger demand, most of the demand is met by private omni-bus operators who charge on the higher side (some times exorbitant rates). Government should think on this aspect and work towards improving bus services.

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PS: AC Buses are more empty now. 219A buses from Ambattur to Kelambakkam used to be jam-packed are now free with few passengers standing… impact of fare hike

Now what is this Deregulation all about?
Till now, the interest rates on savings bank a/c was fixed by RBI. It was reviewed occasionally (about once a decade) to adjust to the prevailing rates. The current rate of 4% was set in May this year. Previously for about a decade the rates were at 3.5%.

Now RBI has allowed banks to fix the interest rates themselves subject to the following 2 conditions:
a) Up to Rs.1 Lakh – irrespective of the type of SB A/c – the interest rate has to be same.
b) Banks can offer differential rates for money higher than Rs.1 Lakh ensuring that every customer keeping the same amount gets the same interest rate.

Now, how will this benefit a larger population?
Many people tend to park their money in SB A/c itself and not move to other investment options. Till date given the low interest rates & higher inflation, this money was actually depreciating.

Now banks that have lower share of CASA (current a/c, savings a/c) will be motivated to increase their deposit rates to attract customers. Similar to FD rates, now you can see SB rates differing between banks. (YES BANK has already announced 6% interest rate for SB A/cs)

Also, now banks may be able to give higher rates for higher deposits and attract more money into SB A/cs. Expect new offers from small banks.

NOTES OF CAUTION:
a) Don’t expect rates to jump very high.
b) Not all banks may opt for higher rates, esp. big banks may not do it at all
c) Calculation of interest rate today is on a daily basis, but like Economic Times says if banks pay the higher rate based on avg. balance then it may not be beneficial (read here) (My personal opinion is that banks will still pay interest on daily balance basis, but eligibility may be decided based on the avb. balance maintained – this will increase the product complexity)

The fact that the number of Hindus is progressively reducing is being proved in every census and also every year when we see the increasing celebrations of other religion’s festival and reduced celebration of Hindu Festivals.

Every attempt is made to deplore Indian & Hindu customs & traditions as superstitions, environment unfriendly, anti-people, etc.. But no one makes an attempt to understand why we have such customs & traditions. Take the case of Fire Crackers on Deepavali. Everybody will say Fire Crackers pollute, cause health problem due to the chemicals and high decibel noise. So don’t celebrate, don’t light crackers is the mantra that is propagated.

Everybody forgets that probably the essence of Deepavali comes from the Fire Crackers. Instead of asking people to not light fire crackers, why cannot the authorities enforce a ban on production of high decibel crackers and use of harmful chemicals in crackers. Restricting production to lower decibel and less harmful crackers is better as it also allows people to enjoy.

Time we understand our tradition, our rich history and learn to respect it.

The impact Dennis Ritchie’s creation has on the world of computing is un-parallel. C & UNIX are everywhere and both form the base for most things that we are familiar today.

Read this article: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/thedennisritchieeffect/

RIP (Rest In Peace) Dennis Ritchie… The world may have forgotten your contribution, but you will always near everybody with your creations.

On the hyped up usability part, I think people are again missing the point on public transportation. Most of the stations will be bang on the busiest roads in Chennai and they will not have adequate parking facilities , if any. Most people who travel by public transport will either walk to the station (if it is less than 500m from their residence/office) or use their 2-wheelers to reach the nearest station. One of the plus points of the suburban train network is the availability of 2-wheeler parking facility at stations (this is also in decline). This enables a commuter to come to the station on his personal vehicle and then take the train for longer distance commuting. However in Metro this will not be possible except for a few stations. This immediately reduces the catchment area for the metro usage. Given past experience we know MTC will not run buses to these stations from nearby localities unlike in most other cities/countries. So commuters will be left to the mercy of auto-rickshaws and share-autos who will fleece them and also cause traffic jam near the stations by indiscriminately parking on the road and blocking the through-way.

Also the fare in Metro will be considerably higher than the Bus Fares & Sub-urban Train service/MRTS. This itself will bring lower the demand for the services.

My Suggestions:
Avoid destruction of public property – give advance notification in case where destruction is unavoidable so that no fresh construction/upgrade is done to those buildings.
Avoid cutting trees – statements that we will plant 10trees for every tree cut are useless as we all know that even if the trees are planted no one will care of them and they will never grow into big trees. Transplant Trees even if it cost more.
Discuss with State Government & MTC – ensure that adequate feeder bus services from your catchment area to each station are provided. Think of Feeder services as part of Metro itself.

Idea behind Metro and such big public transport project is to reduce private vehicles on road.

Hopefully more level headed public minded people will be involved in Metro construction that we start seeing the benefits part of it.

I am surprised that we don’t realise that each country is unique & ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL. What works in West may not work here… Just image India where we have 1000 cars per 1000 population… will there be any space to park the cars leave alone driving it…

Probably economist need to start thinking and not copy concepts from the West. It is sad to see that in spite have a long history of being a rich country, we Indians still look at West to adopt practices. Most of the fundamental concepts were taught to the world by us in distant past – which the West built on and capitalised while we ignored and became laggards.

Let’s start looking inward, looking at our history and learn and apply those powerful concepts to grow rather than just follow what the West has done.

Surprising element is Muslim & Christian groups trying to give a communal flavour to the movement, probably they have been thriving on corrupt practices for too long that they are afraid of a strong law.

Every individual who has commented has looked at it from his/her own perspective, some I would say has even looked at the benefits for self rather than the society at large.

While I agree that a new bill/law is not enough to cure the malady of corruption & it’s execution will really matter in how effective the bill/law is in rooting out corruption. I believe that we have to start somewhere and force the lawmakers to come up with strong laws. If public just sits by the sidelines and cribbing it is of no use. Someone should stand-up and raise the voice and demand accountability. Only if public is actively involved will the politicians have some degree of fear.

In the 65 years since Independence, we have hardly seen any corrupt politician/top official being prosecuted, found guilty and being punished for corruption. It takes years to even file a case, even longer to run the case and finally lack of evidence is cited to discharge the guilty of all charges. In the process, more tax payer money is wasted on the expenses in running the court and sometimes financing the guilty to defend his case.

Corruption today is an accepted thing in our country, we are more willing to pay that bribe and get our work done than follow the process. Given this attitude it is not easy to eradicate corruption, there is no will to do it.

In this scenario, we need a leader like Anna Hazare to force a change and like all changes, people resist it and find faults in it. All who find faults can actually support it and ensure the implementation is done to the spirit of the law. But most who talk today about the flaws will vanish from the centre-stage when monitoring & enforcing implementation stage comes up because they are more interested in talking not acting.

Anna Hazare is doing a very simple thing – WALK THE TALK.

I think we should support him and ensure a strong Lok Pal Bill becomes the law, later we can form local committees to monitor it’s implementation. Probably we may need another revolution to ensure proper implementation of the law, but we should do it if needed. Flaws if any can be identified better when law is implemented and can be corrected any time.

Have a look at RTI act – though powerful, we have not focused on ensuring the proper implementation of the act resulting in poor disclosures which are against the spirit of the law.

One thing I would recommend to Team Anna and any other anti-corruption crusader – Educate the masses – Educate about their rights & duties, educate how they can fight corruption, educate them about various possible actions they can take under the law. An enlightened public society will help better implementation of the law

Question arises, why subsidise Diesel in the first place?
Primarily the transport sector and the agriculture sector use Diesel as fuel for their trucks & pump sets. Logic behind subsidy was to ensure that cost for these sector is to be kept low to ensure that the end costs of their service/product is affordable to public.
This logic has ensured that we continue to subside all Diesel sales even though today diesel has a much wider usage like in passenger cars, in gen-sets powering the posh houses, commercial complexes & offices. Today at least half of all diesel sales is towards these non-core usage. Given the rising economy and affordability levels, more people are buying gen-sets & diesel cars thus driving up the demand and with it the subsidy burden.

What’s wrong in subsiding diesel for  Cars?
Passenger Cars are personal modes of transport and are a luxury. Further no poor buys cars, most car owners have decent income.
It is wrong for the Govt. to subsidy private costs.

So what can be done?
1. Simplest wish would be to ban Diesel cars – it is easier said than done. some people will even argue about the mileage efficiency of diesel cars, job losses if car manufacturers are told to stop production of diesel cars.
2. Differential Pricing of Diesel for Cars – Good Idea, but given our Countrymen’s efficiency in corruption, we will end-up promoting a new corruption industry.
3. Increase the Excise Duty for Diesel cars – Very Good Idea. But what happens to existing Diesel Cars? Also the Excise Duty amount to cover the subsidy cost for a normal usage of the car over a period of 5years will increase the cost of the car by a substantial amount.
4. Increase the Road Tax for Diesel cars – I recommend this idea. Collect additional road tax in proportion to the Cubic Capacity of the Engine. Make people pay yearly or once every 2-3years.
My suggestion is Rs.10 for every CC of the engine.
During registration collect additional “diesel road tax” for 2year period and then require the car owner to pay every alternate year.
Yes, this will increase the administrative expenses in collecting the tax. but this will ensure that existing diesel car population is also covered and with the advancement in technology Govt. can provide online payment option which will ensure smooth & easy payment option for car owners.
In case of tourist vehicles, they are anyway required to visit RTO offices every year for a FC (fitness certificate), they can be made to pay at that time.

But why are the politicians not interested in doing this?
1. Most politicians own high-end cars that run on diesel. They are just trying to keep their running cost down.
2. This change will pinch the rich & powerful, so they don’t want it.
3. Car Manufacturers see that this will cause a fall in sales.
3. Who cares about poor and improving the public transport.

Probably only when we think as a nation and not individually will such laws be implemented in India.

I hope some State Government will take this initiative and not wait for Central Government to do it.

Or do we need Supreme Court to step in this issue as well…