Bharat and Government of India

Yesterday prime minister of India, Mr. ManMohan Singh in his address to CII (Confederation of Indian Industries) emphasized on ‘inclusive’ nature of the growth. He said “India has made us. We must make Bharat...vulgar display (of wealth) insults the poverty of the less privileged” His assessed that rapidly rising income inequality in India is a source of concern and it may lead to social unrest in the future. I can’t agree with Mr. Singh on this point more. He further said that people with money should not flaunt their wealth and there is a need to limit the executive pay. But somehow I smell political motive and hypocrisy in his statements. He was the best finance minister India ever had and he is fast turning into the worst prime minister India will ever have.

There is no doubt income gap is rising at breath taking speed in India. People who are working in the IT sector are earning unprecedented amount of sum. Whether their pay is unnecessary is not a question here. It’s simple supply and demand graph and right now, Indian IT is in high demand. Secondly, people living in the cities are earning far more than people living in villages. With service sector rising rapidly, it is no brainier that there are more opportunities in the cities than in country side. But even in cities, people with education are earning far more than uneducated. And, uneducated in the cities are earning far more than uneducated people in countryside. But I don’t think we can change wealthy life style of middle class or rich class. Last time I checked India was still a democracy and more ever, with adaptation of western style capitalism it is next to impossible to keep check on people’s life style. I mean, increasing spending and lavish life style is the solid rock on which western style capitalism stands.

I strongly believe that we should adapt any foreign concept according to Indian life style, culture and ethos. So, what Mr. Singh fits well with me but the thing that I don’t understand is that his government failed to do basic stuff that government was supposed to do and now he is asking middle class to curb on their life style. That’s moronic. No wonder that the industry in its report card gave this government mere 30% . The infrastructure work has literally stopped. The road building is going no where. The SEZ’s have become political fire balls. Dismantling of legacy government industries has been stopped. The inflation is going up way more than government statistics suggests. We are heading towards electricity shortage chaos. The security of the country is in jeopardy with recurring bomb blasts across the country. His frivolous affirmative policy is surely going to wreck havoc in coming generations. The list just doesn’t stop.

Indian economy is emerging challenge to China and US. The Indian government should work in tandem with Indian industry and stop foreign domination of Indian markets. In case if Indian industry start using predatory tactics in order to make profits then yes, government should intervene. But right now they are still growing and instead of helping them grow, this government is sabotaging the future of Indian industries. More ever, there is lot of stuff that government is supposed to do and it’s not doing. For example, government should concentrate on providing better primary education, better roads connecting villages to cities and better health care to children. It should work towards betterment of higher education. To believe that five or six IIT’s and IIM’s is going to take India to next century is dumb. If anything, government can ask industries to work towards establishing some sort of business model that will stop constant flow of people from countryside to cities. Or should start something like Gramin Bank to make villages independent of city economies. Dang! This list doesn’t stop either.

Rather than blaming conspicuous consumption of middle class and asking executive to earn less, government should work more actively towards stemming inflation. If Mr. Singh is yapping to gain politically then I am ready to understand his logic but if not then someone needs to tell him that he is an economist!

Globalization and future conflicts

Globalization and capitalism usually work in tandem. In the tussle between communism and capitalism, capitalism was conclusively proved as a sole winner. But the effects of this rapid transformation of global financial scenario are still mixed. On one hand we have enviable growth rates of Asian economies and on the other hand we have plunder of African natural resources as well as seemingly perennial financial instability in South America. Obviously, we have fierce opposition to globalization through out the world. With dramatic improvement in the telecommunication and physical infrastructure, globalization is virtually unstoppable. But if we don't manage it well then the rapidly changing world order will soon result into conflicts between world powers.

Most of the world considers western countries as a benchmark of development. And, western economies, more specifically US economy, are based solidly on the base of higher consumption. In their quest to provide luxurious lifestyle (luxurious as compared to the lifestyle of non-western world) they are gobbling huge amounts of resources. Apart from the fuel based amenities, free trade economic model i.e. globalization, provides opportunity for each and every individual to have a life style that for all practical purposes was rich game few decades ago. Of course, such a lifestyle is still out of reach majority of the non-western population. It is not only impossible to provide such lifestyle to every one but attempt to do so will have disastrous environmental effects. For example, if all of the Chinese population is provided with standard US life style then earth will be empty of any resources in just three years.

Sadly, increasing pressure from western countries to open the markets of India and China and pursuit of these two behemoths to provide western life style to their citizens is straining world's natural resources to breaking point.

It’s a vicious cycle. Without consumption there is no capitalism and supposedly, no growth. But with more consumption we have rapid environmental degradation and conflicts over natural resources will follow.

With all most 2.4 billion people i.e. one third of world population in the world embracing rapid capitalization, we should brace ourselves for drastically new world in every possible way. None of the western countries even in their hey-days of growth managed more than 3% economic growth consistently. On the other hand China is clocking all most 9% for last thirty years and India on an average managed 6 to 7% in last fifteen years or so. As more and more people enter in the class bracket of income, the consumption of every thing is going to go up. If their consumption doesn’t go up then the capitalistic model won’t work and that will result into immediate chaos. In order to sustain consumption level, it will be imperative for the two countries to capture more and more of the world resources. The problem doesn't just stop there. We still have Europe and US as kings of consumption and more ever they most of the world resource under their belt. And, yes, they have technologically advanced armies to protect those resource. For example, if US end up stabilizing Iraq then they will have the second highest Oil reserve under their thumb. Thus it will not only safeguard their oil interest but they will control over the growth of India and China.

So, it seems that future conflicts will be over world resources than terrorism. We don't need Oracle to figure this out. But the point is that time is fast running out for stopping such conflicts. China and India are rapidly advancing their armies. Though, it will be years before they can compete with US army, but then we don't need 'equal' forces for wholesome destruction. Few nuclear missiles sprinkled around the globe and we are back to the stone age.

Bush's Legacy

“Mr. Gonzales, do you remember the events of 29^th September 2006?” Asked one of the Senator. “No” replayed Mr. Gonzales. “You don’t remember that you had a meeting in your office about the possible firings of the District Attorneys on that day?” another shot at Mr. Gonzales. “My schedule says that I had that meeting 8 of that morning but I don’t recall the happenings of that meeting” replied out beloved attorney general. And, here I thought that general of the country is supposed to be an honest and intelligent lawyer !

All though I was aghast to see clips of Gonzales’s testimony to the congress, if we take a look at the larger picture of the Bush administration, it is not at all surprising to see such a high level of incompetence. Each and every step that Bush administration took, at least with respect to foreign relation, is full of blunders, inanity and absolute arrogance in both. Of course, that’s what is expected from an administration whose chief (i.e. the President) is as dumb as our George W. Bush. I have tried to see a bit of wisdom or a bit of sense in his eyes but naada. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He doesn’t know what he is talking about nor does he have any clue of what he is doing. And the worst thing is he doesn’t know that he doesn’t know. Of course, his administrative staff is to be blamed equally for all the ills. But the scariest part is that his subordinates are extremely shrewd and they know what they are doing. These rats are going to leave the ship soon but Mr. Bush's legacy will go down with this Titanic for ever.

Post September 11, it was obvious to attack Afghanistan but it was soon clear that bombing Afghanistan was by popular demand and the real target was Iraq. Now, every known living organism on the earth (except for the some in US) knew that Iraq has nothing to do with September 11 attacks. But bush administration first tried to connect the non existing dots on the map and later when their leitmotif of fighting against terrorism failed they changed their tune to planting democracy in the middle east. Even if we accept the new found mission as a noble one, the administration is doing miserably in that. The terrorism never emanated from Iraq (ahem, Pakistan and Saudi. Anyone?) and democracy can’t be forced on any society.

Thinking strictly from geo-political point of view, I am ready to admit that it makes sense in sitting near to the terrorist hot-spots. By having solid base in the middle east it will be easier to keep tabs on Iran, Saudi and on Pakistan. But by sheer arrogance Bush administration failed to subdue an already battered nation and mess up the whole logic of invading that country. They let the Bathist forces dissolve in the Iraq society. The problem is, these Bathist forces are heavily armed and posses technological know-how of bombings. Gosh ! now that was stupid. Thus each and every Iraqi in Baghdad and ‘bloody’ triangle around it became a suspect, a potential suicide bomber. Without any active support from the Iraqi society, it is impossible to contain the Shia and Sunni violence. Though a spectator of this gory violence between two warring sects, the US with it’s gaucherie public relation is taking the blame.

In the mean time, Iran is dangerously close in acquiring nuclear weapons and North Korea already posses some. Pakistan is double timing both US and Taliban. Russia is growing belligerent. South American nations are increasingly getting engulfed into rabid Chavezesque anti-Americanism.

Increasingly getting isolated by failures in foreign affairs, even Mr. Bush’s internal policies are seriously questioned by his peers. True he is not running for the Presidential election but it seems that his legacy is going to haunt US as well as rest of the world for quite a sometime to come.