Hypocrisy of the Usual Suspects on S. Gurumurthy

In times, when some vested interests in the mainstream media are busy creating a narrative that everything government does is linked to RSS. It becomes significant to get the true picture of the narrative being created by them.

When government appointed S Gurumurthy and Satish Marathe as part-time directors on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) board after an approval from the appointments committee of the cabinet. 

As soon as the news came out, some news manufacturers started whining that the appointment of S Gurumurthy is a reward to him for his services to RSS. Bloomberg Quint – itself known for politically leaned views published a story highlighting strong political leanings of S Gurumurthy and his appointment to RBI and threat to its apolitical character. 

However, they conveniently forgot that Manmohan Singh himself was RBI’s full-time governor between 1982-1985 who later went on to become the Prime Minister of the country representing Congress party. So, is Manmohan Singh not a person with Political leanings.

Some of the media houses targeted him for Swadeshi economic thought and nationalistic attitude to the economy. But some of the most biased public commentators again selectively forgot that his approach is no different from what Gandhiji upheld throughout his whole life as the basic principle of Indian economy – Swadeshi, Village-based economy with an aim towards the development of self-capability.

From Media’s Hero to Media’s Villain

Gurumurthy came to limelight first in 1987 when he led a fight against trade practices of business conglomerate Reliance. He was made an anti-corruption crusader overnight. India today published a story on S Gurumurthy in 1987.

Read the entire story here – check this link

But all of a sudden, He has become a RSS linked governor with zero Banking experience. This hatred of some vested interests in media for Gurumurthy is not new. He has constantly been targeted especially after he brilliantly and bravely exposed the so-called biggies of India Chidambaram Family, NDTV channel and Maran’s brothers. 

His work with Pgurus.com and column in the New Indian Express continues to rattle many especially the Gandhi family as his commentaries on National Herald scam are not favourable to them.

In fact, his relations with Gandhi family has never been at ease. Gurumurthy was arrested on the midnight of March 13, 1987, by Rajiv Gandhi Government which stirred a nation-wide controversy as per an article published then in India Today magazine. He paid the price for having taken on the crony capitalism widely prevalent then in the closed and inspector-raj economy of the 1980s.

Read the full story – click here

Shame that some vested interests are berating a professional chartered accountant, economist and a thinker who in recent times conceptualised many government policies. Establishment of Niti Ayog to foster the spirit of cooperative federalism unlike erstwhile planning commission that faked the federalism, Mudra Yojna for the development of MSME sector which is a major employment creator and demonetisation attacking the black money are some of his contributions to the nation. 

He was also one of the firsts who detected the rising problem of NPA’s in the Indian banking system. His appointment to RBI has come at a very opportune time when world economies are going protectionist with the USA leading the tariff war. The situation today demands economists to look more into the domestic economy and develop self-capability. And for this job, there can’t be a better person than S Gurumurthy.

When Karunanidhi Found a Good Friend in PM Modi

When M. Karunanidhi, a stalwart of Dravidian self-respect movement and five times chief minister of state of Tamil Nadu, w suffering from age-related ailments. Thousands of his supporters thronged the Kauvery hospital, Chennai where he was admitted. Situation became tense as the cadres kept vigil and wishes were being sent in from all quarters.

But, amidst all the timely wishes as his health declined, prime minister Narendra Modi did not just wish Karunanidhi quick recovery in one of his tweets but also kept a tab on his health for last one year ever since he started feeling critically ill. He visited M. Karunanidhi at his residence on November 06, 2017 and enquired into his condition. Some of the touching images of both the leaders during that visit reflected a special bonding that both leaders shared. 

Tamil Nadu BJP President Tamilisai Soundarajan, then told reporters that Modi had invited Karunanidhi to his home in Delhi for taking rest. Karunanidhi reciprocated with a smile, she said.

DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan said it was a courtesy call, coming at a time when Karunanidhi was making considerable improvement in his health.

This bonhomie emanated from the fact that both leaders have been the longest-serving Chief ministers and enjoyed huge support base in their respective states before taking the national leadership.

In one of his interviews to Tamil daily “Dinamalar” before elections in 2014, Karunanidhi had said when asked about his “personal opinion” on the Gujarat Chief Minister. “The hectic election campaign by Modi shows he is a hard worker. He is also a good friend of mine”. 

Why Rajiv Kumar, VC, NITI Aayog is right about Raghuram Rajan.

Before we come to what Rajiv Kumar reportedlysaid, It is not demonetisation but the rising NPA problem which hampered the GDP growth. Let us first look at how the Indian economy was growing to understand the background.

As depicted in the graph above, riding on the growth trajectory set by the government in 2004, India continued to grow at around 8-9% growth rate (at constant prices) before the recession hit the global economy in 2008. However, Indian economy survived the slowdown and continued to maintain the growth at around 8% until 2010-11. But, banks instead of provisioning for possible shockwaves of the recession on Indian economy continued to lend money indiscriminately so much so that loans increased from approximately 18.16 lakh crores to 52.15 lakh crores between 2008 and 2014.

But as the domino effect of the global recession of 2008 started impacting India. The economy started slowing down. GDP growth rate also started falling after 2011 reaching as low as 4.74 % (provisionally) in 2013-14 as shown in the first graph. Profitability of businesses decreased and policy paralysis ridden governance led to stalling of projects. Consequently, these indiscriminately disbursed loans started turning into NPA. Banks which were not able to recover loans started a practice which was reportedas ‘Evergreening of loans’ i.e. tactics which did not let these hurriedly given or ‘phone banking’ loans reflect as NPA in their balance sheets in order to keep the images of the banks and government clean.

Rajan was made the honorary economic advisor in 2008 and economic advisor to government of India in 2012 before being appointed as the RBI governor in 2013 amidst the much media fanfare, one of the headlines in The Hindu said, “Raghuram Rajan starts with a bang”.

With full-fledged banking crisis looming large over Indian economy in 2013, he had the task of curbing the rising NPA among others. He thus launched the schemes adding to some already existing schemes that enabled the restructuring of stressed assets to tackle the problem of NPA.

Some of the schemes launched during his tenure are mentioned below.

·        5/25 Refinancing of Infrastructure Scheme

·        Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets

·        Strategic Debt Restructuring Scheme

·        Asset quality review

Chronology of actions taken by RBI to tackle the problem of rising NPA is shown in the figure below.

Source: https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/budget2017-2018/es2016-17/echap04.pdf

These restructuring measures allowed banks to further continue putting their stressed assets under the carpet. Consequently, NPA kept rising and with recovery becoming difficult each passing day. Banks and borrowers both started feeling the heat. It is these mechanisms which allowed the structuring and restructuring of stressed assets without posing an effective check on banks and borrowers, led to piling up of NPA. Measure to assess the Assets under AQR was operationalised as late as in October 2015, two years after his coming to office.

  

This piling up of NPA hurt the ‘investment’ in the country leading to growth also getting hampered as banks due to rising NPA stopped the further lending and businesses started becoming debt-ridden due to stalled projects. They were not able to make enough profits to pay the banks back. This problem was first acknowledged as the “Twin Balance sheet Problem” in the economic survey of 2015-16 and was further explained in the economic survey of 2016-17.  

Economic Survey 2016-17 said, 5/25 Refinancing of Infrastructure scheme by RBI enabled, banks to extend additional loans (evergreening). This in turn aggravated the initial problem. Even commenting on Strategic Debt Restructuring Scheme, it said, “as of end-December 2016, only two sales had materialized, in part because many firms remained financially unviable since only a small portion of their debt had been converted to equity.”

Failure of Rajan’s schemes to address NPA problem was also reportedin media too as one of the headlines in Business Today said that “Why RBI’s strategic debt restructuring scheme has turned out to be a damp squib”.

Following the set precedent of not sacking a RBI governor despite his ineffective policies, Government finally responded by enacting the Bankruptcy and Insolvency code in 2016 to take a final call on stressed assets which required either to liquidate them or giving them to other efficient Business groups who can convert them into the profitable ventures and thus banks loans can be paid back. And, measures to structure and restructure the stressed assets were withdrawnas they were not effective and in fact, allowed lenders to continue with their evergreening tactics.

Thus, lack of proactive action, systematic policy intervention and constant obsession with the restructuring of loans (evergreening) approach led to huge rise in NPA. This had its impact on the growth. Analysis of Rajiv Kumar, VC, NITI Aayog that rising NPA has caused the low GDP growth has been reportedby others also. So, he is not alone in such assessment.

RBI as per its own preamble has a basic function “to operate the currency and credit system of the country to its advantage”. Raghuram Rajan continued to sit on the NPA without taking any sound policy decision to tackle this challenge. In the absence of any timely checks from the RBI on the banks which kept on restructuring their assets even during Raghuram Rajan’s term ensured that NPA rose to mind-boggling 7 lakh crores by the time he left in September 2016. With this piling up of NPA, as already explained above, both the borrowers and lenders were stressed and due to which economy grew at the low growth rate.

The Distortions in Indian History

When we read Indian history books, especially the ones compiled by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), we get a perception that India has been a country where Hindus and Muslims have co-existed peacefully. But, when this doesn't match with what is happening on the ground today, we are confused. The historians, who wrote those books, then tell us that it is the rise of majoritarianism in India which is why the country is witnessing communal tensions. The onus is cleverly shifted to the majority community or Hindus. But, is this assessment of today's scenario in the country correct? Let's see.

Not what we have but what we enjoy constitutes our abundance.

Shyam passed out from a prestigious engineering college of the country. His passion was to be a full time social worker. But he had to become an engineer out of societal obligations and peer pressure. He did not enjoy the high paying job that he got, having graduated from a top college whenever he saw poor children begging on road, his conscience was shaken. He did not feel contend with life, he was leading. 

One day, Shyam decides to quit the job and open an NGO to educate these poor children. Now, whenever Shyam saw smile on the faces of those children. He was able to answer his conscience and hence, started leading a more contend and abundant life.

Morale, Shyam may not have as much money as he had earlier. But he enjoyed doing what what he was doing. This brought him satisfaction. One may have all the resources, lot of money but until he chases his passions, he is not full of life - devoid of that ultimate happiness or pleasure. It is this happiness that gives the sense of abundance to one's life.

Leading Personalities - driven by passions

In Mahabharata stories, Eklavya did not have the luxury of teachings of Dronacharya, yet he was passionate enough to become a top class archer. He enjoyed learning it on his own and became a great archer of his times.

Buddha and Mahavira both left the luxury of life to enjoy their ultimate duty of serving others, relieving others of their pain led more content life which was abundant of happiness, sense of self-actualisation.

In modern times, Babasaheb Ambedkar deprived of many facilities and even basic rights, enjoyed fighting for the cause of downtrodden, marginalised. He in fact made this the goal of his life. He became a passionate figure who relentlessly pursued the goal of his life and gave India a constitution that was based on the notions of equality, justice, liberty and fraternity.

Baba Amte can be another example who served the poor and tribals in forests of Vidharbha despite not having much resources with him. 

Resources - Duty - Ultimate Happiness

In India, as the saying goes "Santoshi Sada Sukhi" explains goal of one's life is to reach satisfaction with whatever tangible (materialistic) or intangible (spiritualistic) resources he has. Because one's race for accumulating more will never end. Rather, He should enjoy whatever small or big he has. It is this sense of enjoyment that makes him feel abundant.

In this respect, It is interesting to note that a poor may lead a far more contend life than a rich man. Poor man may have a sense that he remained principled , moral through out his life. He was looking for happiness which he could get from anything that he liked and not just money. Even a rich man may have a happier life if he looks for it. He can draw happiness by earning more money.

Thus, idea here is not money or fulfillment of materialistic desires, but the sense of attainment which can be reached by following passions. If a rich man makes money doing business that he enjoys doing. He will also have an abundant life. Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantics Airlines can be understood in this respect. Bill gates, Mark Zukerberg, Steve Jobs all followed their dreams and became legendary figures in their respective fields. 

Tribal or aboriginals of Amazon forest, Siberia, Australia like many others are significant examples. They enjoy their way of life and are hardly worried about their integration into more modern society. They are more satisfied with their level of advancement and in fact oppose forced acculturation. Many complains that nature does not have much left. They need to take a cue from tribal's life. How tribal living in hostile environment of Siberia and Amazon Forest adapted to live in 'Resource Crunch'. They continue to live that way for thousands of years. They are happy because they enjoy the life itself. This can be summarised in the principle that governs their life "People belongs to Land" and Not "Land belongs to People" as the more advanced societies claim.

This is similar to life of a child. Child does not have worries about kind of wealth he has. He enjoys living life. He enjoys playing with others. His life is full of love, play and happiness.

Modern times- A Reverse Phenomena

Though, human by the very nature tries to accumulate more, thinking such tendency will make him happy. This kind of nature has been there since the very evolution. But, It got amplified in recent times with the advent of industrial revolution, capitalism and associated consumerism that breeds the notion of 'conspicuous consumption' and instill the sense of show off in the personality of man. 

Now man is hardly concerned with what he does. His goal is to maximise his wealth that he thinks will give him the maximum happiness. Once, he advances in his age, starts feeling that somewhere life was incomplete. But by the time, this sense develops, he has already gone through a less contend life. A scholar in this respect expressed,

Many people buy things that they do not  like, to show people that they do not know, with the money that they have not earned. 

This endless chase of 'more and more' instead of more self actualising life has caused lot of societal problems in the man's life itself. Crime is on a steep trajectory up the slope. All this can subside, world can become a better place to live in, if all follows the Shyam's way of quitting the discouraging life and moving on to the life that he wanted for himself - contend, happy and abundant. 

Urbanization and Solid Waste Management in India - challenges and opportunities

"New India" - is witnessing phenomenal changes across economy, society and policy among others. Urbanization is also one such change. There is fast increase in urban landscape in India. As per census 2011, India currently houses 31 % population approximately in its urban areas which is projected to reach around 67% by 2050. This fast pace of urbanization brings many challenges and opportunities with itself. Solid waste Management (SWM) has been one such challenge for town planners in India since the very institutionalization of school of town planning & architecture in 1960's. 

Town planners see both urbanisation and SWM as inter wined concepts.Despite lot of police interventions, fast paced urbanisation and associated piling up of landfills continues to puzzle planners and policy makers as to how to tackle this challenge.

Challenge of SWM becomes all the more complex when not only the fast pace but other aspects of urbanisation are also taken into consideration. Most of the cities in India are not post industrialisation phenomena. But, many of them are outgrown medieval walled cities like Jaipur, Lucknow and Mysore etc. India's metro cities like Calcutta, Madras, Bombay were once presidential towns suring British times. Unplanned development of these cities have made the case for SWM all the more difficult.

Further, Indian Cities are densely populated. Delhi - the capital itself houses around 11000 people per square kilometer area. Similar is the case with Mumbai, Chennai and other metros (Tier-1). In fact, problem of population implosion is such that tier 1 towns in India grew disproportionately vis-a-vis other smaller towns.

Dharavi in Mumbai is the manifestation of this problem. This is the largest slum in Asia which developed due to intense migration to Mumbai from other parts of country.

There are many other challenges also. Kanpur in UP is known for leather tanneries which releases water directly into river that has led to disrupt the river ecosystem. Lot of solid waste is also drained into these rivers. Similar problem is witnessed by Yamuna in Delhi, Musi in Hyderabad or Godavari around Nasik. Muncipal corporations across India see polythene as the biggest polluter to system which is not biodegradable and thus cause the problem of bio-accumulation and manifestation through out the food chain, leading to even death of cattle. 

Similarly, weak implementation of 74th constitutional amendment act and lack of autonomy have made municipal bodies ineffective instruments of local governance which are also supposed to manage SW in cities.

However, government is not sole responsible for uncleaned cities with stagnant water giving rise to vector borne disease like Dengue, JE etc. Citizens are equally responsible. Most of citizens, behaviorally, have not realised or if realised, not internalised the worth of keeping surroundings clean. Open defecation and uncontrolled littering continue to be a normalised activity. Recent activities by government to launch IEC (information, education, communication) and CLTS (Community led total sanitation) campaigns have increased awareness on the issue of cleanliness, SWM is integral to.

These challenges have met with response from government at various leavels. Central Government has launched Smart City Mission and AMRUT for holistic and cordinated development of cities in India. Government has recently issued new SWM rules in 2016 separating all three components - Collection, Transport and Waste Disposal. Central Government recommended states government to hire private contractor to provide end to end solutions taking up all three activities and not just one which has been erstwhile practice resulting into failure of JNNURM.

Similarly, National Urban sanitation Policy envisages harnessing energy from this solid waste so collected, thus converting a challenge into opportunity. Waste to energy presents a great manifold opportunity by producing energy from waste, thus reducing carbon footprints from other sources. Waste-to-energy if utilized properly can become a significant component of India's energy mix. India has to reduce carbon emission intensity of its GDP by 30-35 % under INDC's submitted at COP 21.

One lesson in this regard can be taken from Madhya Pradesh where government devised an innovative strategy for SWM and associated opportunities. Concept of 'Regional Landfill Cluster' under which cluster of 4-5 urban bodies have been formed and landfill being built at largest waste generating urban body. Private contractors under PPP are to provide entire end to end solutions handling collection, transportation and disposal. Five clusters comprising 27 ULB's are projected to produce 67 MW of power in 2017. Government envisages to cover all 327 ULB's in MP by 2019.

Above case is not the only example. 'Mysore Model' has also been a stellar example of SWM. Governments in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have already banned polythene, thus preventing the biggest polluter proactively even before the chain of SWM begins. 

Urbanisation and SWM presents many other opportunities too and not just energy generation. Socially, better cleaned cities have social well being which leads to general happiness and reduction in juvenile delinquency and other crimes. This in turn helps in building a quality human capital. Gandhiji also focused on cleanliness and went on record saying that everyone should become Safai Karmchari to keep the surroundings clean. He emphasized that a healthy mind lives in a healthy body. 

Also, environmentally, cities remain pollution free and solid waste go to incinerators rather than drains. This is also an obligation og government under Supreme court directives in M C Mehta case where it entitled citizens to right to clean environment under article 21 of constitution.

In any case, India's urbanisation can not be stopped. Thus, it becomes inevitable to tackle the challenge of SWM and convert this into any opportunity. If this opportunity is not cashed upon, Indian cities will be nothing but the islands of solid waste in an otherwise clean ocean of rural India.

Way forward for government should be devolving more powers on municipal bodies and direct election to the post of Mayor in major cities who can then be held accountable for apathy of local government. Lack of funds at local urban bodies can be tackled by issuing municipal bonds and other means. Government needs to channelise migration into all urban places and not just tier 2 towns by bringing in balanced regional development so that other areas also become attractive avenues. Rurban Mission is a welcome step in this direction which will even check the migration itself.

E-waste, a new emerging challenge needs to be handled in tandem with SW at least at two stages of collection and Transportation and thereafter e-waste can be recycled effectively, government needs to encourage some start ups in this domain.

This way, Government and citizen of India can catalyse challenges of urbanisation and SWM into great opportunities. It is this that will further the speed of development of New India - in the cities of which government intervenes at the time of waster generation itself.

  

Rise in Antibiotic resistance is comparable to threat of Global Warming.

The Day, Fleming was successful in discovering world's first antibiotic 'Penicillin' through his experiments on fungus, a new chapter was written in the history of mankind. A technique was invented that how a biotic element can be used to resist another biotic element. World of allopathy gradually come to have many therapeutic treatments like anti-bacterial, anti-viral or anti fungal.

The efficacy of antibiotic was such that it became so popular world over that many other local and alternative medicine system got overshadowed. Systems like Homeopathic, Chinese, Ayurveda, Unani (Persian and Indian), Tibetian could not keep pace with advancements in allopathy and anti-biotic research. Antibiotics were preferred for two reasons as they were able to heal the disease quickly and developed on sound scientific principles.

However, this very popularity and efficacy became a limiting factor to ever growing domain of antibiotics. Widespread use, multiple usage of drugs without proper diagnosis of disease, variability or mutation of stain of pathogens, competitive market for health professionals to provide quick relief were among some of the factors that led to development of resistance to antibiotics.

World health organisation in one of its report suggested that if international community did not take proactive measures. This may lead world back to pre-penicillin days. There will be lack of treatment to diseases. Mortality which went down due to such human intervention will further rise and thus, putting the threat of survival to mankind.

It is in this respect that rise in antibiotic resistance is comparable to global warming which also puts the same civilization level threat in the absence of enough safeguards or preventive actions.

Case Study - Resistance to TB

TB has been one of the deadly bacterial disease which became curable only after the discoveries of antibiotics. Scientists discovered anti-TB medicines. 

TB treatment requires regular & constant drug administration and negligence in taking even one or two drugs can lead to mutation of TB strain as it gradually develops the resistance against the drug.

Many TB patients initially and even doctors to some extent were not equally attentive through out the entire course. This led to development of resistance to Anti-TB drugs.

It has presently reached the extent when even the last line treatment has failed in curing the disease which is now referred to as MDR - TB or Multi Drug Resistant TB

Resistance to other Drugs

This is not only with TB. But Malaria which is caused due to falciparum is now without any antibiotic to treat it. Similarly, AIDS-HIV drug which was earlier able to prolong the life of patient, is now losing efficacy. Also, anti-cancer drugs face similar problems as that of AIDS-HIV.

This situation is alarming and no where less panicking than global warming. According to renowned journal Lancet, diseases like Malaria and TB are the main reasons behind such high mortality in tropical countries. It adds that soon malaria of all types and TB may again be incurable.

It is interesting coincidence that both global warming and antibiotic resistance will affect tropical areas & their inhabitants significantly. Humid conditions of tropical countries in Africa, South Asia and South East Asia are reason for diseases like AIDS, Dengue, Malaria and Ebola Virus. Moreover, poverty in these countries will further add to the problem as increasing cost of health care will make it inaccessible to them.

Reasons for growing antibiotic resistance

Though, Antibiotic resistance is world wide phenomenon but it is more pronounced in tropical countries. Let us analyse this with Indian conditions.

1. Neem-Haqeem or Quacks (non registered medical practitioners) are believed to be one of the significant reason as they due to their limited knowledge prescribe many antibiotic to treat the same disease which lead to mutation of strain. Recently, a newspaper report put forth the case of Norflox & Metrogyl drugs used to treat diarrhea very effectively but it is no longer the case. Doctors and quacks have moved on to high end 'Zole' ingredient tablets for the treatment of diarrhea.

2. Even MCI certified professionals due to competitive market are in race to provide quick results to patients. They end up prescribing too many antibiotics even for minor disease.

3. Developing countries like India do not have good infrastructure in R&D of new drugs but they focus more on generic markets. This prohibits the availability of better drugs in market. Doctors continue with same old drugs and this, then threatens a situation without drugs to treat disease.

4. Patients in these countries  are self made doctors. They visit doctors  or health care professionals only as last resort.

5. Practitioners of alternative systems like Homeopathic, Unani, Tibba resort to allopathic treatments to remain competitive in market.

Developed countries also feel threatened due to international migration of people and thus carrying the mutated strain in their countries.

Way Forward

UN report 'Future We Want' which was the outcome of Rio 20+ summit has focused on health & development of human resource. Another Report on "UN Global Sustainable development" presented on the eve of Rio 20+ summit in 2012 has also emphasized that sustainable development  is not only in terms of low carbon & efficient economies but also includes health as prime factor in sustainable development.

International community leaders have to come together at multilateral forums like WHO and also civil society organisations like Red Cross Society and Doctors without borders need to join them in this fight  which otherwise can perish the mankind itself. Man survived in the pre-antibiotic world period as materialistic advancements in the society were not at the level as today. But situation differs today as pollution, worsening air quality and international mobility has changed in the world and it became impossible today to imagine it without antibiotics or better treatment.

Man's spirit can not be defeated. Therefore, it is time that leaders, scientists take the lead in conducting researches to discover other alternatives and also improve current antibiotic mechanisms and healthcare infrastructure. 

Bio technology and Gene Therapy are yet to unravel their potentialities to the world. Nano Tech can further help in fighting several diseases. Constant improvements in antibiotic drugs and new avenues can go long way in fighting this apocalyptic situation.