Monday, August 31, 2015

Need of the hour: multipolar plural economic model


(No one asks how many industries and how much investment can create one billion Jobs: need of the hour for government of India?)
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There is a wonderful economic philosophy; a traditional Gujarati will tell you if you ask him about business: however meager the income may be, one should always be having a minimum of three to four alternate sources of income in one’s life, so that even if one source of income dries up; the other two will sustain one’s life. It is a functional economics that is fundamental to the idea of currency in capitalism – Transactional value in demand and supply. There will always be demands in life but there is also an inevitable life cycle for every particular demand.
One type of soap is not enough as people will ask for many, one type of toothpaste is not enough as people will ask for many and one type of rice is not enough as people will ask for many. For every product, corporate world knows this fact very well. Even as their one product does very well in market; they bring out alternate products and its variations to sustain the market. They know there is a demand for variants and also they know each product has a shelf life and life cycle.
Strangely when it comes to macro economic model, the same corporates tend to believe that monopoly alone is the economic model suitable for our country and in a bizarre approach, most of our influential economic intelligential agree with it without questioning!. They argue, industrialization is the only economic model for income generation in our country and it should occupy the central position in every macroeconomic policy by the government. To augment their position, they want to equate all parameters of human civilization including agriculture, water, trade, local economy, media, culture and parliamentary democracy with industrial parameter of production, man-hour, output and profit.
Sadly even as they have sustained economy through most of human history than the hundred year old industrialised economy, most of them will fail with corporate capital augmentation parameters of productivity and profit. Post globalized India since 1992 suffer from this pecuniary syndrome of GDP benchmark. Agrarian crisis of rural India precipitated by successive UPA and NDA Governments tells no other story. For a long time now, agriculture is considered as non-viable economic component in comparison to industry in terms of its GDP contribution. They have even coined a new terminology for policy support for agriculture, SMEs and cooperatives –Subsidy or in other words a liability for the nation and the same policy support when extended to Industry will be termed as incentive or in other words nation’s responsibility towards job creation.
But no one asks how many industries and how much investment can create one billion Jobs: need of the hour for government of India?
One has to be insane to believe that industry can ever achieve even one millionth of that impossible numbers but unfortunately our policy makers are convinced! For their unipolar macro economic model, they have systematically destroyed rural economy – or localized agriculture, cooperative and SMEs, the largest employment generators of this country, by eroding the fair playing fields, policy support and political justice.
The evidence of outcome is disastrous. India witnessed the largest agrarian crisis unparalleled in history both in terms of mass suicides/ migration and crop failures. Land and environment became the most contentious issue with massive popular unrest, discontentment and subsequent radicalization among the rural population. The unipolar economic argument for Industry and GDP based evaluation of human capacity built has eroded the people’s faith in the system- the idea of justice in Indian republic.
The European economic cooling that is taking place now and recent Chinese market driven global economic crisis and its consequence (and many such instances before) tells us no other story: the complete dependency on industry can unleash the catastrophe of unimaginable proportion to unsuspecting victims including collapse of nations.
It all points to one fact : the need of the hour, a multipolar plural economic framework where components can operate independent of each other to a great extend and one system’s vulnerability will not erode the capacity of the other. Elaborately speaking, application of the traditional Gujarati business wisdom: many sources of income will never dry a sustainable income.
It is not say that the role of industry should be reduced from national policy framework. Today, in world of economics and human living, Industry and corporates have a very large role to play in its formation and sustenance. Not only do they generate employment but also in an economically developing country like India, industry enable us with the capacity to resist and defend our sovereignty and political independence from global economic and industrial onslaught including global corporte highhandedness. The problem arises when it argue for the unipolar economic model of industrialization as the lone economical model. In India, this has been further complicated by the way this argument is implemented. Capitalism is implemented as socialistic model, where it not only seeks the tax exemptions and wavers but also seeks government interventions and incentives like in socialism to run the business (many corporate survive on government subsidy and state owned loans) and in socialistic frameworks the policies are implemented with capitalistic parameters of productivity, effectiveness (?) , capacity utilization and delivery! Functionally both frame works are undermined and failed.
Considering these factors, India should immediately revive, restore and implement egalitarian economic policy frame works for agriculture, cooperative sector and SMEs along with industry on equal footage. All of them should largely function as independent but interdependent at the crux. But value of the money should not be compared with industrial profit.
There is this famous wisdom, perhaps by Bernard Shaw “ A poor man in front of a palace will never be worried about the millions the King earns, but he will be worried about the poor man sits next to him earning few more pennies than him”. This anecdote beautifully explains the fundamental economic principle of value of money as wellbeing than profit. Its talks about the intrinsic connection exist between the wellbeing and earning: that one’s wellbeing is bound by one’s own related localized parameters than parameters of unrelated universal systems, even as it encompasses the total to that localized parameter is only a part. It can be operated under the same currency and for every economic strata of society, the perceived notions of value of money and wellbeing can be independent of the value and profit of the other strata of society.
This will generate the maximum employment and social wellbeing as these systems are highly localized and can be if not complete, but for a large extend be independent of the universal valuation and economic fluctuations.
If one count the number of possible jobs that can be created under agriculture, Cooperatives and SMEs, it will any day out number the industry by hundreds of thousands of times.
-It will bring the rural wellbeing, an urgent need of the country today, as most of the Indian villages are becoming virtual battleground as a consequence of economic and industrial policy frameworks pursued so far.
-Rephrase and consider subsidies as incentives.
-Give equal importance to Agriculture, Cooperatives and SMEs equal standing on macroeconomic policy frameworks. Extending support to cooperatives will solve the landholding fragmentation in rural India.
-Implement the industrialization of SEZ landholding across the country fast and treat them at par with other economic parameters.
-Let all these economic parameters be operated parallelly and independent of each other in terms of policy framework, implementation and in operation.
Otherwise the rural unrest is going to bring down the nation’s development as a price for their non-inclusion in nation’s economic process. It is already proven the capacity to unleash economic catastrophe, the unipolar capitalistic economic model of universal economy can unleash on unsuspecting victims and nations. Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand, Brazil and now China, the list of countries took the brunt of economic violence by not of their making (China could be an exception??) is un ending. If we continue the complete dependence on industry, India could be the next. Also there will be the rural unrest emerging across the country that can undo whatever left in prosperity as a residual in policy framework.
A Multipolar or plural inclusive economic model is need of the hour.


I am not a historian and neither has the acumen to interpret evidences but when i went to aurangabad, I saw a small piece of land where an emperor was buried under six feet of land and the few pieces of marble gifted by a british soldier!..it was Aurangzeb...rest of the story one can read
https://rationalinferences.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/aurangzeb-an-analysis/
Shocking ...tolerance level of society is at rock bottom today in Karnataka: Kannada Scholar Dr MM Kalburgi Shot Dead in the morning. He fought fanaticism and fundamentalism for long time. Right wing groups have been having problem with prof. for long time. Rationalist intellectuals are getting systematically eliminated either with executive power else with violence. It's time the sensibile humanity rise up to the occasion.

Gujarat burns and the leader emerges :

 Hardik Patel -Shrewd and Sharp. Hardik patel son of a BJP functionary, one point of time close to VHP, turned founder of Patel community front, turned AAP supporter, turned Patel politician at 22 is not a novice.
At his big rally yesterday he chose to speak in Hindi to all his Gujarati followers, not in Gujarati. He says from Bihar, Nitish Kumar to Chandrababu naidu in Andhra Pradesh all are his patel brothers ( Land holding class) and don't underestimate the 118 MPs (?) they represent in parliament. He is bang on the issue, at a time when the land bill and farmer's rights are dominating national politics, he lay down a grand political narrative, a front for larger farmer unity across the nation- a vacuum existed for long time. Considering his assertion to take this fight to Delhi streets and considering Anna Hazare has proposed to start Dharna from September on land bill issue , we can expect a larger scheme of things getting unleashed in the days to come in Indian politics.
The other important narrative he is banking on, the one that precipitated the present crisis in Gujarat: the non representation of farmers and small scale entrepreneurs in the new economic model spearheaded by both UPA and Modi government, a heartburn that has been hopelessly languishing in the minds of rural and semi urban people, now has reached to an explosive stage.
AAP encashed the SMEs in urban India and Hardik patel now grabs the other.
The current demand of reservation by patel community explains this narrative very well. A community that are largely engaged in Agriculture and SMEs that one point of time decided the economic and political fate of Gujarat, but with the Globalisation under UPA and industrial model followed by Modi, found slowly but steadily getting alienated from their dominant positions. Patel community found that in this new economic model, their skillsets - agriculture and SMEs are not relevant anymore. They realised the education and employment plays the greater role in this new economic dispensation. The decision to eliminate english education from government schools of Gujarat by pre- Modi governments have only accentuated the problem including the difficulty of employability outside Gujarat. The root cause for Patel reservation demand emanate from this reality, so are from across the country.
It is a systemic failure of our economic model where larger population of rural and semi urban population are denied their stake in country's progress and development where employability or income generation capacity linked only to the academic qualifications and that too in English. Hardik Patel now is cashing on this lacuna. He may or may not be a character of valor, but the narrative he is cashing on are powerful and certainly have the capacity to make inroads to all parts of this country like a wildfire. Political and intellectual class should not confuse it with 50% or 65% reservation issues of numbers. It is much larger and deeper issue of our economic model: Development without growth, where people's stakes are stifled and contrived.
If he plays the card well, it's look like he is playing card very well thought out and strategically, he and his cause is going to impact not only the Gujarat but the National politics in a Big way, especially when a fellow Gujarati is at the helm of affairs.


  • Piyush Manush wonderful analysis .. but what of the dangers of caste mobilisation and caste wars !!
  • Narendra Raghunath Piyush, let us not confuse issues of discriminatory caste practices in Hindu religion with these mobilisations of non discriminated caste communities wanting to identified with discriminated caste communities , even if it is for pecuniary benefits. Considering the social dignity attached to caste system, one who is better off in social hierarchy wanting to join lesser privileged, here in this case caste patels wanting to join reserved caste communities indicates the wrong as mentioned in the write up (non inclusive development). If there was an inclusive development, caste system in Hinduism would have went into oblivion long time back. In our country, In most of our cosmopolitan cities , where more economic opportunities and participation is taking place, we have lessor of this social evil evident. These mobilisation now started in Gujarat, is going to spread across upper India, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, UP and Bihar immediately. So let us differentiate these mobilisations as syndrome of a bigger disease: development without inclusive growth.
    Like · Reply · 2 · 27 August at 20:30 · Edited
Fact of the matter : final outcome of the Gujarat model of development : Development without growth.
Also one should not confuse these flames as brunt of caste violence, these are the consequence of 2014 BJP election campaign strategy where youths were promised the Moon. One should not forget that for BJP it may be a political gimmick needs only an acknowledgement that the Ache din promise was a "Jhumla" , but for the majority it was a hope that triggered their greed and aspiration. This is only a beginning - OROP demand of soldiers, Gurjjar in Rajasthan, Jat reservation in Haryana and Punjab, aspiration is surging all across the nation fuelled by Ache din promise. State after state the reservation will bring back the Mandal commission chaos back in action. Its now the paying back time for the party. Interestingly people still believe Mr. Modi's promise, not the party: if let down Mr. Modi will be let down, not the party ! ( Strangely even as it fails in its Hindutwa unity agenda: Most of them in RSS is having the last laugh by letting down the OBC prime minister smile emoticon )
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Patel-agitation-for-quota-in-Gujarat-Day-2/liveblog/48674416.cms
Finally dow and nasdaq also fell below 6 and 7% ! The much anticipated bubble looks like deflating to the realistic level. With 50% Global GDP is collectively emanate from emerging markets including China and India, the oman is very much on the horizon. Cooling off period is here to stay for a longer stint than as indicated by the finance minister. the worst is not over, with the crash we see at US and Europe market will reflect tomorrow at Asian market including India that in turn might further fuel crash in US and Europe. Interestingly no one seems to have any solution, other than telling us Indian fundamentals are better. Let us hope it is sound. smile emoticon or may be pray if one believes in God as commodity and currency are also crashing...
( but this 9 to 10 year global financial crisis is interesting 1997-98, 2007-2008, now 2015-16 ??)
It is too long and too far the complex issues of landholding Patels are contained with superficial " Hindutwa" religious politics. Their marginalisation in the new economic model of urban centric neo rich brought out by Mr. Modi's Gujarath model this was bound to take place. The murmur and discontent were taking place in isolated pockets among the one time powerful landholding Patel constituencies for far too long.
Administration has been mismanaging the rural and semi-urban Gujarat for nearly more than a decade now. One of the biggest lacuna in the system created was the engineered depoliticisation of the rural Gujarat, that it otherwise would have intermittently expressed and relieved the social cracks. Unfortunately, BJP oppressed it with a superficial "hindutwa" religious social engineering. Before one blames Patels for the call for reservation, one should ask why would one time powerful Patel community now have to beg for reservation in a supposedly economically prosperous Gujarat?? Patels owe an answer from politicians and administration.
The big picture is what is taking place in Gujarat is nothing short of the consequence of Mandal commission days of V P Singh. Today Gujarat society stands vertically split on caste lines with the proposed processions on 25th and 27th by Patels and other caste hindu communities.
The truth is more than twenty years of superficially de-politicised Hindutwa social engineering of artificial unity stand crumbled today in Gujarat . Global economic meltdown and subsequent stock exchange crash where urban Petals have huge stake will only accentuate it.
what is the strength of a "wanna be" emerging superpower or economic giant's foreign policy: a street gunda turned criminal can take it for a ride and channels presenter can dictate...wow!

Chapter from the history of kalliasseri - two articles by renowned journalist P Sainath
Two events that sparked off change in Kalliasseri stand out in his mind. One was Gandhi's visit to Mangalore in the early 1920s. Many, including schoolchildren, journeyed there to hear him. "We were all with the Congress then," says Rayarappan.
The other was "the thrashing of Sumukan, a little Dalit boy who sought admission to our board school. Upper caste elements beat him and his brother for daring to come to the school."
Caste oppression was closely linked to the control of resources. Mainly land. Kalliasseri was the bastion of janmi terror in the Chirakkal taluk of Malabar district. In 1928, upper caste Nairs controlled close to 72 per cent of the land. Thiyyas and other backward communities made up 60 per cent of the population, but owned just 6.55 per cent. Yet here, the drive for land reform, extending right into the 1960s, was to succeed.
To cover up the dissasterous consequence of their oil price game of undermining OPEC, when Saudi Arabia executes the dangerous "wahhabi" terror tenets through ISIS across the middle east and beyond, when Indian prime minister engages with Saudi rivals to contain the exigencies of energy security, geopolitical crisis, India's TV news media asks " Will Modi be able to bring back Dawood ibrahim?" smile emoticon ...wish we had some journalists in Indian TV news media!!
Tragedy of BJP is that it is in auto destructive mode. Excuse me mr. prime minister, not only the promise but also its implementation is in a mess. The bank deducted Rs.600 each for every family member mine around three months back towards the much publicised insurance scheme. Now they say they don't know anything about it and can not tell me what exactly happened to that money except it is transferred to the insurance companies. A nation level scam look like shaping up, where private and public sector insurance companies have taken us for a ride with the help of government. Any comments guys???

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/independence-day-speech-modis-enthusiasm-had-fewer-takers-this-year/

Friday, August 21, 2015

Vedik mathematics

A very Interesting paper by S G Dhani from TIFR: Myths and reality : On ‘Vedic mathematics’ 
TIFR.RES.IN



Alas... looking at the photos, selfies and countless verbosity overflowing over the networking sites and memorials, I wish if only this support was extended to Sri. M P Ranjan while he was alive!!
I am not making a blanket comment about everyone. I often found Sri. M P Ranjan, who becomes almost an iconic figure for a student during his or her nid days is being pushed to oblivion when the same student became a professional. Ranjan's iconic provocative, candid and fearless nature with no nonsense approach, the qualities every student's utopia, also created a distance when the same students became professionals and also for authority and the world outside. Most of them kept a safe distance from him as he often caused ethical, moral and administrative inconvenience with his provocative and probing questioning. With his integrity intact, commitment profound he became the last word wherever he went and whatever he did.
Few days before his retirement at 60, I met him in connection with his consent for to be the part of curriculum planning group at Ambedkar University's upcoming design school in Delhi. I was curious with his stature and contribution why he was not given an extension (also in Universities professors retire at 65). I asked him about it. He had a painful smile on his face. He said " when you have conviction, intention and integrity you will always be inconvenient to every system. So system will flush you out. It's a design problem. Either you continue to be inconvenient and move on to find a solution or you compromise. It is choice one has to make and I prefer the first".
When I see the activities around his death ( although it is very heartwarming) I remember those prophetic words of Ranjan. Its look like living Ranjan was inconvenient to system but his memories, that would not raise a probing question now have become a convenience.
Along with selfies with Ranjan, can there be a discussion on the values that made Ranjan: probity in system, that could be the real tribute to that wonderful soul.
A man who lived for NID, Lived in NID and left from NID. Still could not comprehend that he is no more. A design educator to the core, his love for value that he believed that design should inculcate in students : the one who question, will remain the guiding principle for design students for long time to come.
An idealogue and era is over.
Morality and criminality are complex paradigms in developed society. Notions of liberal freedom often confuses one for the other and at times defend one as the other.
The liberal outburst against porn filtering by Indian government is very interesting: the same boggy of people want the body/ their children's body not even looked at on streets, but wants to fight for the right to enjoy the voyeuristic pleasure of witnessing them getting abused and raped on internet !!
Religion is the manifestation of fundamental flaw in humanity : Fear !!
at the height of success all one derives is ego...sad
"I do not give up on my world just because others want to manipulate me, take me for granted, misunderstand my sensitivity for incompetence and my silence for ignorance... they don't realise, leaving them in their fool's paradise I've rejected their world long long before, so that I don't have to give up on this beautiful world where I can remain unattached to aspirations, unbound with heart felt smile ..." an old zen buddhist wisdom smile emoticon

word



In Twenty first century a word can not bypass its visual impression as it can not be from its semantics, sign and signifier. It is loaded with historical baggage, social construct and "narrative" associated with it that artistic imagination always renegade. The difference is the boundary understood from inside and outside.
(The sanskrit article made me think as an artist and also I wonder what one would have done, if one were to be the boundary of freedom or liberation??)

Why I would not mind, if India hang Yakub Memon


When the court sentenced Yakub Memon to dangling rope, Yakub Memon was not a pious Muslim but probably a surrendered criminal who might or might not have collaborated with Indian agencies. But the fact remains that he was also a collaborator in the heinous bombing of 295 innocent human beings on the streets of Mumbai, in 1993. Before that his family was deeply involved with the crime syndicate of Dawood Ibrahim, that perpetrated the rot on the streets of Mumbai .
In the court of law, it is the gravity of criminal intend that is argued upon, not the repentance. Let us not confuse and question the intend of judgement, since Law of the land under constitution is a procedural out come for defined collective good. Yakum Memon is given 22 years to explore all the legal option available to any citizen in this country and he was represented by the best among the best and costly legal luminaries of this country ( a possibility otherwise not available to millions of people in this country.) If he was collaborating with intelligence agencies, probably it was only a tactical deal to salvage his skin and perhaps not the sign of a reformation as it is now being projected. Like the earlier deal with ISI and Dawood went wrong, this deal also would have gone wrong. So far there is no other account by anyone , at least in public domain to prove it otherwise. So be it. Let him face the consequence of his heinous act that constitution prescribes. Let us understand Allah’s path is not that of vengeance, bombing and mass murder. It is compassion and mercy. When he committed the crime he violated the basic tenets of humanity and Muslim and when he face the consequence of his action he can not be just only a human being and Muslim. He is a collaborator in a heinous crime, now being punished through the best-civilised legal process. Whenever his brothers are caught let them face the legal consequence too. No debate about it.
Of course as a civilised nation, is it appropriate to have a death penalty in our legal system is an important question each one of us has to take a call. My strong belief is, there should not be a death penalty in any civilised society and our sacred constitution should not be reduced to a gruesome murderer. Since there is no study on earth ever established any connection between crime deterrence and death penalty, in twenty first century validity of a judicial process that hangs its own citizen is a shame.
It is also not to say that our judiciary or state is fool proof and guilt free. We have umpteen evidences where rioters, criminals and antisocial climbing the ladders of social acceptance, dignity and authority in connivance with colluding judiciary. But aberrations cannot be an excuse to generalise any crime and legitimise violation of constitutional trust, the basis of democracy.
Like any human being I am sad that one more life is sent to gallows. But so long as the death penalty is not abolished in this country, for the collective social good, where the accused is given best of the best opportunity to defend his position, when the court sentences the accused to a punishment it feels deem legally appropriate, even if it is the death penalty, I would not mind.
if India hang Yakub Memon all I would do is pray for him for mercy in Allah’s court- peace upon him.