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India and China are headed for a new challenge . India has all the ingredients to qualify as the next super power . Unlike the US , Which has arrogated for itself the ‘Big brother’ status , and almost failed as a ‘Responsible super power’. China might have a big ‘Trade Surplus’ but has a huge ‘Credibility deficit’. With no other credible alternative , it is for sure, that India can work towards being the next ‘Responsible Super power’ by 2025
China is on the way to be become the victim of the ‘economic crisis’ that has already hit the USA & Europe, and for sure , now its China’s turn !!
Wait and watch
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
Email : office@rajendragupta.in
It is an established fact that, Pakistan does not use funds that it seeks from US for the purpose that they are given. The funds are used for funding terror in India ,U.K. & the U.S.
It Is the right time that India asks for foreign observers ( Including and Indian representation ) to oversee and audit the use of any foreign fund in Pakistan
Also , we have seen two cases of Pakistan setting its strong hold in the Indian armed forces . We have just caught two of them ( Mrs. Gupta & Mr. Prasad ). I believe that there might be 100’s of such Pakistani moles within the Indian establishment and not just in forces and bureaucracy but also beyond . Time to act fast . Kargil , i believe , happened due to such a nexus !!
Also, over the last few weeks , i have see a lot of Fatwa’s issued by non-judicial entities . Why is our ‘Supreme’ court not taking a Suo moto action ? It should be made a rule that no religious entity can issue any FATWA or order that goes against the fundamental rights enshrined in our constitution and the laws of the land . If anyone dares to do that , he or she must be tried for challenging the law of the land !!
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
Email : office@rajendragupta.in
Clueless government
The 3G auction was expected to raise about Rs.32000.00 crore and it raised about Rs.69000.00 crore !! Normally , the statistical error is expected to be + or – 5 % , and that is the standard accepted level of error. If the government’s projections were left behind by a whopping 100 % , what do you call such a government ? Pranab da can rejoice , but not because of his colleagues or his planning !!
Same happens for inflation : Since the UPA government has taken over in May 2009, the inflation has touched double digits , Government talks like an astrologer that the inflation will come down in the next 6 months ( and this has been the talk for the last one year !! ). It does not tell why and how will the inflation come down ? Also, what is the government doing to bring the inflation down ? The government is heavily depending upon the divine intervention ( rain God’s ). When government launched the Maoist offensive , it was clueless that the entire battalion would be wiped off !! It just expressed its regrets !!
All this goof up when our PM is an Economist from Oxford, Home Minister from Harvard and Montek from World Bank + we have a lot of professors from Cornell etc. ……………….All theory and no practicality !!
Education reforms : How many people in India actually use or even remember the knowledge of what they study from 10th class till their graduation ? I for sure , did not use my B.Sc degree ( except that for some weird reasons , since graduation was the basic requirement , i have done both the B.Sc and B.A. (Hon’s, Social Sciences ) and even M.A. Prev !! ). I talked to a good number of my ‘well placed’ friends, and they had the same response . That that qualifications did not matter or help them professionally . Majority of the Indian population study for the sake of getting degrees which finally , makes them either ‘highly qualified’ or ‘not with relevant experience’ category . We must look at mapping the ‘Knowledge gaps’ and ‘Skill gaps’ and then do the reforms in education . We are just manufacturing Degree holders and not creating any knowledge pool that has monetary value . Some degrees in graduation should be scrapped totally . We are wasting our time & killing our talent !! Time to understand what India needs ? In most of the company boards i sit , i find that my CEO / M.D. is not able to find the right ( competent ) talent at the lowest level for the job ? Because of this , all major companies lose out . On one side , we talk about unemployment and over a billion population , and on the other side , we are having acute shortage of skilled manpower ? Do we need educational reforms or ‘Skill development programs’ ? Countries like Finland , Israel etc with just a population between 5 to 7 million have more productivity per capita (PPC – sorry if you did not hear this word before !! I coined it in Indian context ) than India . Unless , India addresses PPC in education reforms , churning out more degrees holders will just add to ‘Educated Naxalites’ in the next 5 years
Demystifying BPL or the Below Poverty line : According to Suresh Tendulkar committee report , poverty line for the rural areas is Rs. 15 and Rs. 19 in Urban areas. Whereas , according to Arjun Das Gupta , any one earning less than Rs. 20 per day falls below the poverty line ( Please correct me for my lack of knowledge ) What can you get in Rs. 20 per day per person ( Tea one cup Rs. 2 , Lunch Rs 10 , Tea evening Rs. 2 Dinner Rs. 10 ) This is the cheapest meal option ( Though ,i still have to find a stall that can serve you such cheap meals ).
Also , with this , i must highlight the following daily requirements:
1. Breakfast – 5 Rs.
2. Lunch – 10 Rs.
3. Evening tea and something to eat – 5 Rs.
4. Dinner – 10 Rs.
5. Clean water to drink , and taking care of the basic hygienic – 2 Rs.
6. Clothes to wear with washing Rs. 5 Per day ( atleast 1500 per year – two sets of an upper garment and an under garment and daily washing will need a minimum earning of Rs. 5 day )
7. Healthcare & Savings for unforeseen contingencies ( Rs. 5 per day )
8. Travel for going to take meals or get to work for earning the daily subsistence is not accounted for
9. Shelter to sleep, with bed sheet and seasonal clothing for winter and rain – 5 Rs / day
So, one needs atleast Rs. 37-50 per day to stay alive on the basics necessities of life On what basis the government calculates the PBL .
I think what C.K. Prahalad mentioned as the ‘Fortune at the bottom of pyramid ‘ , i will phrase it as ‘Unfortunate at the bottom of Pyramid’. The government’s basic responsibility is to create ‘Fortunate at the bottom of the pyramid, and than think of Fortunate and the fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid ‘
Our current Prime Minister is a typical case of good brand and poor performance !!
Time to think practically, and work more Dr.Singh !!
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
Email: office@rajendragupta.in
Via Email with CC to Rahul Gandhi , Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi & Sonia Gandhi
Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister
Government of India
New Delhi 110001
Dear Dr.Singh,
This has reference to your initiative of the talks with Pakistan
It is a good thing that the talks will resume . The bigger question is , if this is good for something or good for nothing ?
Put three pre-conditions for the talks to start
If Pakistan is sincere , it will hand over these three terrorists or else , it will continue its talk , shoot & blame the Taliban policy . And one fine day , we will be shocked to see that Pak nukes will be used against India and we might be wiped out of the map !! Pakistan will just blame the same on Taliban and express regrets . Above mentioned three Pakistan agents cum terrorists are the key to end Taliban and its activities, and anything less than these three terrorists being handed over to India is a compromise with the security of Indians and underplaying the nuisance value of Pakistan in future
Please do not take Pakistan on face value . You cannot expect a habitual offender to reform with just a dialogue . Pakistan is a schizophrenic nation
Diplomacy does not work with Pakistan . History has repeated and defeated itself when it comes to Pakistan
Take Pakistan seriously to avoid more troubles . I hope that you might not like to defend another 26/11 in the times ahead .
With best regards
Rajendra
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
President
Countryfirst
Email: President@countryfirst.org
Talks with Pakistan resume
Recently , our economist turned Congress’s Prime Minister announced that the foreign minister level talks will resume with Pakistan . It is quite a shock knowing that Pakistan is not even sparing USA Why will it leave India ? I am worried that one day Pakistan will fire the nukes at India and express a sincere apology stating that Taliban did it and it was not a state sponsored / supported act . It is high time that India asks Pakistan to hand over its most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim and then starts any talks . This will be the best proof of Pakistan’s commitment to India
IPL :
All those who are looking forward to action on IPL scam are fooling themselves. This issue will die a natural death as lot many senior politicians of all major political parties are involved .
Loss of food grains due to poor storage
Sharad Pawar’s made a statement that India is wasting Rs.58000.00 worth food grains due to poor storage conditions . This is the second term as a Agriculture minister for congress led government . Have they not planned for the same ? Are we hinting something ? It is high time that opposition takes the government to task and arrests this wastage . The government must come clean on this loss to the exchequer and the resultant loss for the public
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
According to the study done by NCAER along with the University of Maryland ,nearly one third of the muslims in the nation live below the poverty line on less than Rs.550 a month, and those in villages survive on Rs. 338 a month .
Same study also revealed that over 50 % of the Adivasi and 32 of the Dalits are leaving below the poverty despite quotas for over 60 years .
Mandal battle started and was won on the Gangetic plains , but the reservations have failed to raise the standards and serve its purpose .
Two questions :
Why are the quotas only asked for Muslims even in the recent debate on reservations for Women ?
Have quotas lived upto their expectations ?
Should we not do away with caste or religion based quotas and move to a financial denominator driven reservation system that does not discriminate on the basis of caste but on financial status ?
Time to evolve
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
Email : office@rajendragupta.in
All the major retailers be it Pantaloon , RPG ,Reliance or Bharti . All are shouting from the top of their retail roofs about their demand that India needs to become more liberal and allow Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI ) in retail
Let’s study where retail is, and why do we need FDI ?
A lot of people jumped into retail around 2000 including Pantaloons, Subhiksha , Vishal , Adani group etc . A few years later, excited by the ‘unsubstantiated reports’ from the top consulting firms about the fantastic retail sector , every major corporate houses like RPG, TATA , Birla’s and Reliance also joined the bandwagon. It lead to competitive retail . All Retailers were vying for the same space , same people & same vendors for a much higher price . Marketing costs increased but margins decreased .
Finally , everyone in retail burned their fingers and lost hundreds of Crores . A few merged or died a natural death !!
I have written earlier ( in 2007 ) in my column that retail in the current form and format was unviable . We see that , when we look at the closures of stores at all major retailers. I think that the way forward is clear , either you have to get into Hypermarkets or small ( Kirana ) format . There is no place for medium ( so called super market ) retail format . I see that the Indian customer’s fondness for variety and prices coupled with the entertainment options within the retail super space !! No other format except Hypermarket will succeed
Back to my main topic why do we need FDI :
What do retailers need to succeed ?
I do not understand if the retailers are successful , why should they have problems with raising money locally ? Any investor would be keen to invest in a profitable venture or the money can be raised from the stock markets .Rest all can be had as mentioned above via tie up or recruitment of experienced people from abroad
PE / VC’s do not invest in retail as it is not profitable and the successful model is still to be seen. Government must be firm that it will not allow FDI in retail , as it will definitely kill smaller retailers . Government should evaluate what the retailers need and understand their reasons for asking FDI to open in retail sector ? These ‘failed retailers’ will cash on and exit and the Indian retail scene with the opening of the FDI . Indian retail sector will get dominated by biggies in retail like Wal-mart or Carrefour or Tesco’s of the world . I see more deaths in retail in the times ahead. Indian retailers have still not figured out a successful retail format and that is the challenge, and FDI in retail does not have an answer . Indian government should only allow franchising in retail and nothing else. If retailers want to raise money they must either raise it privately or through the stock market
If we allow FDI in retail at this point , it will be like creating another East India company and India will lose heavily
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
emai: office@rajendragupta.in
To : Ashok Chavan , Murli Manohar Joshi and Rahul Gandhi via Email
Mumbai under Siege by water mafia
It is quite disappointing to see that every week water pipelines are getting damaged in Mumbai. More people live in Delhi and water is carried by pipes there as well !!
“In 2007, the ‘redefined’ Delhi urban agglomeration has (a population of) 21.5 million people against 19.3 million in Greater Mumbai. Why do the pipes burst only in Mumbai so frequently, and that too, during the peak demand time ?
Now the BMC will spend Crores of rupees to repair the pipes . Water tankers ( read water mafia ) will use this opportunity to supply water in the affected areas. Is it not a calculated move by the water dons ?
I suggest that a CBI inquiry be instituted in this matter . It is a 1000 crore scandal with the connivance of local government , BMC & Water mafia .
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
Email: office@rajendragupta.in
