Category: Uncategorized

Budget or Fudget ?


Thanks Paridhi for regularly reading my blogs and your comments . Regarding your observation on the price rise . Why i am not convinced that this was the best step is because  :

People like you and me do not make 1.2 Billion people . We are amongst the 5 % of the population who can afford a Rs.2 increase in the price or may be even more

  1. For farmers in India , the input cost has gone up for their daily livelihood with subsidies going down . Their cost of living is going up due to inflation, that is going up. Recently , due to hike in fuel prices , the transporters have increased their rates by 15 %. This will be passed on to the consumers . I always hear a famous line from C.K.Prahalad – ‘fortune at the bottom of the pyramid ‘. I must say after this budget , i would call it ‘Unfortunate at the bottom of the pyramid’ . Imagine the lives of such people who would hot have even seen a Rs.500 note ? Who do not know if they will have a meal tonight ? Who are shivering in cold but know that no one will help them with a blanket ? Life is not as easy as you read in the Economic Times of the Times of India ? It is a ‘hell across the bottom of the pyramid’
  2. NAREGA has worked well for congress  and helped it come back to power. As NAREGA was used to legally pay for who vote for congress . People should know the real intent of this scheme . Congress found a clever way to buy voters- No wonder the allocation has been increased for such so called ‘Social schemes’. I am not against congress or its leadership. I am just putting my point across for them to stop saying that out of Rs.100 meant for the poor only Rs. 10 reaches them ? Why ? This statement was made by Rajive Gandhi in 1980’s . So after being in power for 25 years , Congress has not addressed this question !
  3. Pranab Da is the  finance minister is for the urban areas , for rural India , he can be rightly called the ‘Famine Minister’. Due to his policies , the so called BPL families are living in the same condition that prevail during the famines .  Showing increase in taxes does not pave the way for a prosperous nation . I have seen on 27th Feb at Delhi how industrialists behave like Sycophants, and shower heaps of praises on the Finance Minister seeking favours for the industry, and they are not even a bit concerned about the nation
  4. Instead of addressing the needs of the ‘Common Man’ . The definition of the common man has been redefined . Anyone earning above Rs.3 Lac / year is a common man as the budget has gone all out to appease him with the best possible

Instead of budget , it will call it ‘Fudget’ – a fudging of figures in the name of budget.

Please feel free to share your views, and i shall attempt to answer them with my little  knowledge & understanding .

Best regards

Rajendra

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

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Sanctity and accountability is missing in the Budget – Rajendra Pratap Gupta


Yesterday, i was invited by the Ministry of Finance for an interactive discussion with the Finance Minister . I asked him the following question :

Question :

Pranab Da, Sanctity and accountability is slightly fading with every budget presented before the people .  If we consider the fact that government announces many programs and schemes and delivers partially on a few . Example is the NUHM ( National Urban Health Mission ) which was announced in earlier budget with an allocation of Rs. 50 crore . The money was not used and the program is shelved now

Also , the Telecom minister has failed to allocate  the 3G spectrum for almost two years which could have fetched us Rs.30,000.00 Crore. The market interest loss is in itself approximately  Rs. 3000.00 and Pranab Da you had to add 8 more services to garner an additional Rs.3000 crore this year for taxes. So are we paying for the inefficiency of the people at the helm of affairs ?

Also, You can divest the PSU’s to fulfil the shortfall for your generation and for raising funds  , what will be left for our generation to sell with such a widening revenue and budget deficits ?

It is our ( tax payer’s ) money,  and i need an answer as to what steps the government will take to ensure the accountability of the people at the helms of affairs and the sanctity of the budget . So that my money ( taxes ) are used productively for the progress of the nation ?

Pranab Da  was quite taken aback with such a question but he  did reply in detail and admitted that there has been gaps , and  that a lot needs to be done

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Email : office@rajendragupta.org

India is 1/3rd of what it is made to believe –


We must consider accepting a new rule which i call the “1/3rd India rule”

It is so relevant & applicable to most of what we measure .

 In India , 1/3rd of the population is beneficiary of reforms . 2/3rd still pays a price for negligence of 1/3rd

 India has 1/3rd of its population living in urban India and the rest lives in rural India

India talks about 500 million cell phone subscribers . Actually, most of them are multiple / unused / dumped sim cards . So the actual number of users could be just approximately 1/3rd of the number projected In India 

Rural per capita GDP is around 1/3rd of the per capita GDP in urban India Even the actual GDP growth is one third of what is shown by the government . If you see for 2009, Agriculture , forestry and fishing grew negative . These three sectors are the basic means of subsistence for 2/3rd of the population . But the government is just working for 1/3rd of the population ignoring a major chunk

 Till we address SME , Agriculture and manufacturing , we will be subject to negative cycles

For most of the schems for upliftment , one third of the funds remain unused , which clearly proves that it is not lack of resources , but lack of governance which is dragging the nation backwards .

 Last year during the recession , and this year due to inflation (exorbitant price rise) , India has pushed more people below the poverty line then we could have thought . Still the government says , India has been unaffected by recession? India still wants to increase the price of fuel ?? We must take our current policy makers to task and question them about the 1/3rd rule that is shaking the economy and dragging us backward . We are among the lucky 1/3rd of the privileged population . It is our duty to raise the standards of remaining 2/3rd .

Right time to accept failure


Common Wealth Games – Where are we heading ? Isn’t it the right time to accept failure?

 India thought it was a great move to show off and seek the sponsorship for Common Wealth Games.  Firstly, it was a wrong decision, as we needed to spend money on accommodating the huts and slums and poor people in NCR, and not on building pools and stadiums and secondly, India is not yet ready to host such events!!

 Above all, it appointed a politician Suresh Kalmadi to Chair the same!!

 It should be wise to raise hands and accept with the Common Wealth that, we are going to mess with this mega event, and we will face a bigger insult and cause inconvenience and shame for Delhi & Delhites at the cost of immediate priorities. Time to face the moment of truth. Politicians cannot handle even politics, then why give them performance & timelines driven events. We all know the real reason why every politician wants to head the sports body!!

I think , we again took  a challenge thinking if China can host Olympics , why can’t India host the Common Wealth !! A wild dream for lethargic and corrupt politicians meddling in sports !!

 Time to wake up Dr.Singh and Suresh Kalmadi !

Solution for water crisis in Mumbai


Water woes in Mumbai – Solution that is tested, tried and is working well

I have been seeing that the issue of water crisis in Mumbai is becoming more serious as time passes by. It has been informed that the water reserve for Mumbai is only remaining for 200 days. Also, that there is water cut of 20-30 % in Mumbai. Imagine, if we get poor rainfall next season, or the monsoon comes late! As always, politicians are still getting as high as 3-4 lac litres of water per day (Read Governor of Mumbai who has been getting 3-4 lac litres of water for his lawns etc !! ).

 Solution: Let’s see what Mukesh Ambani did for Jamnagar Refinery Township. The entire water needs of the township comes from desalination plants. Infact, for quite a long time, the entire Jamnagar town got water from Mukesh Ambani’s desalination plant Can we not implement the same in Mumbai and other coastal areas?

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Email : office@rajendragupta.org

Education or Food ? What should become a fundamental right ? Rajendra Pratap Gupta


India’s constitution was based on constitutions of foreign countries —————————No wonder !!

 The six fundamental rights enshrined in our CONSTITUTION are:

1. Right to equality

2. Right to freedom

3. Right against exploitation

4. Right to freedom of religion

 5. Cultural and educational rights

6. Right to constitutional remedies

The constitution makers of India borrowed various ideas from constitution of various countries . No wonder Food , Clothing & Healthcare was never mentioned in the Fundamental rights . Perhaps the countries from where our constitution was cut , copied and pasted had abundant resources to ignore food , clothing and healthcare but our ‘Wise Architects’ of the constitution did not look at the local conditions and need, and were more academically inclined to write a document then to go and see the realities and then draft the most important document for the nation ! More shocking is that , even today , our Hon’ble Prime Minister had / has advisors like Sam Pitroda , Raghuram Rajan and more recently Mr.Kaushik Basu again from Cornell University has been appointed as the Chief Economic Advisor. We have our own ‘foreign educated’ Kapil Sibal who wants to waive exams for class tenth but wants to make Education a fundamental right . Think that Food is still not the fundamental right and millions of children die before they reach the age of five .

Do we not have misplaced priorities ? With such thinkers having access to power to change the nation . Where are they going to take us . India needs four things on priority . Food , water , electricity & healthcare. Without providing these four basics , nation can never clock any substantial growth in GDP or raise people above the poverty line

We will keep raising the divide between ‘Empty’ & ‘Plenty’

Time to think logical

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Email: office@rajendragupta.org

office.rajendra@gmail.com

Maharashtra – Drive against non Maharashtrians – Rajendra Pratap Gupta


Maharashtra – Change the name

Over the last two years , Maharashtra has been trying to tell the world that Maharashtra is for Maharashtrian’s and outsiders are unwelcome and unsafe . Raj Thackeray has been sending out his goons to recklessly beat & drive out the poor and weak people who do menial jobs like driving the rickshaws & Taxies , selling fruits & vegetables and working as masons for big builders . Actually, these are the people who run the economy of the state , and their families back home . They did not snatch anyone’s job. Amitabh Bacchhan or Shah Rukh or Mukesh Ambani or Ratan TATA did not make it big in Bombay because they came from outside and snatched someone’s job. They created opportunities for themselves and settled here. Same applies to people from Mahrashtra who are well off and have made good name in all parts of the world !! No one snatches someone’s job .

 It is just the simple rule of ‘Survival of the fastest’. Go to UAE , 70 % Of the population is from India and they are well to do . UAE was built by Indians. Locals in UAE respect and acknowledge the fact that UAE was built by Indians !!

Maharashtra was built similarly If you just look at the word MAHA- RASHTRA and its literal meaning .( English translation: MAHA= BIG , RASHTRA- NATION ). Maharashtra actually means a ‘Big Nation’. I wish people to interpret this state rightly and then play whatever politics works for the prosperity of this state and its people. With such parochial politics of Raj Thackeray at play , may be, it is the right time to rename Maharashtra . Maharashtra was built by Christians , Sindhi’s , Marwari’s , Gujarati’s , Keralites , Kannad etc ………were they not involved in building Maharashtra , it would be a different place then what it is today There are better issues to address if one needs to do politics , and hope that our wise residents of this ‘Big Nation- Maharashtra’  would not get carried away by cheap and short time tactics of the MNS or its affiliates

Address at the Dhanvantri Sewa Samman felicitation function by Chikitsasansaar


Friends ,

Thanks a lot for bestowing me this honour and giving me an opportunity to visit this historic city

I am thankful to the jury for having selected me for this honour though I am not a doctor !

It is a real pleasure to be speaking with such an audience in the land of famed rulers like Chandragupta I, Vikramaditya , Ashoka & Poet Kalidasa.

“The town fallen from heaven to bring heaven on earth” wrote Kalidasa about Ujjain. It is a twin blessing for me , first to visit Ujjain and second to get the award !!

I have been asked by the organizers to speak for a few minutes on

• India’s healthcare system versus the World Healthcare system & the future of the India’s healthcare system
• Retail Chains in India
• Indian Economy and its future

These three topics are loaded ones , and I need to dwell briefly on the same

Firstly,

Healthcare in India & the way forward : All across the world the healthcare systems have failed . In India, we are placed at a point in time when we can chose what we want, as we are about to build our healthcare system. We are here not by design but by default ! I have always said , we must not import failures !! Recently , i have sent out a detailed note to the Prime Minister and our Health minister on healthcare reforms . Imagine , we do not even have a epidemiological survey in India , so how can we build a healthcare policy without it ? We need to build more preventive care then tertiary care , unfortunately , we are doing the reverse . NRHM & NUHM can spend a lot of money but these adhoc schemes cannot build a lasting and a result oriented healthcare system

Health Insurance : People are very gung ho about Health insurance , we need to check if this is the right model for India !!! Government run blanket insurance schemes make people irresponsible and careless and the systems go bankrupt , this is what the failures in USA & Europe prove. Taking cue from this, India must re-look into the entire insurance business

Technology is advancing fast and becoming cheaper day by day and this must be used extensively at the PHC’s and PHC should become Panchayat Health centres with basic telemedicine facilities . India is the youngest nation with an average age around 26.5 years. If we don’t focus on healthy diet , fitness & chronic care , our economy will collapse due to exorbitant healthcare costs and an ailing and non-productive population over the next 30 years .

Retail chains in India .

Retail sector is the key to India’s economy. We have more than 12 million retailers and many times the multiple of 12 million earn their livelihood from this sector . Whilst the media opened the eyes and exposed us to the western world, we have got carried away and are trying the cut , copy and paste model to imitate what happens in other parts of the world , without even caring for the basics !!

I will limit my references here to the pharmacy chains here, though most of what I say applies to other general retailers as well.

Pharmacy trade has to be looked upon from three players perspective :

Independent retailers , organized chains and AIOCD Venture for retail

We have about 20 + retail pharmacy chains and trust me , all are having serious issues with scaling up and profits !! This leaves us with one learning , the current organized pharmacy model does not seem to be working .

Ironically, even AIOCD got carried away with organised retail . Though my understanding is that it will never be successful in getting into total pharma distribution , retail and market research; as their history shows them as a cartel extensively into boycotting and arm twisting pharma companies to accede to their demands. With such a history , and with same people at the helm of affairs , think what will happen if the pharmaceutical companies become totally dependent on AIOCD for their market research reports & distribution !! Also that, AIOCD is looking at private labels , manufacturing , retail chain companies , distribution and market research . Last thing for them to do is to appoint their health minister !! Result is a foregone conclusion

Retail chains have their own set of problems and will take time before they get the ‘right’ funding & the right people which has become the biggest bottle neck for the success of the pharmacy chains in India . If this continues , the organized pharmacy retail will be eaten up the MNC chains that will find a way in India in the next 3 years . Also that, the pharmacy chains are not united to present themselves as one voice and this is telling its tale with AIOCD tightening its noose around them . Overall , the next three years will see more deaths in the trade . Already a few players have started showing up symptoms of Asphyxia

Independent retailers : Two places where no one can defeat them is a sense of ownership and cost advantage !! Most of the organized retailers are losing money in monitoring their business with its supervisory infrastructure . Where you need to gear up is customer record keeping and satisfaction . Add adequate stocks and join hands to do good marketing by adapting to latest standards. Most importantly, please look at offering basic health checks for the part of the population you service . In the next two years , I expect pharmacies in India offering chronic care programs . This is what the pharmacies should be doing in India . Think small , act fast and aim big !!

Focus on basic cold chain infrastructure , join hands and approach the government for putting you in ‘Essential Population health services’ and offer you discounted electricity charges and lower taxes so that you could have the standards to maintain efficacy of medicines or else , ask the government to increase margins to 25 % for retail and 12 % for distribution. We have enormous potential for employment and pharmacies can bring about change that can make the healthcare system more result oriented as it the first and the last point of care for the common man . I see a bright future for small & independent retailers and big MNC chains !!

Indian Economy & Future :

We must not forget that India is a great country and we call ourselves a ‘developing country’. Now we need to change from being identified just as a ‘developing country’ ! We have much more than our economy for the world . The World cannot ignore our contribution to science , spirituality and peace . Ironically, our lack of public activism has given us a self seeking political leadership that lacks original ideas and for years, they leaned on Russia and then USA and in all probability , will lean on China in the next decade. We are trying to copy models from abroad . Even most of our Prime Minister’s advisors come from Abroad or foreign universities . Trust me , we are importing failures . China built SEZ’s , we tried to do the same ………………why , no one asks how many people have exited the SEZ business !! What kind of tax loss will the government have when we are currently under a huge budget deficit by promoting SEZ’s !!

We are living in a country with enormous potential . Just check that 1/6th of India is under naxals , 4/6th lives under less than Rs. 80 a day. So effectively , what you read in the news as growing India is just 1/6th of India . We have started measuring our growth with the growth of the sensex . If the sensex grows , we see growth . Unfortunately , not even 1 % of the population trades in shares . Ground situation is that we have a very high inflation , lawlessness and insecurity, and we push more poor people below the poverty line due to healthcare costs and price rise than we push above the poverty line every year

Go and check a crowded general compartment in Indian railways . People are seated in toilets to reach their destination. Looks like a scene of partition days . Why do we witness such a scene after more than 60 years of Independence ? Can railways not increase the coaches or trains ? Will this not make the lives of a common man better and earn more revenue for the government & add to the development of this nation ?

A few days back there was a hue and cry on Shashi Tharoor and S.M.Krishna staying in five stars hotels. Government announced an austerity drive. This week , government passed a bill allowing ministers to travel with families and relatives 48 times a year !!! Don’t forget , government’s money is not someone else’s , it is our money and we are letting all this happen with our eyes open and mouths closed. A time to get into action . But the government is least concerned as we are . We only speak , government also speaks; when we will act , government will also act! Government mirrors its citizens in actions

Finally , I must say that the government must focus on Agriculture , industrial production and SME’s for making India a progressive nation . All industries can fail but not agriculture & industries into daily needs

Lastly, i must touch the topic all the major nations for fighting for – Climate change

We should carefully commit to emission cuts keeping in view that we are far from industrialized . India must focus on emission per capita rather than ‘committing percentage cuts’. If you see the rough emission trends of the global emissions , India emits about 5%, Europe about 11 %, China about 15 % and USA about 20 %. Compare the population size and emissions and then decide . At maximum , we must stick to standards for emission norms and not commit summary cuts , even self imposed .

Even the World Bank’s study has contradicted the governments claims made that India can achieve an emission intensity target of 20-25 % below 2005 levels by 2020. It wonders how it is possible when the capital costs in setting up cleaner grid power could rise by 15-25 %. Though capital cost is only one of the several cost factors . Government’s claim was based on the home work done by the planning commission .

With this , i must thank you for patiently hearing me and enjoy the speakers ahead

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Plenary address at the India Health Summit 2009- Rajendra Pratap Gupta


Plenary address at the India Health Summit 2009, Rajendra Pratap Gupta, President, DMAI & Director, DMAA- The Care Continuum Alliance, USA

Dear Friends,

This is an interesting audience which includes policy makers and those who can influence policy makers. I have a short message for you all. I feel so great about our nation. The developed world has failed in healthcare, and fortunately, in India, we are starting to build our healthcare system. This is the time when we can have the strong fundamentals ingrained in our population health improvement model

According to Kaiser Family Foundation the healthiest 50 % of Americans account for just 3 % of the annual spending; the sickest 15 % represents nearly 75 %. Half of the spending goes to those 55 and over, a third to those over 65 and over. In Europe, the chronic care accounts for 70 % of the healthcare expenses.

Today, we are the youngest nation with an average age of approximately 26.5 years, 30 years from now; we will be the oldest nation. Also, that we will become older before we become wealthier.

At present, we are not able to provide healthcare to more than 65 % of our population, and we are growing in numbers and age both. If we don’t pay attention to preventive healthcare, our health systems will soon become over burdened, under-funded and outdated as well.

This sums up clearly that we need primary preventive care as the starting point for healthcare and secondary preventive care in the continuum of care. We have the best of tertiary care in India but preventive care is missing!!
I believe that the biggest threat to our healthcare system is our generation. Our ‘lifestyle’ will lead to ‘disorders’ that will become the ‘Chronic diseases’ for us, and ‘Genetic disorders’ for our very own next generation. It is a call to action.

I must reach out to you all the come and participate in the three Global campaigns that I am starting at the Disease Management association of India

1. Red Flag campaign – If you have BMI above 23. Work Hard. Did you all ever think that having a BMI at 25 is being at borderline and being predisposed to chronic risks!! Let’s try and get it at 23. A healthier India should be our goal
2. Blue Building Campaign – We have green buildings to conserve energy. What about conserving health and becoming more employee health friendly. let’s have blue buildings, where the employers are proactive about employees health
3. Eat more, Burn more campaign. Have the RDA for each lifestyle. Live happy, live healthy. If you eat more, don’t feel guilty and regret, just you need to work out a little more and burn the extra calories. Isn’t that simple.

Thank you.

Vulgar Salaries – Indian Corporate World


Mr.Salmaan Khurshid
Union Minister for Corporate Affairs
Government of India
New Delhi

Dear Mr. Khurshid ,

I wish to put my view point on your statement made a few days ago on the Vulgar salaries. Since i was travelling so i could not send this earlier .

Recently there has been a lot of hue and cry created due to a statement made by you. Earlier a similar statement had come from Dr. Manmohan Singh. According to you, corporate honchos are drawing salaries that are 12500 times the per capita income of this nation

I am not at all happy with your statement . I recall my letter to Dr. Manmohan Singh in January 09, wherein i requested that the salaries of the public representatives must be made more lucrative to attract the best brains

Also, that I must walk you through some of the realities in the corporate world and the politician’s working so as to make a correct assessment and a logical conclusion.

Firstly , Mr.Salmaan Khurshid , you must question why the governments in the last 62 years have not been able to increase the per capita income in this nation ? If the per capita income would have grown sufficiently , then you would not have a devastating comparison of 1:12500 ? Prime Facie your governments are at a fault for the backward development of this nation on the basis of caste and regions , and focussing on the real issues

Also , that the corporate world have created wealth for the nation and politicians have taken the nation’s wealth to Swiss Banks ? Did you take this into account before your statement ?

Corporates have created millions of Jobs. Be it TATA’s , Birla’s , RPG or Reliance or any big or even the smallest corporate house . These people have a lot of responsibility to deliver & risks to take at the cost of their family and social life. Still of whatever they earn , you ( i mean the government ) takes 50 % as taxes , both direct and indirect taxes. Needless to mention, about the income that government makes from the corporate taxes that the companies pay due to the hard work and intelligence of these executives !! . If they earn Rs.50 crore a year after delivering billion of dollars for the nation’s economy & creating lacs of jobs, what is wrong in that ? You forget that Ambani’s themselves contribute about 10 % to the total tax kitty of this nation ? What an irony that you would pat your back with his 60 % voluntary salary cut . Anyways, he has his net worth in billions of dollars as stakes in RIL etc…….. You must think of nationalising his stake in RIL

Did you also take into account the CSR ( Corporate social responsibility ) that the corporates undertake ?

Mr. Minister , did you ever consider that government run companies are ‘Toxic assets’ till your people run it, and they become ‘Exotic assets ’ once they are privatised !! Because when you pay peanuts , you get monkeys !!

Today , you go all over the world and scream of the India’s IT & Telecom numbers . This is done due to the hard work of Private CEO’s and not political monkeys !! You had the monopoly of BSNL & MTNL . What great job have you done despite the monopoly ? You privatised VSNL to TATA’s and it is doing good. You could not make good business out of it. In the 60’s when the private sector wanted to grow you licensed it and even nationalised it, claiming it was the right thing to do . After messing it for 40 years , now you are privatising and you believe that it is the best thing to do ? Are you not fooling the public ? You all are privatising as you don’t have the money to run the government !! That’s the truth .

Let me show you what you politicians do. Here are some examples

Centaur hotel at Mumbai airport was sold to Batra Hospitality for Rs. 85 crore . Without doing anything , Batra Hospitality sold it to Sahara for Rs. 143 Crore within a few weeks . And its occupancy is 100 % at any given point in time. What was your minister doing when Centaur failed to deliver ? What was the basis of his selling to Batra and not to Sahara directly ? Reason out why the hotel was sold at such a low cost to Batra Hospitality ? Government lost due to a minister that was not at all as competent as Batra Hospitality executives or …………………..

Your Current Civil Aviation minister had lost the election in 2004, despite that he was made the minister . Under his leadership, Indian airlines would stand to lose Rs.5000 Crores this year . Is this how a corporate CEO performs when he takes the so called ‘Vulgar’ salaries? Give me one example in India where the CEO gives such a humongous loss and still continues !!

India is facing an unprecedented shortage of agriculture products ( grains etc due to erratic and insufficient rains ). Please check the rule book of the FCI (Food corporation of India ) godowns ( warehouses ). 2.5 % of wastage is permissible ( please correct me , i may be wrong on this info). This means for one lac ton of grains , 2500 tons of wastage is permissible !! How efficient is this ? Please privatise and see the magic !!

Mr. Telecom Minister is delaying the allocation of 3G spectrum. It is estimated that the spectrum allocation would earn the government anywhere between Rs.20000 to 35000 crore . Ministry has already delayed the spectrum allocation by more than a year . If he takes it to two years . Just the interest loss to the government on the spectrum fees would be as high as Rs. 7000 crore ? Wish you had a corporate CEO taking Rs.100 Crore a year salary and saving you Rs.6900 crore ( Assuming a loss of Rs.7000 crore on the interest income ) ? Does it sound ‘Vulgar’ ? And , interestingly, even after giving such a massive loss to the government exchequer . Your minister has the ‘Cheeks’ to make tall statements and he is not accountable . Had it been a corporate CEO issue , he would have been removed ‘unceremoniously’ from the board , and his career would have ended forever !!

Sometime in 2007,i had a chance to meet once of the relatives of your Telecom Minister Mr.A.Raja . His relative asked for 10 lacs to make ten calls on behalf of the Minister to corporates irrespective of the outcome . What a business model ? Dare to act ? Please initiate a CBI inquiry against Mr.Raja’s assets and the truth should be out .

Earlier , you had the license Raj that killed the corporate world . Now you are trying to license the salaries ? Do you want corporate CEO’s to meet the Minister for taking approval of the salary hikes ? So that you all can start making money on corporate salaries ? Have some shame Mr. Minister !

When parties go to collect donations for the elections , why do you not talk about this ‘Vulgar salaries’. Shamelessly, you collect money from corporates and then have the ‘balls’ to talk nonsense !!

Do you also have a figure of the cost of buying an M.P’s vote in the ‘floor test’ of the house ? For an ordinary MLA it is about 50 core !! That’s what we have always heard or read in the news . Does this not sound ‘Vulgar’

When your allies ask for ‘Plum postings’ in Ministries what does it mean ?

Mr. Khurshid, let us check what the Minister’s take as salaries and perks:

• Average minister get’s an M.P.’s basic salary of Rs.1.92 Lac per annum
• Rs.24000 additional
• A Bungalow in Delhi – Costs upwards of Rs. 200 crore at today’s prices and would mean a rental of Rs.60 lacs a year
• A staff strength of 16 for cabinet ministers and 13 for Deputy ministers
• Plus Security Guards
• A fleet of three cars with Petrol ???
• Unlimited domestic and international calls
• Now ‘Cattle Class’ travel and also private jet’s and government choppers used for luxury travel – cost cannot be calculated off hand .
• A MPLAD fund of Rs. 2 crore for expenditure
• Above all . No accountability !!

Do you think that an M.P. can represent 1.9 million people and win an election at these salaries and perks ? unofficially , the average cost of becoming an M.P. is Rs. 20 crore . That is the reason that most of the current lot of M.P’s are either owners of media houses , educations trusts , shady businessmen or sons and daughters of politicians .Pay decent salaries to your M.P’s, rather than being jealous of the corporate salaries !! Corruption in politics is only, because all of us expect a lot from our politicians and they are grossly underpaid . My view point is , that each M.P. represents an average of 1.9 million citizen, and they must be paid a between Rs.5-10 crore per year as salary to get the best out of them.

With 545 M.P’s in Lok Sabha and 245 in Rajya Sabha working for this nation . We still had a staggering fiscal deficit of Rs. 2,10,000 crore in January 2009 and counting . It works out to a loss of Rs.575 cores a day , 23.95 crore per hour or Approx. Rs.40 Lac a minute. Does it not make sense to pay each M.P. a salary of Rs.5 -10 crore a year and get the best brains ? You all are penny wise and pound foolish policy makers !!

What a colossal opportunity loss for India due to ‘mediocre brains’ and ‘low salaries’. Please re-consider the salaries, and we ( at least i would be for sure ! ) would be glad to join !!

I know that recently , Mukesh Bhai decided to take a 60 % cut in his salary so Salmaan Khurshid can pat his back . Don’t take common man for a ride Salmaan Sahab . Your statements are a proof of your getting distracted by handling the ministry of corporate affairs . You should be made either the rural development minister , NAREGA , JNRHM or the minister of telecom . Your mouth would be shut for the next few years !! After all they are ‘Plum postings’ !!

Don’t forget that until 1980’s India was only known for poverty , population & corruption. It is the private sector that has taken India where it is today. Don’t try and meddle with the sector

Though , i must make a point that a very few corporate CEO’s in India take a salary of about Rs.10 crore or more . They are a handful in a land of 1.2 billion . Pray to God that we have more such CEO’s so that India can grow more . I want a wealthy India . You might say it is ‘Vulgar ‘ to think so !

Regret to write to you this email, but can’t stop expressing the thoughts

With no wishes or regards

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

President
Countryfirst
office@rajendragupta.org
President@countryfirst.org
+91-922 33 44 542

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