As per the oil ministry, the county can no longer take up the subsidy provided to the oil companies and therefore, oil prices are deregulated and will be more market driven. Effect - end consumers will pay a lot more for oil, while the oil companies and the government will laugh their way to the bank.
While I am sure the subsidy given to the oil companies must definitely add up to become a burden for the government, but then the government also makes lot of money through the tax and cess on oil and oil products. And the most important question that comes to my mind is this - if the government could provide the subsidy when crude oil prices were at a historical high last year (around $147 per barrel), why can't the government provide the subsidy now that the prices are almost halved.
Most of you readers can infer that I am coming out with some conspiracy theory, but I for one believe deregulation of oil prices has a lot more to do with RIL's ability to keep up its fuel pumps business, then with subsidy. Because I remember that the government came out with oil bonds last year to support the PSUs during the high crude price period. And Mukesh Ambani had closed fuel retailing stations with the reason that Reliance could no longer operate with the regulated rates of Petrol and Diesel and that oil bonds were not allowed for private companies. With the regulated prices out of the way, oil companies will have to move prices as per the global rates. Effect, Reliance will offer nearly the same petrol and diesel rates as the PSUs and the common man will bear the brunt.
I am sure the government will definitely come out with a way to subsidize fuel for the voter class, or people in the lower-middle and lower class.
7.21.2010
6.08.2010
Republic Day - a consumeristic approach
26th January - Republic day. The day the constitution of this country came into force. The day we are to mark as a respect to the struggles of the freedom fighters, the struggle of establishing a sovereign, democratic republic which is to assure its citizens justice, freedom and liberty.
Pretty serious words and serious ideas. Stark contrast from reality of celebrating the Republic Day in one of the many areas of Lonavala, Mahableshwar, Goa or even Malaysia, Thailand, etc. Better yet - we have shopping bonanza's on Republic day. 'Sabse Sasta Din', '50% off - Republic Day Sale - Hurry". Republic Day has become just one of those holidays in this country - better if it falls close to the weekend.
Pretty serious words and serious ideas. Stark contrast from reality of celebrating the Republic Day in one of the many areas of Lonavala, Mahableshwar, Goa or even Malaysia, Thailand, etc. Better yet - we have shopping bonanza's on Republic day. 'Sabse Sasta Din', '50% off - Republic Day Sale - Hurry". Republic Day has become just one of those holidays in this country - better if it falls close to the weekend.
Leadership is overrated
I have never had much faith in leaders and leadership. I am willing to be charged with anything, rather than being charged a leader.
- Eugene Debs
While I may not particular peeved with leaders or leadership as Eugene Debs is. However I do have a problem with current crop of leaders - be they political, be they businessmen or from the field of sports. My problem is not with the stupid followers, who more often than not, follow somebody who solves their short-term problems at the risk of losing sight of the long-term problems. But then, followers being followers, there's only this much that you can expect from them - to follow like sheep.
My problem is with the leaders - how many of the leaders really question their ability to lead their followers? How many leaders actually ask themselves if they are doing the best they can - and if the the best they can provide their followers is the best they (followers) can get? How many of the current leaders would actually give up the claim to leadership, whether their followers demand it or not, just because they feel they may not be able to handle the responsibility of a leader?
Let me take the example of Sachin Tendulkar here (yes, he is the best example in this cricket crazy nation). Tendulkar is highly talented as a batsmen, arguably the best the world has produced. Tendulkar was brought to the helm of the Indian cricket team in 1996 for the first time. And I am quite sure, that Sachin Tendulkar, being the perfectionist that he is, must have given more than a 100% to the role of captain. However, once look at his record and we realize that he wasn't remotely successful as a captain. Given his lack of success as a captain, in 2000, the baton was passed on to India's second most successful captain, Sourav Ganguly.
Cut to 2007-08 season - Sourav Ganguly was nearly out of the Indian team, thanks to the Greg C episode. Suddenly the question of captaincy loomed large and there were no takers for the job. Given the fact that Sachin had by that time asserted his status as one of the world's very best, I doubt if anyone would have denied him the role of Indian Captain, had he demanded it. However, here's comes the self realization of a good individual - Sachin suggested the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni for ODI captaincy and denied any interest in heading the Test team as well, resulting in Kumble being made the captain. Reasons could be plenty - but I would like to believe that Sachin thought of following 2-3 points while deciding on not demanding the captaincy role for himself:
1. He's 34 and not getting any younger - and the Indian team needed a young captain for the 2011 world cup campaign.
2. Dhoni's man management skills must have impressed the Little Champion - considering he spent a lot of time chatting up Dhoni in the slips.
3. Given his dismal captaincy record and the lack of man management skills, it wouldn't make sense to take up captaincy again.
Of course, I could also be completely off target as far as the real reasons are concerned, but lets think these are the reasons.
Now, my question is for the current crop of leaders - how many of you actually think or question yourself on your leadership capabilities. I think sometimes its alright to accept that you may not be a good leader. For instance, you may not be a good leader - you may not have the charisma; but you could nevertheless become an efficient executor.
- Eugene Debs
While I may not particular peeved with leaders or leadership as Eugene Debs is. However I do have a problem with current crop of leaders - be they political, be they businessmen or from the field of sports. My problem is not with the stupid followers, who more often than not, follow somebody who solves their short-term problems at the risk of losing sight of the long-term problems. But then, followers being followers, there's only this much that you can expect from them - to follow like sheep.
My problem is with the leaders - how many of the leaders really question their ability to lead their followers? How many leaders actually ask themselves if they are doing the best they can - and if the the best they can provide their followers is the best they (followers) can get? How many of the current leaders would actually give up the claim to leadership, whether their followers demand it or not, just because they feel they may not be able to handle the responsibility of a leader?
Let me take the example of Sachin Tendulkar here (yes, he is the best example in this cricket crazy nation). Tendulkar is highly talented as a batsmen, arguably the best the world has produced. Tendulkar was brought to the helm of the Indian cricket team in 1996 for the first time. And I am quite sure, that Sachin Tendulkar, being the perfectionist that he is, must have given more than a 100% to the role of captain. However, once look at his record and we realize that he wasn't remotely successful as a captain. Given his lack of success as a captain, in 2000, the baton was passed on to India's second most successful captain, Sourav Ganguly.
Cut to 2007-08 season - Sourav Ganguly was nearly out of the Indian team, thanks to the Greg C episode. Suddenly the question of captaincy loomed large and there were no takers for the job. Given the fact that Sachin had by that time asserted his status as one of the world's very best, I doubt if anyone would have denied him the role of Indian Captain, had he demanded it. However, here's comes the self realization of a good individual - Sachin suggested the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni for ODI captaincy and denied any interest in heading the Test team as well, resulting in Kumble being made the captain. Reasons could be plenty - but I would like to believe that Sachin thought of following 2-3 points while deciding on not demanding the captaincy role for himself:
1. He's 34 and not getting any younger - and the Indian team needed a young captain for the 2011 world cup campaign.
2. Dhoni's man management skills must have impressed the Little Champion - considering he spent a lot of time chatting up Dhoni in the slips.
3. Given his dismal captaincy record and the lack of man management skills, it wouldn't make sense to take up captaincy again.
Of course, I could also be completely off target as far as the real reasons are concerned, but lets think these are the reasons.
Now, my question is for the current crop of leaders - how many of you actually think or question yourself on your leadership capabilities. I think sometimes its alright to accept that you may not be a good leader. For instance, you may not be a good leader - you may not have the charisma; but you could nevertheless become an efficient executor.
1.27.2010
12.08.2008
Getting the basics right....
It’s 7th December - exactly 9 days after the mayhem created by the terrorists in South Mumbai. For nearly three days, between 26th and 28th of last month, 10 terrorists went about butchering innocent people in the country's financial capital. The whole country saw it on the news channels. And what's more, this was not the first time it happened. Forget counting such incidents from 1993, it's happened multiple times in the last year alone. And as far as the response from the country is concerned, it’s been pathetic.
For the last many days, we have seen the Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, L.K Advani, Deshmukh (though I like 'DESHMURKH' better), Modi, Patil (S and RR) and so many others, go into an over-drive, accusing each other, the intelligence agencies, coast guard, Pakistan, LeT, ISI and every other Tom, Dick and Harry, even remotely connected to the case (the award however goes to Mr. Narayan Rane saying "Ahmad Patel helped the terrorists"). But truly, the question remains, who is responsible? Is this a people problem – or as some of the newspapers reports said – it is a systemic failure??
Now, I have always thought that our system, the way the constitution of this country is designed, is pathetic. Over the years however, through many a heated arguments with my father, I have come to realize, that the system is never wrong or right by itself. A system, a process, is designed to achieve some goals and there can be flaws in its design, which may reduce the efficiency of that system. However, these flaws are to be attributed to the designer of that system. And while a large responsibility lies on the designer and the working components of the system, the largest responsibility lies on the feedback mechanism, based on which the system can be tweaked to increase its efficiency or completely overhauled to get the right process. Now borrowing this concept to our country - we have the system in place, but the implementation machinery is extremely corrupt and the feedback mechanism, us, we have completely lost faith in the system. Effectively, nobody believes in following the system and the whole system is rendered useless.
Effect is – we go all out when we want to get something done in this system. And I will give you some simple examples to state my point -
1. How many times, while driving a vehicle, have we been caught breaking a traffic rule? Did we actually admit our mistake, deposit the license, collect the challan and pay the fine? Well some of us may have (and that is an appreciable trait), but I am quite sure, many of us must have quickly fished out a 50 rupee note from our wallet and handed it to the traffic police. And then with a beaming smile you tell your friends, "accha hai na yaar, 500 ka kaam 50 mein ho gaya".
2. Many of us got our passport done, how many of us paid the passport agent to get the work done? Typically agents charge us twice or thrice the passport fees, and he does inform us – "Sahab ko isme ka ek share jayega, humko ek aur baki passport fees".
Well, I could go on, but I am sure, most of us have experienced either of the two situations above.
Now let me connect to some of the findings of the intelligence agencies -
1993 blasts - the then customs collector was bribed by the terrorist into allowing "silver and gold" into the country. The people who actually docked the material and loaded the stuff into vehicles were told, these were "drugs". Well, it was none of those. It turned out to be the RDX, used in the blasts.
Cut to 2008 - Some guy called Rehman, arranged the SIM crads for the terrorist (who eventually attacked Mumbai) from Kolkata. He forged the documents and got the SIM cards at least 3 months before the entire incident.
Now, how did the customs collector take the bribe in the first place? And why did he not check the packages to ascertain its content? But more importantly – what happened to the guy later on? The case against him went on from for 14 long years. Why? He should have been awarded a life imprisonment in that year itself – without a chance to appeal in the higher courts.
Similarly for Rehman, he should be severely punished. But more importantly, the mobile company which did not verify the documents, they should be penalized for not doing their job properly. And where does corruption come in here – well simple. I don’t think the mobile company did not know about the documents being invalid – but who would want to loose out on sales? After all every rupee matters.
In a nutshell, if we address the problem of corruption, many of the problems in this country will fall into place.
For the last many days, we have seen the Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, L.K Advani, Deshmukh (though I like 'DESHMURKH' better), Modi, Patil (S and RR) and so many others, go into an over-drive, accusing each other, the intelligence agencies, coast guard, Pakistan, LeT, ISI and every other Tom, Dick and Harry, even remotely connected to the case (the award however goes to Mr. Narayan Rane saying "Ahmad Patel helped the terrorists"). But truly, the question remains, who is responsible? Is this a people problem – or as some of the newspapers reports said – it is a systemic failure??
Now, I have always thought that our system, the way the constitution of this country is designed, is pathetic. Over the years however, through many a heated arguments with my father, I have come to realize, that the system is never wrong or right by itself. A system, a process, is designed to achieve some goals and there can be flaws in its design, which may reduce the efficiency of that system. However, these flaws are to be attributed to the designer of that system. And while a large responsibility lies on the designer and the working components of the system, the largest responsibility lies on the feedback mechanism, based on which the system can be tweaked to increase its efficiency or completely overhauled to get the right process. Now borrowing this concept to our country - we have the system in place, but the implementation machinery is extremely corrupt and the feedback mechanism, us, we have completely lost faith in the system. Effectively, nobody believes in following the system and the whole system is rendered useless.
Effect is – we go all out when we want to get something done in this system. And I will give you some simple examples to state my point -
1. How many times, while driving a vehicle, have we been caught breaking a traffic rule? Did we actually admit our mistake, deposit the license, collect the challan and pay the fine? Well some of us may have (and that is an appreciable trait), but I am quite sure, many of us must have quickly fished out a 50 rupee note from our wallet and handed it to the traffic police. And then with a beaming smile you tell your friends, "accha hai na yaar, 500 ka kaam 50 mein ho gaya".
2. Many of us got our passport done, how many of us paid the passport agent to get the work done? Typically agents charge us twice or thrice the passport fees, and he does inform us – "Sahab ko isme ka ek share jayega, humko ek aur baki passport fees".
Well, I could go on, but I am sure, most of us have experienced either of the two situations above.
Now let me connect to some of the findings of the intelligence agencies -
1993 blasts - the then customs collector was bribed by the terrorist into allowing "silver and gold" into the country. The people who actually docked the material and loaded the stuff into vehicles were told, these were "drugs". Well, it was none of those. It turned out to be the RDX, used in the blasts.
Cut to 2008 - Some guy called Rehman, arranged the SIM crads for the terrorist (who eventually attacked Mumbai) from Kolkata. He forged the documents and got the SIM cards at least 3 months before the entire incident.
Now, how did the customs collector take the bribe in the first place? And why did he not check the packages to ascertain its content? But more importantly – what happened to the guy later on? The case against him went on from for 14 long years. Why? He should have been awarded a life imprisonment in that year itself – without a chance to appeal in the higher courts.
Similarly for Rehman, he should be severely punished. But more importantly, the mobile company which did not verify the documents, they should be penalized for not doing their job properly. And where does corruption come in here – well simple. I don’t think the mobile company did not know about the documents being invalid – but who would want to loose out on sales? After all every rupee matters.
In a nutshell, if we address the problem of corruption, many of the problems in this country will fall into place.
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