This week the BSE Sensex crossed yet another landmark. While the confidence that the world (judging from the number of articles that get printed everyday on India and China - how good it feels when we are at last getting de-hypenated from Pakistan (a country which is still confused about its nationhood)) exudes on the potential of India to be an economic Superpower in the long run is great, i do have a few reservations about the way the Government is opening up some of the really important sectors at such a fast rate. Here are some of the events in the last 15 to 20 days that i find interesting.
1) ManiShankar Iyer thrown out of the cabinet ( I found this very interesting, since this is the second minister (the other is Natwar Singh) to be thrown out who was very supportive of the IRAN pipeline to India).
2) BSE Sensex crosses 10000 mark which is really a very good sign (beware that a high value need not necessarily mean a healthy economy) about the confidence people have in the performance of the economy.
3) The Govt allowed 51% FDI investment in the retail sector (though with many conditions and regulations, I still cannot stomach the fact that a big retailer like Walmart can set up shop and make a lot of local groceries and small time businesses bankrupt. I might be wrong in my assessment, but i would have been happy if atleast initially the percentage allowed was kept below 50%. I don't want to sound like the communists, but for me the livelihood of a lot of Indians (as a large percentage of indians are either self-employed with their small businesses or in the unorganized sector) is much more important than how well Walmart can do business in India). In this respect, India should learn a few lessons from China. This is one country which is able to make the Americans (who take the moral high ground when it comes to preaching others about human rights and respecting international law) to change their ways when it comes to operating in China. The GOOGLE episode (this particularly shows that when it comes to business, ethics and human rights are indeed the last things that matter - think about the noises the Americans made about the poor working conditions in India and China when both the countries were not as big as now) is one in the long list of Chinese assertion that if you are doing business in China, its according to Chinese Laws.
4. It was really heartening to see the way India promoted itself in the DAVOS Economic Forum. If you went through the Business columns during that period, it was India Everywhere (which was the title for the PR campaign).
I had a few more stuff in mind, but i forget them now. I will post them maybe in the next one.
Now for some other stuff.
I watched an Iranian movie 'Two Women'. An awesome movie, which was realistic (a welcome respite from the crap that pass of for a movie in Tamil Cinema) in its depiction of the trials women go through in a conservative society. Please don't immediately imagine a society where women are beaten and have to live within their burkas (the images we get from Afghanistan). Its about two Architecture students who fight against the social structure that does not let them chase their goals and how they give up some of their ambitions for family etc., (a scene which is typical in every conservative society including ours). In this respect, I find TamilNadu to be the worst among the better developed (the four southern states, Maharastra, Punjab, Bengal, etc.,) states in India. Atleast in Afghanistan it is the Mullah who tells women what to wear and what not to wear. You can atleast expect that from an illiterate or one with education from a madrassa at best. In TamilNadu, the Chancellor of Anna University tells people who are old enough to vote (and thereby determine the destiny of the country) what to wear and what not to wear. I could only hang my face in shame when people here bring up the Kushboo episode or the fact that a college going student cannot wear a bright colored shirt to his class. Or that a college student cannot take his cell phone to his class. If you see the way some of the Engineering colleges (i dont know about the other streams) are run with rules that are as ridiculous as they are demeaning, you wouldn't want anyone you know to even step into that college, let alone study in them. If this is the case with the supposedly educated and emancipated part of the society, you can't begin to imagine what is happening on the other side.
C Karthikeyan
3 comments:
Can you throw some light on the google episode
Arvind,
I am not totally against Walmart setting up shop in India. Its just that the pace at which the Govt is opening up that worries me. This is not about people losing jobs for this is a sector which is pretty unorganised.Its not the likes of TATA, RELIANCE and BIRLA taking on Walmart. I am talkin about our street corner grocer and the likes who don't have the wherewithal to withstand the onslaught of Walmart( whose revenue is larger than few nations' GPD). I understand from the point of view of the consumer its good that Walmart might be able to bring quality products for cheap. It can generate more job if the products are sourced from India and consolidation of this section of the industry was going to happen anyways. I would have been happy if atleast initially Indians are given more leeway (like Indians should be a majority partner or something like that) to get a headstart.
At the risk of sounding paranoid, let us not forget that not too long ago men came to India in the name of trade and started the EAST INDIA COMPANY and the rest as you know is history.
Monopoly is not good for the consumer however we see it, for the monopolies will begin to decide what is good and what is not. They will be the standard. We all had our experiences with VSNL. Take Microsoft for example. Windows is so screwed that i get the blue screen almost every 3 days. We all know Windows was bad , is bad and i don't know if Microsoft will care to make it better (all the do now is make it bulkier with every new version). But we are stuck with windows due to lack of viable options.
C Karthikeyan
Srinivas,
I will give the gist of whats happening in China, without going into intricate details. China as you know has a Communist one party dictatorial regime. And i am sure you know Tianenmen Square incident. Anyways china does not allow free speech as in India or the US. And the internet was supposed to be a panacea to all those oppressed people who can express themselves and let the world know whats happening in their country. However, China started to filter all the incoming and outgoing (not as simple as it sounds) internet traffic
The American companies do their bit to help the chinese regime. For eg., MICROSOFT removed blogs which were pro-democracy(originating frm china) from its MSNSPACES
Then there is the journalist Shi Tao who was imprisoned for 10 years for giving out information to the world media about the govts warning to the media outlets in china against the 15th Anniversary of TSquare incident. YAHOO gave the ip address and the physical location from where he emailed the information to help the regime get him jailed(you can get more info here http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14884 ). And CISCO is developing new technology and filtering techniques to help the regime to keep tab on what the citizenry does. In this long line, GOOGLE recently decided it will also comply with the chinese govt and censor the searches.
C Karthikeyan
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