Do You Expect Prime Minister Narendra Modi Resolve the Address Proof Crisis of Indian Citizens?

Have you ever experienced the address proof crisis of modern India? If you have not understood what I meant, either you are the real permanent resident of India or you are one of the invisible kinds for whom such proofs do not have any relevance!

Let me make things clear, if you have not understood what I meant. This blog is of some importance in your life if you have to shift your residences in India on a few occasions on account of any one of the following reasons:

1. You have to change your residence because your employer keep transferring you from place to place and you do not belong to the special privileged category of the ruling class of India such as the Ministers, MP, MLA, Judge, IAS, IPS, IRS, IFS, Political Leader, Prominent Media Personality, Celebrity of India or any one enjoying the government security cover and the like.

2. You are a businessman who needs to change your place of residence for various reasons but neither one holding much influence on the ruling class nor having your own agents to resolve petty headaches that require interactions with any one of the ruling classes.

3. You are a self employed person who needs to change residence occasionally.

4. You are a student staying in hostels and keep changing your residence in connection with your studies

5. You are an young professional who keep changing your job seeking better options.

6. You  have been a non-resident Indian but have come back to India to live here.

7. You do not have your own home and live with some well wisher for some time 

8. You have to live in rented home or room and have to keep shifting for various reasons.

9. You are a Public Sector company executive who needs to change the place of residence for various reasons.

10. You are unemployed and is in the look out for a job and keep changing your place of residence in your job hunting pursuit.

11. You live in the rural area in a temporary hut or in an urban slum.

12. You are land less and homeless.

13. You had a job, but now jobless and no need to stay in the place where you lived in connection with your job.

14. You have retired from active service and now wants to settle down in a new place in a new residence, either rented or purchased or leased or to share the accommodation with some one related to you.

Now for availing the basic minimum services in this country, you need an address proof. But from where you get the address proof? Who is the authority who attests your place of residence? The stupid government authorities who keep drafting the rules and procedures do not foresee this.

The government of India do not have a law which stipulates the procedure to make an address proof by a citizen. Only recently they have come up with the idea of making an identity proof based on bio-metrics called the Aadhaar. But this in itself has no statutory relevance. Our law makers do not see any benefit for them to spent time to draft and pass such laws. Instead, they leave it to the officers to make rules and procedures the way they understand the things only to be challenged by the courts of law.

Now how to get the damn address proof in India? (Click this link to read the anguish expressed by an Indian citizen and the responses in the social media)

The manner in which the stupid Indian civil servants have worked out the rules clearly shows the lack of intelligence in the Indian bureaucracy. The so called Indian civil servants who join the service by passing the most difficult selection tests for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre seem not so intelligent as we the common folks used to think. Otherwise how could these stupid rules in India? Else, these IAS bosses never bother to read the rules that keep getting issued in India that determine the day to day Indian governance system. Perhaps, these are the brain work of lesser order officers of the government and there is no one who bothers about the bad impact these have on the overall well being of the country as a whole!

When the new Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi ji, keeps talking about good governance, we wonder why such small things are ignored. It is the prime duty of the government to make rules that are practical and workable. It is the right of the citizens to get an address proof document without any hassles. If the government cannot think of a good system, they should simply get rid of the rules that insist such documents for availing simple services such as making a bank account, purchasing a vehicle, getting a mobile or telephone connection, getting a gas connection, etc.

The government should review whether its rules in this context reflect governmental stupidity or not. Why do the government needs to have these so called bureaucrats when they fail to evolve proper rules that helps to achieve good governance?

When privatization is an acceptable principle of the government, why do the governmental systems still try to cling to the pre-independence bureaucratic practices even today? For example, why don't the governmental rule makers do not allow a recent private bank statement from even the most reputed banks such as the ICICI, IDBI, Axis etc as a valid document for address proof? Mere stupidity or irresponsibility? Remember, they had been clinging to the age old practice of attestation of documents by gazetted officers so long. Only very recently, the Modi government could issue a circular that allows the citizens to self attest their own documents!

If good governance to really happen in this country with deep rooted systemic rot, the top boss needs to be an assertive task master. Not only he does that, he should have some real systems to know the real pulse of the people. Often, people fail to respond with their real problems when responses from them are solicited in a formal manner!

Coming to the address crisis of India: Whom do the governmental bureaucrats think as the best person to certify where he or she lives? Is it the person concerned or some babu sitting somewhere? For that matter, how many babus personally know the people other than their households and their offices? 

Some years before, the best address proof document accepted everywhere as the most fundamental has been a self addressed post card posted and delivered by the most people friendly national level government office- the Post Office. Why is it not so now? Why do some of the babus try to belittle one of their own departments? The government which cares for good governance should feel ashamed of this! What is the harm in accepting such a post card as the primary address proof for opening a bank account? When banks can handle and recognize a person for the most important function involving money transactions, why banks should not be entrusted with the task of certifying a person with regard to his or her identity and address?

The first and foremost requirement for good governance is the coordination and inter departmental trust the various governmental functionaries have to develop. If they function with malice towards each other, no one can ensure good governance. Government officers and staff can and will perform well towards good governance when they honestly feel that their political bosses are reasonably good people who could be trusted! But when this trust is broken, they could also work in such a way that peoples' anger is directed towards the political bosses!

When the government employees work in that fashion without any logic or justification, it would be better to remove such a person from government service. He or she is just not fit for the good of the nation! In the long run, it is not the politicians that ultimately brings good governance! It is the millions strong government staff that is government for the people. If the peoples' representatives cannot make the government machinery to work for the people, no good governance can come in to effect!

So, what is your opinion? Will our PM succeed in achieving good governance? 

Option to Opt Out of LPG Subsidy-Wouldn't You Like to Be in the Scroll of Honor?

The Central Government of India recently has initiated a campaign to involve all those well-to-do citizens of India to voluntarily opt out of the subsidy they enjoy for purchasing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders for domestic consumption.

The government could have well done this by an administrative order by refusing subsidized domestic LPG to all citizens who are above some prescribed income strata. But that would have definitely incurred peoples' wrath in some way. People would have taken such a step as bullying by the government.

But the Narendra Modi government came up with a novel idea which is indeed a welcome step and a good sign of good democratic governance. The government has made arrangements for all existing domestic LPG consumers to voluntarily opt out of the subsidy price regime.

The existing three major public sector LPG supply companies have initiated a call to all consumers to voluntarily opt out of availing the LPG price subsidy. The companies have done this, under the guidance of the government.

The names of those who opt out would be listed in the 'scroll of honour' in the common website of the companies called mylpg.in.

This same mylpg website can be used for exercising the opting out option. When you click this site you land on the introductory page which gives the option to enter the page of your own gas supplier, namely, Indane, Bharatgas or HPgas. 

Clicking on the image of the gas cylinder of your gas supplier you enter the relevant site of your gas supplier.

The various options and information that you are required to know as a domestic LPG user are given on the top of the page as scrolling icons. Here one would also see the icon for opting out of the subsidy regime.

For exercising this option, one needs to be a registered user of mylpg site. The instructions are self explanatory and one can easily do it within a few minutes.

Why burden the government for a couple of thousands of rupees in an year for availing the gas subsidy when that amount is too insignificant for you? Let us voluntarily come out of it if we could afford it. 

The price of a non-subsidized domestic LPG cylinder having 14.2 kg gas  now cost only about Rs.752/-. That is approximately Rs.50/- a kg. On the other hand, the subsidized cylinder costs about Rs.417/- or about Rs.30/- per kg. 

A nuclear family of India with 2 adults and one or two children hardly consumes 6 cylinders of gas in an year. The amount such a family is to spend extra for the non-subsidized LPG is hardly Rs.2000/- per year or about Rs.170/- in a month. That is a very insignificant money for most of the tax paying middle class and the non-tax paying well-to-do's of India.

In my opinion, such citizens should cooperate with the government and say no to the present fuel subsidy, voluntarily. Earlier there was no option to exercise this option by the individuals. But now there is an option. Let the subsidy be availed by those who really need it. Let the government be freed of its subsidy liabilities to some extent and let the government use that money for some other plans beneficial for the under privileged.

LPG consumers can also say good bye to the subsidized price system by giving an application to their retail gas agency.

So, say good bye to the peanuts of LPG subsidy and buy gas at full market price, if you can afford it.

Let us consciously and voluntarily denounce all those insignificant freebies dolled out by the government. Let the freebies go to those who really need it!

The Accursed Country of Power Production: What is the Way Out?

Today I was reading an article written by Priyadarshini Sen published recently by the Outlook Magazine as one of its national cover story. The article is titled 'Accursed County' and it deals with the negative side of the thoughtless infrastructural development that has been taking place in India in the past. 

If you have not read this article, I suggest you read it online by clicking the hyper-linked title above.

The author has painstakingly brought out the severe air, water and land pollution that apparently results from the several thermal power plants that have been in operation in and around Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh state.

This district, from techno-commercial angle, is ideal for setting up of thermal power plants. In and around there are coal mines that produce coal suitable for power generation. It has abundant source of water from Sone River and it tributary, the Rihand River and the artificial dam built across the latter creating the Gobind Ballabh Pant Sagar reservoir. More importantly, the district provided vast tracts of inexpensive land for setting up the power plants.

And this techno-commercial viability naturally attracted the public sector and private sector industrial enterprises to set up their thermal power stations in this place. Sonbhadra now produces about 11000 MW of electrical power which is about 10 % of the gross thermal power production capacity of India. It is a very good contribution to power starved India.

Those associated with the power industry and those advocates of fast track development naturally dismiss the environmental adversities as nothing serious. For every good thing, there will be some bad effects as well. They say.

But can it be dismissed that way? Shouldn't we a bit more concerned? Should we not be concerned with the poor populace of the place who are the victims (of pollution)? Shouldn't we concerned with the health problems of the people living here?

This is the issue that the author of the outlook cover story highlights. 

What are the reasons for pollution from thermal power plants? Can we not eliminate it? 

Being a technical person associated with various aspects of thermal power plant design, operation, maintenance and also its complex technicalities of environmental pollution control, I personally feel that the thermal power plant pollution effects can be mitigated to a large extent, provided the people concerned with the thermal power plant industry are a bit more technically and administratively serious with the matter.

First, let us understand the common cause for the pollution problem attributable to thermal power plants. 

Thermal power plants generate electricity by running steam turbines that drive large electric alternators commonly called generators. The steam turbines rotate at high speeds due to the energy transmitted through high pressure steam which is produced in large boilers by burning pulverized coal.

Coal which normally lies hundreds of meters below earth, contains essentially carbon and hydrocarbon compounds. The carbon and carbon compounds gives coal its calorific value or fuel value. Coal also has several mineral compounds within its complex structure which do not have any fuel value. It is generally called the coal ash.

The main constituent of coal ash is silica (silicon dioxide). It also has other mineral oxides and compounds of aluminium, magnesium and also small quantities of minerals containing mercury, phosphorous, etc. Some coal ash may also contain very small quantities of radio active minerals.

The carbon compounds of coal burns and produce heat energy and some gases such as Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, water vapor, hydrogen sulfide, etc. For aiding burning of coal, large quantities of air is required and while burning the oxygen in air is consumed and the rest gases are let out through the chimneys which contains other gaseous products of coal combustion.

The non fuel mineral content of coal does not burn. It comes out as ash particles after coal combustion. Indian coals contain large quantities of ash, as high as 45%. Every one ton of coal burnt produces nearly half a ton of ash.

Large thermal power plants use pulverized coal for efficient burning. Pulverized coal is coal which is finely powdered in coal mills which when carried with air behaves almost like a gaseous fuel.

Thus the ash which comes out of pulverized coal burning in thermal power plants is in the form of fine particles. This ash is commonly called the 'fly ash'. If left out it also gets discharged in to the atmosphere through the chimneys along with the chimney gases. A 100 MW power plant burns nearly 1000 tonnes of coal per hour. If the ash content of coal is 30% that means it has the potential to discharge 300 tonnes of ash dust to the atmosphere every hour! With that kind of a dust discharge, no one could live near a power plant!

Thermal power plants therefore use many air pollution control equipment to control the pollution caused from fly ash that could discharge out from it.  

The best fly ash arresting equipment is the electro-static precipitator or ESP. When designed and operated properly, it can remove fly ash from the chimney gases almost entirely. The fly ash removal efficiency of an ESP could be as high as 99.999%. Nevertheless, this efficiency can drop much when the ESPs are either with inferior design or operated without care or without proper maintenance.

Besides, the ESPs cannot tackle the pollution caused by gaseous pollutants like the oxides of carbon, sulphur, nitrogen etc. 

The fly ash arrested by the ESPs are either collected in dry form and could be used to make pozzolana grade cements. It can also be used to make fly ash bricks. In most power plants, the fly ash is made as a slurry using water and discharged in to a large holding reservoir called the ash pond. Normally, the ash pond is designed to hold the ash produced in a power plant for about 50 years. A filled up ash pond could be a source for raw material for making fly ash bricks. The government of India has recently made it compulsory for all builders and colonizers to use fly ash bricks for reducing the pile up of fly ash in the thermal power plant ash ponds.

Nature has an in built capacity to absorb and degrade all normal pollution caused by human activities. However, when this natural capacity is exceeded, we need to have artificial pollution control systems.

Now let us see what has created the Sonbhadra syndrome. First the ideal techno-economics have caused a concentration of power plants in this area overlooking the natural limits of the region to absorb environmental impacts. While it could have possibly withstood the impact of 2000 MW of thermal power generation, the authorities have allowed it to have 11000 MW thermal power production. This problem is not unique to Sonebhadra. Korba district of Chhattisgarh State which is another power hub of India which may also be an environmentally failed zone if not managed properly!

These areas are burning millions of tonnes of coal an hour. Imagine the oxygen depletion in these districts! Will the green forests of these areas replenish this much oxygen? Perhaps not.

The designers of the power plants ask for various input data such as the average ash content for designing their ESPs. Suppose that they had designed the plants with a maximum ash content of 30% and now the plants are getting coal with average ash content above that limit. Obviously, the power plant chimneys spew the balance fly ash to the atmosphere. Imagine the quantum of hourly tonnes of fly ash getting distributed to the atmosphere through the power plant chimneys in such a situation! In case the power plants do not get operated properly with regard to the air pollution control norms, the ambient air quality of the area deteriorates from what is stipulated as admissible by the central pollution control board. Poor ambient air quality caused by the thermal power plants enhances the level of particulate matter (PM) and respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM) in the ambient air. The particulates dispersed to air from power plant chimneys might contain toxic element compounds such a mercury, arsenic, phosphorous, sulphur and the like. When exposed to it for a long term, they could cause serious health hazards to people.

Improper operation and management of the power plants with regard to air, water and land pollution control methodologies adversely affect the environment around the thermal power plants. This happens due to various reasons such as production vs. pollution control priorities of the plant management, inadequate pollution control facilities and incompetence of the plant personnel in understanding pollution causes and its abatement. Of these, the latter plays a very important role.

Thermal power plants generally employ mechanical and electrical engineers for the operation and maintenance of the plants. These engineers are mostly concerned with power production and they are often pressurized to meet the production targets at any cost. The major concern for them is to get the coal, unload it, store it, pulverize it, burn it and run their turbo-generators. These are the operation and maintenance tasks of the mechanical engineers. The electrical engineers of the power station look after the electrical tie lines, the electrical switch gear and the auxiliary equipment electrics. The priorities for all of them are for maintaining the production and the plant load factor. The pollution control equipment operation and maintenance are also entrusted among this group. Pollution control equipment and systems are viewed as those creating obstructions to production and there is always a tendency for the plant personnel to give low priority for maintaining them under the best performance levels.

Thermal power plants also may have a small group of technical people who are entrusted with the water, water treatment, laboratory tests for ensuring equipment performance, quality, etc. They may also be entrusted with the task of pollution monitoring.

In a thermal power station in India, the stress is for production. The power station management personnel are often from the group of engineers associated with mechanical or electrical operations who have been conventionally trained to work hard for achieving high production targets. They are trained to ignore any thing that hampers production or any thing that causes a lowering of production.

Thus air pollution control and other pollution control or quality control aspects become pinching issues for the majority technical personnel and the top management authorities of all thermal power stations in India. With the result that they try to be dominant over all issues concerned with pollution control or quality control. This is a fact of the day.

Indian thermal power stations do not employ trained chemical engineers who have interdisciplinary technical back ground to develop as technical experts who could effectively understand and tackle the intricate technical problems of environment, water, air and the land and its linkages to the various production processes involving fuel and burner management, water management, steam generation, etc.

Some three and a half decades ago, by working in a thermal power plant as a lone chemical engineer I could experience this problem. It was a well thought experimental idea of some visionary management team of those years that could induct me to the thermal power plant. Under normal circumstances, then or now, chemical engineers are hardly inducted in thermal power plants!

In a thermal power power station, if the ESP efficiency is down by 1 % the effect could be catastrophic in the long run. On the other hand, by overlooking the ESP efficiency, the plant operation personnel might be able to enhance the production to some extent. Production and pollution control are two antagonistic agendas in the Indian industry in general.

Awareness programs and punitive initiatives under pollution control perhaps have done some impact. But what is lacking now is the technical knowledge and the expertise to tackle the environmental issues confidently. The environmentalists of India are mostly academicians and theoreticians who make hue and cries outside and not work inside to actually do some real work to eliminate pollution cost effectively! In India, there is hardly any mobility of engineers between Research and Development, academics and the industry. Either sides are maintained too water tight for that to happen.

India has grossly neglected the need for training chemical engineers who are with the basic knowledge to tackle many interdisciplinary technical issues when they are exposed and trained in the real technical fields. This has happened because, the few trained chemical engineers did not find opportunities within India to prove their expertise and develop. The Indian industry recruiters and policy makers unfortunately have little idea about the usefulness of chemical engineers. Many even do not understand the difference between a chemist and a chemical engineer! For example, the thermal power industry of India with all the need for chemical engineers seldom thought about it! In India things go as per conventions and no one hardly think of changing the conventions. Changing the conventions can only be done by progressive societies and progressive people with higher intellectual capacities! India lacks such people in key leadership positions!

Now, as chemical engineering training has become almost non existent in India, it is all the more difficult for getting good chemical engineers for the various interdisciplinary tasks such as that posed by environmental pollution control and utility system engineering.

All these are essentially because of vested interest individuals with inadequate expertise who are in academics and policy planning in India. So long as expertise is something determined by the ability of a person to hoodwink the nominating authorities, this situation is not going to change in this country.

Pollution control laws and enforcement in India have been very lenient. Environmental regulations have also become a tool used by the authorities to exert their control over the industry rather than using it honestly for the benefit of the people. This results in severely polluting industries escaping from any punitive actions while new projects getting unduly delayed for environmental clearances.

It is time that we set aside self interests and move towards greater national interests. When that happens, our country would no longer have accursed counties. It will have only blessed counties! And India would indeed become 'Swachh Bharat' (Clean India) as envisaged by its visionary new PM, Shri Narendra Modi. 

India has no dearth of technical expertise to manage problems of this nature. What it really lacks is the will, honesty and administrative competence of its key functionaries holding key governmental positions!

Let us earnestly hope for positive changes in the near future!

Scrapping All Redundant Laws of India: The One Progressive Step By PM Narendra Modi!

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is perhaps the first Indian political leader who was bold enough to declare the urgency of deleting all those redundant and conflicting laws of India that has caused the justice system of India a never ending process, if not a mockery.

Human beings are not yet perfect in their mind and body. They are in the process of developing towards progress. How many generations or centuries more we might take to achieve even a reasonable level of perfection cannot be predicted for now.

Indian Electricity Infrastructure-Contradictory Rules

Making Things Difficult For Everyone!

So, all the rules and laws we have been making become obsolete and useless with passage of time. The laws which the British enacted for India some one-and-a-half century ago cannot be justifiably valid for those of us who have been citizens of independent India.

Yet, the the independent Indian law makers never thought of studying the old laws and removing those laws which are not according to the letter and spirit of the Indian constitution. For all these years they have been amending and creating laws and statutes without really studying the implications of the the wordings of the laws that they passed in the parliament and in the state assemblies.

This resulted in conflicts and unjustified delays in settling issues in the courts. It also enhanced the time needed for the courts to decide upon the various legal issues brought before them to justifiable decisions.

A very interesting article in this context was featured in Outlook magazine written by Mr Arindam Mukherjee, titled ' And Justice for None'

The author very categorically made his point and I agree fully with him.

But kudos to our new PM Narendra Modi when he candidly admitted this lacuna in the Indian law system and declared the same to the world the other day. This is what he said:

" I have removed all laws that are outdated and redundant". He was speaking to the Indian community in the USA at Madison Square. 

He declared his intention to give top priority to remove all those redundant and useless laws of India on a war footing at the rate of deleting one such law per day.

Immediately following the PM's declaration, the law minister of India Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad responded with the action plan of the government by declaring the intention to passing a law for removal of a good majority of such useless laws by December 2014.

It is indeed a good thing happening.

We should appreciate the good work being done by the present government.

68th Independence Day of India-15th August 2014: A Day Which Should Be Remembered for A Historic Speech!

There have been speculations in the media for a couple of days about the character and content of the speech that would be delivered by the new vibrant Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. Would the PM address the nation from the Red Fort or not? Would he read out from a prepared text or would he be delivering an extempore speech? Many argued that he would not go for extempore as he used to be during his election campaigns because as PM he would have to be cautious with his words. His words are now listened by the world!

But Modiji surprised and mesmerized every one who listened to his extempore I-day speech today from the Red Fort which was beamed nationwide and perhaps world wide. The voices of disapproval by some of those professional political opponents could simply be ignored!

In my unbiased opinion as a non partisan citizen of this country, the PM's speech today was historical and one of the most appealing and influencing speech ever done by any Indian PM in the recent history. I simply salute his clarity of thought and vision that he has put forward for this country at this crucial juncture. Unlike his many predecessors, Modiji is a real leader of the masses with a characteristic oratory skill which, I should admit, many of our politicians lack. How can a leader be a leader if he or she doesn't have a voice and a thought clarity that could influence people? 

I watched and listened to the whole of his speech that he delivered in Hindi that was beamed through the TV channels. Let me share with you some of those things that he said which I felt as coming honestly from his heart. It was unlike any ceremonial speech lacking energy and spirit read out by many of our past PMs and such other leaders, past and present! His speech electrified me and it should have electrified the nation!

I am not repeating all that he has told, but only highlighting a few of those which I felt as most noteworthy and important for India.If you missed this historic speech, and if you do not understand Hindi, you should consider reading its translation. I suggest all Indians who can read and understand should go through his speech which is now available in public duly translated and recorded.

Read the full English text of the 68th Indian Independence Day Speech by PM Narendra Modi here.

First he shared some of his anguish that he felt and experienced as the PM for the past few months. He expressed his concern about the lack of coordination among the various governmental departments and its functionaries. More than the lack of coordination, he expressed his displeasure on the mutually antagonistic manner in which the governmental departments and officers are working. It has created situations where one department is fighting a legal battle against another in the courts. This is the main issue he brought out:

"It appeared that everyone has its own fiefdom. I could observe disunity and conflict among them. One department is taking on the other department and taking on to the extent that two departments of the same government are fighting against each other by approaching Supreme Court." 

This situation has to change. No other PM has noticed this earlier or dared to talk about it earlier. If PM Modi has noticed this, he would definitely do something to change the situation. That is what I felt from his honest speech that came from his heart.

He talked about the need for promoting brand India by boosting the manufacturing and production sector toc create more and more jobs. He made clarion calls to the Indian diaspora  to 'come and make in India' and also for ' Zero-Defect-Zero-Effect' products ' Made in India' . By zero-effect he stressed upon manufacturing processes with least adverse impact on our environment. Indeed a vision statement that many of our latter day PMs totally ignored! What is the use for India and Indians if our locally generated wealth and money have to be siphoned out for importing products and services from abroad thereby reducing our own employment and wealth generation opportunities?

Narendra Modi is perhaps the first PM of India in all these 67 years of its independence who stressed upon the urgent need for changing India's international image as a nation of snake charmers, poverty and dirtiness. He stressed upon the need to have more toilets for our people at home and at public places and declared an ambitious plan to be initiated immediately. What is the pride of the Indian women who have to wait for the sun to set to attend the nature's call? What is the pride of even the affluent Indians when the situation of their country is in this way? 

Kudos to him. Most of the Indians, even the so-called high profile Indians apparently did nothing to improve this situation in India so far. I have seen many corporate and government offices in India where both men and women keep working with no facility for any decent toilets. Why the Indian men have to ease out so shamelessly in public? And what is the stress levels of even our so-called high profile ladies in such situations? They all have seen and felt this seriously shameful condition of India, but have never ever raised any effective voices any time. Even many of our ministers and civil service bureaucrats too ease our shamelessly in public, but have never thought it a necessity to do something to change that situation. In this context, I remember the situation in one of a majestic looking office building where I worked some time. The top authorities never gave any priority to maintain the toilets the building originally had. For decades, it existed without any toilet facilities. What is the situation in our factories? Nothing different. So at last even for such a simple thing, we need the PM to talk about it from the Red Fort! Let us hope his speech trigger the positive thought process! Yes, the PM even called our corporate leaders to spend from their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds for constructing more and more toilets where they are urgently needed.

Perhaps, it is the first time that any Indian PM did not talk about our army strength to act as a regional force. Instead, for the first time, the Indian PM talked about mending ways with our neighbors and initiating a process of healing instead of wounding!

He talked about the next Indian independence movement-independence from poverty. He had drawn up plans for that. He would bring about the blue print for our MPs and MLAs to get in to action in that direction and he even has a road map for that.

Yes, today's speech was historic. For the first time ever I heard people clapping in approval while they listened attentively to what he told. 

I think with a leader of that kind in the PM's chair, India has hope. Our coming generations may not have to migrate to foreign lands in search of a livelihood!

I looked at the picture of my grandchild my daughter shared through her 'Facebook'. She was selected for some I-day program in her School-Mount Carmel New Delhi. The girl has yet to be in her formal primary level class-she is in her pre-school now. But I look at her enthusiasm for the I-day which perhaps she understood little now. 

  

And I earnestly want to see this country to be a better place for the new generation like her. Let the future I-days be different. Different with a positive difference!

Jai Bharat! 

Rent and Lease Laws of India Need Immediate Change!

I have been hearing and reading the opinions of many economists and legal experts regarding the need for having progressive property laws and rules in India that enable letting out of properties for residential and commercial activities beneficial and hassle free for both the property owners and the tenants. Unfortunately neither the union government of India nor the state governments in India seem to act in this regard.

Real estate business can flourish and would be beneficial to both the builders and the owners only when there are laws in place that facilitate all concerned in an equitable basis.

In countries like the USA, Australia, UK etc, getting a furnished accommodation on rent from property rental companies who not only build buildings but also furnish and maintain them properly for the purpose of letting them out is not difficult. They have the laws and rules that  permit such an economic activity. In India, such a thing has not yet happened.

Even after six decades of existence as a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic, the democratically elected leaders and the officials of India who have been governing India under the authority provided by the written Constitution of India, could neither bring about socialism nor secularism in the manner that the Constitution stipulated.

Having failed in these and having observed failure of administered socialism and secularism in several other nations, the Indian leadership has evolved a system which does not honor socialism or secularism in the right sense as the Constitution envisaged.

Indian laws and the Indian jurisprudence is a legacy of the colonial era. Though India got independence from its colonial rulers, it has never achieved independence from the colonial era laws and legal systems partly because the Indian leaders finding the colonial systems too enchanting and beneficial for their own self satisfaction at the expense of the people at large. The incompetence of the elected legislators and the laziness of the permanent bureaucratic members responsible for drafting the laws for the elected legislators have also contributed to make the legal system of India to degrade and become too complicated preventing justifiable justice a distant dream to all. 

The Indian law practitioners got a gold mine of opportunities to enhance their practices and incomes because of the ever increasing complexities beyond the common understanding of the people of independent India. Contradictory and opposing judgments from the various levels of judiciary became a common thing in independent India as a result of all these. Ambiguities in the statutes provide enough scope for interpretation of the laws differently by different people!

Unfortunately, every halfhearted and incomplete approach to make corrections in the system causes and enhancement of ambiguities. As a result, the existing rule of law and justice in India is perhaps worse than what existed during the colonial days! Essentially what India has achieved by independence is a transfer of power from a group of colonial foreigners to a group of Indians with colonial mindset!

What the colonialists practiced was the control of land and property that belonged to the native Indians by adopting various rules and laws many of which had been for the purpose of governance as applicable more than a century ago. 

Unfortunately the same laws governing property, its use and control exist in India more or less in the same fashion as during the colonial days. Only cosmetic changes here and there were done by the state and the central governments of India after independence in this context. The absence of cohesiveness on a pan India basis is very obvious to any one who have tried to get to the details for any reasons.

Laws and rules regarding land ownership, sale, lease, use, distribution, partition, etc are not in accordance with the current requirements of the people of India. The Indian law makers seem too lazy and unconcerned to do the necessary work in this regard. As a result land reforms is an area of great disappointment for all in India. [You may read my earlier blog on this here!]

The rules regarding leasing and renting of immovable properties like residential houses, flats, apartments and commercial properties remain an  area of extreme concern which cause immense problems to the people, both the owners and the users. The present laws are too much biased in favor of one party than having a balanced approach. When such biased laws exist, no one can expect proper justice to the people. 

Let me explain this with a few examples. Suppose that you are an owner of one house at one location and you need to move to another location or city to live there for a few years in connection with your profession or job. What you immediately need is a residential accommodation on rent for a period of say 3-4 years till such time that you are in that location. You are now an owner of a property who wants to vacate your own home some where and move to another property owned by another person in some other location. Perhaps the other person too might be in a similar situation as you. 

But you would face much difficulty in getting a rented accommodation because of the present laws which are too impractical. The present laws are biased and made some decades ago when the situations were different from now. The laws also do not permit business men to build, maintain or let out properties following fair business ethics.

Indian real estate business for the time being is only concerned with building and selling of properties. The boom has created a big surplus of flats in all major cities and towns. In Mumbai alone, it is reported that there are over 130000 flats remain unsold.  Imagine the total money invested and the numbers lying unused all over India! At the same time the builders are not facilitated to give out these properties on rent, because the laws are not conducive for that. It is indeed a great opportunity lost for a country where millions are without shelter and housing!

The overall charges incurred by the sellers of properties are extremely high on account of high stamp duties, registration fees, lawyer fees, commissions to agents, etc. Just one transaction of a property would make it dearer by nearly 15 %. A property that has changed ownership a couple of times would naturally be with a much higher cost price than similar properties that did not encounter such ownership changes. Naturally, this situation artificially jacks up property prices in India causing much imbalances and unfairness in determining the fair price valuation of properties. This in turn causes a high degree of black economy trade in India.

Any progressive government who is determined to provide good governance for the betterment of the nation could never sit as a passive spectator to such things. Unfortunately passive governance has been the situation for several years!

I hope the Narendra Modi government would do some thing positive in this regard in the days to come. What I look forward in this context are:

1. New rent control laws as applicable to the whole country which is simple and beneficial to both the owners and the tenants. The law should also allow property companies not only to build and sell, but also to own, maintain and rent properties easily to clients on rentals that are fair and justifiable. It is reported that the government is already mulling on a  New law for regulating rental housing . But this law should also address issues like long term professional upkeep of apartment and commercial buildings on chargeable basis by estate management companies including facilities for existing owners societies to outsource such services to such companies.

2. New property transfer laws that enable owners to incur less costs while selling or transferring them there by reducing the possibility of artificial jack up of property costs. Governmental agencies should provide better and reliable property registration, record keeping and documentation facilities including creation of digital property identities and data. Government may stipulate different stamp duties for properties sold at different intervals of time. The national law should be the benchmark of guidelines for all state and local authority laws for all issues concerning development of properties, sale, lease, maintenance, taxation, fire safety, lift safety, water and electricity use, responsibilities of residents, etc.

3. Government may set up national institutes which train people in various aspects of land and property surveys, evaluation, record keeping, assessment, designs, documentation, etc. Degrees and diplomas from these institutes should be made mandatory for all appointments to offices responsible for activities pertaining to land and property assessment and management.

I would like the readers to respond with their views on these.

First Railway Budget of Modi Government Proves This:If There Is A Will, There Is A Way!

Today at around 1.30 PM I could watch  glimpses of the TV news coverage of the first railway budget of July 2014 as introduced by the Railway Minister Mr Sadananda Gowda under the new Indian Union government under  Prime Minister Narendra Modi . I also watched the DD News debate and the PM's address to the nation regarding the railway budget for a few minutes. 

Great! That was my first impression. 

First things first. The DD News and the presenters now appeared much more professional and knowledgeable. It has become more pleasing and acceptable now. (I used to skip DD News earlier!)

The PM's address to the nation through DD News was highly appreciable. For the first time in the last several years, a PM has given his frank clarifications regarding the railway budget after it was introduced in the parliament in a voice and tone that was too appealing with regard to his vision about the future of the railways has to play for the progress of the nation.

Obviously, the Narendra Modi government has begun to show its presence and positive actions!

Later I could see the highlights of the railway budget as it appeared in the online news sites. 

All the proposals are good and progressive.

Some of  those which needs to be specially mentioned are:

1. Proposal for dedicated freight corridor

2. Novel and progressive ideas proposed for housekeeping, security and cleanness including mechanized laundry 

3. Proposal for setting up of the Railway University for skill training in the field of railway engineering, technology and management

4. Improvements in e-ticketing and e-administration with introduction of paperless railway office working

5. Employment generation and use of railways as an economic driving force for India.

6. Thrust for speedy completion of ongoing projects by better administrative follow ups

Together with the rest of India, I earnestly hope this is just a beginning for a better tomorrow for India.

If there is a will, there is a way! That is what this railway budget is telling us!

Best wishes to the PM and his team! 

Arthakranti Pratishthan: Could it be Possible for PM Narendra Modi to Consider its Revolutionary Ideas for Tax Reforms?

For long I was toying with the the idea of better alternatives to regressive and inefficient taxation laws coupled with many other financial loop holes that have made India a nation of shame regardless of her high potentials in various fronts. 

I had earlier shared two ideas that came to my mind in this context.

One was about bank ATMs of this country. ATMs are presently used as instruments that helps in perpetuating corruption while it could well be used to control corruption.

Then I wrote about my thoughts on the so-called transaction tax that could effectively replace the present income tax.

Yesterday my daughter from Delhi, shared me a long article on the efforts made by a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) formed by a group of professionals at Pune, named the Arthakranti Pratishthan which has been doing pioneering efforts to bring about radical changes in this context for the past few years.

This organization of professionally well informed intellectuals like Chartered Accountants, engineers, etc have done their independent analysis about the economic ills that plague India and has come out with a seemingly simple, but extremely effective proposal for the government of India to consider for implementation.

The original idea was proposed by one Mr.Arun Bokil who is one of the founder members of Arthakranti.

Here are some news that the media covered on this proposal in the recent past:

One news reported that while the Congress VP Rahul Gandhi rejected the idea, BJP leaders such as Mr Subramanya Swamy favored it. 

Another reported it as some steps to rejuvenate our economy.

I have studied their proposal. I fully endorse it.

It is also reliably learnt that the new visionary PM of India-Narendra Modiji- has listened patiently to Mr Arum Bokil for about two hours to understand the concept and its finer details and is in favor of the idea.

Those who have not known about it I would suggest that they should have a look at this great 5-point proposal that is given in the website of Arthakranti.  Let us examine the pros and cons of these five suggestions:

The first step as suggested involves in removing all kinds of direct taxes in the country as it exists now. There are some 56 odd taxes in the country imposed by the central and state governments including income tax, excise, service tax, value added tax (VAT), etc. All these are to be scrapped, except perhaps the customs duties or import duties which might be required to work as an international trade balancing mechanism. When this is done all commodities and services in India would immediately become cheaper by 32% to 55%. All income tax payers would find their incomes rise by 5-30 % in an year. The government apparently would seem to loss some thing like Rs.16000 billion. But it is not the end of it. Let us see further.

The second step is introduction of what is known as the Transaction Tax (TT). A total of say, 2% would be deducted from any amount received in any bank account. If any one receives Rs.100 in his bank account, Rs 2 would be immediately deducted by the  bank and this in turn would be divided in some acceptable ratio to be remitted to the central government, state government, local government and say the bank concerned. Let us say 0.8% to the Central government, 0.6 % to the state government concerned, 0.4 % to the local government (municipality, city corporation etc) and 0.2 % to the bank concerned. If you get Rs 100000 per year as salary, you give 2% of it as your TT. That is Rs.2000/-. But you spend the money by giving it to your shop keepers and others for goods and services. So those who received the amount first from you also pay Rs.2000/- to the exchequer. If the same money change hand 6 times in an year this way, the government gets Rs 12000/- The more the transactions, the more the government gets. Presently, the total Banking transactions in India is to the tune of Rs.800000 billion. 2% of it is Rs16000 billion which is the same as the present gross tax collection or budget of the government of India. But this is just only a fraction of the total money transactions in India due to the existence of the parallel economy which transacts money outside the banking system. Again government can take steps to enhance more economic activities and money transactions which would give more money to its coffers as TT. It is so feels, it could either reduce or increase the TT percentage marginally as per requirement and situation.

Thus, TT in place of the existing taxes are not going to affect the government treasury in any way. Again prices of goods and services have drastically reduced which enhances the money transactions.

The third step proposed is the withdrawal of all high denomination currency notes from circulation. Our banks and ATMs will now give cash to any one in 5/10/20/50 rupee notes or coins only. 100/500/1000/5000 or higher denomination currencies would no more be valid tender. All people who get monthly salaries above say Rs 5000/- would get it through their bank accounts. People would not be allowed to carry cash not more than Rs.5000/- at a time. All transactions above the specified limit of say Rs.5000 would be through debit cards/cheques etc. If you buy even grocery worth more than Rs.5000 that has to be paid through your debit card. You only pay cash payments to your vegetable and fruit vendor. You may also pay cash to your local taxi driver, hair dresser, daily wager etc. Even the local wholesale vendor has to accept either cheque or debit/credit card. This way all cash hoarded as black money would either come to accounted money or vanish as useless. India's corruption avenues would dry up. There will not be any theft of cash from homes. Neither would there be kidnappings for ransom money. Even our political spending would now become properly accounted and the election commission would no more be able to catch huge cash in transit. Even for those who prefer to do adopt cash transactions would not be so easily able to do it because they have to carry big sacks and trunks to carry the lower denomination currency notes. This step would also enhance the banking transactions immediately.

The limited cash transactions that are legally allowed would not be in the purview of the TT.

The above mentioned steps are not difficult to implement if the central government is determined to do it. Of course those who are benefited by black money would naturally oppose it. 

But if you analyze it properly, the system would be of great benefit to one and all in the long run. It would make India a role model in the whole of this world. 

It would help the majority of below poverty population to come out of their poverty and illiteracy. People would gladly give TT as they no longer feel the pinch of government interference in their lives. Our businesses will flourish without the fear of the tax officials who are notorious for their whims in interpreting the tax laws to their advantage. 

The government no longer would need to have a large tax collection organization which eats half of the money collected for their own salaries and perks.

Tax return filing and the many fold problems the people face including the harassment out of it would all be things of the past. 

Government would get more time to think of development rather than tax collection and prosecutions. 

It is a great thing if it happens.

But if past experience is any indication, the so called tax mandarins are likely to oppose any such revolutionary ideas for obvious reasons. Such an idea would end their decades old grip over the system of administration in vogue. So all those officials and staff connected with the 'collector' system would vehemently oppose such a move to make things easier for every one. Besides, all those who have been taking benefits of tax evasion and generation of black monies would also oppose such moves.

It definitely needs the intervention of a strong political visionary who is strong enough to push the right things for the overall benefit of the nation. For many years we have been lacking such a leadership.

But now things seems to be no more like the past. I think our new PM is the only leader who could perhaps over come the obstacles to implement such great ideas.

Narendra Modi-the New PM & CEO (India) Sets Examples for the Best Governance for All CEOs!

As a commoner of India, I feel happy when any other fellow Indian does something good for the nation and its people. I feel proud when some of those fellow Indians use their leadership and abilities for the betterment of this nation.

Just as many in this country, I had a gut feeling that Mr Narendra Modi has gained the qualities and experience properly mixed with personal leadership traits such as vision, enthusiasm and dynamism to take the mantles of the government of India at a crucial juncture when this great nation has slipped to make use of many past opportunities to be at par with many other developed nations of this globe even after having all the potentials in its store. 

With all such fellow men and women of this country, I wished Modiji go northward from Gujarat to Delhi  to occupy  the PM's chair from May 2014 to do some good for India by re-engineering the government machinery so that it works in a practical manner.

Swacch Bharat! Modiji's Vision Could Change India!

I felt happy that the people of India thought like me and made that possible.

I felt relieved and reassured because the inactivity and in-sensitiveness of the previous regime vanished into oblivion. Obviously dynamism with a purpose has set in the government!

News about such initiatives of dynamism has been pouring in.

Out of the many news that are pouring in day by day, this one that appeared in the Times of India internet edition provided an insight in to the style of working of the new PM. The news today was titled like this by TOI:

Work Without Fear, I'll Protect You, PM Modi

The new PM of India was addressing the senior bureaucrats of India who head the various ministries of the central government. 

The report also covered some interesting features regarding the PM's first meeting with India's top bureaucrats-the Secretaries who head the various ministries. Especially noteworthy are the following:

The PM personally met all the 70 odd bureau chiefs, first got introduced to them and made an honest effort to gain their rapport.

He encouraged these top ranking officials to open their hearts and give their suggestions and opinions to improve the system. A few of them responded.

Such a meeting initiated by the PM of India was happening for the first time after 8 years!

The new PM assured the professional managers of the government to take decisions without fear so that the governmental works move quicker. The political support for their work was re-assured.

Modiji would be the first PM of India who thought it fit to inspect the corridors of the various Mantralayas (Ministry offices) to check their neatness and tidiness. [Read this news!] Whether he actually inspected or not, this has had its effect already.

India is characteristically infamous for untidy public offices and unhygienic office toilets. Hardly any top Indian authority or CEO ever felt it essential to ensure the neatness, tidiness and hygiene of the offices and workplaces that are under their charge. They are happy if their own office cabins look great and are not bothered to spend any amount for that. It is like sitting in a five star cabin inside a filthy environment.

Such an attitude causes the large workforce to possess a general response reflective of hidden contempt within them. The net effect, the government systems and machinery does not perform! 

I had witnessed some of the inside activities of some of the central ministries in New Delhi. I had seen scores of government employees engaged in groups in the vast interior lawns wasting their times in many fold activities including certain kinds of gambling. And their officers of the elite IAS and the like cadres seemed to possess no will or intent to make things in order!

Modi ji is perhaps the first PM of India who realized this (the importance of well maintained ministry offices as a first step towards making the administration perform well)  and determined to set things right by seemingly simple, but effective acts. No one ever expected such a CEO act from the PM of India, going by the traditions!

Kudos to him!   

There are many more. Indians are waiting to see the good results.

It is indeed a good thing is that the new PM of India has set an example to the whole world that he is better than any corporate CEO when it comes to the basics of corporate management and governance.

It shows that India has now got a good PM who does not want to remain as a figure head only to enjoy some privileges but to assert as the determined CEO this nation to transform it to turnaround and perform well for the benefit of the people.

Let us hope that he would succeed in doing that great task!

Let us also hope that the lesser CEOs of the nation follow suit to accomplish their own tasks in the same manner in support of his vision to come true!