Would it be Possible for India to Improve its Corruption Perception Index!

To brush up your concepts of corruption, corruption perception index (CPI) and the score of India with regard to CPI, I would suggest that you read my earlier blog article titled: the root cause of corruption in India.

An Indian Newspaper Report about Corruption in  Aadhaar

In the above article I had concluded that the root cause of corruption is fear. Weaklings in mind and body are prone to problems arising out of their fear. These people are afraid of many things, though they might not agree to it so easily. They may even try to project themselves as courageous by trying to do many acts to prove their courage, though often in a foolish manner.

Fear about the uncertainties of the future causes people to become greedy. Their minds become engulfed in the thought of self survival even at the cost of others. They want to grab everything for them and do not wish to consider the necessities of others. 

This is greed arising out of fear psychosis. And this happens with all cowards. Brave men and women are not affected by fear and greed. For brave men and women, the lives of others around them are as important or perhaps more important as theirs!

But what happens when the people are genetically fearful? It is not easy for such people to remove their intrinsic fears about the unknown. 

Fear can make permanent imprints in animals and birds for generations. So is the case with people who have predominant animal like traits or those who are more concerned about their day to day living rather than thinking and analysing a situation with their god-given wisdom.

For example, many species of birds are scared of the scarecrow. Crows get agitated and scared if they happen to see some black cloth similar the feathers of a dead crow.

Some years ago, when I visited the Andaman Islands, I noticed a very peculiar thing. The buses that plied on the road across the island were having two gun shaped woods projecting on either side. Those were for scaring the aboriginals. The aboriginals of the island witnessed the deadly power of the guns of the civilized men some generations ago. Now their new generations are scared of any objects in the shape of the guns! When they see such objects, they would not dare to come near to attack. That was the logic behind the gun shaped scarecrows intented for the aboriginal humans of the island that I saw on the buses of this island. 

Cowards avoid fighting face to face. They avoid direct confrontation with the mighty ones, but adopt guerrilla warfare to destroy their enemies. Clever tactics to make selfish gains are usually adopted by cowards. When all people are courageous in mind and body, even wars among people would cease to happen!

Cowards are inherently suspicious about all others around them. They find it difficult to trust any one. The game of politics to grab power attains complex and unworthy levels when the people involved are intrinsically cowards. Those who are involved in this game say something, but act differently! The fears that are deep rooted in their minds do not allow them to be honest!

Fearful people cannot even have full trust in God. It is difficult for them to believe that God's providence is unconditional. As a result, they might even try to device their own gods and might even try to bribe such gods for doing them favors! It is difficult for them to differentiate between the characteristics of people and god. They assume their gods too with similar weaknesses as humans! For many humans, it is just difficult to comprehend God and the Universe and the power of God that is non-human like. But they fear God, just as they fear any power yielding human hero who takes pleasure in punishing all those commit errors or sins and rewards those who do good.

Fear arise out of cowardice which in turn prevents people to be honest, truthful, compassionate and generous. Cowardice arise out of many factors, some genetic, some demographic and some racial. To remove cowardice from mind, the first requisite is to have a sound body and mind. The second requisite is to train the body and mind to be strong. Unbiased education, knowledge and training do help people to become strong and generous in mind capacities. On the other hand, biased and improper education can make a sound mind to become apprehensive and fearsome.

A society or group of people cannot attain all round development, so long as there exist cowards who are weak in body and mind and who are not trained to remove their unjustified fears. 

Corruption of various kinds take roots in a society with weaklings in majority.

It is not possible for any current generation to eradicate corruption in their society if it exist in it. But, it can keep reducing it by willful determination in its future generations. The key is its future generation.

Children can be trained to develop to less fearsome adults as compared to their parents, provided they are not exposed to fear inducements by either parents or their teachers. A child who is exposed to imaginary ghost fear by parents can never fully eliminate that fear even during its adulthood under normal circumstances! So is the case with several such fears and prejudices that got developed during childhood! A boy or girl upon reaching adulthood might succeed in removing such fears, pride and prejudices only if his or her mind capacity is much superior with an inbuilt self desire for eliminating such negative qualities.

Now comes the moot question. Would it be possible for India to improve its corruption perception index? Could we possibly eliminate corruption in India?

It could be debated for generations. But fear is the key!

India or for that matter any nation or society where corruption is a serious problem for development, can possibly improve their corruption perception indices (CPI)  when the majority individuals learn to remove their hidden fears and prejudices deep rooted in their minds.

For it to happen, the individuals should have healthy bodies and sound minds capable of accepting and retaining good education and training.

Would it be happening in this generation or in the next?

Think about it!   

What is the Root Cause of Corruption in India?

Corruption is a global phenomena now in our world. But the degree of corruption as perceived varies from nation to nation. The following gives the graphic depiction of what the global corruption watchdog agency-Transparency International (TI)- has found out about the current status of the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for the various nations.

[You may place the cursor on the country map to read the CPI data as published by TI for 2014. You can move the map by pressing down the cursor and moving it!]

The lower the score, the better the country with regard to corruption. The yellow regions in the map show the nations with the least corruption.

Every individual could have their own interpretation and views regarding corruption. For some, it is not any grave issue. For some it is the gravest problem. And yet for many others, it is just an unavoidable part of human culture and civilization and perhaps there are no solutions.

After all what is corruption? When someone, delegated with some authority or responsibility to do a public service, does something associated with that public service for gaining any undue benefit for self or for someone of his or her preferred choice, then perhaps that act amounts to corruption.

Let us consider a few examples:

You go to a police station to register a first information report (FIR) on a police complaint. The officer on duty make excuses and demands some personal favor (money or something else) for doing the work he was supposed to do as a public servant. Here he or she is using the delegated power for making some personal benefit. It is an act of corruption.

You go to a railway ticket booking counter and find there are several people in the line. Obviously, you may have to wait for your turn and there is the possibility that you may not get your seat or berth booked at all. You try to influence the booking clerk through some one by offering some extra money and the clerk does that for you preferentially to oblige your extra payment. It is corruption.

The school teacher keeps on harassing your child in the school for some reason or the other always compelling you to personally meet her and make a friendship. She requests some help which you are in a position to do and obliges. Your child's problem in the school ends. Another form of corruption!

A public contract is notified. Your company sees the potential business opportunity and wants to participate and get the contract. A few among the decision makers hints about you shelling out some big commission money in an indirect manner if your company wins the contract. If you don't, you may perhaps be shunted out. If you oblige, you would be facilitated to get the award. Another kind of corruption.

You apply for some government permit or sanction under some law to operate your company. No decisions taken and you are asked for various kinds of clarifications from time to time. But when you shell out some money and some other personal gratification things to the benefit of the the concerned authorities, your work is done. 

The list is endless. In a highly corrupt country, almost all public services have some corruption link. All levels of decision making are perceptibly corrupt!

Now what happens when a country is highly corrupt this way? The cost of running any business goes up due to the unaccounted money that get in the system leading the black economy.

The cost of goods and services go higher. Public services like roads, schools, hospitals, railways etc become inadequate or poorly managed. The competency of people to undertake any work keeps deteriorating. A good majority of people become jobless or poorly paid.

Employment generation takes a beating due to the difficulty of setting up businesses and also due to the inadequate returns on investments. Risk involved in doing honest business increases. 

The normal life become very difficult unless you have some connections with the powerful people. Justice to individuals never truly happens! 

Trust among people deteriorates as more and more people try dishonest methods on the false assumption that it is essential for survival. People becomes divided and democracy causes incompetent and dishonest persons to rise up in leadership positions to worsen the situation year after year.

Now what is the root cause of all this?

Is it over population as some people say?

Is it the greed of the people?

Is it the lack of proper education?

Perhaps all these may be true.

I would say it is the fear of the people. The fear of the unknown.

Corruption perpetuates when people becomes fearsome.

So fear causes the minds of individual to become corrupt. Fear of the fellow being causes a man or woman to become selfish and selfishness results in the adoption of corrupt acts. Selfish people do want to live even at the cost of others generating greed. They seldom realize that they too perish after some time!

And lack of that realization is ignorance and ignorance causes corruption.

Whatever be the fear, t is essential to find the causes of that fear.

How to remove it?

Fear is the characteristic feature of cowards. Brave men and women are not fearful and courage comes from true knowledge.

When the society has more cowards, it tends to become corrupt. A society with courageous people cannot be perpetually corrupt!

Courage develops through true education both formal and informal. True education can only be possible when individuals, families and the society understand its true meaning and purpose!

And to understand it well, the individuals need to have sound bodies and sound minds. Partially developed individuals with imperfect bodies and minds cannot understand the true meaning of education and its true purpose!

A fully developed mind is capable of discerning the divine guidance that differentiate between good and bad.

So the root cause of corruption is due to imperfect bodies and minds of individuals making them fearful cowards.

Eradicate poverty, able bodied men and women would emerge.

Educate the able bodied men and women, their minds would become strong and fear would disappear.

Once the fear goes, they no longer be selfish, suspicious or greedy.

They no longer need to be corrupt!

Every one in the society needs to introspect, if they feel corruption is really a menace of their society.

You know what is to be done now!

Why Schools in Indian Cities take Cash Donation for Pre-Primary Admissions?

Is it really so? You may ask if you do not have a child to be admitted to the schools and if you do not happen to live in any big Indian city.

But ask the young parents who live in the Indian metros. In private conversations they curse the Indian government and the city school managements and complain about the blackmailing and the exploitation that the big city Indian schools keep on perpetuating. Education is not allowed to be run a any business in India. Education is reserved for the so-called societies and trusts to be carried out on a non-profit basis. The schools of India in the private domain have to be run only by non-profit societies and trusts set up in the guise of charity , religion or social empowerment!

School fees in the past in India, both in the private and in the government run institutions used to be very negligible and no one made any profit by running these institutions. In the private, it used to be almost a social service and a philanthropic service.

But the situation changed in the past two decades. Governments pulled away from urban education and created situations for the private schools to charge heavy fees. The private schools which have been in existence for many decades having all the necessary infrastructure became the immediate beneficiaries as large sums began to flow to their coffers as fees.

The convents and all those minority cash starved educational institutions of India soon became cash rich, attracting the clever ones in their lot to get in to the managements of these institutions. The priests, the bishops and such others from other religions who have educational institutions all became more and more influential and powerful. They set the example to clever individuals to set up charitable educational societies and educational institutions under their respective banners.

Education soon have turned out to be a big profit business without any one any time to pay any taxes or to be accountable to any one! To their merriment, India soon was having a growing population of young parents whose average incomes stood several times higher than the average incomes of the rest-of-India. These higher income neo-middle class gained from the digital economy and the dollars that flowed from the West.

The digital economy parents are fortunate people in the eyes of the rest-of-India.

Many of them are the new-age employees of shining India. Several of them have been employed fortunately by the so-called multi-national companies whose managements do not exploit them to the extent that their India only company managements do with regard to their salaries and perks. Obviously their salaries and perks do make them objects of envy by the rest-of-India.

They are considered to be better educated as they are comfortable in communicating in English- the language of the Indian 'elitists' and they have all the reasons to believe that their prosperity is due to English. So, naturally they are not prepared to forgo English at any cost. They want their children too to be well versed in English and maintain their enviable status in the society.

Unfortunately for them, they are a minority and they are not the vote bank for the Indian politicians. They may be good communicators in the social media of Facebook, Twitter and the like. But the Indian politicians have been shrewd enough to realize the insignificance of these digital economy middle class as far as the election and the vote bank politics are concerned.

So whether they like it or not, the Indian politicians and the Indian socio-religious outfits keep on exploiting them well. 

The elite schools and the elite home builders of the metros began to extract a good part of the money the digital employees have been making. Education and housing have become the two things through which this clandestine extraction worked!

The tri-corner clandestine nexus between the Indian administration, the Indian education barons and the Indian housing barons drains the fortunes of the highly paid Indian neo middle class MNC employees. But the best part about this was the ignorance of the inflicted to realize about it!

It is like the leach sucking the blood painlessly! 

So, how much money you paid for getting your only child to the Indian city school which bears the name of a saint of the past? (many of these so-called well- to- do' s of India have only one child because they are too conscious of the expenses involved!)

Oh, the fees are not very much, it is affordable. Many of them might say in public as they are also too conscious of the status damage their irresponsible complaints could cause!

It is only about Rs.10000/- per month, they might explain. You see, these schools do not allow the child to speak other than in English and they take so much attention to erase the child's mother tongue that had gone in to its brains by mistake! This is a very difficult task indeed and a big service that the school is doing for such a small fee! There are many more expenses for these schools and that is why they are expensive. Some of them might even become staunch supporters of these school managements!

But what happens to the huge sums they collect? What happens if you do not have the money? Indirectly, these schools are allowed to become bench markers for school education costs in India. Let us do a simple arithmetic:

The school is collecting Rs.10000/-x 50 = Rs.0.5 million per month from the parents of fifty odd pre-primary children who have not yet begun their formal class-I learning! 

How many divisions of classes one such school has? How much money such a school would be collecting for a month for all the classes up to senior secondary level? 

If on the average, there are five sections of 50 students for each class, the school would be having (2+10+2)x5x50=3500 students. That is the average strength of any such school. But many of the city schools run in two shifts and have more than double that strength of students. So what is the money they collect in an year as fees? Even if you take the lower fee of Rs. 2500/- an Indian city school with 3500 children collects about 10 million rupees as annual fees. Imagine those who collect more fees and with more children!

How much would be their expenditure? Most of the schools that exist for a few decades have got the land and the infrastructure almost free because of their religious charity status. No doubt they keep improving their infrastructure just to woo the gullible status- over-conscious parents! But the teachers they have are not any extra ordinary souls of extreme caliber! Most of these schools have just ordinary Indian folks as teachers who are paid a monthly salary which could be equivalent to the fee paid by just 5-10 children! Many such schools also do not pay a salary at par with the government run schools in the Indian villages!

But they do have a high profile principal and a few other high status displaying lady teachers who talk English in some artificial style. They are trained to treat the parents according to the latter's social and monetary standing. And that works perfect for the status over-conscious parents that they easily fell to the trap laid by the schools!

Invariably all these schools adopt more or less the same methodology to fool the gullible parents. Remember, they are not hapless parents, but gullible ones! They are party to make the traps to which they jump!

When they go to the school to meet the principal, they are stopped at the gate by a security guard in uniform only to be told that the principal does not meet parents. The first thing these parents have to do therefore is to try some influence to get an appointment to meet such a principal who is projected as more than the Chief Minister of the state! The more the difficulty, the more is the status of the school! The status conscious Indian parent should not have any complaints in this context.

Once the parent gets to meet the principal, he or she would be told about the the government rules that make it difficult for the child to get to this school. This is to assess the parents' eagerness to get the child admitted to this school. 

The clever school principal and his team are professionals who know pretty well how to tackle the parents. The artificial majesty of their office and the sharp care-least attitude make all the difference! 

To the gullible parent who fell in their trap would be told about the method of procuring the admission forms at high costs (usually in the thousands), the type of tests, interviews and the various kinds of fees that are collected with receipts. The child is going to be trained in all trades and tricks to be a winner in this competitive world! And all such trades and tricks are pretty expensive to be taught!

Then they inform about the most important fee- the lump sum one time donation that they should shell out for maintaining the great school in its grandeur!  And of course, the latter money has to be paid in cash and there would not be any cash receipt! After all faith is all that you need in this kind of a business! 

And how much is this faith fee? Nothing much for the affluent Indian parent who draws a take home salary of more than Rs.100000/- per month! It is just peanuts ranging from Rs. 150,000 to Rs. 500,000/- only! This is the current applicable rate in the various metro, semi metro cities of India as in 2015 as I have learnt about it! If the parent has approached through any influential person, then usually a rebate up to 50% might be offered!

Will they accept a banker's cheque or a demand draft? No, no! Only cash here! But how to get cash when the government says not to do any transactions above Rs.20,000/- in cash? Will not amount to an illegal activity? 

The school authorities are least bothered and they do not seem to accept the government restrictions regarding cash transactions! And why should they? What happens to the huge cash (unaccounted black money) they collect this way? 

No Indian politician so far has got the courage to change this! They simply do not see this happening right in front of their noses. And why should they when the parties involved in these transactions have no grievance at all! 

Is it my imagination? Read this article which appeared in the Hindu a couple of years ago. The situation keeps worsening year after year!

When business minded people grab the opportunity to make money through education exploiting the peoples' sentiments, it is understandable. At least, they have to create the infrastructure for the school by spending money from their pockets or by taking loans from the banks.

Many Christians do contribute money for their churches and missionary organizations to set up and run schools, educational institutions and hospitals for the benefit of the society. Sharing some thing good that they have with others is considered as a life mission of a Christian, regardless of what good is shared-material good or spiritual good! They are supposed to do both. For various reasons, this missionary zeal is often misunderstood!

An elite Christian School in Jharkhand spends their surplus 

to provide educational facilities to the poor tribal children.

A march past of the tribal children in the campus of the elite school!

But it really makes me sad when people tell about the acts of some Christian priests and nuns who resort to illegal money making in the guise of education in this nation.

Now how can they be any different when the whole society is immersed in corruption? One may ask!

What could we do? What can be done?

I do not say that we do not need good quality schools. Education is very important and every child in this country needs to get quality education. But at the same time we should not attempt dividing our society and our children into elites and non-elites, the same mistake some of our forefathers have done.

We should not expose our children to the dirty face of corruption in the same place where they are going to mold their characters. What are we going to tell our children about morality when the principal of their school is the one who takes illegal money for getting them admissions?

Why do we have principals' offices in pomp when the teachers of the same school share the same room and the same furniture with little luxury? Why some principals are paid exorbitant salaries and perks while several of their counterparts in other schools are not?

Why can't the schools publish their audited accounts to all those who are concerned with the schools, the parents and the public at large. Why can't they be accountable?

The government of India recently has proposed to bring private companies in the purview of the anti-corruption laws. Will they do it for the private educational institutions? 

Will the government dare to raid some schools to find unaccounted money in cash kept in the schools just as they do for the business houses? 

It is not so easy. The schools have great influential power because they are dealing with the children of influential people. By shrewd manipulation they have learnt the tricks of satisfying the powers that be. The more shrewd their management, the more influential the school!

It is getting too close to what is called crony capitalism. At least some in India are getting too happy about it!

Fortunately this crony capitalism is not the invention of India. Indians are just imitating those whom they now consider as successful in achieving material prosperity. With time all of them would realize their follies!

I am compelled to quote an optimistic warning that the authors of my favorite book of life guidance give:

"Humans should get a vision of a new and higher cultural society. Education would jump to new levels of value with the passing of the purely profit motivated system of economics. Education on earth has long been localistic, militaristic, ego-exalting and success-seeking. It must eventually become world-wide, idealistic, self-realizing and cosmic grasping. The control of education is being passed from the hands of the clergy to the hands of businessmen now. Eventually it must shift into the hands of philosophers and scientists. Teachers would eventually become free beings and  real leaders. Search for wisdom would eventually become the chief motive behind all educational pursuits".

Hopefully, the present age problems of education is temporary in nature and it would refine to good in the years to come!

Note Added on 16th March 2015

At last the government of India seems initiating some actions in this context. In today's Hindustan Times Online there is this news titled: Special team probing black money set to crack down on unaccounted funds in education sector.  The news reports: 'A private study by the Mumbai-based Centre for Research and Prevention of Computer Crimes in 2014 said the business of education generates Rs 48,400 crore of black money annually' (in India!). 

Paying Four Million in Bribes for Getting a Teacher's Job: Only Malayalees Can Do Such a Ridiculous Thing!

An year ago, some one told about me about an incidence in which a known Christian priest of a prominent Christian denomination in Kerala was asked to pay an incredibly high amount of Rs.4 Million [$67,000] as bribe by none other than some other Christian priests and bishops.

It is a general perception that bribes are paid to and are taken only by the government officers, staff and perhaps some politicians in authority. 

But this case was some thing different. Here the case was some thing involving bribe paying by Christian priests to Christian priests. Bribe being paid and taken by those who teach and preach about morality to the commons. Ridiculous or shameful ? I have no words.

The priest, as per the person who told me this,   had to pay this huge sum as bribe for getting his PhD-holder wife employed as a lecturer in a private educational institution run by a Christian educational society attached to a Kerala church denomination!

I could not believe it. 

Firstly because, the sum involved-Rs.4 Million- in my assessment is a very high amount in India for the middle class people. It is difficult for even a high ranking government official to have such a bank balance with the current levels of salary in this country. 

The net salary of a top ranking government official, net of income tax, is only about Rs 1.5 Million per year as of now. And this is the present situation as on 2014. Their net salaries were much lower to the tune of say Rs.0.5 million or lower a few years ago. It is highly improbable for any salaried person to have a bank balance of millions unless he had some other sources of income. I am not sure how many people have other sources or how legal such sources are!

I do not deny the fact of some one selling his ancestral landed property and making a kill, but that too is not that easy as people think. I also know the impact of the foreign exchange flow taking place in my home state which caused a boom in the real estate prices! 

While I have an idea about the legal incomes of a Christian priest in the major Kerala denominations, I have no idea about their other sources of incomes. Any way their legal incomes are no where near a class one government officer. 

Secondly, the salary of the lecturer in the initial years is only to the tune of about 0.3-0.4 million rupees gross in an year. Of course, after one or two decades, this could be a few times higher. A corpus fund of 4 million in a bank can yield a neat return of Rs.28000/- per month at the lowest bank interest rates as existing. If the person is able to save Rs.5000/- per month from this and invest that regularly in a recurring deposit yielding 8.5% per year for the next 30 years, he or she would have a corpus of nearly 10 Million in bank instead of the initial 4 million! 

Additionally, a person having a corpus fund of 4 million need not pay any insurance premium because he or she already has 4 million in bank. Otherwise he or she had to pay Rs.10000/- per month for having a life insurance cover of 4 million valid for 30 years! Thus effectively, a person having 4 million initially is to be deemed as an income earner of Rs.38000/- per month, totally risk free, with all possibilities of the corpus fund growing as the time passes! 

Further, a person having 4 million in bank can think of any vocation of his or her own choice without any botheration from any one. The options are numerous. Those who have entrepreneurship attitudes and qualities, the four million rupees in hand is indeed a big opportunity!

Let them not think of investing the corpus fund in high risk investments if they are not confident. In that case, the banks could use their funds professionally and make higher yields and pay them the minimum interest of 8.5 % from what they earned!

Again, I do not know how these people make these transactions. It has to be in hard cash, because bank transactions might give some clues to the authorities for fixing the persons concerned under various laws. But then, fixing the law enforcement people also through some bribes is not a big deal in a country where corruption is more-or-less an acceptable way of life!

But would such a thing be perpetuated by the Christian clergy and church leaders who keep voicing against all corrupt practices and evils of the society in almost all their preaching? Perhaps not. That was what I have been thinking!

With the above logic, my information was bound to be false. And I thought it that way. But the TV channels of Kerala proved me wrong a few weeks ago. 

They showed me and the whole Malayalees of the world some thing we have been considering as rumors only. In real life we never thought it to be happening! 

I was stunned when the TV channels beamed their spy camera clippings that showed some people responsible for managing some private schools with substantial government aid, asking for bribe money to the order that I mentioned in the beginning of this article, from a Christian priest for appointment of the latter's wife as a teacher. 

Those asking for the bribe this time included a bishop, another priest and others who are all the office bearers of the Society that managed the educational institution. 

Remember, this was a recent incident and it was not the one I stated initially. It proved that the rumors running around are not rumors, but a routine practice! [Read this]

The channels subsequently came up with several of such spy camera revelations. The bribe money for appointment of teachers in government aided private schools of Kerala appears to be with the larger involvement of the political class and the so called non profit religious organizations. Christians are not the only exceptions!

This kind of a situation perhaps would not have been happening outside Kerala. I am not telling that non-Malayalees are all puritans. No, that is not the case. 

But, a Gujarati for example, would not pay millions for a peanut paying job of a private school teacher! Instead, he or she would start his or her own school or some thing similar to it. That is the difference between the Gujarati and the Malayali mindsets.

So there are so many such foolish Malayalees who are willing to pay in millions for a peanut paying job of a teacher and they do not have the brains to understand their foolishness. And there are other local Malayalees who exploit this mindset. Does it indicate the lack of entrepreneurship in Malayalees? 

Perhaps, yes. Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps they are more calculative!

Some of the Christian leaders were later justifying their situation. When the political authorities are asking for such bribes, they are simply helpless, they argue. For running their institutions this is the only method, they say. 

Okay, I agree with them for a moment. But then they should stop preaching morality, at least! That is the minimum good thing that they can do to the people.

This is not any exception. I have direct information about Christian run educational institutions and other charity organizations becoming wise and practical as per the needs of the current age.

I am also aware of the various tricks and favoritism that keep happening within the organized churches in India, just as they happen all over the world. While the churchmen preach about the story and interpretations of Jesus calling such people 'whitewashed tombs in Matthew 23:27' they keep doing the same!

Doing a sin for a good cause does not make the sin, holy! 

We can not help it. People are people after all. To live like a true human being by willfully discarding greed, selfishness and such other negative qualities is becoming more and more difficult for many of us. 

We are in a world of temptations that does not even spare our religious and spiritual leaders!

But can't we not overcome our temptations?

Can't we not use our God given wisdom?

Black Money: How it is Generated in India? How Can it Be Eliminated?

Black money is essentially that money which is set aside and transacted without proper documentation or account book entries for purposes other than for normal day-to-day living of individuals. Most often such transactions are of high amounts.Since the transaction is unaccounted, the money goes out of the taxation system and the government loses tax revenue due to it.

Very often black money transactions take place in hard cash and such cash is stacked in the custody of individuals, instead of the place where it should genuinely be lying-the banking system.Black money transactions drain out the currency circulation and place greater stress on the government to print and issue more and more currency notes than actually required.

Black money is often generated in transactions that are illegal, such as gambling, bribes, smuggling, drug trafficking, human trafficking and by a variety of other such acts. Large scale black money transactions also take place in commodity trades, labor contracts, election campaigns, mining, scrap trades, used vehicle trades, gems and jewelry trade, etc.

Money which one gains by illegal means without proper accounting is, therefore, black money. Money paid and received for unfair benefits is also black money, which is sometimes called corruption money.

Black money generates black wealth and black economy which runs parallel to the legal economy monitored by the government. The high presence of black economy transactions cause the formal economy weak and ineffective. It causes a few individuals to have enormous purchasing power as compared to the majority citizens which creates higher levels of economic inequality.

Now let us consider some manner in which black money is generated. Let us take the case of a school or a college which has some good reputation. The reputation causes more and more parents aspiring to have their wards admitted in such schools or colleges. A very glaring example is the private medical colleges in India. Now there is a big demand for their courses and seats. Suppose that the government has fixed a small percentage of seats to be allotted at the discretion of the management or the persons who are in the decision making positions even while having a publicly known fee structure. This causes some seats to be allotted to some students on the basis of corruption money that they pay to influence the decision makers. Since this money cannot be accounted by the legally accepted accounting system, the money, the moment it is paid becomes illegal or black. It is common knowledge that some private medical colleges in India allots some seats by taking a couple of million rupees in black. Since, it is not normally possible for people who have legitimate incomes to pay such huge amounts for just getting their not-so-bright wards admitted for a medical degree course or a reputed school such black money payments are often made by those who have black money cash stacked with them. This black money in hard cash then get transacted and moved from one custodian to another in return for a small favor. If the money is not so large, the person who got it slowly pumps it in to the main economy and make it white. Usually, he or she spends such easy money  lavishly for parties, purchase of expensive white goods such as cameras, mobiles, i-pads, ornaments, gems and during luxury travels. He or she may use it for lavishly furnishing or constructing expensive homes. 

Contractors who are dealing with large numbers of daily wagers have to transact huge cash on a daily basis. They may show individuals payments higher in the books while making lower payments to the individuals. This way they create large sums of cash which is unaccounted which they use for illegal transactions later.

When large scale purchases take place, many companies are willing to pay some percentage of the transaction as commissions to the people who have helped them to settle the deals. While such commissions are legal for private-to-private transactions, for governmental or public transactions they are illegal. If in the latter case commissions are paid, it has to be illegal and therefore out of corruption. It becomes then black money.

There are hundreds of such methods by which black money transactions routinely take place. While black money is common through out the world, its impact and quantum is more in under developed or developing countries like India.

It is almost impossible to eliminate corruption and black money in a country, so long as there are people who are dishonest, greedy or unscrupulous with lower maturity levels. Yet, its impact and prevalence could be controlled to a greater extent by better methods of governance. However, better governance is not always possible when the people in key positions of governance are themselves are without competency, character, courage and compassion. 

One of the easiest method to control black money is the strict imposition of restrictions on hard cash transactions. It is not very difficult with banking becoming almost computerized and online. I have written about some aspects of it earlier.

Black money economy has to be curtailed if India wants to have progress and development that is beneficial to everyone. If greed and insecurity feelings are removed from the minds of the people, this social evil might start declining of its own.

Every right thinking Indian should give a serious thought about it.

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.

Enhancing Employment in India Should Be the First Priority for Indian Politicians!

What should we Indians expect from our successful political leaders who chance to become our heads of governmental functions in our central and state governments?

How are we going to evaluate their performances?

In an election year, how would we decide whom to vote? There are so many candidates forced on us by the numerous political parties all with highly ambitious chiefs who are interested in getting in to the seats of political power and governance.

They are spending millions and millions of rupees from their individual and collective coffers to reach out to the Indian voters. All parties get the money to spend on their party leaders and for election propaganda by what is known as donations from the Indian people or the Indian business organizations who make money by various economic activities.

So the circle is like this. The individuals gain money by doing various economic activities. Some of them get paid for their work as employees of some organizations of people formed for doing making profits from various economic activities. These economic activities are numerous. Any activity of human beings which is carried out for some cash benefit is an economic activity. 

So activities related to agriculture, mining, production, manufacturing, transport, communication, entertainment, health, sports, education, administration and governance, insurance, accounting, auditing, policing, politics, law making, law practice, tax collection and administration,  research and development, software development, quality control, etc, and even religious activity are all economic activities. Some of these are economic activities directly involving production of goods and materials while a large number of other activities involve some kind of service. In short economic activities are all about goods and services by people and for people all done for some kind or remuneration or advantage or profit.

Food, clothing, shelter, health, entertainment, security, justice, spiritual comfort are all essential for human beings and as humans progress in body and mind, his requirements and aspirations also increase. Food is the primary requirement of a person who is hungry. But when hunger is resolved, he needs clothing and shelter. When these are also fulfilled, he wants to improve and aspire for other comforts and entertainment.

No human can be self sufficient. God has created humans to exist and prosper under mutual dependence.

Modern economic activities with money as its measuring unit is one of the greatest evolutionary achievement human beings have made. Human progress of any nation is measured by the sum total of the value of the economic activities of its people that our economists define as the Gross Domestic Product or GDP.

The more the GDP the more likely the country's prosperity. Alternatively, the more the people are engaged in economic activities, the more the country's GDP. So, GDP grows when more people are involved in economic activities and their individual gains also keep growing.

Organizations of people help in organizing the economic activities of individuals and to gain collective synergy.

If these organizations make more money than they spend, they make profits. If they make profits, they can afford to enhance their economic activities by employing more people by paying them salaries or even enhance the salaries of their employees. Such business organizations are legally known firms or companies. The companies pay salary to their employees and divide profits among their share holders and promoters. The companies, their employees and their share holders all pay taxes to the government and the governments also get money when business firms progress. 

The money generated through small and big business gets further distributed to people as money never gets accumulated any where, but only accounted. So if some one makes lots of money it will be reflected in his bank accounts but the banks in turn lend that money to some one who uses that money elsewhere for some other economic activity and in turn help others to engage in more and more economic activities.

Thus the more the economic activity, the more the people get opportunities for getting involved in some kind of such activity and gets paid in some manner. Only when economic activities increase, then only employment opportunities enhance. Enhancing the economic activities should, therefore, be the primary concern of all people who come to occupy the seats of decision making in governments.

People occupying governmental positions have many functions. They have to first get money for themselves through collection of taxes and by promoting other economic activities. Then they have to spend the money for various purposes such as defense, policing, infrastructure development, health, education, etc. All functions are important. Income generation and income distribution are all important.

But the primary thing to remember is this: if the income is less then expenditure would be affected and the government would not be in a position to give attention to all of its functions and responsibilities properly. This kind of government would soon become a problem for its people and the nation suffers because such governments would try to do foolish things that kill economic activities. Employment opportunities in the nation come down when the governmental authorities take foolish decisions under stress, ego, incompetence or immaturity to visualize the effects of their decisions wisely.

In my opinion, all business men should be honored because they are the agents and key-drivers of economic activities and employment generation. Businessmen and women are driven by the passion to achieve and move against the odds. The greatest thing they do is tapping the small potentials of individuals to contribute in in a larger way in economic activities under the companies and firms they have created and nurtured. 

So, the Ambanis, Adanis and the Saharas of India have done greater contributions in India by fighting the odds to create large business organizations that employ thousands of Indians. In the process they might have influenced many in the decision making hot spots of the Indian governance and administration by various means. But that is essentially that they do and what makes them different from others. That is why they are business leaders.

It is foolish for any one to kill the organizations that they have created by accusing them of corruption or breaking the rules. It is not good for any country to put such businessmen behind bars for any so called economic offenses. Economic offenses should be deemed as only business errors and it is not fair to equate business errors with felony. It is not good for any democratic country, whether it is the USA or India, to make and implement laws that kill the enthusiasm of people to to do business and enhance economic activities. 

In my opinion, punishment for economic offenses or errors should be only fines payable to the government and such fines should not be such that it would kill the organization for ever. People who violate the laws by taking willful decisions should be taken to task. But that should not kill the organizations that they had created. That would be sheer injustice to the employees , the shareholders. and clients.

In my opinion, it is not at all harmful to the country if any Ambani or Adani or Sahara has achieved huge profits for their companies. Through their companies and their employees the country has made billions as taxes of various kinds. Their businesses have made great dynamism in the economic activity scene of India directly and indirectly. That is what all businesses are doing. If they make profits it is good. Viewing that with jealousy is not good.

Remember, none of these businessmen and women are not going to take all the wealth that they have created with them when they die. The money and the systems that they had created would remain in the country for reaping economic benefits to the people of India.

That is the reason why I adore the visions of Mr Narendra Modi more than that of Mr Arvind Kejriwal. Mr Modi speaks of economic development through companies while Kejriwal speaks of corruption by companies. Modi stresses more on growth while Kejriwal stresses more on putting some breaks on economic growth by trying to cleanse the economic systems from possible violations of rules.

While I do honor and respect Mr Kejriwal for his honesty and spirit of principles, I do have doubts about the practicality of his visions in a country like India where the people are not essentially idealists nor mature enough in mind and body. I think he and his associates are wise enough to understand this and make corrections.

There is no point in talking idealism to people who are deprived from earning a livelihood by involving in some kind of economic activity. Generating economic activities to the maximum should, therefore, be the first priority of any politician who comes to occupy the hot seat of decision making in India.

Let economic activities grow first so that all Indians are gainfully employed and earn a livelihood. 

Other priorities can follow later.

Sycophancy:the Forerunner of Corruption in Any Society !

Some time ago I wrote a blog in my native language Malayalam wherein I tried to bring out the inherent dangers associated with a special characteristics of some working class humans in various kinds of organizations.

In my native state, Kerala, those familiar with our native language Malayalam, this special characteristic that some people use for achieving quick success in their lives, especially in their career, is identified by many terms. These terms more or less convey the meaning of the English language word, sycophancy. Maniyadi [മണിയടി], soppideel[സോപ്പിടീല്‍], kilukku[കിലുക്ക്], etc are those which I have often heard when people talk in private about the various phenomena that they keep witnessing in and around them involving sycophancy. 

The phenomena of sycophancy is not unique to any one country or region. It is universal throughout our earth. However, this phenomena is widespread in those nations where the corporate culture has established some firm grounds in the society. In other words, this is now deep rooted where the means of earning a living has shifted from the conventional self contained agrarian systems of self employment to the so called modern corporate employment culture.

Sycophancy is also known by other chaste English words such as obsequiousness, servility, subservience, etc. English speaking people also use words such as grovelling, servility, cringing, fawning, kowtowing, bootlicking, toadyism, slavishness and perhaps even other vulgar colloquial words . In common Indian English the practice of sycophancy is known in other words such as oiling, buttering, thelmalishing, etc., etc. 

Sycophancy is perpetuated by a class of people called sycophants who use flattery as their tool which they consider as too dependable and unfailing. But in reality their successes are short-lived and they often face pathetic tragedies in life at some later days. 

The people who resort to sycophancy are essentially people who are not honest to their inner consciousness and they are necessarily evil mongers of a particular kind, perhaps the worst kind who adopt a subtle method to subvert the good in the society. Even in a progressive society like the USA, this evil is spreading and making irreparable damages. I remember reading an article by an eminent stress management and personal transformation coach, Mr Rick Carter, recently wherein he has pinpointed correctly that the 'problem with corporate America and bureaucratic government is that promotions are based on sycophancy and not competency'. I fully agree with what Mr Carter has written in the portal named Selfgrowth.com.

In India too, sycophancy has become a slow killing corporate cancer. Both governmental and non-governmental organizations are affected by it. Public and private organizations are affected equally. Even religious organizations are no exceptions. So also is the case with political organizations. It is happening even in the smallest private organizational unit, the family.

Sycophants apparently make some success because of incompetent bosses who lack something of  the 4-C's essential for a good a leader.   When some of the subordinates of such bosses use flattery and other such methods to please the boss who lacks these essential leadership qualities, the boss develops a relative liking towards the sycophants which causes the sycophants to get undue advantages from the boss. This would in turn cause some of the sycophants to get preferential treatments in getting promotions within the organization and in another few years many of the incompetent sycophants bypass their competent colleagues and occupy higher positions of authority within the organization. By this the sycophants have got some personal benefits at the cost of the organization. The latter tends to become weaker and weaker as its leadership positions keep occupied by incompetent men and women who lacks the essential 4-Cs I mentioned above. In some years, the one time successful and dynamic organization becomes weak and sick.

Watch the business, governmental, political, private, public and religious organizations around you and try to study them closely concerning their origin, their growth and such other matters of their history. If the organization is sinking due to organizational incompetency, sycophancy had played a very important role!

What are the flattering techniques the sycophants use to trap their bosses? The following are some of the common techniques:

1. The sycophants openly support the views of the bosses always in public and in official meetings and they will never put forward their own views or ideas. For them the boss is right always in public. It is another thing that they might criticize or mock the boss in some of their private assemblies! I am not saying that subordinates should always oppose the boss. If the boss tells things right, it should be supported. But the boss is also a human being. There are chances and occasions when he or she could make mistakes or give wrong opinions leading to wrong decisions. When that happens, simply supporting the boss in order to avoid his momentary displeasure amounts to sycophancy.

2. The flatterers might use such words and acts to praise the boss and his acts always even when those things are not very praiseworthy. Listening to good words are always liked by most humans. Rather than hearing criticisms or opposing ideas, it is pleasing for humans to hear and see supportive or appreciative words and acts from others. When blind support and hollow appreciation come from the subordinates, the ordinary boss with lower leadership qualities would naturally fell in the trap. The incompetent boss would prefer such a subordinate than a subordinate who is competent and mature. Their combined acts and decisions harm the organization. 

3. Some bosses are keen to know about what is happening outside their offices. Some sycophants use this opportunity to meet the boss in private either in his home or in his office and fill the boss with misinformation about others. The incompetent and flattered boss fell in this trap and develops erroneous ideas about his organization and the people.

4. Some flatterers go further ahead in their acts. They try to please the boss with those material pleasures for which humans have a general weakness. Once the boss gets in this trap, the flatterer becomes bold enough to blackmail the boss and the boss would soon become a puppet in the hands of such clever subordinates.

It is not only the promotions that the sycophants seek. It could be any thing for which they are not normally eligible in the normal course. Perpetuating any kind of favor out of way is opportunism and a kind of corruption. Sycophant employees seek out-of-way recommendations for getting awards, getting out-of-way perquisites, getting challenging assignments for which they are not competent depriving those who could do it well, side tracking good people, sidelining competent and excellent employees who could do wonders for the organization, etc. This in turn brings out an overall demoralizing effect on the employees of the organization who are otherwise competent to undertake any tasks in the most appropriate manner. The organization weakens and fail in many instances.

The borderline between genuine pleasing behavior and flattery is not very distinguishable always. But it is not also very difficult to discern it if the bosses are a bit concerned and careful. Again, bosses who lack the 4-Cs would not feel the concern because they too are selfish and concerned about themselves rather than to the overall well being of the organization.

Sycophancy brings an atmosphere that is favorable for all kinds of corruption. Because, it is essentially an evil and perhaps a forerunner of the commonly known evil, corruption.

Just as the bribe giver and the bribe taker are equally guilty, the flatterer and the flattered are both guilty. They are guilty of bringing down an organization. They cause the organization to under-perform.

As corruption causes genuine people to be side tracked, sycophancy also results in the same. That way it too is corruption.

Societies and nations who collectively desire to be progressive should identify this menace and do well thought plans to eradicate this menace. Awareness programs and training programs in schools, colleges, training institutes of corporate organizations and government departments could be some solution.

Could this menace be handled effectively by our media and the management gurus?

Any solution to this problem ?