Main factor hindering growth of India

I had blogged in past on, does population growth leads to corruption growth? And I had concluded it stating, population growth should be used as a factor for development. That blog was in 2013, and I was probably naïve then. Now when I look back post my recent visit to US, I am seriously questioning my own belief of 2013.

Every nook and corner of India is a clear display of increasing population. Whether you are in a metro station, airport, railway station, road, highway, bus stop, hospital, shopping mall, market, temple, or even in a social/ religious gathering, we see all these places are overcrowded at any time of the day. This is a clear indication of overpopulation in the country.

According to the 2017 revision of World Population Prospects, the population of India was at 1,324,171,354. This is the second most populous country of the world after China and the various studies have projected that India will be world’s number-1 populous country, surpassing China, by 2024. It is expected to become the first political entity in history to be home to more than 1.5 billion people by 2030, and its population is set to reach 1.7 billion by 2050. This, inspite of the fact that the population policies, family planning and welfare programmes undertaken by the Govt. of India.

Causes of Over Population

The two main common causes leading to over population in India are:

• The birth rate is still higher than the death rate. We have been successful in declining the death rates but the same cannot be said for birth rates.
• The fertility rate due to the population policies and other measures has been falling but even then it is much higher compared to other countries.

The above causes are interrelated to the various social issues in our country which are leading to over population.

• Poverty and Illiteracy: Another factor for the rapid growth of population is poverty. Impoverished families have this notion that more the number of members in the family, more will be the numbers to earn income. Some feel that more children are needed to look after them in their old age. Also hunger can be cause of death of their children and hence the need for more children. Strange but true, Indian still lag behind the use of contraceptives and birth control methods. Many of them are not willing to discuss or are totally unaware about them. Illiteracy is thus another cause of over population
• Age old cultural norm: Sons are the bread earners of the families in India. This age old thought puts considerable pressure on the parents to produce children till a male child is born. More the better.
• Illegal migration: Last but not the least, we cannot ignore the fact that illegal migration is continuously taking place from Bangladesh, Nepal leading to increased population density.

Effects of Over Population

Even after 71 years of independence, the scenario of our country is not good, due to over population. Some major impacts of high population are as follows:

• Density: India has 382 persons per sq.km as against 33.27 persons per sq.km in US, which is alarmingly 11+ times. Imagine 11 persons standing in a space of 1 person.
• Unemployment: Generating employment for a huge population in a country like India is very difficult. The number of illiterate persons increases every year. Unemployment rate is thus showing an increasing trend.
• Manpower utilisation: The number of jobless people is on the rise in India due to economic depression and slow business development and expansion activities.
• Pressure on infrastructure: Development of infrastructural facilities is unfortunately not keeping pace with the growth of population. The result is lack of transportation, communication, housing, education, healthcare etc. There has been an increase in the number of slums, overcrowded houses, traffic congestion etc.
• Resource utilization & Inflation: Land areas, water resources, forests are over exploited. There is also scarcity of resources. Food production and distribution have not been able to catch up with the increasing population and hence the costs of production have increased. Inflation is the major consequence of over population.
• Inequitable income distribution: In the face of an increasing population, there is an unequal distribution of income and inequalities within the country widen.
• Corruption & Crime: Inflation and corruption grows hand in hand, when demand is more than supply. Law & order continue to collapse, for government can enforce only so much, and with so much population, all sort of crimes –small, medium, big all thrive.

Steps to Control Population in India

The Government of India, politicians, policy makers should initiate a bold and strong population policy so that the economic growth of the country can keep pace with the demands of a growing population. Major steps which have been already implemented but still need to be emphasised more to control population. Increasing the welfare and status of women and girls, spread of education, increasing awareness for the use of contraceptives and family planning methods, sex education, encouraging male sterilisation and spacing births, free distribution of contraceptives and condoms among the poor, encouraging female empowerment, more health care centres for the poor, to name a few, can play a major role in controlling population.

India’s strengths in the global world in various fields cannot be ignored, whether in science & technology, medicine and health care, business and industry, military, communication, entertainment, literature and many more.

Failure of democracy

Whatever may have been the vision of India’s founding fathers, Indian democracy has not lived up to their expectations. As a matter of fact, it has done far worse. Let us face the fact, all one sees in India is opposition to anything and everything. There is a latin phrase when converted means, “Man proposes, God disposes”, however in case of India, it is of “Government proposes, opposition disposes”. For everything that is proposed, there are opposition and eventually the proposal is either watered down or not taken forward. If Congress party is in power and proposes something, then BJP in opposition will oppose, and if BJP is in power, then Congress will oppose. The name of party in power changes, be it in central or state, but the role seldom change.

Additionally, there are delays in execution of every social welfare project, either bureaucratic or due to opposition. So, by the time any social welfare project is eventually completed, the world would have moved forward and the outcome of the project becomes inadequate.

Democracy is good, where everyone is consulted and decisions are to be taken in the best interest of the country & its people, but it is important to have:

a.       Right set of persons at helm of affair,

b.      Decisions are expedited and

c.       Actions are executed on faster pace.

Only if these happens, then people will be able to see the effect of it.

Vote bank politics

While above is absolute must, the truth is far from this. And if we think of the basic reason for above not happening, then it is largely attributed to vote bank politics. In the current scenario, vote bank politics has become a method to exploit the prejudiced emotions of masses either in name of religion, caste, rich vs poor and cater more votes.

Here politicians see people as votes for them, and do not want to initiate any actions or projects that may deprive them of votes. Measure to controlling population could be one of them –they fear losing votes of communities that are not in favour of population control. So growth be damned, politicians only want to remain in power and enjoy the perks of same without caring to implement projects/plans that will country to course correct & grow.

Conclusion

For India to really grow and be seen as developed nation, couple of bold and strong steps needs to be taken:

1. Control population –if need be, implement one child per family. Bring down the population from 1.3 Billion to under 1 Billion. If this can be done by 2030, then it will be wonderful.
2. Develop infrastructure at faster pace –More metros, more highways, coastal roads, widening of current roads etc. are urgently needed. If this means, few set of people will be disrupted due to construction activities, then so be it.
3. President rule –The parliamentarian form of government whereby people elect the government and its head is not helping due to vote bank politics. If President rule will help, then let us get it done.

Hilarious experience with ‘Kaatru Veliyidai’

While I had watched hundreds of films, probably thousands in my life, watching Kaatru Veliyidai has been the most hilarious experience ever. There were high expectations from the film, coming from the stable of Mani Ratnam & A R Rahman, who are two of my favourite film industry persons in Tamil film industry & their films/combination are always classic for me. And I had not missed watching any of Mani Ratnam’s film so far, even if some of them had not lived up to the expectations that they had set for themselves.

This film had released on 14^th April and I wanted to watch it in theater to get the feel & enjoy the experience. Decided to watch 7:30 PM show couple of days later in Mumbai suburb theater. Plans were all in place, went to theater, bought ticket and entered the cinema hall on time. The cinema hall was largely empty, with probably not more than 15-20 persons. By the time I entered the screen/hall, national anthem was getting over and the next image that came on screen was of Censor board certificate for the film. This was followed by the mandatory anti-tobacco video clip/message, gory and gut wrenching. So, I thought I am on time for the film, took a comfortable seat at back and sat down to watch the film.

The film started with Hero sitting in a seat somewhere in Kashmir reacting to a TV news, with his team and heroine commenting on hero’s views. Thought this is the opening scene of film, however, one scene after another followed with hero arguing with heroine, heroine walking off, hero going behind her to pacify her, couple of nicely pictured songs etc. Cut in between, scenes of hero trying to escape from Pakistan, chase sequence, hero returning to India, getting heroes worship etc, went on. And I kept thinking, there may be either flashback scenes or hero/heroine will break-up and story moving forward. But not to be, and in about 60-70 minutes, hero searches the heroine and patches up with her. I was still thinking & waiting for an interval block, to take the film to 2^nd half. However, it is not to be and the screen suddenly mentioned END, and title cards started rolling.

It was still dark theater, with no lights getting switched on either. And I was still sitting in my seat, wondering what happened and what am I supposed to do now. After couple of minutes, when it was clear that the film has indeed ended, and there is no more interval block or suspense and no 2^nd half to look forward to, got up from my seat and made my way out of the hall/screen. And here I was, out of the theater premises & was on the mall floor.

Started walking towards mall exit, thinking now on whether I had come later for the movie and started watching the 2^nd half, probably a 6:00 PM movie, for which I had come in at 7:30 PM. And decided to check the show for next day and come in on time and watch the film properly. Then, thought to myself, let me check the ticket about the show timing. There it went, it was written 7:30 PM show. And I had walked in at 7:30 PM only, that means, I was not late and it was clear then that the theater guys had played 2^nd half first, rather than 1^st half.

Decided to confront the theater guys and walked back to the theater. Thankfully, I was not too far away from the theater and had just about exited the mall. The security at the entrance was clueless and he did not know what to answer for my points about 2^nd half played first etc.. However, another guy from the multiplex theater office walked out and listened to what I had to say. Took me inside and asked questions to couple of their staff. He then came out and explained stating that, their operator had goofed up in playing the cassette of the film and played 2^nd half first. He then refunded the price of ticket in cash.

Now, while it was easy for him to refund, I was in dilemma and what to do next:

·         Should I look for another day (probably the next day itself) to watch the film?

·         Do I have the mind strength to watch the film again, what with having the seen the 2^nd half already?

·         How would I manage to come to theatre by 7:30 PM, what with next day being a working day?

The week has gone by since then, and the film is not running in Mumbai in 2^nd week now. So, no way to watch the film in a theater over the weekend and eventually, not watching the film –may go on to watch the film when its DVD gets released. Though, there are regrets on this count, the experience of watching the 2^nd half first and walking out confused is an experience that I will remember probably for life.

Amazing & hilarious experience it is, for sure!!

Meaning of life

Why blogging? Why now? Some may ask – well, forget the asking part, I still want to give you the answer damn it! The second question has a straightforward answer – my mind is wandering and letting my steam out through blogging. And what better way of achieving that high purpose in life than to immerse this whole wide world in the sea of my thoughts? “Yaam petra inbam peruga ivvaiyagam” - Let this world bequeath the pearls of my wisdom.

Come to think of it, what is the purpose of life?! Isn’t the purpose to live that very life? Which in its most trivial form is to kill time? Are we not living for the sake of living, till death takes us away. Wow, I guess I have inadvertently stumbled upon perhaps the greatest revelation in life that people have been searching for all over the place for ages together!

‘The calling from the inside’ – is what I would like to call the subject matters or rather the content of these blogs. Over the years, this calling has gone unanswered. I remember those numerous occasions when I wanted to vent out the steam from the conference room or those lobbies lined with cubicles. Those moments when I was at the receiving end of those endless words of advice. I kept hoping that I will get answers, but I remain confused, inspite of talking to many. Some find it silly and some believe these are wasteful thoughts. What about those life changing ideas that my brain dares to conceive? Or just those colorful pastures of my dream land? Where do I paint them all? Right here in my blogs!! For those who want more variety, don’t you worry, you will get them all, if not already through my previous blogs.

As I sit, believing that I have it in me to be the next big thing in the writing world, I realize its about time I dove in. I do have a penchant for writing you see, which may or may not be much appreciated in this morbid world. But that’s beside the point. After all, it’s my birth right to express my thoughts on anything and everything. And being born in the world’s largest socialist republic, it would be injustice if I don’t give form to that very right. So world, I remain what I am and will write whatever random thoughts that occupy my mind. For now, I can live with your hats, the brick bats be saved!

Who really killed Kingfisher Airlines & made Vijay Mallya a 'willful' defaulter?

A big article on who killed Kingfisher Airlines and made Vijay Mallya the fallen guy. This was sourced from Internet. But could not disagree on the content. Hence, reproducing same.

Everybody, even most of my learned friends want Vijay Mallya arrested. They say he had fun at the cost of Public Money, he should be punished. They say he is a fraud, he lives a rich and luxurious life, while not paying salaries to his staff and not paying his lenders and vendors.

Who killed Kingfisher Airlines? Have you given a thought? As a citizen of India you should know. As an entrepreneur you should definitely know this. I am sharing below a sequence of media reports from the days of the fall of KingFisher Airlines began. I hope to construct the sequence right, so that you can understand how it was killed. and by whom.. A little, backdrop would be, if you recall, or perhaps can google to verify my statement, Most Airlines across the world were doing bad those days. Many were in the verge of collapse.

 economictimes

You may note Jet Airways stocks had plunged around the same time in Jan 2012.

You may notice, Kingfisher was doing better than Jet Airways.

Kingfisher desperately had to infuse funds and this was the best thing Vijay Mallya and his team could have done.

It was very well placed. But what went wrong?

It appeared to be a done deal, what went wrong?

Not just me, everybody seem to think / say so... then.

It was obviously not similar thoughts towards Jet Airways.. then.. what went wrong?

Same SBI had hopes on Kingfisher Airlines.. then..

This is the beginning..

Government agency thinks contrary to Market and Banks... why?

Kingfisher Airlines team does, what any serious enterprise does..

Why is Kingfisher targeted, while all Indian Airlines were in similar situation then?

Why stop an Airlines from flying?

How will an enterprise pay salaries, when agency meant to support the player is keeping it away from raising funds..

Does this help you understand better, what happened?

Its important to understand the share holder details of Jet, particularly, foreign and Indian Share holders.

Note the percentage of General Public & Foreign promoters as share holders in Kingfisher.

Note the general public in Jet Airways and also foreign promoters.

Etihad was still interested in Kingfisher and not Jet Airways..

Kingfisher tried things Legally, but what was at play??

Why every possible government machinery tried to scuttle Kingfisher Airlines?

Is this the final nail..??

Etihad comes around and agrees to go with Jet Airways. Anand Sharma was the Commerce Minister.

Then met Finance Minister.. Why, all this to help a company held by majority of foreign promoters?

Why was Indian Government stretching to do this for Jet Airways, while Squeezing Kingfisher Airlines?

This was perhaps the last nail but we know, what else is happening with the (Once) King of Good times..

Who killed Kingfisher Airlines? Who got Vijay Malaya to this state? Who were the beneficiaries? Can an Indian Entrepreneur dare to do things in his own Country again? Will Indian government support her/him, or lead to what happened to Kingfisher Airlines and Vijay Mallya?

I have never had Kingfisher Airlines or any of Vijay Mallya's company shares. I have neither been his Associate nor employee. I am writing this to share with my learned friends, this is the truth I saw. I feel bad for Kingfisher Airlines and Vijay Mallya as an entrepreneur. I don't want such a thing to happen to any entrepreneur.

Advice to finance professionals

1.    Be child-like in your curiosity. As Rudyard Kipling said,

"I keep six honest serving-men

They taught me all I know

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who..."

2.    Give a premium to learning and learning opportunities. Seek the roles that give you the maximum learning opportunity - especially early in your career.

3.    Deliver on commitments - keep the "What you do" to "what you say" ratio high. It adds credibility and builds up your personal brand.

4.    Embrace technology - technology is a friend that expands our capabilities. Embrace the technogical advancements and increase your productivity.

5.    Ethical values - Finance professionals are expected to be conscience-keepers; always act with Integrity.

6.    It is good to be individually brilliant, but unless you are able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you will always perform below par.

In this fast paced world, learnability (ability to learn things quickly) and the ability to collaborate in teams will definite success in careers and in long life.