VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 217 Date: 04.09.2017Contents:
1. Nilekani At The Helm Of Infosys
2. Demonetisation Dissected
3. Chasing Black Money
4. Reviewing India At The World Badminton Championships
5. Get Rid Of The Lucky 7 Casino Ship & Now
A Very Happy Onam To All Of You Particularly My Malayali Friends.
Nilekani At The Helm Of Infosys
When the Infosys stock sneezes, the founders asset holdings catch a severe cold. Thus Nandan Nilekani's appointment as the Chairman of Infosys is no surprise. He has been put there to shore up the Infosys scrip since a slide will be costly to all shareholders more so the founders. But this transition of bringing Nilekani in had to be managed properly in a public relations context and hence the circus of orchestrating it as if the primary institutional investors had asked for it etc. etc. There is however no doubt that Nilekani is the right man for the job. One is also sure that even this assignment into which he has been catapulted in, he will come out with flying colours. Infosys deserves to right itself in the manner of a rocking boat since it is also one of the significant bell-weathers of the Indian IT industry and employs a lot of people whose futures are at stake. For all of Narayanamurthy's talk about corporate governance now, Infosys is no different than other Indian corporate houses of having a hoary past consisting of cutting corners in excise regulations at its inception with its hardware products since given up and innovative (!) management of income tax exemptions for software operations. Now that such things are behind them, they think that the halo that they have put on their heads gives them the licence to slander other professional people.
Demonetisation Dissected
There has been many a view, pro and con, on the issue of Demonetisation and more so with the announcement by RBI lately that 99% of the demonetised notes came back. One would believe that we should not assess this measure on purely economic and political terms. To put this issue to rest as an extreme and repressive measure, we need to assess Demonetisation on the Index of Human Happiness. This is in line with the current trends where GDP is considered no longer the index of prosperity but the Happiness Index on which latter measure Bhutan scored the highest in the world. This approach will bring out the truth and show how Demonetisation inflicted distress and misery on the people at large and more so on the lower strata of our society. Words of adulation are being showered on PM Narendra Modi for having the courage to have implemented this measure. But in the same breath one must say that bravado is chosen by fools and those who are lesser educated who tend to ignore the negative implications of their actions. There are others who say that the results of the elections held since Nov 2016 where the BJP got a massive endorsement from the people is proof enough that Modi's policies are acceptable by the people. But what they forget is that elections are a completely different ball-game. Elections are won and lost on many issues and the least among them is monetary policy. The other issue here is that we should not rush to count our laurels based on the endorsement of the illiterate and the gullible which is what is the large mass of the voting public in India. Concluding policy measures are taken up by governments which are able to reasonably assess the gains and losses arising out of any action. Rarely do they go out on a limb and hope for the best as this Modi government has been doing and then launch cover-up measures like trying o hide the number of demonetised notes that came back and outflanking initiatives like digital economy. All this was unnecessary since the human cost was very heavy and each of these measures could have been done at their own time and pace slowly but surely.
Chasing Black Money
Today's (31.8.2017) banner headline in newspapers - 99% Of Scrapped Notes Back In System: RBI. So much for Narendra Modi's Demonetisation initiative and unleashing a wave of disorder and misery across the country. Now he & the BJP will tomtom that at least 1% amounting to some Rs. 16,000 crores of black money was caught in the net, little realising that all this is not black money since there were lakhs of citizens including NRI's who could not meet the deadlines for return of the old notes. Not only that, assuming all the Rs. 16,000 crores is black money, at what cost was this obtained apart from the human cost cited above? The government got some Rs. 30,000 crore less dividend for 2016-17 last year from the RBI. So you spent more to recover less or in fishing terms you used a mackerel as bait to catch a mackerel! This is the idiocy of the present BJP government. It is time that a minimum stipulation of being a graduate is imposed by the Election Commission for fighting elections in India. We are all being exposed to financial terrorism by the State ever since Nov 2016.
Reviewing India At The World Badminton Championships
To take a contrarian view on the performance of both Saina & Sindhu, one would have to say that Saina's was a laboured but valiant performance. Saina is clearly not fully fit and her legs and knee have been letting her down. She also knows this as evident from her statement that given the state of her fitness she regretted having gone for the Rio Olympics. In any case, she needs to work on her fitness if she wants to remain in competitive badminton.
As for Sindhu's journey at the World Badminton Championships, If one analyses her performance from the quarter final stage, you had a changed Sindhu that you were seeing on the court. An aggressive attitude coupled with some new shots in her armoury. This was a pleasant and welcome change. Fast forward now to the women's singles final and you have Sindhu starting off well with early leads of 5-6 points squandered away as the game progressed. She was her usual self midway into the first game and then started withdrawing into her shell thereafter. Lost was the smash and Sindhu was playing the game as dictated by her opponent. This was becoming like the Rio Olympics final between Marin & Sindhu, the latter playing second fiddle to Marin's game. No wonder Sindhu lost because in her mind she had already given away the game. There are two things that her coach, Gopi Chand can do. The first is simple, build Sindhu's bulk and stamina by weight and physical training. This will stop the fatigue that was shown on the court. It is not that only Sindhu was fatigued during the match but also her opponent. This was because it was an up and down match with some long rallies. But less fatigue leads to a clearer and sharper brain. The other thing that her coach needs to instil in Sindhu is to strengthen her mind and to stick to her natural game as much as possible. Also not eschew some of the new strokes she has picked up for fear that they may go wrong. However, Sindhu is still young and she has a long way to go and will surely win more medals and bring more laurels to the country. But if she had come back from this World Championships with a gold, would not the celebrations have been more than for the silver she got! Not only that, it would have been another milestone crossed and she could have said - Been There, Done That. The stamina and strength of mind are the common issues that all Indian sportspersons face but the younger ones today have an opportunity to correct that.
Concluding, the contribution of our badminton coaches with Gopi Chand and Vimal Kumar at the forefront, cannot be but lauded as much as the performance of the players. They have been equally responsible for making India a force in world badminton today.
Get Rid Of The Lucky 7 Casino Ship & Now
The fiasco like that of the Lucky 7 casino ship that has been washed ashore will only happen in Goa. This is because ship owners particularly those of casino ships who are prone to cut more corners know that in Goa the people and more so the government are easy going. They can get away with murder and more as Gopal Kanda, the director of the Golden Globe Hotels, owners of the Lucky 7 casino ship, knows. The precedence of the Silver Princess disaster is before them where the removal was done with excruciating delay that turned to be agonising for the Candolim beach visitors, the local fishing community, the people residing near the beach and lastly the beach and the marine environment. In similar circumstance over the last year in Karnataka, there have been two cases of ships running aground. One near Karwar and the other at Panambur near the Mangalore port. In the first instance at Karwar the ship was removed from the beach in three working days. At Panambur since there was also oil leakage it took a little longer but the ship was taken away within a week, while with the Lucky 7 ship we are coming close to a month and still there is no solution in sight. If the new salvage operators are to be believed though there is no confirmation yet that anyone has been appointed, any salvage operations can begin only after Sept 15 when the ports will re-open after the monsoon. Also as per reports given by them considering the big hole in the bottom of the Lucky 7 ship, it is safer and better for the ship to be dismantled at the Miramar beach. This will surely mean at the ship will remain as an eyesore at Miramar beach for another two years and the usage of the beach will be limited and the dismantling operations will further damage the beach and the facilities nearby. All this while the owners of the Lucky 7 ship will be sitting pretty with no worries. It is time therefore that a lesson be taught to the owners of the ship by jailing them on grounds of deliberately spoiling Goa's environment and irresponsible behaviour post the grounding of the ship. On this matter one was aghast to read last week in the papers that until the election code of conduct imposed because of the Panjim bye-elections is withdrawn nothing can be done about the Lucky 7 ship. This is stupid since with an environmental disaster looming over the city because of the ship we cannot do anything because an election code of conduct is in place! So if a tsunami hits Goa's beaches now or a natural disaster occurs, is it that we cannot implement protective and relief measures because of the election code of conduct! Cast these things aside and get cracking on removing the Lucky 7 ship and taking punitive action gains the ship owners. These fellows seem to dare to do these things only in Goa and no other place. ***********************************
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