"Short letter to Mr. Jaitley"

Few hopes, few questions, few numbers, few sectors, few decisions, few days for Mr. FM.

Before Mr. FM announce his much awaited Union Budget on 28^th February 2015, let me write a letter to him about the questions which arises in the minds of the people.

My questions would be very specific like how well can you shape our economy which wants to grow like other developing nations?

Some of my questions are:-

Will you give more priority to infrastructure?
Will you give more focus on the consumption need?
Will you tilt towards the fiscal deficit situation or you tweak from this and will look after  the ways to boost the growth of this economy?
 

Well, to give answers to these questions, Mr. FM needs to look after the current estimated of GDP (Chinese govt. thinks that India can actually grow faster than China in the coming decades.) which shows that Private Consumption (PFCE) at constant 2011-12 prices is estimated to grow at a rate of 11.8% in the current quarter.
Mr. Jaitley would take few decisions on the budget day on the basis of data which are not appropriate. Let me put some facts and suggestions in front of him so that he can draw and focus on many things instead of few.
 

Mr. FM should need to focus more on investments which can reap benefits to this economy. If India wants to grow @ 8% growth rate then there is a need of sharp rise in Investments.

In March 2008 quarter alone, investments were made up close to one third of economic output. After that, it had plummeted by four percent since then.
Mr, FM needs to revive public investments and it should be replaced by private investment with a suitable PPP (Public Private Partnership) Model. There is a need to push Infrastructure as well.

To make this into reality, government can play crucial role by bringing private players for investment through speeding up stalled projects which have been stranded in the middle of somewhere, increase capital expenditure so that it can create more jobs in the economy.
To control the burgeoning Fiscal Deficit numbers, government has been reducing public investments from many years. (During 1980s time public investments were 37% which is now plummeted to 12% only)
Capital Expenditure has also been decreasing from past many years.

Government needs to curtail its  Non discretionary expenses(Partially first) or check the frauds which usually happens in the Non- Discretionary expenses which accounts close to one-third of its expenses like defense, subsidies, salaries, pensions, interest payment etc.

Mr. FM should take more steps like coal auctions ( monopoly of CIL ) through which private players can enter into this sector, Spectrum sale (Grappling with corruption charges) through this, government gets more and more funds from telecom operators which are sitting on the coffers of huge cash and last but not least divestment of sick PSUs.
He should also focus on growth of other sectors as well like agriculture, forestry and fishing sector which is estimates to be a mere 0.4% in the current quarter.

If Mr. Jaitley read this suggestions carefully and look out the actual numbers, then his priorities might change before he can finalize his steps which he will take on the budget day.
After looking at the favorable conditions ( Huge drop in the prices of Brent Crude Oil since August 2014,  bank credit growth at 11% (Approx) i am quite sure that this time Mr. FM has many choices with him which he needs to look after.
We will wait and watch…!!

Twin Deficits: Daunting task for RBI Governor & Finance Minister!

Rahul Agarwal

With whopping oil subsidies of Rs 96000 crores in 2012 and a high fiscal and current account deficit, Can Finance Minister & RBI Governor revives the sluggish Indian Economy?

From past three years Indian economy has been on a very slippery path with a GDP growth rate which is below 6 percent. Now after these three years, we can see the sign of recovery in the Indian economy in which UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government has been taking reforms in the form of steps to revive this Indian economy. But, after the massive reforms taken by the UPA government, still there is a concern for both Finance Minister and RBI Governor and that is “Twin Deficits”. With a record high CPI (Consumer Price Index) around 10% in December 2012 and WPI (Whole Sale price Index) around 7.4% (It’s still very high) in December 2012. Fiscal deficit, which is excess of expenditure over its income was also very high around 5.3% of GDP where as CAD (Current account deficit), which is excess of imports over exports was also very high around 5.4% of GDP. Both these deficits lead Indian Economy into a Twin Deficits. So to curtail the effect of this Twin Deficits, UPA government has been taking steps of reforms to boost the Indian economy like FDI, deregulation of Diesel prices, cap on LPG cylinders etc.

Reasons for these huge Deficits…

1.  Subsidies:

In 2012 alone, the burden of subsidies on the head of the government was around Rs 2.16 lakh crores in which Petroleum subsidy’s share was 31.7%, fertilizer Subsidy’s share was 31%, Food subsidy’s share was 33.7% and rest for others. Due to this whooping subsidy bill, the expenditure of the UPA government had increased and on the other side its revenue decreased and this lead to fiscal deficit which UPA government had been tackling this menace from past many years. This is a huge concern for any government of a nation which has a fiscal deficit of 5.3% of the GDP. Now to tackle this menace government took serious steps like increase in the prices of diesel (decontrol of oil prices) which will reduce the gap between petrol and diesel and will curtail the subsidy bill of the government.

2. Yellow Fever:

In past one year the demand for precious yellow metal gold had been rising due to sluggish economy with high cost push inflation. So, people of India felt that gold is the safest investment because gold prices were kept on rising. Due to this, Indian jewellers were importing gold from Thailand. In the (FTA) foreign trade agreements between India and Thailand there was a point of import duty. So when someone import gold from Thailand then the person have to pay Import duty of 1% where as if someone import gold from any country other than Thailand then they have to pay import duty up to 10% approx. Due to this, a massive demand of gold emerged and huge amount of gold imported from Thailand and this lead to Indian currency going outside the country which increased the CAD (Current Account Deficit).  To curtail the demand of gold, Finance Minister P Chidambaram took the step of raising import duty on gold to 6% percent. Due to this, people need to pay higher prices for gold to import which lead to the demand of gold fallen down.

Now to overcome from these twin deficits Finance Minister P Chidambaram would likely to announce higher tax rates for the rich ones in his next budget which he will announce on February 28. But according to some top economists, tax rate shouldn’t be increase for rich because if tax rate would increase for super rich then it directly encourages tax evasion because the tax base is not rising. In 2002, the number of tax payers was just 316.88 lakh where as in 2012, it was around 324.16 lakh. If the tax base will not rise and if the tax rate will increase of super rich people then it will lead to tax evasion and the rich will shift income to tax havens, it will also lead to massive under reporting of incomes by professionals and traders and companies will structure salaries to make their employees less taxing. So it shouldn’t be increased for the rich, as high income earners already pay bulk of tax. The solution for this is widening the tax base so that more and more people will pay their tax honestly. So this is one of the challenges for the Finance Minister to curtail fiscal deficit.

After increasing the tax rate proposal, to reduce the fiscal gap, UPA government would likely to reintroduce the inheritance tax in the Union budget which will be announced by the Finance Minister on February 28. This tax was introduced in 1953 and abolished by former finance minister VP Singh in 1985. Inheritance tax is a tax which imposed on a person who inherits assets. It is also known as death tax. This is the recommendation of finance minister to reduce the fiscal gap but the argument against this proposal of implementing this is when the deceased had already paid income tax on income earned and possibly wealth tax every year for possessing the assets, to pay tax on it again is harsh and may result in multiple taxation. This argument could lead to create problems for Finance Minister.

Recently, to reduce the consumption of diesel, government wanted to impose green tax on diesel vehicles and the tax rate is 25 percent of the cost of the vehicle. This would lead to discouragement of diesel vehicles by consumers. But there is also an argument against this proposal that if the green tax will impose then the demand of second hand diesel cars will increase abruptly and will extracts more carbon than the newer one. Already consumers are paying premium on diesel models over petrol models and if this green tax will impose then the demand of diesel models will decline sharply which lead to huge losses to the auto sector. Due to this, many foreign companies who are planning to increase their share in India will go back to their respective nation and remove India’s name in their lists of investment destination. So this is also one of the challenges for the finance Minister

Deregulation of oil prices:

With a view to revive the economy, Finance Minister took the step of Decontrol of oil prices in which prices of diesel will increase by 50 paise every month for ten months which will ease the pressure on OMC (Oil Marketing Companies). This was one of the good steps taken by the Finance Minister. But, after implementing this step, Sales of diesel soared up to 22 percent in Delhi in December quarter. This happened because the bulk users of diesel like malls, public transport buses etc are directly purchasing diesel from petrol pumps because the bulk users which usually purchase diesel in tankers directly from oil companies, now have to pay about 20% more than the price at retail pumps. This has triggered a rush of big buyers to petrol pumps where they find diesel about Rs10 cheaper. This increase in the sales of diesel is a bad news for all the OMCs (Oil Marketing Companies), which were hoping bigger margins from big customers.  So this is also another bad news for the Finance Minister as well because it is very difficult to prevent malpractices.

Rate Cut/CRR:

On 29 January 2013, RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao nodded for the market sentiments and lowered repo rate and CRR (Cash reserve ratio) by 25 bps which created boost for the inflation hit economy. Lowering the two key variants will no doubt increase in investment but also benefit the borrowers which will take loans from the commercial banks at a lower rate. But, after the announcement of the rate cut, Subbarao said Twin Deficits leave little room for further easing. This means that in coming months RBI can increase repo rate and CRR and that will depend on the situation of the economy. Subbarao also said that CAD (Current account deficit) poses a barrier on the easing of the monetary policy. This means monetary policy cannot be further down due to high Current account deficit in a slowing economy.
Moreover, Subbarao told to the reporters that high Current Account deficit in a slowing economy with a huge fiscal deficit of 5.3% of GDP exposes our economy to the risk from Twin Deficits. So we are keenly watching the market and will take appropriate steps in the future.

So a question comes in the mind of every citizen of India “Can RBI Governor & Finance Minister revives the sluggish Indian Economy”?
Let’s wait and watch!

Loss of Humanity!

Rahul Agarwal

On December 16, 2012, A 23 year old girl was enjoying the day with her friend by watching a movie in a theater, but she didn’t know that, that day will be the horrific day of her life which leads to her death.  The victim’s name was Nirbhaya, Damini which were given by the Times Of India and the nation. All these names are just merely the identity of that girl who came to Delhi by having dreams in her eyes. The girl was doing a job as well as studying and who was a medical student by profession. She is the elder daughter of her parents and who had two younger brothers. Her father spent all his savings into her daughter’s study by only one hope she will become the backbone of our family and will feed her family by getting a good job, but on December 16, the most heinous crime took place in which she was gang raped by six people in a moving bus and was thrown out of the bus on a chilly winter night. After fighting for nearly thirteen odd days with courage and determination and after that, she lost the battle of her life and India lost a brave daughter. This gruesome incident shocked the nation about the safety of women not only in urban areas but also in rural areas.

Protest across Nation

After the incident happened, huge numbers of youth were protesting against the government for the safety concerns of women in the national capital. Students from various colleges joined and protesting at the India Gate with only one hope that this could open the eyes of the government and can punish the perpetrators. After the protest, government took serious steps to overcome from this incident. Government ordered DMRC to close down ten metro stations which were near to India Gate areas. Almost every road was close with barricades and huge amount of police force deployed near to India Gate and Rashtrapati Bhavan. Huge numbers of individuals were praying for the girl with candles in their hand but no candles and no pray saved the girl who was brutally assaulted and gang raped by six men in a moving bus.

Furore after comments by Asaram Bapu

After this incident, many politicians and yog gurus came into the center and made some unacceptable comments which no one can expect and this created vigilante euphoria in the media. First, Asaram Bapu came who has known for his lectures and yog, made the atrocious comment that “The girl was as guilty as the rapists, she should have called one of them brother and beg them before those six heading towards her.”  This pathetic comment by a Yog guru created huge outrage across the nation, as this was not expected from a yog guru. Perhaps, “people should preaching a yog guru like him” said by the brother of that girl after knowing the comments made by Asaram bapu. After this, one of the politicians made a comment that “Biharis were responsible for the Delhi gang rape”. After this comment, people made their mindset that this incident benefited politicians a lot. Many of them came forward and had sympathy for the family of the girl but none took the appropriate steps to improve the safety of women in the Delhi. After this incident, when news reporters of various channels took the initiative to find out how much Delhi roads are safer for the women? Then news reporters were also became the victim of eve-teasing and got weird comments by the bad boys and nobody took any action against them.

Justice by the Blind Law

Only one good thing about Delhi police in this case was culprits were nabbed by police within 24 hours when they did the most heinous crime in the history of the India. But only putting all the perpetrators behind the bars is not the only solution. So far the hearing is going on as usual in the Indian law. Police already gathered huge amount of proof and only eye witness in this case is the victim’s friend who was with her when the incident took place. Now, according to the news the six prime accused who is a Juvenile (according to his family) will get maximum punishment of three years and will come out from the bars after three years. This shows how bad the Indian law is. Now let me start with the law. Juvenile is defined under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act as someone below 18 years. This Act states that the justice system, as available for adults, is not suitable for application to juveniles. Thus, the purpose of the Act is to provide for the care, protection, treatment, development, rehabilitation and social integration of delinquent juveniles. Disputes relating to juveniles are heard by specially constituted Juvenile Justice Boards.
It’s important to clarify a common misgiving that an inquiry initiated against an accused, who at the time of the offence was a juvenile, does not abate merely upon such person crossing 18 years during the course of such inquiry. The societal changes over the last decade, changed nutritional diet and the exposure that the children have from a very young age, it is true that they are maturing faster and hence, the age of the juveniles must reduce it to 16 or up to 14.


This brutal gang rape of a 23 year old girl in a moving bus is a grim reminder of how unsafe the capital is for women. The Horrific incident draws attention once again to the disturbing phenomenon of crimes against women and weak enforcement of law.
The primary reasons of the crimes and the perpetrators are fearless because of low conviction rate for sexual crimes, absence of police reforms and a pathetic judicial process.
After the confession of the incident by the victim’s friend on the national TV, it was confirmed that India lost not only a brave daughter but also its humanity. A moving bus which was roaming for more than two and half hours was not seen by anybody. When both the girl and boy thrown out of the bus and they were not having clothes on their body, nobody gave them clothes and three PCRs came and were discussing this case will go in which police station instead of taking them to hospital. This was the ridiculous part of duty from police side. A girl lost her life, a father lost his daughter, a brother lost his sister, a friend lost his prestigious friend,  a nation lost his brave daughter but nobody will understand the pain of a mother who lost her princess. After this brutal gang rap murder India definitely lost its humanity!

Good steps by UPA

                  
Rahul Agarwal

It is very plausible to elucidate that United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has been grabbing headlines with lot of scams, inflation, fiscal deficit, politics etc. Almost every month a scam break out by media and which creates a chaos between the political parties and which hampers the proceedings of parliament sessions. Due to these problems UPA government loses faith from the people and many famous economists says that this government has been the worst government ever. But let me talk about the good things which UPA government did to again gain the faith of the people of India before 2014 elections.

1. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment)
 Recently in the second week of September, UPA government opened up the gates of India for the foreign players. Government allowed FDI in retail sector, aviation sector and insurance sector. This will boost up the economy of the India because of the foreign investment. India, desperately needs investment in its Infrastructure, power sector etc. Due to FDI in retail only around 10 million jobs will be created within a span of 10 years according to the government claims; this will make it the largest in the organized development. Likewise in Aviation sector also, when foreign players will come in our country and they put money in the Indian aviation industry then it will bring more competition between players, it will help to acquire new aircrafts, new jobs will be available etc. So these are all the benefits that India will get after FDI opened in the aviation sector by the UPA government.
 These steps which were taken by the UPA might change the global picture on India.

2. Pharma Sector
With rising cost of living, it also affects the health care costs. Many people deprived of getting a good medical treatment because of rising healthcare costs. Because of this rising healthcare costs people curtail their dependence to the medicines and they prefer ayurvedic treatment because these high prices of drugs can’t afford even by the middle class family and so does the below poverty line people. In India still 60% of the population depends on the agriculture for their livelihood, so they can’t afford those exorbitantly priced drugs. So keeping in mind, on 27 September Group of Ministers (GoM) had approved a new pharmaceutical policy. Through this policy around 348 drugs will be available at a cheap cost. SC ( Supreme Court) on 4 October, gave government four weeks time to report back on this new pharmaceutical policy which was approved by GoM ( Group of ministers) on 27 September. This policy was approved after 18 years. This type of policy was last announced in 1994, which covered only 74 drugs only. According to this policy, the price of the new drugs which will be regulated determined by the (WAP) Weighted average price of all brands which have market share of more than 1 percent by volume. So this was the good step taken by the UPA. Due to this people on India will get medicines at a very cheap cost.

3. Solar Power
In order to give relief from the hefty bills and 7-8 hours power cut during the days of summer, the government plans to provide a subsidy of 30% to those households who will install solar power systems in their houses. This is move which initiates that more and more households could be self sufficient in electricity. As there was a report came in a leading magazine that only 50 per cent of electricity generated in India is billed, of which only 40 per cent of consumers pay the bill regularly. This move will give some relief not only to people of India but also to the power distribution companies. Power theft alone costs the nation around Rs 40,000 crores annually. So for tackling these issues every year this move will be a good one by the UPA. Thumps up UPA!

4. LAAR (Land acquisitions, rehabilitation and resettlement) In India many industrialists torn up their business plans because of land acquisition law . Industrialist’s wants land to set up big industries but thanks to the India’s land acquisition law, due to this still thousands of projects are still lying on the desk of the ministers and waiting for the approval of the ministers. From Tata Motors’ Singur  project to L.N Mittal they all torn their business plans due to land acquisition law. Currently the land acquisition law is 100 year old, which is truly a road block for the industrialists. Due to this the government has been in immense pressure to work more on land acquisition bill.
A great example could be of Hindalco Industries’ which was grabbing headlines because the projects of Hindalco Industries were stranded in middle because of land issues. The projects were of bauxite and thermal coal in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.
So for these problems which have been facing by the industrialists the ministers almost nodded for the LAAR bill which is likely to be moved during the Parliament’s winter session. Many industry experts say that the new bill will likely to address the new problem of the land acquisition. This move might create good image of the UPA. So last but not least I would UPA is on the right track.


5. Young Blood on the cabinet
  On 28 October 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inducted 22 ministers, including 7 of cabinet rank and 15 ministers of state with two holding independent charge. Changes took places which change the entire scenario of the ministry. In this reshuffle the main tag was Oil minister Jaipal Reddy, who was switched from petroleum and oil minister to Science and Technology portfolio. The new minister who came in charge was Veerappa Moily. Let me talk about railways also when the new minister of railways who came in charge was Pawan Kumar Bansal, he immediately declared his intention to raise passenger fares, which has not been increased since a decade .When Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mamata Banerjee used to be the railway ministers for 10 years they both didn’t increase the railway fares.
Earlier this year when Trinamool Congress railway minister, Dinesh Trivedi proposed a fare hike in railways, lost his job for bringing down the expenses of the railways. Irony was people were ready to pay higher prices because it was much needed to revive Indian economy  which has been on a slippery path.
Young Blood came in the cabinet and they includes Power Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Corporate Affairs minister, Sachin Pilot, I&B minister, Manish Tewari, Food& consumer affairs minister, KV Thomas, Tourism minister, K Chiranjeevi, Women and Child Development minister, Krishna Tirath. So these are the minister who had promoted by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. So this might create good things for th UPA regime and this was the good step taken by the UPA.

 6. Fiscal consolidation road map by P. Chidambaram
On 29 October 2012, Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram rolled out a fiscal consolidation road map to revive the Indian economy because of the rising fiscal deficit which was  5.1% of the GDP, which is a huge amount for an economy like India. During the press conference on 29 October, P. Chidambaram said his aim was to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3% by 2017. He presented a fully prepared road map to achieve that aim. So this was the good step taken by the UPA. I am sure Chidambaram who is the favorite of investors since the 1997 dream budget will do justice with his job and cut down the fiscal deficit of the Indian Economy. So this was the good step taken under the UPA rule.

With these Steps the UPA government spurs not only the growth of industries but also of Indian Economy. According to the some economists this government has been one of the worst governments India has ever seen, but yes now they all are trying their best to revive the Indian economy. I would say when you find the bad way which is not feasible to grow then only you can head towards the good way. So this is what UPA is doing. Future will decide whether these steps will be fruitful or just a waste of time!

Forget FDI, Focus on Power Sector

Rahul Agarwal

Again with a pathetic feeling I am writing on the burning issue of Indian economy. With the power collapse in two consecutive days due to failure of power grid, you can easily recognize what is the condition of power sector of India. India which is one of the most emerging economies of the Asia is still lacking in the power sector. Still majority of the population in the India give votes during election to the candidate with only one hope or you can say demand i.e. “Availability of Electricity”. In rural India still villages get electricity for only 2-3 hours in a day which is not adequate according to current demands of the nation. Whenever a farmer gives their vote, he still seeks electricity from the government. Farmers have the tendency that who so ever give them adequate electricity, they will their votes to that party only. Like always many political parties formed and many diluted and many gave commitments about electricity, but still people are living in dark in many parts of the rural India.

Basic Need:  
Whenever you think about basic need then images of FOOD, SHELTEER, CLOTHES appear in your mind but now days it has changed to electricity. Without electricity you cannot imagine your life. It’s a very basic need. But India the emerging superpower nation is tackling with its basic need i.e. “electricity”.  How can you think that India will be the next superpower? If still Ministers claim this then it would be a hilarious joke.

Main Problem:
In India around 8% electricity generated from nuclear power plants and majority is generated from thermal plants which contributed 57% of the total power generation. In thermal power plants COAL is the fuel which required for generating electricity. The main problem lies in the availability of coal. COAL INDIA Ltd the state owned monopoly which supply coal to the various power plants is not digging well, due to this several power plants are running out of coal despite we have mountains of coal reserves in our country.
According to the data given by Coal Ministry, Coal India has been asked to sign fuel supply agreements (Committing to supply 80% fuel) to various power plants, but unfortunately Coal India is supplying only 65% of the fuel to the power plants and rest 15% of coal is imported which at today’s rates costs twice that of domestic supply and which is deliver it to power producers. Now government is using a tool which is “Price Pooling” to distribute the heavy prices of imported coal between various power producers.
According to CIL, it has estimated that it will import around 20 million tonnes of coal this fiscal despite having huge reserves of coal which is not using and which can boost up our economy. But as usual no one have the courage to dig up that precious coal. To import coal we are paying almost twice of the domestic supply of coal in spite of being we are tackling with the inflation malaise.
Jharia town which is Dhanbad District of Jharkhand State has huge coal reserve which is worth of several crores are still unmined and it has been burning from past many years and we still depend on the imported coal which leads to increase in the price of electricity around 6 to 8 paise per unit.
Recent power collapse created havoc in the mind of the people and after that government increased price of electricity around 18% which will be paid by the public only. I mean in every case all burden is transferred only to the public only. They have to bear all the extra expenses which were due to the poor management of the government.
If we can dig out our coal reserves very well then it will not only reduce the price of elasticity but it will also help to put our nation on the right track which was tackling with the problem of food price, oil price, inflation, fiscal deficit etc.

Forget FDI:  
Today the most burning issue is FDI in single brand. Well, I would say forget the FDI, just concentrate more on power sector which was grabbing headlines not only in India but across the globe about the inefficiency of power sector. We need major reforms which can change the India’s power sector drastically. Of Course, we are the main culprits behind this malaise, as we never care about electricity whether it is being used optimally or not, we don’t care.
So switch off all electric appliances if not in use. I would say many thanks to the government which understand this pity problem and started many ideas like if you will consume less than 200 units in a month then you will get subsidy of Rs 200 in your monthly bill. So this small-small gestures and initiatives will lead to optimum utilization of electricity.

Is India the next Super Power?

         

Rahul Agarwal
Many of you had questioned yourself that “Is India the next superpower?”  And many of you had answers that YES WHY NOT? And some of them had “MIGHT BE POSSIBLE”, and some of them had “In this scenario not possible”.
Well yes with this recent Power Grid failure in two consecutive days that affected 600 million people lives showed the bitter truth of India. India the next super power (Neta Babus’s claim) goes like a promise to the public which can never be fulfilled. With this power failure many industries incur huge amount of losses as workers in manufacturing units didn’t able to work throughout the day. The massive blackout affected so many life and people questioned themselves “Sarkar ye tax ke paise kaha istamaal karti hai?”  Lot of questions need to be asked and lot of truth needs to reveal.

Every year government earns lots of money in form of tax and yet we faced a massive blackout on two consecutive days.
 Lots of wastage takes place in transmission and distribution of electricity which results in bankruptcy of state electricity boards. Power theft term is not new for us, this will also result in huge losses to state electricity boards. Most of the power plants are not utilizing up to the maximum. Mainly 57% of our electricity comes from thermal power plants which uses coal as a precious fuel to generate power. The main problem behind this is availability of coal. Coal mining is public monopoly. This put pressure on “Coal India Ltd.”  And Coal India alone cannot cope up the pace with the demand and supply of coal. So disruptions in coal supply impacted a lot on our power plants. This results into under utilization of power plants and loss of power generation. They are generating electricity below their capacity. I mean with huge amount in hand what our government is doing? Only to make promises and break those promise later on. When this power collapse happened on the first day, then media ask our power minister Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde that what was the reason behind this power failure? Then the minister said it is because UP was overdrawing electricity from its allocated limit and this resulted to put pressure on the grid and this lead to collapse of the grid. Next day same drama happened again and media ask why this grid failure happened again? Then minister said this time Punjab and Haryana was overdrawing electricity from its allocated limit. This resulted to the collapse of the power grid.


These ministers are giving excuses and they are not bothering about the culprits. They only said the very common line which is used in every case i.e. “Investigation is going on and we will disclose the report in the public”. Reports will come and reports will go but none will take a step or a revolution against this malaise which creates a drama around the world about the India. India is an electricity starved nation. We need major reforms in India’s power sector to boost up the economy. Many of the villages still after independence getting electricity for 2-3 only in 24 hours, around 60% population of India still depend on agriculture as their livelihood and they need water and electricity for irrigation. Without proper irrigation to the paddy fields the crops will not grow which increases the prices of vegetables and thus further put pressure on the inflation which is already on the high and have been tackling by the RBI. Moreover, most of the farmers take loans on their land to grow crops and if they do not get proper electricity then they will be in debt and due to this every year farmers are committing suicide.
Recently 18% hike in the price of electricity already put people into deep concern. Now they have to dig out more from their pockets.

I mean from every angle innocent public suffers like you take example of petrol, diesel, LPG, kerosene, water, electricity, food, real estate etc. Everything rises but still poor people who live in the village still depend on the agriculture.
So new power minister Mr. Moodbidri Veerappa Moily are you listening to the voices of poor people?

Now a question need to be asked "Is India the next superpower?"       

Carnage at Maruti

Rahul Agarwal

It was a normal morning on July 19 and I took newspaper to read what is going on these days? Suddenly I saw a headline “Violence at Maruti” then my eyes which were not opened fully and after reading that heading I was completely flabbergasted. The mass violence at Maruti showed the bitter truth about union workers which can do whatever they want. I mean with iron rods and car parts they had beaten brutally a senior executive and 90 others. It seems like a planned conspiracy in which a senior executive Mr. Awanish Kumar Dev – General Manager, Human Resource was beaten up severely and left to die. Due to this violence the Manesar plant of Maruti was completely shut down for the investigation purposes. After the violence, Maruti Suzuki, Managing Director, Mr. Shinzo Nakanishi said that this time the violence will not be tolerated. After attending the cremation of Awanish Kumar Dev who died on July 18^th violence between workers and senior executives Mr. Shinzo Nakanishi asked Haryana chief Minister, Mr. Bhupinder Singh Hooda a full investigation into this matter.

In 2011 also Maruti was in headlines due to 13 days strike in June 2011. There always have been issues with the Union labors and management. But in October 2011 this issue was solved by Maruti management. Because of these strikes and recent violence, the Manesar plant of Maruti which is 750- acre that produces 600,000 units for India’s largest automaker each year are grabbing headlines not only in India but also outside India also. Other countries can now see the image of India as an investment destination. There was a wage negotiation took place between workers and management in 2011 due to these workers went to strike three times which resulted in a whooping revenue loss to Maruti. Now due to shutdown of Manesar plant Maruti is losing 75 Crore per day as a revenue loss.

No action taken place yet. Only 97 have been arrested and the main culprits are roaming free. Police are doing their inquiries and Ministry of Home affairs have asked and alert the IB( Intelligence Bureau) to check whether this mass violence was planned conspiracy or not?


Many politicians and journalist have raised their concerns over this Maruti episode. Some of them said that it was a planned conspiracy and some of them said that it is the inefficiency of the Maruti management to tackle the problem between the contract labors and wage labors. Due to this Maruti workers went to strike in June 2011.

All will share their deep concerns about that fateful day, all will forget this fateful day after a period of time, but an innocent life was finished in this violence who was a commendable father, husband, son, brother of someone. I am talking about the HR executive who died on that fateful day, what was his fault? Does the GM, HR tag on his head is the fault? Is he the main culprit behind the problems of Uniorn workers and management? If your answer says no then why he was beaten up to death? After 12 days also his family didn’t receive the compensation from Maruti as well as from government also. A bitter truth of India.