"From 2 To 2000,The Journey of My Chairman"

Short biography of My Company's Chairman

34 years ago, one man came to Delhi with a dream in his eyes and a spark of learning. He had one briefcase in his hand which he carried with himself and his wife accompanied him. He came to Delhi for the preparation of CA exams.

Now he is the one who has been running a fully fledged NBFC which is working in Delhi NCR over the last 25 years. He is none other than Mr. R.A. Kila, Founder Chairman, Perfect Group of Companies.

When he came to Delhi he had to dwell in one of the Jhuggi’s (Slum area) for many months where leakage of water from the roof was very common, and he prepared there for his CA exams to which he successfully passed. After many months of struggle, he shifted to one apartment on a rent basis where he lived for many years with his wife. 

After becoming CA (Chartered Accountant), he joined one CA firm in Nehru Place (I guess) where he worked under people who had many years of experience; he was the one who possessed a fighting spirit in himself. He never had any fear from anyone in this mundane world. He was like a whistleblower in his firm. Whenever he found a wrong thing in his firm, he was the one who used to inform his boss first and he not only used to solve it but he always made sure, that the same wrong thing shouldn’t get repeated again. When he used to work, his boss always used to tell his staff that this 20 year old kid has brought sweat to many high profile staff through his work. The man who inspire through his work. 

Whenever he meets anyone in his cabin, he always says one thing, “Always keep a fighting spirit and a spark of learning within you”. He is the one who is the most humble person I have ever known. He told me once that, “If you want to achieve something good in life then you have to do things which others don’t to achieve what others won’t”. He once had to visit one Navy officer’s place for audit related work and he found some loopholes (fraud bills) in the accounts of the firm and he told that this to the officer who was the most powerful person at that point of time. The officer threatened him not to reveal this to anyone but he wasn’t having any fear in his eyes and he replied to the officer in his high voice, “Shut up!  You can’t stop me from revealing this and it’s my job and I can’t betray my boss. You can do whatever you want and I am standing in front you at your place only”.

He started off “Perfect Group” in 1987 ( I guess ) with just one room in Green Park Extension and that too was on rent.  Now the head office is itself spanned across two big buildings. He always says to everyone, “Do not deter yourself from experiencing difficulties in life because it will teach you the wonderful lessons from your life.” When he started the operations of Perfect Group, he sold only two bikes on the very first month and that too within that one room only.

Now his company has been selling 2000 vehicles every month. The journey from 2 to 2000 has been commendable and inspiring for those who come to metro cities with just dreams in their eyes.

Today, if you can gaze in his eyes, you can clearly see how hard he has gone through to achieve what he has at present.  At present, his company has more than 60% market share in Private two-wheeler Finance in Delhi NCR. His company is currently having one branch in Jasola and head office in Green Park which span across two big buildings. Now, his company will soon open their 3rd branch in Gurgoan.

He always tells to every employee of the company that, “do something new every day”.  Whenever I enter in his cabin, I always have a fear about what he will ask. I still remember, once I went in his cabin for taking approval for one file. After looking at the file for 30 seconds, he instantly asked me a simple question, “For few minutes, forget that you have prepared this file and now ask yourself, do you think that a management grad has prepared this file? If your answer is “No” then do something so that I can easily recognize that this file has been prepared by you”. Trust me; I have never repeated the same mistake again which I did in that particular file.He always keeps numbers on his finger tips. Whenever he want to seek any information of any department, he simply dial random extension number from his landline phone and he normally talk to the person whosoever receives his call and what is worth noticing is that whenever he talks to anybody over telephone, he automatically figure out the wrong thing at that particular moment only. He always says through his lectures that once you pass out from college then only your real experience begins.

From Re 1, he used to eat two chapattis. Now his company has financed more than 2 lakh vehicles.He was the president of the Rotary Club which is working across India to spread smile on the orphans and underprivileged children. Everyyear he donates money to organize camps where kids who are having problems like clefts can get free medication and sometimes get free surgery treatment. He has been doing projects in many MCD schools. Every year he installs water cooler at one place where people don’t get proper drinking water. His company provides loans to the people where nationalized banks do not lend. He is the Founder President of Marwari Yuva Manch South Delhi hostel in which I studied during my Post graduation time. It is the hostel which provides good home food at subsidized rates and the members of the hostel plays a vital role as guardians of all the hostellers. He got the award for best CA in India who worked the most for the society.  He has been getting innumerable number of awards through his work.  

Now I am ending up this short biography of Mr. R.A. Kila with this note, “If you want to become a leader, then you need to inspire people through your work.”

Wish you a very Happy Birthday Sir. I wish you a wonderful year ahead.

Keep Shining!
Keep Inspiring!

 Your Kid

Rahul Agarwal

"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!