Reply to Editor - Cover Story of Economist - 24th Aug 2013 - How India got its funk

Dear Editor of Economist Magazine,

Hope this email finds you in best of health and spirits. I’m a regular reader of Economist magazine. But to my disappointment, the Cover story of your 24^th Aug 2013 Edition has been poorly drafted and investigated.

To substantiate my point I would use pointers which would help you in understanding my perspective so that you can take an educated decision on what went wrong with the Cover Story.

Firstly the fall in rupee and the sentiment for Foreign Investors related to India has less to do with US Fed’s hinting to reduce the bond purchase program, whilst it has to do more with the systemic change which Indian social system is witnessing. To elaborate it further, India is perhaps the only democratic country in the world , to implement full fledged transparency in all matters including public finance & government functioning. This has been made possible through RTI ( Right to Information) through which any citizen of the country can find out information related to all expenditure including public office & the Prime Minister’s Office, at a very nominal cost, as low as INR 10. This has been implemented as law a few years ago and due to which the approval process of any large public project has been carefully monitored & watched and hence delays are bound to happen. This is a systemic change and India like any other economy would take few years to adjust. Once this is done, movement of approvals would be faster tracking the growth back. Good news here is even if politicians don’t want this to happen, it’s a natural process and would evolve on its own.

Secondly, your point that business tycoons are wary of investing in India is contradictory. When one of the largest FMCG companies (Unilever, Glaxo Consumer Care) or liquor companies (Diageo) decides to invest few billion dollars in equity in an economy when they have options of almost 40 countries available, it reflects the interest of the World business leaders to come to India and do business with Indians. Money which has exited the Indian capital markets has been hot money of hedge funds which track daily returns. FDI is good for any economy better than FII. Not saying that FII money is bad, but surely conviction of business leaders for an economy can be seen through FDI investments. Infact long only funds have constantly been buying India at all levels of distress. It’s the domestic Investors and domestic mutual funds who have been selling and that is on account of high fixed income opportunity which has been arising in Indian markets.

Thirdly Food security Bill, which has given hope to the country that less number of people go hungry and empty stomach to bed in night. As per your statistics India spends INR 90,000 Crs as food subsidy, whilst the Food Security Bill which entitles 81 Cr population of India subsidized food would create burden of INR 1.20 lac crore incrementally, INR 30,000 Crs, which is manageable looking at the government expenditure. With Unique Identification Program (UID) being implemented the cost of distribution and its effectiveness would only increase. Most of the state government including Tamil Nadu, Chattisgarh, Gujarat already has Food Security Scheme for the state. Some states which might not currently help would lead this move in the right direction.

Fourthly, the Poor state of Nationalised banks. These were the same banks which didn’t face any risk of bankruptcy during the global meltdown and stood strong the test of all defaults when mighty ones of the West crumbled. Government of India on an ongoing basis has been getting the banks to waive the farm loan credit and that is the major reason for some stress assets in their balancesheets. But this was needed to stop the condition what otherwise would have led to Arab spring. If rural India is in stress, recovery of loans can create civil unrest and hence this was done. Indian government on a constant basis has been recapitalizing the banks ensuring Basel 3 norms are followed and implemented by mid 2014.

Having mentioned all the points above, I do agree lots can be done if political will is there including simplifying the tax regime, creation of Irrigation infrastructure, which itself can lead to  incremental 1.50% GDP growth for next few years etc.

But my point has been that Cover story doesn’t portray the true picture of the Indian economy and the logic behind it for a Global investor.

Many thanks for reading it patiently.

Hope this would change in times to come.

Skilled Labour & Workforce – Need of the Hour – July 2013

It’s been 66 years since independence. We have seen eras with 4% Hindu rate of growth to 9% of accelerated growth. There have been times when India has been self sufficient despite of throwing multinationals out of India and there have been times, when Indian policy makers have changed rules and have open doors to those multinationals to bring precious foreign currency back in India and give boost to the ailing economy. In all these 66 years what has not happened is inclusive growth.

Definition of Poverty has changed, number and statistics have changed but average Indian still reels under pressure to meet his basic necessities meet. He looks at the government to give him food, and shelter at subsidized rates or free so that he can feed his family and make his ends meet. Various state governments and Central government have tried to provide for his basic necessity of food, earlier through Public distribution system and now through Food Security Bill.
Still average Indian still looks upon government for his sustenance. It means, in case, if government fails, which can be possibility despite of ordinance, then he fails to provide food and shelter to his family and thus he and his family can die due to hunger.
Government is the caretaker of the country and its people; its job is to ensure creating capabilities and creating environment and infrastructure to ensure self sustained people, fending for them. But instead what government is spending is on today’s needs to live rather (Non developmental expenditure) rather than building skillset for future.
In 66 years of independence building 30 technical institutes which have some most fierce entrance examination can surely be counted as success. But what happens to millions of students who enter primary education and don’t have willingness and resources to sit for IIT and other engineering examinations. They all have primary, secondary or higher secondary qualifications but no skill set to earn. As per official data, India’s official population stands at 127 Crores. As per the official estimates 49.80 Crore population is employed, but the employment to those and their family members doesn’t generate enough to provide them with a square meal.
If one looks at it, few reasons can be attributed to it, one is disguised employment, which means person believes that he is working but his work can be done by existing person in the system. In other words to generate employment, government is promoting inefficiency in the system.

Second is intermediation. India has witnessed a robust growth in service sector. Information technology has been one of the largest contributors. Apart from that financial services followed by retailing, marketing follow suit. What has happened that intermediation has become such a large industry in itself that it has employed lacks and lacks of people directly and indirectly, qualified and unqualified. Most of this intermediation doesn’t need any skill set and hence it easily absorbs labour in this sector. But in days of recession and during economic downturn, where economic activity itself comes down and people look for efficiency, intermediation goes down under fastest, hitting the overall growth of the economy further.
Service is surely the need of the hour but creating skillset in labour force could lead a sustainable advantage for the country. Currently unskilled labour force is exported around the world legally and illegally to cater to the needs of various industries including infrastructure and construction. When the need is over, labour is thrown back in the country by changing the policy as it happened in Middle east and again he goes back in the trap of poverty.
Government is collecting education cess to ensure implementation of RTE, similarly if government implements Right to technical education from sixth standard in all schools across India, alteast, labour with some skillset like masionary, carpentry, plumbing or any other art or skill, he can fend for himself and his family, even if he drops out before graduation or higher secondary.
This would lead to more innovation and research in these fields and thus increasing efficiencies for the economy and contributing to GDP growth of the country.

Amarnath Yatra – Unique Example of Religious Interdepen​dence & Confluence

Amarnath Holy Shrine, one of the highly religious & pious pilgrimage points for Hindu Devotees. This is the place where Lord Shiva has narrated Bhagwad Gita or the secrets of Immortality and creation of Universe to Mata Parvati, Lord Shiva’s Wife. Story goes like this Mata Parvati insisted that she may be told secret of being immortal. For long Lord Shiva continued postponing. Finally on persistent demand from Mata Parvati, he made up his mind to tell the immortal secret .He started for lonely place where no living being could listen to it . He chose Amarnath Cave . In preparation to that He left Nandi (The Bull which He used to ride ) at Pahalgam (Bail gaon) .At Chandanwari He released Moon from his hairs (Jataon). At the banks of Lake Sheshnag, He released his snake. At Panjtarni, Lord Shiva left the Five Elements behind (Earth , Water, Air , Fire and Sky) which makes the living being . Subsequently Lord Shiva entered the Holy Amarnath Cave along with Mata Parvati. While narrating the story Lord Shiva takes his Samadhi on the Deer Skin but one egg which was lying beneath the Deer skin remained protected. Rest of the area around his Asan is burnt by Lord Shiva through fire to ensure there is no living being present their in the cave. It is believed to be non living and more over it was protected by Shiva -Parvati Asan (Bed). The pair of pigeons which were born out of this egg became immortal having listened the secret of immortality (Amar Katha) & can still be seen at Amarnath ji.

Amarnath is in the land of Kashmir (in the state of J&K) which is an integral part of India. India is a secular state with maximum inter religious violence and Kashmir is one of the places which has witnessed this more often than any other state since independence. Kashmir is active with all political parties and fundamental groups seeking autonomy and religious independence. There lies Amarnath 75 Kms + 16 Km of trek from Srinagar ( capital of J&K) where every year Lord Shiva abode (Shivling) is formed with Ice and Snow. There are 2 ways to reach Amarnath through Palagham – a trek of 26 Kms or through Baltal a rough hilly steep, slopy terrain of 16 km.

99% of the devotees visiting Amarnath Shrine are Hindus. The journey can be covered in four modes, on foot, on horse, on a Palaki (a steel chair tied in bamboo carried by 4 people on their shoulders) and through helicopter. Helicopter booking is not easily available and has to be followed by minimum of 6 Km of steep trek. Thus most pilgrims use first 3 modes to finish their Yatra to Amarnath. As mentioned in earlier part, that Lord Shiva chose a place where no living being can reach forget a human, one can imagine how arduous the journey to reach Holy cave is. It needs mental strength apart from physical fitness and most important support of Muslim brethren. There Kashmiri Muslim men, act as Pittos to carry luggage and children of pilgrim who prefer walking. Devotees who go on horses, donkeys and Kacchars, get these owners (Ghodawala) walk all the way up and come back down at the speed of the horse. Palakiwalas have the toughest job of walking in 3 feet broad muddy and rocky road along with horses and foot Yatris coordinating with three other colleagues of theirs maintaining the same speed ensuring same walking rhythm carrying 70 Kg to 130 Kg individuals on their shoulders. The path or the road is so narrow that one wrong step and one would meet death instantly. Thus dependence becomes all the more high on the Yatris facilitators.

Due to environmental issues and High Court order, there are no permanent structures near or on the way to Amarnath and thus these Kashmiri muslim people sell all essentials including water, juice, biscuits, tents on rent, bedding and linen on rent etc.
Amarnath Yatra is generally open for a period of 1.5 months to 2 months starting from June end of Mid August. Every year approx 5 lacs pilgrims visit the Holy Cave of Amarnath and each of these 5 lac Yatris in one way or the other take help, support or depend on those Kashmiri Muslim brethren to enable them in completing their Yatra Peacefully and with convenience. These Kashmiris do these jobs for their livelihood with no hang ups of going to Hindu’s Pilgrimage place. Infact most of them have equal or higher regard for the Shiva’s Shrine and listen keenly on the story behind the same.
In all our sacred books we have given importance to Karta (doer) as well as to the medium (enabler), which in this case is our Kashmir brethren without whose help, the Yatra would never have been complete.

Dealmakers - Good and Successful

Why are certain individuals good deal makers. Answer is simple, they communicate their thoughts, more importantly their decisions, and their beliefs to the counter party through their subconscious mind. In olden days, around 300 - 400 years back, when people needed to communicate, they used to pass the message through universal rays. Environment, nature is the fastest means of communication. That is the same reason, how animals sense the danger prevailing in their vicinity and activate their respective protective shield or react to the danger.

History tells us that Chanakya has effectively used this technique to pass codes and lessons to his famous disciple Chandragupt Maurya. Same has been used by Dhronacharya for hi s favourite disciple Arjun. So what is this art? If we put it in simple words, energy flows from a higher level to a lower level like water. Hence, human beings who have more inner strength and higher energy levels emit rays more particularly energy rays directed towards the person with whom he needs to communicate. Those rays are so strong that they hit the target subconsciously and create an opinion as per the desires of sender. In turn, the mind of the receiver gets

aligned with the sender and hence large deals are clicked. A lower version of it is also called telepathy, where message is conveyed without real physical communication. Telepathy generally happens between individuals who are closely emotionally connected.

While for deal making emotional connect is not the most important ingredient. What is extremely important is to observe and listen to the target. This would help the sender in getting a detailed understanding of the communication process and

hitting the target when in a situation when he is most vulnerable with very low energy levels. Individuals who are adamant, rigid and stubborn are easy targets. For these kind of people once the idea/thought/ belief is sent and it gets in the subconscious mind of the individual, the person starts believing that the very same opinion and thought is his and he doesn't part with it. People who are flexible and erratic and have a disruptive thought process, are not the easiest nuts to crack. Even after

transmitting the thoughts, in other times, they change and modify those opinions received initially by them.

Thus deal making is an input and output, it helps in making people realise their inner strength and high inner strengths and energy levels enables deals to materialise.

World of the Ugly, Bad and Good

Current world environment and economic position can be summed in a single word Ugly. One needn’t be genius or Einstein to figure out why? Europe is under severe crisis, emerging markets' growth prospects are getting curtailed, China world's growth engine is slowing down, US unemployment figures are surging again and if you want other reasons, learned economists in and around us would give several more reasons to get depressed.

So this is the Ugly Side of our World in which we are all currently living in, with uncertainty looming large on Job front , financial stability, political environment and social structure.

Has this Ugly side brought some thing Good to us and in our lives or only Bad has emerged? I would argue that ugly scene of the market, had led to emergence of good and bad together.

Collaboration Vs Isolation - Organizations which work in Isolation during these tough times, would really find the environment Bad. But this is the time for collaboration, not only internally with in the departments but collaborating with like minded organizations and individuals who can manage one leg of the transaction and other can be completed by you. Need to connect with others increases as the environment becomes more unpredictable, CHALLENGING and uncertain. Good part is one start opening his / her cards folder. Starts talking and figuring out opportunities which otherwise, one wouldn't have bothered to look at.

Client Centricity Vs Client Indifference - During Ugly times, Client Pull revenue and client pull servicing dries up. Automatic call and autopilot business goes away. Thus individuals who have been thriving on farming and nurturing face the heat and starts feeling the pinch of bad times. What good happens during these times is that Client centricity increases. Individuals and Organisations focus more on client needs, spends more time to ensure client satisfaction and delight, in the bargain clients’ and organizations who adapt this methodology gets larger share of the shrinking pie. Hunting during these times along with farming and nurturing brings good times, and profitability to organisations.

Knowledge sharing with less / No external support - Ugly times leads to reduction in support and knowledge staff as organisations start focusing more on producers then on facilitators. Bad happens when organisation doesn’t understand the internal knowledge base with constant spends on external resources and consulting services. Good happens to an organisation when business development unit brings in knowledge and know how to source and execute in a compliant fashion and that knowledge of facilitation and execution together is gained in the process leading to individual and organisational growth.

Bickering and back biting - Humans when faced with challenging situation has a habit of complaining, bickering and bitching. That is bad, as it creates unhealthy and political environment in the organisation. But when the uncertainty looms large, people come together forcibly (Fear of drowning leads to holding each other) to bicker and then good happens, as people together start working and start sharing execution and revenue generation possibilities.

Merger of farmers and hunters - Bad Happens where Farmers and Hunters are not combined and are disjoint. Good happens when Hunters, farm as well as nurture.

Forced outbound activity might seem tough and bad from individual's perspective as it removes complacency but it brings Good for the individual and for the organisation.

Innovation - Bad invades us when innovation dies and especially during strained times. Good happens when you start thinking out of box and delivers solutions beyond ordinary.

High Delivery & Performance – Truth Behind it

Most Human Resource specialists and psychologist believe money is great motivator. Surely it does. As its applicable everywhere, exceptions to it are prevalent. Same hold good for corporate world as well.


As per the Maslow’s Hierarchy theory,

Physiological and safety needs form the bottom of the Pyramid. Money / Monetary gains, material awards etc are a part of that. This might hold good for majority of individuals who have average aspiration, Will power and Self belief.



For individuals who desire to be different, wish to bring material change in the space they are operating, have different needs. For them Safety and physiological needs don’t form a part of hygiene elements. For them to stick with a firm, organization and deliver results they need two most important things.

1. Freedom to Operate & Execute

2. Ideation & Innovation & Execute


These individuals form a good part of corporate world but due to firm/ organization’s inability to realize their basic needs, these unsatisfied souls keep hopping jobs sometimes under the garb of poor culture, some times citing excuses of inadequate money, sometimes insecurities of their superiors etc.


These form almost five to six percentile of the total work force and are found in all fields of life including Corporate circles. Their category of individuals has ability to contribute almost 80% of the firms business and profits for which they are working.

Typical characteristics

• Fast Operators

• Self Motivated, with No requirement of motivational talks (Gyan)

• Desire to bring material change in and around them

• Highly result oriented

• Always have paucity of time to finish current and jump to next

• Multi task

• Highly networked

• Totally Updated

• Never Say “ No / Can’t Happen” Attitude


Only shortcoming for these kinds of people is Immortality. They need to be remembered for whatever they have done even when they are not around.

Most of the great leaders, thinkers, reformers including Lenin, Karl Marx, Mao Zedong fall under this category.

These skills generally can’t be developed. Either they are by birth or an individual inculcates due to a past incident or event he has witnessed or experienced.

For them the Philosophy is that they rather work on much higher speed and hence desire that they should have complete freedom on the way they address the Problem. Due to their ideation and innovation, for the firm which gives them above mentioned 2 desired things in their operating environment, the financial success of the firm is a must and in turn they benefit from it.
Unfortunately most of these individuals are not vocal on the work undertake as they don’t have any complexes or insecurities and thus most organizations miss to identify them. Such firms which take cognizance of these people would grow much faster.

Job Satisfaction - A myth

Most People say they don't love their job. Is their job or profession something really which is meant to be loved? Inherently why do most people , who undertake various jobs, work at the first place? Most common reason which comes to mind is to satisfy their basic requirement of necessary evil MONEY. Job or Work is a medium to earn money for survival.

Let's see our history, during ancient times of Harappa Valley Civilization, people used to choose their profession on the basis of their skill sets. So if the person is keen on doing farming, he would become an agriculturist, or if the individual likes fighting and has fascination for weaponry , he would become a क्षत्रिय। All this was done to ensure person's inner ability which to a certain extent is already present can be honed and the struggle or the pain which he has to go through for undertaking his job responsibilities or basically to earn his living reduces.

As the races grew, population on planet increase, meritocracy was taken over by succession or which later turned into caste system. Son of a priest would grow to become a priest, children of warriors to become warriors. Again the reason why it was done, as humans we know that any job or or any work we undertake and continue to do, because of the presence of certain things or absence of certain things , would always make us unhappy. Thus to reduce this unhappiness and get the work done with affluence and to earn the living with relative ease, best positive route is to choose parental/ ancestral profession, the chances of then getting totally frustrated is lower.

There is a very famous saying, don't know who wrote it, but very pertinent, " Grass is always greener on the other side."
Struggling actors wish to get a single role on camera, the one who is on camera wants to be on small screen, actors of small screen wish for big screen, the ones on big screen wish to become legendary artists, the ones who are known in India wish to reach Hollywood, the ones in Hollywood, wish to be rich like their friends who are industrialists, industrialists who have tonnes of money need power like politicians. Politicians who have power wish to do things differently and desire to become immortal and the need cycle continues. So does the dissatisfaction and unhappiness. If that be the case, finding happiness and satisfaction in your work life is like a Mirage . which you think exists and when you go near, its just an eyewash - ब्रह्म।
Some HR managers understand that and they camouflage the work with other add -ons with which an individual feels happy and clings on his current assignment much longer despite of being unhappy. Smart Human Resources people use, work life balance, flexible hours, engaging family, overseas trips, rewards, recognition etc. The whole thinking behind this is to ensure that the individual sticks on with the profession or the assignment and keeps his eye on the benefits given by the firm and suppresses his anguish and outrage at work.
We spend money, do things to achieve happiness and joy in life. If work starts providing us the same then, instead of we earning money from our firms, we should start paying them.
In a nutshell to look for happiness or JOB satisfaction if one says so is something, unreal and if somebody is saying that he is just trying to fool you as he doesn't want to share his truth with you.