Same Strategy: Divide and Rule

After Jantar Mantar victory, Looking at the news which are making the headlines regarding the Anna Hazare's revolution ... people at influential position are trying to link Chief Minister Narendra Modi with Anna . Anna did praised the minister for the development work. Any linkages with Narendra Modi will only divide the masses as the minister has a image of carrying a very fundamentalist ideology.

Anna being a Gandhiwadi and true patriot has nothing to do with all these controversies. It looks to be the clear work of the people with vested interests who doesn't want the masses to support Anna's mission.

Just looking at the history, it all looks so consistent.. what a funny analogy.. Britishers tried the same divide and rule policy to dilute the Mahatma's fight for freedom now the few people are trying the same tricks to dilute Anna's mission for a corruption free country.

I hope Anna succeed like Mahatma for India and for Indians.

The Rich India : Statistical Review

 I really wanted to know the statistics regarding poverty in India after writing the post Defining Poverty. The numbers were different on various websites. Than by collecting bits and pieces I tried to make the whole picture about the rich India somewhat clear. The data is consistent with World Bank estimates about the poverty in India. I have just defined poverty level as less than 2$/day which I believe is bare minimum to lead a life.

Here the pie chart clearly shows that nearly 80% of India is still poor earning less than 2$/day, The middle class is rising and constitutes nearly 19.61% of Indians and rich are less than 0.4% of the total population. I have defined middle class as people earning more than 2$/day.

To have a better view of the enormity of the situation, have a look at the assorted data in the below picture.

We have nearly 50 billionaires which keeps hitting the media headlines. We can boast of 170,000 dollar millionaires in India but the number is less than the number of dollar millionaires in Switzerland which has less than 1% of the population of India.

The news and views on India shining and becoming developed nation keep hitting the news channels. The rich and middle class Indians feels good to hear these views but we can not deny the real situation.


The numbers are improving, there are more people every day getting out of 2$/day benchmark and becoming the part of middle class but there is still a long way to go.

Defining Poverty

Poverty runs deep in India, to the extend that we start ignoring it.. the reason is very simple, we get use to it. From our childhood days we see so many destitute, beggars that we think that is the part of our life and ets just ignore it. This blog is not on it, it is about the definition of poverty ? Who do you call a poor ?

The country is full of brilliant souls and Politicians who don't really want India to show its poor face to the world. They try and show that the poverty in the country is coming down as it portrays the good image of  the country. They try and eliminate poverty by these three ways:

1. Development: Improve the image of the country by doing developmental work which have direct or indirect effect on alleviating poverty from the country. Lot of it is being done nowadays, some by the government and more by NGO's, external aids etc.

2. Eliminate the Poor: If you cant eliminate the poverty, can reduce the number by eliminating the poor population. Very difficult and barbaric option. The good thing is that no one can do it. Its just the natural calamities and disease in India which does it. The infant and maternal mortality amongst poor in the country is very high. So no action to reduce poverty in one way is like making the poor die by disease and illness.

3. Redefine Poverty: The easiest way out to show reduction in poverty is by changing the definition of poor. If you simply change the poverty line from 1.25$/day ( World Bank PPP number ) to Indian number of1 $/day, a lot of Indians crosses the BPL line overnight.


Some economist says that people earning less than 2$/ day should be classified as poor, others argue that less than a $ per day are poor. So their is no uniform definition of poverty in India.

The planning commission of India accepts that 37% of the Indian population is living below the poverty line as per the Tendulkar ( not Sachin ) committee report.  Arjun Sengupta report says that 77% of the people in India are living with less tha 0.5 $/day.

Whatever may be the exact proportion of poor in the country but even 37% number is quite a high number.

How Google pays just 2.4% corporate Tax

It was a surprising revelation, 30 Billion $ US company, Google pays just 2.4% of the profits as taxes when corporate tax in USA is 35% .. They have saved more than 3billion dollars in last few years .. how ?
 
They adapt a popular strategy known as the Double Irish. Google has incorporated two subsidiaries in Ireland. One is a holding company in Bermuda, the other is located in Ireland.

In Ireland, intellectual property royalties has lower income tax rates of 12.5%. Google’s Irish company in Ireland pays those royalties to its Irish company in tax-haven Bermuda and again  funneling them through the tax-advantaged Netherlands on the way and end up paying just 2.4% in taxes. How this is some financial engineering.

Google should now start offering tax consulting too apart from internet services.

Two Indians in Top 10 richest College Dropouts !

Yes, two Indians has made it to the top 10 richest dropouts of the world .. I was surprised when I read the list, more so as I never knew that both Mukesh Ambani and Ajim Premji are college dropouts.

One can say that they had the legacy of their fathers behind them but I will still say that they actually made it big. Particularly Mr Premji venturing into software from commodity business was amazing.

Incidentally both  of them were studying in Stanford University before they left it for the good. Other college dropout that made up to the list from Stanford University is Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft.

Harvard Grads, Bill Gates and Mark Zukerberg of facebook fame also adored the list of richest dropouts.

Now we know where to go if we want to be rich and also don't want to study for too long :-)

Speak like a Captain

 Being a captain of any team, one has be responsible and intelligent in all the external communications. The curious case of Shahid Afridi bashing Indian people and media is still alive in our memories and has left a bad taste in mouth. Since the wordings were so strong the media actually made him take his words back.

Now the hard hitting batsman Mr. Sehwag has also done something which I will not associate well for a captain of the team Delhi Daredevils. He said in a press briefing, " I have played under Dhoni's captaincy and I know what all tactics he can deploy as a captain and will make it ineffective against Delhi Daredevils Team" . Now there are somethings which you might be thinking of but speaking it out as a captain does not look really good for a captain of the team. Yes, it might not be as bad as what Afridi did but non the less he could have been more discrete. The media might not have caught the comment made by him but it does looks immature for some one like Sehwag.

The only thing which is interesting in these recent episodes is the similarity between Sehwag and Afridi's way of playing cricket.

Anna shows the Power of Democracy

Mr. Anna Hazare is actually showcasing the power of democracy in this modern world. Old Gadhian tools of Ahimsa and Satyagraha are working wonders again in this world of tears and blood sheds. I am really fascinated to see the kind of support his movement has got from the people of the country.

The youth of country has also sent a very strong message to the government that the days of corruption are limited now and they should better improve the governance otherwise this country come to the streets and fight it out. Ihe important part of this message is that the youth of the country is intelligent and responsive and will adopt the route of peaceful agitation. Few years back it was difficult to foresee this new face of Indian Youth, I believe the Sanjay Dutt movies on Gandhi giri should be admired for making this internet and i-pod generation believe in Gandhian philosophy.

Other exciting thing happening is the rapid adoption of technology in the country. I am very hopeful that the changes brought about by use of Information technology and social movements will work in parallel and will make the administrators of the country more transparent and responsive.

The initiative of UID could prove to be a another milestone which will change the way system works and will drastically reduce the leakages.

Looking at the evolution of the western world, they all suffered from corruption during high growth phase but the systems became much cleaner and government agencies became far more responsive as they got the dose of development.  India is also witnessing the same changes and hopefully in our life times we might see a new India with with far less corruption and red tap-ism. 

What exactly is CBI doing ?

If we look at the past, we all know how honest had all our politicians and bureaucrats been. The Central Bureo of Investigation was primarily created with following divisions:

• Anti Corruption Division: Cases of corruption and fraud committed by public servants of all Central Govt. Departments, Central Public Sector Undertakings and Central Financial Institutions.

• Economic Crimes Division: Deals with cases including bank frauds, financial frauds, Import Export & Foreign Exchange violations, large-scale smuggling of narcotics, antiques, cultural property and smuggling of other contraband items etc.

• Special Crimes Division: Deals with cases such as cases of terrorism, bomb blasts, sensational homicides, kidnapping for ransom and crimes committed by the mafia/the underworld.                      (Source:  Wikipedia)

Now if we analyze their work particularly in anti corruption,  I cant remember any of the politician or a top notch bureaucrat being nabbed by CBI. The Raja's 2G scam was discovered by central Vigilence Unit so was the case of Hasan Ali where Supreme Court has to intervene when it found CBI doing nothing. This is the story with almost all the prominent cases.

Even now that the CBI is investigating  the 2 G scam, the charge sheet filed by CBI is kind of soft towards Raja. I really dont understand what exactly are they doing ? Is there some genuine conflict of interest where all the posting and promotions of CBI are being done by the influential politicians and bureaucrats and they just cant do anything about them ?

Team India: Making History

It was amazing to see India lift the Cricket World Cup yet again after 28 years. The team never looked perturbed by the initial blows in the finals, not even when Sachin got out. This team under Dhoni has graduated to a level where they can think about winning without Sachin.

I still remember the matches of world cup from 1992 to 2011, the truth is the team never looked so formidable before. Yes, the team had a good chance in 1996 but Srilankans with the assistance from unprepared pitch of  Eden Gardens gave us a disappointing loss. The uncompleted match played at Eden  made a lot of Indians to cry and we still get emotional about that game. The itch lasted really long  but finally Dhoni's XI gave  Lankans  reply after 15 years. What a fabulous way of winning.

The God of Cricket got the due respect from the team and it was very nice to hear the team dedicating the cup to him. Sachin actually got what was long due to him. I strongly believe Sachin should play another world cup as he is still the best batsman in India and the world and his fitness levels are beyond doubt.

The whole thing is still to seep in, Winning the world cup Feels great !