Why Jan Lokpal law can slow India down..

We might all be cheering hard for Jan Lokpal which the Anna team has presented but are we aware that it can adversely affect the growth of the country. Following are the prominent reasons which might derail the good growth in India if very strong anti-corruption bills are passed.

1. Dis-incentive for Government machinery: The government machinery, banks, public institutions are so used to bribes that it has become a part of their compensation. Infact the salaries offered by government is so less that it barely makes up for their needs and reflect their experience and qualifications. These people are there on those roles just because  they are getting incentives from extra money they make. This also improves the speed in the system as they try to push the proposals. 99% of times wrong proposals are not passed by bribing, its just that the deserving proposal gets those extra legs and gets passed on priority. Time is money and the whole business suffers if the speed of transactions reduces.

2.  Fear of doing Wrong: Anyone and every one can do things wrong at times. Consider a bank manager working in a PSU, who passed 100 loans every day, he can get a few loans passed wrongly as people submit fake documents difficult to differentiate. Now if you will hang that person for doing wrong in 1% of those cases, he will never work efficiently. The fear of complaint, disrespect will make people take a lot of time in doing routine things and the speed of the whole value chain will be greatly reduced. For example, if I give a slap to Sehwag for getting out below 10 and no incentive for hitting a century, will he still like to play cricket. And everyone seems to know Cricket well and criticize Sehwag in this country

3. Change the draconian Laws first: The laws are required to be reformed before a strict anti-corruption law is in-acted. If you check out the rules of financing, rules of land acquisition etc. If the entrepreneur start following them as per the books, the business in India will come to a stand still. Rules might favor the established players as they have powerful lobbies and they also fund the political parties. The young entrepreneur will find it impossible to do business in India if he follows the draconian rules and not bribe his way through.

4. Crores of cases in Jan-Lokpal: If every person in India can simply write an application and get his complaint registered in Jan-lokpal how will you solve such crores of cases wnd who will monitor it ? How will you prevent people from filing wrong cases just to ridicule or blackmail the honest public servants ? The whole country is already struggling with so many pending cases in our courts. If things are pending in arbitration, it will adversely affect the growth of the country and velocity of money.


5. FDI in India: Most of the foreign direct Investment in India is nothing but the black money of Indians itself which is routed through tax heavens and is invested in fresh projects which create economic activity and employment opportunities.The tax laws in India are deterrent to a lot of growth. If people pay less tax and invest more in growth it provides compounded returns.

6. Law can not change people: Law can only create deterrent for people, it can not change people in a day.


7. Don't confuse corruption with Cop asking for money:The masses are mostly behind Jan Lokpal,specially the middle class as they feel that it will stop people in influential position abusing their power. How will you stop a cop asking for Rs 100 when actual fine is 500 and one has to wait for it in court for 5 days. You want to happily want to pay-off Rs 100 and get rid of it. If the cop is smart, you will be actually ready to pay even 500 to cop and still avoid the procedures. No law can change the way things are done in a civilized society. It takes generations to bring the change. If you change the system to no court hearing , pay 200 fine and leave. Will I have any problem in doing so ?

Everyone wants corruption free country but the question is you want anti-corruption over growth. Most honest countries might not be the most progressive or having the highest growth in the country. When India has almost half the population below poverty line, we need to ask our self, " do we need most honest country or do we need more people who are prosperous". Growth slowly tickles down and create opportunities for all. One white collar jobs lead to creation for 3 blue collar jobs. The thought is good but the timing is still a concern to me.

What should you be doing if You are Anna's supporter ..

Supporting Anna ji might be the new " Cool " amongst the young population, but it should be done with some sanctity so that it reflects well on the us as the aware citizen of our country.

1. Don't Abuse anyone: The basic Gandhian policy is based out of respect for all. Even the adversaries must be given full respect.

2. Do not break the rules of the land:  I have heard people are openly violating traffic rules etc as they are Anna supporter and can walk away doing it. It wont please Mr. Hazare for sure.

3. Lead the Initiative: Keeping just Face Book or Gtalk messages will not make the country corruption free.  Be the change you want to see in your country.

4. Make informed choices: If you feel that some of the clauses in the Jan Lokpal are difficult to implement and can be problematic, you should clearly say that. Application of individual judgement is important as all human can make mistakes.

5. Respect the National Symbols and Flag: National flags and symbol should be treated with respect and no one is above it. One should keep follow it in all the rallies and places whee national Flags are used.

Try to hold fast for a day and feel what its like to be hungry, it might make all us empathize with Anna and also with the countless children who sleep empty stomach every day.

Understanding Marketing Plan: Anna Hazare Campaign

Understanding Marketing Plan: Anna Hazare Campaign

This is just an attempt to explore the Brand Anna and the magic of his Campaign which is making waves in the country. What could have made it work? Without any prejudices just tried to think about it and found out.

Campaign : An corruption free country.

Timing of the Campaign:  Country caught in series of scandals like Common Wealth Game, 2G etc. The people of the country want to change the country, hence an opportunity of easily finding takers of the idea.

Market Research for designing the campaign:

•        More than 50% of the Indians are below 26 years of age.
•       Less than 1% of the people are super rich. Big emerging middle class, which wants to be socially conscious, uses internet and mobile phones and largely stays in urban India.
•      The young India wants to do something but don’t know what to do when it comes to showing their contribution towards the nation building.
•     Talking against corruption is considered cool in present scenario. The louder you speak; you are looked as more patriotic and socially aware citizen.
•    Earlier effect of movies such as RDB and how it has affected the educated masses. Use the frustration of people as a tool of creating a mass uproar against the establishment.

Segmentation

•      Simple demographics based segmentation of marketing based on the size of population in various age groups, education back ground and ease of passing information to them.

Targeting

Targeting the people who are :

•          In age bracket 18-30, which comprises majority of the population of the country
•         People who have read about Mahatma Gandhi in NCERT books, and want to contribute to something for the country.
•        Educated people, using social media, who likes to express their opinions who can be the flag bearers and the early adopters.
•        People who have time but also who does not like full time commitment.

 Positioning: Anti-Corrupt India

• The positioning is neutral in nature, not to entice any religious feeling, any regionalism, try and make it global in nature where all global citizens can participate. Some thing most of the people can easily relate to or face in their life.

Brand:

• Anna " Curroption Free"  has been used as a biggest brand in the whole campaign like Richard Branson for Virgin or Mr. Mallya for Kingfisher. The reason is the spotless past which very few people in the country can boast of, a history of leading movements and an innocent and aged persona which brings respect for the brand.  The campaign main tag line is “I am Anna Hazarre” which is clearly used to make people live the brand Anna Hazzare.

Communication Strategy: 

• Crowd Sourcing, using the youngster to become the voice of the campaign. The young India which changes status messages 2-3 times a day to become the brand advocator. The people can easily pitch in by not fully committing themselves but can do their bit.
• Largely using modern technology communication like mobile phones, internet and Social Networking. Creating news and being capturing by 24 hour media channels to directly go to the masses. 

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.

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.