Travelling with Indian Railway is always a stunning experience. Rich in experience travel starts as soon as one gets to the railway station. And these experiences keep pouring on you throughout the travel irrespective of whether you want it or otherwise. You may get perplexed – which train travel am I talking about? Focus is on long route train travel in India - on the normal trains, which myriad number of people in India use to connect with each other or to go & worship a god or to go & work. What Uttar Sampark Kranti Express, which travels from the capital city of India towards the town in world’s terrorized paradise Jammu & Kashmir – Udhampur, has on the table to offer? How Gitanjali Express, which connects India’s financial hub to the eastern metro city of Kolkata, takes care of passengers travelling in it?
In India, express train travels at 40-45 Km per hour on an average. There are many types of classes in trains, may be maximum in number than any other such setup. Not all trains have all the classes. General class, second sitting, sleeper class, AC chair car, AC 3 Tier, AC 3 Tier Economy, AC 2 Tier, First class, First class AC – these many classes are due to the mix of affordability factor & services which railway has to take into account. One can travel as much distance as one wants on a simple card ticket without any reservation or seat number by getting into general class. This class is generally jam packed with young people going out station for earning livelihood. One has to be very lucky to first get into it & then get a seat. Second sitting is mainly for 2-3 hours of travel. It is available on routes like Delhi- Chandigarh, Mumbai-Pune. AC Chair car is also available for such short distances. In all other classes passengers are allocated a berth & a seat. Except general class, reservation is must for getting inside the compartment. But in India, very much people are considerate. So you will always find people only with tickets or sometimes without any tickets sitting in the lobbies in front of toilets of reserved compartments. Except general class, sleeper class & chair car all the other classes differ in their coziness amongst themselves. Some have air conditioners. Some have less number of seats relative to others in the same space. Some have additional facilities like electricity points to charge mobiles & to operate laptops. Also to facilitate reading, small light bulbs are provided near berths in AC compartments. Things like pillow, bed sheet and blanket are provided when there is a night travel in some classes. The Top most class (fare & facility wise) is the First Class AC. In this 3-4 compartments of 4 people each are designed. It has quite specious & superior arrangements when compared to other classes. Apart from facilities mentioned, Indicators to inform the busy - not busy status of toilet have been placed in each compartment. Every now & then room freshener is sprayed through the air conditioner. Full time attendant is put in place to serve the requests of passengers.
There is a basic difference in AC & Non-AC classes which puts the entire travel experience in two different orbits altogether. In AC coaches, No hawkers except the official ones are allowed to serve the needs of the people. In AC one will get the things served by Indian Railways subsidiary – IRCTC - which looks after catering services. This rule is followed strictly out of economic interests of IRCTC, I guess. But trains near the ambience of Jalsa (Hindi word) in other coaches due to these hawkers. Heavily crowded with the passengers to a maximum possible extent, these hawkers play a hurdle race jumping around the luggage kept in the gangway & bypassing the passengers standing in between, and at the same time doing their business of selling the goods which they have brought. Also IRCTC vendors try to make a point by competing with them to add to the anxiety of standing passengers. All of them come shouting the name of the thing which they have brought. The sound gets mixed with train’s sound & noise made by passengers. Ant it tries to form a very good rhythm. Private hawkers & IRCTC vendors both generally bring food items to satisfy the gastronomic needs of passengers. They carry a variety according to the timings of breakfast, Lunch, Snacks & Dinner. These articles range from Bonda in south to Vada-pav in west to Samosa in North. But Bread Omlet, Cutlet, Soups seem to be in the realm of official vendors. If you are travelling by Kokan railway (Connecting costal Maharashtra, Karnataka till Kerala) a special variety of Banana Pakoda can be tasted. Lunch & Dinner is simple & generally preferred choice is official vendors. These days Veg, Egg & Chicken Biryani seem to be the popular choice of passengers for dinner. Other snacks items include Bhel, Chikki, Laddu, Puri – Sabji & many more. Beverages like Tea, Coffee, Cold drinks, and Mineral water are served incessantly. Recently I have seen Bournvita, Complan (health drinks) being sold.
Let’s move from food items to utility items. Again wide range of products is put in front of sea of people. This includes Maps of different states in India, Road Maps, Wallets, Combs, Mobile Covers, Pens, Batteries, Pirated books (of Arvind adiga’s to Robin Sharma’s to Paulo Coelho’s), Magazines, Newspapers, Some Aayurvedic medicines. These days a new entrant is head massaging unit which has a funnel like shape with a straight stick attached to it. It has 5-6 palettes similar to flower but thin ones. It is to be put inside the hair & moved up–down so as to get read of headache. It is made in China. To allure female passengers, boxes of Earrings, Bangles, Bindis and Hair Bands are brought to the floor. But this is time consuming business. Interested passengers keep on searching for the best one till the time vendor gets frustrated. Finally a transaction worth of 5-10 Rs. happens after a rigorous selection. This entire saga continues till either the train reaches its destination or passengers start looking mobiles & watches to check whether they can call it a day. But if somebody tries to compile the list of the things which you can get in the train in India, It will be the most incomplete list.
I feel it’s the great Indian Bazaar which makes its way in the trains. Indian Railway drives two economies. One is direct. The other one is indirect. Most importantly Indian Railways, 5th largest network in the world with 63,140 km of rail network, brings in Indianness by offering tremendous amount of diversity in the way one can travel.
- Prasanna Vaidya
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
BHARAT BANDH!!
Date – 05th July, 2010. Place – India. Reason – Inflation. All opposition parties involved.
While I was writing this post, India was observing a voluntary off from their daily routine. School, Colleges, Private Offices across the country were shut. People also had taken a break to support a Bandh called against rising costs of primary articles.
If one observes the price of any primary food article, one would have to say there should be this kind of Bandh everyday. Since 2004, prices of articles like rice, pulses, milk, sugar and edible oil increased in the range of 150 to 200%. Adding to the woes of common man, Government recently decontrolled the auto fuel prices to curtail the fiscal deficit. The decision was bold. It was perfect if looked with an eye of economist. But timing of the same is in question. With food price inflation already ruling in double digits, decontrol at such time was certainly unwarranted.
Economic growth taken place since 2004, globally, was stupendous. World has witnessed highest ever growth rates from 2004 – 08. It has resulted in raising the income levels across the globe. Each & every commodity traded on bourses was witnessing a tremendous increase in trading volumes both due to speculation & supply constraint. In India, middle class population has been increasing with fast pace as sectors like Auto, Pharmaceuticals, Banking & Financial Services, IT are doing fantastically well. Farmers have got never seen Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for wheat, rice, cotton in last few years. It has helped them to get some cash in their hand. National Rural Employment Guaranty Act (NREGA) has also helped rural people to get cash in the off-agro season. This all has resulted in placing more money in the hands of people. Though wheat, rice & other agro products in India have witnessed record level of production; it is not enough for meeting needs of the people. With agriculture growth rates not surprising us on the positive side, prices are bound to move up. Traders which have become oligopolistic in nature are making it worst.
Government has its task cut out. First of all, they should invade all warehouses & streamline the supply. Book the traders which are holding the grains in warehouses. This would tackle the sporadic price rise in primary articles. This would certainly make sure the price correction in the short term. Secondly, Government should seriously start reforming agriculture sector. They should indulge in finding ways which would raise the farm productivity in India in a sustainable way. This would make sure food sovereignty of our nation. These are obviously not easy tasks to do. But Government should start taking steps in these directions. Their attitude towards the issue of inflation right now is too adamant to accept. If government is not position to do anything, they should come up with the white paper on this. These price levels are hurting common man & their silent support for nationwide strike shows it clearly.
Opposition parties have done a stupendous task of taking up this issue. Yes, they are politicizing the things but which party would not have? It was heartening to see opposition parties coming together & showing their strength. Some agencies are coming out with estimates of amount of national loss happened due to this. Estimates are in the range 13000 Crore Rs. Huge amount!!! But it was necessary to wake up New ICC chief & his bosses. Yes - reduce fiscal deficit, but not at the cost of lives of people. Find new ways to solve the issues. Don’t just sit & say inflation is a global phenomenon & normal monsoon will pacify the things. Act or face the consequences.
Prasanna Vaidya
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
While I was writing this post, India was observing a voluntary off from their daily routine. School, Colleges, Private Offices across the country were shut. People also had taken a break to support a Bandh called against rising costs of primary articles.
If one observes the price of any primary food article, one would have to say there should be this kind of Bandh everyday. Since 2004, prices of articles like rice, pulses, milk, sugar and edible oil increased in the range of 150 to 200%. Adding to the woes of common man, Government recently decontrolled the auto fuel prices to curtail the fiscal deficit. The decision was bold. It was perfect if looked with an eye of economist. But timing of the same is in question. With food price inflation already ruling in double digits, decontrol at such time was certainly unwarranted.
Economic growth taken place since 2004, globally, was stupendous. World has witnessed highest ever growth rates from 2004 – 08. It has resulted in raising the income levels across the globe. Each & every commodity traded on bourses was witnessing a tremendous increase in trading volumes both due to speculation & supply constraint. In India, middle class population has been increasing with fast pace as sectors like Auto, Pharmaceuticals, Banking & Financial Services, IT are doing fantastically well. Farmers have got never seen Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for wheat, rice, cotton in last few years. It has helped them to get some cash in their hand. National Rural Employment Guaranty Act (NREGA) has also helped rural people to get cash in the off-agro season. This all has resulted in placing more money in the hands of people. Though wheat, rice & other agro products in India have witnessed record level of production; it is not enough for meeting needs of the people. With agriculture growth rates not surprising us on the positive side, prices are bound to move up. Traders which have become oligopolistic in nature are making it worst.
Government has its task cut out. First of all, they should invade all warehouses & streamline the supply. Book the traders which are holding the grains in warehouses. This would tackle the sporadic price rise in primary articles. This would certainly make sure the price correction in the short term. Secondly, Government should seriously start reforming agriculture sector. They should indulge in finding ways which would raise the farm productivity in India in a sustainable way. This would make sure food sovereignty of our nation. These are obviously not easy tasks to do. But Government should start taking steps in these directions. Their attitude towards the issue of inflation right now is too adamant to accept. If government is not position to do anything, they should come up with the white paper on this. These price levels are hurting common man & their silent support for nationwide strike shows it clearly.
Opposition parties have done a stupendous task of taking up this issue. Yes, they are politicizing the things but which party would not have? It was heartening to see opposition parties coming together & showing their strength. Some agencies are coming out with estimates of amount of national loss happened due to this. Estimates are in the range 13000 Crore Rs. Huge amount!!! But it was necessary to wake up New ICC chief & his bosses. Yes - reduce fiscal deficit, but not at the cost of lives of people. Find new ways to solve the issues. Don’t just sit & say inflation is a global phenomenon & normal monsoon will pacify the things. Act or face the consequences.
Prasanna Vaidya
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
Monday, May 17, 2010
Battle of the Jhelum
Preface
It was an early June of 326 B.C. Both armies were huddled on either banks of the river ‘Jhelum’, the north-western outline of the house of Paurava’s. Soon they were to fight a ferocious battle of all times. India at that time was divided into many small kingdoms & republics. They used to fight amongst each other frequently, many times for the territorial sovereignty. The king ‘Ambhi’ amongst them who was ruling the kingdom of ‘Gandhar’, the Indian borderland, succumbed to the Alexander. But his neighbor & enemy ‘Puru’, king of Paurava’s, decided to forbid the advance of this foreign invader. He had a full confidence in his huge ‘chaturang sena’ but he was aware that sovereignty & independence of his kingdom spread between the river ‘Jhelum’ & ‘Chenab’ was at bet.
Alexander, the king of Macedonia having conquered whole of the Greece had already subdued many of the kingdoms from Africa & central Asia. He was under the impression that he will be at earth’s edge once he will reach the river ‘Indus’. When he subjugated the Persian Empire under ‘Darius III’, he came to know about the region ‘Indica’ across the river ‘Indus’. The local Persians told him about splendor & wealth of the Indian kingdoms, rich & fertile northern plains & powerful ‘Maharajas’. The mad Greek king with his ambition to conquer the world marched towards the Indian border.
Before the battle
Having ‘Ambhi’ in his pocket, there were two obstacles in front of Alexander. First was the river ‘Jhelum’ ( known as ‘Hydaspes’ to Greeks ) now swollen to the great extent due to monsoon & the other was the Puru’s army guarding eastern bank of the river. Alexander knew that crossing the river in front of the opponent would be like a suicide especially considering bulge of the river. The enemy would have doomed the Macedonians before they reach other side of the river. The cunning commander planned to play his cards in a different manner. He moved his troops up & down side of the river during night. He also sent some of his men to the middle of the river inside & then brought them back. War trumpets were kept blaring purposely & troops themselves were made to make a lot of noise. The scenario continued for several nights. Puru’s troops who were also moving accordingly from the eastern bank soon got fed up and gave up following a hostile from the other bank. They were baffled & couldn’t judge the place from where enemy will cross the river. Alexander also spread a rumor that he is planning to withdraw his army & come back when the water level would be more manageable & let Indians became complacent & lethargic.
Under a cover of one dark, stormy night Alexander with a contingent of his army moved upward side of the river silently. Greeks left their tents as it is at their camp. Some of the force was also kept behind at the camp itself, exactly in front of Puru’s army on the other bank, making him feel that it’s a main Greek force. Soon he was to experience a surprise. When the dawn broke, Puru’s scouts brought the information that Macedonians had
crossed a river. With an apparent main Greek force on the other bank in front of him, he thought that it must be a small platoon performing reconnaissance. Under the command of his son ‘Puru junior’ he sent a small troop of horsemen & chariots to handle the situation. Soon he regretted his decision. Small Indian troop was easily annihilated by the actual main Greek force managed to cross the river. Puru junior got killed. Indians now awakened, marched towards the enemy with all of their force. Looking at the tents on the other bank they also kept some of their force at the camp itself fearing landing of the Greeks at the rear end.
For diagrams one may refer the following link -
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/History/Battles/Hydaspes.html
Face off
Puru fielded his infantry at the centre with elephants in front of them while half of the cavalry was kept at each of the wing along with the chariots. Greek companion cavalry stood in front of the Indian left & phalanxes besides them were in front of Indian elephants. Alexander opened a battle with a heavy companion cavalry on his right flank. Puru’s horsemen at his left wing were facing this attack. Apart from having numerical edge over Indian cavalry Macedonians were technically superior. They were guarded with metal greaves, armors, shields & helmets whereas Indians wore cotton turbans & held shields made up of hide which got easily punctured by Greek lances. Moreover, cushions or blankets tightly tied on a horseback gave better grip to Greek horsemen & horse archers & they proved accurate than their Indian counterparts who rode on bare horses. Well trained Greek cavalry arranged in successive lines performed superior than chaotic Indian cavalry & started retreating. Puru looking at his left wing getting collapsed decided to reinforce the same with a cavalry on his right flank leaving chariots as a guard for the right side. This proved to be a terrible mistake on Indian part. Alexander was the supreme General indeed. Reading these movements he changed strategies right at the battlefield. He asked his troop of Scythian horse archers to encircle the Puru’s army & attack Puru’s left wing from the rear end. Lumbering Indian chariots couldn’t stop these troopers. Their wheels got bogged down in a swampy, soggy ground & were shot easily by Scythian arrows due to immobility.
By now, Indian armored elephants at the centre had started crumbling the Greek phalanxes. Many of the phalangites were lifted & flange by the trunks of the huge creatures. Others were trampled down under pillar like legs & some were impaled by tusks & iron spikes attached to the metal plates covering the tusks. While both of the Indian wings were being crushed, the situation was somewhat stabilized by these giant beasts. But now Greek infantrymen started stabbing elephant legs & eyes making them crazy with pains. They also shot many of the mahouts with their javelins. The trumpeting animals now mostly without mahouts fall back on Puru’s infantry creating havoc. As such Indian infantry fighting with the support of the elephants had already started retreating. They could not stand their ground in front of the organized, disciplined phalanxes. Greek phalangites arranged in rows drilled their troops using drums & vanquished chaotic Indian infantry. They wore metallic armors, helmets & held ‘sixteen feet long’ spears (called ‘Sarissa’) along with the metal shield. Before Indian swords could reach their opponents, Sarissa’s slew Indian soldiers without armors & helmets. Actually Indians had powerful huge bows ‘five feet long ’. To shoot their long arrows which could penetrate even the strongest of the armors, archer had to press the bow on the ground using his leg. But it had rained heavily the earlier night. Indian archers couldn’t hold their bows on a swampy, sticky & slippery surface firmly, losing their accuracy. They lost the strongest weapon they had.
All this was no less when invaders hammered their final stroke. Encircling platoon of Scythian horse archers carrying light composite bows, attempting to traverse the Indians reached at the back of the Indian cavalry now gathered at the left wing. They were crushed between the companion cavalry from the front & horse troopers from the back. Indian horsemen were finished. Most of the elephants being cordoned by Alexandrian infantrymen were captured by now. With Indian pikes already annihilated Indian defeat became merely clear before the dusk fell. But Puru was not going to give up. Truly he was a man of courage. He had already lost his son & now his entire army was being shattered in front of him. Still the ‘seven feet tall’ graceful figure rode on the elephant kept on fighting valiantly. Wounded badly in the right shoulder & with his ‘mahout’ slain, finally he was captured by the enemy. When taken in front of Alexander & asked that how he wished to be treated, he famously replied ‘As befits a king’. Alexander spared life of the king Puru for political reasons & assigned him as a ‘Satrap’ (Governor) of his own kingdom.
The battle was extremely difficult for the Alexander & probably the toughest one he had ever fought. Macedonians had never seen such lethal use of war-elephants here before. It is said that the situation was somewhat similar to infantry fighting with tanks. The fact that they pulled a victory was an aftermath of their tremendous discipline, bravery & off course their superb leader. The casualty figures & number of soldiers each of the opponents had, remains unknown. Some saying Puru’s force contained 22000 infantry, cavalry, chariots & 200 elephants & Alexander equipped with 35000 soldiers & 11000 more on the other bank as a diversionary force. Some claim that Puru fielded approximately 40000 people with a contingent of 15000 Macedonians in front of him. Each of the references gives its own figures of casualty & number of combatants. It is better to leave the dispute for the historians.
Alexandrian retreat
Having defeated Puru, Alexander marched ahead towards the Indian heartlands but when he reached the river ‘Beas’, his soldiers refused to move forward. They heard about the powerful armies & elephant forces of the Indian kingdoms ahead. Rumors spread about the strange Indian weapons. Unwilling to face the elephants in the battlefield again, frightened soldiers simply rejected to go ahead. They had been away from their homeland for more than eight years. The men had done too much. Alexander hardly had any choice rather than to move back towards Greece. On his way back through the river Indus, kingdoms situated on the banks preferred to dispute his Advance than to surrender. Alexander himself got severely injured in one of those combats. We are not to discuss those battles. Over here it is sufficient to say that almost none of the kingdoms on the banks of the river ‘Indus’ spared him without a battle. Indian valor taught him an unforgettable lesson.
Undoubtedly, Alexander was one of the best commanders of all times. But his depiction as a ‘conqueror of the world’ is entirely untrue. Despite the fact that he didn’t even turned towards countries like China, he could hardly manage to subdue small north-western strip of the Indian subcontinent. That too immediately got restored back after his death in 323 B.C. in Babylon. King Puru got assassinated after some years.
At last
‘Battle of the Jhelum’ is one of the earliest recorded battles of the Indian king with a foreign invader. It proved supremacy of ‘disciplined, organized & professional full time army’ over the ‘troops of part time soldiers & peasants’. Importance of quick maneuvers of a mobile army was marked. Limitations of lumbering chariots got highlighted. Indian warfare underwent remarkable changes. Irrespective of military limitations Indians came to know that country broken into small kingdoms couldn’t defend itself effectively from the foreign invaders. Probably that itself was the inspiration behind the revolution in 321 B.C. which gave rise to ‘Maurya’ dynasty.
SAURABH JOGLEKAR
E-mail - saurabh.a.joglekar@gmail.com
Date - 12th September, 2009
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Inflation Vs IPL
Its Sunday, Sunny & Simran are enjoying their weekend at home. Suddenly, while pouring milk in tea cup, Simran says: Do you know milk price has gone up once again. 35 Rs. / Lit.
Sunny: Yes, I heard our cancerous agriculture minister predicting the same 10 days in advance. Such a nice minister he is!! Every time the price of any article is to go up, He makes sure all citizens are aware of it well in advance. I like the way he manages the prices.
Simran: Have you gone mad? Is he there just to tell what the next thing to blow up is? Should he not try to control the prices? Look at the prices of primary articles. Go to some mall, then you will understand.
Sunny: See, first of all you don’t understand what he is trying to convey. (Sunny cuts lose….) Why the hell IPL is on? So that people should stay at home, watch cricket, drink beer & sleep. Who has told you to go out & shop daily? Look at me; I don’t go for shopping, so I don’t feel inflation. It’s all how you take it dear. Perception you know!!!
Simran: Keep your crap jokes with you. We don’t have to worry about our tonight’s food, that’s why you have lost your feet from the ground. Look around. People are starving. Even income of 10k per month is not sufficient these days. Do you remember your father’s first salary? It was 500 Rs. /month. Still all were happy.
Sunny: Please. Don’t compare. These are just unfair comparisons. Our life styles have changed & rather improved.
Simran: Tell me what has changed? (Voice & temp both are rising with each passing second)
Sunny: When my father was on job, there was no IPL.
Simran: You are just hopeless. There is no point in having healthy discussion with you.
Simran gives a cup of tea to Sunny & goes back to her work. These days she is doing painting to keep her mind stable.
After taking in some sips of Tea, Sunny start fighting with his excited neurons.
What are the real issues? Inflation or IPL? Amitabh or Afzal Guru? Shashi Tharoor or Shoib Malik? Dantewada or Dance India Dance?
Nobody seems to be worried about daily perils experienced by common man. We have a load shading of immense magnitudes. Those who can afford put generators, inverters. Those on the margins mess up their day & night without electricity. But our politicians are busy in managing their own egos, interests. Media channels continuously for 2 days reported what tricks Maharashtra CM applied so that he won’t share stage with our “Actor of the millennium”. People watch it religiously. Overall none seem to care.
IPL is of utmost importance to India. Even if “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” sneezes, it becomes a Breaking News. These days “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” & “Mr. Class within the Cattle” are having their own IPL running. Kochi team has managed to come into IPL with the blessings of our MoS External Affairs. But “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” wanted something else. Already Minister has lost his wicket along with the stake in Kochi, other scams related to IPL have come to the fore now. While all this was happening, ISRO has failed to launch its GSLV, “Mr. Be the change” has praised our cross border friend once again for showing some action dramas against Kasabs, Our “Red friends” have attacked investigating team itself in Dantewada, & Mumbai University, is bored of printing Question Papers itself.
How come we are not able to understand what is important for our lives, for our future generations? Agreed, we can’t do anything to change all this. But we can help ourselves. “Jo Khud ki Madat karana nahi janata, usaki madat to Bhagwan bhi nahi kar sakata” – dialog by Kaveri Amma in block buster movie Swades. Government, Politicians won’t be able to do anything for common people. Politicians are totally immersed in making their own life good, so we have to change our lives for good too. Only thing which we need to keep in mind is “Our lives can be improved without degrading someone else’s life.” We should strive for this. We can’t expect that government will provide enough electricity; those who can afford should search for their own ways to keep their homes enlightened. Same is the case with all other needs. Government is just not needed. We are our own government!!!...
Umpires start walking into the middle. After them comes Kolkata Knight Rider’s Team – Prince of Kolkata leading from the front. Young blood from Delhi is to carry a new ball. And suddenly a well known roar feels the stadium, Master Blaster is about to face the first ball.
IPL is on. Today it’s MI Vs KKR. Inflation? What it is?
Prasanna Vaidya
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
Sunny: Yes, I heard our cancerous agriculture minister predicting the same 10 days in advance. Such a nice minister he is!! Every time the price of any article is to go up, He makes sure all citizens are aware of it well in advance. I like the way he manages the prices.
Simran: Have you gone mad? Is he there just to tell what the next thing to blow up is? Should he not try to control the prices? Look at the prices of primary articles. Go to some mall, then you will understand.
Sunny: See, first of all you don’t understand what he is trying to convey. (Sunny cuts lose….) Why the hell IPL is on? So that people should stay at home, watch cricket, drink beer & sleep. Who has told you to go out & shop daily? Look at me; I don’t go for shopping, so I don’t feel inflation. It’s all how you take it dear. Perception you know!!!
Simran: Keep your crap jokes with you. We don’t have to worry about our tonight’s food, that’s why you have lost your feet from the ground. Look around. People are starving. Even income of 10k per month is not sufficient these days. Do you remember your father’s first salary? It was 500 Rs. /month. Still all were happy.
Sunny: Please. Don’t compare. These are just unfair comparisons. Our life styles have changed & rather improved.
Simran: Tell me what has changed? (Voice & temp both are rising with each passing second)
Sunny: When my father was on job, there was no IPL.
Simran: You are just hopeless. There is no point in having healthy discussion with you.
Simran gives a cup of tea to Sunny & goes back to her work. These days she is doing painting to keep her mind stable.
After taking in some sips of Tea, Sunny start fighting with his excited neurons.
What are the real issues? Inflation or IPL? Amitabh or Afzal Guru? Shashi Tharoor or Shoib Malik? Dantewada or Dance India Dance?
Nobody seems to be worried about daily perils experienced by common man. We have a load shading of immense magnitudes. Those who can afford put generators, inverters. Those on the margins mess up their day & night without electricity. But our politicians are busy in managing their own egos, interests. Media channels continuously for 2 days reported what tricks Maharashtra CM applied so that he won’t share stage with our “Actor of the millennium”. People watch it religiously. Overall none seem to care.
IPL is of utmost importance to India. Even if “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” sneezes, it becomes a Breaking News. These days “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” & “Mr. Class within the Cattle” are having their own IPL running. Kochi team has managed to come into IPL with the blessings of our MoS External Affairs. But “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” wanted something else. Already Minister has lost his wicket along with the stake in Kochi, other scams related to IPL have come to the fore now. While all this was happening, ISRO has failed to launch its GSLV, “Mr. Be the change” has praised our cross border friend once again for showing some action dramas against Kasabs, Our “Red friends” have attacked investigating team itself in Dantewada, & Mumbai University, is bored of printing Question Papers itself.
How come we are not able to understand what is important for our lives, for our future generations? Agreed, we can’t do anything to change all this. But we can help ourselves. “Jo Khud ki Madat karana nahi janata, usaki madat to Bhagwan bhi nahi kar sakata” – dialog by Kaveri Amma in block buster movie Swades. Government, Politicians won’t be able to do anything for common people. Politicians are totally immersed in making their own life good, so we have to change our lives for good too. Only thing which we need to keep in mind is “Our lives can be improved without degrading someone else’s life.” We should strive for this. We can’t expect that government will provide enough electricity; those who can afford should search for their own ways to keep their homes enlightened. Same is the case with all other needs. Government is just not needed. We are our own government!!!...
Umpires start walking into the middle. After them comes Kolkata Knight Rider’s Team – Prince of Kolkata leading from the front. Young blood from Delhi is to carry a new ball. And suddenly a well known roar feels the stadium, Master Blaster is about to face the first ball.
IPL is on. Today it’s MI Vs KKR. Inflation? What it is?
Prasanna Vaidya
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Origins of the caste system
Formation –
If we shall try to trace back roots of the Indian caste system, we will have to go back to those ancient days when Aryan invasion took place in the Indian subcontinent. Most of the historians & erudites roughly estimate this period & one can go by rough estimates only, around 2000 B.C. to 1500 B.C. approximately after 1000 years after death of the Indus valley civilization.
Fair skinned Aryans not only invaded the subcontinent but they disregarded the indigenous culture to a large extent. They were much superior in war-techniques than people over here & locals hardly had any choice rather than to surrender themselves to the invaders. It is difficult to say whether mass killings of the losers took place or not but it is certain that process of accommodating these aboriginals must had been initiated, once initial feeling of the enmity started receding.
Even then the conquerors were not ready to bestow the equal status in community to the losers. Their intellectual mind soon discovered apparently softer solution & they simply divided the society into four parts. Thus, masses of agriculturists, artisans, traders formed a 'Vaishya' fraternity; rulers & warriors formed 'Kshatriya' fraternity & 'Brahmins' used to profess priesthood & thinking. They were supposed to guide a policy & perform rituals during a holocaust. In a social hierarchy ' Brahmins' used to command highest respect, then 'Kshatriyas' & then 'Vaishyas'. 'Shudras' were placed at the bottom of this scale & all indigenous tribes were accommodated in this class. 'Shudras' were the largest in numbers amongst all these classes. They were simple workers & used to perform tasks involving heavy toils & less regard. But still there situation was much better than forest dwellers & nomadic tribes who were not given place in a community & were made outcast. They were treated as 'Untouchables' & they had to do hideous works involving disposal of a sewage & dead bodies, tanning hide etc. Thus, Aryans found a peaceful but tyrannical solution to accommodate the conquered races rather than to exterminate or enslave them directly.
Our first prime minister & freedom fighter Pandit Nehru has given a convincing explanation in his classic 'Discovery of India' for this classification of the community also called as ‘four varna system’. He writes, “The Indian mind was extraordinarily analytical & had a passion for putting ideas & concepts & even life's activities into compartments. The Aryans not only divided society in four main groups but also the individual’s life in four parts. The first part consisted growth & adolescence, the student period of life, acquiring knowledge, developing self discipline & self control, continence; the second was that of the householder & man of the world; third was that of the elder statesman who had attained certain poise & objectivity & could devote himself to public work without any selfish desire & last stage was that of a recluse who lived a life largely cut off from the world's activities.”
Mr. Nehru further explains that it was not only discrimination. It was something more than that. Rather it was an attempt to accommodate all groups of the society so that synthesized community would be formed & indeed it was a synthesized community in initial stages. Rigidity came in much later. It is believed that the ‘four varna system’ was interchangeable & elastic social system at the beginning. Why it became rigid later on would be a different study altogether but as of now we shall focus on some other facet of the subject.
Aspiration to farm & role of Iron –
Probably the ‘four varna system’ was not merely an idea. It was an outcome of the materialistic conditions in those days. One of the references over the internet sheds some more light on another aspect of this discussion. It says that use of iron must have played a vital role in these regards. It says that such a connection was first established by famous Mr. D.D. Kosambi. Indo-aryans used to use iron tools in those days. They penetrated into India through north-western mountain passes & over a period of several hundreds of years they spreaded right up to the fertile and densely forested gangetic plains. Nomadic though initially they were, by the time they reached India they had learnt art of the agriculture. Fertile northern plains were waiting for getting farmed. They cut down the jungles using fire & iron axe & cultivated the land using iron ploughs ensuring them an assured food supply. This devastated forest dwellers whose resource base for living was hampered.
The author says =>
Gadgil & Guha quote Iravati karve to the effect.
“They (Brahmins) served as pioneers establishing their outposts in forests & initiating rituals which consumed large quantities of wood & animal fat. Thus, provoked native food gatherers termed demons or rakshasas would attempt to disrupt the holocaust & save their resource base in order to retain the control over their territory. Specialist warriors, Kshatriyas would then rush to the rescue of the Brahmins.
……….Dushyanta combs the forest with the help of hundreds of assistants, killing wild animals with complete abandon. It appears reasonable to conclude that the purpose of this slaughter was to destroy the resource base of hunting & gathering tribes who lived in the forest.”
Caste Genetics –
While we have sufficiently churned this subject it would make sense to percept it in the light of recent discoveries; especially when we know that there are streams of opinions who completely doubt whether any kind of Aryan migration had taken place in the ancient years.
One such discovery led by the scientist Bamshad et. al. (2001) claims that upper caste Hindus are more similar to Europeans where as lower caste Hindus are more similar to Asians. Mr. Partha Majumdar’s commentary on this study says that Aryan people’s contact with the indigenous Indians must have been progressively lower as one descends the varna hierarchy. The genetic expectation therefore is that, proportion of genomic features that characterized the ‘Aryan people’ goes on decreasing & proportion of genomic features that characterized the ‘Indigenous Indians’ goes on increasing, as we descend the caste ladder. Bamshad’s team’s results are congruent with the expectation and is a landmark, says Majumdar. He further says that results of similar kind of studies done previously were equivocal because of small sample sizes of genomic markers used for the study. Instead Bamshad used a very large battery of genomic markers & DNA sequences spanning three kinds of DNA. They were maternally derived Mt-DNA (i.e. Mitochondrial DNA), paternally derived Y- chromosome & biparentally derived Autosomal DNA. Mt-DNA was overall much similar to Asians than to Europeans & similarity to Asians goes on decreasing as we step up the caste hierarchy. Paternally inherited Y- chromosome was overall much similar to Europeans & similarity to Europeans goes on increasing as we step up the hierarchy. This confirms greater west Eurasian male admixture in the Indian community in those days. To say in simple words migrated Aryans are likely to have been mostly males & might have integrated themselves in the upper castes. Though as per the old Hindu tradition, inter caste marriage was a cultural taboo; women from lower castes used to marry with upper caste men occasionally and step up the caste ladder. This could have taken place because of less number of women in upper castes due to greater Aryan male admixture. Mr. R. Ramchandran in his article ‘Genetics of the caste’ published in the magazine ‘Frontline’ has written that this particular trend caused a female gene flow across the castes. He further writes that according to researchers, this could be the reason for differences in sex specific & caste specific genetic variation in Indian population. Thus, study concludes that Indian populations are of proto-Asian origin with west Eurasian admixture.
Epitome –
It is difficult to judge whether Aryans brought or imposed the stratification of the society or it was already prevailing & being conquerors they integrated themselves in the upper layer of the hierarchy. But later possibility appears more plausible; especially when we know that though Aryan sway never crossed the gangetic planes, all of the southern Dravidic speaking states do exhibit the caste system more or less in a similar fashion. Late Mrs. Karve (1961) has also said that ‘Something very like castes was already there in India even before coming of the Aryans’.
It is also believed that Aryan migration had taken place in successive waves. Period which we are talking about (i.e. 2000 B.C. approximately) deals with most of the recent wave. So it could also be the case that process of the stratification of the community might have been initiated when older waves of Aryan people came to India. All this is entirely baffling & ambiguous though; it appears reasonable that seeds of the stratification of the society might have been sown in even more ancient past.
SAURABH ASHOK JOGLEKAR
E-mail - saurabh.a.joglekar@gmail.com
Date - 18th July, 2009
References –
Reference Name Author
The Discovery of India, PENGUIN BOOKS Jawaharlal Nehru
The Beginnings of the caste system,
© Aharon Daniel.
http://adaniel.tripod.com/origin.htm
Iron in India and the Caste,
http://www.dalit.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67%3Airon&catid=29%3Amicropediadaliticagtol&Itemid=64
Indian Caste Origins: Genomic Insights and Future Outlook, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
http://genome.cshlp.org/content/11/6/931.full.pdf Partha P. Majumdar
The genetics of caste,
Frontline from the publishers of HINDU,
http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl1812/18120840.htm R. RAMACHANDRAN
Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations,
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
http://genome.cshlp.org/content/11/6/994.full 1. Michael Bamshad
2. Toomas Kivisild
3. W. Scott Watkins
4. Mary E. Dixon
5. Chris E. Ricker
6. Baskara B. Rao
7. J. Mastan Naidu
8. B.V. Ravi Prasad
9. P. Govinda Reddy
10. Arani Rasanayagam
11. Surinder S. Papiha
12. Richard Villems
13. Alan J. Redd
14. Michael F. Hammer
15. Son V. Nguyen
16. Marion L. Carroll
17. Mark A. Batzer
18. Lynn B. Jorde
Internet
If we shall try to trace back roots of the Indian caste system, we will have to go back to those ancient days when Aryan invasion took place in the Indian subcontinent. Most of the historians & erudites roughly estimate this period & one can go by rough estimates only, around 2000 B.C. to 1500 B.C. approximately after 1000 years after death of the Indus valley civilization.
Fair skinned Aryans not only invaded the subcontinent but they disregarded the indigenous culture to a large extent. They were much superior in war-techniques than people over here & locals hardly had any choice rather than to surrender themselves to the invaders. It is difficult to say whether mass killings of the losers took place or not but it is certain that process of accommodating these aboriginals must had been initiated, once initial feeling of the enmity started receding.
Even then the conquerors were not ready to bestow the equal status in community to the losers. Their intellectual mind soon discovered apparently softer solution & they simply divided the society into four parts. Thus, masses of agriculturists, artisans, traders formed a 'Vaishya' fraternity; rulers & warriors formed 'Kshatriya' fraternity & 'Brahmins' used to profess priesthood & thinking. They were supposed to guide a policy & perform rituals during a holocaust. In a social hierarchy ' Brahmins' used to command highest respect, then 'Kshatriyas' & then 'Vaishyas'. 'Shudras' were placed at the bottom of this scale & all indigenous tribes were accommodated in this class. 'Shudras' were the largest in numbers amongst all these classes. They were simple workers & used to perform tasks involving heavy toils & less regard. But still there situation was much better than forest dwellers & nomadic tribes who were not given place in a community & were made outcast. They were treated as 'Untouchables' & they had to do hideous works involving disposal of a sewage & dead bodies, tanning hide etc. Thus, Aryans found a peaceful but tyrannical solution to accommodate the conquered races rather than to exterminate or enslave them directly.
Our first prime minister & freedom fighter Pandit Nehru has given a convincing explanation in his classic 'Discovery of India' for this classification of the community also called as ‘four varna system’. He writes, “The Indian mind was extraordinarily analytical & had a passion for putting ideas & concepts & even life's activities into compartments. The Aryans not only divided society in four main groups but also the individual’s life in four parts. The first part consisted growth & adolescence, the student period of life, acquiring knowledge, developing self discipline & self control, continence; the second was that of the householder & man of the world; third was that of the elder statesman who had attained certain poise & objectivity & could devote himself to public work without any selfish desire & last stage was that of a recluse who lived a life largely cut off from the world's activities.”
Mr. Nehru further explains that it was not only discrimination. It was something more than that. Rather it was an attempt to accommodate all groups of the society so that synthesized community would be formed & indeed it was a synthesized community in initial stages. Rigidity came in much later. It is believed that the ‘four varna system’ was interchangeable & elastic social system at the beginning. Why it became rigid later on would be a different study altogether but as of now we shall focus on some other facet of the subject.
Aspiration to farm & role of Iron –
Probably the ‘four varna system’ was not merely an idea. It was an outcome of the materialistic conditions in those days. One of the references over the internet sheds some more light on another aspect of this discussion. It says that use of iron must have played a vital role in these regards. It says that such a connection was first established by famous Mr. D.D. Kosambi. Indo-aryans used to use iron tools in those days. They penetrated into India through north-western mountain passes & over a period of several hundreds of years they spreaded right up to the fertile and densely forested gangetic plains. Nomadic though initially they were, by the time they reached India they had learnt art of the agriculture. Fertile northern plains were waiting for getting farmed. They cut down the jungles using fire & iron axe & cultivated the land using iron ploughs ensuring them an assured food supply. This devastated forest dwellers whose resource base for living was hampered.
The author says =>
Gadgil & Guha quote Iravati karve to the effect.
“They (Brahmins) served as pioneers establishing their outposts in forests & initiating rituals which consumed large quantities of wood & animal fat. Thus, provoked native food gatherers termed demons or rakshasas would attempt to disrupt the holocaust & save their resource base in order to retain the control over their territory. Specialist warriors, Kshatriyas would then rush to the rescue of the Brahmins.
……….Dushyanta combs the forest with the help of hundreds of assistants, killing wild animals with complete abandon. It appears reasonable to conclude that the purpose of this slaughter was to destroy the resource base of hunting & gathering tribes who lived in the forest.”
Caste Genetics –
While we have sufficiently churned this subject it would make sense to percept it in the light of recent discoveries; especially when we know that there are streams of opinions who completely doubt whether any kind of Aryan migration had taken place in the ancient years.
One such discovery led by the scientist Bamshad et. al. (2001) claims that upper caste Hindus are more similar to Europeans where as lower caste Hindus are more similar to Asians. Mr. Partha Majumdar’s commentary on this study says that Aryan people’s contact with the indigenous Indians must have been progressively lower as one descends the varna hierarchy. The genetic expectation therefore is that, proportion of genomic features that characterized the ‘Aryan people’ goes on decreasing & proportion of genomic features that characterized the ‘Indigenous Indians’ goes on increasing, as we descend the caste ladder. Bamshad’s team’s results are congruent with the expectation and is a landmark, says Majumdar. He further says that results of similar kind of studies done previously were equivocal because of small sample sizes of genomic markers used for the study. Instead Bamshad used a very large battery of genomic markers & DNA sequences spanning three kinds of DNA. They were maternally derived Mt-DNA (i.e. Mitochondrial DNA), paternally derived Y- chromosome & biparentally derived Autosomal DNA. Mt-DNA was overall much similar to Asians than to Europeans & similarity to Asians goes on decreasing as we step up the caste hierarchy. Paternally inherited Y- chromosome was overall much similar to Europeans & similarity to Europeans goes on increasing as we step up the hierarchy. This confirms greater west Eurasian male admixture in the Indian community in those days. To say in simple words migrated Aryans are likely to have been mostly males & might have integrated themselves in the upper castes. Though as per the old Hindu tradition, inter caste marriage was a cultural taboo; women from lower castes used to marry with upper caste men occasionally and step up the caste ladder. This could have taken place because of less number of women in upper castes due to greater Aryan male admixture. Mr. R. Ramchandran in his article ‘Genetics of the caste’ published in the magazine ‘Frontline’ has written that this particular trend caused a female gene flow across the castes. He further writes that according to researchers, this could be the reason for differences in sex specific & caste specific genetic variation in Indian population. Thus, study concludes that Indian populations are of proto-Asian origin with west Eurasian admixture.
Epitome –
It is difficult to judge whether Aryans brought or imposed the stratification of the society or it was already prevailing & being conquerors they integrated themselves in the upper layer of the hierarchy. But later possibility appears more plausible; especially when we know that though Aryan sway never crossed the gangetic planes, all of the southern Dravidic speaking states do exhibit the caste system more or less in a similar fashion. Late Mrs. Karve (1961) has also said that ‘Something very like castes was already there in India even before coming of the Aryans’.
It is also believed that Aryan migration had taken place in successive waves. Period which we are talking about (i.e. 2000 B.C. approximately) deals with most of the recent wave. So it could also be the case that process of the stratification of the community might have been initiated when older waves of Aryan people came to India. All this is entirely baffling & ambiguous though; it appears reasonable that seeds of the stratification of the society might have been sown in even more ancient past.
SAURABH ASHOK JOGLEKAR
E-mail - saurabh.a.joglekar@gmail.com
Date - 18th July, 2009
References –
Reference Name Author
The Discovery of India, PENGUIN BOOKS Jawaharlal Nehru
The Beginnings of the caste system,
© Aharon Daniel.
http://adaniel.tripod.com/origin.htm
Iron in India and the Caste,
http://www.dalit.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67%3Airon&catid=29%3Amicropediadaliticagtol&Itemid=64
Indian Caste Origins: Genomic Insights and Future Outlook, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
http://genome.cshlp.org/content/11/6/931.full.pdf Partha P. Majumdar
The genetics of caste,
Frontline from the publishers of HINDU,
http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl1812/18120840.htm R. RAMACHANDRAN
Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations,
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
http://genome.cshlp.org/content/11/6/994.full 1. Michael Bamshad
2. Toomas Kivisild
3. W. Scott Watkins
4. Mary E. Dixon
5. Chris E. Ricker
6. Baskara B. Rao
7. J. Mastan Naidu
8. B.V. Ravi Prasad
9. P. Govinda Reddy
10. Arani Rasanayagam
11. Surinder S. Papiha
12. Richard Villems
13. Alan J. Redd
14. Michael F. Hammer
15. Son V. Nguyen
16. Marion L. Carroll
17. Mark A. Batzer
18. Lynn B. Jorde
Internet
De-regularization of Fuel Prices in India
In India fuel prices are controlled by government. Although government announced the dismantling of Administered Price Mechanism (APM) effective 1st- Apr-2002 in order to move towards market determined prices for petroleum products, it has not taken off its hands from determining fuel prices. This intervention even after dismantling APM was due to unprecedented rise in crude prices since late 2003. Oil marketing companies (OMCs) such as Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum & Hindustan Petroleum, which deal in refining & marketing activities of petroleum products, sell auto fuels & cooking fuels below prevailing international market prices. Estimates say OMCs will have under-recoveries of around Rs.45,000 Cr in this financial year assuming crude oil at $70 per barrel. Out of this Rs.15000 Cr will be on account of Auto Fuels (Petrol-Diesel), Another Rs.17000 Cr will be due to Kerosene & remaining Rs. 13000 Cr will be shaved off on account of LPG. Indian Oil (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) lose Rs 4.69 per liter on petrol and Rs 3.09 a liter on diesel. They sell LPG at a loss of Rs 158.55 per 14.2-kg cylinder and kerosene at Rs 17.15 per lit loss. These under-recoveries will be reimbursed in part by government in the form of oil bonds which would cover losses incurred due to Kerosene & LPG. So government has to issue oil bonds worth Rs. 30,000 Cr to OMCs. Some part of losses will be shared by upstream (e.g. ONGC) & downstream (IOC, BPCL, HPCL) companies. Government will try to offset losses of OMCs on Auto Fuels by asking companies like ONGC to sell crude oil & LPG to retailers (OMCs) at discounted rates. Still part of losses has to be taken care of by OMCs. Some help will come from Rs.3109 Cr which is provided under the head of Petroleum Subsidy in union budget 2009-10. Now let’s look at the other side of the saga. Government earns huge tax revenues from petroleum products in the form of customs as well as excise duties. In FY2008-09 total tax revenues earned from petroleum products was Rs.78373 Cr. If we assume those to be more or less on similar lines for the year 2009-10 as well then government seems to be in green. Tax rates in India on Petroleum Products are irrational. Petrol is highly taxed. Around 50% of the petrol price is made up of taxes if central sales tax & state sales tax are taken into consideration. Diesel taxes are relatively lower in comparison with Petrol. Around 30% of its price will be on account of various taxes. This is the prime reason for diesel consumption to have leapfrogged in India. Diesel forms 85% of the total consumption of auto fuels. Taxes on Kerosene & LPG form a tiny part of their prices. It has been so due to the government’s perception of kerosene & LPG as household’s cooking fuel – more precisely a fuel of poor people. So can Government of India continue with such kind of pricing in future? Is it sustainable? Let’s look at it -
Pricing of these products has always been a political issue than an economic one in India. Those having reins of the country always find it difficult to increase the prices as it has been considered as an unpopular measure. Some feel it will lead to an increase in prices of primary articles leading to a spiraling inflation. Many governments have reduced the prices when elections were just around the corner in order to cash in votes. Governments have set up many committees to formulate a strategy for pricing of petroleum prices, recommendations of which have been hardly implemented. With fiscal deficit looming large at 6.8% of GDP, is India in a position to continue such kind of Fuel subsidies? Government is set to borrow around Rs. 4,00,000 Cr from market to power its various initiatives. Such kind of mammoth borrowing will definitely lead to increase in interest rates. This will in turn affect capital expenditure plans of corporate sector as they will not get capital at lower rates. It will impede employment generation to some extent. De-regularization of fuel prices will help in reducing the ballooning fiscal deficit. Issuing oil bonds to OMCs was thought to be a financial innovation as it facilitates OMCs to cover up their losses & government is not required to pay upfront money as well. But it is anybody’s guess that government has to pay interests on the bonds issued plus at maturity principle amount also has to be returned back. Consider this as your children paying taxes for the petrol or LPG you have used. Does this sound rational by any means? The answer is big NO. Why Indian citizens should pay back, for fuels which we are using now, after 10 years? Is it because we should get fuels are discounted rates? Do people who really require subsidies getting any help by all this? Why people driving Mercedes & BMWs should get subsidies? Going forward - Why Indian middle class should get LPG at a discount of 158 Rs? Let’s churn this aspect out -
Let’s consider a household of 4 members with earnings of 15,000 Rs. per month. How much burden it will be on such households if LPG cylinder is made available at market prices? Is 158 /- Rs. such an enormous amount? Just imagine how much government can save through this. The way people having higher incomes do not get anything through Public Distribution Systems, they will not get LPG at subsidized rate if they fall in high income group. Government just needs to check pan cards of the gas applicants. I really don’t see any major hurdle in implementing this. Pyramid like subsidy structure can be followed for LPG if required. High the income lower will be the subsidy burden. Now let’s focus on petrol & diesel. Petrol & diesel prices are pretty much nearer to market prices. So those can be made fully in line with prevailing rates. But government has to shun its control from dictating prices to OMCs. OMCs should be given a total freedom to increase & decrease the prices at par with international prices. For e.g. when crude oil was boiling at 140 $ per barrel, government intervention to increase fuel prices came too late. At that time OMCs were losing around Rs.500 Cr a day. Such kind of losses affects health of the OMCs. They cannot go ahead with their expansion plans because of uncertainty of under-recoveries. If government de-regularizes these products even private players will come to the fore in retailing business. Then eventually we may get fuels at little lower rates due to competition. Refining companies like Reliance will try to sell products in India because they don’t have to export the same to get free market prices since selling in domestic markets will reduce their freight charges. De-regularization will automatically impact the demand of these products. It is said that people in India are poor so they are entitled to get subsidies. Simple statistics shows that fuel consumption increases with rise the per capita income. Subsidies are not targeted at people who are really poor because they are not using fuels in large quantities. Rich people use more fuels & more subsidies they get. This is not what government intends, Right?
No one likes hike in commodity prices. Human tendency is to use resources available in nature as tools to achieve economic progress. But the way we look at commodities needs to change a lot. These commodities are not available in unlimited quantities. There are going to be supply constraints in future. With current consumption rate we will consume all fossil fuels by 2040. We have not found fuels which can replace them. India imports 80% of its fuel needs. There is a need to maintain austerity. For e.g. If prices are made market driven then people who just manage to maintain cars may shift to public transport. It will modulate the demand of fuels. Government has to break its shackles & de-regularize the prices. It is time to think beyond politics for this issue at least.
Terms Used:
1) Administered Price Mechanism (APM): In an administered price mechanism Price of a good is specified by a governmental or some other nonmarket agency. Sellers are not allowed to sell goods as per supply-demand scenario.
2) Oil bonds: Bonds issued by Government of India to Oil Marketing Companies in order to compensate for losses which they have made by selling petroleum products at government dictated prices. OMCs sell these bonds to mutual funds, insurance companies and other such financial institutions in secondary market so as to get hard cash. Government of India has to pay annual interest rates & principle at maturity to the entity holding these bonds.
3) Upstream & Downstream Companies:
Upstream companies deal in searching of underground or underwater oil & gas fields, drilling of exploratory wells, and subsequently operating the wells that recover & bring the crude oil and/or raw natural gas to the surface.
Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil India Limited.
Downstream companies deal in refining of crude oil, and selling and distribution of natural gas and products derived from crude oil.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation limited (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).
4) Petroleum Subsidy: Freight subsidy for far flung areas & other related compensation of Rs. 3109 Cr has been provided under the head of Petroleum subsidy in Union Budget 2009-10.
5) Custom & excise Duties: Custom duty is a tax which government imposes for any import into the country from outside. Excise duty is sales tax which government charges on sale of any good.
6) Inflation: It is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is also erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real value in the internal medium of exchange and unit of account in the economy. A chief measure of price inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index (normally the Consumer Price Index) over time.
7) Fiscal Deficit: When a government's total expenditures exceed the revenue that it generates (excluding money from borrowings) it is called Fiscal Deficit.
References:
1) Official website of Ministry of Oil & Gas, India :
http://www.petroleum.nic.in
2) News report in Economic Times : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4998275.cms
3) C. Rangarajan Report of the committee on pricing & taxation of Petroleum Products : http://www.petroleum.nic.in/Report1.pdf
4) Union Budget 2009-10, Government of India :
http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2009-10/eb/npe.pdf
Prasanna P. Vaidya
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
Pricing of these products has always been a political issue than an economic one in India. Those having reins of the country always find it difficult to increase the prices as it has been considered as an unpopular measure. Some feel it will lead to an increase in prices of primary articles leading to a spiraling inflation. Many governments have reduced the prices when elections were just around the corner in order to cash in votes. Governments have set up many committees to formulate a strategy for pricing of petroleum prices, recommendations of which have been hardly implemented. With fiscal deficit looming large at 6.8% of GDP, is India in a position to continue such kind of Fuel subsidies? Government is set to borrow around Rs. 4,00,000 Cr from market to power its various initiatives. Such kind of mammoth borrowing will definitely lead to increase in interest rates. This will in turn affect capital expenditure plans of corporate sector as they will not get capital at lower rates. It will impede employment generation to some extent. De-regularization of fuel prices will help in reducing the ballooning fiscal deficit. Issuing oil bonds to OMCs was thought to be a financial innovation as it facilitates OMCs to cover up their losses & government is not required to pay upfront money as well. But it is anybody’s guess that government has to pay interests on the bonds issued plus at maturity principle amount also has to be returned back. Consider this as your children paying taxes for the petrol or LPG you have used. Does this sound rational by any means? The answer is big NO. Why Indian citizens should pay back, for fuels which we are using now, after 10 years? Is it because we should get fuels are discounted rates? Do people who really require subsidies getting any help by all this? Why people driving Mercedes & BMWs should get subsidies? Going forward - Why Indian middle class should get LPG at a discount of 158 Rs? Let’s churn this aspect out -
Let’s consider a household of 4 members with earnings of 15,000 Rs. per month. How much burden it will be on such households if LPG cylinder is made available at market prices? Is 158 /- Rs. such an enormous amount? Just imagine how much government can save through this. The way people having higher incomes do not get anything through Public Distribution Systems, they will not get LPG at subsidized rate if they fall in high income group. Government just needs to check pan cards of the gas applicants. I really don’t see any major hurdle in implementing this. Pyramid like subsidy structure can be followed for LPG if required. High the income lower will be the subsidy burden. Now let’s focus on petrol & diesel. Petrol & diesel prices are pretty much nearer to market prices. So those can be made fully in line with prevailing rates. But government has to shun its control from dictating prices to OMCs. OMCs should be given a total freedom to increase & decrease the prices at par with international prices. For e.g. when crude oil was boiling at 140 $ per barrel, government intervention to increase fuel prices came too late. At that time OMCs were losing around Rs.500 Cr a day. Such kind of losses affects health of the OMCs. They cannot go ahead with their expansion plans because of uncertainty of under-recoveries. If government de-regularizes these products even private players will come to the fore in retailing business. Then eventually we may get fuels at little lower rates due to competition. Refining companies like Reliance will try to sell products in India because they don’t have to export the same to get free market prices since selling in domestic markets will reduce their freight charges. De-regularization will automatically impact the demand of these products. It is said that people in India are poor so they are entitled to get subsidies. Simple statistics shows that fuel consumption increases with rise the per capita income. Subsidies are not targeted at people who are really poor because they are not using fuels in large quantities. Rich people use more fuels & more subsidies they get. This is not what government intends, Right?
No one likes hike in commodity prices. Human tendency is to use resources available in nature as tools to achieve economic progress. But the way we look at commodities needs to change a lot. These commodities are not available in unlimited quantities. There are going to be supply constraints in future. With current consumption rate we will consume all fossil fuels by 2040. We have not found fuels which can replace them. India imports 80% of its fuel needs. There is a need to maintain austerity. For e.g. If prices are made market driven then people who just manage to maintain cars may shift to public transport. It will modulate the demand of fuels. Government has to break its shackles & de-regularize the prices. It is time to think beyond politics for this issue at least.
Terms Used:
1) Administered Price Mechanism (APM): In an administered price mechanism Price of a good is specified by a governmental or some other nonmarket agency. Sellers are not allowed to sell goods as per supply-demand scenario.
2) Oil bonds: Bonds issued by Government of India to Oil Marketing Companies in order to compensate for losses which they have made by selling petroleum products at government dictated prices. OMCs sell these bonds to mutual funds, insurance companies and other such financial institutions in secondary market so as to get hard cash. Government of India has to pay annual interest rates & principle at maturity to the entity holding these bonds.
3) Upstream & Downstream Companies:
Upstream companies deal in searching of underground or underwater oil & gas fields, drilling of exploratory wells, and subsequently operating the wells that recover & bring the crude oil and/or raw natural gas to the surface.
Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil India Limited.
Downstream companies deal in refining of crude oil, and selling and distribution of natural gas and products derived from crude oil.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation limited (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).
4) Petroleum Subsidy: Freight subsidy for far flung areas & other related compensation of Rs. 3109 Cr has been provided under the head of Petroleum subsidy in Union Budget 2009-10.
5) Custom & excise Duties: Custom duty is a tax which government imposes for any import into the country from outside. Excise duty is sales tax which government charges on sale of any good.
6) Inflation: It is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is also erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real value in the internal medium of exchange and unit of account in the economy. A chief measure of price inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index (normally the Consumer Price Index) over time.
7) Fiscal Deficit: When a government's total expenditures exceed the revenue that it generates (excluding money from borrowings) it is called Fiscal Deficit.
References:
1) Official website of Ministry of Oil & Gas, India :
http://www.petroleum.nic.in
2) News report in Economic Times : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4998275.cms
3) C. Rangarajan Report of the committee on pricing & taxation of Petroleum Products : http://www.petroleum.nic.in/Report1.pdf
4) Union Budget 2009-10, Government of India :
http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2009-10/eb/npe.pdf
Prasanna P. Vaidya
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
Monday, January 18, 2010
I Own My Garbage
In the last decade, we were learning not to throw garbage and damage the surroundings. But I was not aware that in the near future, paradigms would change a lot. The new paradigm is “I own my garbage”. It was interesting to know that 6 tonnes of solid waste can produce up to 0.25 tones of methane, and horrifying to know that just 2 cities Kalyan and Dombivli dump more than 700 tonnes of garbage daily. Methane traps 64 times the heat that can be trapped by equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. Contribution of garbage to global warming and hygienic life is much beyond our imagination. So, we need to contribute on individual basis, which can make a big difference. Lets see how it can.
Nowadays, the awareness on reducing garbage is slowly gaining ground. As far as my town is considered, the municipal corporation is really trying hard to manage garbage effectively. But garbage increases exponentially. And residential areas contribute a lot. We really cant spend much of our time on that. More importantly, we also need to know the options as what to do. If we think different, we can practically do some small but positive things. I realized it when I started doing “Garbage to Fertilizer” project in a basket in my apartment. It takes very less space in my home and takes almost 15-20 min a day to put my kitchen waste and mix with bio-culture. It worked successfully, and in last 10 months I converted more than 300 kg of garbage to fertilizer. So, individual efforts do count. I met a few amazing people working for the same cause. Mrs. Nirmala Lathi from Pune has pioneered this project and implemented in more than 200,000 homes in Maharashtra. Mr. Kaustubh Tamhankar from Thane is implementing zero garbage at home, and he has even gone further to avoid non-degradable plastic from going in dust bin. One society in Thane is implementing a zero garbage project from last 9 years successfully. Many more people are coming up for this cause. A small group of Nyaan Prabodhini in my town helped manage the flower waste during Ganeshotsav.
Few big things to add. Adarsh school of Badlapur implemented Ecosan sanitation system with municipal corporations help and got great recognition. Similarly, in recent news, Municipal Corporation of Navi Mumbai got recognition for its 3 plants for treating waste water. The huge hoardings in South Mumbai constantly bombard on people to stop spreading waste. These measures are good, and will help in long run to fight the ever increasing garbage. But we are apparently addressing the tip of the iceberg. Big projects can handle garbage, but “increasing garbage” is the real nightmare which we are facing. Day after day, garbage is increasing. The land and ocean, both are proving short to accommodate our garbage. Someday, we might start using the Moon and the Mars to dump the garbage.
My garbage to fertilizer efforts are required lifelong, and wont stop now. It has given a cause to my life. It’s a long way to go, and I am trying to mold myself accordingly. The busy life always tries to pull me away from that, but the cause is great enough to keep this going. I believe that whatever nature gives us, we need to give it back in a proper manner. I have been getting a good response from people who adopted this method, and hope that this awareness spreads the new paradigm”I own my garbage”.
Amey Joshi
E-mail - trekamey@yahoo.com
Date – 13th January, 2010
Nowadays, the awareness on reducing garbage is slowly gaining ground. As far as my town is considered, the municipal corporation is really trying hard to manage garbage effectively. But garbage increases exponentially. And residential areas contribute a lot. We really cant spend much of our time on that. More importantly, we also need to know the options as what to do. If we think different, we can practically do some small but positive things. I realized it when I started doing “Garbage to Fertilizer” project in a basket in my apartment. It takes very less space in my home and takes almost 15-20 min a day to put my kitchen waste and mix with bio-culture. It worked successfully, and in last 10 months I converted more than 300 kg of garbage to fertilizer. So, individual efforts do count. I met a few amazing people working for the same cause. Mrs. Nirmala Lathi from Pune has pioneered this project and implemented in more than 200,000 homes in Maharashtra. Mr. Kaustubh Tamhankar from Thane is implementing zero garbage at home, and he has even gone further to avoid non-degradable plastic from going in dust bin. One society in Thane is implementing a zero garbage project from last 9 years successfully. Many more people are coming up for this cause. A small group of Nyaan Prabodhini in my town helped manage the flower waste during Ganeshotsav.
Few big things to add. Adarsh school of Badlapur implemented Ecosan sanitation system with municipal corporations help and got great recognition. Similarly, in recent news, Municipal Corporation of Navi Mumbai got recognition for its 3 plants for treating waste water. The huge hoardings in South Mumbai constantly bombard on people to stop spreading waste. These measures are good, and will help in long run to fight the ever increasing garbage. But we are apparently addressing the tip of the iceberg. Big projects can handle garbage, but “increasing garbage” is the real nightmare which we are facing. Day after day, garbage is increasing. The land and ocean, both are proving short to accommodate our garbage. Someday, we might start using the Moon and the Mars to dump the garbage.
My garbage to fertilizer efforts are required lifelong, and wont stop now. It has given a cause to my life. It’s a long way to go, and I am trying to mold myself accordingly. The busy life always tries to pull me away from that, but the cause is great enough to keep this going. I believe that whatever nature gives us, we need to give it back in a proper manner. I have been getting a good response from people who adopted this method, and hope that this awareness spreads the new paradigm”I own my garbage”.
Amey Joshi
E-mail - trekamey@yahoo.com
Date – 13th January, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Mandatory Voting
As we all know that circus of Indian politics revolves around horse trading, money power, muscle power & opportunistic politicians, one of the way to restrict these things is to elevate & promote candidates having good character & strong political will to serve the people. But these candidates would get elected only when maximum number of educated people will vote. Contradictorily the fact says that when voting percentage in educated cities like Pune & Dombivli barely touches figure of 40, villages with enormous illiteracy in Gadchiroli district have done sent percent voting. It means people who are wiser, cleverer, can make decisions by analyzing the ground reality & are less likely to be the victims of baits like alcohol & money remain dormant. On the other side poor, illiterate people who could be easily deceived & could be easily bought are religiously participating in this important democratic process. Passed bill which also seeks to make the negative voting option available for the voters, could prove to be the remedy on this vital problem. But it is yet unknown whether button of negative voting option would be there on the electronic voting board itself or voter will have to suffer & go through some other complex process to cast his negative vote.
In the legislative assembly Congress party has strongly opposed the bill terming it to be the unconstitutional but at the same time has supported to the amendment in the bill which asks to give 33 to 50 % reservation for women in the local governing bodies. Rather they have asked for the two separate bills to be produced in the assembly for ‘compulsory voting’ & ’50 % reservation for women in local authorities’. It has to be taken into consideration that Indian constitution can not be kept unaltered forever. Periodically many changes have already been made in our constitution. So the claim of this bill going beyond the constitution could not be corroborated. Constitution is not the set of rules which is to be followed religiously for infinite amount of time nor does it mandatory that makers of the constitution did not make some law means we should not contemplate for the same today in 2009. Contexts do change as the time proceeds. It is right that as the election commission says there might be practical problems to implement this bill. When countries like Chilli have made it compulsory to cast the vote, people have found the way out by not registering their names in the voters list. With this reality in mind it needs to be noted that people especially Indians will find the way out to get escaped from the constraints implied by the new bill. This does not mean that new laws are not to be made nor does it imply that each new law made would prove to be useless. Every new change or revolutionary decision always appears impossible & impractical to get into reality at the beginning. So rather than criticizing the decision one has to look at the same as an experiment to strengthen the democracy which has to be implemented nation wide in future if turns out to be successful in Gujarat.
SAURABH JOGLEKAR
E-mail - saurabh.a.joglekar@gmail.com
Date
A Big Frenzy for Small States
Soon after the home minister of
We have a heavy bag of experiences from the creation of smaller states. Uttaranchal for e.g. has been able to project & create its own identity in tourism space since it has been balkanized from Uttar Pradesh. As the needs for the region ‘Uttaranchal’ were far too different from that of Uttar Pradesh, it was not able to garner enough resources, access points to spur the tourism which is the mainstay for a region involving such a scenic beauty. On the other side, we have smaller states like Jharkhand,
After seeing the current frenzy of demands for myriad small states made by various groups – outfits-political parties-influential people, it can be said that as a nation we have come a long way. We as a Nation, mature with every passing second. New ideas fill our hearts; we want to have things in different order rather than maintaining a status quo. Due to the current demographics we also get emotional & aggressive quite easily. At the time when we were getting our freedom back, our visionaries thought the criterion for dividing
Factors behind separate statehood may include Population, Culture, Language, Geography, Public Emotions, and Development. It should be looked on case to case basis. Government in centre should come up with a policy which will cater to all these requirements. Nobody should be allowed to take political mileage out of it. Each state must be divided into regions & development models should be implemented accordingly. Also population striving for state government machinery should be considered. As long as
Prasanna Vaidya
Date
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