New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/05/2012 -- While the media demands special privileges because they claim that the press is the fourth pillar of Indian democracy and serves a national purpose, the sad reality, especially over the last two decades is, social conscience and pursuit of public good have been replaced by total commercialization of media. "As Rekha takes oath, the camera kept focussing on Jaya Bachchan's priceless expressions"... Thus went the first few lines of articles on the first pages of all national dailies the day after Rekha took her oath in Rajya Sabha, and that is exactly what TV channels had done the day before! Add to that the shameless gossip about Amitabh and Rekha.  What national purpose does this story serve? And that too as headlines in the front pages of respectable dailies? Or even as the key stories of TV channels? Yes, Rekha is a big star, and her swearing in makes news. But is this the way to cover the event? Aren't there enough Bollywood shows on TV and entertainment pages in newspapers where such news could have been easily showcased? For that matter, a few days before this incident, the biggest stories were to do with the 'hurt' of our so called respectable MPs due to some cartoons in NCERT textbooks. Or for that matter the front page outcry over SRK's detention in the US airport or Salman Rushdie not being allowed to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival or whom Oprah Winfrey met during her India visit or Robert Vadra saying he wants to join politics or the entire Sunny Leone saga or the scores of lines on who killed Aarushi Talwar or the two kids taken away by welfare authorities in Norway or for that matter even the entire big deal made out of Rahul Gandhi's UP campaign!

Are the above the real issues that concern India? Of course not! The real issues that confront Indians are farmer suicides, crisis in Indian agriculture, pathetic human development indicators, a virtual collapse of the public health and education system, and rampant corruption because of a paralyzed judicial system.

The only issues highlighted by our media are very, very high profile corruption cases... that too without any follow-up. For example, it is almost a decade since the Ghaziabad PF scam came to light but who cares about following it up? Many witnesses have died mysteriously and keep dying regularly in each and every high profile case and how... Yet, there is hardly any follow up coverage in the media. Because – as I wrote in my earlier editorial – just like no lost child can wake this country up and change laws or school rules, similarly, no killed witnesses will wake this country up or change laws for their protection! And while our mothers keep dying at childbirth and our children keep dying before the age of 5 (in both these counts, our figures are shamefully comparable to those of sub-Saharan Africa while China's are comparable to the most developed nations of the world), our media will keep our masses busy, feeding them the 'Silsilas' in our Rajya Sabha.

These are not the only examples of the shameful fall of media standards in India. The herd mentality of Indian media is another shameful aspect to ponder upon. One of the best examples is the Narendra Modi issue. Modi is the favorite target of all media since the past 10 or so years and has been made a demon. But the media is mysteriously silent about other riots and never highlights Modi's achievements equally, achievements that can invariably make him the best Chief Minister in every possible ranking. The Indian media also almost never highlights the real story around the Hindu-Muslim divide (often the real cause of riots), which is the pathetic state of India's Muslims when it comes to education, job opportunities and quality of life; these are things that the government denies Muslims by keeping them in poor economic conditions. The same applies to the Dalits in this country.

But then, who cares about the real story? Who cares about fighting for the rights of the millions of Muslims or Dalits in the country when fraudulent sympathy and Modi-bashing can get more mileage in the international media!

Then again, most of the times, the Indian media blindly apes what comes out in the Western media; so how can one blame the international media? Let's take, for example, the case of Iran! India does not have any problems with Iran. It badly needs oil and gas from Iran. It is in India's national interests to have good relations with Iran and there is absolutely no reason why India should participate in any kind of Iran bashing... But just because American and British media demonize Iran, the Indian media parrots the same tune! We shamefully didn't protest the many American wrongs over the last couple of decades just because USSR broke down and we lost our voice. And, of course, our media didn't have voices either; so whatever the West says, is what we love to promote! All in all, I believe it's time for the Indian media to stop treating the Indian populace as dumb donkeys who can be fed anything; or like dustbins, where any waste material can be dumped. It's time that media plays a role in taking correct stances, in making Indians more intelligent by giving them news that matters instead of catering nonstop and shamefully to news that only titillates and fulfils the eyeball-grabbing techniques at the cost of keeping an entire nation fed with crap that is ruining the brains of generations to come.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

The Africa In India

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/31/2012 -- Children in India are increasingly being subjected to full array of targets from groups like Naxals and North Eastern insurgents to join them as soldiers! The consequent fallout is devastating for the children as it is robbing them of their innocence, education and a thriving environment for growth and development. Historically, these problems were brooked mostly in African countries like Sierra Leone and Sudan but slowly and surely the phenomenon is finding its feet on the Indian soil.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that this exposure of children in war operation is mostly mothballed in India because of Naxalites and insurgents operating in North-East. These outfits heavily recruit children as Child Soldiers to fight against the country's establishments. The Human Rights Watch recently released a report, named "Dangerous Duty: Children and the Chhattisgarh Conflict" where it talks about Naxalites' drive to recruit children for all sorts of battles. This position is particularly prevalent in the strife torn states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, J&K, Manipur, Nagaland and Assam. The recent Maoists' operational machinations have mostly been in forming a Child Liberation Army (CLA). These children (around 300 of them) are trained under the cover of dense forest of Dhanbad and Giridih in Jharkhand and are provided with crash course in small arms. Apart from using arms, the children are also used as espionage by monitoring movements of security forces. The spokesperson of Jharkhand Police, SN Pradhan confirmed that with a plain message, "The Maoist rebels use children in their propaganda war against the government and security forces."

This trend of traumatic nature is a prolonged practice in Africa for many decades. This custom is abound in Africa, with half of the world's child soldiers emanating from the continent, as per UNOCHA reports. At the minimum, the age can be as low as 7. The stark statistics are made more troubling by the fact that they are orphaned by AIDS, traumatized by war, driven by poverty, donated by their parents so that they at least get two square meals a day. The dark reality is prevalent in most of the Sub-Saharan African nations including Chad, DRC, Burundi and Sudan.

The recent flare up of child army in India that has surfaced following African example should finally open the eyes of Indian government. So far, it has done little to arrest with the problem. Our government must tick all the right boxes like it must act strongly to prohibit child recruitment and then follow it up by declaring child recruitment as criminal offense. At present 118 out of 604 Indian districts are shrouded with the problem. The UN Committee on Rights of Child in 2004 had advised our government for a thorough investigation into the matter.

However, the allusion of child soldier, in our government legislation is limited only to J&K and the North-Eastern states. Most recently, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights have decided to raise child soldiers' problem in Meghalaya and Manipur with the Centre.

All in all, Child soldiers are not only a menace to the society but would become a major hurdle in counter-insurgency operations. These children in future can develop deadly diseases like AIDS and can also get addicted to drugs and alcohol or even become seasoned criminals – a lesson to be learnt from Africa.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Power sector needs more dynamic reforms

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/21/2012 -- Come summers, and the nation is set to face erratic power supply, frequent power cuts, and inflated electricity bills, once again! In spite of having myriad of sources for electricity, India has failed to provide its citizens with non-stop power supply. Leave aside the state of power supply in villages, even in the capital city, electricity cuts is a norm.

The power wastage would continue to take its toll unless radical reforms are not put in place at the earliest. At the want of some drastic reforms in power distribution, losses can spiral up to 1.2 per cent of India's nominal GDP by March 2014, according to an independent research by Avendus Securities. The populist agenda of not hiking power tariff are common in majority of the states thus stoking up the losses. Reports suggest that losses augmented to 0.9 per cent in FY 2010, a sea change from just 0.6 per cent in FY 2006. The power loss is eating away monstrous proportions with accumulated wastage being estimated at 23 per cent of the total input energy.

The two biggest intractable factors that lead to such mess are the chaotic fuel situation and nonviable populist propaganda of charging lower price than the market prices. This is clear from the fact that state electricity boards and distribution utilities together have registered an insurmountable loss of Rs.3 lakh crores at the end of FY 2010-11. The CRISIL report further elaborates the financial shortcomings and estimates that at least one-third (of the total 56,000 MW capacity) of our thermal power plants have uncertain generation due to the same factors.

Decoding this problem Montek Singh Ahluwalia proposed privatisation of State Electricity Boards by dismantling them into separate companies whose business model is guided by generation-transmission-distribution! However, the model never saw itself fructifying. Privatization would have allowed power generating companies to sell their product directly to the distribution companies and then to the end consumers. Thus, allowing market forces to determine the investment, efficacy, and pricing, on a whole.

No doubt, India's impressive economic progress needs to be complemented with increased power generation. However, it will be a self-defeating policy if the increase is not backed by plugging the power wastages. To do that efficiency must form the cornerstone along with checking corruption. The production must be based on backward integration led strategies where the end user is given the priority. This shadowy scene must be replaced by state-of-the-art distribution and consumers must be courted with world class delivery mechanism.

The 11th Five Year Plan picked up the cause of power generation reforms as an utmost need to sustain 8.5 per cent economic growth. There have been a number of tryouts over the last decade but none have been overtly successful. Most of these failed due to flawed doctrines while others lacked practicality. Even ex-World Bank President in 2002 criticized India's loss making power plants as the basis for poor power supply scenario in India. Such malaise not only adversely impacts the power sector but creates huge negative externalities for all connected sectors. Power sector today is more concerned about profits of coal suppliers and the middlemen rather than the consumer who finally pays the bills. What else can one expect from the nation where priorities and value chain moves in reverse gear.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/14/2012 -- Just back from a lecture tour of American universities, there is so much to write about. But what I wanted to share this time is something about which I have had strong feelings quite a few times in the past, but never as strong as I have now! Crisscrossing the US of A twice from the West Coast to the East Coast, I met one after the other Indians and their families over lunches, dinners and other meetings. And I do feel sad to say that perhaps the only thing that I found common between most of them was their hidden bias against the Blacks in America. A number of times in the past, I had heard my friends from the US speak derogatorily about the African-American population, often even pejoratively referring to them as Negroes and saying that they wanted to stay in a locality which had no Blacks. I couldn't really accept this sentiment as a normal phenomenon, and rather used to wonder whether it was mere coincidence that I had so many friends with such an unabashed bias. But after this American journey, I am sure it was never a coincidence.

Friends, relatives, consultants and professors... anyone I got talking to for more than a while almost invariably explained to me at one point of time or the other why the locality they lived in was especially good since it didn't have Black people! Or for that matter why a particular city was better because of the lesser number of Blacks! Of course, I didn't pick up fights. But it made me feel sad about the education, schooling and upbringing we are giving to our children. How could educated people, after coming to America, still discriminate on the basis of the colour of the skin? That too coming from a land where they themselves are mostly brown and a land where gods and mythological characters like Krishna and Draupadi are described as being uniquely attractive due to their dark complexion!

Not that Americans are not biased. A breakdown of the human development index criteria shows that if only White America were to be considered, they would invariably rank #1 in human development. Similarly, if only Black America were considered, they would rank between the ranks of 60 to 70. And yet, Americans finally did choose Barack Obama as their president, showing that although as a nation they have not yet been able to provide equal justice to Blacks, at an individual level they are educated enough to discriminate far lesser. So am I trying to say that Indians are more colour-biased than the Americans? Well, that's what a Harvard research seems to say too. Harvard University's Project Implicit website has compiled data on the implicit biases of millions of Americans on a range of issues, such as age, race, skin tone, disability, gender, sexual orientation, etc. And it's unbelievable but true that Asians demonstrated the highest levels of bias on race and skin tone when compared to people of any other region in the world; Asian-Americans were second only to Whites in their biases in the racially and ethnically sensitive categories. Asians and Asian Americans in fact reported the highest level of explicit prejudice on issues of race and skin tone – higher than even Whites.

The fact gets more authenticated with one look at our matrimonial ads. Everyone wants a fair bride and about 98% of Indians consider themselves between fair to very fair – even in southern India, where the colour of the skin is decisively darker. Stepping up, a fairer girl requires lesser dowry while a darker girl requires more dowry. Our scriptures tried to hint that the corollary of being fair was that one was an upper-class member, while darker complexions were deemed to be characteristics of the lower-class – and having sex with the fair skinned became almost a matter of pride (so much so that the Indian high-end prostitution markets have now been completely taken over by fair-skinned foreigners from Eastern Europe). Add to this the national menace called Fair and Lovely, the fairness cream that is so heavily advertised without any government counter education programme. I can confidently say that advertisements of fairness creams are unfortunately a huge reason behind the creation of a complexed class of educated kids who nurture a shameful skin tone bias resulting into a kind of unspoken social apartheid. To make matters worse, even superstars like Shahrukh Khan are being roped in to endorse similar such brands.

All I can say is that the Indian obsession – which starts with Fair and Lovely at a younger age, then to get a fair partner for marriage as they grow up – is keeping us so backward and shameful in our thinking that even after spending tens of years in the most progressive land called America, those are Indians who display more biases against African Americans than Americans themselves. Sadly, iconic books like Roots and Uncle Tom's Cabin aren't a compulsory part of our education process, subsequently resulting into a case of missing sensitivities of a majority of Indians towards darker skin tones in general, leading to deep-rooted prejudices for the fair skin – unlike other communities in the world. A long time back, Martin Luther King Jr said that he dreamt of a country where man would be judged not by the colour of his skin but by the content of his character. Somewhere in our parenting and schooling system, this one line of education must be drilled inside the brains of each child. But before that, in the brains of every teacher and parent.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Corruption at toll-points disturbs the entire economy

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/14/2012 -- The President of Bombay Goods Transport Association (BGTA) recently said, "The scam of money collection at toll plazas is bigger than the 2G scam. The government has sold off major national assets, our National Highways, to contractors." Most of other transport agencies in the country are biting the bullet as ever-increasing burden of toll plaza corruption are palming off the truckers with deceit and coercion. The rage is all across the nation, as the same story keeps on repeating itself, and the trap is affecting strangling and commuters alike!

An inevitable happened when various pressure groups (like Gurgaon Citizen Council, Shaheed Smarak Committee, Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, Zila Sainik Board and RWAs) amassed angry commuters by storming the toll plazas at Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. They were complaining of overcharging by organisation which is operating the expressway. Most surprisingly, the Transport Corporation of India, instead of taking a rap on the organisations operating the toll plazas decided to remain silent! This one incident talks volumes about the nexus between the two! The inherited problem is compounded by poor facilities at the toll points like lack of sensors, electronic display boards and computer generated receipts. Such automation would ensure transparency which would have eventually reduced such corrupt activities, at large.

A recent parliamentary panel's report acknowledges the apparent crisis owing to nexus between middlemen, unscrupulous contractors and bribe recipient officials, as main factors for such time and cost overrun. A joint study with Transport Corporation of India (TCI) reveals that the truckers are not only at loss from toll taxes, but also from inordinate time consuming government forms, and various other taxes collected by traffic police. This puts the truck drivers and owners under severe pressure and undermines their GDP contribution which is pegged at 4.5 per cent. These procedural complexities are perfect weapons in the hands of the authorities to extract bribes from the truckers who are left with no choice, but to satisfy them in order to keep their engines running. The spreadsheet of Delhi- Chennai route shows these ordeals cost the truck drivers 10 per cent of transit time and bribes cost 19 per cent of the total cost! Further impediments occur to the truckers, who are always rushing to meet the deadline, in the way of check posts and inspections that further push up the overall and opportunity cost (in terms of wastage of time)! These necessary check posts at small intervals are not for checking smuggling but are more for extracting extra bucks from the truckers. Truckers also pay bribes in order to dodge the maximum weight-limit, over-speeding fines and entry into no-entry zones.

Obviously this duality of corruption in road transport and road construction escalates the problem manifold. Unnecessary check-points on these roads increase the incidence of bribery. Obviously, there are no formulae to solve this problem, but of course, a more automated system and electronic transfer of funds would address the problem to a large extent. Such malaise not only delays the transfer of cargos, thus affecting the demand-supply and pricing equation, but also increases the cost of goods. All in all, every single extra penny paid at any point in this transport/transfer chain is finally passed on to the end consumer.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Corruption has robbed democracy from Indians!

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/03/2012 -- Fundamental rights and human rights are two aspects of governance that goes into making the perfect blend for a democracy. On the hindsight, these two may look discreet but for all practical purposes they are the two side of the same coin. Obviously, a country can't be called democratic if it fails to protect the fundamentals rights of its citizen. On the same lines, a country is said to have a flawed democracy if there is blatant abuse of human rights, in spite of the nation promising all fundamental rights.

The on-going protests against corruption and poor governance in India is nothing but a cry against ongoing abuse of fundamental and human rights. It goes without saying that corruption widens the income gap in the society thus pushing the poorest of the poor at the brink of life. So much so that money get accumulated at one end of the society (the top 20 per cent owns 80 per cent of nation's wealth) thus marginalising millions who are at the bottom of the pyramid. As corruption leads to discrimination and biased-policy making, most of the promised fundamental rights become baseless. For instance, huge corporate subsidies (in exchange of election funding) leads to increase in social malaise and thus builds upon a criminalised society, which eventually breaks the right to equality and right to life and further takes the shape of human rights abuse in form of child labour, sex trade, extortions, murders and so on and so forth.

Recent incidents of murders of RTI activists are a case in point. The very fact that they were investigation projects that were webbed with corruption, echoes the fact that corruption invariably leads to human right abuse. A couple of months back, two RTI activists named Niyamat Ansari and Mangalaram were killed. Talking about basics of a dignified life, corruption in employment generation programs like NREGA, has led to deaths of millions and have also forced thousands of families to resort to criminal activities (ranging from robbery to child labour to sex trade) for survival. There has been myriad of cases where adulteration in food meant for poor and counterfeit and spurious medicines keeps killing the poor and vulnerable. And not to forget deaths caused by poisonous and adulterated country made liquor, which are almost like an everyday affair. Similarly, stocking of grains and not provisioning the same for the hungry, robs right to food and eventually right to life and right against exploitation.

Interestingly, countries with low corruption (as indicated by Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index) also features as nations who top the Human development Index (HDI measures the quality of life on different social and economical parameters). To comprehend the same, one does not need to browse and scan both these reports and compare India with other nation. A simple Google search is enough. Correlating this correlation, India ranks a pathetic 95 out of 183 countries in CPI and 134 out of 187 countries in HDI, thus hovering at the bottom of the list in both the parameters.

All in all, the tentacles of corruption has not only destroyed the fundamental right and human rights but has actually eroded the very concept of democracy ubiquitously. Tough to tell, whether bad democracy allowed corruption to prevail or was it vice-versa, but surely one lead to another. But whatever it is, what has sustained of all this is a blatant right of abuse of human life!

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/03/2012 -- Did the word 'Authoritarian' shock you? Well, political correctness aside, there is at least one unique quality of the madman Hitler that is followed by leaders of some of the most successful corporations across the globe – an authoritarian leadership style – a quality that has been a significant reason in ensuring that such corporations are viewed as being amongst the leading business units of this world! This is because while leadership styles which are more democratic are wonderful to read and be applied, such styles can be successful only when the people you are leading are most mature, responsible and ambitious. And despite what one may wish or imagine, finding such people to work with is near impossible!

If you believe that I have tumbled over the edge and am referring back to the days of Theory X management – which used to be ruthlessly applied in the early stages of industrialization when coal mining used to be the key industry – well, it almost is so. The only difference is that technology has made today's autocratic leadership look very savvy! The best of corporations today have the same lack of trust in their employees' sincerity levels as they used to have years back in the coal mines. But today, they never really exhibit it vocally. Instead, we have automated processes which leave no option for an employee to work as per his personal preferences.

Whether he likes it or not, phone calls are thrown at him by the automatic software, his restroom breaks are timed, his precise location during office hours is tracked through GPS, and more. Be it manufacturing or services, employees are not given a choice in any great organisation anymore. For the leaders have realized that given a choice, most employees are under productive. So technology is today used to force them to deliver. Autocratic leadership is done unhindered through the use of more and more ruthless technologies. And the most successful leaders use this style of leadership without guilt and to achieve the best of results with the majority of people (but intelligently spare the few mature colleagues they might have who work with passion and without the need for being ordered).

Late Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple (still the face of Apple), was the exemplar of this style of leadership. Once out of Apple after a power struggle with the-then top management (the top brass considered him a "control freak"), he struck back, and is today the strongest example of how an insistence on total control over your company and employees (call it totalitarian leadership if you like) and a focus on innovation can keep the clock ticking, with the sound getting sweeter by the second. There was a time when during late 1997, only a year after Jobs had taken over as Apple's Interim-CEO (he had returned to Apple in late 1996), someone had asked Michael Dell during a conference what he would have done had he been in Jobs' shoes. Dell's reply to this was, "I'd shut Apple down and give the money back to the shareholders." Then, Apple was just worth $3.1 billion, while Dell was worth $28.1 billion. 14 years later, Dell has been almost stagnant with an m-cap of $28.9 billion (as on April 26, 2012), while Apple's m-cap has grown by 18,248.39% to touch $568.8 billion (as on April 26, 2012) and it is today the most valuable company in the world! [The next most valuable is miles behind – Exxon Mobil with an m-cap of $409.34 billion.]

What Jobs did was to use a tyrannical leadership style – fire and force at will – to ensure that his employees delivered products that consumers lusted after, in an ever-evolving digital world. It has worked so far. Writes the American author Andrew Keen's in his best-seller titled, The Cult of the Amateur, "There's not an ounce of democracy at Apple. That's what makes it a paragon of such traditional corporate values as top-down leadership, sharply hierarchical organisation and centralised control. It's Steve's company – pursuing his vision, at his pace, with his team, making his products. Without Steve Jobs' authoritarian leadership, Apple would be just another Silicon Valley outfit..." In one of his conversations with one of Planman Media's publications, Discover The Diamond In You, Colorado-based technology expert Rick Sturm, CEO of Enterprise Management Associates, says, "Steve Jobs is a special example of a leader who dominated his company employees and guided them rightly with his authoritarian leadership style and unmatchable vision. He believed that one man with one vision can make Apple an iconic brand and company. And we see that his belief has actually materialised."

Apart from Jobs, there have been other legends too. After the recession, Ford Motors managed to become the first US auto giant to bounce back into the black sans a revival package, having made $2.72 billion in net profits during FY 2009 – the very year GM & Chrysler filed for Chapter 11! And the reason for this revival is the recruiting in 2006 of the most authoritarian CEO that Ford had ever seen after Henry Ford – Alan Mulally. Under Mulally's reign of five-and-a-half years, Ford's m-cap has increased by 213.06% to $44.58 billion (as on April 26, 2012) enough reasons for shareholders to love this 66 year-old imperious authoritative boss. Even today, ExxonMobil's dictatorial CEO Rex Tillerson runs the oil major in the same way it has been run for years by the likes of John D. Rockfeller and Lee Raymond – with preeminent and absolutist control over decision-making. Under him, despite fluctuating oil prices, during just the past 4 years (FY 2007 to FY 2010), Exxon has reported total net profits of $142.61 billion. Today, Exxon is the second most valuable company in the world (after Apple) – with an m-cap of $409.34 billion (as on April 26, 2012).

Research does support the case for authoritarian leadership, even during crisis times. A 2006 Harvard Business School case, titled, 'Harley's Leadership U-Turn', proves how under Rich Teerlink (ex-CEO of Harley-Davidson), the organisation took a U-turn from near extinction. It says, "When an organisation is under extreme pressure – so much so, that one wrong move can mean its collapse – authoritarian leadership may very well be necessary." In another paper titled, 'Is Servant Leadership Part of Your Worldview?', by Dr. J. Howard Baker of University of Louisiana, he states, "An authoritarian, command and control model of leadership may be very effective for stopping something, destroying something, or conquering something..." He goes on to praise Jack Welch, the authoritarian former Chairman & CEO of GE, one of the most successful CEOs of all times, under whose 13 year-long tenure, GE's market value appreciated by 2,828.5% to touch $410 billion. [This is something which Jeff Immelt, his democratic-participative leadership styled-successor has failed at; GE is valued at $205.80 billion today – down by about 50% in a matter of six years.].

My selection of autocratic CEOs mentioned here, like other leading CEOs, have two more corresponding qualities that are unmissable – an audacious vision objective and an unbelievable narcissistic need for complete control. Why all this despotism works is because experience has shown these iconic CEOs that humans, in general and most of them, will cheat and shirk work at the first possible chance. Of course, there will be exceptions of mature and passion driven employees – like you, obviously – who would not shirk work and who would not need to be threatened, to be productive. But these will remain exceptions. Once you truly start believing that the only way an organisation can be ruthlessly productive and profitable is to be as ruthless to its people, that's the moment you've qualified as one of the world's best leaders.

Take a look at the deplorable condition of Indian PSUs, and you'll understand why the need for "one man on top" is felt as all the more urgent today. According to the report tabled in the Parliament in March this year, loss-making PSUs in our country bled 34% more year-on-year in FY2011. The loss to the government was a mammoth Rs.21,693 crore (shamefully, equivalent to 41.7% of the allocation for the education sector, and 81.1% of the allocation for the health sector in Union Budget 2010-11). After years of allowing "democratic" IAS officers to run loss-making PSUs in the country, why don't we have authoritarian leaders in charge of each of these firms or at least one authoritarian leader in charge of the loss-making PSUs to ensure that government-run corporations like Air India (NACIL), MTNL, BSNL, Fertiliser Corporation of India, Hindustan Cables and many others turn a new leaf? Really, the Indian policymakers and leaders of Indian PSUs need to pick up a lesson or two from the playbook of successful "authoritarian" leaders in the world of business. Yes, I do wish every organisation at its top does have mature people with whom the CEO doesn't need to apply an authoritarian style. But real life experiences of successful leaders show quite to the contrary!

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/25/2012 -- This Sunday (April 8), a small company changed its fortunes forever. Instagram was started two years ago, but this Sunday, it became more valuable than even The New York Times. The reason being Facebook acquired it for $1 billion few days back; causing quite a flutter among industry watchers. Why did it invest so much in a company, which hardly made any profits, is a fresh start up, and to top it all, is just an 'app developer' and its claim to fame is a 'photo-sharing' application that it developed for the iPhone? Add to this the fact that it does not even have a website to call its own, for all its features are designed for the mobile phone.

Well, there is more to it than these obvious facts. Instagram may just be an application for the mobile phone, but it has been downloaded by 50 million users, and that is something worth noticing. Though still much smaller than Facebook, the power of this company lay in its idea. Instagram is about photo sharing, but so is Facebook. However, Instagram is only mobile phone-based and Facebook's revenues through its mobile application are zilch. Mark Zuckerberg saw this as a huge opportunity to make Facebook's presence stronger in the mobile sector. When Zuckerberg started, it was all about the web. Today, who cares about the web? It all happens on the mobile phone, and Mark knows it best. So for a company that was valued at $500 million a few weeks back, Zuckerberg did not hesitate to double his offer and as expected, the young founders of Instagram – Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom – found it irresistible and sold it. A simple idea of sharing your sometimes grainy mobile photos and making them works of art by using an application is today worth $1 billion. That's what a good idea can do, and that's exactly what it did for Instagram; a 551-day-old profitless tech startup!

Good Idea is Good Business
Good ideas make you rich but not the reverse. As William Cameron said, "Money never starts an idea, it's the idea that starts the money." If you have an idea that came out of your passion for something and not for the objective of making money, it's going to make you a lot of money, for that's what makes legends. Not just the knack of inventing and creating new ideas but even the ability to identify the potential of new ideas is what makes businesses successful. A genius is someone who can make use of the simplest of ideas. In fact, the simpler an idea, the more profitable it is. Think about 'Hotmail', a simple idea of sending mails for free over the internet, which made its founder Sabeer Bhatia richer by $400 million back in 1997. PayPal, a simple idea of making payments online, made its founders richer by $1.5 billion when eBay bought it. Instagram, the most recent company creating waves, is also a simple idea. In fact, it's not even a new idea, for Flickr does the same; just that it's for the web while Instagram is for the mobile. Flickr also made money for its founders when it was bought by Yahoo! a few years back

A successful businessman is one who keeps an eye open for ideas with potential. When eBay acquired PayPal, it saw a potential and today, Paypal is contributing in revenues as much as eBay's core business. Something similar is what Mark Zuckerberg saw in Instagram. Those were not the profits of the company but its potential to grow which attracted him to it; for no one understands the model of establishing an audience before generating sales better than him. When he made Facebook in his Harvard dormitory, he wanted it to become popular, to be liked by youngsters and not make money. Instagram, too, was made with the same philosophy and is loved by its users. They love it so much that they would not move to any other application easily. Love is what makes the world go round; surprisingly, even the business world, and no one knows it better than Apple. It is most loved, has a cult-like following and its consumer base is most loyal. Michael Dell once said that Apple should close down while it still had something to return to its investors. This same company today has passed Exxon-Mobil as the world's most valuable company and has bigger financial reserves than the US government! For a company that many thought would close down soon, it's not done too bad. Even though Steve Jobs is no more with us, but the world will not forget him for his iPad. It was a new way of looking at the dying market of tablets. Thanks to the iPad, the tablet market is the most thriving one with new consumers being added every day.

In fact, his iPad has been responsible for infusing fresh life not just into the tablet market but into so many others too. Magazines and newspapers are finding an innovative way to increase the life span of their products. The iPad has made magazines more user friendly, more trendy and more attractive. Schools are finding it easier to teach reluctant kids, making subjects more fun and the teaching style more interactive. It's Apple and it's iPad and iPhone that started a whole new business of 'apps' and one company for sure (Instagram) is thanking Steve Jobs today for making them billionaires!

A good idea has the power to change a lot of things and inspire so many others too. In fact, one idea can take so many different proportions that could have never been imagined. As Pablo Picasso said, "I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else." The iPad was just an idea and today it is the new way of doing business for many companies.

Similarly, Hunger Games was just an idea for a novel and today it has spawned so many businesses. When Suzanne Collins wrote the book, little did she know the ripple effect it would create. Even before the film was released, Lionsgate, its producers, and a host of others built a whole world of marketing around it. Set in the future, the movie is about a place named 'Capitol', which selects a boy and a girl from the twelve districts that it governs and makes them fight to death on a live television show, for the thrill of the Capitol's residents and to keep the districts under full domination. It revolves around a brave girl who is also a sharp shooter and how she not just wins but changes the rules of the game too. A movie that keeps you at the edge of your seat right till the end is also an important lesson in marketing. In a world full of male superheroes, here comes a young 'girl-superhero'. The audience loved her for they had seen none like her. Her powers (shooting with a bow and arrow), too, were not in-born but could be nurtured. She was a dream that could be achieved and her effect on the young audience has worked like magic. The idea of the story was so brilliant that it influenced many. China Glaze, a cosmetics company, has launched a Hunger Games-inspired nail polish line and yes, you guessed it, it has twelve shades – one for each district. Never to be left behind, Facebook has a game called The Hunger Games adventures, where players build their own traps, concoct potions and even grow food. New York Sports Club has launched a new workout inspired by Hunger Games, which has moves like those used by the girl Katniss and her friends for survival. The winner of the workout is the one who is fit to survive the treacherous arena that Katniss survived in the movie. Very soon, we might see a Barbie changing from a dainty little girl to one with a bow and arrow like Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), the new heartthrob of young fans. The sound track of the movie soared to the number one slot, making the singer Taylor Swift most wanted. It's remained the top film for three weeks and even the mighty Titanic could not overshadow it. Doing a business of over $300 million, the film shows no signs of slowing down and neither do the marketers who just can't stop finding ways of making the most of this mania.

One story changed the fortunes of not just the author (she is the best selling author on Amazon and everywhere else), but also of a host of other businesses. The power of an idea could not have been better explained than the way it was done in the movie Inception, where Leonardo DiCaprio is on a mission to plant an idea in the mind of the heir of a business tycoon to dissolve his deceased father's business empire. He rightly says, "What's the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules."

In fact, a whole lot of new inventions are doing just that. If the iPad shook up the world in 2010, then wait to see what these can do. A new technology named DIDO will eliminate the need for cell phone towers and you can say goodbye to slow download speeds forever. There is a printer, which will be able to print skin. You can keep your palm on the device and the cartridges filled with skin cells will print out your skin. Although still in the development stage, a lot of burn victims and soldiers are eagerly waiting for it.

There is going to be a world of opportunities that is going to open up; just keep a lookout for the new ideas around you and within you. Be not afraid of expressing your view even if it sounds silly; for most often, that is the foundation of a successful idea. As Einstein said, "If at first it's not absurd, there is no hope for it." Remember that there is nothing more powerful than a good idea. Have faith in your ideas and don't let somebody's yawn or sneer kill it. You owe it to yourself and the world, for you know what a good idea can do.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/16/2012 -- Unlike T. N. Seshan, when you meet Vinod Rai, the current Comptroller and Auditor General of India, he comes across as a very suave and soft-spoken bureaucrat. At the recent convocation ceremony of our graduating students, when our institute's Director Dr. M. K. Chaudhuri challenges Vinod Rai and says that he isn't bold enough like Mr. Seshan and is not as strongly taking the government head-on as he should, he very firmly says that he is doing what he is constitutionally allowed to do. So what does Vinod Rai have to say about Pranab Mukherjee's public snub that 90% of CAG findings are dropped in the first stage? "Yes, Mr. Mukherjee is right in some sense. CAG raises questions and it's true that a large proportion of issues do get answered to our satisfaction in the very first stage," he says very politely, yet very firmly; and at no point in any self-doubt about whether he was doing less than he should be. Does this sound slightly lame? Perhaps. Specially because, being slightly aggressive about such issues myself, I might have personally liked Vinod Rai to stretch his constitutional limits slightly more, redefine them, and take the government head-on perhaps more loudly. But then all human beings don't have the same approach to dealing with identical issues. Our current election commissioner Dr. S. Y. Quraishi is a very soft-spoken, music loving man; but he is the man behind bringing democracy to the killing fields of Bihar, Bengal and UP! Similarly, Vinod Rai is a man who again is soft-spoken, abhorring the limelight, but doing his work with amazing sincerity, courage and commitment. Similar to what T. N. Seshan did with the Election Commission, Rai has made CAG a household name in India and a body that Indians are now looking up to with respect to exposing our government's corrupt practices! Today, our government fears his reports like nothing else, for in these days of heightened social activism and rampant corruption, those are CAG reports that are giving the maximum ammunition to critics of the government. So what is the CAG authority doing and why is its role so important? Well, CAG is bringing to public the sham and the shame behind India's Blood Billionaires – the saga of corruption and transfer of national wealth into private hands at the cost of the tax payers' money and the country's national interests.

What exactly do I mean? Well, the annual Forbes billionaires' list now regularly features a significant number of Indian businessmen (almost 30 plus) with an accumulated worth that's a staggering USD 200 billion plus (almost 15% of what the entire Indian population earns in a year). In fact, of these billionaires, three of the names also appear regularly in the top 20 of the global rich! The only other economy that outscores India still on these parameters is USA, which still has one or two more billionaires in the said list. Today, India is the only Asian economy to have so many billionaires in that list; next to it is Japan, with a history of many years of stupendous national development! How did this awesome Indian miracle happen? When I go abroad, this intrigues everyone! They are amazed that while billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and others have made their fortunes after years of investing in brand building, R&D and by painstakingly focusing on capturing international markets, we have managed so many billionaires without having any brand in the international markets. Look at the BusinessWeek-Interbrand survey of the world's 100 top brands – not one is Indian. That kind of explains the story. While the Japanese, French, Swiss, Germans, Italians and the likes get beaten hands down in the billionaires' lists by Indians, they are the ones who dominate the top brands' lists... and of course, not to forget the Americans, who spent a hundred years competing in the global markets, creating brands, investing massively in R&D, losing out to competition, fighting back again, and finally creating wealth and billionaires. Then how are the Indians dominating the various lists of global billionaires? The answer is quite simple actually – Indians are there right at the top within these lists purely through scams, loot and the criminal transfer of national wealth into private hands… consequently ensuring mindboggling market capitalisation for their companies and the billionaire status for them; and all this without churning out a 'single' global brand or product! Yes, that's the truth!!!

After Independence, our industrialists were given a monopoly market to operate in, thanks to the bureaucratic system of bribery-driven work culture we created. Over the years, the private sector industrialists were further helped by the government (after more quid pro quo greasing of palms by these industrialists) in amassing additional wealth and profits by allowing them to buy public sector products – like, say, steel – at subsidised prices, while these very private companies sold the finished products – like, say, buses and tractors – in the markets at the market price. Thus, real and potential profits and wealth of the PSUs were transferred to private sector balance sheets without flinching; and at the same time, PSUs were branded loss-making failures! This was the first phase of growth for our Indian business houses, giving rise to monopolies and fraudulent rupee billionaires. Since this first experiment kept us a third world and third class country, the second phase of growth started post liberalisation.

The gigantic and so-called loss making PSUs had been built on tax payers' money with huge infrastructure and land; and it was time to create the next generation scam with the ostensible excuse of opening up of the Indian economy. In this second phase, the government started selling off PSUs in totality at a fraction of the price these PSUs could have commanded in the markets – the government did this because the bribes they got from the industrialists was more than what they could have dreamt in their wildest imaginations. Once the PSU sellout was virtually complete and had increased the wealth of our industrial houses further, and made, but obviously, a few dollar billionaires, has come the latest phase! Having virtually run out of ways to get more bribes in a privatised world, and after having sold off most of the public sector wealth (or having sold out the future potential wealth of PSUs by selling away, for example, the tediously researched and documented oil fields' scans of PSUs, to private oil companies), it is actually the government of India that started the process of creating numerous global billionaires out of our existing industrialists through the SEZ Act – what we at IIPM Think Tank have termed the National Land Loot Act – and other such processes of giving away natural resources over to private hands. Be it the 2G scam or the 'coalgate scam' or any other scam, it is the same story. One visit to Kalinga Nagar, Kujang and the likes, tells us the glaring tale of how a handful of companies are becoming abnormally wealthy by amassing an obscene amount of land and natural resources, that too at throwaway prices, thanks to the dacoits running this country in the garb of politicians. There, of course, is no consideration to the thousands of poor farmers and fishermen families who are getting displaced not only from their homes but from their sole source of livelihood. No wonder then that at each and every place, wherever the government is trying to repossess land, there is fierce agitation and bloodshed.

And that unfortunately is the story of India… The story of blood billionaires; billionaires making their billions out of scams, poverty and bloodshed. It's a crying shame that the country which houses the most number of poverty stricken people is also home to almost the maximum number of billionaires too. After all, in this huge country, there is a lot of land and natural resource still left to be sold away by the "merchants of death" ruling this country! And that is where Vinod Rai, our current CAG, is steadily bringing in front of the public the reality of how the government is trying to hoodwink the people and dole out 2G licenses and mining permits, costing this poor nation losses to the tune of three lakh to ten lakh crore rupees! Everything perhaps can't be done by getting aggressive. Some things require sincere fact-finding, auditing with honesty and patriotism at the core of the heart. That's what Vinod Rai is doing, motivating people like us to get aggressive with his brilliant exposes! He is sincerely and silently showing Indians the secret behind the growing number of Indian billionaires in the global billionaires' lists, thus exposing our blood billionaires and in turn making CAG a feared name!

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

We still do not have centralised record keeping system for drugs

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/16/2012 -- Lately, India has been witnessing quite a progress in its pharmaceutical sector, especially in production of generic drugs. Not only there has been increase in number of big pharma players but also the production capacity has been growing at a brisk pace. The unholy nexus between medical practitioners and pharmaceutical companies and rampant corruption in drugs control have had a direct impact as a whole on the pharma business, which stands at a staggering annual turnover of Rs.20,000 crore. The manufacturing of spurious drugs have increased by leaps and bounds in recent years with World Bank estimating 35 per cent of the global production of counterfeit drugs emanating from India! Almost Rs.4,000 crore of the drugs produced in India are estimated to be spurious, that's causing a havoc on the international market too, where it is exported. US has already taken steps by putting India in 301-watch threat list.

The problem to counter the menace of counterfeit drugs is compounded by the fact that the country shamefully lacks authentic data regarding drug and its usage. The Mashelkar Committee report, one of the most comprehensive in the recent times, that was draft ed to study corruption that the drug trade faced, had to rely on unconfirmed media reports. It is deleterious that in spite of our government spending 4.8 per cent of the GDP on health, there is hardly any commissioning on data, be it records on confiscations, periodic research on generic drugs production or its distribution through dealers and retailers! What comes as a shock is the fact that industry associations despite incurring huge economic losses have not yet demanded a system of maintaining centralised records.

Delhi is one of the hubs of counterfeit drugs and availability of empty capsules and fake tablets are abundant and that too at a fraction of the prescribed cost. It is obvious that the entire trade thrives because of a strong nexus between the administrators and manufacturers. And this is the prime reason behind lack of data. In 2011, Delhi Pharmaceutical Trust agreed to conduct a survey as a major drive towards data obtainment with an overall cost of Rs.15-20 lakhs. However, its mere survey called on by some NGO recommendations and not a comprehensive one by a major statistical institute or a one backed by the ministry of health. Further, this was one time survey and is not carried out periodically. Moreover, less than 20 per cent of the drug manufacturing licensees are inspected.

Drug control not only suffers from loopholes and intentional reluctance at manufacturing level but also at retail level. At retail level, majority of the medical shops are not provided with a mandatory pharmacist! The Mashelkar Committee too, though did not charge the Drug Control Department directly, but made clear claims that there is substantial non-uniformity in existing legislations. To compound the problem further, the recommendation of providing one inspector per 25 manufacturing units never got materialised.

In order to curb this menace, the Health Ministry should setup an independent body. It's imperative to centralise all records of drug production and issue licenses from a central system which needs to be renewed periodically post a couple of surprise checks and audits. Spurious drugs not only kill the domestic market but also kill the international market besides killing millions across the globe.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/30/2012 -- UP elections have always been intriguing and most of the times for the wrong reasons. This is one state where political leaders have always been riddled with controversies, be it from criminalized and caste-based politics, to corruption and scams. But this year, controversy seems to have taken a new shape. With the rise of a young and dynamic leader in UP, the scenario here would change soon. Against expectations, Samajwadi Party (SP) suddenly came out and swept the elections. This sweeping victory cannot be credited to anyone else other than Akhilesh Yadav – a young politician who never projected himself as the Chief Minister, even after the victory. But then, SP read the minds and hearts of the electorate and decided to make Akhilesh the CM. And thus a new star was born in Uttar Pradesh!

Akhilesh Yadav, son of UP strongman Mulayam Singh Yadav, steered SP to a sensational victory in the state assembly, a victory that decimated all their political rivals. Uttar Pradesh may be the biggest state in India (and hence politically most important) but certainly, it is not the best governed state. Even though the state sends the maximum number of MPs to the Centre, it has been perpetually ripped apart through generations (how else would one describe the agenda of UP's division) by the communal, casteist, self-indulgent, and shortsighted chieftains to meet their short term goals. The last two decades probably have been the worst for the state when Mayawati and Mulayam Singh reduced the politics in the state to nothing but a jungle raj! The battle was almost lost for UP, had it not been Akhilesh Yadav taking centre stage to rechristen the state with long-lost optimism and hope. His performance speaks for itself for he is the one who rightly represents today's youth. Amidst many other young politicians, his one young face shines the brightest, and all because of his calm, pleasant, confident and positive attitude which most of the other young politicians in India comprehensively lack.

Amidst the praise and starry eyes of hope that surround him, one cannot undermine the immensely difficult and daunting task ahead. And that's exactly what happened within days of his winning. The same media, which lavished much praise on this young man for winning, wrote him off overnight the moment he announced his cabinet. Along with the infamous Raja Bhaiya, his cabinet of 47 ministers (that is much smaller than his father's jumbo cabinet of 97 ministers) had as many as 28 with a criminal background. All I can say is that it's not easy to win elections in a state like UP and any other party's cabinet would have looked quite the same if history and Indian politics are things to go by. Akhilesh inherited a party, which had a history of harbouring thugs and goons. Their inbred nature certainly cannot be changed by merely snapping off ties! And if Akhilesh tries to replace them abruptly, it will create such an upheaval that his government could even fall. Akhilesh in his campaign did stress repeatedly of clean and transparent governance by scientifically sidelining the criminals. However, let's as of now assume this cabinet to be his political compulsion! He perhaps had no choice but to induct these people to safeguard his government.

But to his credit, he smartly and cleverly kept the 'head' of all thugs away from his cabinet. Despite huge pressure, he didn't allow DP Yadav to become part of his team – smartly cutting the umbilical cord of all thugs from their mastermind.

This allowed him to win support and confidence of all minorities and those pockets of population that underwent immense subjection during the reign of DP Yadav and the likes. Akhilesh cleverly kept all key ministries with himself (that would allow him to keep a track of all funds and curtail embezzlement). More than 100 contestants of SP were below 40 years of age with many having professional degrees of medicine, engineering, management and science.

The first name in team Akhilesh that must find a place in any reference is Abhishek Mishra, a 35-year old gentleman with a PhD from Cambridge and a professor at IIM Ahmedabad. A friend of Akhilesh, Abhishek was persuaded by the former to join his team after 6 years of teaching at IIM-A in the field of strategy and innovation. And what an astounding strategy he made in Akhilesh's manifesto and campaign! He was the man behind the criticism-free election campaign strategy and the ploy of advertising in the media outlets.

Then comes Tej Narayan Pandey, a close friend of Akhilesh, an ex-student union vice president in UP with a resounding influence on student unions. He was instrumental in mobilizing the student unions in favour of Akhilesh. He is all set to head the Home and Finance ministries besides key departments like administration, vigilance, tax and registration, education, housing, IT and many others. A quick glance would be enough to gauge the intelligence and technocracy Akhilesh possesses. He cleverly gave the less-important ministries to old and non-performing cabinet ministers and gave specialized ministries to talented and educated ministers. Something that the Centre also needs to learn.

As his credibility and his ability to govern are left to litmus test, one might ask oneself, what made his election campaign click. Akhilesh not only confronted Mayawati but also the apparent youth icon Rahul Gandhi. What differentiated Akhilesh from Rahul? Akhilesh's campaign had a positive conjecture that talked about development and progress and did not stupidly criticise his rivals. On the contrary, Rahul Gandhi had two serious drawbacks. First, even though he campaigned hard, he like his forefathers had a tendency to treat the electorate as his own fiefdom. And second, the people of UP didn't forget the anti-corruption campaign against Congress that kicked up the dust so much in recent times.

Further, Akhilesh represents youth and modernity. His father was against teaching of English in schools – Akhilesh opposes that decision. Akhilesh has also promised freebies like free laptops to the students, allowance to unemployed and free treatment in the state run hospitals. Rahul on the other hand scratched old wounds and spoke on dead issues like Batla House, 9 per cent reservation for Muslims etc etc.

Moreover, the Congress failed to match SP with respect to new and dynamic faces. Rahul's coterie had literally no new faces – or shall I say, no new visionaries – and thus failed to read the pulse of people and drummed up old songs of caste and reservation. This was in spite of a survey in June 2011 by the Election Commission that revealed how 30 per cent of voters discouraged caste politics and looked for merit in the candidate.

To sum it up, Akhilesh's tireless efforts of 10,000 kilometres yatra and 800 rallies in 6 months found him miles ahead of his adversaries. It was during this travel that he was able to reach out to every single voter and explain to them the renewed ideology of his party. He not only became accessible but also soon became a household name.

Akhilesh promised to fulfil every single promise that was mentioned in their 24-page manifesto. The manifesto, unlike other manifestos, covered all dimensions of development and didn't utter any derogatory word either about the opposition or about the state's current situation. The manifesto promised to discontinue politically-inclined transfers of bureaucrats and only consider their past record during appointments and transfer. Non-rhetoric and modern promises were drafted for education and health. Beside these, many encouraging promises were made for developing agriculture, rural infrastructure and attracting investments in UP.

Maintaining his reputation of being tech-savvy and accessible, Akhilesh also manages SP's youth Facebook page; and unlike other political parties, his page is more about genuine discussion and not filled with criticism. On the one hand where Congress's YouTube portal had footage of rallies and speeches and BSP sites were (and are) filled with hate-words about Congress and other rival parties, SP uploaded videos where they talked about improving civic amenities and social development.

Speaking chronologically, it all began in March 2011 when Akhilesh latently rephrased SP's old propaganda of having no English medium education and instead promoted new technology oriented education. But the entire campaigning took a new wave on November 22, 2011 when SP launched its new and revamped website. The site today has details on party chiefs, ideology, history, leadership, campaigns, achievements and above all, resumes of a few chief party candidates.

His team of professionals (psephologists, copywriters, creative designers and media planners) gave a new meaning to all their old and outdated campaigns – all this was spearheaded by Akhilesh himself. SP re-launched themselves as an 'ummeed ki cycle' (the cycle of hope) and made sure that their ads reached all. Their ads promoted the party's facebook, twitter, email and office contact details and also were published in leading national dailies. A special ad launched on November 22, 2011 read, "...This is an era of open and free exchanges of opinions and ideas. All of us need to communicate with those whom we consider our well-wishers and friends... The world today belongs to those who are not behind closed doors, to those who are with the people, always, at all times." Most of their print ads talked about societal development agendas and did not contain the conventional self glorifying spiel. But amidst all these, what actually made SP connect to people was Akilesh's 'Kranti Rath Yatra' which allowed him to cover all his constituencies (on cycle or rath); and in this case, he covered more than 10,000 km of UP.

It's an undeniable fact that even the brigade of India's young politicians today has resorted to dirty politics and vote-bank oriented agenda – these by no measure represent dynamism and youth. Unlike such peers of his, Akhilesh kept the very essence of youth and dynamism high and did what a young and revolutionary politician should have done. Keeping dirty politics at bay, he adopted the path of positivity and worked hard to pave his way to power.

However, having said all this, it was not a simple open and shut case of Akhilesh came, Akhilesh saw and Akhilesh conquered. All this was done through meticulous planning, dedication, and hard work. Akhilesh has created frenzy and an aura of deliverables. It is much like the situation when Mamata Banerjee came to power with waves of support, euphoria and renewed hope for West Bengal. Akhilesh did not just win the elections, he swept it. And unlike most other state elections that bring in the hope of better performance, this particular election in UP signifies a turnaround bordering miracle that has the possibility of changing the state's scenario forever. Let's hope Akhilesh's promises and character finally overshadow his initial political compulsions – let's not judge him solely by his cabinet. Let's give him time to deliver despite this cabinet; for after all, he has ended Mayawati's horrendous regime, and just for that he deserves more time to prove his worth.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Corruption in defence hits the lowest strata of soldiers

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/21/2012 -- An IIPM and Arindam Chaudhuri's initiative

Indian defence has always been looked up to with lot of dignity and honour. But then, this image of our defence being epitome of discipline and bereft of any vices, is under siege following series of scams and corruption scandals. The scams that subverted the image of our defence ranges from Bofors to operation West End to Adarsh Society scandal. Recently, more than five defence procurement companies were banned from doing business in India, after they were alleged with corruption charges.

The albatross of corruption has reached even the topmost person in the armed forces. While in office after taking over as the Chief of Army staff in 2010, a retired Lieutenant General, who was involved in Adarsh Society Housing scandal, bribed another official with Rs.50 crore to steer a heavy vehicle contract in favour of an East European supplier, instead of an existing Indo-Russian joint venture. This one incident speaks volumes about the extent of corruption that is slowly seeping into the ranks of our armed forces!

In the same lines, Central Vigilance Commission's (CVC) investigation on Border Roads Organization's (BRO's) Project Deepak unearthed evidences of lack of transparency, dearth of quality control, manipulations with tenders and use of inferior quality of materials in constructing bridges and roads. These substandard roads are alarming especially in the context of Chinese advancements in building world class infrastructure alongside the borders! The CVC report demonstrates financial irregularities in excess of Rs.100 crores, apart from shoddy work produced to build vital roads and bridges. However, no story would be complete without the mention of Operation West End. In this case, a notorious nexus between the ministers of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and army top brass dovetailed to take bribes that eclipsed four per cent of tens of thousands of crores of total defence contract amount. Last year in January, a former army vice chief Lt-General was found involved in a land scam that robed the government of 0.96 acres of prime defence land worth Rs.45 crore in the Pune cantonment area.

Given the fact that procurement and manufacturing of defence equipments are still not in private hands, such irregularities reflect the strong nexus between bureaucrats and veteran army personnel. In a number of cases, even top officials form organisations like DRDO were found involved in corruption and were later arrested. In case of DRDO which should be epitome of scientific development and politically-free work environment, it is just not about money, but more about opportunity cost and negative externalities that they create, in the process.

The sanctity of defence services, which is arguably the best kept government institution, is well and truly undermined. The retired army officers are often found colluding shoulder to shoulder with defence contractors in using their influence for them to get the deals in exchange of handsome bribes! It not only dents the image of defence services, that is ought to be the most clean and spotless organisation, but also comes as a huge loss to the nation. Most of the time, this embezzlement of funds and resources hit the lower most strata of soldiers. Be it scams in procurement of basic arms and ammunition or be it scams in purchase of technologically advanced fighter-jets, it is soldiers at the front and the common man at the rear, who have to pay – and pay with their lives!

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Frauds in of insurance have a huge social and economical cost!

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/13/2012 -- The frauds in the insurance are nothing new but what is new is the alarming rate at which it has been growing over the past few years. The frauds range from clients' registration through reinsurance to claims – which at times have been engineered by causing intentional loss of insured assets. The bottom line is that these frauds cost the insurance companies more than otherwise.

According to the research done by a Pune-based company called Indiaforensic – the total loss by all the players put together is a substantial Rs.30,401 crores during 2011, which is about 9 per cent of the industry size! IRDA facts show that sum total of premium received by the industry (all segments of insurance put together) in 2011 has been Rs.3.5 lac crores. The bulk of the brunt has been borne by life insurance sector with 86 per cent of the accumulated fraud, while the remaining is tagged to general insurance segment. The last 5 years witnessed increase of massive proportion that has doubled for life insurance and 70 per cent rise for general insurance – as 5 years ago total loss for life insurance companies was a staggering Rs.13,148 crores while for general insurance, it was Rs.2,140 crores.

There is no doubt that fraud in insurance is increasing which is reinstated by Ernst & Young survey as well. The survey findings have narrowed down the key exposures of fraud to 5 major ones. Out of all manipulations, fraudulent claims top the list with 27.3 per cent cases followed by frauds practiced during payment of premiums which was found in more than 21 per cent cases. In general insurance, the majority of the fraud revolves around health. As much as 25 per cent of health insurance cost is driven from manipulated claims. Insurance industry as a whole is plagued by usual malpractices that include commission rebating, fake documentations and collusion between parties. The mean ticket size of each fraud to an insurance company oscillates between Rs.25,000 to Rs.75,000. There is no doubt that the increased cost for insurance companies discreetly done by fraud is generally passed on to the policy holders. Whatever be the real figure, intense competition in the sector is always exerting downward pressure for the premiums even post factoring of the cost of fraud. However, in spite of these revealing data; IRDA, at least as of now, is refusing to take it seriously.

On the one hand, when 40 per cent of families in India is pushed below the poverty line due to out-of-pocket expenditure on health and where road accidents costs India 3 per cent of the GDP, then on the other, such fraudulent cases not only increase this economical and social loss but also robs many from genuine claims.

IRDA should urgently roll out guidelines catering to more transparency and simplicity in documentation. Besides, the insurance companies too should actively pursue anti-corruption strategies and techniques to arrest this problem. Government should further make the system electronic and automatic, with less human intervention, which in long run would speed up the process and reduce undercutting and pass backs. Cases of frauds in insurance sector not only are a cost to the nation but are a burden that is eventually borne by the stakeholders. It is time for government not only to secure all, but also make the system free from all rust.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Subsidy rarely reaches its target audience

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/04/2012 -- Subsidies have always been the most-touted strategy among the political class, especially as it is something that is highly deceptive, completely opaque and totally off -target. This trump card is extensively used by political parties, during both elections and budget to gain mileage. Perceptibly, this policy, which was fundamentally aimed at bridging the socio-economic divide of the society, has increasingly become a tool for politicians to swing electorate towards them. But then there is no secret in the fact that only a fraction of these subsidies does actually reach the poor, thanks to our corrupt system.

As per the latest OECD report, as of 2009, India has the distinction of highest subsidy bill amongst all oil importers (OECD nations). This is one area of policy making where India defeats most of its neighbours, including China. India's per capita oil subsidy is around three times and its gas subsidy around six times than that of China. Fundamentally, fuel subsidy is designed to provide it to the poor and to ensure affordable supply to them, which is more to insulate them from price volatility. Given the price difference between market price and subsidised prices, the suppliers and middlemen often sell the subsidised oil in the open market, costing India, on an average, $2 billion annually. According to studies, almost half of kerosene supply is robbed from the ration shops to the open black market at higher prices.

According to NCAER interim report, the total worth of kerosene black market in 2005-06 had surpassed Rs 10,000 crores. The report also revealed that the subsidised kerosene is channelised more towards urban and semi-urban communities thus depriving the rural poor. Highly subsidised LPG is illegally exploited in non-domestic use (running cars) by the affluent class. A whopping amount of Rs 52,000 crore subsidy was given on diesel in 2008-09 which only helped the luxury car owners, cinema halls, shopping malls, luxury hospitals and telecom towers.

Similarly, over Rs 5,200 crore subsidy on petrol every year is only helping the top bracket. Likewise, food grains subsidy suffers from the same rampant corruption. The Central Vigilance Committee (CVC) in its report found PDS as the most corrupt system and further states that the subsidised food grains are diverted from the ration shops to the open markets, inspectors are routinely bribed, beneficiaries are deprived and delayed, subsidised prices are habitually flouted and poor qualities of grains are offered in the Fair Price Shops. The tax payers' money worth Rs 28,000 crores that is allotted by the Center for food subsidies is mostly hushed up by middlemen! There are more than 460,000 Fair Price Shops across the nation and Central government have doled out Rs 1.80 lakh crores through various poverty alleviation programs including subsidies in fuel, food and fertilizers.

The same is true with fertilizer subsidies as well. The CAG report in 2011 revealed the massive manipulation while disbursing Rs 50,587 crores worth of fertilizers. All in all, subsidies cannot stop, but the abuse of the same has to be stopped necessarily. This can happen only when the targeting of the subsidy is objectively done. Else in its current form, taxes from the middle class would keep filling in the coffers of agents, touts and middlemen, without bringing in any meaningful and sustainable benefit to the poor.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Money is blatantly swindled through fake loan accounts

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/26/2012 -- Fraudulent accounts and loans against property are not just mere imagination of script writers but actually a widely practiced scam in India. Small and discreet nexus of bank officials and corporate (and individuals) play hand in gloves when it comes to banking frauds. Lately, banking loans discrepancies (especially in the real estate sector) have been creating flutters in India's financial market involving a number of public sector banks and other financial institutions.

Two years back, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and LIC Housing Finance were allegedly bribed by a Mumbai-based private sector organization called Money Matters which acted as a middleman to a number of private sector companies (mostly in the real estate sector) with irregularities overriding the stipulated conditions. Consequently, five top management employees from these organizations were arrested by CBI. Additionally, CBI conducted raids in five different cities to zero in to the accused. They found some incriminating documents and taped conversations revealing that Rajesh Sharma (CMD of Money Matters) allegedly paid a bribe of Rs 25 lakhs to RN Tayal (of Bank of India) for corporate loans of Rs 500 crores to two separate companies.

Furthermore, RBI has unearthed a fraud case involving Citibank in Gurgaon in January 2011. Shivraj Puri, an executive of the bank, deluded his customers to invest in false accounts to the tune of Rs 300 crores. The Hero Group, Religare and Bonanza were some of the investors in this fraud scheme.

In October 2011, Madhavpura police station in Ahmedabad arrested a loan agent and four officials of Adarsh Cooperative Bank for a fraudulent case involving money borrowed for car loans. Several crores of rupees were borrowed from anationalized bank by the loan agent on false accounts and later siphoned the money in a bogus account in Adarsh Cooperative Bank – with the help of a few bank officials! In another similar incident, a car loan scam involving Rs 1.07 crores took place in Thane on October 2010. Fake documents were submitted to cheat three cooperative banks. In 2010 again, another incident (in Kolkata) fake documents were produced in Canara Bank to obtain loan to the tune Rs 9.14 crores.

Providing false documents by fraudsters have become almost an everyday affair! Such activity not only allows fraudulent and bogus companies (and phantom individuals too) to float in the market but also helps many companies in spinning money from one account to another – most of the time, both the accounts are fake. It also allows them to create black money under the garb of loans wherein the assets itself doesn't exist!

All in all, thousands of such cases of fraud accounts and irrational bank loans (to real estate dealers) in exchange of a fixed percentage by bank officials are overlooked and most of the time never gets unearthed! Bank loans against and for bogus property and assets are the fastest and most convenient way of swindling money. In such case neither the money received by the bank officials nor money received by the recipient are accountable. And above all, this money is not of anyone else but millions of middle class families who keep their money as savings in banks. If one goes by the sheer intensity if such cases one can easily find a mini Swiss Bank in each city of India!

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/20/2012 -- The recent case of Indian traders being kidnapped in China has opened up a can of worms. Apart from the case revealing weaknesses in the Chinese judiciary (as I had highlighted in an editorial a few weeks back), it has also brought out in the open something that traders from India (and other countries) were facing for a long time but not speaking about openly. The big trade that happens between India and China is through the scores of wholesalers operating out of wholesale markets in India like the Sadar Bazaar in Delhi. These are not the big guys who prefer getting into litigation that easily; they also aren't amongst those who operate with lawyers and bigger paraphernalia. These are smaller traders, though huge in numbers, who go to Chinese towns like Yiwu in particular and pick one or two containers of goods worth Rs. 30 lakh to a crore once every quarter. And they now fear entering China. The question is why? Can one incident of kidnapping shake up an entire community of traders, especially when China is such a good bargain for them? Or was this not that stray an incident after all?

Consider the case of Manish Rewari. He has been doing business in exactly the same town of China for years now. And swears by the advantages that China gives him in his business as he shows off a fascinating watch that he is wearing while narrating his story! He had first seen the same watch in a wholesale outlet in Karol Bagh (a shoppers' paradise near Central Delhi). The shopkeeper quoted Rs.22k as the best price for the watch to Manish. Not be outdone like normal customers, this China believer – in his next trip to Yiwu – went around various shops and found out exactly the same watch. And the price for a single piece was Rs.2.5k; and for bulk order of more than a hundred pieces, Rs.1.2k per piece. A watch enthusiast, he picked up only one watch for his consumption.

If that sounded nice, just a trip before this particular trip, Manish's experience was not as good. He used to work with a Chinese agent then. During his previous trip, he had struck a small deal and purchased goods for Rs.75k through the said agent. The agent took the money, delivered him the goods, but never paid the original seller. The next time, when Manish came and tried to directly deal with the seller, the moment he provided his old receipt with the previous agent's name to show the price at which he had bought the goods in the previous trip, the seller pounced upon him. His grudge was that he had not received the money for that particular transaction. Manish very courageously tried to defend himself by saying, truthfully, that he had obviously paid up for the same. This he did despite knowing "that they [the Chinese seller] could pick him up and make him disappear". His reasoning clearly was of no help because soon, there were scores of the seller's people and henchmen who came from all around and surrounded Manish. Sensing trouble, Manish approached the nearby police, who in their very usual unfriendly manner told him in Chinese that they were there to protect only the interest of the Chinese. That's when good sense prevailed. Manish knew that he had come for just three days and had a lot of deals to strike. And this would only get messy. And spending a few days in jail like a few others he had heard of was not a great idea. Manish grudgingly agreed to strike a deal with the disgruntled seller, and paid fifty percent of the pending money again as settlement (since it was too small an amount) and fortunately got away.

This year, however, Manish is not ready to go to China anymore; well, almost. He now works through an Indian agent. The recession hasn't been great for businesses and he fears that even the Indian agent might not have paid up properly to the Chinese sellers (though Manish has paid his entire pending Rs. 37 lakh for his last imported container). The fear is that the Chinese sellers might again pounce on him. "It's undoubtedly a fearful situation. The question of safety for the foreign trading community is totally missing despite us being such regulars and buying so much from them. There is no helpline. And they are just not ready to listen to our version. Someone messes up and someone else pays for it. The recent kidnapping has only brought to highlight the fears and trauma people have been going through for a long time despite doing big business there," he says, elaborating further. He says something more that has been haunting a lot of Indian professionals in Gurgaon of late, due to a new phenomenon I had outlined, again in a previous article of mine, on how Chinese companies are now doing business in India only when they are allowed to get Chinese workers here (in effect, easing out their employment problem through projects in India).

The grudge the people working in Gurgaon have – as they see scores of Chinese people all around them working on various projects – is that not only are we allowing Chinese people to take our jobs, we're also accepting their behaviour to simply look down upon Indians despite working in India itself (rightly or wrongly, is another question of course). Manish says exactly the same, "We do so much trade in China but they just don't treat us with enough respect and that is a key reason behind this high handed semi mafia behavior."

Of course, the Indians and the system are also to blame. The Indian traders often place an order. But our customs department people at the docks often increase the demand for bribes irrationally. When the traders don't pay up – in order to teach them a lesson and to ensure that the next time, they meet their demands easily – our customs department doesn't release the traders' consignments during the festival season.

This makes the consignments more or less redundant – since one can't foretell if the same clothes, designs or the same style will be in fashion through the next festive season. So the Indians don't pay the agents the remaining dues and the agent in turn often fails to pay his Chinese counterpart, creating a further commotion. The problem however is that it's the Indian trader who starts suffering – and as of now, there are scores of traders like Manish Rewari who can't do without the Chinese products, their unbelievable prices and quality, and yet are fearing stepping into Chinese shores. Between the Indian authorities and the Chinese authorities, some kind of rules need to be outlined to make the lives of these businessmen easy. Just a warning declaring Yiwu as an unsafe place for trading is not enough since too much of business is dependent on such regions which today provide scores of Indian traders their source of profits and income. Of course the blackmailing power of the people at the customs must also be controlled so that scores of traders don't lose out on their businesses during the festive seasons time and again, year after year.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

An IIPM and Arindam Chaudhuri's initiative

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/20/2012 -- Elections are more about redirecting black money

India's tryst with democracy might remain a tryst only. Not only the three pillars of democracy stand abused but even the fundamental setup of democracy is being tweaked as per convenience. There has been no year when elections in India have been fair, thus elevating a party to power who is most of the time not the first-choice of the masses.

Even the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) has criticized the current electoral system where channeling massive funds from various sources is the veritable cornerstone of the electoral corruption. In spite of the Chief Information Commission declaring political parties as 'public authorities' in 2008, the balance sheets of these parties including the Congress and the BJP for the year 2010 revealed incomes that were to the tune of Rs.200 crore and more, which was against the estimated expenditure of Rs.3,000 crores (as estimated by Election Commission). If Wikileaks reports are to be believed, the political parties inserted cash (worth more than $13 million) with the morning newspapers along with instructions of their choice of candidates. Another report by the National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms, released on January 2011, revealed that most of the political parties declared a major part of their donations to be over Rs.20,000. For instance, NCP declared the entire donation received to be in sums greater than Rs.20,000 while the correspondent figures for INC and CPI stand out to be over 50 per cent. Interestingly, BJP declared merely 19 per cent of the total donation to be in sums of over Rs.20,000 but in absolute terms the party topped the list with total nontaxable donations of Rs.5,500 lakhs. The report further revealed that Bharti Electoral Trust donated Rs.17 crore to different political parties. Similarly, Torrent Power Ltd. and General Electoral Trust were leading donors to political parties. A simple analysis indicates how it's a mutually convenient solution for both. In case political parties want to forego tax, they need to simply club donations and file it as sum of more than Rs.20,000 and if donors want to forego their tax (and keep their name anonymous) they just need to make donations in 'tax-friendly' denominations.

The Supreme Court ruling in 2003 mandated all electoral candidates to provide details of their assets, liabilities and criminal records. And today nearly one-third of the MPs (158 of 543) have some or other criminal charges against them. More than 70 MPs are alleged to have criminal cases. The MPs belonging to caste based parties of UP viz. Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi Party are most corrupt with 60 per cent of them facing criminal charges, BJP has about 16 per cent corrupt MPs (19 out of 116) and Congress with about 5 per cent (12 out of 205).

The era of booth capturing and road blocking has gone. Today, a huge amount of illicit money has been channelised through election campaigning, lobbying, cash distribution, bribes and above all in scandals in the lines of 'cash-for-vote.' Over 80 countries today follow the concept of state-funded elections to dodge such malpractices during elections.

Here, the moot point is just not about the enormous volume of black money being spent in the elections but more about the very essence of democracy. When the lawmakers and the MPs are themselves involved in scams and scandals, it would be silly to expect otherwise.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

IIPM Thnk Tank and Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/05/2012 -- Almost every socio-economic parameter of our country poses a classical comparative dichotomy. Where more than 70 per cent of country's population struggles to earn $2 a day, we have more than 3,500 million pieces of 500 rupees notes and more than 1,000 million of 1000 rupees currencies floating in the economy as of now! A report by the Reserve Bank of India stated that out of the total currency in circulation in March 2010, 500 and 1,000 notes constituted 76.5 per cent (increased from 69.5 per cent in a year's time). And it is not just about the number of higher denomination notes floating in the market but more about the very transaction of the same. Undoubtedly, these notes are more used for high-value cash transaction and not by millions of poor Indians who barely get to manage their daily needs.

The high currency notes (like 500 or 1,000 rupees notes) are one of the catalysts of corruption! Most of the black money transactions and money laundering is carried out by high denomination notes. These notes form the backbone of the parallel economy as they have relatively lower carrying cost. In simple words, carrying Rs.10 crore in 100 or 50 rupees denominations would call for more cost and trouble compared to carrying the same amount in 1000 or 500 rupees denominations. Moreover, with high value transaction being more carried out through plastic money (credit and debit cards) and wire transfer, the usage of high denomination currency is confined to large cash transaction that is most of the time done to avoid taxes and bypass legal mediums. Everything from paying premium for services, buying benami property or transferring cash through illicit modes involves money where currency notes are of higher denominations. It would be silly to even think of stashing black money in lower denomination notes. For instance, a money launderer or a per involved in hawala racket has to carry a 50 kilogram bag to carry one million pounds; whereas if he carries the same amount in 500 Euro notes the bag won't weigh more than two kilogram!

It is also being argued that withdrawal of high currency notes can act as a barrier to the black money transaction! Developed nations like the US and the UK that once used to print currency notes up to 10,000 now have the highest denomination of just 100. The last time they printed these abysmally high currency notes was way back in 1945 in the US. In Britain, the highest value of currency currently in market is of 50 pound. The UK took this very step to curb counterfeiting of currency and other illegal activities such as drug trafficking and money laundering.

However, even this does not seem to convince our policy makers, for all the obvious and unsaid reasons. In fact, India is making records in the reverse direction. The minting of 500 rupee notes has augmented 17 times over the last decade! In rural belt, 500 rupee notes are rarity and 1000 rupee notes are an impossibility. Even today, these regions transact through lower denomination currency and even in coins of small denominations – which incidentally are in short supply.

Higher denominations attract higher amount of fake currencies which are being pumped into the economy. The financial channels of India have recorded a massive 400 per cent increase in counterfeit transactions, according to a report by Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Union Finance Ministry compiled for 2010-11. FIU further revealed that majority of these fake currencies is in 500 rupee denominations consisting of 60.74 per cent of the total amount. The number of fake 1,000 rupee notes is also rising rapidly. In June 2011, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized fake currency (with a face value) of Rs.1.54 crore in which the counterfeit currency was in the denomination of Rs.500. As per a white paper prepared Research and Analysis Wing and the Central Bureau of Investigation, very shockingly, one in every four 1000 rupees notes is fake.

Higher currency make it easier for money laundering as the generated cash is slipped out of the country through hawala and then it is brought back through FIIs and various tax havens. It makes no sense for a country like India that has a flab of poor at bottom and a few riches at top, to have higher denomination notes. It is important for the policy makers to realise that hawala transactions lead to economic instability. And in trouble, the poor suffers more than the rich. Thus, as corrective measures, not only India should pull all high denomination notes but also should promote electronic transaction for high-volume transactions. Until then, this 'Big C' of our money market will keep strengthening the other three C's of our nation – corruption, counterfeits and crime!

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

A rural dweller has no choice but to embrace corruption!

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/29/2012 -- There is no denial to the fact that corruption has mired almost all levels of our society. Today, it has become an undetachable part of the Indian social system. Unlike other social malaises, the impact of corruption increases as one moves down the social ladder. This is evident from the gory picture of our rural heartland that speaks volumes about endemic corruption which hinders its well being. Every year several development projects, worth billions of rupees are rolled-down. But as always a huge fraction of these allocations are siphoned away by a chain of village and block officials.

Absenteeism of doctors coupled with disgraceful and appalling condition of the hospitals have further worsened the scenario of corruption cases in the healthcare industry. As much as 40 per cent of the doctors and nurses remain absent in hospitals in India, according to the report submitted by the inspectors who visit public health centers. The figure is even worse than Bangladesh (absenteeism of medical officers is 35 per cent) or even impoverished African nations like Uganda (with 37 per cent absenteeism). There is hardly any accountability when reasons for absenteeism are sought.

A study in Rajasthan reveals that less than 25 per cent of the medical visits take place in government dispensaries. And so the quacks are omnipresent in rural areas with 41 per cent of medical practitioners are without a valid degree, 20 percent have no proper training, and most astonishingly 17 per cent did not even qualify their secondary level. The economic loss for absenteeism of doctors and nurses makes up for a staggering $1.54 billion. This money otherwise could have been put to some other better use like developing state-of-art health care facilities across the country.

Even NREGA, which is meant for the poor people, is tainted with corruption charges where actually the most deprived doesn't get the job.

Surveys conducted by various social audit firms reveal that the non-poor gets jobs more readily than the down trodden. The low level of literacy among the most deprived makes them susceptible to corruption because of the lack of information available to them. According to the former secretary of Planning Commission, NC Saxena, even when the poor gets the job it is never for 100 days as is prescribed under the Act.

The average work duration under NREGA is 42 days. However, in the fudged roster it is shown that they have worked for the minimum stipulated period as the remaining pay offs are eaten up by the block officials or Panchayat leaders.

According to a survey conducted by Transparency International which covered as many as 20 states, Indians, on an average, spend approximately Rs.21,068 as bribe while availing at least one of the 11 public services under Public Distribution System. Further, even though government claims that ration shops cater to 16 percent of the population in reality supplies to only 10 per cent of the target audience. According to CMC India Corruption Study 2010, almost 29 per cent of the rural populace is forced to pay bribe to avail public services. Be it food or employment, in almost all aspects of the basic livelihood, a rural dweller has to dole out money to avail these services. Most of the time, the money meant for their development is redirected to the coffers of power. Ironically, something that remains a choice for others, albeit, for not so poor ones.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Corruption in healthcare has multifarious social implications

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/19/2012 -- Corruption is one word that has affected the very nervous system of the nation. It has not only affected the economy deeply but has also made the entire social system crippled. Among all, one sector that hits the entire society directly is healthcare, especially after the fact that more than 40 per cent of people are pushed below the poverty line every year due to out-of-pocket health expenditure.

Medical professionals not only inflate medical bills but also prescribe unnecessary medicine and tests in order to make money for the hospital. This was the very reason behind the strike (and resistance) led by insurance companies a few years back. For instance, private doctors conduct the TB antibody test (costing Rs 1500-2000 per tests) that cannot detect active TB just to inflate the medical bills. Even the latest TB policy of the WHO doesn't prescribe such tests.

As per India Corruption Study 2010, around 39 per cent households felt that the level of corruption in hospital services had increased during the last one year. The study also found out that around 8.5 million households paid an amount of Rs 130 crore as bribe to avail hospital services like getting medicines, get examined as an out-patient and diagnostic services during the last one year. Another media sources revealed that corruption in government hospitals cost India more than Rs 2000 crore per year.

Government hospitals are in dire need of essential medicines and vaccines which are in short supply, to say the least. In UP, there is a considerable shortfall of antirabies vaccines even in prestigious hospitals. More so, there is absolute dearth of antibiotics and ARV in the hospitals of UP and other poor states. A new medicine supply contract, that portends health directorate officials to purchase the medicines and supply it to district hospitals as per demand, corroborated this mess. Additionally, the widespread usage and prevalence of counterfeit drugs further worsen the scenario. In the same light, International Policy Network in 2009 revealed that lack of effective regulatory system, market controls and widespread corruption are the main reasons behind the availability of fake drugs in India and China.

To top it all, whatever medicines are allocated for the various health schemes and government hospitals do not reach the end consumer due to rampant stealing of drugs. Delhi police had discovered medicines with the tag of 'Supply for Government of NCT of Delhi, Not for sale' and 'MCD supply, Not for Sale' worth Rs 60 lakh from two pharmacists, including the head pharmacist of Hedgewar Hospital, in April last year. In an another incident, a month back, Delhi Police arrested seven medical staffs who were involved in an organised racket of siphoning off medicines, worth around Rs 30 lakhs, from Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and selling it in the open market.

The series of medical scandals are still thriving because of existing nexus between corrupt medical professionals and bureaucrats. The involvement of bureaucrats and politicians in Kidney racket and organ trade are case in point. On the hindsight, corruption in healthcare may look discreet but is actually funded and facilitated through opaque red-tapism and corrupt bureaucracy. This is one sector which should have been the lifeline of millions, is today deemed as blood-sucking parasite that is surviving at the cost of million lives.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

This very right needs to be constitutionally enforced

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/12/2012 -- Fulfilling the basic housing need of hundreds of thousands of Indian citizens still seems to be a distant dream. In the backdrop of ultra-luxury homes and high lifestyle living, India, unfortunately, still has 85-90 million people who have nothing that qualify as housing. A report by the 11th five year plan working group states that India suffers with housing shortage of 140 lakh units. We, as a nation, still have not been able to provide decent housing to more than half of the population thus robbing an opportunity of proper growth and decent living environment.

Many nations have 'right to adequate housing' in their constitution but ironically India doesn't define it as a fundamental right and is only interpreted under Article 21 of the Constitution that guarantees protection of life and personal property. Rajasthan is the only state which has policies that clearly affirms the right to housing as a basic human right. At the national policy level, we still lack comprehensive policies towards right to housing and none of the newly laid plans are holistic in nature. Moreover, the programs such as Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy (NUHHP) and various other state housing policies are littered with corruption and red-tapism. Most of the residential projects under these schemes suffer from either cost overrun or time overrun or, as in most of the cases, suffer from both. Even if a few projects get completed, they are sold at much higher prices or else are put on rent by poor people at higher prices. Since, there are rarely any checks after allocations; most of these flats later get encroached by the local land sharks and conniving brokers. The lobbying and scam have reached to an extent that even auctioning (or lottery) of affordable housing for poor people are manipulated and are sold to real estate property dealers behind the veil through hoax allocations.

There are plenty of instances globally to showcase the importance of a well defined law towards ensuring right to housing. Sweden has made it mandatory for local municipalities to provide a home to everyone while the Cuban government has schemes on low-cost housing for poor.

Singapore has also chalked out the Housing and Development Board which will focus on clearing the slums and resettling the dwellers into low-cost state built housing. Similarly, France rolled out its HLM project which is fundamentally rent controlled housing and is being used by more than 20 per cent of the French citizens. Following the same lines, countries like Canada, Hong Kong, China and many others have introduced norms of providing subsidised housing to first-time buyers.

A constitutionally enforced housing law in India will not only bring about the much needed social revolution but will also burst the artificially created real estate shortage. All this will not only deter officials from selling subsidised lands and flats to property sharks but would also bring down property prices to realistic as well as affordable levels. The law must also force the government to keep aside a part of budgetary allocations for repair and construction of state controlled rented apartments. On the hindsight, this very right seems discreet but then right to housing will make all the other fundamental rights more credible. No rights, be it the right to life or the right to education, can reach its culmination without a proper shelter.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2012 -- India's booming economy which is considered one of the fastest growing in the world demands better performance in transportation, especially when it comes to the case of gigantic sloth of Indian Railways (IR)! The behemoth public sector enterprise runs more than 18,000 trains daily and is comfortably one of the biggest rail networks in the world. However, it is yet to economise on the concept of modernisation and automation. In order to make the system more efficient, most of the nations across the world have privatised their mass transportation system. Undoubtedly, a better experience of travelling and transport can only be achieved by private participation and eventually it will also enhance the bottomline that has been looming at $48 billion as of 2009.

IR currently suffers from dearth of resources. Sadly, the infrastructure and manufacturing capacity available to IR is never enough to meet the increasing demand of locomotives and wagons! Nor does India stand a chance to meet the international safety standards, efficiencies and finesse of the railway services of Europe and North America! The service efficiency post-privatisation in aviation sector should be replicated by IR for better management. The main chasm between the promise and the delivery is created by the monopoly of IR. Undeniably, competition in Europe has enhanced railway services there in abound. In India, it is astonishing to note that even manufacturing of rolling stocks cannot be sourced through private sector and remains largely a monopoly of IR!

Even though, the private investment is largely blocked in Indian Railways, there are some recent news of limited private participation that presages the silver lining to the otherwise dissolute picture! A PPP model Rajdhani Express branded as 'Airtel Rajdhani Express' has started its operation between Bangalore and Delhi. Expectedly, the train features additional and better passenger amenities that include round-the-clock housekeeping operations. Apart, there is widespread private investment in most of the Metro operations (including Delhi & Mumbai metro) in the country that subsumes engine and coach manufacturing and infrastructure upgradation. The investment has come not only from domestic private companies but also from multinational corporations too.

Private participation is must for IR to eclipse the efficiencies of the Western countries. In West too, the private involvement was forced to be factored into the system as governments were unable to bear the cost! As a result, there was a stark improvement in consumer service, complimented by reduction in subsidy. In US, the system was deregulated and vertically integrated resulting in a paradigm shift to its efficiency in operations. It is a great exemplar of how even the developed countries couldn't run the railways successfully and had to be finally privatised!

There is only one flip side to the privatisation of railways in India – and probably the most important one i.e., subsidised fares. In order to keep IR affordable for the lower strata of the society (post privatisation), the government must offer subsidies and tax incentives to companies that would provide low cost services, similar to low cost airlines, to these very pocket of population. This in the long run would not only make IR the largest but also the most efficient railway network in the World along with materialising the very objective and essence of Indian Railways — 'Lifeline to the Nation...'

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ECONOMIST, professor, writer Arindam Chaudhuri, 40, has concluded his selfhelp series on management. Sitting cosily in a brilliant blue office smacking of success, Chaudhuri talks to Janani Ganesan about his latest book Cult that he has co-authored with A Sandeep, strategic management professor at IIPM

New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/14/2011 -- What is Cult about?

It is for the CEOs. Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch was the first book on management. Thorns to Competition was the second one for mid-level managers. Cult completes the tool kit. I call it leadership and business strategy ruthlessly redefined. At this level, goody-goody things don't work.

So if one reads all the three books, are they likely to become successful leaders?

I wrote believing that people will benefit. Not to fool them.

The cover page of Cult reads: "Fire the guy who suggests CSR, don't have a woman CEO, and don't invest in R&D". Could you explain this?

We have redefined 36 key issues that CEOs have to face. Women can be good CEOs, but research shows that announ cing a woman CEO has led to 664 percent more stock market price erosion than announcing a male CEO. This book is from a shareholder's wealth maximisation perspective. It has nothing to do with what I personally think. Women do better in targetled roles. But at a CEO level, it is open-ended. It is not a nine-to-five job and women have many other responsibilities. As for CSR, many companies worldwide have started dumping it. It erodes profits and shareholders' wealth. Do CSR only for publicity. It is the government's job to do good for the society. What a businessman can do is create more jobs. As for R&D, companies that invest the most in R&D get the least returns.

So why do management books sell like hot cakes?

Because there are a lot of individuals who feel like they haven't achieved much.

People don't like to be preached to. What is the tone that you adopt in your books?

I use a lot of examples. I don't say anything directly.

Is there any Indian author that you like?

Indians don't write. Only semi-successful people write books. A multibillionaire never does, nor does he allow anybody else to write on him.

Have you read Suhel Seth's Get To The Top?
No.

How did you manage to write at this pace? Thorns to Competition came out just three months ago.
I have been writing these books for a few years now. I write books simultaneously.

What is your take on India's FDI policy?

It is inevitable. India chose the FDI route. There are countries which did not go this route, like South Korea. Twenty years ago, we had a choice. We could have decided to make Indian products world class and then open up the market. But now, let's capture the Indian market first and beat Wal-Mart at their game. Once someone pointed out that in the Forbes list of billionaires, there are many Indians, but in the Fortune list of 100 top brands, there is not one Indian brand. He asked me, "How do you guys become billionaires without making brands?" Nincompoops have become billionaires here, and if Wal- Mart beats them, I will be happy. Indian companies don't understand marketing or branding. They only understand bribing.

You are a fan of Ernesto Che Guevara, but you still embrace the corporate life and promote it. Isn't there a clash?

Corporations are ruling our lives, and I am a part of that. While my previous book explains how to survive in the corporate jungle, it also says that we need to be aware that we are forced to function as irrational beings.

Janani Ganesan is a Trainee Correspondent with Tehelka.
janani@tehelka.com

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New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/13/2011 -- Arindam Chaudhuri is back with another book, this time with a long-time friend A Sandeep.

Titled Cult, it's a leadership and strategy book that will be launched in London by the famous venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki.

The 450-pager tries to decimate currently held notions on strategy and leadership at the top level, and presents new global theories on how to build and manage trans-national corporations.

The authors have brought together a mix of their personal experiences, and, as Arindam Chaudhuri says, "management lessons that might not necessarily sound good; but those that necessarily work."

The book, targeted at the CEOs is the final part of Arindam's management trilogy after "Count your chickens before they hatch", which was at an individual's level, and "Thorns to competition", which was at the business heads level, is broken into two sections: the first on leadership and the second on strategy.

A chapter on vision beseeches CEOs to map overarching targets beyond what is possible, saying it's not what the CEO's vision is, but what the CEO makes his followers believe in that matters.

The authors try to show how the best performing global CEOs are moderate risk takers, passionate multi-taskers, who believe in sustained sincerity, recruiting youth, and who make no qualms about firing non-performing (or even unhealthy) personnel.

All this is not without its controversial bits, with the authors providing gruelling number crunched evidence that women, while being great managers (better than male managers even in high-stress jobs) are more injurious to shareholders' wealth than men if they were to be promoted as CEOs.

If the first section was unequivocally radical, the second section trapezes into the brazen realm of extremely critical research based analysis about which CEO strategies work and which don't.

The upshot: globalisation (do it!), diversification (do it!), advertising (do it!), R&D (don't do it!), Six Sigma (don't do it!), first movers' advantage (don't take it!), controversies (go public with them!), public equity (don't take it!), M&As (never try that out!), CSR (never be forced into this!), China (you aren't still there?!)

The second section teaches CEOs on how to use recession "to beat the pants off your competition, among other things.

This book is not for management newbies, but aimed at the very rarefied world of chief executive officers.

The authors tell CEOs if they've got a brilliant strategy that's worked great all these years, then it's quite clear that they've never had the intent to test out strategies that could have worked out greater and more brilliantly.

In essence, they ask them to distrust every profitable move, question every achievement, investigate every tested plan so as to develop the character an extraordinary Cult of gentlemen - "those calling the shots without getting shot".

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New Delhi, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/12/2011 -- As I sit down on the eve of my 40th birthday to write this editorial, I couldn't have thought of writing on a more important aspect – as great political leadership is what India requires more than anything else today. And though I have written considerably on leadership, it has mainly been about corporate leadership. Leadership in corporations is massively different from political leadership, and therefore it requires a special model and a special line of thinking. While in corporations the final aim is profit maximization in most cases, in politics the final objective is necessarily social welfare maximization. While in corporations the best leaders are often the best marketing guys, in politics the best leaders necessarily have to be the people who are the sincerest and most hard working. While in business you can make do without the knowledge of economics, in politics that can be suicidal. While in business being unethical can harm you and at most your stake holders, in politics the lack of ethics ruins an entire nation's future. And most importantly, while in corporations leadership is about commitment to the strongest and survival of the fittest, in political leadership, the focus always is about commitment to the weakest and survival of the weakest – concepts about which I wrote a few issues back in Business & Economy (a Planman Media group publication), when I wrote about responsible leadership (please do log on to our website and check out the link for the same: http://www.businessandeconomy.org/27102011/storyd.asp?sid=6462&pageno=1). Thus, for me, political leadership is not just about having certain qualities but also simultaneously about not having various qualities. Rather, what is important is to ensure that one does not possess certain specific qualities first; if that is taken care of, the rest would then automatically fall in place.

Keeping all the above in mind, I believe the model of the 7 winning virtues of political leadership (viz Credibility, Compassion, Clairvoyance, Camaraderie, Commitment, Charisma and Competence) that I have developed is most suited for Politicians in general and Indian politicians in particular, keeping in mind the spate of massive corruption scandals of late! So what is so special about these 7 Cs of leadership that has not been read before? After all, is it not just another word play?

Well, the difference in this model and any other such model is that in this model, each element or virtue is actually the opposite of one of the 7 sins of life – the seven deadly sins that we are supposed to avoid; to a large extent, as normal human beings and to an almost extreme extent, as a political leader! The seven sins originally are Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy, Lust, Pride and Wrath! So how are these related, you must be wondering! Let's go one by one!

The first sin that a leader must avoid is that of greed. This is what seems to be the biggest problem with political leaders in India. Greed. The reason behind all the lack of development in India at the cost of swelling Swiss bank accounts. Every politician looks at politics as a source of making quick money at the cost of the nation. And thus, instead of looking at the Commonwealth Games as a brilliant chance to develop the nation and its sports facilities – the way China looked at Olympics – they looked at the games as an opportunity to create a massive scam and looted the nation shamefully. So instead of looking at telecommunications as a big chance of taking the country towards better development, our leaders looked at it as a chance to loot and plunder. And this is where my first C of leadership gains importance. The virtue of credibility! Instead of greed, and dishonesty, political leadership is about credibility. That's what defines a political leader's true character. Once you lose credibility, you can still continue thanks to various reasons, but with no respect. That's what most Indian politicians today suffer: the problem of credibility.

The second sin every politician needs to avoid is gluttony – the attitude of trying to gulp down everything by themselves, to eat, drink and make merry to satisfy their own bodily needs while millions of people die of hunger and lack of access to clean water. A political leader needs to be least bothered about good food and drinks for himself and instead should be thinking about how to give access to his people. One look at our unfit political leaders and their waist size will give an idea where their focus lies. That's the shame we need to avoid. For real leadership was never about gluttony, but about the next C of leadership – Compassion. It's the virtue of compassion for the hungry, malnutritioned that can make a great political leader forget about his own food and drink and fight for his people the way Mahatma Gandhi did.

The next sin a leader must avoid is the sin of sloth. Sloth is being spiritually and emotionally apathetic and being physically and emotionally inactive. That is what defines most of our politicians. Instead of actively thinking and planning for the future, they are inactive and lethargic. Their lack of any urge to do good for people makes them commit the sin of sloth. What they need in place of that is vision – a strong vision that can take the country forward. They need to be on the move. They need to be so active that they should almost possess the virtue of clairvoyance – the next C in my theory. They need to have the ability to visualize the future and take the country towards that vision. That's what great leaders are made of.

The fourth sin that leaders must avoid is envy. It's one thing that takes them down faster than anything else. They need to stop envying their colleagues, their opposition and anyone around. Envy in politics, leads to politics the way we know it: The game of pulling each other down instead of supporting each other for a common cause. Today we have political leaders who know that FDI in retail is an inevitable truth. But they are envious of other leaders who might walk away with the credit; so they don't let the policy pass though it might be good for their own people. It brings us to the next C – the virtue of camaraderie. That's what a leader, especially a political leader, needs to have. That's the way you take people along. That's the way you take colleagues along. And that's the way you take the opposition along; instead of trying to enviously pull everyone down and in effect pull the country down.

The fifth sin to avoid is the sin of lust. In its actual sense, it refers to the way politicians of late have been doing things – from threats to hide their lust filled deeds to even murders. First, they can't control their lust for women and they rampantly do the most unethical things; in effect, promoting what they were supposed to stop – prostitution. Then to cover up their deeds, they go to further extremes. And it's not just about sex, crimes around which are rising rampantly, but lust for a better life too that they need to control. Lust is always invariably anti people. It's the most non committed way of approaching any relationship , be it with a woman or your countrymen. Instead of lust, they need to develop the virtue of commitment – the next C. Commitment is what differentiates an act from being right and wrong.

The sixth sin that political leaders need to avoid is the sin of pride! It's shameful that instead of having the next C – the virtue of charisma – politicians develop pride. It's the reason for their fall. It's pride which leads them to believe they are invincible and they can get away with everything. It's pride that makes them take their people for granted and stop working. It's pride that makes them ignore what people say and believe their own yes-men. It's pride that destroys every politician eventually. The ones who never let it touch them are the ones who survive. They listen to their people and come down from their high pedestals. They have the natural charisma! Charisma brings them closer to their people. It brings them popularity and it takes them up. Pride takes them away from people, gives them negative publicity and pulls them down. So charisma is what political leaders need to develop instead of pride!

And that brings us to the final deadly sin that every political leader, much like they say in most religions, should avoid. The sin of wrath. As political leaders, they must realize that wrath is a waste of time. It destroys. Not just the person on whom you want to take out anger, but it also destroys yourself. Wrath is what the incompetent possess. The ones who are not confident of their own skills use wrath to try and destroy others. Those who are confident of their own competence – the virtue that represents the final C – would never use wrath. They would rather use their own competence to win the battle. They are not bothered about destroying others or focusing energies on negativity. They keep doing their work with their own competence and win the war.

That, my friends, is what political leadership all about – avoiding the 7 keys sins that most religions also talk about, and instead developing the seven winning virtues, or the 7Cs, to lead their countries towards a better future. That's what great leaders like Gandhi, Mao Tse Tung, Fidel Castro, George Washington, Lenin, Nelson Mandela and Che Guevara were all about. Their lives are a lesson in avoiding the 7 deadly sins and delivering on the 7 winning virtues! May a day come when Indian leaders are full of these 7 virtues and devoid of the 7 sins!

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