Employment 4 all by 2010........

At a recent press meet, the Economic Adviser, to Prime Minister, Mr. Rangarajan said “A study that I have done shows that by 2010, the labour force and the work force will almost be equal in the sense that there will be no unemployment even assuming a growth rate of 8 per cent. In fact the economy will grow at a higher rate than this. Therefore the question that remains is not so much of quantity employment as the quality and this will depend on improving the total factory productivity both in agriculture and unorganised sector”.
Isn’t this interesting?? While most economists are trying to predict the year in which India will outshine America and eventually China to become a world leader, here comes a prediction that’s quite meaningful and brings in a ray of hope to all the budding Indians who are worried about the increasing competition to enter the corporate world since they are busy cooking sweet and sour.
I truly pray that the unemployment issue gets sorted out at the earliest; because it will indeed help solving many other problems in the country like poverty, child labour, exploitation, and will also help in bridging the big gap between the rich and the poor. It will also reduce the crime rate, and help in the social and economic development of all parts of the country. Remember, every fourth poor person is an Indian. So once employment is generated to all and then their wages start growing, we can minimize the number of people below poverty line and bring in prosperity to all.
Even then we need to be cautious and make sure that this supply-demand ratio for man-power is well maintained. Population should be kept under check and the growth of industry, services and agriculture should constantly open more doors for employment.
But hang on! Doesn't all this ring a bell?? I can still hear echoes of "India Shining” campaign by the NDA government. So I am keeping my fingers crossed and hope this too doesn’t turn out to be mere election propaganda for the parliamentary elections. Hope the prediction does come true and all of Indian truly Shines!!

The land of the poor :-(

“Jobs arrived in India barefoot and threadbare. This is how he chose to dress, as an expression of a specific ideal or aesthetic. In India he was confronted for the first time with people who were poor – not the way California hippies were poor, by choice, but poor by fate. It was an eye-opener for him. The complete contrast with the material comforts of American life was intense and shocking, and it challenged everything he thought he knew up to that moment.”
The above is an excerpt from the book iCon by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon. The book is about Steve Jobs, the man behind the company which challenged the way people thought and gave them things beyond their imagining, Apple. He came to India much earlier than he became the man the world recognizes today, in search of peace, in search of true knowledge, in search of his ‘guru’. It has been many years since then. Governments have changed, people have become more ‘educated’, industries have been flourishing; money has been flowing now in India like never before. Today the world talks about Ambanis and Mittals and the world of technology has had the Indian impact in the western world which even Jobs recognizes today.
So, what would be the picture in front of Steve Jobs if he happened to visit India in the near future? He would perhaps land on the Mumbai airport, his plane caressing the world’s largest slum, Dharavi. He would then be escorted to his hotel and along the roads would notice small children thrust into begging. As a face of the technology world, he may want to visit the mecca of Indian technology, Bangalore. He better choose either to go on a chopper or make a trip at the time of a public holiday else the traffic would kill the good old man! And ironically, these are just the few of the ‘best’ places that any visitor to India may want to see. The Himalayas and the other tourist attractions are replete with so much commotion nowadays that the ‘firangis’ are easily baffled.
Today we may be able to boast of some of the richest men of the world belonging to India, but the fact remains that poverty is not abating. The number of people living below the poverty line is increasing by the hour. ‘Every fourth poor is an Indian’ has become a cliché (and is sadly true). Diseases like AIDS, cancer are engulfing the urban and rural alike and we still feel ashamed to discuss sex in front of our children while make no fuss about the tobacco that we smoke even with little children at home. Beggary is a bigger ‘industry’ than 'khadi'. The money is indeed flowing into our economy and India is getting rich but the percolation of this huge wealth is not yet happening. Add to these the troubled borders of India. Surrounded by arch rivals, petty beggars, infiltrators, have-nots, politically unstable nations and those that have a long history of stabbing on the back, India is indeed not in the situation which most of the European nations enjoy (with all of them surging forward competitively). Add to this our internal security threats and civil agitations like the ‘gujjar’ uproar recently. Sadly for India, though a lot of positive things are happening, we still are years behind the true independence that every human being dreams of; the true happiness is still elusive.

India Shinning??

Yesterday while I was reading an old article by Tarun Khanna Professor, Harvard Business School, I messaged Prasoon that our country’s growth is not be propelled by the rich Indian diaspora as it is in the case of the Chinese and though the eminent author expected our country to follow the same.. Its rather the frontline Indian conglomerates who are leading from the front in the race to go truly global.. And now number of Indian companies in different sectors, like the software, mining, renewable energy, oil and gas are investing heavily and acquiring firms to break into the top few in their field.. Once I messaged him all these (for people who are wondering how I could messages so many things, well thanks to Airtel as it provided free sms service here in TN circle) I went on feeling happy that our companies proved the Harvard Professor wrong and very soon the TATA Steel will be among the top 3, TCS into top 10, SUZLON and HINDALCO into top 3 and so on.. without much favour from the people of Indian origin settled in various parts of the globe.. And within a decade we will overtake the Japanese and emerge as the 3rd largest economy in the world.
But all my happiness got lost the moment he replied “Dude but our country is still very poor. I saw a picture of a begger on the front page of Hindustan Times, drinking water from a roadside puddle.. while we celebrate the success of the corporate there is a vast population who are still unaffected by these success”.. His next message said “I want to eradicate poverty.. I know its very tuff.. But it is possible”..
I was totally moved by his words and his observation.. for the moment I replied that “Our generation has been awakened and new and better politicians and bureaucrats will evolve and things will improve soon..
But then I couldn’t stop thinking over the issue.. I noted a very shocking statistics every fourth poor person in the world is an Indian..
I heard many foreigners travelling to India saying that the one thing the recognises here is the big division between the rich and the poor in the country.. But I never expected it to be such a serious issue and just assumed that these things are common in all countries and just because of our excessive investment in arms and ammunition due to the unrest across our borders since independence, we are not able to address the issue well.
Now I feel its as if we have two Indias existing simultaneously.. While the rich are getting richer and getting good support by the government, the poor are getting poorer and been deprived of the small benefits the governments in trying to provided them. It so shameful that billionaires like Bachchans are occupying farmlands calling themselves farmers..
The states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh which are home to cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad trying to prove themselves as world-class and comparing themselves with Shanghai.. these are the same states which have the highest farmer suicide rates.
And though Indian GDP is growing at a healthy rate of close to 9 since we entered the 21st century problems states with large populations like Bihar, UP and MP are not well attended.. also the north-eastern states are yet to get their due share..
Quite a number of people from these states have done remarkable things and made the entire country proud and everyone knows each others capabilities but still these people are associated with paan marks and milk traders.
So for the country to really grow, development show benefit all parts of it.. no state should be treated with step mother attitude.. And the politicians should realised their duties and responsibilities and concentrate on improving the conditions of people of their region rather then his monetary gains..
The government should stick to its election propaganda and work for the aam admi and gareeb admi.. they need more support now and even they are the ones who are more loyal and will vote for the party during the elections..
The finance ministry wasn’t as much bother by the rise in the inflation as its now due to the rise in the value of Rupee over the dollar which is a big loss for the exporters..
I don’t blame the government’s quest to attract greater FDI and its investment in proving the infrastructure and other plans but the only thing that would make it complete is that all the plans should be inclusive of benefits to poor and needy.
And I am not calling for eliminating poverty to a perfect zero but the percentage could be well brought down to single digit as in most other developing countries compared to ours which close to 25%.
And then I was thinking how interested and dedicated people like Prasoon could help in this font without joining politics and the best example that comes to mind is none other than the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank.. his model might help in eliminating poverty to a certain extent.. we had similar success in the form of women self-help groups in Andhra Pradesh, milk producers of Anand, and the SEWA women, to mention a few.
Our people need financial help and quite a lot of moral support to be bold and try out their own venture with assistance from banks.. most Indian are conservative in nature and are little nervous and not aggressive in nature to try out of their own something different and innovative though we are very capable of..
Yes indeed I am very hopeful that our country will fight poverty and will indeed be a perfect world leader in future..