Today's Politician : Marketeer or Social Reformer

Some say,
'Raajneeti means- Bas Raaj Karo, koi Neeti nahi'

Well, Netas have a fool-proof Neeti.

Neeti - NOT on how to better the lives of citizens in their constituency, but on, how to keep selling their political ambitions to the voters.

Marketing has been seeping through Political mansions since India attained freedom. In fact even before that during the freedom struggle,  politicians had carved out their niche positions, with Jinna opting to focus his politics on Muslim diaspora and Nehru on the rest.
Today, to keep winning elections, politicians majorly concentrate on the 2 generic (Michael Porter's) strategies, notably :
-Mass marketing to a broad segment of population (which our national parties such as Congress and BJP do)
-Focused marketing to a narrow segment of population (which our Regional Parties such as DMK,NCP, Shivsena etc. do)

And in pursuing this, they keep discovering new baits, to trap their Target Market Segment (voters), each time the election comes. Just the way companies offer Diwali-discounts to customers, these politicians distribute television sets to poor, cycles to school children before Elections.

When companies dole out discounts to their customers, they start price wars. Quality takes a back seat. Same has been the fate of Politics too, it is increasingly becoming more of a commodity. As the 5 year term approaches to an end, politicians draw plans on how to draw voters near them. Just the way, marketeers devise strategies on how to gain market share, politicians too, resort to all gimmicks. to capture maximum market share.

Marketing at play in the History of Indian Politics:

Peeping back into the history,Congress was in monopoly, that led the nation to freedom. Just then , Muslim League parted ways by creating a new market 'Pakistan', the same way as, companies such as Hindustan Lever create new markets to sell their soaps & detergents.

Congress was the tent-pole (as we say in marketing) of Indian Politics, under which varieties of values,culture and ideologies thrived and it encompassed the Rich & the Poor, the Industrialists & the Trade union socialists.
But then each product has a Life cycle, as it travels across Development, Growth, Maturity & Decline stages. And post that the process of Segmentation begins....

Congress too, had come of age. Indira Gandhi made the 1st major split in the Congress. During the days of  Emergency, Jan Sangh came into picture and later got transformed into BJP. Later on, Congress witnessed further fragmentation in the form of Sharad Pawar's NCP and Didi's Trinamool Congress. At BJP, too there was a split , with Uma Bharati's Bharatiya Jan Shakti. And parallely, regional segmentation brought about Chandra Babu Naidu's TDP, Lalu's RJD, Jaya Lalitha's AIADMK, Mulayam's SP, Mayawati's BSP and many more..

Too many competitors within a limited market space.... drives the players towards Differentiation.

In Strategy lessons, its said that 'when the Concentration-Ratio (the sum total of Markets shares of top significant competitors) in the market reduces the monopoly diminishes.
The best strategy then is to merge with key players so that each party in the merger benefits due to a consolidated chunk of the market. The way Petrol and Automobile complement each other, imagine what if, all the Petroleum companies start venturing into Automobile manufacturing and vice versa. There would be a utter chaos and a total loss, just what's happening in the Indian Aviation sector now..

This is the age of alliances and Joint-ventures as resources are scarce and competition is harsh.Politics too is treading the similar path. National political parties form coalition with regional parties and run the government through a Common Minumum Programme.

So, Social development has taken a back seat at the moment..what lays ahead on the road is for all of us to see... Who knows tomorrow there would be a separate Brand Modi .. Whatever the case maybe, the marketing gimmicks will keep on going.

Aqua-nomy : Visualising 'Water' through Strategic Lens

Newton in his 3rd law states that - 'For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction'.

We apply this law in every facet of human advancement but when it comes to nature we just seem to forget the essence of it.
Take the instance of 'water usage'. Water is the most important, most under-priced, most undervalued and easily accessible, of all the natural resources we have on planet 'Earth'. Since it is available in plenty, we have been unlimitedly exploiting it. So much so that, in our part of the world we seem to pay the due reverence to the 'Jal Devta' and 'Godess Ganga' only during Worships.

We are using water at a rate higher than its rate of replenishment. Our Industries don't hesitate to draw water from dams recklessly. Our farmers don't refrain from switching on the gen-set because power to them is absolutely free, diesel to them comes subsidized and there is no tax on drawing water from underground. Our urban citizens too don't really pay the real price of water. But this 'marginal gain' at one side is offset by the similar or in fact higher 'marginal losses' at the other side. The oil subsidy bill is one such example, that comprise costs accruing due to sheer extravagant usage of water and in turn ramps up the oil consumption.

Kids in our schools are taught that water is a renewable resource. But water is seemingly, getting finite. It's sources such as polar caps and glaciers are melting day by day. The excessive, unwarranted and free usage of water is making us pay that cost of water some-where else.

So, the question is that where then does the common man  pay the cost of water?  Well we pay the price of water on :

Vegetables and Fruits Prices 
Courtesy poor monsoon, the water is procured from underground water table using pumps. Consequently, due to declining water table, farmers need to dig deeper and water is pumped from deep inside earth. This increases energy consumption per hectare for the farmers and hence increases the cost to the farmer which in turn is passed on to the end consumer when the consumer purchases food grains, vegetables and fruits etc...

Electricity Costs
Due to rising demand of water and receding water tables , water is transported from far-off places to the water starved localities. This long distance transportaion through pipelines soaks up lot of energy , which could have been used for some better purposes. Hence causing the electricity shortage .

Crude Oil Prices 
As we need more and more crops to feed our burgeoning population , we need more energy to draw water for our agriculture, consequently we need more oil . In a way, agriculture is converting oil into food. Urban consumers too rely on oil for water. Most cities are transporting water from far off sources. Electric generator sets, backed by diesel ones, pump water to the end consumers at a price that is rising with each hike in energy tariffs.
Water that trickles from our tap every morning has a high correlation with the crude oil docking at port.

Government Subsidies 
Due to erratic monsoon , the farm output decreases. This leads to lower contribution of agriculture to the GDP, consequently pulling down the overall GDP. Which pushes government to take some measures to instill confidence in the market, thereby it spends more of its tax collected in providing relief to farmers rather than investing in infrastructure and other employment generating opportunities.

Reduced Exports
Agriculture in India contributes over 10% to the national exports. Over drawing of water and unpredictable monsoon leads to imbalance in the water supply needed for agriculture and impacts the farm produce. Thus paucity of water impacts the agriculture production, and hence the exports, which ultimately impacts our Balance of payment.


What can be done therefore, to increase the SUPPLY of water?
Our industries suck up more than 50% of water from dams. So they need to lead the show, by consuming water economically. Our Government can help by rectifying leaking pipelines, using treated waste water for agriculture and industry, more fuel-efficient gen-sets. Our farmers can do their bit, by responsibly drawing water for their land and our urban population can assist by resorting to civilized usage of tap water.

Need of the hour is that we build as many Desalination (a technology which converts sea water into drinking water) Plants we can, along the coastal belts, that we are blessed with. More projects such as that in Minjur (Tamilnadu) or the upcoming one at Dahej (Gujarat), needs to be created on war level, so that more sweet water can be made available to industrial use.Middle east countries are mitigating their water crisis by investing in desalination. Today, Saudi Arabia uses 85% of water from the desalinated plants for the purpose of  irrigation.

On legislature front, requisite Water Policies should be rolled out of the parliament , which guides the consumers on its usage and price etc..

After all Water is Life. And we are playing with it......  Aren't we?

Can IT reduce our Fiscal Deficit?

The Fisc-balance

This piece of thought refers to 'What is Fiscal Sense' (Economic Times,Oct 01).

Last week, Kelkar Commitee on Fiscal Consolidation said that 'The Indian Economy is presently poised on the edge of a Fiscal Precipice'.

It also prescribed few medicines to the said illness - slew of measures, government must execute, to improve the GDP growth and better the health, of the economy.
Now, as we know, the metrices of GDP, are tracked by a 'tiny' equation:
Y=C+I+G+X-M
(where , Y: Nation's GDP, C: Consumption Expenditure, I: Investment Expenditure, G: Government Expenditure, X: Exports, M : Imports.)
At the outset, it's fair to acknowledge --  that we can balance the weakening GDP by - reducing subsidies, increasing Government expenditures (in infrastructure and other investments), streamlining tax policies (in order to collect taxes from wider population), motivating consumers to spend more, improving our Forex reserves (by ramping up Exports) and so on...But where emphasis is required most, is on -- "execution".

After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Information technology can play a very crucial role here, in improving our execution capabilities. Government is not able to reach to wider sections of population to collect taxes. Only around 2% of folks pay taxes. Whatever little money this may amount to, Government uses portion of these taxes for nation building. But then, not all of money reaches the other end of the supply chain. Lots of public money gets wasted during the national production cycle. Historically, indian Public Distribution System (PDS) has been performing more like the Power Transmission companies. Just the way much of the Electric power generated, gets lost in transmission, the same way much of the public money is siphoned of during the distribution process.

We need to plug these leakages, to reduce Fiscal Deficit.

There is this urgent need, to implement Electronic Payments for all the Government Transactions. This will reduce the cash usage in the economy. Which in turn will enhance transparency & accountability and reduce corruption. It would be possible for the Government to do a hands on analysis of its Fiscal balance by predicting and collecting revenues on one hand and managing expenditures on the other hand. Also it would help the government improve its PDS process and in running its flagship schemes such as MGNREGA effectively.

'Aadhar' can be an important vehicle, through which these government transactions can be routed.

Stitching The Economy

                          

This refers to 'PC to Banks: Loosen Up Please'(Economic Times, Aug 19).

Mr. Chidambaram's instructions to PSUs - to cut PLR and to mobilse money through ATMs should be greatly welcomed.This would be a marked departure and a significant change, from the air of negativity that we have been breathing through the couple of months.

Following the PSUs, host of major Private Banks are bound to slash Loan rates and increase Deposit rates. Increased mobilization of money through Deposit route and Disbursal through Loan route would give the wheel of economy, much needed gyration.But under rising Inflation rate and declining Per Capita Purchasing power, the needed investment momentum cannot be sustained alone from Metro disapora. Banks need to tap villages. 
Hence one major agenda on the block would be, 'to Bank the Unbanked'. This is no more a subject of Financial Inclusion. Rather it makes an economic sense for the banks to cater to the semi-urban and rural segment due to their dominance in the population share and improving life style, owing to multiple rural schemes one them being MNREGA. Government additionally needs to provide some effective rural incentives to Banks (just as it did for industries in last few decades by setting up SEZs and giving exciting tax rebates) to ensure consistent and sustained efforts towards expansion into Rural Markets. So that banks go furthur from just Microfinance and Mobile-Banking.

That's an area Mr.FM would have to work on, apart from telling banks to double up ATMs and to setup cash collection machines.

The Tragic Tale of Two Hydrocarbons

Oil Bleeds

This refers to 'Indian Oil rakes up Historic Loss' (ET, Aug 10). Its a Perfect case of - Political paralysis leading to Petroleum paralysis.With such a staggering loss to both - the Oil marketing companies (OMC's)  as well as the ex-chequer, i think it is high time, to free petroleum prices.It actually makes little sense to collect high indirect taxes from the OMC's and then return it to them as subsidies. Government logic is that -- it is forced to sell petroleum products below  market rate only to protect the common man from volatility in international crude oil and product prices. But the fact is that these oil subsidies to OMC's are the taxpayers' money . About 70 per cent of agricultural land is monsoon-dependent. Due to erratic  monsoon, the diesel consumption has surged. An appropriate alternative would be deregulation of diesel  without sacrificing revenues, and abolish the direct subsidies.

The Coal Currency

 This refers to 'Corruption in Coal' (ET, Aug 7). In a sense, coal has become the new currency of Indian Rajneeti. Earlier, Mining Mafias entered  Politics to safeguard their coal interests, but now it's the other way. The supply-side constraint on coal created due to- mushrooming power plants, increased unauthorized extraction of coal and high tariffs while importing, has led to supply-demand mismatch. It's high time, Nuclear deal gets operationalized. It would cut down our dependency on coal, reduce political corruption. And eventually, increased power availability would boast growth in primary and secondary sectors, furthur strengthening our GDP.

Political Alternative - by Team Anna

Many of my wise & learned friends are relating Anna Hazare's current crusade against corrpution as a camera gimmick. I somehow am not able to purchase their argument.
I had witnessed the event at Jantar Mantar, the day before. It shouldn't be called an event rather, it was a history-in-making. That day as Anna broke his fast while citing the present plebiscite of a necessary political
alternative, there was a huge applause. I could feel the vibrations of the thundering noise emanating from all corners. I could see the ray of a new hope among the masses witnessing the event. Unprecedented crowds, Muslims and Hindus, Rich and the Poor... everyone was present to witness the scene when Ex-Army Chief General V.K. Singh was helping Ex-Sepoy Kisan Hazare with a glass of water. The crowd so unprecedented, that even cameras could not capture.
I can't grab any reason as to why some of we (aam aadmi) are hell bend in not allowing to see Anna's Party, the light of the day.
Any elementary mathematics would tell us that we have nothing to loose in the bargain. There are over 1000 political parties in India fighting for 543 Constituencies. We have given umpteen chances to these existing
parties for so long. What's the loss, if 1 more party gets created. The probability of we failing is None.. as we are already in the basket of tragedies and turmoils.... with such huge deficits piled up on governments balance
sheet, with such a surge in inflation , with constant spectacle of hung assembly every general election... what losses will Anna's party can bring now.
Playing a devil's advocate i may say.. that, similar movements such as Jai Prakash Aandolan in 1970's created politicians, who are currently under judicial scanner (Laloo and Mulayam) .. that, Anna is just a mask of this movement and not the face and hence Anna's Party would again be the
same in the time to come.. that, even Karl Marx's ideologies, which threw Czar of Russia, in turn gave rise to Stalin - The dictator, so the same fate may happen to Anna's Party as well.
But the point is, that, as a responsible citizen what do we do... just watch the spectacle.When one is drowning , even a straw appears an avatar of God at rescue. Hence, we should just not, be panicked by the media's views, especially the TV anchors who offlate have started loading their own opinions on us. And make a just judgement.

Shadow Banking

As I write, Shanghai is going gung-ho, on shadow banking via web. A significant chunk of unregulated $ 2.4 Trillion market in China is eventually moving online.
What specially caught my attention when I researched further was, that this conduit of capital, currently makes up 25-30% of the World's Financial System. In 2010 itself, just before when governments world over started tightening their credit policies, the market was an estimated $ 60 trillion* , truly reflecting, the impact it has on the global economy.

And to my thinking, China's spurt in such unorganized retail lending, points at 2 things for Asia:
- Firstly, it aptly validates the acuteness of credit shortage all across Asia. Post 2010, with an ever increasing tightening of credit, there has been a mass acceptance of such institutions primarily because of more hurdles and checks put by banks and at the same time, quick availability of desired credit from these shadow banks without any process hiccups.
- Secondly, it's also a precursor to the future Asian Credit crisis. With the sudden surge of such institutions and hence, of such unorganized loans, the quantum of bad debts are bound to go up, as these institutions are not guided/governed or regulated by central bank. These toxic debts will eventually worsen the overall credit flow. That day may not be far then, when analysts and economists over the globe start envisaging Asian crisis, on the footprints of European or American credit defaults.

However, shadow banking is not all that villainous....... It offers customers a wider array of choices, in terms of credit supply. These institutions can often provide credit, that is more cost-efficient than banks. And most importantly, to customer segment , who might not otherwise have such access, in a way, aiding respective governments, in their financial inclusion drive.
There are disadvantages though ... These institutions have the tendency to lure customers by doling out more rewards out of the investments, much more than banks, thereby increasing risks mounting in the financial system. On a more of illegal means of funding, these unregulated shadow institutions can be used to circumvent the strictly regulated mainstream banking system and therefore avoid rules designed to prevent financial crises.
If we recall, it were these shadow banks sitting in tax havens, that created the real estate bubble during first few years of this millennium that jettisoned the world economy out of the safety zone and landing amidst the Financial Crisis which we are still struggling from....

*according to the Financial Stability Board , a regulatory task force for the world's group of top 20 economies (G20).

FDI in Retail - Is it Good for India?

Referring to today's news of Mulayam Singh supporting Left, JD(U) and Trinamool Congress in opposing 51% FDI in Multiband Retail, I feel that Prime Minister's intention to bring FDI in Retail is good for India.

It will offer broad range of choices and better quality to end consumers and will bring in many new business opportunities for Small and medium enterprises across India. With increased investment in Retail sector , the Quality of products will improve, providing greater transparency, better monitoring of adulteration and counterfeit products.FDI in Retail would drive efficiencies leading to increased affordability and International level shopping facilities for consumers. As the MNC’s such as Wal-Mart , willing to establish their brands here, spread, bulk buying from SMEs will increase leading to more business opportunities.
Besides, Organized Retail and Mom N Pop Stores (kiranas ) can very easily co-exist, as they do in other economies around the world. In fact, wholesale cash-and-carry stores such as ‘Metro’ allows many kiranas to flourish through access to quality, low-priced merchandise and produce, business training and much more.
In the process, FDI in Retail , would make kiranas to be competitive, by enhancing their customer proposition such as adding more brands on their shelves, better display, renovation of the store, acceptance of credit cards, faster home delivery etc.

All this will eventually benefit the end consumer.

Manesar Shutdown@Maruti

This is with reference, to the recent shutdown at Maruti after worker riot at the Manesar plant. Incidents such as at Manesar's, is highly condemnable. It's an admonition to a dirty picture ( which labor forces can paint).
Peeping into history, during Pre-Liberalization Era ( 1947-91) labor forces experienced protected markets and dominant status of manufacturing.
But now markets drive the economy. Contractual jobs, cost cutting and over production (to achieve operational efficiencies) is the new mantra of industries. Concurrently, the motto of the successive governments too, moved away from creating an egalitarian society to facilitating the growth of enterprises and entrepreneurship. As a consequence, Workers feel over-exploited and they resort to such means, as happened at Manesar.
There is an urgent need for the parliament to revisit the age old rusted, Industrial policy. The objective should be to re-haul the Labor policies as a whole rather than just providing compensation to suffered managers and punishing those gang of 90 odd workers.

Mr. Gandhi, its time for you to upgrade Congress' software

Yesterday, Mr. Rahul Gandhi stated to media "I will soon assume a larger role".
To my mind, he should not procrastinate, if he wishes to give a new lease of life to Congress.
It's a high time Rahul assumes the administrative role. Congress now needs a urgent face-lift and the aam-aadmi expects some real deliverables providing some relief to the economy, which is over-heated at present.
Every Product , has a Life-Cycle and so is true with Congress party. Founded originally in 1885,every time the party appeared entering into period of Decline, the party tried to renew its license to live & rule, by degenerating into smaller parties-- such as Triamool Congress, NCP etc... (for that matter, even Janta Party should have thanked Indira for their birth)
Rahul is trying hard to revive the brand Congress, superficially though, by visiting villages, having food and getting his pictures clicked. He tried upgrading the Congress Hard-ware, by constantly injecting the new blood into the party. Now he also needs to look at the Soft-ware- that is, framing workable government policies.
He needs to understand that in this era, it's not only the Economy, but even Politics is market driven. Customer segmentation and New Product offerings are happening at exponential rate. During every General Election there is some regional party or the other cropping up, that might be eating on Congress' vote pie. In Today's time, every product is shouting as loud to be heard as much in the market, leading to a cacophony in customer's mind.The winning brand will have to understand the customer need( Reason Why), innovate and provide the right solution (Reason to Buy).

 Congress need to be heard differently. It needs to built in the perceived differantiation. If voters see them in action only while arresting Anna Hazare and trapping Ramdev into Tax-issues just when he was raising concerns on black money.. while, no action when it comes to many "champions of corruption" such as Kalmadi or Raja , they are bound to get the flak.
 Few years back NDA lost their chair as they believed that India was shining.We (Voters) are not fools. We are patient. We truely envisage where growth is happening. Rather than GDP growth, Per Capita Income Growth what we see is Corruption growing, Dollar Growing , Inflation growing and most of all the Economic Divide between "Bharat" and "India" growing.

Although currently, there is no model political party which they can benchmark to (and thats why they seem to be complacent), nonetheless this should not be the reason for their inactivity....

After all Congress is the genesis of all Indian Political parties if history is anything to go by.

So Rahul -- should assume some administrative responsibilities maybe ministries such as--  Agriculture ( in the case, Pawar  relinquishes this post) or maybe Rural Development ... which will give him ways to connect to "Bharat" while leaving in "India".

Pranab Mukherjee: The President-in-Process

Come Day after tomorrow, and the fate of Presidency would be sealed by the Electoral College.From the arithmetic of what it appears there is over 70% Probability that, Mr. Mukherjee is going to be our 13th Mr. President.But what makes most of us so optimistic in concluding , that he would be the next President of the biggest democracy of the world, much before the votes are casted?
Is it the Sonia Effect or the Fine-tuned Political Acumen of Mr. Mukherjee (Pranab Effect)?
Well , to my mind - It's both.

Sonia Effect: Sonia would never ideally have wanted to recommend Pranab's nomination for presidency, given the choice.Pranab never really enjoyed the support of Congress-S [read Congress-Sonia :)], as he did from Congress-I. One Mrs. Gandhi (Indira) completely relied on him, but the same hypothesis cannot be framed for another Mrs. Gandhi( Sonia).In fact it is the weakening clout of Gandhi Family on Indian Polity as well as on UPA allies, that provided the much needed support for Pranab's nomination.Issues such as - Increased Corruption, Dwindling Economy and Ineffective government policies, in turn fueling the ever increasing growth of poverty, inflation and Dollar valuation , degraded Sonia's clout she commanded over her allies.Add to it, Congress performance have not been that great offlate - as it lost Goa, Punjab, U.P., Delhi, Mumbai and M.P. in local or state elections.
Willy-nilly, Sonia Gandhi had to give nod for Pranab's nomination.

Pranab Effect: Mr. Mukherjee has great Networking & Negotiation Skills. This he capitalized on this time (not to say that, PM (read Pranab Da) didn't wish to be a PM).After the last General Elections of 2009 , when it became clear to Mr. Mukherjee, that his last opportunity to become Prime Minister is over. He clearly channelized all his skills in communicating 2 things - 1st : He eventually announced in October 2010, at various forums such as India Today, that this would be his last stint of his active political career— he would not be a part if another UPA government comes to power. 2nd: Since 2010 , he made his wish to become President known not only to the Congress High command but also to all major non-Congress parties, with many of whom he had built personal rapport over a 40 year long political stint.

For the next 2 days, entire nation would be keenly watching over the events and somewhere these 2 above described factors will play there their own roles in catalysing the entire process.

The Perimeter of Life

I strolled around the precipice of life,
and found a tiny transient of time,
toddling around the periphery,
Tumultuous, boisterous, aggressive – it was my desire.

I waded through the backwaters of life,
and found a ripple swirling around,
like a meander on sand,
Unending, irregular , inconsistent – it was my endeavor.

I ran on the shore of life,
and found a wave rushing far and near,
forming troughs and crests,
Indefinite, infinite , limitless – it was my ambition.

Countryside

Under the amber sunshine, i met the Countryside

In the sweet chirping of, the nightingales around.
Amidst the lush greens, with nature’s surround.

No skyscrapers reaching the sky, no concrete replacing trees.
No traffic killing tranquility and no smoke just a breeze.

With rivers walking incessantly, and mangoes plunging on the ground.
Marigold showing youthfulness, and jasmine spreading fragrance around.

With the dusk, encapsulating the day.
And hymns, resonating the way.

Incense scattered away from temples, touching everyone's soul.
Saying, let live together in peace , and no brawl.

And then a long haul, halts the day.
Serenity takes over, and stillness lay.
To start a better tomorrow !!