Kumar's World

Solutions, any one ?

2010-01-06T00:30:00.000-08:00

Firstly, here's wishing you all a very happy new year ! And advance wishes for Sankranthi/Pongal !

In 2008 Jan, we (the entire extended family) went on a trip to Varanasi, Allahabad and surrounding places. In 2009 Jan, we did the Rameswaram, Kanyakumari circuit. This year, we have a new born at home, and therefore, no Sankranthi trips. Hopefully in May, I will head to some place in cooler climes for a week or two. Lets see.
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On the political front, as expected, the all-party meeting convened by Mr.Chidambaram has not yielded any specific outcomes other than an appeal to stop the bandhs and let people go about their daily lives. It looks like the political tamasha is going to continue for some more time. However, not a single politician or 'intellectual' is talking about any feasible solution.Says a lot about the kind of people we allow to become leaders.

Let me make an attempt to list down the main concerns of various stakeholders, so that we can have an idea about a possible solution.

1.Telangana separatists - want a separate state which includes Hyderabad. No other demand.
2. Unified AP folk - want status-quo. But some elements within this large group insist that the main concerns are related to the future of their investments in Hyderabad city, Polavaram dam, and the cost of building a new capital from scratch. If these three concerns are addressed, a good number of them might reluctactly agree to the division of the state.
3. Settlers of Hyderabad - want status-quo or Hyderabad to be made a union territory or at least a Special Administrative Region (SAR).
4.Majlis Ittehadul Mussalmeen (MIM) - are fine with status-quo, but are keen on: 1. Hyderabad having a special status and 2.Package for muslims in Telangana and rest of AP.
5.Greater Rayalaseema proponents - are fine with status-quo, but if Telangana is given, they want either the new capital to be in Rayalaseema or a separate state of Rayalaseema+Nellore+Prakasam districts.
6.Telugu cultural nationalists - I am using this term to denote people who feel that AP being a linguistic state of Telugus should remain united because the interests of Telugu people and Telugu language and culture will be better served this way. More importantly, they fear the dominance of other languages over Telugu in a separate Telangana state, as was the case during the Nizam rule. These people want a unified state, but they are not part of the public movement for or against separation.
7.Students of Telangana universities - Students belonging to ABVP, and students affiliated with far left outfits, are leading the agitation. They are not very high in number, but they have support from trade unions, teaching staff etc. And they are capable of mobilising neutral or disinterested students in dharnas. The students have formed a Joint Action Committee (JAC) and are impatient about the slow process of consultations. Some student leaders of OU declared yesterday that they don't mind losing an entire academic year. What will these students gain from a separate state ?

8.Students of rest of AP universities - Wherever ABVP and/or Radical left students have a good presence, they have burned buses, conducted rasta rokos and rail rokos and in general created a lot of nuisance to the public- as much as their Telangana counterparts if not more. What will these students lose if Telangana is given ?

Before I venture into my possible solution, let me state how sad I feel at the behaviour of our students.University education is highly subsidised in India. The universities are run on tax payers money. We, the tax paying public of India, are investing in the country's future by maintaining these universities, and offering higher education at a vastly discounted price. The students don't seem to appreciate how lucky they are to be able to attend such institutions. They are also exhibiting scant respect for the 'rule of law', for the fundamental rights of their fellow citizens, and going by the scenes on TV channels, there is not much difference between hired political goons and the students of OU, KU and SKU. There has been a hue and cry about police lathi charging the students, but I have no sympathies for these kids.Not a single student spokesperson that I have seen on TV was able to articulate their concerns in a proper, decent manner. And some of the internet savvy folk among them are going around Telugu blogosphere, dishing out abuses and taunts and engaging in virulent flame wars. The student bodies are as feudal and casteist as the rest of the Telugu society. In a word, the students of AP have made me ashamed of being a Telugu in the last month and a half or so.

So, in a way, this movement has brought into the open the worst traits of our Telugu society.We talk about Telugu self-respect and yet we depend on non-Telugus like Sonia, Veerappa, Pranab and Chidambaram to decide the fate of our state. We burnt our buses, allowed people to commit suicides for the sake of an emotional cause, put alcoholic and unreliable leaders on a pedestal, caused a lot of damage to the state economy, and above all, succeeded in creating lot of bad blood among the three regions of AP.

There are many of us who expected saner counsel to prevail by now, and the leaders sitting together to discuss the issues with a problem solving approach. That is yet to happen.

Features of a possible solution:

1.Agree to a 'reversible' separation of AP in a phased manner. By 'reversible', I mean that the state could be reunified 5-10 years after the separation if Telangana people wish it so.
2.Phase 1 of the process will comprise a comprehensive discussion with all sections including public forums in various towns of AP, where a committee of neutrals will interact with concerned citizens. If possible, no political party should be associated with this exercise. Apart from these town hall type discussions, let us also look at the assets and liabilities, planned expenditure on important projects and proposed new investments across the state. We can also finalize the location of a new capital for AP.(I think Prakasam district is ideal and will be accepted by both Rayalaseema and Coastal AP).
3.Phase 2 will comprise construction of the new capital and ancilliary infrastructure. Meanwhile, Hyderabad will continue as the common capital, and administered as an SAR.
4.When AP was formed, Bhadrachalam revenue division from E.Godavari was made part of Khammam.Similarly, parts of Kurnool district went into Mahbubnagar, and parts of Krishna and Guntur districts were added to Nalgonda. It is only fair that people living in these border areas are allowed to choose if they want to stay on in AP or be part of Telangana.
5.The package for AP should include plans to construct an international airport similar to the one in Hyderabad (Shamshabad) near the new capital, along with at least two big PSUs to be set up in AP. (All major PSU units in AP since 1956 were setup in Hyderabad).
6.There has to be a separate package for Rayalaseema and North Andhra in terms of mega projects, infrastructure and educational opportunities.
7.Telangana has to cooperate with AP for Polavaram project. In return, Telangana can expect more water allocation from both Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar reservoirs than what it receives currently.
8.Hyderabad will be a free zone as far as any government or private sector operations are concerned.The film industry will be allowed to develop in AP whilst continuing to grow Hyderabad as a global hub for entertainment industry.
9.Both AP and Telangana will give each other preferential treatment in terms of goods movement (no octroi levy on products coming from AP/Telangana), and sharing of power generation.
10.Concerted action to eliminate the maoist menace in Telangana and agency areas of North Andhra.Police to be empowered to cleanse Osmania and Kakatiya universities of any far left, militant elements.

The Telugus have an opportunity now. We can build one of the best cities in the world, bang in the middle of our hinterland. The city will have none of the inadequacies of Hyderabad or any other metros of India. It will have India's best airport, vast green spaces, and will fast become a trading hub and a biotech centre. And in Kakinada and Krishnapatnam, AP will develop two of the best ports in India. An entertainment park better than Disney Land can be built between Nellore and Tirupati.We can also identify 9 small cities (Kadapa, Anantapur, Ongole, Nellore, Vijayanagaram, Kakinada, Guntur-Vijayawada twin cities, Kurnool and Chittoor) that will all be inter connected and build Vizag and our new capital (Lets call it Hampi for now) into global metros. The state of AP will have surplus power generation which it will sell at a discounted price to Telangana and other neighbouring states. A Las Vegas style entertainment and convention city can be developed between Tirupati and Kadapa. And Vijayawada will have a world class cricket stadium. The aim should be to develop, within 15 years or less, infrastructure adequate to hold the National or Common Wealth games in the new state capital.

All the above is within the realm of possibility.The enterprising and hardworking people of the hinterland can do it. They are a bit emotional and the emotions can be channelised into the right direction.If China can do such stuff, so can a state in India.

Question: All this will cost money. Where will it come from?
Answer: The package and shared revenues from Hyderabad will drive the initial investment. We will also give attractive investment options and generate foreign direct investment (the legal hurdles should be cleared as part of the package I am talking about). The flow of capital from rest of AP to Hyderabad will now get directed towards Hampi.

The one and only reason this entire dream can become stillborn: Our politicians. Even there, we are luckier than the rest because a decent number of our politicians are businessmen. And when they think of the enormous opportunities, they will see reason.

What of Telangana? It will continue to grow economically thanks to the twin cities.If AP starts building a new capital and lots of jobs get created, a good number of skilled people from Telangana will migrate to Hampi looking for work. There will be occassional squabbles between the two states, but none as serious as the ones between Karnataka and TN.Telugu will be the common binding factor for both the states. And if the stupendous economic success of new AP makes Telangana folks desire for unification, the doors will always be open.

Question from a Telugu Nationalist: But why can't we stay united and do all this development you have rambled about?
Answer: We can and we should, if we stay united. But it looks like the bad blood and mistrust created by the media and the politicians is here to stay for some time. So, why not make good use of the 'hurt' and channel it into some thing constructive?

There I go.I think I am done with this whole issue of AP state separation.Unless some major development happens in the next few weeks, I don't want to touch this issue again for some time. I wish to focus on national issues, especially national security.And some light topics such as movies, literature and stuff.

An Open Letter from NRI Telugus to Madam President and Mrs.Sonia

2009-12-14T01:11:00.000-08:00

Found this on the Great Andhra website. Reproducing the map and the full text of the letter, adding emphasis where I find it relevant.

To,
The President of India,Rashtrapathi Bhavan,
New Delhi.

Respected Madam President,
We look forward to you for your kind intervention in the matter of the demand for a separate Telangana State, as it is engineered and pushed forward by self-seeking and short-sighted small - time power brokers, politically unemployed, arousing passions and raising a bogey of “non-development” --- the two hallmarks of the Telangana movement. It hardly needs a mention that edifice of their case is based on twisted facts and doctored statistics.

The movement has already taken its toll, and it is fast moving towards spreading disaffection and hatred among people.

Thus there is an urgent need to arrest the movement and call it a bluff. Even a casual look at the statistics cited in this exhaustive note would conclusively establish how fallacious their argument is. Far from the Telangana region not making any progress, it is this area which has registered phenomenal growth in almost all areas of development one could think of, when compared to both Andhra and Rayalseema regions.

Telangana’s growthIn 1955-56, there were about 22,000 schools in Andhra and Rayalseema regions whereas during the same period Telangana region had hardly 8000 schools. After about 50 years, the numbers rose to about 55,000 in Andhra and Rayalseema regions as against (about) 41,000 schools in Telangana region. Thus the percentage growth in the Telangana region was 413% whereas it was just about 155% in the other two regions put together.

Likewise, the percentage growth of enrolment in the Telangana region was about 916% whereas the growth was just 235% in Andhra and Rayalseema regions. Similarly there was a phenomenal increase in the number of teachers recruited in Telangana Region (366%), where as it was just normal (130%) in Andhra and Rayalseema region. Similar is the picture in respect of collegiate education too.

Barring one in Warangal and a few in the city of Hyderabad, there were absolutely no Science and Arts colleges in Telangana districts up to 1955-56, since there was no educational or other development worth its name till then. This was in direct contrast to what prevailed in Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.

In short, the formation of A.P. in 1956 was a boon to the children of Telangana region, (both urban and rural) and to-day they enjoy facilities for every type of education at their door step.
Likewise, the formation of the State also heralded a new era of agricultural development in the Telangana region in that, several irrigation facilities were launched resulting in phenomenal growth of different crops like rice, (284%) Cotton (1472%) and so on. The detailed statistical tables and the graphics abstracted from authentic government sources running to several pages - are being appended.

Even a casual browsing of the above figures would establish how shallow the bogey of “non-development” is, raised by those spearheading the Telangana agitation. While deciding an issue of this nature emotions and sentiments cannot obviously play a part and this is exactly what the so called leaders are arousing and playing with.

We request you, Madam President to be so kind as to consider the following detailed note and keep at bay the demands for separate Telangana state made with ulterior motives. By taking a firm stand you will be carving a niche for yourselves in the annals of the country, as a head of the state who took long term view and firmly stood for the integrity of the nation.

Distortion of facts:
The allegation that Telangana region has not developed or has developed less than the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions is totally baseless. Actually, after the formation of the linguistic state of Andhra Pradesh in 1956, it is the Telangana region that has fared much better than the other two regions. This is not surprising because the capital city of Hyderabad is in the Telangana region.

It is a universally acknowledged that development takes place most in and around the capital city. This is true of even the city of Delhi. A foreign writer described Delhi an artificial city because, in its enormous development, it is not representative of the rest of India. Actually, the same is true of most of national capitals and even of state capitals in a federation.
The clamour for separation comes normally from the regions away from the capital. In the case of Telangana, surprisingly, the clamour for separation is from the region which has benefited most. However a little probe would establish that the clamour is not from the grassroots but from the self-seeking political brokers.

Greater beneficiary:
After 1956, most of the institutional and industrial developments have taken place in and around the capital city of Hyderabad, though the city had no infrastructural facilities like power, water, transport, access to a port etc. It didn’t have even abundant raw material resources. Because of the Central and State investments, many ancillary Industries have sprung up in this region. The necessary personnel to man the industries have migrated to Hyderabad not only from Andhra Pradesh but from other parts of India as well. This phenomenon has benefited Telangana most. The rest of Andhra Pradesh didn’t see such development, but the Rayalaseema and Andhra regions are not grumbling.

As far as irrigation is concerned, before the formation of the state in 1956, there were no irrigation projects except Nizamsagar in Telangana region. There were some projects in the other two regions like Dhawaleswaram dam on Godavari, Prakasam barrage on Krishna, KC canal from Tungabhadra, dam on Penna , Kanigiri reservoir etc. After the formation of the State, Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam, Somasila. Sriramsagar, Lower Maneru projects have come up. Of these, Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam projects have benefited both Telangana and Andhra regions. Somasila benefited Nellore district for irrigation, besides supplying drinking water to Tirupati and Chennai. Sriramsagar and Lower Maneru projects are exclusively for the benefit of Telangana. Considering all these it can not be said that Telangana has been deprived by any stretch of imagination.

After the formation of the State, it is the Telangana region that has developed industrially most. Also, all the major service industries like IT and Tourism etc. have developed mostly in Hyderabad city and around. The other two regions have remained virtually stagnant. They remained agricultural as they were at the inception, barring the lone exception of Visakhapatnam.

The other absurd allegation that Telangana has been exploited by the rest of Andhra Pradesh is a travesty of facts. The capital has flown from rest of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana, and not the other way round. The flow of capital has been only a one way street. The generation of employment consequent to fresh investment has taken place only in Telangana region, particularly, in and around Hyderabad. There is nothing surprising about the industries tapping, for technically trained manpower requirements from all over the country, and from other regions of Andhra Pradesh.

Lack of mass base:
In spite of such impeachable facts about the development of the Telangana region, if there is still a clamour for separation, it can only be because of the politically disgruntled class and other vested interests and self-seeking government employees. It is worth noting that the TRS which spearheads the movement for separation has seen a gradual decrease in its share of the voters in the various elections that have taken place in recent years. Had the TRS had a real mass base, it would not be craving for alliances with other parties. The very fact that the TRS is eagerly searching for political partners would show how diffident it is. Likewise, political parties too want to jump on the band wagon with an eye on the ensuing elections.

It needs to be noted that Telangana started from a lower development base. For ages, it was under the Nizam’s rule, whereas the rest of Andhra Pradesh was under the British rule, which was relatively better off, with greater facilities for education under the British government and lesser social suppression of the weaker classes.

Inequalities between regions because of historical and other reasons are such that they cannot be wiped off in a day. What is needed is to judge whether regional imbalances are being gradually minimized over a period. Judged by this standard, Telangana region has benefited more by its integration than the other two regions. Thus the shoe is on the other foot.

A slogan of culture of Telangana being in jeopardy and that its self-respect is damaged is again a bogey. In these days of global integration, no region’s culture is in tact. Every region benefits from its exposure to global culture. Concepts like individual dignity and freedom from servility have spread even in a stifled atmosphere of Telangana region after the formation of the state. If separate Telangana should happen, there is the danger of a reversion to the original state - when the servant can not see the master in the eye and he will be obliged to carry his chappals. Such slavery was widespread in Telangana region and not in the rest of Andhra Pradesh.

Pining for slaves:
The dominant castes/ classes feel deprived because, after integration, they don’t enjoy their old power and privileges. In a separate Telangana, it is exactly the minorities, the dalits, the tribes from the hills, and the landless working class that will suffer the most and will see an erosion of their dignity and relative freedom which they have slowly got after integration. The so called loss of culture or self-respect is more a call for the restoration of the old privileges on the part of the exploiters than anything else.

Historically speaking, the word Telangana originally meant only a region of the Telugu speaking people. The Telugus were united under 1) Andhrasathavahanas, 2) Kakatiyas 3) Vijayanagara empire and 4) even Nizam before certain districts were ceded by him to the British. It is interesting to know that, at the beginning of the 16th century, it was the coastal and adjoining region that was shown as Telangana in a Map from the book “India-A History” by John Keay (Page: 280) Publisher: Harper Collins.(Copy enclosed).

The formation of a separate state of Andhra Pradesh is a culmination of the dream of all Telugu people and the result of the sacrifices of so many patriotic people. The dream should not be allowed to be shattered by the machinations of a few short-sighted, self-seeking, and power-hungry, political activists. The political parties are toeing the line and are aligning only for drawing political mileage. They have no other interest except self- interest and short term gain.

The so-called “sentiment” (which is more a catchy slogan) is limited to the power brokers. If at all there is some “sentiment, it is because of the ignorance of the masses and because the relevant facts and figures are not made known to them. So there is an urgent need to make available the correct facts and figures to the masses and to educate them. This can best be done by the government in power.

The Telangana movement has been whipped up at different points of time by the politically disgruntled elements. Similarly, a counter movement for a separate Andhra region was also seen in the past. The Central leadership of those times stood rock-like and didn’t yield. There is a need to exhibit the same determination even today when political morality in generally is at its lowest ebb.

If Central leadership yields to every passing whims of “sentiment” or to the machinations of the self-declared defenders of regional interests, it will eventually lead to the balkanization of the country.

There are a number of Hindi speaking states. But that exception apart, linguistic states have a cultural unity of their own, and this unity deserves to be nurtured and promoted.

There is yet another aspect of the matter. The Dalits and minorities have a unity all over the country which the rest of the population doesn’t enjoy. So the Dalits and minorities will have a greater say in a larger state. They are more vulnerable in a smaller state.

Considering that we are passing through troubled times now, we look forward to you to be as firm and steadfast as central leadership of the fast, in not entreating bifurcation of states any further.

With respectful regards,
Yours sincerely,
United NRI Telugu People.Dallas, TX, USA.

_____________

Ok..some of the points I have mentioned in my earlier posts find some echo in the above email.They have provided some data points but I wish they'd provided the sources as well. But I think finding the sources is not that difficult. The Government, in fact, if it wishes so, can come out with a white paper as well.

But I wish to make a different point now.
One of the greatest modern Telugus, Gurajada Appa Rao said:
దేశమంటే మట్టి కాదోయ్, దేశమంటే మనుషులోయ్ !

Translated it means that a country does not mean its land (or land alone), a country means its people. Going by that logic, Telangana's development should not be measured by what was 'spent' or 'invested' here, but more importantly, in terms of how the quality of life has improved for the common people of Telangana. It is true that most investment and industrial development has occurred in Telangana, and especially the immediate hinterland of Hyderabad, but to me the greatest beneficiaries of this development are the settlers from coastal AP.It is not as if the regular Telangana people did not benefit, but the coastal AP people possibly benefited more.

And there is nothing wrong in that actually. The coastal AP people took more risks, relocated to various parts of Telangana, and especially to the Twin cities, and made the land their home. They deserve the success.

However, the question of local Telangana people remains.Why is it that, inspite of the enormous advantage of Hyderabad, inspite of rich natural resources, and well-planned irrigation projects, large sugar factories, tourism, and educational facilities, the local Telangana people could not take full advantage? Rayalaseema folks at least have the excuse of not having all these advantages to explain the region's backwardness. Seems to me Telangana is rich, but Telangana people are not.

Why is this so? I simply won't buy the 'lazy folks' angle.It is a stupid statement and does not hold water at all.I also do not want to categorize them as 'gullible, innocent' etc, the way some of the Telangana activists seem to revel in describing.And I won't stand for any generalization that Coastal AP people are 'cunning'. It does not do justice to their entrepreneural ability and hard working nature.

May be the answer lies in the feudal casteist structures of Telangana.The whole of AP is mired in casteism, no doubt about it.But Telangana is much more feudal than North Andhra and Rayalaseema, which are more feudal than Coastal AP. Krishna, Guntur, Nellore, Prakasam and the Godavari districts are also full of casteist rivalries, but I think the feudal structures vanished there during the British rule itself.

A 'mai-baap' culture, or to use a Telangana term 'baanchan dora' culture ( baanchan dora = I am your slave, Sir!) possibly enervates the soul and makes the sons and daughters of the soil, not very confident in their own abilities, in determining their own futures. True, thousands of Telangana peasants and bonded labourers sacrificed their lives in the communist struggle against feudal lords just before and after Independence. But the tradition of revolt was not channelised into an aspiration for growth through democratic means. Instead, the continuation of feudal structures ensured that the peasants ended up being guided by Maoists (Naxalites), who could not think of a world beyond 'revolution at gun point'. In contrast, the communist movements in coastal AP tended to be part of a democratic mainstream.

So, feudalism, naxalism, and resultant lack of enterprise - are these the main reasons for local Telanganas not prospering as much as the settler Andhra people? Looks possible to me. I would be happy to hear any alternative explanations though.

Is President's rule the only option left, for now?

2009-12-12T21:22:00.000-08:00

I was hoping to tackle the issue of Telangana Vs. Samaikya Andhra (Unified AP) from various angles today.However, a discussion on the economic and cultural issues and the 'victimhood narrative' of Telangana, Rayalaseema and Kalinga Andhra has to wait, because the political issues have come to fore again.

Before reviewing the current political scenario, I just want to make it clear regarding where my affinities lie.The question of separate statehood has surely become an emotional issue for many people.And I don't want the emotions to cloud over a dispassionate analysis of the issues involved.

I am 37.5 years old and lived for 11 years each in Telangana (Bodhan, Mahboobnagar and Hyderabad) and Rayalaseema (Nandyal and Kadapa).I have also spent a few early years in Vijayawada and my wife hails from Guntur district, not to speak of the many friends I have from all parts of the state.I am sure there are lakhs of people like me who straddle all three areas of the state. To expect us to choose one area over the other is not just 'divisive', it is also impractical.

Having said that, I have genuine reasons for wanting Andhra Pradesh to remain as-is, without any bi or tri-furcation. But these arguments, as I have mentioned earlier, should wait for a few days more. Right now, we are looking at a real possibility of President's Rule in AP.

Question 1: Why has it come to this pass?

Question 2: Who is benefiting (or will benefit) from this situation?

Question 3: What options do we have as people? What could be a win-win solution for all of us?

In one of my earlier blog posts, I mentioned that Aditya, Assistant Editor of Andhra Jyothy daily, seems to be one of those rare journalists these days, who seem to combine excellence in investigation with a neutral approach.I was awaiting Aditya's take on the Telangana issue - the whys and wherefores of the political developments especially- and he has not disappointed me.

In a brilliant piece of analysis, Aditya laid bare the genesis of the current stalemate, and has spared no one.Here's the link to the article, if you can read Telugu.

If you are not comfortable reading Telugu, please read my summary below:

"The Congress high command, with the strategic vision of making Rahul Gandhi the PM in 2014, has accepted the reality that in AP, after YSR's demise, the Congress party is losing its hold over the masses, and is also not in full control of the state unit.It has brought the Telangana pawn into play with two aims: to control an increasingly intransigent YS Jagan, and to eliminate the threat of Chandra Babu Naidu's TDP, which is steadily recovering its eroded base.Naidu has also demonstrated his ability earlier to act as a catalyst for unifying diverse opposition parties at the national level.

By dividing the state, the high command sought to weaken the Reddy community's political clout, and there by weaken Jagan.A separate Telangana will also mean the TDP loses relevance in the new state and will have to fight for survival in the Andhra state.To achieve these aims, the high command opened a channel directly with KCR (who was down and out after the recent poll reverses and large scale migration from TRS to INC), and took care not to involve either CM Rosaiah or any other Congress leaders from AP. Importantly, even the AP state police and intelligence were also not taken into confidence.

The INC coterie around Sonia comprising Ahmed Patel, Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee and A.K.Antony took up the implementation of this plan, with Ahmed Patel playing the key role.

However, as the plan was not divulged to the CM or state police, these people acted independently, resulting in some unintended consequences.Even though the high command kept intervening in the background and instructed the state govt on the next steps without indicating the overall plan, the events went out of hand, primarily because KCR, who was confined to the jail, lost communication with the high command in between and started suspecting that he is simply being exploited by the coterie.

As KCR's fast went beyond a week, the state govt tried to intervene through mediators.But Rosaiah received strict indications from the high command that he need not worry about the agitation because it (high command) is aware of the situation and will take the required steps at the right time.Rosaiah, who was kept out of any of the important discussions, then decided to just keep quiet.

Finally, when he was called to New Delhi, but was asked to wait outside while the Congress Core Committee had its deliberations, Rosaiah sent a Note to the Union Cabinet and INC high command with his recommendations.

Rosaiah was eventually called in, and asked his views about the law and order situation in AP.The CM provided the state intelligence reports that said over 3 lakh people were expected to congregate in Hyderabad for the Chalo Assembly rally and the violence could result in 2000 deaths. The core committee advised the CM to 'leave everything to us, go home and give a glass of lime water to KCR to make him call off the fast'. When Rosaiah refused to meet KCR (Kumar: Some spine finally !), he was simply asked to get back to Hyderabad and await the decision.

When Chidambaram announced the decision to create Telangana at 11.30 PM, it took KCR and the rest of the Telangana activists by surprise.It also shocked the Seema and Coastal AP leaders into disbelief because all along they felt that any decision for Telangana would only be made after due consultations with all three regions. They implicitly trusted the INC high command to follow this process than take a unilateral decision."

Wow ! that is one hell of an article by Aditya, isn't it? It fits in exactly with the thinking process of Congress' Delhi leaders.

But do I have any sympathies for Cong leaders from rest of AP? Any for TDP at all? NO.

1.All along, the Cong leaders of Rayalaseema and Coastal AP were asked to lie low and not utter any thing against Telangana.Especially, people like Undavalli Arun Kumar and Lagadapati Rajagopal have had their data and arguments ready to prove that the 'victimhood theory' is just a theory and has no basis in reality. But they kept quiet because high command did not want any one to voice their opinions.These leaders lacked the spine and clarity of values to fight for a cause they believed in (a unified AP), and they are all regretting their silence now.I donno..may be its too late in the day.

2.The TDP supremo, Chandra Babu Naidu, seems to be believe in the 'image' that he is a master strategist when it comes to political moves.Looks to me, he has not learnt his lessons, even after YSR upstaged him several times.Now that YSR is no longer around, CBN had the chance to at least come clean on the issues and take a principled stand.He did not do that because he was really not sure which way the wind would blow. The Cong high command literally toyed with him by keeping silent on their preference.Naidu is now a committed pro-AP person again, and is on the verge of losing all credibility. However, all is not lost for him, yet.He can rise to the situation, if he gets rid of the tendency to look for short term gains all the time.

3.It is of no use discussing the stands of BJP, PRP, Lok Satta and the like.These parties and their leaders are not of any relevance in this issue now.

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I think I have made a reasonable attempt to answer the first two questions I have raised earlier in this post. Now for the third question: What now?

1.The UPA Govt, after weighing all the pros and cons, may want to ride over the current crisis (of their own making), by putting the Telangana issue on a backburner.It may just buy them some time. But what they have done, through their cynical manipulation of an emotive issue, is to push AP back to the early 1970s. The whole state is divided now on regional basis and people may find it difficult to forget and become normal again, especially with the 24-hr news channels making the most of the crisis and inflaming the passions of people.

2.President's rule is an option but again it will only delay the inevitable.No one wants fresh elections, but a threat of assembly dissolution may also not bring the MLAs on board quickly.Instead, it could snowball into a bigger issue, threatening even the UPA Govt at the centre. The high command has to do a very fine balancing act now.

3.The agitators on the unified AP front seem to have no clue on what to do now.They are wasting their energies by doing rail roko, rasta roko, burning buses and vandalising public and private properties.If any impatient Police Officer opens fire on one of these mobs, the situation is bound to worsen.

4.Frankly, I find it counter productive that the pro-AP folks are agitating in Rayalaseema and Coastal AP.What is the point? Any way, the masses in these areas are for unified AP. Instead, the energies should be creatively focused on Telangana.

Here's what I suggest they do:

A.Get all the Tollywood actors, actresses and other creative people (writers, playwrights, dancers etc) to form groups and travel around Telangana, mobilising public opinion for a unified state.It is a well known fact that the entire Telugu film industry desires a status quo. Also, popular poets like C.Narayana Reddy should come out openly in favor of a unified AP.

B.Both Chandra Babu Naidu and YS Jagan should join hands and bring all pro-AP Telangana leaders from both their sides, to work towards changing the public perception on this issue. It will call for great statesmanship and temporary blurring of political rivalries, but what is more important than the future of the state? Of course, once the aims are achieved, they can contest against each other on developmental planks and let the public decide who they want.

C.Let there be a public debate where not just leaders of political parties, but also intellectuals from all walks of life take part.Let us have both sides present their cases.If, as being claimed, the Telangana activists can present a convincing case with facts (and not emotions), it will at least become easier to go separate ways amicably than the current bad blood. Undavalli Arun Kumar has, this morning, asked for such a debate in the AP assembly, but I think it should happen in public space as well.

D.Lastly, there can be no question that if a Telangna state is formed, Hyderabad would be part of that state.But that should not mean Hyderabad will be restricted for Telangana people.Let the Twin Cities continue on their journey to become global cities, and drive the economic growth of the catchment area.Allow people from any where in the country or the world, to come and engage in fruitful economic activity in Hyderabad.Telangana activists should know that big cities like Hyderabad really belong to the nation, and not just a local identity.We are not as cheap as the MNS folks, are we?

I am hoping that in the next few days, the political scenario will become a little stable, allowing me to spend some time on investigating the claims of under development and discrimination on all sides.And try to form my own opinion on what is really best for the state, and in general, the entire small states argument vis-a-vis, administrative efficiency and accessibility to people.Local self-governance is what I truly believe in.But a new state has to make sense too.

Telangana Issue - What exactly is going on?

2009-12-11T08:08:00.000-08:00

Like most of us, I have been observing the mess going on - with my own eyes and ears on the streets of Hyderabad, and on the TV channels, newspapers, and of course, the internet.

I am planning to do a detailed post/s over the weekend on this. However, I have already been part of a debate or two on some blogs, and to start with, I would like to post a lengthy comment that I did on Sepia Mutiny this morning.

Here's my comment:

1.It is not true that Telangana was merged with Andhra immediately after the 1948 police action.Hyderabad state was formed and it had a separate existence till 1956, when both Hyderabad and Visalandhra were merged to form AP.There was a Gentlemen's Agreement between leaders of all three areas (similar to the earlier Sreebagh Pact between Rayalaseema and Coastal AP for Visaalandhra) before this happened.The movement to merge was as strong in Hyderabad state as it was in Andhra.The name 'Telangana' itself means 'land of Telugus'.

2.English education spread more rapidly in Coastal AP than in Telangana during the pre-indepedence days because of the British rule Vs Nizam rule difference.This also led to the faster rise of intermediary castes in Coastal AP (much like neighbouring TN). Compared to Coastal AP, feudalism is still much stronger in Telangana and Naxalism is almost a direct fallout of the feudal atrocities on the rural poor.

3.The British built better irrigation facilities in areas under their control (obviously, for better tax collection) and also better communication and transport infrastructure. So, when the state of AP was formed, there was a significant gap between Hyderabad and Coastal AP. Rayalaseema, though part of Visalandhra was as backward as Telangana or more, but that's a different story.

3.Post-state formation, several Government Orders were put in place (Mulki rules for example), to ensure that Telangana people don't lose out in competition against the better educated and organized Coastal Andhras.Telangana terrain was not suited for major irrigation projects and therefore the Govt went for medium and smaller irrigation projects in Telangana such as Nizam Sagar, Sriram Sagar and the like.The major industries were sought to be equally distributed between the three areas, but if one looks at it, most of the major PSU industries (BEL, BHEL, ECIL to name a few) have gone to Telangana and some to Vizag - almost none to Rayalaseema.

4.The separate Telangana movement and the Jai Andhra movement in the late 60s and early 70s were quite violent compared to the Telangana movement in the 1990s and 2000s.KCR, till recently, used to take pride in the fact that his movement has been non-violent with not a single life lost due to the cause.That it has changed now, can be correlated to the weakening of Naxal movement in Telangana after the IT boom, and the Naxals who moved to Chattisgarh have now infiltrated the ranks of Telangana agitators.It is a well known fact that most ideologues of Telangana movement are also sympathisers of the Maoist movement.Kakatiya University which is completely dominated by Maoist elements is also the fountainhead of Telangana ideology.

5.The politicians of Telangana (Congress and TRS mainly) see the issue as their only route to power.BJP also sees a chance to become a king maker if not a king, in a separate Telangana.

Interestingly, the CPM and CPI leadership in AP is not enthusiastic about Telangana even though their strength in AP is mainly in Telangana districts. (I think they don't see eye to eye with their Naxal brethren.)

So, it is no wonder that ABVP activists in OU are in the forefront of the current agitation.And the Congress leaders who are pro-Telangana, who had lost their voice during YSR's reign have now found a fresh energy.

6.The situation as of now, is leading to some very inane conspiracy theories in the local media. I was watching a discussion on a Telugu channel this morning where the panelists were alleging the following:

(a) Sonia/CWC see a risk in the dependency on AP with 42 LS seats.They know that YSR is not around to win them over 35 in 2014.They feel that by giving Telangana, they can count on majority of seats from the new State.That way, they will be reducing the dependency on YS Jagan or YSR's legacy.

(b)Chidambaram from TN and Veerappa Moily from KN are being influenced by lobbies from their home states. A unified AP is fast emerging as a financial, business and health care hub in South India.A divided AP will be weaker because the richer Coastal AP businessmen will lose the Hyd advantage. Also, upper riparian States like Maharashtra and KN see an advantage in dealing with a smaller Telangana than a large state such as AP.

(c)Veerapa Moily is also being influenced by senior Congress leaders from Telangana.

(d)Sonia Gandhi thinks its easier to manage the state congress units of two smaller states than that of a larger state with powerful Rayalaseema leaders such as YS Jagan.On one hand, Telangana leaders will be beholden to her and OTOH, caste equations in rest of AP will ensure Congress dominance there as well.

So, there are theories and more :)

The common people in Telangana have never shown the required enthu for a separate state as is evidenced by the election results time and again. And as for Telugu culture, Telangana has always contributed more than its share through its poets, scholars, painters, and the like.Some of the most noble kings of south india were from Telangana.Some of the best Telugu and Prakrit poets.A Jnanpith award winner for Telugu.A scholar-politician (PVNR).A robust culture of scientific (esp.metallurgical) innovation from medieval ages.

My own take on the issue, so far:

People of Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana are like brothers.When brothers want to divide the house and go their separate ways, the discussions have to be among them.Not imposed by a high command at mid night.AP is not Sonia's birthday cake that she can cut into pieces and give away.We need to sit down and discuss again - have a gentlemen's agreement if required. And put the whole issue through a democratic process where people will decide and not rulers in Delhi. As long as Delhi doesn't understand this 'Telugu sentiment', any solution is bound to fail and result in violence.
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If you read the Sepia Mutiny post on the Telangana issue, it is obvious that the blogger Amardeep, who is otherwise quite knowledgeable about India, has chosen to form his opinion about the issue by reading the BBC.And the lack of proper awareness about the history behind the issue is there for all of us to see. But to his credit, Amardeep mentions his relative lack of awareness of the 'history in depth' and says he 'would be glad to be enlightened by readers who know the region better than I do'. And his request has been taken up happily by many readers, including my self. So far so good.

Then I chanced upon another article, this time from a British news paper, where its Delhi correspondent wrote absolute filth masquerading as a news-opinion piece. I simply have no words to say because I am disgusted by the lack of journalistic skill or knowledge of subject exhibited by the piece. Such is the nature of the Western world's expertise on India, and we routinely quote them to attack our fellow Indians.

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Coastal AP and Rayalaseema have almost come to a stand still today and the situation may continue through the weekend. On Monday, the action is likely to shift to Hyderabad again, when the Assembly resumes, and Congress LS member from Vijayawada, Lagadapati Rajagopal (better known for being the richest Congress MP in India and son-in-law of late Parvataneni Upendra) is going to start a fast demanding the introduction of Telangana bill in AP assembly and allowing secret ballot to determine its fate. But things could change between now and then.
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The other option, if Sonia were to behave like Indira Gandhi did, is to bypass the State Assembly (the Constitution allows that), and introduce a bill directly in Parliament. But again, Congress will be forced by its own MPs and weight of public opinion across the country to introduce a bill for the nine or ten demands for separate states :)

I doubt if Sonia and her advisers will take that route and allow the ruckus to spread from Hyderabad to rest of the country's legislatures and to the Parliament it self, endangering the UPA Govt. If push comes to shove, Congress may cut losses in AP, and either go for assembly dissolution or (and you won't believe this) ask Rosaiah to step down and ask CLP to elect its leader. Any thing's possible in politics.

More later as the situation develops.

Saluting the martyrs of 26/11

2009-11-25T03:25:00.000-08:00

I received a forward today and wish to pass it on to my friends.

In the blessed memory of all the brave soldiers and police officers who laid down their lives between Nov 26-30, 2008 in Mumbai, protecting us from the terrorist attacks.

1.Sri Hemant Karkare, Joint Commissioner of Police, ATS, Mumbai

2.Sri Ashok Kamte, ACP, Mumbai East

3.Sri Jaywant Patil, Police Constable

4.Sri Yogesh Patil, Police Constable

5.Sri Ambadas Pawar, Police Constable

6.Sri Mukesh B.Jadhav, Home Guard

7.Sri Rahul Shinde, Constable, State Reserve Police Force

8.Sri M.Chowdhary, Constable, Railway Police Force

9.Sri Arun Chitte, Police Constable

10.Sri Balasaheb Bhosale, Asst. Police Sub-Inspector

11.Sri Tukaram G.Omble, Asst. Police Sub-Inspector, D.B.Marg PS

12.Sri Bapusaheb Durugade, Asst.Police Sub-Inspector, Naigaon PS

13.Sri Prakash P.More, Police Sub-Inspector,L.T.Marg PS

14.Sri Shashank Shinde, CST Railway PS

15.Sri Vijay Saluskar, Police Inspector, Anti-extortion cell, Mumbai

16.Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, NSG Commando

17.Sri Gajendraji, NSG Commando

A poem for the martyrs - This is a poem many of us would have read in school Hindi textbooks - Pandit Makhanlal's 'Pushp Ki Abhilasha'.

Chah Nahin Mai SurBala KeGehnon Mein Guntha Jaaon

Chah Nahin Premi Mala MeinBindh, Pyari Ko Lalchaon

Chah Nahin Samraton KeShav Par, He Hari Dala Jaaon

Chah Nahin Devon Ke Sar ParChadhon, Bhagya Par Itraoon

Mujhey Tod Lena Banmali,

Us Path Par Tum Dena Phaink

Matra Bhoomi Per Sheesh Chadhaney,

Jis Path Jaayen Veer Anek

Translation:The flower's yearning

I don't want to be a part of the necklace of a beautiful girl,

I don't want to woo the lady love,

I don't want to be spread over dead bodies,

I don't want to act like a snob, after someone offers me to the Gods

Just pluck me gardener and throw me on the road,

which is taken by the brave soldiers to give away their lives for the Motherland !

Lets bow our heads and observe a minute of silence tomorrow in homage to those soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the defence of our nation.

Catching up..

2009-11-02T22:57:00.000-08:00

I am coming off more than a month-long hiatus from blogging. One of the reasons: I have become a dad again, with the birth of our baby boy (yet to be named) on Oct 12. However, I have been reading the usual newspapers and the occassional online columns/blogs.And as active as ever on Facebook.

I drafted a couple of posts in between on (1) the AP situation with respect to Jagan and the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) and (2) Sachin Tendulkar completing 20 years in international cricket. Many people have written about Sachin, and in a much better manner. So, I decided to junk that post.

I have also junked the post on Jagan and OMC, but decided to salvage a few points. As far as the AP /Karnataka situation is concerned, here's my take at a high level:

1.The BJP, having benefited from the largesse and muscle power of the Bellary Reddys, cannot now survive in Karnataka without their backing. They have had it coming, and the desperate, pitiful manner in which the BJP high command ( a misnomer actually because the BJP's Dilli4 are neither high on ideals nor do they have any command) succumbed to the pressure tactics of the Reddy brothers does not bode well for that party in Karnataka.

2.The Congress, especially Madam Sonia and Prince Rahul, seem to be going from strength to strength. In case of Y.S.Jagan in AP, Sonia has been very firm to not allow him even a sniff at power at the State level. The big questions are: 1.Why has Sonia behaved this way 2. What impact will it have on State Congress

There have been many attempts in the mainstream media in AP to explain the answers to both the questions above.None very convincing, I must add. Only the Andhra Jyothy newspaper, where one of the assistant editors Aditya, writes insightful Op-Eds on state politics, has even come close to the real answers.

Firstly, the aftermath of YSR's demise and the public outpouring of grief in AP, was a real eye opener for even Sonia Gandhi and the coterie.The stunning wins for Congress in the Lok Sabha seats in AP during the general elections were explained away by typical Congress sycophants as due to the vote catching abilities of Sonia and Rahul.At best, they reasoned, YSR was good in ticket distribution and election day booth management. The emotional scenes after YSR's death showed them that the people of AP voted Congress not because of Sonia or Rahul, but mainly due to the charisma of YSR. For all his defects, the late YSR had a definite connect with the masses, much better than Chandra Babu Naidu ever had, and second only to what NTR had in his hey day.

Having seen how powerful an image YSR had created for himself, the Congress high command wanted all the benefit of that image to flow to the first family.And not to Jagan, who was seen basically as a businessman who took advantage of his father being in power.Also, YSR was always seen as a Gandhi family loyalist.Jagan is yet to prove his loyalist credentials.And there was the danger of a young Jagan getting ahead of himself and spoiling the show for Congress in 2014 by creating a wave of anti-incumbency.

So, the calculation was two fold: 1. Make Jagan wait his turn. If he agrees and behaves like a loyal Congress person and succeeds in fulfilling YSR's dream (41 out of 42 LS seats from AP for INC in 2014), reward him with a suitable position; could be CM or could be Union Minister. 2. If Jagan protests the decision, and tries to walk out of Congress, mollify him with a Union State Minister or Deputy CM or PCC Chief post.

One can say, with the benefit of hindsight of course, that the high command calculations worked perfectly. It is a possibility that some insiders on Jagan's side actually worked to push forward high command's agenda.Also, Jagan himself gave statements which were neither completely loyal nor fully rebellious. But by not agreeing to give him the Pulivendula MLA seat, the high command has had the last laugh.

How will this affect Congress in AP? The Congress party, especially the CM Rosaiah, has to tread a fine line between keeping Jagan in the fold by allowing some leeway in his (and his associates') business transactions, and at the same time, not allowing Jagan & friends to become financially so strong that they can hold the party to ransom. (Let us face it, all these parties, Congress, TDP, BJP etc. work only towards enriching their leaders and the associated business class). The issues surrounding the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) point to this balancing act. Gali Janardhan Reddy and his associates can get away with the loot of public wealth provided their political backers in AP (Jagan & associates) toe the high command line. However, now that the issues have been raised and an investigation has been ordered, any time Jagan &Co raise the banner of revolt, the files can be dusted off and CBI asked to investigate. So, there you go.

Yes, Jagan could have handled this better.It is not that he underestimated the high command. I think he over estimated the sense of gratitude the Congress party had, towards his father and thereby his family. As one Congress insider put it: "Yes, definitely Sonia madam and the rest of the high command have a lot of gratitude for YSR's services to the party. They also want good things to happen to his son and other family members. The gratitude is at best worth some business contracts and a Union Minister of State post. Not the post of AP's CM."

However, good or bad, the fact is: majority of the MLAs were behind Jagan and wanted him to become CM. That it did not happen shows that none of these MLAs truly think of themselves as representatives of people. They feel that their MLA giri was due to Sonia's benevolence delivered via YSR.

If you look, a majority the ruling party MLAs of both AP and Karnataka neither have values nor a backbone.Politics, for these people, is a money making opportunity. The actual voters do not get into the equation at all, at any point. It also says a lot about us, the educated middle class, that we conveniently find fault with the MLAs and do nothing about the system that we have helped create.

And what kind of a system have we built up?

1. Six infants die in Vijayawada in a Govt hospital because the incubators and ventilators in the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) were not functioning properly. The situation is the same at Niloufer Hospital in Hyderabad (the largest Paediatric Care center in AP).

2. The State treasury is in dire shape, there has been a severe drought, followed by devastation due to floods in several districts. Meanwhile, the TRS president K.Chandra Sekhar Rao threatens to do a 'fast unto death' as a final attempt to achieve Telangana, and over a thousand of his followers are ready with petrol cans so that they can immolate themselves if required !

3.Not just the cities, most of the rural areas, especially tribal areas are full of dengue, swine flu and cerebral malaria.It is a situation of medical emergency in the tribal areas. The State is busy fighting the naxalites.

4.Anantapur is one of the poorest districts in South Asia, not just India or AP.And it is one of the most mineral rich districts in AP.The Reddy brothers of Bellary, along with people who are associated with YS Jagan, are mining the iron ore and other minerals from the district and earning thousands of crores by exporting the raw material to China. The Govt gets a pitiful royalty, and hardly any money trickles down to the district and to the villages that have been displaced because of the mines.

5.Because the Govt has neglected primary education in rural areas, the attendance in these schools has come down drastically. Many rural primary and secondary schools have been closed due to very low student count (less than 10 per class). Some students joined private schools, whilst many have just left studies. What do you think is happening in the empty school buildings? Yes, you guessed it right - these empty school buildings have become gambling dens, and addas for sale and consumption of liquor during the day time. Don't ask me what happens at night.

When I see the bad state of civic infrastructure in Hyderabad and other cities, when I see the utter state of neglect of basic amenities in rural areas, I feel that some thing's gotta give. Things can not go on like this forever. Naxalism (Maoism) is not an answer. It is in fact, one of the problems.The current political culture needs to be transformed though. The poor have no voice and it is not fair to expect them to revolt (unless you take their lands). So, who will bell the cat? It has to be the educated middle class. At last count, we are around 300 million.Imagine, 30 crore !

India needs a middle class revolution.Every one I speak with agrees on that.Most people also agree that this revolution needs to happen within the democratic framework.And we have seen that a centralised, socialist, left leaning approach hasn't really worked.It has just made us into people who are apathetic towards the whole political process. What we need is a decentralised, ideology neutral framework that empowers local economies to flourish - in other words, an approach focused on individual effort and meritocracy.

There are a few, low scale, efforts going on in this direction across the country. The womens' self-help groups are being run professionally in at least a few places. There are people like Sharad Joshi and Jayaprakash Narayan who are speaking a different language compared to mainstream politicos. But when will these efforts attain a critical mass and replicate throughout the nation? Some of us expected the BJP to be that political force. We were mistaken. The BJP is just another imitator of the Congress, minus the dynasty.

Do we need a different political formation, a network of various small parties/peoples movements across the nation? What role will this generation, our generation play in this revival? Or will we be content to pass on the problems to the next generation, just like our parent generation did?

I know I am just asking questions.I am searching for the right answers. If you have managed to read this ramble till here, congratulations on your patience ! Please share your thoughts on the 'solutions' in the comments below.

Many reasons for man made floods in AP and Karnataka?

2009-10-04T23:28:00.000-07:00

Warning: A rambling rant without any external links.

My last blog post was a translation of a famous scene from the Telugu film, Daana Veera Sura Karna. As the saying goes in Telugu, there are a thousand reasons for Karna's death.It needed the coming together of many banes (शाप, శాపాలు) to have Karna killed.

This could also be true for the floods raging over parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka for the past one week.Where does one start when pinpointing the reasons for these floods? May be some one like P.Sainath should write a book called - Every one loves a flood?

The straightforward reason is the belated reaction or negligence by the Government officials in charge of manning the sluice gates of the various reservoirs.It is evident that these civil engineers (how many of them have studied in donation engineering colleges and bought their jobs through bribes?) seemed to lack the expertise or even a sense of professionalism required for the jobs. They need not have discovered the optimal capacity of the reservoirs along river Krishna.Those details have been documented in the Krishna River Water Management Manual. I am sure the staff working at these reservoirs would have access to the latest, updated version of this manual.If not a soft copy, at least a hard copy.Then why did they wait for the water levels to cross the danger mark? Does this merit an investigation to ensure that such calamities do not happen again due to 'not reading the manual'?

One would expect the reservoir facilities to have systems in place that have automatic triggers or checks.Sadly, no one seems to be talking about these things. Whilst I am not an expert in structural engineering, I believe that our river water management systems have enough automation in place to ensure that data about the water flows in upper riparian areas in trasmitted in real time to the lower riparian reservoirs and dams. If yes, did these systems work or not?

I have been reading in the news papers and watching 'experts' on the channels, talking about 'nature's fury'. What fury? These were torrential rains no doubt, but not on the scale of a cyclone or a Tsunami. The rainfall recorded in Karnataka or AP was not so heavy that entire cities and villages get submerged.And then the conspiracy mongers in the Congress-controlled press (The Slimes of India, especially) with headlines in their Hyderabad edition that scream - 'Karnataka floods AP', implying that the BJP Govt in Karnataka was to blame for the flooding of Kurnool and Mahboob Nagar districts in AP.I fail to understand what the Karnataka Govt would gain by causing floods in AP. I mean, isn't all this controlled by the Central Water Commission's engineers who are placed in all important river side towns? Also, who allowed the construction of Almatti dam in Karnataka?

Let us accept, for argument's sake, that the 'over greedy' Karnataka farmers pressurised their Govt to build a structure that could cause flooding in the lower riparian regions.Why did successive AP governments (both TDP and Congress) not fight against it effectively? Why did successive Union Govts (both NDA and UPA), not mediate appropriately? I traveled in that parts of Karnataka a few years back.And I was not surprised to see that most of the beneficiary lands from Almatti dam were owned by farmers from Krishna and Guntur districts of AP.Yes, these agricultural entrepreneurs went and bought hundreds of acres each in Karnataka. And most the civil works for the dam were being handled by contractors from Rayalaseema districts of AP (most of them being Congress politicians or those associated with the late honorable YSR).

Can we then infer that due to the vested financial interests of businessmen-politicians, such ecologically destructive dams and reservoirs were allowed to go ahead, and the issue/s were seen as disputes between State Govts, over what was actually a national resource?

Over 300, 000 people have been displaced in AP alone in the last 3 days.The death toll is not clear yet because the authorities have failed to reach several flooded villages and small towns. The holy town of Mantralayam has become a watery grave for dozens of devotees and locals. The Raghavendra Swamy Math has been destroyed completely and the TV channels are showing visuals of dead bodies hanging from the temple walls. And yet, the authorities are unable to reach Mantralayam. How can TV channels manage to go there, but officials can't?

Now, the usual charade of aerial surveys by the CMs, Ministers, sundry politicians etc has been going on for the past 2 days.No one seems to have thought that instead of using the choppers to do aerial surveys for the benefit of a CM, they could have pressed into relief work.When hundreds of thousands of people need to be rescued or given food or water, how can a fleet of 11 choppers suffice? And the biggest joke is that the CM of AP was kept waiting for almost half a day because the official chopper was not ready, 72 hours after the floods broke.It was pathetic to see the same State Govt that acted so efficiently to locate a missing CM last month, express their inability on TV that the flood situation is so serious we just have to hope that the waters recede, before venturing out for relief works.

As always, the various quasi-political and religious-charity organizations have stepped up and doing a commendable job.A friend called me from the G.Pulla Reddy Engineeing college campus in Kurnool city.He was a volunteer in a huge camp being run by the VHP (yes, the same people who are shunned by city elite) that is outdoing the entire Govt machinery in providing relief. In many villages, the Church buildings have provided shelter for the displaced.And I am sure the voluntary organizations associated with the Churches are definitely doing their bit.

There is a dire need to review the entire irrigation policy in India.Check dams and other minor irrigation projects are more effective, but most of the funds seem to be earmarked for mega irrigation projects, which provide water to thousands of acres, but also make several thousand acres become shallow, not to speak of thousands of displaced people. But we can't just remove the huge reservoirs already built. There has to be a more effective command and control process for how the water levels in these reservoirs are managed. The way we seem to allow all upper riparian States to build major irrigation projects so indiscriminately, we are headed for more such man made ecological disasters. For all the intellectuals focused on national interest, the bigger danger seems to be from China's plans to divert river Brahmaputra and build probably the world's largest reservoir, just before the river enters India. If China chooses, it could unleash an ecological disaster on India and Bangladesh that could be worse than a few nuclear bombs.It makes sense, therefore to engage with China on these matters. But who will engage with various State Govts to ensure that we don't create such disasters within the country? Where does the accountability lie? Why is the Central Water Commission (CWC also stands for Congress Working Committe btw, and that body is equally symbolic) such an ineffective entity? If TN or Maharashtra govts do not respect the judgement of river water tribunals, isn't there any thing the rest of the Nation can do?

Questions and more questions. As the saying goes, there are thousand reasons for Karna's death.

Finally, readers of murder mysteries are familiar with the principle - who gets the money. In any murder scenario, the good detective always looks at the motives of the suspects. The present flood situation has completely pushed the issue of 'Jagan as CM' to the backstage.The Congress high c0mmand is concerned about the flood havoc, but would also be heaving a sigh of relief because the Jagan camp has gone silent.Politically motivated floods are not new in India (ask the CPM Govt in West Bengal about the floods a few years ago, that wiped out dozens of villages that were supporting Trinamool Congress), and as a rule, the mainstream media doesn't highlight such events. It is the official machinery that gets blamed for the indecision that resulted in the floods.

Okay, on second thoughts, I take it back.Let me state clearly that I don't see a conspiracy theory here.I just see inefficiency and apathy from the State Govt and its officials.Let the flood ravaged people make the choice next time around when elections come.

The entire bureaucracy of Andhra Pradesh, however, have blood on their hands. I pray to all Gods to ensure that these officials realize this, and atone for it by not being corrupt or communal about the relief work.Is that a tall order too?

The coronation of Karna

2009-09-17T02:52:00.000-07:00

I made an attempt to translate one of my favourite scenes from the movie Daana Veera Shoora Karna. There could be a few words that I have not translated, but overall, I think I managed to convey the spirit of the dialogues, especially the ones by Suyodhana.

Scene: The Court of Kaurava king Dhritarashtra. The court opens on to a ground. The Kaurava and Pandava princes, the elders of the clan, and other courtiers are present. The public is seated around the ground, where an exhibition of skills has been going on. Arjuna has emerged as the best fighter among all.

Drona: In the entire Bharata Khanda, my favorite disciple, the third Pandava prince Arjuna is the best and the incomparable among the archers; he is best warrior in the entire world.
Arjuna twangs his bow.
Suyodhana (Duryodhana) is unhappy but doesn't have an answer to this claim.

Drona: In the science of archery, on this entire landmass surrounded by the four oceans, there is no one who can compete against Arjuna. No one ! No one !

Enter Karna saying: There is (some one) ! There is ! There is !

From the gallery, Kunti looks at Karna and recognizes him immediately.A mix of happiness and worry cloud her face.

Drona: Who are you?
Karna: O Drona, the teacher famous for harming his disciples ! Have you already forgotten who I am ? Ask the right thumb of Ekalavya, that which you cut in the guise of Guru Dakshina (gift for the teacher).It will remind you who I am.
Drona: You have dared to compete against Kshatriya princes. What is your name?
Karna: Karna
Drona: Who are your parents?

Karna is silent.

Bheeshma: Brave one ! Speak up ! who are your parents?
Kunti is aghast.

Karna looks around and says: It is my dharma to respectfully mention my parents who are like Gods to me.
Takes a step forward. "I am the son of Radha."
Kunti hides her face.She is in tears now.
Karna: I am the son of Atiradha.

Drona: Your caste?
Karna: I am a charioteer.Born in the carpenter caste.
Drona: People from your caste are not eligible to fight against Kshatriyas.

Kunti is grief stricken and faints into her seat.A hurt Karna turns and starts to leave.

Suyodhana: Stop ! stop there !

Karna halts and looks at Suyodhana. The eldest Kaurava prince walks up the steps towards the throne where the high courtiers are sitting near the king.Drona is among them, standing upright and looking at Karna in contempt.

Suyodhana (chuckling loudly) : Acharya (teacher) ! What, what did you say ?
Are you saying that because of his caste he can't stand and compete with us? What a (silly) statement !

This is a test of Kshaatra (skills of warfare), not a test for Kshatriyas. Are you saying its wrong, and it is a test based on caste? How was your father Bharadwaja born ? What about the disgusting manner of your own birth? Weren't you born in a clay pot ? What is your caste, then?

(laughs, turns and walks towards Bheeshma and other elders of the clan)

Looking at Bheeshma: Why all this talk? Isn't this great grandfather of ours, the son of King Saantana, born in the womb of river Ganga ? What is his caste?(Continues to laugh and snigger)

Why are you making me say all this ? Isn't the progenitor of our clan, the sage Vashista, born to Urvasi, the prostitute of Gods?

And then, Vashista married a dalit girl Arundhati to give birth to Shakti. This Shakti mated with the daughter of a graveyard keeper and Parasara was born. This Parasara married a village belle Matsyagandhi and our grandfather Vyaasa was born.And this Vyaasa mated with widows - he had my father with Ambika and my uncle Pandu with Ambalika; and he even went to bed with a slave of the royal household to give birth to Vidura here, whom all of you praise as the very incarnation of 'Dharma'.

On so many occassions and for so many expediencies, our Kuru clan made either the Kshetra (egg) or the bija (sperm) as the primary line (primogeniture), and has become a mongrel of castes long back.

And after all this, why are we making an empty argument, on caste?

Bheeshma (gets up now ): My son, Suyodhana !
Su: Yes, grandfather !
Bheeshma: Much water has flown, and it is not in our mandate to discuss the origins of great rishis.

Suyodhana laughs irreverently in response.

Bheeshma: You are absolutely right that this is a test of warfare and not a test of caste. All those with an aptitude for warfare become Kshatriyas. But only those who have a kingdom can be called Kings. This, then is a competition among kings.Only a king can compete in this council of Kuru clan.

Suyodhana: O ho ! Is it monarchical trappings that decide eligibility of an individual, then ?

Ponders this complication, twirls his moustache, and comes to a decision.Starts walking down the steps and into the centre of the court.

Suyodhana: Then, I am declaring and crowning Karna as the king of Anga (parts of modern day Bihar), the land that is fertile and wealthy.

Brother Dussasana, get me a crown encrusted with nine types of diamonds.Make it fast !
Uncle Sakuni, the king of Gandhara (modern day Afghanistan), please bring a throne made of pure gold and all kinds of gems !
Royal valets ! Please bring vessels filled with water from the holy river Bhagirathi (old name of river Yamuna/Jamuna) !

Musicians ! Let the auspicious sounds of celebration be heard by every one !
Royal Usherers ! Sing the praises of emperor Karna !

Pious women ! Get Karna ready by applying tilak on his forehead, and sandal paste on his body. Let his glow and aroma create desires and awe the crowd !

And I, Suyodhana, amid this august gathering of learned and the brave, amid the public that has gathered here, want to declare an end to this ugly pest called caste ! Not once, but with force enough for a hundred and a thousand deaths to this evil called caste ! Not just for now, but for ever in this land !

Karna looks up in awe and admiration at the young, radical, social reformer prince. Kunti is shedding tears of happiness.Karna has become a king and Suyodhana has earned a friend who will stand by him till death.And even after.

________

This scene (in Telugu) is available here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1otj8enu9qE
N.T.Rama Rao played three roles in this film - Suyodhana, Karna and Sri Krishna. He also directed the film, apart from giving creative inputs into the dialogues and screenplay.

On the age of 'ostentatious austerity'

2009-09-16T06:52:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write about this austerity thing. But now, its taken a new turn. Will write after we see the fun with Shashi Tharoor's 'cattle class' statement, inspired by Kanchan Gupta, and taken offence to by the Congress Party.

Meanwhile, here's an excellent view of the issue from former diplomat M.K.Bhadra Kumar

Hypocrisy of the 'austerity drive' must stop Now!

Will / Should Jagan succeed YSR as CM?

2009-09-09T00:21:00.000-07:00

When I heard a confirmation of YSR's chopper being found last Thursday, I had just reached my office. I called home and asked my wife to switch on the TV.I told her to call me as soon as she sees a confirmation of YSR's survival or demise. And in a conversation with a colleague a few minutes after the confirmation of his death, I suggested that by evening we would see Jagan being sworn in as the new CM.

That it did not happen and Rosaiah was made interim CM was explained away by people.They said it was mourning period and let Jagan at least complete the last rites along with his family. Well, the funeral did not stop Rajeev Gandhi from being sworn in as PM on the night of Oct 31, 1983, did it?

Any way, there are a few issues here:

1.Who should decide on the next CM? Congress Party high command (basically Sonia and Rahul) or the MLAs of AP? The Constitution is very clear on this aspect.The MLAs have to chose their leader, and the Governor has to be satisfied that the leader can command a simple majority. The MLAs have submitted a signed memorandum to high command requesting Jagan to be made CM. YSR's cabinet made a resolution to that effect as well. However, the high command has stopped the CLP from having a formal meeting :)

2.Isn't this dynastic succession against democratic values?

I suggest you read Swapan Das Gupta on this issue.

3.Is Jagan ready to don the role of CM?

The CM role requires a vision to take the state forward, and doing so through deft political management and also ensuring the bureaucracy is properly aligned . If Jagan, at 36, with over a decade of experience in active politics, commanding the confidence of a majority of Congress MLAs, and practically the entire Congress org in AP, can't be ready for this role now, when will he be? I don't think it is a valid question at all.

It remains to be seen what the Congress High command decides, and if the decision is against Jagan, what the response will be. I have a few thoughts though:

1.Is there any Congress leader in AP who can stake his/her claim openly ? I don't see any one with the political guts to do so. The best bet for the surreptious claimants is to be picked by the high command, and hope that Jagan's supporters will come around. But I doubt if any of the Cong leaders can stake the claim and face the aam Congress workers, who seem to be solidly behind Jagan.

2. Sonia and Rahul would do well to take a risk and go for Jagan.If his performance doesn't match up, there is plenty of time before 2014 to go for a different leader as CM. At least, the goodwill of ordinary congressmen in AP would not be lost.

3.Jagan can prove his political abilities by not blinking now. If he can withstand the pressure and still can stay firm and hold on to the support (shouldn't be very difficult because the popular sentiment is with him), he will gain the required respect from 10 Janpath. Else, he will be taken lightly not just by the high command (a Union Minister of State may be given to him), but also by the aam Congress workers in AP.

4. I only wish this doesn't result in a Telugu sentiments Vs Delhi hegemony sort of thing. The last time this happened was in 1984, when NTR was undemocratically removed from power by the Congress appointed Governor Ram Lal.AP erupted in flames as a result, and the movement did not subside till NTR was reinstated.It is quite possible that Jagan's supporters, with the help of a strong public sentiment, can whip up a similar agitation now.

5.Finally, Telugus are a very sentimental and emotional lot. If the decision is seen as Delhi hegemony on Telugu sentiments, the high command will be killing the goose that laid 33 golden eggs in LS elections, apart from supplying a significant % of Cong campaign funds. I don't think Sonia and Rahul are that naive. But who knows ? Politics is a mysterious art.

If high command ignores Jagan and hands over the CM giri to an 'experienced' Congi without a mass base (Jaipal Reddy any one?), what are the chances of Jagan & Co splitting Congress in AP to form Congress (YSR) ? And Chandra Babu Naidu or Chiranjeevi supporting such a grouping from the outside ? Or (let me dream a bit here) Gali Janardhan Reddy of Karnataka BJP (Jagan's business partner and close friend) brokering an altogether different deal ?

No, I don't think 10 Janpath will let all this happen. If they have any political sense and a wee bit understanding of Telugu sentimentality, they would just go with Jagan.

YSR (1949-2009) - The 'born again' politician - 4

2009-09-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

In the previous three posts on YSR's legacy ( Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), we looked at the political career of YSR. However, along with 'factionism', 'dissidence', 'paada yatra', and 'welfare sops' , the question of YSR's role in the spread of Christian evangelism in AP is also an important motif for polarising opinions on him.

The first point to note is that the popularity of YSR among the minorities in AP has in no way compromised his pull among upper caste as well as dalit Hindus in AP. Rather than just looking into the allegations about his encouragement for evangelism and his supposedly anti-Hindu policies related to management of temples, and the use of Hundi collections for 'secular' purposes, it will serve us better if we try to understand the issues involved in a little more detail.

Frequently Asked Question : Has there been a tremendous rise in evangelism/forced conversions after YSR became the CM, and if yes, how much of this can be attributed directly to the CM?

Before answering this question, a look at the historical situation in AP first.

YSR is a third-generation Protestant Christian. It was his grand father Y.S.Venkata Reddy who came under the influence of British missionaries and converted with his entire family. The conversion angered the fellow Reddys of Balapanur village and Venkat Reddy had to undergo almost a social boycott. However, in time, more people, both from the Reddy and Dalit communities in Kadapa district took to Christianity.

The promise of free education, especially in English, good medical facilities for free in mission hospitals, the availability of foreign funds to start schools and colleges, and in case of many dalit families - the opening up of an alternative, and influential career path as pastors and nuns etc., helped drive the conversions.

The evangelical program was largely unorganized till the 1980s, with dozens of denominations seeking to harvest souls throughout AP, and meeting with particular success where ever the domination of economic opportunities and education by the upper castes left the 'Mala' caste and some Backward Castes looking towards Christianity.

Since the 1990s, the scale and scope of the evangelist movement in India, with focus on states like AP has changed drastically and become more organized with even Inter-denominational Pastor Associations networking to influence political outcomes. This can not entirely be laid at the altar of Joshua Project, though the availability of American millions has surely made it possible for many massive healing meetings.

What then, could be the other factors?

One obvious factor in the context of AP is the rise of second and third generation political leaders from among the converted Christians. The confidence that comes from some one of your kind being a people's representative is enormous, even if the MLA in question benefits from the vote bank and doesn't do any thing else apart from occassional Church attendance.

The other, under researched question related to the rise of evangelism is the 'dual benefits' that went to dalit Christians for over 50 years. The first benefit is Constitutionally assured reservations for SCs, BCs and STs. This enabled several families to rise out of utter poverty and low social status to move into lower middle class and then middle class in two generations. Complimenting this benefit is the assistance from the Church. Most people equate Church assistance with monetary aid. This is only part of the story.

A Christian community finds the Pastor useful not just in providing spiritual succour (much needed because mainstream Hindusim has neglected the spiritual needs of these people for hundreds of years). The Pastor in a village is also usually some one who reads and interprets national and international socio-political and economic events for them. Even if they have Cable TV, they wouldn't be found watching NDTV or CNN-IBN. They would rather watch filmi programs. It is the priest/pastor who through the sermons in the Church and prayers at individual homes, shapes a good bit of their world view.

For upper caste Hindus who tend to think of dalits as in a sterotyped manner and do not proceed beyond the 'they all hate Brahmins' construct, it would indeed come as a surprise to know that these fellow Indians have formed certain world views that are parallel to what we (urban Hindus) have developed, over the past 50-60 years.

The other benefit that accrued to these communities relates to the Churches themselves and how they are managed. Though there are head quarters for each denomination, and a certain hierarchy, the local management of the Churches is highly decentralized. The records and measurement against key success factors (conversion rate for example) are sent to the HQ so that effective use of funds can be monitored.

But most of the Churches attain self-sufficiency after a few years because the adherents pay small donations several times a year, among other revnue streams such as baptisms, marriages and funerals. More importantly, the Church will have a committee formed from among the congregation. In a sense, the stakeholders for a local Church are primarlily the followers in that region. This sort of develops relationships between people, a certain 'help my brothers and sisters at the church' mentality, which in my observation has addressed the 'social needs' of the converts. Mainstream Hinduism had these elements too, but they vanished long back.

By the 1990s, one could find a good number of dalit Christians in government jobs, PSUs, government schools etc, apart from private missionary schools, hospitals and so on. The unifying effect of having Prayer Meetings in an office, or university campus, or a PSU township can not be under stated. And when people think of themselves as a community, it becomes easier to invite others from the same socio-economic strata to join the group and/or to act like a cohesive vote bank.

It is quite easy to be lazy and ascribe all this to an international conspiracy of American Baptists or the Vatican. But I think that is a factor only at the initial, venture capital stage, and when successive rounds of funding for expansion of a particularly successful denomination are required.

The mid-1980s and 1990s also saw the dozens of well trained Evangelical speakers all over India, and in AP, the likes of K.A.Paul are dime a dozen. Mass mobilisation for prayer sessions became a regular sight. The 90s were also the times when Church communities saw tussles between factions within for control of the Church properties, mostly located on prime real estate in towns across AP.

Today, as per some estimates, the actual % of Christians in AP population is between 10-12 %. The figure in the census is only 2.4%. If the proposed bill for conferring SC status on dalit Christians (and Muslims) becomes an Act, it is likely that we will see the real numbers of practicing Christians available.

With all this background, let us look at the last three CMs AP has had - YSR, CBN, and NTR. All three of them being forceful personalities, with major differences in how they perceived the religious divide from a political and personal angle.

NTR - as Brahmanical as one can get in terms of learning, but with a socio-religious reformer's mind set. He despised the caste system, but could not get away from indulging or at least allowing a preferential treatment to his Kamma community. In some instances, he was even blind towards upper caste atrocities on Dalits. In some quarters, he was known as a Brahmin-hater, but in my view he hated the symbols of caste system more than the brahmin community. Regarding the minorities, NTR was a constitutionalist, and went by the rule of law, but never displayed any special affection towards other faiths. He had a large number of Muslims as his fans, and he was probably instrumental in several well-off Muslims in AP entering the political scene as well. Till his time, the TTD funds were largely ignored by the State Govt. NTR, for the first time, saw that TTD has enormous excess funds, and he wanted that money to be transferred to the state exchequer or at least put to use for non-religious purposes if necessary.

Chandra Babu Naidu - Truly secular in the sense he projected an image of neutrality though like all politicians, he tried to appease the minority vote bank as much as he can. The misuse of TTD funds and the politicisation of TTD board was quite high during his tenure though.

YSR - Most people who accuse YSR as the evangelist CM of AP ignore the fact that he was the third Christian Reddy CM of the state, and not the first. Kasu Brahmananda Reddy (KBR) during the late 60s and mid 70s, and Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy (Jaani) during the late 80s were the other two.

I could not find any reference to KBR being anti-or that he favored evangelists in any way, except in a case filed against him for election mal practices. KBR apparently promised Lutheran Christians in Firangipuram that he would build a big Church for them in return for votes.

Regarding the suave Mr.Janardhan Reddy, his rise from being a teacher to the owner of several educational institutions, and the generous funds he received from Christian organizations in UK and US, have been reasonably well documented. Neither KBR orNJR have ever been accused as being anti-Hindu though.

So, then, back to YSR. The list of accusations is so long, that I better give an external link. Some of these events can not be denied, but that is not the only or the best way to look at the issues.

There is another side to YSR-bashing. Many among the Christian right accuse him of being too defensive about his religious beliefs. They also maintain a list of his blasphemous utterings and bemoan YSR's obsession with mythological Gods such as Siva, Venkateswara Swamy, Narasimha Swamy and Bhadradri Sri Rama. 'How can he, a good Christian, enter a Hindu temple and offer prayers, goes the refrain.' An anonymous commentor left this link on my previous post.

I once teasingly asked a Christian friend if YSR can be considered a true Christian and the answer was a serious 'No'.

Reason: YSR had vedic homams done at his place, he carried the diamond crown on his head and entered Tirumala temple before doing a Saashtaanga Pranaam to the deity, YSR's statements on festive occassions praying to Hindu Gods to take good care of AP people, his sporting of tilak on the forehead on important Hindu festival days, and above all, his belief in 'Varuna Yaagam' bringing timely rains to AP, so on and so forth. My friend asked me in an agonised voice: How would you feel if a Hindu politician credits Jesus or Prophet Mohammed for the rains ? My reply was the usual - 'religion is a personal thing' and if YSR feels devotion towards Venkateswara and Siva in equal measure as Jesus, it means he is a Hindu-Christian, like most Indian Christians can be, if they chose to.

Leaving such rhetorical arguments aside, I would like to posit some points to help evolve a finer understanding of YSR's religious beliefs or lack thereof, and the impact on his image.

It is well known in AP political circles that while NTR was a scholar in Ramayana and some of the vedas, YSR's speciality was Andhra Maha Bharatam.I have no evidence for this, but some low level Congressmen told me in amazed voices how YSR seems to know all the lesser known and apt stories from Maha Bharata, including verses from the Gita. I think YSR's telugu idiom is derived from such sources.

YSR's family are devout Christians. And yet, one constant complaint from them used to be his unavailability for Sunday mass even on occassions like Easter.Well, he is a politician, isn't he? He would rather meet people than spend time in a Church or Temple, I suppose.

It is true that YSR did more than any other CM in trying to appease religious minorities.I would put this down to his vote bank politics than him being anti-Hindu. In his belief that all religions need appeasement, YSR even tried giving sops to Hindus, though such measures (Subsidy for Manasarovar Yatra for example) did not receive publicity.

The appointment of an ex-Marxist Bhumana Karunakara Reddy as TTD Chairman raised the hackles of many a Hindu rightist in AP and elsewhere. I would attribute that appointment to nepotism (Bhumana was almost like a brother to YSR) than a deliberate ploy to Christianize Tirumala. It is possible that Bhumana and his team pilfered what they can from the TTD funds. We need an enquiry into the allegations. But what can't be argued against is that it was only during Bhumana's tenure as TTD chief that a number of pro-Dharmic measures were taken by TTD.
- Dalita Govindam - a program to take the God to the colonies of dalits, and bring them into the Dharmic fold
-Kalyanamastu - mass vedic marriages cutting across all castes, targeting especially the Hindu poor in AP
-Starting of Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel, to propagate Hindu Dharma more effectively
-Grand celebration of 600th jayanti of Annamayya, and installing a 108-feet statue of Annamayya at his birthplace Tallapaka in Kadapa district
-Taking TTD into the electronic age by allowing interested people to webcast the Brahmotsavams, among other things

But we can't ignore the allegations of corruption in TTD, including the disappearance of temple jewellery, and the appointment of a liquor baron like Audikeshavulu Naidu as a successor to Bhumana Karunakara Reddy.

Especially the issue of allowing evangelicals to preach on Tirumala hill and the move to take over five out of the seven hills for building resorts, commercial complexes, a rope way etc. There has been a lot of hue and cry (and justifiably so) about the sharp increase in the number of Christian employees in TTD, the issue of a certain Christian VC of Sri Padmavati Mahila University removing the photos of Venkateswara and Padmavati from her office and replacing them with a portrait of Jesus and so on.Also, the question of arranging TTD buses for girl students to attend Church on Sundays.

The important thing to note is that as soon as locals and devotees started agitating against some of these activities, a fact finding committee was formed and they provided a detailed report to the TTD.And the High Court disallowed the Govt move to commercialize the seven hills area.

It is quite possible that a Christian CM at the helm, with the CM's family itself involved in evangelist activities, acted as a catalyst for the various denominations formulating plans to evangelise in places sacred to the Hindus such as Tirumala, Simhachalam etc. But with Hinduism not being an organized religion, though the efforts by concerned Swamijis and other devotees did stop these proselytization activities, it did not impact the image of the CM among the Hindu masses at all. The Reddys continued to see him as a Reddy, and the Christians as a Christian.

This then is the problem for Hindutva forces who wish to consolidate the Hindu votes, not in the name of a dharmic manifesto, but simply to use the religion card to gain political power within the current adharmic status quo.If YSR's evangelical connections were an issue for state BJP, how did they reconcile this with G.Janardhan Reddy, a minister in BJP's Karnataka Govt, being the business partner of Jagan?

Personally, I feel that if the Hindus consolidate as a vote bank on dharmic principles, it could bring a positive change in governance. But to simply argue that YSR was trying to convert AP into a Christa Pradesh is to bark up the wrong tree, and avoid doing what needs to be done.

YSR could play the appeasement cards successfully because people let him do so. YSR, like Naidu, or any other Indian politician was not averse to using any and all the cards available to him. A very cynical manipulation of minority sentiments, whilst taking advantage of the divisions within Hindu society. As I said in my previous post, YSR threw a buffet. He seemed not to care 'who did what' as long as it benefited him politically.It would have been possible for Hindu outfits also to gorge at the buffet spread he laid out. The Hindu outfits were not organized enough to even read the situation this way inspite of the many signals his administration gave them.

So, in conclusion:

YSR did encourage the use of tax payer money for appeasement of all narrow interests, including, and especially evangelical interests. As these interests had successfully infiltrated his personal circle, certain measures were rather more obvious and unapologetic.At the same time, his approach has been castigated by the extreme right on all sides (Hindu, Muslim and Christian), whilst the common people saw in him what they wanted. A very successful politician who understood the impact of symbolic acts, and in the final analysis, was probably not very interested in religion. His personal faith was politics.

This ends the series on YSR. Next post: The succession issue - Jagan as CM- will mark the end of my posts on AP politics for now.

YSR (1949-2009) - The 'born again' politician - 3

2009-09-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

Part 1 and Part 2 of this post.

The trajectory of YSR's political career post-1999 shows a gradual ascent. Playing the mature and constructive opposition leader did not come easy to him. It was a learning curve that demanded YSR to read up and understand how agitational politics in a democratic setup need to be managed.

The State Congress was not short of people who reminded him about the vow he had taken before the 1999 elections to either dislodge Chandra Babu Naidu or take poilitical sanyas. Locals say that it was just pre-poll rhetoric and that YSR, after spending two decades in politics would just have to continue, at least to retain the family's pre-eminence in Kadapa district, and also to provide political cover to his son's business interests.

Around this time, Jagan's business ventures started picking up, and the friendship with the Reddy brothers of Bellary (Gali Janardhan Reddy being the main person) came in handy. And to stay in peoples' minds, YSR chose his issues quite carefully. The TDP government's policies of privatization and reduction of government subsidies helped him by giving issues that can be milked easily. Some analysts say that YSR studied the approaches of Rajeev Gandhi and NTR as opposition leaders and modeled himself accordingly.

During this period (1999-2003) YSR apparently studied a lot of literature and worked on his communication skills, especially the art of letter writing. He wrote several open letters to the CM Naidu questioning him on the policies discriminating against the farmers. Four successive years of less than average rainfall caused drought conditions in the State, and YSR's charge against Naidu was that the high tech CM was obsessed with IT and the city of Hyderabad, and neglecting the plight of rural AP, especially farmers suicides.

Naidu believed in the 'trickle down' theory, and had taken large loans from World Bank for building the infrastructure. It is true that AP saw a lot of good roads being laid during Naidu's rule, but YSR managed to keep the issues of peasants and artisans constantly in the media and kept pushing Naidu. And for the Rayalaseema people, the feared factional violence slowly became a thing of past, except in Anantapur district where Paritala Ravi (Naxal turned TDP leader) reigned supreme for a while.

It is not as if Naidu did not focus on the villages at all. He was inspired by experiments in government-people participation in South Korea and Malaysia, and nativised them to suit AP. Known popularly as Janmabhoomi programs, Naidu invited people to do sramdaan, and with Govt funds, build/renovate their own schools and hospitals. Naidu also instituted austerity programs by cutting down on hikes for school teachers and non-gazetted officers. He also made them work extra hours and on weekends to manage the Janmabhoomi and Akshara Rasmi (literacy) programs. Naidu's approach towards reducing corruption was to centralise all decisions leaving district level officers in confusion as to whether they matter in any way at all.

All in all, there were a few good things done by Naidu and a few unwise moves.YSR ensured that the implementation failures of all programs got highlighted on a daily basis.People, including cynical journalists started seeing YSR in a new light.

And then the paada yatra of 2003 happened causing the second transformation in YSR.
YSR's grouse was that the State Assembly was not proving to be an effective medium to protest against the Govt policies. He laid the blame for the suicides of farmers squarely on Chandra Babu Naidu. YSR's agitation against raised power tariffs created a mass impact, but failed to enthuse the moribund Congress cadre sufficiently. All his readings of Indian political history, and his own gut feel made him realize that the best way to counter Naidu was to open a direct channel with the rural populace.

The 1600-km paada yatra in peak summer of 2003 ( a good 12 months away from the general elections) started at Chevella near Hyderabad and culminated at Ichapuram in north AP.The media covered every stage of the yatra and the response from the villagers was tremendous. After NTR's tours in AP during 1982, this was the first time an AP politician sought to tour the State with the aim to reach out to people, and lend a ear. YSR had no solutions.Just a promise that he wants to learn about the problems and would do what he can to highlight them to the Govt. Importantly, it was not seen as a political gimmick. And the sincerity was there for all to see. Mid-way through the yatra, he fell seriously ill near Rajahmundry and it was as if the whole state came to a standstill, as the doctors battled with the dehydration related illness. It was a particularly hot summer with the mercury soaring above 44 degrees on several days. YSR lost weight rapidly but continued his yatra braving the advice of the doctors to give it up after Rajahmundry.

Can a paada yatra of this nature transform a person ? At what level ? To what extent ? Several journalists have asked YSR this question many times after he stormed to power in 2004, on the back of many factors that conspired against TDP.

To me, one of the most memorable statements from YSR goes like this:
"మంచి కోసం మారలేక పొతే మనిషి ఆశావాది కాలేడు."
Translated, it says that man can not become an optimist if he can not change himself for the sake of Good. I don't know whether he picked it up from some where or his own thoughts, but the YSR of the 1980s or the 1990s was not prone to wax so philosophical. What amazed some of us Kadapa folks is that while he remained as accessible as ever to the common man, in his informal interactions, the focus changed from ad hominem attacks on TDP, to a calm optimism that his time would come.

I think the paada yatra showed him not only the humbling poverty, but also served as a journey within. This is not to say that his aggressive tone and irreverent language towards opponents went away. Just that he learnt to use the idiom of the people than that of a dyed-in-the-wool politician. And the response from the public gave him the belief that the unfulfilled dream of political power would become a reality soon.

However, as mentioned above, TDP's defeat was caused not just by YSR's new found connection with the rural folks.

For one, YSR managed to unite the entire opposition against the TDP+BJP alliance. The communal card was played without any qualms. The Communist parties huffed and puffed, but ensured that their meagre share of votes was transferred en masse to the Cong candidates. There was a large scale mobilisation of the dalit Christian vote bank.

The Police, the teachers and vast sections of the Govt employees were desperate to get rid of Naidu as they were chafing under his, 'If I can work for 16 hours a day, why can't you work for 10-12 hours' line. Also, though there were some large scale corruption scams during Naidu's rule, petty corruption had become very difficult. The bureaucracy from top to bottom wanted a more 'flexible' political atmosphere.

And in Telangana, YSR allied with TRS chief K.Chandrasekhar Rao to whip up the Telangana sentiment. He promised a separate state as one of his objectives several times during the campaign. TDP was the only party committed to a unified AP. And a very important factor in Telangana, and the agency areas of AP was the informal deal struck with Naxal elements. YSR may not have given any assurances to the Naxalites, but Naidu's tough stance against the Naxals made them come out rather openly in support of non-TDP candidates.

That no one, including YSR expected such a complete landslide for Congress in the Assembly and LS elections of 2004, is well documented. This was seen as part of a national wave against the NDA though, and even Naidu seems to have put the blame for his defeat on his alliance with the BJP.

YSR's time had come and when he was sworn in as CM in a public meeting, the stage was full of his extended family from Pulivendula. The humility visible during the long campaign was replaced by a smug 'let my people make merry now, they have waited for a long time' attitude. And the loot started in right earnest.

One of the jokes during the initial days of YSR's rule was that while Naidu preferred to sit alone like a taddinapu braahmadu (priest who conducts the rites for a death anniversary), YSR's rule was like a buffet spread. I know the idiom is too local to allow a proper translation, but hope you get the sense of Naidu eating alone while the others are watching, whereas YSR preferring to arrange a dinner on an 'eat all you can' basis.

So, we started seeing a plethora of schemes with just one aim - move as much of tax payer money and public wealth as possible into private hands. Naidu had laid the foundation for the IT sector in Hyderabad, but did not last in power till the real estate boom took place. YSR's faithful followers enriched themselves enormously in the bargain, under the approving eyes of Congress ministers. And his son Jagan's business empire grew and grew. The Rajus of Satyam, who were in the good books of Naidu, miraculously earned the good will of YSR too, and Maytas suddenly became a huge infrastructure giant.

I am going to stop the story now, as this is all recent history.Let me focus on the pro-poor policies first and then, in the next post, get into some of the contentious issues like YSR's role in the spread of evangelism in AP.

YSR had promised several freebies during the 2004 campaign, and he kept his 'word' by signing on the free power for farmers GO immediately after coming to power. He also announced 'Jala Yagnam', a program where dozens of major, and minor irrigation projects would be taken up, to ensure water for all farmers in the state. Though the state exchequer started groaning under the free schemes and subsidies, the boom in the economy, and the good monsoon years compensated partially. Some of the schemes started by NTR and discontinued by Naidu, were revived, most notable among them being the Rs. 2 a kilo rice scheme.

The more popular among the new schemes were: Loans at 25 paise interest for women self-help groups and artisan communities, Rajeev Griha Kalpa (Indiramma houses), Arogya Sri (health insurance for the poor), hike in pensions for senior citizens, and of course the NREGA.

So, on the one hand, crony capitalism on a massive scale and on the other hand, welfare handouts for the poor. Most of the schemes involved some kind of a pay out for local Congress cadre. It became possible for any one who knows the local Congress MLA or mandal Congress secretary to get a White ration card, an Indiramma house, an Arogya Sri card, and some easy loans. The Arogya Sri scheme helped fill the coffers of corporate hospitals. The scheme to reimburse engineering and medical college fees for minority, dalit, and any economically backward students benefited the scores of private engineering colleges (over 250 last year). The SEZ policy transferred thousands of acres of land from poor people to rich corporates who are more interested in real estate operations than setting up industrial units. And the big daddy of them all, the irrigation projects, were worth more than Rs. 80, 000 crore as per initial estimates.

I have always wondered as to where all this money is coming from. I still don't have the answers except a lame theory that conversion of agricultural land into commercial land may have unlocked lot of wealth.

Estimates vary on how much wealth YSR's very large extended family and circle of friends accumulated between 2004-2009.Some say it is close to Rs. 50, 000 crore and others say it is probably around Rs. 25, 000 crore. Whatever the number is, even Naidu's mind might have boggled at the scale, I reckon.

But the one certainty is that AP supplied a lot of the cash that helped the INC run the campaign in the 2009 elections. And YSR delivered again for Sonia.(See my post on the analysis of the 2009 election results for AP.)

In the last 100-odd days of his second term, YSR seems to have realized the extent to which his schemes have failed in implementation, and so had begun a drastic review of bogus ration cards and Arogya Sri cards.It will be interesting to see how Jagan (the fait accompli has been served by state Congress and it remains to be seen how the high command responds) deals with these tricky issues.

So, what is the political and/or developmental legacy of YSR ? Large scale corruption through crony capitalism balanced by welfare doles to the poor ? Or is it, as seen by his fans, a balanced approach to development between the urban areas and the rural ones? Or, is it, center right to make business happy and center left to make the poor survive? To me, it looked like YSR focused on winning the 2009 election from day 1 of his first term and he did this by systematically giving out sops. His ostensible goal for the 2014 elections was to finish off the TDP as a political force. He had initiated Operation Aakarsh modeled on the Operation Kamal in neighbouring Karnataka, where a BJP government controlled by his Bellary friends is running the show. And a few days before his chopper crashed, YSR had declared that in his first term, he focused on governance, and now that it is running on auto pilot, he wants to 'enjoy the politics'.

Fate has willed otherwise.And it is left to his son Jagan and the political group that thrived on their proximity to YSR and family, to pick up the pieces.

Next post (and the last one in this series): YSR and the rise of evangelism in AP plus YSR in the eyes of Muslims and Hindus; again, I see people painting him in black or white. I will bring in the gray shades and we can see how the picture looks like.

YSR (1949-2009) - The 'born again' politician - 2

2009-09-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

Part -1 of this post.

While it is true that Chenna Reddy was the PCC president when Congress defeated NTR in 1989, a good number of people gave YSR a decent chance of becoming CM. However, that was not to be. This marked the beginning of a new phase in YSR's career - that of a dissident Congressman, trying to undermine the incumbent Congress CM.

Hyderabad was always prone to Hindu-Muslim clashes around the Ganesh Chaturthi, Bonalu and Ramadan time. The Police were unable to prevent the riots, and their effectiveness during the riots was hampered by political interference. But during NTR's first term (1983-89), there were hardly any riots in Hyderabad. NTR gave free hand to the state police to do preventive detentions and increase the patrols. Even though there were some protests about the annual arrests, for about 7 years, Hyderabad was riot free.

But during the Congress tenure (1989-1994), communal riots became an annual feature once again. And every time the riots occurred, the High Command replaced the CM because he 'has failed to ensure law and order.' Both Chenna Reddy and Janardhan Reddy were dethroned this way. And whether or not his supporters agree, YSR had a major role to play in these events.

As degree college students in Kadapa those days, we were blissfully ideology free. During election season, YSR's people used to offer willing groups of students with jeeps, and money, provided we take part in the campaign in the villages. I remember going on a couple of those trips. We used to visit a village or two till lunch time, and then some one would organize food in one of the villages.Biriyani and stuff. And in the evenings, liquor would be available. In most of the election booths, there would be hardly any voting. The student volunteers and others used to simply rig the votes. In one of the booths, I suggested that not all votes should be polled for YSR as that could disqualify the voting from that booth.And I polled around 25 votes for the BJP candidate. It was a token gesture towards the center right from my side, I suppose.

But in these interactions, we used to hear war stories being swapped by some of the muscle men. A large number of these goons-for-hire were dalits, with their ring leaders being Reddys. There was this time when in a road side tea stall, two men claimed to have killed three people each during the communal riots in Hyderabad. Apparently, people were shipped in lorries from Kadapa and few other places to the Old City, and were given a few hours to wreak havoc.

This is one of the accusations against YSR that has never been probed properly. To wilfully create riots and then demand the dismissal of a CM from your own party - is it possible that this could rank as one of the worst political crimes committed in Independent India? May be. But where is the proof, his supporters ask. It still amazes me that the likes of PV, Kotla Vijay Bhaskar Reddy, Rosaiah and others did not think it necessary to conduct a full investigation into these allegations. That this happened twice in two years suggests that the senior Congress leaders by then had already become spineless and morally blind, and were content to just pool all their influence in New Delhi together and keep YSR away from power.

With this backdrop, when the events of Dec 6, 1992 in Ayodhya caused full scale riots in Hyderabad, Raja Reddy took advantage of the tense situation and used some hired goons to settle a few business scores too. One of my relatives, an old man in his 60s, was beaten up mercilessly in the lawns of Taj Mahal Hotel in Abids, Hyderabad. His crime: He had dared to file a case against YSR family's mining business and won the case.

In any case, Janardhan Reddy was removed by the high command for his inability to handle the law and order situation. YSR rushed to Delhi now expecting to be crowned as the CM. However, PV Narasimha Rao had other plans. He could not entertain the thought of some one like YSR given a free rein in AP. Result: Once again, a senior Congress leader, Kotla Vijay Bhaskar Reddy became the CM. YSR's desperation could be seen in his press confrences those days.

YSR's followers went a step further though. When the PM and CM visited Kadapa, a section of the crowd threw footwear at the CM amid slogans that called for him to step down and give YSR the kursi. A shocked PV and a humiliated Kotla beat a hasty retreat from the scene. Several of us felt ashamed of our town people that day, and we knew who may have egged them on. But this was nothing compared to the daily dose of violence in the Rayalaseema districts throughout the Congress term. One, the police were too scared to act against any one claiming to be YSR's follower, and two, the followers resorted to violence to scare people into parting with their properties. A case of an old business family that had to part with their petrol bunk comes to mind.

YSR did little of any note during those years, except trying to consolidate his hold in Krishna and Guntur districts. During the TDP term, a popular Kapu Congress leader Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga was killed in what was alleged to be a police-sponsored murder. YSR agitated against this killing quite effectively and won the hearts of Ranga's followers in those districts. People all over the State started glorifying and romanticising the faction culture of Rayalaseema, especially Kadapa district and YSR was seen as the numero uno among them all. His 'mass appeal' among the dalit Christians of coastal AP seems to have started around this time.

While NTR was going through his own transformation, marrying his biographer Lakshmi Parvati, and playing the role of agitational opposition leader to the hilt, YSR and other Congress leaders were busy making the most of opportunities thrown open by a newly liberalized economy. One would have expected YSR to side with the Nellore women during the campaign for prohibition in AP. He was simply not interested in the issue. NTR returned to power with a massive majorityin 1994, and to those of us tracking YSR's career, it looked as if he would remain a second rung leader for ever.

YSR focused on his Delhi connections during the next few years. He was also probably immersed in sorting out some problems related to his children. Though they are irrelevant to this narrative (and therefore being omitted by me), I feel that the first sprouts of change were visible during 1994-98. In his mid-40s, with his children grown up and facing issues of their own, YSR probably started looking at his career, what he stands for, and how his actions or words would impact his family and extended family.

People throughout AP were bitten by the IT bug, and YSR's many factionist followers started seeing their kids move to the US for IT jobs or to setup IT body shopping firms. I recall a few weddings I attended those days in Kadapa (I myself moved to Hyderabad in 1993), where the star attractions were NRI Reddy boys and not the local factionist politicians. YSR's son Jagan spent some time in the US and started dreaming of building a business empire. Raja Reddy was as aggressive as ever, but he began facing challenges from some young factionists who matched him bomb for country bomb.

Meanwhile, Chandra Babu Naidu took his chances against NTR and succeeded in the family coup to become CM. YSR, a fan of NTR as an actor, spared no words in attacking his one time friend and now opponent Naidu, for this backstabbing. Naidu's rise was covered in the media extensively, but YSR's slow change of heart, and the distancing from factionsim went largely unnoticed. As per locals, the IT revolution was one of the main reasons for faction violence coming down.The other reason, they say, is the role played by successive district Superintendents of Police (SPs) in Rayalaseema districts, the most effective and famous among these being Umesh Chandra, IPS.

The systematic raids and attacks by the police, backed by the CM Naidu, made it difficult for the factionists to maintain their inventories of country bombs, rifles and other weapons. Umesh Chandra especially focused on country gambling rackets (called Matka), and dried up one of the revenue sources. The dapper police officer became quite popular in the villages, especially among the women folk, for his seizure of weapons from all MLAs and their followers. He also crushed the budding Naxal movement in the district, and ensured free and fair elections for the first time in history. YSR contested as an MP in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, and managed to win by just 5400 votes, that too after a contentious recounting issue. Observers said there were occassions during the tense counting phase when YSR lost his cool against the Dist Collector, but the SP stayed firm and refused to budge to YSR's dictats.

And in 1998, in a chilling demonstration that the young generation factionists would no longer cower in fear of Raja Reddy, a fierce local private war commenced between multiple factions. Eventually, Raja Reddy perished in one such gun fight. YSR, who ensured that so far his hands were not bloody, had a difficult choice to make. Till now, he always condemned faction violence and appealed for peace, while enjoying the deference people paid to him because of his 'super faction hero' image. The poor farmers among Reddys, and the dalits and BCs in the district too looked up to him for his 'benevolent' image. Generous towards friends and ruthless towards enemies - that was the projection YSR seems to have carefully cultivated. And it had served him well but did not enable the next leap up the political ladder.

In the mores of factionsim, the expected response to the murder of one's father is an all out attack on the perpetrators, and killing them within one year. Faction rivalries often went on for 2-3 decades until one faction runs out of steam and male descendants willing to fight.

YSR was the most powerful arbiter of faction feuds, and the politician with the best network.Plus, Raja Reddy had created a lucrative business and protection empire.Most people expected YSR's side to retaliate strongly against the suspected killers of Raja Reddy.

That did not happen. The case went to the police who did a decent job and arrested those responsible. Several of them got life terms after a relatively quick judicial process. In a few years, some of the convicted would even complete their sentences and walk out free.

This then is the first transformation of YSR, in my view. He could have remained mired in criminal cases and ended up as a provincial politician had he chosen the violent route. Instead, some thing changed in his heart, I think. He was able to see the future better now, and by some accounts, decided to end his association or support to any kind of factionism. I am pretty sure there would have been old men advising him not to sit quiet. And several young men who would have just waited for a nod from him to go and wreak havoc.

By deciding for peace instead of violence, YSR ran the risk of losing his tough image in the district. It could have been the dawning of political and emotional maturity in him, or the sight of grand children, or the urgings of Christian priests close to him in a spiritual sense. Whatever be the reasons, the district heaved a sigh of relief, and Naidu claimed victory over faction violence. YSR was now ready to lead the AP Congress in his own right.

The 1999 assembly and Lok Sabha elections were remarkable for many reasons.Not least the fact that Naidu joined hands with BJP and won a massive mandate for TDP in the State and the alliance won 36 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats.YSR did his best in bringing together various groups within the State Congress, but people trusted Naidu more than him.Congress won a mere 91, and YSR had to survive a further 5 years out of power.Already, it was 17 years since he tasted power as a State minister.

Instead of reverting into boorish factionsit behavior, YSR tried to now play the mature opposition leader.

Next post: The final decade (1999-2009), and an analysis of his approach to developmental politics, and his poliutical legacy.

YSR (1949-2009) - The 'born again' politician - 1

2009-09-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

(Caution: Very long post)

"In the long run, we are all going to die," said a famous economist some years back.

Yedugoori Sandiniti Rajasekhar Reddy (Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy or simply YSR) who died in a chopper crash over the dense Nallamala forests in the Rayalaseema region of AP seemed to have never believed in that truism.

YSR (1949-2009) may have died suddenly, and at arguably the peak of his political career, but leaves behind strong political legacy. Not many people would have agreed with his supporters' assertion that YSR has been as influential as the late N.T.Rama Rao (NTR) in shaping the AP political discourse. But when one looks at the events leading to his tragic death, and the emotional response to it by his fans, YSR has once again surprised his own expectations.

I have never written an obituary even during my days as a rookie journalist. I did not intend to write one for YSR. And this post is not going to be one either. But watching the thousands of people who thronged L.B.Stadium in Hyderabad yesterday from the safe confines of my home, and then looking at the villagers who turned out in hundreds of thousands at his funeral in Idupulapaya estate in the evening, I realized that this man needs to be critiqued properly. I spent some time trying to read up obits penned by well known journalists. And I was disappointed. Not because they failed to do justice to his achievements. Not even because most of them failed to mention his clay feet. I some how felt the esteemed journalists have not been able to trace the transformation of a regular politician (with no grounding in ideology) into some one who managed to transcend the divisions of faith, caste and regional aspirations. And in doing so, won the trust and love of millions of poor people- the hallmark of a true, once-in-a-generation leader in democratic societies. One may agree or disagree with him, but one can't ignore his impact in the country's politics since 2003 at least.

First, I think I need to be done with some peripheral but 'need-to-be-stated' stuff. I hail from the same district as YSR. He has been my MP four times. I must have seen/had interactions with him at least a dozen times or more as I was growing up in a dusty, hot town and he was climbing the political ladders. He was very accessible. Whether due to the local grapevine, or due to the business dealings my mother's side of the extended family had with YSR's family (some of them unpleasant to say the least), or due to me becoming friends with boys of my age group from YSR's family, I happen to know much more than the average AP voter about YSR and his roots, personality and so on. The same can be said about most politically aware people from my district. We know a lot of the skeletons. We also know a lot of the good and noble things he did.

Let me look at my own inconsistencies: I have always been against the Congress-style politics, but never wanted YSR to lose any election. I have always been extremely critical of the faction culture nurtured by YSR in my district, but felt that he presented the only hope of a way out from the spiral of violence. I was aware that some of the accusations against him had more than a grain of truth, and yet I could not hate him like some of his political opponents do.

Now that I am trying to put the record right for myself, I ask: Why? Why these mixed feelings and the long rope? The same benefit of doubt did not extend to so many local leaders and even Chandra Babu Naidu, his chief political opponent.

Over 130 people have died in AP in the last 3 days.109 have them died of heart attack unable to handle the shock of YSR's demise.The rest committed suicide.Yes, you are reading these figures correctly.Read those numbers again.

Yes, it shows how sentimental and emotionally weak these people are.I don't know if it is a Telugu thing to be so emotionally dependent on the heroes (real and reel life). It just is so childish. However, as I read the papers this morning a thought struck me that probably there are thousands of hypertensives out there ( and a good number of mentally weak people as well) who are not aware how close they are to a fatal heart attack. That is a different story altogether though.

Back to YSR. The first thing one must talk about, in any evaluation of his political career, is the question of faction rivalries in Rayalaseema.

What is Factionism?

As per available history, factionism started as a fight for meagre resources (in drought conditions) between armed gangs of Reddy landlords (Polegars). These gangs also offered themselves as mercenaries for whoever had the money. Two Nizams were waylaid by these mercenaries in the hills near Kadapa town back in the late 18th Century, when the British and French were fighting for ascendancy. Finally, with the British having won, these districts were 'Ceded' to the British E.I. Company by the Nizam in return for military help and supply of weapons.

The Ceded area was rich in natural resources, but was hostile terrain. The British could not really control the areas and do proper revenue collection unless they minimized the power of the polegars. The first long distance railway line in the country (Madras to Bombay) went through the heart of this region. The first missionary school was set up in this region. And the first Church in deccan. And the first missionary hospital. The British conducted several years of minor warfare with the polegars and succeeded to a large extent. Many polegars were given revenue collection duties in the interiors.

Come the 1920s, the missionary activity increased by leaps and bounds in Rayalaseema, especially in Kadapa district. And along with the freedom movement, the fist communist groups also sprouted here and there.

In those days, Y.S. Venkat Reddy, a poor farmer from Balapanur village in Kadapa district got attracted to both Christianity and Communism in equal parts. Among his sons, Y.S.Raja Reddy proved to be a natural leader and not content with struggling with the small sweet lime plantation. He wanted to become a civil contractor to take advantage of the various village and block level works being started in the area. However, there were two problems. One, Raja Reddy was an ardent communist and specialized in organizing workers meetings. Two, his status as a converted Christian did not help in those extremely feudal days. Raja Reddy however saw that his Christian connections could help him get civil contracts to build churches and hospitals. And the communist connections could help him solve labour related problems for the businessmen.

As the market for the barytes mines in Mangampeta village opened up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Raja Reddy moved to that village, first as a labour contractor and then swiftly became a mine owner. He is reported to have his business partner one Mr.Venkata Subbaiah killed in those early days. Mangampeta village was an agrahaaram ( a village given as a gift to some Brahmin families by Vijayanagara kings). The Brahmin landlords preferred selling the lands to the aggressive Reddy miners than getting into fights with them. And Y.S. Raja Reddy was the most aggressive, and ruthless muscle man among them all. The era of the new polegars of Rayalaseema had started.

YSR, who was born in the mission hospital in Jammalamadugu (the first missionary hospital in AP), and was schooled in the missionary school there, was sent to Andhra Loyola College in Vijayawada to complete his Pre-University education. There, he came under the influence of Jesuit priests, and possibly the Roman Catholic religion. Back home, it was a very Hinduized form of Protestant Christianity that was practiced. As his father kept doing civil contracts and acquiring mining rights, YSR was sent away from the battle fields, to do his MBBS in Gulbarga, Karnataka, in relative peace.

After completing house surgency in Tirupati (Raja Reddy had developed his fearsome reputation by now), YSR returned to the hospital he was born in, and worked for some time. His father saw shades of him self in his second son, who although a physician, was quite comfortable with the kind of business dealings his father and other relatives were doing. They built a 24-bed private hospital in Pulivendula for YSR. Meanwhile, YSR got married and had two children. The stage was set for YSR becoming one of the busiest and well-known doctors in the district. He was known to have not charged any money from poor patients. Here's the conundrum - while the father was busy stealing valuable mineral wealth from the Govt and bullying small miners and businessmen, and creating a network of small private armies of his followers in the district, and doing liquor distribution, the son was dispensing almost free health care to poor people. The Reddys saw the muscle business as a typical Reddy feudal thing, and the poor people were made to see the generosity of the family in building a school, college and hospital as a benevolent Christian thing, and in YSR's case as some one who is worthy of becoming the people's representative. Was all this a planned long term strategy ? Or was this simply the progression of two aspirations - one related to power and money, and the other related to popularity and political career.

In 1978, YSR contested as a Reddy Congress candidate and won against a veteran politician Narayana Reddy of Janata party, from Pulivendula constituency. He later switched to Congress (I). In the assembly, he met another young MLA called Chandra Babu Naidu.They both became good friends, though one must record that it was YSR who was the more dominant among the two.YSR was much ahead in terms of political networking by then.CBN was ambitious, but was hamstrung by his lack of financial resources.YSR was the one who would throw parties.

As Raja Reddy's mining empire and other businesses grew at breakneck speed, YSR needed all the support to further his political networking. The advent of Rajeev Gandhi in New Delhi helped YSR a great deal because at 32, he was much younger than any other AP politician. And CBN, the one man who could have posed a challenge to YSR, left Congress to join TDP, the party started by his father-in-law.

Rajeev Gandhi heard good reports about YSR and without thinking much, made him PCC president at the age of 35, in 1983. Rajeev may have assumed that the only way to counter NTR's filmi charisma was to put forward a very young and outspoken YSR. The move failed miserably, but YSR was able to travel through the State and continue his networking, adding more and more leaders into the YSR group in AP Congress. There was some strain on the resources because NTR was in power and things became a bit difficult for Raja Reddy and businessmen of his type. It is just my theory but if one looks at the sudden spurt of faction violence from the early 1980s, it becomes clear that in most cases, the factions went on for years because one of the sides was always supported by the YSR/Raja Reddy duo. As a kid growing up in those years, I have seen, first hand, my own share of bomb attacks and stuff. It was always between two groups in a village, and word used to come out that the more aggressive group had the backing of YSR/Raja Reddy. It is impossible to count how many people have lost lives in those dark years, but YSR acquired with 'don't mess with me' reputation. And he always had a veritable private army avaialble, being maintained by private war lords at their own expense. And YSR also became known for settling the disputes. It is possible that he may have averted many incidents of violence, but one wonders whether his brand of local politics did contribute to those faction rivalries in the first place.

As word traveled through the State about the bad lands of Rayalaseema (there were other leaders in neighbouring districts who styled themselves on the lines of YSR, but they mostly remained at the level of Raja Reddy and did not become the polished version that YSR could become).

What of YSR's politics during those days ? He always spoke for the poor and the peasants, but never seemed to have any solution to offer except rail against the inefficiency of the Govt and the partialty of successive governments against Rayalaseema. Though there was merit in his agitation in the 1980s for diverting excess waters of Krishna river to Telugu Ganga scheme (aimed at Rayalaseema's parched lands), he never questioned himself as to why in its 35 year rule, Congress never thought of such a project. NTR dusted off the old plans for a major irrigation project and deserves credit for Telugu Ganga and Srisailam Left Bank canal. YSR did the right thing by demanding more water for Rayalaseema. But as a teenager I remember wondering why YSR had to be so ultra aggressive all the time, abusing the CM of AP for little things. As I think back, I would wager that YSR those days sounded as uncouth as KCR did for Telangana recently. It looked like YSR will forever be a district level politician.

However, the PCC presidentship changed the direction of his politics and he started traveling to the coastal districts. I don't think he saw much future in the State with NTR so much in control. He stood as MP from Kadapa and the people voted en masse for him. We all thought he would at least highlight the problems of the district and bring central funds or projects. What was not spoken aloud was that the town and the district was better off with YSR away in Delhi, than losing the election and indulging in faction politics.

NTR's Telugu Desam Party lost in the 1989 elections and Congress returned to power in the State. Another erstwhile separatist M.Chenna Reddy was anointed as the CM, and YSR felt that 'youth' (he was 41 then) should be given a chance. The Congress high command had other ideas though. Also, what YSR thought was a minor event, did not pass unnoticed by the likes of K.Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy and P.V.Narasimha Rao, two stalwarts of AP Congress, with PVNR already highly respected in New Delhi.

As the election results were being announced, and it became clear that Congress would return to power, Raja Reddy's henchmen and workers broke the fence and entered a tract of land in Mangampeta that was supposed to remain untouched. The Union Govt had asked the State Govt to leave a plot of high grade Barytes alone so that future generations would know that once we had these mineral deposits in this village. It was supposed to be a geological monument, one of the many scattered across the nation. But overnight, drunk on liquor and the arrogance of impending power, YSR's people mined the plot and carried away thousands of tons of expensive barytes ore. A veritable slap on the rule of law by the followers of a person who hoped to be made CM the next day.

One can say YSR did what most politicians do - robbing the nation's wealth, and that he has more than compensated for that with his pro-poor policies in power. While I would agree with those points, I think incidents like what I have described need to be recounted.

Next post: YSR as the dissident Congress politician (1989-1994), as an Opposition leader (1994-2002), and as the transformation into a true mass leader with a heart of gold , and a consummate politician (2003-2009).

How I (could have) made Rs.100,000 from Rs.25,000 investment in 4 months..

2009-08-27T01:44:00.000-07:00

Note:This may read like a story.But it is not. I actually want to talk about an investment idea.But as I can never get to the point quickly, you, my reader, has to read through my 'sonta dabba' (trans: blowing one's trumpet) first.

I have a friend called Srinivas who directed a critically acclaimed, but commercially not very successful Telugu movie. This was a few years ago. Srinivas and I worked on a script last year, and we were ready to meet producers around March of this year. We did meet a couple of producers who showed interest.And then the farming bug bit Srinivas big time.

Actually, Srinivas was always interested in rural development and leveraging traditional knowledge systems along with modern technology.We both had many conversations around how, by creating a database of traditional farming techniques, we could make the knowledge available to every one. We would discuss the script for a while, and then drift into a discussion on farming stories. We both have come from farming families.Though my family has left farming a while back, Srinivas still has his farm in Prakasam district of AP.His brother manages the family property.

So, just before the general elections, Srinivas decided to visit his village, spend a few days and come back with some money.(We had decided that we will pool some money, shoot a few scenes and then approach big producers with the sample of what we can do.) But when he went there, he found a village agri-economy almost in shatters.We spoke on the phone, and decided to postpone the film project, so that Srinivas can stay in the village for some more time and see what he can do.

And then we began the wait for the rains.Prakasam district is known for Ongole bulls, tobacco and red chilli crops, and of course they also cultivate paddy.Srinivas has around 15 acres of farm land, which makes him a middle-class farmer.He wanted to grow tobbacco and leave a bit for Tur dal.In our discussions, I had suggested that any pulse crop would pay rich dividends, and that he should infact encourage the entire village to go for Tur dal or some other gram.

As the wait for the rains grew longer and we entered July, I did not have the heart to call Srinivas.He did not call me either.I knew that Prakasam, and Guntur districts were facing severe drought conditions this year and I was wondering about this cruelty of nature.Reading about farmers suicides in some of the AP districts on an almost daily basis, I started getting worried about the situation in Srinivas' village.

So, finally, I called him last week, when the rains finally started all over AP.He gave me some good news and some bad news.The good news is that Srinivas took a gamble and it paid off.He managed to find some water source, got the water transported to his fields, and wet the fields twice, before planting tobacco.The rains started one day after he completed his planting.He will now make a decent profit.

The bad news is that most farmers in his village did not do what he did.Either they were scared of investing in the seeds/saplings or they simply did not have any cash, and there were no credit facilities.

Srinivas himself could have planted Tur dal.He did not because that would have cost him another Rs.25,000, and he did not have the money.And he did not want to ask his friends (like me, for instance) because farming is a high risk sector these days.And it did not help that there were no phone calls between us for almost 2 months.

But Srinivas passed on the advice to plant Tur dal to his cousin, who had the cash to invest.The cousin's family has 60 acres of land, and they alone, in almost the entire district, planted Tur dal.Cost of seeds plus other expenses for 60 acres came to around Rs.50,000.As per Srinivas' calculation, around 300 quintals can be harvested from those 60 acres in the next month or so. The current market rate is between Rs.6000-Rs.7000 per quintal.So, even assuming another 20-30,000 Rs. investment for harvesting, transport, wastage, commissions etc, his cousin will make around Rs.18 lakh from a Rs. 1 lakh+hard work as investment.In less than 4 months !

If only Srinivas had asked me for the investment, I would have gladly given him Rs.25,000 that he needed for his 15 acres(plus his brother's 15 acres).And out of the 3 lakh that Srinivas would have made on his farm, I could have expected Rs.1 lakh as return for my investment. (Yes, I did discuss this with him and he agreed that would have been a fair deal.)

So, that's how I lost a decent investment opportunity.

Now, here's my weird idea. There are many capable and sincere farmers in our villages.All they need is some cash investment early on in the 2 or 3 cropping seasons.The sums are not very high as I have shown in my example above.There are thousands of IT and other private sector employees with disposable incomes, who can afford to take a risk on a small amount like Rs.25,000.Suppose I have Rs.50,000 to invest and I distribute it between 2-3 farmers, I can even hedge my risk very well. The farmers will benefit because they don't have to run behind PSU banks, Govt agencies, and private loan sharks.They will also be happy to host the IT employee and his/her family for a weekend or two around sowing or harvest times.

What this requires is a platform - technology-enabled so that we can tap the people who can invest.And a network of farmers who are interested in sourcing their investment needs through this model.Personally, I find it easier to trust a farmer than a city slicker.But keeping my opinions aside, it should be possible to create trust by defining a robust process, and keeping things transparent. I have another friend who talks about using web cams in fields, but I think it is far easier to ask the farmers to send an SMS with a photo and the details of the how the money has been spent.

Hope you all get the idea.I have already committed to invest Rs.25,000 for the next cropping season for a cash crop (probably Tur dal again, I donno yet) that I will identify by observing the markets and taking inputs from local farmers.If you have some disposable income, and know a farmer or two, I suggest you strike such a deal too.

Comments, criticism, suggestions, encouragement..please send them in !

A Center Right think tank for India

2009-07-22T23:55:00.000-07:00

Ok..after my last blog post on social entrepreneurship, I did some more research and wanted to post couple of ideas. However, pressures of my day job, and my habit of getting into too many discussions on the Net, meant I had to put off the social entrepreneurship blog posts for this week also.

I did not check the Offstumped site for a few days last week.And I had stopped visiting the Friends of BJP site as well.But this morning, I went to the Offstumped and FoBJP sites, and read the posts by Amit Malaviya and Rajesh Jain.These two gentlemen have come up with a Concept Note for setting up a Center Right Think Tank for India.

You can read part 1 of the Concept Note here. Read all four parts (till now) from that site.
Excerpt from Part 1:

India suffers from a lack of critical thinking on several key issues of national importance. The thinking that goes on happens within the confines of government - the civil service and the cabinet. There is almost a complete absence of groups outside the formal establishment who develop new policy ideas and actively engage with policy makers to see the ideas through.
It is this state of affairs that has prompted the idea of creating a Foundation which will work towards creating a better future for India.

Excerpt from Part 2:
The Foundation will be guided by the principles of liberal democracy, free enterprise (keeping in mind the interests of wider sections of society), social inclusion, robust defence policy and nationalism and will deliver India-oriented research.
The Foundation will analyse ongoing programmes and make suggestions for new policies that can be taken up by policy makers across party lines.

And I have put down my thoughts on the Concept Note as a comment on Part 4.
Here it is, reproduced in full.
_____________________________
Dear Amit and Rajesh,
This seems to be a promising initiative, and I wish all the very best to the proposed Foundation.
Questions and thoughts:

1.Where will the funding for the foundation come from?Assuming some kind of endowment/grant from interested high networth individuals, are we also considering small donations from individuals which could be tax exempt?

2.How would we measure the outcomes? Is it enough to become known as a centre right policy foundation, or will the foundation take on a catalyst role to have the suggested policy changes become part of the actual laws of the land/programs of the Govts at various levels (Union, state, local)?

3.There could be a danger of spreading the foundation resources too thin by focusing on a wide range of policy initiatives from the outset.And therefore, some sort of prioritization of immediate policy focus ought to be considered.The criteria for such prioritization and resource focus need to be defined.

4.Typically, in any think tank, there is a danger of too many academics running the show, using up the resources and coming up with ‘ideal’ solutions that may not work effectively.Also, the pernicious influence of ‘received education’ from Indian and Western universities especially related to ‘otherizing’ the Indian people (by Indians) need to be guarded against.I am not tarring all academics with the same brush, but expressing my hope that this foundation would be different and go for passion, skills, and knowledge of the individuals than just academic degrees and peer-reviewed articles.The Foundation needs to think and act like a startup !

5.Ex-bureaucrats are another ‘group’ that seem to infest a lot of think tanks. While the rich experience some of them bring to the table is quite useful, some times we need to jettison old lines of thinking, especially the habit of formulating centralized controls for any policy implementation.The Foundation has to have some bureaucratic expertise available to it in-house or in a consultative manner, but we need to ensure that in the name of experience, we don’t recycle old solutions to the problems.

6.Finally (at this point in time !), we need to define what we mean by ‘centre right’ - what we stand for in each of the core policy sectors, how the Foundation will develop and refine its stands on various policy issues, and how we align all the direct stakeholders of the Foundation to the core set of beliefs, values and vision.
__________________________________

Your thoughts and inputs are welcome here and on the FoBJP web site.

Thoughts on Social Entrepreneurship - Part 1

2009-07-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

With the recession related job loss becoming a reality in India, people are looking at alternative career options. There are a few who are setting up their own small businesses, whilst a large number of newly unemployed or under-employed are trying to look for 'secure' jobs, and engaging themselves in discussions about the 'turn around' - when it will happen, and what will be the new lucrative avenues for employment.

Like most sectors, the nascent startup ecosystem in India is also suffering, although the relative lack of media focus on the startup scene meant that most of us are hardly aware of the churn.

In this context, the area of 'social entrepreneurship' assumes importance for the following reasons:
1.The potential for success and scaling up is enormous in India because of the untapped needs of our 1 billion plus population.
2.Social entrepreneurship is not easy, but the startup capital required is not high, and there are practically no entry barriers.Any one can do it, full time or part time.Crowd sourcing may be difficult for a traditional startup company, but social entrepreneurship demands and thrives on crowd sourcing.
3.The welcome changes in the governance approach of both Union and State governments in India has made public-private partnerships more feasible than earlier.
4.The social entrepreneurship model has the potential to create thousands of jobs, and target all sections of the society with its goods and services.One can make a real difference to one's geographical community, and that feeling of satisfaction is not some thing money can buy.
5.The branding process in this model is relatively straightforward (the whole world loves a winner fighting against seemingly tough odds), and this branding can then be leveraged for public and personal good.

Ok, enough of a plug for this 'model'. Now, what exactly is social entrepreneurship?

Is it the same as setting up an NGO, generate funds, and implement some developmental programs? Yes, and No.

Yes, because one can use the NGO route to implement this model.There are many successful NGOs that have started small, involved the community, and managed to better the lives of a few people. But in India at least, the NGO sector has had a lot of bad press, and most of the criticisms are valid.

A social entrepreneur, as per Wikipedia is some one who recognizes a social problem, and uses entrepreneural principles to organize, create, and manage social change.

Such an enterprise need not be non-profit, it can blend a revenue-generating business with a social-value generating structure or component. The poster boy for this classical definition of a social enterprise is Mohammed Younus of the Grameen Bank fame.

Okay, so there are already dozens of micro-financing NGOs and for-profit self-help organizations, some promoted and run by the Govt in several states of India. What's new here?

Even though the micro-finance sector is far from getting saturated, I agree that getting into that sector is no longer as cut and dry as it used to be. So, lets take a look at some of the other sectors that look promising.But please note that I would like to focus on for-profit models in my discussion/s here.

1.Farming - Yes, farming. There is a huge potential in this sector for new businesses, especially in the area of sustainable farming.
Sample idea: A group of friends get together, pool some money and buy/lease some land.They then implement sustainable farming methods in that piece of land.They don't stop there. They canvass the benefits of the methods in nearby villages, and sign up more farmers on their scheme.The scheme is - study the market, produce marketable stuff, and use good marketing techniques to create a brand and charge a premium. How does 'Sangareddi Papaya' strike you?

There could be many variants of the scheme depending on what can be grown locally, what products could be delivered to the super market chains and be exported, what will be the margins, and how does one make it sustainable and scalable in the long run. One needs to use systems thinking and a lot of common sense.

Another variant to the farming idea is that of 'micro-farming'.If you go by the classic definition of micro-farming, you would need between two to five acres per farm plot to do any thing feasible. The spin on this concept is to take it to urban areas, and do a mini-micro farming :) There are people in Canada selling this as an idea with a methodology, training and all the jazz. Read this.

Now, imagine a group of friends (here on wards to be called simply 'a group') that goes to villages and spends a month or two recruiting subject matter experts in gardening and micro-farming.The group also visits agricultural universities and research institutes to gather useful data, and bring some theoretical experts on board.And creates a pilot site in an urban area - could be some one's terrace or backyard. (Side note: Have you heard of Mr.Shripad Dhabolkar? If not, read this inspiring account from Arun Shourie .)

With the pilot site ready, our group now starts canvassing in the entire city to sign up people who want to engage in mini-micro farming.People with front yards or back yards, but no time or energy to grow any thing.Apartment complexes with unused terraces, Govt offices with wasted open spaces, MNCs or desi companies who want to earn some carbon credits or offer a unique CSR opportunity to its employees, educational institutions with available empty space etc etc;

On the other hand, there will be people who want to do gardening/farming but don't have the space; youngsters who want to earn some money, home makers who have a few extra hours to spare and don't mind earning enough for their vegetables, fruits and flowers, retired citizens who wish to keep fit etc etc.

Our group brings them all together - it is possible to create a 100-acre operation in a small town and a 500-acre operation in a city within a year or two.(I admit I am yet to do the math.But then, I am in search of a group or groups my self !) And I strongly believe that with the benefit of our group's subject matter experts, adoption of proven best practices, and crowd sense based business decisions, the operations will turn in a neat profit for every one involved in the enterprise. Now that our group has succeeded in one town, they can brand the whole concept, and help other groups in other towns and cities through a franchisee model or a training model, to generate more revenues. Heck, the original SMEs could even open a 12-hr helpline to answer queries on line or on phone :)

So much to say on just the topic of farming, and I think I have just begun to scratch the surface here.And there are many other sectors to cover !

I will try to post my thoughts and crazy ideas on a few other sectors in the next few weeks.Please respond with comments, and suggestions.

Random thoughts on the World T20 thingamajig

2009-06-22T05:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, first the Indian elections, then the Indian Premier League in South Africa, and now the World T20 in England..are all over and done with.

I blogged a bit (and commented a lot) on the elections, thoroughly enjoyed the IPL because my team, Deccan Chargers, did exceedingly well (heck, we won it !), but the World T20 thingamajig did not really capture my attention till India got bounced out of the tournament.Defending champs and we did not even make the semis. Lots of reasons, but now is not the time.

The time, now is to first raise a toast (actually make it two), to the finalists - Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and extend warm congratulations to the Pakistanis for winning the cup in such a convincing fashion.

Some random notes from my dekko of the tournament:

1.T20, while it could be exciting as hell, could also bring down playing standards quite a bit, especially when they are over done.Case in point: India's over paid, over playing, over travelling cricketers.The fatigue is more mental than physical.

2.Test cricket thrives on skills, character and stamina, whereas T20 requires a lot of street smartsy attitude.Contrary to perceptions, Mr.Virender Sehwag, who does phenomenally well in test cricket, has been no great shakes in T20.

3.No matter what they say, Shahid Afridi is no longer a kid.Behind the schoolboyish exterior, a mature cricketing mind has evolved over the past decade and bit.The moment he started taking singles and hard run Twos, I could feel his 'need' to be the finisher in the final.Afridi has not exactly endeared himself to me last year after badmouthing his IPL captain (VVS Laxman) in public, but he has won his country a World Cup now, and I am so happy for him that I hereby forgive that episode of Laxman-bashing :) Dude, you rock and we would love to see you play like this for several years more !

4.Abdul Razzak is probably the one Pakistani cricketer I love the most (apart from the incomparable genius Wasim Akram and the genial giant Inzamam).I wanted Pakistan to win this final because of Razzaq.

5.However, I wanted Sri Lanka to win also.Because of one man.Probably the most articulate among all cricketers (of all nations) playing today.And the one player I hope, who, when he retires, will write a few books.If you still haven't guessed, shame on you. It is Kumar Sangakkara.Sri Lanka lost, but not before Kumar essayed some delightful prose in his elegant 64 not out.

6.Lasith Malinga, Umer Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Roelof Van der Merwe, Dwayne Bravo - all did very well through the tournament.Here's a bow to each one of them.

7.Dilshan is in the form of his life.Should have really not tried to be too cute in the final.

8.Ab DeVilliers is the rock of South African batting these days.Me thinks he should play at number 3 in all forms of Cricket for the Proteas.

9.Not much to say about England except that Nasser Hussain is a bloody hypocrite and has gone down in my estimation as a cricket commentator after this tournament.

10.Okay, Murali and Mendis.They are a cool pair, but I'd prefer watching them in test cricket.

On with the Ashes now ! But first, I am waiting to see how Piyush Chawla does for Sussex against the visiting Aussies.

Is UPA-2 moving centre-right?

2009-06-18T04:21:00.000-07:00

It has been a month since the UPA stormed back to power at the Centre.And less than three weeks since the new Cabinet has taken charge. It is too early to take stock of the situation ( I mean, Obama is still having his honeymoon !) but I see a few signs that the UPA Government is trying to do things a bit differently this time.And some of the actions show a slight movement towards centre-right, a departure from the Congress's typical centre-left approach to issues of national interest.

Before I proceed further, let me state that I still don't like the Congress Party because of (a) its role in the under development of the country, including some of the Stalinist policies on critical areas of the economy (centralised planning for example), and (b) its blatant violation of the Indian Constitution, especially areas related to individual freedom, institutional independence etc and (c) the stranglehold of one dynasty over the Party and the Indian polity for the past 60 years, and the resultant crony capitalism, criminal-politician-business nexus it has created. In the recent elections, I wanted the BJP to win because that Party looked more likely to implement centre-right (fiscal conservatism, focus on individual freedoms, cultural nationalism aka Hindutva - a recognition of the civilisational ethos of this nation in matters of governance, state craft, religious freedoms and so on). No, the BJP has never shown it self capable of being a true right wing party.But it was not the Congress.And it looked easier to influence the BJP towards a centre-right governance approach than the Congress would ever allow.

The people of India have spoken and they showed that BJP is perceived to be a 'B' team of Congress and nothing more.And when they have the original - Congress- available, why would they vote for a 'Congress Lite' party ?

The BJP is now facing internal dissension and a huge debate (most of it focused on a wrong and politically suicidal interpretation of Hindutva, aided by the illeterate MacCaulay kids in the mainstream English media) is raging.Instead of discussing its core ideology and what it should stand for, the BJP oldies are jockeying for Party positions and using journalists with dubious records as their fighter jets. It may take well over a year for the BJP to come out of this mess, if it ever will. One can only sympathise with the self-less frontline workers of the RSS, the unsung ones who live frugally and work with dedication implementing the social development programs in the remotest parts of the country.They (not the RSS seniors) don't deserve a political wing like the current BJP.

Let us leave the BJP in its mess for the time being.And focus on the signs emanating from the Congress , sorry UPA Govt in its second term, so far.

National security and Diplomacy:
1.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has, for the first time ever, publicly demanded that Pakistan must act on its assurances of not allowing the Pakistani soil for terrorism against India.He did not say this in Mumbai or Delhi or even Washington. He said it at Yekaterinburg, in Russia, in front of global media, with a visibly embarassed Asif Zardari by his side. Good start, Professor !

2.India's diplomatic offensive at the Asian Development Bank conference paid off.US and Japan sided with India on the ADB loan and China's veto was in vain. India even threatened the ADB that if its projects in Arunachal Pradesh are not approved, it will leave the ADB. And you know what, Pakistan voted in India's favour, going against China's wishes. This not only goes to show that economic diplomacy works well, but more importantly, India has, for the first time, walked the talk. Fantastic !

3. The troop buildup in Arunachal Pradesh has been well documented.What has not been written about much is that India has now stationed four nuclear-capable Sukhoi fighter jets in the North-East border with China. And the highways are being built on priority.We can now be confident that a credible deterrence is being put in place in the NE to avoid any Chinese adventures.

Cultural Nationalism:
The visible signs are two fold.

Firstly, this year's Amarnath Yatra, if reports are to be believed, is being organized extremely well compared to the previous years.Pilgrims needs and security are being kept in mind, and the local Muslim traders are happy again because the turnout seems to be in very high numbers.The bad blood of last year's land issue is slowly being put to rest.

Second, and more important, has been the 'polite refusal' of Visas for the US Congress- sponsored Council on Religious Freedom. The USCRF wants to visit Gujarat and Orissa to ascertain whether minorities in India are being oppressed or victimised. A lot of us believe that the US Govt has no business sending a team of Evangelists to go inspect religious freedom in India.We are a proud secular nation, and we have been co-existing peacefully with each other.We really don't need certificates from a partisan US committee on this aspect. There were fears that the UPA Govt (mainly because of Sonia Gandhi's control) would allow such teams in India, and use it to political advantage. The UPA Govt has shown admirable sense (so far) in firmly, but politely asking the USCRF to mind its own business.

There are other, more important areas where we have seen UPA-2 starting off well.Kapil Sibal's plans to liberalise the education sector from the clutches of excessive Govt regulation comes to mind.The 'education vouchers scheme' has been a demand from the liberal right for a long time.The Congress did not have it in its manifesto.And yet, Kapil Sibal is talking about it seriously now.He is also talking about allowing foreign universities to set up branches in India. This is great news.If we learn only one thing from our hoary past and from the current superpower, it should be the focus and value given to higher education. If Stanford, Harvard, and Cambridge are the world's best universities, we should do all we can to have them come here, if they want to. So, again, a very positive first step.

Of course, there have been some regressive proposals such as an act to gag the Websites and blogs, and the cynical manipulation of democratic systems currently underway in West Bengal.We, the liberal right, will be watching this Govt to ensure that individual freedoms are not tampered with, at any cost.Whether it is Binayak Sen or Varun Gandhi, MF Hussain or Taslima Nasreen, the rule of law, and its protection must be available to all.

But, going by the evidence above, it does seem like UPA-2 is veering towards centre-right at this point. And that's cool !

The White Umbrella and other random thoughts

2009-05-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

I have reduced my blog-hopping these days, as I seem to spend more time reading a few regular blogs, apart from the interesting discussions I have been having at Facebook.

- Blogger Yossarin at Offstumped has created a separate Wordpress blog to discuss Shveta Chhatra, aka the big white tent. Go there, read about it, and add your bits.

-Meanwhile, at the IPL, we have Deccan Chargers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore meeting in the finals.These two teams finished at the bottom of the table in IPL 1.Goes to show that 20:20 as a format has stuck to the tradition of 'glorious uncertainty' of Cricket as a whole. As I have lived in Hyderabad (currently living) and also Bangalore (IMP: the Missus is from there), we have had the Hyd Vs Blr, which city is better kinda debates lots of times. I don't really mind who wins today because both the teams have over achieved already compared to last season. But it will be interesting to see Gilly Vs Kumble as captains - both these players give and demand 200% from their boys.And the hatchet of Sydney 2008 is there, not yet buried fully, I suppose.

-Moving on to more weightier matters, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND this post on Atanu Dey's blog. It is a long post, and it will be worthwhile to print it,and read, re-read it, and then giving the printout to some/any youngster to read and internalize.

- I happened to discuss the question - 'secret of success' with a close friend yesterday.And my take was that:One should always listen to the heart to take a decision on which options to choose in life; once the heart takes the decision, use the mind to implement the actions. Most of the time, we tend to logically analyze the pros and cons of every possible option and then go with the one that looks least risky.Unless one hits a jackpot or plain lucky enough to have a parent/friend/sibling who hit a jackpot, taking the less risky option is bound to ensure that you end up as an under achiever.If you don't want that to happen, you need to, I repeat, 'listen to your heart'. And to put my words into practice, I have decided to only follow the heart from now on when it comes to all the really important decisions in life.Let me see how this pans out :)

- There is a lot that need to be written about the recent election results.A lot has already been written by many people. But I think I am tired by now, and I need to get a move on. So, here's the most simple analysis you are likely to find on the Internet about the Indian general elections 2009:
Indians wanted status-quo for the next 5 years.The people are really wary about any big changes, and are content to drift along somehow and survive, than risking a change.Is this good or bad? Neither.Because India as a Nation wants to wait and watch.

General Elections 2009 - Analysis of AP Results

2009-05-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

Caution: Long post :)

The newspapers, the blogworld, and the electronic media are full of election results analysis this week. With the amazing victory of Indian National Congress (INC) led UPA in the Lok Sabha elections, and the INC's successful defense of its citadel in Andhra Pradesh (AP), hopes have been raised because of assured stability at both centre and state for the next five years.

Even though I am not a supporter of Congress politics, I find it hard not to feel happy about the results because: 1.The Left has been routed in its strongholds and 2.Indian electorate has decisively voted for a National party(though for the wrong one !) ; except for Bihar and Orissa, INC has fared well wherever it was pitted against the regional parties. This bodes well for our polity. I will have another post where I am going to look at the short, medium and long term possibilities for inclusive growth and economic policy under the new dispensation.

For now, I would like to indulge in some analysis of my own on the election results. In this post, I will focus on my home state of Andhra Pradesh.

Background (Longish one; skip it if you already know all this):

INC led by Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy (YSR) came to power in 2004 elections after a 10-year rule by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by Chandra Babu Naidu (CBN). Whilst the founder of TDP, the Telugu film star N.T. Rama Rao, created political consciousness among the people of AP (NTR made people realize the power of their vote, by giving them the option to dethrone the Congress), CBN created 'development consciousness' among the Telugus.Naidu was known as the CEO of AP Inc, due to his penchant for powerpoint presentations, hobnobbing with Bill Gates to bring Microsoft Global Dev Centre to Hyderabad, and in general putting Hyderabad on the global IT map. Naidu also spent a lot of money beautifying the city and working on the infrastructure in the State. Naidu also made citizens realize that they can question officials and politicians on their performance directly. But his developmental policies were seen as pro-rich, and five suucessive years of bad monsoon did not help agriculture at all.

YSR made his money from Barytes (Barium Sulphide, used in petroleum processing mainly) mines in Kadapa district (Kadapa is my home town too).For almost 22 years, he was an eternal dissident within the State Congress Party, and was also a faction leader of some notoriety.YSR is a charismatic leader, and learnt his political craft in the rough and tumble of AP Congress politics.I remember the Hindu-Muslim communal riots in AP during the early 1990s when Cong was in power in the State. Though it has not been proven, many people allege that YSR organized those riots to create a law and order situation thereby making the Congress high command dismiss the State Chief Minister. But the Congress' Delhi elite saw YSR as a rabble rouser, and kinda country hick type, and never gave him the CM chair.

By 1999, YSR became the main Congress leader in AP, with the older, more urbane leaders retiring from active politics.YSR tried his best, but Naidu, in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a huge majority in State assembly and also delivered 32/42 seats for the BJP-led government at the Centre.

Things changed for YSR around 2002-03.He ran into some troubles with his children earlier, but finally saw everything settle down, and he became the numero uno Congress leader.He knew the 2004 elections were his last chance to have a go at power.And he undertook a pada yatra - a walking tour of the entire state of AP, in severe summer.He visited hundreds of villages, spoke with the farmers, and created a massive negative swing against the TDP government.Naidu was so successful in demoralising his opponents that all of them (the Communists, Congress, and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti) joined hands to defeat the ruling party. The media, both state and national, never saw the wave against TDP.YSR promised freebies such as free electricity, and the reinstatement of Rs. 2 a kilo rice scheme.And a decade of anti-incumbency against Naidu culminated in YSR winning a huge popular mandate for his party.And more Lok Sabha seats for his party than from any other state.He had arrived on the national scene.

In the past five years of YSR's rule, there has been a lot of noise, but not much development in the state.The Union Govt's rural unemployment welfare scheme was implemented shoddily, and the housing scheme for rural poor got mired in inefficiencies, and large scale corruption.YSR's son Jagan started a media empire, a steel factory, expanded the mining businesses, and grew his personal wealth to become a billionaire (though his declared assets make him only a millionaire).Congressmen throughout the state revelled in the ease of use of corruption opportunities, and made millions in real estate deals (mainly robbing the rural poor), civil contracts and so on.From a culture of development consciousness, AP became a place where acceptance of corruption and communal politics became THE CULTURE.No major new roads were built, existing roads were not maintained, and the promise to give a separate state of Telangana was not kept.

A few months before the 2009 elections, film star Chiranjeevi launched his Praja Rajyam party (PRP).Chiru, as he is popularly known, belongs to the Kapu caste, while CBN is a Kamma and YSR is a Reddy-Christian (meaning he could be whatever he wants to depending on who he is addressing). Though Chiru never made casteist statements, the coterie around him and his opponents made sure that PRP is seen as a Kapu party.

All along, Naidu was against the idea of separate Telangana.But now he changed tactics and openly supported the cause of Telangana.Naidu also rallied the Communists to his side, thus creating a Maha Kootami (Grand Alliance) between TDP, TRS, and the Left parties.

Naidu's calculation: Alliance will trounce Congress in Telangana.In Rayalaseema, TDP will share the seats with Congress.In Coastal Andhra and North Andhra, Kapus will vote for PRP thus damaging the Congress, and TDP will gain as a result.

TRS calculation: Led by the maverick Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), the TRS plan was to ally with whoever they can, with the sole intention of creating a separate state.KCR has a way with words and he is adept at making inflammatory speeches.He is also a political opportunist and has a dictatorial approach towards party governance.He was a senior cabinet minister under CBN earlier.But after 7 years of breaking promises, his reliability factor was a bit low. And yet, TRS and TDP counted on the Telangana sentiment to get to power.

Left Parties: In AP, the Left is led by two individuals who hardly agree with each other - Raghavulu of CPM and Narayana of CPI.Their calculation is simple - latch on to whoever looks like a winner, and gain from the reflected glory after the election.They have one asset though - being cadre-based parties, the Left were trained in transferring their vote to the allies.

Lok Satta and BJP: Now, why am I clubbing these two small, insignificant parties in AP?Well, we will get to that point later.

Congress calculation aka YSR's calculation: True to their nature, Congressmen love to fight among themselves.So, one section of the Party want a separate state for Telangana whilst the rest want AP to stay as it is.Chief Minister YSR never opposed Telangana, but never allowed any initiative to start the due process.

(NOTE: Both Naidu and YSR are from Rayalaseema, which is smaller in area and seats compared to Telangana and Coastal AP.So, they know that if Telangana is given, Coastal AP leaders will not allow a Rayalaseema leader to become the CM.Also, who would want to lose some area from under his rule?)

YSR sounded confident throughout the election campaign that he will return to power, and will also get maximum number of MPs for Congress from AP.He kept repeating this statement and the numbers, inspite of his own party members disagreeing with him, the opinion polls showing an advantage for the alliance, and PRP's presence complicating the matters further.

The general feeling was that Congress won't be able to form a Govt, and there will be a hung assembly with no party getting simple majority.Chiru would become the king maker as he is sure to get atleast 30-40 seats, people said.Chiru himself said his party would get simple majority and he will be the next CM.

Results: We all know what happened.For the record, Congress led by YSR got 157 seats out of 294, comfortably crossing the half-way mark of 147 for a simple majority.Surprise, surprise, YSR won 33/42 parliament seats for his party as well ! TDP won 90 assembly and 6 Lok Sabha seats.The much hyped Praja Rajyam got only 18 assembly seats and did not win even a single LS seat.

What really happened in AP ?

1. The voters of Telangana have decisively rejected the separate state sentiment and voted for integration.TRS candidates lost security deposits in 9 seats, and won only 10 out of the 35 they contested.Congress won around 52 seats in Telangana, while the Congress ministers and sitting MLAs from Telangana (most of them agitated for a separate state) lost.TDP (no one believed Naidu's words of support for Telangana) did extremely well, and won 32 out of 55 they contested, a strike rate of almost 73%, better than even the Congress.

2.PRP with its 17 % share of the votes polled in the State, largely helped the Congress, especially in North Andhra, Godavari districts, and Nelore, Anantapur and Kadapa districts.

3.Inspite of PRP's impact, TDP did very well in Rayalaseema and won 21 seats against the Congress tally of 26.

4. Massive consolidation of Dalit Christian vote in favour of Congress. YSR's advantage is that Reddys see him as a Reddy, and Christians see him as a pious Christian.YSR's son-in-law, the Brahmin-turned aggressive evangelist Bro.Anil Kumar did a hectic campaign in the state, but focused on coastal areas where, due to the success of Joshua Project, the % of Christians has seen a sea-change in the last two decades.Unofficial estimates put the % of Christians in Coastal AP at almost 20%, but even if it is 12%, it is a huge bank, when allied with the Congress traditional vote base.

5.The perception of Muslim voters that any vote for TDP in LS elections would mean a vote for BJP at the national level ensured heavy cross voting in favor of Congress in LS elections.Interestingly, the Muslim voters did not vote on religious considerations in the Assembly elections. Cong had 12 Muslim MLA candidates but only 4 of them won this time.

6.Congress tried all the tricks it had and then some more.For example, the riots between Dalit Christians and Kapus in Godavari area 2 days before the elections saw a major polarisation helping the Congress candidates win the LS and assembly seats against all odds.

7.YSR ensured that the right emotional messages were sent to the Hindu upper castes in AP by focusing on TTD (the trust that manages the famous Balaji temple in Tirupati)'s religious activities.Many Brahmins I spoke to (Disclaimer: I am a Brahmin myself) were happy with initiatives like Dalita Govindam, mass vedic marriage ceremonies for poor people, the Annamayya project, launching of a Hindu devotional channel by TTD and so on.And where there are signficant upper caste voters such as Vijayawada, Congress put up a Brahmin candidate.Of course he won.

8.TDP lost this elections because it overestimated the strenth of TRS and the Left.If it had contested for all 294 seats on its own, we would have seen a different story.Instead, it contested only 225 seats, and won 90.Congress contested 294 and won 157.Naidu had also messed up candidate selection and there were over 60 rebel candidates.Out of these, 34 candidates came close second against their Congress opponents and the official TDP candidates came third.If TDP had got this aspect right, we would have seen them getting 124 and Congress would also have got around 130.And with TRS/PRP help, Naidu would have formed the Govt :)

9.BJP lost a lot of its core vote base of 8% and ended up with 2% votes.Lok Satta also got around the same or slightly less % of votes.This means, a good chunk of BJP's core vote base of liberal right and Hindutva supporters, especially the urban middle class, shifted towards Lok Satta, as they were impressed by JP Narayan, the Lok Satta founder. Lok Satta's manifesto and approach appeal to the same voter base that usually votes the BJP.Also, as said earlier, the competitive minority appeasement talk of Chiru and Naidu put off the Hindutva voters and they voted Congress for its apparent balance of appeasement under YSR.

10.Okay, we can't discount the money power and caste combinations.However, it looks to me that in Telangana and Rayalaseema, people voted for individual candidates and party policies, and not on caste lines.In coastal AP, it was money power and caste all the way.YSR wisely desisted from spending too much in Seema and Telangana and focused on coastal AP.

(NOTE: YSR got lucky with the defeat of 14 of his ministers, including the state Congress president D.Srinivas.This leaves him with no visible challenger in his Party for the next five years.)

What next for the parties?
Congress under YSR: Enjoy the second term, make more money, supress the opposition.I hope they also finally start getting some things done for the poor people instead of creating a culture of entitlement for specific sections.Congress would do well to attract the urban middle class youth, and also strive for efficient delivery mechanisms for its flagship welfare schemes.

TDP under Naidu: Contrary to what people say, I feel that TDP can be proud of its performance and its ability to motivate the cadre and also retain its core vote base.They need to learn their lessons, and focus on the local body elections.Naidu can and would play a responsible opposition, but he needs to understand that stalling assembly proceedings will not endear him or his party to the electorate watching Live Assembly on TV !

PRP: Chiru was such a big disappointment really that it needs a separate post altogether.Many people are saying that PRP will dissolve after a while and the MLAs would join Congress.That may or may not happen, but I have some ideas for what Chiru needs to do, which I will put down later.For now, I hope he attends assembly regularly and learns the ropes of being a peoples' representative.

BJP: Start from scratch.As I consider myself a centre-right person (a liberal Republican voter in the American sense), I have a stake in how the BJP does in my home state.They have a huge potential but facing a leadership problem.I hope they find a leader from the interior parts of the State instead of Hyderabad city.Operation Lotus, the way it was done in neighbouring Karnataka may not work in AP.But there are other approaches.I am discussing some of these steps with like minded folks on the Net and on the ground.Lets see what happens.

Lok Satta: I wish I could join this party as its policies are a mix of the best practices across the world, modified to fit India/AP. I see Lok Satta growing steadily in AP for the next decade or so till it becomes a decisive player in the state.

Left parties: If they want to remain relevant, they should do some honest introspection.Don't want to say more than this because I consider the Left in India as among the scum of the earth and stooges of China.They don't deserve my brain cells or key strokes.Period.

Media: Has largely played a decent role in AP, unlike their national level English counterparts.

To end this post, I want to salute the sagacity of AP voters.They did not vote Congress into power.It happened due to various factors some of which I listed above.By and large, irrespective of the party affiliation, the better candidates among the ones contesting have won.The voters exercised their choice equally in favor of TDP and Congress, and mostly discarded the rest.It is the nature of our 'first past the post' system that gave a decisive mandate to the Congress with such low margins in terms of votes polled.Also, for the LS elections, the voters went for the only national party that has a presence in AP. What else can a nationalist like me ask for?

Oh yea..I can always hope that AP voters will have a genuine choice between the two national parties in 2014.Till then, watch the Govt and make sure they know we are watching !

(Next post will be on analysis of national level results including links to articles from various analysts. Watch this space !)

Indian History- Akbar

2009-04-29T23:31:00.000-07:00

http://bharatendu.com/2009/03/12/a-ghazi-turned-kafir-the-case-of-akbars-u-turn-1/

History books at school and under graduate level generally give us black or white descriptions of historical figures, especially the Mughal period.We are told that Akbar stood for religious tolerance, and Aurangzeb is known for being a pious Muslim and for atrocities against Hindus.Jehangir and Shahjehan are portrayed as art lovers.The Internet has made historical research and collaboration possible between not just University professors and Govt-funded research scholars, but also interested amateurs from various fields.I wish I had the time to do my own research, but other pursuits beckon :)However, I keep trawling the web for new resources and perspectives on World and Indian history.Bharatendu is one such site.Sarvesh Tiwari thinks in 'shuddh' Hindi and translates his thoughts into English, making his style quaint in a readable way.In this multi-part post on Akbar, Sarvesh looks at sources from all sides of the argument, and presents his thesis - that Akbar started as a Ghazi (an Islamic title denoting a warrior of the faith) but became a kaffir (non-believer) by the time of his death.

Observations: 1.Sarvesh is definitely a 'cultural nationalist' and not a 'left nationalist' historian.But he takes care to address not just the readers who are 'Hindutva' types, but also the general, ideology neutral history buff.2.Typical commentors on sites like Bharatendu belong to right wing ideology.But that doesn't mean they agree with each other all the time :) Some of them are virulent in their prejudices, but a large number are just happy arm-chair analysts (like yours truly!) who are scouring the Web for reading material and love to debate with others.You can ignore the comments if you are a staunch 'left of centre' person (I know some of my friends are of such persuasion !), but some times the comments have links to excellent sources of info.3.Is a fresh perspective on historical figures really relevant for India? Yes, I think it is relevant.We need to understand the evolution of the sub-continent's civilisational memory, ethos, and thereby understand ourselves better.Today, India and its neighborhood have become the hubs of globalisation - of flat world economic forces, of divisive and terrorist ideologies, and above all home to hundreds of millions of the very poor.If we are to solve the problems of poverty, inequality and divisiveness, and create a peaceful and just society, an open source truth and reconciliation exercise could form one of the components. I see the work of people like Sarvesh from this angle.But yes, one needs to be a history buff to enjoy these topics.Happy reading (long posts !) and please let me know your thoughts.

http://bharatendu.com/2009/03/12/a-ghazi-turned-kafir-the-case-of-akbars-u-turn-1/

Say No to Navin Chawla!

2009-02-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

This image is courtesy Sandeep. Here's what Sandeep has to say about Mr.Chawla.

And over at Indian National Interest, Offstumped has dissected N.Ram's brazen support to Chawla.

More later...

India's war against terror - what next?

2008-12-05T02:56:00.000-08:00

Now that Mumbai is limping back to normalcy, discussions are raging on the Internet and in the mainstream media about the appropriate response by India to these attacks.

Option 1: Pre-emptive strikes against terror camps in Pakistan
Option 2: Covert war against Jihadi elements in Pakistan and elsewhere (Bangladesh, Nepal, within India etc.)
Option 3: Speak tough with Pakistan's helpless civilian govt, but basically do nothing and may be prepare a bit for more terror attacks.

While there are lot of voices asking for Option 1, and a fair number rooting for Option 2, evidence so far shows that the UPA govt is most likely going to go with Option 3. Congress may get tempted to go for Option 1 in January/February depending on the results of current assembly elections to MP, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Chattisgarh.However, I don't think Manmohan Singh or Sonia have the guts to go ahead with such an option. Among all Indian PMs so far, only Indira Gandhi has shown such guts.

Also, going for an overt war will be counter productive.Pakistan is basically an army controlling a nuclear power country, and the Army is likely to use any war as a justification for overthrowing the civilian govt and revert the country to a military dictatorship.

So, let us look at what needs to be done in terms of Option 2.
1.Those who are advocating covert actions on Pakistani soil against the jihadi camps, please note that successive union govts (NDA and UPA) have defanged the RAW to the extent that we don’t have a covert ops group any longer. B.Raman has been asking for reviving the RAW covert ops group for the past 2 years.
2.But we can take Mossad’s help to execute a quick covert ops in Muridke for starters.
3.And we can crack down heavily on D-Company in Mumbai as part of internal security measures.Sadly, no analyst is asking for this crackdown.And the Maharashtra govt seems unwilling to eliminate the D-Company elements in Mumbai.
4.I think we need to use Chanakya Neeti here.No overt direct military action against Pakistan.Keep talking to the civilian govt there (at under-secretary level), and get into Afghanistan in a big way.Encourage the Greater Afghanistan or Pakhtoonistan elements to break Pakistan.
5.Revive the RAW's covert ops group, use the connections in PoK to plan and execute covert ops on the camps near Mujaffarabad.
6.Repeal Art 370, and start a demographic resettlement of the valley.Seed a real estate boom in J&K and let the DLFs/Rahejas make money (along with the locals!)

For some of the actions above, especially 6, we may need a change of govt.

Mumbai terror attacks..

2008-11-27T03:47:00.000-08:00

What else is there to say?
I am tired of the same, inane statements by politicians (of all hues), and disgusted by the political correctness of mainstream English media.One may find some solace in venting in the comforts of the blogosphere.

But it is obvious that beyond a point, all these discussions and blame games won't achieve much.

I can do no better than direct you (the reader) to Offstumped, where Yossarin calls for a Satyagraha against terror. Here are the features of the Satyagraha:

Characteristic# 1 - It must be unrelenting in the demands it makes of the State to compel it into action on Terrorism pre-emptively or otherwise.
Characteristic# 2 - It must be uncompromising in its intolerance of not just perpetrators of acts of terror but also of those who aid and abet terror by providing sanctuary to those perpetrators.
Characteristic# 3 - It must be self sustaining in its execution through local community action directed at vigilance and audit of local law enforcement
Characteristic #4 - It must be Dharmic at all times by being “desireless” in its actions

You can also read a quick analysis by Stratfor, the global private intelligence firm, on the geo-political repurcussions of these attacks.

And of course, B.Raman, who is worried about the safety of India's nuclear facilities.He is right. We must be worried. But we are not.I see people in my office watching the TV in the cafetria in morbid fascination at the live pictures. But they are not perturbed.

Here's a quote from Raman:
"Till now, we were greeting with glee Pakistan's incompetence in dealing with terrorism. We can no longer do so. We have become as clueless as Pakistan."

I wish I could be harsh enough to say that such a callous society deserves the tragedy.But I can not.If this doesn't wake us up, I donno what will.And I hope we don't wake up before its too late.

The only ray of optimism comes from a friend I spoke to this morning.He said:Yes, we are in trouble and this is a senseless tragedy.It looks very dark now.But remember we are an ancient civilisation, and we will sort this mess out.

I hope he is right.And I hope these attacks serve as the catalyst.

May the innocent lives lost in this tragedy rest in peace ! May we become worthy of our noble ancestors and root out this evil of terrorism once and for all. Jai Bharat !

India not shining..

2008-10-06T03:48:00.000-07:00

For some people, India has never really shined.And doesn't look like it will shine in the near future as well.
This morning, I met a person from the India-not-shining section of our society.
I was walking back to my apartment complex after my morning walk, with the usual newspaper and half-litre milk packet.He stopped me a few paces from the apartment gate and enquired as to how far Patancheruvu is from here.
He looked extremely tired, his clothes were dirty, and his eyes watery.And he was carrying a small jute bag, which has two blankets of rough wool.

I stopped being curious about such people a few years back.But I don't know what made me stop and engage him in a conversation this morning.Here's his story - the gist of what he told me, all the while feeling asahmed of himself, and his plight.

Mohammed Khasim (that's his name) is from Nirmal, in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh.A part-time mechanic and daily laborer, Khasim makes the ends meet for his family, with great difficulty.He contacted some illness and though the Govt hospital could provide him some basic treatment and medicines, he still needs to buy a few medicines from the market, if he has any hope of getting cured.But his illness meant he could not work for the past few months. The neighbourhood grocer could not extend the credit beyond Rs.2000. As a last resort, Khasim requested his brother for a loan of Rs.2000-3000, and his brother (Khasim told me he works as a petrol station attendant in Patancheruvu) asked him to come to Hyderabad and collect the loan.
Khasim was dropped off in Kondapur by a kind lorry driver yesterday morning at 10 A.M. Khasim asked some one for directions from Kondapur to Patancheruvu, and by mistake took the wrong route.He ended up spending the night somewhere in Madhapur, and walked till my area (S.R.Nagar) in the morning (a distance of 13 km).He had not eaten since yesterday and had a few tablets left.And when I started asking him questions, he almost burst into tears.

Ok..a confession to make first. When he told me his name, I immediately became the 'vigilant citizen', and asked him to open his bag, pockets etc., so that I am fully satisfied that he is not carrying any thing that could be dangerous.He dutifully complied. I guess he had very little self-esteem left by then.

Voice choking with tears, he told me: "saab..i don't know what to do..i am afraid I will die of hunger in this strange city (yeh ajnabi shaher), and my family won't even know what has happened to me.I don't want money, I just want some food so that I can survive for a day.I am not begging..I will do any work you give me till evening, if you can give me some food."

All I could do was to arrange some (much needed) food for him, and Rs.20 so that he could get to Patancheruvu and meet his brother.I don't think he has lied to me.One need not construct such a long story for a little food. I could see the sense of shame he felt within himself.

Donno what else to say except that our system is failing all these people, while we keep wondering about the impact of the financial meltdown in the US.

Anbumani's Folly

2008-10-06T03:40:00.000-07:00

Dr.Anbumani Ramadoss, India's Health Minister, has finally persuaded the Government to issue a G.O. - The Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008.

While the Government Order is ambiguous about what constitutes a public place/open space, what the order has done is to give the police a new stick to beat ordinary citizens with.

Chandan Mitra of The Pioneer asks a very pertinent question:

"Shouldn't the Government be expending its energies to apprehend terrorists rather than diverting scarce police resources to catch cigarette smokers instead?"

Go figure.

Current market situation and Indian IT majors..

2008-09-16T04:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a summary of the situation as of today in a numbered list:
1.Major financial institutions in US are going bankrupt or being sold at bargain basement prices.This is bound to impact Indian IT companies in two ways: (a) Companies like TCS, Wipro, Infy and Satyam would lose business worth hundreds of crores (b) Companies like NIIT and Patni (which are partly owned by the likes of Merill Lynch and Lehman Bros) may see erosion of stakeholder value.
2. The US Dollar is getting stronger against the Rupee.Yesterday it was at Rs.46.Almost all the Indian IT majors have hedged their positions around Rs.42-43 per USD. So, a weak rupee will not have any positive impact on their revenues.
3.Due to increase in costs, and reduced business from US, many IT majors are contemplating or actually doing layoffs. So far, Satyam and Wipro have bitten the bullet.We can safely expect that TCS and Infy will follow suit, albeit the spin they may give could be different.

So, the writing on the wall for Indian IT services industry seems pretty obvious. Okay, it is obvious, but not pretty :-)
Indian IT majors have to prepare for reduced margins, and reduced business from the US.And with Eastern Europe coming up to speed, winning EU business will become even more arduous than ever.Investments in China are not yet paying off.

None of the statements in the above paragraph are revelations.All Indian IT executives know these things.

The answers are also obvious.

Focus on the domestic IT opportunities ! Reduce operating costs by moving out of the metros into the hinterland of small towns and villages ! Drive the growth of the Indian tech startup eco system!

But none of the IT majors seem to be doing any thing substantial about it.

Problem 1: Indian IT majors feel that domestic small and medium (and even large) companies cannot really afford their services. So, they do some work for the Government and PSU banks etc, but have not really focused on delivering IT enabled value to the vast and growing SMB segment in India.
Vijay Anand did an excellent analysis about this affordability aspect back in March. Check it out.
The main issue is that our IT majors are in an intertia of sorts.They do all the high end talk about consulting, alternative markets etc, but are primarily focused on the low hanging fruit of US staff augmentation.

Problem 2: The IT majors know that domestic market can not be ignored, but seem bereft of ideas about how to deliver services and products for this market without reducing margins.

The answer is to move their delivery centres into the hinterland and charge realistic prices to the domestic customers. And implement hosting solutions instead of on-the-site solutions.
But the biggies don't want to take the risks and create the market. I think they are waiting for mid sized IT companies to come up in the domestic sector, and then acquire them.
The big question is: will it be too late for these current IT majors?Can they afford to ignore the home market and not invest for the future?

More about Indian IT majors and their involvement in the startup ecosystem, tomorrow.

From Schipol..

2008-08-23T02:48:00.000-07:00

MY KLM flight to Amsterdam reached 10 minutes ahead of time today at 8.50 AM. The flight to Boston is at 3 PM and boarding begins at 2 PM. So, have to while away the time here.

Frankfurt airport has smoking areas, but surprisingly Schipol (Amsterdam) doesn't. For a country so liberal that it allows grass (marijuana) sold in coffee shops, I expected the airport to at least have a couple of smoking areas. Well, looks like the Dutch know what they are doing. Fair enough..
During the past 6-7 years, I transited through several international airports.And I am as familiar with Heathrow as I am with the old Bangalore HAL airport :-)

Schipol would rank among the best airports in the world, IMO.There is no in your face ostentatiousness, and the amenities are first rate (okay, if you leave out the lack of smoking areas!). I am sitting in the KLM lounge and enjoying FREE, HIGH SPEED wi-fi internet connection.What else can one ask for?

I wonder when our Indian 'international' airports mature to this stage. Last night when I boarded the KLM flight at Shamshabad(Hyderabad), I felt that with just a few minor improvements, it could do wonders to passenger comfort.

Will go get a coffee and read about stuff back home. Ciao !

The different Indias we inhabit...

2008-08-19T00:12:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that I live in different Indias each day.Let me explain a bit..
On the one hand, we have the political India, with its 'cash-for-votes' scandal, the entry of Chiranjeevi in AP politics, the totally inefficient handling of the latest J&K crises, and so on.Some of these events are moving along predictable lines, whilst the others are getting scarier by the day.
The other India that I/We inhabit is the India of malls, IT jobs, and blogger-novelists like Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan. Meenakshi blogs about her (mostly) single life in Mumbai and Delhi, with liberal doses of sexuality, drinks, smoking(not all of it nicotine) thrown in.And she is supposedly a rage in Indian blogosphere. I have also been reading other women bloggers of late, women who are professionals (again, mostly IT) by day and bloggers by night.Most of them don't talk about the events that rock 'political' India.

The third India I inhabit is the real world where I live with my family, commute to work, do my shopping, watch cricket on TV, and attend marriages and other functions. The people I interact on a daily basis mostly seem to talk about (a) Inflation (b) Increase in house loan interests (c) How XYZ made a lot of money in real estate, and how I/We missed the bus and (d) various car models available in the market.Okay, we also talk about the obscene amounts being charged by schools.

There is yet another India that I try to inhabit atleast for an hour each day.And that is the world of Startups.I read sundry blogs about startups, exchange an email or two with friends who are either about to launch a startup, or seriously considering doing one.The themes in this India are about the difficulty of hiring resources, the role of VCs Vs the role of entrepreneurs, and the lack of an 'eco system' in India.

So, where do I really live?When there are so many conversations happening in these different Indias, how do I reconcile my optimism for startup scene in India, with the pathetic political scenario? How do I relate to Meenakshi's success when I see that she and her ilk do not write or care about the 'real' India?

And amid all of this chaos, I end up reading Sramana Mitra, whose ideas for India 2020 range from Adi Shakti to NCTV.While some ideas are really worth exploring, at least half of the ideas pre-suppose an Indian market simply ready to embrace any western concept of building a business.

Ok..end of ramble. All I want to say is that there is a need for a coherent response to so many events and themes that are shaping today's India.And the media is doing a bad job of reflecting the society. Meanwhile, the country is looking to the business men like Ambani brothers, Mittal and Ratan Tata to solve their problems, and not to their elected representatives.

Back in Hyderabad

2008-07-30T03:02:00.000-07:00

Well, there is a reason for my hiatus in blogging (again !).
I quit the company I have been with for the past 9.5 years and took up a new job. In this process, I have also relocated from Bangalore to Hyderabad.

And my office in Hyderabad is in Gachi Bowli.

I did my M.A. in English (Class of '95) from University of Hyderabad, just down the road from my office now.So, in a sense, its back to where I started.

But this area - the villages of Gachi Bowli, Masid Banda, Kondapur, Serlilingampalli, Guttala Begampet, Madhapur, Miyapur - used to be very different during the early and mid 1990's. Back then, there was just a road connecting Jubilee Hills to Gachi Bowli via Madhapur. There was a single tea stall and a few temporary huts, in the area now called Kondapur X Roads. And there were the rocks. Huge boulders, fantastic rock formations..we used to use this road as a shortcut from the city, and for occassional beer parties on moonlit nights.
Two incidents that I can recall from 1994-95.
1.A friend and I went for a movie in Sangeet theatre (Secunderabad) and were returning by the Jubilee Hills-Madhapur-Gachi Bowli road at night. The bike got punctured somewhere near Kondapur. We had to push the bike till Masid Banda, to find a mechanic shop.Even there, the mechanic was not around. So, we had to leave the bike there and walk till campus.

2. Those were prohibition days in Andhra Pradesh. But we always managed to buy liquor from bootleggers or military folks. One day, we wanted to buy some rum and some one told us that in Miyapur village, there is a bootlegger who sells booze at all times of the day/night.So off we went from campus to Miyapur (via lingampally).Chanda Nagar had a few houses here and there. After Chanda Nagar, there was nothing but the two-lane mumbai highway till Kukatpally. Miyapur was known to us coz it had a dhabha.And when we reached Miyapur, we could not find the bootlegger.Some one directed us to Miyapur village (the village no longer exists..its full of apartment complexes now), and after some enquiries, we finally found a guy who sold us a full bottle of Old Monk. And then it started raining heavily. We were on a scooter (Bajaj Chetak) and a helpful villager told us that there is a shortcut from Miyapur to Gachi Bowli. It turned out to be a single lane kacchha road..after a few minutes, we realized we are better off on the high way, and turned back. By the time we reached campus, both me and Madhav were totally drenched. But we had the Old Monk !

Today, there is a four-lane road connecting Kondapur and Miyapur. The toddy drinking milkmen of Masid Banda village are probably multi millionaires now. The cow herd boys and Banjaras in Kondapur are probably moving around in BMWs.

Just Ten years ! what a change !

IT outsourcing waves and other matters..

2008-04-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

An interesting discussion on Sramana Mitra's blog about Wave 3 of Indian IT Outsourcing by Sudhakar Ram. Read the article and the comments, especially by Subbaraman Iyer.

Now, for my take on this topic. I must say both Sudhakar Ram and Subbaraman Iyer have valid points. I am reproducing my comment on their posts below. However, before you read my comments, here's little summary of the debate.

Sudhakar Ram (he is the founder-CEO of Mastek)'s thesis is that the time is ripe for a Wave-3 in Indian IT Outsourcing. Wave 1 is the staff augmentation (body shopping) phase where Indian companies did low end work in India, and sent hordes of people to US to work at client sites. Wave 2 started in mid-90's and currently at its peak. This involves large scale offshore projects and implementation of CMMi and other quality processes, and world-class IT infrastructure.

Wave 3 according to Sudhakar Ram will see Indian companies do what hitherto has been the preserve of global MNCs such as Accenture, IBM, Bearing Point and EDS - playing the role of a 'trusted business advisor' to customers. It will mean that a TCS or Infy will own the IT budget of a customer and deliver 'business value' directly to the customer instead of services.It will also mean other knowledge-intensive services such as software products, platform-based services and so on.

Sudhakar is optimistic that Indian IT majors can and will manage this transformation and quotes the example of a couple of large transformational projects done by Mastek. Subbaraman Iyer agrees that it is a market imperative for Indian IT majors to transform into what Prof.Yves Doz terms the 'experiential and existential' layers. However, he (Subbaraman) feels that it is going to be extremely difficult and he sees Indian CEOs going for a Wave 2.1 and calling it Wave 3.

Now, read my comment on their blogs:
Dear Sudhakar and Subbaraman,
Here's my take:1. Sudhakar is confident about the ability of Indian companies in making the transition, with out explaining the 'how' of it. As Subbaraman says in his response, it is not as if we can throw a switch and bingo- we start functioning at Wave 3 level. It will be interesting to learn from Sudhakar as to how he sees his company Mastek managing this transition (if he finds it convenient to share those thoughts that is).
2.Subbaraman, I quote from your blog:
"Just because one does exceedingly well in a particular position in the value chain, doesn’t guarantee that one can transition to a higher level in the value chain."
It also does not make it impossible to transition to the next (higher?) level in the chain. In fact, if I am a leader at the Adaptive layer, while it is difficult to let go from the comfort zone, I also understand that it is imperative I make the transition or lose out. But being a leader gives me enough strength ( a war chest, traction with customers etc) to plan my transition in a phased manner.
One might argue that there is a chasm between each layers, and as the old chinese saying goes, one can not hop, skip and jump over a chasm; one needs to leap over it.But is it always true?
How about, say a firm like TCS or Infy (or Mastek for that matter), aiming for 20% revenues from Wave 3 work over the next 2-3 years, and increase that % to beyond 60% in 5-7 years?
To do this, what kind of organizational and branding changes are required? Will it call for creating an SBU or two within the org that nurtures a different kind of DNA? Will it help to have a mechanism to identify Wave-3 capable talent from the existing org and retooling their skills?Will strategic acquisitions ensure a faster transformation?
My point: Between the two of you, the problem statements have been defined very well.Please share some thoughts on the solution approaches, rather than defending your views.
Thanks for an insightful discussion.
____________
My actual concern: Indian IT majors are sitting on tons of cash and doing literally nothing about (1) Acquiring big global MNCs and (2) Investing massively in the Indian startup eco system. By doing the first action, they can move faster into Wave 3, especially now that some of the companies are available at attractive valuations. By doing the second action, Indian IT majors will be seeding Wave 4, that of Indian products and Indian services becoming ubiquitious in the global market.

My guess: CEOs of Indian IT majors may do neither.Instead, they would manage the revenues and resource growth quarter by quarter. Of course, they will do some small scale acquisitions, and they will provide seed/equity funding based on advice by Silicon Valley venture capitalists.I wonder if these half hearted, risk-averse approaches will make a difference at all, and see them passing on a historical opportunity. I hope I am proved wrong.

Comments welcome, please.

Kasi Yatra - Part 4

2008-04-04T05:42:00.000-07:00

We are back.

So, the autos sped through some fairly narrow lanes of Varanasi and deposited us in front of a street with a door at its entrance (yes, a door !). The board read 'Sri Rama Taraka Andhra Ashram'. The place where we had accommodation (Karivena Brahmana Satram) was supposed to be in the vicinity.

I called the Karivena Satram manager on the cell and he gave me directions. Apparently, the Satram (travelers lodge) is some 150 m from where we were. The autos wouldn't /couldn't go beyond the spot where we got down. So, I went first through the street-door and after a couple of turns, found my self in an area full of pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh, and a few restaurants doing brisk business in Idli, Dosa, Vada, Coffee and Tea. (Great ! Food won't be an issue in this area, I thought). I found the Andhra Ashram too, and a shop keeper there guided me towards the Karivena Satram.

Thirty minutes later, we were all checked in at Karivena Satram. We took four rooms and each room cost us an unbelievable Rs. 175 per day! We were thinking in terms of at least Rs.1000 per day for a decent room, but Varanasi just surprised us completely. Okay, the rooms were very small, about the size of hotel rooms in England. But they were neat and well-maintained for a pilgrimage place. And more importantly, the Satram was just a 2-minute walk from Narad Ghat.

Now, a bit about choosing accommodation at Kasi. It depends on the kind of traveler you are.

1.If you are used to luxury and simply can not do with out sofas, plush king size beds, hot water showers, room service, valet parking, chinese food and so on, you could book your self in any of the hotels in Varanasi city. But you will be a good 30-45 min away from the Vishwanatha Temple and the ghats on Ganga. If you are going to stay in Kasi for just a day or two, and plan to take just the token dip in the river and the token darshan (visit) of Vishwanatha, you should stay in one of these hotels. Info on these hotels is easy to find on the Internet. Just open a new window, and Google for hotels in Varanasi. There you are !

2. On the other hand, if you are on a religious trip, and your group wants to spend a good 5-7 days in and around Kasi, and maximize this once-in-a-lifetime visit to the holiest of the holy places by bathing in the Ganga every day, and visiting Vishwanatha temple at least a few times, you should forego some luxuries and stay as close to the Temple and the ghats as possible. Especially if you have senior citizens in your group, and they can not walk for long distances, staying near the ghats will be very convenient. And as we discovered, quite easy on the purse as well.

3. Because of the last sentence in the above para, we find hundreds of backpackers (mostly foreign and some Indian) living near these ghats. If any of you interacted with these backpackers earlier, you would know they some times stay for more than a month or two, at some of these tourist haunts in India (Goa, Pune, Kasi, Gokarna, Manali etc.) I haven't seen a German Bakery in Goa, but there is one in Pune's Koregaon Park. I was pleasantly surprised to find German Bakery near the Karivena Satram :-) Its called Shiva Cafe and German Bakery (Narad Ghat).

Here's a link to some photos taken by one of the backpackers. Enjoy !

SaaS, ITaaS, and ProaaS

2008-03-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

We all know about Software As A Service (SaaS). Gartner has predicted in 2006 that global SaaS revenues would become 25% of the software market. And Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced an IT As A Service (ITaaS) recently. TCS is going to provide software, hardware, and related services, in one package to small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India first, and then in other geographies. If this succeeds, even medium large businesses may try the model.

This brings me to the point: In the US and EU, software companies and server farms (data centers) are generally not located in the metro cities. They are located in small towns; some even in villages. It helps spread the growth and provides job opportunities to qualified people who do not want to leave their villages and move to the big cities.

IT aaS seems to be a good idea. It could provide small businesses in India the ability to use world class software at affordable rates.And store their data in data centers adhering to international standards in Information Security. And also obtain business continuity and disaster recovery assurance.

I am sure other IT majors will soon come out with similar offerings targeting SMBs in India.Some of them could target verticals such as Pharma, Chemicals, and other such regulated industries for this end-to-end service-based IT outsourcing.

However, it doesn't look like TCS or any other IT majors are planning to move beyond metros and may be the bigger Tier-2 cities (Mysore, Pune, Coimbatore, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar). Every week we see announcements of more investments in campuses being built in the Metros and Tier-2 cities. No news about any of the companies going into the hinterland. Even if the respective State governments are willing to give all kinds of incentives, the IT majors seem to believe that it would be difficult to find talent in the small towns of India. Looks like the biggies want to exhaust the potential of all the major cities, before moving into the heart of the country. But by then, other cost effective destinations could crop up in other geographies, and the Indian IT story may eventually get limited to 10-12 cities or less.

So, what should we do to address the situation? I don't think we can influence the strategies of IT majors. They dole out a few crore rupees each year to meet their corporate social responsibility goals, but do not seem genuinely interested in 'game changing' moves for a win-win scenario. Nasscom is not bothered at all.

May be young entrepreneurs should come out with ITaaS models of their own. It should not cost a lot for a few IT entreprenurs in each town to setup a small data centre, ensure power supply, and provide IT services to small and medium businesses in that town and neighbouring towns.

Another idea: Why not try 'Programming As A Service' (ProaaS)? (He he ! my own coinage)Groups of programmers from small towns or villages could setup a ProaaS Centre, and offer coding services to big IT majors for a fee. The SW development process any way involves breaking the system into units and having teams work on different units and put the whole together. Apart from coding services, the ProaaS Centres could also offer testing services to these IT majors or even to small and medium IT businesses, so that they can quickly acquire the scale of say, a big IT firm, and then scale down once the project gets over.

For all these ideas, and many more to germinate, and then succeed, we need: Proper eco system to guide and nurture the ideas, and adequate bandwidth and power supply in rural and semi-urban areas.

Kasi Yatra-Part 3

2008-03-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

So, we finally started the 2100-km long train journey to Varanasi. Fifteen minutes after the train left Tirupati, it stopped for 20 minutes at Renigunta Junction. We tucked into our lunch and dozed off while reading the magazines bought at Tirupati railway station.

We reached Vijayawada around 9.30 PM. Our relatives in Vijayawada came to the station with what else...but lots of food for our dinner :-) There seem to be some restaurants in Vijayawada that specialize in packing railway dinners. Very neatly done!

The long train journey was a good time to catch up with the rest of the family- dig out childhood memories, discuss the Indian IT and business scenario, and of course debate about films, politics and so on. The presence of some Kerala Catholic nuns in our compartment, made us talk about the convent schools we attended during the 1980's. The kids - Anagha (8) and Lasya (2.5) had a whale of a time too.

My brother Ramana (who had 'miraculously' recovered fully from the throat infection by now..the power of persuasion or the joy of travel?) and I discovered that we both have the habit of getting down at every station, and walk or look around, till the train whistles and starts to move. Imagine, we both in our mid-30’s, and we had never traveled together on a long train journey! After we crossed teenage, we never lived in the same town or city, and only met for a few days, every 3 months or so, at Kadapa. As I noticed this commonality between us, I wondered as to what other discoveries this journey has in store.

Up early in the morning (we crossed Balharshah some time around 5.30 AM and I could not sleep after that), I waited till we crossed Sevagram (the train was running late by almost 60 min) at 8 AM, before I headed to the pantry. We had brought a thermos flask with us – the idea was to get hot water from the pantry, mix some milk powder and Boost, and give it to Lasya. My wife did not trust the milk sold on the trains. Sankar came with me to the pantry – and while one of the attendants cheerfully boiled the water for us, we ordered breakfast for the entire group, and made small talk with the cooks. A malayalee passenger came with two big flasks and got one of the pantry attendants make coffee-to-order. The maintenance of the toilets on Indian trains has a lot of scope for improvement (Lallu ji, are you listening?), but the pantries are run well, I can say from first-hand experience. The attendants are generally friendly and efficient, and if you make the effort to walk to the pantry and request the cooks, they some times make special dishes for you. Of course, you may or may not enjoy the taste, but compared to what we get on our flights, it is many times better.

After Nagpur, the train stopped at fewer stations, and long stretches of time passed before we reached any major junction. By the time we got to Itarsi, it was almost 3.30 PM, 90 minutes behind schedule.

From Itarsi, all trains from the South going towards Delhi go up North. And trains going towards Kolkata or Patna take a diversion to the East, towards Jabalpur junction. It was dusk when we crossed Jabalpur. Throughout the afternoon, I was glued to the window, watching some very lovely forested areas pass by. Unfortunately, before I could snap a photo of a particuarly beautiful stretch, it would pass by and hills would cover the view of valleys and the streams.

Here on, our train started waiting for signals every now and then, and each time, we waited for 15-20 minutes for the line clear signal. Dinner was served between Katni and Maihar stations, and at Satna, I had one last cup of tea, before switching off the lights, and going to bed. We were all tired after 1.5 days on the train, and could not wait to get to Varanasi.

Our train reached Allahabad Junction fully 2 hours late and was further delayed there for some unknown reason. It was very cold and we were all wrapped up when we got down the train at Varanasi junction, at 7 AM.
We were all very excited, and quickly unloaded the luggage and ourselves. The porters offered to take the luggage and guide us to the auto/taxi stand for Rs.200. A bargain really. It was quite simple to deal with the auto-walas and hire 4 autos for Rs.100 each to get to Andhra Ashram – the area where we booked our accommodation. For such a busy tourist destination, the rates for porters and auto/taxi transport in Varanasi are on the cheaper side. As we would realize in the next few days, North India is not only cheaper on the wallet, it is also poorer compared to the South. May be it is cheaper (especially manual labor) because it is poorer. More on this, and about our days in and around Kasi in the next post.

Kasi Yatra-Part 2

2008-03-08T18:04:00.000-08:00

During my 3 years in Mumbai (1999-2002), I used to travel by train to my hometown Kadapa, once in 2 months on an average. The train leaves around 5 PM and reaches Kadapa at lunch time the next day. I used to relish the journey as it provided me the opportunity to spend time with myself, try out all the food items that are hawked on the train, and finish reading at least 1 book.

But now this Kasi Yatra with family was to be very different. The family wanted to make many different food items to ensure that we are not entirely dependent on what is available on train, and even in the restaurants at Kashi. And none of our people believed in 'traveling light' :-)

So, here's a rough list of what we packed, apart from the clothes:

1.Around 50 plates and 30 bowls made of dried plantain leaves; around 25 paper plates as well.

2. Around 60 big tumblers for drinking water, and 20 small ones for coffee

3.Tissue paper- 1 roll and 50 paper napkins.

4. 250 gm packet of Amul milk powder and 250 gm powdered sugar

5. Medicines kit - covering all the common ailments, plus some bandages, needle and hard twain

6.A set of board games

Now for the food items:

1.Around 100 chapatis, packed in tin foils, with 8 per foil.

2.Tomato chutney, Gongura pickle, Mango pickle and Lime pickle ( Note: I can't vouch for the links I am providing here, I simply picked a site that came up tops in Google search for these items. So, it must be an okay site. There are some specialized sites for Andhra recipes. Interested readers are advised to do their research and if they can not decide can check with me. I will be happy to evaluate the site's content and give my take. I personally like Mahanandi, for its photos. See the site's take on the perennial Telugu favorite Gongura !)

3.Groundnut (pea-nut) powder

4.Munchies (savory items) and sweets (Minapa Sunni).

Plus, for lunch on day 1 of the journey, the family decided to pack full course meal for all of us - comprising plain steamed rice, mamidikaya pappu (dal), Rasam, and curds (yogurt).

Add all the individual bags with normal clothes, and warm clothing (North India was reeling in a cold wave in January this year, though it didn't deter us from traveling) - for a group of 10 adults and children, we ended up with 24 luggage items !

The idea was to get up very early on Sunday (Jan 13), cook the lunch for the day and pack the same, do the pooja before leaving home, pile into the two vehicles we hired (a Toyota Qualis and a Tata Indica), and zoom off to Tirupati. We wanted to leave home by 7.30 AM and reach Tirupati by 10.30-11 AM.

But my elder brother - Ramana, got up only at 7 AM that too with throat infection and blocking of ears, and announced that he is dropping out of the tour, as he is feeling unwell and can't make the journey. It took all our persuading powers to get him ready and we finally started at 9.30 AM. And by the time we reached Tirupati railway station, the train had been on the platform for well over 15-20 min, leaving us 5 min to get to the platform, get all the people and the luggage into the train, and settle down properly. But thanks to Indian Railways, the train did not leave on time, and though we were tense about missing the train (or some of us/luggage not getting on to the train), we still managed to have it all done. And I quickly dashed to the magazine and fruit stalls to buy lots of magazines, couple of books, fruit, and some freshly baked bread.

Wow ! finally we started the journey and it took me two long blog posts to get here. I promise to cut to the chase from the next post onwards and get into Kashi related stuff.

Kasi Yatra - A Travelogue - Part 1- The Planning

2008-02-25T01:25:00.000-08:00

I wanted to write about my Kasi (Varanasi/Benares) trip as soon as we returned to Bangalore on Jan 27. But some how I just couldn't sit at the computer and start the typing.Every time I tried, I ended up reading some blogs or visiting new sites on the Internet. May be one should coin a term for procrastinating a blog post. How about blognertia ? Hmm..doesn't sound right. Please let me know if you can think of any better terms.

Now, before the blognertia bug bites me again, let me get into the details of the Kasi trip we did in January 2008. This is going to be a long post, so may be I will split it into a few posts of manageable size.

This trip to Kasi has been in our plans for a long time now. Almost a decade, really. We wanted it to be a family trip.But every year, one of us three brothers had some urgent issues to tackle, and when all of us were ready, it was either my mom or dad, who were busy with something else. Finally, my younger brother just went ahead and started the planning, and the rest of us joined in.

We first checked the possibility of flights and realized that for each individual the return fare from Bangalore to Varanasi (via Delhi- there are no direct flights) would cost approx. 17,000. For a group of 8 adults and 2 children, it was coming to nearly Rs.150,000. That kinda ruled it out for us.My parents would never accept such a high price tag, even if we IT kids could afford it.It had to be the train journey. More over, the women in the family wanted to make lots of food items that we could consume on the long train journey.Fond memories of the Shirdi train trip a couple of years back was invoked, and so we decided to do it by train. Cool !

Well, there are no direct trains from Bangalore to Varanasi. ( Varanasi is the actual name of this holiest of holy towns; its also known as Benares, and referred to as Kasi, in Indian mythology). The totally user-unfriendly web site of Indian Railways, finally informed us that we could catch a train from Tirupati or Chennai or Hyderabad. Consider this, there are only two direct trains that travel from South India towards Varanasi/Patna route.

We decided on boarding the Ernakulam-Patna Express from Tirupati. This train takes only 41 hours to reach Varanasi, whereas the other one takes 8-10 hours more, I believe. The train starts at Tirupati at noon every Sunday(its a once a week train, btw), and reaches Varanasi in the early hours of Tuesday. So, we have to spend the whole of Sunday and Monday on the train.

We (my family and Sankar the younger brother) live in Bangalore, while our Parents live in our hometown Kadapa. My elder brother and his family also stay in Kadapa. (More about Kadapa in the near future.Watch this blog !). Kadapa is 3 hrs by road or train from Tirupati, and 6 hrs by road from Bangalore. (There are no trains between Bangalore and Kadapa- for that matter there are no trains between Bangalore and many other towns. But thats Karnataka for you, very inadequately connected with the rest of the country).

The tickets have been booked, the bosses have been informed, and the leave applied for, has been granted. One of my colleagues quipped when he heard that I am taking 2 weeks off and going to Varanasi (instead of say, Malaysia or Thailand I suppose): "Oh, already washing off all your sins ! Good, you can come back and commit more."

For those of you unaware of Kasi, it is located on the banks of river Ganga (or Ganges). You can read about the credibility of Ganga in washing away your sins, and more about Kasi, from the Web site of UP Tourism. Suffice it to say, a Kasi trip is considered a must for every believing Hindu.

The travel date was Sunday, January 13. Sankar and I wanted to leave from Kadapa on Jan 12 evening, spend the night at some hotel in Tirupati, get up lesiurely in the morning, go for a darshan at Govindaraja Swamy Temple, and then board the Varanasi train. But the rest of the family overruled us, and instead it was decided that we would all start early in the morning on Jan 13 from Kadapa, reach Tirupati by 10.30 AM, do the darshan of Govindaraja and then board the train. 'It will be very difficult to get good lodging in Tirupati in January (as it is Pongal/Sankranthi season), and we any way have to travel for 2 days. Why add another day to the journey?"

Yes, Tirupati is probably the second holiest town in India, and in fact, makes more money than any other religious centre in the World, with the possible exception of Vatican City. Here's the link for those of you who've never heard of Tirupati or heard of it, but have not been there. Take it from me - its a MUST VISIT, if you want to see the unique combination of commerce, religion, devotion, power politics, and total humility of the Indian experience. Most of these holy places, in my opinion, tell us a lot about what is great about India, and also what is so mind-boggling about the cynical apathy of Indians towards 'good governance', 'protection of heritage' etc.

Ok..so, we all assembled in Kadapa by Jan 12. By the time Sankar and I reached home, preparations were in full swing.

My next post will describe these preparations, and also, how we almost missed the Varanasi train, but eventually had a good time on the train. And yea, will try to add some visuals as well.

Where do I settle down -city, town or vilage?

2007-11-24T17:03:00.000-08:00

Whenever I discuss the topic of where one prefers to settle down in life - a Metro city, a town or a rural area - I sense that the views expressed by friends have a lot of ifs and buts sewed in.

For example, one common response from people who have never lived in a village, but only visited them now and then - I wish I could just live peacefully in a village, amid the greenery, and non-polluted space. All I need is a decent internet connection.

And of course, I don't have any friends living in villages right now. In fact, most people these days don't have friends living in Indian villages. We all have friends in American or British or even Scandinavian hinterlands. But not in the Indian rural spaces. (If you have a rich farmer friend or old parents and uncles looking after huge ancestral property its a different thing.)

Take the case of Indian towns. We may have a few business men friends or guys working on PSU banks, small universities etc. living these towns. How many of us have close friends staying in towns doing a job commensurate with their skills and qualifications, and earning well? And not dreaming about moving to a big city?Even if we want to escape the frenzy of the cities and live in quieter towns, what kind of jobs are available for highly qualified professionals?

Let me put down what we all know as a general state of affairs:

1. Life in a village has always been idealised. But if you ask the villagers moving to the cities in search of jobs, you get a different picture. Also, if you stay for a reasonably longer period in a typical Indian village, you will find the lack of basic infrastructure(sanitary and drainage, power, health care, potable water, transport), the caste divisions, the cynical politics etc. as unbearable.

2. Towns are better off. Most towns these days have the basic infrastructure sorted out to some extent. But they are no where comparable to the cities in terms of opportunities.

3. The cities - ok..the overcrowded areas, the creaking infrastructure, the inflation, and yes, the pollution.

If we look at the US, and other developed nations - except for the niche opportunities space, it usually does not matter where you live - if all you want is a decent income, and adequate infrastructure. In fact, as most of us may have experienced, life in an American town is infinitely more comfortable than life in an American big city. And in the UK, you can live in a village and travel to the nearest town for work.

What does this tell us?

Towns offer us the best chance of - urbanizing our rural people, decongesting our cities, and spreading the wealth creation process into the hinterland.
We need more non-polluting businesses ( IT services, BPOs, research labs etc) to move to Indian towns and act as anchor customers for good infrastructure to be created.
However, for young professionals to move into towns, they expect the infrastructure to be already there to justify the move.
We can't yet give up on the cities. But some radical urban planning reform needs to happen.
We should protect the greenery and environment. But I don't think we should have the 'villages' as they are today.Reduce the number of people dependent on agriculture, and make farming more productive (one and the same actually !).

Our current development models seem to treat each entity (city, town and village) as separate. We need models that make movement of services and businesses feasible between these entities. We can not sustain a scenario where evrybody wants to move to a Metro. We need to create facilities comparable to Metros in semi-urban and rural areas.

I think the number of people prefering to stay in towns and villages is an underestimated development indicator.

India on the move...

2007-10-06T03:49:00.000-07:00

Ok..we all know that India is on the move @ roughly 10 % per year.

Almost every day we read about this growth rate in the media - along with analysis on whether this rate is sustainable and if it is inclusive or limited to urban middle class.

Another oft-repeated idea is that of India being in a demographic sweet spot. We have the largest number of people between ages 15-45, the productive years.

And when it comes to the IT/IT ES/BPO sectors, we hear about the unemployability of a large number of our youth, thereby driving the salaries of the employable pool ever northwards.

So, here I go again:

India has a huge rural population that is seeking to migrate to the cities and towns in search of employment. Why? A couple of off-the-bat reasons: 1. Agriculture no longer provides a sustainable livelihood. 2. Villagers see a 'better life' being lived on the TV at home and the aspirational energies kick in.

But most of these rural youth are unemployable in the high paying service jobs because of their poor communication skills in English and because no one bothered to teach them a bit of Java or C in their mother tongue. Some of them end up as security guards in IT companies and gated communities. And a vast majority work as construction labor building our malls, tech parks, and apartment complexes.

I really don't see how we will go on building these concrete behemoths in our urban centres for the next 2-3 decades, and expect the children of these security guards and construction labor to learn technology, and get into high paying jobs.

I also fail to see clearly how Reliance Fresh or Walmart-Airtel or Subhiksha will end up improving the lot of our farmers. May be they will create a new set of entrepreneurs who will strike it rich through the franchisee or logistics route.

Well, none of the things I have said so far are new.We all know about this line of the discussion also.

I just want to connect this line of thinking with the recent (and ongoing if I may say) turmoil among the IT/IT ES/BPO sectors about a stronger rupee (or a weaker dollar) and the crisis in US Sub-prime markets impacting Indian BPO or even urban real estate scenarios.

Here we have the second largest market in the world for food, education, health care, FMCG, and services. And because of our geographical and cultural advantages, we have access to many other markets. But our economy is still in an export-driven growth model.

If our major companies start addressing the domestic economy and domestic pain points, in a matter of years, the growth will start being driven by domestic consumption. And a stronger Rupee will then benefit every one.

And a strong domestic consumption will spur the growth in providing access to better health care, food security and especially education to all the disadvantaged sectors of the population.

The political class seems to be bereft of ideas. Rather people with ideas seem to be scared of politics. The only hope is the inexorable growth of Indian entrepreneurship, especially among the middle and lower middle class Indians who are hungry for success and do not mind tapping any markets, especially the rural and semi-urban markets.

More later...

The New Great Game OR The Battle for India - Part 1

2007-08-21T05:37:00.000-07:00

I am sure most of the visitors here know/read about the 'Great Game'. For those who have not come across this term ( or not read Rudyard Kipling's Kim), here's a brief description:

In the 19th Century, Russia and England played the 'Great Game' over Afghanistan and Central Asia. England, which already ruled over the sub-continent, and had significant influence in West Asia and China, Afghanistan was the spot to be controlled to maintain its supremacy. Russia with its expansionist mindset, controlled large swathes of Central Asia, and saw Afghanistan as the entry into the riches of the sub-continent. Both countries had their spies every where. And they supported the Afghan tribes in wars/skirmishes against each other. Kipling famously called it the 'Great Game'.

In the late 20th century till date, this Great Game has continued in Afghanistan - with different players. The USA and its allies have replaced Ol' England, and the Taliban and Al Qaeda have replaced Russia. The game continues, because the rich natural resources of the Central Asian republics (fossil fuel energy sources) are at stake, not to speak of the signficance of Afghanistan's geo-political location - proximity to Russia, China, Pakistan and of course, India.

Here's my theory then: The Great Game may no longer refer to Afghanistan. It could or should possibly refer to India.

And hence, the battle for India.

The opponents: The USA and China.

The US has a lot of advantages in this game. Apart from being the dominant military, economic and cultural power of the World, today's aspirant and urban India is culturally much closer to America, than it has ever been to China (through all the ages). India is backoffice to a very large number of American MNCs. We love Hollywood, and aspire for Green Cards. And there is the Ek-Do-Teen factor (the 123 agreement related to civilian nuclear cooperation) in the offing.

What cards does China have? Let us clutch at some 'perceived' straws.

For one, China's proximity to India gives it enormous leverage in terms of a capacity to make India happy or sad. China can make India happy on various fronts - by agreeing to settle the border issues peacefully, by staying neutral if not siding with India on the issues with Pakistan, by working towards a massive increase in bilateral trade so that both countries can do a planned exit from an export-oriented growth model (much to the chagrin of US, I must add), and a few other areas.

China has also thrown the red carpet (pun intended) to India's IT majors. All the top 4 Indian IT service providers have a China story now.Chinese companies are building power plants in India, and setting up manufacturing plants for telecom equipment and so on. Importantly, China is consuming a lot of the iron and steel produced by India.

China also seems to control the Communist Part of India (Marxist)- CPM very neatly. In the last 2-3 years, CPM leaders have made dozens of visits to Beijing. And the statements from official Chinese spokespersons and Messrs. Karat and Yechury on the nuclear deal issue, read as if they were written by the same person (They probably were). They have at least one mainstream English daily rooting for them - the horrendously misnamed 'The Hindu' and its sister publication - 'The Front Line'.

China is so serious about wooing India (or keeping India in its sphere of influence) that they are investing a large amount of money in learning Cricket. Yes, Cricket ! Apparently, China has started a program to train 500 (or is it 5,000?) school level coaches in Cricket. They want to have a proper league by 2010. And they want to play in the World Cup by 2015. They probably will want to win it in 2027.

So, there definitely is a battle going on here. The US wants to see India become a strong power and act as a check against China. China eventually would want to see India as a satellite state, and as first line of defence in its march to super power dom.

How is this likely to play out? What choices do we Indians have?

Note: I usually just want to blog about India and its developmental issues. But I am plainly irritated by the behaviour of the Left and the BJP regarding this nuclear deal with US. A mid term poll looks likely, unless China decides otherwise and forces the CPM to continue to back Congress till end of the term, or a better time for the elections.

As all these issues, especially energy security and the structure and dynamics of the polity have a lot of implications for the developmental journey, I am forced to think through these issues.

Will try to post some more thoughts on this in the coming weeks.

Justice delayed...but not denied...

2007-07-31T22:16:00.001-07:00

I like Sanjay Dutt, as an actor with a strong screen presence. He has done some good films, especially the Munnabhai series.

And yet, when I read about the sentence of 6 years he received yesterday from the TADA court in Mumbai, I felt happy. Finally, an example has been set. That, however rich and well-connected a person is, the same laws would apply.

Sanjay Dutt has committed a criminal act of possessing an AK-56 assualt weapon, and hiding information about anti-social elements. He has also hobnobbed with gangsters Anees and Dawood Ibrahim. As if this is not enough, he apparently made two of his friends do his bidding and store weapons. In any other country with a functioning democracy, he would have faced much harsher punishment, and much earlier. In a totalitarian regime, he may even have been summarily executed for anti-national activities.

But this is India, where the wheels of justice grind ever so slowly. Sanjay is being punished only now, even though his supporters may claim that he has undergone punishment all these years. Well, I don't know..he has been free, and making movies. Yesterday in the court, Sanjay seems to have said that he is 'reformed' now. Good for him.

And I hope this sentence sends out the right message about our legal institutions. True, there are still many cracks in the system. But that is precisely why all right thinking individuals must feel glad about this one example of the system working properly, albeit a bit slow.

B2B = Back To Blogging

2007-07-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have had another gap in my short life as a blogger. After my last post in May 1st week, I went to UK for a consulting engagement. Guess what, blogspot, wordpress and other such blogging platforms have all been blocked out by my customer’s IT department. Reason: Productivity Impact.

I do agree that blogging during the office hours does impact productivity. But then the employees are also stopped from reading blogs. These days, a lot of knowledge is disseminated in the blogosphere, and to expect your employees to read blogs related to their business only at home, some how does not please me.

Ok, so I tried connecting to the Internet from my hotel or Bed n Breakfast. I found out that it was horribly expensive from the hotel, and the Bed n Breakfast places either do not have internet connectivity and if they have it, it is extremely difficult to connect my office laptop to the wireless service provider.

So, I simply gave up blogging till I returned to India. And now I have to go back to UK again – fortunately for only 3 days this time. Hmm…the lull in my blogging won’t be so long this time.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows is getting released worldwide tonight. I liked the first three or four books in the series, and then, I must confess, the magic started to disappear. In spite of this, I know I will get up in the morning, go to M.G. Road and buy the book.

I spent my evenings and weekends in UK hunting for good books to take back home. I found at least one good book – a trilogy actually- by Peter Pullman, called ‘His Dark Materials’. It reads like a cross between Potter and LOTR. The magic is good, but more than that, Pullman paints a lot of grey instead of Rowling’s black and white. That made it more interesting for me.

Coming to my pet theme of India and its issues, I managed to post a long comment on Atanu’s blog recently about the Drug Industry and the issues with Indian policy and practice.

More later…

Influencing Policy on Education and Development

2007-05-03T23:44:00.000-07:00

As a regular reader of various blogs that discuss the issues surrounding Indian education, development, and venture capital, I some times wonder whether most of the time, we bloggers are preaching to converts.

Let me explain this a bit.

There seems to be a broad consensus among many bloggers on the following issues:

1. The Indian education system needs a radical overhaul if we are to achieve universal primary literacy, and provide equal opportunities to all in improving their lives.

2. The Government should be a facilitator of change and not the implementor. Implementation is best left to the market dynamics.

3. It is becoming increasingly obvious that it may never be possible to develop rural areas. But it is possible to develop rural population, by 'planned' urbanization. By planned I don't mean, the five year plans of the Government with their socialistic baggage. But the kind of business plans that get approved by financial institutions for mega projects.

4. To solve the infrastructure bottlenecks in India, we need to revitalize the railway network and improve connectivity, train speeds and so on. Better still, plan to privatize the railways.

5.A billion-plus population needs at least a hundred IITs and IIMs. Instead of constricting the supply of seats at these places, and creating quota fights, we need to make quality higher education available for all citizens with the necessary intellectual calibre.

6.Primary health care and availability of safe drinking water and shelter - these issues need to be tackled through public-private partnerships similar to the solutions being outlined for primary education. The Government should only lay down the guidelines (drafted by experts and not politicians and bureaucrats), and leave it to the market forces. A certain amount of required regulation must be the only government involvement.

And so on and so forth..

There could be disagreements among various thinkers, bloggers on the specifics surrounding the implementation. But there is a consensus that these issues need to be tackled urgently and that there is a dire need to change government policy in all these areas, radically.

But, how many policy makers and enforcers (politicians, their aides, big business leaders, bureuacrats etc) actually subscribe to this consensus in the blogging world? How many of them are willing to debate these issues openly?

Can the bloggers (arm chair intellectuals) actually influence public policy this way? Okay, a good number of the bloggers are also activists, and they are trying to make some difference in their respective areas. But is that enough? Will a thousand drops form a wave?

These and other such questions are troubling me. For my part, I am trying to learn as much as I can about some specific issues and plan my response in whatever small way I can. What about you, dear reader? Please share your thoughts.

Urbanization and Development

2007-04-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

Posting my comment on Atanu's blog today:

Ibrahimpatnam used to be a sleepy little mandal headquarters some 35 km from Hyderabad,India.

At first, there was a residential school and college, 3 km from this small town.And then, a private engineering college came up. In the next 5 years, 4 more engineering colleges came up in the vicinity.

The residential school is owned by a trust, and is located on a huge tract of farm land – around 300 acres.The school with student hostels, classrooms, staff quarters, play grounds, open air and indoor theaters, occupies around 70 acres of land. The rest of the land is farmed by locals, the produce feeds the entire campus, and the surplus is sold in the nearby market.
Recently, Reliance Fresh approached the trust, to buy part of the land, to setup their warehouses including cold storage facilities. They want to use the facility to serve their stores in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

The establishment of the school, and the engineering colleges, started the growth process in Ibrahimpatnam and its surroundings. But the moment Reliance started its operations, it has acted as a catalyst, and within the last one year, there has been amazing growth in the overall modernization of Ibrahimpatnam.Right from a cellular tower, to proliferation of shops and hotels, clinics and internet connectivity, the town is fast becoming a nice area to live.
What the educational institutions started, got accelerated by Reliance Fresh – the anchor customer for the area (providing well-paying jobs to around 2000 people). Locals can get a job near their homes and are seeing good money for the first time.

Some thing similar, on a much larger scale has happened in Guttala Begumpet-Madhapur-Kondapur areas on the outskirts of Hyderabad between 1997-2003. In a span of 5-6 years, these sleepy hamlets got transformed into Cyberabad. A similar transformation is likely to happen in Maheswaram mandal (Hyderabad) and Devanahalli (Bangalore) when the proposed international airports come up by 2009.

The lessons are obvious.Development happens when jobs get created. And jobs get created when business ventures are set up using cheap land available an hour’s drive from any major city. And when the model matures across the country, the maximum distance between one city and another won’t be more than one hour of journey by road/rail.

We need to understand how such development has taken place, and replicate the same wherever feasible. Nandigram is more a case of ineffective communication and an implementation method that was people unfriendly.

Humour: What kind of a nerd are you?

2007-04-02T22:33:00.000-07:00

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Drama Nerd
Social Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Musician
Anime Nerd
Artistic Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

The above was my result. Suggest you do it too and let me know about your score.Its fun :-)

A lull in blogging..

2007-03-21T23:49:00.000-07:00

After some long posts, I have again entered a quiet phase in my blogging behavior.

We celebrated Lasya's first birthday in India, (she had her first birthday in UK last year) on March 12 and had a get together on Sunday, March 18. Met some family friends after a long gap. Thats what get togethers are for, and this one really served its purpose. Lasya had loads of fun too.

One of the guests asked me why I am still with TCS :-) And if I am with TCS, why am I in Bangalore and not in US or UK? lol ! I honestly did not know how to answer the gentleman in brief. And that was not the place to give a long winded answer.

Don't worry..neither am I going to give a long winded answer on this blog.

In response to the query by our guest, I just shrugged, smiled, and remarked that I am too lazy.
He took it as a joke ( It was, at least partly).

In any case, it is now time to declare ( and commit my self to the declaration), that I am finally happy about two business ideas that we (me and some friends) developed.

And if things go as per plan ( no reason why they won't), we should be launching some thing on our own by Dasara.

I will share as much info as I can about the two business ideas by and by. For now, all I can say is that one idea is in the Software as Service (SaaS) space with a strong connection to brick and mortar supply chain. The other idea is in the 'life style' space and does not have any thing to do with IT.

But what I can also do is talk about some of the new small businesses being set up by friends in my network. Will have a post or two coming very soon on this.

How to get a 3-Bed Room Flat for 10-15 lakhs?

2007-03-09T22:45:00.000-08:00

Here's the scenario:

Like most people these days, you want to own an apartment in a good locality in Hyderabad or Bangalore or any other city (leave Mumbai out of this discussion please!).

Going rates for a 3-BR from a reputed builder in Blr or Hyd are around INR 50-60 lakh. If you take a bank loan for 45 lakh for 15-20 years tenure, you will end up paying the bank approx Rs. 1 cr at the current rates of interest. And the life of an apartment can not be more than 25 years, if one looks at the construction quality these days.

So, there is every likelihood that it doesn't make sense to you to shell out so much over the next 15-20 years. Instead, you wish to buy an apartment at pre-boom prices or may be even less. Say, between 10-15 lakhs for a 3 BR?

Before you leave this site, assuming that I am going to propose some hare brained scheme, here's a disclaimer: I am just going to suggest this plan to you. You could execute this along with your friends.Some groups of friends that I know have already tried this plan with success.

Ok..here's the plan then:

You and a group of friends, say, 6-10 people get together, and scout for the land where you want your apartments to be built. Let us assume you found a good site of 500 sq yds or 5000 sq ft in a decent residential locality. At the going rates in Bangalore, 2 plots of 2400 sq ft each, will cost any where between Rs. 1- 1.5 crore. Now, don't get scared.

Go ahead, take your loans and buy the site.Consult a lawyer and get it registered in the name of the society, in which you are all equal partners (assuming you all have contributed equal amounts in buying the site).

As per the current rules, after leaving some open space, we can build around 16 apartments, including 2 penthouses, in 4800 sqft of land. You will have parking space in the basement(ground floor actually).

Your group has two options now:

1. If you have some one in the group willing to spend full time on the construction, you could hire a contractor and supervise every aspect of the construction.There will be some risk involved, as you have to sell the remaining flats, after you all take one flat each. But this method will ensure that you get your individual flats for the lowest possible price.

2. If you all have very busy day jobs and can not spare the time, or if you don't wish to take any risks, simply negotiate with a builder-developer for your site. Typically, builders give you 40% of the apartments, if you hand over the site to them.They will take care of everything else. Of course, you could negotiate and ensure that the quality of the construction is very high. If the site is in a prime area where selling the flats will not be an issue at all, the builder could even offer you 50% of the apartments.

Look at the maths:

Cost of site including registration and other legal expenses: Rs.1.25 cr
Loan amount for each partner in a 6 member team: Rs. 20.8 lakh

Option 1: Build on your own with help from contractor

Total cost of construction ( 16 flats with 1400 sq ft for each flat): Approx. Rs.1.5 Cr (good quality construction)

Initial investment to start the construction: Rs. 80 lakh

Individual Loan amount for each partner: Rs. 13.3 lakh

Total loan amount for each partner: Rs. 35 lakh ( Rs. 34.1 actually, but lets add the incidentals also).

Amount that you could expect from sale of each flat: Rs. 35 lakh ( At Rs. 2500 per sqft for a 1400 sqft flat.)

Note: Okay, you can get a little more by charging for parking space (Rs. 1 lakh), Utilities connections (40-50 K) and so on. But its up to you. In the market, if the flats are going at Rs. 50 lakh (all inclusive), if you price your flats between Rs.35-40 lakh, you will sell all flats in a few weeks or even less.

Total amount from the sale of 10 flats: Rs. 3.5 Crore.

Total cost of construction: Rs. 1.25 cr (site) + Rs.1.5 cr (construction) = Rs. 2.75 cr

What each partner will get from the sale of the flats: Rs. 35 lakh.

So, in effect, if you all put in some hard work, you could actually get 6 flats for no cost !

Ok..if one of your team has worked full time on this project, he needs to make some extra money, apart from the flat. So, let him take 1-2 lakh from each sale, and end up with an income of Rs. 10 lakh for his effort. You will still have spent only Rs. 1-2 lakh for each flat.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Yeah..but some people have actually done this ! It just takes a group of friends who trust each other and resolve issues in an amicable manner. (There are bound to be issues in such a venture).

Ok, you like the idea, but don't have the knowledge or the time to do the construction and sales.

Go for option 2 in that case, but I suggest you for a 4-member team:

Total investment from your team: Rs. 1.25 Cr
Individual loan amount per partner in a 4 member team: Rs. 31.5 lakh.

40 % of the 16 flats: 6 out of 16

Take 4 flats and ask builder to sell 2 flats for you (or sell them yourselves).

Amount from sale of 2 flats: Rs. 80 lakh.

So, what your team has actually spent: Rs. 1.25 - Rs. 80 lakh = Rs. 45 lakh

Individual contribution: Rs. 11.5 lakh

So, in option 2, your team just buys the land, and then takes possession of the flats. You will have spent less than Rs. 12 lakh for your 3 bed room flat in a nice area, and have your best friends or family members as your neighbors.

Like the idea? Go ahead and do it..all the best !

Union Budget and Impact on VCs

2007-03-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

Blogger Anindita ( check out her blog..she has a dew fresh writing style) posted a comment asking my thoughts on Chidambaram's tax proposals related to venture capital funds in the new union budget.

I feel VC is like any other business activity and should be taxed. In the US, they have a system of creating transparent entities for taxation purposes, which we don't yet have in India. One could argue that VCs should be given tax exemption because the industry is still in a nascent stage in India. In fact, a number of players in the industry seem to feel that way.

So, there is a confusion here. The FM has listed software and hardware, but not Internet :-) Some people interpret internet ventures as software plays. Definitely, if there is a Software-As-Service (SaaS) venture out there, they could request the pass thru benefit and should get it. But what about B2C plays (Naukri, Bharat Matrimony, 99 Acres and dozens of other such ventures) that have attracted VC funds? If the VC fund makes a killing thru exit or IPO, should it be taxed or not? I think it should be.

However, except for Internet plays, most other sectors still enjoy the tax exemption.But most of the funding seems to happen in the internet space :-)

So, if these proposals see a split in the VC firms - firms dividing themselves into separate entities- one to invest in sectors where there is a pass thru benefit, and the other to focus on taxable sectors, we could hopefully see more traction in sectors that are crying out for angel/seed investment - bio-technology, agri research, nano tech etc.,

However, to encourage micro-funding in all the sectors, Govt could/should allow pass thru benefits to small seed funds (less than $100 mil and no individual investment more than Rs.1 Cr) - this is purely my personal opinion.

Overall, these proposals could see more domestic funds moving to offshore locations like Mauritius.Already, Erasmic is setup there but run from Bangalore.

One thing I don't fully agree with is the proposal to treat ESOPs on par with employee perks and apply FBT (fringe benefit tax).

Here are a couple of posts that discuss this issue in a lot more detail:

Venture Intelligence - Tax proposal 173 in Budget '07-08: Impact on Indian Private Equity

VC Circle - How Budget Would Impact VC Funds: Tax Man's Perspective

Warren Buffet's Wisdom

2007-03-05T07:50:00.000-08:00

Here's a hunch. Most of us know about Warren Buffet, but very few would have actually gone on to the Berkshire Hathaway web site to check out his company.

I shamelessly admit that even though I admire the man, I have never thought of visiting his company's web site. On the other hand, I admire Gates, but definitely not some of Microsoft's practices, but I visit their web site quite regularly.

Goes to show that information consumption pattern could be quite different from personal opinions. Hmm..interesting.

Coming back to Warren Buffet, I read a post on (where else !) Venturewoods today about Buffet's annual letter to his shareholders. As a matter of habit, I generally prefer to read the source than the excerpt. So, I promptly went to the Berkshire Hathaway site and discovered that the site has all of Buffet's letters to shareholders since 1977 ! I was 5 years old in 1977.

You can access all those letters from this page. If you have any interest in how the stock market operates, you should read these letters. If you have any interest in how businesses are built, and how one of the foremost practical philosophers of our times thinks about making money, you MUST read these letters.

As for me, I have just read the 2006 letter. I am going to start reading all the letters and make my own notes.

Happy downloading and reading ! Please pass on this link to your friends.

OLPC and the problems in India's education system

2007-03-01T04:02:00.000-08:00

Cross-posting my comment on Atanu's blog post today.

The post was about OLPC issue and why it will not work in India. Btw, even the HRD ministry has rejected the idea. Atanu had earlier written a lot about this.

Srinivas has commented that Atanu has done a backflip on the 'education and technology issue' :

Quote begins:

The author goes from saying“The OLPC is irrelevant in the context of Indian education. It’s a technological solution, and the problem in India is largely non-technological.” and that “Electronics is neither necessary nor sufficient for education.” to doing a back flip “The solution to India’s educational problems will and must use technology intensively, but it will have little to do with children toting laptops around.” Before finally concluding “OLPC is a costly device for poor countries. It’s going to be a huge waste of money that could be more efficiently spent on other technological solutions such as radio, TV monitors, and DVD players.”. Wish he paid some attention to the non technological solutions for improving education in India.

Quote ends.

Below is my comment responding to Srinivas and sharing my perspective on some of the aspects of a possible solution.

Srinivas,
While I agree that OLPC is by now a non-issue in the Indian context, I don't think Atanu has done any back flips.You may want to read his previous (there are many) on the ills of the current education system and the possible solution/s.I don't think we readers should expect him to restate everything in every post.He usually does give links to relevant posts from the archives.

Coming to state withdrawal - a complete withdrawal by the Govt may not be necessary.Local self governing bodies could still be involved in the education aspect. And at the National and State levels, there could be a regulatory body (similar to TRAI for Telecom) that monitors the various entities in the education field, and provides guidances from time to time.
By monitoring, I don't mean 'authority to give licenses to run educational institutions'. I mean a watchdog that ensures that unscrupulous elements can not misuse the liberalization of the education sector.

Now, I would like to highlight something I have noticed of late in my visits to my hometown (Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh).Both my mom and my two aunts work in Govt schools and colleges.One of them is a Maths lecturer and Principal of a Govt high school and junior college in a rural area.She told me a few months back that most of the students have been leaving the school in the past 2 years. Reason: They are all joining the local branches of (private) corporate schools and junior colleges. In fact, throughout rural AP, literally hundreds of schools and colleges have come up as franchisees to big name branded institutions in Hyderabad.

Students are leaving govt schools and colleges in droves and joining theseprivate schools.These new schools are charging less than what they charge in the cities and towns, but still, it is a significant investment for the villagers to make. And the 'poor' villagers are making those investments for their children because TV/Telecom growth in rural areas has taught them the need to educate their children to the best possible quality.

It is a different point whether these private schools are offering quality education compared to the Govt schools.But the 'consumers' are demanding more attention and results and are willing to pay for the same.

How are the teachers in Govt schools reacting to this?Some of them are quitting Govt jobs and joining these private schools.Some are ploughing on trying to do their best for the remaining children. While a few are continuing to receive govt salaries, but also teaching in private schools.
Only the very poor, who cannot afford the private schools, are continuing to send their children to the govt schools.At least in AP, over one lakh education volunteers (unemployed graduates who act as interim teachers for half the salary till permanent positions are created)are working in rural areas. Some times, they don't receive any money for months together.And when they do, some money is deducted by the bureaucracy as commission.And guess what, for the money spent on Vidya Volunteers, the Govt deducts 50% of it from the funds given to the village/mandal.

You tell me now, whether the problem is that of technology or of government control of education? IMHO, the problem is primarily due to the nature and scope of the govt control, and the policy around distribution of resources. The Govt could get out of the education execution field, be a regulator/watchdog, and also provide education vouchers to the children of the very poor (middle and bottom layers of the bottom of the pyramid).This can't be done overnight.But we need to start sometime.

Ok..that was a longish ramble:-)

What does the Indian Startup Ecosystem need, really?

2007-02-28T00:16:00.000-08:00

A good discussion is developing on the 'need for more incubators in India' at Sramana Mitra's blog. I thought I will post my take on it here first and then add a comment there.

Ok..going by all the reports, more and more VC money is coming to India. But as we all have been told umpteen times, there are too few deals.I guess deals here refer to high tech and internet deals, and not non-technology deals.

So, what does the eco system need really?

Let us identify the issues first.
1.Experienced industry professionals prefer to work in IT service provider companies than working in Startps. Reason: Some of them did try to join startps around 2000 or so, but then the dot com bust made them get back to IT SPs, licking the wounds so to speak.
2.There are very few startups where the team is strong and has trust, a proper vision is in place, and they are backed by some able and experienced ('adult supervision' according to Sramana Mitra) grey heads.
3.Leave alone senior heads, even finding talented techies is a problem because most of them are poached straight from colleges by the top IT service providers.
4.The 'parents syndrome' and the 'failure at business is not respected in Indian society' syndrome.
5.Startup teams like to focus on what they want to do (develop the product) but are forced to spend a lot of time on the essential but non-core functions (handling the accounts, running the office, planning the logistics, getting legal work done, and so on). Some teams even hate writing and rewriting the business plans and pitches.
6.Because of connectivity, power supply and other infrastructural issues, tech startps find it very difficult to be based out mofussil towns and distant suburbs of metros. So, they try to get set up in metros, thus jacking up the startup costs. Some people do start up at their homes, or the glamorous garages, but this inevitably drives down productivity.
7.There is a lot of talent and knowledge lying in the academic institutions but industry-academia interactions are limited to IITs and IIMs, and may be some RECs and BITS Pilani.

Well, there could be a few more issues, but this list should do for now.

Let us look at my take on the possible solution environment now:

Do we really need supervision from adults who have been playing a safe game all along, and are just living off the labour arbitrage scenario in IT services since the early 1990s? True, some of them did try to join startups, but they are all now safely perched in their VP, EVP and CxO roles in various IT SPs, that they may have lost the stomach for a risky startup (if they ever had such a streak in them). If these senior professionals really value innovation and entrepreneurship so much, they would at least try to invest in seed stage deals in India, using the enormous cash piles these companies have built up. Fact is, they are not doing it.

Instead, they are: 1.Monitoring offshore/onsite ratio of huge staffing contracts and 2.Investing in select high tech startups in the Valley as advised by their analysts, with the hope that when some of the startups grow big (like Salesforce.com, Tibco, Reconnex etc), they will help the ITSPs get the maintenance services part of it.

I am sure the greenhorns can do with out these senior professionals.

If at all the startups need 'adult supervision', it is in the relatively simple areas of accounting and financial matters. Basically, how to use the little money they have to stay on course and get to the next level.

The startups may also need the services of seasoned HR professionals in recruiting the right kind of technical talent that will gel well with the current team, and also not cost a bomb in terms of deferred payments. The HR and finance professionals could also advise the founding team on matters such as - shall we start paying ourselves decent salaries or shall we continue on sustenance levels for some more time?

The VCs entering India should have more interactions with academia.Not just with IIT professors, but with any academician who has the 'ideas' and the pedigree. Such people could be found in many universities across India. For example, a global drug major has tied up with Dharwad University (wonder how many VCs will know where Dharwad is) in Karnataka for chemical research and bio-tech research.

Extensive interactions with academia will accomplish two things - cross pollination of ideas, and more importantly, a motivation for the professors and their students to start thinking in terms of commercialising their lab projects. It will not happen over night, but over 3-5 years, we could start seeing some results.

Coming to the availability of team members to staff the startups: If what you need are programming skills, go to any good institute that teaches those skills, and do Walk-ins. That's the best way to get the 2-3 people you need. Just go for aggressive learners. They will pickup what they don't have on the job. If what you need is domain knowledge of a specific vertical you want to serve, don't expect the ideal hires to read the job ads on Venturewoods. Get the people working in brick and mortar companies in that vertical. You have to sell your startup idea to some of them the way you sell it to a VC. May be, its even more difficult. But that is a much better way than hoping for a person with 15-years exp in the domain, working as a sr. consultant in a major IT SP, to come and join you.

Well, I still need to cover some other points related to structure of venture financing and how it needs to be different in India. Will do that in a follow-up post tomorrow.

A white space in real estate internet plays?

2007-02-26T00:21:00.000-08:00

We have been planning to meet a friend and his family for almost 3 months now. Over the weekend, we finally managed it.

This friend stays in a place called Bilekahalli, off Bannerughatta Road in Bangalore. I have never been to any of these residential areas developing on either side of Bannerughatta Road. Like the rest of the city, even Bilekahalli has literally scores of apartment complexes coming up.

The talk soon turned to real estate, as it does between most IT professionals these days.But since neither of us are really looking for a real estate investment, it was more a general discussion on the boom than any thing else. And then, a third friend came by, carrying a bunch of glossy brochures of various residential ventures. This guy is actively looking for an apartment to buy, and is totally confused about the choices on offer.

And guess what, there is no one trying to help him make what is probably one of the most important investment decisions he will ever make.

And this is where, I think, lies a 'real' white space. There are almost a dozen or so web sites in the real estate domain. At least three of them claim to be the 'best' or 'largest' among all real estate internet plays in India. ( 99 Acres, Magic Bricks, India Properties and so on).

But all these sites do is to throw up a list of available properties based on your search criteria. And the list of available properties for a generic search in any big city ( Budget around 35 lakh, 2-3 bedroom) runs into hundreds of search results.

We also have the Classifieds in all major newspapers where at least once a week, several pages are devoted for real estate Ads.

Problems for a prospective buyer of these apartments, esp if the buyer is in IT field:

1. He/she does not know which builder to trust. Branded builders are too expensive and there are too many un-branded builders to choose from.
2.All major banks are competing for the home loan space.The buyer receives hardly any genuine advice from a non-interested party. The loan sale is made by an agent, and after the loan is taken, the buyer has to deal with the bank, not with the agent who sold him the loan.
3. Most of the apartment complexes are built in areas that do not (yet) have good roads, and other infrastructural facilities.
4.IT companies have thousands of employees working for them, and yet they do not consider this (real estate investment) as an area where HR should step in and advice people. In fact, the employees do spend most of their time thinking/talking about this aspect of their life.

The web sites are right now in the process of creating databases and getting the sites to work well. They seem to be thriving more on the advertisement revenues.

And so, the white space that I am talking about:

Create a web site aligned to an offline advisors team. Focus on employees of IT, Bio-tech, BPO, Banking and other such domains. Provide personal real estate advice to all the customers for a small fee. Go canvass with HR departments of these companies, and have a desk near the cafeterias during lunch time, where people can come and seek advice.

By doing all this, you will have created 2 kinds of databases - one that of the real estate sellers, and the second that of the real estate buyers. You can charge fees from both sides. Not only that, once you have a trusted customer database of the buyers, you can start selling them other 'goods' as well, and expand the scope of the services.

My bet is that it will take the 99 Acres and other such sites about 6-8 months to start making attempts to look at this white space. Meanwhile, if any of you are interested, you can move in fast primarily through the offline channel and create the database of 'trusted customers'.

Go for it !

Getting a VC Job

2007-02-23T01:52:00.000-08:00

Hello, and welcome back !

After my last post, I had to rush to UK again to work with a valued customer for 3 weeks.Came back in December, and then went off on a vacation. Must write a post on Maravanthe beach this weekend:-)

Thought I will start posting here again (During my hiatus, I posted couple of times at TWIN ) . Especially after reading this post on Venturewoods.

If you are still here, or have come back after reading the great post and the comments on Venturewoods, read on for my take:

1.Firstly, I don't think one needs an MBA to be an analyst at a VC firm. It is a different matter that majority of the VC crowd seem to think that way. It is more a question of being able to do basic math and demonstrating a lot of common sense, networking skills, interpersonal skills, etc etc. And of course, decent amount of domain knowledge in one or more areas, and yes, the ability to be an 'aggressive learner'. Some one who can read up on a new domain for a week or so, apply existing knowledge and common sense, and can ask the right questions.

2. Secondly, I fully agree with Alok that the best way to get a VC job is through a hot reference. But since most of us do not know a VC or even some one who knows a VC very well, that rules out getting a reference. So, the next best thing is to join a startup funded by a big VC and get to know the VCs that way.

3. Thirdly, and this is the best route for some one like me- become a VC myself. One need not invest millions in a high-tech startup to learn the ropes. One could do micro investments to start with, if there are enough friends to pool in their money in the fund.

4. Create a VC fund (however small it is) and start buying small stakes in seed-fund starved companies; start attending conferences in your area (depends on the number of such conferences in the area actually) and do the networking. You may not be a big play VC, but if you are seen as some one who knows and is working with small startups, people may want to talk to you, even if it is to get a feel of what is happening at the seed level. No one wants to miss out, right?

Once you are in the circle, if you are doing genuinely good work, you will get noticed and either you will become successful in your own right, or be asked to join a seruious VC shop.

Caveat: The above is just a theory, but I think it will work, if you give it enough time and energy ( Say 12-15 months). Supposing you are an IT or Services professional, making good money in a metro, instead of whiling away the weekends or stressing yourself too much with office work, try to network with startups in need of some extra hands or seed money to survive 2-3 months more. At the least, you will meet several energetic young people and that could have a positive influence on you. And who knows, you may become a VC yourself. Life is amazing !

Lessons for Startups- How to set up a Private Limited Company in India

2006-10-13T22:49:00.000-07:00

For many would-be entrepreneurs, setting up a Private Limited company involves a vision of meeting with auditors, and lawyers and waiting in Govt offices to navigate through the bureaucratic maze.

Well, that's a myth. If you can spend a few hours now and then, it could be done in a month or less. And if you live in States where e-Governance is being implemented, it could take even less- may be a few days !

Click here to read about the eight steps involved in setting up a private limited company in India.

Go ahead and do it now ! Having an incorporated entity is the basic prerequisite for approaching VC uncles.

Venture Capital in India - Part 2

2006-10-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

Finally, I am able to devote some time this weekend to catch up on all the reading I have missed out since I returned to India in August.

And also post a few thoughts.

Going through the various posts, discussions and comments on Venturewoods, I realize they are doing such a good job. No point in me replicating all those links here again.

It looks like VCs/Y Incubators are more interested in funding the right team than simply a good business idea/plan.If the right kind of team is in place, and if we can show that its a stable, committed team, it seems to be alright even if the current idea being worked on by that team does not have a feasible revenue model.And in some cases, the investors may also supply the right tweaking of the idea to create a viable revenue model OR more interestingly, in the interactions between the team and the investor/s, new ideas with lot more potential for financial returns would take shape.

The above point is in contradiction to what I have been reading/saying earlier. That there are many budding entrepreneurs in India but not many good ideas :-)

May be what the VCs mean by a good idea is not just a revenue model, but a strong team that can see the whole thing through and thereby protect the investment.

All said and done, VC money is still much more expensive than any other form of investment. In the next post/s, I will try and give my thoughts on beating the system. Watch this space !

Want to blog, but not able to

2006-09-09T05:26:00.000-07:00

Lol ! That's been my sitaution ever since I returned to India. I have been travelling so much, and even spent 2 weeks in complete Internet/Mobile isolation.

Now I am in Mumbai, staying at a guest house provided by my company, where there is no connectivity. And by the time, I get back to the guest house its almost 8 PM, and after dinner and calls to Blr and other places, walking the kilometre to the nearest cyber cafe is not on priority list :-)

Will resume blogging after I get back to Blr around Dasara.There are some product/service ideas that i must blog about !

Effectual Reasoning: Hallmark of an Entrepreneur

2006-07-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

Just read a fantastic article on 'What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial'.

Excerpt:

"Yet, in our classrooms we teach potential entrepreneurs an extremely causal process-the sequential progression from idea to market research, to financial projections, to team, to business plan,to financing, to prototype, to market, to exit, with the caveat, ofcourse that surprises happen along the way.Seasoned entrepreneurs, however, know that surprises are not deviations from the path.Instead they are the norm, the flora and the fauna of the landscape, from which one learns to forge a path through the jungle.The unexpected is the stuff of entreprenurial experience and transforming the unpredictable into the utterly mundane is the special domain of the expert entrepreneur."

If you are an entreprenur, or thinking of becoming one, or simply interested in the topic of entrepreneurship, this article is a MUST READ.It is one of the best pieces I have read in recent times.

Credits: The article was written by Saras D.Sarasvathy, and is available for download from this link.

I found the link browsing through Venture Woods.

I will be doing longer posts on the VC situation and internet resources for startups in India, in a couple of days.

Venture Capital in India - Part 1

2006-07-27T03:26:00.000-07:00

For the past six months or so, I have been reading a lot about the abundance of venture capital availability in India.

Key Learnings for me:

1.There are several Silicon Valley driven VC funds that have set up or setting up a base in India, especially in Bangalore.

2.However, the perception among entrepreneurs is that there is very little traction in terms of seed capital investment. Most VCs seem to be playing the role of private equity investors, than true venture capitalists.

3.The VC funds on the other hand are bemoaning the lack of really good ideas from Indian entrepreneurs, lack of strong and focused teams, lack of robust revenue models, and an overall weak eco system that encourages seed/angel investment.

4.Most, if not all, of the entrepreneurs seem to be US-returned techies or business people with the capacity to invest their own funds at the seed stage.

Questions:

1.What do we need to do to create a truly vibrant ecosystem for entrepreneurship and VC activity in India?
2.The activity seems to be limited to Bangalore, Delhi, Bombay and may be Chennai. What about other cities like Hyderabad, Pune, Mysore, Vizag and so on? How do we reach entrepreneurs/tap good ideas from these places? And then what about entrepreneurship for the semi-urban and rural India?
3.How does an aspiring entrepreneur go about creating a team, seeking angel/seed investment, and build momentum? What are the resources, programs available that would lend them a helping hand?

I have found some answers by searching on the Internet. Listing some of the resources below. Hope they are helpful. If you know any good resources, please mail me the same and I will keep adding to the list.

Articles Page on Frank Demmler's site with links to many writeups on technology entrepreneurship.

Seven Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in Initial VC Pitch and How to fix them

Among the many good posts on Sramana Mitra's blog site, this is one on - Too Much Money, Too Few Deals'. Great post and some good comments.

Seed Funding in India - Prove your idea with a Prototype

Venture Woods is probably one of the best sites for entrepreneurs in India. Here's a sampler on -"New Seed Funds- Right Time, Right Place, and Right Model". Book mark this site and keep visiting often.

Band of Angels web site.

VC Circle - A very good source for articles, ideas and news on VC Activity in India.

I think the above list is a decent start.Will keep updating this blog with new links.

Bridging the digital divide in India - An idea

2006-07-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

I discovered Sramana Mitra's blog recently. She has accomplished a lot at a very young age. People with similar educational backgrounds in India end up working in MNCs or Public Sector at high salaries, where as, the enabling environment in the US has helped her become a serail entrepreneur and Strategy Consultant.

After reading Sramana's Concept Arbitrage series of blog posts, and a few articles on her site, I started thinking about an idea for bridging the digital divide. Nothing really new. It is about convergence of mobile and television, where in one can use the mobile phone as the CPU, the TV set as a monitor, and use a key board and mouse as well if required.

Most of our rural areas (in India) are witnessing the mobile revolution faster than the PC revolution.In fact, according to some industry reports, non-voice traffic (music and picture downloads) is many times higher than expected, in India's rural areas. And with technologies like System-in-Package (SiP) being used in models like Samsung D600, the convergence I am talking about is feasible. We need to work out the economics of it, though I am sure that it would prove to be cheaper and faster than providing computers to the villagers.

I have posted my idea as a query on Sramana's blog site. Lets see what she says.

Is rural India more industrialised than urban India?

2006-06-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

Economic Census of India - Interim Findings

Is rural India more industrialised than urban India? Are there more enterprises employing 10 people or more in rural areas than in urban areas?

The answer is Yes, to both the questions, as per the interim findingsof India's Economic Census 2005. We have to wait till December for the final confirmed figures. But you can read some of the interim findings here.

Interesting, very interesting.

Here's my take though:

1.Most industrial units are located on the outskirts of urban areas because (a) the land is cheaper and (b) to benefit from the subsidies if any, offered by the Govt.

2.However, we can't really call these areas rural. In most cases, they have become part of the city. Just because the corporation or municipal council limits do not extend till these industrial areas (yet), it does not mean they are all located in rural areas.

3.IMHO, as part of the economic census, the very classification of whether an area is rural or urban should also be reviewed. The last census happened in 1998. India (both the urban and rural parts) has undergone tremendous transformation since then. Many cities have expanded and become - Greater Bangalore, Greater Hyderabad and the like, literally swallowing dozens of villages in the process.

Okay, my rants apart, there is some good news as well:

To conduct the Census, students and Integrated Child Development Staff, and thousands of volunteers have been trained in data collection techniques. This is a novel use of India's enormous human capital.One hopes that in the process, the students and volunteers gain an understanding of the enormity of the task ahead - that of India's development. As any thing that doesn't get measured, doesn't get done, learning to measure is also an important skill.It can help you understand the 'doing' part also better.

Coming to the findings, the growth rate in the North East states of Sikkim, Tripura, and Mizoram and in (surprise, surprise) strife-torn Jammu and Kashmir, shows that not all hope is lost.

More on this later, if I find any interesting discussions on the various Indian Economy blogs.

Destruction of Hindu Temples

2006-06-13T05:20:00.000-07:00

Just read this news item on Rediff.

Apparently, officials of the Evacuee Property Trust Board of Pakistan, concealed the information from its Chairman, that the property to be demolished houses the only Hindu Temple in Lahore. And the Chairman 'unknowingly' gave the order to demolish the Krishna Temple and build a commercial complex in its place.

Imagine if some thing similar happened in India. We would have seen major riots in most communally sensitive urban areas. But I guess Pakistan is much more secular than India, and so, demolishing temples or Buddha statues is no big deal - progress is more important.

However, it is interesting to note that several opposition members of the National Assembly have raised their voices against this act:

saying such an act could have a bearing on Pakistan's relations with neighbouring countries.

So, it is not the question of hurting the sentiments of Pakistan's Hindu citizens, but about safeguarding Pakistan's reputation among the international community. Wah Wah !

Now that the temple has been demolished (this is not the only temple to be demolished under the auspices of the EPTW though), will the Pakistani authorities sanction the land and funds to build a new temple for the Hindus of Lahore? May be they will.And may be Arundhati Roy might speak about this in an interview with Al Jazeera. And may be I will win the Booker prize some day soon.

Shane Warne's blog

2006-06-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

If I have to rate the top three bowlers of all time, Shane Warne would be among them.And I guess it is not just about the number of wickets he has taken, but the way he bowls.

While Murali enthrals with his magic, and Mike Holding used to make us gasp in awe at the fluidity of the movement, Shane's simply so obviously cerebral in his bowling, and makes it look so effortless with his wizardry.

Anyways, better writers than me have written about Shane and other great bowlers. I shall reserve my writing skills for a later day, when I feel in the mood to write about the cricketers I like (Gavaskar, Steve Waugh, Kumble, Shane and of course, the one and the only Sachin).

The occassion for this post however, is to declare that Shane Warne has started his official blog, and I have just posted a Welcome to blogsophere kind of comment there. You can read Shane's blog here..

Or, if you are in the mood to see the best eight balls that Shane Warne has bowled (according to Shane that is):

Blogging about India and its issues

2006-06-08T14:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged for about 10 days now. But in these 10 days, I must have logged at least 10 comments on various sites, esp on Sepia Mutiny.Mostly long comments :-)

So, I keep telling myself that I should blog about an issue when I have a lot to say. But I also notice that I have a lot more to read than I have to say.

Let me look at what I want to blog about:

1. The educational system in India- What can we do to improve primary education and make higher education more market oriented?

2. The infrastructure issue in India - Our urban areas in dire need of regeneration; rural areas need basic facilities like water, sanitation and power. And then the roads. We need roads, roads and roads.

3.The health care system in India - Primary health care facility for the poor.More research into India-specific diseases.

4.The polity and taxation- Why am i mixing politics and economics? Because I agree with people who say that politics is the business of managing a country's resources. Here, I want to blog about the need for an effective local self government. (I think I have already blogged a bit about it).

And some other aspects of India's social and economic development.

So, I end up reading stuff like The Indian Economy Blog. And many blog sites like this one here.

For now, I think I will simply start reading and posting links here.And add some of my own ideas now and then.

The Reservations Issue - My Perspective

2006-05-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

What with almost every other site being choc-a-blog with the reservation issue, though my primary concerns are about the rural poor and primary education, and not the debate on higher education, I still felt compelled to participate on some of the blog-based discussions on this issue.

Sepia Mutiny is one of the sites I have started frequenting of late. Some good posts and some quite ordinary ones.The perspective is avowedly Desi American, though on most posts, it comes across as more American than Desi, excepy may be in Amardeep's posts.

Ok..I just logged a comment on Abhi's post on Sepia Mutiny. So, thought I will put my comment down here as well.

Link to Abhi's post

Abhi,

While I fully understand that your perspective as a US citizen would be different from that of an Indian citizen, especially on matters such as this reservations issue, since you were any way blogging about the issue, you could have done better than depend on TIME magazine's perspective. As you very rightly mentioned, there are many better places to read about this issue.

I wanted revenge against all the people that think being part of the Brahmin-caste actually means something, or is worth mentioning in casual conversation.

May be those people are as much victims of the caste politics as the Dalits are? In your travels in India, have you interacted with sanitary workers, construction workers, taxi drivers, and other manual labor from the Brahmin community? Or has your interaction been limited to software engineers, MBAs and other such white collar types?

The labor market in Delhi and Mumbai is full of migrants from UP and Bihar, many of them Brahmins from the rural areas - no education beyond sixth or seventh class, no money to afford private education, no scope of getting government jobs because they belong to 'upper caste'. And when it comes to voting, they vote the same as poor people all over India - based on who pays more for their vote on Election day.

IndianoGuy commented about his SC friend working in an IT company now, and if he was not educated through the reservation system, this would have never happened. Great ! This is exactly what the policy aims to achieve. So, thanks to quota system, today, IndianoGuy and his friend both are in the same economic and social class. And yet, some years later, IndianoGuy's daughter has to score over 95% in an entrance exam for a professional or higher education, while his friend's daughter has to score only the qualifying marks. What's more, IndianoGuy has to bear the cost of education for his daughter, where as the Govt. would fund the cost of education for his friend's daughter.

Now, I want to ask IndianoGuy and others who support the current regime of reservations, who should ideally be the beneficiary of the system? The children of one who has already benefitted from the quota in the past (and thus joined the creamy layer) or other deserving and poor Dalit children?

If we read the dozens of blogs and print media articles on this issue, one common solution that emerges is to increase the focus and budgets on primary education. If we provide free and quality education for all students till the age of 15-16, there will be no need for any quotas in the graduation and post-graduation levels. But the politicians do not seem to want to improve quality at the primary education level and thereby make it tough for the private school franchise industry in the urban and semi-urban areas of the country.

I can still understand the logic behind the quota system for access to education till under-grad level. But why in higher education? I can also understand the logic behind quotas in Govt jobs.But why quotas for promotions as well? It goes to show that just like Brahmins and Kshatriyas of yore believing that certain occupations and priveleges are their birth right, the creamy layer of today's India feels that a quota system in every aspect of life is theur birth right. And this is hurting the real Dalits of India - the rural poor of all castes and communities. And the truly meritorious students.

One of the unfortunate by-products of reservations, is the increase in the number of private medical and engineering colleges, where one could simply buy a seat, by paying capitation fees or simply pay more through NRI quota. A friend of mine, who belongs to the creamy layer and is obviously a staunch supporter of the quota system every where, asked me once: "You guys cry hoarse that merit is compromised when an incompetent Dalit/OBC student gets into medical college. Then what about the incompetent, non-meritorious children and cousins of NRIs who come down to study medicine in Karnataka and Maharashtra? They will not be able to pass 12th class science paper in India. And yet, they become doctors and build huge hospitals.What about all the rich kids who pay huge donations and buy a medical or engineering seat out right? Isn't merit getting compromised there? If its alright for a rich kid to buy his seat, why is it not alright for an OBC/Dalit kid to sneak in with the help of quota system?"

I can't disagree with my friend. But where does this leave the quality of education in India? If we increase the number of seats, will it help assuage the demands of the non-reservation castes? What will it take us to provide compulsory, free and world class primary education to all children? What will it take us to make higher educational institutions be independent from govt interference? Can they ever follow the model of western educational institutions and learn to survive through industry-academia linkage?Why should the rural poor be made to bear the burden of these thousands who get subsidised higher education, and then leave the country?Can we expect students to start paying for the cost of their higher education through education loans?

Questions and more questions. We could discuss these issues to death and yet find that we are no way nearer to the answers. And if there are any answers, they are not tough ones.

Like Abhi says, yes, societies may also have collective Karma.And the Indian society may have to go through its collective Karma Phal, before redemption comes. If Indians and people of Indian origin do just one thing right - focus on primary education, primary health care and nutritious food for the rural poor, the individual and collective Karma will then ensure that all the other social ills will be gradually taken care of.

Jai Hind.

Are Brahmins the new Dalits in India?

2006-05-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

Cross-posting my entry on Sulekha Blogs here:

Francois Gautier has once again raised questions that are bound to be uncomfortable to those among us who harp on 'centuries old oppression of the downtrodden in India'. In a hard hitting article on Rediff, Gautier reveals that most of the Sulabh Sauchalayas (public toilets) in Delhi are manned by the so-called upper caste, priestly class Brahmins.

Also, that 55% of Brahmins in India live below the official poverty line. And according to a study done in Andhra Pradesh, a very large percentage of the State's Brahmins are employed as domestic servants.

And more such damning statistics. Why damning ? Because, it seems to be that during the 5o years of its implementation, the reservation policy has created one creamy layer, but has added more people to the 'Dalit' category. More over, these Brahmins, who are the new Dalits, have no chance of ever being considered for any reservations.

This reminds me. During the Mandal agitation of the 80's, there was a Letter to the Editor in The Hindu daily. The letter writer quoted the Mandal Commission, which seemed to have listed the 'Vaidiki Brahmins' of Andhra Pradesh (especially the Coastal districts) as a community that should be added to the BC list. I am sure this is one aspect of the Mandal Commission that will never see the light :-)

The traditional occupation for the Vaidiki sect among Andhra Brahmins is priesthood in Hindu temples. And their pay is less than what is earned by sweepers in Municipalities. However, in a recent Act passed by the State Assembly (even Tamil Nadu) has passed this Act, people from any caste can be appointed as priests. Fine. So, I guess there will be around 50% reserved positions here as well. In a way, these legislative Acts are symbolically nailing the last coffin in the much maligned caste system. So, if all vestiges of caste system are thus eliminated, is it fait to still call these Brahmins as 'upper castes'?

After reading Gautier's article, I tried to think of evidence that would contradict his thesis that Brahmins are the new Dalits. In my home state of Andhra Pradesh and in the neighbouring States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, many lower middle class Brahmin families made the transition to middle class and in some cases, even upper middle class, thanks to the IT revolution. Another favorite occupation for Brahmins seems to be teaching. Even though all Govt teaching posts have 49.5% reservation, most Brahmin youth seem to be able to get these jobs by combining merit with bribes. (It is an open secret that a Govt primary school teaching job can be had with political recommendation plus Rs. 1 lakh bribe or even less at times). In the past couple of decades, another job - that of Sales Representative- has also seen increasing number of Brahmin youth gravitate towards. Typically, these sales rep jobs in small towns require a basic graduation, and communication skills. And not only are these jobs not reserved as they are in the private sector, the SCs, STs, BC-Bs etc. do not seem to be interested in these jobs. These jobs involve a lot of physical hard work (walk several miles a day, get stressed out if targets are not met, work weekends most of the time), and if one would get a Govt desk job through reservations, and live in Govt funded hostels till one gets a job, why would one want to join as a sales rep?

So, I don't think Gautier is right when he says that most of the Brahmins are living below poverty line. Probably only the rural Brahmins, with no land, no jobs and have migrated to the towns and cities, are below this poverty line. It will be hard to know how many millions of them are there.

In essence, it looks like irrespective of caste and provision or lack of reservation, if a person is living in an urban area, he/she is more likely to live above the poverty line and also not be discriminated against because of his caste. And irrespective of a person's caste, if he/she is living in a rural area with not many job opportunities, it is likely that just getting above the poverty line would be a challenge.

Looks like the composition of 'Dalit' category may change in the next couple of decades. I will not be surprised if 20 years from now, Christian missionaries start targeting rural, semi urban poor brahmins for conversion, in a more focused manner than they are doing now.

Local self government in India and UK- A brief comparison

2006-05-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

Decided to cross-post my post on Sulekha here as well. Not that I am having any visitors to this blog :-) Just on the off chance that in future, if any unfortunate passers by in the cyber space happen to knock the doors of this blog, I want to give them every opportunity to read and respond.

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We all remember reading about local self government in India, and how it evolved over the ages. To summarise quickly, India, a land predominantly made up of rural, agrarian communities, has always had a rich tradition of local self-government .

Village councils (Panchayats) used to collect the taxes, and utilise a substantial portion of the tax revenues for the benefit of the community it self, and then pass on a pre-defined amount to the sovereign government, which then spent the money on defence, highways, welfare activities, arts and sciences etc. We read in our History books that the Chola kings of the South improved the local self-government a lot by increasing the decentralisation and improving the controls. Even during the Mughal rule, the autonomy of the communities largely remained in tact. In urban areas, the city councils and the traders guilds coordinated and planned the utilisation of tax revenue. In short, money was collected by the grassroots level functionaries, and utilised at that level, and the centre got only what it needed, plus more during times of war.

This model enabled the village communities to have control over their finances, and to live with pride because they are not dependent on the sovereign for taking care of their basic needs.Only during times of famine and strife did the sovereign have to dip into the treasury and provide grants or reduce the share of the government in the overall tax revenues. In spite of this, typically the royal governments had enough funds available to build tanks, canals, pilgrim houses, temples, patronise the arts, and also wage wars.

The advent of the British era signified a complete change in this model. Here was this foreign power interested solely in draining the nation's wealth and giving back just enough so that the goose can continue to lay the golden egg. The policies and processes for tax collection were changed such that revenues would be collected and sent to the Government, which would then decide how much it needs to administer the country and how much it can send back to the Mother Land (England). From the money it keeps for administering the country, some would be given to the provinces and district governments, and precious little would trickle down to the villages at all. If a village community is in dire need of money, it would have to petition the District Collector, to release what would effectively be a small portion of the taxes they have paid. And typically, what they get is less than what they would have asked for. Over a period of almost 200 years, the village communities and even people in the district centres became accustomed to literally begging for government funds (their own money in fact). This process, repeated every year, slowly weakened the spirit and destroyed the pride of the local communities. They simply lost the belief in themselves - that they could decide and change their fate. A culture and a value system based on the faith that the Government holds the key for any development in their area took strong roots. Petty corruption, lack of unity among various sections of the same local community, power/fund politics as a result of fighting for the same pitiful amounts of money available - all these were the side effects of this overall tax collection and disbursal policy adopted by the colonial government.

After freedom, successive Indian governments have sought to increase the powers of the local governments, but the essential principle of money being sent to State and Central governments and then distributed downwards, remains to a large extent.

That the Indian Government needed to amend the Constitution of India, in order to increase powers to the local governments, is a stark indicator of the fact that even the founding fathers of the Constitution did not really think of restoring the power back to the Indian villagers. Rajiv Gandhi's open letter to all the Village Sarpanches of India in the mid-80's, and the Amendments introduced by the Narasimha Rao government in the early 90's, promised a lot, but delivered little. In fact, even today, in many States, the taxes that a village can levy and utilise for it self are still not significant. Even the funds to organize panchayat elections have to come from the State Government.

Not just villages, even municipal councils and corporations are plagued by this scenario, and are bogged down by corruption, inefficiency and scandals. There are a few shining examples where bureaucrats with a vision have managed to improve the infrastructure of the towns and cities, but they have been able to do it only through Union Government or World Bank funds. The people have better roads and sanitation in some cities now, but they feel as if they owe it to the generosity of a particular minister or a Government functionary. They have not yet regained their pride and belief in themselves. Tomorrow if the roads are damaged in floods, they would expect the Government to release funds to repair them, and would probably pressurise the local MLA or ward member. It is unlikely they know that by a change in taxation policy, their local councils would have more funds available (their own money) and need not run to the State and Union govt for Urban Regeneration funds.

Now, contrast this with the situation in Western (for lack of a better term) world. Having lived in the US for some time, and now in UK for the past one year, I have noticed that the local communities wield a lot more power here than in India. The Council Tax in UK is very high. The Borough-Council and the County administration collects other taxes as well, and has significant powers in deciding what they want to do with the money. VAT and other taxes levied on businesses, income tax etc. are apportioned primarily based on the population share. Less developed areas generally have more GGE (General Government Expenditure) per head than highly developed areas like London city, Thames valley etc. But my aim here is not to discuss the rationale for distribution of government tax revenue (that would take this blog in an entirely different direction). My aim is to bring attention to the fact that local governments in UK, Europe and North America, enjoy far more powers of taxation and decision making leeway than their counterparts in India.

Has this always been the case? It doesn't seem so. Till the 19th century, the Shires in UK were controlled by the landlords, in what was a very feudal system of governance. If we go back to even earlier centuries, the local communities were ruled by feudal lords, Abbots and the like. The pattern was the same in case of most European countries. In UK, it was only in 1835 that the Royal Commission on Municipal Government standardised the functioning of the local governments, drew the boundaries of all the new boroughs, and recommended that all councillors should be elected by tax payers. These reforms were extended to the Shires (Villages) in 1888. However, from the beginning, the local communities (who for centuries wanted to be able to decide what to do with the tax money) asked for and obtained powers to levy taxes and use the money for local services. As the society became more industrial, these communities also started asserting themselves more and more.

Today, if we sometimes wonder why people in rural communities in the developed world sound so empowered and enabled, compared to our Indian villagers, the answer could possibly lie in how this system of taxation operates. I am not saying that this is the only cause. But this could be one of the critical and under researched questions.

So, on the one hand, the British imposed a strictly centralised system of taxation and expenditure policy in its colonies, while on the other hand, they slowly decentralised the system in their own country. Independent India, for all its efforts, has not still succeeded in changing the British-imposed shackles on our village communities, or restored the sense of pride and self sufficiency among our tax payers. The citizens of UK and US, on the other hand, believe that Democracy is their invention and that they introduced the idea of 'no taxation without representation'. It is almost as if, the British colonisers came to India, saw the thriving, strong, rural communities, and eventually ended up creating a similar model in their country (or progressed towards this form of governance in their civilisational journey). And left the centralised system to the colonies as their legacy.

I know that my premise can be punched full of holes, but I have a feeling that the comparative models of local self government in India and UK from the 19th century till now, and its socio-economic impact , could form an interesting topic of research for a student of economic history.

Chemical Research Process Outsourcing? Any one?

2006-05-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

We all know about the IT outsourcing, BPO and even KPO in India.We also know that a lot of R&D outsourcing also happens in the engineering design, chip design and other such areas.

Here is some thing new- Chemical Research Process Outsourcing. I don't know how much of this is happening already in India. But in UK and US, a lot of University professors in Chemistry departments are using their labs and graduate students to do research for industry. The Chemistry departments benefit from the money paid by the industry. The students get real research experience with industry application, and good stipends. The companies (mostly Pharma)of course benefit from the research,and cut down time and costs in their research.

Why can't we do this in India?

Picture this - a few qualified Chemists, with experience in Analytical and Medicinal chemistry want to quit their jobs at some Pharma company and launch a startup. They strike a deal with a University Chemistry lab to use the facilities when the students are not conducting experiments. They get small researching contracts from Indian /global pharma companies and start their research. They enroll some of the faculty and interested students in their experiments as well.

In a year or two, they make enough money to set up their own full-fledged lab. They could now staff their extended operations with the same university students who worked with them. In essence, the university lab has not only acted as an incubator, it has also provided them with trained associates. And in doing so, the university lab has improved its own infrastructure, earned some revenues, and improved the placement percentage.

A WIN-WIN-WIN, I must say.

Now, there are literally scores of decently equipped degree and university college chemistry labs in India.And thousands of qualified chemistry graduates and post-grdautes, not to speak of experienced chemists working in various companies, for not very high salaries. And world over, dozens of Pharma companies are looking to outsource the increasing amounts of research (both basic and advanced) that they wish to take up to improve their pipeline of products.

Who will bell the cat? Chemical Research Process Outsourcing- any one?

Rapid growth of Web 2.0

2006-03-27T07:15:00.000-08:00

I have always prided myself on my ability to keep up with news and developments in various fields. I accomplish this by regularly visiting a few top sites in the fields that I am interested in.

But from June 2005 till Jan 2006, for almost 6 months, I stopped looking at what's happening in Silicon Valley, due to a variety of reasons, personal and professional.

And when I started looking at the sites, blogs etc., again in January, I discovered that Web 2.0 has made a really fast move and in just 6 months, there may have been literally hundreds of new sites and services. While most of the services are based on technologies that existed since 2002, some of the new services are a testament to the creativity of the promoters.

And friends from San Jose tell me that the dreamers have come back; people are getting offers to quit companies like Cisco and Oracle to join these startups. See the story on Newsweek for example:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12015774/site/newsweek/

Is this another bubble? What explains this new found optimism and the sudden influx of new ideas and services, and more importantly funds and talent?

Whatever it is, one must doff the hat to the spirit of Silicon Valley and its dreamers.Hundreds of companies may go bust, but every one of them will dream of being a Rakesh Mathur or a Venky Harinarayan, or any of those successful entreprenurs from the last bubble.

So far, Half.com, and MySpace.com seem to be some of the early birds who have cashed in. As I make more sense of this, I will try to study what's happening on various fronts in Web 2.0 and post links to other blogs.

Sachin's Masterpiece at Sharjah

2006-03-25T03:19:00.000-08:00

A Visit to East Ham

2006-03-15T02:16:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday (March 12), my daughter Lasya completed one year. We would have celebrated it grandly if we were in India. Here, in the UK, one needs to plan everything months in advance. And in typical Indian fashion, my wife and I kept talking about it but did not really plan anything till a week before the birthday.

In hindsight, it was good that we didn't plan in advance. As the options were limited, we decided to go to East Ham, visit a Hindu Temple, have a good lunch and then spend the rest of the day, roaming around Central London.

We left Reading in the morning, reached Paddington, and made it to East Ham on the tube. The Hammersmith and City Line was closed for engineering works. But luckily, we got the connections to Liverpool Street and then East Ham quite fast and reached the temple by 11.15 AM.

My uncle and aunt, and their two children Neha and Naren joined us at the temple.They live in the country side in Suffolk and do the 70-mile journey to London regularly.

East Ham is predominantly South Indian (like Wembley), unlike other areas that are mostly Punjabi and Pakistani. We went to the Mahalakshmi Temple in East Ham, and had a very satisfying Special Archana done for Lasya. Fortunatey, there was a large group of people attending a 'Homam' at the Temple, and so, it was like a scene straight out of one of the temples in Mylapore !

I am not a very devotional person actually. I consider myself more spiritual than religious.But I simply love the rituals, the smells and the overall ambience in a typical South Indian temple.To our delight, our apprehensions about how Lasya will cope with the incense smell, the loud strains of temple music (Nadaswaram and the percussion instruments), and the hustle and bustle, proved to be entirely unfounded.Probably its the genetic imprint in her, or probably she is just a sweet tempered child, but Lasya thoroughly enjoyed the sounds and the smells. Resplendent in her traditional-style Kanchi silk dress, she was moving her head rhythmically to the music, and doing the things kids do to attract the attention of strangers.

After some time, Prabhakar and Mamta, an Indian couple we met in Reading a few months back, joined us at the temple. We all finished the Archana and just sat around in a semi circle, eating the temple laddu and talking about how this temple is so much like the ones back home. I got up to look at the Notice Board and found an email printout from an immigration lawyer in Australia, stuck on it. Apparently, there are around 5000 Indian and Pakistani doctors in UK, who are jobless and survive by doing jobs such as grocery store clerks, waiters at Indian restaurants, taxi drivers and fuel attendants at Petrol stations. They have been lured to UK with the promise of a job in the UK health service system. But its a small country and it has all the Asian doctors it can pay for. In fact, both my uncle and aunt are doctors who came here some 10-12 years back. They tell me that many young doctors from India come with high hopes to UK only to realise that they have been misinformed. They can't go back to India because they have already raised huge loans to come here. So, they end up doing odd jobs so that they can survive and some how land a proper doctor's job.

Many such doctors live in and around East Ham. And the Hindu Temples in the area (apart from this Mahalakshmi temple, there is a Murugan temple in the neighbourhood) offer them free food on most days.

The Australian Immigration lawyer has read about the plight of these doctors and how the temples are doing their best to care for them, in a newspaper.And he has sent an email to the Temple web site, offering assistance to any of these doctors who wish to emigrate to Australia.His mail says that there is a scarcity of qualified doctors in Australia.

After reading this article, a thought struck me. Many countries need IT resources and the Indian IT companies provide the same.Also, these days, people from many countries visit India for cheap and world class medical services. So, why can't we have some companies in India offer to set up hospitals in Australia and other such countries, staff the hospitals with these Indian doctors and provide world class services? It would be slightly more expensive than coming to India for treatment, but it would still be a lot cheaper than what it costs now in those countries.Also, people need not wait for months in long waiting lists for some thing as simple as a hip replacement or a cataract operation. It would also alleviate the plight of these Indian doctors in UK, US etc. A WIN-WIN-WIN solution, right?

I broke off from my thoughts when the others came and stood next to me to see what I was reading on the Notice Board. My wife found the pamphlet for a Bharata Natyam programme next month at the temple. Good ! one more reason to come here..we thought.

We came out of the temple, walked for a minute or so, and found what we were told to look for - Saravan Bhavan. I remember some weeks I spent in Chennai in April 1999. I had just joined TCS and was attending a training program for technical writers. TCS put me up in a Hotel in T.Nagar and there was a Saravana Bhavan near by, where we used to have dinner regularly. I also remember the Saravana Bhavan some where near Devaki Hospital, that I had been to a few times. My wife is from Bangalore and she knows only the Woodlands chain of restaurants. So, I had to reassure her that Saravana is also a similar type of restaurant, and the quality of the food is guaranteed to leave you happy, if not delighted. Also, we are in UK, the land of the Tandoori Takeaways and Hot Chicken and Mutton Curries. We are lucky to be in an area that can boast of a few south indian veggied joints, I added.My wife is the kind who longs for Chaat foods like Paani Puri and Bhel Puri in an Udipi restaurant and for an authentic Masala Dosa in a Punjabi Dhaba. You get the picture, right?

Anyway, our tummies were rumbling and we sauntered into the restaurant.My aunt is much better at planning and so, she had earlier called up the place and booked a table for us. Cool !

We took our time with the menu and ordered food that one can expect at any street corner hotel in Andhra, Karnataka. Tamil Nadu and Bombay. Idli-Vada Sambar, Masala Dosa, Puri Bhaji, Mirchi Bajji and so on.Considering that its been more than 8 months since we had such authentic and quite ordinary dishes, it was no surprise that we all ate the stuff quite fast and ordered more dishes. Okay, we do make Idli, Vada and Dosa at home, but they are different in size, texture and taste from what you get at these restaurants, right?

After a leisurely meal, it was time to say Good Bye, thanks for coming etc. to my uncle and his family. Thanks to them, we felt like we were in India for a few hours.

And then, the rest of us (Prabhakar and his wife, and we three) decided to go to London Tower Bridge and if possible, West Minister Pier. Luckily, we got the train connections quite fast again. It was a windy day in London but not very cold. The Tower Bridge area was as usual full of tourists. I regaled the others with some stories about London..one of my favorites is the one about the nursery rhyme - 'London Bridge is falling down'.

At West Minister Pier, we had a brief debate about the best angle to take a snap of Big Ben.Finally, we took some snaps from all the angles except from the water (I had done that on a previous trip), and compared notes. Meanwhile, Lasya had a nice nap for about 30 minutes.

It was 5.30 PM by the time we made it back to Paddington station. Again, there was a fast train to Reading waiting on the Platform. We stopped by Prabhakar's house on the way back, gave them some slices of the Birthday cake, and then finally reached, home, happy home !

As I look back at the day, I am so thankful to the London Tube rail for making it such a comfortable day. Serious, I am not joking ! They held all the aces and they delivered on the most important day in the year for my small family. And of course to the East Ham temple authorities and the cooks at Saravana Bhavan, and the bakers at Marks and Spencers for a wonderful birthday cake. The images have been captured for posterity anyway. Now, Lasya can read this account of the day, when she grows up. And I hope she feels that though it was not very grand, her parents made sure that she had a special day out, with family and friends !!

Tale of a Sultan-Azzu Bhai as we knew over the years

2006-03-01T11:39:00.000-08:00

This is another personal essay I found from my files from 1998-2001. Its about Azhar, one of my favourite cricketers.At that time, Azhar faced a lot of media bashing.I was among the few who felt that Azhar is either being framed or at least being made the scapegoat for what was a systemic malaise. I wanted to send this to a newspaper or a web site, but then was too lazy.

Read on...

________________

For those of us, teenagers of the 80's, cricket really started after the '82 Asiad. With TV happening everywhere, India winning the World Cup, and kids like me coming of age-that is, starting to comprehend The Hindu's sports page dialect and BBC's fluid commentary, we the Andhra and Hyderabadi kids, longed for someone of our own in the national team. Shivlal Yadav tweaking a few and being a brave tail-ender in Tests wouldn't satisfy us. And none of us had seen Jaisimha and Abid Ali play. Hungry eyes scanned the junior cricket score sheets for upcoming stars.

And then he came. Mohammed Azharuddin. Difficult name to pronounce. But didn't we hear of him as a 14-year old leg spinner-cum-batsman? But when he started mesmerizing one and all with his wand, no one mentioned that he could bowl too. And now, a full 17 years later, he has won and lost captaincy, made a comeback, accumulated the highest number of runs in ODIs and stands accused by one and all in match-fixing cases and IT cases.

Oh, Azzu Bhai never disappointed us those days. While the West Indies who were in the revenge mode after losing the World Cup final, were mauling the senior team, our man scored a 250 and odd in Duleep Trophy and a 228 in Vizzy Trophy. It would be a matter of time before he makes test debut, we all thought. And then he scored a fluent 125 under Shastri for the Board Prez's team against Gower's men. Soon after his astonishing debut (his and Gavaskar's debuts were much more explosive than Sachin's, I dare say), he made mincemeat of Imran and young Akram in his 90 plus score in the lung opener in B&H world series cup, which we went on to win. The knock was not just about winning the match, but changing the mental make up of the team. Not withstanding Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Azharuddin himself, Gower had kept his word-"we will bat our way to victory in the series". 2-1 and we all went to the Kangaroo land under Sunny, with team morale at its lowest ebb. Kapil had been dropped from the Third test and the Eden Gardens spectators booed Sunny.

Azhar's knocks in those tumultuous days established him firmly in our mind space. Along with the facts that a leading newspaper said, "Mountain comes to Mohammed," and The Sports Star called him the 'Messiah of Indian Cricket', we were told that he does Namaaz five times a day even during games. And that he used to ride a cycle everyday to the stadium and was very close to his grandfather. He even appeared in a sutings ad-gawky and self-conscious. Only faithfuls noticed it; the brand name 'Santogen' sounded a little pharmaceutical.

There was not much on him, except for the lean and purple patches in his batting, for some seasons. Then, he became captain, married Bijlani (does anyone remember which happened first?) and the news about the expensive watches and suits came trickling in. We were all happy he was enjoying life. After playing so many entertaining knocks in the most beautiful game, if he doesn't deserve the good things in life, no one else does-that was the unsaid refrain. The accusations of non-communication with the team mates were met with, "Unooo!, hai aisaich! Kya kee?" (He's like that only, donno what!), by us, the loyal hyderabadis (though he had almost stopped living in the city where he learned how to hold a bat) and I am sure, fans across the country.

The serious allegations began slowly but surely. Still, as we won around 5 tournaments in '98, Azzu Bhai was continued as captain for the third successive world cup. The media now had a field day debating whether he should be captain or not and the public were almost indoctrinated to dislike him. Losing and winning captaincy and again losing it, even making a comeback and now, a horde of allegations and his name linked with almost every fresh development-still, the man, I am sure, wouldn't cry on a TV show.

In our hearts, we know he could have taken the money and would have been in the thick of it. Everything points to that right! But we have to admit that not just Azhar, but several cricketing icons (and a few filmi ones too) might have been on the take. For that matter, the unmentionable foursome of Sachin, Saurav, Dravid and Kumble are also guilty of keeping silent, if they knew what was happening.

Now this one about being a minority and stuff. He was smart all along, suddenly said something dumb, and Thank God, good sense prevailed, for he said he was misquoted. In the Indian context, it means he was retracting his statement as he realized the blunder. Wonder if he knows that thousands of right-wingers in Hyderabad still swear by him and feel him as one among their own. Art may not cross all boundaries, but it sure can cross a few.

But what will you do if your childhood icon, a man who made you proud of where you are from, and proud in a sport that you love like nothing else in the world, proves to be a fixer, a liar? Has an idol fallen? For 17 years, we have known the man; he's a part of our boyhood and youth; a person you know too well to hate or idolise. You knew the tendencies could be there and given the nature of the system, a lone artist who is a middle class guy might find it easier to adapt to it and continue playing and scoring than opposing and going into the oblivion. There might be some that chose the idealistic way. Or did they really? So, the only thing you can do is to pray that this Azzu Bhai of yours and millions of others has not done any thing ethically wrong. If just in case, it is proved that he has done what they he did, just to tell him, "Azzu Bhai! We will still love you."