Monday, February 28, 2011

Dinesh Kamath's editorials ('Convert corruption from liability into asset' and other editorials) that appeared in Newsband


Convert corruption from liability into assetThere are many prominent Indians who have stashed away a lot of money abroad. All these money are mostly stashed in countries like Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Mauritius and the Cayman Islands. If this entire money was to be brought back to India it would totally transform the country's economy. At one stroke, the entire internal and external debt of the government would be wiped out. One fourth of this money is sufficient to meet all of India's basic infrastructural needs power, roads, primary healthcare and primary education.
India is considered as the world's leading country in terms of undeclared offshore wealth. India has the world's biggest hoard of black money. The government is not willing to bring this loot back to India due to moral hazard. Granting immunity from legal action to the people involved would be morally wrong. It would be seen as condoning dishonesty.
The question is does moral hazard really exist? In India scams are common occurrences. Members of all sectors of society the politicians, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the police, the defence forces are involved in some sort of swindle or the other. Our morals could hardly be exposed to any more hazard than they already are. So it's time to drop the hypocritical pretence of moral hazard and make use of all the black money in the interest of the nation. The government should see how best to exploit the situation for the benefit of the nation as a whole.
Countries like Liechtenstein and the Bahamas have become repositories of the world's ill-gotten booty, much of which has come from India.
India is one of the most corruption-riddled countries in the world. Why not turn this national train into an asset rather than a liability? When a tiny country like Switzerland is one of the world's most sought-after destinations for undeclared cash, why shouldn't India, with its huge size and its even bigger reputation for highly sophisticated financial jugglery, take its place? Along with tourism, we should promote India as the most desirable and safest address for clandestine assets and watch the world's hidden wealth pour into our coffers.


See the world from a large perspectiveThe wise one constantly lives in awareness of the basic unity of existence, free from the delusion of separateness. Grief and delusion come as a result of identification with the body, mind and intellect the little self. The moment you look at things from a personal angle there is sorrow. View the same thing from a larger perspective and peace prevails.
Everything around us changes, points out Krishna. One who is not troubled by these fluctuations and remains steady, equal to joy and sorrow, is fit for Immortality. The world is a roller-coaster ride. It is in a constant churn. It is a mix of pairs of opposites and is unpredictable.
It is your duty to act. There is nothing more sacred than a righteous cause. Just get rid of your worries and anxieties, fears and apprehensions. Focus on action. Perform it wholeheartedly, with sincerity and dedication. Success will follow. Work well done is in itself joyous. Action consecrated to a higher ideal is worship. You evolve spiritually.
We are all warriors in the battle of life. Each one of us has obligations to perform. Do what you have to do, do without attachment. Your right is to action only, not to its fruit. When you are free from attachment to action and anxiety for its fruit the mind is calm and intellect, sharp and clear. The result is perfect action. Then the fruit of action success, happiness and spiritual growth will come unsought. You will be free of sorrow and bondage of birth and death. You will then transcend delusion and move to the state of Godhood.


Solve problems of tribals India's tribal areas continue to fare poorly on development indices. These tribals have been exploited for too long and not shown enough sympathies by the government. This has denied them access to the fruits of progress. The tribal grievances have received little redressal.
The government's keenness to see state governors play a proactive role in administration of tribal areas is welcome. The Centre also can contribute to genuine development in these mostly neglected regions.
The governors should play the role of an interventionist because they can stop the state governments dominated by non-tribal representation from exploiting the tribals and preventing the benefits of welfare schemes reach tribal people. It is governor who can prevent the local administrative authorities from being prejudiced and keeping the tribal areas out of the development graph. Governors are in a far better position to direct the implementation of government schemes, and guard against injustices that tribals routinely face. In addition to Governor's rule, Centre's contributions in ushering in development will help mitigate the feeling of alienation among the tribal populace. Of course, the government has the responsibility of guaranteeing tribal welfare within the constitutional framework. Proactive governors working in consultation with cooperative state governments is the way forward.
But the problem is among a host of contentious issues between the Centre and states, a major controversy is related precisely to the role of the governor. There are many chief ministers who want the governor's discretionary prowess to be pruned and their interventions minimized. According to these CMs, the greater concentration of powers in the hands of governors is akin to taking a top-down approach, which is against the federal spirit of the Constitution.
In spite of there existing opposition to the idea of giving too much powers to Governors, it is widely felt that only powerful Governors can help solve problems of the tribals.

Be stylishly corruptCorruption now has attitude. No longer do thick wads need to pass furtively under the table from sweaty palm to grasping hand. Nowadays, contracts are handed to kith and kin as if by divine right.
Things don't look as if they'll change. The wicked won't actually mend their ways. On the contrary, the current public outcry may drive corruption back into the shadows and give us a rerun of the closet scamster.
The bribe today is not called a bribe since the word has a coarse ring to it. It is called as advisory services, or intermediary charges or consultancy services. The man or the woman who is bribing is not called a tout. He or she is called a lobbyist.
At scam school, you will also be taught to correctly arrange your facial muscles when you are being led in for questioning under the glare of TV cameras and popping flashbulbs. Rather than shading your eyes and covering your face - that is left to petty thieves and teenagers caught in a drug bust - your expression should communicate that you have powerful backers and that you are unafraid of the CID, CBI or the JPC. You can even smirk
Next time you find the need to negotiate your way out of a parking ticket or ensure a smooth passage for your long pending application at the registrar's office, do so in style. Don't change colour or glance nervously over your shoulder. Just dig into your pocket and hand out goodies with a flourish. Pull levers unabashedly to make sure that by marvelous coincidence all the juiciest contracts go to your close ones. You may even bring yourself to do it by wearing a pink tie.
In other words, indulge in corruption in a stylish manner because that's the order of the day.


Competing to be more corruptScams have become a part of our daily lives. As each new swindle is unearthed outrage seems to give way to wry resignation. Inaction in this regard may lead to a detrimental notion that India is a soft state and one can meddle with its laws with impunity.
As scams get scammier, both in quantitative as well as qualitative terms, the inevitable question that arises is whether it is our system, our 'soft state', that is conducive to corruption or if it's us as individuals who are peculiarly susceptible to graft of all kinds.
Corruption is fostered by greed. The causative factor is not nature but nurture. Greed, and the corruption it breeds, is rooted in culture, not in genetics. One of the side-effects of India's slow and painful transition from a socialist economy to an emerging free-market system has been the growth of not just conspicuous but competitive consumption. Everyone wants to do well economically - better than the person next door. Such competitive consumption the desire to buy things not so much for themselves but in order to keep up with the neighbours is not a direct result of the free market. Rather, it is the result of decades of suppressed consumer aspirations forced upon the country by an outmoded and economically repressive socialist system. Though the desire for status symbols is universal, it seems to be most keenly felt in emerging economies like India and China, where goods and services, including luxury products, show the steepest growth curves, thanks to the stimulus of competitive consumption.
But this competitive consumption has stimulated competitive corruption. Scams are become status symbols. Each scam, highlighted and headlined by the media, is followed by bigger and better scam. Thus today we witness a competition where each one tries to be more corrupt than the other.


Hindu religion believes in SecularismHindu religion does not force you to accept particular god or dogma. It believes in rule of law and ethics of the age. In the Hindu way of life there are no God-or-prophet-given laws. The Hindu laws are flexible and they can change to be in consonance with changing times. Today's ethics, formulated by the Constitution, is secularism. Anybody who violates this cannot be considered as Hindu. He or she is the enemy of the Hindu way of life if he is not secular. Hindu way of life is in danger today but not from those who follow other religions. It is threatened by some Hindus themselves who misinterpret the religious laws.
Rama was the most successful of all Hindu Gods because he believed in Ram Rajya or good governance. He believed in rule of law. He didn't believe in killing innocents in the name of religion. He gave people the freedom to worship God in any form or not to worship at all.
Hindu religion gives you freedom to see God in all things living and non-living. The Hindu way of life as described by Hindu religion will survive because it is the natural, free, inquiring way. A genuine Hindu will want the rule of law to be restored. He will want Ram Rajya or good governance. Hindu religion is such that it can be practiced without having to come into conflict with other religion.
Hindu religion believes in secularism. A genuine Hindu not only practices his own religion but also respects other religions. He will be forced to defend himself if other religion wages a war against Hindu religion.
Some self-styled 'Hindu' extremists have emerged in recent times. Their problem is the Hindu way of life has not been explained to them. They are unaware of the fact that secular way of life is what Hinduism is all about.

We need an English Publishing House of world standardIndia badly needs an English Publishing House of international standard. Its objective should be to achieve excellence in research, scholarship and education by publishing worldwide. It should form multiple offices around the world and should cover all academic fields at the time of publishing. It should deliver quality. It should publish for different segments ranging from scholarly to professional and school textbooks. Its academic books should influence people with influence. It should have a strong presence in schools as well as professional engineering and business management segments. It should meet the country's educational purpose. Textbooks are important and hence they should fulfill an essential national need. This publishing house should ensure accessible education and affordable quality educational materials. It should try and produce a good number of educational as well as academic books annually. It should try and do lots of new things since publishers can also be innovators. It should have the resources and the depth to make our country understood. The quality of the books it produces should be superb, pages should be glossy and there should be lots of high quality images. The books should be written by serious academicians or researchers. This publishing house should also come up with encyclopedias of international standards. These projects require considerable investment sometimes taking 10 years to realize. Such projects also lend themselves to digitization and e-books which are very useful for researchers. The publishing house should espouse high standards. There should be freedom to run the business side of things and at the same time the editing process, which is most important since it determines quality and reputation of the organization, should be inspected by the professionals.
India badly needs such a publishing house because today we have authors who can be rated as those of international standards. One can't differentiate much between Indian and foreign authors nowadays because there are many Indians based abroad and they write about India. Will India in the near future get such a publishing house?

Cricket favoured, other sports sidelined why?Cricket is a game which is most favoured in India. This fact hurt the India's Olympic sporting circles. According to them, cricket has destroyed or harmed the Olympic sporting fraternity.
Sponsors inevitably queue up to pay for the gentleman's game, television broadcasters give cricket a lot more airtime and print media publish cricket news as the lead sports item.
However, the reasons behind such step-motherly treatment of Olympic sports have hardly been delved into by the administrators of these disciplines, for these would tend to expose their own deficiencies and amateurish work ethic.
A comparison between the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games and the forthcoming Cricket World Cup 2011 (from 19 February) makes clear the fundamental differences in the governance structure of cricket and Olympic sports in India.
When it comes to cricket, the country comes to a standstill with people queuing up for tickets all day and night. Tickets become available online and matches such as England-India contest at the Eden Gardens witnesses an unprecedented number of online hits.
In contrast to this, the ticket sales and distribution for the Delhi Commonwealth Games were a complete mess. Stadiums were never more than half full in the competition's first week. Problems over ticket distribution for the opening and closing ceremonies had also resulted in numerous mini skirmishes at the organizing committee headquarters.
It is the professionalism associated with cricket, evident also from the way the Eden Gardens and Wankhede under-preparedness issues have been handled and hard measures taken, that explains the tremendous interest in the event across the country. Interest in the World Cup isn't confined to just sponsors and marketers. For the media as well, it is the first big event in 2011, a platform to catch eyeballs and garner high TRPs. Knowing full well that the World Cup will have to be covered from start to finish with the same intensity, most networks have already finalized their line-ups for the extravaganza. They have ensured that even lesser known cricketers end up making huge amounts of money as experts from the six-week gala. Unlike in the Commonwealth Games where tourist interest had dwindled to minimal due to the disastrous build-up, tour operators from across the world are looking at the World Cup to make a killing. Thus World Cup is a professionally managed and run event unlike the 2010 Delhi games.

Indo-US closeness a boon for our middle classUS President Barack Obama, during his visit to India, had said, “The relationship between the United States and India bound by our shared interests and values will be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century.”
President Obama saw to it that there were job-creating deals between American and Indian businesses and the Indian government. President Obama expressed his support for India gaining a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. He is responsible for opening the door for increased high-technology and cooperation between India and the US. The US companies who joined hands with India are leaders in the civil nuclear, defence and security, civil aviation, and information and communications technology sectors.
It is when India opened itself to the world in 1991 that the trade barriers and tax rates came down. State monopolies were broken up and the license raj was greatly diminished. The talents of the Indian people were unleashed and the results speak for themselves. Indian companies like Tata, Wipro, Infosys and Reliance became internationally renowned.
India now has millions of entrepreneurs most building small businesses, some building big businesses but all contributing to an economy that boasts a middle class as big as the entire population of the United States. India has come along faster than anyone would have expected.
India faces many challenges in ensuring that its educational system, infrastructure, and other services keep pace with its potential. US businesses can help India achieve its goal of providing a better standard of living for all its people. They can provide cutting-edge-technologies to modernize India. They can partner with Indian technology companies to build high-speed internet infrastructure. They can deliver electricity to hundreds of millions of Indian citizens. They can help India build the world's best planes, the roads and the rail lines to help transport Indian-made goods throughout the country and the world. They can also help India to protect intellectual property rights. If India continues to join hands with America, India will be one of the few countries in the world which will lead the global economy in the 21st century.



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