Kamleshsujata1: September 2016

Friday, September 30, 2016

SKILL DEVELOPMENT

https://goo.gl/4qSv1z PPT on #Skill #Development

INDIAN RETAIL INDUSTRY

https://goo.gl/O9Dr5U PPT on #Indian #Retail #Industry. (Open with Microsoft Power Point)

Monday, September 26, 2016

Durga was a rich farmer, but a very lazy one. Who, neither looked after his fields; nor his granary. Nor did he ever bother to keep a regular count of his cattle. That apart, he did not even bother to look after his household belongings. Anything and everything, he just left it on his servants to accomplish. But his laziness soon led to mismanagement. When, the situation at home became adverse. Where, he started losing money, both in his farms and even in his dairy.

One day, Harish, a friend of Durga, came visiting him. He noticed the situation in his house to be extremely deplorable. But knowing well, Durga won’t accede to his valuable sermons. He decided to play a noble trick. To help him tide over the situation, he said—‘Friend! I’m disheartened to see you in such a deplorable condition. But I have a sure shot and an easy way to pull you out of your miseries.’

Durga was now eager to know what his friend wanted to say. He politely requested—‘kindly tell me know what you have in mind. I’ll surely follow.’

Harish said—‘my dear friend, before all the birds wake up in the morning. A white swan that lives Mansarovar lake comes to earth and returns by noon. One can’t exactly say when he comes. But it is generally believed. That anyone who is able to have his darshan is considered very lucky. For you’ll have no problems in life thereafter, and also, you’ll roll in riches.’

Durga replied—‘Is it. Then, come what may, I’ll ensure I have his darshan.

After the conversation, Harish left for his home. Next day, Durga got up early in the morning. He came out of his house, in pursuit of the white swan, and walked towards the granary. There he saw one person pilfering grain out of his heap. When, he saw Durga coming. He started apologising.

From the granary Durga returned home. Then he went to his cow ranch. There he saw his milker, milking his cow. But to his surprise, he was only filling his wife’s pot with the milk. Durga scolded him. Thereafter, he had something to eat. And then he left his home again. In search of the white swan, when he went to his fields. There, he noticed, his labourers had not reached the fields. He patiently waited for them. When they finally arrived he reprimanded them for coming late. And in this manner, wherever he went, he curtailed his losses.

Thereafter, in search of the white swan, Durga started getting up early in the morning every day, and started roaming around. With the change in his habit, his servants started working properly. All the pilferage stopped in his granary and even in his cow-ranch. Earlier, he used to be a sickly person, but now he had become healthy one because of his long walks. The fields from where he was getting poor yields had suddenly started giving high returns. And his cow-ranch too started giving milk aplenty. That gave him rich dividends.

One day after a long time, Durga’s friend Harish came to his house again. When, Durga said—‘friend! I couldn’t find that white swan you spoke about last time; but in his pursuit I started making profits.’

Harish started laughing, when he replied—‘friend! To toil relentlessly, is the white swan, I was talking about. The wings of labour are always white. People, who don’t work and leave everything to their servants, always suffer losses. But, people who toil themselves, and look after their servants, earn fortunes and respect.

*******

Sunday, September 11, 2016

WHAT IS GOOD FOR DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA—POLITICAL STABILITY OR POLITICAL COMPETITION?

By Kamlesh Tripathi

It is said, competition is good for consumers, but how about competition in politics? Where, I am reminded of what Indira Gandhi once said,

‘My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition there.’

She indeed was one of the tallest leaders of the Congress party, and even that of India, who could even dare to dismembered a neighbouring country. Therefore, if we superimpose her quote on the tenets of Congress Party or for that matter on any other political party it will be an interesting churning of inferences.

Before India attained freedom there were thirteen political parties that jointly fought the British Raj for independence, with Congress in the forefront. The focus then was not development, but to attain independence. Where, they competed and colluded in a smart manner and achieved it. Post independence some of these parties wound up as the mission was over, and some dissolved in each other. Congress then became the tallest party with practically no opposition. Muslim League the other powerful party was more or less hived off to Pakistan upon partition. Congress thereafter ruled for around fifty six years. But in these years they could have done much better than what they actually did. On the contrary they brought in the ‘License Raj’ post independence that only stifled the progress and development of the country and only benefited the few in power. So can one say political stability attracts development?

License Raj was dissolved when P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1991 took over as the Prime Minister with Dr Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister in a Congress Government. Thereon, things started looking up in India. But by then the coalition politics had also come into play. No single party was ruling the roost. Competition had set in, and every political party had to perform on economic parameters too, apart from the usual socialistic ones. The voter’s aspiration had also increased with the spread of literacy.

- If we go through India’s GDP in absolute numbers we find in 1950-51 it was 2.79 lac crores that reached 20 lac crores in 1991-92 (15% annual growth for 40 years). But, was that enough when we were starting from a very low plank? This grew to 57.41 lac crores by 2013-14 (8.90% annual growth for 21 years). When the environment had become much more challenging. These growths were also facilitated by growth in population.

- If we briefly analyse the annual growth of India’s GDP at factor cost again. In 40 years, starting 1951-52 to 1991-92. We will find. Thrice it showed negative growth, and in 79-80, after thirty years of independence it even went down to -5.2%, which is shameful. In fact growth started steadying above 5% only after 91-92 when competition amongst political parties had increased even within the coalition governments. And also when policies of open economy had set in.

- In 1950-51 the food grain production was 50.83 million tonnes. In 1991-92 it reached 180 million tonnes. An increase of 129.47 million tonnes (an annual growth rate of 6.36%). This could have been much better, had the economy been opened in the 70’s, which the Congress government didn’t bother to do. By the year 2013-14 production reached 263.2 million tonnes. An increase of 83.2 million tonnes since 1992 (a 2.20% annual growth rate). That goes to show political competition lost focus on agriculture.

- In the infrastructure sector. Construction of roads, (both surfaced and non-surfaced) picked up a steady pace only after 2008-09. After political competition started heating up in India and the same goes for exports which too picked up post 2003.

The US is the world’s largest economy. There are two main parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. They follow each other close on heels on various issues. Yet, in the last two decades, like in the case of many other developed nations, its growth rate has been decreasing. If in the 50’s and 60’s the average growth rate was above 4 percent, in the 70’s and 80’s it dropped to 3 percent. In the last ten years, the average rate has been below 2 percent and since the second quarter of 2000 has never reached the 5 percent level. So has political stability in American politics helped the growth rate? Or is it that the continuing good sound policies of the government is driving growth, irrespective of which party rules, or is it that there is no politics over growth?

In India we have seven national parties that include BJP, INC, CPI (Marxist), CPI India, BSP, TMC and the NSP. In addition we also have forty eight state parties. There is enough competition on the ground but whether it is helping development, is the big question. There is no firm paradigm of continuous fast track of development. That only goes to prove political competition may not mean development in India.

So, sadly India has seen both the extremes. One, when Congress was stable and virtually in a monopoly for 56 years. When sadly there was only a steady, self complimenting and complacent development, and nothing exponential, which was what was required. And even now when you have a number of political parties on the ground, the development is dismal and that too at the cost of corruption that we saw in Congress UPA regime. Somehow, BJP has been able to reverse this trend because it is in full majority and politically stable, and its top leadership is averse to corruption. Needless, to say political parties are competing not for development, but for retention of power. This reflects glaringly in Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh the political hot seat of India has BJP, SP, BSP and Congress as main parties on the ground. In the past there were five prime ministers also who represented UP, apart from Dr Manmohan who also was under the command and control of the first family of Indian politics who also are supposedly from UP. Yet UP is where it was some forty years back. Despite, being the cradle of civilization, and the cynosure of every era. Today, UP is poor hungry, unemployed, illiterate and is one of the most prominent members of the Bimaru states of India.

In six and a half decades of independence, India has grown manifold in population, but sparsely in infrastructure. But some states have grown faster than others and that’s where UP has lagged behind. UP is still way behind Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana.

So then what went wrong especially after independence and where did UP drop the ball? It was one of independent India’s most prosperous states. It kept growing till 1980s, from a steady growth in the beginning of the 1^st five year plan in 1951 till the 1980s. UP has also seen frequent change of guard and therefore most certainly is a victim of political competition.

So then what is good for India? Political stability or political competition? There are no straight answers, but I found an appropriate quote that can act as a solution—‘stop competing with others, start competing with yourself.

*****

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

DOCTRINE OF KARMA AND REINCARNATION

DOCTRINE OF KARMA AND REINCARNATION

Why do Hindus believe in these two doctrines? One being karma and the other being reincarnation. Because these doctrines not only explain the unusual occurrences logically, they also shed light on day-to-day events of life. Hindus do not consider life and death to be mutually exclusive. But intertwined and inseparable, like two sides of the same coin. If there are disparities between two individuals at the time of birth, and if we can see these disparities, then the cause for these disparities must have preceded their birth.

· Karma: The word karma means “action.” In accordance with the cosmic laws of karma. Each individual reaps the fruits of his actions, performed in this life or in former lives. This logically explains the disparities in creation, between various individuals, environments and situations. No deed, small or great, good or bad, can be without an effect—this is the law of karma, the law of casualty. In fact one begins to feel as if Newton’s 3^rd law of motion—‘to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’ was drawn out of the doctrine of karma.

· Karma is no fate. Fate implies helplessness in a human being, to determine his own destiny. The law of karma states that the individual is the creator of his own destiny because his conscious choices in life determine his actions and the fruits thereof.

· Reincarnation: Hindus believe that the jiva, or the individual being, travels from life to life, acquiring bodies and environments best suited to exhaust his vasanas (vices) or innate tendencies that are expressed as desires, emotions, and actions. The exhaustion of vasanas allows the jiva to reach his ultimate goal: complete freedom from the cycle of birth and death through the realization of his true nature as the Self, or Brahman.

---I read this in a book on Hinduism—by Chinmaya Mission Trust---