Convenience and corruption

Legalize corruption! :D Sounds funny...

Is there a solution for corruption? Can it be curbed completely? These are the questions rhetorically vivering in the discussions on social gatherings of middle class. Every other person has one or the other example of how he or she came out of a situation through corruption. Getting a reservation in a train to Mumbai in a jampacked train is not a big deal today given that your pocket is heavier than TTEs demand. Black money from the tax heavens has been in the news for quite a while now. Recently TOI gave an amazing article showing how the whole system works. Person A from India gives cash in INR to Person B. Person B give a havala to Person C in other country. Person C supplies cash to Person D in that country. And this system had been running quite smoothly. According to that article, in Delhi itself the volume of transactions is around 300 billions! That is approximately 7 % of the total GDP of our country. And more than the total volumes of most of the banks. And note that it is just Delhi. What if rest of India is added. Look at the efficiency of the system - Money transferred in 24 hours! Moreover that money is not been accounted anywhere in the economy. Rather it is disguised in some form, which form - is still a question mark. Why do people like you and me go to such a local foreign exchanger? Why do a common man go to a unauthorized RTO agent for getting the licence? The answer is convinience. If I had the time to stand in the queue at the RTO office for 4 hours, I would have not gone to that agent. If tickets are available easily, I would not go to that local chaiwala to ask for an agent. A common man enters this vicious cycle of corruption just for 1 reason - convinience. What if this convinience is made available to the common man legally? Then Indian Railways turn into profit!

Well that was an example. Lalu prasad made tatkal chargeable by 150 Rs and kept certain conditions of non-cancellation and end-to-end fare and that turns railways to profit. of course there were other factors too but this factor not only helped the profits but also helped in reduction of the un-authorized ticket sellers. Similar thing happened with the passports. Tatkaal passports are been offered legally at a premium price in 1/3rd of the time. Similar thing can happen with the local foreign exchangers too. Legalize them. This would be ek teer se do nishaan. It would help in reducing the corruption and secondly it would reduce the black money transactions on the other hand. Convinience leeds to corruption. So let us provide the convenience to customers legally. This would of course not completely curb the corruption but it would definitely help in reducing it. What do you say?

What is Classical?

Our economics professor in my college (www.SCIT.edu) is just awesome! Azahar Khan is his name. Fundamentals - pretty clear. Wanna Argue with him? get data on your finger tips and then come. He has got census 2001 on his finger tips. Believes in islam and is proud of that. Some key points of learning from his lectures.

Underdeveloped are those nations where people worship icons. Make your own identity and place in there.

Buying should be objective.

Loan should not be taken unless you have 70% of the loan amount in hand(liquid or non liquid)

Last but not the least - Definition of 'classical' - Beyond which, nothing exists.

More to come today!

Jay Bharat,

SD

Inflation and relation

I had been thinking of writing about this since long. But I always got an excuse to of not writing it. But today I have promised myself to post it. So I need to atleast keep the promise to myself.

Almost 2 months ago I visited Mumbai. Papa works there in Mumbai. So I keep on visiting quite often, but this happened to be a special trip. Dad and me gel well together. We are more like buddies! But then there always this generation gap. We try hard to accept each other's views and mostly suceed too. But some times I need to succumb to his points. On a lighter side, he calls it his veto power in the family. But I am happy to have a father like him. And deep inside it feels glad to have some one to use his veto power because he is the one who knows the world better and he would not harm his family under what ever circumstances.

Coming back to the trip almost two months ago. It was a bright sunday and we were free to do nothing. There was a mall nearby in Goregaon, Mumbai. Its called Oberoi mall. I hadn't seen it then. So we planned to go there and have lunch in the food court. We took our bullet and reached the mall. It was enormous and huge from inside. We reached the food court on the top floor and saw the series of shops offerring from dosas to pastas and cholapuri to pani puri. Not to forget the kailaas parbat and the naturals for the desserts. It seemed similar to the typical 'khau-gully' (eat-street) of a town but a sophosticated khau-gully with sophosticated menu cards and pretending-to-be-hygenic staff with overpriced food. We ordered nothing but the ice-creams from naturals. Well, though we went for lunch but didn't feel to order anything. We took our cups of ice creams and sat on a table nearby. We had a full length look of the food court. And the ice cream was awesome. On the table, while having the small morsol of his ice-cream, pa said 'I some how do not feel comfortable in such malls, I don't know why. I feel a bit awkward here.' That triggered a once-in-a-decade conversation between us. I believed, I knew the reason of him being not comfortable.

Papa lived in Gonda before coming to Ahmedabad. He was born in the town of Devalia in Saurashtra Region of Gujarat. And then his dad took him there to Gonda, in UP. He had done his schooling from there and his graduation from Lucknow. My grand father had a very brutal accident when my father was just in his teens. That accident lead to the bed-rest for 9-10 months and that bed-rest devastated the economical condition of the family. My grand mother had enormous courage and she did not keep any stone unturned to meet the two ends. The family had a very tough time. Then my father came here and started working. My chacha too came here and gradually whole family came to Ahmedabad and things got better. So I thought that might be the reson. I, believing that I knew the reason, explained it to him . And I turned to be totally worng. He said that he is not comfortable because he sees a lot of wastage of resources happening there. Electricity, food and space are being wasted. In India, for that matter there is a derth of resources and these people are wasting it here. Six panipuris costing 20 rupees! What do I pay for - the original cost of panipuri plus the cost of AC + lightings + decorations + rent of the mall + the label of being hygenic! Why should we pay for it! And that too when it is available at quite a cheaper rate in near vicinity.

Probably, after understanding the backgound of my dad, you too might think in the similar lines of my thoughts. But then giving a second thought and understanding what my economics' professor teaches, this sounds very true. A person like me, would have easily given out that money for the panipuri or that cholepuri. I would have not thought about the availablilty in the near vicinity at a very cheaper rate. Its not that he cannot afford, but he has seen the value of money going down. In good old days, salaries were in hundreds and cars were in thousands. Milk was available in single digit per litre and ghee in less than 20 Rs per KG. And I have not.

The point here is that the buying should be objective. Buy only if required. Pay premium only for the utiility - may be place utility or time utility. Higher price doesnot mean higher quality. And quality is just a perception of mind. - Gandhijee said it - There are enough resources here to satusfy man's need, but not his greed. My dad explained the same thing and my economics prof preached the same thing. He went a step forward. He says, a country with large chunk of population below poverty line and still Common wealth games is being hosted, where cricket is a religion and buying is non objective, cannot become a developed nation easily.

Well, I understood what they said. Did you?