5th WAVE

Bikash Choudhury

If we travel back in History for little over five hundred years in time then one would have experienced ‘0’ wave  where India was peaking in economically and politically. India was also a maritime power enforcing and influencing the sea lanes of those times. Indian organic Agriculture was highly productive and our principal exports were Food, Agro and Forest products. Apparently, those times Indian rulers were contended economically and believed in peaceful co-existence. However, this did not last long. Soon they were over powered by greed to accumulate land mass and consolidate political power for their legacy; which, later prompted them to scheme one against another and many times in collaboration with foreign/external forces who had designs to rule and exploit the ‘Golden Goose’. Therefore, Europeans attempted to find the safe sea route to India and established trade successfully. Eventually, they became the rulers of India for over three centuries. Wave Zero contained the seed of economic and political decline in the shape of Political Disunity among then Indian rulers. As time would have it; shrewd Europeans captured the opportunity impeccably.

                              Centuries later, our Independence movement took shape which remained largely peaceful with few exceptional violent acts in between that contained the “Wave-1”. That saw great leaders emerge out of the same British education system; however, led Indian men towards complete freedom and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi a non-resident Indian took the bull by the horn and integrated disparate Indian people under his banner of ‘satyagraha’ which almost nearly achieved its objective of freedom; however, Lord Mountbatten found to be a smarter operator with much better Idea from colonizer’s point of view and ended up giving freedom to two parts of India having many more divisions and sub-divisions the burden of which we carry even to this day. Britishers clearly out witted Indian leaders in the charms offensive and gave their final seal over freedom with partition in a combo offer which Indian leaders could not refuse to accept. And, Gandhi courted death at the hands of one of his own country men out of frustration and betrayal by his own close followers. Therefore, first wave also ended up being a loser except the limited liability of Independence of a truncated Nation. Despite partition and bloodshed across the borders of India and Pakistan; euphoria of being a free country took the people and their leaders by surprise. However, India was fortunate to have two immensely gifted leaders with towering personality with diverse background and temperament; they come together in the larger interest of their countrymen to give shape to fledging Nation and that became “Wave-2”. Nehru and Patel managed to unite all the princely States behind Indian Nationality; but, could not manage the affairs of Kashmir having seen shrewd lawyer Mohamed Ali Jihnna from very close quarters. Ironically, that has remained the “Achilles Heel” of India even today. But, during this Wave-2 movement great Institutions were established; that took the socio-economic-political life of this country a notch higher and serving the Nation even today. No body could believe that a Statesman and a Global leader of Nehru’s stature could make such a simple error of judgment with our engagement with the Chinese and our North West Frontier Defense which rattled India and finally took the life of Nehru who passed away a sad man.

 “Jai Jawan and Jai Kisan” slogan started the “Wave-3” which was later catapulted by Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her master stroke of “Garibi Hatao” followed by discontinuation of Privy Purse of erstwhile Princely States, Nationalization of Commercial Banks and liberation of Bangladesh. However, Mrs. Gandhi did not help the cause of India by aligning too much with USSR and imposing first and last emergency that suspended democratic rights of people. Mrs. Gandhi was made to pay up for this very expensive mistake and she lost her election to parliament while her party lost power at the centre. She did not get the time to kiss and make up though she returned to power.

                               Rajiv Gandhi credited to have initiated the “Wave-4” with his spotless Mr. Clean image and his visionary steps with introduction of ICT in the country. The benefit of which is being reaped by millions of young people today and they are able to own a house and a SUV before clocking 30 years in their watch. Rajiv also started Ganga Action Plan, Indira Gandhi National Open University and opened a forward looking foreign policy with engagement on USA and China those served India immensely little later. Rajiv was out witted by wily Politician J.Jayavardhane of Sri Lanka and made to fend for himself; that expensive error of judgment finally took his life in his prime. But, Bofors case was foisted on Rajiv by colonial conspirators and some Congress Party & Bureaucratic insiders due to his inexperience, lack of execution capability and skill to judge people; fortunately, his better half gifted with such qualities and immense political skill and maturity. Our only pouting leader in Narasingha Rao and Manmohan Singh together brought the curtains to the 4^th Wave with their relentless pursuit of economic liberalization that managed to capture near double digit growth and creation of jobs after a few years. “M’ae  Atal Bhi Hoon ur Bhiharivi” those were the words of Atal Bihari Vajpayee who managed to over throw the Hindu Rate of growth with his two Iconic initiative of “Prime Minister Gramya Sadak Yojana and Golden Quadrilateral Project” that enjoined our villages with four metro cities and managed to substantially enhance the “Intensity of Human Activity” that resulted in phenomenal economic growth after 2004. A decade thereafter were a series of missed opportunities; Manmohan Singh, one of the most economic literate prime minister drove a nail in the coffin of Indian Economy during his decade long tenure with indecision and silence.

                                                        May 16 2014 was the day when the unfinished agenda of 5^th Wave got started once again under the dynamic leadership of Sri Narendra Modi who own the election with thumping majority; but, a little earlier he took the Nation by storm having over 400 huge public rallies in each nook and corner of our country covering nearlyr 4 lakh kilometers in just 8 months and raising the hope of people that 5^th Wave would eventually redeem all his promises—“Apka Pyaar Sudh Sameth Wapas Karoonga”. Modi has managed to take some extra ordinary steps in the domestic and external affairs of the country and now he should follow his own maiden speech in parliament to keep the politics for the last six months of the tenure and make a fresh bid in collaboration with Congress Party as Sardar Patel did with Nehru in National interest. Let the Parliament function effectively to deal with the billions of problems of a billion plus people. Modi also need to bring his execution capability of Gujarat Model to see Mumbai and Kolkata minus their infra bottleneck to give a leg up to Indian economy in the short term. Modi would do well to take some regional satraps under his wings like Mamata and Naveen in the East, Chandra Babu & Jayalalita in the South, Fadnavis & Anandi Ben Patel in the West and Yadavs in the North to make the 5^th Wave successful to put India in its original Orbit. Modi does not have the luxury to make mistakes like his predecessors.

If You can’t Beat Them----Join Them

        Bikash Choudhury

Chanakya has written in his Artha Sastra that “you can’t measure how
much water fish drinks in the pond; identically, it is extremely
difficult to find out the corruption in the bureaucracy” It was a
valid hypothesis then two thousand years ago and the same equally if
not more holds good even in current times. Our Govt. finances have
deteriorated from bad to worse at the back of populist schemes which
is good money down the drain as no durable assets gets created out of
such huge expenses from the Govt. treasury; further, the salary bill
alone some day would drive the Govt. to bankruptcy. The one lakh crore
Indian Rupee annual salary bill of our central Govt. alone could throw
spanner at fiscal prudence. Is their a way out? Yes, there can be a
long term solution if we can take a bold decision of accepting the
reality as a functioning society. Taking and giving bribes has become
second nature to Indians without looking at the Peking order in the
Transparency Index for Most Corrupt Nations; very unfortunate (can we
blame our colonial masters for this ill?) and therefore, preventing or
controlling corruption any time soon to spike up our economy is nearly
impossible. However, the gigantic size of the booty involved is hard
to ignore. If we assume that each government employee makes about
Rs.2000.00 in a month apart from his legal salary & perks of housing
and medical allowances; then, if we multiply the number of Govt.
employees both in Central, State Govt. and Local bodies then we will
arrive at a mind boggling figure of Rs. 20,000 Crores annually. This
sum would be much bigger than a few State Budgets put together.
Further, this speed money finds its route to political leaders and
political parties that once again intoxicate our entire polity and the
cess poll of illegal and criminal conspiracy of defrauding public
treasury gets repeated with few additional dimensions in each orbit.
Government employees not only the beneficiary of such a spurious
system; they, have become victims of such practice as well.
In one stroke we can do away with such a venal system by legalizing
all receipts of cash and gifts by Govt. employees over and above the
statutory requirements wherever it is applied; as a ‘token of service’
by the employee with a entitlement of 35-50% of such gain and rest
remains with the Govt. treasury. If this aberration were corrected
successfully then Govt. would earn additional revenue of over 10,000
crores of rupees without burdening ordinary people with any fresh
taxes and won’t have to worry about the salary hike of employees
through the 7th pay commission; while, greatly straightening our
administrative and political system for the benefits of all citizens
including the Politicians. There could be a windfall gain as economic
multiplier effect would operate in the private sector with merit based
activity in Industry and Service sector. Crony Capitalism could be
given a burial with ultra competitive forces based in meritocracy and
survival for the fittest principles would apply; that, should create a
research & development mindset across the polity & economy; thus,
creating substantial amount of wealth for the Nation to pursue its
social and secular goals. However, unfortunately politicians are going
to play the ‘bull’ in the house that intends to decide in favor of
such a new paradigm. Can we debate this at least in our so called free
media?

INNVOATION-EXCELLENCE-ENTERPRISE

Bikash Choudhury

‘Sundar Pichai, an Indian has been chosen as the next chief executive officer of Tech Multi-National Google’ this was the headline of many news papers recently. Perfectly it was another celebratory moment for all of us after Nadella became the chief of Microsoft. Our tech savvy Prime Minister also congratulated Sundar Pichai for this extra ordinary achievement in his Twitter post. This author does not have any argument against the celebratory mood in the country or being a party popper for genuine stupendous achievement of Indians in foreign soil. Just to remind my readers there have been scores of Indians at the helm of top 50 Mega American Corporations after Indira Nooyui, Vikram Pandit and Ajit jain However, the fundamental question remains that if Indians are so good in running highly specialized consumer product, technology and services firms; then, why not a single innovative product or service having global foot print emanates from Indian soil?? Indian minds no longer remain inquisitive or, Indians are too happy to train their mind at the problems of the world and its suffering masses or, the over powering Indian spirituality has put a full stop towards the pursuit of material progress and wellbeing. Either one of these points or, all of these were true against gross failure of India and Indians at the Global Market Place for Innovation-Excellence-Enterprise. The next obvious question comes how could India turn the table around? First of all let Indian corporations including the SME pay their taxes to the Govt. honestly and adhere to the environmental laws strictly. These initiatives would eventually spur the competitive environment and thus, compel Indian corporations to focus on innovation-excellence-enterprise through greater investments in research & development; that would shape a culture of innovation in products and services in the entire country. Eventually, we may be able to contribute some product or service to the mankind. Further, our schools and colleges should start Innovation and Entrepreneurship Labs to first create awareness and thereafter, encourage & promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the entire education supply chain to develop a much needed mindset for Innovation-Excellence-Enterprise over a period of time. At the end, our 24/7 media must highlight the case studies of successful Indian entrepreneurship in cities & towns and even, inside the countryside to make India the next hub for new Global products and services. Those who think we can should raise their hands.

DANGER TO UNITY OF ODISHA

Bikash Choudhury

Odisha strong man, Kalinga Putra and former chief minister of Odisha late

Sri Biju Patnaik took the initiative to expand the number of Districts from 13 to 30 during nineteen nineties; with a vision for better administration, to deal with the regional imbalance in development and also to receive more funds from the central government for development. Even a partially successful Bandh for a separate Koshala State in 10 districts of western part of Odisha put a question mark on the intent of a great leader like Biju Babu and actual delivery of justice in administration in the remote areas of our State including western Odisha. The political agitation for a new State out of Odisha—howsoever, fragile may be could be a threat to the unity and integrity of Odisha in the long run; if it were not managed well in advance. Those, who fight for a separate State Koshala for lack of development and regional imbalance, may be partially right; in a sense our western districts have not matched in the development process in comparison to coastal districts of Odisha in social and economic infrastructure. However, it would be futile to argue that a smaller State of Koshala would better manage the process of development and regional imbalance as scores of smaller States would prove to the contrary. The agitation for Koshala State could also be an emotive ploy by an ambitious leader to nurse his political ambition on a very divisive issue that provides instant gratification.  To be fare with the activist pursuing a separate State of Koshala; it is good to flag an emotive issue to generate awareness and drawing the attention of our political masters at Bhubaneswar; but, division of the State is not the answer for delivering faster development in the western part of Odisha; because, with each new State we add to our bureaucracy and in case of a small state the salary bill alone eats into the revenue leaving a very meager resources for development and therefore, the smaller States sink into a debt trap. Koshala State would be financially unviable, administratively untenable and therefore, should be dropped altogether. As there are scores of other avenues to constructively deal with poor record of development in the western parts of the State. Both State & Union Govt. have made the first attempt in this direction by locating the IIM at Sambalpur. The other important step need to be taken is to bridge the distance between Western Odisha and Coastal areas & State Capital by civil aviation as soon as possible. This would remove the sense of alienation, facilitate better administration of development with improved mobility of bureaucracy and politicians and finally, over a period of time, civil aviation connectivity of western Odisha would open up avenues for large scale & focused Industrial activity and create opportunity for skilled manpower and other resources which are abundantly available locally. Further, it would be prudent for both the Govt. and Opposition in the State Assembly jointly attempt to address the aspirations and concerns of Western Districts of Odisha in time bound manner that would bury the demand for a separate State once and for all.

Communication with Prof.Achyuta Samanta, Founder of KISS & KIIT---Global Social Forum

Esteemed Prof. Achuyta Samanta,

One question that always rings in my mind is “why all path breaking Ideas, Innovation, Product and Institution of recent times should emanate from western countries?” KISS has now attained an observer status at United Nations and your initiatives on the Art of Giving, India against Negativity and Kompassions have been well received. I wish to suggest an Initiative on Social space that could be Taller and in a Global scale.

The changes in the Geo-Politics of Asia, growing sectarian violence in our neighborhood, racial discrimination & its reaction in Western Countries and growing religious intolerance across the World demand some initiative to find a durable and sustainable solution. Economy is just a subset of the Society; however, “The World Economic Forum” has been popular across the World for just Business Networking; though, it could not find any solution for the Global recession. However, ‘Global Social Forum’ could actually find an answer to current Global Economic Crisis and lasting solution for peace and prosperity of the World. 

1.      KISS & KIIT in its out reach program could explore the possibility of starting an organization (not for profit) named as “Global Social Forum” in association with Leading Social Organization, State Governments, Confederation of Indian Industry and FICCI with an objective to end civilization conflict, promote Global Peace through disarmament & cut in defense expenditure, religious harmony, racial unity and eventually control Global Economic Recession.

2.      “Global Social Forum” could hold its International Summit at Bhubaneswar every year during the month of December just like “World Economic Forum” at Davos.

3.       Global Social Forum could offer a platform for networking of Global Social Organizations. It should deliberate on social issues of Global Concern and draw a road map to enhance religious understanding and to create global family across race, religion & region.

4.      Global Social Forum can rope in US Govt., United Nations, World Economic Forum and 1000 nos of top social organizations to partner in this mission.

5.      This initiative could put India in the hearts and minds of Global Citizens which could have deeper economic and political ramifications in the long run.

BANDHAN BANK---INCLUSIVE BANKING

BIKASH CHOUDHURY

23 August 2015 would go down in the history of Indian Banking with the Inauguration of Bandhan Bank---149^th schedule commercial bank. It is Historic because RBI in its wisdom has taken the second initiative after Regional Rural Bank to make the banking services available to uncovered or under covered rural areas and demography with granting a commercial banking license to Badhan Bank; whose focus would be SME in Rural & semi-urban areas. Badhan Bank is starting with a capital of Rs.2570 Crore, little over five times of the RBI new norm; and, it has 501 branches, 2022 service centers and 50 ATMS across 24 States and has plan to scale up to 632 branches,250 ATMS in 27 States in next 18months(by 31March 2017).

                             It would have been much better if Bandhan Bank concentrated on the eastern region of the country with a strategy to saturate the demand for banking services in the area and captured idle cash sitting in rural homes (in RBI assessment 42 % of the total Idle cash remain in rural areas) and met the financing requirement of new social groups and youth apart from its traditional base of women self help groups and NGO. It could have claimed some viability gap funding from central govt. for bringing Idle cash into the mainstream in the entire eastern region. Since, Bandhan Bank has its strong base in the region; it could have scaled up much faster to completely cover approximately over 1.5 lakh villages in next 5 years and captured the benefit of economies of scale and lower span of control to manage the cumbersome and mammoth banking operations. This certainly could have created an economic multiplier effect and push up our GDP by 0.5-1 %. In contrast, spreading the Banking operation of Bandhan Bank thinly across the country would push the cost of operation quite unnecessarily and would result in faster burn out of valuable and expensive capital; thus, repeating 3 mistakes of Regional Rural Bank (Gramya Bank) in their lives.

In India we rarely understand the satisfaction of completing a task; rather, enjoy keeping a few half completed or uncompleted tasks which is a bane of Indian mindset that holds up the country from faster progress and advancement; be it in technology or business.                            

                                  There is a huge opportunity for Bandhan Bank to be able to spruce up our rural economy by adding Agricultural & Agro Consulting Division to its operation to offer practical guidance to farmers with their crop plan, its processing, storage and marketing with deployment of suitable technology at a fraction of the cost of public sector banks and at the same time could add an additional revenue stream to its existing portfolio. Over a period of time Bandhan Bank could also attempt to create entrepreneurs in rural areas in the domain of food processing, warehousing, cold storage and logistics. In five years from now Bandhan Bank could turn out to be one of the largest and most profitable commercial banks of the country knowing the virgin market and untapped potential of a universal bank at a lower transactional cost.  

     

Communication with Vishal Sikka,CEO of Infosys--Transformational Changes in Enterprise

Vishal Sikka,

This is with reference to your statement “principles of Aikido transforming the chaotic energy of an enterprise into focused precision that can help move the enterprises forward”. In Indian context we could use three other techniques for bringing transformational changes in an enterprise.

1. Prof. M.S.Anand, former Director of IIT Madras once said “assign a team of competent unlike minds to crack toughest of problems of an enterprise and give them a time frame to complete the task without outside supervision; 80% of the time they would come out with something that would be of surprise & of immense importance for the enterprise”. I wish to add—in India we have diversity in language, religion and culture in each part of our country; our brains must be wired differently; that would come handy in cracking problems of an enterprise if we carefully select the team. This is just an opinion that needs validation.
2. We can develop an organization culture of applying our minds to resolve the problems in our Macro Environment that would eventually train the employees to resolve the Micro Problems of an enterprise in technology or business with much more competence and discipline. For example if Infosys employees at different location examine the civic problems of the city on a voluntary basis and come out with solutions pertaining to say Traffic Management, Solid Waste Management, Quality of Road Infrastructure and Forestation. The same team would contribute with new product or service design for Infosys over a period of time. Problem Solving in real life would become a way of life and an organizational culture.
3. Ignite Creativity—Enterprise can also bring transformational changes in the organization by Igniting the Creativity of their employees. Enterprise can sponsor programs on Art, Music & Literature in regular intervals for interested employees and even can reimburse the training cost of those who excel in any one of the activity to make them happier in life that should translate into a very healthy bottom line of enterprise with new additions to innovative products and services.

Hope, Infosys would make an attempt to validate these Ideas.