WHY WE WILL MISS RAGHURAM RAJAN?

Bikash Choudhury 

Raghuram Rajan is the only global economist who could teach the complex formulations of Macro-Economic policy to a crowd; and, you will see people nodding their heads in confirmation in grasping the issues under deliberations. If you were at the venue of Harekrushna Mahatab Memorial Lecture at Bhubaneswar last month then you could have witnessed the phenomena; you would also have noticed how the auditorium was choke a block full, people standing craning their neck and people spilling over to the lobby with a desire to listen whatever they can from Dr. Rajan. You would have been surprised or becoming simply jealous to see the tall-dark and handsome guy getting all the ladies attention at the event; he was no less than a ‘Bollywood Diva’ or a “Rock Star’ of western make. However, it was not his good looks that was being feted that evening; rather, his razor sharp mind, intimate understanding about the macro economy & monetary policy, his intellectual honesty and of course ample amount of guts to say things in public that most central bankers avoid touching. The summary of his memorial lecture was centered on the wisdom of pursuing good macro economic policy that would be sustainable in long run against the perils of following an aggressive monetary policy that could bring the entire financial system to grief if the gamble did not pay off as most often that it does. He said “Helicopter Money” may not bring consumption growth as in uncertain times people would rather save the windfall gains than spending or investing. He was of the opinion that the innovation should be directed towards the problems of society to be able to add to the GDP. He was against the Oligopolies who buy out small innovative companies which fails to transfer real growth to the economy and fails to create enough jobs for the society. He also drew attention to the aging factor in developed economies that has impacted their growth numbers. This would remain a memorable public lecture at Bhubaneswar for long time to come.

                                          The contribution of Dr.Raghuram Rajan towards our monetary policy has been well documented to be repeated once again. However, his leadership abilities and his grasp over socio-economic-politics and his unorthodox approach to work and his capacity for free thinking and his extraordinary abilities of communicating with stake holders needs to be probed and written about to disseminate why he managed to earn admiration and adulation from a large cross section of people. He has a sixth sense in identifying problem and the courage of conviction to prescribe the most appropriate dose of medicine in terms of policy and remain rock solid pursuing his policies against all provocation; while, remaining calm and composed and at the same time making right noises for the stake holders to comprehend what he intends to do; whether they agree or disagree. In his initial days at the mint street he first enhanced the interest rates against popular expectations and tapered it off much later while controlling the inflationary pressures. He also dealt with the ultra volatility in our currency without employing traditional methods which emphasizes his grasp over global finance and various tools and techniques of Macro-Economic Engineering; therefore, non of his predecessors were as successful as he was in dealing with the currency market. He was very audacious in saying that the “Make in India” the export lead growth model may not be appropriate for India as the export market of western countries and North America has dried up because of domestic factors. This was later confirmed by our own slump in exports and recent Goldman Sach report that emphasizes on “Rural and Farming Sector” for Indian growth story. It was he who stumbled upon excesses committed by the US Financial System and its imminent dangers that hit Americawith sub prime crisis in 2008. Raghu Ram Rajan would be greatly missed in India not only for his economic & financial acumen alone; but for his immense potential to contribute to the society and politics, apart from his impeccable leadership qualities that millions of country men choose to follow voluntarily.    

HOW TO QUIT SMOKING?

BIKASH CHOUDHURY

A few years after I have started working, I get into habit of flying off a cigarette or two from the cigarette pack of our altruistic boss, just to show off that I am no longer a kid; can smoke like adult men; though, I did not relish the taste or even distantly liked the whole process of smoking. My benevolent boss, though, strictly warned me not to get into such stupid habit; which would be very difficult to get out of it, later; rather, it will make an unnecessary big hole in your purse. I did not listen to his sage advice then and suffered immensely for over 15 years becoming a mild version of a chimney--chain smoker, who will need a cigarette after tea, after a good meal, after closing a great deal, after loosing a order to competition, while meeting an old friend, while traveling in a train, before going to sleep and in the hotel room while alone or listening to music after dark; so as reader would have noticed that the excuse for a smoke went on adding which unknowingly killed a huge amount of time and money-in my last count I would have spent about Rs.3.5 Lakhs on cigarettes alone which is a huge amount of money in today’s date. In 15 years many family members, friends, neighbors and kids requested me to quit cigarette; one of them was very emotional and poignant one; as a little niece of mine after a discussion in her class room about the dangers of smoking; designed a special card herself and presented me to leave cigarette for good; I promised her but could not leave the habit in spite of my best efforts. There after I made many attempt to leave this killer habit; so much so that I organized a party by calling friends and family for dinner and boldly announced that I am quitting cigarette from today; some appreciated my boldness while others were critical about spending good money over bad money; nevertheless I quit cigarette for about 3 months; however, there was a strong urge to return to smoking as I was missing the process of smoking after a drink or a meal. One of those unfortunate days one shop keepers inadvertently offered me my brand of cigarette and I could not resist the temptation and smoked that cigarette and many more after that incident and returned to my old habit of chain smoking once again. I distinctly remember one cold evening in December 2014 sat down with myself in my study to figure out the New Year resolution for 2015; after spending a few hours over a few mugs of chilled non-alcoholic beverage and swirling a few cigarettes, jotted down on a piece of A4 paper, couple of things including “to quit cigarette” which was on the top of the agenda; I filed that paper very religiously in my box file. I again reminded myself again and again by reading and re-reading those resolution till 31^st December 2014 and took a cigarette after dinner before the “0” hour and stopped smoking for about two weeks in the new year and returned to the old habit once again during one such delayed celebration of the New year-2015; but, with a very heavy heart and great remorse for breaking the sacred resolution taken earlier. However, I continued to revisit that piece of paper containing New Year resolutions many times during the day while genuinely intending to leave smoking for good; however, the urge to smoke while getting up in the morning was too powerful to resist. And, the crime continued unabated during the day and even night. This bad habit of mine was also complicating my family life to an extent; but, still the magnetism of nicotine was drawing me to this and holding me in its grip with intoxication and also suffocation. This went on till December 2015; when I decided enough is enough and I shall Quit Smoking without wasting another piece of paper for New Year resolution and actually, crudely writing down 2016 on that old paper mocking at myself. However, before that I sat down alone with self and went deep into the recesses of the mind to figure out those temptations for smoking and erasing any thing written on those soft tissues about cigarette or smoking. This time I started early and benignly reduced the intake of cigarettes by half from 23 December 2015 and when there was an urge to smoke I replaced cigarette with an Amla mouth freshener; however, on 27^th December 2015; I completely stopped smoking cigarette much before the clock stroked the new year 2016 and even stopped taking the mouth freshener since 1^st January 2016 and I live today on the sixth month of 2016 to tell my story how I have managed to stay away from cigarette completely so many months; even daringly visited those same places where I used to smoke for a cup of tea and refused taking cigarettes from the smoking pals politely. Having conquered over the bad habit, on 31^st May 2016(World No Tobacco Day) I along with my spouse campaigned against the dangers of tobacco smoking in Bhubaneswar in which we counseled about 17 persons while they were smoking and handed over a leaflet prepared for the purpose. The campaign took us to Budha Park in the city where we met many people while jogging and educated about the danger of tobacco from the perspective of a reformed person like me. I only hope those who are struggling to leave tobacco can be inspired from my story.

GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT

GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT

DISCUSSION WITH SRI AUROBINDO BEHERA IAS., Retd.

1-     Why in spite of over 60 years of our independence our Government record is so abysmal?

(a)    Need Inspirational Leadership in Bureaucracy.

(b)   Need Human Resources Development Model in Government like Google for efficiency and effectiveness.

(c)    Change the feudalistic culture in Government and replace with meritocracy. i) - Abolish Class-4 employees, ii) - Training & Development for managing the skill & knowledge gap in bureaucracy that would lead to a meritocracy culture.

(d)   Empowering the Bottom of the Pyramid in the bureaucracy that would facilitate emergence of new Ideas, new momentum and Speed in execution.

(e)    Adopt a program titled “Best Government of the World”: Comparing performance of Bureaucracy against the best private sector corporation in the World.

(f)    10% improvement in Government efficiency would translate into 20% growth in ease of doing business/growth in GSDP.

(g)    Aesthetic Design and Cleanliness to be adopted in all Governance model.

(h)   District Sachivalaya that looks after all revenue, security, governance departments in the district with District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police reporting to the Secretary of District Sachivalaya who would have 15-20 years of experience in administration. And, do away with RDC model.

DEVELOPMENT

800 years ago Odisha could construct Konark Temple with 12 years of surplus revenue of the State. Why our Farmers committee suicide now?

1.800 years ago our agricultural & agro exports used to be our surplus revenue.

2. We have to adopt Agricultural Model for growth.

3. We have to return to Natural/Organic Agriculture.

4. Encourage group of villages to come together for economic activity by sponsoring technical/managerial manpower by Government for limited period.

5. Encouraging village level Agricultural co-operative for farming purpose.

6. Encouraging Corporate Farming.

7. Target 40% of processing of Agricultural produce locally to reduce the cost of food mile-logistics cost.

8. Innovation-Excellence-Enterprise in all walks of life.

9. Adopting Art-Music-Literature in public policy for economic growth through tourism.

10. Women empowerment through part time jobs in strategically located production/service centers to use available skills for economic benefits.

11. Water conservation as economic policy.

12. Brand New Metro city in the circumference of Chilika Lake where urban & rural sector would co-exist having dedicated to Art-Music-Literature and Innovation-Excellence-Enterprise.  

WORLD ANTI TOBACCO DAY 31 MAY

QUIT SMOKING

Gain Confidence & Happiness

Look at my story:

• After a lot of trial & tribulation I finally quit smoking after 15 years on 1^st January 2016. It is almost 5 months; neither have I touched a cigarette nor taken any substitute for cigarette.
• I have gained tremendous Confidence, a sense of incredible achievement and a lot of happiness after Quitting Cigarette.
• I am now saving Rs.4000.00 per month that my wife blows up in shopping and remain pleased.
• Saving almost 90 minutes a day that was squandered on smoking 15 sticks.
• Added, Happiness in my family. After Quitting smoking my digestive system has improved and having lesser incident of gastric and acidity.

ON WORLD ANTI-TOBACCO DAY QUIT SMOKING

                                                            WILL YOU?

LEAD A HAPPY AND HEALTHY LIFE!

For counseling contact: streben.market@gmail.com

QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT OF 2016

Quit India Movement of 1942 was one of the successful popular people’s movement that eventually drove British power from India in 1947. It could reach the hearts & minds of ordinary men and aroused the passion for the freedom of the country. India now needs one such popular movement that would fire the imagination of people on Swaccha Bharat, Water Conservation and Afforastation. Government of India and all State Governments could deploy the High School/College/University Students in this “Summer Vacation” to raise awareness across the country and also to mobilize people to adopt some basic goals towards Swaccha Bharat and Water Conservation.

1.                      Students Community could be deployed in 600 Cities and Towns during the current Summer Vacation to raise awareness and convince house holds to adopt conversion of Organic Wastes into Compost (Manure) that would reduce 50% Solid Waste. Further, segregation of solid wastes at “Source” could be targeted for recycling that would create valuable employment opportunity.

2.                      Students could also raise awareness against Open Defecation/Urination in the Cities and Towns which would have immediate and substantial health benefits. Government and respective Civic authorities could provide necessary infrastructure like public toilets/urinals in sufficient quantity to achieve 100% compliance.

3.                      Students could raise awareness about water conservation and afforestion in “Rural Areas”. They could also mobilize people in rural areas to actually renovate all existing water bodies to enhance their water carrying capacity during monsoons. Plantation work could also be taken up wherever it is feasible in rural areas.

4.                      This program should take the color of a popular public movement with the Leadership of Members of Parliament and involvement of Celebrities and Prominent Citizens of respective locality. This program should be extensive and intensive enough for a limited period so as to leave its mark for long time.

5.                      Other creative pursuits like Art, Music, and Dance/Flash Mob could be embedded in the movement to make the activity more interesting and lively for both participants and general public.

6.                      This activity/ program could Kill all such residual Negativity and should be able to Create a “New Spirit of India” for social and economic progress of the country soon.      

Can India Leverage its Strength in Art, Craft, Architecture and Culture?

Bikash Choudhury

For thousands of years India was able to attract Global attention to its rich traditions of Art, Craft, Architecture, its diverse culture and epiphany of festivals. Its mythology, tradition of medical science, spiritualism, philosophy on life, yoga, religion drawn people from far and wide across the World to the seat of learning at ancient universities like Nalanda and Taxyasila. Apparently, World is just ready for buying Indian Traditional Knowledge to make a difference to the quality of lives of their respective people. No wonder, with just one speech of our Prime Minister, United Nations agreed to celebrate 21 June as International Yoga Day to highlight the importance of Yogic Science for a healthy body and active mind. In spite of sophisticated technology and management science the developed economies going through deep turmoil. The problem of such economies lies in the gross disparity in income and wealth, culture of ostentatious consumption and wastage of public resources on unproductive investment in weapons of mass destruction. The ever growing disparity of income making the capitalist system of free enterprise fail due to lack of demand for goods and services as those who can consume do not have the cash to buy or skill to earn a good living. If developed economies do not make correction sooner or later; then, there are chances the whole system would collapse. If 10% of people earn and own 90% of income and wealth and vice-versa; then, the highly skewed income and wealth shall clog the cycle of demand and consumption making the whole economy very unproductive.  The solution lies in voluntary philanthropy and progressive government policies to assist weaker people as and when needed. This requires an enabling mindset of renunciation; which can be created through Indian traditional knowledge of art, craft, architecture and culture by simply making people happy and joyful with very little resources. Therefore, Government at the Center and States, Public & Private Sector organizations and NGO should get together to promote our traditional Art, Craft, Architecture and Culture in a big way so as to capture the attention of Developed Economies. First of all, we need to develop a new culture of buying art for our home and work places, Second, institutional mechanisms to promote Artist with moral and material help, Third, need for identification and documentation of dying art forms and necessary Governmental efforts for its revival, Fourth, need to convince mutual funds to consider Art as an asset category for investment with lucrative returns, Fifth, Governmental efforts for export of Art, Craft & Architecture in collaboration with Indian Diaspora & Indian Business having overseas operations. There would be a need for training and retraining of our Artisans and Sculptures to once again design and export master pieces like Konark and Khajuraho to advanced countries reinventing a $100 billion USD Industry of Arts & Architecture. Shall we?   

E-MAIL:streben.market@gmail.com/ forum4politicalunity@gmail.com MOBILE: 9853426657/7504106233 address: Plot No#3309 Adarsha Vihar Lane-2 Patia Bhubaneswar-751024              

     

GOOD POLICY NEEDS EQUALLY GOOD EXECUTION

29^th February 2016 would go down in the annals of history as a historic day on which a land mark and path breaking legislation--finance bill was introduced in the parliament with a mandate to lift the socio-economic condition of people from the bottom of pyramid in consonance with investment and improvement in the quality of infrastructure & a stable and predictable financial architecture. All these are intended to bring a “transformative” change in the lives of maximum number of people in the country. However, unless and until we plan for a proactive execution strategy all the good intentions would just remain on paper inside the bureaucratic red tape. Therefore, GoI could also plan for an efficient strategy to capture the outcome of such good policy drafted at great pain and huge cost.

1. Apart from other existing arrangements for efficient execution; GoI could take additional care to implement its policies effectively by bringing GoI into the doorstep of all State Capitals once in two months by drafting the union minister of respective States to take stock of the execution of GoI programs, policies for the benefits of people in a constructive and accommodative manner keeping the larger and greater welfare of the people in mind. Identically, GoI could persuade State Govt. to depute their ministers of respective districts to review the execution of policy & programs with the District authorities once in two months. Similarly, District administration would be expected to take stock of execution at Tehesil/Block level; bringing a synergy and high level of co-ordination between Block level administration to central government, thus creating additional capacity for command control mechanism in the entire chain of Governance.

2. That apart, GoI could assign specific task of touring their respective constituency and mobilize their constituents behind the people welfare programs of GoI wherever required and also to collect and share information about the quality of execution with the State and Central Government in order to offer a non-bureaucratic assessment for better monitoring of socio-economic programs at far flung places of the country.