Lasting Rose

Showing posts with label CAG. Show all posts

Now the Indians Want to Send their Prime Minister to The Tihar Jail.

The Indian education system has miserably failed to create a new generation of ‘thinking’ and discerning minds to control the finger tips on the keyboards which deliver a variety of services to the rest of the world.

Instead millions of Indian youth, with ready access to the cyber world, whip up thoughtless and highly damaging frenzy, like the twitter trend ‘#coalgate’ created yesterday on a leaked report alleging Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh of presiding over a scam of $ 211 Billion involving sale of Indian coal mines to private companies.

What is more mind boggling than the penchant of the CAG ( Comptroller and Auditor General ) of India to project assumed losses of astronomical sums to the government on account of corruption, is the willingness of millions of ‘educated’ Indians, on whom the west happily outsource everything, to jump in to ridiculous conclusions and create a frenzy like 'coalgate'.

1.3 billion Indians who live in India are a species apart on the surface of this earth which can’t see where the petrol is coming from because it refuses to see what happens worldwide in the supply of petrol. The average Indian believes government subsidy is the birth right of every Indian. If you are generous, you can attribute this to a lack of education which gives an overview of the world they live in and share with others.

But for millions of educated Indians, who share the information revolution and the cyberspace with the rest of the world, there is no excuse to realise and accept that there is nothing called a free meal.

For example, conceding that corrupt practices were resorted to in execution, the Prime Minister had already explained why and how the 2G spectrum was liberally distributed, as a Government policy, to encourage the telecom Industry.

This has seen India’s subscriber population exploding to a massive 700 million in a few years, who enjoy the lowest of rates anywhere in the world, thanks to the $39 billion it didn’t amass as licence fees, which would have been passed on to the consumers.

In fact what the Indian consumer has benefited from is an indirect and unspoken subsidy of call charges equivalent to the same amount, if they were to be compared with the rest of the world. Whether the western investors would have rushed to India to invest that kind of money in licence fees is a different matter.

The new report of the CAG with accusation of loss of $211 billion to the government, which has been leaked and subsequently refuted by the CAG, arises from a government action indented to stimulate the mining Industry.

The government and several Industry leaders have already pointed out why the CAG’s conclusions are baseless.

"Many of the blocks are uneconomic, you have to share between two or three parties and most of these blocks have hardly been explored at all. So remember, you would have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in exploration, development and infrastructure to exploit them," he said. "I think it will be forgotten quickly."

With the furore created over the issue, with heads of almost every leading Indian corporate from TATA to Arcelor Mittal as well as the Prime Minister himself likely to get a summons from the supreme court and possibly a term inside the infamous Tihar Jail already hosting a few ministers, the Indian’s can forget not only the development of the coal industry but any reform which should secure India’s legitimate position among developed nations.

With the two corporate heads of the $ 17 Billion Essar group already summoned by the Court in the fallout of the 2G scam, similar action cannot be ruled out and the dust is not going to settle despite any government attempt to brush away the aspersion cast by the leaked report.

If that happens, only the senseless politicians and thoughtless youth of India are to be blamed.

Article first published as Now The Indians Want To Send Their Prime Minister To The Tihar Jail. on Technorati.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Posted by Unknown

Tag : #coalgate, #lrose, CAG, coalgate, India, Manmohan Singh, Our World

Who Can Make The Rip Van Winkles of Global Economy Accountable?

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Unlike Rip Van Winkle, the legendary character by the American author Washington Irving, who woke up from a twenty year sleep and was shocked to see a changed world, the modern day version, the US credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s, is sending the world economy in to a tail spin. The question is why the whole world has to pay for someone’s inaction?

The S & P’s faulty down grade of the US credit rating to +AA status, among other things, is attributed for the current world financial turmoil illustrated by the leading headlines of this week:

· Lakshmi Mittal, Carlos Slim lose $10 billion in a week

· Turmoil on stock markets persist

· U.S. Credit Downgrade By S&P Darkens Economic Outlook, Stokes Recession Fears

· Emergency talks called to calm global financial crises

Stung by the first-ever downgrade to its top-notch sovereign credit rating, the US has hit back at S & P, saying that the rating agency's flawed analysis has put its own credibility and integrity at risk.

S & P is not the lone Rip of the Global Economy who creates turmoil by ill conceived and un substantiated adverse remarks on nation’s economies. The Comptroller and Accountant General of India has recently come out with reports claiming losses of USD 39 billion to the government in lost licence revenue, which has been misinterpreted by the Indian masses as government corruption of the same amount, stalling India’s growth.

The question is why these agencies have gone in to long slumber of inaction while things were definitely going astray and why they have to get the figures and facts so wrong when they eventually chose to proclaim their shocking revelations.

The crucial thing is, with the globalisation, the damaging effects are no more limited to countries but the whole world. With these watch dog agencies being allowed to act independently or just constitutional set ups with out any answerability to anyone, time has come to decide if they can be allowed to continue to function in the same way or at least operate under guide lines to contain or limit the damage arising out of sentiment erosion and confidence deficit caused around the world.

It is very consoling to see that stalwarts of Capitalism like Warren Buffet have come forward to defend the US Economy, despite the echoes of pessimism emanating from

Competing economies like

China

What is giving concern though is the appalling lack of comprehension of the situation and the apathy shown by the current bunch of leaders of the developed world, like may of the EU nations who have chosen to enjoy their summer holidays without resolving burning issues in Italy and Spain, which smacks of Nero’s playing of his fiddle while Rome was burning.

The protracted congressional drama over the credit limit, which appeared to be plain partisan electioneering for all thinking people, which precipitated the current action by S & P has demonstrated a similar apathy of the

leadership.

Can we afford to let our leaders to be Rip Van Winkles in their elected positions? I guess the way the world markets will react on Monday will decide.

Article first published as Who Can Make The Rip Van Winkles of Global Economy Accountable? on Technorati.

Sunday, August 07, 2011

Posted by Unknown

Tag : CAG, Our World, Rip Van Winkle, Warren Buffet