Saturday, November 28, 2009

Lessons to learn - Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Price rise & Inflation: ‘Elecflation’ –i coined this term for ‘election induced inflation’. This is a recurring phenomenon

I see a lot of hue and cry on the inflation and price rise of vegetables and pulses. While the public is worried, government seems to be doing nothing on it. Why???
Answer: Whenever there are elections, the business houses are forced to contribute to election funding or false cases built up against business houses to make money to fund the party. So how will the business houses recover the money they have spent for the elections? So very naturally, the politicians are also obliged to allow these business houses to hoard and sell at higher prices till they recover in multiples of the money paid for fighting elections. It is a simple election driven price inflation. Remember , same politicians and business houses will meet again for the next elections

I was recently addressing a gathering and i told the people that we don’t have any political parties in India. The people were quite anxious to know what made me conclude this? To which, i explained that what we have today are ‘election parties’ & not ‘Political parties’. Election parties come up with a manifesto during elections and then forget everything for another five years and spring into action again gearing for the next mandate. If we had political parties or politicians then we would have a long term vision for this great nation. Unfortunately, we don’t have politicians. A politician or a political party cannot run a nation of 1.2 billion population without an agenda for 10, 20 & 30 years. Adhocism has not taken this nation anywhere in the last 60+ years

Also, no politician or party can take credit for India’s growing middle class. What we are today is not by design but by default and fault of failed policies and politicians. Fortunately, it puts India in the right spot at the right time. But we should not brag about it but we must have a long term vision and policies and actions to shape the destiny for the nation

Just think, 1/6th of India is under naxalites, 4/6th of India is poor. So whatever you read or see as India opportunity is just representing 1/6th of India. I.e. 200 million Indians are in a position to afford what you have. This blog will only reach may be 40-50 million people. Isn’t that an irony of a nation with 1.2 billion brains? We are exporting brains and then importing technology. We are not a democracy but a pseudo-democracy for just 200 million Indians

There are clearly three segments of Indian population.

People who vote (majority are paid or coerced to vote – these are the people who fall into 800 million people living @less than 2 $ a day)

People who make others to vote (town class or semi urban middle class or Political workers.)

People who are voted – run into a few million as elected or rejected candidates who have the best of all available and are above the law of the land)
It is a time to change ................................The democracy that is India is for 1/6th of the population. Remaining 5/6th is either under the slavery of naxalites or poverty.

On 25th /11 there was a function organised at the Mumbai police Gymkhana. As a trustee of the United Force of India i was asked to share my views on the Mumbai security after 26/11. I only asked one question to the journalists. If after one year of attacks our elected representatives can be manhandled in the Vidhan Sabha and our journalists can be beaten and their office vandalised. Where are we? What security are we speaking about? We are just waiting for another attack to happen and it will!!

Now coming to Dubai crises: For long, i have believed that we are chasing wrong goals as an economy. In fact, on 19th January, i wrote a letter to our Hon’ble P.M. that we should not build our economy on dollars but it should be built on agriculture and SME’s. Free dollar flow is a sign of future pain!! .

See the case of India’s stock markets . The FII’s invest in it raise the index , exit and book profits . Poor Indian retail investors lose when such FII’s exit . But you cannot do anything . The big fish make money . My perception is that , this is happening with the concurrence of the people who are a party to such ‘short money making tactics’. Every politician starts as a humble farmer or a worker and then becomes a ‘uncrowned king’ with schools , charitable institutions , real estate , business ventures unheard and unimagined by people like you and me . We have seen the case of YSR’s son, Reddy brothers , Madhu Koda and the list is end less ............

Take the case of Dubai. Now people have started calling it ‘Doob Gayee’ . Dubai built their economy on dollars and we know their fate. If India does not focus on Agriculture and SME’s. We will cry with pain. I recently read Dr. Manmohan Singh statements that with strong FDI inflows, our economy is slated to grow 9 %. I sometimes, don’t understand why are we still dependent on the foreign money? This FII / FDI are like a refined and sophisticated terms for EIC – East India Company. They will take profits abroad. These instruments have only one goal – Feast on the growing middle class. Do we allow them? The day we make our ’Farmers , the father of the nation , the nation will turn into a vibrant economy’. I wish Dr.Singh to say some day that our farmers contribute to the growing GDP and SME contribute to a majority of dollar inflow .

Lastly, i must quote our Environment Minister, Mr. Jairam Ramesh - ‘If there was a noble prize for filth, India would get it hands down as there would be no competitors’. I expected our M.P. friends to seek his resignation for officially calling India a land of filth. He is a union minister and he should have abstained from making such a degrading comment on this great nation. Anything he says impacts India’s image negatively. What will people think about India when they read about this ‘noble prize’ eligibility for India? Do we expect more tourism with such statements or do we get more sanitation funds from WB / WHO etc with such irresponsible comments? Is the entire nation full of filth? Mr. Minister, please apologise for your senile statements and resign . You are getting your perks from this nation of filth .
Does it not prick your conscience to bring about a change in the nation than to complain??

Each one of you can bring about a small change in the scheme of things . Think small , aim big and act fast .




Rajendra Pratap Gupta
President
Country First
Email: President@countryfirst.org / mail@rajendragupta.org

Friday, November 6, 2009

Plenary address at the India Health Summit - Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Plenary address at the India Health Summit 2009, Rajendra Pratap Gupta, President, DMAI & Director, DMAA- The Care Continuum Alliance, USA

Dear Friends,

This is an interesting audience which includes policy makers and those who can influence policy makers. I have a short message for you all. I feel so great about our nation. The developed world has failed in healthcare, and fortunately, in India, we are starting to build our healthcare system. This is the time when we can have the strong fundamentals ingrained in our population health improvement model

According to Kaiser Family Foundation the healthiest 50 % of Americans account for just 3 % of the annual spending; the sickest 15 % represents nearly 75 %. Half of the spending goes to those 55 and over, a third to those over 65 and over. In Europe, the chronic care accounts for 70 % of the healthcare expenses.

Today, we are the youngest nation with an average age of approximately 26.5 years, 30 years from now; we will be the oldest nation. Also, that we will become older before we become wealthier.

At present, we are not able to provide healthcare to more than 65 % of our population, and we are growing in numbers and age both. If we don’t pay attention to preventive healthcare, our health systems will soon become over burdened, under-funded and outdated as well.

This sums up clearly that we need primary preventive care as the starting point for healthcare and secondary preventive care in the continuum of care. We have the best of tertiary care in India but preventive care is missing!!

I believe that the biggest threat to our healthcare system is our generation. Our ‘lifestyle’ will lead to ‘disorders’ that will become the ‘Chronic diseases’ for us, and ‘Genetic disorders’ for our very own next generation. It is a call to action.

I must reach out to you all the come and participate in the three Global campaigns that I am starting at the Disease Management association of India

1. Red Flag campaign - If you have BMI above 23. Work Hard. Did you all ever think that having a BMI at 25 is being at borderline and being predisposed to chronic risks!! Let’s try and get it at 23. A healthier India should be our goal
2. Blue Building Campaign – We have green buildings to conserve energy. What about conserving health and becoming more employee health friendly. let’s have blue buildings, where the employers are proactive about employees health
3. Eat more, Burn more campaign. Have the RDA for each lifestyle. Live happy, live healthy. If you eat more, don’t feel guilty and regret, just you need to work out a little more and burn the extra calories. Isn’t that simple.

Thank you.