Why only seek quota for Muslims ?

According to the study done by NCAER along with the University of Maryland ,nearly one third of the muslims in the nation live below the poverty line on less than Rs.550 a month, and those in villages survive on Rs. 338 a month .

Same study also revealed that over 50 % of the Adivasi and 32 of the Dalits are leaving below the poverty despite quotas for over 60 years .

Mandal battle started and was won on the Gangetic plains , but the reservations have failed to raise the standards and serve its purpose .

Two questions :

Why are the quotas only asked for Muslims even in the recent debate on reservations for Women ?

Have quotas lived upto their expectations ?

Should we not do away with caste or religion based quotas and move to a financial denominator driven reservation system that does not discriminate on the basis of caste but on financial status ?

Time to evolve

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Email : office@rajendragupta.in

Demystifying retail FDI

All the major retailers be it Pantaloon , RPG ,Reliance or Bharti . All are shouting from the top of their retail roofs about their demand that India needs to become more liberal and allow Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI ) in retail

Let’s study where retail is, and why do we need FDI ?

A lot of people jumped into retail around 2000 including Pantaloons, Subhiksha , Vishal , Adani group etc . A few years later, excited by the ‘unsubstantiated reports’ from the top consulting firms about the fantastic retail sector , every major corporate houses like RPG, TATA , Birla’s and Reliance also joined the bandwagon. It lead to competitive retail . All Retailers were vying for the same space , same people & same vendors for a much higher price . Marketing costs increased but margins decreased .

Finally , everyone in retail burned their fingers and lost hundreds of Crores . A few merged or died a natural death !!

I have written earlier ( in 2007 ) in my column that retail in the current form and format was unviable . We see that , when we look at the closures of stores at all major retailers. I think that the way forward is clear , either you have to get into Hypermarkets or small ( Kirana ) format . There is no place for medium ( so called super market ) retail format . I see that the Indian customer’s fondness for variety and prices coupled with the entertainment options within the retail super space !! No other format except Hypermarket will succeed

Back to my main topic why do we need FDI :

What do retailers need to succeed ?


Technical knowhow – This can be had by hiring experienced people from abroad who are happily willing to come and work in India or through the franchising route

Vendor or sourcing arrangements – can be done via franchising tie ups

Merchandising mix- Actually , this is the least of problems as one can go around and see what all is visible and can be copied

Brand value – Franchising tie ups can bring brands like Wal-mart etc

Training the retail staff – Can be locally developed in collaboration with international tie ups

Money to grow – Here is where the answer lies – Retailers in India are loss making and even if a few who are reporting profits , they have uncertainty over the consistent growth and profits . Retailers know that they need to make the best of the opportunity with major foreign retailers entering India. Whenever FDI is allowed, it is a foregone conclusion that major foreign retailers would either pick up a stake or buy the local retailers out at ‘Decent valuations’ and the promoters will cash out with big bucks .


I do not understand if the retailers are successful , why should they have problems with raising money locally ? Any investor would be keen to invest in a profitable venture or the money can be raised from the stock markets. Rest all can be had as mentioned above via tie up or recruitment of experienced people from abroad

PE / VC's are not investing in retail as it is not profitable, and the successful model is still to be seen. Government must be firm that it will not allow FDI in retail , as it will definitely kill smaller retailers . Government should evaluate what the retailers need and understand their reasons for asking FDI to open in retail sector. These ‘failed retailers’ will cash on and exit , and the Indian retail scene will get dominated by biggies in retail like Wal-mart or Carrefour or Tesco’s of the world . I see more deaths in retail in the times ahead. Indian retailers have still not figured out a successful retail format and that is the challenge, and FDI in retail does not have an answer . Indian government should only allow franchising in retail and nothing else. If retailers want to raise money they must either raise it privately or through the stock market

If we allow FDI in retail at this point , it will be like creating another East India company and India will lose heavily

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

emai: office@rajendragupta.in

IPL- Politicians are where the money is

Why are people so surprised at the disclosures coming out of IPL ?

We all know that politicians get into anything that makes money ( read only big money ). Why is Sharad Pawar left out in this scandal- he is the king pin . ? He would have made less money than Lalit and allowed him to stay ? Money making in politics is hierarchical ! If you all think that only Lalit made money , you are fooling yourselves ?

Imagine , that a person of the stature of Shashi Tharoor could not resist the big bucks , what about petty politicians who are in this game ? Let CBI investigate everyone on the board of IPL. I am aware who all are there on the board and still i am asking this inquiry .

It is a big ‘white collar crime’ - an organized corporate corruption racket . Bust it and send the chaps to jail

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Water Tanker Mafia's at work

To : Ashok Chavan , Murli Manohar Joshi and Rahul Gandhi via Email

Mumbai under Siege by water mafia

It is quite disappointing to see that every week water pipelines are getting damaged in Mumbai. More people live in Delhi and water is carried by pipes there as well !!

“In 2007, the ‘redefined’ Delhi urban agglomeration has (a population of) 21.5 million people against 19.3 million in Greater Mumbai. Why do the pipes burst only in Mumbai so frequently, and that too, during the peak demand time ?

Now the BMC will spend Crores of rupees to repair the pipes . Water tankers ( read water mafia ) will use this opportunity to supply water in the affected areas. Is it not a calculated move by the water dons ?

I suggest that a CBI inquiry be instituted in this matter . It is a 1000 crore scandal with the connivance of local government , BMC & Water mafia .



Rajendra Pratap Gupta
Email: office@rajendragupta.in
Office.rajendra@gmail.com

73 murders , one land mine blast - A tribute to our Home Minister

Naxalites kill 73 CRPF personnel:


It is a big loss for each family member who lost these innocent hard workers. My sincere heartfelt condolence and i do hope that our political leaders wake up to reality than making a show travelling in the high security areas. I also hope that the government has given the actual figure on the causalities . 73 CRPF personnel are not ordinary public without arms , if they get killed in such large numbers , it is a warning sign !!

I just need to comment on two points today

First comment that our Home Minister made to the CM of West Bengal that the ‘Buck ends at the CM’. For the entire nation, the buck stops at the PM and his council of Ministers !! We need an answer that why these 73 people were killed ? What kind of democracy is this >

Gun salute that the Home minister has got has shown what it means for the future? Imagine how the villagers must be living under the fear of guns – Naxalites? How many loots, rapes and murders these naxalites must be committing every day? No one has a clue as there are no officials or police stations functioning in naxals hit areas.

Second comment :i think Vineet Jain (Managing Director, The Times of India) is the best fit for being the home minister of India. Reason - A reporter of the Times of India can reach the naxalites leader Koteshwara Rao and meet him whenever TOI wants, but not our force headed by the Home Minister! Time to wake up friends!

Rajendra Pratap Gupta
Email: office@rajendragupta.in

From CSR to ISR

Thanks Paritosh,

Keep up your good work. I hope that the article is as per your request on the issue of Naxalites . Though , i have covered other issues as well.

Here is what i want to do next . Your newsletter reaches out to 2 lac people . Let’s bounce this to them and build upon this

For a prosperous India - Fixing accountability is the biggest challenge and how we can address it

All the money that we pay as taxes is frolicked by these politicians without any questioning or accountability

Consider these examples :

1. Air India & Indian airlines ( NACIL ) will lose this year Rs. 4500 crore . Does the public realise that we will pay for these loses from our pocket as increased taxes on our fuel , service tax , property tax etc ? The parliamentary committee has asked the Ministry to pay for these loses as they have resulted from a wrong decision to merge these two incompatible airlines . Should we not sell it off to avoid thousands of Crores as loses ?
2. BSNL will lose a lot of money this year . While all private telecom players are making money and some are even open to acquiring foreign telecom companies . Why is BSNL losing money ? What has the government done to make it profitable ?
3. Dr. Manmohan Singh , Our ‘honest but inefficient’ PM & his team delayed the auction of the 3G spectrum by almost two years which would fetch our nation some Rs.30,000.00 crore. This delay caused our nation a loss of atleast Rs.6000.00 Crores . Now imagine that it was just an action of air waves with no hard infrastructure to be built in ? This year 8 new services were added in the budget to raise another Rs.3000 crore . We as citizens will pay newer and more taxes for the inefficiency of these leaders ? Who is responsible for this loss to the citizens ?
4. 7 out of 11 major projects announced by Mamta Banerjee have been given to West Bengal . This is when it will take another five years to connect the nation by railways ? No one asked her to justify the reasoning behind such an allocation !!
5. Last year , in the budget , the health minister announced National Urban Health Mission and allocated money for the same . This year , the project was shelved . Why was this announced in the first place ? No one has questioned why it was shelved
6. Austerity drive for the bureaucrats & political leaders is over . Now they can travel business class. On what basis has this decision been taken when we are falling short of budgeted revenue by thousands of Crores ? Public does not realise that it is our hard earned money that is being wasted. Domestic travel is on an average an 2 hours flight . Why should business class be offered at all. Infact, it should only be Economy class
7. Mayawati is installing statues from the money that people like you and me pay as taxes.
8. All ministers spend the largesse in their home constituency , while they represent the nation . They are biased . Why are they not questioned and removed ?

Now the question is , do these politicians realise that it is not their personal money ?

Most importantly , do the people know that directly or indirectly we are paying for all this from our hard earned money ? It is the money we pay as taxes that goes in such spending .

Every minute a politicians remains in office and every inch he or she moves , is funded by our money . Why do we not hold them accountable ?

I think , we need to form a tax payers association and ask these reckless spenders on everything they do that is a loss to us ?

We are paying more for food , fuels and more taxes with every year passing by, but there is no improvement in our lives . Nation is plagued by ‘Powerful announcement and powerless execution’

We cannot take all this with our eyes open and mouths closed.

Let us initiate the ‘Tax Payers Association’ and create education , awareness about all these and fix the accountability . Let’s fix this inefficient and corrupt national leadership . it is time to change ‘CSR – Corporate social responsibility ‘ into ISR – ‘Individual’s social responsibility’

It is our people, our money and our nation . Let’s not sleep anymore

I had discussions with Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary , CAIT - largest traders body with 5000 Supporting organizations and he is keen to take this idea further.

Let’s do it

Best regards

Rajendra

Growth, Recession & Realities

Dear Blog Readers,

Thanks for your continuous feedback . I am attempting to address the issues that you have talked about .

Over the last few months, i have been reading a lot about inflation , double digit growth and so on....................

We need to understand the real issues a little deeper and better if we wish to do something worthwhile for this nation

Consider the following :

A few decades back , government thought that nationalization was in the best interest of this nation and it nationalised the airlines , banks etc.......Now after a few decades , privatization is considered in the best interest of the nation !!!
The government was cursing the huge population in 80”s and termed it as ‘Population Explosion’ . Now the government is talking of the demographic dividend , because everyone across the world is talking about the same ! We are having the government that does not have original ideas but have copy cat versions or China inspired & induced growth !

What is the government doing to convert ‘No productivity jobs into low productivity jobs and finally into high productivity jobs' Every district should focus on productivity . People do not reason the government and never questions the actions and government even does not know if it is doing the right things .

Look at these facts

Between 2010 and 2020, India will add 120 million people in the ‘working age population’ . It will also add 43 Million senior citizens to its population . Does the government have a concrete plan to address this ?

If we do not plan for 120 million people that we are adding to the working age population , we will be provoking between 10-30 % of them into naxalites or anti-social elements . Imagine , 12-36 million gun wielding naxalites !!

If there is no growth , it does not lead to poverty . It either leads to ill health & evil minds . Which is more disastrous than poverty In the next 10 years , some parts of India will become more developed than they are today. We will become a more materialistic nation in places like Mumbai , Goregaon , Bangalore , Pune etc................. Media would have exposed this ‘Have not’s’ to this material world .

This will lead to aspirations in youth for a better life style, and with no means to make it to this elite league with legitimate means , the criminal route to making money will lead to more extortion , more drug lords and criminals in politics – GDP growth can be 8.5 % or 10 % but criminal activity will growth much faster under such conditions . There is no doubt on this . India will become a naxalite factory and will surpass Pakistan in producing anti-social elements

GDP attributable to agriculture is de-growing , GDP attributable to services and industry is growing . Agriculture not only supports 57 % of the work force & has low productivity per capita but has to feed the 1.2 Billion population else , we know the triple digit inflation that will strike India by 2050.

Agricultural productivity can go up if we bring down the cost of logistics from the current of 16 %. Worldwide , it is around 9 % ............. Government must plan in detail how to boost the agricultural productivity
We are treading a difficult path and the "demographic dividend will become a ‘demographic disaster’ or the ‘Demographic bomb’.


People with many educational degrees ( Indian experts from USA recruited by the government as advisors ) are working for people with no degrees (poor population ) . So they do not identify the real problem leave alone addressing the issues . Recently , i have heard about the food coupons being distributed to the BPL families . What a joke ? BPL people do not know how to read and write & also this is bound to be misused ( 10 paisa of every 10 rupees will reach the BPL families )

Few fundamentals have to change .

India has not to change , Indians have to change .

Made in India has to become made in ‘rural India’

We are talking of CSR ( Corporate Social Responsibility ) but what we need is ISR –(Individual’s Social Responsibility )


We are all talking of divestment . The government is looking to raise Rs.40,000.00 crore through divestment but why is government not looking at investing back 10 % of the divestment money to build another PSU that can yield returns disproportionate on its investments ? How about setting up the Solar Energy Corporation of India or the Hydro Power corporation of India ? Build them now . Don’t just sell

Governments tax collection targets have been missed by around Rs. 40000 crore, i am sure that divestment target is also going to be missed !! Where will be the GDP deficit be in 2011-12 ?

Indian government has not just to create jobs ( employment ) but also create entrepreneurs . It has to think inside the box only ( forget out of box ). Imagine , if different cities with tourism potential start training tourist guides , taxi drivers and listing them on a central website . People travelling to these towns can avail the services of the government approved guides at the pre-decided rates & can pay in advance through the website . The money can be transferred electronically directly to the service provider after a referral cut ( government can retail 20 % & transfer 80 % money). Safety & savings for tourists and income for self employed people .

Back to my favourite recession & India :

Why did recession in the USA / Europe not affect India so much Or you all believed that government was able to protect India from recession effectively ? Think about this report

Times of India , 17th March 2010. According to the WHO - UNICEF report ,58 % of all the people in the world who defecate in the open are in India . 638 Million people in India have no access to toilets . Will India, with such living conditions ever get effected by recession ? The same government could not control inflation . Imagine how they can control affects of recession – they faked the efforts and impacts and we all believed it like fools !

In 62 years after Independence , we have more than 60 % population having no access to ( toilets ) hygiene , 2/3rd of the population living in absolute poverty , 1/6th of the nation living in naxalites controlled areas . And we are already a “recession proof” India . Entire India has still not felt the impact of growth except a few urban towns , so recession hitting us is a joke ?

By the way , next few days will show India conquering the world as ‘ BHARTI is acquiring an African Telecom Giant’. Read all the headlines ................................

While you read these headlines , more than 50 % of India will go to sleep without a meal .............................

And also, according to the government , the austerity drive for Indian government is over & our babu’s and politico’s can fly business class, so finally , India is out of recession & in a high growth phase

Rajendra Pratap Gupta
Email : Office@rajendragupta.org