Union Budget- My Wishlist

Come 26th and we would be witnessing the Annual Budget for the Financial year 2010-2011. The last budget set a cautiously optimistic perception on India Inc and the common man. This year, I believe, we must look ahead at an 9-10% GDP growth rate in addition to containing fiscal deficit. Greece must have been bailed out by other EU nations and organisations but we need to set a strong eye on reducing our deficit which is 10.3% of GDP, both centre and states combined.

I highly appreciate the social sector schemes such as NREGA and others that were outlayed last year and this year we need to look at strengthening the structural implementation of these schemes to make them more effective. Some states have already started implementing Biiometrics and other technologically effective delivery mechanism and it will bear fruits over the coming months.

Revenue generation-
The current move to deregulate non-urea fertiliser prices shall also lead to efficient utilisation of fertiliser resources. In addition to this, we should also be looking at removing subsidies where ever possible.

Aditionally, with the introduction of GST, we can look forward to removal of unwanted indirect taxes and allow both state and central government to share the income from taxes appropriately.

It is a welcome step that the the stakes in PSUs are being reduced through the slew of FPOs these days.

We should accelerate the process of spectrum allocation as the earned income shall help cut down the fiscal deficit to quite some extent.

Infrastructure- Infrastructure is another area which needs increased attention. We need to increase the number of kms of Roads added daily if we have to achieve a faster growth rate. Connectivity would be a key factor in bridging the urban rural divide.

Agriculture- One area where we should be focussing at extensively is the agricultural sector. If we have to achieve self sufficiency in food grain production we have to start looking at ways to increase our farm, per/acre productivity. Dependency on monsoon leads to heavy fluctations is food prices as seen last year. We should look at ways to replenish our ground water and other water resources. Investment in agri research should also be encouraged. Establishing these agri universities at rural areas shall encourage better participation from both rural and urban population.

Education- Instead of adding additional revenue into the existing educational schemes, we should look at making the implementation efficient and plugging any leakages. Additionally, getting institutes of higer learning from abroad and making provisions for them to set up campuses in India. This would reduce brain drain drastically.

Rolling out Stimulus Package- My belief is that the stimulus package needs to be rolled out in a systematic and in a phased manner. Not all sectors have shown great recovery signs and hence the responsiveness of each sector should be taken into consideration.

Inflation needs to be checked and for this any supply side deficits neeeds to be addressed.

Manufacturing- This is one sector that shall shape India in the coming decades. It is high time we strengthen our manufacturing sector just as we strengthened our Sevices sector. We cannot remain dependent on foreign technologies and machineries for crucial applications. To make this happen we need to incentivise this sector by extending any tax holidays and increasing the R&D.

FDI- In continuanace with the opening up of FDI in certain sectors we should look at opening up FDI in non critical sectors to foreign players to make it perfectly competitive.

Tourism & Sports- In view of major international events happenning in our country, it is high time we start producing international champions and make the way up to the medals tally. We clearly lack major sports institutions and facilities of international level. The government on its part should encourage youth towards sports and ensure that it is branded and promoted at a very high level. This would attract talents from across the country: people who otherwise do not enter or leave sport at an early stage as it doesn't provide a sustained source of income. One major step towards this would be creating increased awareness about sports at grassroot level amongst schools and colleges.

Athithi Devo Bhava has been the cornerstone of our culture and we need to take it across the world. The world and national heritage sites across the country needs increased funding and needs world class facilities to handle the inflow of tourists from across the globe. In addition to this, opening up world class theme parks & SEZs through PPP shall ensure that the issues with land acquisition and allocation are handled much more effectively and attract investments for the government and provide employment opportunities.

Defence and Pharma sector needs increased revenues for R&D and mordernisation process and we need to reduce our dependence on foreign countries for acquisitions.

Power sector- With the advent and opening up of Nuclear sector and end of Nuclear apartheid, we need to catalyse on this opportunity. Hydro and Thermal power still remains as the main source of power generation in our country and would remain so for some more time. We need to allocate funds or set up a governing body to look at and reduce the transmission line and distribution wastages.

Health Sector- This is one area that needs the most increased attention. With the population base that we have, we need to quickly plug this gap. Providing world class health facilities at an affordable cost needs to be our mainstay. Medical tourism is another allied area that shows very good promise and shall continue if we were to increase the resources allocated to the health sector.

Maintaining the ecological resources of the country and replenishing them shall remain very crucial.Reviving the population of endangered species and maintaining the flora and fauna should also be one of the main focus areas in the upcoming budget.

These are some of the main areas I could arrive at with suggestions. I am sure that Budget is much more than these and many areas and the interdependencies needs to be looked into.

We are only going to grow stronger from here on...

Lesson Learnt from a Roadside vendor

"Bhaiya do toast sandwich". The guy immediately recognised me as I placed the order. He used to be at the roadside stall a year back. Off late the shop was run by his other relatives. As I relished his sumptous sandwich, he told me that he has opened another shop in a nearby suburb and makes around 45K per month. I felt really happy for him. I paid him the money and waved him bye. On my way back, I realised that he guy there had hardly any schooling but still managed to earn a very good living that most of the educated people fail to attain. What makes this guy stand out from others? The answer came instantaneously. This guy knows his true potential and is living up to that potential.

Oh , The V Day and Veek end is Coming Up !!

It's Thursday morning and I am awake earlier than I'm habituated to. Thanks to my pant and sis for forcefully waking me up after my mobile alarm didn't seem too happy not to have woken me up. It is 7:45 AM, and I am suddenly jolted to the reality about getting my recommendation from profs for the scholarships. Got to reach the erstwhile SPCE before 10:30 !! There were two recommendations that needed editing and printing. I quickly pounced upon my desktop and put on the printer. 10 minutes and 4 letterheads and I was left with the final copies of my recommendation. A quick bath and short prayer ensued. I was out by 9:40 AM. The road digging work and the usual honking and blaring of horns continued as the auto drivers gave a wasteful look at wade pass through. No one seemed to entertain my request of a ride to Andheri-W . Finally one succumbed or surrendered. He had a look of helplessness on his tired face. I jumped in and was there on the college campus by 10:15.

As I scaled past the SPJIMR, I smiled at the prospects of joining NUS this fall. A better place to me in during these times, I said to myself as I entered the college. Right outside my HODs office I stood as I saw him do something on his system. A sincere request and he let me in. He was reading through my recommendation and a sudden question popped up from him. "Bhai tune lika hain ki top kiya that. Kab top kiya". Felt the ground slipping beneath from my feet at this sudden and shocking question. I gathered my calm and replied that I had topped in the final two years and he gave me his recommendation. Took the other recommendation from another prof who was very friendly and more understanding. I Reached office by 11:30 only to find hearts lying and floating all around the office. Yeah it was the V day celebration. Well, it was certainly grander than the R Day celebration. People seem to take R & I day for granted but none take V day for granted these days. None value R & I but everyone values V . It has become almost out of vogue to not have gfs these days as if you do not have one you are almost considered asocial.

Well yeah for me, I do not care for such things. The best part of the day was the ride I got back to home. My auto driver seemed the most intellectual person to me on earth that day. That guy spoke sense to me, that first thing to happen that day. Strange, I thought. We are certainly moving towards collective ignorance rather than selective intellectuality.

A Walk to Remember on the Notting Hill

It has been quite some time since I have caught any good romantic flick on screen. This saturday I had the luxury of watching two, Notting Hill and A Walk to Remember.

Lazying on a Sunday Evening ..

Sunday evenings can't get any lazier. To me this day of the week heralds long hours of unwanted sleeping, ultimately leading to the semi intoxicated state through out the rest of the day. Evenings are the time when you start looking at the week ahead and for me the very thought of attending all those mundane meetings drains out all the enthusiasm. Albeit at a slower and lower note, this year things have started looking better. With my B school decisions on the horizon, there are lot many things that I need to plan accordingly. Well, I guess that's all for now and I would keep this blog updated.

Life to Books to Movies

To be honest, it arouse me from the deep soporific state I was in when it came to watching Bollywood flicks off late. Having read "Five Point Someone long back", and having known the tenacity, passion and youthfullness with which the book was written, I have long become an avid CB fan. To me, visual rendition of any classic book didn't sound much exciting, leave alone the very thought of watching one. But in this case, even though the book was not a classical literary work, it had enough in it for each one of us to connect with. Besides the amazing set of actors and some wonderful, soulful and touching music, I decided to watch the movie with few friends. The basic plot germinated from the book and to around 40-50% the movie did seem very close to the book. Had it not been for the amazing work put down by Aamir, Boman Irani,Chatur, Madhavan and Sharman, the movie wouldn't have been what it is today. Aamir as usual was brilliant with his on screen childish innocence. Madhavan and Sharman complemented him well and were able to take the audience back to their rigorous and fun filled engg-college days. As expected, the movie had typical bollywood styled unpragmatic things put into it. But they were all interwoven nicely with the original plot. The way stories were told and events happened were almost seemless. The added fun was a character who happens to start the movie with a bet placed amongst the friends long back. All in all the movie crew did an equally good job at executing the movie. IMHO (In My Honest Opinion) there is no need to bicker over any attempt of plagiarisation. The author of the book deserves due credit for having given us such a wonderful story and the movie crew need to be applauded for rendering it well on the screen.

My favourite one liner from the movie: "Never chase success, chase excellence and success shall follow." A Very simple statement, even simpler to understand but something that gets lost in this mad rush to get ahead of others.

My favourite song: "Give Me some Sunshine, Give me some Rain..."

All iz Well....