| It would be an understatement to mention that a lot has been happening in India in recent months. However, many of these happenings defy any understanding for me and hence for the first time in my adult life, I feel like a stranger in my own country. |
| For instance, when the Sensex touched the five-digit mark, it was probably a memorable milestone. However, since then, while almost every week most of the national and international pundits have been advising caution and predicting some corrections, every week the market keeps going up with the 12,000-mark not very far! Many actually found it a reason to celebrate when the Sensex crossed the Dow Jones despite the fact the size of our economy still remains one-fifteenth of the US while the population is greater than three times and hence the per capita income still languishes at lower levels than that of Pakistan or Sri Lanka and hence comparison with the Dow Jones is at best only numerical. |
| A government struggling to ratchet up its tax-GDP ratio so that it can generate adequate resources to build infrastructure and provide basic needs such as water, power, and universal healthcare to its burgeoning population is actually willing to annually forego almost Rs 100,000 crore of revenues through the plethora of SEZs even as various other sops and exemptions already bring the effective rate of taxation for the few lucky large corporations and their promoters to practically nothing! |
| An 8,000 square feet apartment in a rather decrepit though admittedly beautifully located building in Mumbai reportedly changed hands at Rs 31 crore (about $7 million) and many still justify that these price levels as realistic and even investment grade. This is in a city that ranks a lowly 150th on the list of most livable global cities, and where even as per the government's own admission, more than 35% of the population comprises slum dwellers. Real estate prices""whether residential or commercial""change every week, and many in urban India now book "flats" in projects that are just on paper, only to resell these paper bookings at a hefty premium just a few months later. Agricultural land, yielding Rs 25,000-50,000 output (before input costs) per acre per year is being sold upwards of Rs 5 lakh an acre. |
| A nation having so many important issues to reflect on, and be interested in, is now subjected to two so-named fashion weeks. It appears that these two weeks (out of the 52) will become the most important weeks for India if the extraordinary coverage this year from the electronic and print media is any indicator. Most TV channels, including the business ones, actually had daily update bulletins besides hours of debates. The Maharashtra government even found it fit to institute two high-level inquiries into the so-called wardrobe malfunction non-incident, in a nation that anyway has amongst the lowest per capita consumption of textile fibre, and millions routinely go under-clothed (though for reasons of poverty, rather than fashion). Just to put it on record, the total size of the Indian fashion industry (and 2005 was surely a banner year for our designers with so many high-profile Indian weddings) at about Rs 250 crore in annual revenues is less than what a single fashion company (LVMH, boasting of brands such as Luis Vuitton and Christian Dior) sells in a single day! |
| In a country where over 50% of the population is below 21 years of age, a septuagenarian politician representing the leading opposition party still harbours the ambition to become the Prime Minister and embarks on yet one more irrelevant "rath yatra", believing that it is still the most effective way of communicating with this 21st century nation. Yet another octogenarian of his ilk chooses it fit to unleash divisive forces once again by announcing enhancement of reservations in the very few institutions of academic excellence, rather than focusing on creation of a public-private partnership initiative to ramp up capacity for school, college, and professional courses and foster an environment that places highest value on academic excellence and research-oriented creativity. |
| In a nation where hundreds of millions remain fully or seasonally unemployed, and dozens of farmers (representing the bulk of the 70% of the country's population residing in rural India) routinely commit suicides, select business schools revel in releasing real (or inflated) statistics indicating that India has such a tremendous shortage of talent that raw graduates command annual compensation of as much as Rs 10 lakh or even more and that seems to become the benchmark for this year for all aspiring students and their ambitious parents. |
| We are, justifiably, proud to be hosting the next Commonwealth Games in India and demonstrating to the rest of the world that India also counts in the sports arena. However, something is clearly amiss when ex-Miss beauty pageants and film stars are paid in crores to sing and dance for a few minutes while the athletes make do with a daily allowance of $20, and the medal winners at the recently concluded event have to be content with a cup of tea with the Prime Minister! |
| I have no explanation for any of the above, and hence would gladly appreciate getting some enlightenment from anyone else! |
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
