WEEKEND LIGHTER: HOME TRUTHS
WEEKEND LIGHTER: Home truths
(August 6/7, 2016, No. 32/2016)
Weekend Lighter is posted every Saturday @mgwarrier.blogspot.in
***Warrier’s Blog crossed 2222 posts and 55,555 page views
recently.
I
Opening Remarks
Home truths*
RBI has set up an expert committee
to look at household finances. The proposal to set up a committee to look at various
facets of household finance in India, according to RBI, came up during the
meeting of the Sub Committee of Financial Stability and Development Council
(FSDC-SC) held during April, 2016. RBI, particularly its Research and
Statistics departments make ongoing internal studies on several aspects
relevant to policy formulation and many of the findings get incorporated in the
bank’s regular publications like RBI Bulletins and reports as also ‘occasional
papers’.
The proposed comprehensive study by experts which will cover
various aspects of sources and uses of funds by Indian households will
undoubtedly be a valuable document which can change the direction of thinking
in favour of much talked about ‘financial inclusion’.
Perhaps, the study could be made a joint effort of GOI and
RBI and by expanding the terms of reference given to the panel, the committee
could be made an empowered body to go deeper into patterns of savings and
investment by individuals and institutions. Mapping of idle financial assets
and methods to bring them into the mainstream and sources of funding social
security system including pension could come under the broad purview of the
areas for coverage by the committee. A look at better management of pension
funds and other retirement funds including provident fund is also overdue.
M G Warrier, Mumbai
*An edited version of
this appeared in The Hindu Business Line on August 6, 2016
II
Recent responses
Inclusive
growth
This refers to the piece
“Ensuring growth for all Indians” by Jayanta Roy (July 31). Any number of
‘reminders’ like this should be welcomed. Post-independence, for decades, there
has been a conscious neglect of the need to ensure equity or distributive justice,
literacy for masses and elimination of poverty from India. There was
self-interest of ensuring cheap labour for industries and even for house-hold
work, behind the studied refusal to attend to these issues.
Till Narendra Modi as Prime Minister exhorted
from the ramparts of Red Fort on August 15, 2014, importance of schooling girl
children or the reason for high rates of drop-outs beyond primary classes
(inadequate toilet facilities, especially for girls, in schools) did not get
the attention these issues are receiving now.
Skill development based
on the local needs is still a neglected area. Except in states like Kerala
where education is oriented towards ‘sending out’ youth to seek jobs, there are
no serious efforts to improve literacy or develop skills.
M
G Warrier, Mumbai
‘Capitalist’ adviser!
This refers to the report
“Appointment of ‘capitalist’ adviser angers Left in Kerala” (The Hindu Business
Line, July 30). The smile on Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s face is
real. He has successfully generated a debate in the media and among his
friendly adversaries within LDF and in the opposition on a non-issue. Here are
the reasons.
CM knows that an advisor
is not an administrator of policies. Her role starts and ends with giving her
views with supporting empirical evidence or reasons on issues referred to her.
The opposition and even his own friend, philosopher and guide VS will get
engaged in finding out the background and ‘profile’ of Gita Gopinath, when he
can concentrate on other mundane issues of governance.
This observation is also
in the context of criticism from political parties like Congress that the
present LDF government in Kerala is not following ‘Marxist’ policies.
When will our political
leadership across party affiliations mature and start worrying about ground
level problems affecting the common man?
M
G Warrier, Mumbai
Signs
of recovery
This refers to the report
“Rahul jibe, Jaitley retort spice up inflation debate” (Business Standard, July
29). Let us look at the same event from a different angle. After a long time,
Rahul Gandhi came to parliament armed with a long note on a topic of public
interest and read it out in a relaxed mood. It has to be said to the credit of
current Lok Sabha that the House is allowing debate on serious issues.
Here, let us remind
ourselves that In-house debates are an integral part of a healthy parliamentary
democracy. Once this recognition sinks in and every member does his/her
homework and confronts the treasury benches with the issues affecting the people,
policy formulation will graduate from a bureaucratic process to real
legislative procedure guided by informed discussion among people’s
representatives.
On the same day (July 28)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent two hours with the NITI Aayog think tank
guiding them to get out of the earlier practice of ‘incremental changes’ and to
go ahead and finalise a vision document for the next 15 years factoring in the
growth needs of 21st Century India.
M
G Warrier, Mumbai
Skill
management
The well-researched
article “Bridging the skill gap” by Santhosh Mehrotra (The Hindu, August 3) has
looked at various options on funding skill development. In a wider sense, just
as costs on social security needs including for post-retirement life of the
workforce should be factored in the wage bills of employers, there is a need to
create an awareness about the responsibility on the part of employers including
the government and PSUs to fund the cost of skill development.
The fast changes in
science and technology these days, call for ongoing training and frequent refreshment
courses to maintain skills at optimum levels. Times are changing and sooner we
reconcile to the reality that the option to ‘outsource’ for reducing costs and
eliminating friction (read unionism) may not be perennially available, the
better.
A related issue is large
scale abuse of trained manpower. Civil and mechanical engineers and graduates
with high academic records from any discipline are being recruited by several
sectors including IT and given basic training in branches of technology of respective
relevance for being employed by corporates. Beyond cost-benefit issues, this
has a job satisfaction issue which creates more social problems at a later
stage. One remembers a time when P & T and Railways in India absorbed the
best performers at SSLC level as clerks.
M
G Warrier, Mumbai
Banks
on ‘tap’**
This refers to the report
“RBI clears decks for universal banking” (The Hindu Business Line, August 2).
The RBI initiative to issue bank licences to those who are serious about doing
the business of banking and can mobilise the resources needed and provide
leadership to professionally manage new banks has not come a day earlier.
Reserve Bank of India has been struggling to reconcile the interests of
multiple institutional systems, broadly coming under commercial banks,
cooperative banks and NBFCs, all trespassing each other’s operational
jurisdictions and the competing claims for regulatory, supervisory and
administrative controls from central and state governments and a variety of
statutory bodies. Thank God, RBI has been there!
We had to wait 65 long
years after passing of the Banking Regulation Act for Raghuram Rajan to arrive
and tell us some ingenuous solutions to handle some of the tricky problems
faced by Indian banking sector. He has opened many taps to ensure smooth and
competitive functioning of the banking system and it will not be easy for RBI
and GOI to take an easy diversion, as in the past. The institutional system
that is emerging to take care of the banking needs in the present Indian context
envisioned by RBI under his leadership will cover the entire banking business.
Ideally, all institutions
which were hitherto ‘outside’ the definition of banks and were doing the
business of banking in some pretext, will have to transform themselves into
banks or transfer their banking business to banks. Consolidation of small
private sector banks and professionalization of the working of cooperative
banks (some initiatives in this direction have already been taken by states
like Kerala) also need to be prioritised.
M
G Warrier, Mumbai
**Edited version
published in Business Standard and The Hindu Business Line
III
Leisure
1
The Hindu Open Page published my article “Let’s attract the tourists
better” on August 2, 2016.
2
How are you?
“I'm fine, thank
u..
There's no matter
with me
I'm as healthy as I can be
I've arthritis in both knees
When I talk I've a wheeze
I'm as healthy as I can be
I've arthritis in both knees
When I talk I've a wheeze
My pulse is
weak
And blood anaemic
But I'm very well
This I firmly tell
And blood anaemic
But I'm very well
This I firmly tell
I've arch support
for feet
Else I can't stand on street
With sleep denied every night
Yet morning I'm in sight
Else I can't stand on street
With sleep denied every night
Yet morning I'm in sight
Memory
failing
Head reeling
But I'm very well
This I firmly tell
Head reeling
But I'm very well
This I firmly tell
Liver out of whack
Terrible pain on back
Vision is dim
All out of trim
Terrible pain on back
Vision is dim
All out of trim
I've aspirin &
glycomet on right
And along & pan on left
But I'm very well
This I firmly tell
And along & pan on left
But I'm very well
This I firmly tell
For u & me
growing old
These stories unfold
Better say "I'm fine" with a grin
Than people infer the shape u r in
These stories unfold
Better say "I'm fine" with a grin
Than people infer the shape u r in
I've silver on head
& gold on tooth
Stone in kidney & sugar in blood
But I'm very well
This I firmly tell
Stone in kidney & sugar in blood
But I'm very well
This I firmly tell
My ears in a box
Eyes on the table
Teeth in a cup
Till I wake up
Eyes on the table
Teeth in a cup
Till I wake up
Every morning I get
up without worrys
And watch the columns of obituaries
Finding my name missing, I know I'm not dead
With shoes on for a jog I tread
And watch the columns of obituaries
Finding my name missing, I know I'm not dead
With shoes on for a jog I tread
(Received from K S Iyer, Exrbites Group)
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