India is the land of cultural heritage which transmitted the values from one generation to another generation. Since the day of Socialisation, We were taught to respect the elders, and we shown respect towards the elders by touching their feet.
When Sudha Murty - the chairperson of Infosys foundation who attended the Television show "Kaun Banega Crorepati". She was tried to touches the feet of Amitabh Bachan who is a decade older than her. But he stopped her and showed his respect towards her by touching her feet for the contribution she has made to society.
When the most respected Sudha Murty called as Cattle Class :
There was an incident at Heathrow Airport in London, Sudha Murty was called as "Cattle class".
She dressed in typical Indian apparel and joined the queue after the boarding announcement. The lady in front of her was well-groomed in an Indo Western Silk outfit, a Gucci handbag, and high heels. Suddenly, the lady turned her sideways towards Sudha Murty and informed her that this line is meant for business class travelers. The lady asked Sudhamurty to follow the economy class queue.
She wanted to know why the lady had a thought of why she wasn't worthy of business class. She asked the lady 'Why should I stand there?'
The lady explained the difference between Business and Economy class tickets. The cost of the ticket is three times more than the latter. We are allowed to bring two bags with priority checks in the facility but you can take only one. We can board the flight from a less crowded queue. We are provided with better meals, television screens and four washrooms for small passengers. After explaining the differences, the lady asked Sudha Murty to use the economy line. She refused and stayed there in the Business class queue. The lady turned to her friend and said ' it is hard to argue with these cattle class'.
Sudha Murty showed her Business class ticket to the attendant and walked a few steps ahead of the woman. She came back to the lady and asked "What made you think that I couldn't afford a Business class and refer me as Cattle class"
Sudha Murty pointed out rightly to the lady that Class does not mean possession of a huge amount of money. You may be rich enough to buy luxuries but that doesn't mean that you can gain class by acquiring money. It is an outdated thought process of defining class based on wealth. She left the place without waiting for a reply from the lady.
Next day. She had to spend multiple meetings. In the last meeting of the day, she saw the same lady from the airport present in the conference room. The lady acknowledged her presence and continued the presentation as if nothing had happened. The Presentation is about requesting the Infosys Foundation for infrastructure development to government schools which will be beneficial for the children of their estate workers.
She replied to their request, Infosys foundation helps those people who don't have anybody to take care of. It is your duty to help the estate workers who help your business prosper. The internal policy of Infosys foundation is to work for the most disadvantaged section in society. This concept is beyond the understanding of the cattle class.
She finished the meeting with a story on George Bernard Shaw - a great thinker.
One day, a dinner was arranged at a British club. The rule of the club was that that man wears a suit and tie. It was probably the definition of class in those days.
George Bernard Shaw walked into the club in his casual attire. The doorman at the club was not allowing him to enter the club for not following the dress code of the club.
He returned to his house and changed into appropriate clothes for entering the club. The doorman allowed him to enter the club this time. The room was full inside the club to listen to his speech. Before addressing the audience, he removed his coat and tie and placed them on a chair. He announced, "I am not going to talk today".
The audience was confused and personally asked about the reason for his action. He narrated the entire incident and said " My mind is no way affected by clothes I wear". For this club, Clothes are more important than my brain. So let the coat and tie take my place instead and he walked out of the room.
After completing this story, she stood up and said ' The meeting is over '
Judging the person based on Materialistic possession intrudes into the society at large. This kind of behavior sown the seeds of discrimination and stereotyping. The quality of a person depends on their right thought and right action but not by cozy clothes.
Sustainable lifestyle is Simple Living and High thinking!
Do you think the privatisation of public sector banks is relevant for this period of an economy with the highest contraction in the economy, rising unemployment, falling disposable income, rising fiscal deficit?
The government cited as Improving efficiency, deterioration of balance sheet, balloning of NPAs are as the reason for Privatisation. Many committees including Narasimhan and PJ Nayak committee had proposed bringing down the government stake in public sector banks. The recommendation suggested that inclusion of private players in the functioning of Banks will enable efficiency and competitiveness.
The move coming after 51 years of Bank Nationalisation, the idea was to align the banking sector with the socialistic approach. State bank of India has been nationalised in 1955.
Before the nationalisation of 14 private banks in 1969, banks are not catering to the needs of common masses. It benefits only the rich, powerful and it is confined only to urban areas. In order to achieve broad based economic development, there is a revolution in banking sector from class banking to mass banking through Bank Nationalisation. This paved the way for achieving equitable growth and reducing regional disparities by allowing small farmers, milk vendor, cottage industries and small entrepreneurs to approaching the banks for credit at reasonable interest rates.
With the bureaucratisation of Public Sector banks after bank nationalisation, there was an increasing political interference and the majority of loans were disbursed based on favouritism.
The concept of privatisation of the public sector banks has been part of economic reforms since 1991. Due to the political backlash, bank privatisation was not materialised into the system. In the recent budget, the government announced to privatise two public sector banks in addition to IDBI.
Earlier in February 2021, the government had released a new Public Sector Enterprises policy for Atmanirbhar Bharat. In that, it stated that the public sector commercial enterprises are being classified as Strategic and Non-strategic sector.
The Strategic sector have been delineated based on the criteria of national security, energy security, critical infrastructure, provision of financial services and availability of minerals. Based on this, the following sectors are classified as Strategic sectors:
1. Atomic Energy, Space and Defence.
2. Transport and Telecommunications
3. Power, Petroleum, Coal and other minerals.
4. Banking, Insurance and Financial Services.
In Strategic sector, bare minimum presence of the existing public sector commercial enterprises at holding company level will be retained under Government control. The remaining enterprises in a strategic sector will be considered for privatisation or merger or subsidiarization with another PSE or for closure.
NITI Aayog will make recommendations with regards to the CPSEs under strategic sectors, that are to be retained under the Government control or to be considered for privatisation or merger or subsidiarization with another PSE or for closure
What are the issues impacting the Public Sector banks?
Economic Survey quoted Gross Non Performing Advances of Public Sector banks is (6,09,129 crores) 9.4% at September 2020. The mounting NPAs restrict the banks to lend and unable to generate enough income for the banks.
Internal crisis of banks due to Quality of boards where Directors and members of boards lacks vision but represents narrow sectional and economic interest. The appointment process for managing directors lacks independence and transparency. Compare to the Private banks, the pay structure for Top level and middle level management are very low which restricts the talented professional to participates in the governance of banks. Honest banking officer missed their promotion for not following the Culture of Subordination in sanctioning the loans to undeserving borrowers.
Click the Pictures below to check the Top 50 corporate defaulters.
Performance of Private Sector banks:
There is a rising market share in loans from 21.26% in 2015 to 36% in 2020. They have expanded the market share through diversified products, technology utilization and improved service delivery.
There are concerns on Private sector banks over financial exclusions of the weaker sections, making household savings less secure by removing the sovereign guarantee of deposits.
On the other side, the private sector banks are not efficient as stated by the government. On a global level too, there saw a failure of many private banks, thus challenging the idea that private banks are efficient.
Rising NPAs is mostly due to the credit provided to the private corporate entities, so what's required is that corporate entities have to be regulated. Privatisation alone will not solve the issue of NPA.
Private banks also have management issues - for example, ICICI Bank MD and CEO was sacked for allegedly extending dubious loans, the problem of YES bank recently in India.
There is an under-reporting of NPAs in many private sector banks which was found in Asset Quality Review.
Case Study on Yes bank:
In 2018, the YES Bank stock was trading at around ₹300. A year and a half later, the Yes bank stock crashed to ₹5.55. RBI imposed a month-long moratorium which means depositors cannot withdraw more than ₹50000 without written permission from RBI and also YES bank cannot lend loans or incur any liability.
The reason behind the failure was mounting NPAs and the companies that failed to repay their loans to YES bank includes Anil Ambani led Reliance group, DHFL and IL & FS. Yes bank suffered from increasing gross NPAs to ₹17,134 crore.
The failure of Yes Bank has been under reporting its bad loans for 3 consecutive years. Invoking the section of the Banking regulation act, RBI took control over bank and change its management. The RBI announced that public sector bank SBI will bailout private lender Yes Bank.
Way Ahead:
The government has to focus on balancing the broad based economic and social development. Rather than moving forward to aggressive Privatisation, the government must provide the rationale behind the disinvestment. The concerns of the Public sector banks employees need to be addressed and bring the institutional mechanisms to examine the accountability of Board executives.
Maanaadu is a film from Kollywood to take up the concept of Time loop for unfolding political drama events. A time loop is a plot where the characters in the movie re-experience the same sequence of events with the chance of breaking the cycle of repetition.
The film starring STR, SJ Suryah, Kalyani Priyadharshini directed by Venkat Prabhu who is popular for his movie with Ajithkumar "Mankatha".
The plot of the movie is the protagonist(Abdul Khaliq)stuck into the time loop where he witnessed the assassination of the Chief Minister for the political motive of the successor within the party. The entire film revolves around whether the Chief Minister was saved by the protagonist after taking multiple loops.
The execution of the film is neatly presented without any complications on understanding the time loop concept. There are no typical songs in the film which has the potential to reduce the flow of the film. It is a clean entertaining film which will be worth the audience time and money. Within the space of entertainment, the director has sent the right message to society.
There are good and bad persons from every religion, nation, ethnic social group in the society. Stereotyping based on religion is the evil cause of creating chaos and disorder in society. It is rare to see a movie to have the name of the protagonist from a Minority community. This film named the protagonist from the minority community which must be appreciable for taking a step against stereotyping.
Secondly, the motive of the protagonist is to save the real executive of the state as well as stop the communal violence bred out of staged assassination. India has seen plenty of communal riots since Independence. There are a lot of studies which are proven the fact that communal riots occurred to reap the vote bank of majoritarian/minority vote. This film has rightly promoted the harmony and spirit of brotherhood transcending religious diversities.
Thirdly, political nepotism is present in the contemporary political system. Our constitution makers were believed in the principle of democracy to have everyone an equal voice and participation in the system. When political parties encourage nepotism within the party, that shows their reluctance to accept the spirit of democratic values within the party. Then how could the citizen expect the democratic functioning of the state?
There are certain messages in the movie which are explicit through scenes & dialogue and some are implicit for our own interpretation. More than a fun-filled entertainment and engaging time loop concept, the film Maanadu must be appreciated for bringing the right message for the contemporary times and thinking beyond the values of entertainment.
Jai Bhim movie is based on a true story during the 90s concerning the injustice against Tribal people and custodial torture over the members from the tribal social group in the district of Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu.
The film revolves around the case in the courtroom against the wrongful detention of Rajakannu, who belonged to the Irular tribe was brutally murdered inside the Police station. The wife (sengeni) of the deceased sort the help of Advocate Chandru(Surya), fought for justice against the evil things done by the Police officers.
The title of the movie Jai Bheem itself has the idea of celebrating the true icon of Social Justice "Babasaheb Ambedkar", who stand tall for bringing out the Greatest Ideology - Equality.
But the saddest part of India in the 21st century is still the country is struggling to create an egalitarian society where the historical injustices against the marginalised social group, especially the tribal continue to prevail. The film tightly slapped on our head while watching the movie under proper roof with fast internet connectivity to think of a social group who have survived their lives by eating a rat.
The film also majorly encapsulates the atrocities against the marginalised, wrongful detention and custodial torture, exploitation of landholders, keeping the tribal social group under abject poverty and the distant dream of education for the tribal child.
The film has the right turn when the lawyer Chandru a crusader took up the case and filed Habeas corpus in Madras High court. Habeas corpus means to have a body of, which can be issued by both the High court and Supreme court against both public authorities and private individuals for unlawful detention. That person must be produced in the court to secure the release against illegal arrest and to protect individual liberty. He referred to Chandran vs the State of Kerala for cross-examining the eyewitness to unearth the real truth behind the falsification of charges against the innocent tribal member. With the right arguments placed before the Court, Lawyer Chandru brought the police found guilty over custodial death of innocent Rajakannu and secure the release of his relatives.
The film Jai Bhim must be widely discussed in a public forum not just as a film but as an instrument for bringing the tribal social group to mainstream society without disturbing their cultural values and traditions.
There is a need to establish State Police Complaints authority as recommended by Prakash Singh judgement where common man can approach the body against police excessive actions.
Education need to be inclusive and reaches the sons and daughters of tribal social group to make a better society for the marginalised.
Jai Bhim!
Squid game is the recent sensational nine episodes K series on the Netflix streaming platform. The basic plot of the series is about 456 debt-ridden individuals found by the secret society to play for exorbitant cash of 45.6 billion won(Currency of South Korea). The nerve-wracking series with the brutal violent movements and psychological evaluations of a human being.
The series touched upon contemporary social realities such as widening economic inequality, financial instability, alienation among the working class, gender discrimination, Capitalists control of the World order, how humans took decisions under stressful circumstances, the herd mentality of the majority(voting to end the game), in-group favouritism and out-group discrimination( while choosing ten members grouping between the players), worker exploitation by providing Incentives in Companies (hanging piggy bank- a constant source of continuing the game).
The individuals who lost hope in their life, lacking respect and dignity within their family and the society. These 456 individuals choose to play the game by staking their life as a bet to escape from the Poverty-stricken state.
The contestants have to play simple games which they played in Childhood. If they fail to crack the game, the inability will cost their lives in an inhumane way. The eliminations of contestants that happened through gruelling violence put them under mounting pressure on their survival. The moral dilemma and cognitive dissonance that grew inside each contestant made them act violently against each other for their survival.
The Team who were controlling the game were animal faced belongs to the Capitalist section of the society. The success of the Capitalist is creating conflict between the workers to prevent the source of open struggle (Rich vs Poor) and radical change( Egalitarian) in the society. The potential of the capitalist and the vulnerability of the common man will be higher if the latter contains in debt in the form of credit cards (conspicuous consumption), home loans and other wide variety of debt.
Money is needed but not at the stake of life and lives. Cautious consumption, not conspicuous consumption it requires managing the circulation of money wisely.
The most comfortable and convenient popular tourist destination that can be caught up from Chennai is riding along the ECR Highway towards French settlement in South India - Pondicherry. The beach facing town on South East coast of India has numerous Bougainvillaeas, French Cafe, Churches and Beaches. To seek spiritual energy, one can visit Aurobindo Ashram, Auroville village.
We started our trip from Chennai by Kia Sonet car in the morning around 8 o clock. Try to ride before 6 AM in the morning to spot Sunrise on any beaches along East Coast Road. We took a stop for Breakfast at Motel Mamalla in Mahabalipuram, the town famous for heritage sites founded by King Narasimhavarman of Pallavas. The port city has structural construction includes monuments and sculptures - Descent of the Ganga, Pancha Rathas, Cave temples, Shore temple along the Bay of Bengal.
After having a pretty decent breakfast, the car continues the ride along with ECR Highway and join the scenery of the Backwater, the Palar river, Odiyur lake, Marakkanam Bridge viewpoint and many delightful landscape on either side of the road.
Around noon, we stopped the car to visit Serenity beach along the highway. The first thing that hit us was the salty air on our faces and we were feeling relaxed after getting a glimpse of the majestic blue ocean, golden sand and dancing waves touches the shores when the wind blows lightly.
After enjoying the breeze at the beach, we went to visit Auroville village. The unique village has its history to talk about - Aurobindo Ghosh the great freedom fighter from Bengal who renounced violence and seek the path of Spirituality in Pondicherry. His disciple Mira Alfassa, a French woman who came to Pondicherry and became a disciple of Aurobindo.
Aurobindo taught the values of human unity which is strongly imbibed in the minds and soul of Mira Alfassa, Mother of Auroville. In 1968, Mother founded the experimental township where people from diverse region share the Auroville space together to create a perfect society through the means of Self exploration and Self discovery.
The experience from the Auroville village is nature seeking, absolutely soulful and spiritual. For visiting the Matrimandir viewing point, we need to book the arrival either at the visitors centre or book through visit.auroville.org. Mantrimandir is a visual treat of seeing the golden beauty with the greenish landscape from the viewpoint. The Mandir looked like a lotus flower in full bloom emerging from twelve large petals.
After having a pleasant experience in the Auroville village, we had a complete lunch at Pondicherry famous Kamatchi mess and later booked the stay in Hotel Cours Chabrol near Promenade beach in White town.
The white town is the French Quarters primarily the French families living there and the houses converted into heritage hotels, art galleries, cafes and restaurants. In the evening, we strolled in French town to witnesses their architectural heritage and vibrant paintings of French building.
The next day, we returned to Chennai on the same route via the ECR highway. We bought the briyani from JA Arcot Briyani in Pondicherry and stopped the car at Mughal era Alamparai Fort to have a glance over the partially walled fort. The present condition of the Fort is not in its original shape which was demolished by the British during the Anglo-French war and further damaged by Tsunami.
The climate is so hot in the afternoon and so we didn't spend much time in the fort. We returned to ECR highway after having the good tasty briyani in the spot found near the fort.
The trip to Pondicherry was nicely ended with hot aroma tea near the highway. I'm finishing this travelogue with the quote " Drive slow to enjoy the scenery - Drive fast and join the scenery"