We have a population of 1.1 billion that is growing to 2 billion in coming future. It requires a big revolution in farming to feed so many people. No country on this planet can grow enough food surplus to feed our hungry billions. We have to do this ourselves.
The 6.5 % inflation figures given out by govt. are for *wholesale prices*. We all know what the reality of inflation is for consumers. It is 50-100% if you barely have enough money to buy food for your family.
I'm 35 and have not experienced a drought in my lifetime. That does not mean famines cannot or will not happen. The price increase we have have seen is coming from 5-10% shortfall in food production in last 2 years.
What if a there is a drought and there is big food shortfall? what happens then?
Producing food for billion people is going to be a tougher task as climate becomes less predictable thanks to global warming. This requires a new farming revolution and sharing of water resources on a huge scale.
Our government does not have a long term plan or perspective to manage production or food reserves for billion people.
Chennai is seeing a big change now because of IT and BPO's domination. People working in government sectors, private companies, educational institutions, etc are the worst hit. A teacher in a private school still gets 3000rs or sth. An IIT prof gets 20,000 as a starting salary, which does not go beyond 35,000rs. This is the situation for teachers/lecturers - fortunately/unfortunately, a 20 year old boy/girl with a minimum qualification of 12th standard earns 15,000rs. All this boom is only for IT sector/BPOs
I am not sure if she did this, but i have a feeling she didn't - vanaja instead of spending 100rs on daily grocery, u shud have spent only 50 bucks then too and instead spend the money on better educating ur children.Then even you would have said today,"this is the best time India has had."
RE:education
by sudarshan kumar on Feb 27, 2007 11:06 AM
Just check the CIA website for some of the countries like US, UK and Japan. The poverty ratio is Japan %NA US: 12 % (estimated in 2004) UK: 17% (estimated in 2002) Infact you will hardly see any beggars or poor people in Japan.
RE:education
by nandkumar misal on Feb 28, 2007 12:30 AM
Hi Sucharita, Can the children study on empty stomach, i feel you are moving in completely unrealistic world, or you havent read her story well, she has a family of five, with only 10rs coming for each for a day, except food there are various expense like travel etc...
Apart from that i cant see a major change in education system, to be happy about..... Instead very few people from reserved category would be benefited due to govt policies, while the rest of brahmin children can clean the toilets,,, shame on you congress govt,,, shame on you....situation was never so bad before....
I agree that we can stop buying wheather we save some money or not for rainydays ahead as we can stop our meals. And Govt. in our country helplessly see all these things happen and policticians make hue and cry but no body do any things stop this inflation. Once price rise of the ensstial commodaties it never reduced. You see drop in prices of electronic items and price of other thing without which we live well are rise day by day. Poor and middle class is more effective of these things. Raj Rani Gupta / Housewife.
RE:This is very sad!
by kumar on Feb 27, 2007 10:53 AM
i totally agree with you. i do not have as much resiliancy as this woman does. I wish everyone who can afford it will give a small portion of their salary to a good charity that eradicates poverty.
This is really sad. Millions of neighbourhood stores which supported generations of shopkeepers & their helpers will just have to shut down. They just can't match the costs achieved with the economies of scale. All these guys will be unemployed bang in the middle of their lives, when they are least in the position to change their business...they won't find it easy to change profession. There's no social security worth the name..this when the Govt. charges us almost one third of our income apart from making things expensive by levying excise & other illogical duties, cesses and what not. Also, don't forget the heaviest of them all..corruption tax. The Govt. in some countries do charge one third of peoples' incomes but they also provide people with free medicare, old age pension, unemployment alowances etc apart from giving them a GOOD administration. Look at what our Govt. does to us..they tax the hapless middle class the most..over & over, reminds me of how sugarcane is crushed for juice..over & over till no more juice is left.
Its not only the govt that is a problem, the population growth is also beyond anybody's control. By the time the govt builds something for 5000 people (at its own pace of course), 500000 are born to claim the facility. Our country God be willing is on a path to see a never before growth but remember that we have insane levels of population growth which may undo all the fantastic growth that all the hardwork of sane people can bring about. I ask..why does a man earning 2000 Rs a month produce 6 children knowing very well that he can even afford to decently upbring even one? Anybody got any answeres?
RE:Anybody with a solution?
by anil b on Feb 27, 2007 10:36 AM
HI ,
All the so called Poor guys are poor cause they generally have more children probably they are carried away by the thought that the govt will do something to them .our country needs to sterlise people with very little so that they dont procreate and increase the number of poor.It should happen in UP , West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra and other Bimaru states.
RE:Anybody with a solution?
by siddhartha on Feb 27, 2007 10:57 AM
DEAR BHARTIYA , I AM REALLY IMPRESSED BY UR REPLY.OUR COUNTRY NEED SOME REALISTIC GOALS .WE CAN ACHIEVE IT ONLY IF WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BY OUR EFFECTIVE CONTRIBUTION IN THEIR FIELD .OUR CONTRY HAS BEEN BLESSED WITH MAJOR PORTION BY YOUTH PEOPLE ,IF WE CAN MAKE THEM DRIVE PROPERLY, WE WILL SURELY PRODUCE THE SYNERGY EFFECT & CONQUER THE WORLD .TO DO THIS FIRST OF ALL WE NEED TO EDUCATE THEM WELL SO THAT IT WOULD MAKE THEM FEEL ABOUT THEIR RESPONSIBILITY AND ERADICATE ALL THE EVIL CAUSES OF THE SOCIETY
RE:RE:Anybody with a solution?
by on Feb 27, 2007 03:48 PM
Hey guys, Instead of fighting over here, can u just develop yourself first? become rich (in whatever sense it may be!) and try helping at least a few people within your reach. Before discussing the politicians and other people of India, first check whether you (including myself) have done anything to help the few poor people you meet in your neighbourhood. I think improving our neighbour, our street, our locality with whatever we can will improve India as a whole. Winners do not give reasons! check whether you are a winner....
RE:Anybody with a solution?
by ramkumar meyyappan on Feb 27, 2007 10:42 AM
yes... the middle class and the upper class are doing really good as they are literate and somehow they can get jobs in institutions which are on a boom... its the governments responsibility to take care of the lower class...
the current growth of India is mainly bcas of individuals who r struggling hard to improve, not bcas of the Indian government. the gov is only supporting the growth and the politicians are just filling their pockets... if they do 10% of their work... things will be better... They take tax from people who r making money out of the boom and they are supposed to utilize the money to help the lower class... unfortunately it helps their wealth... :( Now its in the hands of the finance minister and the RBI to do something about the inflation... Hope he does a good job as usual...
Why we always complain. Don't US has also have people staying below proverty line. Every country you will find people like Vananja and I feel sympathtic for them. Govt should come up with something for these people then only the country has a whole will rise. Becoming a capitalist country is good as long as people like Vananja are taken care of some way. Otherwise it will slowly create social unrest in the country.
RE:Same everywhere
by kumar on Feb 27, 2007 10:50 AM
Just because US has poor doesn't mean we shouldnt eradicate poverty. India does have more "poor" than the US. Lets not compare ourselves to US but make sure every citizen is well fed and happy. Of course, thats idealism and unfortunately not practical. I believe in taxing the rich.
RE:RE:Same everywhere
by on Feb 28, 2007 11:57 PM
By: Raj I Agree with Kumar... Whatever time I have been India I have seen rich people hardly pay any taxes.. I am not sure if rich people are paying their taxes in today%u2019s date... But I think the root cause of poverty and uneducated people are the politicians they have taken advantage of this situation from years (bribes, religious crimes and others) are the work of our politicians... We need younger politicians who will understand the situation of the country and helping the country to move forward by removing poverty and educating people...
Government should stop Reliance or Wal-Mart entering into retail sector and opening supermarkets , they will kill small retail businesses and let millions into unemployment and debt , not only this, but once they have achieved monopoly they will raise the prices of necessary accomodities to unexpected level as there will be no competition left. They will try to bring cheaper products from china , by putting pressure on government and getting the export duty cut (especially for them and not others)and in the process they will slowly destroy mid size wholesale marketers as well. What do you think?
RE:Save the retail sector
by hello on Feb 27, 2007 10:04 AM
Again you are wrong here. (1) We should firm on what product they are selling. In china, they control even the symbol of McDonalds Food Chain. They said that the arch symbol of McDonalds is not suit with the environment. Same notice to Starbucks coffee chain. (2) Wal-Mart will be used by some rich people. They go to the super market and buy lot of things, otherwise they don't buy. I can explain that if you want. So, rich money will be flown back to the economy. (3) There should be some import restriction for any retail chain. Like what they adopt in other part of the world. Even buyer can control the behavior of the shops.
RE:RE:RE:Save the retail sector
by asif durwesh on Feb 27, 2007 10:33 AM
Sorry about this , but I think you are thinking it in a smaller perspective , have a broader vision of the whole idea and you see there is a point in my comment.Anyway I am not a market analyst, but there will be some hired by this big giants ,who will teach them all the tricky way in book to capture the whole market.
RE:Save the retail sector
by hello on Feb 27, 2007 10:09 AM
Also, one more point. Because of retail gaints like Wal-mart, there will be a growth of convenient stores or you called so small stores. Think about who will drive that much distance to a Wal-mart for simple things. They will be busy to ride, petrol expense. That time, these retailers can charge more for their profit. Govt. can put policy for different pricing scheme for small retailers like convenient stores. Also, we can enforce Wal- Mart in some neighborhood which certain miles away from main junctions etc. Even w/o rules, those big stores won't fit in small places. There are lot of things are there.
Where we were in 1990. How much achieved. How much we achieve in next 5 years. That is important. We cannot raise tomorrow to the level of US. Sure, in next 10 years also, we may find vanaja like people in some part of India, no matter what ever policy we adopt. Even we satisfy financially, people will become beggers or poverty because of mental stress for social status.
RE:Please understand one thing. It is not final word, it is debatable.
by kannan k on Feb 27, 2007 09:37 AM
Hi YuanKush
I get what you are trying to say.... but in some earlier post a person had said the rich live, middle class survive and the poor struggle to surivive... it is the poor am speaking about.
i do know there is a difference between absolute necessity and requirement(read luxury). I feel these people need something just to survive.... i live in tamilnadu. TV sets were distributed when people did not have anything to eat.
But the people who opted for TV instead of food and basic amenities are pathitic fools in my view. but what about the others who really want something and are unable to get it?
RE:RE:Please understand one thing. It is not final word, it is debatable.
by hello on Feb 27, 2007 09:42 AM
I got it. That will be done by some politician who got vote by saying like that. It may be a stupid policy to get vote. They could have tell some other things like free electricity for 5 years to farmers instead of that.
