Kashmir – Earth’s Heaven Turned Hell!

Once known as the Heaven on Earth, the beautiful state of Kashmir is well-renowned in the world today for being one of the most sensitive states where terrorism is rampant. With different surveys and different responses in both India and Pakistan alike, the one thing that is clear to me despite the statistics involved; is the dream for establishing their supremacy in Kashmir region has done more harm than good to both the countries involved.

The History of Kashmir
The land of Kashmir was predominantly ruled by the Hindus and the Buddhists till the 15th century, when the Mughals conquered the region. Thereafter, will the fall of the Mughal empire, the Kashmir region was ruled by independent rulers till the middle of 19th century when the British installed a puppet Hindu prince in the Muslim-predominant state. Things worsened when the British Government declared independence for the Indian Union and a partition was ordered.

After the futile efforts of the Hindu king to have his own state, he rushed to Indian Union for help after the Pakistani military attacked Kashmir with a view of annexing it as a part of their country. After his agreement that the territory will be placed under India, Indian troops were flown to Srinagar and in 1949, a UN cease-fire stopped the battle. This also led to the drawing of a cease-fire border between the two nations. A constituent assembly in Indian Kashmir voted in 1953 for incorporation into India, but this was delayed by continued Pakistani-Indian disagreement and UN disapproval of the disposition of any portion of the region without a plebiscite. A new vote by the assembly in Indian Kashmir in 1956 led to the integration of Kashmir as an Indian state; the area where Pakistan had entered i.e. PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir), however remained under the control of Pakistan. India refused to consider subsequent Pakistani protests and UN resolutions calling for a plebiscite. In the decades that followed, the line of control blurred due to the two wars with Pakistan.

The years that have followed have only made matters worse. With continuous cross-border firing and more than 30000 people killed since 1989. Kashmir has now remained heaven only for the different extremist groups operating in the region.


Is the issue un-resolvable?

This post is more about finding a solution than just stating plain facts or asking questions. Though the Kashmir issue is highly tangled, I recently came across a case which can act as a precedent for the situation. The case is regarding the North Ireland region where the people were polarized similar to Kashmir and the place had to select between the United Kingdom and Ireland.


A brief on the North Ireland Case and The Good Friday Peace Agreement
Like India, Ireland was once upon a time a colony of the United Kingdom. The British Government had proposed a six-year trial rule of self Government in Ireland in 1914. This got shadowed by the First World War. On the other hand, in Ireland, nationalists won the overwhelming majority of the seats in the 1918 (United Kingdom) parliamentary election and declared unilaterally an independent (all-island) Irish Republic. Since the British Government refused this, the Irish war of independence followed. This created two Home Rule parliaments: a Parliament of Northern Ireland and a Parliament of Southern Ireland.

While the Protestants (a majority in North Ireland) wanted to stay with the United Kingdom, the Catholics (a majority in South Ireland) wanted an independent Ireland. This mismatch of vision led to attacks on Catholics in the north by loyalist mobs and attacks on Protestants in the south in 1920–22. When the independence was granted, Northern Ireland promptly exercised its right to remain within the United Kingdom and Southern Ireland became the independent Republic of Ireland. What followed was a Civil War and the resultant was complete mistrust in the Ireland isle.

In the events that followed included a lot of wars and cross-border tension. Finally in the 1990s after decades of peace talks, the region stabilized a little. In the year 1998, a peace agreement was signed, which is The Good Friday Peace Agreement. This agreement also called the Belfast Agreement was a major step in the peace process. The referendum in Northern Ireland was a direct vote on the Agreement while the vote in the Republic of Ireland was a vote to amend the Irish constitution where it was stated that Republic of Ireland has complete control over the Ireland isle (which included North Ireland) in line with the Belfast Agreement. From then till now, though there have been a lot of hiccups, the peace process has gone further and the problem of North Ireland is now non-existant.

Cutting the long story short, the basic underlying story can be crudely matched to the India-Pakistan independence and the state of Kashmir.


So is the Belfast Agreement A Ray of Hope for Kashmir?
Reading about the North Ireland episode made me feel that India and Pakistan can resolve their issues on similar lines. When Bill Clinton was in Power, he had suggested the same solution for Kashmir, but when I look into the intricacies of the issues, it may not be that simple to replicate the solution.

First of all, to resolve the issue, both sides must realize the limitations of violence to resolve this issue. Any solution brought forth on basis of plain majority is neither democratic nor will it work towards bringing lasting peace. Moreover, since there are various communities living in the state of Kashmir, any solution that is brought forth should take into consideration adequate representation of all the parties involved.

The other major difference is that while Government of Ireland was completely unrelated to the activities of IRA, it also shared a cordial relationship with the Government of Great Britain. Unlike this, we see a lot of Pakistan involvement in the various terror outfits that work for the “liberation” of Kashmir. As long as a real effort for reconciliation is not made and the relationships of India-Pakistan do not improve, peace talks are not bound to yield any results.

Moreover, unlike the polarized North Ireland (i.e. Catholics and Protestants), the issue in Kashmir is highly ethnic. There are various communities who are more interlinked with other communities than with people of their own region. I came across a movie (Shaurya), in which they state that Kashmiri Pundits make 12 types of meat. Now unlike the other regions of India, this is more bent towards Islam or Christianity as Hinduism inherently upholds vegetarianism. Again, religion is a way of life and over ages has evolved with region and hence just dividing the people based on caste would not bring forth a viable solution.

Apparently, for resolving North Ireland, there were various committees that worked together to reolve the issue. These include the UK Government, Irish Government and Independent Councils of North Ireland. Can we even imagine autonomous regional governments or representative committees of Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir to be included in peace talks and a joint India-Pakistan council?

Owing to the above discrepancies, the North Ireland issue cannot be directly mapped with Kashmir and yet, it is more like a precedent. Of course, we cannot find an exact match for any issue, one-size-fits-all thinking will not work and apparently the solution needs to be tailor-made. But as long as the underlying countries look at the issue with openness, any problem can be resolved.


Kashmir – Paradise Lost
India and Pakistan have in the recent decade come forth with lot of peace talks and brought to the table their interests in resolving Kashmir issue. Till recently, serious efforts were visible and the bus and train services (Samjhauta Express) showed that the ice was finally breaking. The countries seemingly looked as if working together and progressing towards peace. Ceasefire was also declared and firing stopped at the borders after almost 15 years.

But this good beginning was disliked by some radical groups and recent terror attacks in both India and Pakistan are on the rise. What is saddening is the fact that with the Mumbai Terror attack, Pakistan has shown resistance in bringing the people involved to justice. Apparently, the Pakistan army still has a major say and the democratic government seems to be just a puppet of the army chief. Both the Prime Minister and President, alongwith Nawaz Sharif in the beginning promised different things like sending ISI Director to India and bringing the Terrorists to justice, but later on the same people rectified that their statements were misquoted, called the terrorists state-less and demanded for more evidence. The recent turn of events have heated the situation even further and almost shown a possibility of war.

The current situation shows that Pakistan needs more political stability as it has had more than 20 years of Military rule in the last 3 decades. The Indians and Pakistanis realize that they are much more similar than they have been portrayed. We are a part of the same culture and apparently the same civilization which was once a “melting pot” of the best of all cultures. Yet all said and done unless a proper democracy comes in both the countries, the dream of a Kashmiri Paradise will remain – but a Dream.

Recession bites – An Unexplored Opportunity for India!!!

The current slowdown in the United States which has caused a Global recession phenomena lately has caused the other countries to relook their policies and their customer base. The so-called off-shoring companies in India, which just had either American customers or which just do plain BPO services are the ones bearing the brunt. There have been loads of cost-cutting initiatives in all the companies, with some even performing the brutal act of laying people off. Of course, we are all humans, and being one of them, I am both afraid of the change and sympathetic for the deserving people who lose their jobs; yet I believe, that since we have come to a point where we cannot escape the change, looking at the positives that are bound to happen with this revolution needs to be figured out.

More KPO instead of BPO

KPO or Knowledge Process Outsourcing has been a new buzz-word since a few years now, with plain old “Call Center” giving way to some of the important processes being outsourced. The work outsourced is not as simple as just replacing the B with a “K”, Knowledge process can be defined as high added value processes chain where the achievement of objectives is highly dependent on the skills, domain knowledge and experience of the people carrying out the activity.

The future of KPO has a high potential as it is diversified across various sectors like Legal Processes, Intellectual Property and Patent related services, Engineering Services, Web Development application, CAD/CAM Applications, Business Research and Analytics, Legal Research, Clinical Research, Publishing, Market Research (Market research KPO ) etc. The current global recession will usher these more important and also more specialized activities to be outsourced as the organizations in the developed countries try to cut their costs further.

There are various segments of KPO which are on the rise in India. The American doctors send scanned copies of reports to their counterparts in India and medical consultation is done. Apart from this, various companies plan to follow Biocon way for their Research Process Outsourcing as per Kiran Shaw. The other backend services like Payroll and Human Resource Management are already in place, but the one segment that would be benefitted immensely by the recession seems to be LPO.

LPO – The current Outsourcing Boom???Though initially treated with mis-trust, the Law Firms in United States have finally started delegating the drafting and the other paper work to their subsidiaries in India. The Wall-Street crisis brought a wind-fall in this nascent industry because the crisis that impacted the fortunes of Indian IT firms has the country’s LPOs minting bundles of cash with huge amount of litigation work coming their way from the US. With a lot of paperwork needed for filing bankruptcies, lawsuits, mergers and acquisitions that the global recession is bringing forth, the Indian LPOs are getting more and more involved into the so-called critical tasks of the companies. Also, with the E-discovery law in place, (this law is related to storage, usage and analysis of electronic data for the litigation work) the American Law firms are flocking to India because of the huge cost differential in lawyer fees.

What is also an icing on the cake is the fact that the rising economic crunch is sending new workload offshore, whereas since India has a huge number of lawyers graduating every year, and since India performs its legal proceedings in English, and also Indian Legal System is crudely based on the British Laws, the Indian Lawyers are almost instantly employable for the LPO jobs.

Of course, the law firms are still debating as to how much of the work/ data can be effectively outsourced to India, especially considering that the information of the clients or the case may be confidential, but some of the simpler tasks like drafting and document reviews are being sent to India in a larger amount. A few of the law firms also commented that ever since the fall of Lehmann Brothers, their work has almost doubled and there has been a lot of hiring in different cities as the bubble burst is still happening and hence the demand is on the high.

Mass Layoffs – A Blessing in Disguise???

For years, we Indians have been hard-wired to live a methodical life of studying and finding a well paying job in a reputed MNC and settle down in life. The mass layoffs that follow this recession will shake the whole system up and we will have to awaken from this “dream-world”. Considering that a huge mass of good educated people, i.e. Engineers, Managers, Doctors etc. suddenly become unemployed, people will start to look at the other opportunities that would have been overlooked. New innovations may occur which will change the way we perceive the world and probably, some Indian will spawn yet-another MNC, an Indian MNC.

These issues may also make people more interested in teaching, which for now is considered a “dull” occupation and hence the next generation of students will be guided better. A bunch of people may even enter into Politics and we may see a lot of changes in various other segments and scenarios. The dark side is the crime rates will also go on a high and how we cope with the question of how to feed the hungry people is going to be tough to answer.

With the terror on the high, production on a low and the global recession bound to stay; I see a REVOLUTION on the cards, when and what will happen; Only Time Can Tell!!!

The New Indian – Fundamentally Correct or Wrong

We all came across the dreaded Mumbai Terror attack last week and the massacre was condemned by all including myself in a blog-post. We all blamed the Government for being do lax about it and a lot of finger-pointing and blame-gaming followed. A lot of my readers said, asking questions is a good thing, but is there any answer. This made me ponder deeply and on a hind sight, the question that I asked myself and which “we”, the educated people should ask ourselves is, “Do we actually have the right to blame the Government? Did we actually go to vote when the Government was being chosen that we are now damning?” If the answer is “NO”, you belong to the modern Indian society where the educated and earning people feel going to exercise the Fundamental Right to vote is nothing but a waste of time.

If the answer is “NO”, we do not have the right to complain about the terrorism or the other Political issues. We see that all the so-called reforms the Government makes is for the poor or for a specific community but when we look at it from the perspective of the political candidate, he finds them as a reliable source of “vote-bank” as compared to us, the educated mass who lap up what we get and yet at the time of the polls say that all the politicians are worthless and hence we should not go to vote. The ideal example for this is that of Chandrababu Naidu (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh, who brought tremendous development to the city of Hyderabad, but since he did not do much for the rural areas in that term, he lost the next elections. We also see complete injustice in the policies made by the HR ministry regarding the reservations and all, but all in all, the politicians do what they do for gaining the votes and we are not helping them by not voting and hence we feel we are exploited/ not represented. The last straw also includes forgoing a whooping 60000 crore in loans to farmers in the election years.

Have we faced enough already?

The answer should have been “YES” decades ago, but we Indians are a very dormant society. We will not react as long as the issue does not affect us directly. We look ahead calmly even if our neighborhood is on fire unless we are unsure that the fire will not reach our house. This attitude of ours has costed us a lot in the past. Suddenly the hidden bombs which blasted in trains, buses or cinemas look like a small thing and the terrorists have reached places like the Taj, the Oberoi and the Gateway of India after the previous attacks on the Parliament.

We also see a higher amount of confidence in their attacks, more sophistication in their weaponry, and use of much more advanced technology coupled with perfect strategic planning. After this grueling experience, what do we get in return? Plain old finger pointing and prejudices from our Politicians; and sacrifices from our Police Force and Army. I am not blaming the Government for the lax in their response, this is the system that “we” the educated masses of this country have allowed to be molded over time and today when the same seeds we had sown have become deadly plants with venomous thorns that are pricking us, do we really have the right to criticize the system? I don't think so.

So what now?

All said and done, a problem that we have allowed to be formed can be resolved by our own actions. The time has passed when walking in a few processions and lighting a couple candles and then hoping that we won’t need someone to light a candle for ourselves the next time an incident happens. These things we did in the past to satisfy our conscience that we protest the inaction against terrorism and condemn the politicians don’t work anymore. Of course, we don’t want to join politics, we all wish to stay in the comfort of our homes and have the security of our jobs. So is there anything we can do?

Fortunately, there are a couple of things. First of all, we need to show the Politicians the Power of the masses. The educated masses need to exercise their “right to vote”. It is not just a luxury given to us by the Democracy, but it is the duty of a citizen to be responsible for what you get. Unless you vote, you do not have the authority to condemn any of the Government’s mis-doings. Once the politicians see the faith of the Indian voters and realize that their good work will be supported with votes, they will go to any extent for the good of the city, state and the country. This emotion was visible in the Gujarat Polls of 2007 and people from far and wide came forward to vote, with just the hope that the Government that delivers should not be toppled.

A lot of people ask what if we do not have any good leader to support. For that, the Indian Conduct of Election rules, published in 1961 does have a provision called Section 49-O, i.e. a way to mark yourselves as voted, but to NOT VOTE for any candidate. Unlike an email that is being forwarded as hoax that the Section 49-O when exercised the politicians in that constituency will be debarred or that there will be re-polls, this opting to exercise the option not to vote does not in any way render the election invalid or disqualify the candidates irrespective of the number of people "deciding not to vote".

Specifically, section 49-O of "Conduct of Election Rules of 1961" states:
"Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark."

So, how would that help?

Though the common man is unaware of this provision, The Election commission, since 2001, has submitted two proposals requesting that a separate option called “None of the above” be provided on the Electronic Voting machines. But the Politicians are smart and hence nothing’s moved so far! But the point is, if it can get that simple and we do have a sizable number of people using the option, can’t we file a petition requesting an amendment be made to Rule 49-O?

Though exercising Section 49-O does not have results as spectacular as a re-poll and debarring, a high number of voters of exercising this option does make a statement that people are dissatisfied with the current setup and it also shows as a buffer of votes to the politicians who know that if they work well, these votes will be shifted to their vote-bank. Coupled with a strong media support, the change which is already “over-due” can be finally brought apart.


A Ray of Hope

The Mumbai-blasts have rekindled the spirits in the people of India. For the first time, I have seen a lot of Indian communities come out and condemn this brutal act of terror. Various International Forums have decided to help India in this menace for the first time and this has made the country or more importantly the country-men come closer. Various youngsters have started taking active interest in the state of the affairs of our country and the concepts like http://www.jaagore.com are helping awaken the lost sons of India.

Bottom-Line: For all the protests we have done till now: Was the entire slogan shouting required? Were the rallies required? What did we ever achieve? Were politicians ever going to listen to what we say if we shout one day and forget the event the very next day? Like Bhagat Singh said, the deaf need blasts to listen to what we say and the “right to vote” is the biggest bomb that a democracy can give us.

The change begins from us and we have to make a beginning. And as said in India's Most Wanted, India Fights Back - "Together We Can, and We Will."

Dasvidaniya – The Best Goodbye Ever

Cast: Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Rajat Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Purbi Joshi and Sarita Joshi

Director: Shashant Shah

Overall Rating: 7.5/10.0 (which is definitely a Good-to-Watch Movie)

The movie is said to be based on Akira Kurosawa’s Ikuru (1952) and Rob Reiner’s Bucket List (2007), but for the Indian audience, it can be loosely compared to Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand, which is an interesting tale of a man living his life to the fullest, despite being well aware of his impending death.

Dasvidanya tells the story of a typical person, Amar Kaul (Vinay Pathak), who though was considered as one of the studious kids in school, just reaches the post of an Accounts Manager in a Pharmaceutical Company because of his simplicity, while others climbed the Corporate ladders swiftly. The character talks about a typical lower middle class person in the city of Mumbai, his laborious job, hefty amount of work, dominant Boss, widow mother, and of course, the Mumbai’s transport system, i.e. the Local trains. The best part of this character is how closely it is relates to the Indian common man, who lives like a dead person every day.

His tangled life goes around such daily traumas, until one day, a supposedly known stomach infection strikes the deadly reality of being a Third Stage Stomach Cancer. Now, told by the doctor that he has only a few months to live, Amar realizes that he has never “lived life”. Never having mustered the courage to do the things he liked Amar decides to stop wasting his remaining life. As he makes a daily To-do list which used to give him a sense of achievement when he would check small things like getting a battery and fixing a remote, he now makes a To-Do list, which he calls, Top 10 Things To-Do before I die. The fact how Amar’s mother makes him visit a huge number of tantriks (religious people) for the healing of his cancer is yet another striking similarity with typical Indian mind-set. The film effectively finds humor in death, even sometimes at the cost of trivializing a tragedy.

The things he wants to do include buying a car, proposing to his childhood love, make a foreign trip and meet his childhood friend, and make amends with his family. There are also various other fancies that he desires in life and at times he gets more than he asked for from life. Yet the movie is not wonderful because of its story-line which is predictive. What makes the movie really wonderful to watch is the small moments and dialogues that make the very fabric in which the tale is woven. There are various incidents in the movie that make us smile and yet there are moments which bring tears to the eyes and that makes the wonderful blend of this movie and keep it going.

Of course, the movie has its own set of downs like a few parts could have been improved or do not sound convincing enough for the viewers to digest, but all in all, Dasvidaniya is engrossing to watch at least some parts. Kailash Kher’s Mumma is a wonderful song that shows the silent love between a mother and a child and so is the “silence” with which Amar proposes to his childhood love. These things raise the bar of the movie to the next level. Some of the dialogues about life that Amar makes about life are truly wonderful. Over one of his guitar lessons Amar’s teacher asks him, “What’s your problem in life, man?” to which Amar replies “My life is the problem”. Yet the dialogue that will remain with me is when Amar says, when Sikandar (Alexander) died, he died smiling, Amar wants to die playing (the guitar). The discussions reminded me of the famous poem, Leisure by W. H. Davis which goes "WHAT is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?" And this feeling with its etched characters makes Dasvidaniya a real pleasure to watch.

Final Verdict: Vinay Pathak has truly raised his acting to the next level and the movie is really wonderful to watch. While it may not make to the list of ten things to do before you die, it's certainly an option when you want a good movie to watch.

Mumbai Mayhem - A Slur on India!

Consider a wonderful day, which has a significant importance in your life and you want to celebrate it with your loved ones. You think the day deserves a special treat and lightening your wallet a bit wouldn’t hurt. Inside a posh restaurant, you happily order the delicacies of your choice and the ambience feels heavenly. Suddenly in a split second, you hear a bullet shot. BANG! For someone on a nearby table that could be the end of their existence.

The first question that pops your mind is, “What the hell is going on? What just happened?” Bang, another bullet shot’s sound brings you to your senses reaffirming that there is no illusion and the tragedy is for real. You spring to first thing you find that can cover you and duck behind it. The thought that rings your mind is, “Will I live? What about my ____?” Suddenly your entire life gushes through in a moment and you suddenly feel happy about some good times of your past. You think, IF I stay alive, I’ll do ____. Bang! Another gunshot and you are back in the gory environment and there is nothing you can do about it except hope that you will somehow miss coming in front of the nozzle of the guns of the tormentors.

After the 60 hours of terror of Mumbai have passed and since now the dust has settled a bit, there are some things related to the entire episode of merciless killing spree that we need to give ourselves an answer of :
ARE WE REALLY READY FOR THIS?

The answer presumably is “NO”! This post is not to answer or make a snapshot of the entire saga of 26/11, because the truth shown on TV sets maybe far from the reality. But the idea is to look back at the crisis and raise a few questions.

What was the exact intent of this attack?

Like any other terror activity, the idea would be to cause maximum causalities, gain attention and of course cause terror, right? But from the limited knowledge that I got about these attacks from the print and video media, I realize that there is something EERIE about the whole incident. Somehow, somewhere something is wrong and that something is pinching me.

When the terrorists attacked Taj, why did they directly head to 6th Floor?

They could have killed a lot of people in the different restaurants on the Ground and the First Floor before heading to the 3 rooms on the 6th Floor and killing the inmates there. Were there more weapons on that floor? Or as the media now speculates, one or two of them lived there as tourists since a few days. I believe that there was ammunition stored in those rooms, because considering that there were just 3 terrorists in Taj, for them to carry so many guns, ammunition, grenades and RDX is not humanly possible.

Whatever be the truth, had the terrorists started from ground floor killing people floor by floor from the gate itself and making this another “Jallianwala Bagh” massacre. Were the terrorists so dumb, or is there some other reason for this behavior?

Also, the terrorist who was caught coughed up all the information in just one day. Apparently the coast guard and the other sources also reconfirm his tale till the parts it can be traced. Now knowing the nature of terrorists, they prefer to die before getting caught, and even when the army captures them like was done with due valor in this case, getting information from them is impossible. So, was some special way used to get the information from him and how was it actually commissioned is a question that baffles me.

All in all, though I am happy that the terrorists failed in their mission to kill 5000 people, I feel something is really strange!

Now the main question,
“When are we going to learn to RETALIATE?”

This is the first time when we see such events happen in posh places where the rich and famous are bound to be present. From the media, it was heard that the terrorists were keener on killing the British and American nationals and the Jews. It was also mentioned that they spared the Muslims. For a fact, Indian Muslim is as Indian as any other Indian and I hope our people make that point reach across by not rioting on the name of communities anymore. The enemy comes from outside and tries to divide us. By “US”, I mean, the Indians, and we forget that there are no differences amongst Indians; and terrorists bear no caste, no creed and no color.

Yet, we Indians form probably the most defensive nation in the world today. So tuned are we to following the “Gandhian” mode of thought that we forget that the ideology holds true only till a certain point and after that the only thing counts is cleaning up the problem. Since a long time, we have been continuously disturbed by terrorists who blow our buses and trains, hijack our planes and make our public places unsafe for public. If that was not it, they even reached the Parliament and the latest Mumbai massacre is addition of another chapter to their array of achievements.

In return, India has revoked the POTA, which was a way to counter the Terrorism. Our army and police force is made lame-duck in the politics that follows. The true martyrs, the Policemen, the Army and the Fire-fighters who lose their lives trying to help others live yet-another-day are just given a tribute of false prayers and a small medal. I believe the way to pay them worthy homage is by cleaning up the system. We need our Politicians to do something more than just make false promises, meet the patients for 2 minutes and condemn the incidents. We need them to sit in the Parliament, discuss and plan better and stringent laws against terrorism, as we spend 15 Lakh rupees per minute of their discussion. Instead we get the mud-slinging by Politicians of different parties.

We have been bossed around for years from hostile elements and all we do in return is “talk”. Bangladesh, a country which gained its independence due to Indian army, today threatens the Eastern states due to its issues of refugees and terrorism. Even the tiny state of Sri Lanka with its issues of LTTE pesters India’s diplomatic ties. The blame-game wars with China and Pakistan have been going on since ages and the so-called decades of “talks” have not yielded any progress.

By the above, I am not saying that we should resort to war between nations for an issue that can be tackled by proper diplomatic ties, but India definitely needs to tighten its stand on the “War against Terror”. We Indians revere our nation as “Mother India”, then why do we act as silent bystanders when people come and insult our mother. The latest blow is more like a spit on the face of our self-dignity. The Indian media called the 26/11 Mumbai Attack as “9/11 of India”.

We know how the Americans reacted after the 9/11,
Are we going to even try something similar?

Atlas Shrugged - A Review

Overall Rating: 7.5/10.0
Value for Money: 7.0/10.0

Writing a review about a 900+ page book and also not revealing anything about the plot is a daunting task. The fact that it is Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” does not make this task any easier. The Atlas Shrugged too, just like the FountainHead is much more than the pages that make the book. It almost comprises a mode of life and a figment of an imaginary society, remnants of which are visible in various examples in the real world.

The Atlas Shrugged has a plot which though is completely woven into economy and finances, yet is not a typical debate of capitalism versus socialism. The story is about the creative people who drive the others, bearing the burden of their fellowmen, just like Atlas stands, bearing the burden of the Earth. The name itself signifies that Atlas Shrugged and hence the plot revolves around a dramatic story of a society which is suddenly devoid of its driver, the innovators and the chaos that would follow. Ideally, I would like to remain non-political, but the story moves very closely to the various political aspects like equality of opportunity and financial aid among people of even the weaker sections of the society. Now I fundamentally believe that though equality is good, completely forced equality is harmful. I read in a book somewhere, that if all the sand of Mount Blanc (the highest mountain of France) is spread in entire France, the entire France will only rise by 6 inches. Similar to this thought is the fact that if everyone is a millionaire, what is a million’s worth anymore. The book echoes this ideology when it says, if everyone is paid equally; why would one work hard? This concept is shown so strongly, that saying you like this book in itself is a political statement.

Moving more clearly to the plot, it is the story of an ambitious and dynamic woman, who wishes to head the Biggest Railway Locomotive Empire which was created by her father. At every point of her life, she faces challenges, because the society is not mature enough to understand that a woman would run the railways. Her, not-so-competent brother makes an absolute fool of himself and the organization with his limited array of thoughts, narrow mindset, inability to understand any of what’s going on coupled with his intent to find profit in others, creating an oddly evil character.

Though the story does not show any visibility at first, as the book moves on, we realize that the Government keeps preaching various policies for giving “equal benefits to all” at the cost of making the ones with higher capability to take an extra load to “help” their not-so-privileged brothers. What follows these regulations is that the men of industry, the greatest people that the society needs to fix things, are disappearing. For the heroine above, just went she needs them the most, they drop everything they are doing, abandon their factories and their businesses and disappear.

The story also has a highly-successful person, who character confuses the reader unless read and followed very carefully. Various twists and turns of the tale make him look like a rich brat or a wonderful strategist. The tale also encompasses another hero, a person with all the self-motivation and power to actually fuel the story and the society in the tale for years with his metallurgical innovations. The at times brotherly and at times rivalry relations of the above mentioned characters is also a thing that holds the readers in awe. The series of suspense leads to another mystery being solved which change the entire course of the story for the better or the worse.

The story-line, like the Fountainhead is slow and at times difficult to comprehend. The sheer size of the book (looks almost like a dictionary) is enough to discourage people from taking it up. The lack of sense behind the Financial policies that the Government and Leaders enforced on the characters in the book was a definite turn-off for me. I could not really digest the fact that people who have spent their lives making financial policies can overlook such a fundamental aspect. But then, looking at the real world made me realize that votes are actually the thing that drives such initiatives.

The entire book is a tussle between “the Innovators” and “the Looters”. It sets a very high standard of what is right and correct in the world today, though it is a bit heartless and cold. It ultimately boils down to the same aspects as the FountainHead: high self-esteem and selfless altruism. The book has a lot of pages with discussions and speeches which are way-beyond the book itself. Looking at them over and over again, not only make for a great reading, but that reading will also give you more insight on life.


Final Verdict:

This is one book, which only people who can handle long speeches and have time to invest will be able to truly enjoy. For the lovers of the book, the reality, taken with a pinch of salt is that most people I know, shrugged the book, before the Atlas shrug. In fact, one thing I have observed in these novels is that people believe in the childish ways in Rand’s books because they typically have no children and hence they can strive for the idealism. The high standards set by the characters are far from reality and the utter heartlessness is also not the idyllic way of life. All in all, it is a book that keeps shifting between Utopia and Perfection.


The Correlations of the Real World with this book:

On hindsight, I feel that presently we are almost living the Atlas Shrugged. The current Financial Crisis is an ideal situation of this very concept where the American Government tried to provide housing to the “common man”, even with sub-prime credits. The thought that those people would be able to “earn” those houses was in itself far-fetched. Now that mortgage defaults are skyrocketing, the government is working on mortgage bailout plans for needy borrowers who can't afford the homes they bought. Similarly in India, we have loans of farmers written off at the time of elections and reservations in even the most Premier organizations for the vote-banks of politicians. Such policies ruin the lives of hard-working people whose tax money is used to salvage the so-called victims of the crisis. But slowly we are seeing the truth now; the looters' philosophy has failed. The global economic crisis is a result of the doomed culture of consumption over production. Would we see the beginning of an "Atlas Shrugged" scenario with the election of the Third World Socialist Obama and a majority Democrat Congress or will Obama prove something otherwise? And if that “income redistribution” happens, would we see the inventors, industrialists, entrepreneurs and skilled workers revolt against the injustice or simply drop out and disappear once their patience runs out?

Only time will tell...

Destination Moon - The Race Begins, Again!!!

The Moon mission stories are phenomenons which always excite the child inside me completely. As a kid, I always aspired to be an astronaut and land on the moon. I dreamed about going in outer space and landing on different planets. Now, at an age of more realistic understanding, I am still amazed by the achievements and discoveries that are made in outer space.

The History

Going to the moon has always been an exciting venture for us humans. The sixties and seventies saw a huge bunch of missions from United States and the then U.S.S.R. in a bid to win the “Space Race”. The race kind of ended after a myriad of successful unmanned and manned missions to moon. The major ones that would be remembered are Apollo-11, when Neil Armstrong set his foot on the moon showing the human supremacy and Apollo-13, which had a series of failures and ultimately brought the crew back alive without reaching the moon.

During the decades there after, the excitement of winning over the Space has waned and the fact that the missions are very expensive has not helped in continuation of those. Yet, scientists spent years figuring out information from the moon rocks and data brought back by the older missions.


The New Moon Race???

After a span of almost 40 years, the human endeavor to reclaim the moon has suddenly gained impetus. The European Union (ESA) sent their moon mission in the year 2004. In the years 2007 and 2008 we see Japan, China and India planning to send their moon missions. George Bush also mentioned another manned-moon mission from the United States in the second decade of this century, but it seems to have been postponed as of now. And like the last Space Race, even this new “Space Age” has been darkened with suspicion and doubts instead of cooperation.

All the moon missions are designed to learn more about the lunar atmosphere and surface have no military purpose. But space technology is a field where civilian technological advances can easily be put to military use, nations closely scrutinize each of their neighbors' steps forward. More so, after tests from Technologies like anti-satellite missiles and inter-continental missiles. All said and done, a new “Technological Era” is about to begin.

Chandrayaan – 1 – India’s First Moon Mission

The idea of an Indian moon mission had been on the minds of ISRO ever since its inception, but the realistic mooting of the idea started happening in 1999-2000. A "National Lunar Task Force" was created, wherein leading Indian Scientists brainstormed and assessed the feasibilty of an Indian Moon mission. Subsequently, Government of India approved ISRO's proposal for the first Indian Moon Mission, called Chandrayaan-1 in November 2003. The fact that Indian economy had improved than before and the facts that ISRO has been very consistent with its technology added further impetus to this daunting task.

Chandrayaan – the name is derived from “Chandra” which means Moon and “Yaan” which means vehicle, thus it stands for “Lunar craft”. Chandrayan-1 was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota by PSLV-XL (PSLV-C11) on 22 October 2008. It used the same idea of sending the rocket to the moon using the Earth’s gravity to provide a boost to the rocket.

When the first orbit around the earth, the rocket just took 6.5 hours to complete the revolution, but over days as the ellipse started getting bigger, and before it entered the moon’s trajectory, it once reached a point where it would take 6 days to revolve around the earth. Finally on 4th November, the spacecraft entered the Lunar Trajectory. Then the craft was slowly moved towards the moon and on November 12, the spacecraft was at 100 km circular orbit to the moon.

On 14th November, ISRO and hence India created history by ejecting the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) and landing it successfully on the Lunar surface. This incident also colored the “Grey Moon” with the “Tricolor”. Currently the devices and sensors on board MIP are functioning and sending back huge amounts of data which will not only help us understand the moon better, but the experience will also help us in moving ahead on other missions.


Economic Effects to India

A lot of people claim that the Indian Moon Mission is a redundant exercise that could have been done away with especially considering the fact that it costed around $78 million. Though there seems to be no direct impact of this mission, there are key-economic benefits which this missions will bring.

ISRO proved that they reached the moon at a very low price. Though we cannot compare it to the amounts spent in 1960-70s because the valuation and needs were different, Chandrayan’s expenditure of $78 million as compared to Europe’s SMART-1 mission cost of about $180 million, Japan’s Kaguya lunar probe cost of $487 million and even China’s Change-1 that costed $180 million, is considerably less.

Not only is the Chandrayaan cost effective relative to similar missions by other nations, this relative low cost is itself a tremendous advertisement for Indian space services in a highly competitive launch industry, and will help generate enormous revenues for ISRO and its commercial arm, Antrix. Though there are a few countries that place orders with ISRO (like the 10-satellite launching mission few months back). The fact that ISRO has the positive moon mission will add a feather to the cap and ISRO will indirectly generate a lot of revenue from the launches for other countries.

Apart from this, an indirect gain (though not substantial or directly visible) is that such illustrious projects in some way encourage reverse-braindrain and this would bring some of the best minds back to India, which will in turn improve the situations for the better.


Political Effects to India

The positive Moon mission will surely help India win a lot of diplomatic votes in the current World situation. Very positive acknowledgements were received from various countries for the successful implanting of “Tri-colour” (as spelled in India) on the Lunar surface. India's quest for the envious "Superpower" tag just clinched another vote with this uninhibited 239,000 mile journey to our lone natural satellite. This moon mission will also help improve the relations with countries further after the “N-Deal Saga” and hence the mission has a lot of indirect diplomatic benefits.

In one single line: “India Shining Reinforced again!”

On a fun note, Moon is revered as “Chanda-mama” in India. This mission has made the first trip to “Mausal” (Maternal uncle’s place) a reality. And since a lot other Moon missions are pipelined with ISRO aiming for a second lunar mission by the end of 2010 or early 2011, carrying a Russian-made rover that will collect rock and soil samples from the moon’s surface for further analysis. By 2015, India hopes to send up two astronauts to study the moon and even land astronauts on the moon by 2020. The old Gujarati proverb seem apt.

“Mama nu gher kettle, deevo bale etle!” (How far is Maternal Uncle’s place, in this case the Moon, just as far as the lamp, who’s light is visible nearby!) Though the translation is loose, the idea is, the Moon will be a near-by place soon...

Just a song this time - But I am back!!!

I have not been able to blog since the last couple months because of the building work pressure and uuummmm, should I say, some personal work that’s kept me on my toes. I was down with some work and more importantly 2 vacations back to back which delayed my blogging schedules. But now since almost all of that pressure (he he he) has gotten relieved, I plan to start blogging again from tomorrow.

For today, I found a song which is very apt with my current situation and so I am putting it in a post. The song is “Show Me a Sign” from “Breaking Point”. (Click on the Play for the Youtube Video of this song)

Of course, the song is for my GF(s). The ones who know what I am talking about will just smile away, for the rest, well, keep guessing.

The Lyrics of the song are wonderful:

Could you give me just some kind of sign,
To let me know that I'm not wasting my time,
I just need a reason to believe...

I've lost all visibility, 'cause I can't see,
Just what you mean, by what you're telling me,
Should I stay or go, do you even know,
It's all a riddle to me.

Show me a sign and give me reason to believe,
Don't waste my time, just give me some kind of sign,
Show me a sign and give me reason to believe,
Before this all just fades away.

Would you tell me cause I can't read your mind,
I'm so lost but it's not that hard to find,
I know exactly what you need.

It's become quite evident, just what you meant,
I need to vent, well here's my two cents,
Don't leave me hanging on if you know its wrong,
It's all a riddle to me.

Show me a sign and give me reason to believe,
Don't waste my time, just give me some kind of sign,
Show me a sign and give me reason to believe,
Before this all just fades away.

Give me just some kind of sign,
Cause I know that everything is changing,
And I feel like you always leave me hanging,
Don't leave me hanging on,
If you know its wrong...

The US Meltdown – “Reality” Strikes!!!

Over the last few weeks, we have seen a huge drop in the world economy due to the financial crisis in the United States Stock Exchange. This entire crisis was put to be blamed on “Sub-prime Crisis”. Since it is a phenomenon that had rocked the Finance of the World, shedding some light on this would probably help doing the root cause analysis. This is a long post, but it covers a lot of burning issues.

The United States Reality Business

The establishment of the US real estate financial system can be traced back to the early twentieth century, around 1938, with the formation of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae). The securitization of real estate mortgage loans was viewed as a new creation in financial history; it made a massive contribution to improving liquidity of real estate capital and resolving Americans' housing problems. At that point of time, since the same bank functioned as both issuer of house mortgages and bearer of the risks, a very strict check on the borrower's repayment capability was done. Though this ensured low bad debt rate, it also restricted the bank's liquidity. People's surging demands for housing and the banks' need to pass on the risks resulted in the United States setting up institutions such as Freddie Mac, specifically to purchase the banks' mortgage loans. These institutions streamed the cash generated from loans into basic issue of bonds and sold them to investors, thus greatly expanding the source of capital for the housing market, reducing the banks' risks and the interest rate on loans, and proceeding to spur the development of the real estate market; this formed a capital cycle centered on real estate, and this financial innovation provided endless massive capital for the US housing market. Moreover, following the US dotcom bubble burst in 2000, the United States underwent a massive recession. The Fed lowered the interest rate in various funds from almost 6.5% to an all-time low of 1%. This low interest policy drove a lot of investment towards the already booming real estate markets.

The United States uses a system wherein they rate the creditors based on their previous track record. The system rates them as “Prime” i.e. people with good track record and “Sub-prime”, which consists of people who do not have a good track record and even defaults. Normally, the banks are reluctant to give loans to such people. But, in the last decade, the U.S. economy has seen a lot of liquidity flow into the various markets. Moreover, the American Real Estate was booming and prices of a lot of properties almost doubled from 1997 till 2006. With stock markets booming and the system flush with liquidity, many big fund investors like hedge funds and mutual funds saw sub-prime loan portfolios as attractive investment opportunities. The American Banks and the Mortgage Houses wanted to tap more benefit of this situation and hence started providing loans to even the “sub-prime” population since 2003.

Masking the Mess – One man’s Trash, another man’s Treasure?

Since giving the loans to sub-prime population directly would have been a huge mess and they would not find people to invest for the same, the financial institutions developed various instruments under the guise of which the capital was raised against the sub-prime loans. Moreover, the subprime loans were made at around 2% higher interest rate to accommodate for the defaults and hence they seemed to look like better investment options with higher returns. In the 1990s, the Wall Street also joined in looking at the lucrative returns. The corporations now repackaged over and over the house mortgage loans and their securitized capital, pushed a great variety of new financial derivatives such as guarantees for debt securities, and provided investment instruments with varying degrees of risk for investors who favored a variety of risk. The institutions created different bonds, which were then rated from AAA to BBB depending on the order in which the people would be paid in case of defaults. Some of these were also insured. Of course, the higher safety would come with a lower rate of return. The banks always believed that though there would be some defaults, there would still be a lot of gain. And again in case of a default, since the real estate was booming, the price of the houses would surely be greater than the loan and so recovering the funds would not be an issue.

The Government also encouraged lenders to lend to sub-prime borrowers, arguing that this would help even the poor and young to buy houses. Being flush with funds and with Government’s approval as well, the institutes were willing to compromise on prudential norms for the subprime loans. In one of the instruments devised for subprime loans, the borrowers had to pay only the interest portion to begin with. The repayment of the principal portion was to start after two years. Incentives like this made a lot of people take up the loans and hence the “Subprime Loan Market” was reaching new highs.

The Chain-reactions of the Crisis Begin

In the year 2007, the US Housing Boom began to slow down. The major reasons included the supply of a huge number of new houses which were constructed looking at the increased demand due to the additional people who were willing to buy houses due to the easy availability of the loans. This additional supply caused the real estate prices to go down. Hence, most of the houses that were over-valued at the time the people took the subprime loans underwent correction and the prices went down. Moreover beginning in 2004, the Fed launched a cycle of rising interest rates, with 17 increases in one and a half years; the return rate on one-year T-bonds rose from 1.25 per cent to 5 per cent. Since previous market expectations regarding interest rate were low and borrowers favored a floating interest rate on loans, after the rate increase the interest burden became much heavier, and in particular, borrowers of subprime mortgage loans were mainly low-income groups with poor risk-resistant capability, and very many people were unable to repay in these circumstances, and the rate of repayment failure rose.

This increased the default rate among subprime borrowers, many of whom were no longer able or willing to pay through their nose to buy a house that was declining in value. The fact that the collateral for these loans was the same property, the real estate prices went further lower because the banks tried to sell those properties for reclaiming their loan principal. This increased the supply of housing far beyond the current demand and according to estimates; the values of some of these properties have reached as low as 50% of their peak values in 2006.

When the banks try to offload their bonds in the market, they either do not get customers willing to buy them, or buyers are willing to pay only a fraction of the amount. So the market capitalization of the bonds is only on paper and in actual world its value is pretty different. What also happens here is that the valuation is done based on “Mark-to-Model”, wherein variables and values are entered in the computer and the computer decides a price (similar to book value of stocks), but many of the instruments are over-the-counter derivatives, which are struck on a one-to-one basis between two parties. So they do not really have a market. In other words, there is a sea of difference between the price that is being offered in the market and the high artificially-generated price thrown up by the model. So, when the bank ends up selling the instrument or unwinding derivatives, the loss suffered is far in excess of the mark-to-model loss. Such extra losses on thousands of securities and multiple portfolios can wipe out the capital of the bank.

To make matters worse, what also occurs is the “Domino Effect”. Since the institution could not raise the expected capital with the bonds that it wanted to offload, it also ends up selling the other good assets or bonds which may have nothing to do with mortgages. This greatly increases the supply of these bonds and the crisis starts spreading from subprime to prime.

The Far Reaching Effects of the Slump of the Dump

The declining value of the collateral (houses of the defaulters) means that lenders are left with less than the value of their loans and hence have to book losses. Now, the Financial Institutes had created a wide range of instruments (CDO, CDS etc.) to market these subprime loans. The fact that Wall Street and Investment Banks had worked upon these loans also meant that the effects would reach not just people who made these mistakes, but a much wider audience which held a share of this pie either directly or indirectly. As per an analyst, this could be inferred as: “They put bad pork into the mincing machine and then sell sausages to the world.”

In the era of Globalization, the global capital cycle is centered on the US financial market. A majority of developing countries which depend on exporting primary commodities and raw materials have become America's creditors; Americans export not only dollars but also the Fed's monetary policy and Wall Street's novel products. And the Wall Street investment bankers fly in their spacious Boeings to all corners of the world to peddle their derivatives. Also, since global equity markets are closely interlinked through institutional investors, any crisis affecting these investors sees a contagion effect throughout the world.

Global banks and brokerages have had to write off an estimated $512 billion in sub-prime losses so far, with the largest hits taken by Citigroup ($55.1 bn) and Merrill Lynch ($52.2 bn). A little more than half of these losses, or $260 bn, have been suffered by US-based firms, $227 billion by European firms and a relatively modest $24 bn by Asian ones.

The American Dream – A Nightmare?
The suddenness of the current events have woken up the Fed from its deep slumber. As of now, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been nationalized to ensure that they do not go down. Other institutes are not so lucky and have to either book huge losses, or even file bankruptcy.

Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest US investment bank, has filed for bankruptcy protection, dealing a blow to the fragile global financial system. Despite efforts by the US Federal Reserve to offer some financial assistance to the beleaguered financial sector, Bear Sterns, one of the world’s largest investment banks and securities trading firm collapsed. Bear Sterns was bought out by JP Morgan Chase with some help from the Fed. Merrill Lynch, also stung by the credit crunch, has agreed to be taken over by Bank of America. There are fears that AIG, once the world's largest insurer, could also face collapse. It is taking steps to raise money amid reports it is seeking a $40bn emergency loan from the Fed. Washington Mutual, once a financial juggernaut, became the biggest failed bank in history of the United States and was taken over by JPMorgan Chase. There are also reports of Federal regulators brokering a deal with Citigroup for buying Wachovia banking operations, but the latest update is that Wells Fargo and Co., one of the biggest banks in the United States.

All in all, a huge amount of litter has blown all of a sudden, and since the mortgage houses, loaners, investors and financial institutes are not directly connected due to the various variants of bonds, and different packaging and further repackaging, only time will tell who will take how much of a hit. As of now, we are just seeing the effects of the dust settling down.

Yet Another Bailout – Is it worth the Money?
The Bush Administration seemingly worked overtime and drafted a Bailout bill to the tune of $ 700 bn to clear the mess that is bleeding United States and the world. There are a lot of speculations on whether the Fed was keeping the things out of focus to get this bill passed or did things really happen that fast that there was no breathing space? Some of the mathematics doesn’t seem to make any sense. Bank of America grabs Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan takes over Bear Stearns and WaMu. That’s a lot of bad debt being gobbled up cheap. Why would companies amass such a horde of toxic debt without the means to dispose of it for a profit?

All in all, whatever the truth is, the latest news is that today the Bailout Bill is has been passed by the United States “House of Representatives” with a 263-171 vote. This is really surprising after a rejection of a similar bill on Monday by a 228 against 205 for vote. The reasons are said to be a lot of sweeteners added to the bill. But a lot of House members said they were reluctant to help an unpopular industry and approve new federal spending but felt they had no choice.

All said and done, I hope the crisis ends and people understand that Bailout money is a Loan from the Government. It is the very money which the “Tax-payers” have given to the Government with trust that it will be used to improve their country. Frankly, the only thing that comes to my mind is the achievement that Lee Iacocca (Chrysler Automobiles) mentioned in his autobiography.

April 1980: After huge layoffs and losses in the millions, Chrysler barely averts bankruptcy by receiving $1.5 billion in government-backed aid.
August 1983: Chairman Lee Iacocca signs over a ceremonial check for $813,487,500 to pay off its last federally guaranteed loans, even before the term of payment is over.

Tata Nano – Small Affordable Car, Big Exorbitant Troubles

The Moment of Pride

On January 10, 2008, Ratan Tata unveiled what was believed to be an impossible achievement. The unveiling of the Tata Nano once and for all silenced all the critics who said that the Rs 1,00,000 car is just a figment of Mr. Tata’s imagination and merely a hype. The four-door Tata Nano is almost 3 meters long, and is powered by a 623cc two-cylinder engine at the back of the car. With 33 horsepower, Tata Nano is capable of 65 miles an hour. Its four small wheels are at the absolute corners of the car to improve handling. Though it seems to be a small car, it can very comfortably seat 4 people and even promises to fit 5 people at a slight squeeze.

The car is the culmination of five years’ research and input from across the world, including Italy and Germany. But what makes it more special is that it was designed and made in India, defying expectations that a company best known for its heavy Lorries and Trucks could manufacture a cutting-edge passenger product. More importantly, the Rs. 1000000 price tag seemed to be an unrealistic selling price for even the major players in the automobile industry. The very fact that its nearest competitor Maruti 800 is almost priced twice as this figure is a proof enough about the competitiveness of this pricing.

All this limelight seemed to be a dream, it is a project that will shows the shine of India’s future prospects, and a wonder in itself. It does make a pride moment in the history of modern India and also, people like me feel proud to be an Indian. What we did not know then was the nightmare that would follow. The turmoil which would follow was a part of these statements, which an elated Ratan Tata had said on January 10, 2008. A team of 500 engineers worked on the car, to be produced at a plant in Singur, West Bengal. The car will be sold first in India from the second half of this year, with an initial annual production run of 250,000, but it is expected to be made available in Latin America, SouthEast Asia and Africa. It could find its way to Europe in a few years but enhancements to meet higher standards would raise the price considerably.


The Reality Strikes – the Dream breaks

The main issue with the entire plan was the way in which the land was acquired by the Government to get Tatas’ to make the plant at Singur. The Government claims to have offered a compensation of Rs. 8,00,000 per acre of land to the farmers, which is substantially higher than the prevailing market rates. The farmers complain about 2 major things:

1. The compensation is useless to them. As was said by one Prasenjit Das in Khaserbheri village says "What use is cash to me? Putting money in the bank and earning interest is not enough, especially looking at the rising inflation. With land, my asset remains intact and what I earn from selling my produce is a bonus." Das has another argument to press his case: "Even if the government promises to give me a job, it fails to secure my children's future."
2. Lack of faith that the people have from the Government in getting the money and that too in time.

These two facts were taken up by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamol Congress and they began a protest against the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the West Bengal Government for allocating the land to Tatas’ after acquiring it forcibly.This protest movement gained momentum, with her performing dharnas and it also took an ugly turn when her supporters physically threatened TATA officials and people working in a small plant set up there to prevent them from entering plant.

The other thing that does not make sense is the fact that in last November, Mr. Nirupam Sen, the State Commerce and Industry Minister had made a statement which said, “The acquisition of the entire 895 acres of private land is virtually complete. Each of the landowners has given his consent to acquisition at prices which are much higher than the prevailing rates. We have already disbursed payments for 550 acres and the rest will be completed within this month”. What we don’t understand is, are the farmers agitating because they haven’t been paid, or is the agitation due to another political game-play where the common man is once again made a victim.


The Warning from Ratan Tata

With the support of Mamata Banerjee, the agitation in Singur has reached a dead-lock. Neither is the Government able to give back land to the agitating farmers and nor are they stopping the protests. The things got worse when farmers protesting the Tata plant have resorted to beating up the staff of the Singur plant. Serious physical damage has been inflicted on the staff and family members of Tata Motors at Singur. What also made this worse is that a set of people are also supporting the Tata Project and Singur and things have gone violent.

Looking at the grave situation in Singur, Ratan Tata made a statement on 22nd August in a Press Conference, “We perceive that we may not be wanted… if people think that we will not move out of Singur, they’re wrong. We would, whatever be the cost.”


The Aftermath that followed

Ratan Tata is one serious businessman, and the statement he made turned the world around. For West Bengal, the fact that it had housed the Tata Nano project was not only a thing of pride, but it has already invested almost 1500 acres of land into this project. Moreover, this project is to bring almost 6000 jobs to West Bengal state and also usher in a lot for projects in the future.

If Tatas’ move out of Singur due to this political issue between the Government and the Opposition over the Government’s “capture” of Farmer agricultural land, it would set a disastrous precedent for the state of West Bengal, and wooing both Indian and Global investments after “booting out” what is probably the biggest Auto-investment after the early 1990s project of Maruti and Suzuki, will be a major challenge.


The Reconciliation That Failed

Even after the entire saga that followed Mamata Banerjee still slammed a desperate Buddhadeb who wanted a resolution over the problem. He called for a meeting with the Governor to find a “middle-way-out”. Mamata said, “West Bengal government doesn't respect us. It has broken the terms of agreement. We are not ready for any more talks.” The Trinamool chief called for 'March to Singur' on September 16 and threatened agitation programme after September 19. Mamata's statement has come barely hours after Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi called for a "spirit of accommodation" that was evident during the talks he presided over to break the Singur deadlock. The Chief Minister had offered 70 acres in lieu of the Tata Motors project site at Singur to "unwilling farmers" and monetary compensation to those whose land fell outside, but was rejected by Mamata Banerjee at a face-to-face meeting.

Those who had discounted the possibility of the Tatas leaving the state got a wake-up call after Karnataka offered 900 acres in Dharwad and its farmers - unlike Singur - gave the impending acquisition the thumbs-up. The other states which also gave “red-carpet” for the Tata Nano project include Gujarat, Uttaranchal, Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh.

Even Mamata seems to have realized that Tatas’ might exit West Bengal, albeit late. Her calling on the Governor just hours after Leader of the Opposition Partha Chattopadhyay talked to him points to her desperation for an honourable exit. She was given the opportunity once, but missed it. Now at this stage, “The package, or nothing”, was the curt message from Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee after a desperate Mamata Banerjee called on Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Friday, seeking a way out of the Singur impasse. The CM’s statement buries the faintest possibility of a compromise beyond 70 acres from within the Tata Motors project area. With the CM firm on the announced package, there is hardly any room left for negotiations through Raj Bhavan.


The Last Straw

Five Unidentified armed men sneaked into the plant and assaulted two security guards in the paint shop of the Tata Motors small car plant at Singur at around 10 PM on Monday. This added fuel to the fire about the Tatas leaving West Bengal.

As of this moment, the Tata Motors is dismantling the Plant at Singur and truckloads of materials, including the moulds, casts and the other machinery parts, are being loaded and sent out to an unknown location. The move is seen as a first step towards the company’s Plan B: launching Nano, the Rs one-lakh car, from its plant in Pantnagar in Uttarakhand. Company officials said some men were already being relocated. Sapoorji Pallonji, the firm engaged by the Tatas for site construction, has already withdrawn its workforce of 260 personnel, including 60 engineers, and have transferred them to other sites. This shows clear indications that work in Singur is not going to resume anytime soon.


In a nut-shell

For investors and shareholders of Tata Motors, this is a major development which could go either way for them and simultaneously their investments. If Tata Motors decide to move out then almost 2 years worth of work will have to be re-started somewhere else. Despite Tata’s confidence that they are capable of rolling out the Nano by October, future production will be hampered if they are forced to shift their project elsewhere. The Singur drama will also cost the Tata Motors almost Rs. 1500 crores, and this might be a major impediment in making the Tata Nano price to remain as competitive as was announced and expected.

Last but not the least, with so many states giving the Tatas’ a Warm Welcome, and the stalemate in West Bengal, the Singur Dream, remains a nightmare. Mamata Banerjee is sticking to her land-for-land demand, hoping that her stubborn stand will yield electoral dividends in rural Bengal it doesn't matter if Tatas exit Singur. With a belligerent Opposition not ready for a compromise and Tata Motors set to wind up operations in Singur, Bengal will again go down as an "unfriendly state" a tag that it had shaken off in recent years. Buddhadeb is worried about the repercussions to the state if Tatas exit with such a prestigious project and he sent a letter to Ratan Tata offering police protection and other contents are yet not known, but it is said that Ratan Tata has agreed to have a talk with Buddhadeb.

All in all, the only question that still remains is,

“Will Tata (Ratan) say ‘Tata’(good-bye) to Singur?”