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Monday, August 17, 2009

Impact of corruption in Indian Economy

In the recent past, we were receiving chain mails on the huge figures of amounts lying in the swizz bank accounts of various Indians and there was this huge hue & cry on accessing it to plough it back in our economy…!!

Now, let’s look at another scenario….an insider of a ‘National Party’ said there was a dictum by their ‘Party National Head’ to all their ruling ‘State Heads’ to send 200 Crores per month to the head quarters…!! Of course, some portions are spent back on election time to distribute liquor, cash and other incentives to the vote banks. However, you can calculate the volume of money and remember, if a CM has to send 200 Cr per Month, he’ll definitely make more than that at his level.

We all, have been discussing these facts casually and at least some of us who would have felt in the bottom of our hearts some (false) prestige about the fact that we Indians have the maximum amount of money parked in those secret accounts. We were also advocating it to plough it back into our economy. Agreeing to the fact that such a move will help us during this recession blues, we need to understand the fact that we need to initiate a process to stop this accumulation in the future by eliminating the root causes of this….!!

However, each one of us know that ‘it is easier said than done’ and it requires lot of political and personal guts to envisage and execute a programme to eliminate this social evil….!! This needs tremendous support from the ‘common people’ or so called ‘aam aadmi’ like us to implement it successfully.

Now, how shall we contribute and support this? If any of this political leadership initiates such a process, let it be anybody from a ‘Gram Panchayat Member/ President’ to the ‘Prime Minister’, we need to respond by resolving ourselves on remaining non – contributing to the corrupt system for some silly favours from them..!! Very difficult…is it not? This is the point where the corrupt system scores upon…..

Be it a temple, be it an office, be it a park or any public place, every one of us need preference and we are always in a hurry..! Is it not? This pattern of behaviour had helped the system to deteriorate….!! How many of us go to temple with mental preparedness to spend time in the queue…? I had mentioned regarding this in one of my earlier notes that I’m always prepared to wait and if I am not prepared, I don’t intend to go inside and I’ll pray from outside and move. Similarly, when we are going to any place, please be prepared to spend time and pursue it as that will relieve you of mental tension and unnecessary loss of money.

Apart from this undue hurry, another common factor which triggers the system of corruption is the lack of knowledge and lack of confidence to identify and avail information from the proper source. This is magnified as the system adds value to the scenario by confusing and making it complex for a common man to gather information, even from an information desk. The individual, who sits at such info – kiosks and responsible to pass proper information, deliberately acts indifferent and makes the life miserable for those who seek information. As the process becomes complex, we tend to take short cuts and they succeed in their plans….!! However, now there are many avenues where we can access information from…thanks to the websites, RTI act etc.

The impact of the corruption and so called parked money is very frightening….

In 2002, 1 Kg of branded Atta cost was between Rs.12/- and Rs.14/-

In 2009, the same quantity of the same item cost you between Rs.35/- and Rs.37/-

What triggered the cost to increase almost 300%?

Is there a substantial increase in the cost of production?

Even if there’s an increase, is it as huge as 300%?

We talk of less inflation and buoyant economy, etc. Despite all these facts, why the costs are increasing steadily & exorbitantly?

Logical answer is……

The traders and industrialists, who have been funding the corrupt system all these days, are forced to take back the money from the poor consumers….!! (This is in addition to the government looting through the additional taxes and cess, etc. Another funniest system is that any tax is collected from the end consumer….?! Actually it should have been collected from the profit of the traders…!)

This is dangerous…..we need to initiate a response campaign through various platforms like ‘jagore.com’, etc. and should provide the info in the regional languages as well. The Indian consumer power is actually a ‘genie’ with unparalleled strength and we need to unleash it to eliminate these kinds of social evils. If we join together and boycott the retail outlets, all these traders will not be able to sustain for long and will be forced to accept the demands of the consumers….!!