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Another scheme by a politician to pocket more money and power

Posted On: October 4, 2006 - 10:57pm by kautilya

And, you guessed it right this politician also wants to "help the poor". It is none other then the Indian politician Ram Vilas Paswan who "will shortly introduce a Health Insurance Scheme under which 250 million poor people will get free medicines."
"

What do you think will happen? Let me make a few predictions:
- A lot of this money will be wasted on bureaucracy to run this project
- A big chuck of the money will go to the politicians running this program. after all the are the real "poor"
- Another chunk will go to the drug companies who will supply overpriced and substandard medicines for this program, i.e. if they supply the complete contracted amount.
- This program will never end... it will only expand

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The role of private sector in India

Posted On: August 13, 2006 - 12:33pm by kautilya

I love this article about how in all areas in India that were traditionally controlled by the government, and now opened to the private sector we see massive improvement. Also, the single area which government should have been playing a good role at, i.e. law, the government has been a dismal failure. He almost says that even law should be privatized, but stops short.
This is the article and some selected quotes fomr the article below:

The private sector has done more than expected. India's software industry is world class. Indian manufacturing has finally become competitive: exports have grown by over 30% annually for three years. Indian companies are making foreign acquisitions galore and becoming MNCs - Tata Steel, Bharat Forge, Tata Motors and Ranbaxy are a few examples.
Power was long a state monopoly, and state electricity boards were bankrupt when reforms began in 1991. They sought refuge in independent power producers like Enron, but these degenerated into a fiasco. How then did India produce enough power for record economic growth? Well, old power stations improved their load factor. But the main reason is that corporations decided they could not rely on government supplies, and set up 20,000 MW of captive power.
The second green revolution is being energised by the private sector, not the public sector. Reliance has led the charge into rural areas in Punjab with a farm-to-fork operation - managing the chain from seeds and crops to processing and hypermarket sales. ITC is rapidly expanding its e-choupals, computerised kiosks for farm information and for buying produce. The Mahindras, Tatas and Shrirams are setting up rural supermarkets.
The government developed the idea of deficiency payments for roads, with the contract going to the bidder requiring the lowest toll subsidy. But now some bidders are willing to pay a fee rather than demand subsidies
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India Blogstreet

Posted On: July 13, 2006 - 1:47pm by kautilya

Just added myself to

You might also want to try it out

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Milk reservations

Posted On: July 4, 2006 - 2:32pm by kautilya

I wrote this a while back, but never posted it on the blog. So, here it is --

I have a news item to report. Yesterday, I proposed milk reservations (besides others), and NDTV/Star news etc. interviewed me. The text of the interview follows:

Reporter: Mr. Kautilya, so what exactly are your proposing?
Kautilya: I am proposing that 50% of the milk sold in the market be reserved for progeny of the SC/STs and OBCs.

Reporter: But, why milk?
Kautilya: [Arrogantly, I look down on the reporter as if he is an earthworm in my backyard] What? You don’t understand the importance of milk? You upper caste guys who have always easily gotten milk no longer think of its importance. I think…

Reporter: I am not upper caste…
Kautilya: Don’t interrupt me. [I am fuming at the insolence of this guy. Interrupting the all knowing Kautilya.. What was he thinking?] Where was I? Oh yes… As I was saying, I think the reason for the backwardness of some castes is the lack of nutritious food. Imagine if the children of these castes always got enough milk; won’t they become healthier and more productive citizens? And, by becoming more productive they will improve their and Indian economy’s condition.
...CONTINUED(use read more link below)...

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