Saturday 20 April 2013

[www.keralites.net] Khatte-mitten khabhrain from around the world for 20/4/13

 

 
The ToI yesterday quoted the latest UNO's arm WHO figures to say that 1/3rd of world's poorest of poor live in India. Our population, at 1.24 billion, equals 1/6th of world population and 1.2 billion, as per the statistics, is also the total number of poor in the world. The stat can also be interpreted thus – 1:2 is the India vs. world poor ratio. According to WHO statistics, 400 million people in India can be termed so.
 
WHO counts anyone whose income is less than $.1.25 (about Rs.65) per day per person as poorest of poor, while the Indian government considers anyone who earns less than Rs.29 as poorest of poor who are referred to here as Below Poverty Line (BPL) people. It means that our BPL people are 60% worse off than similarly designated poor in the rest of the world!
 
And our elected representatives fight it out bitterly – hurling wild charges and counter-charges, fisticuffs, all under the euphemism, pandemonium, - over trivia or for scoring political points or getting even, thus stopping urgent business to make things a little easier for the people whom they represent. Indeed political Neros fiddle when the bellies of millions of our poor people are burning with hunger.
 
Some friends often take me to task for criticizing the overly-pampered civil servants and nationalized bank employees. Now I ask you, what is fair, wasting tax-payers' money on pay, perks n pension to these not-so worthy class most of who fatten themselves through routine bribes or spending it on poverty alleviating measures? In the developed West, whenever and wherever the governments try to curtail outsourcing of jobs to developing, the rich MNCs fight it out tooth and tail saying farming out low-tech jobs to less developed countries is beneficial to their countries and themselves in terms of huge money saved. When in India nationalized as well as private banks outsource/palm off their laborious clerical and/or data entry jobs to what are known as back offices owned and operated by small time contractors, India's poor has a far superior right to demand the government that they outsources their high-cost government jobs to similar back offices and use the huge sums saved to provide them succor and minimize the hardship of poverty. Curiously, the selfish bank employees and civil servants who otherwise go on strike for fulfillment of every one of their demands, seldom fight for the poorly paid employees of back offices who do all their dirty work…
 
**
 
The sanctimonious humbugs called newspaper editorials..
 
On Thursday, TOIs main lead carried an editorial deploring the latest US immigrant policy announcement and how it could have been better for mutual (yani ki for both US and India) advantage..
 
And yesterday's HT edit was all wah-wah on the same issue…
 
**
 
Dad: Son, what do you want for your 18th birthday?
 
Son: Just a radio, dad… With a sport car around it..
 
**
 
Tongue in cheek…
 
The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes..
 
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"It's always one's virtues and not one's vices that precipitate one into disaster" – Rebecca West
 
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"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens" – Woody Allen.
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Health tips…
 
Pineapples strengthen gums, alleviate arthritis, help building bones, and prevent cough and cold.
 
**
 
Cinnamon (dalchini/lavanga pattai) lowers bad cholesterol, blood sugar levels, and increases your body's insulin production ability.
 
**
 
It was the end of the school year, and kindergarten teacher was receiving gifts from her pupils.
 
The florist's son handed her a gift. She held it overhead and said, "I bet
"I know what it is. Flowers."
 
"That's right!" the boy said, "But how did you know?"
 
The next pupil was the sweet shop owner's daughter. The teacher held her gift overhead, shook it, and said, "I can guess what it is. A box of sweets."
 
"That's right, but how did you know?" asked the girl.
 
"Oh, just a wild guess." said the teacher.
 
The next gift was from the liquor store owner. The teacher held the package overhead. It was leaking. She a touched a drop off the leakage with her finger and put it to her tongue. "Is it wine" she asked.
 
"No," the boy replied, with some excitement.
 
The teacher tasted a larger drop. "Is it champagne?" she asked.
 
"No," the boy replied, with more excitement. The teacher took one more big taste before declaring, "I give up, what is it?"
 
With great glee, the boy replied, "It's a puppy!"
 
**
 
The case of the missing 65-bn dollars in our telecom sector.
 
ToI quotes the Vodafone chief, Marten Pieters…
 
"In general, there is a pretty bad position for the telecom sector. The investors are not happy as the telecom industry which used to be a poster boy of economic liberalization, is bleeding with negative cash flow owing to higher taxes and low-tariff regime. The Indian telecom industry is now reeling from a HUGE DEBT BURDEN OF RS.1.85 LAKH CRORE and industry has a negative cash flow of over Rs.20,000 crores"
 
Now our revered CAG put the loss to the exchequer at 1.76 lakh crores by having sold/allocated 2-g spectrum airwaves for a song.
 
The total money involved – the industry's debt + national loss – is 3.61 lakh crores.
 
Where has this humungus sum disappeared?
 
The telecom is money-losing business due to the ultra low tariff prevalent in this extremely price-sensitive India. As I commented recently, entrepreneurs of startups or owners of other going business are no longer interested in making profits to grow rich; they become billionaires just by selling dreams to gullible and excessively greedy investors.

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