Comments on: The Evil That Manmohan Did Will Live After Him

By: Shaunak

Shaunak — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:02:45 +0000

“You forgot the *most* important assignment in his career - Union Finance Minister 1991-96. He (with Chidambaram who was Commerce Minister) was instrumental in bringing in free market reforms in India.
Granted, Narasimha Rao gave them political backing - but ultimately it’s these guys who took crucial decisions.”

Political backing was the most important factor in these reforms. Narsimha Rao staked his entire political capital on making a bloated bureaucratic socialist juggernaut make a 180 degree turn on a dime.

It wasn’t ‘these guys’ who took the crucial decisions. The decisions were mandated by the world bank et al. As anyone who has worked in an organisation in managerial capacity knows, coming up with ideas is really easy. Implementing the damned ideas by navigating through the organisation’s power centres is really really difficult.

Personally, I think MMS and PC got far too much credit. It was PV Narsimha Rao who deserved the lion’s share of credit for the reforms (and therefore our thanks). The media hyped MMS and PC while PVNR got dumped into history’s lost and found because he didn’t courtsey enough at the throne of the Gandhis.

By: dealer

dealer — Wed, 21 May 2008 01:05:42 +0000

And while we are on the subject of utter mismanagement of the economy in the last four - forty - years, could we please also have a leader article on subsidies? Oil subsidies of 200,000 crores, fertiliser subsidies, food subsidies, and the impact of the Sixth Pay Commission have all not been accounted for in the recent Budget. Can we discuss this in more detail on a separate page?

By: Edsa

Edsa — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:01:19 +0000

Indian senior politicians all have some fundamental deficits: they are tired old men, intellectual lightweights and lack leadership qualities, diplomatic flair, communication skills, NOTHING NEW OR INTERESTING TO SAY. After all, most have paased out from third rate institutions (comparing internationally).

They lack style, vitality, charisma; their expression is wooden or vacuous, their discourse sluggish & humourless;
they are heavy on banalities, poor on concrete solutions.
They know their place and defer to western leaders, will never criticise or censure them for historical injustices or loot.

Manmohan Singh has acted as apologist for the Empire
At Oxford university, Manmohan Singh thanked the British for everything India is today including he bureaucracy, the judiciary, the police, Rule of Law.

He then went on to express gratitude for the gift of the English language—the language that separates India’s elite from its fellow countrymen and binds its imagination to the western world. Macaulay couldn’t have asked for a more dedicated disciple.

By: dealer

dealer — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:06:37 +0000

Why should MMS ask corporates to tighten their belts? Haven’t seen any news reports of him telling his Cabinet colleagues, government staff to tighten their belts. On corruption in fact, there is not a word from him. Prof CK Prahalad says India is losing trillions because of corruption, which he terms as a crime against the nation. At least corporates make money and reinvest it, as can be seen from the growing proportion of corporate contribution to investment and taxes. Salaries are rising across the board because of government’s inaction on higher education, not because of greed. This is the second year that MMS has asked corporates for restraint in a manner reminiscent of socialist days - see his 10-point agenda speech to CII last year. But there has been little action from this government on the reform agenda in the last four years. I live in Kuala Lumpur, where government routinely announces new measures without apparently having set up tedious committees and task forces to examine them in advance. Our committees and task forces live on and on….and do we have a GoM committee on inflation yet??

By: Gary

Gary — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:26:14 +0000

You got my attention Alex. Totally Right. Stop being lazy and do something. Stop demanding quota people. Gotta work if you wanna be someone.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:56:04 +0000

To ask the private sector to reign in price is simply outrageous and completely unfitting of a man who claims to be a reformer and an advocate of market economy. If I have acquired control of precious resources such as steel or cement, why should I sacrafice my profit for the public good? It’s totally unfair. I should have every right to make as much profit as possible. This is a lesson we should have learned from the 50 years of stagnation. All the robinhood policies of previous governments have gotten us nowhere. If everyone in the country is working hard to make as much money as possible, we would be alright. The problem is too many people are lazy and only want to get handouts. If we continue to encourage the poor to be lazy and the rich to stop maximizing their profit, we will have more and more apathy and poverty. If we keep chopping the legs off of the brightest people and make it criminal for people to become rich, the only thing we will get is perpetual poverty for everyone and an exodus of the best minds. If we still don’t glorify the rich, this country is going into the dustbin. So what if the price is raising? Stop crying and deal with it like a man and work twice as hard for twice as long as before and you will be fine.

By: Gary

Gary — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:10:57 +0000

My friends, if it wasn’t for this guy you would still be writing these blogs in magazines. Dr. Sing has invited other countries to invest in India because of which our country was, is and will be forced to move in direction of infrastructural, education, transportation and technological advancements. Let me tell you one thing. If it wasn’t for Dr. Singh most of MBA graduates would still be looking for jobs in foreign countries which is not the case now. And also, no one is sitting at their homes drinking tea, most citizens have jobs now. Let me tell you what the current economy situation is telling you, ‘Stop being lazy and go out their and open a business,’ its not my fault or Dr. Singh’s fault if you don’t have any ideas.

You should be thanking him for the situation he created which made foreign countries invest in India. Don’t be so critical of every action. Compare the polls which were done by Headlines Today in which they asked how many citizens are living comfortable lifestyle in 2007, with the year when your favorite prime minister was in office. I agree that we have high inflation currently, but don’t blame him for this. Blame your goverment as a whole from 1947 to 2008 who ignored the cries of farmers from all over country.

By: Salty

Salty — Mon, 05 May 2008 08:40:11 +0000

Majority of private business work for the interest of their shareholders who of course want to make as much money as they can. On occasions such as this when demand of goods far outstrips supply (for sectors like steel , cement etc),they give a damn about reining in the prices. Often the increase in price of finished goods in completely disproportionate to the increase in the cost of production. Inflation for them is a windfall which they are too eager to lap up. This has nothing to with “goody-goody” terms like productivity, quality and/or value addition.
On the other hand, a democratically elected government works for the interest of majority of their citizens. On occasions such as this, a run-away inflation can bring irreversible hardships to families who live on a shoe-string budget of 1-5 dollars a day and who constitute more than 75% of the citizens. Any responsible government will like to do whatever it can to rein in the excessive profit-making motive of producers. There is nothing populist or socialist with such exhortations

By: Salty

Salty — Sun, 04 May 2008 19:35:11 +0000

Dr. Singh along with the Finance Minister has exhorted ,in numerous public gatherings, the corporate (chiefly the steel and cement producers) sector not to go overboard in making profits just because there is an sudden opportunity today to make money and thereby fuel inflation further. Take a simple example like steel; global prices of raw materials like iron ore as well as finished products like steel have been on the rise. Local companies like TISCO , SAIL etc. have their own iron ore mines and therefore their cost of production is not affected significantly. However, for other midsize manufacturers of steel who “buy” iron ore have raised prices of their finished products. (Interestingly, over the years it has been observed that when cost of raw materials rise by X%, indian producers have raised their finished goods prices by (X+Y)%. Y has often been more than 2 times X). Since the demand of steel far outsrips the supply, these midsize companies are making “excessive” profits. This has nothing to do with productivity, quality and/or value addition. Dr. J.J. Irani of TISCO noted in a recent CNBC interview that he cannot afford to maintain his prices low because his competitors are selling at high prices (meaning that if the competitors prices were regulated , he doesn’t mind keeping his prices low and since he has his own iron ore mines, he can still make sizable profits for his shareholders).
I guess, Dr. Manmohan Singh was exhorting the producers to moderate their desire of making as much money when the market is at their feet.

One can take other examples too where suddenly producers have woken up to charge a price which the market can bear only becasue the market has no other choice. IIM fees is one such.

It is true that India’s economy has matured to the extent that no longer we are in a cost-plus regime of pricing. But flogging the market for super-duper profits just because it can bear the same can be harmful for an economy such as in India because the hardest hit in case of a run-away inflation are always families who leave on a shoe-string budget of less than 1-5 dollars a day & constitue more than 70% of the populace. There is nothing socialistic in this argument. Any responsible government will like to protect majority of its citizens from hardships that arise out of “market-windfall” for a few of the producers.

By: Wondering

Wondering — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:46:36 +0000

Never posted here before, but will just chip in a few thoughts.
Inflation is immoral. Period. Simply because it eats away on the purchasing power of the poorest strata of the society. And those on the fixed income. Watch any senior citizen without an indexed pension how they are coping with the inflation. Anyone who had savings of a few lacs a decade ago could have survived based on the derived fixed income from their savings. Ten years hence, that purchasing power has been greatly diminished.
Inflation is stealth stealing. All fiat based regimes, steal money to fund their deficits and popular spending. Yes, zero inflation would be the world of no immorality.
Go back and look at the history of US inflation before the formation of the Fed. And the purchasing power of the dollar in pretty much the entire period (except for during the civil war) in the 19th century. It was the same. That is a moral policy.