Taxation system in India...

Recently i read some article in the paper about how Indian enterprises are not incentivised to park their overseas funds in India. The inequitable tax structure in India stymies them from doing so . A company has to pay an extra tax for the funds acquired overseas which already have been taxed overseas. Our tax structure is a laggard in many respects. The 30 % corporate tax, although lesser than the 45 % corporate tax which existed in the socialist India, is still inequitable. There are huge loopholes in the transparency of the service tax and sales tax systems. An Indian shopkeeper would evade his sales tax, not only because that would save his money, but that would save him the cumbersome job associated with paying taxes in India. So, not only the taxation system has to be more equitable, but also transparent and easy for the taxpayer to get done with, without much labour.

How can it be more equitable? Well... The industrialists should not be seen as the scapegoats for the faulty government policies. They are the ones who have given us this miraculous growth, of which we are extremely proud of. In the socialist era, we could not have even fantasized the growth rate, which has manifested at the day. So, they should not be taxed so much. The articles which are double taxed at various state boundaries, should be taxed once. And that brings us to a relevant reform which is going to be incorporated. The Goods and Services tax. This reform in essence embarks on equitable taxation in our country. The goods which have been till day taxed multiple times across state boundaries, would be taxed now once, and the money would preferably be with the centre, which will distribute it to the states.

About making it more transparent, that would involve a lot of IT infrastructure to be set up, where every transaction, every detail related to taxation, every persons PAN no. and all such details should be provided on an online database, which should be made public. For this sufficient money should be ear marked to setting up the required IT infrastructure at the required places.

And about making it less cumbersome, the paperwork associated with the taxation process should be minimized, and more and more things should be done online, which will make it more transparent as well as easy to handle.

Even to maintain our industrial growth, serious reforms, like the G.S.T are needed and they should be done at any cost.

An account of political philosophies

World wars 1^st and 2^nd may be considered the most bestial wars ever. War crimes were committed openly, let alone amnesty for prisoners. U.S. let off steam on Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atom bombs as Japan flickered in fire. But unlike cold war, none of them augured the end of world. The dichotomously divided world was heading its way into the most heinous battle ever. As the battle between democracy and communism galore, the world was on its way to annihilate itself. The world was divided in its political and economic dogma, the nuclear war seemed ineluctable and the doomsday imminent. The nations which were supposed to be the most sophisticated ones, were surprising the mankind with their barbarianism. This is the sort of impact which terribly divided political philosophies had. The two major military blocks wanted to create a hotbed for the proliferation of their dogma and to devour the other eventually. The battle between communism and democracy, between socialism and capitalism, between altruism and reason led the countries of the world to pile on nuclear weapons and prepare for the 3^rd world war.

U.S.S.R and U.S.A were the bastions for their own respective philosophies. The gigantic U.S.S.R wanted the communism to proliferate and the smart U.S.A wanted to encompass the world with a surge of comprehensive democracy. This led to a huge covenant of western nations in the name of North Atlantic Treaty Organization. As one besmirched the other, the world was heavily divided. The Americans gallant of their freedom of speech and the Russians of their proletariats, insouciantly kept mum of the carnage which could follow their parochial acts.

The 19^th century Russia wanted to lay the foundation for centrally planned economies in the world. Highly impressed by Karl Marx, Lenin led his country into the Russian revolution and the czars had to bite the dust. He unarguably had his last laugh and then did not look back. Russia invaded and collaborated with different countries to lead itself into a gargantuan union, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. That was the surge of socialism. The land owners were stripped off their lands, and the proletariats suddenly became the most privileged of the Russian classes. The people who were running for power and pelf had to step on the altar, as the proletariats became richer. The press was robbed of their freedom. It was forced to print corrigendum on its criticism of government. In essence, the centrally planned economy turned out to be huge failure. As the country’s businesses were taxed into destitute, endemic and chronic hunger was rampant. The exchequer would earmark huge money to defense sector, does not matter if chronic hunger burgeons in the country. Ordnance was the country’s prime concern at all times. Cases would be decided in absentia, as law went into an abyss during Stalin’s regime. Lifestyle would remain essentially drab.

After the 3^rd world war, the only standing economy was United States. It embraced capitalism and democracy, and achieved a chimerical growth rate. Its businesses were having gusto; it started to earmark huge money to the agricultural sector. They had the job cut out to ameliorate the situation of the country comprehensively. The policy of affirmative action was embraced to uplift the downtrodden blacks. As the country moved, people embraced a flamboyant lifestyle, which rendered its economy mostly consumer based, providing enough leverage to its businesses. But, it gave rise to huge greed in people, which manifested as the global economic crisis as the chronicle of events unfolded.

The dogmas of respective nations would determine the lives of its people, as the state would educate its people with its dogmas to prolong the rule, plutocracy for America and oligarchy for Russia. No one would commit the blasphemy of besmirching a proletariat in Russia and the businessmen controlled the issues in U.S. And as the chronicle of events unfolded, a new major country embraced socialism. China, under Mao, turned out to be another secluded nation. In the pursuit of rule, the ruler would condone the barbaric acts. In fact under Mao, china remained essentially a belligerent nation, which was perpetually apprehensive of an imminent invasion by United States or Soviet Union. China embraced communism in its pristine form initially. Unlike china, India had to look at a plethora of issues while taking a decision of its philosophy, when it was set free after the British havoc, which lasted for a several centuries. An uneasy limbo forced India into avoiding capitalism and still be democratic, thus a democratic socialist country, which became India’s political philosophy. Democratic socialism was essentially a conflation of communism and democracy. The system of democratic socialism then led to huge amounts of populism among the politicians and myriad cases of grafting on the administrative level. The country commuted, as the economy plummeted eventually because of a mainly lackadaisical workforce, which, concerned for odds and ends, never looked to reform the system.

By the latter half of 19^th century the job of reform started in socialist economies, and mixed economies were born. The countries with hapless performance in the economic scenario finally signed the affidavit of ameliorating it. Bestiality was replaced with empathy as countries moved forward. In 1967 Deng Xiaoping for China, in 1991 Manmohan Singh for India and for Russia Mikhail Gorbachev started the process of reform, paying homage to America’s capitalism. The education system in China, Russia and India which was producing hacks needed to be reformed and was reformed to certain extent. Leningrad ceased to exist on the map of the world and Russians adjusted to the capitalistic system like a duck to water, as Democracy encompassed the world map. Thus, the most tolerant of the political philosophies, the harbinger of liberalization of world politics, democracy, reigned.

An essay which i wrote....

INDIA’S OWN SUPERMARKET

“We have changed from a world controlled by superpowers to a world controlled by supermarkets” ,says Thomas L Friedman ,the New York Times columnist and the author of the bestseller business book “the world is flat”. But how many people have realized it in India? Certainly a street shop guy has. He has transcended from his stereotyped services to an expanded approach towards his business. The street shop guy not only fetches his conventional products, but one can also get a mobile recharge, chewing gums, chocolates, stationary, an STD PCO, a one rupee packet of mineral water and what not? What does it show? Certainly it shows that the mindset of people towards business is changing. Everyone is trying to expand one’s gamut from stereotyped goods to include all kinds of products which one can get hold of and manage to sell with sufficient profit. These are the small supermarkets which one can find on every corner of every street in every town or city or village. It can be said that these are the Indian versions of the western supermarkets.

Indeed, a supermarket is a grocery store, a self service store, offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments. Now let’s define an Indian street corner supermarket. “It is a store, a small one, not necessarily a grocery store. It may originally be any street shop, an STD-PCO store, a general store, an internet cafe or whatever one can think of. But in such a store one can find an ‘Indian’ selling everything, from water packets to cigarettes, from mobile recharge to contraceptions.” We have seen the supermarket culture develop in India and it indeed has been adapted and accepted by all. The picture of the Indian street shop guy selling a wide spectrum of things shows that everyone has embraced the supermarket idea. But are we curtailed to selling more small items in small shops? The answer is no. Walmart may be the biggest retail player of the world operating in numerous countries but Indians have a propensity to indigenous names. A big-bazaar, reliance fresh, a pantaloons retail store are more into an Indian scheme of things. We prefer a V-mart to a Walmart.

India is ranked 5^th on the global retail development sector. Currently, supermarkets are confined to urban and sub-urban areas. But as more people are pulled out from poverty and the rural market grows we are bound to see those on the rural lands. As World Bank augurs that India would be world’s 2^nd largest economy after China by 2050, we will see supermarkets reach every corner of India. And that would require a massive improvement in supply chain management. A well managed and operated supply chain can effect reduced prices. Wal-mart has set a great example in supply chain management for other retail operators. The prices of items in a Wal-mart store are much lesser than those in other stores, due to the magnificently managed supply chain. This has been the main reason for the colossal growth of Wal-mart as a global retail player. Thus, the necessity of a well managed supply chain cannot be overstated. If a large country like India is to become the 2^nd largest economy of the world, these will be a major part of its scheme of things.

The tax reforms which have been incorporated in Indian economy from time to time are also intended to effect the growth of businesses and economy. Reforms like VAT (value added tax) have always been intended to incentivize businesses and GST (goods and services tax) which is going to replace indirect taxes is intended to remove the existing inequities or loopholes in the VAT system. The regularly upgraded taxation system of India is expected to be the incentive for the growth of businesses, economy and hence the markets, supermarkets and supply chains in India. Thus, foreign investors are thronging in to invest in the Indian retail markets. With growing consumerism, the supermarket business in India is going to be a big source of FDI. While skeptics opine that it would jeopardize Indian small retailers. Rather with the expected increasing demand, it would turn out to be a great opportunity for them to encash on the supermarket boom. Indian’s are after all known to show aptness towards indigenous goods.

Retail sector has been till date the 2^nd largest employer after agriculture for the semi skilled population and is expected to be a big job creator in the impending future. As a large fraction of our population is unemployed, a supermarket boom can just be the dues ex machina. As these get to rural areas, more people can get employed there. But that can only happen if the earning capability of our rural population is increased and their dependence on agriculture is reduced. An important step has been taken by the government in the form of rural employment policies like NREGA. But the government can only form policies and try to implement them. The problem which stymies rural development is administrative corruption. The bureaucratic setup swallows the funds allocated in the mediatory levels and stymies rural growth. This has been the problem and one of the reasons for the under development since independence, and we haven’t been able to find any effective way to eradicate this. So, for the application of these policies to some effect there should be transparency in the system of application of these policies. An official website on which everyday’s records related to wages and works are uploaded has to be launched. And a daily upgradation of that website should be facilitated. Of course, in a country like ours, it may seem farfetched. But not so if private companies like TCS and WIPRO are given contracts for doing it. This would ensure a proper and regular updating and would also provide options for . Public-private partnership is always being seen cynically in India. If government talks about it, it is seen as a cry to rescue the pathetic PSUs from the losses with which they incur. And if private companies talk about it, cynics see it as intent to swallow the public sector. Any step which promotes public-private partnership is welcome.

Big markets are the epitomes of a developed nation. The western countries in which industrialization happened and markets proliferated are the ones whose citizens have a higher standard of life than the African and most Asian countries. Supermarkets are sin qua non components of a grown market. If we will have a developed market in future throughout the country, supermarkets and well operated supply chain are indispensable. And in turn they can generate employment opportunities and thus benefit the market itself.

A supermarket offers various products in a single place. They are going to be much more in the scheme of things in the future. But will they replace the conventional markets?? May be in the western countries they can but definitely not so in India. People in India are too reluctant to change old habits. It will be too hard for someone in India to miss a tea on the shop which is in the corner of one’s street. Old habits are hard to break for us Indians. And even if we go to a supermarket for shopping but it is too hard to miss a tea around the corner, or a smoke behind the street for the smokers. Thus even if the supermarkets come and generate huge profits but a street shop around the street has its relevance and rightful place in India. No supermarket can provide the satisfaction which the Indian middle class serviceman gets out of hanging out on the nearest pawn tea shop with mates. And the street shop guy has embraced and integrated the supermarket approach and has started to keep all kinds of items in his shop. A supermarket may come and even go. But an Indian street shop or the India’s own supermarket is here to stay.

It's good to be back....

2 months in exile and of extreme torture. I was desperate. YES. I was desperate for coming to the PC, typing www.blogger.com and post something. But i didn't. There are reasons. First on that list is the terrible AIMTEST in which i was sort of burnt, bruised and battered. Well...i had much stronger words in my mind to describe that but for the sake of my readers i have tried to refrain from profanity. And then there were the two minors. A rare visit to college. And my ineluctable fever. Perhaps God could not bear my ecstasy for not getting fever these winters. And i lay on bed for 6 long days. This does not end here. There was a terrible dilemma about a competition called baja. Baja is an inter college competition of automobile design in which i desperately wanted to participate with my college team, but, something restrained me. Something for which i was even more desperate . CAT. If i had joined the team i would have had to work for hours during november and december which i can not. I have already sold my ass to CAT for those months.

But heyy...enough of crying..

Consoling myself....moving ahead...

Am back to blogger...

It wasn't long before i started blogging, but, i really enjoyed posting and highly desire to pursue it. So from now on i would try to avoid terrible interregnums and be consistent and agile with my posting.

A speculation of the future of businesses in India....

Recently i posted something about shivsena and ended up pissing off one of my friends badly. Well i have learnt that, in politics, different people have different perceptions. Every individual regard his own perception as true. Those i posted were mine and one should respect everybody's thoughts. I should tell SAM that even i agree with the statement that Mrs. Indira Gandhi is not the sort of politician whom this nation needs.

Well....as we are done with apologising and cajolings....i'd move on to tell you what my next post is going to be...

The first time when i entered into MANIT, one of the best institute in the country for engineering or atleast what one expects it to be , i was sure of one thing at least. I certainly did not want to get an engineering job. But then, i saw there were hundereds of them thinking just as i was. I was not alone. And almost each one of them wanted to pursue it for they wish to have their own business. But are they going to get those?? Can so many businesses co-exist?? Does india has the capacity to accomadate that number of businesses??

Well this is just what India desperately needs. A huge force of audacious entrepreneurs working for the mutual benifits of themselves and the country as a whole. Our country had been a victim of the so called "socialist" mindset. Developing businesses in India did not happen to be so easy as it used to be in U.S.A. Well, am not an out and out supporter of capitalism for that matter. The greed which capitalism engenders inside corporates can be regretful, as it happened to be in the sub-prime loan crisis which engulfed the world economy and tried to eat it away. But then, nor pure socialism can generate enough jobs to provide employment to the whole population. Budding entrepreneurs are the need of any country if its population has to come out of poverty.

So, the question now is, how can businesses be encouraged to develop?? First of all there is a need for changing the whole bureaucratic set-up which disincentivises our businesses to open and close. In India opening and closing businesses is not so easy. One has to bribe officials for acquiring permits and for getting all paper work done for that matter. Then when a businees go bankrupt it has to go through taxing lawsuits which are expected to last for almost an eternity.

That is not the only problem in India. EDUCATION. A population which is hugely illiterate can easily be digressed by political elements in a hugely corrupt democracy. For that the govt. has to take decent steps towards educating our population. Policies like "education guarantee act" are always welcome in a country with such illiteracy. But they have to be applied properly and with a determination to get over with the irrefutable bureaucratic corruption in our country. And our businesses have to create some sort of interaction with the people to make them aware of the mutual benefits. Businesses have to inculcate CSR activities in their core policymaking. This way they can work for the betterment of the whole society without compromising their own profits.

That's it for now....i may have bored you.....but still....budding entrepreneurs are the need of our country..and we have them....now it is on our leaders to provide them the required environment...

Marathi or Indian???

Recently newspapers and newschannels have been inundated with Shiv Sena's marathi manus rhetoric recently. A desperate, lost and battling sena is searching for its own identity and place in the indian polity. Everyone of us remember the 1993 riots and what role did Bal Thackrey had in those riots. Being recognized everywhere for his extremism Bal Thackrey is expected to be out and out Marathi and "so-called" Hindu.

Today i was watching NDTV where pictures were shown of Bal Thackrey sitting with former pakistani cricketer Javed Miadad. Now if you may not knw, Javed Miadad has been known for his anti india statements and he is too closely related to Dawood Ibrahim. Yes, you read it correctly. It is indeed Dawood Ibrahim, the man himself, the person behind the mumbai underworld, the guy himself responsible for the mumbai bombings of 1993. Now what does one construe of that???

A person calling himself an outright hindu and the sole bearer of the claims of marathi manus sharing the same room with the person who is so closely related to the person responsible for the bombings of a city of whom he claims to be sole tutelary to??? This is politics at its terribly parochial limits for you. And guess what?? They say that Shahruk Khan should go and live in Pakistan because he has guts enough to say that he would have bought those Pakistani names in the auction who were neglected by each team in the competition on god-knows-what grounds. Is this what our democracy has to offer for our country?? Politicians fighting on provincial claims when they themselves are seen carousing with people like Miadad??

On NDTV a singer Abhijeet was seen blasting at every Pakistani, favouring Sena. Pakistan this Pakistan that. They are given songs to sing which we would have sung in the first place....they come to our country on tourist visas...they are given employment...they are given fame...they snatch our bread...blah blah blah blah....
That was nothing but the frustration of an out of work singer and his envy and rage to his Pakistani counterparts who tend to be getting more jobs than him in India. I didn't see any other singer or anybody so much desperate may be because they were not out of job or were open to bigger competition.

Now the question is that is India still ready to buy this crap?? Well.. the answer is no...the recent defeat of communal forces in general and state elections establish that fact. Infact even the hitherto extremist party BJP seem to realise that and has come to the party flouting the "marathi manus" talk. I welcome this move from the BJP.

Is agriculture the engine for growth???

A few people reading this may find it boring. But as i have no other thoughts in my mind to share with you i have to do with this post. This is one topic which we got in a GD class in TIME. When i heard this topic from our faculty the first person who i was thought of was ....... . Well those knowing him would have guessed the name. Yes Yes it is jarda ( alias Shivanshu Tamolia my classmate and one of my best buddies) . I am not saying that he is a farmer of sorts, but he owns land and is likely to pursue farming in the occurence of another recession.

Actually i didn't get a chance to speak in that GD so i thought that may be i can share my thoughts with everyone here.

So.. jokes apart...let's get back to the topic...

Agriculture...hmmm...
Well...i think that Agriculture in itself cannot be the engine of growth for any economy. Well i do not say that it's not important. Its importance in an economy and self sufficiency in it cannot be overstated for any country. But in my views it cannot make any country an economic superpower. To become one a country has to be leading in other sectors such as industry, services n others. But, as we shift to industries and services as they unarguably are the more dignified of the jobs, does that mean that we would have no farmers???

Well..may be what m saying may seem terribly incongruous in the present scenario but that is what i feel that the scene is going to be. If not in a few years then may be 100 years down the line. yes, u get that right. The agriculture AUTOMATED. What i am saying may seem awfully far fetched to a few. But, don't u think that as our civilization develops even more we may have robots ploughing the soil, sowing seeds, cutting the harvest and then packing them to be sold in the market?? And as more and more people get knowledge and erudition don't you think that human race may engage themselves in jobs other than labour??

Like you know, there are more questions to be asked in this world than have been answered. From the universe to the human brain, there is a lot to be known in everything. And insted of labouring in a field a human will have enough "better" jobs to do. Every human has a right to white collor jobs. Doesn't mean that a farmer today would stay a farmer forever. And in the long run (which may be too long but still) i see farming being automated. Atleast the manpower engrossed in that will be reduced to bits. (Good news for jarda)

Just a thought...may seem hypothetical....comments invited...

Is it it???

Yesterday i was surfing through channels when i tuned on to ZEE NEWS. And guess what?? I was startled. There had been a ragging case reported to the police and pictures were seen of the police force strolling in the porch area. Some 25 students of 2nd year are supposed to be the malefactors. The students ragging were of 2nd yr b arch and ragged were 1st year.

Now that leaves us with a question. That, is it over?? The legacy which students of MANIT have passed on batches after batches is destroyed?? Will there be no interaction at all between seniors and their juniors, whom they groom more than anything let alone rag?? Will there be no meets?? No GR?? No fresher nights?? No cricket?? No wooing girls?? No junior asking the name of a senior girl on the statement of his senior?? Will there be no TTN in a few years?? No Bhelis?? Then what in the hell is MANIT going to be in course of few years??

The college administration is distressed about its reputation. It wants to end ragging. And yes a few things should be stopped but not on the cost of a sullen ending to the lagacy which MANIT has had. Ofcourse it is MANIT and not MACT. In MACT the faculty used to teach, there were erudite professors who used to enlighten students with their knowledge and there was an awesome interaction between seniors and juniors. Be it on the pretext of ragging. Ragging never used to be the main motive of seniors. It used to be interaction. But now no senior is going to put his own ass on the lines for the sake of interaction.

Now i am going to write some lines which i feel would be wiped out of the minds of the MANITians...Rubbing tears from my eyes i say...

VEER BAHADUR LADKE KAUN????? MACT MACT.....
SABSE AAGE LADKE KAUN????? MACT MACT....
SABSE AAGE COLLEGE KAUN????? MACT MACT....
SABSE HANDSOME LADKE KAUN????? MACT MACT....
SABSE GANDI LADKI KAUN????? MACT MACT.....

( at least girls are going to be happy for this....somebody gets some happiness )

Global warming...a necessity is required for new innovations..

For quite sometime now the talks about global warming have been rampant. Scientific or speculative...hoax or not....It is true that global warming is happening...It happens because of the ability of the greenhouse gases to retain heat. Now, the glaciers may be melting due to this or they may not be. Asian glaciers may or may not have the same rate of melting as the other ones. Melting of the Gangotri glacier may or may not be imminent but if we keep on emitting GHG's like that aren't they going to be at some time in the future??


IPCC said that the glaciers are melting and emission of GHG in the atmosphere should be limited. Raina commission headed by V.K.Raina researches the data from the last 150 years and concludes that the Gangotri glacier is not suffering from the effects of globalwarming because they are at much higher altitudes than the glaciers in Alaska. It says that the IPCC is passing on speculative judgements on the melting of glaciers by assuming to be melting in proportion to the speed of melting of Alaskan glaciers. They say that our glaciers are a completely different system as they are at much higher altitudes.

Does this mean that they won't melt ever??? Does this imply that himalayan glaciers are immune to the heating up of atmosphere?? Well....the truth is that as high as they are, they are still existent on the same planent as the Alaskan glaciers and they are destined to feel the aftermath of the climatic catastrophes if it occurs.

Now, some of us may be tempted to think that as they are not melting there is no need to convert to a Green road of development. Need has been at times been the mother of invention and innovation. In our way to pursuit of a green GDP we will have to allocate funds for researches. This will certainly lead to new innovations. We people have the tendency to be indolent with our measures. We try to search for new methods only when we are forced to do so. Thus the premise that global warming is not imminent coming from our leaders may be true for now. But it is not going to be always. Instead of searching for excuses for continuing on our current stance we should be thirsty for innovations.

A green road to development is a NEED....Because global warming is a reality...May or may not be now...But sure to be one in the future...

M here guys...

For quite sometime now i have been thinking of coming to party with my mates who have been blogging recently and i have been giving comments on their blogs. I've had enough of commenting on others' blogs now. Now i have come to the party with everyone. So guys...do comment on my stuff too....