The Oil Scam in India?

The Global crude oil prices are soaring. Which means the Indian petrol/diesel prices will also increase substantially over a period of time. Petrol is already very costly here - around or more than 50 Rs. a litre. If these fuels' price increase, so does the inflation. And then it leads to an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor.

I was really surprised on reading one article in the newspaper Sakal. It said that if we remove all the central tax, state tax and excise duty from the Petrol prices, the rate per litre will come down to half! Isn't it amazing? It leads to the obvious question - Is it justified to tax the most sensitive commodity so heavily? That too in a predominantly poor/developing country?

I am not an expert economist. But I still think that taxing almost 100% of the petrol price is just way too much considering the spiralling effect it has on the overall prices/inflation. Agreed that the government needs money and taxes to run the nation. But should it come at the cost of every citizen including the poorest of poor?

And now, some state governments are claiming fame by not taxing the increased amount of 4Rs per liter of Petrol. But what about the 25 Rs or so that they are already taxing? Add to that the chaoitc handling of the issue by all state governments! Some states want the citizens to bear this additional burden. Why is there no central control of the state taxes especially for such an important item like oil?

I really think that the government should look at other ways to earn money rather than taxing the common man in such a rampant manner. If the inflation goes out of hand, the poor will become poorer. The rich keep getting richer anyways.

Let me know your thoughts.
- Ashutosh

Ind - WI One day series

It was a very closely fought contest. At the start, India had the edge. But the West Indies came back well and had the nerve to win all the close games. Fielding was the a key area that made the difference, but as always on the foreigh tours - Indian batting IMO was the main reason of the loss. The batsmen went from being over confident in the first few matches to being frightened in the last two. It was nerves, nothing else. Especially in the two games, when India had a number of wickets in hand at 40th over or 35th, but they just couldn't up the tempo. They were so low on the confidence at that time, they couldn't put away even the bad balls. Part time bowlers likge Gayle and Sarwan and Samuels were giving just 3 runs an over. No doubt India carried a lot of weight of expectations and burden on their shoulders and crumbled under it. Not that they did not have the opportunities, not that they did not have good players.

It has been a real problem with the Indian team. They are chokers outside the sub-continent. They have improved in the past few years before which they were plain losers on the away soils. Take the Australian test match - the farewell match of Steve Waugh - or the world cup or these one dayers. they have consistently created situations of strength and then just as they had promised a lot, failed to deliever the knock-out punch.

In this series, they were so close to puling off miracles - Yuvraj in the 2nd match and Sreesanth in the third - but they gave it away. Yuvi got bowled on a slower ball and Dravid misfielded when 4 were needed of 3. Its a perfect example of choking.

The blame should not be taken away from the top order batsmen and the big problem was that of No.3. India does not have a good enough No.3. Pathan was tried there but with no luck. If Dravid batted in that position then the middle order became weak. Raina was tried too, but not good enough technique. Which takes you back to two oldies - Laxman and Sachin. Honestly, either of them have to play if India is to perform well on foregn soil in ODIs. But Dravid and Chappell are not willing to compromise on age and fielding.

Another factor was the five-bowler theory. It worked wonders on Asian pitches but failed to impress in West Indies. As said earlier, it is still a good ploy, we just need an even better all rounder to take its advantage. I think the time is right to give another chance to Reetinder Singh Sodhi. Or Piyush Chawla.

All and all, I was sad with the Indian performance but not completely disappointed. Powar bowled well, Yuvraj batted beautifully and Sehwag came back to form. But one thing is clear, unless India sort out their top order selection and the all rounder problems, it will not be such a big force to reckon with when the great show starts next March in the Caribbean.

Cheers,
- Tosh

R e s e r v a t i o n s

It's been long since I have not posted anything. Have been pretty pre-occupied with work (for a change!) in the office, so didn't get much time for all such time-pass.

I have thought long and hard about the issue of reservations to OBCs in institutes of higher education. I have changed my stands a couple of times (or more) after taking a look at different angles, talking to different people etc. And finally I arrived at a conclusion. I oppose the move initiated by Arjun Singh. And here are my reasons:

1. I am not against the idea of reservations, and not even against the idea of reservations based on caste. However, which castes to reserve for, how much to reserve for them and so on is, according to me, a very important topic which is being missed in this debate. There are extremely conflicting numbers coming from many government agencies regarding OBC contribution in the total Indian population. Firstly, there has to be a consensus on this number. And then only should we finalize the quota. Its a topic which has not been given enough research in the controversy, which is sad.

2. If we apply the rule x% of the population then give x% reservations, then this rule must be strict. I mean, if x% is reserved for caste Y, then no institute should admit more than x% from caste Y. Even if those additional students can get admission in the general quota by virtue of merit. This is a point very few people are discussing but it is a very vital one. If you want to give someone x% representation then restrict it to x%. Otherwise you are doing grave social injustice to other sections.

3. There must be a limit to the whole issue. There should be a limit to max % of reserved seats per college. There should be limit to which places reservation applies. e.g. Why is their not enough debate on restricting reservations to graduation level? There should be limit to which fields - e.g. reservation in Defense, higher medical education, and other such hyper sensitive fields must be less than the other fields. There should not be a blanket rules saying x% reservation everywhere. There should be a limit on the number of generations for which the benefit is applicable. There should be a limit on the number of times the same individual gets the benefit. e.g. If a benefit (+ scholarship) is given at graduation level to a student, it should not be given at post graduation level to the same student. Why is the government not considering these alternatives?

4. The decision to increase the number of seats is impracticable. If institutes are forced to do so, their quality will degrade. The goverment should focus on why there are not enough teaching staff available to handle the increased load? Why does India have only 6 IITs and IIMs? Why is their number not increasing?

5. There must be a comprehensive study of reserved category students' performance and its trend over the past few years. This is the only measure of effectiveness of this policy. Why is the government not taking any step to measure that?

6. If the poiticians are so damn serious, why noone dares to speak about reservations in parliament?

If we try to find answers to these and many more such questions, we will agree on one thing. Social justice is not the only objective the government is trying to achieve. It is clearly playing a dirty game of populist vote bank politics. A game which has the potential to divide the nation. Recently, some reserved class scientists have made protests to increase reservations in Scientific domains. The fire once started is very hard to extinguish.

So much so about the problem. Now - how can it be solved? One solution - All higher caste citizens MUST vote. There is not much else that can be done. As one of my friends wrote to me - This is one disadvantage of democracy.

- Ashutosh