We desperately need proper economists.

The Finance Ministry is so keen for domestic investors to buy stocks of Indian companies that it has started a Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme which will give tax relief on investment up to Rs 50,000, in shares. If numerous people invest small amounts in company stocks it will increase market capitalisation of the companies, allowing them to invest in new projects creating more jobs, there will be less money for buying gold, which will help the Current Account Deficit, and reduce the influence of Foreign Institutional Investors who can move their money to other markets causing our markets to tank. But people are not buying. Why? Because our markets are highly manipulated by large brokers, such as Ketan Parekh, because the government is not to be trusted and because the hot money brought in by the FIIs can flee at any time. As a relic of the socialist era we still have government companies which are known as PSUs. Some of them are very good and make excellent profits. To reduce the fiscal deficit to below 4.8% the Congress is desperate to raise funds by selling of some of its stake in these companies. In 2012, the government put 427 million shares of ONGC on the block but priced the issue so high that there were no takers. Eventually, the Life Insurance Corporation, another PSU, bought 377 million shares at a total cost of Rs 114.26 billion to save the Congress. This time round shares are being sold off at discount rates to entice buyers. Individual investors have lost Rs 500 billion because of the resultant fall in market prices. Last January Engineers India was selling at Rs 229.50 per share but now the same share can be had at Rs 140-150. Thus EIL has lost 40% of its market capital worth Rs 30 billion. " It is not good market economics to sell family silver at discounted prices, which is detrimental to investor interest. The government is discovering sale price of PSU companies at lower levels; we fear this will destroy the market capitalisation of state-run companies," said Deven Choksey, MD of KR Choksey. So on the one hand the Congress wants people to buy shares and on the other by destroying market value they are scaring off investors. Because they are desperate for money because they have wasted the country's finances. When we could see it why did our pundits miss it?