When desperation becomes a masterstroke.

666 is the number of the Beast according to the Book of Revelations. We, Indians do not have any such number but 6.6.66 was a very significant day for us because on that day the rupee was devalued by 57%, from Rs 4.76 to Rs 7.50 against the dollar. Since then it has been on a downward course until today when it has reached about Rs 67 to the dollar. As the rupee loses value it loses its buying power, so imports become more expensive, which means we have to spend more on our shopping. In 2013, India imported 144.3 million tons of crude oil, the cost of which will keep increasing as the rupee becomes weaker. The increasing price of crude is passed on to customers, which increases transport costs and hence the cost of goods. That leads to inflation. Since independence we have been running retail inflation at above 5% with drops into deflation in 1968 and 1975. Constantly increasing prices means that the buying power of the rupee is getting eroded, which is manifested in its exchange value against the dollar. On 28 August 2013, it fell to 69, creating absolute panic in markets and among politicians. If all this information is available to all surely our politicians should be using every effort to bring retail inflation down to low levels which will help the poor by keeping prices low? The problem is that price rises can be controlled either by reducing demand or by increasing supply. To increase supply means a huge increase in manufacture, which will need massive investments in infrastructure, such as electricity, roads and ports. Unfortunately, building infrastructure costs a lot of money and the benefits are obtained after many years, much before the term of the government ends. Politicians in India have understood that elections are won by distributing handouts to the poor and not by making the nation stronger. So, they spend government revenues on handouts, without increasing output, which leads to an explosion in prices, the rupee falls, which is when panic sets in and expenditure is severely cut to reduce fiscal deficit and interest rate is raised to control inflation. Having dropped to 4.83% in March retail inflation jumped to 5.39% in April and is expected to be higher in May. In his latest policy statement the Reserve Bank Governor held interest rate at 6.5% because of uncertainty about the inflation level. " We will have to figure out ways to attain 5% target set for Jan 2017," he said. Bond yields are also predicting a high inflation level. Why do we not learn from the past? Because a lot of people are dependent on sycophancy to politicians for their status. Some find the devaluation of the rupee by Indira Gandhi a "masterstroke". No matter that inflation rose from 5.8% to 6.7%. Depends on whether you are looking up, or down, isn't it?

Ambition is fantastic, even if the goal is very far.

The President of the US speaks to the joint session of the Congress in his State of the Union address. Yesterday Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi stood at the same podium to address a joint session of both the House and the Senate, chaired by the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden. He started off by quoting Abraham Lincoln and then went on to applaud US sacrifice on D-Day by quoting words from the American National Anthem," I applaud....India applauds, the great sacrifices of the men and women from 'The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave' in service of mankind." Then he started clapping, which was very unusual. This got him his first standing ovation. He then talked about the Indian Constitution saying," For my government, the Constitution is its real holy book." Which was perhaps a gentle dig at the Congress which had denied him a visa in 2005 because of riots in Gujarat in 2002. This in a country where Obama would never be allowed to run for president had he not converted to Christianity. Modi had a little dig at the Congress Party in India when he said," I am informed that the working of the US

Congress is harmonious. I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship. Well you are not alone. Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in the Upper House. So, as you can see, we have many shared practices." The joke was well appreciated but must have stung back here. After all, Indian politicians are not known for their sense of humor. Although his pronunciation is not English as She is Spoke he spoke with confidence and not as a supplicant from a poor country with millions of poor people, which has sustained our socialist politicians for 68 years. He gave the Americans a clear list of what he wants to do. A roof over every head, skilling millions of youth, electricity in every home and 100 smart cities. The US is known for its American Dream where the 'pursuit of happiness' is written into its Declaration of Independence, so they appreciate ambition, even if it is difficult to achieve. He did not talk about the famine in 1965 which was relieved by the charity of the US government but he referred to Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution, which has made India self sufficient in food. This was not a Prime Minister having to devalue the rupee by 57% when western countries stopped giving us alms after the war with Pakistan in 1965, or the one who had to sell 67 tonnes of our gold reserves in 1991. His reference to maritime security was an indirect reference to China while his naming of terrorist groups was an open reference to Pakistan. For someone who used to sell tea on trains it was bravura performance.

Follow the Musketeers: One for all and all for one.

Yesterday the Reserve Bank kept interest rate unchanged at 6.50%, which had been expected by experts. In India low interest rates, regardless of retail inflation, is seen as a panacea for all economic problems, from low growth to low private sector investment. However, there is a fierce debate outside India about the cost-benefit ratio of low interest rates. The former Governor of the Bank of England has written that low interest rates borrow growth from the future by increasing short term spending but the effect is short term and results in low growth in the long term. Markets are focused on short term gains at the cost of long term growth, so take greater debt to buy assets. The crisis in 2008 was created by the then Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan who kept interest rates low for too long, resulting in a real estate bubble. The subprime crisis was the result of the bubble collapsing. Perhaps Greenspan was lulled by low inflation because of cheap imports from China, which kept its currency weak by buying dollars, building up foreign currency reserves of over $4 trillion. Greenspan now says that western countries are stuck in low growth because of low productivity. It may not be that human beings are genetically hunter-gatherers, who are only concerned about instant gratification. That is there but it maybe because of different cycles. Ordinary people think in terms of decades. For example, saving for retirement, for buying a house or for children's education. Politicians think in terms of electoral cycles, lasting 4-5 years, while employees of financial firms think in terms of financial quarters, to increase their bonuses. Politicians are the most powerful because they set policies, central banks and markets react to those policies. Germany has been implacable with Greece for incurring excessive debts. Greece is having to borrow to pay back its loans, while the severe recession, with unemployment at 25%, means that its revenues are not enough to pay back the loans, which will keep on growing. Germany, on the other hand, is benefiting from negative interest rates, so that the government and businesses are getting paid for borrowing. Low interest rates allow the wealthy to borrow cheap to buy more assets, so that they are getting richer. The total value of all the real estate in the world is $217 trillion which is 2.5 times the total GDP of the world at $80 trillion. Which means that for the first time since 1880 more young people in the US are living with their parents than independently. The OECD has criticised governments for depending on central banks for growth and getting permanently trapped into a low-growth trajectory. Trouble is that politicians have to win elections, which means they are trying to increase growth in their own countries at the expense of others. In a globalised world that is causing low growth for everyone. Tough.

The Swiss know about money, we need to learn.

One topic that is guaranteed to arouse extreme passion is whether poor people should be provided with monetary help. Leftist liberals firmly believe in distributing welfare to the poor and political parties win elections by promising handouts. A lady was extremely impressed with welfare schemes in Tamil Nadu where Amma canteens are spotlessly clean and serving ladies are polite. However, she has confused social service with outright handouts. Waiver of loans to farmers has been tried many times before, always with bad results. Banks are left with huge holes in their balance sheets, it usually helps the rich because poor farmers borrow from moneylenders and banks refuse future loans to farmers who are marked as defaulters. Giving free electricity will only add to the Rs 800 billion debt of the state power distributing company. Most state electricity companies are bankrupt because of handouts by state governments so the central government has instituted a restructuring plan, called Uday, which will allow these companies to become free of debt. Amma canteens, Amma salt or Amma bottled water, on the other hand, are available to everyone, regardless of income, as the lady found out, and although cheap are not completely free. They are a service to the entire society and hence objections to them are muted. A couple of days back 77% of people in Switzerland voted against a proposal to provide a basic income of 2,500 Swiss Francs, about $2560, to every adult, whether they work or not, and 625 Swiss Francs to every child below the age of 18 years, in a referendum. Those in favor said that it would guarantee a dignified life for everyone, especially since robots and artificial intelligence will reduce the number of jobs for humans. Those against said that it would cost too much, will encourage people not to work and will result in a flood of economic migrants. Finland is experimenting with a similar scheme, paying 550 Euros to 10,000 adults, to see if it works. Strangely, Milton Friedman, the guru of free- market economics, supported such an idea as being better than a lot of social schemes. Since being elected Mr Modi has converted all handouts to Direct Benefit Transfer, in which subsidies are paid directly into bank accounts of recipients. Banks were encouraged to open zero balance accounts for the poor and benefits are transferred directly into those accounts. The government has saved Rs 36.5 billion by cutting out waste and theft. As one leftist acknowledges, such schemes are only possible in capitalist countries that create wealth and not in socialist India which has the largest population of modern-day slaves. The largest handouts naturally go to politicians, as a Member of Parliament wrote. Now that Switzerland is clamping down on black money maybe we will learn from the Swiss.

Make in India, but only for 10 years.

The only thing that India has in abundance, more than any other country in the world, is its population of 1.3 billion, with 65% below the age of 35 years. The only way our country will grow rich and powerful is if we are able to create jobs for all these young people and so Prime Minister Modi has stressed on 'Make in India' from his first day in office. After all, if we can put American satellites in space there is no reason why we should buy planes from them. But there are storm clouds ahead. In 2011 Germany announced Industry 4.0, which has been adopted by the rest of the world, with China aiming to get there by 2025. What is it? Industry 1.0 was mechanisation of production using steam, 2.0 was mass production using electricity, 3.0 used " simple " digitisation and 4.0 is going to be based on complex digitisation. What does it mean for labor? There will be jobs for unskilled labor at the bottom, presumably low paying, and highly skilled, high paid, jobs at the top, with nothing in between. There is already concern over 'hollowing out of the middle class'. India has about 10 years in which to make use of its demographic advantage before we are hit with massive changes in technology of production. Optimists say that technology will result in a dramatic increase in productivity and improve the way we live and work. How will that happen? Energy technologies will lower oil prices and renewable energy will be cheap. Biotechnologies in genetics and stem cells will improve health. Information technology will create an 'Internet of Things'. Manufacturing technologies will make products cheap through robotics and 3D printing. Financial technologies will make life easy through online banking and shopping. Defence technologies will reduce human casualties by using drones. The problem for economists is that they are unable to measure any growth in productivity despite such marvels in technology. So what gives? Productivity is measured as output per unit of input, which is taken to mean output per worker or output per hour. When productivity rises prices come down and the standard of living goes up. Some people say that most of the gains in productivity from improving technology have already been made, and watching movies on high speed internet is of little consequence, while others say that it takes time to change over from one means of production to another so the gains will be in the future. The nature of work itself has evolved from agriculture to manufacturing to services. India seems to have gone from agriculture, which employs around 22% of people, to services, without developing our manufacturing sector. The trouble is that a lot of today's services are free, so it is impossible to measure productivity. If there are no jobs how will people buy homes, gadgets and consumer items? Perhaps just migrate to other planets. 

The choice of parents is the lottery of life.

Bihar is in the news again. Last year it was famous for electing Mr Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister, in alliance with 'Jungle Raj', by defeating the 'Hindu nationalist' BJP. This year Bihar is famous all over the world because the topper in arts in Class XII Board exams said that political science is all about cooking, poor girl, while the topper in science could not answer a simple chemistry question. No wonder Bihar voted for 'Jungle Raj'. Yet vigilance was much stricter this year. Pass percentage for Class X students dropped from 75 to 46% and over 800,000 students failed. Education in India is not about learning but about getting a paper which will somehow get them a government job so that they are guaranteed a salary for life. In UP, 2.3 million applied for 368 jobs of peons, 25,000 were graduates and 255 had PhD degrees. 75,000 beggars, or 21% in India have passed high school, some even have college degrees. 'Jungle Raj' may be good at winning elections but scares away businesses. Who would want to work in a state where kidnapping is the most lucrative profession? School students are ignorant because their teachers are also from the same system, having managed to obtain pieces of paper by escaping detection. In Agra, in UP, 12,800 students appeared for the Bachelor of Education examination and 20,000 passed. Having a piece of paper improves chances of finding grooms for girls and increases the amount of dowry a man may demand. With no jobs to go around, convicted murderers, serving long jail terms, have become much wanted in the marriage market in Bihar. Access to education is similar for all sections of society in primary schools but the proportion of the poor children falls steadily as you go higher up. However, a lot of these arguments are based on rights of the poor rather than on how to improve learning. Here, middle class children have a great advantage because their parents are educated and so they learn a lot at home. Just talking to children increases their vocabulary, their understanding of situations and comfort with numbers. Also, middle class parents are likely to know more than one language, especially English, without which higher education and getting good jobs becomes impossible. " If your child learns English it's as if he or she has inherited 100 acres of land," said a Dalit scholar. Efforts to increase knowledge by force is futile as the US learnt from its 'No Child Left Behind' Act. Regardless, the Congress passed the Right to Education Act to provide more equality in education. That increased the cost of school education for the middle class and resulted in worse outcomes for the poorer children. How do you give equal parenting to every child. That is the real difficulty.

Is there no way back for the Congress? Depends.

It is now accepted that Rahul Gandhi will become the President of the Congress Party, the only question is when. There is no doubt or debate about this. Punjab Congress Chief, Captain Amarinder Singh said," Sonia Gandhi is a brilliant leader. I have said that she has been working (as Congress President) for the last 20 years. If she feels that the time has come to give it to a new generation, then she should pass it on and we will fully support Rahul (to take over)." Why this attitude of craven servility? Historian Ramachandra Guha believes that the reasons why the Congress cannot think beyond the Gandhi family are that they have always been in charge, they hold the party together, they control party finances and the rest of the members of the party are like servants of the family. It is true that the Gandhi name is recognized throughout India whereas other leaders within the Congress are known in their own states. The main problem is that, unlike the BSP or the Communists, the Congress has no specific ideology to hold it together and there is every chance of it falling apart, as different leaders fight to wear the crown. The Gandhi family is seen as the problem for the Congress but it is the only solution available to keep the party's election prospects alive. The problem Rahul Gandhi has is that he has been brought up in a cocoon of luxury and security so that he has no idea of how India, or indeed the rest of the world, lives. In that way his life is probably similar to that of Sanjay Gandhi, who is blamed for the Emergency and the decline of the Congress, even though Rahul appears to be a much nicer man. We do not know whether speeches and phrases, like " suit, boot ki sarkar ",  are written for him to recite by heart but how can he connect with people if he has no idea of how people live. Sonia Gandhi started life in an ordinary family in Italy and so probably has some memory about a life without scores of servants. Also both mother and son are assured of winning their seats from Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively, while Karti Chidambaram, son of the last Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, lost his deposit from the former Congress stronghold of Sivaganga. Some draw comparisons with the BJP losses in 2004 and 2009 to find a way back for the Congress, because the difference in the share of votes is only about 2%. In the absence of an ideology the Congress can win only by promising handouts but regional parties are on to that flimflam and promise even more, in a game of electoral poker. Scaring minorities about Hinduism unites Hindus against the Congress and there again regional satraps are more vocal. There is no Congress without the Gandhis, but it cannot win elections with them in charge. Like Tantalus, isn't it?

A curious race of unpopularity.

Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan has endorsed Donald Trump for president, even if it is lukewarm according to journalists. If the election is between Trump and Hillary Clinton the winner will depend on who is disliked more. 42% of voters will vote for Trump while 52% will vote against him and 44% of voters will vote for Hillary while 54% will vote against her. Both candidates generate more negative views than Vladimir Putin. However, that maybe because a president has direct effect on the lives of the people for at least 4 years whereas Putin is a remote threat. Bernie Sanders is seen in a much more positive light than both the front runners. And therein lies the problem for Hillary. While Trump is now the presumed candidate for the Republicans and can begin campaigning in earnest, without wasting money on primaries, Hillary is still unable to get rid of Sanders. She is not even sure if she is going to win California, even though California always votes Democrat and the popular Governor, Jerry Brown has come out in support. Sanders is a puzzle. He has always been an independent but he tended to vote with the Democrats to give them a majority, when needed. He decided to campaign to be the Democratic candidate for president only in 2015. At first it was all very polite and it was assumed that he will drop out quickly because most of the super-delegates had already committed to Hillary, but that has not happened. Sanders is determined to go the distance as if to make sure that Hillary cannot be elected. He has become less polite as the campaign has progressed. At times it seems that he has a personal grudge against Hillary. Why? Sanders is a Jew whose father came from Poland. Many of his relatives left in Poland lost their lives in concentration camps. Monica Lewinsky was also a Jew. Lewinsky was used by the Republicans as a pawn against the then President, Bill Clinton, but the Democrats ganged up against her. Hillary called her a " narcissistic loony toon " in a private conversation, blaming Lewinsky for her affair with her husband. Obama is seen by many as anti Israel and is despised by Israel Prime Minister, Benjamin Natanyahu. The nuclear deal with Iran is seen in Tel Aviv as capitulation to hardline Islamist state, which seeks complete destruction of Israel. Some people are absolutely convinced that the Obama administration has been actively working against Israel. Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State during Obama's first term and hence is tarred by his disastrous foreign policy. Whether all this has any bearing on why Sanders is so determined to play spoilsport is unknown. Also whether he will stand as independent as Ralph Nader did to defeat Al Gore against George Bush is not known. What is known is that out of the two unpopular candidates Hillary Clinton seems more insecure.

An elephant can run fast, once it gets going.

There is much happiness at the news that the Indian economy grew by 7.9% in the last quarter of the last financial year, ending 31 March. An analysis covering a period of 24 quarters found that 309 firms in the BSE 500 had an increase in net profits of 21.87%. That is very good news not just for the companies but for banks as well because they can hope that some of their bad loans will be paid back. With civil servants getting a bonanza of a 23.5% rise in their salaries and a prediction of a good monsoon this year consumer demand is expected to increase. All of which is very good news but in India there is always one limiting factor, and that is inflation. Growth in agriculture, forestry and fishing increased marginally to 1.2% from previous estimate of 1.1%, this despite a punishing drought over 2 years because of El Nino. However, manufacturing growth was 9.3% against an estimate of 9.5% and Index of Industrial Production rose by only 2%. This means that if consumer demand were to rise significantly prices will rise faster because of supply side constraints. After falling for 17 months the Wholesale Price Index turned positive in April, growing by 0.3%. The price of oil has risen to over $50 a barrel from below $30 in February, which enabled the government to keep the fiscal deficit at 3.9% by increasing taxes on fuel. We imported 202.1 million tonnes of crude oil last year at a cost of $64.4 billion, so any rise in the cost of crude will increase cost of transport and add to inflation. The good news for us is that Iran is planning to increase production of oil substantially after lifting of economic sanctions, which will put a lid on the price of crude. Another very good news is that the fertility rate in India is falling although the population will continue to grow because we are living longer. This is hugely welcome because already there is a crisis in providing jobs for the 12 million young people who join the jobs market every year. Wherever there is enormous demand there will be crooks to take advantage of the vulnerable. Private educational institutions have exploded all over the country to provide useless pieces of paper at the cost of millions of rupees to desperate students. Only 7% of graduates with MBA degrees are fit to be employed. The rest can only hope of getting less than Rs 10,000 per month, if they get any job at all. So bad is the shortage of skills that companies are re-employing retired people to get their work done. Vast numbers of people with poor education and low paying jobs results in very high inequality in income, which results in a high incidence of violent crimes. The government is giving loans to those who want to set up their own business, starting from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 million, depending on the size of the business. If states reform labor laws growth will accelerate. India is mocked as a slow lumbering elephant. We may yet become an elephant on steroids.

Lessons are only for foreigners, we can do nothing.

A corporate consultant has written an article about the Ranbaxy-Daiichi deal, being very careful in his choice of words because India has a law against 'criminal defamation', to protect the powerful, and their friends. In 2008, Daiichi Sankyo bought Ranbaxy, an Indian pharmaceutical firm, for $4.6 billion, of which the promoters pocketed $2.4 billion for their 34.82% stake in the firm. Soon after the money was paid the FDA in the US banned drugs produced in 2 of its plants because of safety concerns. In 2013, Daiichi paid $500 million in fines to US authorities and pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and producing fake data to get fast approvals for its generic drugs. Recently Daiichi was awarded $400 million in compensation against the previous promoters for concealing bad practices in its plants. Exhausted by all the problems Daiichi sold the company to another Indian company, Sun Pharma for $3.2 billion in 2014. Ranbaxy was not the only one accused of bad practice. Many top Indian companies have been pulled up by the FDA in the US after inspection of their plants. In 2014, Germany banned drugs made in the Dewas plant of Ranbaxy. The reputation is so bad that the FDA has alleged that employees at drug companies regularly deleted bad quality control results and substituted fake results instead. Are the Americans being paranoid or racist, by nit-picking on Indian companies? In 2014, 13 women died of rat poison, mixed in antibiotics, in Chhattisgarh. So what are the lessons to be learnt from the Ranbaxy deal? The author recommends 6 points. The most important is," Trust but verify ". We would add that foreigners should start by asking Indian consumers which companies they trust. The real estate sector was seen as completely corrupt and controlled by organized crime. The government has passed a real estate law to make the sector transparent, so as to root out black money and collect more taxes. Citizens will benefit as a side effect. Some companies do have good reputation but managers have been trained never to accept any mistake and never to apologize, which means that they go on arguing that anything that goes wrong is the customers own fault, so that the company does not have to spend any money in solving the complaint. At least 80% of Indians believe that businesses are corrupt and 66% of businesses believe that bribery is acceptable. When you pay bribes up front you have to cut corners to make profits, which is why people do not trust businesses. Why are companies so crooked in India? Because the government controlled companies set the standard. We, the people, are the suckers. That is why a defamation law is so popular. In certain sections.

Our banks need help from the Rain God.

Reserve Bank Governor, Raghuram Rajan has taken a broom to Indian banks in an attempt to clean out bad loans. Gross Non Performing Assets, a jargon for bad loans, amounted to an eye-popping Rs 5.7 trillion in 38 out of 39 listed banks at the end of March, which is the end of the financial year. The RBI provided a list of companies, which have been financially stressed for several quarters, and asked banks to treat loans to these as NPAs. In the quarter ending in March public sector banks posted a net loss of Rs 234.93 billion, compared to a profit of Rs 88.07 billion in the same period last year. State Bank of India's gross bad loans is close to Rs 1 trillion, Punjab National Bank has bad loans of Rs 558.18 billion, while Bank of India has bad loans of Rs 478.79 billion. Frightened of adding to bad assets banks try to cut down on disbursing loans, resulting in a fall in interest earnings, making it difficult to provide for the bad loans. State Bank chief, Arundhati Bhattacharya has said that the bank is keeping a " special watch " on loans worth Rs 313.52 billion. If the economy improves the loss could be less than 30% but if it does not 70% of the loans could turn bad. Not all of it is the fault of the banks. The fall in the rate of growth in the Indian economy resulted in a fall in profits of companies, which meant that they could not service their debts, while the steep fall in global prices led to losses for companies dealing in commodities. " We have been bitten very largely by the steel sector. So, we have decided to keep away from those sectors where we have been bitten. Apart from steel we have heavy exposure to textiles and chemicals as well....," said Usha Ananthasubramanian, MD at Punjab National Bank. Banks are forced to lend to farmers for political reasons when the share of agriculture in our GDP has been shrinking. Outstanding loans to agriculture are in excess of Rs 7 trillion, most of which will not be repaid as politicians will forgive these loans to win elections, in a criminal waste of taxpayer money. Farm households owe an average of Rs 47,000 per household. Even the public sector insurance company, the Life Insurance Corporation of India, has NPAs of 4.23%. It has a loans portfolio of Rs 1 trillion and holds corporate debentures and bonds worth Rs 2.7 trillion. The Congress forced LIC to buy shares in public sector companies to bridge its budget deficit. However, banks are not without fault. Bank managers issue loans to dubious companies in return for gifts and money. Unable to lend to industry banks are concentrating on personal loans so credit card loans are rising. A good monsoon will increase growth so that profits increase and loans can be paid off. Money from the skies, as it were.

Won't be easy if the system changes permanently.

Prime Minister Modi has completed 2 years in government and the analyses of his achievements and failures have been extensive. We do not remember such minute dissection of policies during the 10 years of Congress raj, when the economy was being ruined, money looted from scams was counted in trillions, double digit retail inflation was eating vast chunks out of our savings and the rupee almost collapsed into oblivion. The reason maybe that Narendra Modi is completely different to what has gone before. For 68 years since independence India has been shackled by socialism, crony capitalism, corruption and leftist liberal flimflam. Modi is completely different because he talks of development instead of more handouts, because he is not interested in accumulating wealth by looting the exchequer and because the BJP won absolute majority in the lower house, the Lok Sabha. Modi has clamped down on corruption so that those who were milking the system find their earnings disappearing. He stopped taking journalists on his official visits abroad so they miss out on foreign junkets at taxpayer expense. The real estate sector has almost seized up because Modi has clamped down hard on black money. There is immense rage because all those who were living in unbounded luxury by gaming the system suddenly find their sources of illicit wealth cut off. They have mounted a ferocious campaign of vilification through a pliant media, smarting from the loss of their privileges. A common refrain is that Modi is a Hindu nationalist. It has never been explained why being a Hindu is a crime so that conversion by other religions are encouraged, Bangladeshis are allowed to flood into India without restriction and Pakistan has to be embraced even though it is officially committed to terror attacks on Indian soil. Why is it wrong for an Indian to be a nationalist when the US proudly celebrates its armed forces on Memorial Day and politically correct Europeans strut around on VE Day to celebrate victory over Axis forces in World War II. Modi boosted money transfer to states so that each state is able to finance its own programs for development. This has boosted competitive federalism so that regional parties will be forced to perform or lose elections. Those who are still managing to win elections by throwing handouts at voters will face mounting debts and may suddenly find difficulty in carrying out basic functions such as paying salaries of government staff. So the attacks on Modi. He had said that if all the black money stashed abroad is brought back into India each person will get Rs 1.5 million, which has been held against him as a broken promise. He has been mocked as 'suit, boot ki sarkar' when it has not been explained why we should perpetually continue to have a 'loin cloth ki sarkar'. The fear is that he will change the system permanently so that they will not be able to loot even if they come back to power. Poor crooks.

The dead deserve the truth.

Perhaps, symbolism is important in politics. President Obama's visit to Hiroshima, which was one of two cities used for experimenting atom bombs in 1945 by the US, was full of hot air and no substance. The US has committed innumerable genocides in Asia, in Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Iraq and now in Syria, but has never apologized for its actions, let alone pay reparations. Instead it imposed economic sanctions on Vietnam for 20 years because it would not help in finding the remains of dead Americans. We cannot expect Obama to be any different. " We must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them," he said (meaning nuclear weapons), although he quickly added:" We may not realize this goal in my lifetime, but persistent effort can roll back the possibility of catastrophe." He probably realized that no one would believe such a huge lie. Even as he was lying to the world, as he has been doing for 8 years, he was ratcheting up tensions with Russia by activating missile defense shields in Romania and Poland. Naturally, Russia has promised to retaliate by targeting missiles at those two countries. Obama has authorized the manufacture of 400 'super-nukes', named B61-12, with output equal to 50,000 tons of TNT, at a cost of $11 billion. At the same time the US is making smaller nuclear weapons, as part of 5 new types of warheads, at a cost of $1 trillion, to be used against targets buried deep underground. Having low yield weapons may reduce the inhibition of using nuclear weapons since they will be seen as 'safe', because of low casualties. But the nation against which these are used may retaliate with conventional nukes, igniting a nuclear tit-for-tat, with catastrophic results. While unnecessarily needling Russia, Obama has signed a nuclear deal with China, a dangerous oligarchy with ambitions of subjugating all of Asia, which will allow China to buy nuclear coolant technology from the US to build quieter submarines. The reason why Obama is so cavalier about nuclear weapons is probably because he has no scruples about killing people, having used drones to kill hundreds of terrorists, along with thousands of innocent civilians. Retired Gen Michael Flynn said," When you drop a bomb from a drone....you are going to cause more damage than you are going to cause good." Regardless, 469,000 names have been included in the list of terrorists, with no chance of presenting a defense or refuting allegations. He has casually admitted that bombing Libya was a mistake, not because over 30,000 people were killed, the majority of them civilians, but because a civil war has been raging ever since, pushing thousands to migrate to Europe. Time will tell whether he has been good for the US, for the rest of he has been a disaster - not only for the thousands he has killed but because of the millions that are going to die. Because of this cold, calculating villain.

It will not be an Apple a day in India for the present.

CEO of Apple, the maker of iPhones and iPads, Tim Cook was in India a week back to get permission to set up Apple stores, like in other countries. He attended temples and cricket matches, to try to understand Indians, but his visit was not fruitful. The government did not budge from its demand of sourcing 30% of parts locally, to create jobs, and did not give permission to sell refurbished second-hand phones. India desperately needs to create jobs, at the rate of over 1 million per month, so lots of Apples stores, employing a few retail staff in each, is of no use. But manufacturing for Apple is not easy. Foxconn operates at a margin of 1.5% so working conditions are very bad. It had to install netting to prevent workers from jumping to death at its factory in China. Such conditions will not be permitted in India. It set up a factory in Tamil Nadu but had to shut it down due to problems with unions, affecting 22,000 workers. Foxconn has a habit of lying and not delivering what it promises on paper. But even with such low wages and harsh working conditions Foxconn finds it more profitable to replace 60,000 workers with robots in China. India will not be easy for Apple. Its phones are more expensive here than in the US and it has no intention of competing at the lower end of the market. Why would anyone buy a refurbished phone when for the same price she can buy a new phone made locally or from China. Apple apps do not work that well in India and its voice recognition software, Siri, has problems understanding the Indian accent. Apple's revenue was just $1 billion in India in 2015, which is a mere drop in its total revenue of $233 billion in the same year. In 2015 the Apple app store in China generated revenues of $3.4 billion and may cross $4.5 billion this year. So was Tim Cook's visit during the punishing heat of summer a complete waste? We do not know what is on his mind but it is possible that he is worried about prospects in China. China's economy maybe considerably worse than what people think. There is a lot of speculation about what is going on inside China with rumors about a plot to oust the Prime Minister, Li Keqiang. Credit rating of Chinese firms are being downgraded at record rate. Also the government may suddenly change rules. In April the government blocked access to iBooks and iTunes music stores. When the iPhone 6 was launched it was unavailable and the Party mouthpiece, the Global Times opined that " whomever has an iPhone 6 deserves to be looked upon with despise ". Maybe that is how the Chinese forced Apple to invest $1billion in Didi Chixing, a taxi hailing company. Perhaps, Apple needs to change from its business model and look for new avenues. We hope India can be a partner in its new ventures.

We are more similar than we think.

An African man was beaten to death in Delhi in an argument over hiring an auto-rickshaw. He was rescued by a group of locals who called the police and took him to hospital but he died. On the same day a restaurant owner in Delhi was shot to death over a paltry bill of Rs 1,085. A few days back a young man was shot to death in Bihar for daring to overtake the car of the son of a local politician. Last year a student was beaten to death in Bengal because he would not go to a political meeting. Why is killing someone so easy in India? Because our conviction rate for violent crimes is in single figures. Even when someone is convicted of murder, because of public outcry, prison is a very pleasant experience where you are allowed out to get married. In Bihar murder convicts sentenced to life in prison are attractive as grooms. The media created an unnecessary hysteria about racism in the case of the death of the African man, overlooking the fact that he was rescued by local people. At this time of the night there were probably very few people around which is why it took time for the locals to chase off the goons. This naturally enraged embassy staff of African countries stationed in Delhi. Indian businesses in Congo have been attacked and people have been hurt. Before they start to accuse Indians of racism Africans should reflect on their own attitudes. Skin whitening creams are extremely popular in African countries, even though some of them have dangerous chemicals in them. On the other hand, African-Americans in the US are very scornful about women who are not black enough or are from mixed parentage. We cannot forget that 96% of blacks in the US voted for Barack Obama only because he is black, when no one had heard of him before. Authorities in France rejected an offer of a software which can mine data to pinpoint impending terror attacks out of the vast amounts of intelligence because the company was from Israel. To wear a Jewish skullcap in Paris is to invite attacks from Muslims who are immigrants from African countries. European countries are building walls to keep out migrants from Africa. Hundreds of thousands of Africans are migrating to Europe in very dangerous conditions. Why? There is violence inside Congo against the President, Joseph Kabila. There is violence in Burundi against an illegal third term by the President. Civil war has led to severe famine in South Sudan. This is not to condone racism which is abhorrent. Violence in any form, against anyone is unacceptable. African nations and India must create safe societies at home if we are to get respect from others. We are similar in many respects, aren't we? 

If central banks are uncertain, what will they do?

A Professor of Economics, who served as the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and was on the Federal Open Markets Committee, which sets interest rates in the US, writes that there are 4 ways to think about the US economy. One group thinks that monetary policy by the central bank is of little importance as long as inflation stays low and stable. The second group thinks that the central bank should act proactively to stop inflation from rising because interest rates take time to be effective. The third group thinks that low interest rates just create bubbles and increase borrowing to dangerous levels. The fourth group thinks that inflation is still too low in the US and the Federal Reserve should provide additional stimulus, along with fiscal stimulus by the government. The inflation rate in the US is 1.1%. Every group is partially right so what is the Federal Reserve going to do? No wonder Janet Yellen, Chair of the Federal Reserve, is uncertain. She used the word " uncertainty " 10 times in a speech last month. Britain will vote in a referendum on whether to stay in the EU on 23 June. Germany is running a current account surplus of 8% but is imposing austerity on the rest of the Eurozone. The US economy is probably not as strong as made out to be. The Eurozone has just approved another loan for Greece but has only postponed debt repayment to 2018. The International Monetary Fund wanted a debt write off but swallowed its pride and joined the deal. Another crisis in the Eurozone may still happen. Despite introducing a negative interest rate in January in the hope of generating inflation in Japan the yen has been strengthening which keeps prices depressed and prolongs deflation. The central bank of Japan could buy dollars from the market to try and devalue the yen but that may start a currency war. The G7 is meeting in Japan as of now and will probably warn Japan not to try to depreciate its currency. Japan is not the only country with a negative interest rate. The trouble is that these methods have never been tried before so central banks have no idea as to what to expect. By making it expensive to save money central banks hope that people will spend more, boosting demand, and banks will lend more, boosting investment and thus creating jobs. But people do not always behave in predictable fashion so there must be some risks that no one can predict. India is naturally worried. While other nations and the Eurozone are trying to devalue their currencies and generate inflation we cannot afford that luxury because our retail inflation is already high. Switzerland is holding a referendum next month on whether to give everyone a basic income of $1500 whether they work or not. Is this one form of 'helicopter money' that economists are talking about? Money flying on the wind, now that is real uncertainty.

Is equality the answer to inequality?

The International Monetary Fund reports that India is a highly unequal country, with a huge difference in earning between the rich and the poor. The IMF compares changes that have occurred in Asia from 1990 to 2013. India's Gini coefficient, in which 0 means perfectly equal society while 100 means that 1 person controls all the wealth, has increased by 6.18 points to over 50, but during the same period China's Gini coefficient has jumped by 19.61 points, from around 30 to higher than India. In 1991 India was bankrupt and had to pledge 67 tonnes of gold to avoid defaulting on its debts. After 1991 the economy was gradually liberalized and began to grow faster than before. China's growth was even faster so that it has become the second largest economy in the world. So does it mean that inequality increases as a country grows richer? A rich country provides easy opportunities for an individual to become rich while in a poor country everyone is equally poor so there is more equality. This would seem to be true when we see that Albania's Gini is 29 and Belarus boasts of a Gini of 26, compared to the United States, the richest country in the world, with 41. Yet, Switzerland has a Gini of 31.6 while Sweden's Gini is 27.3 and these are rich countries. The US has the largest number of billionaires, so maybe it is not because the rest of the population is poor but because some are just super-rich. The Scandinavian model where high taxes provide cradle to grave social security for every person could be the reason why these countries are more equal. India has a higher proportion of people living in poverty, compared to Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines and our middle class is much smaller than East Asian countries. Why? We have reservations in higher education and government jobs for those deemed to be disadvantaged by being of lower caste. There are innumerable social security schemes for the poor. From MGNREGA to midday meals in schools to help in building houses, the government generously hands out trillions of rupees to the poor and disadvantaged. Trouble is that to finance all these schemes the government has to tax the middle class heavily which maybe why India does so poorly in building up the middle class. The US also has a lot of social security schemes to help the poor. At 83.59% India has the highest proportion of people working in the informal sector, where wages are lower and there is no safety net. Is it possible that discrimination by our government is responsible for inequality? Oxfam estimates that just 62 people hold as much wealth as 3.6 billion people. People are born unequal. Perhaps we should concentrate on eliminating poverty and not inequality, by supporting all the people, as in the Scandinavian model, rather than through discrimination. Only non-politicians can even think of that.

It is a marathon, a good monsoon will help.

As we come to the second anniversary of the Modi government what are its achievements? Depends on who you ask. A professor from JNU (where else?) sees the glass as almost empty. " While the government may have done well on the deficit front, partially helped by the collapse in petroleum prices, its track record in reviving the economy is still shrouded in mystery, despite claims of improvement by the Central Statistical Office based on the new national accounts series," he writes. Exports are down, manufacturing is down, bank lending is down, private investment is down but retail inflation is still high. So what does the learned professor recommend to remedy the dire situation? Increase handouts to farmers. Perhaps, the professor should read about Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez won 3 terms with handouts. Now there is nothing to hand out. Or about Brazil where the President has just been suspended but the government's program of targeted subsidies, called the Bolsa Familia has won praise for lifting millions out of poverty. On the other hand, if you read the President of the BJP, the economy is projected to grow at 7.8% and the future is rosy because of all the fantastic things the government has done. As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle. The government has indeed undertaken major reforms, but important ones are still outstanding, and it needs to improve implementation. The government has signed a formal agreement with the Reserve Bank to set monetary policy, it is committed to bringing down the fiscal deficit and it has set up an Expenditure Reforms Commission to take a look on how the government spends our money. Politicians in India use public funds as personal wealth, to be used as bribes, to win elections. Which is why retail inflation never seems to be permanently under control. The Modi government has recognised that dishing out subsidies will not solve the problem of poverty. It has embarked on programs of empowerment where citizens are treated as partners, rather than beggars, to have coins and chapatis thrown at them. So, is it time for celebrations? Definitely not. The biggest problem for India is its huge population, crammed into a relatively small land area. The greatest challenge for the government will be to provide jobs for the hundreds of millions of young people joining the work force every year. Manufacturing is the only solution for creating jobs but you need land to set up factories. You also need land for agriculture because people need food. And there has to be a market for what we make. Reserve Bank Governor, Raghuram Rajan is right to warn of expecting very high growth rates. A start has been made. We pray that mother nature helps with a good monsoon. 

Band aid is of no use, we need to find the cause.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi writes a harrowing story of 2 children in Telengana, aged 12 and 8 years, who died of thirst while waiting for the mother to return with some water to drink. The mother was found unconscious with an empty water bottle by her side. Drought is causing immense suffering to children. Parents have withdrawn children from school and sent them out to work. Girls, some as young as 3 years of age, are being married off, presumably to boys who live in areas where water is plentiful. " We cannot afford to neglect our children. They cannot be the future we want, if they do not survive the present," he writes. Absolutely. Every person, every parent will agree with that statement, without reservation. So what is the solution? Mr Satyarthi urges the government to spend on relief for children because,"....it is imperative that the government takes speedy measures to assess and analyse the effects of drought on children and ensure no child in the affected areas is forced into child labour, bonded labour, child marriage, or is trafficked, or compelled to leave school." Who forces children into child labor, bonded labor or sells them for cash? The parents do. The problem in India is that people have the right to have as many children as they want but no responsibility for their safety or welfare. Recently a 72 year old woman gave birth to a boy in Amritsar after IVF treatment. Her husband is 79 years old. Who looks after the child if both parents die? After all, you can beat menopause but you cannot beat death. At the very least the doctor should be struck off. If we are to relieve the suffering of our children we need to study why there is a compulsion to give birth to children when they do not earn enough to support them. The fertility rate per woman has been declining in India. In rural areas both members work in 35% of families and 42% of them do not have any children, known as DINKS. Which means that family planning services are widely available and people are aware of them. Why then do some, especially those who cannot afford to, produce children? Is it because they get more subsidies from the government, is it because they can force children to work, or is it because children act as collateral to borrow money from local moneylenders? If the parent does not repay the loan or if the parent dies the children automatically become bonded labor until the loan is paid off. Why does bonded labor persist when it was banned by an act of parliament in 1976? Because poor people are 'vote bank' while children do not vote. An occasional child may escape the the prison of poverty but if there are too many then the task becomes impossible. To find a cure Mr Satyarthi must seek the cause. Without fear.

Bored with bread, everyone wants cake.

After results of elections in 4 states, and the Union Territory of Puducherry, were announced legions of pundits have been educating us with their valuable analyses of the results. The National Democratic Alliance, consisting of the BJP and its allies, won Assam with 86 out of a total of 126 seats, the Left Democratic Front, consisting of CPM and its allies, won Kerala with 91 out 140 seats, the AIADMK won Tamil Nadu with 134 out of 234 seats and Trinamool Congress won West Bengal with 211 out of a total of 294 seats. Congress managed a consolation victory in Puducherry winning 15 seats, while its ally, the DMK won 2 seats, giving it a majority in a 30 seat assembly. Apart from giving the power to loot to one set of politicians, as opposed to another, waht difference do these results make to India as a nation? Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal and J Jayalalithaa of Tamil Nadu join Nitish Kumar of Bihar and Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi in dreaming about becoming Prime Minister in 2019. Both Nitish Kumar and Kejriwal have adopted a strategy of abusing the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in extremely uncouth language. The rout of the Congress Party is blamed on Rahul Gandhi, with Mamata Banerjee's acid observation," Rahul Gandhi is a Narendra Modi asset." It is not really Gandhi's fault. He has been brought up in a sterile atmosphere of extreme wealth and Z+ security and has never had to sweat in his entire life of 46 years. He probably has no knowledge of how people live, how they earn a living, what difficulties they face, how they cope with endemic corruption and how the lack of quality education, healthcare and law and order make our lives a struggle for survival. His is a classic case of 'Let them eat cake'. Did he serve biscuits after his dog had eaten out of the plate? That would be taken as an extreme insult in India. Embarrassed, he did not attend a meeting with the Indian Youth Congress yesterday. Ms Sonia Gandhi tried to cheer Congress workers by saying," If one sticks to principles, no failure is permanent." Absolutely, and therein lies the problem. What principles does the Congress have? Milking Gandhi and Nehru generates diminishing returns as 65% of the population is below the age of 35 years. The poor are not satisfied with handouts and the educated are fed up with corruption, bred from crony capitalism. As for the BJP, it should not get carried away. As long as it is seen a party of Hindi-wallahs it will not be popular in the south or the east. It must remember that Hindus have many gods and goddesses so banging on about cows and vegetarianism creates anger. To embrace all Hindus it must ban castes. Regional satraps will only fight. We need a party of unity.

We have been told the problems, what is the solution?

The world seems to be locked into a cycle of low growth where the weakness of advanced economies, such as the US and Europe, reduces demand for the output of manufacturing economies, such as China, Japan and South Korea, who cut their import of commodities, hurting countries, such as Australia and Brazil. India is shining only because " In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king," according to the Governor of the Reserve Bank. His words caused a lot of commotion because they were deemed to be politically incorrect, when there is a growing demand to stop censoring movies and student rabble agitating for 'freedom of expression' to show solidarity with terrorists. Apparently, there are 3 narratives for global growth. One is that growth will remain weak for a prolonged period because advanced economies will take a long time to recover. The second view is that central banks will become increasing ineffective in stimulating growth and the third view is that financial markets will be volatile. Low growth is blamed for the popularity of anti-establishment candidates like Donald Trump in the US and Nerbert Hofer of the far right Freedom Party in Austria. British Prime Minister, David Cameron is desperately trying to keep Britain within Europe. The year started with huge volatility in stock markets around the world and there was fear of another recession. Long term low growth results in higher unemployment, long term unemployment results in loss of skills, which in turn, leads to lower growth. Central banks moved quickly to supply more liquidity to markets by slashing interest rates to negative which is supposed to force people to spend more and banks to lend more, by making it expensive to park extra funds with the central bank. Bond prices rose with investors willing to accept negative rates to keep their money safe. With so much cheap money in rich countries and borrowing costs at near zero emerging markets saw a flood of money looking for investment opportunities, resulting in overheating, inflation, asset-price bubbles and currency appreciation. Global value of real estate rose to $217 trillion in 2015, which is 3 times the value of the entire GDP of the world, Of this, 75% or $162 trillion is in residential properties. Raghuram Rajan has warned that unconventional monetary policies are becoming less effective, while costs are rising. As last ditch effort economists are seriously discussing the possibility of 'helicopter money', which was first proposed by Milton Friedman. The idea is to hand out wads of cash to people, presumably the poor, which will increase spending and thus stimulate the economy. India has been pursuing similar strategies for decades, as in MGNREGA, and cannot compete against other nations in tit-for-tat devaluation of currency to help exports, because India is one of the few countries where inflation is always a threat. We are doing very well at present. Hope this continues. 

It is not easy to die in India.

The government has posted a draft of Medical Treatment of Terminally-Ill Patients Bill on its website for feedback from the public. This bill seeks to provide guidelines for terminally ill patients to be allowed to die by withholding treatment, what is known as passive euthanasia. Unfortunately, as with everything in India, the entire debate will be hijacked by those who scream the loudest because they are totally convinced in the infallibility of their opinions, presided over by those who have awarded themselves god like status, so that we, the people, will be ignored, as is usual. Already several provisions in the bill are causing controversy. The youngest age at which a patient will be allowed to refuse treatment is 16 years, which is enraging activists, who point out that you cannot get a driving license or get married before the age of 18 years, so how can you choose to die. Doctors will have to decide whether the patient is mentally competent to give such consent, but we know doctors will be under enormous pressure from hospital administration to keep a patient alive as long as possible so that the final bill can be increased. If the patient is incapable of providing consent the family may approach the High Court for permission to withdraw treatment, which means they will be easy prey for lawyers, who will not hesitate to gouge as much out of them as possible. What about a person who is in a persistent vegetative state and needs to be fed and cleaned without the need for life support? Should food and water be withdrawn so that the person dies of hunger and thirst? In which case does it become active euthanasia instead of a passive one? These questions arise because of the case of Aruna Shanbaug who was kept alive for 42 years by the caring dedication of the wonderful nurses at KEM Hospital in Mumbai, while interfering busybodies wanted to force her death by stopping all nutrition. Fortunately the nurses won the case and looked after her another 4 years. The most important point in end of life care is to provide adequate pain relief along with sympathetic nursing. Adequate pain relief means drugs derived from opium, usually morphine. A morphine infusion is given continuously and patients have the option of taking a bolus anytime they feel pain. And therein lies the problem. In India there is great sympathy for criminals so that laws are passed to punish the innocent. To stop addiction to drugs laws have been made so stringent that chemists do not sell opium derivatives. They will go bankrupt bribing government inspectors. In Delhi it is virtually impossible to find anti-histamine injections, such as pheniramine. These drugs have been around for over 50 years and are excellent in treating insect stings, vertigo and other sudden allergic reactions. Thus the debate about euthanasia is useless without adequate drug support. Just noise.  

You cannot treat robbery with band-aid.

A book, 'Dissenting Diagnosis', written by two doctors seeks to expose the massive corruption in today's corporate hospitals where patients are ruthlessly exploited for profits. Every patient is seen by a number of doctors when there is no need. Unnecessary surgeries are carried out for which the doctor receives perhaps 10% of the bill, the rest going to the hospital. Large numbers of tests are ordered but a lot of them are not carried out. These are called 'sink tests' because the samples are thrown into the sink and the money is divided. Why have doctors sunk so low? Why have they stopped caring for patients who trust them with their lives? Doctors do not fall from trees, they are the product of the same society where corruption is a way of life, where you cannot get planning permission for building a house without paying a bribe and where seats in medical schools are for sale. Three girls committed suicide when they received no tuition even after paying large sums of money in fees to a medical school in Tamil Nadu. An online survey found that 70% of people in Delhi feel that corruption is at the same level as before, after change of government. Even after paying millions in fees and even higher sums under the table as 'capitation fees' the quality of education in medical colleges is considered very poor, according to a report in the US. Whereas Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion or the Raman effect, named after CV Raman, are still accepted as facts, causes, progress and treatment of diseases are changing constantly, which makes medical education the toughest among all subjects. Indeed, medical textbooks are out of date the day they are published so doctors have to study continuously to stay in touch with latest developments. Which means they must attend conferences where the latest research is discussed. Since most of the research takes place in the US and in Europe it costs a lot in travel and hotel expenses, which most doctors cannot afford. The government has passed a law making it a criminal offence for pharmaceutical firms to fund doctors because they may prescribe expensive medicines unnecessarily. How moral. Except that civil servants are allowed to accept foreign tours funded by foreign organisations, which could be working for the CIA, the ISI or the PLA. Is it any wonder that every country threatens us? The CBI reckons that over 2,400 top civil servants are corrupt, which means at least twice that number. The government will not allow doctors to work in other countries by denying them no-objection certificates. Lawyers are allowed to charge whatever just to lend their names and lose cases. All this is not to excuse bad medical practice but if things are to improve doctors must be treated with respect. Get the crooks, that is politicians, civil servants and lawyers far away. Let the profession heal.