Do it yourself

Recently, in couple of newspaper articles and research reports I saw the use of abbreviation SMB. The articles and reports had not specified the full form of the term anywhere; which implied that this is common jargon understood by everyone. Embarrassed by my ignorance, I sought the help of St. Google, who referred me to St. Wiki for enlightenment. St. Wiki suggested that it may mean "Server Message Block", a network communication protocol for providing shared access to files, printers, and serial ports between nodes on a network. This explanation did not match the context of the articles and reports. Perplexed, I further probed St. Google, who finally provided the answer I was looking for, i.e., "Small and Medium Businesses". Since ages we were used to the term "SME" for this, and never realized that "SME" has been subsumed by the new term "MSME" since 2007, when the central government created a new union ministry for Micro,...

Two years ago, my car cleaner asked for a loan of Rs75000 for building an additional room in his one room house. He said his children are grown up and need a separate room to study and sleep. I gave him money with the condition that he will return in 1yr. In February this year, I asked him to return the money. He promised that he will give within a month. Then this lockdown happened and he was barred by the RWAs to clean the cars of the residents. No one paid him for 3months. I do not know how he survived in this period, but he handed over me a cheque of Rs75000 last week. I deposited the cheque in my account, but it was returned due to "insufficient funds". When I told him, he told me to deposit the cheque again, which I did. It returned unpaid again for the same reason. I have not confronted this guy again. I know both his children are good at studies and a separate room to study and attend online classes will be very useful for their studies. Mentally, I have gi...

The history appears to be repeating itself for the n th time in the stock market. The small time traders, who normally join the band wagon right at the top of the market cycle, have once again jumped into the market arena. Completely overwhelmed by the left-out syndrome, they are queuing in hordes in front of the counters where they had lost their fortunes, not long ago. Many of these scrips are trading at a fraction of the price they were trading just six months ago. Some notorious stocks are topping the volumes charts. A strong urge to prove a point, rather than greed, appears to be the dominating factor here. Everyone wants to prove that it was their bad luck rather than lack of financial acumen, which caused them loss last time. I wish luck favours these traders this time. But in my heart I know for sure, this is not going to be the case. This reminds me of a very popular stock market story, which I think needs to be revisited. “Once upon a time in a village a man appea...

A recent survey report released by the census office of India highlighted many important characteristics of the latest Indian demographics. As per the report, now more than half the population across segments (rural, urban, male, female) is above the 25yrs of age. With the steady fall in fertility rate and rise in life expectancy, the share of young population in Indian demography is declining steadily. The key highlights of the data could be listed as follows: The Sample Registration System (SRS) in India is carried out by the Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India with an objective of providing reliable annual estimates of birth rate, death rate, infant mortality rate and various other fertility and mortality indicators. SRS is one of the largest demographic surveys in the world covering about 8.1 million population. It serves as the main source of information on fertility and mortality both at the State and National levels. Presently two th...

Some corporate leaders have repeatedly highlighted that the rural economy is doing much better than the urban economy in India. In their view, the economic recovery from COVID-19 led slowdown will be led by the rural demand. The rise in sales of tractors, passenger vehicles and consumer staples in rural sector has been cited as clear signs of rural recovery. The data of bumper Rabi crop production and highest ever Kharif sowing is being widely used to support the faster rural recovery argument. To make an assessment, we visited some rural areas of UP and Rajasthan over last weekend. After visiting over 50 rural clusters and speaking with many people (traders, local administrators, farmers, laborers, etc.) our impression about the situation as follows: (a)    The staple Rabi crop of cereals and sugar cane has been good and prices have been supportive in these two states. However, the fruit and vegetable crops have not been good and caused losses to large number...

In the blockbuster Hindi movie DDLJ, the heroine is deeply in love with a guy against the wishes of her father. Her mother is afraid of her husband’s retribution and advises the two lovers to elope. But the hero, who is equanimous and noble, tells her that the path suggested by her appears easy but it would lead them nowhere. He would rather prefer the path of courage, honesty and integrity which though arduous definitely leads to the desired destination. Swami Jagadatmananda in his famous work “Learn to Live” extolled the readers - the sincerity and honesty of the means to achieve a goal is equally important as the goal itself. Historically, our governments have however usually not concurred with this thought. They have rather preferred to take the easy road. Three years ago, the government banned the condom TV commercials between 6AM to 10PM. The right path would have been to discuss the issue with the latex manufacturers and marketers to make commercials edu...

Continuing from yesterday ( see here ) The Indian economy suffers from a variety of deficits. The most talked about deficit, i.e., fiscal deficit in fact is the least worrisome amongst all the deficits, in my view. I believe that some of the most worrisome deficits include: 1.          Growth capital deficit 2.          Advanced technology deficit 3.          Skill deficit 4.          Trust deficit 5.          Compliance deficit 6.          Governance deficit 7.          Productivity deficit 8.          Social infrastructure deficit 9.          Employment opportunity de...

Continuing from yesterday ( see here ) As I highlighted yesterday, "Self Reliance" may be mostly a political slogan at this point in time; as not many people in the government, legislature and administration appear to be adequately clear about the concept itself. It would be a great idea if the government comes out with a white paper on the issue. In my view it is important to assimilate the following considerations, if we truly want to evolve into a 'Self Reliant" economy. First of all, we need to accept that "self reliance" is primarily a philosophical concept. Its economic implications are mostly incidental. The flow of "self reliance" therefore begins from the core of society, i.e., the individual, and moves outward toward the community and the State. For a State to be self reliant, all its constituents, i.e., individuals, communities, traditions, customs, culture, etc need to commit unconditionally to the objective of s...