Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

csaurabh · Post by **csaurabh** » 09 Dec 2011 09:22

Singha wrote:suppose this bailout were given to WB? does mamata plan to use that to write off losses already on the books, or keep alive WB style defunct PSUs whose production ceased long back but employees show up to sign attendance register and take salary even after they have passed away due to proxy voting , or has some plans to invest and revitalize the industrial and agri sectors?

knowing her antics, it will not be any sustainable scheme. in economic policies there is not much to choose between the marxists who got kicked out and mamata? they all believe that business ought to exist not for profit making but to redistribute wealth in a sort of low tech maoist commune in the 21st century . no wonder WB manages to attract no big ticket investments for long now.

Singhaji, WB has been under commie propaganda for over 30 years. An entire generation has come up believing that commie policies are good for the state, even as the state dropped from first to near rock bottom in terms of industry, health, education, etc. Mamata herself is just a shadow of the communist party. I don't really like Mamata but she is better than commies and provides space for an opposition party.

gakakkad · Post by **gakakkad** » 09 Dec 2011 17:19

IMHO Mamta will be an albatross around the neck of deshland . If a bailout is given , she ll demand more after a couple of months. She is a closet commie . Commies have an entitlement complex . She ll pick up any issue , usually something reforms related and begin . If UPA falls and NDA wins the next one with TMC support , she ll begin troubling NDA . Even during Vajpayee era she did so .

And one can be rest assured , the bail out money will not be used wisely . Regarding bringing back industries in WB , even Rajnikant can't manage that in this decade

. Their is rampant trade unionism . Even a trillion dollar spend on it will be wasted . Planners have practically given up . Delhi Mumbai industrial corridor and regions in south will be the main drivers of the national manufacturing policy .No one is even trying to stimulate the east. A great tragedy .

putnanja · Post by **putnanja** » 09 Dec 2011 20:25

There seems to be more to it than meets the eye in the FDI in retail drama. Seems like totally stage managed by Pranab. Not sure why though! Pushing through the decision right at the start of the parliament session, knowing fully well that both BJP and Left were against it. Then almost insulting trivedi of TMC in the cabinet meeting when he opposed the FDI decision, even though without its support, the govt would flounder. Hard to believe that a politician of Pranab's caliber would have misread this issue so badly, and ended up with an egg on both the govt and cong's face!

vina · Post by **vina** » 09 Dec 2011 20:39

Govt overstated exports by $9b..

Mystery of the stupendous growth in engg exports "solved". Govt claims "Computer Error" ! I dont think the spread sheets or the CPUs calculated wrongly. GIGO I suspect. Or was the govt plainly cooking up figures.

Looks like a disease called "Shanghai Statistics" has infected the Dilli Billis of late.

kumarn · Post by **kumarn** » 09 Dec 2011 21:20

Did anyone notice the statement made by the Microsoft, India chief? It was very curious. He was asked about MS investments in India and he replied that they had better destinations. On being pushed further he replied that the reporter should ask Nasscom what happened. I think FDI in retail was being pushed down the throat of GOI by the khan, and Pranab da intentionally "bungled" it, ably helped by the opposition and Mamta di. Now he can tell his US interlocutors "what to do wonlee, no consensus"! Straight out of the playbook of ABV when pushed to contribute troops to the Eye-raq misadventure.

disha · Post by **disha** » 09 Dec 2011 22:37

kumarn wrote:Did anyone notice the statement made by the Microsoft, India chief? It was very curious. He was asked about MS investments in India and he replied that they had better destinations. On being pushed further he replied that the reporter should ask Nasscom what happened. I think FDI in retail was being pushed down the throat of GOI by the khan, and Pranab da intentionally "bungled" it, ably helped by the opposition and Mamta di. Now he can tell his US interlocutors "what to do wonlee, no consensus"! Straight out of the playbook of ABV when pushed to contribute troops to the Eye-raq misadventure.

Yes, the statement made by Microsoft India Chief was noticed and it is a "piece of garbage". Made more because the mouthpiece is TOILet. No chief will reveal how much they plan to invest, where they plan to invest, what is their timeline of investment. The moment that information is out, the chief will be forced out. Just take a look at the "Curious case of Chuck Phillips from Oracle". Once he made a statement on investments and immediately industry insiders in the knowledge were counting down the days of his exit. The surprise is not if they are exited, the curiosity is always on how and when they are exited.

So MS chief statement on FDI-in-retail is not worth the TOIlet paper written on it., all puns intended. Will pisko-analyze the statement later.

ShauryaT · Post by **ShauryaT** » 09 Dec 2011 23:48

I have a question. To what degree did the expansion in Indian defense spending in the 80's contribute to the balance of payments crisis in 1991?

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 10 Dec 2011 00:16

April-Nov 8 months
Exports - $192.7 Billion

Imports - $309.5 Billion

Virupaksha · Post by **Virupaksha** » 10 Dec 2011 00:25

ShauryaT wrote:I have a question. To what degree did the expansion in Indian defense spending in the 80's contribute to the balance of payments crisis in 1991?

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS. ... .ZS?page=4

See the data for India from 85-90. It ranges around 3.5% of GDP and most of it not being forex spending. It *might* have been a contributing factor among 100s of others, but clearly not in anyway a deciding factor.

The deciding factor which toppled us into the brink was the rise of oil prices due to gulf war. Also note the rise of public spending (non-defence) during the preceding years- shown by the explosion of fiscal deficit.

Virupaksha · Post by **Virupaksha** » 10 Dec 2011 00:37

Theo_Fidel wrote:April-Nov 8 months
Exports - $192.7 Billion
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/mul ... 60160f.jpg
Imports - $309.5 Billion
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/mul ... 60162a.jpg

pretty interesting, so taking out the electronics and machinery imports which amount to 48B of 309B, rest all are imports of raw materials.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 10 Dec 2011 07:23

Also note our oil deficit is only $55 Billion.

Cosmo_R · Post by **Cosmo_R** » 10 Dec 2011 07:56

kumarn wrote:Did anyone notice the statement made by the Microsoft, India chief? It was very curious. He was asked about MS investments in India and he replied that they had better destinations. On being pushed further he replied that the reporter should ask Nasscom what happened. I think FDI in retail was being pushed down the throat of GOI by the khan, and Pranab da intentionally "bungled" it, ably helped by the opposition and Mamta di. Now he can tell his US interlocutors "what to do wonlee, no consensus"! Straight out of the playbook of ABV when pushed to contribute troops to the Eye-raq misadventure.

I wouldn't worry. India is no longer the flavor of the month for FDI. The retail FDI fiasco was the final straw that convinced 'MNC' investors (who are people who value their careers on a short term basis) to write off India.

It's the variation on Keynes' law : " In the long run we are are all dead but it is the short run that kills you."

Voices advocating India for FDI in all sectors have been stilled. Commies will be delighted as well as Pakis who see an ===

The retail FDI failure was a major shot in the foot.

Watch the Sensex

csaurabh · Post by **csaurabh** » 10 Dec 2011 13:17

Why are we both importing and exporting petroleum. How does that make sense?

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 10 Dec 2011 14:33

we import crude and export refined products.

chandrabhan · Post by **chandrabhan** » 10 Dec 2011 18:00

Dear all,
My stocks have already declined by 42% in value over a period of 6 months

I look for the collective wisdom of gurus to help me get out of the mess that L&T , reliance have become. I am planning to even out. She I wait ? Waiting with feverish expectations of guru cool advise.

Acharya wrote:
Singha wrote:in my opinion the next six months are a good time to periodically buy indian stocks and MFs at cheap NAV. most of them have declined by 15% in last 1 yr.
There will be a decline of 50% or more. That is the time to buy.

chandrabhan · Post by **chandrabhan** » 10 Dec 2011 18:05

Correct sir. Considering INR had appreciated in value over the last decade, this correction may be closer to the actual value. Inflation is largely due to the fiscal management of GOI and urge to play Raulonomics. As being pointed out earlier too, the growth would be brought down to 6% eventually before 2014' increase subsidies and thus install the dimpled prince as the messiah of the poor, jobless and hungry Indians. " govt ke pass bahut paise hain "

Regards

Suraj wrote:Why is the drop scary ? It's merely a result of net FII inflows being negligible this year compared to the prior fiscal, and that can be attributed to the Eurozone volatility. Regarding exports, wasn't the whole argument about the significant growth in exports recently based on the thesis that our export markets have diversified into LatAm, Africa and other non-traditional (US+Eurozone) regions ? Further, the currency situation is self-balancing - weaker rupee will lower the demand for oil, which accounts for almost our entire current account deficit. In some years, we'd have run a trade surplus, net the oil bill. The lower Rupee also incentivizes remittances, as it did for me personally. The persistently high inflation though, is a testament to GoI's fiscal mismanagement; while RBI may handle monetary management issues, the buck stops with GoI.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 10 Dec 2011 19:06

gakakkad wrote:IMHO Mamta will be an albatross around the neck of deshland . If a bailout is given , she ll demand more after a couple of months. She is a closet commie . Commies have an entitlement complex . She ll pick up any issue , usually something reforms related and begin . If UPA falls and NDA wins the next one with TMC support , she ll begin troubling NDA . Even during Vajpayee era she did so .

And one can be rest assured , the bail out money will not be used wisely . Regarding bringing back industries in WB , even Rajnikant can't manage that in this decade . Their is rampant trade unionism . Even a trillion dollar spend on it will be wasted . Planners have practically given up . Delhi Mumbai industrial corridor and regions in south will be the main drivers of the national manufacturing policy .No one is even trying to stimulate the east. A great tragedy .

Mamata is populist but not communist. She does kalipuja by herself every year. The state of WB is in a shambles due to years of misgovernance. If she waits for things to turn things will take time. My guess is that she is asking the money to show some visible results in a short time e.g. the entire metro work is being done by IR which really shouldn't be the case as IR
should be spending money for the whole country. But she might do some populism with it too.
However, due to her land policy don't expect big industries to set up shop in WB. It is going
to be largely small and medium industry and info tech and tourism. Even if she can revive some
of the 55000 sick factories it will give a boost to the economy.

Asit P · Post by **Asit P** » 11 Dec 2011 02:08

Benin invites Indian firms for oil and gas exploration

The West African country of Benin Saturday invited Indian companies to help develop its oil and gas sector.

"There is a lot of unexplored mineral reserves in Benin, especially in the oil and gas segment. We want India's expertise in exploration to find these resources and use them," said Chirstophe Kaki, director of cabinet, ministry of petroleum and mineral resources.

"I want to invite Indian companies to come and work with us in a mutually beneficial partnership."

In talks with Uganda for up to 7.5 mln T/yr refinery: Essar

India Essar Oil is in talks with the Ugandan government to build an up to 7.5 mln tonnes per year oil refinery, the company's CEO said on Saturday.

"There is a big oil find in Uganda and we believe that there is a possibility of a refinery in Uganda," L.K. Gupta said.

"So we have initiated the discussions with them." He said that the refinery capacity could be between 5 million tonnes and 7.5 million tonnes a year.

India must grab this opportunity with open hands. Chinese have already invested heavily in Africa and we must do the catching up before it is too late.

Pranay · Post by **Pranay** » 11 Dec 2011 03:01

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/truth- ... topstories

"The Truth v. Hype of Big Retail" - A good analytical report, demolishes the need for FDI in Retail in India. Would wish they would do a followup and do a hypothetical analysis of what would really happen in case a Walmart was part of the landscape in India.

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 11 Dec 2011 11:04

From Bloomberg:
India overstated exports by $9 billion this year

India’s commerce ministry said it overstated merchandise exports by $9 billion in the eight months through November because of “misclassification and errors” in computing overseas sales.
“Notwithstanding the misclassification, there were errors in double counting and all sorts of things which inflated exports by about $9 billion,” Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters in New Delhi yesterday. Overseas sales in the April-to-November period now stands at $192.7 billion, Khullar said.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 11 Dec 2011 11:59

^^^
Not a big deal. Typically the initial export figure at the end of a fiscal year is understated by around $5-8 billion due to lack of complete data, and is later revised upwards in a subsequent final figure. This exercise itself was borne out of the persistent claims of export growth being driven by black money, and just shows that the export figure and likelihood of touching $300 billion exports for the year is quite real.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 11 Dec 2011 12:26

Assessing Manmohan Singh: He was never true reformist by instinct

Rare is the person who reads Robert Browning now. He wrote a poem titled "The Patriot" and it begins, "It was roses, roses, all the way, /With myrtle mixed in my path like mad." Somewhere down the line, the poem says, "And you see my harvest, what I reap, /This very day, now a year is run."

It has been more than a year now, seven years if one counts from 2004. As prime minister, Manmohan Singh (let's call him MMS) is most likely on his way out, once the Congress figures out the exit policy.

Since clamours for removal have emanated from within the Congress too, we aren't talking about 2014. More like 2012. As PM, the MMS legacy has been the nuclear deal, aborted peace initiatives with Pakistan and part-aborted agreements with Bangladesh. But MMS is an economist. As FM, he is the one who liberalised the economy in 1991 and reminded us about an idea (reforms) whose time has come.

Rao, Not Singh To put it mildly, the economy is in a shambles now. Reforms most likely are on permanent pause. The sound and fury over FDI in retail amounted to nothing. During UPA-I, we had RTI and NREG. The rest was a legacy. During UPA-II, we have Right to Education and may have Right to Food. As a reformer, lauded by the external world and urban India, I doubt MMS will be proud of this legacy.

But should we be surprised? We have conjured up an image of MMS as the original reforming FM. There are several problems with this identification. First, MMS wasn't PV Narasimha Rao's original choice as FM. IG Patel was, though that is neither here nor there. Second, the credit for those reforms should largely go to Rao, though the Congress conveniently chose to ignore this later. Indeed, MMS also distanced himself from Rao, though that too is perhaps neither here nor there, except that it reveals some of MMS' personal attributes. The point is, any FM in 1991 would have had to introduce those reforms. The agenda was known. The blueprint was known.

All of these had been firmed up by the end of 1990. All that remained was for FM to read out the speech. MMS wasn't the engineer or the architect. At best, he was the contractor.

Third, MMS may have been an economist once. But for years and years, he was a laterally inducted bureaucrat. A requisite characteristic of a successful bureaucrat is lack of conviction, economic, political or ideological.

You need to be malleable. And MMS was successful at that. It isn't generally known that the "garibi hatao" slogan was thought of by MMS. Therefore, we have ourselves conjured up this 'father of reforms' image and MMS chose to go along.

Honest, But... Part of the image also concerns honesty. Honesty is a relative expression. I have been severely reprimanded by an MP for calling MPs and politicians dishonest. I have been advised to call them differently honest and there is a grain of truth in that.

chandrabhan · Post by **chandrabhan** » 11 Dec 2011 13:17

MMS has this beautiful trait of dumping, rather disassociating from people who fall out of favour with the administration. Haksar for example. Anybody remembers? He was the one to get MMS into the finance ministry..

chetak wrote:Assessing Manmohan Singh: He was never true reformist by instinct

Rare is the person who reads Robert Browning now. He wrote a poem titled "The Patriot" and it begins, "It was roses, roses, all the way, /With myrtle mixed in my path like mad." Somewhere down the line, the poem says, "And you see my harvest, what I reap, /This very day, now a year is run."

It has been more than a year now, seven years if one counts from 2004. As prime minister....mer, lauded by the external world and urban India, I doubt MMS will be proud of this legacy.

But should we be surprised? We have conjured up an image of MMS as the original reforming FM. There are several problems with this identification. First, MMS wasn't PV Narasimha Rao's original choice as FM. IG Patel was, though that is neither here nor there. Second, the credit for those reforms should largely go to Rao, though the Congress conveniently chose to ignore this later. Indeed, MMS also distanced himself from Rao, though that too is perhaps neither here nor there, except that it reveals some of MMS' personal attributes. The point is, any FM in 1991 would have had to introduce those reforms. The agenda was known. The blueprint was known.

All of these had been firmed up by the end of 1990. All that remained was for FM to read out the speech. MMS wasn't the engineer or the architect. At best, he was the contractor.

Third, MMS may have been an economist once. But for years and years, he was a laterally inducted bureaucrat. A requisite characteristic of a successful bureaucrat is lack of conviction, economic, political or ideological.

You need to be malleable. And MMS was successful at that. It isn't generally known that the "garibi hatao" slogan was thought of by MMS. Therefore, we have ourselves conjured up this 'father of reforms' image and MMS chose to go along.

Honest, But... Part of the image also concerns honesty. Honesty is a relative expression. I have been severely reprimanded by an MP for calling MPs and politicians dishonest. I have been advised to call them differently honest and there is a grain of truth in that.

chandrabhan · Post by **chandrabhan** » 11 Dec 2011 13:28

My own opinion on the current state of UPA has been that they will ensure the growth drops down to around 6%, keeping urban India or e middle class on the edge & managing the rural populace through subsidies, doles in the form of NREGA & Food security etc.

This will continue till 2014 and ensure the ascent of the 'Moron' as the destiny deliverer for India . Only 2 people have the power to upset this plan. MMS and Pranab, the old wily fox. They need to join hands in a similar manner as they did to fix 'Veshtiboy'. They need support of Pawar who is already doing his bit by rejecting Food security bill along with demands to scrap NREGA.

Out of the 48000 cr allocated to NREGA, only 1300 odd crore was given as wages. Where did the rest of the money go? The most wasteful of scheme is this. I lost 8 acres of wheat due to Jon availability of labour and untimely rains. The cost of farm labor has gone upto Rs230 from Rs90 an year back.

My question to the gurus here..

Can the balance of payment worsening situation (allegedly) force the govt to adopt more reforms?

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 11 Dec 2011 14:17

Singha wrote:suppose this bailout were given to WB? does mamata plan to use that to write off losses already on the books, or keep alive WB style defunct PSUs whose production ceased long back but employees show up to sign attendance register and take salary even after they have passed away due to proxy voting , or has some plans to invest and revitalize the industrial and agri sectors?
. no wonder WB manages to attract no big ticket investments for long now.

Per the news reports I read, she wants to develop civic infra in the backward commie affected areas. She got 8K crore grant on the same day FDI in Retail plan is suspended.

Even if we assume 70% of that fund gets spent on villages we can see 5000 villages have improved civic infra.Not a bad deal at all.

In the current politicial environment, INC doesn't want to give funds to states, especially non-Inc states without getting it's pound of political flesh. So nothing wrong in what MB is doing IMO.

Why is it ok for MMS and his INC system spend Rs 100,000 crore of tax money per year to but it is bad when it comes to a state/regional politician?

The current system proves the adage "Yatha Raja Tatha Praja" again and again. We need good leadership at the center so we can demand better leadership at state and local levels.

chola · Post by **chola** » 11 Dec 2011 19:12

If you are a NRI, you really should be thinking of opening an account in India.

First, you will help India by providing it with needed hard currency.

Secondly, any sort of outside investment will help stabilize things.

Thirdly, you will help yourself -- with interest rates up in the 12% range!

Arjun · Post by **Arjun** » 11 Dec 2011 20:12

X-posting from Nukkad:

Ambar wrote:
The Reserve Bank of India views growth above 8 per cent as inflationary, putting out of reach ambitions to rival China with double-digit economic expansion.

But other economists believe that a combination of rising demand and supply bottlenecks in the domestic economy mean that high inflation is now a “new normal” in a fast-growing economy.

The winter session of parliament has 31 legislative bills before it, some of which, if passed, would help alleviate supply constraints in the economy and entice foreign capital. But no one is hopeful. A deadlocked parliament has been adjourned since it opened because of MPs protesting over price rises.

Salman Khurshid, the law minister, said expectations of what could be achieved needed to be lowered.

“We didn’t get elected on that platform [of reform],“We never claimed the idea was reform. We didn’t speak the language of reform.” he said. “

Salman Khurshid lets the cat out of the bag ! Apologies if this was posted earlier...

apoorv · Post by **apoorv** » 12 Dec 2011 12:11

October industrial output falls to -5.1%

gakakkad · Post by **gakakkad** » 12 Dec 2011 20:59

>>Salman Khurshid, the law minister, said expectations of what could be achieved needed to be lowered.

“We didn’t get elected on that platform [of reform],“We never claimed the idea was reform. We didn’t speak the language of reform.” he said. “

>>>>The Reserve Bank of India views growth above 8 per cent as inflationary, putting out of reach ambitions to rival China with double-digit economic expansion.

But other economists believe that a combination of rising demand and supply bottlenecks in the domestic economy mean that high inflation is now a “new normal” in a fast-growing economy.

Where did these jackasses learn economics from. So somehow high growth is supposed to raise the cost of onions . How about removing supply side bottle-necks ? Nay ... that ll stop there income.

First time , I am in agreement with the SIMI lawyer Khursi . Congress got elected on religious bigotry , caste and vote-bank politics , definite electoral help from class 3/4 workers and quite possibly EVM tempering.

>>Thirdly, you will help yourself -- with interest rates up in the 12% range!

You don't get 10-12% if you are not an Indian citizen . There are some loopholes . But I d rather not post them here .

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 12 Dec 2011 21:06

gakakkad wrote: You don't get 10-12% if you are not an Indian citizen . There are some loopholes . But I d rather not post them here .

AFAIK

You can open an NRO account and operate in Rupees. You cannot take the money out of India easily, that is the catch. If you plan to spend the interest income there, it is a good option?

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 12 Dec 2011 22:11

chola wrote:If you are a NRI, you really should be thinking of opening an account in India.

First, you will help India by providing it with needed hard currency.

Secondly, any sort of outside investment will help stabilize things.

Thirdly, you will help yourself -- with interest rates up in the 12% range!

Opening and managing accounts in India is too much hassle, what with umpteen forms required, and ever changing fees and documentation requirements (KYC was latest jump-through-hoops fiasco). Plus in the absence of good economic policy, GoI can't be trusted not to confiscate the money either by decree or through an emergency devaluation.

In this light, the FII route is the best bet.

Abhijeet · Post by **Abhijeet** » 12 Dec 2011 23:41

Yes. The "address proof" requirements in India now are probably as draconian as in many police states.

All in the name of national security, though of course there is no published data on how many dastardly terrorist plots have actually been foiled through these measures.

kumarn · Post by **kumarn** » 13 Dec 2011 00:40

^^^After coming back to India from the USA, it took me a good two years to actually get a KYC level address proof. It is a chicken and egg situation. You go to any institution that could get you an address proof and they would ask for two other address proof. How do you get the first! Finally, I got some jaan-pehchan after couple of years and was able to open a bank account in a PSU bank, which in turn helped me get other documents, such as renewed passport etc. Now I have moved to Kolkata, and the same routine has started!

KYC has to be the most absurd and draconian rule of all.

csaurabh · Post by **csaurabh** » 13 Dec 2011 00:43

KYC is plain stupid.
It also does not help that the banks employees keep assuring things like 'ho jayega kuch din mein'.

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 13 Dec 2011 00:51

Comments from learned mullahs?

IIP contraction: India Inc warns of job losses, demands stimulus

"With the plunge in industrial production, the economy is in a perfect storm. Time for India to live up to its reputation of responding to crisis," Mahindra Group Vice Chairman and MD Anand Mahindra said in a post on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

"...it's time for policy turbochargers; time for an Indian equivalent of a 'New Deal' in infrastructure spending," Mahindra tweeted.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 13 Dec 2011 01:04

What is KYC?

kumarn · Post by **kumarn** » 13 Dec 2011 01:17

KYC = Know your customer.

Virupaksha · Post by **Virupaksha** » 13 Dec 2011 01:19

chandrabhan wrote: Can the balance of payment worsening situation (allegedly) force the govt to adopt more reforms?

No in the short term, we have a cushion of around 1 and half years of export-import gap.

Abhijeet · Post by **Abhijeet** » 13 Dec 2011 01:24

kumarn wrote:^^^After coming back to India from the USA, it took me a good two years to actually get a KYC level address proof. It is a chicken and egg situation. You go to any institution that could get you an address proof and they would ask for two other address proof. How do you get the first! Finally, I got some jaan-pehchan after couple of years and was able to open a bank account in a PSU bank, which in turn helped me get other documents, such as renewed passport etc. Now I have moved to Kolkata, and the same routine has started!

KYC has to be the most absurd and draconian rule of all.

A couple of years back, they would actually come to your house to verify that you were present there (I don't know how that verified that you actually lived there, as opposed to simply being there at that point in time). I'm not sure if they even do that now. It's a great Catch 22 -- every service provider who can give you an address proof needs an address proof in order to give you service.

As with so many things in India -- a rule made by idiots, enforced thoughtlessly, which doesn't actually stop anyone from doing anything bad, but which makes life more difficult for millions of legitimate people. Passes all the checks of Indian bureaucracy!

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 13 Dec 2011 03:08

The IIP decline is probably a function of Diwali and low working days. Not to worry.