Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

[vina]

You should have read my nukkad posts from last year. It is happening in SRK's most red-flagged district of Palaghat, Vadakanchery to be specific and you would know. All peace and progress only.

In fact, this kind of productivity improvement is the foundation of ALL economic growth. The rest is all "maya" onree. This kind of productivity growth in farms,fields, workshops, factories is what is prosperity all about. It goes back to Adam Smith and his pin factory!

Indeed what should have done is promote this kind of productivity improvements and boosted growth and if we had done that , we would have been as a country somewhere close to So. Korea is today in terms of per capita wealth and HDI. Instead of this the Dilli Ding-Dongs egged by the PPPs (Professional Poverty Purveyors) and the ISI , went on a "redistribute" mode (don't/cant grow the cake , but try to take the half roti that is there and give it to 20 people!) and tried to create a "Cuba" with the baboogiri and command and control giri and kept the country poor.

Infact, that entire Ding-Dong model was the "tax unto death" any productivity and productivity driven "surplus" that the modernized sectors produced (marginal tax rates hit 99% in the worst years of the ding-dong giri years). Between the PPP and the ISI of Pakistan and the PPP and the ISI of India, the latter have created far more and long lasting material damage to this country.

this one was all booted and panama hat wearing Thozilalis driving the device across the field with the mats of rice plants being fed in the rear of the machine by a two-woman crew sitting pretty above all the mud and soil.

I am surprised that you saw this happening at Vadkkanchery in SRK! This keeping the people at the "thozilali" level is the foundation of the commie politics at kerala. This cuts at the root. The commies went and unionized farm labor, the "head load" worker in ports and lorries and everything and reaped a rich harvest in votes (note the farmer is traditionally a "Kulak" who was meant to be exterminated as a "class enemy", the farms "collectivized" and the thozilali and the commie "mudalali" can together create a commie paradise). If only the commies had let real productivity improvements come in in farm labor and dock and material handling labor and in allowed kerala to industrialize, things could have been different. When the "Thozilalis" are "Thozilalis" no more,but are entrepreneurs, they couldn't give a toss about the commies!

Now that all the "farm hands" have scooted to "Gelf", Kerala has no alternative I suppose to mechanization. I doubt this can happen in Bengal though. Any farmer who tried this until Mamta Didi came in probably would have been "eliminated" as a class enemy and done away with by the local commie bosses and the labor they held sway over.

[somnath]

^^^^
Some questionable assumptions
1. NSSO data is off by 100% (NSSO predicts about 40% of consumption, per Surjit Bhalla it should be around 80%)
2. Even if we, for argument's sake, agree with SB's assessment of survey data being off by 100%, some basic maths tells us that the number of poor will not be halved. (Normal distribution and all that)
3. The 130,000 crore food + NREGS programme is actually the amount that is being spent to sustain consumption at poverty levels, not alleviate it. Per SB's own calculations about 195,000 crores are required to simply sustain consumption at poverty levels (39,000 crores X 4.5)

That article by SB was well below his (very high) standards of statistical rigour..Though he has been a constant critic of NSSO data for long, barrign repeating that the article was just a combination of rants - disappointed from the perspcetive of a "fan"..And he is being positively dishonest by attributing the 1.34 lac crore subsidy bill entirely to "poverty" programmes..That bill consists of food subsidy of 60k crores, fertiliser subsidy of 50k, and petroleum subsidy of 23k...The last is almost exclusively for the middle class of the country, and the second is targeted quite openly to the rich farmer...

Data here..
http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2011-12/eb/stat04.pdf

On the issue of distribution of "poverty", NSSO does not do that, the NCAER HH income survey does...And according to it,the distribution is somewhat "normal" - there are equally "fat tails" on both sides of the equation ("high income" as well as "low income")..The report is a paid affair, but the basic data is captured in news reports..I have psted it before..

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news ... ER/654530/

the # of "low income" HH is instructive - ~41 million, dovetail that to the participation in NREGS programmes (estimated to be 60-70 million in a given year) - and the number seems correct...And given that, yes, by SB's own calculations, the amounts earmakred will seem quite insufficient..Add to that the absolute lack of any social security in vast segments (insurance, pensions and the like), and a lot of "middle income" families are simply a death/disability/marriage away from destitution..

Net net, while execution is a challenge, and needs to be tackled, it is not quite right to argue that money does not need to be spent on the objective..

[nandakumar]

Thanks Theo Fidel and Vina for those insights. Is it really case of there being not enough farm labor (hence, a resort to machines) or are there fundamentally some productivity gains to be had? Theo Fidel's observations seem to suggest that there are problems with its usage. So I presume if someone resorts to the use of mechanical implements it must a case of farm labour not being available or even if available they are a militant lot and it is a hassle getting work out of them. On the other hand, Vina's comments seem to imply that this is part of a structural transformation of Indian agriculture impelled by productivity considerations.

[Theo_Fidel]

It comes down to the price I get paid for the rice crop. If I get paid more, I can spend more to hire machinery.

The machine is definitely way waaay more productive. If everything goes properly it can plant 5 acres in 2 days using 3 persons. Even with the complications I had the field was done in 4 days flat. A manual crew of 8+2 takes at least a week. As I said the operator is paid Rs 450 a day plus food batta.

[vina]

Talking about productivity. Consider the news item in today's Al-ToI(let).

In UP Mid Day Meals Cooked By Dalits Go Waste

While it is totally reprehensible to refuse to eat because the food was cooked by a Dalit or anyone else, the article under the attention grabbing headline brings out a fundamental problem.

The rot in MDM in these three districts is not confined to caste bias alone. It has also been found that in schools of urban areas of these three districts roti and green vegetables are never given, in 80% schools there is difference between the number of actual students present in the class and the number of students who are shown to be availing of MDM. Also, in most of the schools in urban areas there are no utensils.

In rural areas of these districts, MDM supplies of 95% of the schools are kept at the pradhan's house from where they are brought to the school every day for cooking.

Now I can understand it. Some dingy /grungy/grubby looking kitchen with some random ayahs cooking up some gloopy thing,no utensils, blackened vessels, some totally shady water, inability to clean, understaffed, lowly paid etc etc. Classic, low productivity , low pay, low quality, low everything kind of stuff.

Sure, it might work fine in TN, but in UP, it is in all probability not going to work.

Just check out how it is done in KA and now Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Vrindavan (fair disclosure, I support it and my donations get tax deductions, but I rather give money to them than to the feckless politicos and GOI for that noble cause).
[youtube]5TtmN3yxUOA&feature=related[/youtube]

Now, the problem with the commies and Dilli ding-dongs with this is two fold . 1) It is not "SEKOOLAR" ..however if it had been a Christian Mission, like Missionaries of Charity doing this, it would 400% Sekoolar and hence very desirable and 2) This doesn't fit in with the world view of "gubmint"..

Brinda Karat went to town and campaigned on Govts in many states giving out the midday meal mandate to not for profits such as this and wanted govts to do the kind of model in UP, hire gubmit maids, cooks etc as gubmint service, pay them a pittance, make them cook and serve some stuff in grubby conditions in each school (destroying economies of scale and efficiency) , impossible to control quality , very inefficient, very expensive and a surefire way of doing some very shoddy job of it. The only thing is it fits in perfectly with her party agenda of having an army of low paid Gubmint "Class III and Class IV " whom they treat with sneering condescension all the while proclaiming a "Classless society" and in effect really perpetuating poverty and malnutrition , especially among a key segment of the population who are India's future.

It really lights up my heart when that van pulls up in an aided school just behind my apt complex and I know the kids get a great, clean hygeinic meal.

If Mayawati had her head screwed on the right way, she would invite them into her state, put in a condition that the volunteers & workers should be overwhelmingly Dalit, get the state info dept to run commercial and "propah gandu" films on TV and everything on it and then let us see how many kids refuse to eat for "caste" reasons. I would bet very little!

It is for very good reason that the Akshaya Patra kind of model was spawned out of Bangalore and specifically by huge inputs and efforts by the IT/Vity folks. They are the kind of guys who can break the mould with newer thinking and models and recognize the value of productivity in their IT/Vity services business.

You let the ISI/DSE/Planning Commission ding-dongs come up with something, it won't for sure be like these kind of things coming up in every district of the country , but rather they will come up some loopy model , sarkari baboo driven and lacking details and simply unworkable in great measure.

[somnath]

It is in fact a pretty well known axiom in agri economics that Indian agriculture has structurally not become more "productive"..In fact not even in Green Revolution era Punjab did the Total Factor Productivity of Punjab go up..On the contrary, most evidence show it went down...

All the increases in agri since independence we have achieved, including Green Revolution era, have been on account of sheer increase in inputs - land, labour and capital...TFP has been stagnant, even negative in the long run...Lots of studies on the topic, but not too many with updated numbers for the last decade...One such here..
http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewconten ... griculture"

The reason for the above is complex...But one big reason universally acknowledged is lack of public investment in agri..But even that along cannot explain the full story...

[niran]

^^^ Vina Saar, the reason is not the food cooked by Dalit, it is the horrible hygeine, there has been various incidents
of students dying from food poisoning from MDM, BTW in most Cowbelt Upper Class Rich households it is the so called Dalits who works in the kitchen.

[Singha]

what do you mean by lack of public investment ? govt gives subsidies on fertilizer , free power to run pumpsets in most places, periodic loan writeoffs, subsidies and grants for somw farm eqpt, cheap diesel, I assume canal water is also free, as is ground water from borewells or river water used to irrigate. moreover farmers do not have to pay income tax.

all of this is either real money or giving up of taxation.

[Theo_Fidel]

what do you mean by lack of public investment ? govt gives subsidies on fertilizer , free power to run pumpsets in most places, periodic loan writeoffs, subsidies and grants for somw farm eqpt, cheap diesel, I assume canal water is also free, as is ground water from borewells or river water used to irrigate. moreover farmers do not have to pay income tax.

What the GOI gives with one hand it takes away with the other. Just to address two..

Fertilizer. The GOI only supplies certain Urea type fertilizers. We have to pay for it even if it is subsidized a bit. Balanced fertilizers are completely unavailable. Most annoyingly liquid fertilizers(the granular stuff is not clean enough), much easier to apply evenly, is almost completely unavailable, so we end up buying and using way more fertilizer than necessary.

Free power. Three phase is simply not available so more powerful pumps out of the question. Power is erratic and comes 2-4 hours maybe 2 days a week. Some weeks nothing. Often at 2 AM. Power is very bad and often at 48HZ and my motor has burnt out twice in the last ten years. Rewinding a motor is seriously expensive, Rs 10,000 plus to be done at a proper shop & tested, and has to be sent to Madurai. Not only that the line man has to be bribed regularly to keep the line 'functional'. It is a non-revenue item so the EB does not care if it stops functioning. You are on your own.

Of course at the end the market prices are controlled so the GOI also decides what I earn.

[vina]

What the GOI gives with one hand it takes away with the other. Just to address two..

Fertilizer. The GOI only supplies certain Urea type fertilizers. We have to pay for it even if it is subsidized a bit. Balanced fertilizers are completely unavailable. Most annoyingly liquid fertilizers(the granular stuff is not clean enough), much easier to apply evenly, is almost completely unavailable, so we end up buying and using way more fertilizer than necessary.

Agri in India is a classic case of massive subsidies, largely misdirected, shot and riddled with special interest groups,somehow works/worked and crying in serious need of reforms and some dynamic action. Unfortunately what we have had as agri ministers is a long list of nearly brain dead and comatose geezers with a terrible record in office of doing next to nothing.

The first flush of green revolution produced big productivity gains. In fact, adjusted for inflation even to this day, price of food grains hasn't gone up by too much. Prices in fact fell (real prices), but costs fell faster due to productivity gains and India became self sufficient in food . The inital gains due to new hybrid seeds, fertilizer etc plateaued.

There was a well know Muck N See study that was presented to Vajyapee that essentially said that India was an agri giant but a food pygmy.

My view is that the agri productivity stagnated because the movement out of the landless labor never happened at the rates at which it should, post storage and other processing facilities lacked and the baboon pricing /tinkering with pricing via the agricultural pricing whatever (dont remember names)baboodom (the head of which was shot by the Khalistan terrorists during 80s/90s.. dont remember) kept price signals for percolating down .

It is time, they revamped the entire subsidy mess. Instead of paying subsidy via cheap inputs (fertilizer power etc), they could pay subsidy directly to the farmers and consumers and let the farmers make intelligent decisions on fertilizer, water, power etc.

Free power. Three phase is simply not available so more powerful pumps out of the question. Power is erratic and comes 2-4 hours maybe 2 days a week. Some weeks nothing. Often at 2 AM. Power is very bad and often at 48HZ and my motor has burnt out twice in the last ten years.

The free power is a well known lunacy that plagues everything . Bankrupts the SEBs, allows over use of ground water , wasteful, riddled with corruption . When you give power free, the marginal cost for the consumer is Zero. So the only cost you see is the initial cost of setting it up

This was something that the profs in the Pumps, Turbines and Compressor classes in the Madrassas always rued about. For a good pump, you need high quality machining of the impeller and a very smooth finish and careful design so that there are no fricition losses and no cavitation (very wasteful), along with low flow resistance pipes that are reasonably sized. With the kind of perverse incentive you get from zero cost power, you will go and buy the cheapest pump that can get put together in Coimbatore (and couldn't care less if it is crappily machined and cavitates), dont give a toss about the power factor of the motor and try getting the cheapest pipes of a diameter that might not be optimal!

These kind of perverse incentives get built into every level when you tinker around with price signals. And dont even get into the mess about loans and everything regarding agriculture. It is a surprise that it hasn't collapsed completely despite multiple attempts to bring it to it's knees by freebies and blatant looting.

Of course at the end the market prices are controlled so the GOI also decides what I earn.

The YumBeeYea answer for you might be not to get into the "controlled" commodities, but to get into high value , niche stuff that the govt doesn't price control (and hopefully quoted in the commodities exchange so that you can hedge risks) and make it a profitable venture.

[Theo_Fidel]

The YumBeeYea answer for you might be not to get into the "controlled" commodities, but to get into high value , niche stuff that the govt doesn't price control (and hopefully quoted in the commodities exchange so that you can hedge risks) and make it a profitable venture.

Which I do any way. I grow coconuts & pineapples and am experimenting with Sapota now. I thought of pepper but my soil is not good for it apparently.

My problem is that my market is in the SRK. Yet getting through the state border is a nightmare and once through I must sell to a Govt. designated middle man. As you can imagine, there I am with a rented TATA truck Rs 5000 a day, plus 2 unloaders & driver/cleaner, diesel extra and there is the middleman rubbing his pot belly waiting me out. Guess who wins.

Recently I've been selling to a cooperative. Prices low but guaranteed and no gol-mal.

Farming in India is so low margin that we can't afford to take a single loss.

Last year rice kept me afloat and prevented a loss. This year the miller offered Rs900 a quintal for my Ponni. At that price I might as well feed it to cattle. So probably no rice planting this year.

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WRT midday meals note that TN's scheme is completely decentralized and yet is very very effective & efficient.

I'm not a big fan of the big centralized kitchen concept. It doesn't work beyond urban areas with good roads. IMHO the NGO's need to focus on getting to the villages and helping with social reform & retention rather than trying to become industrial kitchens. Karnataka has a relatively good local government that I've personally observed working very well. With some encouragement I'm sure they could pull off the meal scheme at least to TN standards.

When TN started the scheme the cooks/servers were deliberately chosen to be scheduled caste, paraiyan's, etc. The purpose was to force social reform on the community. Communities that refused to eat the food were identified for education and out reach and some naming/shaming. Sometimes even the stick of government grants and police presence was used to force children to attend and eat the food. It would be unfortunate if the rest of India wimped out. Which is what the industrial kitchens are. Food with out reform. In many areas in TN even the plates are shared so everyone gets to eat out of everyone else's plates. It very disappointing to see schools where children are allowed/required to bring their own plates.

It is interesting that the Jean Dreze / Amartya Sen types completely forget the original dynamic behind the TN experiment and think it was just free food. Shallow, incompetent, snakes.

The real need is in rural villages. often with almost impassable roads. There is a village in the Agasthiamalai with a functioning midday-meal scheme that is cut-off 3 months of the year during the monsoon. It is those areas that must be reached.

-

[somnath]

what do you mean by lack of public investment ? govt gives subsidies on fertilizer , free power to run pumpsets in most places, periodic loan writeoffs, subsidies and grants for somw farm eqpt, cheap diesel, I assume canal water is also free, as is ground water from borewells or river water used to irrigate. moreover farmers do not have to pay income tax.

all of this is either real money or giving up of taxation.

Vina has listed down some of the well-known issues with Indian agri - and they are largely correct..Though his hypothesis of Green Revolution causing a jump in "productivity" is highly debatable - most research conclude otherwise..What we had in GR was a massive increase in "inputs" - especially seeds, capital, fertiliser and water - much of it subsidised, which in turn cause a sharp jump in output...But productivity largely remained the same...

After the first flush of GR though, the level of public investment itself in agri plumetted...Through the '90s and beyond, the net effective public "support" to agri actually turned negative..Which means that the govt was extracting away more than it was investing into agriculture..The widely used Producer Support Estimate (PSE) of OECD lays down the numbers starkly..

You can see India's numbers in this report..
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INDI ... erview.pdf

There is lots of research on this, and in fact this has been India's essential stance in WTO negotiations on agri...
How does the public support become negative in India? Simple...One, price controls by proxy..So while nominally the farmers are allowed to sell to anyone at any price, realistically various states have APMC laws that prohibit a real free market price discovery...Further, there are export controls, which prevents farmers from taking advantage of higher global prices, again preventing price discovery...Two, input prices, despite subsidies, have gone up manifold..Net net, the value extracted out of the farmer through controls is higher than the subsidies provided to him..

If you wanted to read up on more interesting literature on this, google for "Sharad Joshi" - you should get many entertaining stuff...

[vina]

My problem is that my market is in the SRK. Yet getting through the state border is a nightmare and once through I must sell to a Govt. designated middle man.

Yeah the market fixing via local special interest groups and myriad and labyrinthine entry barriers and price fixing (APMC is an especially egregious one) is a terrible terrible thing that our constitution makers erred right at the beginning. Net result, we dont have a pan india /continental sized market for nearly anything , other than pure IT/Vity /internet/wireless models.

The US was prescient in this by having "Interstate Commerce" as a Federal Subject and hence every state has to give "national" treatment to goods and services from every other! No wonder you dont see huge check posts at every state border in Massa. Business models such as iron ore from Minnesota getting shipped over the great lakes in giant "great lakes carriers", coal and other inputs from applachian states and others, all converging into Gary Indiana with humongous steel works is simply not possible in India. In fact the Oierpeans couldn't imagine such models at all given their fractured nation states (imagine iron ore shipped from Sweden, coal from Ruhr, and iron& steel making in giant scale in Benelux & France.. couldn't happen.. and the iron ore from Alsace-Lorraine was one of the root causes of WW1)

In fact, along with Vat/Rat , the first order of business should be passing a constitutional amendement on massa lines and make interstate commerce a Central Subject. Doing that will create a unified pan India market giving producers and consumers economies of scale , increase competitive intensity and more choices, rather than the thousands of fractured micro markets and the high prices, protection to special interest groups and lack of choices today.

Recently I've been selling to a cooperative. Prices low but guaranteed and no gol-mal.

Farming in India is so low margin that we can't afford to take a single loss.

There is probably another YumBeeYea giri you could try. See, the Baboos in Dilli fix sale prices based on averages/ known cost of their mai baap PSUs, that doesn't mean that you cant rake in the cash. Case in point steel markets before decontrol. The baboos in Dilli set steel prices based on SAIL's cost (cost + pricing) and SAIL was the usual mess , badly run, low productivity , while the only private steel guy who set up before the Baboons put in "Commanding Heights" used to rake in the moolah (around Rs 250 crore profits in late 80s!) even though they too had to sell at Baboon prices. The only difference was that they ran the plants some of which dated back to 1920 , very efficiently (they weren't allowed by the Dilli Baboons to modernize, despite beseeching them multiple times.. Please.. can we upgrade from Open Hearth to Basic Oxygen Furnaces.. this new thing is orders of magnitude more efficient.. Harrumph.. NO... We are the designated by destiny folks to occupy the commanding heights and make steel. We cant allow you lowly heathens to make it and gain market share and also make it more efficiently.. Now with that kind of idiocy you know why we lost 60 years). In 1991, in the Narsimha Rao reforms, steel was decontrolled, imports flooded in Japanese and Korean steel swept in and Tata Steel made losses for the first time and had to crash modernize (which they did very successfully).

The lesson there is if you could increase productivity (maybe you have some unqiue advantages in soil/climate/unique cultivar /commodity /whatever) to such an extent that you can be the cost leader, you could still rake in the moolah because the Dilli Pricing wonks will set prices based on the average much higher costs and you can rake in the cash because that is what the Minimum Support Price will be based on , and you therefore dont need to compete on price at all , but are guaranteed a fat margin. It may be possible that if you looked deeper and hard enough, you might find such a thing for your farm. It will be a jackpot if you do (and also send in 10% of your upside to me Al-Duspercenti as con-sulting fees).

[vina]

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WRT midday meals note that TN's scheme is completely decentralized and yet is very very effective & efficient.

I'm not a big fan of the big centralized kitchen concept. It doesn't work beyond urban areas with good roads. IMHO the NGO's need to focus on getting to the villages and helping with social reform & retention rather than trying to become industrial kitchens. Karnataka has a relatively good local government that I've personally observed working very well.

The Akshaya Patra centralized kitchen model works splendidly for urban and semi urban areas. In fact, it is a highly efficient model if there are road networks. Of course it will fail if there are no roads/ extremely remote areas . In fact one of the big investments in green revolution and after that was not in trunk roads but in village roads and in most of S. India (KA, TN, KA.. dunno about AP, but should be decent there as well) most of the villages have a road that connects it to the closest town. So it is eminently doable here and the avg truck goes around 60Km in the Akshaya Patra model.

In Bangalore's case all the BBMP schools are served by two kitchens, one in North Bangalore and another in South Bangalore. The plates , the kids bring from home and wash it themselves. Removes the need for labor to do it and keep overheads and investments low.

However, in very remote areas, like in Nayamgarh Orissa, they do indeed adopt a different model. Watch this one.


The have decentralized cooking and trained staff and look at the kind of kitchens they have set up. I doubt the UP govt school have similar trained staff and kitchens.

Sometimes even the stick of government grants and police presence was used to force children to attend and eat the food. It would be unfortunate if the rest of India wimped out. Which is what the industrial kitchens are. Food with out reform. In many areas in TN even the plates are shared so everyone gets to eat out of everyone else's plates. It very disappointing to see schools where children are allowed/required to bring their own plates.

Getting working system off the ground in N. India is itself a big thing and getting the kids to go to school together and eat together is itself a pretty decent start. Atleast in the urban and semi urban areas (that would cover a significant chunk of a state like UP) , they should go for the industrial kitchen kind of model and put this independent decentralized cooking etc to really really remote areas .

[nandakumar]

------------------------------------
WRT midday meals note that TN's scheme is completely decentralized and yet is very very effective & efficient.

I'm not a big fan of the big centralized kitchen concept. It doesn't work beyond urban areas with good roads. IMHO the NGO's need to focus on getting to the villages and helping with social reform & retention rather than trying to become industrial kitchens. Karnataka has a relatively good local government that I've personally observed working very well.

The Akshaya Patra centralized kitchen model works splendidly for urban and semi urban areas. In fact, it is a highly efficient model if there are road networks. Of course it will fail if there are no roads/ extremely remote areas . In fact one of the big investments in green revolution and after that was not in trunk roads but in village roads and in most of S. India (KA, TN, KA.. dunno about AP, but should be decent there as well) most of the villages have a road that connects it to the closest town. So it is eminently doable here and the avg truck goes around 60Km in the Akshaya Patra model.

Getting working system off the ground in N. India is itself a big thing and getting the kids to go to school together and eat together is itself a pretty decent start. Atleast in the urban and semi urban areas (that would cover a significant chunk of a state like UP) , they should go for the industrial kitchen kind of model and put this independent decentralized cooking etc to really really remote areas .

I understand Akshya Patra has started a MDM scheme in Mathura where a meal comprising Roti, Dal and Sabji is being served. The scheme feeds 1.69 lakh children more than half of them are girls. Link to the story
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/tod ... 716417.ece

[Theo_Fidel]

^^^^^
Thanx for the Video, Vina.

The decentralized program seems very slick and practical. It is important for these groups to emphasize why the nation is doing this. For education, integration, child nutrition and social reform. The food part is entirely a side activity. A bribe if you will. If we could achieve those things by giving each kid a magic pebble every day, we would. What I don't like to see is these giant stainless steel kettles, with vans dropping of containers and essentially walking way. Very silly IMHO. Seems like the purpose of going to school is to get some food plopped in front of you. What does it say to the local community if we don't trust them to cook food for their own kids. Huh!

It annoys the heck out of me to see school age girls walking with firewood on their heads. It tells me that social reform is not yet started and all the noon meals in the world are not going to do anything for that community. You never see that in Kerala or even in the more advanced areas of TN. There is a reason for that.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WRT to food having observed how massa does it, here's the dope. Food in Massaland is expensive but very little food is wasted. At least during production. Consumption waste is another matter.

The way massa achieves this is to process just about every scrap of food they produce. Every thing, even rotten tomatoes, has its little pigeon hole and destination. You would never find a 50 kg sack of rice open to the elements like you find in India.

This allows farmers to find likely niche areas to specialize in. I was talking to a farmer at a U-Pik facility out here in massaland and he supplies, 2 restaurants, 1 grocery Store, 1 gas station (don't ask), 3 farmers markets, along with a wholesaler for his walnuts and a 40 acre U-Pik field. Spoiled fruit & vegetable goes to a local Chicken/pig farm and the leafy waste goes to a local horse farm And he has a part time job at local newspaper.

A large chunk of our produce goes waste because we buy 'fresh', meaning cheap unprocessed. People won't even pay the 50% premium for cold storage.

[Singha]

given the high prices of fruit, pulses, rice, cooking oil, spices, bread, milk products and vegetables in India relative to income level the 50% premium is huge.

[g.sarkar]

Going through the internet came across this. Ghandi and Baba Ram Dev! A hatched job?
http://pensionpulse.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... ckled.html
Guest Comment: Can India Be Unshackled?
"My friend, Mehran Nakhjavani of MRB Partners was kind enough to provide a guest comment, Celebrity Yoga, Tear Gas and Reform: Can India be Unshackled?:
India arguably owes its existence as an independent democracy to a charismatic guru who made the rulers of the day squirm with his uncomfortable questions. It took some 50 years of for the movement led by Mahatma Ghandi to topple the British Raj, but the current anti-corruption protest led by guru Ramdev is asking for something far simpler. While Ramdev and his supporters were greeted this past weekend with a display of force worthy of the colonial masters in their day, his essential demand is merely for the rule of law to be applied equally to India’s feckless and bloated public sector, as well as to the private sector that feeds at the trough of privileged access to bureaucrats and their political masters......
.....The disgust over a telecom scandal that has exploded in recent months is by no means the first in Indian history. However, this episode is shaping up to be a social mutiny because of three factors: the emergence of a large middle class as noted, the rapid dissemination of incendiary details of the scandals via social media, and most importantly, the gathering storm over the immediate cyclical prospects of the economy......
.......India’s inflation is the highest among emerging markets, and it can’t blame food prices for its problems.........
There are, of course, very powerful structural forces driving India’s long-term economic growth, including a dynamic and globally competitive service sector, very positive demographic tailwinds and massive pent-up demand for both capital and consumer goods and financial services. The key constraint is its infrastructure, which, in turn, is a reflection of a creaky public sector. To the extent that investment can debottleneck key chokepoints such as transportation and energy, the inefficiency of the state does no more to sprinkle some sand into the gears of economic growth. But the public sector’s inability to balance its books is a long-term challenge.
In the current circumstances, with policy rates and bond yields both ratcheting up as a result of the inflationary surge, the cost of budget deficits of the order of 10% of GDP generates an appreciable crowding-out effect for the private sector. The RBI’s policy tightening is raising the cost of capital for India’s businesses and will continue to act as a drag on their return on equity (ROE). Despite significant under performance relative to other EM equities, Indian valuations are still not compelling. Its trailing P/E ratio is still 40% higher than other emerging markets, and this premium is no longer justified by a substantial ROE premium. Conclusions for investors: Avoid Indian equities. ....... Typically, investors will seek to front-run economic indicators, so timing re-entry is by no means straightforward. Three pieces of evidence will need to be in place or imminent before buying equities: real credit growth to the private sector lower than real GDP growth; real policy rates close to potential GDP growth rates; and attractive valuations within the EM equity universe.
Mehran Nakhjavani"
Any comments?

From NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/09/world ... wanted=all
In India, Dynamism Wrestles With Dysfunction
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: June 8, 2011
GURGAON, India — In this city that barely existed two decades ago, there are 26 shopping malls, seven golf courses and luxury shops selling Chanel and Louis Vuitton. Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs shimmer in automobile showrooms. Apartment towers are sprouting like concrete weeds, and a futuristic commercial hub called Cyber City houses many of the world’s most respected corporations.
Gurgaon, located about 15 miles south of the national capital, New Delhi, would seem to have everything, except consider what it does not have: a functioning citywide sewer or drainage system; reliable electricity or water; and public sidewalks, adequate parking, decent roads or any citywide system of public transportation. Garbage is still regularly tossed in empty lots by the side of the road........"
Gautam

[Theo_Fidel]

Interesting tale. I tell you, this think that's happening in India is baffling...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/09/world ... wanted=all

How can a huge country flirt with double-digit growth despite widespread corruption, inefficiency and governmental dysfunction?

In Gurgaon and elsewhere in India, the answer is that growth usually occurs despite the government rather than because of it. India and China are often considered to be the world’s rising economic powers, yet if China’s growth has been led by the state, India’s growth is often impeded by the state. China’s authoritarian leaders have built world-class infrastructure; India’s infrastructure and bureaucracy are both considered woefully outdated.

Yet over the past decade, India has emerged as one of the world’s most important new engines of growth, despite itself. Even now, with its economy feeling the pressure from global inflation and higher interest rates, some economists predict that India will become the world’s third largest economy within 15 years and could much sooner supplant China as the fastest-growing major economy.

Moreover, India’s unorthodox path illustrates, on a grand scale, the struggles of many smaller developing countries to deliver growth despite weak, ineffective governments. Many have tried to emulate China’s top-down economic model, but most are stuck with the Indian reality. In India, Gurgaon epitomizes that reality, managing to be both a complete mess and an economic powerhouse, a microcosm of Indian dynamism and dysfunction.

He is right. Except apparently in poverty hatao programs...

Santosh Khosla, an information technology consultant whose family moved to Gurgaon in 1993, has services provided by his developer, DLF. He said DLF had broken numerous promises and did only an adequate job of delivering water and power. Still, adequate is tolerable.

“I’m certain that if it goes to the government,” he said, “it will be worse.”

Yet the economic power that growth has delivered to Gurgaon has not been matched by political power. The celebrated middle class created by India’s boom has far less clout at the ballot box than the hundreds of millions of rural peasants struggling to live on $2 a day, given the far larger rural vote, and thus are courted far less by Indian politicians. This has made it harder to accrue the political power needed to correct Gurgaon’s problems. When middle-class civic groups in Gurgaon pushed state leaders to create a single government authority overseeing the city, they were flicked away.

[vera_k]

Just as the evolutionary path in the automobile industry was found to consist of bicycles followed by motorcycles, then followed by cars, the path towards new cities in India consists of slums (e.g. Dharavi) evolving into a better slum (e.g. Gurgaon) then evolving into a modern city (e.g. Delhi).

[vina]

then evolving into a modern city (e.g. Delhi)

. No way. OT though.

[Singha]

sir delhi is one of few cities with planned sectors, parks and shopping complexes in almost all areas...ie almost all areas except old villages engulfed by the growing city are planned and developed by the DDA et al.

there are cities in india with currently 1 mil+ pop like guwahati whose municality and town planning has not in 64 years developed one *single* planned layout.

[somnath]

sir delhi is one of few cities with planned sectors, parks and shopping complexes in almost all areas...ie almost all areas except old villages engulfed by the growing city are planned and developed by the DDA et al

Only Lutyen's Delhi, Singha-ji (ahh, the best place to live - my happiest days were spent there:(( )..Which is a small part of the city...Rest of Del is as much an urban sprawl as most other Indian cities...

DDA - Delhi Destruction Authority

[Theo_Fidel]

Actually almost every city & town in India has a master plan with zoning and segregated uses. I'm very certain Guwahati has one.

Its another matter that there is zero enforcement and frequent regularization.

Wasn't it DS Patil, demolition man, who once said 80% of Mumbai was illegal.

[VenkataS]

Instead we have the NREGS which perpetuates the poverty cycle, empoys individuals in unproductive work, and does not benefit everyone. Is something like the NREGS the best we can do in 2011?
Why not distribute foodstamps for desperately poor individuals with the requirement that they enroll in free adult literacy/employable skills programs and work towards getting employment in productive sectors of the economy

Paraphrasing the same statement, giving tax breaks on SEZs perpetuates crony capitalsim, benefits the same crooks (like KP Singh, Jaiprakash Gaur and Shahid Balwa and their ilk) to shift taxable income into taxfree, and incrementally benefits almost no one barring these families!

But seriously, what is the evidence that NREGS "perpetuates" poverty?

This a late reply but I had to point this out.

It perpetuates poverty because the individuals benefiting from NREGs are not gaining any employable skills through this program. It is a worse form of cash transfer with leakage in the system through corruption, and ultimately resulting in infrastructure which is not upto the mark (can be better done by using machinery etc).

The old saying is so very applicable here "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime".

The focus of government programs should be on providing employable skills to individuals (basic literacy/vocational skills) so that they can find sustainable work and be productively employed in services and industrial sectors.

Desperately poor individuals should be supported through direct cash transfer schemes for a period of time based on the stipulation that they learn employable skills (the cash trasfer should be contingent on the individuals meeting specific milestone based goals with respect to training).

[somnath]

^^^Point taken, in fact it has been discussed ad inifinitum here To me, it boils down to specific ideological proclivities of people, because there is enough data in public domain to say that NREGS has worked...But, to each his own!

In the meanwhile, seems there is forward movement for FDI in retail..
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/fdi-i ... 51/740512/

They should quickly announce a couple of big bang reform policies - it would take away focus from the Ramdev circus, and re-establish the govt's credibility on business...

[vina]

sir delhi is one of few cities with planned sectors, parks and shopping complexes in almost all areas...ie almost all areas except old villages engulfed by the growing city are planned and developed by the DDA et al.

Between the "Planning" in Dilli and the old Bangalore (not including the Johnny come lately Sarjapur, and other random areas which follow the "Gurgaon" model), the BDA developed localities (Jayanagar, JP Nagar,Banashankari etc, Indira Nagar why even the new HSR), older areas like Basavangudi , Malleshwarm, Sheshadripuram, the entire Cantt areas are pretty well planned and functional ,with parks schools transport etc. including old "villages" that got enveloped in that and the Dilli I remember until the mid 80s (not been there after that), I would take Bangalore any day. I am talking of the old civilized genteel Bangalore of old before this IT/Vity madness. A lot more civilized and definitely much better place to live in than the Dilli I remember of the 70s/80s . Even today, you go the the BDA developed areas "planned areas" and the other ones, the difference is stark and visible.

The problem with India, is that the plans exist on paper first, the houses come up first, then the water , sewage, roads and everything comes later. That is the Indian model. You pay up front (a pretty packet) for water , sewage and power you will get some 5 to 10 years down the line, when the govt baboocrazy finally comes around to doing it. What you pay now goes to the big pool of govt finances black hole where it is in all probability being spent/swindled /a mix of the two, somewhere else.

there are cities in india with currently 1 mil+ pop like guwahati whose municality and town planning has not in 64 years developed one *single* planned layout.

That is simply amazing. I cant believe that those guys are were so comatose, when until recently cities all over India were doing it . Though , now with land acquisition etc becoming so difficult, I dont know how the city and town planning will get done. No more the vast Jayanagars of the old I suppose. But rather ,more dense high rises like Singapore, with the metro being extended and serving as the primary transport mode (atleast in cities) is probably the way to go.

[abhishek_sharma]

Do emerging markets deserve developed status?

What would have been your reaction, circa 2006, to someone peddling the following forecast? There would soon erupt the worst, synchronised global financial crisis in 80 years, or possibly ever. World trade would start to collapse as fast as in 1929-31. Many developed markets (DMs) would experience deep recessions, the costliest banking crisis ever and would stagger toward fiscal calamity. But – guess what! – emerging markets (EMs), after a brief panic, would sail on unscathed. They would have no significant crises: currencies, banks and fiscal positions would retain stability. A two-track recovery would take EM growth on to a trajectory away from a troubling slump in the DM world.

Anyone cognisant of the fragility of “high beta” EMs in past episodes of global macroeconomic distress (the 1980s, the 1930s, or back to the 1870s) would have dismissed such thinking as wildly implausible. Yet this is precisely how things turned out, a remarkable turn of events that prompts some to ask if EMs are the new DMs.

Can the idea that EMs are “graduating” to DM status have merit – now or over the longer term? And, if so, what are the implications? At Morgan Stanley, we examined the macroeconomic characteristics of the EM-DM groups and their socio-political and institutional fundamentals. We find evidence that today’s EM economies may not have fully closed the gap, but they are in a stronger position than in previous moments of short-lived euphoria.

A central macroeconomic indicator, gross domestic product growth and its volatility, speaks to the reversal of fortune. Circa 1970, EMs exhibited high mean and high variance relative to DMs; but after 1980 this risk-reward combination evaporated as EMs suffered a lost decade. But from the 1990s EM growth picked up and volatility moderated; DM growth slowed and, after the crisis, volatility spiked. The EM advantage looks strong again, but other economic indicators buttress the case.

Since the 1980s, EMs achieved a conquest of inflation more dramatic than the DMs. They diversified their exports while opening up more to trade. And to enhance fiscal stability, they reduced public debts relative to GDP, while building large buffers of foreign reserves. EM sovereign ratings have been rising; DM ratings are now turning south.

Yet it would be a mistake to make a case for rethinking EM-DM differences based on narrow economic criteria alone. Long-run development success rests on deep determinants – factors such as health, education, freedoms and inequality. While the causal mechanisms are debated by researchers, these traits can be quantified and they too offer support for our EM-DM view.

On social indicators such as life expectancy and years of schooling, EM averages in 2005 had risen to levels comparable to those in the DMs in 1975. On indices of political and economic freedoms, where EMs scored about five out of 10 in the early 1980s, they now score seven or eight out of 10; close to DM levels of economic freedom and only lagging behind slightly on political freedom.

More impressive, however, are the likely implications for the global economy – some of which will mark a shift or even reversal of recent trends. With faster growth, EMs will overtake DMs as a share of the global economy and their high capital expenditure needs will boost global investment demand. With lower volatility and more fiscal resilience, the EMs’ precautionary saving motive may moderate, unleashing more consumption-led growth and less voracious hoarding of reserves. As investment rises and saving dwindles, the EM current account should decline or reverse – as should the frissons in policy circles triggered by the global imbalance issue.

But the implications for the DM world are also profound. As demographic pressures build and fiscal profligacy runs on, savings will be scarce here too, so real interest rates will probably rise. The abundance of investment opportunities in EMs will pull private capital out of DMs, creating a politically treacherous “sucking sound” that was long ago predicted but, in recent years, offset by official flows.

But while we paint a rosy picture of EM outperformance, there is one trend that policymakers ignore at their own peril – rising inequality. While EM incomes have tripled over the past three decades, not all boats have been lifted. Events in the Middle East show what public discontent can do to political and economic stability. EM policymakers would do well to heed this wake-up call.

As history shows, economic development “graduation” follows from consistently passing stern tests of economic and social capability. This once – but hopefully not for the last time – the EMs aced the examination.

Alan Taylor is professor of economics at the University of California, Davis, and a senior adviser at Morgan Stanley. This piece was co-authored by Manoj Pradhan, global EM economist and an executive director at Morgan Stanley

[Singha]

the BDA has raked in money by allowing wanton commercial development in BDA layouts. the results are there for all to see - indiranagar 100ft used to be ok for quiet sunday walk. now its filled with high end shops who have no parking, if you are lucky you can mount the pavement and park there else find some bylane and sneak in.
Koramangala is even worse, shops are spreading randomly deep into the layouts, Jayanagar is further ahead of that curve.
only the really rich sub areas with 60x80 or bigger plots you will find residential now...and even there people are busy renting out to IT cos, playschools, architecture firms, spas, gyms, boutique restaurants...

BDA has to let go of the old rule no highrise apts in BDA layouts....look how much space has been wasted in the new layouts like HBR and HRBR so that a few 1000 people could live in style and the rest in "villages" right across the ORR with no planning.

[Vipul]

New series pegs IIP growth at 6.3%.

Industrial production registered a growth of 6.3 per cent in April as per the new series that was released on Friday with a base year of 2004-05, but the slowdown of the economy was clear as factory output nosedived to just 4.4 per cent as per the old series.

The poor performance of the manufacturing and mining sectors pulled down the overall growth of industry as per the old series with a base year of 1993-94 from 16.6 per cent in April last year.

Meanwhile, factory output in March was revised upward to 7.8 per cent from the provisional estimate of 7.3 per cent released last month.

As per the old series, growth in manufacturing, which constitutes about 80 per cent of the index weight, nosedived to 4.4 per cent in April from a high of 18 per cent in the same month last year.

Mining also grew by a meagre 2.1 per cent during the month under review as against 12 per cent in April, 2010. Growth in electricity production also dipped to 6.4 per cent in the month under review from 6.9 per cent in the same period of the previous year.

Another area of concern was the low offtake of capital goods, whose production growth was just 2.5 per cent in April, 2011, compared to 64.1 per cent in April last year.

Overall, consumer goods also saw the growth rate slow to 5.9 per cent in April from 11.9 per cent in the same month last year, as per old series.

Meanwhile, as per the new series, manufacturing growth in April stood at 6.9 per cent, while mining and electricity production was up 2.2 per cent and 6.4 per cent, respectively.

Capital goods registered a growth of 14.5 per cent and overall consumer goods were up by 2.9 per cent in April as per the series with a base year of 2004-05.

Production trends for 100 new items, including ice cream, fruit juice and mobile phones, has been included for measuring the pace of industrial production in the new index series, which was recently approved by the government.

The new items in the IIP would also include computer stationary, newspapers, chemicals like ammonia, ammonia sulphate, electrical products like solder power systems, gems and jewellery and molasses.

On the other hand, obsolete articles like typewriters, loud speakers and VCRs have been taken off to make the series representative of the present-day industrial production and demand scenario.

The base year for the new series is 2004¿05 as against 1993-94 for the old one.

The new IIP series is expected to help policymakers and market participants forecast economic trends.

The Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy (DIPP) and Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) jointly worked on the new index.

[Theo_Fidel]

There are several problems with the whole Urban planning concept in India.

The worst one is that JLN brought in Le Corbusier to do Chandigarh. For 30 years after that this was the orthodoxy. Completely segregated uses with transportation links between each spot. You would have to drive 10 km's toe get a egg even. These ivory tower plans were insane and rightly ignored by people on the ground.

Of course this doesn't work in the Indian situation but no one was listening. And the people went their own merry way ignoring all the crazy plans.

[Singha]

mixed urban / commercial areas are the only ones which work in india.

Delhi DDA and Noida got it somewhat right by keeping wide enough roads in an era when personal vehicle ownership was low and the temptation would be create more saleable plots. Gurgaon and DLF has planned sectors , though unplanned areas also exist...and pop density has overwhelmed gurgaon roads now.

Bangalore BDA goofed up in that respect by not keeping wide enough internal roads in the city for which price is being paid now. the least cost approach results in more cost and chaos a few years later as road widening and flyovers are needed. perhaps the short term cash flow situation and desire to postpone the hard work is at play ; perhaps doing these things piecemeal later is better from POV of kickbacks.

[somnath]

There was a long and spirited discussion on RIL's D6 shenanigans with stated policy sometime back...

The CAG has apparently submitted its report on the charges of investment "gold plating" by RIL on the matter..Its out in the media now, though not publicly..

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Governmen ... 08744.aspx

Seems CAG confirms a lot of the stuff - RIL goldplated its investments, select funcitonaries seem to have granted "favours" to them, ergo, the "profit petroleum" paid to the govt was much lesser than what was due...

This is only the "first leg" of the entire txn..the CAG audit doesnt cover the second leg, on pricing and sale of gas generated...But confirms the essential hypothesis - if policy is made to dovetail to crony interests, the outcomes can only be cronyism...

[Virupaksha]

http://www.livemint.com/2011/06/1422023 ... admil.html

A view on how NREGS and other policies are causing runaway inflation

[putnanja]

This is only the "first leg" of the entire txn..the CAG audit doesnt cover the second leg, on pricing and sale of gas generated...But confirms the essential hypothesis - if policy is made to dovetail to crony interests, the outcomes can only be cronyism...

you are aware that this implicates the UPA government, right?

[Singha]

the RBI is going to raise the loan rates again this week - the 10th raise in a year. home and car loans will automatically become more expensive.

not sure how raising rates and increasing price of petrol helps with runaway food price inflation we are seeing in last few years !

I wonder how many poorer sections manage to eat Dal these days...

[vina]

the RBI is going to raise the loan rates again this week - the 10th raise in a year. home and car loans will automatically become more expensive.

not sure how raising rates and increasing price of petrol helps with runaway food price inflation we are seeing in last few years !

I wonder how many poorer sections manage to eat Dal these days...

This is the accumulated problem of the past few years blowing up. I had talked about this earlier. See, the problem with this govt's policy making, esp the e-Con-o-Comic one is that for it to work, all the ducks have to line up and line up perfectly. There is no room/margin/allowance for anything going haywire and in some hare brained pursuit of ideological and whatever reasons, the govt missed the chance big time to the macro house in order.

If you look back to posts going to 2007 /2008, I had talked about how the govt is missing the bus on oil sector deregulation, reforms when it would have been least painful (economy was going great guns, inflation was low, perfect time for reforms), but no, the govt went and did the NREGA and other boondoggles with zero reform. And, when the 2008 crisis happened, I talked about how the govt has very little wiggle room for a big stimulus like what the Chinese did.

Well, the "stimulus" in India was in keeping interest rates low against mounting evidence of commodity price led inflation.

Now the Govt will be forced to do some serious macro and fiscal policy fixing and will end up inflicting serious pain. (it is the small pin pricks over a long period which you shrug off, vs a a deep stab in one shot). Expect fuel prices (especially LPG , Diesel and Kerosene) to go up if the govt is serious (or if they succumb and keep the price levels increasing fiscal imbalance, expect interest rates to shoot up.. basically trading off growth for "votes" by keeping the "poor" (err.. 85 lakhs BMW running on Diesel, only in India, half the cars will install LPG kits!).

Now the govt is well and truly caught in a trap of it's own making. The govts response was so predictable. Given that Mani Shankar Aiyar was at the oil ministry when the spike happened, given Mani's ideological predilection, the gamble was that the spike was going to be short lived , and things will settle down and we could "smoothen" out the spike by bond financing and raising prices to the "longer term" average. Well guess what,the spike wasn't a "six month" phenomenon, the perverse incentive to fuel pricing saw the shooting up of diesel and LPG vehicle sales, putting a long term burden on the subsidy and increasing subsidies rather than the demand destruction that would have happened if petrol AND diesel were market priced!

So all in all, a foot in the mouth policy, in many ways totally predictable give the governing coalitions ideology and it's political instincts.

It is simply amazing that despite having a so called "dream team" of e-Con-men at the top, this govt has stumbled and made a dog's meal of the area of economic management which should have been it's strenght!

In fact, the last big reforms that happened that I can remember is during Vajpayee's time. How I wish Arun Shourie (he had the right instincts) could have pushed through that privatization of Air Parasite (we wouldn't have had the mess we do today.. it would have gone down the toilet or turned around) and the total oil decontrol. He was stymied in that by the "socialists" and mai-baap vested interests back then. We are collectively paying for that mai-baap /socialist monkey politics now.

[Singha]

and as always the favourite whipping boy the middle-class will be made to pay.
the 85L BMW will continue to purr along smoothly no matter what the price of diesel
kerosene and rice @ dui taka per kilo will keep the bread and circus show going for the poor

[abhischekcc]

I wonder how many poorer sections manage to eat Dal these days...

Fortunately, I do not like dal!

Oh, you meant the really poor, as in daily laborers - that I do not know.

[vina]

Hmm. Two weeks ago , I tried telling here how shot this entire NELP bidding thing was and how the baboons have come up with a bizzare bidding scheme which is not the norm elsewhere and is too clever by half and how only Reliance kind of folks can deal with that and that the usual royalty share as the basis of bidding is the clean way and industry norm.

Well, I was watching some Piss-Ness channel a few minutes ago and it seems that the CAG has slammed the Baboons for precisely this reason and said that the "investment" based bidding scheme is open to abuse and that Reliance gold plated the investment and that they should move to the Royalty based bidding!

Oh well. Serves 'em Baboons right. They try shafting others and end up being the ones getting shafted.

BTW, LITL's (Lanco) capacity utilization has crashed to 70% or so from a higher figure, the stock reached it's lowest since 2009 . Why ? Coz, Reliance gas is not coming and now they are thinking of importing gas! So the GUBO is already happening.