Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Sunday, 12 February 2017

Baby Steps won’t do !


Following appeared in today’s news papers :

·         Times of India

“ Maharashtra govt amends key  Contract Labour Law , trade unions upset “
Earlier the law applied to units with 20 or more workmen. After the amendment in Maharashtra , it will apply to units with 50 or more employees



·         Business Line

“NSDC to channel donation from private sector angels to the bottom-of-pyramid

Manish Kumar , MD and CEO , NSDC told Business Line ,


“ Not everyone who gets skilled will get a job. So, we are trying to encourage entrepreneurship in the candidate


But, in doing so, access to funds is extremely difficult for those at the bottom of the pyramid

The NSDC is now working to set up a ‘ Nirvana Fund ’ that will channel donations from the private sector – basically angel investments – to fund ventures of selected candidates trained under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana-2 , but have failed to get a job


The idea behind calling it ‘ Nirvana Fund ‘ is that those who have achieved everything they want in life can put their money in the fund and NOT EXPECT ANY RETURNS “





Unfortunately , our problem of unemployment is GIANT


We are adding to our job-seeking population , some 12 million persons every year


So, we added some 36 million in last 3years


During this period , NSDC claims to have trained some 9.2 million youth and helped 3.6 million find jobs !  Barely 10 %  !


Good thing is that NSDC ( - and I suppose , NDA government as well ) has realized that there is just NO WAY, we can create that many jobs , either in the Public Sector or in the Private Sector


Obviously , Self Employment / Entrepreneurship is the ONLY ANSWER


But each Self Employed will need an initial investment of at least Rs 1 Lakh, ( ask any Pan-Beedi Shop owner ! )


For those 12 million persons being added to our working-age population each year , that would require Nirvana Fund to get “ donations “ of Rs 12,000  crores !


Year after year !


Now it is possible that a few ( “ who have achieved everything  they want in life “ ) like Narayan Murthy , Azim Premji , Shiv Nadar or Anil Agarwal , may come forward to “ donate “ to Nirvana Fund , Rs 100 crore worth of their hard-earned WHITE money , “ NOT EXPECTING ANY RETURNS



That won’t take us very far !


But , if Shri Kumar is willing to accept BLACK MONEY, that  can get him Rs 12,000 crore worth of “ donations “  ( and without any expectation for returns ) , within 6 months !


All that NDA government has to do , is to announce :


·         A limited period AMNESTY SCHEME , under which BLACK MONEY can be “ loaned without earning any interest “ to Nirvana Fund ( Minimum amount of Rs 1 crore )


·         No questions to be asked of the “ Loan-givers” , as to the source of the funds


·         No investigations / no scrutiny / no litigation / no penalty / total immunity


·         Donations can be in CASH ( obviously the new Rs 2000 notes ! ) or by cheque

·          
·         Loaner will provide full details about himself ( PAN / Aadhar / Bank A/C etc )


·         “Loan Certificates “ to be issued to “ Loan-givers “



·         “ Loan Certificates “ can be willed to one’s heir or even gifted to anyone else , without attracting “ Gift Tax “ , either by the giver or by the recipient


·         Original loan amount will be returned after 10 years


·         If received as a “ Gift “ , on maturity , loan amount will not attract Personal Income Tax


Remember , only a few months back , small country of Indonesia managed to “ unearth “ BLACK MONEY “ worth $ 300 Billion ( Rs 21 lakh*crore  ) , under an Amnesty Scheme , by levying just 4 % tax ( and no penalty ) !



There is no reason , given the size of our BLACK MONEY economy ( @ 12 % of our GDP ) , why we cannot bring out a similar amount and deploy in our MAIN STREAM economy !


If we NEED to grow our GDP at 10 % per annum , baby steps won’t do !


What 400 million POOR people making up our “ Bottom of the Pyramid “ need – and NOW - is a LEAP from BLACK to WHITE  !


And that won’t happen through current demonetization  !



Baby steps just won’t do . We need to take GIANT STRIDES





13  Feb  2017






  


No comments:

Post a Comment