China’s Ghost Towns

Mumbai Mirror ( June 20,2011 ) had following to write about China’s ghost towns :

Ø            China has been building an average of 10 cities / year over the last few years

Ø            Recently, China announced plans to build 20 cities / year for the next 20 years ( 400 brand new mega cities ? )

Ø            There are more than 70 million uninhabited houses in China

Ø            Apartments in Chenggong ( a fishing village near Hong Kong ) are selling for up to $ 80,000 , with no takers !

Ø            Some of these ghost towns are twice the size of Los Angeles ! Some don’t even have a name ! All of them have a world-class facilities with empty shops, unused roads and no residents !

Ø            China consumes more steel, iron ore and cement per capita than any industrial nation in history.

Ø            Walking thru these towns is like walking thru a forest of skyscrapers, but they are all empty.

·                                      Incidentally, world’s biggest mall is in China – except that it is only 1 % occupied !

It would be a win-win situation, if China could “ export “ some of these ghost towns to India which is facing a current shortage of 25 million dwellings, and / or India “ exports “ to China, some 100 million Indians !

With regards

hemen  parekh

Who is to be blamed for global warming ?

An income / expenditure survey of 63,000 Indian households ( selected from an initial listing of 450,000 households ) found :
 45 % of the Indian population earn less than Rs.20 per day ( less than US $ 0.50 )
That is nearly 500 million people !
If they cut down trees for firewood to cook their 4 teaspoons of rice , could you blame them for global warming ?
[ source : Interview with Rajesh Shukla – author : How India Earns, Spends and Saves : Times of India / Aug 11,2010 ]

With regards

hemen parekh

Rs. 200,000 per debtor ?

As per a report appearing in Economic Times ( 06 July, 2012 ), that approximately is the average amount of  loan that some 49,00,000 debtors would not repay to India’s nationalized banks

Exact figures are :

Ø   Debtors  ………………………      49,24, 611

Ø   Total default  ……………..Rs.  100,155  Crores

Although the report does not give out specific names of these defaulters , it is not too difficult to guess their “ categories “, viz:

Benamis / Relatives of

• Big businessmen

• Senior secretaries

• Polished politicians

• Corrupting contractors  etc

You won’t find amongst these

• Farmers waiting for distant cloud – drought - suicide

• Housewives waiting for jobless husband’s salary packet

You will find them praying for Anna Hazare and for the success of his crusade !

With  regards

hemen  parekh

www.CustomizeResume.com

Jobs  for  All  =  Peace  on  Earth

UNWANTED GIRLS OF INDIA

16 Aug 2011

UNWANTED  GIRLS  OF  INDIA

In Mint ( 25 May, 2011 ), Jacob Koshy reports about a study by Prabhat Jha / Jayant Banthia , published in Lancet magazine.

Their findings were :

·      Girl / Boy ratio ( at birth )

·     In 1990 ………..  906 / 1000

·     In 2005 …………. 836 / 1000

·      No of selective abortions involving female fetuses :

·     In  1980s …………  0 / 2         million

·     In  1990s …………..1.2 / 4.1   million

·     In  2000s …………..3.1 / 6.0   million

·     In 3 decades …….. 4 / 12      million

·          Who is aborting ?

              “ The declines were much greater in mothers with 10 or more years of education than in mothers with no education, and in wealthier households compared with poorer households “

A lady-president notwithstanding, 64 years after independence, the fate of the females in India has only deteriorated!

With regards

HEMEN  PAREKH

MAKING INDIANS EMPLOYABLE

16 Aug 2011

MAKING  INDIANS  EMPLOYABLE

Mandate given to NSDC ( National Skills Development Corporation ) is to train 500 million Indian youth, to make them employable.

Of these, 150 million to be trained by 2020.

That is nearly 15 million per year – a tough target.

So NSDC turned to TeamLease Services Pvt Ltd for help, who will open 1349 multi-skill development centers to train 1.8 million school drop-outs in remote areas over the next 10 years.

Considering that India’s high school drop-out rate is almost 56 % , this is good news.

Turning to private coaching classes for help is no doubt, a good idea.

What NSDC might want to seriously consider is to request India’s reputed Corporate (Tata / Mahindra / L&T / Birla etc) to start 10,000 skill development centers , in their own interest.

Also, how about handing over the management of thousands of existing ITI (Industrial Training Institutes) run by the State Governments, to these corporate ?

With regards

HEMEN  PAREKH

200 hours for 67 bills ?

Monsoon session of Indian Parliament , which commenced on Aug. 01, 2011, will last 5 weeks.
That is 25 working days = 200 working hours.
With some 67 bills to be discussed and voted upon, legislators will get approx. 3 hours per bill.
But that is more than enough – since less than 10 % ( of the 540 legislators ) read those bills in any case.
And no more than 1 % submit any relevant / cogent argument – for or against any bill.
It is another issue that only 50 % of the legislators are present in the house at any given time ( you can find the rest in the parliament canteen , eating dosas at a price which is less than anywhere in the country !).
But those who are present ensure that they get noticed by their party-bosses, by shouting simultaneously ( – when not staging a “ walk out “ ).
Lok Pal Bill ? What is that ?
PS :
As of today ( Aug 10 ) , 60 hours lost without debating a single bill !


With regards
Hemen Parekh

A TIME TO BUY ?

9 Aug 2011

A TIME  TO  BUY  ?

Eurozone Crisis : A time  to  buy  ?

If you have the money, it is the best time to buy.

Cash strapped Companies, Councils and even Countries are selling their family heirlooms.

Who is selling what ?

·     Companies

BP and Toyota are selling entire business divisions at a few billion dollars a piece

·     Councils

A Council in UK is holding a civic fire sale of

*  CCTV Towers

*  Shipping Containers

*  Tree Planters

*  Steel bins ( + 400 other items )

The Council just got a budget cut of 33 million pounds !

·     Countries

Debt-ridden, Portugal – Italy – Greece – Spain are offering to sell,

·     Airports / Seaports

·     Railroads

·     Postal Services

·     Telecom Infrastructure

·     Banks

·     Anything state-owned that anyone offers to buy !

  Next time you see on eBay / Amazon, an advertisement which reads,

“ PIGS for sale “

You will know what PIGS stands for !

With regards

HEMEN  PAREKH

What does Europe think about the crisis?

If you have the money, it is the best time to buy. Cash strapped companies, councils and even countries are selling their family heirlooms. Who is selling what?

Companies
BP and Toyota are selling entire business divisions at a few billion dollars a piece

Councils
A Council in the UK is holding a civic fire sale of
* CCTV Towers
* Shipping Containers
* Tree Planters
* Steel bins ( + 400 other items )
The Council just got a budget cut of 33 million pounds!

Countries
Debt-ridden, Portugal – Italy – Greece – Spain are offering to sell,
• Airports / Seaports
• Railroads
• Postal Services
• Telecom Infrastructure
• Banks
• Anything state-owned that anyone offers to buy !
Next time you see on eBay / Amazon, an advertisement which reads,
“ PIGS for sale “
You will know what PIGS stands for !

With regards

Hemen Parekh

Care to return the “ White Money ‘ ?

Will the rich of India, return a part of their wealth to the society from which they have earned it ?

Economic Times ( 30 June,2011 ) has a few suggestions to make to the “ rich “ of India, re : where they should invest to make a big impact on the well-being of the society, viz:

Ø  Affordable urban housing  ……………………..  $   214 – 786  billion

Ø  Clean water for rural areas  …………………..  $   5.4  -  13   billion

Ø  Maternal health  …………………………………….   $   0.4  -  2.0  billion

Ø  Primary education  ………………………………….  $   4.8  -  10  billion

Ø  Microfinance  ……………………………………………. $   176          billion

Do the rich of India have the necessary funds ?

Economic Times says, “ yes “. And provides following figures :

Ø  In 2010/11

62,000 Ultra High Net Worth Households had net worth of $ 45 trillion

>  By 2015/16

    219,000 UHNW will have a net worth of $  235  trillion

And since this is all “ white money “ right here in India, why run after a few billion dollars of “ black money “ stashed away in Swiss Banks ?

With regards

Hemen  Parekh

Better to be urban / Rural – Urban Divide

Of course, there was never any doubt, but here are figures to prove.

As per 66th round of survey carried out by National Sample Survey Office ( NSSO ) of India, average  URBAN monthly per capita consumption expenditure ( MPCE ) were higher than RURAL MPCE as follows :

 
In Punjab  ……………………  28 %  higher

In Kerala  …………………….  31 %  higher

In Rajasthan  ………………   41 %  higher




And just as expected, the expenditure on “ food “ is :


In urban India  …………….  44.4 % of  MPCE

In rural India  ……………..   57 %    of  MPCE



No wonder there is a huge migration of rural folks to cities.



With regards

Hemen  Parekh

STILL, WHY MILLIONS GO HUNGRY ?

29 July 2011

STILL,  WHY  MILLIONS  GO  HUNGRY  ?

Following is the current scenario of food grains in India :

  

·      Food grain production :

·     2009 – 10  ………………….  218 million tons

·     2010 -  11  ………………….  241 million tons

  

·      Stocks held ( as on June 2011 ) :

·     65.5 million tons

  

·      Food grains needed by 2020-21

·     281 million tons

  

·      Additional storage capacity approved on 15 July,2011 :

·     15.2 million tons

  

·     Annual wastage of food grains due to rotting in open:

·     55 million tons – valued at $ 12.2 billion ( as per Colin Gonsalves-Civil Rights Lawyer )

  

It is not difficult to see why 3 million people ( mostly children ) die of starvation in India every year !

And given the current generation of corrupt / criminal politicians having powerful vested interest in maintaining status quo, a 100 million children will die of starvation before things change for better !

May be India is another Somalia in making !

With regards

Hemen Parekh