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

Nuclear Power

Proposed nuclear power plant at Jaitapur [ India ], will have liquid sodium cooled reactors.

Every high school student knows that sodium catches fire instantly when coming in contact with air. So, any leakage of coolant during an accident, will be disastrous. This issue must be addressed and public must be educated.

But then, how many people have died so far due to a nuclear plant accident ?

A few hundreds in Chernobyl [ Russia ], 25 years back.

On the other hand, how many people have died / are dying, due to carbon dioxide emission of coal based power plants ?

Possibly millions !

Except that dying by pollution is a slow process – almost invisible.

Then in India alone, some 6800 people are dying everyday due to malnutrition ( 2.5 million every year ) – even as millions of tons of food grains are rotting in the open !

It is about time we reworked our priorities.

With regards

Hemen  Parekh