Tuesday, November 25, 2008

BE WATCHFUL OBAMA DOESN"T ACT AS OSAMA !!!

US election did create a sort of interest in India, as it did all over the world. The Elections were as peaceful and very quick in the entire country, unlike in India, where it takes months to finish the General Elections, every five years. The transition of power in the USA from Republican President to Democratic President was really very smooth. We all saw Republican candidate, Mr. McCain, accept the defeat for him. It was an intelligent act on his part, as he was already defeated and voters had rejected his party and his candidature, but in his parting shot, he said the defeat was his and victory of voters, he was giving his last speech as Presidential candidate. He was so humble and articulate.

As with that I was keeping a very close eye on Ms. Sarah Palin, the vice President aspirant. She was in the news all the time and always for the wrong reasons. She was present on the stage with her husband, another handsome guy, she stood there and for the entire speech, which must have lasted for more than 10 minutes, she made no moves. She did not even try to take over the microphone from Mr. McCain, even at the end. She got down of her own from the stage following Mr & Mrs McCain.

I watched their body language, and on back of my mind it was our leaders, who would fight elections and loose it. Their reactions are so weird that even after loosing such elections they would not dare to accept the defeat. There may be more curruption, more mud sliding, sledging, abusing and all that is worst, that could happen, might have had happened in and during the US Elections, but they have not forgot to show their honesty (may be hyprocratic, as some might feel) towards the people of US and its voters.

Well, that is not all. Barack Hussain Obama, the new President- elect, is expected to do too much and he has actually created expectations from the US citizens, facing one of the worst ever crisis in the entire history of USA. Well, being a first non-white President, he will need to tread very carefully.

Whatever may be his compulsion he will need to heed the USA requirements and he will act in a manner where he will see that more and more jobs are created. If he could, great. But if he could not, then he could take actions which could take away the jobs in India. This can create tremors in Indian IT and Outsourcing service industries. What he does and how it does, needs to be watched. Americans are very much notorious about their own interest, infact, all countries must book their interest first, and they will take actions which would suit themselves.

Their actions can create flutter in India. Indians working in these outsourcing firms have the habit of working in a environment, which pays them good money and fulfil their hunger for hi-fi life. They have now a new home, a car, two wheelers for wife and children, all the comforts of a home, everything on instalments. If they loose job, they might face one of the toughest time of their life and could even make their life even worse than the hell. They might give up everything and start their life afresh. It is better known to me than anybody else, who lost eveything in the 2001 in BHUJ, Kutch, Gujarat earthquake and started life afresh in Mumbai.

I wept quietly, when alone, pondering over my fate, my hard work to run commerce coaching classes, going down the drain. I know the pain that lies in the burden to start from scratch and I have passed through it. Many Indian IT professionals and many Indians who have had joined the MNC outsourcing in India, might have to adjust to the big story of recession in India. The stories of recession have already started trickling in. This neo-rich class will have to do away with the great life and make space for the simpler and life with careful planning about the spendings. It is perhaps the time to settle for lesser salary than to leave the job for new one. Perhaps that is the right thing to do. When in the boom time you tend to be little careless about the future and just go on a spending spree. But once in trouble one would take all measures he could and should have taken while in the boom time.


Story is similar to that of USA. India has not affected that badly or so is the politicians in India want Indian to believe, as we are not an economy which is completely dependent on America or Europe. But we in this globalized world, can not stay disconnected or aloof from what is happening around us. Indian economy is developing and booming because its local markets are so large and highly unexploited so far. This makes India less dependent on other countries of the world for its economic stability and progress.

Besides one can rest assured that we have two very honest men working at the helm, Mr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. Monteksingh. These two men are very clever economists and know what to do at what time. Unlike USA of Europe, Indian banking system is one of the safest amonst the world. It has mane controls directly from the Govt and regulator body RBI, which keeps a very close eye on the developments in banking industries.

Outsourcing industry actually grew very fast despite the dotcom bubble, which got blasted once it was clear that there in no future for a dotcom phenomena, but somehow this new phase of outsourcing started to work and it became one of the greatest ever source of income to modern India and obviously created name for the country.

People might be considering the fact that with the Obama's coming to power in USA, his priorities are clear. He wants to create jobs for the US citizens. If he does succeed then its okay, otherwise the jobs outsourced to India from USA, are all gone back to USA This is the fear as expressed by few experts in Indian media.

But that is easier said than done. He could do little about the profitability of those firms who have had contributed generously while the election campaign was going on. These corporates have made profits only out of cost cutting by outsourcing their operations outside USA. he might bring in some sort of actions like withdrawing tax cuts to those who opt for outsourcing their operations.

There was a sigh of relief when the new administration in waiting corrected their stand on Kashmir. Indian are so sensitive to Kashmir that even any reference to it, which is little deviating from the present stated stand, creates flutter in South Block, New Delhi. Obama understood this fact little late and meanwhile all those concerned had sleepless nights. There is one more aspect. The C.T.B.T. sign. Obama might create a situation where in Indian could be forced to sign the CTBT. He might be advised to take a tough stand on India, though it can not be sustained but he could give some sleepless nights to people in the Indian establishment.

At the same time he can not ignore a country like India and it s public opinion altogather, though has very less on perhaps no leverage as compared to the US public opinion. He coulsdnot forget how the Vajpeyee Govt was prevented from sending troops to Iraq despite several rounds of visits by high ranking US officials to persuade Indian Govt to send its troops in Baghdad.

Hence Indian Government neds to be watchful on 3 counts. Mr. Barack Obama will definitely look to guard American interest and that is his first priority. But in doing so, he could hurt Indian ineterest, which the Indian establishment needs to watch and tell the Americans when it hurts Indian interest. In case of collusion on interests, we need to sit with the Americans and find out ways which could be mutually beneficial. No Government on this earth can ignore India anymore.