Thursday, August 20, 2009

Difficult Days Ahead....!!

With the rainfall playing truant, prices of essentials going out of the roof, terrorists are all set to attack another Mumbai like attack, share market going southward, swine flu taking toll on the economy, value of rupees depleting with each passing day and economic slow down all over the world.......etc...etc

Newspapers are full of this kind of stories everyday. You open a newspaper and you will find these stories with all sorts of extreme imaginations of the worst type from all those who write in the newspapers. They need to attract attention of the people and sensationalize the events or the difficulty the common man faces. INSTEAD OF TREATING AND SOOTHING WOUNDS , THEY JUST KEEP ON INCREASING THE INTENSITY OF SOMETIMES UTOPIAN SITUATIONS.

The common man also finds himself connected to these events when when the media increases attention on his problems. He finds himself into deep trouble when such situation is focused too much by the media. While the media wants more and more viewership/readership base and increased TRPs, not worried if that at the cost of the peace of mind of common man.

Take the example of swine flu, it was made it to the people of this country, as if this will kill each and everyone infected, despite the truth that common flu kills almost 2 million people in the world every year, but seldom reported and least talked and hence feared diseases. However the media hyped the pain and anxiety of common man, instead of dousing the fire in his heart and mind, it magnified the fear and related seriousness many folds.

Take the price rise, which is so steep that you can just pray that you must afford to have what you need for your living requirements. The vegetables, you literally feel is in the hands of cold storage mafias. The prices of vegetables are all same for 12 months. The days of the seasonal fruits and vegetables have all gone down into the history. The prices are stabilized for 12 months. Whether there is season for the same or not, you may perhaps get the perishables you want, but you pay the price for the same.

The food grains and pulses have always only moves northward. The prices once gone up never comes down. The common man struggles to keep his budget under control as his source of income is limited and prices of all the essentials have been on the rise. He might be thinking of a various combination to stay afloat with his family with all permutations and combination.

In the entire scenario the Government of India led by Congress and one of the renowned economists teamed up by Mr. Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh, Pranav Mukharjee, look too small as persons with the assigned jobs. They really live in the Utopian state of imagination, whee the role of State is limited in any Capitalist economies of western countries. Still and so far they do not feel or compelled to act.

The price rise is just crossing all the limits and there is no solution is visible at the moment. The vegetables, food grains, pulses and all the related food items are crossing all bounds. The Govt. just wants to be richer and richer. It does not think of reducing any taxes levied on the common man. Petrol & Diesel prices are one such prices on which the Govt. itself is violating laws. As per the law there can not be any taxes on tax already levied. But the Petrol & Diesel are such product where in taxes are levied on taxes (Details some other time).

Situation is worsening day by day but the Central Govt. as well as the State Govt. doe not seem to be readying itself for the calamity, which is approaching very fast and consistently. With the monsoon, slated to fail this season and the drought is on the horizon, situation could worsen further.

Declaring drought affected nation would not in any case absolve Govt of its duty to act for the welfare of the people. The most important task for the Govt is to stop the futures markets in food grains, fruits and vegetables. This will end speculative price rise happening on daily basis. It should immediately make plans to buy the commodities in short supply to import from foreign markets. It should also do it on the urgent basis to instill a fear of business loss in the minds of hoarders, who store the goods purchased at acheaper prices and sell when there is scarcity of such commodities at a very high value