Let us Stand up and Salute ASI Tukaram Omble

Other than the three top cops of Mumbai police, Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar who were killed in the recent attack on Mumbai by terrorists, people have forgotten a real hero. Tukaram Omble, 48, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), the only cop who with his daredevil courage was helped in the nabbing of a terrorist on 26/11 alive.

Omble was asked by his senior officer to take up a position on Marine drive on Wednesday night, as soon as the news of firings at Leopold Café, Oberoi and Taj Hotels came in.

Subsequently, at 12.45 am, Omble got an alert on his walkie-talkie that two terrorists had hijacked a Skoda car and were heading towards Girgaum Chowpatty. Minutes later Omble saw the Skoda drtiving past him. He jumped onto his two- wheeler and chased the terrorist’s car.

A team from the DB Marg police station was busy setting up a naka bandi at the Chowpatty signal. As soon as the car approached the signal the terrorists fired at the police team but had to reduce the speed of the car, thanks to the barricades laid by the police team for naka bandi.

Omble overtook the Skoda and stopped in front of it, forcing the driver of the car to change the direction towards right and hit the divider.

With one terrorist busy controlling the car, Omble sprang on other terrorist, Amir Kasab and caught hold of the barrel of the AK-47 rifle with both hands. In retaliation Kasab pulled the trigger of the gun, whose barrel was pointed towards Omble.

A spray of bullets entered Omble’s stomach and intestines. But the latter held on to the gun until his last breath, stopping Kasab from shooting anyone else.

In next to no time other cops arrived and killed another terrorist, Ismail, pounced on Kasab and captured him.Investigating agencies were successful in gathering lot of information from the sole terrorist who has been arrested. But this was only possible because of Omble’s daredevil move.

Omble is survived by his wife and four daughters. He is a real hero, who has been forgotten by people as well as the politicians who are busy in resigning and giving up their responsibilities rather than to fight against such terrorism.

Original Article here

Bombay Terror Attacks

It has been many days since the actual siege of Bombay ended.

But it will take many days before the mental siege ends.

The terror attacks on Bombay have been widely reported all over the world with a lot of on the ground coverage and live telecasts being beamed into our homes as the events unfolded.

Major takeaways from the tragedy are;

1. Politicians are only interested in holding on to their seats and their inaction vis-a-vis modernizing the police force led to poor response to the situation. The bureaucrats that advise our politicians are equally to blame as they impede the decision making process in every department of the government. All concerned (actors in this sordid drama) should not only be axed but should face a court case of culpable homicide amounting to murder. They, if convicted, should be handed out capital punishment setting a precedent for all to follow.

2. Atrium type design in hotels, malls, hospitals and other buildings offered the terrorists strategic advantage when it came to fighting our brave soldiers.

3. While our commandos fought these bastards, no special tools, such as building plans, walk throughs were made available to them. They fought a brave a often blind battle against the well entrenched terrorists.

4. Building designs should be done in such a way that it is possible to isolate sections of the building without affecting the ability to rescue hostages. All buildings should have mandatory fire escapes on their exteriors.

5. While the Television Journalists did a commendable job of live reportage, they should have factored in the possibility of their reportage being used by the controllers in guiding the terrorists. Henceforth, TV media should not be allowed to cover such events live, at best they can be given a controlled feed from ground zero by a single responsible source and the feed should be suitably time delayed.

6. Elevators (Lifts as we call them in India) should have remote management capabilities thus allowing the manager to restrict their use in emergencies. In high rises such a facility will restrict movement of terrorists from one floor to another.

7. Buildings, especially public buildings should have a sanitized approach area. All people entering the premises should walk down at least a 50 meter corridor before entering any building. Cars should not be allowed to be parked or driven to the building. Everyone, and that means everyone (including the President and Prime Minister) should follow this rule.

8. All police men on the street all over the country should be armed with AK-47 or AK-56 assult rifles and should be provided with enough ammunition to last them for a 30 minute engagement with any terrorist. All .303 rifles should be immediately discarded. Police personell manning important positions should be provided with latest communication hardware and protective gear to protect them in case of any attack.

9. Security of elected representatives should be scaled back till the security on the street does not equal of exceed the requirements of these elected representatives.

10. Every state should have an ERT (Emergency Response Team) with the same level of training as the NSG to take the menace hands on.

11. Real time surveillance of buildings should be done using high resolution video equipment and not useless CCTV systems that hardly produce any useful input to the control center.

12. Video feed should be available over Internet such that the need of a control center is done away with.

I am sure I will be able to add a lot of other suggestions to this list as time goes by.

I am also sure that the authorities that be are more smarter than me and can think and implement much more that this small list that I have put up.

ICICI increases Home Loan rates

While RBI pumped 1000 Crores of liquidity into the banking system to prevent credit squeeze in the market, ICICI bank has quitely increased rates on home loans by 1% for old and new customers.

RBI's actions should have resulted in decrease in interest rates as key bank rates have been lowered to increase liquidity in the banking system. In effect banks have more money to lend now than before the rate cuts.

Some banks have lowered their home loan rates for loans less than 30 Lacs by 0.5%.

The question is Why is ICICI raising rates in a market where rates are headed in the other direction?

The answers (all speculations) could be;

ICICI wants to deliberately become less competitive thus pushing new customers to other banks in an environment where risks have increased due to imminent fall in real estate prices.

ICICI wants existing customers to close down their home loan accounts with them. This will serve multiple purposes.
One, it will make the bank earn money in foreclosure charges.

Second, the bank will get back it's money which is now at risk.

Third, falling property prices (estimated fall of 30 to 40%) will not hurt it's balance sheet in the mark-to-market norm of accounting.

All along ICICI bank has been saying that they are very liquid and people have no reason to fear of any problem. It's actions seem to suggest otherwise.

You be the judge.

Stock markets tank

Stock markets all over the world have been falling. Investors (speculators) who were participating on the stock markets have booked huge losses or are sitting on equity that has little or no value.

How did this come about?

Mindless lending in US to the housing market created a housing bubble. Property prices rose as bankers and mortgage lenders offered money to just about anyone to buy a house. People with little or no capital bought houses (sub-prime borrowers) with the sole intention of selling them when the prices rose. Banks and Mortgage lenders lent money with holidays on principal payment and deferred payment plans. While the prices were rising, everyone made money.

Then suddenly prices stopped rising and payment holidays ended. People who had no income and no prospect of selling the house to the next fool walked away from them. Banks were left holding the property as most of the loans were no-recourse loans. With more people selling, property prices collapsed having a domino effect of all markets. Banks that had lent money were forced to book losses under the 'Mark to Market' accounting standards. Capital erosion was the order of the day and rating agencies down graded credit papers issued by investment banks and other banks thus reducing them to junk status.

Banks had no option but to raise money when none was available. Confidence has hit rock bottom and trust has got thrown out of the window. Banks stopped lending to each other as no one knew when the other party would collapse. In a concerted and coordinated manner Central banks pumped billions of dollars directly into banks, partially nationalizing them but to no avail.

Stock markets were hit because sellers could not find any buyers at any price. As need for money (liquid cash) increased markets had only one way to go, down.

Stock markets never reflect the true state of a company's health. In fear markets go down and in exuberance markets go up. On the way up any good news is magnified and on the way down even the smallest of bad news is magnified ten times.

Experts predict a 12 to 18 month period for the markets to remain in the grip of bears.

With the BSE Sensitive Index tanking below 10000 points yesterday, Indian investors, day traders, speculators have lost more than 50% of the value of their investment from the peak of 21,000 points touched in January 2008.

According to experts there is more to follow.

In such times if one wants to invest is stocks, one should look for companies with robust business models and Price to Earning ratios of 6 to 8. Otherwise it is safer to place your money in Fixed Deposit with some nationalized bank where you will be assured of both, Return of Capital and Return on Capital.

Sachin crosses another landmark

Sachin Tendulkar overhauled Brian Lara's record of highest scorer in Test Cricket.

For a person who has been on the field for 19 years this is no mean achievement.

Critics abound and have often questioned Sachin's abilities of delivering under pressure. What ever has been said or written will never be able to over shadow the fact that Sachin is indeed one of the greatest batsmen who have graced the sport.

An Indian holding the record makes all of us proud.

May Sachin go on to conquer all the milestones that remain in record book.

My heart swells with pride to have witnessed such a great sportsman.

Troubled times...

While the world goes through financial turmoil and banks fall like nine pins all around the globe, I found this interesting reference to a Rudyard Kipling poem.

Roger Cohen writing for NewYork Times refers to this interesting poem.

I reproduce the poem for your reading pleasure and also to take lesson from the same

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Not a sexy story to tell

Revati Laul
Special Correspondent, NDTV
Thursday, September,25 2008 (New Delhi)

We live in such voyeuristic times that it's often difficult to feel anything
anymore. Blasts. Floods. Torture. Terror. Every news piece is a story of
victims of some sort or the other and after a point it's all deafeningly
similar. An endless stream of tears, loss, and above all of that, viewer and
reporter fatigue.

So when I went into Bihar to report on the floods, I was carrying the
enormous weight of that weariness with me. `Oh, you're going in three weeks
later...huh. ..,' said a colleague or two. `Well, there are stories to do
yaar, but it's no longer a headline. Not a sexy story.'

So it took a while for these layers to peel away and for the true horror of
what I was in; actually dawn on me. Realisation came nearly two weeks into
reporting in flood hit Bihar. Relief camp after camp. Tens of thousands of
people queuing in long lines to get food. But it seemed like the Nitish
Kumar government was doing the impossible. Moving a state machinery that had
become defunct through decades of misuse and getting large relief camps into
pretty decent shape.

Then, we drove down a stretch of national highway in Supaul. It was a sight
that suddenly changed everything. One never ending road...stretching far
beyond the horizon....miles and miles of people huddled into plastic
sheets...in what looked like the longest camp in the world. It wasn't even a
camp. It was a vast plastic slum. We measured it the next day. It was 6
kilometres of road...dotted by plastic tent after tent...at least 4 lakh
people on one stretch of road alone, all from just this one district. Lined
up like an army of ants. This was no flood.

It was I now realised, the largest displacement of people in India since the
partition. Perhaps the largest displacement of people anywhere in the world
in the last decade or more. We're talking about a river getting up and
moving 120 kilometres east. We're talking about 35 lakh people displaced.
Homeless overnight. 3.5 million people. That's nearly half the population of
Bihar. Out in plastic shanties. Homeless, penniless and struggling to
survive. Or nearly the whole population of Orissa, the neighbouring state
that's also flooded.

Imagine feeding 35 lakh marooned shelter less people everyday. Even if you
give them only two instead of three meals, and imagine that you can get one
meal for 10 rupees...that adds up to 7 crore rupees or 7 million in just one
day. Now know, that their villages are either completely submerged or at
best, floating in at least 3 feet of water. That's not receding yet. The
water may take another six months to find alternate routes and leave behind
vast tracts of ruined, bare land.

Imagine what it's going to be like to feed that many people out on the
streets for 6 months or more. Ok, let's pretend, we're going to be
optimistic and hope this will all somehow sort itself out in three months
and the villages, now unidentifiable tracts of land will be ready for these
people (if they survive until then) to move back to in three months.

It will still cost a minimum of 630 crores just to feed them for three
months. That's not factoring in the cost of transporting the food there. Or
the cost of cooking pans (that nobody has thought of transporting there so
far). Or fuel. Or tents. Or medicines. Or clothes.

And the Prime Minister's relief Fund is 1000 crores. Given the scale of this
disaster, that's nothing.

Now look at the picture already in front of us. A disaster on a scale India
hasn't seen since it's independence. But one that's somehow being reported
as `The Bihar Flood.'

And therefore a localised problem. Like a bad annual rash you may get on
your arm in the monsoon that some ointment will set right. Oh the annual
floods again! Something that should ideally make the central government push
panic buttons for on a war scale. That the national media should report on
as if we're in the grip of a war. And only then will these people have a
fighting chance at even receiving 10 rupees a day worth of rations.

But now, a month has gone by. The Delhi blasts have happened. India's
nuclear deal is on the verge of being pushed through parliament. The
financial world as we know it has crumbled and America is getting ready for
it's Presidential debate. Where's the space in all of that for The Bihar
Flood? Oh yes, wait a minute! There IS space. It's now clubbed together with
other flooding - Orissa, Nasik. It happens every year. It's the same story.
Poor people. They're used to it.

Try telling that to Rajender Sardar, living in a 8 x 6 feet plastic tent in
what I'm going to refer to here as the longest camp in the world. He's ill,
so is his wife. The top of the plastic sheet is so hot when the sun's
overhead that if your skin accidentally touches it, it will get singed (as
mine did).

Yes, he is poor. Yes he earned money before the flood as a daily wage
labourer. But go look at how daily wage labourers live in their villages.
Not in plastic. Mud walled huts covered by thatch and bamboo. One hut, with
mosquito nets in it is meant for sleeping. The hut next to it is meant for
cooking and a third serves as a cattle shelter. All of this near a hand pump
connected to a tube well that pumps sweet, clean groundwater. And located in
the midst of vast open fields.

Here, it is possible even for these subsistence level miserably poor workers
to get a good night's sleep. To stretch out under the mosquito net at night
and not be bitten by mosquitoes. To know that tomorrow, they may not get
much more than dry rotis to eat. But maybe the day after they may be able to
have two or three meals.

Contrast that with life under a plastic sheet. Six people lie here huddled.
No space to even lie down. And the heat is so unbearable, that in 5 minutes
you're drenched in sweat, your body demands water, more food, salts and
sugar that's drained out of you. You get no sleep and certainly not enough
to eat. You cook in a chullah made in front of your tent. That's on the
road.

You've lived in the same pair of clothes for a month. There's not always
water at hand to wash it, and what by the way will you wear if you wash the
only set of clothes you've got? If you're a woman, this means living through
your menstrual cycle in this state. Blood on your clothes.

An NGO told me horror stories of women who in these times, were used to
using many pieces of cloth, and changing their clothes, now have to live in
that one set of soiled clothes. Some, in desperation, use polythene bags to
stop the blood. Yes, this is a gory story but needs to be told. This NGO
provides sanitary napkins to women and they get used in a second. Oh, what
are you talking about, said some people I told this to. These women have
never used napkins in their lives before. True. They've also never had to
live in one pair of soiled clothes before.

In less than a month, from being extremely hot, it's going to be extremely
cold. Thirty-five lakh people are going to need blankets and shawls. But
Bihar is no longer a sexy story. Soon, it's going to disappear off the news
altogether. The relief trickling in now, will become a slow staccato drip.
Like the last drop from a stubborn tap you're trying to shut.

The thirty five lakh people also includes many who aren't in camps or
plastic slums I've described so far. They're wading through three feet of
water everyday in their villages. Staying on there for fear of losing their
only means of livelihood - their cattle. What do we call these people?

Stupid for staying on? Oh, how stupid you want to save your house and your
money. Get out, go live...erm, where......go live on the street like the
millions of others...Sleep piled up one on top of the other, wait your turn
for the handful of food. And for a fresh set of clothes; chucked from a
truck or tractor to many desperate, flailing anonymous hands. So that when
you return in a few months when the water clears, you see a neat little
piece of land. One small problem that might arise.

Where exactly on that vast stretch of mud is your village? And in it, your
piece of land. With all the recognizable markers washed away, how do you
tell one village or field from the next? So many say, no thank you. We'll
take our chances, live in semi submerged villages amid disease and carcasses
of cattle. But at least this is ours. Only, the Bihar story is no longer in
the news. Orissa is now flooded. The last few boats connecting these
floating villages to supplies of food grain are now going to retreat. The
army and central industrial reserve force boats are after all, meant for
rescue missions. Not suppliers of daily rations or ferry rides for pregnant
women cut off from hospitals.

If the boats stop, well...let's not imagine what will happen if they stop.

Let's look at the bright side. These people are after all mainly daily wage
labourers. Extreme poverty is all they've ever known. They're used to
starving. They'll survive.

Sounds good, sitting here in Delhi, where we haven't a clue what subsistence
level existence is or what starvation really means. We think India's poor
starving millions somehow have a different biological clock from the rest of
us. Somehow, they'll be able to take weeks and months of only one meal a day
(as opposed to intermittent days when they may miss the odd meal). They can
live under plastic. They can survive endless mosquito bites and acute
diarrhoea. Somehow the data on malaria deaths, on kala azar deaths and
people dying of starvation amongst these poor don't tell us anything about
this imagined resilience.

Or one very crucial fact. When you're at subsistence level, you are at
bottom rung. One rung lower means below subsistence. Death. But who's
listening. Right now, I'm back from Bihar with all these stories to tell.
But it's not on the news yet. Bihar floods every year yaar. Terror. The nuke
deal. Freddie and Fannie collapsing. Will our markets survive? Never mind
thirty five -lakh people. Bihar is always flooded at this time of the year.

Living on borrowed time

If you had access to money at 2% interest per annum what would you do?

Borrow as much as is possible and enjoy your life to the maximum. Buy stuff that you don’t require and spend on cars, holidays, parties and purchases.

You would buy all the things that you always wanted to buy and hope to pay off the loan over a period of time. As you were a US citizen, you would be sure to enjoy the highest standard of life while being sure that you would have a steady job that would allow you to pay off the loans that you had taken. You would live beyond your means.

The world would salute you as a consumer from a nation that makes the factories of the world run. The world would lend you its own money to sustain your consumption and spoil you for choice. You would not have to bother about saving any money as countries across the continents would be lending you their savings in the hope that you buy from their factories. When you want some more money, your bank would support you by in turn borrowing from the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve would just print the dollars that the banks needed to lend to you. The banks would in effect live much beyond their means too.

And to prop your habits of living beyond your means, the Government would float another scheme of printing more dollars. 700 Billion to be exact to start with and keep printing till your life was restored to the same level of comfort that you always enjoyed.

And one day the countries that were lending to you would realize that all the dollars that your government gave for purchasing the commodities from them were worth nothing but just pieces of paper that said ‘In God We Trust’. Your government would then never be able to prop up its own currency as even God would not have any trust in the paper that was printed by the Federal Reserve.

Is this the situation that you want to be in?

The young generation will shout Why the Bloody Hell not! Who has seen tomorrow anyway?

But the laws of economics have a strange way of catching up. When supply increases, demand increases. When supply of money increases, prices increase. Goods and services become expensive. There is unmitigated inflation. Bread costs millions and prices change by the hour. You see paper that is not backed by any asset has no value.

Do you see this scene repeating in India?

Well all the indicators point to such a scene replaying in India. Supply of money has increased by leaps and bounds. RBI along with the Government of India is doing the very same thing that US did; why not copy the model that is so successful at raising standards of living eh?

Property prices have increased by 300 to 400%. Commodity prices are on an upward march as are the salaries. But are savings also increasing?

Government of India is happy with the advance tax that it is collecting. It fails to realize that tax is being paid from the increased money supply that has hit the markets.

Till such time that people wake up to the problem, we are all living on borrowed time.

Who are we...

Of late some people have been claiming that they are more local than others.

Recent remark of Jaya Bachchan in a music release function for a hindi film has sparked controversy. Local parties angling for the Marathi vote bank have slammed the artist for saying that she is from UP and would prefer to speak in Hindi.

I ask all, what is wrong with that. Given the chance would you not like to speak in your mother tongue? I see people do that all the time. If a few kearlites come together they will slip into speaking in Malayalam irrespective of the fact that that there are other people who do not understand a word that is being spoken!

If Jaya Bachchan has been staying in Mumbai for the last 30 years, does that make her into a Maratha? She will remain a Bong because she was born as one. This is an unforunate fact, none of us can escape from.

Coming back to my question then who are we?

We are what we are born as, but we should always put the nation first. We are first an Indian then everything else.

I remember the oath that we used to repeat every morning during our school days (loathed to do it, but now it makes so much sense!), which I reproduce below;


India is my country and
all Indians are my brothers and sisters.
I love my country and
I am proud of its rich and varied heritage.
I shall always strive to be worthy of it.
I shall give respect to my parents, teachers and
elders and treat everyone with courtesy.
To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion.
In their well being and prosperity alone, lies my happiness.
Jai Hind!

I hope good sense will prevail and politicians who are using the old british policy of divide and rule will be shown the door by every right thinking Indian.

It is all fake!

Have you heard of an organization making 15,000 Crore profit with a capital base of 5 Crores?

If not welcome to the world of deceit.

The immediate question that must have come to your mind is how can a company make 15,000 Crore profit with just an investment of 5 Crores? Well, if the company is RBI (Reserve Bank of India), it surely can.

Any commercial organization produces goods and services and then sells them to the buyers in the open market. In this case RBI produces bank notes in its security presses at a cost of 4.5 Rupees for every 1000 rupee note and then gives this note to the banking system.

The banking system in turn lends this money to people like you and me and charges interest on such lending. It in turn pays the RBI for the money it has borrowed. Thus RBI is able to generate profit all most out of thin air.

What are the consequences of such operations? Well anytime the banking system requires more money to lend, RBI prints some more. This is very much in line with international practices. Even the Federal Reserve has been doing this and its chairman Ben Bernanke is called Helicopter Ben for dropping tons of currency where ever he sees a troubled bank or financial institution.

In terms of plain economics, when the supply of money increases in the system, there will be more money chasing less products and services. Prices will rise till an equilibrium is reached. Therefore the real cause of inflation is not rise in oil prices but rise in money supply in the system.

Which brings me to the headline. When you produce something out of thin air, without any asset to back it up, the currency can at best be termed fake!

Personal and Impersonal Crimes

In a recent conversation with one of my friends from the Mumbai Police, I asked him are we over policed or under policed? His reply is something that we all must ponder upon.

He said we are mis-policed. According to him there are two broad types of crime, personal and impersonal. Therefore when some one picks your pocket, he is committing an impersonal crime, the thief does not know you neither is he aware of the amount of money that you are carrying. For him you are a random target he has chosen based on some social engineering skills that he possess. Same is the case with vehicle theft. The car thief is not targeting you because he wants to take some revenge, his decision is based purely on the logistics of stealing the vehicle and its apparent market value. He said that the stolen vehicles are often stripped at the scrap shops and as these scrap shops fall in the police beat, the officers of the local police station may be on the take. Even if a stolen vehicle is recovered, no one is interested in taking it back. As the stolen vehicle has to be in police possession as case property till the time a judgment is passed in favor of the vehicle owner or the insurance company, the condition of the vehicle becomes such that it is practically useless for anyone. While in the police custody, the vehicle is often stripped for essential spares leaving it in a run down condition. Given the delays in deciding the case one way or another, by the time the case is over, the vehicle is just scrap.

So I asked him what would make it possible for the police to get interested in tracking and recovering stolen vehicles given the fact that such vehicles are being used in terror related crimes?

He pointed out that a vehicle which is owned by a person residing at Borivili may be stolen at Colaba and may end up in Dombivili (for those not familiar with Bombay topography, each of these places are about 60 to 90 kilometers apart forming a triangle of sorts). This leads to multiple police stations being involved in solving the crime. As such crimes generally have very low detection rates they do not really reflect on the success record of the police station or its officers. Add to this the fact that three police stations would need to coordinate to successfully solve this crime, the chances become far more remote.

He pointed out that on an average around 7 to 8 vehicles are stolen in Bombay everyday. Estimating a value of about 3 Lacs per vehicle that translates to 24 Lacs per day and about 90 Crores per year. The insurance companies are paying off these claims every year. If the insurance companies were to institute a reward of even half this amount payable directly to the police officers who recovered the vehicles, it would translate into a saving of around 45 crores to the insurance companies and a direct reward of 45 crores to the detecting officers. He was confident that if such a scheme is implemented the vehicle thefts will fall to almost nil and the detection rate will be almost 100%.

Therefore the thing to keep in mind for protecting your asset is to remain ever vigilant and installing anti-theft devices in your vehicle. Similarly, it would help if people were discreet about their wealth and avoided showing off in public. Otherwise you may too become target of an impersonal crime.

As for his remark on being mis-policed, he clarified that the seniors of the force were busy fighting amongst each other. This was leading to turf wars and camps amongst the juniors of the force. More time was being wasted on these things rather than on detecting and preventing crime. The politicians in no way helped the cause as they were responsible for starting the whole internal fight by taking sides and hoisting chosen officers in chosen posts.

Sensitive issues like housing, medical, leave and other personnel issues were being sidelined. The alarming rise in HIV+ cases pointed to a deep malaise in the force. In adequate training coupled with extremely poor infrastructure was leading to extremely low morale in the force. And he was in complete sync with the recent supreme court observation that 'Even God can not help this country'

Credit-card debts may lead to plastic meltdown

Credit counsellors and financial analysts in the US and the UK are seeing evidence every day that credit card debts are increasing. Soaring fuel costs, rising food prices and climbing energy bills are all being kept at bay with credit cards. Shortfalls on mortgage repayments are also being made up with cash from credit cards. Many of these debt soaked consumers were already struggling to make their minimum monthly repayments.

More than $1 trillion is held on credit cards in America. In the UK, debts of more than pounds 50 billion have been run up on the plastic. Across the world, somewhere between $2-3 trillion is owed on credit cards.

Up to now, the credit crisis has passed by without plastic going into meltdown. Statistics have shown steady levels of arrears and suggested that many consumers have been successfully paying off part of their balances. Now there are increasing signs that this last breakwater, shoring up the economies of the western world, is about to crack under ever-increasing strains.

“Credit cards are definitely going to be one of the next big problems,’’ said Steve Nuttall, head of the financial-services research group at polling company YouGov. “Our research shows that everything started to fall off a cliff in about March or April and that should begin to show up in bad-debt charges by the end of the year.’’

The US Federal Reserve has also been warning credit-card lenders not to push their luck. The regulators are fearful that the economy could crack if consumers start being hit with higher fees and steep interest rate rises. The problem may be even sharper in Britain.

Analysts always say that “the markets get it right’’. Current market prices suggest that over 20% of the money owed on British credit cards is unlikely to be paid back. That would be almost three times higher than the previous record for bad credit-card debts, eclipsing the problems witnessed in the last housing crisis of the early 1990s.

“We are already hearing stories about people using their credit cards to keep up with their mortgage payments,’’ said Peter Crook, chief executive of Provident Financial, the doorto-door moneylender. “If that’s what’s happening, it’s a big red warning sign.’’ The recent Bank of England credit-conditions survey revealed that banks were surprised by the level of bad debts run up on their credit cards in the second quarter of the year. Demand for credit cards also increased as banks tightened their lending criteria across the board.

The UK’s debt-strapped consumers currently owe a staggering pounds 56 billion on credit cards. According to figures from Apacs, the payments network that supports the British banking system, this could climb to pounds 160 billion if those 31m cards are used to the max. The figure takes account of all the measures already taken by credit-card issuers to clamp down on borrowers by rejecting card applications and cutting credit limits.

YouGov’s research suggests that 15% of the British public is now behind on at least one bill of some kind or another. Of those in trouble, 38% say they are behind with utility bills or council tax, while 31% cite credit cards as their big problem.

Problems in credit-card debts have the potential to send a new wave of panic through global financial markets. Roughly $600 billion of debts run up on credit cards world over swill through the global financial system. Credit-card debts were packaged up and sold on by banks during the boom years, just like mortgages and car loans. THE SUNDAY TIMES

Bad Karma catching up with MNC and Private Banks

A news report today in leading newspapers in Mumbai talks about CitiBank planning to sell its swank headquarters in BKC.

It is a typical case of bad karma catching up with the bank.

For years, Citibank and similar foreign and private banks lobbied with the mandarins in the law making institutions to offer products and services whose cost was way prohibitive for the common man.

They set up honey traps by offering easy credit through credit cards, personal unsecured loans and other such instruments where the interest rates were portrayed to be unregulated by the central bank. They charged interest in the region of 35 to 85% all in the name of unsecured credit.

These bank employed bright kids fresh off the MBA mill to sell these products and services. These kids were offered heavy salaries and pushed into achieving sales targets for the bank’s dubious products. To recover the small loans issued to masses, these banks hired dubious agencies purely on commission basis thus transferring the cost of their entire operation on the poor borrower.

Stories of mental, physical and financial harassment abound. Bank managers and officials ruthlessly went around first distributing money and then recovering these small loans.

Small borrowers, people who borrow 40,000 to 50,000 rupees (1000 to 1250 US Dollar) could be easily browbeaten into submission. Armed with a central bank looking the other way and legislators not bothered about the rape of the common man, these banks systematically looted the common man. Many were driven to commit suicide, many marriages went bad and many people’s families were destroyed.

All this has created a lot of ill will amongst the people and it is now translating to these very same banks facing collapse for deeds done by the managers who were supposed to make the bank grow. The sub-prime crisis in United States and its fall out on the world financial system is having its echo here in India too. These banks are now left holding the baby.

Soon these bank managers who were getting fancy salaries and perks will be also laid off. Banks like CitiBank will have no option but to cut all the flab. With share prices of the bank falling to 16$ from a high of 65$, it has already seen an erosion of 75% of its value. There is more to come from where all this came from and boy am I happy!

It is the bank’s bad karma that is catching up with them.

Time to switch to 10 Hours a Day 4 Days a Week Work Pattern

With rising fuel prices many organziations world over are thinking of switching to a 10 hour per day and 4 days per week routine.

Maybe it is time for India to do that too.

By compressing the working hours into 4 days, organizations can completely cut off the consumption of petrol and diesel. Government offices can remain closed during the weekend starting from Friday.

By changing the working hours, the stress on the public transport system will get more evenly divided. With the banks and other commercial establishments like the Stock Exchanges working only partially anyway, their working days and hours need not change. Therefore you will have government staff reporting to work at 8 a.m. instead of 9 and leaving at 6 p.m. instead of 5.

It will require some changes in the way the public transport system works but I am sure it will be well worth the saving that will ensue. There will be other benefits too, like cleaner environment with their being less pollution, better utilization of available resources, community development due to more time being available with people etc.

But the saving will come only if the burden does not shift from the corporations and governments to the individual. In the end if the individual ends up consuming the same amount of petroleum resources then no purpose would have been served.

But it is definitely an option worth pondering.

Are you ready to shred some money?

In 1976 when my father quit the Indian Navy to join Britannia Sea Foods, his salary was 1200 per month.

We moved to Malad, a suburb of Mumbai and bought a flat for 39,000 having an carpet area of 450 square feet. This worked out to 85 rupees to a square foot. In terms of his salary it worked out to approximately 3 years of salary spent towards owning a house.

Out of this 1200 rupees, my mother saved 600 every month after meeting all expenses of sending three children to school. We never had a shortage of anything in the house.

As we grew, prices and salaries began to rise.

Today it is common to meet a fresh graduate who is earning 20,000 a month doing a call center job in Malad. Property prices are in the region of 6000 to 9000 rupees per square foot. If he was to buy a similar property that my father purchased he would have to shell out 44,21,250 ruppes for the same house. In terms of salary this would translate to 18 years of salary going towards purchasing the property. Thus if price parity was to be maintained the call center employee should be receiving a salary of 120000 or property prices should not have exceeded 7,20,000 in 2008. Neither of this is true.

Therefore it can be safely concluded that either the property prices are in a bubble or salaries are much below par. We all know at if a call center employee was to receive a salary of 1,20,000 per month, then the job would not have been outsourced to India in the first place.

In the above calculation I have taken a median price of 7500 and multiplied it with 590 square feet (adding 31% for super built up factor which builders charge for now a days).

Even if I consider that the call center employee was married and had an earning partner with an equal earning capacity, it would still take 9 years of their combined salary to pay for the same house.

Why has this happened?

It would be interesting to read this article on www.inflationinindia.com to find your answer.

And after that you should be ready to shred all the cash that you have because RBI is not going to do it for you!

Mumbai is in Danger

Whether you call it Bombay or Mumbai, recent reports suggest that by 2018 most of the city will be under water on a daily basis as and when there is a high tide.

Earlier this scenario had been predicted for the year 2090 but recent measurements of increase in sea level from global warming effect suggest that the flooding will happen much sooner than expected.

Wanton destruction of mangroves, reclamation of land and thoughtless development will ensure that most of the prime property will be under water in the next 10 years or so.

High tide measurements suggest that water levels during high tides have risen rapidly by 30 cm in just 3 years. If this trend continues Mumbai (Bombay) will be under water every day beginning as early as 2012. Strom water drains that are designed to take water away from the city are already flowing in the reverse direction. And if it rains, water will continue to remain on land flooding it because storm water drains will need to be closed to prevent sea water entering the island city.

But the powers that be will continue to sleep over this problem till it becomes impossible to manage. Vinod Khanna's of the world will continue to buy property at 1,28,000 per square feet oblivious of the fact that the building they are buying property in is soon going to be marooned.

Politicians will continue to flout all environmental protection laws to fill their own pockets.

And then one day, all will be lost under water.

But we will continue to live till that day in collective amnesia of the impeding problem. We will find comfort in the fact that there are almost 20 million of us who are facing the same problem and someone will definitely do something before the issue becomes unmanageable.

Well good luck to all of us.

How ABN Amro and Other Foreign Banks including Indian Private Banks cheat customers

When you take a personal loan from any Foreign or Indian Private Bank including ICICI, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra, please be sure of the fact that they have decided to cheat you right at the very outset itself.

When you take a loan, you are given a cheque which is normally dated for the second or the third week of the month. By the time the money is in your account, it is the end of the month.

And as per agreement executed by you, the bank is now ready to take back the first installment. This is where the cheating happens.

First, the bank does not give you the full amount of the loan, deducting the processing charges at source along with the service tax and all other levies.

Secondly, the bank takes back the first installment in the first week of the month that follows the disbursal date. Therefore in effect you are paying back the bank interest on the entire amount within 7 to 10 days of getting the loan.

This is a standard sharp practice deployed by all the banks other than nationalized banks.

With nationalized banks you may face a delay but they will never cheat you. Do you know why? Because promotions in Nationalized banks are not linked to returns generated by an individual. Whereas in MNC and Private Indian Banks, fresh MBA's are hell bent on increasing the profit of the bank in the hope that they will be able to climb the ladder of success faster, and they do!

KV Kamath takes home 10,00,00,000 per month as salary, how is that for success! He also holds stock options in the bank that he is heading. Do you think the owners of these banks pay these salaries?

If you said yes, you are completely wrong. It is the customers of the bank that make it possible for the company to pay Mr. Kamath the salary quoted above. And what does Mr. Kamath and his team do? Find new ways of cheating the customers that are paying for his salary!

Tips on saving Petrol while driving

Don't go over 60 Kilometer Per Hour Speed. For Every 8 Kilometer Per Hour over this speed you lose 10% of your fuel economy. Slowing down saves petrol.

Maintain steady speed. Do not accelerate unnecessarily especially when you know the route and know that very soon you will be reaching a signal. Keep coasting at a steady speed.

When going down hill or on a slope led the vehicle travel in Neutral. You can also turn off the engine, but be aware that doing so can be risky if power is required to control the vehicle. For example you may be having a power assisted steering that may not work when vehicle is switched off.

Take a longer route if you are sure of a smooth ride. Avoid stop and start traffic. Taking a longer route saves petrol even though you have taken longer to travel and clocked more kilometers rather than getting stuck in traffic.

Keep a close watch on your tyre pressure. Under inflated tyres lead to higher fuel consumption.

Keep changing Engine Oil more often than recommended. Use thinner oil as it promotes engine efficiency. Replace oil as it ages to maintain low viscosity.

Do a car pool where ever possible.

For a Change Left is Right

Global oil price rise has lead to oil marketing companies seeking an increase in oil prices of Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene and LPG and the Government of India has obliged them. Petrol prices have been increased by 10% and similar price hikes have been done across the spectrum.

The Left Parties have been vociferous in terming this price hike as a loot of the common man. Are they right when they make this accusations.

Let us remove the wheat from the chaff.

India imports 70% of its oil requirement. 30% of the demand is met locally.

But you will be surprised to know that ONGC sells the 30% of the local crude to the oil marketing companies at International Rates. Thus we are paying ourselves a higher price for buying oil from ourselves for ourselves. Does that make any sense to you? If it does not, it does not make any sense to the Left Parties too. When ONGC charges the full international price, it makes insane profit at your expense and later on pays the profit to the government as dividend. But in the process ONGC gets access to funds that do not rightfully belong to it in the first place. It has the liberty to spend these funds as it wishes as these are its profits.

Secondly, Petrol costs 20.16 at the refinery gate, oil marketing companies, dealer profits, taxes, duties and commission add another 25.36 to it before it is sold to consumers at 45.52. (Source Hindustan Times, Business Pages 5th June 2008).

Can someone explain how the oil companies are losing money when the cost of Petrol to them is just 20.16 at refinery gate?

If all the taxes and duties were to be removed from Petrol, it would become available at let's say 27 rupees per liter.

If Petrol was available at such a price you can imagine the boost the economy will get. In effect when oil prices rise, economies suffer leading to lower tax collection and lower living standards.

For the government it is a catch22 situation. And for the moment I firmly believe that the Left is Right unless someone can show me otherwise.

The Loot is over

For 24 Years, Private and Foreign Banks such as Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, ICICI, HDFC, HSBC, Kotak, ABN Amro, GE Countrywide, IndiaBulls, etc. have flouted interest rate regimen and looted the people of India in the guise of giving soft loans at exorbitant rates of interest.

These rates have ranged from 20% to as high as 80% all in the name of unregulated interest regime allowed by the Reserve Bank of India.

As an association of people utilizing credit from these banks, we have been petitioning RBI to stop this practice of giving usurious loans to unsuspecting people. We have staged countless demonstrations in front of these banks and have maintained constant pressure on the RBI since 2003.

Under the able leadership of Mr. Vijay Kamble and the hard work of his team CCAI has been finally successful in getting the monolith RBI to take note of the problem plaguing the system.

RBI has now pegged the maximum rate of interest at 18% per annum diminishing. What this means is that if your loan is at any other rate, you can have it reduced to this rate as anything more than this is considered usurious by RBI.

We are seeking a similar reduction on credit card rates too and very soon you can expect relief from high interest rates there too!

CCAI has been working tirelessly since 2003 for protecting the exploitation of the general public at the hands of MNC and Private Banks. Join us in our fight against the heavily biased banking system that favors the bank and penalizes the common man.

Call us now!

Credit Consumers Association of India
3/141, M.H.B. Colony, Ram Mandir Road,
Kher Nagar, Bandra (East), Mumbai 400051
Tel: 91-22-26474857, 26471908, Email: ccai.mumbai@gmail.com

5 Ways to Boost Profits

Brad Sugars: Startup Basics
25, 2008 5 Ways to Boost Profits No matter how many sales you make, your business will struggle if you don't watch your margins.

One of the biggest mistakes made by startups is to confuse making sales with making money. New business owners seem to think that business is about busy-ness--that is, how many times the cash register rings. They fail to take even simple steps to ensure they earn enough to cover their costs as well as take home a healthy paycheck. Without that, you may as well be working for someone else

Read rest of the Article here

Bombay or Mumbai?

Political parties and Political leaders resort to the Son-of-the-Soil theory whenever they find it convenient. Recently, Mumbai (formerly Bombay) has seen the ugly dance of Mr. Raj Thackery who is trying his level best to use the Marathi-Manoos (Marathi-Person) plank to threaten all outsiders (those from other states and those who have yet to adopt Marathi as their language of choice) to leave Mumbai.

Earlier, his uncle, the Shiv Sena Supremo Balasaheb Thackerey, used the very same plank to further his own political cause. Also, Balasaheb has successfully targetted various specific communities and allegedly extracted a huge fees from those threatened to look the other way.

With elections around the corner, every political party in Maharashtra is trying to shore up its vote bank. Shiv Sena workers have now gone on a rampage and are defacing names where ever Bombay appears. They have already done this to Bombay Scottish and have destroyed the sign boards in front of Bombay Dyeing Showrooms.

They may next target Times of India which has a supplement named Bombay Times. What about targetting the Bombay High Court which continues to use the name Bombay instead of Mumbai?

Everyone on the street knows that Mumbai has not really improved just because its name was changed from Bombay to Mumbai, similarly Bangalore has not improved because it is now called Bengalaru. After 60 years of independence, Political leaders still feel they can fool all the people all the time!

It is time people from all walks of life boycotted such politicians that attempt to divide us on the basis of caste, creed, religion, language and state.

How to check whether your flat in on forest land

There is huge confusion about the Forest Land Issue in Mumbai, where flat owners have been left with little or no information about the legality of their flats.

The state has failed to provide information about the plot numbers to the public at large. However, the state has provided this information to the Registrar's office. Thus when you go to register your flat, the registrar will check your flat details and may refuse to register the flat if it is on an affected plot.

Prospective flat buyers can call the following numbers 022-22634567, 022-26891161, 022-22630742 or visit their nearest collectors office (of the place where they intend to buy the flat) to find out whether they are buying flats that are located on forest land or not.

Buyers are cautioned that there exists two lists of plots, one official and other being circulated by conniving real estate agents and builders to hoodwink the buyers into buying flats that are actually on forest land. Extreme caution is advised in buying flats in these areas. As a thumb rule if you buying a flat that lies on the east of the Western Express Highway, Ghodbunder Road or West of the LBS Marg, there are chances that the plots may be in forest land and may best be avoided.

Flat Buyers Unite...

Today a report in Times of India talks about Builders uniting and forming a cartel to keep real estate prices artificially inflated till Diwali. The reason being citied for such a move is that the builders have purchased their land at very high prices and will suffer losses if they chose to reduce prices.

What a lot of horse shit! Who told them to go and buy land at such prices? Property prices have risen by 300% all over the city making it extremely difficult for a middle class family to own a house. Coupled with very high interest rates ranging between 11.5 to 12.5% per annum, the middle class can only dream of owning a house.

A 800 square feet flat costs 24,00,000 in distant Mira Road. On top of this the stamp duty and registration charges further inflate the price. Builders are illegally selling open and covered parking spaces too! For a final price of 27,00,000 you will get a loan of 23,00,000 and at 1200/- per lac per month the installment would come to 27,600/- This should be 40% of your take home salary, meaning that you should have a salary of 45,000 per month. You have to pay this installment for 20 years and if you opt for floating rate of interest, it would mean that the 20 years can easily stretch to 23 or 25 years.

It is therefore time for the buyers to unite and boycott purchase of any property that is expensive.

How do you decide what is expensive? Typically the best of construction costs 1200/- per square feet. Given the variable of land cost and allowing decent profit of 30% a 800 square feet flat in Mira Road should cost about 2300/- per square feet. Therefore a fair price for such a flat should be around 18,40,000 and not more. Please be aware construction costs vary between 550/- per square feet to 1200/- per square feet, therefore for a unscrupulous builder there is still a very big margin to play with.

Buyers should decide to wait out the sellers and only purchase flats when prices become reasonable. For example a flat is Vadodara is being sold @ 1275/- per square feet. Obviously the seller there too is making money! Why such high costs in Mumbai? Reason being greed of the builders who have bought land left-right and center in the hope of selling the same at a hefty profit but now their plans are coming undone. It will be very interesting to watch as the situation develops.

How To Handle Customer Complaints

Mar. 04, 2008

By Kevin Stirtz, Stirtz Group LLC


Fifteen years ago I had a complaint at a very well known Italian restaurant in Minneapolis. I still remember how badly the employee responded to my concern. In fact, I’ve used it in my customer service seminars. It shows the power we all have to give our customers a memorable experience.

Here are some rules I teach in my seminars to help people handle customer complaints. If you and your staff follow these rules you can turn unhappy customers into loyal cheerleaders for your business.

1. Listen completely

Give them your complete attention. Don’t multi-task. Don’t “half-listen”. Write down what they are telling you and get specifics from them. Then confirm that you understand. Focus only on them.

Read rest of the article here http://www.customerthink.com/blog/how_handle_customer_complaints

Relief for Forest Land Flat Owners

People owning flats on so called forest land can heave a sigh of relief.

According to reports appearing in most of the newspapers today, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has assured the flat owners that the state government will be filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court accepting its mistake of not notifying the forest lands acquired by it and delaying the mutation of the land records.

The Chief Minister has assured that flat owners / builders will have to pay a fine of .70 to 1.40 rupees per square feet of their flat area as penalty to regularize the flats. Therefore, if you have a flat measuring 1000 square foot you will have to pay a minimum penalty of 700 and a maximum of 1400 rupees to regularize your flats.

This money will be used for creating forests at an alternate location.

Also other plots that were acquired for forest purposes will be allowed to be constructed upon as relief to those plot owners who did not benefit from the errors of the government.

Mumbaikars can travel to these forests to breathe fresh air!

Such a peaceful day...

Yesterday (22nd April, 2008) the Auto Rickshaws were off Mumbai's roads. It was such a peaceful day driving around. It almost felt that the city had gone to sleep.

I could get from home at Mira Road to my office at Dahisar in 10 minutes flat. There were no traffic snarls at the Octroi Check post, no traffic at the toll naka and absolutely no waiting at traffic signals. In fact the traffic signals were put on the blink as there was practically no need to control the non-existing traffic!

All this was in protest against the State Governments decision to implement Electronic Meters in Taxi's and Auto-Rickshaw's. The drivers and owners do not want to have anything with this scheme. They say it is an unnecessary financial burden. The real reason may be that they will not be able to tinker with these meters once installed. I am sure there must be a host of companies that would stand to benefit it the decision was to be implemented.

I am also sure the common people would also stand to benefit it this decision was implemented. The Government is tasked with the responsibility of protecting the interest of common people, but then which government has actually done this!

It would be such a relief if these ugly tripeds were to disappear for ever, but that is wishful thinking. I am sure, bus travel would be cheaper, safer and environmentally better if the scrounge was to be removed from the suburbs of Mumbai.

People complain about rising prices but when it comes to them, they do not think about walking to a nearby destination but chose to jump into a waiting auto-rickshaw.

Anyway, other than Mumbai, Pune and some other parts of Maharashtra, the auto-rickshaw's and taxi's do not follow any meter system at all, therefore it makes no sense to insist on electronic meters in the first place.

Dear Chief Minister, please ensure that people charge by meters first before thinking of taking the next step of going electronic!

Thane worst affected by Forest Land Issue

According to a report appearing in DNA, Mumbai edition of 27th March 2008, Thane seems to be the worst hit by the Bombay High Court ruling that has termed many housing societies to be on forest land. As many as 25 prominent housing projects are likely to be affected, forest department records show.

Some of the schemes that will be affected are Rutu Enclave, Neelkanth Towers, Vanashree, Sai Krupa Complex, Whizkids, Suraj Water Park and Hiranandani Estate .

Sources in the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) say most of these housing projects were served stop work notices, which the builders ignored.

The TMC has records of all the stop work notices that were issued. Since the notices were issued when the buildings were still under construction, the builders cannot claim that they did not know that the constructions were coming up on forest land, said a senior TMC official. The government can therefore demolish all such projects, the official added.

Residents who have bought flats by shelling out hefty prices are now panicking, but builders and brokers from Thane district are confident of finding a solution to the problem.

The latest observation of the Bombay High Court pertains to about 1,500 hectares of land in Thane city, Kalyan, Murbad, Ulhasnagar, Ambarnath, Navi Mumbai, and Vasai tehsils of Thane district.

Update on Forest Land Issue in Mumbai

This is the list of survey numbers issued by the collectors office for those affected by the recent forest land issue in Mumbai.

Why buildings on Forest Land in Mumbai should go.

In 1956 Government of Maharashtra reserved land in Mumbai for forests and acquired private lands adjoining the National Park from private parties. What it failed to do was to amend the land records changing the user and purpose of the land so acquired.

The same land was then sold once again by the owners to private builders. Therefore logic says that the land owners were very much aware that their land has been acquired and classified as Forest Land by the government of Maharashtra. They thus committed a fraud on the builders and developers who acquired these plots of lands. It goes without saying that most of the so called builders and developers must be aware of the status of these plots as it is their profession's calling to ensure that they develop on land that is free from all litigation. But, because they had a pliant bureaucracy at their disposal and the cost was peanuts, they decided to take their chances.

Today more than 500,000 families risk losing their homes due to the sharp practices of builders and acts of omission and commission of the local governing body. This is because of the ruling against such buildings given by the Bombay High Court.

The question is should these buildings remain or go. As this directly affects the future of 500,000 families one would take a sympathetic view of the situation and seek some kind of regularization of the buildings. But does such an approach do justice to the other residents of the city? Should the government not punish the original land owners who committed a fraud on the builders and developers? Should the builders and developers not be punished for constructing even when being completely aware of the fate that awaited such development?

My take on the issue is that all these buildings should go. The builders and developers who constructed on such deemed forest land should be penalized by asking them to provide free housing of the same size to the affected residents. Government should provide land at alternate place for such development free of cost and residents should not be asked to pay for the cost of construction.

Forest land should be restored. If the government takes the above route, it will send a strong message to all people concerned. Builders and developers will be forced to take a hit on the massive profits they have made at the cost of the state and no one will ever dare to break the law.

The suggestion of the government of date of creating forest elsewhere in the state is a futile suggestion. Then why not use the entire National Park for housing and create forest some where else Mr. Chief Minister?

In the Game of Business, Playing Fair Can Actually Lead to Greater Profits

In the Game of Business, Playing Fair Can Actually Lead to Greater Profits

Published: March 13, 2008 in Knowledge@Wharton

Tune into "The Apprentice," and you get an all-too-common view of business. Every week, all of the wannabe moguls try to impress Donald Trump by preening, cajoling and conniving. In this world, toughness is the measure of every CEO, and the boss glories in firing people and squeezing every penny out of suppliers.

Yet according to John Zhang and Jagmohan Raju, both Wharton marketing professors, and Tony Haitao Cui, a University of Minnesota marketing and logistics professor, many people aren't purely mercenary in their business dealings. They care about fairness -- and they should, the researchers say, because doing so can maximize their profits.

A manufacturer and a retailer can both end up making more money if they are fair minded, setting prices with an eye to achieving an equitable outcome in their joint marketing channel as opposed to merely maximizing their individual profits, Zhang, Raju and Cui argue in a paper recently published in Management Science titled, "Fairness and Channel Coordination."

Read the complete article here http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1916

The Makadwala Gang

The Makadwala Gang.

What happens when the poorest of the poor want to borrow money? They often are illiterate, downtrodden, living on the margins of the society and have no recourse to institutionalized lending organizations such as bank. Therefore they have no option other than to approach a money lender for help.

One such racket that has been in existence for the last 15 to 20 years is being run in the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai by people who reside in a place called the ‘Makadwala Chawl’. These people are locals from the state of Maharashtra and are working in the corporation as sweepers or in other such positions. In the year 2001, police raided this chawl and recovered cash to the extent of 80 lakhs from one such unauthorized lender.

The story is available on the Indian Express Website and is excerpted below

With loanshark’s arrest, BMC workers heave a sigh of relief

Express News Service Mumbai, May 24:

THE arrest of Nagrao Malgo Shinde, the civic sweeper from whose home in Makadwala Chawl Rs 80 lakh was seized, has been greeted with a sigh of relief by casual labourers of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s ‘L’ ward (Kurla). Many of them had been in the stranglehold of Shinde and other loan sharks — the fearsome Makadwallas. Shinde was the ringleader of the ‘‘Makadwalla gang’’; a loan shark homing in on municipal employees. Shinde loaned money at 12-15 per cent and would thrash his victims to recover his loot, say police officials. His fiefdom extended to several municipal wards in the city. He worked with others who ran ‘‘errands’’ for him. Their brief: to terrorise civic workers in lieu of Shinde’s rich pickings. Police say Shinde cornered as much as 20 to 40 per cent of his victims’ monthly wages and there was little they could do about it. Some were not even in debt, police say.

As usual nothing good came out of this arrest and the gang is very much back in action.

We at Credit Consumers Association of India were approached by a widow lady who is working in the K Ward at Bandra and had the misfortune of borrowing a small sum of 10,000 from one such lender. This lender, Anand Shinde, works in the ‘K’ Ward as a labourer. He owns and drives a Maruti 800 to work and pays ‘Dasturi’ to the duty Mukadam every day to an extent of 50 rupees. Once he has done this and signed the register, he walks to the nearby BMC Bank near Babha Hospital and joins a group of men who are all into illegal money lending. These people wait for BMC employees to withdraw their salaries and once they do this they pounce on them and take away most of the cash.

In this specific case that we have taken up, the lady had taken the loan more than 4 years back and was paying interest at the rate of 10% per month. She got only 9000 as the money lender deducted 1000 as the first installment while giving her the money. She then continued to pay him 1000 per month for the next 3 years. She paid 36,000 as interest on a principal of 9000 in these 3 years. Then as her salary dropped, she paid 500 per month for the next one year. The money lender not satisfied with all this loot took her thumb impression on a money receipt for an amount of 50,000. Having done that he approached the city civil court and filed a summary recovery suit against the lady.

The court in a classic case of miscarriage of justice passed an order against the lady for attachment of her salary till the time the money due along with interest was not recovered by the money lender.

The money lender was approached by us as we wanted to get to the bottom of the truth and reach an amicable settlement between the two parties based on the truth that would emerge.

In the meanwhile, the money lender approached Dharavi Police Station and lodged a complaint against the association saying that we were threatening him and sought the arrest of all such people who were behind the threats.

We approached the Dharavi Police Station on our own the day of the complaint and explained the circumstances to the Duty Officer.

During this exchange it became clear that Mr. Anand Shinde did not hold a license for money lending. He also did not hold a power of attorney which authorized him to indulge in money lending on behalf of the license holder. Also, Mr. Anand Shinde disclosed that the money lending operation was happening from his home and that the money lender was operating from his home.

All along Mr. Anand Shinde was denying that he had ever given any money to the lady. In the police station he admitted that he was the go-between in the transaction.

We thus call upon the Dharavi Police Station to arrest Mr. Anand Shinde under the Money Lenders Act for indulging in the business of Money Lending without any proper license. We also urge Dharavi Police Station to book Mr. Anand Shinde on the charges of cheating the borrower because he has obtained her thumb impression on a money receipt of 50,000 whereas the money receipt is in English, a language that the illiterate lady does not understand. Also there is no witness to the thumb impression of the borrower lady rendering it useless as evidence of the alleged borrowing of 50,000.

During our interaction with Mr. Anand Shinde at the Dharavi Police Station he was accompanied by a bunch of people including a lady who threatened to call State Home Minister R.R. Patil to intervene in the matter. Also the lady managed to contact some DCP (name unknown to us) and get him to speak on behalf of Mr. Anand Shinde to the Duty Officer such as to exert pressure on us. On our part our President and Senior NCP leader Mr. Vijay Kamble also spoke with the duty officers.

This goes to demonstrate the extent and reach of these money lenders.

Our association now under the able guidance of our President Mr. Vijay Kamble, members Mr. Anil Gaikwad, Mr. Pradeep Harmalkar has taken up this fight against the illegal money lending operations of the Makadwalas and will only stop once the scourge has been completely eliminated from the city once and for all.