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Racism: Are Indians any better?

India is on the way to become an economic superpower in the next decade or so. In the past, I have talked about (what it takes to become a developed nation) and I had touched upon a number of things that we Indians need to do to take us closer towards being totally self reliant and rich. One of the things that I didn’t quite talk about at that time is the racism and even the caste based hierarchies that has been prevailing in India for 100s of years now.

Racism in India

Well, India doesn’t have any permanent black or white (if I may use those words) migrants here. All that we get to see here are tourists or foreigners on work related deputation. I had a chance to attend a Boney M (re-formed) concert in Bangalore in 1998 where I witnessed a bunch of Bangalorean boys shouting ‘you black bi****s’ etc at the singers. It was a shock to me. It was like you give back what you got or even heard remotely. Something like ragging.

However, we Indians do not need any black or white here to take part in the racism related activities. Historically India had the caste hierarchy system for several hundred years and hence we have been the biggest racists ourselves within. How many times haven’t we heard of the North Indian – South Indian unpleasant references and certain Indian fanatics referring to Madrasis, Biharis or Chinkies using their unparliamentary language and extreme spite? And have you ever imagined our attitude towards some of our neighbour states such as Nepal, Bangladesh etc?

Economic growth and racist behavior

With India getting more and more rich, visible and powerful we are getting to see a different kind of racial behaviour from the Indians – the arrogance of a new rich man who was once underprivileged. At every given opportunity now India tries to take on the ‘white’ nations on racial related one-off incidents. Of course there are certain genuine cases that need international attention but the following are some of the examples where I thought we are being petty (and arrogant).

E.g. 1: There was this Facebook viral video of an Indian man getting electrocuted after touching the railway power line. I have myself seen a lot of Indians calling him a fool and making funny comments. The same was the reaction from other people around the world including some police personnel in Australia. Then it became a racial thing and even Mr. SM. Krishna, our External Affairs Minister, made his statements. Absolutely unnecessary and silly behaviour I would say. There have been, through, genuine situations where he had to actually intervene and he has done so.

E.g 2: BCCI’s (Board of Control for Cricket in India) using their money power and political influence to lift a ban on the Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh, after he called the Australian ‘coloured’ cricketer Andrew Symonds a ‘Monkey’ is another example of the wrong racial behavior and then defending the same.

Inferior complex, Campaign mania etc

The above two examples, and many such incidents, are nothing but the unwanted inferiority complex that is building up within. Instead of taking part in the globalization and amazing growth potential, at times, we are pulling back ourselves with these kind of behaviors. I would say that, instead of focusing on such issues let us solve our problems within India first.

Yet another related bad behavior is the inability to think in an unbiased manner especially when it comes to sensitive cultural aspects, our iconic figures etc. For example, how many times haven’t you received emails to vote for Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bacchan, Taj Mahal etc to win certain online campaigns? Majority of such spam is generated by us, computer literate Indians, out of unnecessary fanatic thinking process. The recent campaign mania example was the effort to persuade Barack Obama to visit the Golden Temple during his Indian visit. Does anybody really care if he doesn’t visit Golden Temple, Taj Mahal or Tirupati for that matter? Don’t we have better things to do in life?

Learn from the Chinese

My last request to my fellow Indians (global and within) is to learn a lesson or two from our big neighbour China. The Chinese people are actually spread out globally much more than the Indians but they chose to mind their own business and adjusted well with the other people and races without creating any issue whatsoever. They actually do not care about what others say. Instead of picking on every petty issue and blowing it out of proportion, let us follow the Chinese model of co-existence without disturbance (I am not going to talk about India’s stance on Tibet and Chinese stand on Arunachal Pradesh here) without going emotional about what others say.

Hope you understood what I was trying to convey…

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Tata Nano Sedan (Nanoooo) and Maruti Eeco XL (Eeeeco) to be launched?

The Indian auto manufacturers are probably the smartest people in the world. They really do understand the pulse of the typical Indian customer whose main obsessions are those cars that give them the highest mileage per litre of petrol/diesel, has the highest resale value, the maximum space to stuff in the family members, neighbours and their dogs.

tata-nano-sedanOnce the above three main requirements are taken care of, they do not really care about the safety standards, ride quality and the driving dynamics of the vehicle. There are number of tricks that the Indian auto manufacturers use in order to fool the Indian customer who see only the peripheral issues rather than the real mechanical aspects of the vehicle.

The Indian auto sector tricks

The following are some of the tricks that the auto companies in India use to offer substandard vehicles at cheaper (not always) prices to the clueless customers,

1. Market outdated technologies

India is the dump ground for unsuccessful models, dated technologies and unsafe vehicles. This technique has been followed not only by Mahindras and Marutis but even Hondas and Toyotas. Remember the first versions of Honda City in India? And the Mahindra Renault Logan is still an ancient piece.

2. Reuse excess parts that doesn’t quite fit

When Ford India introduced the Ikon model in India, they in fact, reused the steering column as it is from their left-hand-drive cars in other developing countries. And the result was different orientation of the wiper and light control lever switches. When you look at cars made by Tata, you feel that they are doing mix and match logic to create new car models.

3. Patched up designs

Well, in order to make a sedan out of a hatchback, you just add a tail from another vehicle from your stable. Tata Indigos and Fiat Petras are created like that. The latest addition to this being the Swift Dezire that’s really a ’shikhandi’ vehicle in looks and needless to say with poor driving dynamics. India’s most successful vehicle, the Maruti 800, would never pass any safety tests in any other country but would work here because it used to be a government production! It seems, this particular vehicle, doesn’t even have a proper chassis.

Some of these vehicles actually look like match boxes or a loaf of bread (Mahindra Xylo, for example)

4. Under-featured vehicles

To market a car in India, you have to take out the plush upholstery, take out good plastics and put cheap recycled ones, remove airbags and good baking technologies, remove good alloys and finally put an underpowered engine from the models two-three years back. You have to then tune the engine to give 20km/l though vehicle wouldn’t really move. But wait, since the Indians are worried about the power of their A/Cs, the air conditioner should make you freeze within 15 seconds, else you fail in the market.

5. Re-brand it

In India, unsuccessful models can be renamed and re-branded easily as long as you add some two tone cheap design, some stickers or strips, a new front grille and different looking headlights. Though, nothing is changed with the engine, you can still re-tune it and call it a XYZ-series engine and market. You may be recalled how Ford Ikon, CLX had failed in India, but Ikon Flair was an instant success. And the good old Maruti Versa is selling now under the Eeco brand.

What’s in store?

maruti-eeco-eeeecoGoing by the above experiences, what we can expect from Tata soon is the sedan version of Tata Nano which would be nothing but the Tata Indigo’s boot attached to the Nano. And how can Maruti be far behind? Just like Tata, elongated and marketed the Indigo XL, now the Maruti Eeco’s newer, longer variant – the Eeeeco as shown in the picture – can be on the roads anytime now. And people will still buy them!

Long live our auto-companies!

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India’s most annoying and overrated personalities

Okay! It’s time for a controversial post. I am going to talk about the most irritating and annoying personalities in India from various walks of life. They are here in this list either because of one or more of the following reasons:

  • Mediocre performance or do not really belong to the profession they are in
  • Content stealing or corporate fraud
  • Public behavioral problems or hate speeches/actions
  • Born skills spoiled by lack of focus or other priorities
  • Shame for India

By the way, it is my hate list and do not necessarily mean that they are in your list and that’s why we have a poll at the end of this post whereby you can select up to three of those personalities that you consider really worst in their respective careers or roles.

And here you go…

The Indians that I hate the most

1. Pramod Muthalik – Religious fanatic

pramod-muthalikAs we all read and saw in the last two years, Pramodh Muthalik and his organization Sri Ram Sena vandalized the pubs in Mangalore and beaten up lady guests there. He is a Hindu extremist, in my opinion, who claims that he’s trying to protect the Bharat Sanskar (Indian culture) in the interest of our nation. Mr. Muthalik, nobody from the government or court has hired you to protect our culture and hence you better mind your own business. Moreover, as per a recent sting operation, your goons disclosed that you can beat up anybody and smash up anybody or any organization if you are paid bucks in lakhs. Hence you are one of the top among in my hate list (and I am sorry to have given you some more publicity to you via this blog post)

2. Raj Thackeray – Regional politician

If Muthalik is an example of religious related atrocities, Raj Shrikant Thackeray is about regionalism in its worst form. Being the nephew of the raj-thackerayShiv Sena supremo, Mr. Bal Thackeray, it is quite natural that he had to come up with his own regional political set up – MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) – to take on non-Mumbaikars in Mumbai. While Mr. Bal Thackeray in his early life had at least certain principles in life and even possessed some skills (cartoonist) in the field of journalism, Mr. Raj Thackeray is someone who just thrives on his hate speeches and provoking acts. And hence he’s the #2 in my hate list.

(Rest of the people in my list are generally overrated people from various disciplines)

3. S. Sreesanth – Cricketer

santhakumaran-sreesanthWell, Sreesanth is not as bad as any of the two listed above. But he’s a great example of indiscipline, tactlessness and behavioral problems. It is all about skills not getting converted into numbers and wins that matter for Indian cricket.

I personally believe that, he’s a highly overrated cricketer who has not done anything good to Indian cricket so far other than winning a test match in South Africa. And for that T20 World Cup winning catch against Pakistan, the monkey just happened to be underneath the ball at that point of time!

4. Himesh Reshamiya – Singer?

Himesh Reshamiya, the man who hoots through his nose and broken windpipe is a great example that explains how sound is different from music himesh-reshammiya(Remember, what you studied in physics some years back?). To torture the people of India even more, he sports a custom made bronze coloured poodle wig, a funny cap that doesn’t match his age or looks and multiple layers of clothes made from cotton, synthetic to leather. He usually roams around with gorgeous teenagers of his daughter’s age and that makes me hate him even more. Of late, he has started acting (if you can call that acting) as well. God save Indian music and bollywood movies!

5. Anu Malik – (Inspired) Music Composer

anu-malikI hate Anu Malik because he is one of those fools who claims to compose inspired music but thus far whatever he has done is crap. If he has done anything good, obviously that is stolen. Moreover, I hate him for his singing in his own album and of late for being in the Indian Idol judges panel. He is also the epitome of arrogance – arrogance of a semi literate man in his discipline. He should learn to be as humble as someone like A.R. Rehman.

6. Deepika Padukone – Model, Actress

Well, as a child, I used to like Prakash Padukone, who was really a role model for budding sports persons and and he is an extremely well behaved gentleman. His daughter has not necessarily shown any bad public behavioral issues, but she’s only good as a still model. She’s extremely dramatic, pathetic and over-acting when she does her movies or commercials (BSNL, Fiama di Wills,…). Hence Deepika Padukone in my hate list for doing something that she is not skilled at. In my book, she’s the worst actress in bollywood.

7. Arnab Goswami – Television Anchor

Well, Arnab Goswami is supposed to be one of the most educated news readers but when it comes to moderating live programs on the Time Now TV channel, he is one of the most irritating personalities. The new generation TV journalist are trained to create sensationalism and trash anybody (especially politicians) who come their way to get claps from the viewers. Obviously, those who watch Times Now and read Times of India arnab-goswamiare after page 3 journalism and sensational news rather than gaining knowledge and the right perspective. So, Mr. Arnab, though you possess good skills, it is never properly used. And despite your producer’s demands, you could still behave better with your guests (especially the elder ones) who have seen the world much more than you.

Moreover, I hated him and Barkha Dutt for the kind of journalism they did during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, which was mainly the cause of those terrorists resisting longer. Times Now and NDTV, despite the Mumbai police’ requests, were providing live visuals of the operations that actually helped the terrorists.

8. Mandira Bedi – Actress, Anchor, Model,…

Just like in the case of Deepika Padukone, Mandira Bedi took up certain roles such as cricket program compere, which is not exactly her stuff – though she tried to distract junta via other stuff. She was definitely a decent TV soap actress and a theatre personality but spoilt her image (whatever she had) via entering cricket – which seems to be the easiest for anybody to make instant money and fame in India. She should have remembered that to host a program in English, at the least, one should be very fluent and flowing in that language.

(Sorry, I could not get a PG13 image of Mandira Bedi)

9. Ramalinga Raju – Industrialist

ramalinga-rajuWell, this one was a tough one – a case of one of my idols getting into the hate list overnight. In one of the biggest corporate frauds in India, the (A)Satyam Computers founder admitted in 2008 that he and his company have been involving in manipulating the company’s results and cheated its investors. While, Mr.Raju did it all for his family run business, what he did is to tarnish the India story and spoilt trust among investors from India and abroad. An unfortunate case but a big time fraud person in my list.

10. Sania Mirza – Tennis Player

I hate Sania Mirza not because she married a Pakistani cricketer. I always thought she was a highly overrated sports personality who was known for things other than her tennis. Another creation of the media, especially Times of India’s Sania Mania campaign. One should note that she’s not won any Grandslam (in the womens category) for India and her best all time rank was 27 or so. Probably she possessed some in born skills that was leveraged the wrong way – just like Sreesanth.
(In order not to distract the readers, I am not publishing Sania Mirza’s image as well)

What is your Hate list like?

Well, I had some more people like Mayawati, Lalit Modi, Bappi Lahiri, Mamata Banerjee and some of the worst politicians in India in my list but I wanted to make it a list of ten. Now let me request you to vote for the worst personalities in this list. Please choose up to three and if you don’t see your person here in my list, please feel free to comment about him/her.

Vote for your least favorite person in India


That was a long post and I appreciate your time and comments.

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Diesel – Petrol Price Deregulation in India – Good or Bad?

Yesterday, the Government of India has taken a bold decision and Diesel and Petrol price Deregulation came into effect – of course, clubbed with a price hike. petrol price deregulation indiaAs usual the vote bank politicians on the UPA alliance, opposition leaders and the left have voiced their protest. They claim that they are ‘with the people of India’ and whole lot of other crap. Two of the most politically spoiled states in India – The West Bengal and Kerala – have readily jumped on to ‘celebrate’ the situation with a ‘Hartal’ (strike). But do they even know how pampered the people of India already are how much they are misusing one of the most limited natural resources such as petrol (LPG and diesel as well)?

What does deregulation means?

Decontrolling or deregulating the petrol prices mean that, the government will no longer be subsidizing petrol prices and the prices will be purely linked to the international crude prices. In the case of diesel, though, it will be only partially regulated – the reason being an attempt to avoid sudden spike in inflation.

Why should Petrol cost more?

As all of us know, petrol (or Gasoline) is produced out of crude oil which is a natural resource that’s available in limited quantity. It is a matter of a few years before the crude gets totally exhausted. Although, there have been several crude discoveries in India, we are still dependent on the OPEC (Oil Producing and Exporting Countries) to import crude and refine it to produce petrol, LPG, diesel, aviation fuel, kerosene etc.

Petrol production cost

As of today (26 June 2010), the crude oil costs $79 a barrel (159 Litres). Since this has to be transported to India via the marine route, there is a shipping cost. Let’s say it’s something like 10%. Since the import duty on crude oil was waived sometime back, let us not count that part. Hence by the time the crude arrives in India, it is already costing something like $85 per 159L.

So the petrol refining calculation goes as follows:

Cost of 1 barrel crude: $85 or Rs. 3910.00 (exchange rate of 46)
Quantity of petrol produced from 1 barrel crude: 72L (45.4%)

Since almost 100% of the crude is refined into some product or other, we can calculate the raw material cost of producing 72L or petrol as 45.4% of the price of crude barrel.

Hence 72L petrol’s material cost alone is 3910 * 45.4 / 100 = Rs. 1775.00

Raw material cost of 1L of Petrol = 1775.00 / 72 = ~25 rupees

Obviously, the raw materials alone do not contribute to a product. You need electric power, thousands of paid employees, machinery, maintenance etc to finally produce petrol. So finally when it’s of consumable form, it is costing around 30 rupees in the oil refining spot itself.

Taxes, marketing and distribution cost

The following are the other additional expense before you can consume the petrol at your favorite gas station:

Excise duty
Education tax
VAT
Distribution and transportation cost
Dealer commission

As I understand, all the above added up comes to around 27 rupees per litre of petrol the majority of the cost is towards excise duty, transportation cost and VAT (Isn’t it a pity you have to spend more petrol or diesel to distribute petrol?)

Essentially, one litre of petrol, by the time it reaches the petrol filling stations, is costing you already Rs. 57/- without any profit added to the petroleum marketing companies. Obviously most of these companies are state run companies and hence cannot afford to reap 100% profit. Let’s turn our back on them and tell them that you can make say 20% profit. And if you add that your 1L of petrol should actually cost you around Rs. 68/-

Now, aren’t you really lucky that it’s available below Rs.60/- even with the latest hike in petrol prices?

Subsidy woes

The story is not over yet. One needs to do similar calculations for other products such as diesel, aviation fuel, kerosene and LPG. Unfortunately diesel is the primary thing that fuel public transport and distribution system in India and kerosene – LPG are house hold lifesavers when it comes to cooking purposes. In order to curb the inflation and protect the below poverty line people, the government has to subsidize it big time. A part of this subsidy cost is absorbed by the government while the oil marketing companies bear the other half. This puts some pressure on the government to increase taxes on luxury consumption sectors such as airlines by increasing aviation or jet fuel prices. They are also taxed heavily which is mainly borne by the rich or upper middle class people in India.

Why deregulation of petrol prices is good?

The deregulation of petrol prices will definitely increase the rate of inflation in short term. Virtually there will be immediate price rise in commodities and other consumables. However, for long term I think it is a good move because at the end it will definitely reduce our long term debt and fiscal deficit. Our overall economy will get stabler in this case.

Secondly, this measure will be a boost to the oil producing and marketing companies to recover their losses immediately. Remember, lakhs of people work in these huge companies and they need a life too. Moreover, the government run oil companies will be candidates for disinvestment which means that the government can lower their fiscal deficits further with additional income.

The other advantage is that the inflation, at the moment, is a fake figure. You will get to know the actual inflation and variation of commodity prices only when the petrol prices move according to the international crude prices.

This will also bring in big private players (e.g. Reliance) into the petrol marketing game. Remember that companies like Shell and Reliance used to provide excellent quality of petrol and service until Reliance pumps were forced to close down due to government regulations. This kind of competition will eventually bring in good service, good quality and in the future competitive pricing as well. The immediate woes will be compensated in the mid term – that’s my strong belief.

The government, in the meantime, should try to reduce the excise duties and restructure the VAT to minimize the impact of immediate fuel price rise on inflation and the poor people.

Long term solutions to curb petrol prices

In the long term, there are several viable solutions that needs to be done from the sourcing point to distribution and consumption.

There are possibilities of under sea pipes (just like the one we were planning with Iran for gas sourcing) from the vendor nation to India to reduce shipping cost. This has a very good long term positive impact though initial cost of incorporation is high.

The oil refining companies sourcing and storing mechanism needs to be optimized in a way that when the crude prices are low, we are able to store more. I am not sure, how much of optimization is done in this regard. Since we keep getting new and new governments every few years, they may not go for a long term plan for the same. Please remember that not too long back, the crude prices were at $35 or so per barrel.

There is a scope for improving the internal distribution system as well. Though, India has a huge geographical region, we can still have oil distribution pipes from refineries directly to the regional distribution centers. This needs long term planning.

Final thoughts

I think our citizens (and even people from rest of the world) are misusing petroleum products and this kind of abuse needs to be first controlled via price hikes and then by introducing alternate energy options and technologies to optimize the usage. There is a lot of scope for India to take out those old, fuel inefficient vehicles from our roads. I think the taxation needs to be restructured so that people and families who own more than one vehicle should be taxed more. There can be several other long term steps to improve the overall situation but please remember that at the end of it the petrol will anyhow get exhausted.

And a request to our great politicians who always oppose what the government is trying to implement. If you are really with the people of India, please come up with real practical suggestions to improve the situation. It wouldn’t be too long before you will be stone-pelt by the younger generation for preventing them an opportunity to live in a developed country by 2020.

And my questions to my friends (not the poor) who are earning in thousands and lakhs. How dare you crib about a three rupees rise in petrol while you still prefer to drive to office alone in a 5, 10 or 15 lakh car?. More over I haven’t seen you cribbing while spending 1000 rupees for a dinner or while buying a shirt worth 1500 rupees.

Think long term friends!

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India – England Series: What a boring test match @ Mohali!

Mohali is supposed to be the best pitch in India and it also boasts a state of the art stadium as well as support facilities. Unfortunately, all that cannot be good enough if a test match conducted there was not played for the full five days

The weather – not rain – was the culprit this time. There was not a single day of the 2nd test between India and England that has gone without a delayed start or an early stop. Essentially the match was played for only about 4 days if you count the number of overs played.

To top it all, some really negative game tactics by Mr. Dhoni led Indian team, put what could have been a decent finish into a terrible draw.

Though England conceded a 150 run lead in the first innings, the Indians wanted to play out the remaining time instead of leaving a good 60-70 overs on the last day for the Englishmen to try their luck. Instead of stepping up the gas and declaring with a set target of 325 or so, the typical Indian mindset played its tricks there. Dhoni seems to be no better than the other Indian captains, who invariably played for personal records – especially that of batsment – during possible draw matches.

Thought of the day: Instead of helping the batsment to achieve their personal milestones, why don’t the captains help their bowlers to achieve some milestones?

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Chennai: December 15 2008 – A day to remember in Test Cricket

What a test match it was! I have not seen such a run chase in test matches in my whole life, that too in a Day 5 sub-continental pitch that’s damaged and causing uneven bounce. Yes, we are talking about the first test match between England and India in Chennai

As I mentioned in a previous post, Dhoni and his team at the moment looks unstoppable! Mainly due to the amount of positive energy that the captain himself brings in. And this is a super test combination despite Rahul Dravid’s failure at No.3.

Steps to a historic win!

  • Day 1: KP wins the toss and decides to bat on what looked like a super batting wicket. England puts a hundred run opening partnership in a display of controlled and patient batting. Eventually Strauss hits a century and England close day 1 at a reasonable 229/5

  • Day 2: Mat Prior takes England to 300+ and in reply the Indian top order collapses (37/3) with the debutant spinner Swann striking twice. England does exremely well to restrict India to 155/6

  • Day 3: Another day that belonged to England again! They get India all out for 241 taking a 75 runs lead. England puts another strong display in the second innings by finishing 172/3. Strauss again was the man!

  • Day 4: England progresses till lunch but collapses from 257/4 to 311/9 in a display of extremely defencive batting. KP declares with 29 overs remaining for the day and England failing to cross the psychological score of 400. India needs 387 to win with a day and 29 overs remaining! Indian openers walk in, as cool as ice! And it was calm before the storm. Even before KP realized whatever happened, India close their day 4 at 131/1 from just 29 overs! India’s fortunes changes for good! Sehwag scores 83 from just 68 balls!

  • Day 5: With just 256 runs required from 90 overs and a whole day, Sachin Tendulkar plays an innings of his life and takes India to the shore, very well helped by Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh! Nobody has ever seen Tendulkar playing such a patient and beautifully crafted innnigs in his whole career

  • India wins a historic test match with a sub-continent record run chase and fourth best run chase in the history of test cricket!

It’s unfortunate that despite back to back centuries from Andrew Strauss England ended up loosing. But nobody could have stopped a determined Sehwag who changed the course of the game in a matter of an hour and a half during the fag end of Day 4.

The BCCI Annual Contracts are out!

The BCCI’s annual contracts were announced at the right time soon after the famous test win and fittingly enough Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag etc got promoted to the next respective grades. People like Sreesanth who had attitude problems on top of injury and underperformers such as Wasim Jaffer and Robin Uthappa have been downgraded. By dropping Ramesh Pawar, Akash Chopra and Ajit Agarkar the BCCI has sent out a strong message that they are looking forward to the future. At the moment Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar are the only 30 plus players on the side.

The BCCI also showed appreciation towards some of the Under-19 world cup winners by offering them one-year contracts under Grade D.