MISSION INDRADHANUSH

Indradhanush is the Sanskrit word for Rainbow in English.

Last Friday (25th Sept 2015) the government of India launched Mission Indradhanush.

What is it?

It’s a seven pronged plan-- Indradhanush--to revamp functioning of public sector banks. 

The seven elements include:

1.    Appointments

2.    Board of Bureau

3.    Capitalization

4.    De-Stressing

5.    Empowerment

6.    Framework of Accountability

7.    Governance Reforms

What is a Bank’s Board of Bureau?

Ø  It’s a framework under which the existing appointments board would be replaced by the Banks Board of Bureau. Its members would be appointed in the next six months to be headed by the RBI Governor.

Ø  Banks Board of Bureau will also hold bad assets of Public Sector Banks.

How Much Capitalization of Banks and Which Banks?

Ø  Under recapitalization plans for Public Sector Banks, 13 banks would get Rs 20,058 crore this financial year. The rest Rs 5,000 crore would be allocated based on efficiency criteria. 

Ø  SBI will get the highest Rs 5,511 cr, followed by Bank of India at Rs 2,455 cr, IDBI at Rs 2,229 cr, PNB at Rs 1732 cr and IOB at Rs 2009 cr. 

S.No	Name of Bank	Capital Allocation
		(Rs. in Crore)	Capital Adequecy Ratio (in %)
1	State Bank of India	5531	12
2	Bank of India	2455	11.2
3	IDBI	2229	11.9
4	Bank of Baroda	1786	13.1
5	Punjab National Bank	1,732	12.9
6	Canara Bank	947	10.7
7	Indian Overseas Bank	2,009	10.1
8	Union Bank of India	1,080	10.2
9	Corporation Bank	857	11.1
10	Andhra Bank	378	10.7
11	Bank of Maharashtra	394	11.9
12	Allahabad Bank	283	10.4
13	Dena Bank	407	10.9
Total		20,088

The mission is a small step in addressing the woes of Public Sector Banks. NPA’s (Non Performing Assets) and stressed assets are a huge burden on the public sector banks. This mission is a step in the direction of resolving these issues. In addition Basel III requirements are also going to be effective since 2018. The government has limited time to get its act right to get the Indian growth story moving.

Stressed Assets – 11% of Total Bank Loans

NPA’s – at end of 31st March 2015 = 2,97,000 Crores plus another 4,03,004 crores bad                         loans of 530 corporate companies shown as rescheduled and restructured                       loans under CDR (corporate debt restructuring) scheme. Bad loans struck                                   up in top 30 borrowal accounts of PSBS as on 31-3-2015 is Rs. 1,21,162                                     crores,"

Click on the link below for GoI document in PDF format on Mission Indradhanush.

http://financialservices.gov.in/PressnoteIndardhanush.pdf

Sources: Business Standard; Economic Times; FirstPost; GoI website

OPERATION SMILE - Curbing Human Trafficking in India

OPERATION SMILE

Rajnath Singh's 'Operation Smile' rescues 19,000 missing children from slavery, abuse 

Codenamed 'Operation Smile,' the drive pioneered by home minister Rajnath Singh has seen different state police and women and child departments step up efforts to rescue missing children, with Haryana and Maharashtra taking the lead.

MHA plans a one-day national seminar on human trafficking on October 7. "During the seminar, we plan to hold a special session on child trafficking," said an official. Officials also say that investigations into several cases of missing children have also brought the roles of shelter homes under scanner and they might propose an amendment in law that governs shelter homes. 

Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/49019390.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppstEconomic Times

BHARAT NET - Government of India Initiative to make Digital India a reality

BharatNet

BharatNet:

What is it? : Its government of India’s ambitious project to provide Internet connectivity to the whole of India.

Cost: Cost is estimated at 72,000 Crores

Completion time: Govt of India expect it to be done by end of 2016, however the body setup by the govt to take care of this work namely BBNL (Bharat Broadband Network Limited) expect the work to be done by end of 2017

Is this a UPA scheme: Yes it a continuation of the UPA NOFN (National Optical Fiber Network) started under the UPA govt with an allocation of 21,000 Cr and was limited to village panchayats only. As always it mainly remained on paper during UPA regime. BharatNet is a new architecture. It is using a lot of other media to provide connectivity then just OFC.
Benefit: BBNL estimates that in the first year of implementation the project can result in the benefit of Rs 66,465 crore.
Speed: Under the SPV (Special purpose vehicle) model, the states would have the freedom to provide minimum bandwidths higher than 2 mbps, say 10-20 mbps for households and 100 mbps to 1 gbps to businesses.

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/49031835.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Economic Times

One Year of BJP on 26th May 2015

On most fronts the BJP has done well under the leadership of Mr. Modi. His core group of Ministers are competent and mostly qualified for the job, whether it's Mr. Parrikar, Mr. Rajnath Singh, Mr. Arun Jaitely, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, Mr. Nitin Gadkari etc. They all have reasonable experience if not the very best at what they do. They will gather further experience as they work with the challenges and setbacks they have to work within. Picking up a hopelessly bad economy and a country whose morale was very low, they have done an excellent job of turning the country around and the attitude of the people. Mrs. Smriti Irani a young minster was like a bad apple in the group of other wise very experienced people. She has however quickly proved that she knows how to deliver and has started to change the education system in our country. Mrs. Irani speaks eloquently, with clarity and most importantly, doesn't just speak but has taken up the huge and burdensome task of revitalizing our education system and gearing it up for the 21st Century work environment.

Though the middle classes expectations have not been met, by and large people can see the government is working and in the right direction. What however has surprised most and angered many within the BJP and RSS particularly, is that Mr. Modi has not done enough on bringing those people to book who are behind all the corruption. Mr. Shah pointed out the staggering size of corruption that happened under the leadership of ex PM Mr. Manmohan Singh quantifying it at 12 lakh crores on TV in an interview. A reasonable question then to ask is where is all the money and what are you doing about it. Have you done anything at all? I here many people tell me that Mr. Modi wants to first deliver before he goes out after the culprits. Those very people who have pushed a generation back are now accusing the prime minister of witch hunting and politics of revenge. It fills people with anger to see the same people on TV again accusing the PM and his ministers of doing absolutely nothing but rather misleading the country and misgoverning it. It then creates an impression in the minds of the common man that ultimately the Political class is a fraternity and so the show goes on with no serious action against anyone but simply lip service. Much the same like our bureaucracy.

When you cant convince people, you simply confuse them and that is what the opposition has been doing. They mislead and divert debates and prevent action from happening. Around 100 billion USD worth of MoU's have been signed by the PM on his various visits abroad. Even if 30 billion comes into India this year, it will jump start the economy in a big way in addition to the good work that our own industrialists are doing.

A lot of positive energy is lost and people get de-focused. It would be great if  the courts get moving on the more serious case of corruption. It would also be nice if Mr. Modi cleans up his own house and removes tainted ministers if any in the BJP. 

Narendra Modi - Achievements and Challenges

 Narendra Modi - Achievements and Challenges

In order to get through all the criticism of the Narendara Modi government and see what has actually been done and what is still left out I have collected points in favor and against the current government.

Modi’s successes:

·         Successfully bringing back Indians from Iraq.

·         NGO watch by IB and its report on how some NGO’s are a security and development threat.

·         Yoga International Day declared.

·         Interaction at international level at state to state level governments as well as within states local body governments .

·         Quick improvement of relations with immediate neighbours.

·         Effort to link with Indian community in all countries where there is a sizeable Indian community.

·         First BRICS bank President to be Indian.

·         Swacch Bharat

·         Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.

·         Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.

·         Misson on Mars.

·         Launch of satellites to make Indian a GSM country in 2015. 4 have been launched by the end of 2014 and 3 more will be launched this year. This will make India the 4 country in the world and India will be able to track not only the country but also 1500 Kms around it.

·         Focus on SME’s.

·         More Investment in Defense.

·         Improvement of work culture in Government departments

·         Merging of PIO and OIC cards.

·         More transparency and move towards digitalization.

·        https://www.facebook.com/NarendraModi4PM/photos/a.255717946547.149068.252382316547/10152119776541548/ https://www.facebook.com/NarendraModi4PM/photos/a.255717946547.149068.252382316547/10152119776541548/ https://www.facebook.com/NarendraModi4PM/photos/a.255717946547.149068.252382316547/10152119776541548/

·         Successful in attracting capital from Japan, US and China. Russia has also shown open interest in cooperation with Indian in Nuclear projects as well as Defense and Infrastructure.

·         PM Abbot of Australia offered Uranium to India for peaceful uses.

·         http://www.quora.com/What-has-Narendra-Modi-done-after-winning-elections-How-many-of-his-manifesto-points-has-he-covered-yet http://www.quora.com/What-has-Narendra-Modi-done-after-winning-elections-How-many-of-his-manifesto-points-has-he-covered-yet

·         http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-07/blackrock-bullish-as-modi-buoys-road-builders-corporate-india.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-07/blackrock-bullish-as-modi-buoys-road-builders-corporate-india.html

·          

Script so far is 80% old. For new script will have to wait till after budget.

Challenges:

·         Fiscal Deficit: The shortfall in government finances reached 5.25 trillion rupees ($82.6 billion) in the eight months ended November, official figures showed last week, compared with a goal of 5.31 trillion rupees for the year through March 2015.

·         Measures taken to bring in Cash: Target is to bring in Budget Gap from 4.5% to 4.1% of GDP

1.       Raised taxes on Diesel and Petrol.

2.       Tax break on Automobile industry removed.

3.       Disinvestment in State run PSU’s.

4.       Sale of 3G spectrum to bring in 160B rupees.

·         No expenditure cuts so far (to make a leaner government or government that is spending less).

·         Dual citizenship not done yet.

·         India imports about 80% of its oil.

·         The yield on India’s current benchmark 10-year bonds due July 2024 has risen three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, since the budget deficit figures were announced on Dec. 31.

·         The Indian rupee has weakened 0.8 percent to 63.55 a dollar in the period.

So far ability to check price rise - Failed.
Safety in Delhi and particularly for women - Failed.
Bringing down corruption - Failed (Some success).

 I can say in the end that though this analysis will be an ongoing process, Mr. Modi is going to be a PM in history, who is going to be credited with many things,

·         Creating a consciousness for cleanliness and converting it into a mass movement.  

·         Embarking on making India a country where no one defecates in the open.

·         Making India truly democratic by reaching out to the poorest of the poor and getting them to have a bank account. Making them feel they do matter in this country.

• Modernizing the country. We will have India of Pre 2014 and Post 2014.

Its an ongoing process. Dont forget to check this out next month. More things to come.

Source. Various News Papers, the net and contributions from others.

Disastrous to Disaster Management

Congratulations Mr. Modi. Great Work and Great Reward. I mean the election results.

Before exiting the scene Mr. Manmohan Singh said it would be disastarous for India if Mr. Modi became the prime minsiter. It seems however that Mr. Modi has a lot of disaster at hand to manage, left behind by none other then Mr. Manmohan Singh's disastarous governance.

Virtually any ministry you take, any part of India you take, everything is a mess. Its like we had no government for the last 10 years. Law and Order is more of a joke these days. No Foreign Policy, No Domestic Policy, No Policy on Terriorism and no Policy on Internal security or External threats. No Policy on wealth creation and no policy on its equitable distribution.

Fortunately for us we have a workaholic like Mr. Modi to do disaster managment as he did once already with Gujarat after the earthquake which many claimed would push Gujarat back by 50 years.

Mr. Modi took the opportunity of his swearing in to start with immediate neighbours and addressed foreign policy immediately. For a big country like India our neighbours are our responsibility and they should feel that they can depend on us in times of need. However small the neighbour he is important.

Once again he has shown the country big dreams and dream big we must. He has asked for everyones co operation in advancing the country. The whole country today is full of energy. The stock market is at an all time high. Once again honesty, hard work and competence are the mantra for success as against sycophancy earlier.

Challenges will come, but Mr. Modi has shown that he will be able to overcome them. In Mr. Modi we have the correct person for the job.

On Mr. Narendra Modi - Supari Issue

As of today Mr. Narendra Modi has been declared as the Prime Ministerial candidate by the BJP for India.

He has travelled rough terrain not only in his political life but throughout his life to reach where he is now. His life as much as I can gather from the media has been with challenges and he has overcome them. He learned English to be able to deal with Foreign representatives whether they were corporate heads or heads of governments to name just one of his achievements.

However at this stage his language whether in Hindi, English or any local dialect must be more dignified, refined and polished. He must present his facts more eloquently.

Further we also want to see the vision that our next Prime Minister carries for this country. The solutions he can offer to many of the problems that face our country. What is his plan to revive Nalanda or a Nalanda like institution so we can have the best Education in India? How do we deal with Terrorism? How can we contain food inflation in our country? how can we bring in Innovation in our country? How can we help our many innovative youngsters by providing them with funds to be able to get their dreams become realities?

I have always believed that the supremacy of the US arises because of its ability to attract the best talent to its country. When you have the best, some thing definitely good will come out of it. Money follows Genius and not vice versa. If Mr. Modi shows that vision the genius in out country can be tapped.

We look forward to Mr. Modi being aggressive which is his nature, but politely aggressive. We further look forward to hearing more on specifics.