We always believe in the concept of ‘customer is king’; this also implies that subject to conditions of state security, the Government should not take any measures that compromises on the choices available to consumers. Now, what does one make of Government attempts to protect the Indian Postal Department from the courier companies through imposing severe conditions on the courier companies. People make a decision to select courier companies vs. post offices depending on the convenience and cost. One major factor could be the willingness of courier companies to be much more flexible, including regular pickups of the required articles from the premises of the person wanting to send the letter or material. On the other hand, the Postal Department is more useful for its wide coverage, but not necessarily for its flexibility and convenience to customers (as many people could testify). Inspite of all these factors, the Government is trying to put in a bill that would limit the courier companies:
By now, there are numerous cases where banks have indulged in force when trying to recover loans. In many cases, these measures have resulted in humiliation, injuries, hospitalization and sometimes even death of the person being hounded; banks typically claim that they are not responsible for the actions of these recovery agents. The RBI has been mostly quiet when all this has been going on; one would have expected the IBA (Indian Banking Association) to be quiet, but the RBI is the authority that has controlling authorities over all the banks in India, and one would have expected them to intervene. It is courts that have been taking the lead in acting against these recovery agents.
Now finally the RBI seems to have woken up. It says that it will issue a circular on November 15, that will impose a directive to banks to make sure that their recovery agents do not indulge in these kind of activities:
MUMBAI: Concerned over growing litigations against banks and high-handedness of recovery agents, Reserve Bank on Tuesday issued strong warning to banks to check such practices or be barred from engaging such services.
The Governor of Karnataka, Rameshwar Thakur, must be a most worried man. In this time and age, it is clearly understood that the Governor is the man of the Central Government, and hence in this case, the Governor would be seen to be acting in the best interest of the Congress. However, past judgments by the Supreme Court have severely bound the hands and feet of the Governor in terms of biased or arbitrary action. In fact, Karnataka is the home of the SC’s Bommai Judgment where the Supreme Court started setting ground rules for what the Governor can do and cannot do in cases of political uncertainity. This was then followed by the judgment in the Bihar case that singed the Congress Government, cost them a pliant Governor and also earned them black marks from the President who was for the first time castigated by the Supreme Court for non-application of mind.
Till a couple of days back, the Congress seemed to be in a superior position, with Deve Gowda refusing to support the BJP. The Congress could then work on willing JD(S) members, and eventually get enough numbers to escape the anti-defection act. The wily farmer saw this coming, realized that he was standing on the edge of political insignificance, and quickly swallowed his pride and went back to the BJP. And now that the MLA’s supporting the Congress’s white hope have fled in the pursuit of power in the hands of the BJP, the Congress is left with little options.
Why does dowry still exist ? There is an increasing trend towards demonizing dowry seekers in the media, in papers, and through demonstrations. One would have expected that by now, dowry seekers would have realized that demanding dowry is a double edged sword. No matter how attractive, handsome, rich, educated, high-earning your son is, if you push the bride’s family beyond a certain point, there exists the possibility of the police and media getting called, and then you are really in deep trouble. Because of the deep prevalence of dowry in society, the laws against dowry are pretty harsh, with the intention of seeking to level the balance of power (and many would say, have given the girl’s side much higher power through a slant in the law requiring the groom’s side to prove their innocence).
And yet people don’t learn. Here is an Indian family from the US that apparently demanded dowry, and when the bride’s family refused, there was an altercation, leading to the arrest of the groom. Now, it is very much possible that the groom’s side was being very demanding, and hence at some point, the police was called and once the magic words of dowry are uttered, things would spin out of control for the boy and his family. It is also possible that there was some misunderstanding, and based on that, dowry laws were invoked giving a major power point for the bride’s family.
Just around 20 days after the BJP and the JD(S) parted ways in Karnataka, and that too after a bitter quarrel with Deve Gowda hurling all sorts of abuse against the BJP, and the BJP calling the entire JD(S) a party of back-stabbers and betrayers, it seems likely that these 2 parties will form an alliance as if nothing has happened, with the JD(S) letting the BJP have the Chief Ministership of the state.
This is a tremendous deal for the BJP, since they have never been close to power in any of the Southern States (in fact, they do not have much of an electoral base in Kerala and Tamil Nadu).And it is even more pronounced because the BJP has been in a sort of slow melt-down after it lost power nationally in 2004, and it was a massive blow to the party when it became clear that the JD(S) was not willing to transfer power to the BJP and would break the agreement.
Typically, when a city runs out of land for housing, the focus shifts to the surrounding villages and semi-urban land. Given the way that there is big focus on housing and a great increase in property prices in the recent few years, the temptation is to use any means, legal and illegal, to get more money. Mix this with the fact that a majority of the land being acquired is owned by villagers, and the mix becomes explosive.
There is a need to ensure that villagers are treated with respect, and when their land is acquired or bought, it is done legally following due process including the payment of market rates such that the villagers feel adequately compensated. Else, as we have seen in the case of SEZ’s, there is a possibility of tension and violence, and massive delays. But. we will always see cases of people trying to use illegal means to get rich quick, and there is a need for the administration to investigate and haul up the offenders when they see something like this happening, as in this case:
For citizens, the quest to get their own home is one of the biggest steps in their life. They will save for years, cutting on expenses and spending an inordinate amount of time making sure that they get the perfect house that they are looking for. On the other hand, you have builders and realtors who are primarily profit driven. You can hope that you get a well constructed house, or if you fall prey to unscrupulous people, then there is only pain and loss. However, it is hard to explain how a realtor believes that he can can cheat hundreds and thousands of people and enjoy the gains. For people who have put their life’s savings, they will pursue such cheats to a long way. Here’s an article about the punishment of such cheats.
HYDERABAD: The sixth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate on Thursday sentenced six directors of Laxmipriya Real Estates Private Ltd to two years rigorous and one year simple imprisonment, which will run concurrently, for cheating their customers.
We depend on policemen to act as law-enforcers in society. In addition, in most countries, citizens can depend on policemen to help them out when they land in some kind of trouble or need help. However, mention that to people in India, and a vast majority will laugh, cry, and look at you with amazement. And no wonder, when policemen behave like law makers on their own.
I remember when the case of the shootout in Connaught Place first burst in public view, there was immense shock that a police team could fire many tens of rounds (34) into a car in the middle of the city, and kill 2 innocent people. And what was the defense of the police party ? They had information that these people were indeed a dreaded gangster, and so that justified them using deadly force without being provoked. You know what would have happened if these people were indeed gangsters and not innocent people ? There would have been a lot of justification of the attack, and nary a word of caution.
Somehow, the polity in India has accepted two major concepts: If you are a politician (and especially a Minister), there is a minimal chance that you will be prosecuted for anything; secondly, that the threatening and taking of human life in the form of a homicide or murder is not all that big a deal. However, recently there has been a trend that both of these theories are getting challenged. For the second one, there are many cases where ordinary people have challenged the almost casual investigation into murder and forced the Government and police into doing major investigations (such as into the Jessica Lal case and the Priyadarshini Mattoo case). As regards powerful people, courts in recent times have not hesitated to move against politicians, many times forcing investigating agencies to do a better role (and even though we have had shameful cases such as the Congress Government ordering the CBI to so little that both Mayawati and Shibu Soren have got off); still there have been many cases of prosecutions such as the case of Shahabuddin, Anand Mohan, and a few others who have been prosecuted and sent to jail (and maybe scared the others facing court cases).
A number of investors in India are invested into Mutual Funds, sold on the promise of being able to get better returns from the equity market without having to worry about direct investment into the equity market. A number of these investors do not have adequate information about the working of the Mutual Fund industry and depend on the Mutual Fund to keep their best interests in mind; something that unfortunately does not happen as much as you would like. For example, a number of Mutual Funds are pushed through investing agents, and since the commission to these agents is much higher for a New Fund Offer, they try and get new investors to put money into these New Fund Offers. SEBI has a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section on their website that deals with Mutual Funds. You can access this site here. Some relevant information from this website:
1. When will the investor get certificate or statement of account after investing in a mutual fund?
Mutual funds are required to despatch certificates or statements of accounts within six weeks from the date of closure of the initial subscription of the scheme. In case of close-ended schemes, the investors would get either a demat account statement or unit certificates as these are traded in the stock exchanges. In case of open-ended schemes, a statement of account is issued by the mutual fund within 30 days from the date of closure of initial public offer of the scheme. The procedure of repurchase is mentioned in the offer document.