The true inflation is the difference between Rs 20 and Rs 120: Farmers underpaid for produce in India

The country is now witness to some of the widespread strikes by farmers who have come to the government to get their loans waived. The MP farmers’ protest in Mandsaur is the latest. Farmers have joined all over the country to protest. But is it the same kind of protests that we see in this country that wane away with the passage of time. It is wise to read between the lines rather than the lines themselves. There is a strong reason why farmers have come out on the roads.

The investigation need not go too far and can condense to the local vegetable market. The small bundle of coriander or cilantro that is available in the market is sold at Rs 120. But the same thing is bought from the farmer who grew it, at Rs 20. Why does this huge gap occur?

The farmer sells it to the local aggregator, who gives him a meager amount for the entire produce. The farmer, who has no storage facility for his vegetables, in order to minimize the loss due to decay, sells it off. Now the aggregator does the same thing and sells it before decay to the next link in the supply chain. In the due course of time the customer at the end of the chain gets the price tag of Rs 120. And this has been the story throughout the 70 years of independence. The farmer has been considered as one of the primary pillars of democracy in India. It is evident from the ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’ of the PM Lal Bahadur Shastri. But this slogan has lost its importance now that the government takes them for granted. Due to the difference in the rate the supply chain tries to squeeze the farmers' end of the chain and increase profits. The farmers are unable to pay back the loans and so either protest or commit suicide.

The main problem arises out of the red-tape bureaucracy that is still stalling people from progressing. The tendency to stick to old practices and not innovation is the main reason behind this farmers’ agitation. The government should have given a cost-effective solution to farmers for storing their produce after reaping to enable fair price deliverance. The government should take and area-wise census each year to determine the number of farmers in each area and allot a local storage system for the farmers for their produce temporarily for storage so that they get a fair price for their produce. Also a representative from the government should ensure that the rate of sale of the produce is not much different than the rate in the market. The number of middlemen must be decreased.

But this will only ensure a government structure. A true implementation is that where people join with the implementation of a reform.  People must realize that the farmers are an important part of the society. Enabling the system like a Panchayati Raj in the rural areas is good. It will enable participation on a greater platform. A national computer network should be enabled to compare prices with various places and enable discussion to make better practices of farming. Farming is not only a pillar of democracy but also a leg of the entire nation. Preventing it from breaking will prevent the nation from being handicapped.

Dare not pick a fight with the Godfather of Internet India- Snapchat’s India Remark

The week before the previous saw a drawn battle between Snapchat and the people of India. The row was caused as a result of the comment by the CEO Evan Spiegel who termed India as a poor nation and not worthy to expand into. The comment received the ire of the Indian youth who were primary users of the app and led to an epic number of uninstallations of the app. This and also the low rating on the play store may have been a big blow to the app which had become quite a trend among youngsters. 

But the entire fight did explain one clear thing. The Internet and its many technologies which form the backbone of many businesses in the current world are significantly impacted by India. And it has a good reason because the Internet penetration in the country is far better than any other country in the world. Also there is hidden potential in the rural India which has a mere penetration of less than 30% (about 200 million users). Also the Smartphone penetration in rural India is less than 20% which is poised to increase in the coming decades.

India’s youth has an inquisitive nature that prompts them to try out various apps that come out. The Silicon Valley and various other IT hubs in the world are earning profits in the Internet business using this user base that is abundant and immense. In such a case careless remarks made by the core marketing person of the company comes as a massive shock to the world. In the Internet world the news spreads even faster than a wild-fire. Such news could have been the death-spell of a flourishing business. And particularly one expects some maturity in chatter coming from a CEO as compared to a normal employee. In this case apparently the employees were sensible enough to put the limelight on their boss’ words.

The fight was a one-sided affair as the people are the principal stakeholders in a transparent world. Gone are the days of closed-room corporate meetings that were exclusive. The average stakeholder knows more than the owners of the company and is free to choose whom to support and whom not. Well it is better late than never; even now the tables can be turned and the company can choose whether to let a good forest burn due to a careless fire or put out the fire before it turns on them as well. 

Is Jio encouraging Internet consumption or addiction?

Time and again invaders and dictators have used their power to usurp the power of expression from people. They have taken away natural resources that have been the fundamental right of a person. A person has to pay for them. In this age of technological revolution, Reliance has come up with a new policy to enslave the Internet surge. Jio was the brainchild of Mukesh Ambani who calculated the potential of the rising number of users of Internet in India. He thinks that by being the first person to launch Jio 4G technologies in India he can make Indians addicted to the Jio experience. The initial bounty of free offers and unlimited bandwidth attracted the maximum number of unique customers to Jio. Then after the bounty period is over the people will have been quite used to the brand of Jio. This will make them pay for the usage and thus increase the usage. 

 

Internet speed and Internet consumption are just two sides of a coin. As one increases the other one also increases. People who are just concerned about the service will never understand this relation. But slowly the average consumption of a person will increase three to four times more than his current consumption. This will make them spend more on the Internet usage per day as compared to the current expenditure.

To understand this, consider a person who smokes one cigar a day at the price of a cigarette for 3 months. After the bounty period the seller can charge him the actual value of the cigar and the person will spend it. He will never think about smoking a cigarette again because he’s used to the cigar. In fact in some cases the person under consideration can also increase his consumption.

In this age of Internet proliferation even the United Nations has declared the Internet as a fundamental right of the people. Nations like Estonia and Lithuania are known for their free Public Wifi Internet. Why is then India the world’s largest democracy in the world paying for its Internet consumption? Possibly it is because the people never think of it. They never realize that Internet has now become like air and water. Will you pay everyday for breathing oxygen? But this can only be understood by the future technologies that are coming up. Like the Internet of Things, which will change the way data is used. But these are later things. Primary is to realize that it is time that Internet becomes free like an open source platform which is only under one surveillance and that is the government and not any corporates.

Cigar or cigarettes either are going to burn; or can people get away with these? But in the end the choice should be that of the people.

 

People respond to Power of Thoughts not Pedigree

Yogi Adityanath has been elected as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the press and TV channels are guessing the agenda of this government already. Some are of the view that this person is going to be against the minorities in the state, some think he will be against the Muslims in the state. All the while this choice has allowed the Congress and other belligerents of the BJP a chance to launch their salvo against the NDA government and PM Narendra Modi. Some other faction thinks that Yogi Adityanath is going to transform UP into an extrapolated Gorakhpur. A few years before when Yogi Adityanath was not elected in Gorakhpur, the city was a mess. Roads could have been a training ground for commandos who want to jump over potholes. Electricity and water was also a major challenge. But Yogi Adityanath changed the city into a ‘mini-Singapore’. Possibly nobody took notice of it.

The state of UP was ruled during the last few decades by parties who divided the state into factions of religions, minorities etc. This had even forced many youngsters to leave their home state and move to Metros like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai to get a good education and find job opportunities. Because they know that in their home state all this is not possible. They even shifted their families to these cities permanently. Hooliganism in the name of minority status, religion and political affiliation had made the lives of people very difficult in the state. In spite of being such a big state with ample resources these parties forced an entire generation of youngsters to migrate. But Yogi Adityanath or the BJP was not responsible for any of these incidents. Then why is he branded as a fanatic or right-wing fundamentalist?

It is time that we understand that the religion of a person is his personal choice and it has nothing to do with one’s work. The people of India must evolve to get this philosophy in their character. The political parties need to know that people do not respond to anybody’s family pedigree. They respond to the power of their ideas. The BJP has a single-minded approach to its ideas and a strong leadership structure wherein the decision is streamlined and unquestionable. The BJP has a good number of Muslim candidates and minority candidates in it as it has Hindu candidates. But they are not there to practice their religions, rather to do some service to the people.

Comparing a leader who has clarity of thoughts to a dictator who killed millions is just a bogus propaganda designed to paint the leader in the colors of the dictator and taint his image. The media and the press must take on the responsibility to identify this trick and expose it to the public. The power of thoughts and intentions succeeds over all kinds of physical, economic and social powers.

As of now the election of the face of the CM and his Deputies has enamored a great confusion in the state. Maybe the new government can enamor an equal magnitude of accolades in the year to come or divide the state again into factions. Either way, this drama will have a guaranteed number of actors and an even larger audience ready to cheer them.