Book Review: Palace of Illusion

The book by Chitra Benerjee Divakaruni is a fictional read. It is a re-interpretation of Mahabharat from the perspective of Draupadi. The book is well written. Language is coherent and the sequence of events is also beautifully arranged to keep the readers glued despite knowing the story beforehand.

The book is a journey of various emotions and commotions through which Draupadi goes through in the battle of Mahabharata. While some of it looks very convincing, there are places where it gives the impression of the victim-like hapless attitude of Draupadi which may not be really true. In fact,  one often wonders what could have been fate of Mahabharata if Draupadi could have played a more positive role. But it was destiny. No one could change it. 

Her insecurities, jealousy, infatuation towards Karna, ego, anger towards Duryodhana, and mysterious relationship with Krishna are described well. But it leaves the reader with a confused state of mind as to who should be blamed for Mahabharata. Should it be Kaurava for not sharing the kingdom or Pandava for putting even kingdom and Draupadi at stake in the game or Kunti and Draupadi for fuelling and igniting hate and waves of anger in the Pandavas?

It would make an interesting  read for someone looking for an alternate view of Mahabharata or someone who has not read/seen Mahabharata to date. 

Book Review: What the Economy needs now

The book is co-Editecby Abhijit Benerjee,  Gita Gopinath, Raghuram Rajan and  Mihir Sharma. Essentially it is a collection of short essays on the problems and solutions of major sectors of the economy like health, education, taxes etc. 

I started the book with great expectations however it kind of disappointed me. The ideas given in the book are common knowledge and academic in nature. The chapters are short and hence they discuss only four key problems and corresponding solutions of the sector. But it the pursuit, it ends up being incomplete and unoriginal. Some of it felt like armchair theorizing.   It could have been a lot better with figures, facts, case studies, and out of box ideas. A NITI Ayog document or Budget-Economic survey can be much more fulfilling and enriching than this. 

Anyway, it is advisable read for someone who is new to the economy or policy issues or who is looking for an overview of the sectors in limited content. People looking for denser content could opt for NITI Ayog or government reports.

To Sir With Love

Note: This is one of the articles which i wrote for Income Tax Magazine i-Tech.

If there is one word in which life of a bureaucrat could be summarized, it would undoubtedly be SIR. Such is the beauty of the word that in bureaucratic dictionary it is a shortcut for all other words, facial and verbal expressions. If you agree with your boss, you tend to say Sir sir sir, mind you it has to be exactly three times. Frequency matters here. And if you don’t wish to comment on the boss’s idea and just wish to nod your head as a neutral expression (oops indifferent, neutrality and bureaucracy are like arch enemies) then it should be like “sir sir” with a quick succession without letting the air slip between the words.

If you are in a state of shock over being asked to do certain impossible task like coming to office on time, you utter sir only once but this time the emphasis has to be on S as in SSirr. And if by any stretch of imagination on a bad day of yours or in a fit of bad mood (after receiving rebuke at home) dare to think of saying no to your senior then you ought to say the holy word in some unholy fashion like S being pulled back like a slingshot and r is pushed forward so it sounds like “sarrr”. At this stage your eyes should be fixated at the corner of the room and mouth should be half-open with air intermittently slipping out like air comes out from a pricked balloon.

Alas, Just in case the conversation goes too long then you don’t need to say the full word. Rather as a smart bureaucrat (which every bureaucrat is by virtue of cracking UPSC), you should save your energy and just say “sa”. Sources reveal that most of the bureaucratic training and officer like qualities revolves around this central concept of “variety and usage of word sir”. Oxford dictionary has also regarded this word “Sir” as the source of all bureaucratic energies. In fact, just after the invention of Sir, Britishers decided to pursue sea voyages and developed the confidence of ruling the world.

When our team talked to one of colonial era ghost roaming around India Gate, we were told that Sir has polymorphic characteristics like Java’s + operator. It brings a sweet combination of subservience, obedience, duty, responsibility, accountability without any powers, benefits and recognition. Such is the killer instinct and sharp edge of it that any creativity, freedom and sense of self-belief is nipped in the bud.  We were told that beauty of sir is not restricted to bureaucracy and planet earth. Even gods have borrowed it to their kingdom for breeding unquestionable faith and inculcating a sense of hierarchy. The recent researches in the field of astro-linguistic and sound amplification science shows that NASA has captured a distinct sound emanating from all the planets of the solar system. Any guesses what it could be. Sir sir sir sir saaa

Calibrated exit: Lock down conundrum

India is facing an existential crisis against COVID-19. Had the debate been simply between livelihood and lives, protection of lives would have been a certain choice.  But in India, a large part of the economy survive on hand to mouth situation. Nearly 22% of people are below the poverty line and an additional 15% is just above the poverty line. Hence choice is between immediate loss of lives vs future loss of lives. Therefore, a key question is how to unlock the lockdown and how to resolve this conundrum. 

The unlocking of the lockdown is going to as difficult an administrative and economically puzzling task as was the enforcement of lockdown. Considering the cluster spread of COID-19, a decision on withdrawal of Lockdown has to be well thought out decision. 

1. Considering the state government's inclination to extend the lockdown and increase in the COVID-19 cases in the past few days, it is better to extend the complete lockdown till 24th April.

2. After 24th April, there should be three phased uplift on the lockdown. Each phase should span for two to three weeks. 

3. In the first phase, only essential services, food, and pharmaceutical, supply chain offices, hospitals should be opened. All the malls, shopping complex, dine-restaurant should remain closed.  All the private offices (into non-essential services), temples,  clubs, social places should remain closed.  It will be an approximate complete lockdown. City limits should remain restricted. This phase should last until 4th May. 

4. In the second phase, Offices with 40% staff capacity should be opened. Businesses will slowly get back to life. Metro and public transport will operate at 60% capacity. People are encouraged to use private vehicles. All public places like parks, malls, and restaurants, etc. and social gatherings should be banned. This should last till 20th May i.e. another 2 weeks. Intercity travel should remain restricted except for the movement of essential goods and services and in emergency situations. Home delivery of food may be allowed.

5. In the third phase, offices with 60% staff capacity should be opened.  Movement within the city should be allowed. Businesses like malls, shopping complexes, etc could be opened but with strict crowd management and sanitization rules. This could last till 31st May.

6. After this, if things are under control and go well, we can open the economy fully with the permission of intercity travel. The decision on the containment zones and hotspot could be taken as per the situation.

In the meantime, the government should unleash its stored food stock of 80 MT lying in FCI godowns. The small teams of young migrant workers resting in government schools should be utilized for driving mobile vans which could deliver food and vegetable at the public's doorstep.  And the government should switch to Universal basic Income mode and transfer some cash amount in each account on the basis of the existing balance in the account. Moreover, RBI's and PSU's dividend income contribution to government budgetary support should be increased in order to create some fiscal space in the economy.

These are challenging times and if we are able to overcome these times, we will definitely become a force to reckon with.

Migrant labor issue

Migrant laborers are always the first ones to face the first brunt of economic instability, political upheaval, and social discord. Be it Marathi Manush issue or Assam exodus from Bangalore or the recent Corona Virus crisis. There is no social security provided to them. There is no political support because mostly they are not able to exercise their voting rights. Mostly work in the unorganized sector and survive on hand to mouth situation. Except for the white-collar IT workers, most of them are unskilled or semi-skilled working as household help, maids or factory/farm laborers in big cities and rich states of the country. Hence, any issue of labor reform would be incomplete without addressing their plights and without doing justice to their needs and rights.

In this context, the following are actionable suggestions worth pondering upon.

1. We should open a migrant worker's office in each district. It is like an embassy of outside laborers at the district level.

2. All migrants must compulsorily register in the migrant labor's office. Following database could be prepared for each migrant:

2.1. What areas do a person migrates and in which season?
2.2. How much do they earn and save during migration?
2.3. What kind of work do they perform?
2.4. What are the skills/semi-skills do they possess?
2.5. What is the duration of migration?
2.6. What is the home state, city, town, address?
2.7. What is age?
2.8. Do they possess a bank account? If Yes, what is their bank account?
2.9. What is their UID number?
2.10. Are they citizens of our country?

3.  All the businesses should also submit the name and aadhar of all the migrant workers employed in six monthly declarations. This will allow us in accounting informal economy in GDP estimation. 

This database can be prepared using the partial database available with the government and police stations. Rest data can be collected by launching a district-wise helpline number. Labor ministry can also play a constructive role in the pursuit.

This will help in the following 5 ways:
1. We can perform targeted campaigns in the future.
2. With the use of such a database, the government can provide money directly in the bank account.
3. It will help in the overall management of COVID and similar kind of future crisis.
4. It will bring some organization in the world's largest unorganized workforce.

5. Such offices can act as voting centers for migrant workers in the future so that they can become part of the political narrative.

It is blasphemous that we have not done this to date.  Now is the time to work on these fronts and help in delivering justice, rights, and quality of life to migrant workers.