എന്താണ് ആധുനികത?

ഇന്ന് ചുറ്റും നടക്കുന്ന പല സംഭവങ്ങളും കാണുമ്പോൾ ആർക്കും സ്വാഭാവികമായി തോന്നാവുന്ന ഒരു കാര്യമുണ്ട് - പുരാതന മനുഷ്യനും ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യനും തമ്മിൽ എന്താണ് വ്യത്യാസം?

ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യൻ വിദ്യാഭ്യാസപരമായും സാംസ്കാരികമായും  വളരെ മുന്നിലാണെന്ന് സ്വയം അവകാശപ്പെടുന്നുണ്ട്. പക്ഷെ കൊല്ലും കൊലയും നടത്തുന്ന കാര്യത്തിൽ, ക്രൂരതയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ, മനുഷ്യത്വമില്ലായ്മയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ പുരാതന മനുഷ്യനേക്കാൾ എത്രയോ മുന്നിലെത്തി നിൽക്കുന്നു ഇന്നത്തെ ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യൻ. അതെ സമയം  ധാർമികയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ, സഹജീവി സ്നേഹത്തിന്റെ കാര്യത്തിൽ, ദീനാനുകമ്പയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ, സഹിഷ്ണുതയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ , സമഭാവനയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ  ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യൻ എത്ര മാത്രം പിന്നിലേക്കു പോയിരിക്കുന്നു.

അങ്ങനെ വരുമ്പോൾ, സാംസ്കാരികമായി പുരാതനമനുഷ്യൻ എത്രയോ മുമ്പിലായിരുന്നു എന്ന് കാണാം. അപ്പോൾ എന്താണ് ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യന്റെ ഈ സ്വയം വിലയിരുത്തലിന്റെ മാനദണ്ഡം? വിദ്യാഭ്യാസം കൊണ്ട് ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യൻ എന്ത് നേടി?

The Intermediary Beneficiaries

The whole nation is discussing the unending reports coming out day in and day out on the spine-chilling financial frauds perpetrated by a band of so-called ‘business magnates’. There is absolutely no doubt that the ultimate beneficiaries of all these frauds are a few heinous racketeers in the guise of business tycoons. But no one is so naive as to believe that these ruthless criminals have committed all the irregularities on their own without the support or involvement or connivance or knowledge or silent consent of some other unsocial elements. Strong are the possibilities of the involvement of unholy middlemen in the guise of political bigwigs, brokers etc. apart from the already established role of bank officials of various cadres and professionals like auditors.

The nation has a legitimate right to know who the intermediary beneficiaries of the multi-crore scams are, as it is the tax payers’ money which is swindled by the law-breakers and it is again the tax-payers’ money which will be used also to clear up the consequent financial mess through several discreet and uncanny strategies. The full details of all the intermediary beneficiaries quantifying the amounts of gratification should be published irrespective of how ‘big’ or powerful or influential they are. This might be possible only after an exhaustive investigation using all arms of the country’s legal machinery. But there will be no justification for prolonging the investigation, which should be completed in a time bound manner.

For a Prosperous India

This is in the light of the Oxfam survey report which was released very recently. The liberalization policies India has been following for the last about two-and-a-half decades have certainly increased the wealth generation in the country. However, as India’s economy grew rapidly, the inequality between the richest and the poorest rose. There is no doubt that lives of people have changed for better because of liberalisation but the promise of poverty eradication still remains to be fulfilled. The gains have thrown new concerns of exclusion which needs to be addressed. The rise and rise of a small pool of India’s super rich population has worsened this divide, the ultra-wealthy alone, comprising 1% of the country’s population. In the last few decades, the rich in India have been getting richer and the poor have been getting poorer. According to Oxfam survey report, the richest 1% cornered 73% of wealth generated in India in 2017 and the rich-poor divide is widening. It is a pity that 67 crore Indians comprising the population’s poorest half saw their wealth rise by just 1% in the last year.

The Oxfam report underlines the imperative necessity of the Government revisiting the liberalization philosophy by re-orienting the focus towards more equitable distribution of wealth in the society, having prosperity for all in place of prosperity for only a fortunate few, encouragement of labour-intensive sectors that will create more jobs, more social welfare and protection measures, rationalization and streamlining of various of pension schemes, extending pension benefits to the deprived sections,  investing in agriculture, bringing more discipline in the financial sector, mercilessly dealing with cornering of wealth through illegal and unlawful means, incentivising honest sections of tax payers etc.

Cultural Transformation

The only source of solace and hope for humanity is people with kindness and tolerance, people who hold on to ethics and values. Sadly their tribe is on the way to extinction due to the predominance of lopsided values and perverted ethics.

Unless education starts giving a strong impetus on inculcating values among the youth, humanity has little to hope. Ethics and values should get the same place and importance in the curriculum as science, technology, economics, history etc. from the elementary school level itself. Ethics and values should become a paramount criterion in assessing an individual’s personality as well as suitability for any vocation.  The country should have a National Education Policy revamping the existing obnoxious education pattern. This will trigger a cultural transformation and results would start manifesting in a span of about twenty years.

നിശ്ചയം

കലികാലമേ എന്നു നീ പോയ് മറയും
കഥയിതെന്നൊന്നു മാറിവരും
ഇനിയേതു കാലം വന്നണയും
ഇവിടത്തെ ഇരുളെന്നു മാഞ്ഞു പോകും

മൂല്യങ്ങൾക്കൊന്നും മൂല്യമില്ലാതായി
മുഖംമൂടിയണിഞ്ഞവരേറെയായി
ബുദ്ധിതന്നളവുകോൽ കൗശലമായി
ബന്ധങ്ങൾ മുഴുവനും നിർബ്ബലമായി

സത്യവും ധർമവും സ്നേഹവുമെല്ലാം
അർത്ഥമില്ലാത്ത പദങ്ങളായ് മാറി
അർത്ഥമതൊന്നിനേ  അർത്ഥമുള്ളൂ
അല്ലാത്തതെല്ലാം മിഥ്യയായ് മാറി

എന്തെന്തു ഹീനമാം മാർഗ്ഗത്തിലൂടെയും
എന്തും നേടണമതൊന്നെ നിൻ ലക്‌ഷ്യം
എന്താണു നീയിതറിയാതെ പോകുന്നു
എന്താണു ലോകനീതിതൻ പൊരുളെന്ന്‌

കൗശലക്കാരേ കൊടും വഞ്ചകന്മാരേ
മാപ്പില്ല മാപ്പില്ല നിങ്ങൾക്കൊരിക്കലും
നരകത്തേക്കാളുമധമാം ദുർഘടം 
നിങ്ങൾക്കു കാലമൊരുക്കിടും നിശ്ചയം

(എൻ.വി.ജി.)

Credibility of Indian Banks

The fact that though the genesis of the PNB fraud dates back to 2011, it surfaced only after a long span of eight years, is a strong indicator of the ineffectiveness of the plethora of surveillance and due diligence mechanisms prevalent in the bank. During this period, the bank was subjected to several audits including those conducted by external agencies, statutory auditors, bank’s in-house inspection officials and RBI. Further, the accredited rating agency CRISL had allotted AAA and AA ratings on PNB’s debt instruments. All these processes are supposed to or meant to objectively assess the financial health of a bank and are very costly exercises. Still they did not serve the purpose for which they are instituted. All these things cast serious suspicions in the minds of people. When a scam of such a magnitude remains under the carpet for such a long time, it takes a heavy toll on the bank. Massive loan write-offs and provisioning for NPAs have compounded the situation.

The PNB scam has dragged a few other banks also into its whirlpool. The terms ’system failure’ and ‘software deficiency’ are used only as a veil to cover the facts and human negligence and connivance. The greed of all those who are involved in the fiasco motivated them to siphon off public funds, as can be seen from the admission of the booked bank officials that they have accepted bribes to flout rules. The blame has to be put not on the systems or on the software but squarely on the people. It is rightly said that the main ingredient in operational risk is the human risk, which also includes connivance of staff in perpetrating frauds.

The facts behind the PNB scam so far unearthed also indicate that scams of different magnitudes could have occurred in more banks as things stand. If every scam has a ‘gestation period’ like the PNB scam, the banking industry will have to pay a heavy price before long.

It is only in the interests of the country, the economy and the people that all banks are subjected to a rigorous, high level, exhaustive special audit / inspection covering a fairly long period, conducted jointly by RBI and strong audit houses. The modus operandi of the PNB scam could facilitate framing of rigorous guidelines and checklists for such an audit/inspection. This is imperative for reinforcing the credibility of Indian banks. The banking industry should be safeguarded at all costs.

സാഷ്ടാംഗ പ്രണാമം

ആഴിയുടെ അഗാധതയും
ആകാശത്തിന്റെ അപാരതയും
സൗരയൂഥത്തിന്റെ വൈവിധ്യവും
കാട്ടരുവിയുടെ തെളിമയും
പിച്ചിപ്പൂവിന്റെ നൈർമല്യവും
മുല്ലപ്പൂവിന്റെ സുഗന്ധവും
തുമ്പപ്പൂവിന്റെ എളിമയും
മഞ്ഞിന്റെ കുളിർമയും
മധുവിന്റെ മാധുര്യവും
ഇളനീരിന്റെ രുചിയും
ഇളംകാറ്റിന്റെ തഴുകലും
എല്ലാം ഒത്തുചേർന്ന
ഒന്ന് മാത്രമേയുള്ളൂ,
അതാണെന്റെ മലയാള ഭാഷ.
നമിക്കുന്നു സാഷ്ടാംഗം ഞാനീ
സർവാഭരണ വിഭൂഷിതയെ.

Bad Loans

It is learnt that the word ‘technical write-off’ which has been accepted by Indian banking is not used anywhere in the world. We don’t consider ‘technical write-off’ as write-off. Though technical write-off of bad loans is resorted to with the objective of cleansing the balance sheet and not with the objective of altogether giving up the recovery measures, it is a highly non-transparent system and without any uniform policy as admitted even by RBI officials. There’s plenty of room for wrong-doing in the guise of technical write-off. Another aspect is that technical write-off is resorted to more in the case of high ticket loans and very less in the case of small loans and small borrowers are more

There is another side of the picture. As known to all, huge provisioning for NPAs and write-offs have been eating into the vitals of  banks, seriously impacting their profitability, reserves, NOF, CAR etc. And all these are periodically ‘made good’ by the Government through ‘infusion of fresh capital’. Wherefrom does the money come for all this? The answer is : by consistently and irrationally increasing the charges for various banking services, by bringing more and more services under the fees network, by increasing various taxes, by introducing new taxes etc. And who will bear brunt? The answer is : the hapless common man. As of now, every activity inside banks (except breathing by the customers) is charged. And on the other side, many sections of willful defaulters of loan are left scot free. These are all hard core facts.

There should primarily be a fool proof system to subject the technically written off assets to scrutiny jointly by RBI officials and established audit firms. Further, it is high time that RBI started periodically publishing bank-wise data of NPAs along with technically written off NPAs, recovered portion of technically written-off NPAs and also the list of top NPAs.  And, there should be no laxity in resorting to all possible recovery measures against willful defaulters irrespective of their money power or political clout or any factor for that matter.

We find the NPA problem every five or ten years. When the economy is doing well, it will be under the surface and when the economy is not doing well, it will come up. It was there in mid-80s and then it came in 2000s and again in 2008-09 and then in 2016-17, thanks to Mallyas and the like and more and more banks nose-diving into loss. Nevertheless, NPA remains to be a subject more talked about and debated upon rather than acted upon and tackled.

Paradise on Earth

Shy flowers of all hues

Shining with dew drops;

Cool breeze caressing

The leaves to delight;

Birds chirping melodies

That are truly ecstatic;

Oh Munnar, God's abode,

Are you paradise on earth?

PNB Scam

With PNB detecting a whopping Rs.11,400 crore scam through the issue of fraudulent letters of undertaking (LOUs), India has witnessed a massive financial scam after a gap. Coming as it is in a time when Indian banking is riding on the wings of advanced technology and when robust systems are believed to have been put in place in the banking system, the scam has a potential danger inasmuch as it is posing serious questions on the safety of banks. History has taught us that cracks on the credibility of banking system have the potential to strike at the roots of the economy. The country has the right to know how such a scam has been perpetrated and PNB should bring to book the real culprits. There should be no laxity in fixing the staff involvement and staff lapse, if any, in this massive financial fraud.

Time

With no start or end flows a stream

That’s the enigma knows as time.

Many say ‘I don’t have time’

When they are sailing on time.

None knows where it’s coming from;

And where it’s heading to;

And what it will unfold;

And what gifts it has for us;

And what miseries it has for us;

And when it will hurt;

And when it will heal;

And when it will bring joy;

And when it will bring sorrow;

And where it will take us to.

Some think it’s an illusion,

None knows its intention.

And incessantly flows that stream

That’s the enigma known as time.

So is the world

There is no single political leader in India who is showing the minimum required maturity of not making personal verbal attacks on adversaries and even past leaders. It is felt that when issues are weak or when the defence is weak, person oriented attacks gain supremacy. Then follows a war of words. But this is not something unique to India but happening across countries. Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump war of words stooping to cheap personal verbal attacks during the 2017 presidential election and the latter's early days of presidency is not an old thing to have faded into oblivion. Maybe, hoping to have political leaders who shows maturity in public speech is too much in the contemporary world.

Menace of Bad Debts

Every one knows that the biggest problem which the Indian economy faces now is the ever rising Non Performing Assets or bad debts of banks. According to official data, about 80% of the bad debts is the contribution of the big corporates in the country. While no effective measures are instituted for recovery of the corporate sector NPAs, all the  governments at the centre till now have been following the unpardonable strategy of passing on the financial burden created by bad debts to the common man in various forms. No government at the centre till now is an exception to this shabby strategy. No government has so far shown the guts to publicise the names of the big corporates which have been eating away the vitals of the country by generating bad loans incessantly.

The Union Budget 2018 has belied the expectations of the people on the NPA front, even though it has attempted to strike a balance between the farm and non farm sectors and has not resorted to undue populism normally expected in pre-election budgets