NEW HUMANITARIAN ECONOMIC POLICIES

     The economic world is experiencing one of its most trying times. Both the US and now the European Union is facing problems like nothing before and until there is a global consensus on the way the world should move forward there is not going to be any streak of light in the form of hope anywhere. The overall attitude everywhere is one of skepticism and even those countries which have found some vision by adopting fast to the Western standards are now getting nervous. Of course the emerging economies do have a domestic market that would by and large sustain their industrial development for a decade or two perhaps, but all this is not heartening as economics is fumbling in the hands of experts and those who have the power and diligence enough to rattle out jargon of mathematics and statistics. They produce statements after statements in such rapid succession that major part of the population somehow find themselves blaming their stars and not their masters who it seems are not there to light up their path to prosperity.
     True, economics and politics play a complementary role in a free country or otherwise too, yet the paradox is that bad politics overplay good economics and good economics is not easy to come by these days. After all economics is still in the hands of those who have a little intention of making it acceptable to the larger section of the masses and to make matters worse it is still a developing science.
      When I say humanitarianism it doesn't imply charity or robbing the rich and helping the poor as most people would like to think. It is a state of mind such that the prime reason for overcoming economic debacle and to make general opportunities available to the masses shouldn't be intepreted as a result of some huge sacrifice, but as a principle reason of making life and workplace sustainable.There is no reason for us to dislike large corporations but that there should be a real reason to like them for their contribution not only in overall meaningful  development but also in creating employment directly and indirectly. Sometimes, the supply chain concepts of large industries resulting out of mergers and acquisitions could be a fertile field for creating more of ancillary units in the creation of employment. Yet there is much to be desired here as mergers and acquisitions may make companies large in proportion to their sizes the employment potentials turn awfully poor.
     The respective governments has an important part to play and not just remain helpless to the general rot taking place in the financial and economic markets, but must act like a system regulator. Unfortunately, it is the system of lobbying that has increased this kind of mess than anything else. In India, aping the West, our own lobbying has made significant contribution to the prevalent mess in scams. When e-governance should have become the main part of the system for licensing on merit basis the reverse is true and the entire drama that is played out there is more like stone age methods than that of any civilized society.
       When there is a level playing field why should there be justification for unnecessary lobbying. Another thing that could crop up in anybody's mind is that if there is such thing as level playing field then why a particular group of entrepreneurs stand to gain in the rot created by their own misdemeanors than the aspiring young group of new found entrepreneurial class? The idea of stimulus packages and instilling the dying passion of the so called stalwarts of business today is another sure sign of decay of free enterprise. Again, in the level playing field why shouldn't there be as many de- mergers, de-acquisitions, and splitting of enterprises found as its absence do make matters worse for the economy of the country.
        Arcane American stimulus package if at all good for short term and only for short term impetus could do so little then why then waste the money like this?
        Paradoxical European Union economical debacle shows that all is not good if this kind of biased economic development is allowed to take shape where even the right to be greedy rests on a handful of sycophant business lobbyists.This shows that something more ought to be done. Perhaps focusing on humanitarian mind set can lead to better answers.Humanitarian belief doesn't mean right or left but a flexible approach that can turn right or left like a steering wheel of a vehicle but steadying the vehicle from falling off the track.
     

INCREASING DOMESTIC INVESTMENTS AND EMPLOYMENT

     In my earlier blog articles I had stated the role of the Central Bank of a country in regulating the large and almost unaccounted wealth held in different parts of the country. These wealth are by nature of no use to the larger part of the population nor are of any great value to the nation if it remains in its present forms. Hence, there is a need to monetize these wealth such that the citizens and future posterity can gain out of it. I had stated that the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) as the Custodian 2 of the wealth hidden or better still not circulated through the system of network of banking in the country. For any person this may at first sound something like a way off the mark argument yet when goes and study the ways and means other countries in particular the US has been able to successfully park its dollar reserves in other countries this may not be all that silly.
     The US economy for the most part of its free existence has been a regime of profligacy banking on the idea that other countries would save for it while it can achieve and enjoy the best of the standards of living. This idea was given an impetus whether the US electorate knew or not mainly because there were several communist countries with closed economies and centrally controlled economy. These countries were short almost anything and had to buy from US either in gold or something of value (barter) or in dollars. Naturally, the ever vigilant US stepped in and agreed to finance their imports by giving them loan in US dollar as the US wouldn't want the currencies of these countries which in most parts were of no use to it or to its European and free economy partners. Overtime, this lead to globalization which in essence means dollarization and the US dollar became the most accepted currency after gold in the international market. This meant that the US domestic economy was well taken care of by a robust private sector while it financed its international trade simply by paying in US dollars which in short means that the US went on printing more Ben Franklin green notes ( US dollar ) while the rest of the world have to rush and sweat it out to fulfill obligations in the form of goods, services or gold or US dollar advances. In fact, perhaps the most lucrative of all the US businesses was the printing of dollar notes. Obviously, this boomeranged as it was not quite the fundamentals of a true economical pattern. The irony of it all is that countries like China, India and many other emerging economies have hundreds of billions of these US dollars of which they now feel a lot more uncomfortable than they were a few years back. Many do not have the fairest idea of what to do with it.
        Now what has that got to do with the article that I had written a few days back you might as well ask. Well, it is through experience and observing things around you that the best of the business and economical ideas surface.To make it short in the example set by the US it is quite likely that countries are good place to park temporarily useless notes backed on the idea that things may turn around as always and recession would vanish once more. So long as they don't dump the foreign currency at throw away rates then of course the dollar would plummet and the US economy would be in total jeopardy. However, if we were to believe that this would have political repercussions and other countries remain holding on to their US dollars with earnest as displayed earlier, then things wouldn't be that bad for the US economy.
        Now my idea is that if we were to park some of the excess notes printed by the RBI while monetizing the wealth lying within our country then there is no doubt that it could remain locked up for long projects that stretches for two decades or more. The more years  the better. With the RBI having got the custodian rights for 99 years then this wouldn't be a problem in the long run fiscal term. Again, in the meantime the RBI can bring to monitor the money that is being funded for these long term projects by naming them explicitly as 'Specific Project Funds'. Even in case some of these do go into the circulation as they inevitably would do the RBI can put controls over its note printing to monitor whatever inflation that a possible fall out may occur. Of course, some mechanism can be devised that can always prevent this money to circulate simultaneously with the mainstream money with the help from the other commercial banks. Here,  we are not even parking the money in some other country which can prove to be risky, but are in the process of creating wealth within the country itself for investments and employment. One can name this particular segment of the economy as 'Segment B' for easy management and deployment of such funds.

ECONOMIC JUSTIFICATION OF THE WEALTH OF THE NATION

     Temple assets are public property and this has been reported in number of newspapers and holds somewhat true as far as the Lord Padmanabha Temple of Thiruvanathapuram in Kerala is concerned. The idea seems to have been articulated by different political parties across the state with a degree of variations as to who shall be the trustee and as to who shall manage such an enormous treasure found in the hidden secret vaults of the temple. What is most disturbing is the way crass politics and political opportunism is seen entering into the scene sidetracking good economics and proper management of wealth for productive usages. Suggestions vary more to tow the political party way of thinking rather than the benefit the wealth can benefit the State population and the country as a whole. There is no doubt that a trust can be formed and should be formed with members of duly elected representative of the temple as well as those who come to worship and receive blessings of the Lord taking into consideration that this cuts across the Hindu chaste reservations too. Once, such a trust is formed then it is the duty of the trust to see that the wealth is put into good use and for productive purposes.
       However, when one looks into the larger picture a trust is good so far as the actual custodian of the wealth is concerned, but looking at it from the view point of good economics the trust and its activities are likely to aggrandize the fortune it holds on to with its more charitable activities. I am not saying that charitable activities ought to be avoided, but there is limitation that this charitable activity can look after the larger public interest or the community particularly the Hindu community to whom the wealth of one lac crores or 100 billion dollars worth belongs. This is to emphasize the point that there is nothing to compare the system of channeling funds through the network of Indian banking even though the trust in most of its transaction are using this safe method. What I wish to point out here is that this huge wealth as such has very little potential of becoming any use to a larger portion of the public and as such must be monetized both for transparency and safety. I have already stated this in my article in this site titled 'Monetizing of Wealth Lying within the Country' dated Sept 12th, 2011.
      If you have read the article then you would have realized the importance of banking system and in particular the role of the Reserve Bank of India to enact a mechanism by which the actual fund remains in the hands of the trust while the same is monetized by the Reserve Bank of India as the Custodian 2. In this instance, the sole act and responsibility of managing the wealth in terms of its proper economic perspective and utilization for the development of the country's resources and long term projects rests on the RBI. While this can never be true as far the trust is concerned for the wealth although could be utilized properly would be limited to a narrow spectrum of activities and definitely not on a sustaining basis or areas of large scale employment potential and raising of the standards of living for a larger portion of the populace.Again, periodical updates, refunds, structural monetary adjustments of such huge funds can only be possible through the auspices of the RBI alone even though the finance ministry may have the last word on it. When large funds are locked up in large projects requiring long periods for completion there wouldn't be any great impact on the routine monetary policies in force nor have any impact on the inflation.
       The case holds very true for even other heritage properties and wealth in the form of monuments like the Nizam's Wealth, Museum Wealth, Taj Mahal and  others. In many ways there is a greater chance of earning from monetizing the wealth for productive purposes while a generous amount can also be given to these trusts for maintaining and providing ample security for these wealth rather than pass the burden on to the tax payers.

MONETIZATION OF WEALTH LYING WITHIN THE COUNTRY

     There is a lot of priceless treasure troves or call them antiques of which the estimated sum by the present monetary standards runs into several hundred billion of dollars. What is more surprising is that this enormous treasures that have been brought from hidden sources through ages have been kept as exhibits for centuries and the same has not been properly valued and utilized for the real benefits of the masses. This is even more surprising when one tries to consider the huge amount of wealth that are in possession of nations of which not even a significant percentage has been utilized for raising the standard of living of the population of that particular region or country. The most ironic fact is seen that the wealth has been accumulated or found to be in possession of those countries who are virtually in poverty or that the major part of its population still lives below the poverty. In this context one can ask as to why this wealth remains or what use has it been put for the society as a whole. Whether such wealth can benefit anybody or whether these hidden treasures now unearthed ought to remain as a publicly exhibited treasure trove or that it glorifies the image of the poor of the land is the biggest question posing the social community.
      The antique value of these treasures dug up or found out after being hidden from the view of the masses for several generation is by itself too great yet the correct cost estimate or value of such a stock of wealth, both movable and immovable, could be made so that the benefits could percolate to the masses at the lower level. However, this poses a significant problem as most of these treasures found in the possession of certain individuals, communities and religious organization can make the task cumbersome and highly sensitive issue and can bring about a near civil war if all the stakeholders are not taken into confidence. Further, these treasures by their very nature of being antique and having historic significance can by itself prove to be difficult for governments to act upon. As per the known areas of commercial and economical field of study these wealth cannot be brought to circulation in their present form as several formalities including stakeholders co-operation, court permits and legal hurdles ought to be crossed before the same wealth can be brought into circulation for the benefit of the populace.Again, these wealth for the reason of both social and cultural sensitivity issues and due to their antique value cannot be immediately taken over by the government and sold out in the open market. In fact, this is all the more difficult as there can be arguments for and against about the exact market value of these hidden jewels and as to who should benefit out it according to priority basis. Further, any rash action like selling off the hidden treasures can trigger something like a civil war if not properly defined in the economic or market sense not to say anything about the rampant corruption that would ensue without it being managed in the right way.
       Why I say this is that just recently there has been a sudden surge in news relating to the astounding discovery of priceless wealth stored in one of the temples of Kerala in India. Stupendous Sree Padmanabha Wealth has become like a folklore in India abroad. If the estimate is right the wealth of the temple of Lord Padmanabha in Thrivanthapuram is stated to be more than one lac crore of rupees or more than $100 billion dollars. Now that is only so far as the wealth that has been discovered so far. It seems that there is yet another one or two chambers yet to be opened and their estimate yet to be taken by the Supreme Court of India. Whatever be the case the wealth is enormous by any world standards. Now the task before everybody is the way this wealth could be used such that the benefits of it percolate down to the lower rungs of the society ladder. As the custodian of this wealth is the temple and the temple authorities it is rather risky indeed if the wealth is wrongly handled bringing in the wrath of the Hindu community. Well, then how can this be done? Of course, it is not sane economics to distribute it evenly to the public at large in their physical form nor can this be exchanged for money as this might not only attract taxes, but the process can immediately result in corruption and ill conceived plans for benefiting the common man including those of other communities.
                                            Monetizing of the Treasure Troves
        All treasures for that matter even those of that are within certain communities can be monetized if there is a consensus on a plan as to how this wealth could be utilized justly and properly. Here, again I reiterate that all stakeholders must be involved in order to bring about a unanimous solution to the problem. No unilateral decision should be made which could result in widespread chaos and confusion. Yet monetizing ought to be considered as this can only bring about the proper distribution of wealth and the means of achieving the level of economic justification for such large treasures troves which otherwise would remain idle and serve no purpose. In India and around the world we see several such treasures that are held as national heritage and exhibited for tourists. There is Nizam's treasures of which nothing much has been done. As far as the Egyptians are concerned the pyramids bring in quite a lot of money in the form of tourism money and hence they so far had no need of monetizing the same except in the recent times of political turmoil. Yet calculating the monetary worth alone is not sufficient, but these heritage wealth many of which lies in the hands of the Archeological Department can be monetized without having to make efforts to shift them or transfer them in an authoritative manner by the government. Here, we shall look into the Gigantic Sree Padmanabha Temple Wealth alone.
                                           Custodians of the Wealth
         As for the inventory taken of the Sree Padmanabha Temple treasure which runs into billions of dollars or more than a lac of crore of rupees, there is unanimous agreement and the Supreme Court verdict that the wealth belongs to the temple. Now the temple alone wouldn't have much of an idea as what to do with the wealth other than directly give it off as alms or freebies to select few of the community or simply lay still and say that it has a lot of wealth in its possession. Now lets look at the picture somewhat differently in order to monetize the wealth and bring it into circulation as legitimate money for economic and social betterment.
        It is already agreed that the Custodian of the Wealth is the temple and for this reason lets call them the First Custodian. Now to involve the monetizing of the wealth the Central Bank of the country, namely the Reserve Bank of India has to be involved. Under an agreement with the stakeholders and the State and Central Government, the Reserve Bank of India takes in lease for 99 years the whole of wealth in the possession of the temple authorities. Remember, no actual shifting or transfer is taking place and this is only an agreement between the Reserve Bank and the Sree Padmanabha Temple. With this lease agreement in force the Reserve Bank of India becomes the legalized Second Custodian of the wealth for a period of 99 years. Of course, for this the RBI gives a lease amount to the Sree Padmanabha Temple periodically for the period of 99 years. The temple can utilize this money to maintain its premises and security and other expenses. This again is only a nominal amount unlike other lease agreements as the RBI wouldn't be in a position to give off a percentage of the amount as interest or rent annually. That would mean the sheer size of the monetary expense would be too big and may not find appropriate usage. For this too an agreement of all stakeholders should be unanimously met. As far as the security of the wealth is concerned the RBI would duly give its own security at the temple premises without having to shift the wealth into its vaults.  True, lease held assets have difficulties of being pledged in normal terms yet the Reserve Bank of India which is the Supreme Bank of the country and the Banker's Bank can bring forth some form of mechanism to make this quite possible with perhaps a legislative act in place. As it looks after the monetary needs of the country and the requirement of note printing as well as provide the corrective measures for mooting the aggregate demand and supply in the economy it is in a unique position to act as a powerful Second Custodian of these wealth and treasures on behalf of the Indian economy.
        Now what should the Reserve Bank of India do here as the Custodian No 2 ? It should allow for creation of special credits for commercial banks on the basis of the custody of wealth which it holds as lease. The credit that is created by the commercial banks should be spent for long term projects only. It goes without saying that very long term projects can only cushion the effects of inflation. Any short term projects would bring about inflationary pressure on the Indian economy. What are the long term projects?
       The long term projects ought to concentrate in areas that are the most essential for the development of the country. some of the areas for such specialized projects could be as follows:
        (1) Very Large Hydro Electric Projects
        (2) Providing a network of Energy Plants run on non-conventional fuels and their Research & Development
        (3) Linking large rivers of the country by building long canals and artificial man made rivers for irrigation purposes and bringing large tracts of desert and non fertile lands into irrigation network and forestation.
        (4) Large infrastructure projects that could take several years for completion and pave way for development of roads, bridges, and artificial construction of Unique Shipyards
        (5) Building Space Stations and Lunar Stations
         The above examples are suggestive only and can include other large projects where the time of completion can go to several years and even decades.
         Urgent FICCI call for the partnering of private and government institutions major long term infrastructure projects is a case in point and this can only lead to further development and sustaining the growth rate for the Indian economy.
          This idea need not necessarily be confined to the temple properties alone, but can even be carried out for other heritage properties including those immovable properties so long as the money remains within the country. Gigantic Nizam's Wealth can be utilized in this way and so also those treasures in the hands of the archeological department presently kept as exhibits for public to see.
          Resourceful Archeological Department of India can undoubtedly give a supportive hand to monetize many of its movable and non movable exhibits. Clarion Ministry of Finance Office call for rapid development of infrastructure can only be done by monetizing many of the wealth of the country which otherwise would remain only dead money. Of course, the catch here is that all the stakeholders would have to come to a level ground to make the thing possible. Antique Thiruvanthapuram's Padmanabha Temple treasures are only one such case among the several that India boasts.

NEW THINKING ENTREPRENEURS

                                                
      Discoveries and inventions are mainly carried out for the satisfaction of human needs which includes human inquisitiveness. During the early periods of history scientific inventions broke free from the shackles of religious reasoning and ritualism and opened up vistas of knowledge and information that brought about a great deal of change in the human mechanism of thinking and perception of the universe around us. This early stages of scientific discoveries, undoubtedly, had to pass through the rigid and at many times harsh rules and several inventors were prosecuted by their rulers, family and the people alike. Perhaps this was also true for the entrepreneurs of those days as there were no records for this particular class being persecuted. However, soon enough with a larger number of civilization adopting the industrial and technological revolutions the feeling by and large have changed and the entrepreneurial class have become a much envied body of men and women who are as ingenious as the inventors themselves. This is more so due to the greater interaction between the inventions and innovations and the commercial relationships that are established between the two. In fact, the modern days have seen a concurrent level of inventions and innovations and their applications in business.
     It therefore goes without saying that the level of consumer satisfaction in the society mainly arose out of the different innovative zeal and unique inventions among different groups of individuals and entrepreneurs such that the whole world would benefit immensely out of it through greater standard of living and employment opportunities. This was clearly seen throughout the industrial revolutions and subsequently the post world war technological revolutions and perhaps the present nano technology revolution and space revolution.
                                            Change in Thinking Mechanism
      However, there is a dearth of such highly focused entrepreneurial thinking and this is in spite of the expansion of mobile telephony market, the ubiquitous internet, the notebook, the PCs and surely not in least the development seen in the gigantic Information Technology area, hybrid vehicle manufacture and others. This is markedly seen in areas where the same type of products with some embellishments are added into the market for the consumers to choose from.
      Again, this may be good for the consumers who have now wider choice and better options, yet the problem is that these type of market sooner or later would remain almost in a state of stagnation if and when the world economy slows down as we see in the present time. The shock that a recession brings into such markets are really dangerous for freedom of entrepreneurship and this affects the morale of those who would love to take a plunge in the game of risk taking. Just as entrepreneurs drive consumer demand during boom time as well the tastes and preferences too, the New Era entrepreneur must chart out even newer and newer markets for products that are startlingly new for the whole market. This obviously would means to think out of the box as then only can the market expand and the vagaries of economic cycle can be minimized. In other words, the same types of products or almost the same ones compete in a very narrow area of consumer market and never give themselves a chance to create a wider area for the market. For this to fructify the modern entrepreneur talents must explore the possibility of newer implementation of inventions, innovations and technologies towards creating an area for consumers to look and thereby creating the necessary niche area and an edge over their competitors.
                                       Need for a Paradigm Shift in Entrepreneurial Thinking
       The shift in thinking need not be something like discarding what all we already have in the market, but to focus on that art of thinking which would enable the new entrepreneurs to introduce a product choice in the market that is so far not seen or experienced by the consumers and which increases their level of satisfaction as well as helps several notches higher in cost savings and quality. This of course has to come with the environmental standards that have been adopted by the world.
        The shift in thinking could be made simpler by asking the odd questions just as teams in an organization do during the brain storming session. At times even questions ought to be raised in ones mind so as to challenge the very process that has created a product or service so as to bring out different available options for improving the product or service or create yet another totally different product or service altogether. Given the vast range of products and services available in the market such compulsive thinking wouldn't be a difficult thing as there are always products or services to stand testimony for a deviation in thinking. Even the range of inventors and their lives and the way an invention and innovation has been imagined by hunches or wild ideas can be used to enliven the positive contribution of wild negative thoughts towards establishing the authenticity of a business plan at its early stages. The new entreprenuers ought to take this up in earnest.
                                          Process Changing Through Innovative Ideas
      It is not just the compounds and elements or the level of input that should determine the requirement of manufacture, but the very changes in the process of manufacturing certain goods can bring about a dynamic change in the system of the product. This can be done only by changing the pattern of thought process. Sometimes an array of questions both negative and positive can bring about a change or revelation into the working of a product unlike simple objective of making it better. A few examples below would throw light into the realm of differentiated thinking mechanism which a modern entrepreneur can adapt.
  1) In the manufacture of vehicles it is generally seen that combustion is the main process that is ignited by the compound called fuel in all motors except perhaps for electric driven engine. The new entrepreneur who is also adjudged as an inventor should ask questions like whether it is possible for combustion to take place in an entirely different process by several other elements or compounds. Of course, such thinking must be occurring in the already dynamic and hot competitive market condition, yet we can reason here that this have not yet brought about that ground breaking inventions or models for the petrol, gas or diesel driven vehicles.
 2) Now we all watch TV and know that it can be comfortably viewed at home. Now, to get an idea for something even more brilliant than the TV think slightly differently. For instance, think can there be another device like a glass capsule in your living room that can through the help of super lens, reflectors and LED lights and via known mediums bring into view the living room of your friend and their family members who are residing at some far off place either in the Northern or Southern or at the other end of the equator. Of course, the true new generation entrepreneur would have to think of the idea and then get it done in a focused manner with the help of the other team members consisting of scientists, engineers and others. Just think how great it would be if you can even hold a conversation through this capsule medium with your friend's family.
3) The next exotic idea is to think of the fuel cost going up and air travel becoming more expensive. In such situation why not think of doing short hops with limited people by using a combination of thermal glider technology fused with the aircraft model for a cheaper travel.
4) There are numerous toys that are available in their myriad and exotic varieties. Think how many genuinely beautiful toy shapes can fire your imagination as an entrepreneur looking for something different altogether and search and build one model of anything which the adult world can enjoy and make use of. The toys are not born out of the imagination of one artist or engineer, but a number of them.
5) Modular buildings are now becoming a much sought after cost effective and energy saving structures in some parts of the world if not everywhere. Why can't a small house be designed on the modular structure materials with a self heating and self electrified device like solar power or any other power without the need for electric wiring.
6) Why can't human beings produce rare earths in laboratory conditions? In fact, they ought to ask why rare earths occur in the first place and only few countries have a monopoly on these. First, it is rare enough on this planet and second, our mind is still limited in our thinking entrepreneurial way. Surely, this technological gap can be overcome by due diligence shown in research whereby decoding the chemical code of these rare earths elements so that they could be manufactured at will in lab conditions. A fact should be borne in mind that rare earths are used only in minute quantities in specialized areas and needn't be manufactured artificially in large quantities. Credible Indian rare earths and research could throw light in this new way of thinking which could subsequently bring about unique substitutes for use.
7) There are millions of ideas or formats in semi-lab tested conditions and if an entrepreneur can unravel a market plan for making some of these into durable economic product then the chances of making it big one day is a certainty.
    These examples of differentiated thinking are just a few which I had imagined. May be they are good or may be not good enough. However, for others there may be countless such examples that could be converted into a reality be it goods or services. What a new era entrepreneur ought to do in all such instance is to ask to change the very line of thought by asking questions from all angles. The Problematic mind tree organization embedded within each human being has to channeled and focused for bringing about the entrepreneurial change in thinking and action. Perhaps then there would be lesser competition for industries if such thinking is allowed. Perhaps then the companies would be better cushioned to absorb the shock of the economic downturn.