Bradford and Bingley

To: The Editor
Published: Asian Voice
Date: 11th October 2008
From: Nagin Khajuria FCCA

Bradford and Bingley bank nationalisation confirmed by Alistair Darling

I refer to your article “Bradford and Bingley bank nationalisation confirmed” by Alistair Darling (AV, 4 Oct 2008, p22). When banks fail, or when confidence in the banking system fails, should Governments take “quick, decisive action”?

How do you value a sinking bank with 2.7 million customers and a £21 billion deposit book? How was £612m value worked out so quickly? What is the net present value of the mortgage debt book the government took over in addition to the £612m it received? 

Is it right that both Management and Government decide within hours of panic that shareholders get nothing? £21 billion deposits could make 1% net in banking activities and £21 billion of loans in non-banking activities could make 2%. Total income could be 3% on £21 billion that is £630 million every year. So has the bank been sold off at one year’s net income? 

A temporary moratorium of three to six months could be imposed during which time the government could guarantee all deposits without any limit only for that particular bank to enable extraction of maximum value while a right price private buyer is sought. Government can also compete with the private sector in a final auction for disposal at a suitable date.

Commercial banks have ventured too far into non-banking activities. . Should not there be a cap on value of non-banking business? Say 25% instead of the current 50%+?

I reviewed this week the 2007 Annual Report of Capital One Financial Corporation, 8th largest commercial bank the USA. 

The segmental Managed Loans, related net income/(loss) and net margins respectively were: Credit Cards US$ 52.1 billion, US$ 2,116m, 4.06%; Auto Finance 25.1 billion, ( 33.8m), ( -0.12%); and Global Financial Services 29.3 billion, 299.4m, 1.02%. Total loans 106.5b, total net income 2,381.9m, and net margin 2.24%. Whereas bank deposits book 73.3 billion, net income 574.2m, a low net margin 0.78%. 

The Balance Sheet did not balance. On top of the 106.5 billion Managed Loans, there were additional Managed Loans of 49.5 billion dollars that were described as “Off-Balance Sheet Securitizations”. These involve transfer of pools of loans receivables to one or more third-party trusts and accounted for as sales, although they are not fully sales.

International finance involves global trade, Foreign Direct Investments and Foreign Institutional Investments. It is very complex. There are 77000 Multinational Companies, 770,000 affiliates, which employ 62 million people and generate US$4.5 trillion in value added.

Both Congress and the House of Representatives should not have approved the 850 billion dollar bail out. US Government should have guaranteed bank deposits without limit but only in those institutions which approach them for help while assessing their true potential over a six months moratorium period.

Strict accounting rules have been developed under Basel II, instigated by Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in Switzerland, the central bank of all central banks of key 100 countries. Under US accounting rules, they were not mandatory for Capital One Bank. 

Nagin Khajuria, FCCA
Director, Simplification Made Simple Limited
Chartered Certified Accountants & Registered Auditors
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Inspired Obama

To: The Editor
Published: Asian Voice
Date: 16th October 2008
From: Nagin Khajuria FCCA

Obama cites Mahatma Gandhi to back his call for change

Your article “Obama cites Mahatma Gandhi to back his call for change” (AV 11 Oct p35) is interesting in the sense the he appeals to the American nation as a whole “to rededicate themselves every day from 2 October 2008, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, to 4 November 2008, U S election day.”

For sure, these 33 days are becoming very painful days all over the globe. It was always believed that banks, at least, those which were known to be “first class banks” never, or hardly ever, fail. May be all nations should reflect deeply on change as current system is too costly for 60 to 70% of the world population.

Obama also had two other men he most admired: Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. He took a lot of inspiration from the civil rights movement and the way the movement brought ordinary people in extraordinary positions of leadership. It struck him that lasting change came from the bottom up and not from the top down according to “From Promise to Power” by David Mendel, pages 200-01.

On one hand, we have individuals, businesses and governments who have surplus cash and want to find suitable assets where they can invest their surpluses and make some return for a rainy day. On the other hand, there are individuals, businesses and governments who want to borrow money so that they can make better use of it because of their ability to create real wealth. Financial intermediaries connect these two groups.

Currently, because paper wealth is probably anything between 8 to 24 times the underlying asset and value of a business, an individual, a government, or a country as a whole, it is impossible to figure out where the weaknesses are and where the strengths are. 

One solution could be if competition reform laws were passed where no business could have a larger than 10% share of the market, both in the public sector and the private sector, so that at least there are 20 players competing each other. Banks should be either fully private or fully public owned.

The cost of credit needs to be reduced drastically. This cost is not only the interest rate differential but all the hidden charges and commissions that are paid to financial intermediaries to broker between the savers and the borrowers when big money is raised.

A country’s exchange rate strength is the supply of or the demand for its currency. When exports are more than imports, the demand is higher than supply. When imports are more than exports, the supply is higher than demand. In the former case, the currency becomes stronger. In the latter case, the currency becomes weaker. However, when speculators start hedging on foreign currency rates, the fundamentals are changed. Why not settle imports and exports in the currencies your countries live in rather than use a third country’s currency to avoid the need for hedging in the first place? 

Nagin Khajuria, FCCA
Director, Simplification Made Simple Limited
Chartered Certified Accountants & Registered Auditors
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India and The Global Financial Crisis

To: The Editor

Published: Asian Voice

Date: 1st October 2008

From: Nagin Khajuria FCCA

I do not agree with your headline article “World markets on roller coaster, India sits pretty” (AV, Vol 37, Issue 21, 27 Sept, p1). Indian banks and Indian business have followed herd of G8 nations for too long. They now need to expand deeper into non G8 nations economies, learn other key foreign languages and their business models. The demand from G8 nations is likely to go down for Indian exports. That happened during the Asian crisis in 1997. That was a puncture in the tyre. This is engine failure.

Current events remind me of the proverb: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

Some examples are:

The word “opinion” in Audit Report is fundamentally flawed. It should be “assurance”. Annual reports run into 300+ pages and are impossible to understand by shareholders. It turns out they were useless.

During the quarter ended 30 June 2008, 120 Indian companies set aside RS 8,900 crore for currency fluctuations, exotic derivative products and mark-to-market losses to hedge their exports. Surely, historical accounting is the way forward with any changes in market values (that move up and down 100% every year) to be stated by way of a note only. IFRSs need to be restructured.

By changing interest rates too frequently, central banks and their political masters have knowingly or unknowingly given wrong signals to the market economy. A culture of minute-by-minute speculation in all these products is being nurtured all the time through advanced information technology and communications. 

The world financial crisis is blamed on sub-prime mortgages and very little has been said about the hyper activity of mergers and acquisitions, re-invented by private investment banks during the past 25 years with disproportionate level of debt finance as opposed to equity finance as publicly quoted company board of directors became poorer managers.

All these years a belief has been rammed down our throats that private sector is “efficient” and public sector is “inefficient”. 

As a shareholder of Vodafone plc, I was able to get into their official website two years before Arun Sarin became CEO. The Balance Sheet had an asset value of £100 billion pounds that included goodwill value of £30 billion. 

Based upon my understanding from the accounts, of the company’s future prospects, I sent an email to the Vodafone and the Accountancy Age Letter to the Editor, stating that the Auditor was wrong in signing off the Balance Sheet and justifying keeping the goodwill value on the Balance Sheet based on the next 10 years revenue stream forecast in Note 1.

My letter was not published. Arun Sarin became the CEO two years later and wrote off £28 billion goodwill in the following year. 

Finally, as a policy holder in Standard Life, I was strongly opposed to the concept of demutualisation. Mutual building society concept is a business model India should adopt for India’s housing boom.

Nagin Khajuria, FCCA
Director, Simplification Made Simple Limited
Chartered Certified Accountants & Registered Auditors
W: www.c-o-t-m.com
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Identity and Non Violence

Letter to the Editor of Asian Voice
Published: 27 September 2008, page 4.

Dear Editor

Common thread of violent deeds and instigations

In the last Asian Voice issue (20 Sept), I read several articles that had a common thread of violent behaviour in thought word or deed on the basis of religious identity: 

• Christians or Maoists killing Swami Laxmananda and his four disciples on the holy day of Janmastami on 23 August 2008 (p11);

• Indian Mujahideen claiming responsibility of 5 Delhi serial bomb blasts killing 30 innocent people last Saturday during holy Ramadan (p1);

• Fatwa issued against Salman Khan’s family for celebrating Ganeshotsav at their home (p29); 

• Yorkshire Coast College changing their college calendar from the terminology “Christmas and Easter breaks” to “End of Term breaks” ostensibly in a bid to avoid offending students from other religions (p7). 

All of us tend to identify ourselves by the society we live in, our culture, our religious and other values and beliefs, our civilisation, etc. There is nothing wrong with that. However, when good relations among different human beings are identified in this singular way to the exclusion of other ways, human beings are deeply miniaturized and deposited into little boxes.

We must realise that all of us have multiple or plural identities. For example, I was born into a Hindu/Jain family in Sudan, a Muslim country. I was educated there by Italian Catholic missionaries (age of 8 to 18). Then I worked up to age 25 at the U S Embassy in Khartoum under Jewish or Protestant bosses. For interests, I went to the British cultural centre to learn Scottish country dancing and to the British Council to watch or take part in plays, such as Dial M for Murder, Importance of Being Ernest, etc.

I never saw people only as Hindus, Muslims, Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Buddhists, etc. Again, I never saw them solely as Italian, American, Arab, Indian, etc. Rather I saw how interesting they were as friends, colleagues, fellow sports players, or other hobbies and interests. 

My best ACCA studies friend was El Hadi El Gibriel who worked at the Ministry of Finance and we studied accountancy together in the evenings. After 40 years, I visited Khartoum in February 2007 and looked him up. He still remembered me and invited me to go to his six two-bedroom block of flats residence on the Tuti Island. This island is right in the middle of the confluence of the White and Blue Nile in Khartoum. The two rivers came from Uganda and Tanzania, joined as one river near the Tuti Island. It proceeded to Egypt from there as one river called the Nile. The view from over the bridge of the confluence was magnificent: blue colour water meeting grey colour water.

He took out a photograph of mine I had gifted to him 40 years ago within 15 minutes of our meeting from about 100 photos he had kept in a Cadburys chocolate round tin box. There were tears in our eyes and we embraced each other. His two wives and six daughters live there in the six flats. The younger wife cooked fresh lunch for both of us. Our only relation was two students helping each other in their studies.

This photograph, with my own handwriting dated on the back, is attached as a living proof of this encounter. I left for UK in that same month of September 1967.

My plea to all fellow human beings is let us embrace all races and all religions and all cultures and open up our minds and enjoy the diversity rather than use it to blow each other up. All including even the Taliban have the right to live and breathe on this planet and no one, I repeat, no one, can take this right away from them. It is the Khyber Pass rather than Taliban that has been of geopolitical interest in Afghanistan since forth century BC when Alexander the Great discovered that route. Then it was Arabs in the seventh century and Jengis Khan in the thirteenth century, followed by the British, then Russians and now Americans.

We now live a global village. All of us have plural identities. Should we not see other human beings in different ways according to the circumstances?

Oscar Wilde once made the enigmatic claim “Most people are other people”. 

With suitable instigation, a fostered sense of identity with one group of people can be made into a powerful weapon to brutalise another. Actively promoted sectarian hatreds can spread like wildfire. 

All people involved in the above four incidents should read economist and Nobel Prize Laureate Amartya Sen’s recent book called “Identity and Violence – The Illusion of Destiny”: they may stop their violent actions in thought, word and deed and embrace other people.

Nagin Khajuria FCCA

Director, Simplification Made Simple Limited
Chartered Certified Accountants & Statutory Auditors
Co. Reg. No. 03446745
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E-mail: info@c-o-t-m.com FCCA

Tension in Darfur and It's Relevance to Oil Supply Security

Published on New York based website: https://news.glgroup.com/CM/analysis/PostDetail.aspx?pid=16044 on 4 September 2007

“Tension in Darfur and its relevance to oil supply security”

Implications

There is some truth in the fact that the Arab North looked down upon the Black South in the 1950s and 1960s when I grew up in Sudan. Then there was civil war and thousands of lives were lost and there were thousands of refugees. 

But then USA, Europe or United Nations was not all that concerned. Now there is oil in Sudan. Now China is in Sudan. Partly, there is a perception that the current media and European leaders hyper concern about the plight of Darfurians is “crocodile tears”. 

Where were these leaders when the same atrocities happened in the 1950s and 1960s?

Where Black Africans not important then?

The efforts to secure oil supplies should not tarnish the West’s image of fair play by harping too much on the crisis in Darfur. Yes there is some crisis. But it is not brought about by deliberate wrong doing. It is mainly brought about by scarcity of land and resources and poor people fighting with each other for share of a small pie, lack of rain and draught, poor cultivation skills. 

Analysis

If USA and Europe are not extremely truthful in the words and deeds in Darfur, then their efforts will be discredited and they will not achieve the objectives they are hoping to achieve. It will be another Iraq and it will bring discredit to US and Europe.

Nagin Khajuria FCCA

Director, Simplification Made Simple Limited

Chartered Certified Accountants & Statutory Auditors
Co. Reg. No. 03446745
T: +44 (0) 20 8346 3033
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Congratulations to Asian Voice

Editor: Asian Voice

From: Nagin Khajuria

I want to congratulate the Asian Voice editorial team on the amazing variety of topics covered every week for a £30 yearly subscription. It must be the best value for money of any weekly newspaper in the UK by far.

The two articles (p20-21 & p24-25, Careers in Accountancy July 2008, AV 2 Aug) on non-domiciled persons in the UK and tax guidelines on how to cope with the new annual flat rate of £30,000 tax levy to continue having the privilege in living in the UK without declaring their worldwide income makes useful reading.

By sheer coincidence, the above Asian Voice articles published on 2 August were preceded by Accountancy Age weekly magazine leader article “Hartnett gunning for tax haven advisers” on 31 July. The outgoing chairman of H M Revenue & Customs warned there that HMRC would launch criminal prosecutions against accountants who have slashed clients’ money in offshore tax havens to duck paying UK taxes. 

These new rules after 90 years of tax holiday may have indirectly influenced both doms and non-doms, to re-consider their rights and responsibilities in the overseas countries and/or their use of tax havens. It may be fairer to pay their due taxes in the foreign land that is bestowing upon them that income and/or capital gains.

After all, if they pay their taxes overseas, then the foreign tax would be available globally as a credit or offset against UK tax liabilities. Even a U K tax refund is feasible under these circumstances.

£30,000 flat rate grossed up at 40% works out at £75,000 income or capital gain. Up until now, the non-dom has not paid any tax in the foreign country. Suppose the tax is 20% on this £75,000 overseas. The taxpayer pays this £15,000 overseas. 

As a dom, his gross income in UK is, let us say, also £75,000; he adds another £75,000 as his foreign income. He claims £5,000 personal tax allowance, pays 20% on the first £40,000, and 40% on the next £105,000. Total tax payable in the UK is £8,000 plus £42000 that is £50,000, less foreign tax credit of £15,000; he pays £35,000 in the UK and £15,000 overseas.

As a non-dom, the same individual would not declare his income overseas, and pays on UK income of only £75,000. This works out at £5,000 tax free, 20% on the next £40,000 and 40% on £30,000. He pays a total of £20,000 plus a non-dom flat rate tax of £30,000. He ends up again paying £50,000, but with the additional possibility of tax, penalties and interest overseas when he gets found out overseas.

In any case, now is the time to urgently open four separate bank accounts overseas and four separate bank accounts in the UK: 1. Accumulated trading Income overseas up to 5 April 2008; 2. Accumulated capital gains overseas up to 5 April 2008; Accumulated Interest Income overseas up to 5 April 2008; 4. accumulated other savings etc. overseas that cannot be clearly classified for the time being. Same corresponding accounts should be opened in the UK. Movements in subsequent years should strictly follow the above four mirror bank accounts in the UK in future tax years.

Consideration should be given to equalisation of all income, savings and capital overseas among all family members up to 5 April 2008 and a decision taken that the entire family members no longer wishes to consider themselves non-doms. Their next tax returns would confirm that they no longer wish to be in the non-dom category. As income and capital gains are spread over several persons, and as full advantage is taken of personal allowances as well as annul capital gains tax exemption for each family member, the family as a whole may end up paying far less tax than ever before even if they declare all their worldwide income and assets.

Finally, there is a distinction between adults who are under 18 and those over 18. Those under 18 lose personal allowance and capital gains tax exemption but do not have to pay the £30,000 flat rate if a decision is taken to pay the £30,000 for those who are over 18.

Each tax payer or each nuclear or extended family circumstance is unique but the above are at least some useful tax planning guidelines.

Nagin Khajuria, FCCA
Director, Simplification Made Simple Limited
Chartered Certified Accountants & Statutory Auditors
Co. Reg. No. 03446745
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"Deal" Wins

Letter to the Editor Asian Voice

Published on 2 August 2008 on Page 5.

by Nagin Khajuria

‘Deal’ wins

I am really glad that the United Progress Alliance under Manmohan Singh has won over the Bhartiya Janata Party and Communist Party Alliance to get the Indo-US Nuclear Accord ratified by the Indian Parliament.

Originally I was against this Accord. On reflection, I am now in favour. My reasons are as follows:

• India has never been part of the Club of powerful nations. It can now use its influence by being an insider rather than an outsider.

• There are 8 to 9 countries that have nuclear weapons. Other 20 nations could develop such weapons if they wanted to. By agreeing to have India’s nuclear facilities to be inspected by the international community, India is effectively discouraging nuclear weapons proliferation, which is a good thing.

• India knows the damage it can inflict upon itself if it does not realise that there will always be nations who will try to break it by the well known method of divide and rule. Recent bombings in Ahmadabad and Banglore remind us of that. May be we should have a few states in India where meat is prohibited a) to encourage other nations to follow India and b) to discourage violence to animals in addition to humans.

• That is ALSO why the inquiry into vote rigging, bribery of MPs, bullying tactics, should be dropped otherwise those who may have tried to divide and rule India may have succeed sooner than later. 

• The bribery charges against MPs in this voting reminds me of the joke that when other countries complained to God why He had bestowed so much upon India, God responded and told them: “Do not worry; I shall put more corrupt people there.”

• All parties should now stand united about this historic decision and make the most it by expanding its power generation capacity through nuclear reactors.

• The important aspect they should remember is health and safety. The explosion in Chernobyl story is not over yet. Currently they are building a huge aircraft hanger like construction costing 800 million dollars to cover reactor number 4 remains that had exploded 20 years ago. No 1, 2 and 3 were decommissioned in year 2000.

• India must now also concentrate on all other sources of power generation.

• It should get on with power generation through more advanced capture of biomass (plant and animal waste).

• Sea based and lands based wind farms can generate a fair amount of electric power. In Denmark, wind generates about 20% of all its electricity.

• Panels covered with photovoltaic cell capture the sun at a solar park near Leipzig, Germany. With 33,500 panels, it is one of the planet’s largest arrays.

• Solar energy costs have gone down a lot over the past 30 years and further reductions are likely. Some countries have laws requiring new building to have solar energy. 

• When we drove extensively in Andalucía, Spain, a couple of years ago, we so hundreds of wind mills generating electricity for people and/or mass production of tomatoes in hundreds of small green houses, one after another for miles and miles.

• Readers of Asian Voice need to study three very interesting articles I recently came across that argue some of the above points in more depth that I can do here. 

• “Powering the Future: where on earth our energy-hungry society can turn to replace oil, coal, and natural gas? By Michael Parfit; and

• “Living with the Bomb: it has been 60 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today nuclear weapons stoke nations’ dreams of power and give their citizens nightmares” by Richard Rhodes; (National Geographic August 2005)

• “Inside Chernobyl plus Nuclear Power Reconsidered” by Richard Stone (National Geographic April 2006).

• They all make a lot of sense and we should learn from them.

Nagin Khajuria, FCCA

Director, Simplification Made Simple Limited
Chartered Certified Accountants & Statutory Auditors
Reg. Off. 54a Granville Road, London N12 0HJ
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Rethink Merger Approval

Letter to the Editor of Accountancy Age

Published on 10 July 2008 on page 12:

Rethink merger approval

I fully agree that the 10th anniversary of the merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers and Lybrand should make us rethink how such mergers are approved (26 June page 1).

At that time I felt very strongly that those from small audit firms should be allowed to also review the 700-page justification document sent to the EU Competition Commission and the fact that Financial Reporting Standards were not fully in place to address global issues and these FRSs should be addressed before merger could be considered.

The recent credit crunch where banks have written off more than US$ 400 billion on long term loans in the past six months indicates that the Big Four, because of their size, have not been able to discover all these weaknesses over the past ten years.

It is not a healthy audit environment. We need about ten big audit firms, especially as the Big Four audit 97% of the world’s major companies.

Nagin Khajuria FCCA

The Shorter and Simpler the Better

Letter to the Editor of Financial Times

Published on 24 January 2008

From Nagin Khajuria

The letter from D. R. Myddelson, emeritus professor of finance and accounting (January 21), calling for much shorter annual accounts and reports makes a lot of sense. Apart making them shorter and including only historical data, companies should use percentages instead of absolute numbers so that ordinary shareholders understand them better.

Nagin Khajuria FCCA

Director

Simplification Made Simple

London N12 0HJ
www.c-o-t-m.com

PWC merger

From: Nagindas Khajuria

Sent: 01 July 2008 13:54

To: 'Accountancy Age Editor'

Subject: Boyle brands PwC merger 'unfortunate'

Sir

I fully agree with Mr Boyle, CE of Financial Reporting Council, that the 10th anniversary of the merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers and Lybrand should make us re-think how such mergers are approved. At that time, I felt very strongly that outsiders like myself who are from smaller audit firms should be allowed to also review the 700-page justification document that was sent to the EU Competition Commission.

I then argued that the Financial Reporting Standards then were not fully in place to address the global issues, etc. and those should be addressed first and the mergers could be considered a few years later. KPMG and Ernst & Young had also applied at the same time.

The recent credit crunch in the banking sector where hundreds of banks have written off over 400 billion U S Dollars on long term loans, just in the past six months, indicates that the Big Four, because of their size, have not been able to discover all these weaknesses over the past 10 years. It is not a healthy audit environment. We need about 10 big audit firms, esp. as the Big Four audit 97% of the entire world’s major firms.

Your paper may wish to publish my letter dated 7 February 1998 and the EU Competition Commission reply dated 12 March 1998 verbatim in your newspaper. It may make interesting reading for all. Both are attached in PDF format.

Regards

Nagin Khajuria, FCCA

Director, Simplification Made Simple Limited

Chartered Certified Accountants & Statutory Auditors

Reg. Off. 54a Granville Road, London N12 0HJ

Co. Reg. No. 03446745

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Education,Tax and Culture

Published: Asian Voice

I refer to your editorial “Another young victim of gang culture” on Page 3, 30 August 2008. The death once again of a young person in Hackney, falling from the 7th floor of a block of flats, to escape from a hooded gang, makes us wonder what has gone wrong. 

Some recent statistics and social trends may provide some clues:

OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) carries out assessment of 15-year olds. The UK dropped from 4th to 14th place in science and mathematics in 2006 compared to 1998.

It may not all be bad schools and bad teachers. It could also be the excessive use of the Internet and video games. Parents need to switch off that television and video games and spend more time with their children.

Again it could be both parents working to make ends meet. Western economies should be restructured so that it should be possible for the idea of a male being the sole bread winner and the female being the housewife and the mother economically viable if that is what the young family wishes to chose to do. This is not something that should be discouraged by media or business or government as unthinkable or unworkable.

Almost 50% of young people never read any books. Reading on the Internet is not the same as real reading. And even on the Internet, only one out of 8 Americans read news on the Internet. Approximately, half of men from 18 to 34 spend nearly three hours a day playing video games. The same trend may come to the UK.

In a recent survey in America, two thirds of young people were unable to tell where Iraq was in a world map with all the countries of the world clearly marked. Nearly half of them think it is not necessary to know where a country in which important news is being made. 

According to Susan Jacoby, whose book called The Age of American Unreason is being published this month, there is a severe intellectual crisis in America and UK. 

Finally, the idea of independent taxation should be revisited and joint tax return for husband and wife should be re-introduced. In India the tax laws have the concept of a Hindu Family joint tax burden structure which could be copied in the UK that includes all family members. Individually, we have become too selfish.

Vote of Confidence to Decide UPA's Fate

Date: 26th July 2008

Published: Asian Voice

Vote of Confidence to Decide UPA's Fate

I refer to your editorial comment article “Vote of confidence to decide UPA’s fate” (AV 19 July p3) on the decisive vote in the Indian Parliament as regards the Indo-US civilian nuclear accord.

What is the better option for India?

In the eighties, Rata Tata, Jamshyd Godrej, Rahul Bajaj and Tarun Das, the Head of Confederation of Indian Industries used to go every year to the USA and try to meet CEOs there to get business. It took them one year to meet Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric who initially said he was not interested in India. India was corrupt. He did not want to do business with India.

It turned out that GE was one of the first American companies that started outsourcing work to India and now India is a world leader in information technology, business processes and knowledge processes outsourcing. A lot of credit goes to USA Inc.

This time the US has come to India to export their nuclear fuel processing technology. Should India say no? Or should it say yes and pay billions of dollars only recently saved up in dollar reserves? Is it a luxury or a necessity? I believe it is a luxury India does not need at this stage of its industrial development.

What if the next Albert Einstein is an Indian scientist? India could then export civilian nuclear fuel processing technology rather than import it, or at least do both. 

Will this accord also help Indian national security and its borders from invasion?

The Indian government’s Kirit Parikh report on integrated energy policy for India has forecast that even if a 20-fold increase takes place in India’s nuclear power supply by 2031-32, the contribution to India’s energy mix is at best expected to be 4-6%.

Should India put all its eggs in one basket? Apart from US, France, Sweden and Finland currently have the latest technology in civilian nuclear fuel technology. Why not join the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) based in Switzerland whose members include USA, most EU members, Israel, Japan, Russia and Turkey in lieu of a bilateral agreement with USA and the International Atomic Energy Agency?

The West has been wasteful in the use of energy for 50 years. Western habits at home, in modes of travel by car, train and plane, consumerism, over zealous production of manufactured goods are likely to change drastically as society becomes more caring towards the planet earth. The savings in the West may cushion the increased energy demand in the East.

Let India not hurry or be pushed into an agreement where its Parliament appears to be split in the middle. This is non-partisan issue and all MPs should vote in India’s long term national interest when they meet to ratify or reject this accord.

Nagin Khajuria FCCA

Time Management

Time Management

Stephen R Covey became famous when he wrote “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” on simple principles of prioritising tasks and time. He also founded, with his co-founder, Hyrum Smith, “Franklin Convey”, an international time management business with annual sales of $650 million. Some 50,000 people attend its seminars each month.

Time is the only resource that renews itself daily, yet once lost can never be replaced. Samuel Smiles was probably the first author who wrote about time management in 1859, with his phenomenal bestseller called “Self-Help”. This book has never been out of print since its publication 145 years ago. 

As Smile put it: “Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.

In children’s literature, a tale called “The Crown of Success”, portrayed hours and minutes as silver and copper coins that could be invested well or badly, or stolen by “procrastination”, “the thief of time”.

Arnold Bennett wrote “The Old Wives’ Tales” in 1908. In the same year, he sold a publisher the idea of a book called “How To Live on 24 Hours a Day”. In it, he advises how to carve out another day in a week in which you spend five and half days commuting and working. This extra day could be used for various improving exercises, such as training the memory, learning philosophy, studying music or economics, or reading classics.

On other side of the Atlantic, to-day’s re-engineering processes, lean production techniques and globally standardised products, such as the Big Mac, are all part of the legacy of time guru Frederick Winslow Taylor. It was in 1911, that he published his findings about the “one best way” to perform manual tasks in a series of academic papers.

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, the husband-and-wife team who used early moving-picture technology to develop “time and motion studies” were both engineers and great contributors to scientific time management.

In 1975, Claus Moller founded TMI, Time Management International, and was the first to offer a comprehensive time management system. It has grown into a “global learning” consultancy with independent companies licensing its programmes and products in 36 countries.

Work-life balance, the underlying issues such as heavy workloads, email overload---too much to do and too little time---and people struggling with goal setting, fire fighting and managing interruptions are still the same as they used to be.

Learning about time management is not a waste of time. Making time and learning to make the most of your time in 2005 could change your life in more than one way is our message to readers. Best Wishes for a Bright Future. 

Nagin Khajuria

Exxon Mobil: Understanding "Record Profits"

From: Nagindas Khajuria 

To: The Editor Business 

Sent: Monday, 31 January, 2005 9:02:10 AM

Subject: Exxon Mobil Profit Record Profit of $24 billion

Sir

I read your headline article on Exxon Mobil record profit of $24bn in 2004 with great interest having worked as an accountant in the oil industry for 12 years. This figure is meaningless as petroleum accounting is very complex and can easily produce misleading results: the accounting postulates (going concern, periodic determination of income and financial position and monetary unit), the accounting principles (matching principle, realisation principle, cost principle and conservatism) and the accounting standards (revenue versus capital expenditure, deferred tax and many others) applied by various oil companies are wide apart and there are no universal petroleum accounting practices that all of them adhere to.

In addition, there are always annual accounting adjustments every year for one reason or another that would make Exxon Mobil’s past six years’ average perhaps only slightly more meaningful at $16 billion pa. But even that is meaningless except as a % of average turnover or average capital employed. Just one year before Enron collapsed, Mac Kinsey Quarterly Report stated that Enron was then growing at 20% p. a. over the previous five years and it was a company “to buy in” and how misinformed such a prestigious Consultancy Firm was? Their research was not thorough enough.

One example I would give you is petroleum reserves. I do not dispute that it is a major asset of a company, nor do I dispute that its value should be measured. However, firstly estimation of the quantity of reserves is a highly subjective process: a) because several years of operating a reservoir may be required and b) equally competent engineers may still arrive at substantially different estimates. Secondly, under present ‘proration practices’ (laws and/or agreed practices where quotas are made not to produce more than demand on a rolling monthly basis), a reservoir may produce as long as 50 years into the future at varied, and sometimes unknown, price levels. This alone makes the application of ‘value principle’, rather than ‘realisation principle’ a technique of limited use.

In its simplest form, the objective of standard accounting practices is accomplished by three closely related processes: (1) measurement of the effects of transactions, (2) arrangement of related data, and (3) communication of the results to interested parties. Exxon Mobil’s record to date on these issues has not been adequate. 

Nagindas Khajuria

Big Brother and the EU Art of Double Speak

From: Nagindas Khajuria 

Publication: The Business

Date: Wednesday, 30 June, 2004 

Subject: Big Brother and the EU Art of Double-Speak

Sir

Your article by Allister Heath (Page 16 27/28 June) raising concern by business about EU charter, esp. about the Charter of Fundamental Rights, is preposterous.

What is wrong with the six articles of the charter that he mentions as of particular concern to business? Namely, "right to work", "worker's right to information and consultation", "rights of collective bargaining and action", "protection in the event of unjustified dismissal", "fair and just working conditions" and "the right to reconcile family and professional life"?

If business does not understand that these rights go hand in hand with higher productivity and accelerated economic growth, then business does not understand the difference between being authoritarian and being democratic. For the last 25 years, the Conservatives and now Labour have peddled the wrong policies and wrong message to the business community, bringing down UK productivity from being 6th in world league tables to 23rd. 

Finally, UK is controlled by US 60% of the time and by EU 20% of the time. Why is he bothered so much about EU control and not US control?

Nagindas Khajuria

Oil Reserves

From: Nagindas Khajuria 

Publication: Asian Voice 

Date: Friday, 27 April

Subject: Oil reserves

Your article on oil reserves and discovery of oil in Gujarat is interesting (Asian Voice 28 April to 4 May, 2007). My belief is that the Gujarat/Mumbai quantities would be quite small by world standards to result in strife, war, etc. like elsewhere.

The latest available statistics for 2000-01on India are: Oil reserves: 674, on-shore production 11.7 and off-shore production 16.6 Mn. tonnes respectively. India's energy use (oil equivalent) for that year was 531.5 Mn tons. The entire world's energy use for that year was 10,009.6 Mn tons. India thus used 5.3% of world energy produced. USA used 2,281 Mn tonnes (23%) and China 1,139 Mn tonnes (11.4%).

Worldwide oil reserves 2005, according to BP statistical review of world energy, were: Africa: 8%; Middle East 57%; US and Canada: 15.5%; Latin America: 9%; Former USSR: 6%; Asia Pacific: 3% and Europe: 1.5%.

World conflicts arise principally because the ratios of what is already produced to what still is remaining underground and what is yet to find are so different. E.g. US reserves were just over 28 billion tonnes, but 26 billion have already been produced. Iran's reserves were just over 18 billion tonnes and only 7 billion have been produced to date. Saudi Arabia has 40 billion tonnes out of which 12 billion has already been produced. What is yet to find is very little by comparison to what has already been found.

Exploration activity is becoming very expensive in the sense that companies are desparately trying to find the last trace of oil trapped underneath as the discovery rate is falling much faster then the production rate. Over the past 20 years, the discovry rate has fallen from about 80% of production rate to about 20% according to Dr Mamdouh G Salameh, an international oil economist (1999 OPEC review).

Nagin Khajuria

Caste Wars in the UK

From: Nagindas Khajuria 

Published: Asian Voice

Date: Saturday, 15 September, 2007

Subject: Caste Wars

Anuja Preshar's article (AV, Page 15, Sep 3) is extremely interesting. She is writing about the efforts being made by UK, US and German governments, 16 UK members of parliament and charities such as Christian Solidarity Worldwide, CARE, Christian Aid, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Christian Democrats and the International Democratic Union to target "Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes" in India. Their objective would be to "help them and give them aid" with a view to convert them Christianity and/or just to improve their lives and their future.

It is unfortunately still true that the upper classes, Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others still ill treat and discriminate against the lower and/or poorer classes, although not to the extent practised in the past. This is a challenge to this group to care and uplift these people in competition with the Europeans who could unwittingly destabilise the nation.

It is also unfortunately true that most of the above as well as others, who are now known as "Other Backward Classes" (OBCs) do not know how to read or write. Those known as "SCs" are scheduled caste, mainly harijans and, those known as "STCs" are scheduled tribal castes, also known as "adivasis".

Fortunately, our leaders had more vision than the above Europeans when India became independent. Part X of the Indian Constitution relates to "The Scheduled and Tribal Areas". Schedule V applies to the administration and control of Scheduled Areas (backward areas) and Scheduled Tribes in any other state other than the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram per article 244. The provisions of Schedule VI applies to the latter four states per article 245.

The Constitution enabled the Central and State Governments to implement positive discrimination in education, welfare, politics, health, etc. This has been practised for almost 60 years and the above groups size of those below the poverty line has been reduced from about 50% to 60% to 20% to 30%. There have been annual or periodic reports on their conditions and there are two Commissions, one for scheduled tribes and one for scheduled castes who regularly monitor their welfare.

Recently, there have been some problems when illiterate persons are granted seats in parliaments and state governments because of the reservation system, and some of these people are now known as "vote banks" and are being manipulated by the more educated or wealthier members of parliament, etc. Those who engage in such practises should surely be prosecuted and punished heavily. Still this should not let us lose the wider benefits the lower castes have benefited from overall. Minorities, esp. black and brown skinned, continue to be discriminated against specially in Europe and U S, Canada, and Australia. Perhaps it is time they introduce some positive discrimination in their favour to counter balance the prejudice.

Finally, I believe the Indian Constitution has provided for abolition of affirmative action and reserved seats for scheduled castes and tribes 60 years from the inception of the Constitution. So time may be coming soon when all Indians will be equal in the eyes of the law in India.

Nagin Khajuria

Glimmer of Hope on Indo US Nuclear Deal

From: Nagindas Khajuria 

Published: Asian Voice 

Sent: Saturday, 3 November, 2007 

Subject: Glimmer of hope on Indo-US nuclear deal

Sir,

Your Comment article (P3, AV 3 Nov) refers to senior figures in the Opposition BJPmaking soothing noises about the Indo-Nuclear Deal to Congress sees a glimer of hope. AV editorial continues to take the view that Indian growth is severely handicapped by shortage of power and that this deal is in the national interest. My belief is that both BJP and Congress are naive and mistaken in not realising that the deal is against India's national interest, whether you look at it from any of the political, economic, social, environmental, military or technology dimensions.

Political: Britain has a "special relationship" with USA. India will be perceived to have entered into a "special relationship" with USA. India is still 137th in terms of human development index compared to USA. Do we need a big brother at this stage of our development? India is not Iraq or Iran, but if we sign the deal, 100 years own the line, our fate will be similar to Iraq or Iran.

Economic: France now gets close to 80% of its electricity from 59 nuclear plants operated through the state owned Electricite de France and a private partner. USA has 104 plants but none ordered since 1970s. Finland is now building its 5th nuclear plant, the largest in the world. Did these countries sign a "bilateral nuclear deal" with USA?

Social: India currently scores on all three counts. Politically it is free and democratic. Economically, it is prosperous and is making itself more equitable. And socially, it is relatively peaceful and cohesive. Most Western countries have democracy and prosperity, but they suffer from social disintegration. The nations in the East have prosperity and social cohesion, but they suffer under political authoritarian regimes. If the deal is signed, we shall lose this unique position scoring all the three counts forever.

Environmental: The key advantage of nuclear power is give cleaner fuel and bridge the gap between fossil fuels and alternative energy sources. Current annual CO-2 footprint is 25.9 tonnes (US resident), 11.6 tonnes (UK resident) and 0.9 tonnes (African resident). With such high foot print, it makes sense to have nuclear plants in US and Europe, but not so in India or Africa. To improve India's energy needs and control pollution in India, there are at least 15 other alternative energy sources apart from nuclear that India could implement.

Military: After the Indo-Nuclear Deal, US and Western Europe, want to sell fighter bombers to India with nuclear war heads as a counter measure to the threat of invasion from China. This fear is instilled in Indian minds, but then why could the Chinese not think, that if India had such nuclear military power, India may not invade China? This is a old divide and rule tactic on a very grand scale. 170 million people were killed in the 20th century in wars. Do we want to continue this in the 21st century?

Technology cooperation: For the past 50 years, USA may have cooperated, for example, in computer software and business process outsourcing services extensively with India, but so it has in computer hardware, in electronics, and manufacturing with China. Why or how come suddenly India needs an Indo-Nuclear Pact to somehow continue this technology transfer, while China does not. Hardware and software go hand in hand and we are no where near making any dent in our technical know how simply by signing such a deal. All we shall do is pay them a lot of money for what we could accomplish much more cheaply by learnig over time by ourselves or in collaboration with other nations who do not want to charge an arm or leg or tie as as their "poodle". A lot of countries now think UK is USA's poodle when it comes to UK's foreign policy.

The solution? Different parts of India will need different solutions to its energy needs. Apply and work in all directions. Some ideas are: harness energy produced by alternative sources in a more efficient manner. Some examples given by Pacala and Socolo are as objectives to achieve by 2054: Double vehicle fuel economy and cut distance travelled per car in half; install fluorescent bulbs in all the world's 50 billion light fixtures; improve the efficiency of coal-fired power stations from 40% to 60% and cut in half the energy lost when fossil fuels are extracted, processed and delivered to those plants; there are currently 30,000 wind turbines worldwide of the standard one-megawatt size, increase them to 2 million; a 700-fold expansion of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy; a 50-fold expansion in ethanol; halt current deforestation and double the current rate of reforestation; make farmers avoid ploughing and thus reduce the amount of CO-2 escaping from tilled soil; add 700 one-gigawatt nuclear plants; quadruple the use of natural gas in power plants to replace equal number of coal-fired plants and finally capture carbon emitted by large fossil-fuel plants and store it underground. My own addition would be to harness biomass generated by house and garden waste, cattle dung, etc. more scientifically to generate more electricity, stop electricity generating board employees in India stealing sometimes about 40% of the electricity generated due to poorly managed financial controls, etc. 

Nagin Khajuria

Tibet

From: Nagindas Khajuria 

Publication: Asian Voice 

Sent: Tuesday, 20 May, 2008

Subject: The Rape of Tibet

The invasion of Tibet by China in 1950. Was it really "the Rape of Tibet?". I am referring to the article by Mr Gandhi to you (AV, 17 May, P4) on the plight of Tibetans. I do not think so at all.

World Bank economists, Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion, estimated that roughly 1.1 billion people were living in extreme poverty in 2001, down from 1.5 billion in 1981. United Nations has long used a complicated statistical standard-income of $1 per day per person, measured at purchasing power parity to define extreme poverty.

China and East Asia accounted for 800 million of those in extreme poverty in 1981. This group, mainly China, managed to reduce this figure to 260 million by 2001. Surely Tibetans would have benefited along with all other Chinese in this area as well as in all it progress and prosperity in every direction: e.g. average GDP growth rate of 6-8% every year for 50 years.

By comparison, India and South Asia accounted for 470 million in extreme poverty in 1981. This group, mainly India, managed to reduce this figure to a still a very high 415 million in extreme poverty by 2001.

Which ideology is better? Capitalism or Communism? In the former, man exploits man, In the latter, it is the other way round: man exploits man. Recent history has proved that none of the two systems are superior to the other. Let us not forget that Russia until recently was the second most powerful country in the world. Now China has proved with their "system of communism" that in many ways they are the most successful country in the world, BUT only to a certain level. In the Human Development Index (HDI) prepared by the U N Development Programme on a scale of 0-1, measured by three key components-longevity, knowledge and income, each measured by several parameters, China still comes 81st and India 126th in descending order among 177 countries. Recent events are beginning to prove that the entire world financial system, as the backbone of capitalism, could be fundamentally flawed.

China's and India's population growth will hamper their progress for generations to come and there is no way they can catch up with the West unless they work together with the West and ensure that the West also progresses and continues to buy their goods and services. In a sense the world is flat now and either everyone grows or every one falls behind. After all, China would not have been given a permanent seat at the Security Council of the UN, if that were not the case.

While it may be true that some Tibetans who want autonomy or independence may be suppressed, the Chinese culture, values and beliefs are as strong, if not stronger, that the Tibetans or the Indians. That is why they have outpaced both the Tibetans as well as the Indians. That is why they are not likely to ethnically cleanse the Tibetans nor invade neighbouring countries because they are wiser than that and also because in any case, the other countries all all protected by the Himalayan mountain range thick impenetrable border. Again, China has a separate Minister in charge of Ethnic Affairs. Which other country has such a minister? 

Some of the factors that has enabled China to succeed so well and so fast are:

The Chinese culture: "the key factor is actually a country's cultural endowments, particularly the degree to which it has internalised the values of hard work, thrift, honesty, patience and tenacity, as well as the degree to which is is open to change, new technology and equality for women" according to economist David Landes, in his book The Wealth and Poverty of Nations". In U N Gender Empowerment Index, the Chinese rank 0.5 in the range of 0-1 while India does not even feature in this Index.

The Chinese values and beliefs: the Chinese believe in the fusion of three great religions: Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. They account for over 700 million people worldwide. They have believed in this for the past two and half thousand years. In that sense, they are no inferior to the Buddhists of Tibet. Confucianism, rather than a religion, is a set of moral and social values designed to bring the ways of the citizen and governments into harmony with each other.

The five Confucian virtues are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness. Instead of God, it has five hierarchical relationships as the prerequisites in a well educated society: ruler to the ruled, son to father, younger brother to elder brother, wife to husband and the only relationship which is equal--friend to friend. The Government may be atheist, but the people are not.

Tao literally translates as the "Way". It implies the Way of Nature whose underlying principle and source of all being is the bond that unites man and nature. Its message is to take no action that runs against nature.

The Chinese economic policy: under the vision of Deng Ziaoping, vice chairman of the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party, from 1976 and again in 1992, China followed an "open door policy" for foreign investment and collaboration as opposed to Tibet that had historically closed its doors to outsiders all along until the Chinese came along and conquered them. The latter opened up the country to the whole wide world and has definitely improved the lives of the Hans, who represent 92% of the Chinese population, as well as all ethnic minorities who represent the remaining 8% including the Tibetans.

One should not forget that the massive Tibetan plateau at an average height of 4500 metres above the sea level, is guarded on all sides by towering mountain ranges: the Himalayas separate Tibet from India, Nepal and Bhutan to the south, the Karakoram from Pakistan to the west and the Kunlun from Xinjiang to the north. The plateau is the birthplace not only of the Indus, Brahmaputra and Sutlej rivers, but also the Yangzi, Mekong Yellow and Salween rivers in the east. Mr Gandhi's article fails to mention the Chinese rivers.

Finally, let us not follow the war mongering language or the divide and rule policy of splitting communities and countries which have shown that working together they could achieve far more than working as two independent countries entangled into an imaginary battle of ideology. The Tibetans are better off within China rather than without China. India also better make best use of the huge market potential of Chinese middle class so close to it by healthy cooperation and competition rather than taking a confrontational attitude without due reflection on its long term objectives, values and beliefs.

Nagin Khajuria

Israel at 60

From: Nagindas Khajuria 

Publication: Asian Voice

Date: Monday, 26 May 2008

Subject: Israel at 60

Sir

I refer to your editorial on Israel at 60 (AV 24 May p3). While I agree that India should foster stronger ties with Israel in all areas, one cannot put the blame on stalemate in Jewsih Patestinian relations more on the Arabs. Both group are equally to blame and Israel has often been ruthless in its treatment of Palestinians during those 60 years. It has also ignored many U N resolutions simply because of their strategic presence near all the oil rich Arab countries and have got away with it because of West's geo-political interests in that region.

I beg to disagree that the "Arabs repaid India with indifference laced with contempt" in return for India delaying the exchange of diplomatic missions with Israel until January 1992, even though India reconginsed Israel 58 years ago as a soverign state.

Currently there are virtually thousands of Indian citizens and/or persons of Indian origin (PIOs) who work, do business and live in Arab states: Indian citizens :Kuwait 294,000; Oman 311,000; Qatar 130,000; Saudi Arabia 1,500,000, UAE 900,000 compared to 300 in Israel.

In addition, PIOs or Persons of Indian origin who work, do business and live in Arab or Muslim states are: Malasia 1,600,000; UAE 50,000, Yemen 100,000 compared to 45,000 in Israel.

Private remittances to India in 2004-05 were 14,494,000,000 US Dollars. Some of this was surely from Arab countries. In Sudan, India has invested just under US $1 billion in equity in oil exploration and production activities. India imported petroleum, oil and lubricants to the value of 29,844,000,000 US Dollars in 2004-05. Some of it is surely again from Arab states.Current imports from U.A.E in 2004-05 were 4,582,000,000 US Dollars and exports to U.A.E. were 7,098,000,000 US Dollars.

In these hundreds of thousands who go abroad to work for India, there will be Muslims as well as Hindus and others. While a minority may be terrorists, the silent majority could be decent law abiding citizens or PIOs loyal to their Indian homeland.

Israel is not the only democracy in that region. Most Arab states treat their national and foreign workers fairly, have central and local governments, municipalities, rule of law, etc. etc. and not despotic or autocratic as Western media like us to believe. I worked and lived in Libya for four years in and oil exploration and production company and me and my family were treated with the utmost respect as Hindus. 

Nagin Khajuria

Nuke Deal Jitters

From: Nagindas Khajuria 

To: Editor, Asian Voice

Sent: Sunday, 29 June

Subject: Nuke deal jitters

Dear Ms Dutta

Your leader article “Nuke Deal Jitters” (AV p1 28 June) advises that the Left-UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Joint Committee will meet on Wednesday 2 July 2008 to discuss the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Agreement. The world community will perceive it to be both a peaceful and military cooperation agreement. A hundred years later, historians will be able to condemn or praise their vision.

USA’s military or ‘hard’ power is strongest in the world. In addition, its “soft” power is Hollywood, McDonalds, Microsoft, American universities, Boeing, Intel, MTV, Coca Cola, Kodak, etc. With the help of its European and Far East allies, it has become widely accepted as a way of life among the developed world.

India’s military or hard power is enough to defend itself against any aggression without the need to become a U S protégé such as Israel. India’s soft power is its rich heritage since 3012 BC, Bollywood, pluralism, democracy, cuisine, fashion, vegetarianism, non-violence, scriptures, pluralism, yoga, meditation, spirituality, etc.  Currently India has a Roman Catholic ruling political party President, a Sikh Prime Minister and until recently a Muslim Head of State.

USA and Europeans belong to developed, wealthier 50 or so nations with some degree of inner superiority complex. India belongs to the developing or under developed group of 150 or so nations representing the less fortunate group as a whole. The latter group’s way of life is superior in maintaining the biodiversity and beauty of this planet and is more sustainable and sensible all way round.

When you watch Wimbledon tennis, or the European League Football Championships, you cannot fail to realize the over-representation from the former 50 countries and the under-representation from the latter 150 countries.

Although the latter group belong to a body called “The Commonwealth”, the wealth is more common among some nations and less common among other nations.

At this time in the history of India, members should remember and reflect upon the following:

· OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) was formed in 1961 to assist member states to develop economic and social policies aimed at high sustained economic growth with financial stability. Its 29 members are Canada, European Union members, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Switzerland, Turkey, Korea and USA. It has helped these countries become so successful in 50 years. It is based in Paris.

· OECD started as OEEC (Organisation for European Economic Co-operation) in 1948 after World War II. Its name was changed to OECD when non-Europeans were allowed to become members from 1961.

· NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) was founded in 1975 after India carried out a nuclear test in 1974. Its 45-member nuclear supplier group includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Cyprus, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malta, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, all European Union members and USA.

The protest rally in Mumbai last Tuesday by Jammat-E-Islam against India’s possible civilian nuclear deal and the Communist Party members are right to throw this baby out of the water. The main parties should be grateful to them to open their eyes. Why should Israel have nuclear weapons and not Iran?

USA and European foreign policies have been misguided for the past 50 years. They have concentrated more on the weapons of mass destruction and less on the weapons of mass salvation.

According to Jeffrey D Sach, he says on page 287 of his book called “Economics for a Crowded Planet – Common Wealth”:

“The Middle East has experienced a century of Western imperial meddling. Britain and the United States toppled governments (Iran in 1953, Iraq in 1968), supported wars (Iran-Iraq in 1980-87), tolerated tyrants when convenient (Saddam Hussein in the 1970s and 1980s), and toppled them when inconvenient (Saddam Hussein in 2003). The United States supported Osama bin Laden and his mujahedeen in the Afghan civil war (against Soviet Union) only to help create Al-Qaeda”.

Some of the US Government's policies are now in need of change. Their military and overseas spending in 2007 was US $572 billion in military, 11 billion on international security, 14 billion in overseas development aid and 11 billion for diplomatic functions. Can they explain the rationale behind such behaviour?

In the 21st century, the country that spends more on development aid will steal the march from US to be the next world leader.

Nagin Khajuria, FCCA

Amarnath - The Politics of Religion

From: Nagindas Khajuria

To: Asian Voice

Sent: Sunday, 6 July, 2008 

Subject: Land of Amarnath Yatris trigges political tremors

I feel very sad about the events described in your article “Land of Amarnath Yatris triggers political tremors” (P1 & 30, also P4, .AV 5 July). While holy places have spiritual energy, our entire life is a pilgrimage and the real temple is a place of inner worship.

The tit for tat subsidy dispute between the Amarnath Cave Shrine for Hindu pilgrims and Haj flights for Muslims in Kashmir is a symptom, not the disease. The immense potential in the state will continue to remain unutilised until a permanent solution is reached.

The disease is the inability of both countries peoples to resolve the issue while their leaders continue to bury their heads into the sand.

Pakistan invaded the state on 22 October 1947 and secured 78,114 sq. km (35%). China invaded the Aksai Chin part of Ladakh and managed to secure 42,839 sq.km (19%) and India has ended up keeping 101,283 sq.km (46%) out of the original 222,236 sq. km (100%). Maharaja Hari Singh had signed the instrument of Accession to India on 26 October 1947 and that should have been honoured by Pakistan and China.

The population facts are: Pakistan 150 million Muslims (12%), Bangladesh 138 million Muslims (11%) and India has 138 million Muslims (11%) and 828 million Hindus (66%). Total sub-continent population is 1,254 million excluding Shri Lanka. Overall about 34% Muslims and about 66% Hindus live side by side. All originally “Indians” over 2000 years.

Nargis Dutt (real name Fatima A Rashid), Madhubala (real name Begam Mumtaz Jehan Dehlavi, Mohammed Rafi, Shah Rukh Khan, and many more are cherished and enjoyed with equal force by both Hindus and Muslims.

The ethnic, religious and linguistic conflicts of 10 million people in Jammu and Kashmir have had most damaging repercussions on the welfare of 1,254 million people over the past 60 years.

In the 2004 general elections, in Jammu and Kashmir, of a total of 87 seats, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference won 28, Indian National Congress 20, Peoples Democratic Party 16 and Independent Party 13.

Across India, in 2004 Congress and its allies won 218 seats; National Democratic Alliance won 187 seats, Left and its allies 60 and others 64.

It is incomprehensible why these political parties are fighting among each other on religious, ethnic and linguistic grounds while they should be fighting on social justice issues such as literacy skills, education, health, equal opportunity, clean drinking water, shelter, etc. Surely the latter should be the battleground for the coming general elections in 2009.

Punjab-Haryana-Delhi (PHD) Chamber of Commerce based in Delhi now covers 10 states and one union territory, namely Chhatisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Madya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and the Union territory of Chandigarh. It is known as PHDCCI. It was formed in 1905. These states together account for 40% to 45% of India's GDP. "PDH" became an accronym for Progress-Harmony-Development since 1981 when other states joined the Chamber.

It has compiled important data on Jammu and Kashmir and how it compares with other Indian states. Please visit www.phdcci.in. Its per capita income in 20005-06 was Rs 17,463 compared to the national average of Rs 21,005. Its urban population is 25%. Its literacy rate 55%. It has 75 towns and 6,653 villages.

The principal crops are rice, barley, apples, and saffron. Major industries are handicrafts, sericulture, horticulture and tourism. I flew to Srinagar from Delhi in 1976. The view below from the aircraft was like heaven on earth: Switzerland multiplied by 1000 times.

In Srinagar, I and my wife were received by Mr & Mrs Lal. Mr Lal was then the Governor. We had become their friends during the previous two years when Mr Lal was First Secretary at the Indian Embassy in Tripoli, Libya and I was working for Umm Al-Jawaby Petroleum Company as an Internal Auditor for four years.

Both countries have lost billions of dollars of tourist revenue because of this bitter greed on both sides to hang on to status quo and/or rely on a feeble United Nations to resolve the issue which they themselves can easily resolve if they had a modicum of common sense.

My message to both countries is: stop dithering on the Heaven on Earth piece of land and get cracking on attracting tourists after a permanent solution is implemented by mutual long lasting agreement.

Nagin Khajuria

Gordon Brown -- Is he a Charlie?

From: Nagindas Khajuria
To: Asian Voice
Sent: Monday, 16 June, 2008
Subject: Gordon Brown -- Is he a Charlie?

Dear Ms Anjana Dutta

I refer to “Gordon Brown – is he a Charlie? Article (Kapil’s Khichadi, AV 24 May p11) and Arun Vaidyanathan response (AV 7 June p 4) on the 10P fiasco, etc and whether we should continue the voting system of first past the post (FPTP) or move in the direction of proportional representation.

It is my firm belief that reform of the electoral system is urgent now. The FPTP voting system and the predominance of the two parties over the past 40 years has meant that the country was run in a divided rather than a united way as far as long term investment in key areas is concerned.

Primary and secondary school system, world class vocational training institutes, integrated transport system, utilities companies, affordable housing, energy policy, health prevention, pollution, unhealthy market supremacy of supermarkets has suffered so badly that UK is well behind most developed countries in all these areas. Such plans should be agreed jointly by all three parties for at least 25 to 30 years ahead.

This has not been possible because of the 70% safe seats, 35% each of Conservative and 35% Labour constituencies which have not changed for 40 years. The former believe in the efficiency of the market system and a lean minimum government. The latter believes in protecting the working class. None of this is relevant to a good government.

Government’s role and ethos of its representative should be that of serving the public or “service”. The market system’s ethos should rightly be the pursuit of “profits”. The proliferation of quangos in lieu of either fully fledged private institution or fully fledged public sector body, the intrusion of the market system in NHS and PPPs (public private partnerships) has meant that MPs, MEPs, Councillors are lured in to going into politics sometimes for financial gain and sometimes to serve the public. Once they are there, they want to keep their positions for much longer that is warranted.

If you start from the first British Prime Minister 1721 to 1742, Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Oxford to the 71st current British Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown (2007 onwards), 49 of them were educated mostly at Oxford and a few at Cambridge Universities.

Most other developed countries have already adopted some degree of proportional representation system of voting for decades by now. Only that way more people and their ideas can filter through the machinery of government at central and local levels.

The Conservatives have their right leg in the US and their left leg in Europe. Labour has its right leg in Europe and left leg in US. The Liberal Party has been winning votes but not seats. As a result foreign policy, immigration and defence have got into a right muddle.

Between 30 to 40 per cents of MP, MEP and Local Councillors seats have been “safe” seats for generations after generations between Conservatives and Labour. The other 20 to 40 per cent of those voting keep floating between these three parties based upon short term propaganda, intensive publicity, deliberate exaggeration and obfuscation of facts to gain an upper edge over the other party.

The most recent example of this is the 10P fiasco. In fact it was not a fiasco at all. Nor did it hurt the poor so badly. It was a very clever use of hype, hyperbole and obfuscation. The true situation was about 18 million poor people earned taxable income of about £17,000 per year in 2006/07. Their approximate tax bill was: first £5,000 no tax, on the next £2,300 the tax @ 10% was £230 and the next £9,700 @ £22% was £2,134, making total tax payable of £2,364. (18 million included 6 million part timers with 2 jobs, 6 million women and 6 million household joint incomes).

In tax year 2007/08, the same 18 million again earned about £17,000 per year (£1400 per month or £325 per week). They paid no tax on the first £5,000 and on the balance of £12,000 they paid or will pay 20% that is £2,400.

The extra tax these 18 million individuals paid was £36 per year or £3 per month (£2,364 in 2006/07 and £2,400 in 2007/08. Yet the hype was so dramatic by the media barons that wool was pulled over the eyes of 18 million people and Mr Brown fell from grace, a hero of the past decade, turned into a zero of the new decade.

In 1983, 43.5% of voters voted for Conservatives, 28.3% voted for Labour and 26.1% for Lib-SDP, and 2.1% others. Conservatives won 397 seats, Labour 209 and Lib-SDP 23 seats and 4 others. If it was based upon proportional representation, the seat allocation would have been 277 seats Conservatives, 180 Labour 166 Lib-Lab, and 9 seats others.

In 1983, the population eligible to vote, that is over 18 was about 45 million. Those who voted totalled 30 million that is 67% of the population. If you multiply 67% by 43.5% you get the true votes the Conservatives got in that year. It was 29% of those eligible to vote. They formed a majority Conservative government based upon this 29% on the First- Past- The- Post system. How can you call this true democracy?

50% to 60% of social classes A, B and C1 voted about Conservatives in 1983, 1987 and 1992 elections. 60% to 70% of social classes C2, D and E voted Labour in 1983, 1987 and 1992.

The following are the current voting systems available to the general public in the UK:

First past the post system: the current system used to elect MPs—whoever gets the most votes in a constituency wins, even if they secure a minority of all votes cast.

Alternative Vote (AV): a system whereby candidates are ranked by electors and redistributed until a candidate with 50% support emerges.

AV plus system: this is what Lord Jenkins recommended when he was asked to examine changes to the electoral system in May 1997. Here a small top-up list of MPs with no specific constituencies would be elected according to their share of vote in different areas.

Single Transferrable Vote (STV): multi-member seats elected by proportional representation—system favoured by Liberal Democrats.

In substance, there are really two systems: the list system and the single transferrable vote system. The case against it is that it does not produce a majority government, but unstable coalitions and breaks the bond between MPs and their constituencies.

I do not believe that is the case. Coalitions can be sensible and stable and can act in the long term interest of the country. India is a prime example currently with 85 political parties. Minority parties can bring in fresh ideas, diversity and challenge decisions that are taken so often for political gain, reversed when the next party comes, and again reversed back the first party comes back in power. Such activities waste billions of pounds which the public would otherwise see in fairer wealth, jobs and income distribution.

Finally, there is hardly any bond between the members of a constituency and an MP. They are normally too high headed and almost impossible to meet up informally. All you can do is to communicate with them in an impersonal way. Most citizens’ experience is going once every five year to vote and then all is forgotten until next 5 years elapses.

Nagin Khajuria