Wednesday, June 21, 2006

A letter to Thiru S Gurumurthy.

I had read your recent articles in the New Indian Express on the petrol price & on rupee valuation.

I fully agree with you. The thought on the appreciation of rupee against the dollar and other currencies has been lingering in my mind for several years. I have started blogging on this subject from 22/10/2005.


A series of blog on the subject : 22/10/2005. Forex Dilemma!! to 01/06/2006 Forex Dilemma 4 is available at http://moorthykmd.blogspot.com

India has always been looked at by the entire world for its intellectual and original thinking capabilities. Here we find that the rulers and policy makers are merely copying what the west and east are trying to do. India is unique in many ways and the western or eastern models are unlikely to work. Policies and methods need to designed with the situation in India.

Merely following the models of other weak nations in depreciating our currency does not work. The whole nation is suffering today because of the lack of vision and wisdom to see the welfare of the citizens.

Prices of Gold, metal like copper and aluminium, petroleum, real estate, stocks, etc etc are going up basically because the policy makers have failed to utilise the forex of 140 billion dollars.

We will continue to attract more outsourcing in menial work and body shopping than any respectable software development and exports. Today a employee in a bpo with bare minimum experience draws a salary of Rs 7,000 but that's what even managers carrying huge responsiblites in many small scale industries get. The cost equations are different. The ssi or sme has to work on rupee costing basically to cater to the pericing for indian consumer and indian taxation whereas the bpo is working on dollar revenues @ 46 times the rupee with ZERO tax. The contribution by the manager working for the sme is much more than what a bpo employee contributes. The intellectual capabilites are also different. The bpo employee would not get to even a fifth if he were to work in a sme. It is unlikely that he gets employed first. Most of the bpo employees are unemployable in other industries or businesses.

Todays unrealistic rise in real estate prices both for commercial and housing are as a result of Dollar investment in IT office space and non indian pay packets of the employees of IT companies.
People in Bangalore would be able to explain better. They are the worst sufferers. The rise in commercial space prices have made owning them by indian companies a dream. The rise in the housing space prices have resulted that only people with non indian salaries and income can afford with the support of large housing loans. An average indian can not even afford to dream of owning a flat or a house in the city.

Today in the farm sector near the cities, there are no farm hands to work even at high wages rendering farming activity loss making. More industrial estates are developed to the fancy of the foreign investor. Industrial estates should rather be developed to utilise waste lands and not by converting agricultural lands. You are reducing the agricultural land area of the nation gradually. You can build factories and buildings on any land but you cannot cultivate rice and wheat on any land.



Today's rulers and policy makers are neglecting the interests of 99.9 % of the population but are only keen on doling favours to the 0.01 % . They are yet to get freedom in their mindset. Naxalite menace, terrorism, suicide by farmers, under development of some regions etc are some of the results of the inappropriate policies. Immediate changes are essential. We the people are being punished for electing people not suitable for the offices they hold.

Dhakshina Moothy, K.M.

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