Book Review - Aadhaar India's 12 Digit Revolution

Couldn't find a better book to read at a time when Aadhaar and the controversies surrounding it have become a daily affair. Right from data privacy to where Aadhaar can be used are debated and legislations framed on this basis.

Coming to the book it a well researched book by the author and covers the entire period from when the project was conceptualised and the key players and decision makers involved in making this project stand on its feet as of today. The Congress govt under MMS had desperately wanted Aadhaar to succeed at a time when the economy wasn't doing well and cases of corruption against the government had reached an all time high, the mood was of gloom and the state of the Government finances were in a extremely bad shape and the govt had marketed Aadhar as one of the ways to reduce corruption and ensure all benefits reach the intended beneficiaries.

The opposition on the other hand from day one weren't too convinced about this project as there were numerous attempts in the past to create a national registry but no one of them took full shape. In spite of numerous objections the Congress govt implemented Aadhar under the UIDAI and stated the national roll out in 2010.

Once the new government was in place in 2014, the same government that had opposed Aadhar had to now look at things more pragmatically and after consultation with various stake holders including the man behind it Nandan Nilekani the NDA gave Aadhar legal backing with a statutory status and ever since have backed this project.

Points to learn from this book is the kind of parliamentary procedures involved in passing and framing laws, the scale of this huge project and the no of use cases it could handle, the importance of getting the right talent be it from the private sector or within the government itself is critical in deciding the success or failure of a project.

A worthwhile read of you want to know about one of the biggest biometric citizen identification projects in the world which will be case study in the years to come.

Before questioning Mallya should we also ask why not also question Air India.

This is probably the best time for the aviation industry not only in India but the world over. Almost all well managed Aircraft operators have been making profits thanks to the low crude prices for the last couple of years and the story is no different in India however there is one exception to this and the company that has not been able to become profitable in such benign conditions is the state carrier Air India. It is well known fact that Air India has been a sucker for public funds for many years and every other government has only diverted money into Air India from other key social projects just to keep the Airline floating or rather flying.

What we have witnessed in the last few months in terms of the banks going after Mallya who owes banks a sum of 9000 crs is a welcome step but going by the same logic the banks should have also gone after Air India whose combined debt runs into more than 40000 crs. Why arent the public sector banks taking this step , why arent they held accountable for the huge debt that Air India is sitting on. The close nexus between politics and the Babudom exposes this truth.

Old private air carriers like Jet and even the relatively new ones like Indigo or even Spice jet have figured out what needs to be done to remain profitable but Air India inspite of being present for decades hasnt still got the right mix . Even if Air India is closed down it will not impact the Airline industry in any way as the market share of Air India is only about 15% which can be made good by the private players.A bloated organization like Air India will continue to extract money as we have seen in the past and all the half hearted attempts to make it professional have gone down the drain.Unpaid vendors , pending bills from the Government , improper route planning are ailing problems that have now become legacy problems with the Airline.

In in current form with its networth being wiped off years back no investor will want to touch the company, the only way forward is to write off all the debt and start of on a clean state and make it favorable for private operators to invest in the company. The airline has been around for a while now and has a huge fleet with experienced staff, alliance partners across major routes and also all necessary permissions at major international airports. It is up to the Government on how they will want to capitalize on this while inviting bids from private players. It is high time Government gets out of the business of running airlines if for any strategic reason they might want to still hold a stake it should be limited to about 15-20% and the rest should be offloaded to public or private investors.

The Narendra Modi Government's recent election victories have given it a thumping majority to push forward such reforms and it is time they bite the bullet .

India's vision for mobility - Can India replicate the Telecom revolution for its electric cars.

The NITI Aayog's recommendation to have a deadline of 2032 for all cars to be only electric is surely a welcome sign. On the face of it I am sure it will make most of the people who work in the area of sustainable living give this a thumbs up. The recommendations to the government 

 include lower tax and interest rates on loans to buy these cars. This step will mark a key shift in a market which is the second fastest growing passenger car market for conventional cars in the world.

A similar scenario has happened in India almost a decade and half back when land line phone were still penetrating households in India and tele density was in its growth phase and the mobile revolution took over India. With the opening up of the telecommunications sector and private sector investment pouring in the sector grew phenomenally over the next decade.Call rates fell dramatically and at the end almost every other Indian had a mobile phone connection. The shift from landline phones to mobile phones was a quantum leap. Even before people could own a landline phone the mobile telecom industry was in place to ensure that every citizen could now afford a mobile phone.

Can we expect the same in the case of cars, can the shift from conventional cars to electric cars be replicated in the same way as the telecom revolution,can we avoid the mistake that developed markets in the west made of going through the entire cycle of owing conventional cars and then shifting to Hybrids before finally moving to Electric vehicles? The answer is yes but it comes with its own caveats. There are many steps that should happen for this vision to become a reality in the coming decade. Most important addressable issue is on the cost part of the battery and the charging infrastructure around it. The government must subsidize battery manufacturers to bring the cost of cars on par with regular cars. Enough charging points , standardized batteries for all cars is also something that the NITI Aayog has recommended. Incentivizing electric cars used as Taxi's with lower per kilometer charges is also another welcome step.

The commission had also planned to have a restriction by way of a lottery on the sale of conventional cars, however this does not make sense at this stage in a nascent market like India and will have a negative impact on the entire ecosystem. With limited and pathetic public transport this will be shooting oneself in the foot.

Currently India has only one electric vehicle maker which is the Mahindra group the makers of Reva. Ever since Mahindra has taken over Reva they have consistently been investing in technology to make the car better on all aspects. There has been talks of Tesla the American EV giant also wanting to enter India, the company in its latest press release denied that they will not want to enter India anytime soon as there were some restrictions in terms of percentage of local components sourcing. Any such conditions should be sorted out on a case to case basis and competition should be encouraged to come and invest in India. This will not just ensure that the consumer gets the latest technology but also competition ensures that the best practices in the industry are shared by all manufacturers. In an industry which is still get its feet on the ground this is the need of the hour.

The target to go fully electric by 2032 is a bold one but surely not one that cannot be achieved !!

What next in the fight against black money

The fight against back money is a long drawn battle and each step will progressively help if not in totally eliminating black money but at least reducing the avenues that generate black money. By black money our definition in this case is money on which tax is not paid.

There are many steps taken so far like appointment of Special Investigation Team , Voluntary Disclosure of income scheme and the latest being demonetization. All of them may not have yielded the desired outcomes but have in a sense indicated the positive bias of the government to take decisions instead of leaving things as status quo. The next steps needed to further curb generation of black money should be more radical.

First and foremost the government must consider doing is to legalize betting. It is common knowledge that be it cricket betting or football betting or even betting on outcomes of certain events the amount of money that changes hands in cash runs into a few thousand crores. Countries like UK have legalized betting for a long time now and have established legal bookmakers who take bets on various sporting encounters , football being the most popular one. A similar system can be implemented here in India as well. Once betting is legalized it not only brings back a lot of this unaccounted cash into the system but also helps the government in collecting tax from betting operators. A case to support this horse race betting which is legal and is prevalent for a long time. If the numbers are to be noted the Karnataka government earns about 150-200 crores annually from the horse racing authorities in Bengaluru. With the popularity of cricket I am sure the money flowing into legal betting channels will be much more and so will the tax collected and all of this will not only add to the kitty of the government but will also remove the hassles for punters to bet with some shady unknown operators.

The second radical move to curb black money generation is to ensure that all agriculturists also start filling their returns. The NITI Ayog has suggested that they will want the government to start taxing all farmers but considering the current situation and the state of our farmers most of whom are marginal this does not seem to be a viable option. It should not come as a surprise that many people have misused this loophole of zero tax on farm income and hence have used to convert the money generated from other means into white money by showing it as farm income. It is a known problem and nothing has been done to stop this, a small but radical step to change this is to make it mandatory for all farmers to file their income tax returns. At least by this measure the tax authorities can question these so called farmers on their source of funds.

Will the government bite the bullet and take these radical steps is something only time can tell ....