Covid Bonds

The World Health Organization declared Covid-19 as a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. The virus still is out floating around and the economic impact of everyone staying indoors is unfolding. While it is the right decision for everyone to stay indoors, and slow the spread, it has definitely brought the wheel of the economic cycle to a grinding halt. This is something that has never happened before and there is no playbook to follow. Re-starting the economic cycle will require some innovative, ingenious ways. 

 

Revenues for governments at the state level via taxes (sales tax etc) have almost dried up due to a sharp fall in economic activity. This has not only put at risk lots of government run programmes and schemes but also put severe strain on the exchequer. 

 

In a lot of ways, the current scenario draws similarities with WWII except this time the enemy is a microbe. Taking a leaf out of the history book - “War Bonds” were issued during WWII so as to finance the U.S government’s involvement. Over 85 million Americans bought those war bonds, and by 1946, it had raised over $185 billion dollars which translates to $2.4 trillion in present day terms. 

The same route can be adopted by the government. to finance its efforts to manufacture PPE, fund more clinical trials and studies for drugs to cure Covid-19 and when a cure or vaccine is found these bonds can help finance its large scale manufacture and distribution to every corner of the country. These bonds can range from a maturity period of 20-30 years, be tax-free and provide an interest rate of 3-4%.

In the current climate everyone is feeling the sting of the lockdown and even though social interactions have dropped to zero, the urge to help one another is at a peak. I’m sure such “Covid 19 bonds” will receive a very warm response from investors, hedge funds and even small households. This is not inherently a new concept - European Union is already considering it. India can move ahead and show the world how to cleverly manage its finances, care for its people and not let its institutions starve for much needed funds. 

 

ECI - Restoring credibility

Elections in India have always been a grand affair by virtue of being the world's largest democracy. And with the advent of social media it has become even grander.

Although I think it has become a cliched term to laud Indian elections as the biggest democratic exercise while itself the process is not smooth or seamless by any stretch.  And for these glitches one is left wondering how error-proof this whole process is. Infact, these headlines have been so over-used that they are now starting to be meaningless and hollow words. 

Trust Issues

Here is what I think are the key problems with the election process - 

Right from the start of the cycle of voter registration - the process is riddled with flaws. 

• Why on the voter list there are so many discrepancies:
• People find their names missing;
• Often many of the details is wrong - like the name is correct but picture is of someone else; D.o.B is wrong; address is wrong. The Chief Polling Officer (CPO) technically can disallow the person to vote on these grants. Only if you are fortunate the CPO may allow you to vote but only after you have shown 3-4 Id Proofs. You get the idea!
• It's worth asking why this basic step of conducting an election - having an updated list of voters has not been smoothened out yet. 

• Why is the office to correct names on the voting list not open throughout the year and opens only a few weeks before the election?
• Why can a candidate contest from two seats? 
• And why can he even contest while in jail (even though not convicted) - but at the same time a voter cannot vote in more than one constituency and definitely cannot vote if imprisoned - convicted or not.
  
  It is hard to understand the rationale why the founding fathers added this clause in our constitution. It seems to inadvertently grant voters a lower status. Economically speaking - the money spent to conduct a re-election after a candidate forgoes one of the two seats he/she won comes from taxpayers' money and it by no means is a judicious use.
• This is probably the most contentious issue off late - lack of transparency on EVMs.
  
  
  EVMs cannot be gotten a hold off to be independently researched for vulnerabilities within India and there’s no chance of it going abroad. There was a case where a US university professor was almost deported from the Delhi airport so cause he had earlier published a research paper calling out the vulnerabilities in EVMs (technically his Visa was downgraded to a tourist visa so he couldn't do any research).
  

  

     News link - http://archive.indianexpress.com/story-print/723897

  
  
  
  
  
  

If it is infallible as claimed then it should be open for research. This insistence on not to be allowed to taken abroad for research purposes and check for security flaws only in presence of Election officials raises eyebrows and is not a ringing endorsement of it's security features.

P.S - That professor has a free course on Coursera where he talks about his experience and explains his doubts.

https://www.coursera.org/lecture/digital-democracy/bonus-deport-on-arrival-t8uTx

• Another big issue is how the election campaigns are funded. The legalization of anonymous electoral bonds is such a farce in light of when every cash transaction of the citizen is tracked and above a certain limit you have to provide an Aadhaar card. But for the candidates people/companies can donate "anonymously" without any check on the identity. This is such a dark spot of our election process and raises uncomfortable questions.

Rebuilding Trust

I deeply admire the ECI's work in bringing some sort of order and process to how the elections are now conducted. It is much better than the earlier days where booth capturing, violence and voter intimidation was widespread. Efforts of Chief Election Commissioners like T.N Seshan and M.S Gill are to be credited for ushering these positive changes.

For starters these two steps should be taken -

• ECI considered to be autonomous in itself needs to be given more teeth and it should use those powers on candidates irrespective of the political party affiliation.
  
• ECI should be more proactive and fast. In the age of viral tweets and videos - ECI cannot sit on an incendiary speech or statement for 3 days, then conduct an investigation for another 7 days and then announce a warning notice or a slap on the wrist and all this while the person was busy campaigning. It is a challenge but to bring some sense of dignity and cleaning up the discourse in election campaign speeches ECI has to start acting sternly and swiftly.
  
• Now with different govt. issued documents floating around like Pan Card, Aadhaar, Voter ID linking all citizens - it has to figure out how to use them to streamline its voter registration process and provide an easy way to rectify those mistakes rather than running around babus in person.

I'm afraid if nothing gets done in these directions - we will keep seeing cliched headlines every 5 years and an occasional op-ed every now and then lamenting the legitimacy of the process.

CWG: A 10 day CIRCUS???

With all the government machinery and its PR dept. already in frenzy over the fast approaching CWG 2010; the possible change these games will bring about is slowly dawning upon social thinkers and analysts. While the CWG organising committee is busy patting it’s back for rescuing the games ,after CWG chief had to go public in pulling IOA ,and the govt. trying to hush up social activists on some of its autocratic decisions ; it seems like the future of the gigantic sports infrastructure built is nothing more than a white elephant. On a personal level as I try to look around I find more negatives than plus points for the Games. Ever since India made an official bid, the Games have been embroiled in controversy one way or the other.Utmost amount of politics have been on display on road to preparation and there are reasonable doubts which make one asks as to what impact does these Games have on a person in Central India earning less than Rs 100?

EARLIER EXPERIENCE:

In 1951 when Delhi proudly hosted the Asiad Games the aim was that it would provide a fillip to guide the country which surely it did to quite an extent due to the stark contrast of then socio-economic features as compared to today. Similarly 1982 Asiad Games also changed Delhi into a “changed and modern city of the world”- the bid document claims. In 1982, as part of preparation for the games seven new flyovers and two new hotels were built which amount to nothing when we look at CWG’s preparation. This time 26 new flyovers, extended metro connectivity to almost throughout the national capital as well its adjoining areas has been aimed to provide. And these are not the only ones; road beautification, building of stadia and sports facilities for the Games have too been designed specially for the Games. This surely comes with a mammoth monetary price. Since India won the bid in 2003, there have been momentous escalations in the budget for the Games. While at the time of bidding Rs 1899cr were projected, they have climbed up to the official figure of Rs 20000cr or if Rs 60000cr (the wildest prediction made so far). And who cares if this is the taxpayers’ money that is being put to injudicious use!! I may sound like a cynic who is totally distraught with the state of affairs, but, I am honestly really appalled to see that no one is entitled to give any explanation as to why the initial prediction went so horribly wrong. In fact to be precise the then Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee was taken into confidence about the bid with the assurance that the Games will not require more than a loan of Rs150 cr. And on the day of the bidding Mr. Vajpayee promptly asked the Indian delegation to announce an “incentive” of $100,000 to every Commonwealth country for- “training their participants”. Quite ridiculous isn’t it? Here we see our own players asking for funds so that they can train abroad and the national Hockey team goes on strike for non-payment and to host a 10 day extravaganza we dole out incentives to the outside world. It is quite surprising then as to why does the govt. cite lack of funds when asked to provide for free education for all children between 14-18 years when it can arrange for humongous sums at just a phone call.

EXAMPLES IN HISTORY:

If we look at the case of Beijing after the hugely successful Olympics we will find our worse fears coming true. The huge Olympics village was expected to solve to some extent the housing problem in Beijing while also bringing down the soaring housing prices. But it hasn’t been able to achieve so. The same is the case with Sydney which hosted the first Olympics of the millennium. The Sydney Olympic village, which earned lots of praise for its aesthetically suited architecture, now lies abandoned as it is 25km outside the heart of Sydney with practically no public transport access to it. The Sydney Olympic Park has found dismal number of footfalls after the Olympics and is not turning out as a great turner of revenue as estimated. The net result – the taxpayers were in a way robbed of their money for building such mammoth concrete structures which serve no purpose now. Similar problems engulf the former host cities like Atlanta,Montreal and Bangkok (hosted 1998 Asian Games). But Barcelona stands out as the lone benefactor of hosting such a mega event. In 1992 to stage the Olympics the organisers carefully planned and successfully executed a model that allowed the city to harness the facilities built for the Games. The 1992 Olympics was a decentralized affair with many nearby cities hosting events along with Barcelona which provided other less-developed regions an opportunity to gain benefits. Moreover, the then Games village greatly solved the housing problem in Barcelona and the stadium built for the Games now is the home of Spanish LaLiga club RCD Espaniol team. Thus, the facilities are being put to proper use even today long after the use.

CWG- A POSH AFFAIR?? :

The CWG events have been planned around the most prosperous part of Delhi in the heart of the city, taking away the chance from the less urban areas to develop them. This is contrary to the approach made by other cities which use the hosting as leverage for development of poverty-stricken areas with employment and other add on facilities. It is no doubt that the aim is to hide the not-so-good image of India from the visitors in 2010. This explains as to why 30,000 families were dislocated from the slums on the banks of Yamuna to make way for migrant labourers’ families and for the Games village, which mean nothing to the families evicted. Hardly a thought has been spared for those removed forcibly and it has been quite insensitive on the part of the govt. to remove the residents of the slum just to project an image of India which is hollow, which falsely states that the sky touching skyscrapers is the norm of India. It hides the highly undeveloped, poverty stricken areas in the Naxal affected regions and the ‘ostracized’ north-eastern areas.

PERSONAL OPINION:

I surely don’t want the country to be projected as undeveloped or poor, to highlight the negatives of the country with focus on poverty-tourism. But definitely I want the limited resources of the country to be used in a judicious manner aiming to uplift those sections of the society lagging behind in the present scenario. It’s beyond my rational what purpose does it solve to host an extravaganza that just adds some “sheen” to the country’s name whilst its own citizens are forced to carry out violent movements over the apathy of govt. towards to their problems. What sense does it makes to spend Rs 30,000cr in 10 days when we have 836million people living off on less than Rs20 a day. (Source: Arjun Sengupta Committee report). Honestly we need to ask ourselves that is it justified to ask the students to vacate the hostels in order to cater to hospitality requirements, disrupting their learning and forcing them to spend huge amounts to lodge somewhere. The media’s role is quite pathetic too. They would go gung-ho when the Games approach near, ignoring the problems they have caused, quite similar to the way they ignored Bhopal tragedy victims for 26years. Its quite interesting to compare the mindset of people in Delhi and outside. Maybe due to it we can see as to how much the Games mean to the nation as a whole. In general, a typical Delhiite is happy as his nearby surroundings get better due to the vast amount spend on its beautification and his property rates soar at an all time high! At the same time, a person from Bihar is least affected by Delhi turning into one of the swankiest cities in the world as long as it doesn’t aid to his living. Why should he care about it after all; when all this doesn’t help him fulfil his “middle-class dreams”, provide better education to his children and help him improve his standard of living. He is not part of the jamboree, will predictably take a peep into his TV set when the media is hit by Comet Games. Surely he won’t be all alone; there would be billions of such Indians. Maybe many oblivious of the event itself and truly in their right so as the Games don’t aid them to achieve their ambitions. I wish good luck to the city for the peaceful conduct of the Games while many dark clouds surround the city horizon but I would be glad if this turns out to be a one-off experience in the history of the country. And in future such humongous amounts are wisely spent; maybe to build a state of the art stadium like Anfield and better football training facilities which might propel India to the next FIFA World Cup.!!