Green-card holder in the poll fray

A Karnataka assembly poll candidate is reported to have declared his assets in US dollars. Presumably, because he runs a business in the US, owns a flat there and holds US government bonds. It is not clear if his dollar declaration of assets would be acceptable to the electoral officer. Every candidate is required to file an affidavit, declaring his current assets, along with his nomination papers. These are then scrutinized by the election office.
Mr Sonne Gowda, contesting the Kolar constituency seat as BJP candidate, is a green-card holder. Maybe there is nothing in our electoral law that says he can’t contest election. The issue is whether Mr Gowda would serve the best interests of his voters; whether he would be available for them whenever he is needed in the constituency.
Normal requirements of a US green-card preclude his continued presence in India for the duration of his term as an MLA. Maybe Mr Gowda, if elected, can so schedule his presence here during assembly sessions. I knew of a green-card holder who was mayor of Ludhiana (or was it Jalandhar?). His business interests in the US were taken care of by his family members there; and he made brief visits of no more than a week or two to the US to comply with a green-card provision that required his presence in the US every year. The mayor made his US trip, usually a couple of weeks, in December end, returning to Punjab in early January. He could, thus, account for two years in one go. This was some years back.
This is no longer possible. Current rules, they say, stipulates longer stay in the US, of six months every year in order to retain one’s green-card. Many NRI parents who split their time between India and the US no longer find it appealing to apply for green-card; and some who have it find their to-and-fro-ing between India and the US cramped by the six-month rule. A green-card holder who becomes an MLA can possibly seek a waiver. And Mr Gowda has, perhaps, worked it all out.

The new Bangalore airport

Got these pictures by mail from Monica Mascarenhas Prabhu, who wrote, “I visited the new Bengaluru International Airport last week and took some pictures. … thought you would find this update useful”.

 Parking lot that can hold 2000 vehicles; and (right) the signboard points to check-in right ahead. 

Check-in counters. They have 53 of them.

snacks & coffee area; (below) bar and lounge area.

 
Departure lounge.

Airside view of the terminal building.

Clothesline ‘satyagraha’

Didn’t think, did you, that hanging out your laundry in the backyard or balcony is such a big deal. It is, for residents in Aurora, an upscale Ontario suburb, where outdoor-clotheslines, seen as an eyesore, are banned by law. The New York Times reports that a local citizen group there has taken to hanging laundary to dry out in people’s backyards, as an act of ‘civil disobedience’.
Not, perhaps, in the same league as Gandhiji’s Dandi March,  but a ‘satyagrah’ it is nonetheless, to assert citizens’ right to do their own thing with their laundary, within the confines of their own homes. Their fight for the ‘right to dry’ their laundary is no small matter, considering the ban on outdoor clotheslines has been in place in North America and parts of Europe for over three decades.
Homeowners and real-estate developers in the West reckon clotheslines on home fronts are not in keeping with the upscale lifestyle. Houses with no clothesline are inconceivable in middle-class India.  I haven’t been to Palm Meadows or other dollar-driven townships in Bangalore’s Whitefield. It is understandable if people’s thinking there is in line with the Western mindset on matters of lifestyle esthetics.
At our apartments complex in Mysore the estate developer has provided clotheslines on the terrace, in a bid to discourage residents of flats from hanging their clothes to dry in balconies facing the road. But I don’t see how he can enforce his wish on those who see nothing strange in putting their laundry out to dry.
Anyway, the clothesline satyagrahis in the west seeking to overturn the ban have an enviornmental agenda. Their point is electric dryer uses up as much energy as a fridge; and clothesline isn’t just energy saving, it effects a sizeable cutback in carbon emission. In developed countries household appliances account for a quarter of their total carbon emissions.
If pro-clothesline activists get the legal ban overturned, half the battle would be won. But victory over the other half, and a more significant half of the battle, can come only with behavioural changes. Those who put esthetics above environment; and continue to opt for electric dryers, rather than the clothesline, ought to pay for their carbon emissions. Proceeds from this should be spent on eco-friendly projects in the developing world, where clotheslines are the norm and electric dryers have not been  as an option for even those who can afford them. Washing machines sold here don’t usually come with an electric dryer.

Where pawn-brokers score over banks

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) survey carried out in some 300 districts is reported to have revealed that the rural poor continue to rely on neighbourhood moneylender. And RBI has drafted, what its deputy governor Usha Thorat calls, a concept plan to check this trend. At a Mumbai symposium she spoke of the need for banking penetration into remote areas, and to promote financial literacy and credit counselling.
Financial literacy and counselling are good things, if you know how to get villagers to listen. When in need they go to a pawnbroker rather than a bank, knowing very well they are exploited financially. Credit counselling ? Rural credit seekers care more for ready access to cash than for low interest rate; they want prompt service, not paper-work; village money-lender gives them cash for the asking, and do not ask them for colateral. The only surity on which a money-lender advances money is his belief in borrower’s capacity to pay, and his ablility to collect.
I had occasion, and this was a decade back, to observe credit habit of tea-estate workers at Valparai  in Coimbatore district of Tamilnadu. I was struck by the number of pawnbrokers in this taluk town. I counted at least six within a kilometer stretch on  the main street. There was a bank on the main street and it had problem attracting tea-workers, most of whom borrow on a regular basis from local pawnbrokers. In remote areas a village provision store, from where villagers buy household essentials, usually on credit, also advance money to favoured customers. 
Pawnbrokers advance credit on trust; charge interest rates, calculated on monthly basis. Repayment is due on pay-day, when money-lenders show up at the tea estates to collect their dues from workers. By the time a debt is cleared many tea-estate workers seek fresh loan, and this cycle continues. Pledging jewels, silverware, household valuables to meet expenses for family functions and special occasions is not uncommon.
Under the system adopted by pawnbrokers there is little scope for default by borrowers. Lenders know no such thing as a loan write-off; and pawnbrokers do not have on their books ‘non-performing assets’ like banks.
Pawnbrokers observe no holiday; they are open all days, till late in the evening. A worker seeking a bank loan stands to lose a day’s wages; for banks are open only on week days and loaning formalities take up time, and, at times, more than a day.
Relatively low interest rate charged by bank held no appeal to  workers because of a belief that getting loan sanctioned from banks involved cutback payment.

Cricket as mega-buck business

Cricket industry (zero-sportsmanship venture) has evidently stretched  India’s economic liberalization to ludicrous lengths. We have DLF-IPL flogging 20/20 matches as entertainment product sold to cricket consumers by the seat – costing anything between Rs.200 to Rs.5,000 per fixture in Chennai. A season ticket could set you back by as much as Rs.30,000 (Chennai rates).  

Seven other cities have been franchised by the league promoters mainly to corporates helmed by folk such as Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya; and bollywood celebs – Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla (joinly holding Kolkata franchise) and Preity Zinta (part-holder of Mohali franchise). These people have paid big money. Mallya is reported to have paid $111.6 mil. for Bangalore and has spent another Rs.15.2 crores acquring players for the city team. 

Someone who plays for Bangalore need not necessarily be from the city or even the state. He could be from quite another country, depending on the bid size and depth of Mallya’s pocket. Players are auctioned and even the game is mutilated in form and substance to suit the requirements of a day/night fixture. Imagine the power bill involved in such a match. Cricket, as most lovers of the sport envisage, used to be a day-light game. Haven’t we seen Test matches being curtailed by poor natural light? I haven’t checked if they have a fixture on April 22; and if ‘Earth Day’ enthusiasts have plans to protest such conspicuous power consumption in the name of cricket. 

As if they haven’t thrown their weight about elsewhere, we hear IPL promoters are seeking to dictate terms to the media , laying down conditions for newspaper coverage and trying to put a cap on the number of  action photographs a newspaper can upload to its web editions. No self-respecting newspaper editor can be expected to accept such conditions. What’s more, the league promoters claim unfettered access to media material and visuals as a free lunch; and this, they demand as a right, to be fulfilled by the media at its cost. 

I haven’t , have you, heard of the corporate sector muzzling the media (instead of the other way about). The Hindu says it all in its edit: ‘Greed and arrogance’. Irony is the IPL franchise for Hyderabad is said to be held by a media group – Deccan Chronicle. 

IPL promoters or the franchise holders don’t appear to care for the interests of spectators. In my reckoning the 20/20 league organizers take for granted a multitude of their customers – cricket-loving public. Maybe IPL is aping the US business model for sports such as baseball, basketball or football. Is anyone addressing the issue whether turning cricket into a mega-buck entertainment business is conducive to our socio-economic reality. Besides, is it such a good idea to let a real-estate developer transplant in India a business model for cricket (which is almost a religion with our sport-loving multitude) for the benefit of a bunch of investors and a select group of auctioned players. If this 20/20 league gets going, it would not be long before we have multinational investors and takeover tycoons evincing interest in India’s cricketing entertainment prospects.  

 

Sapgreen is in business

Mysore’s first tree-plant start-up, Sapgreen, is now in business. Its founders – Anil Kumar and Ashwin Upadhyaya – are self-confessed greenhorns who have the backing and goodwill of  the Friends of Roadside Trees (FORT), a bloggers group, and a bunch of green-minded college students. It is a club-up of a civic initiative of public-spirited residents with a local business venture, in an effort to green Mysore.

Earlier efforts at tree-planting have been sporadic. And an ambitious scheme, launched jointly by the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) and the forest department a couple of years back didn’t make much headway because of poor funding. It was in such depressive scenario FORT-Mysore came along to promote the idea of people planting trees to celebrate life’s little noteworthy events   - a birthday, wedding anniversary, felicitation on your getting an award, children’s success in examination, son’s trip abroad for higher studies, your daughter getting spouse visa that enables her to join her husband; her first Diwali after marriage, first Ugadi and several other firsts, for so many in the family.

 

When it comes to a cause, a green one, flimsiest of reasons would do. My wife and I plan to plant a sapling this Ugadi to mark our two-and-a-half year old grandson Siddarth’s first day at play school in California. What has it got to do with our planting a sapling in Mysore? It is the thought that matters. Those who think tree would find a reason even where there is none. FORT-Mysore is about persuading people to think trees; and be inventive in finding reasons to plant them.

 

But then many people with such green intention cannot always carry it out in action. This is where Sapgreen fits in. They take care of the nitty-gritty. Sponsor a tree; and Sapgreen takes care of the rest. FORT-Mysore can synergize with Sapgreen; FORT-Mysore can generate  people’s interest (in tree-planting), and the other translates it into action.

 

They haven’t discussed tariff, but Sapgreen plans to put a price tag of  Rs.300 on every tree-sponsorship. A sapling would cost hardly a tenth of this price. Over 90 percent goes into protection and upkeep of the plant till it takes root and can fend for itself. The plus point about Sapgreen founders is they guarantee survival of every sapling that is sponsored; and the odd ones that wither away for some reason are replaced.What is more, the status of every sapling can be monitored on the company website through a tree-coding system. Every sponsor gets a certificate of planting. Ashwin says they have plans to have a photo gallery on the web, with pictures of sponsors who plant their own saplings. They also have plans for putting out video-clips of tree-planting on YouTube. The packaging of the sponsorship sounds impressive. Whether their price would be acceptable to our middle-class mindset remains to be seen.

Maybe Rs.300 would become palatable, if the company chooses to plant in pairs; which means every sponsor would get two trees for the price of one. After all, there wouldn’t be much difference in the cost of upkeep of the pair.