Can India be Vishwa Guru again

I sometimes wonder why India was considered as Vishwa Guru and why are we in such a degenerated state now.

I realized Indians used to think for the whole world or universe. I felt so because of some of the mantras/ prayers we hear.

Eg-

ॐ द्यौः शान्तिरन्तरिक्षं शान्तिः 

  पृथिवी शान्तिरापः शान्तिरोषधयः शान्तिः ।

वनस्पतयः शान्तिर्विश्वेदेवाः शान्तिर्ब्रह्म शान्तिः

सर्वं शान्तिः शान्तिरेव शान्तिः सा मा शान्तिरेधि ॥ ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Meaning: Om, Peace be in Sky; Peace be in Space. Peace be in Earth; Peace be in Water; Peace be in Plants; Peace be in Trees; Peace be in Gods (presiding over the various elements of Nature); Peace be in Brahman (Absolute Consciousness); May Peace pervadeg everywhere; Peace alone (which is outside) is in Peace (which is inside); May we be (established in) that Peace (and make your life fulfilled); Om, Peace, Peace, Peace.

This mantra shows we thought for the whole universe, for all living and non-living organisms. 

Another one-

संगच्छध्वं संवदध्वं सं वो मनांसि जानताम्

देवा भागं यथा पूर्वे सञ्जानाना उपासते ||

समानी व आकूति: समाना हृदयानि व: | समानमस्तु वो मनो यथा व: सुसहासति ||

Meaning- May we move in harmony, speak in one voice; let our minds be in agreement; just as the ancient gods shared their portion of sacrifice. May our intentions and aspirations be alike, so that a common objective unifies us all.

Our education system in those days taught to broaden our horizon of thinking. Their psychic pabulum was big and they were involved more in psychic and spiritual progress along with physical progress. We wanted to progress together in every field without neglecting anyone.

Our current situation has changed and we have become more self-centered and materialistic. We have forgotten increasing our psychic pabulum (shram- श्रम) while remaining occupied in physical labor (parishram - परिश्रम) This will be possible only when minimum physical requirement of food, shelter, clothing, education and medicine is met. Without fulfilling that, it’s not possible to move towards enhancing psychic pabulum.

Corona Virus has taught us few important things.

Migration of labors mostly from west part of India towards East shows us how much disparity is there in East side. People are forced to leave their families in search of jobs. Now they are migrating back leaving their dreams behind in starve of hunger and poverty. They prefer ending their life with their family. Everyone needs compassion of his or her family members in such crisis.

They are not earning sufficient to have reserve for even 1 month. It’s not that there can’t be jobs in east part. God has endowed us with plenty of resources but we are not managing it properly. One of the great philosophers Shri Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, propounder of PROUT philosophy had once said- If we utilize resources in 56 districts of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chattisgarh and Orissa properly, it will be sufficient to fulfill minimum requirements for whole India.

Is there really food shortage or is it created because of our food habits and mismanagement of resources? Some examples of mismanagement of resources –using land to grow carnation instead of food first. We are growing grains, rearing animals to feed them, and finally killing them to satisfy our tongue. Many people are wasting food in marriage lavishness.

As per one of articles in Moneycontrol, there are around 11.09 million (1.1 crore) houses are vacant. Even 1.64 lakhs low cost houses are vacant. Still there are many people who are not able to live in houses. Is it not wastage of resources? This is also because of uneven wealth distribution, as many people can’t afford to buy them. Many people have invested their black money in real estate and others can’t afford it.

There are many abundant resources but we are unable to utilize them properly because of individual ownership and defective social system. 

Things have slightly changed with corona pandemic. We have seen doctors, healthcare professionals, policemen and others are risking their lives to save people. People are distributing food and money to needy who can’t afford it but still our resources and reach are limited. We had forgotten all our enmities between religions, castes in these difficult times. All narrow sentiments that divide us should disappear. Most of us have feeling of sympathy for others who are unable to make living in these arduous times. Countries have been helping each other as almost every country is suffering from this pandemic. We had exploited nature badly and now it has rejuvenated itself when we gave it some break. Animals are also feeling free to roam and are enjoying god’s beautiful world.

We never realized that our true nature is love and compassion for everyone be it humans, animals or other flora and fauna. People need to understand we need to accept everyone and everything whole-heartedly as part of our family. Every existential living or non-living creature has existential value and we can survive without ruthlessly exploiting it. We are one family and we need to re- design our economic system such that nobody has to depend on others and they can have decent money reserves in case of natural calamities. Everyone can fulfil their minimum requirements and animals can have separate space. Scientific developments should be utilized for whole humanity and not just for few rich people. Our collective thought needs to change to preserve humanity and with one social outlook towards all animate and inanimate creation of God. People will have to understand this universe is common property of every humans and animals and we need to enjoy it rationally. 

Conclusion:

This could be cosmic play to bring humans closer to each other in terms of humanity and give up our parochial views. All fundamentalist’s religious activities have shut down with this cosmic drama. All countries need to unite to create better-integrated world rather than countries trying to become superpower and exploit others. This cosmic flow is to uplift our social outlook and increase our psychic pabula from being self-centered to collective living. It is teaching us -fate of humanity is tied to one single thread and all humans are beads of same garland.

Why we do not need stock markets

Stock market has become an option of making quick money but at the same time, it is highly risky. In today’s lightning speed technology, it has become easier and faster to purchase stocks directly or through mutual funds in any region of the world. 

Here are some of my thoughts why we should stop stock markets. 

1.    Stock market trading is a speculative activity. Companies get funds only when the shares are issued initially. However, when shares are traded, they change hands for imaginary value, without real benefit to the company. PROUT advocates formation of cooperative institutions which will get capital by way of shares and deposits by local members (persons of the same socio-economic zone) .These cooperative shares can not be traded but can be inherited.

2.    It also leads to wealth drain from one socio-economic unit to another. In PROUT’s concept, wealth of one socio-economic unit should not be drained to other socio-economic units else that area will start becoming underdeveloped. We have seen situation of Bihar, which was once a very prosperous state has so much poverty now. People are investing in companies in different socio-economic units through stock markets. Many big industries/ companies are in western part of India and wealth from East of India is flowing to West. Poverty is higher in eastern part of India. Stopping drainage of wealth from one socio-economic zone to the other is an important concept of decentralized economy.  Read earlier blog on decentralized economy here. 

3.    Dividends and profit go to financial institutions out of socio-economic zones and country and this also leads to wealth drain. 

4.    Frauds are done by company at management level to manipulate stock prices and small investors lose their money. These scams have become frequent now in collusion with political leaders. Promoters and owners enjoy on small investors wealth. 

5.    Many small investors lose their hard-earned money when big players manipulate markets as per their will. If the company defaults, these equity investors are big losers.

6.    Unnecessary reasons are given to explain stock market movements. Can the company earn so much or lose so much in a single day that its valuation fluctuates so much? Can its single decision change company value so much? There is not much correlation with foreign markets of the company and still stock price fluctuates so much.  

7.      Control is mainly in the hands of few persons (owners and top management) and not in the hands of shareholders or actual workers. So, lower level employees are not much concerned with improving company’s performance and thinking for its benefit except a few. In case of cooperative system, everyone will have ownership in company and everyone will think for its benefit.

8.    Shareholders do not have direct interest in company affairs, but think for their own profits and benefits and not of employees. Real hard workers aren’t paid as much as they would have earned in their company.

9.    We need to learn from recent support to Brexit and Trump shouting “America first” that they need localization to give employment to their own people. They want markets in other countries but want their people should get employment first. Decentralized economy can give employment in all regions provided they don’t try to exploit other regions. Shareholders want profit and they are ready to cut jobs or take any drastic measure. That is why there is so much outsourcing and now China is making duplicates of all latest technologies. 

1.  We also need to learn how China took control of many companies with COVID 19 game plan if it is true. Now most of the European companies are owned by China and these people can dictate their terms. 

1.  The persons who don’t know company well are given voting rights just because they are holding shares. They think in their own benefit.

1.  Prices are illogical. They trade so high as compared to their Price to Earnings ratio or their price to book values. Small investors invest to make quick money rather than actual interest in company.

To conclude, I will say we need to come out of our biased mindset in favor of stock market. We need to understand that companies should be owned by actual workers as they can think better for their companies. Finance should be in terms of debt by regional banks.

Why Balanced Economy

Why Balanced Economy

In global economic narration, we always hear about developing and developed countries. Some countries are very rich while in some countries people are scarce of minimum requirements.

Going through below referenced image, I saw some conclusions or criteria regarding developed countries;

1.       Large portion of labor force in manufacturing and service industries

2.       Higher contribution of industrial and service sectors to national income or GDP

3.       Export of industrial services and products

4.       Infrastructural development and capabilities

5.       Use of modern and advanced technologies in production and services

Source- https://coggle.it/diagram/WaZ_86w1JwABCBmA/t/characteristics-of-developed-and-developing-countries

But why these developed countries are going after trade war?

Why are they trying to influence other countries to allow them to do business?

Why do they lobby to impose sanctions on other countries?

While searching answers for above questions, let’s look at concept of balanced economy first.

Balanced economy means a system where everybody gets employment opportunities and can live a dignified live without depending on others or government’s doles. His minimum requirements (food, cloth, housing, education and medical facility) are fulfilled.

1. 30-40% of people should depend on agriculture.  In India, around 60-70% population is dependent on agriculture, which is too high.
2. Around 20% should depend on agro-industries (post-harvesting industries which depend on agricultural production such as flour mills, paper mills, medicine from plants, sugar mills etc.)– Raw produce should be processed in local areas rather than exporting them and getting it processed elsewhere.
3. Around 20% should depend on agrico-industries (pre-harvesting industries which promote the rapid growth of agricultural products, such as shovels, axes, picks, spades tractors, etc.) With modern age technology. This sector needs a boost in India as still lot of manual labour is deployed. Much research is needed to increase productivity.
4. Around 10% should depend on general trade and commerce such as general goods stores, stationery shops, restaurants, repairing or service centers etc.
5. Around 10% should be engaged in intellectual or white collar jobs such as clerks, bank employees, administrating officials. This number is very high in developed countries and it takes away required labor force from other areas.
6. Around 20% to 30% should depend on non-agricultural industries (such as steel, cement, metal, auto, electrical and electronics, non-plant pharmaceutical etc.). The percentage of people engaged in such industries should be formed by reducing the percentage of people depending directly on agriculture and other aforesaid industries.

These percentages can vary slightly depending on kind of resources available. Like agriculture could be difficult in Saudi Arabia.

The concept of balanced economy is a special feature of PROUT. This principle needs to be adopted not only at national level, but also at state, socio-economic unit and block levels. These concepts are part of decentralized economy for which you can read here.

The motive of capitalistic economies or countries is production for profit not for consumption. 

(For more details, refer to my previous blog on production for consumption)

Impact of imbalanced economy

1.  If a country has surplus labor force in one sector and its own population can’t consume the output; then this country will depend on other countries and tries to flex its muscles. Like, Britain got heavily industrialized and invaded India through East India Company. Money from developing or under developed countries move to developed countries.
2. If these highly industrialized countries don’t get a market to sell their finished goods then they will have to suffer from economic recession and growing unemployment. Therefore, they become more aggressive in their imperialist approach.  They pressurize developing or under developed countries to consume their finished goods or allow these developed countries to invest in developing ones. Like US is pressurizing India to open its market for US companies. At one side, they are shouting for shooing away non-Americans, waging trade war against China and on the other hand, they are asking developing countries to give access to their markets. In international diplomacy, there is nothing like 'free lunch'. Definitely, this corporate sponsored 'Howdy Modi' program is not a free lunch. There must be lot of bargaining done by US, sacrificing the interest of India. Why Trump become suddenly soft on India while he was shouting against India for duties levied on imports?
3. Over Industrialization also creates psychic diseases and people of those countries ignore finer expressions of life by being highly materialistic.
4. If the country is industrially less developed, then per capita income and purchasing capacity cannot be high. Their standard of living will not be high. They will be exploited by developed countries and war like situation arises. Developed countries create conflict between developing countries, so these countries depend on them for weapons. Like USA supplying arms to both India and Pakistan.

I think government should try to boost sectors which require more manpower like agrico-industries and agro industries. The income should become decent in these sectors. It should also setup career counselling programs to motivate people to required sectors instead of everyone running after white collar jobs.

But will the governments adopt the concept of Balanced Economy? There is always hope at the end of the tunnel and this hope is of 'Mass Awakening and Circumstantial Pressure', which will compell governments to adopt and implement the balanced economy.

Some References for world trade export/ import

https://knoema.com/cduhihd/world-exports-and-imports-of-agricultural-products

https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/en/Country/CHN/Year/2017/TradeFlow/EXPIMP/Partner/All/Product/16-24_FoodProd