Maintaining the edge for the Bharatiya Vayu Sena - An Ethmos Perspective

Bhartiya Vayu Sena is the air wing of the Bharatiya armed forces; it has always performed its due with vigil and attention.  In modern times the air forces of other nation are adapting rapidly as compared to their Bharatiya counterpart in the term of aircraft number and modernization.

*Bharatiya Air force has the strength of 1,27,000 active personal as per the data of the Military Balance 2010, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). According to Flight Global estimates there are around 1588 aircrafts in the service with IAF.

The Bharatiya Raksha Mantralaya heavily depends upon the military relation with Russia, the erstwhile USSR. Russia has been the prime supplier of the defense equipment to Bharatiya armed forces. Bhartiya Vayu Sena is no exception.  The majority of the fleet comprises of MIG -21, MIG -29, Sukhoi (SU) 30 MKI with one or two exception in the form of Mirage 2000 (French) and the famed HAL HF-24 and HAL Tejas (both more or less “tractors with wings that don’t fly”).  In the span of nearly 60 years Hindustan Aeronautics Limited [ HAL ] is able to deliver only two fighter aircrafts from its stable.  The most overhyped aircraft of modern times, HAL Tejas, has been inducted recently in the month of Januar 2015.  As far as the modernization of the air force of various countries is concerned Bhartiya Vayu Sena is actually moving at a snail’s pace.  It is imperative on the part of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited [HAL] to come up with defense equipments to suffice the needs of Bharatiya armed forces.  HAL has been involved in the preparation of fifth generation fighter aircraft, but these preparations are yet to see the shining light. 

For the layman public, please understand that “fifth generation fighter” are the most advanced fighter jets developed so far and the one and only one so far inducted into any Air Force is the F-22 Raptor inducted by the US Air Force in 2005 and manufactured by Lockheed Martin.  Many countries including Russia and China are trying frantically to develop a similar one but those are still under testing/prototype stages (Russia is making the Su PAK FA while China is making the Chengdu J-20 and Shenyang J-31).  The best part of these countries is that these air crafts do actually fly! (No puns intended please)

So coming back to our point; the defense spending is at an all-time high, it is quite obvious to have large defense budget for a country like Bharat.  However this budget could have been curtailed to an extent if the government defense manufacturers would have performed at least to the extent to which they are being paid for.  It may seem bitter to the people sitting in those establishments to read this but these are the hard facts which needs to be embraced and corrective action need to be taken.

Number crunching - pure mathematics:  Are you joking Mr. Nobody?

Si no	Name	Unit Cost	Nos	Amount
1	Dassault Rafale	$ 101 million	100	$ 10.10 billion
2	HAL Tejas	$   31 million	100	$   3.10 billion

Cost of acquisition of air crafts

In the cost of 100 Rafale we can purchase at least 300 HAL Tejas but the bone of contention is that our Tejas is just not battle-ready and cannot perform at par with its peers.

Another interesting story about Tejas is that during its designing and testing of its engines, the engines were not performing up to the mark despite pouring in millions of rupees and wasting around 5-6 years.  Finally our brilliant scientists imported an engine from General Electric Corporation (USA) and just renamed it as Kaveri engine!

Why is it that our state run defence manufacturers are unable to come up with the equipments that are of world-class standards.  Nobody is willing to purchase our defense equipments other than minions like Nepal and Bhutan who just don’t have the budget or even the requirement to go for heavy mainternational standards.chinery from US or Europe.  The most probable reason is that our equipments  are just not of 

Defence Budgets:

The following is the data regarding the defence budgets of various countries as a percentage of their GDP. 

  

Country	% of GDP as defence budget	Amount (in dollars)
US	4	106
China	2.5	131
Bharat	1.74	39.8
Pakistan	3.5	N.A.

It is a universally accepted fact that the defense expenditure of 3% is helpful for the social economic development. The per capita expenditure of Bharat is $10 whereas the average expenditure of the top 10 Asian nations is $800.  Similarly the soldier to citizen ratio is 1:22 which is at a lower side.  China has already increased the defense budget by 12.2 % compared to last year.  The way PLA has been modernising the defence shows that Bharat has been doing the same at a snail's pace.  In order to restore the balance among the South East Asian countries or among Asia, it is required for Bharat to modernise the armed forces at a faster pace.

Enough of the criticism – what is the solution?

1.  Permit and encourage private defence players:  The examples all around the world (as stated above) are before you to see.  FA-22, F-16, etc. for the USAF has been made by Lockheed Martin; MIG-29 is made by Migoyan Corporation; Rafale is manufactured by Dassault Corporation; J-series fighter jets for China are manufactured by the Chengdu Corporation – WHERE IS THE CORPORATION FOR OUR BHARAT??? HAL ???  A big NO.  The performance of HAL is just not up to the mark – not much because of the lack of funds but because of the lack of talent as well as corruption.  The governments efforts towards “Make in India” and creation of SEZ for setting up defence manufacturing units are totally welcome and should be encouraged at a faster pace.
2. More research should be promoted at the grass-root level, i.e. the engineering colleges and universities spread across Bharat and good minds should be nurtured and watered so that they don’t migrate to foreign shores or end up becoming hopeless civil servants or bankers rather than the brilliant scientists that they could have been had a proper environment been given to them.
3. Fix accountability at government institutions like HAL, DRDO, ordinance factories, etc. for not meeting the required targets and make the documentation process easier.  If scientists are wasting their times in getting monetary sanctions, then when will they do the research??

The fact as of now remains that we are not modernising at the level that we are expected to restore the balance of power in Asia.  

In modern times the modernization of armed forces is need of hour. Probable solution could be

Restrict the purchase of the foreign defense equipments.

Encourage the Bharatiya private player in the defense equipment manufacturing market with supervision of defense ministry. This will create a healthy competition among the Government defense equipment suppliers.  Government should encourage more green field projects in this area and probably some day we will be able to outperform countries like Russia, US, and China.  Even though these projects will cost us heavily but it is the need of the hour.  A complete new industry will come into the foray in Bharatiya economy. Proper appraisal system should be in place in these state run defence manufacturers so that quality of the end product should be ensured. Innovation should be given the prime importance at these facilities.

When are able to send the CHANDRAYAAN to the moon, why can’t we have our expert defense equipment manufacturer who are better than their international counterparts.

A famous military saying goes that Battles are first won in the minds and then on the fields.  Perhaps its time to prove our mettle.

Happy ETHMOS

The Economic Cost Concept (ECC) - To do or not to do - An Ethmos perspective

After giving so many stupid and moronic ideas, we have come up with one more first-class "moronism" - we call it the ECC = The Economic Cost Concept.

ECC is nothing but the financial cost (both present as well as future) that is required for execution of any plan or policy or decision.  Man is a very greedy animal by core.  Most of the times whatever we do is linked to the benefit that we are getting - majority of the times, the benefit is in the form of economic or monetary gains and sometimes it is in the form of social gains, which ultimately lead to economic and monetary gains.  And there is nothing wrong in it.  In fact, had someone not looked at the gains, we would not be having so many inventions like mobile, TV, car, trains, etc.  It is fair enough for the person who is bringing these products and services to eat the fruits of his labour and ideas.  This will only encourage more people to come out with better ideas, products, and services.

Hence, when we look at every situation with an economic angle, we can find the most suitable solution to any solution that will benefit the entire society because economics deals with nothing but optimum utilization of limited resources in order to fulfill unlimited wants & desires.  Let us just illustrate our views by an example.  Suppose you were going in a bus and your purse is stolen by some pickpocket.  Your purse was having only Rs. 100/- and nothing else.  Now for reasons known solely to you, the purse was of very high emotional value to you since it has been passed down through generations since your great great great grandfather.  Hence, you decide to teach that stupid pickpocket a lesson and go to the nearest police station to lodge an FIR.  But you are amused to find that the police is not very co-operative in lodging the FIR.  Reason: - They think that it is not worth to go after a Rs. 100-carrying purse and waste their time and resources.  In this scenario, morally and ethically the victim, i.e. YOU, are correct - you have got every right to get justice and get your items back and the police should have helped you out.  But economically speaking, the police is indeed correct.  Lodging an FIR takes time to document the evidence, man hours need to be given to collect evidence and again loads of documentation needs to be done, the evidence needs to be produced before a magistrate, etc. etc.  Now consider the total costs involved regarding the stationery (paper, pen, etc.), the fuel cost for travelling across the city and finding the culprit, the cost of keeping the culprit in custody, etc. etc.  Even if they are successful in recovering your Rs. 100/- and your vintage purse, the economic cost involved will be too high to offset the emotional gains.  This is the gist of the Economic Cost Concept or the ECC that we are proposing.

Every activity has an economic cost - the activity should be pursued ONLY if the economic benefits outweigh the economic costs, i.e. Economic Benefits > Economic Costs.  Now how to calculate the ECC.  Now that's a really tough job and it has to be done on a case to case basis since economic costs are involved in virtually all situations and one single entity may not be competent enough to calculate the same.  Hence, we propose a broad organization which we may call the ECC Commission, which should propose broad guidelines for calculation of the economic cost of any action on which all the public sector employees and staff need to be trained in.  Any and we repeat, any decision, whether on policy, administrative, or operational matters need to be analyzed keeping in mind the economic costs in mind and then and then only, the final decision need to be taken.

A classic example of economic wastage is the transfer policies in the public sector which are more or less done based on the whims and fancies of the higher ups in the concerned departments rather than actual economic or business need of the organization/department.  There have been many instances wherein employees have been given transfers every year rather than the stipulated period of 2 to 3 years leading to very heavy cost of transfer incurred on the exchequer.  Many a times, employees are sanctioned LTC/LFC/HTC (leave concession for visiting native place or any place in Bharat) and suddenly their leaves are cancelled or shortened and the employee is called back due to so-called "exigent" artificially-created situations leading to heavy cost on the organization in the form of travel bills just for reimbursement of cancelled air tickets.  All this may sound trivial and small to anybody reading this, but when you consider the same for a huge number of employees working in various government bodies throughout the year, you may understand that the cost incurred may be more than enough to make schools or hospitals in many remote areas.

Economic Cost audit should also be conducted in every department in order to understand the ways in which economic cost can be optimized.  There is a system of expenditure audit in many departments but the expenditure audit just looks at the aspect of the requirement and the correctness of the expenditure incurred rather than the actual economic benefits that have been arisen out of the incurred expense.  Another classic example of ECC requirement is nothing but our own Tejas Light Combat Aircraft wherein we wasted huge resources in re-inventing the wheel and ultimately purchased the wheel from developed nations and renamed the wheel with Sanskrit jargons.  The total cost is estimated to be more than Rs. 200 Crores but that is just the money factor, what about the "time-wasted" factor?

The ECC will be useful in various decision-making situations like recovery of land dues, bank loan recovery, release of grants/aids, infrastructure development, etc. and sky is the limit for the application of this concept.

Happy Ethmos to all!

Farmer Suicides and Unified Agricultural Policy - Mr. Nobody's perspective - I

We are hearing the kisan's plight from every nook and corner of Bharat. As a bhartiya it is our moral obligation to look into the matter. The present Kendra sarkar has been following the same policy as its predecessor. Our honorable Vitt Mantri has already lashed out at state run banks that NPA are at unacceptable level. So at the end of the day what went wrong? As far as agriculture is concerned it is employing a whopping 49% of the population. At this juncture of time where the modern technology has been implemented in the sector, still our kisan is unable to enjoy its share of pie. British raj and princely states used the zamindar system for tax collection. At that time the land used to be given to the kisan on a leased basis and his name used to come in the land record as tenant ( patta) . Kisan was not the owner of the land, instead he had to give the percentage of the produce as tax to the zamindar and zamindar used to pay the tax to the local government body. After the independence, the law of tenancy was passed which made kisan the owner of the land and he started paying the land revenue to the government instead of zamindar. When the constitution of tax is still the same, and moreover kisan is now the owner of the land, then why the condition of kisan is deteriorating day by day?

We at Ethmos have tried to analyze the situation and here are few of the problems that are at the root cause of this situation.

Fragmentation of land

The lands are passed on from generation to generation from father to son. The ancestral lands are usually divided among the sons of the father. The overall land holding has been shrinking. Let's take an example Mr. A has 10 acres of land. He has four sons and so ultimately every son will get a share of 2.5 acres. So from generation to generation the landholding is shrinking which makes agriculture quite a difficult proposition.

Crop pattern and fertility of land

It has been observed that in order to earn some extra money farmers have abandoned the mixed cropping pattern. For the layman readers, mixed cropping is very important to retain the fertility of the land.  Many farmers are only going for cash crops, and many of them are repeating it even after completion of the cropping cycles. This is directly affecting the fertility of land which will lead to low yield. It is just like going on milking the same cow multiple times a day without letting her rest or giving her proper feed.  Let's take an example of Mr A who is a sugarcane farmer.  After completion of three crop seasons, he is not going for any mixed crop such as maize, wheat, tamarind etc. He is sowing sugarcane again after completion of three crop seasons to earn money. He is not thinking about the fertility of the land. He is actually on the losing front in a long term scenario since the loss of fertility of the land will lead to lesser produce and more overhead costs in the form of fertilizers and higher water requirement.

The Middle-men problem

This is another big problem in the bag of the poor kisan.  The middlemen are everywhere in the agricultural sector – from taking loans from banks or moneylenders to selling their produce in the mandis or the  APMCs as we fashionably call it.  The moneylenders actually create inflationary pressure on the already crushed kisan in the form of brokerage or commission.  And in order to earn more brokerage/commission, what these vermins do is that they increase the selling prices of commodities and also unnecessarily make the poor kisan take a higher loan which they will seldom be able to repay in their next seven generations.  We at Ethmos believe that a Middlemen Control Act has to be enacted across the country for all sectors in order to remove this scourge from the economy entirely.

Kisan's household

The expenses of the farmer’s household are monthly, whereas the income is yearly. This time gap is actually a big issue for the small and marginal farmers (farmers having lands less than 5 acres) . Usually the small and marginal farmers go for dairy business to suffice their monthly needs. Nowadays due to internet and telecom kranti the mobile phones and TVs are available in the rural household.  Apart from these expenses, the kisan has to pay the school fees of the kids , medical expenses and other household expenses. As we have discussed the land holdings are shrinking and hence the incomes as the income is directly proportional to land holding. Farmers usually borrow money from money lenders to meet their monthly expenses and repay the same from yearly agricultural income. But here is the catch - the farmer borrows for monthly expenses and every month apart from the usual expenses, one more humongous expense is added which is called the interest expense - which can range from 2% to 4% monthly interest of the total borrowed some.  For example, if he borrows say Rs. 1 lac from the money lender, he will have to pay Rs. 2,000/- monthly as interest to the moneylender and this interest is compounded by the end of the year leading to nearly 30% to 40% rise in the interest expenses.  This whole thing forms a vicious circle and hence to gain this extra income, cash crop will be planted by farmer even after completion of crop cycle which will lead to lower fertility of land and higher water requirement.

 Kisan is unable to come out of this vicious circle which ultimately results in the extreme step of suicide.  Kisan is unable to come out of this debt trap as the income is yearly and expenses are monthly. The fact is that the yield of the crop is declining every year and the kisan is unable to return the money that he has taken from the money lender. The cash crop is actually a risky affair as it requires more water, more care and at the end of the day  it is hampering the fertility of the land. If every farmer will go for cash crop then what will happen to the production of crops required as staple diet such as wheat, maize, cereals, pulses, etc. The over reliance of the kisan on cash crop  for extra income will create the food scarcity problem in near future.  It’s a high time now that the government should come up with a uniform plan to save the agricultural sector. The loan waiver and restructuring of the loan is not a solution as it creates more burden on the state run banks.

The question is - can we come up with a unified agricultural policy ( UAP)? In the next article, we will discuss about UAP in detail.

A thank you letter from a Bank Officer to his Boss! - The Game of Transfers

Dear Sir,

I thank you and my organization for whatever it has given to me during such a short span of my life (just 5 years of service).  My "gratitude factor" has grown so much inside me that now I am no longer able to control the same and it is spilling out of my mind and flowing out towards our bank.  I am unable to control my flow of "gratitudinal emotions" towards our bank that has so well recognized my potential (that we didn't even knew that we possessed!) and helped me realize it to its fullest value.  Not only me, our bank has also realized the complete potential of my family also (my wife and my 4-year-old son) whom our bank has blessed with places that are even hard for Google maps to detect, dialects of languages that are not spoken in the mainland of the states and wherein educational institutes teach in no other languages than the local language (an excellent way to develop the communication skills of the child which tests his brain potential for learning, absorbing, and integrating various languages, dialects, cultures, and cultural shocks).

Not only that, me and my family have learnt the intrinsic art of living like gypsies by keeping minimal items for survival - a la Ultimate Survival of the Discovery Channel.  With your divine blessings, I have served in various rural and semi-urban places in our country, given my best to our bank and generated good profits for our organization, which is of course, giving us our bread and butter (unlike other government organizations which need not worry about profit but only about "expenditure of the allocated budgets.").  And the best part is, you never made our excitement come down.  Just as soon as we feel like we are settled in any of the village and make up our mind for "surviving" 3 years over here, you transfer us out to "another village" in just 8 months.  With all due respect Sir, it take more than 8-10 months to even understand the roads, the place to purchase vegetables, the dairy (if something like that even exists), the gas connection or "chhulha" connection, a doctor for my family (and if we had done any good deeds in our previous birth, then a paediatrician for my child!), and many more things which you may not understand because you did not get the privilege of changing places like me every now and then.

And I just forgot to mention, the zest and adrenaline rush that we feel whenever we are "expecting" a transfer (but most of times, my transfers have been totally unexpected and "unasked for"!).  I want to give a small compliment for your immense talent of being a master of the game of guessing  called "Guess the Branch."  You make the entire process so foolproof that nothing - I repeat - nothing can escape the confines of your office regarding the future that is awaiting hundreds like me.  I sometimes think that John Wheeler (the scientist who coined the term "black hole") might have got the inspiration of the concept of black hole from your office - an entity so strong that not even a ray of light (for us, we call it "hope") can leave it because of its intense gravity (we call it the "power-wielder's hooliganism").  So, we just keep on guessing and sometimes, we even book the tickets for our native places (such fools are we!) thinking that this time the Lord will be pleased on us and give us their blessings in the form a posting which is at least 500 kms (accessible shortest distance) near to my native place.  But the day you release the transfer list, our excitement just increases, because we would have got another place that we need to search on Google maps which will just go "round and round and round" thus giving the crucial time for our minds and bodies to "adjust" to this torture. 

And finally comes the BEST part - we send our representations, request letters, and blah blah (for you) to your office - we even call whoever we know and whom we have previously worked with whom we think that "he knows you" and the best joke - "you listen to him."  We put requests in each and every corner of the organization and even find out the probable vacant positions "near our home town" and request you to consider us for that posting.  You DO consider somebody for that posting - but that person is never ME - Reason: - I WORK and PERFORM and the fools who do the same need more work to perform because the reward for good work is always more work and the reward for crying, babbling, using undue influence (political or otherwise), not working at all, messing up the work and creating more complicated work for people like me is THE CHOICE POSTING because you think that if that Non-performer is given a posting of his choice, then you can "extract" work from him on the pretext that he has been given his choice posting.  But let me tell you My Lord, that you are utterly wrong - performers and non-performers are not made - They are born.  So, now I finally found out who the real culprit is.  They are actually MY PARENTS who brought me into this world!

THANKS A BUNCH for enlightening me My Dear and Respected Lord!