Rewarded for Pune DC Level initiatives

Pune DC had an Executive Council Meet a week back, where DC-HRD decided to reward some individuals who had served various DC-level Councils and Committees and made remarkable contributions for improvements. Yours truly has also been participating in some opportunities available, and was one of those who received appreciation from DC-HRD Head.

I could collect the award today, which is a nice glass-framed certificate of appreciation, and thought to share the news with you.

- Rahul

Gender Biased Media

A few years ago, I got too infuriated with the Times of India (TOI), due to the way it handled a news report. Some policemen had misbehaved with some women-protesters in Punjab, and the newspaper chose to show the face of the woman being harassed, her horrified friend’s face, but the camera angle made sure that policeman’s face would remain unclear and unidentified. It happened in both the two pictures it printed while reporting the news. That was a wretched show of journalism and my dislike of TOI reached a pinnacle with that incident (but many more cases had to follow).

Now a day, especially when I am in office, I browse through news.google.com to keep track of the latest happenings around the world. With time I started getting surprised as to why even Google News props up images of women in unrelated news, at the slightest opportunity. One day I just scrolled down the page and found that pictures of women were dominating the news page unnecessarily and almost unjustifiably. Since news hosted on google news is coming from various sources, and each source has multiple images on it, google news should have some logic to select which image to prop up on its main page. Was there a gender bias even in this expectedly gender-neutral programming?

I look at this page which is from any normal day.

With the news item titled “OBC admission: Supreme Court upholds HC order”, there are lady students featured alongside. So if the media has to post a picture of some students, it will be girl-students in most cases.

Second item is on rains and calamities. News titled “Heavy rains in UP, Bengal, Meghalaya; 12 dead” Here too, we can see a group of five women joining their umbrellas and captured in the camera. So if some people die out of heavy rains, our newspapers will show the pictures of some women commuters walking or suffering in the rains. 

This kind of gender bias in the media is disappointing, and even offensive in a way. Such a practice keeps positioning women as an object and material, whose bodies would be for “display” to generate more eyeballs and raise some TRPs when it comes for the media. Advisers have historically used women (women’s beauty) to create a buzz around their products and services to an extent that we have stopped seeing any wrong in it. But it is surprising to me that even online portals running by unbiased search logic are selecting images of women only, for display.

- Rahul

Celebrating Indira Gandhi’s birthday

Today is late Smt. Indira Gandhi’s 94^th birthday. I come to know this through a news item displayed on google news. The news item also carries Indira Gandhi’s black and white portrait, with pallu of her printed saree covering her head. This reminded me of our childhood association with her.

When we were in school, my two sisters and I used to collect images of great personalities from our history and our freedom struggle. My elder sister and I were born in our grandfather’s professors’ quarters. Baba had kept many framed portraits of our freedom fighters in our home. When we shifted to a new home after his retirement, mother got many new portraits (all collected from the middle pages of magazines like Dharm Yug) framed in glass. We had Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Gandhiji, Indira Gandhi, and many others. (One curious picture of Nehruji and Indira Gandhi was taken from such an angle that it gave the impression as if their noses were touching each other). Mother got the portraits displayed on the high walls of our drawing room and bedrooms (one nail at the top, two nails at bottom, and the frame would hang slightly tilted towards the ground). Every year during the Diwali, we used to clean the pictures to make them new. After many years, some of those became fragile, so we put them on a support. We grew up under the shadows of our great freedom fighters…

While growing up, once I heard an interesting remark of one of our guests. Some visitors who were from his bank had come to see father. They saw the picture of Dr. Rajendra Prasad in our drawing room, and appreciated our father for being impartial to caste. Dr. Prasad was a Kayastha by caste and they said it was a great thing that Papa didn’t choose pictures of personalities like Pt. Nehru (who was a Brahmin) for the drawing room. I still remember this episode which happened many years ago.

When our collection of the pictures cut out from newspapers and magazines grew big, one year an interesting plan came to our mind. We decided to celebrate Indira Gandhi’s birthday. We glued some of her pictures on hardboards and some on other sheets, and displayed our whole collection at a place in our drawing room. We had plenty of very nice pictures of her, thanks to the Soviet Nari magazine which came from the USSR. We also decorated the place. Neighbors and visitors appreciated our effort. After that, we celebrated many more of such ‘days’, like Nehruji’s birthday (Children’s Day), and also days related to Rajiv Gandhi.

When I reflect on those days, I think the innocence of our childhood had kept us isolated from the realities of the world. We saw Indira Gandhi as a strong lady who had become our PM thereby inspiring all of us. We didn’t think if she could do that had she not been Pt. Nehru’s daughter; also we didn’t know about the Emergency Days when she acted like a near tyrant. We loved the immensely good looking Rajiv Gandhi without knowing the corruption charges against him. We loved Chacha Nehru oblivious of his flawed decisions leading to humiliation and loss of life due to China’s excesses. Though we still had Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel and Subhash Chandra Bose, who were almost “all good”. Now from our present generation, if I have to choose some of our great leaders, whom shall I choose? Narsimha Rao? VP Singh? Manmohan Singh? Sonia Gandhi? Laloo Yadav? Or Mamta Banerjee? I think Atal Behari Vajpayee and APJ Abdul Kalam would be an exception and their portraits can still be revered; but not a single more name would prop in my mind. With a situation like this, I think if my children decide to celebrate the birthdays’ of great personalities, they would have to stick to my own old list – Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Mahatma Gandhi and a Subhash Chandra Bose.

Are there great leaders coming anymore?

- Rahul

The Monk who sold his Ferrari

Here is a very interesting article which tells the story of Rasanath Das, an ex-investment banker turned Hindu monk.

Rasanath, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), did his MBA from Cornell University and was working as an investment banker when the hidden facts about our life awoke him and made him to self-reflect.

You can read the whole article here:

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/17/idINIndia-60582120111117?feedType=RSS&feedName=globalCoverage2&google_editors_picks=true

I think what Rasanath did was very real and an inspiration for all of us. This world is not just about making lots of money, marrying, taking up material challenges and then dying with leaving lots of money for kids. Life is more than all this… And unless we think about what our life is about, we shall never get higher than the corporate “rat race”.

Disadvantages of SIP

A few years back ULIPs were market’s favorite investment option. Everyone wanted to invest in ULIPs and ULIPs for income tax (IT) savings were quite popular. All financial experts used to recommend it and agents used to call unsolicited, selling ULIPs like hotcakes. They sold ULIPS in one city while sitting in another, using phone to communicate and courier to send and receive documents. Even I got a call from a salesperson selling Reliance Life plans and her promise was: you deposit Rs 30K for 3 years and at the end of the period, you will get back Rs 1.2L; apart from saving taxes! That was a very good return and I was anyway looking to invest some amount for tax-saving purpose, so I subscribed to the plan. When I received the document, the company had clearly mentioned that I could return back the policy/plan within 10 days if I didn’t like it after going through the detailed terms and conditions. I wanted to take a chance, so I went ahead. And today after 3 years, the net market value is no more than half the principle.

The problem with ULIP was that there was a large initial allocation to economically wasteful accounts (for the investor), like to the broker, the agent, etc. Did the financial experts tell us about it? No. But by the time investors found out the hidden truth about ULIPs, the financial experts too became prudent and started speaking against ULIPs. Thanks to the government intervention which has taken the shine off from ULIPs. But till the time investors didn’t know about it, no financial expert thought it his or her duty to tell the fact in the open.

And now, is it happening the same with the SIP?

SIP, or the systematic investment plan, is being touted today as the best investment option. The logic is simple: since market goes up and down, it is safer to invest in small amounts over the long term rather than in bulk at one go. SIP has less risk, as they say. But the question is: will SIP give me higher returns? (Higher than other options available to me?)

If SIP avoids the high risk associated with lump sum investment, doesn’t it also avoid the opportunity along with? For example if I know that the market would move between 16000 and 19000 and the market currently is at 16500. I would like to invest more at this point of time. 2 months afterwards when the market is at 19200, I would know that I am at the top of the curve and would like to sell and book profits and I won’t like to invest more. But through SIP, you would be forced to invest even at these high rates! And after one more month if the market comes down to 18000, all the profits you made while investing at lesser rate gets wiped out and adjusted by the losses made by investing at the time when the rates were high. Anything that is equity linked runs an exact risk like this in the long term. I don’t see the point in making 20K profit for the first 6 months of the year and then making 15K loss in the next.

If market keeps growing, say for a period of 2 years, you shall make less money through SIP than through lump sum investment. Also, SIP doesn’t take our financial wisdom into account. If the market is too low, I would like to invest more. If the market is too high, I would like to invest less or none. But in SIP, you keep investing whether the market is high or low; it doesn’t give you the flexibility which could have been more financially rewarding for you.

I think SIP is good for the finance and share marketing companies. It gives them a constant business, de-risking them from the ups and downs in the market. Even when the market is at sky’s top and everyone knows it will come down, there will be people putting money in, thanks to the SIP plans. SIP makes sure that the brokers and finance companies never get out of fashion. Also, the fixed elements of the cost when users place orders, like stamp duty or brokerage etc, would be higher if we place 100 small orders, when compared to place one big order.

I think SIPs are not the best investment option available to us. It may be a structured and disciplined way to invest, but I think when it comes to money and finances, flexibility helps and a straight line rigid method harms our chances (of making more money). For a lot of investors RDs and FDs are still better option due to risk free growth and for those who can take up some risk, lump sum investment gives much better returns. SIP in my opinion needs better evaluation from the investor’s point of view while for the brokers and financial advisors, SIP would remain the best recommended option because of their own self interests. We need more number of honest evaluations to come out in the open whether SIPs are really the best option for the investors, or if these have been tagged so for milking more money out of investors, just like ULIPs.

- Rahul

Note: The views expressed are entirely personal and don’t express the views of any person or organization associated with the author. The author has taken care to maintain the facts mentioned in the article to be true, but there can be non-deliberate errors and mistakes.

Are Temple Donations Charity?

While visiting temples, I think most of us would be dropping some money or some coins in the hundi or cash collection boxes. We would also offer some coins (dravya) as part of our offering during worshipping the deity. Bigger temples display written notices directing the devotees to drop money only at the designated places. I guess at some point of time all of us would have wondered if such donations to temples are worthwhile. Some of us might be thinking that it is a waste of money and it goes to the overfed priests. I think there can be a serious misconception and lack of awareness if our views are on these lines.

Bigger Hindu temples carry out a lot of social welfare activities. For example, the list of social welfare work being done by the famous Tirupati Mandir consists of:

·         Giving free medical treatment to the poor

·         Maintaining shelters for poor

·         Home for treatment of leprosy patients

·         Free boarding, lodging and education to orphans and destitute

·         Training center for handicapped people

·         Schemes to conserve underground water and rain water

·         Planting saplings and developing forests

·         Protection of cows

·         Preservation of temples and religious symbols

References: [Link1] [Link2] [Link3] [Link4]

Similarly, Mata Amritanandamayi Math carries out a host of social welfare activities including:

·        Homes for the Homeless (Amrita Kuteeram project to build 100,000 homes for the poor)

·         Free monthly pension for the poor

·         Prisoner Welfare

·         Tribal Welfare programs

·         providing free legal services to the poor

·         Mass Marriages of impoverished couples

·         Free food and clothes to the poor

·         Care Homes for the Elderly

·         Running Orphanage

·         Vocational Training & Self Help Groups

Reference: [Link1]

While bigger temples carry out a lot of social work using the money received through donations, a lot of bigger Hindu temples are actually managed by the state governments. In such cases, the money collected in the temples is also spent on developing infrastructure of the cities and areas around it. For example, you can read about how Shirdi Sai Baba Temple funds are being used by the state government for infrastructure development projects like building roads, footpaths, and parking places. [Ref1] Although this is a controversial topic whether state governments should take temple donations to carry out work which they are supposed to do anyway. [Ref2] In my opinion, government’s control over Hindu temples is undesirable and it should be decontrolled over time. (Though the current trend is just the opposite.) Until the decontrol happens, even if the governments take a big portion of temple donations for other work, if there are lesser donations the actual money left with the temples to do social work would be lesser and hence our donations are needed to maintain the current running set of social welfare activities.

Smaller temples depend hugely on donations to maintain themselves and to cover expenses like regular puja, cleanliness, security and infrastructure maintenance. In my opinion, we should donate more at smaller temples than at the bigger temples because of this reason.

If we look at the historical account too, the need for funding our temples is very genuine. For centuries during the Islamic invasion of India, temples of all sizes were destroyed and desecrated by the barbaric forces. Somnath Temple is a classic case, but such cases are scattered all over India, especially the Northern part. Almost all major temples were attacked. The Ram Temple at Ayodhya is a recent example where the court had to rule out the inconvenient fact that there was indeed a Ram Temple at the site of the Babri Masjid. Over a thousand years of foreign rule left our temples in pitiful state. Therefore there was a severe need to start rebuilding our temples post our independence. There have been some extraordinary efforts in this area by the Birlas who built Birla Mandirs in all major cities and institutions like ISKCON who have built world class temple complexes. I think we need more number of grand temples of the scale of Akshardham or Somnath Temples. I think we should therefore definitely fund construction of any new big size temple.

Apart from making new temples, there is a serious need to develop the infrastructure of existing temples. Every year we hear some stampede or calamity at the crowded ancient Temples which were not designed for so much rush. How else will they be able to make better arrangements, than by using our donations?

Now coming to the question if such donations are charity? Why not? Charity is defined as “The voluntary giving of help, typically money, to those in need”, or “benevolence or generosity toward others”. I think without doubt our donations at Hindu temples can be counted as charity. It is a charity towards causes which are both noble and in dire need.

Looking from all positions I think we should continue donating some money at the collection boxes of our temples.

- Rahul