The Strength of Bharat - the Base of India’s Pyramid
by Sudipto Das
The 2009 Lok Sabha elections have brought out many things in the light. Among many others it has also converted a hypothesis into law - If you have to survive you can’t be niche any longer - you’ve to be just very common. The power is no longer at the top of the pyramid - but at its base.
When I started my career in semiconductors in mid nineties we used to strive to work in the most advanced and niche areas for creating chips which would go into some of the fanciest electronic gadgets. For obvious reasons US used to be the most desirable place to work because that was the centre of all research and development.
Since then most companies producing electronic products have invested heavily in technology to produce things which are no doubt fancy and hi-tech, but not always useful. But then people had money and could afford buying umpteen numbers of useless things. Even till recently people used to change mobile phones once in every few months. It’s not that they all really needed new phones so frequently. But they can’t be blamed. The electronics industry used to create such hype around the useless gizmos that the innocent consumers would think that their lives would be really useless if they didn’t have one of those useless things.
This vicious circle of demand and supply of things, that can’t be ever called value-for-money products and in most cases too useless, stayed for almost fifteen years when suddenly no one had any money to buy them anymore. People moved away from luxuries of replacing phones every few months to cost effective and value-for-money products.
For the first time people understood the futility of seeing a movie in the small screen of a phone. Not only such an act is unergonomic and poses serious threats to health but also the experience is a debacle compared to even watching the cheapest television.
That’s when the entire electronic industry faced the biggest ever slow-down.
The story is same for most other industries. When the going was easy people never thought of investing in useful value for money things. Most of the products were always out of reach of the Aam Aadmi and were targeted only for the niche and rich people - the ones that constitute the pinnacle of the pyramid. When the going became tough since last year the only available consumer market was the base of the pyramid - which was deprived of useful things all these years. Then suddenly the focus shifted from niche to simple and common things. Intel is thinking of $100 notebooks with wireless broadband, sales of mobiles are restricted only to the low end categories, FMCG companies are coming up with even smaller sachets of their products primarily for rural markets - the whole industry is euphoric about the prospects of Bharat rather than India.
The age of niche products seems to have come to a temporary halt.
No longer I’m proud of working on the latest technologies to produce hi-tech gizmos for the sale in upmarket malls in Europe or US - because they are no longer in demand there. Rather I should work on simple things that can be sold in a Reliance Outlet in India’s hinterland.
The importance of Bharat is clearly seen in the outcome of recent elections. Even though faulty at many places, still the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme of the UPA government did manage to give the 700 million strong rural Bharat some amount of buying capacity. When the economy went into a whirlwind downfall throughout the world one of the very few markets with purchasing power was indeed India’s Bharat. Perhaps that’s the only reason why our GDP growth didn’t turn negative. The rural economy kept the wheels of India’s economy moving. When my purchasing power was shrinking with every month Bharat was buying 15 million mobile phones every month.
The impact of the recent slowdown was not felt in a significant way in Bharat. That’s surely one of the main reasons why the UPA didn’t feel the heat of anti incumbency. None of the poll predictions could assess the strength of Bharat - the base of India’s pyramid - in such a strong way. Not only is the Bharat driving the economy of our country, but also has proved to be a decisive element in India’s democracy.
There’s no doubt that BJP failed to tap the potential of Bharat. The issue of security or inflation or economic breakdown didn’t have much relevance to Bharat. It was only the India that was bothered with all those!!
It’s the writing in the wall - take care of Bharat…. India is Bharat.
Sudipto blogs at http://sudiptounplugged.blogspot.com/
Comments
7 Responses to “The Strength of Bharat - the Base of India’s Pyramid”
For all the NREGA junkies - Read what CAG of India has to say (thats another media hype - the program is successful), for the time being let us not even pay attention to the fact that the whole program is not economically sound.
http://www.cag.gov.in/html/reports/civil/2008_PA11_nregacivil/highlights.pdf
a Populist scheme like NERGA will show its ill effect in 2-3 terms and unfortunately BJP will be given chance to fix it,so that public can again select Congress and go back on populist schemes.
Both PVN and Vajpayee have resisted such populist schemes and thats why India could grow to some extent.
If the oldies remember though VP Singh was blamed for Economic mess in 1990 as he has done nothing else good but it was Rahul’s father Rajeev who has destroyed the economy.
Same will again happen now. NRGEA and Loan Waiver are white elephants . Spending money without generating any value. So Congress has defeated BJP by this but has really messed up economy. They have to do again Loan Waiver again after 4 years and hence they have to collect money from public from now which means higher taxes and again this cycle of recession and inflation will continue,unless money from swiss bank is brought.
How NREGA(National Rural Employee Guarantee Scheme) screws ,I will explain.
Same Agricultural Labour who was working for Rs40 a day on fields will now get 100 rupees a day for building a useless road which will be used only to pass narure’s call . A Landlord has to pay 100 rupees to labourer,so either he will not pay and the labourer will land up in Bombay after 90 days of emplyment guarantee. Now if the Farmer pays then he will ask same money from government and since he is a votebank,govt will increase crop support price which will create more inflation and so on.
Vajpayee was smart that he used to built roads/airports which have definite ROI but UPA messed it. Anyway UPA guys are proven smart as they have won.
Vajpayee/PVN/Chandra Babu have removed this desire for free from people,but Congress brought it back and defeated them.
Randheer has hit the nail on the head. Its only perception that matters in India. Be it any industry, once you appear to be doing something, you are celebrated.
Actual Effects of the plans are not considered. Only exception is Gujarat where people have accepted that populism is not needed. But even that is in danger now as congis may promise everything free in the next election. Modi should become aware of this.
It is really shallow to believe that a 10bln dollar scheme is preventing a trillion dollar economy from goin into recession!
All the so called Poor People,Aam aadmi,OBC/Dalit/minority Fundas will work only till India is a Hindu country. Once it is not then poors will be treated either China’s way or Pakistan’s way( Ruthless Dictatorships,total suppresion).
Hinduism is naturally democratic and Caste system was the Indian form of captilism and balancing force which initiates the corrective action periodically and thats why downtroddens could move forward.
Can you imagine a Mulayam,Lalu,Mayawati or Ram Vilas paswan rising in China or Pakistan. Just think on it. It is Hindu India which has done justice to them.
India minus Hinduism as the driving force will become like Afganistan,a country which is cutoff from its history and traditions. That will be a total disaster for this country.
IITs or IIMs which have got some respect for India in world are the biggest examples of Hindutva ideology though started by Nehru.
So forget BJP it is in our future generations interest that we preserve the Hindutva Culture in India.