The Shame of India - 3

Talking about "Swiss Bank Accounts", today I tweeted (in two parts), "Offshore banking is a 11 trillion dollar industry. It encourages massive tax evasion and instead of investment into development ... it creates avenues for money laundering, terrorism, drug trade, weapons dealing, sex trafficking, and other international crimes".

These facts and figures are sourced from Financial Taskforce, and are put out by researchers who have done their homework very well. Since they go by available records, we can safely assume that the actual figures could be more but, certainly not less.

A figure of 1 trillion is difficult to visualise. Here are some other ways to think about it :

• $1 trillion was a little less than half of the entire developing worlds’ government revenue in 2007 ($2.5 trillion), which means that for every $2.50 those governments earned, $1 crept out of their countries.

• $1 trillion was about 8% of the entire developing worlds’ income or $181 per person.  This is particularly significant given the fact that the average annual income of the developing world is only $2,366 per year.

• $181 per person is more than the developing world’s total health spending per person ($114 per person)

• $1 trillion is 500 times what the World Bank will spend on emergency food aid in the next two years

• If the $1 trillion had been taxed, it would have generated an additional $144.5-$170 billion in government revenue for the developing world, in 2006 alone (assumes an average 17% tax rate).

1 trillion dollars is not very easy to put into perspective. Especially for us Indians. Our reach only goes just over a billion in population - and that too is very hard to visualise, isn't it? So, let us put our Indian caps and see what a trillion dollar mean.

As I said, India's population crossed 1 billion over a decade back. Now what is 1 billion? It is one thousand million - and each million is thousand thousand or 10 Lakhs. Now reverting to US$ @ Rs.50 for convenience (actual is approx. 46), we have $1 million as Rs. 500 lakhs - or 5 crores. And, 1 billion is 5000 crores, and a trillion is thousand times 5000 crores.

Our Government does not want to know, but we are told that corrupt Indians own at least US$1.4 Trillion of that 11 Trillion - if not more! These are figures till 2007. Remember these figures does not include the massive moneys siphoned in the 2G Spectrum scam, CWG scam and other's yet to be reported scams including hundreds of smaller scams.

Just imagine what India could have done if all that money was available for development?  

(Rajeev Gandhi, as a politician, speaking the truth on a rare occasion,  had said, "out of every Rs.100 spent for development, only Rs.15 reached the people")

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The Indian Dream Tablet

You must surely remember the Rs.1500 Indian laptop/tablet for students that was announced with much fanfare by the HRD ministry more than a month back. At first, the tech community was rightfully skeptical, anyone would doubt such claims, after the Rs.500 laptop debacle which had shamed the Indian Govt before. "In 2011, the Sun, will rise for the children of India”, proclaimed HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal at the launch of the tablet. The minister has also promised that million of units of the laptop/tablet will be produced soon though there was no fixed date as to when it would be unveiled in the retail market.

A company called HiVision had shown off a new Android tablet at this years CeBIT, and whilst the specifications aren’t all that impressive, the price is as the company expects to sell their new Android tablet for under $100. So what do you get for your $100?

The HiVision SpeedPad features a Samsung 6410, 800MHz (ARM 11) processor, 2GB of storage and 256MB of DDR 2 RAM, there is also integrated 802.11 b/g WiFi. Other specifications include support for external 3G, Bluetooth, GPS connections via USB, and it will come with a range of software built in which will include a web browser, email, Google Maps, a clock, camera, video camera and messaging.

It looks like the HiVision SpeedPad will give you around six hours of usage on the built in 4200mAh battery, not bad for under $100, there are no details as yet on when it will hit the stores though.

Apparently, the HRD ministry was just planning to buy the tablets from China in bulk, subsidize them to reach the $35 target price and was hoping that no one would notice. The contract awarded to HCL was just for testing the tablets, not for manufacturing them!

Hope this sees the light of the day though - because, the product is well worth it - whatever the source!

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Crime in US - (enterprise in India?)

Three Indian Americans across America have been sent to Jail yesterday.

Noshir Gowadia, 66 years old, a former engineer with defense giant Northrop Grumman has been convicted for selling secrets relating to the B-2 stealth bomber to China. He is supposed to have designed a cruise missile component for China and got payment worth over $100,000 which he used to partly pay for his multi-million dollar house on the beach. Surely, he can wait to use that house if and when he survives his life term!

In the second instance, Randeep Singh Mann, an Arkansas based doctor, masterminded a car bomb attack on the head of the state's medical board in Feb-09. Dr Trent Pierce, a family practitioner, suffered serious injuries and lost an eye. Randeep's wife was also charged in the conspiracy. He is facing a life term.

In the third case, Sushil Bansal, president and CEO of Advanced Integrated Technology Corporation pleaded guilty to the charge of bribing public officials in the office of the Chief Technology Officer of the District of Columbia. He and his company paid over $700,000 in bribes to two officials in return for favours that included approving contractors proposed by Bansal and false approval of invoices.

Many here, may not blink an eye on their crime - because, this is normal business, in India, they would say. Look at Kalmadi and co. Even the government here has argued in Parliament, and outside that robbing up to 1.6 crores is not enough to send a member of Parliament to jail.

All three of them are naturalized Americans. All of them are aware of the laws of the land. All of them have got opportunities way beyond their dreams - and all of them, and their extended families back home must have prospered way beyond their imagination. Yet, they violated the decencies that a guest has to uphold in a land that has welcomed him. Moreover, they have shamed the land of their origin, and caused every Indian to be looked down upon, suspiciously by the world at large!

Of course, all of them will appeal. That's what the courts are for. The fundamental fact remains that they violated the law of the land, which accepted them as guests, and provided them with opportunities and rewards, far beyond their dreams. Alas, at last, their basic natures surfaced and greed got the better of them. Let the authorities lock them up and throw the keys for all I care.