Monday, November 7, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
படியுங்கள்! சுவையுங்கள்!!: NHMWriter யை எவ்வாறு பயன் படுத்துவது?
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Anna hazare's fast against corruption-I Have a strong suspicion
I have a strong suspicion
Today almost all the print and electronic media cover the victory of the hunger strike undertaken by a social activist Anna Hazare with prominence since the cause for which he undertook indefinite fasting has been accomplished through a publication of the Gazette Notification by GOI. According to the notification issued by Government, a Joint Drafting Committee has been formed consisting of 10 members, five cabinet ministers and five civil society representatives that of course include Anna Hazare for enactment of Lok Pal Bill against corruption. For people who wish to eradicate corruption from the Society, this is truly good news and a welcome development.
Who are all the cabinet ministers in the Joint Drafting Committee? P Chidambaram, the Home Minister who is the most preferred person for the post of the Finance Minister by the USA as revealed by the Wiki Leaks. As Finance Minister he truly followed the diktats of the USA throwing the economy open to the multi nationals. The consecutive budgets presented by him are responsible for this great divide between the poor and the rich today. The neo liberal policy adopted by the UPA Government in which he was FM for 5 years is the root cause for this enormous corruption. His son Karthik Chidambaram has admitted that money was distributed during the 2009 Parliament elections in Sivaganga constituency where Chidambaram stood and narrowly won as revealed by Wiki Leaks. Another cabinet minister is Pranab Mukerjee who is the present Finance Minister and in order to prove that he is no less loyal than Chidambaram or Montek Singh Aluwalia to the USA, has introduced the Banking Laws Amendments bill and Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority bill in the recently concluded Lok Sabha session. These, in essence will throw open lakhs of crores of rupees of ordinary people to the loot and plunder of Multi National Companies. The third person is Law Minister Veerappa Moily who is the convener of this committee. He is the person who is responsible for appointment of P J Thomas, a scam tainted person as CVC. He is also responsible for not booking Hasan Ali who has evaded Income Tax of several thousands of crores of rupees, effectively even after several indictments from the Supreme Court. Another cabinet minister in the committee is Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal who has hidden the full pumpkin in food saying that there was absolutely no loss to the Government exchequer due to sale of 2G spectrum in the First Come First Served basis. His lie has been nailed by CBI within a few days of his interview to the press in this regard, through arrest of Raja former Telecom Minister and charge sheet holding him and others responsible for the loss of around Rs.30000 crores to start with.
It is understood that “these ministers will bring a bill to eradicate corruption in public life through time bound trial and punishment which includes hanging” – who will believe this?
Who is this Anna Hazare? Except browsing his brief biography and learning that he is recipient of several awards including Padma Bushan and an award from USA, he has led this kind of hunger strike in a couple of times in the past, I do not know anything about him. I have not even heard about him before 5th April 2011. I believe that this would be the case with the most of the serious political observers. He is joined by others, some of whom have some public integrity. Why this fast is undertaken now? Why such a big publicity over this? What is the motive of this “Anti corruption people’s movement? What is the general feeling of those who support this movement and celebrate victory today? They all say almost in one voice that “all the political parties are corrupt?” That is why this movement is called people’s movement according to them without the involvement of any political party. Anna Hazare has gone on record to say that he has not sought the help of any political party. Here lies the hidden agenda, I feel.
Today huge scams like 2G spectrum involving 1, 76,000 crores loss to the Government coffer, ISRO with 2 lakhs crores loss, Common Wealth Games, Adarsh Housing wherein the ruling Congress Party and its allies like DMK, Congress (Sharad Pawar) etc. are involved, come to the surface. Further Wiki Leaks has revealed that huge sum of money has been given away by the ruling Congress Party to purchase votes to retain the Government in 2008 when the Left Parties withdrew support to the UPA I Government on the principle of their stout opposition to the Indo Nuclear deal with USA. The scam of iron ore by Reddy Brothers (in one estimate amounting to 38000 crores of rupees) and Land allotment scam in Karnataka indulged by the BJP has also come to the fore.
Whether it is the scams that have come to the surface now or the tape conversation with Neera Radia or the scams like Hawala that have been revealed in the past, there has not been a single index finger against any of the leaders of the Left Parties like CPI(M) or CPI. So there is a clear distinction between the Parties which support the neo liberal economic policy which is the fundamental reason for scams like these and whose leaders themselves are directly or indirectly involved in scams and Left Parties which are opposed to this neo liberal economic policy and whose leaders have impeccable qualities in public life.
Now this crusade against corruption led by Anna Hazare is portrayed as one against all the Political Parties without distinguishing the right wing Political Parties which stand for continuation of the present economic policy which has resulted these scams and the Left Parties which stand against the present economic policy and whose leaders are with high order of honesty and integrity in public life. This is done when the Assembly elections to the five States including the ones led by Left Parties in West Bengal and Kerala are underway. An attempt is subtly but consciously made to blur the distinction between the Left Parties and Right wing Parties during this time, perhaps to deny the mileage these Left Parties enjoy over the other Parties due to the hard work and utmost sacrifice of the leaders of the Left Parties. This is not a good sign.
The general public and the right thinking intellectuals should raise a demand that in whole exercise against the corruption, the rightful place of the Left Parties should be ensured.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Reject the anti people recommendations with contempt
Raghuram Rajan Committee
REJECT THE RECOMMENDATIONS WITH CONTEMPT
One more committee in the order of Narasimham committee I and II and Verma committee was constituted very clandestinely in August 2007 with wide ranging terms of reference to go into the whole gamut of the financial sector and recommend the changes needed. The details of the recommendations came to surface only after finalization of the so called draft report through a section of the print media. The earlier committees were constituted by the Ministry of Finance; whereas this committee was constituted by none else other than the Deputy Chairman of the planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia whose loyalty, as is known to everyone, is more for the IMF-World Bank than our own motherland. This fact clearly reveals what would be the nature of the recommendations. Again the chairman of the committee Raghuram G Rajan, Professor,
The committee held nine formal sittings and eleven informal ones most of which were hosted by ICICI Bank and then it was the same bank which provided secretariat to take care of the logistical arrangements. This again is a clear indication about the direction of the recommendations of the committee. The committee did not think it fit to consult, even informally, the trade unions representing cent per cent work force which is an important stake holder.
Expectedly the committee came out with the theoretical formulations clearly favouring continuance of the predatory capitalism and recommendations for wholesale privatisation of the public sector banks and linking the Indian economy with the Global economy without any safeguard.
In the opinion of the committee the
The committee is for discontinuation of Government ownership of the banks. It strongly feels that the Government holding in the public sector banks to be reduced to below 50%. In the meantime the committee feels that small ‘underperforming’ public sector banks are to be straightaway sold in the market. The sale can be to any organisation including the subsidiaries of the Foreign Banks. Taking experience of this, bigger banks can be sold.
The committee wants large international banks to swallow our large public sector banks. But it laments that it is politically unacceptable in the foreseeable future. The committee hints that as the present UPA Government is dependent on the Left Parties for its survival and the Left Parties are ardent supporters of the Nationalized Banking Sector, the multi national foreign banks are not allowed to swallow the public sector banks. As large public sector banks are going to exist for the present, the committee comes out with strange idea that the Boards of these banks are to be reorganized is such a way that more powers are vested with the outside private share holders including appointment and compensation of top executives to the Board. Thus the committee wants the control of the public sector banks to be transferred to private big industrial houses.
While on the one hand the committee is for selling small public sector banks, on the other hand it is for opening more and more local area private banks. At the same time the committee wants the ‘unviable’ co-operative institutions to be closed. The committee observes that in the case of Regional Rural Banks, the wage structure for RRB staff was equalized with their higher wage national commercial bank counterparts, resulting in unprofitable cost structure. Thus the committee is not in favour of public sector banks, co-op banks and RRBs and is clearly in favour of local area private banks. The whole idea is to somehow promote privatisation.
Like earlier committees, this committee is also for throwing the poor to market economy mercilessly and establishing jungle law of ‘survival of the fittest’. That is why the committee wants the interest rates on loans to the poor are to be liberalized; the low interest ceilings are to be totally removed. The committee gives a peculiar meaning to the oft-repeated terminology ‘financial inclusion’. According to the committee this term does not mean expanding credit but access to savings. Therefore the committee recommends for dispensing with priority sector loans to the rural peasants and small traders at concessionary rate of interest.
This committee further recommends for merger of public sector banks with other banks including subsidiaries of foreign banks. Thus this committee is for monstrous growth of the multinational foreign banks at the cost of the public sector banks. The committee is also for outsourcing permanent and perennial jobs of the banks through microfinance institutions and business correspondents.
The public sector banks should be removed from accountability to Parliament is an important recommendation of the committee. Another similar recommendation is to delink the banks from Chief Vigilance Commission. The idea behind this can only be to encourage frauds at the top level.
Thus this committee stands for
# merger of banks
# outsourcing of bank jobs through business correspondents
# closure of co-operative institutions and RRBs in the name of unviability
# sale of small public sector banks
# full control to private share holders in large public sector banks
# opening more and more local area private banks
# privatisation of public sector banks and merging them with multinational foreign banks
and
# Capital Account Convertibility to link our economy with global economy
Apart from these, there are innumerable suggestions and recommendations in that direction. The committee is for a hundred small steps in the direction of privatisation that would collectively go very far.
Therefore let us resolve to reject these anti people and anti employee recommendations with contempt.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
The menace of outsourcing in the banking industry
Outsourcing in the Banking Industry – threats and challenges
Outsourcing has become the modern word in the parlance of the Managements be it manufacturing industry or service industry. The word outsource means “to arrange for somebody outside a company to do work” in terms of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. For the working class what is meant by outsourcing? The very meaning of the word is sheer exploitation of labour in its crude form. The crisis ridden capitalism finds several ways to overcome the same and comes out with newer methods to increase its predatory profits. One such method which has been ‘successfully’ put into practice is outsourcing of regular and permanent jobs in various sectors. Banking Industry in
If a job is done in totality in an industry, the cost is higher according to the industrialists. Therefore in order to reduce the cost, outsourcing is resorted to. In that process, the labour is divided, labourers are dissected into several groups so that their voice of dissent is suppressed. In the thickly populated country like ours cheap labour is available aplenty for exploitation. The managements see that the fragmented sections of labour are not organized. Thus the main motive of the exploiting class is to de unionise the working class which ultimately poses grave threat to the very existence of the capitalist system.
Banking Industry where nearly 25% of the total business is controlled by the new generation private banks, the indigenous and the multi national private banks, outsourcing is fully resorted to without any restriction. This gives them advantage in terms of profit and reduced man power and that too mostly in contractual form. Hence pressure is built on the public sector banks also to follow the suit. The successive Governments at the centre instead of checking the menace provide a congenial climate for public sector banks to adopt the same policy. Thus the disease spreads everywhere.
Almost all the core jobs are outsourced in the private sector banks. For instance credit card marketing, issuance of cards, maintenance of accounts, settlement of bills, enhancement of limits, recovery etc. are all outsourced to several agencies which absolutely do not have any interconnectivity. Thus the end users are put into untold sufferings as they are made to run from pillar to post to redress their grievances. The same methodology is copied by the public sector banks also thus plugging the decent job opportunities for hundreds and thousands of the unemployed youth. State Bank is a classical example for this. There is no Head Quarters for SBI credit card department. . No personal interaction is possible for any credit card holder to take up their grievances. Letter correspondence through drop box or post box or e mail is only possible. Resultantly letters or legal notices cannot be sent through any registered post. Thus the clients are placed in a hapless situation due to this system.
Several courts including the Supreme Court passed severe strictures against the ICICI Bank for its unlawful acts through its outsourced agents. One Shri Yadiah was reportedly done to death by the goons engaged by the ICICI Bank at
Recently, the IBA has black listed 22 outsourced agencies out of which 13 have been engaged by ICICI bank and 9 by HDFC bank. The reasons pointed out by IBA for black listing are "submission of forged documents indicating dishonesty and lack of integrity, leakage of customer data, failure to meet statutory liabilities, involvement in frauds etc." Still learning no lesson from the past experience, the bankers-government combine are very adamant in outsourcing bank jobs.
The managements of the public sector banks which have already resorted to outsourcing many functions which are continuous and perennial in nature and which form an integral part of the day to day banking are encouraged by the Government to resort to further outsourcing. The cleaning of the premises, security guards for the ATMs and bank branches, issuance of credit and debit cards, filling up of cash in ATMs, data entry, filling up of account opening forms, capture of customers’ signatures, transportation of cheques to the service branch from the branches and vice versa, data entry are some of the jobs that are handled by the outsourced agents in the Banking Industry. The list is only illustrative and not exhaustive. Thus through these acts, several thousands of permanent jobs are rendered surplus in the industry.
The eighth bipartite settlement provides for outsourcing of only IT related activities where in-house capability is not available. Therefore whatever outsourcing that has been resorted to by the banks is clearly in violation of the industry wide settlement and hence the management of these banks is liable to be prosecuted under section 29 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. But the Government of
But the managements of several banks have decided to follow the RBI guidelines blindly despite stiff resistance and started appointing business correspondents in large numbers. State Bank of
But the danger continues. The honourable Finance Minister in his budget speech on
The strike actions of 25th and
During the discussions between UFBU and IBA on 18.03.08, the UFBU has taken up the following stand:
*No outsourcing of jobs beyond what has been agreed in the 8th bipartite settlement
*No employment of the bank staff on contractual basis
*All the bank jobs of regular, permanent and perennial nature must be entrusted to the permanent employees and officers and not outsourced or given on contract
*The outsourced jobs should be in sourced immediately
*All the existing contract and outsourced employees should be regularized and absorbed as permanent staff of the bank
The earlier such assurance in March 2007 was observed in breach by the IBA. Now it has to be seen whether any seriousness has dawned on the IBA due to the successful observance of one day strike in Jan 2008 and the serious preparations for the two days’ strike in Feb.2008.
In essence outsourcing is a serious threat not only to the job security of the existing bank employees but also to the lakhs of the educated unemployed youth waiting for a decent job. The surveys conducted in several countries reveal that crime rate is directly proportionate to the magnitude of the unemployment in that country. Every adult is entitled for a decent job and income. When that is denied the society faces a lot of problems which could be avoided by employing them gainfully. The very fact that 2.11 crore households from 200 districts demanded minimum wages (Rs.80/- per day for 100 days in a year) under the NRGEA (National Rural Guarantee Employment Act) in 2006-07 is indicative of the extent of joblessness and distress prevailing in the rural areas. The rate of unemployment has increased from 6.1% in 1993-94 to 8.3% in 2004-05. These figures clearly establish the magnitude of the unemployment in our country both in rural areas as well as urban areas.
Systematic reduction of manpower, introduction high technology and outsourcing has already reduced the wage bill of the banks. Similar is the case of the several organized sectors. According to the Eleventh Plan Document, wage share in the organized industrial sector has halved after 1980s and is now among the lowest in the world.
Thus outsourcing poses a serious challenge before the working class in general and the bank employees in particular. Stiff resistance has to be developed and sustained movement including struggles has to be built along with the youth of the country and with the support of the public at large to check the menace of outsourcing.
