Some random thoughts on Demonitisation

Prime Minister’s sudden announcement of Rs.500 & Rs.1000 currency notes being no longer valid legal tender starting from 09th November midnight has evoked a mixed response among the Indians. On one hand, there are die-hard Modi fans who are cheering this as a historic decision which would curb the nuisance of the black money and corruption for once and all and on the other hand, there are political opponents of the BJP who are blaming the unprepared government for the chaos which has unleashed since the announcement. It is extremely difficult to make any conclusive arguments about how this decision would affect the Indian economy at large. There are arguments and there are counter arguments both of which look very reasonable and powerful making the fence sitters wonder on what is actually going on. The news was broke to me by my wife who was informed by someone watching the TV. As usual, I thought this as just another rumour mongering stunt on the social media which keeps on spinning surprises from time to time. I googled the news and voila this was true. And suddenly, I became apprehensive for no reason. Although, I had nothing to worry but I started constructing fanciful scares in my mind. What better way of venting out your apprehension than social media? I was among the first ones to protest and wasted no time in equating Modi’s government as the ones incharge of a banana republic. As expected, I was hounded by Modi supporters online who were equally judgmental about the decision. Both the sides, the ones supporting and the ones protesting were driven by the emotions rather than rationality. Both the camps started digging out write ups available online in order to gravitate to their confirmation bias. It took me a couple of days to regain my sanity and I resorted to going through the matter in an objective fashion. The most obvious question is to find out the reasons for Modi taking such a major step. His supporters would waste no time in concluding that here is a man who wants to clean up the mess and is ready to go an extra mile for the same. This is the least convincing answer for a cynical personal like me. If Modi was so obsessive about cleaning up the mess then he would not have been surrounded by a large number of tainted ministers and politicians in the centre and the state governments ruled by the BJP. A sincere person would always put his own house in order before preaching others. I am ready to give in to the counter argument presented by his supporters that his decision is going to affect one and sundry without any discrimination. Yes, this decision has the potential of discomforting the real estate dealers, jewelers, corrupt babus and the professionals like doctors and lawyers. This is the very class which has been a vociferous supporter of the BJP and one has to concede that there is an element of bravery and political risk in what Modi has done. The answer lies in the ideological construct of Modi and the RSS. The entire artefact of the RSS ideology hinges on supreme sense of victimization which can be only overcome through radical steps. There is this admiration of a virtual bravado which would spare no one. It is this obsession of the Sangh ideology which finds no wrong in violence, genocides and strong corporal punishments whenever the things don’t move the way they want. This is precisely the imagery which the BJP and Modi had constructed for themselves and were able to assume the reins of power with it. However, their thirty months in power were failing them. They needed some radical steps to live up to their macho image and this demonetization was a low hanging fruit for them and they went for it. Yes, they have not been considerate to their own sympathisers and this is exactly how fascism works. The fascists do not like to listen to dissenting voices even if they come from within. Here lies a warning for each one of us. If we continue to fuel the megalomaniacs, their arrogance would not spare us even if we were their best of supporters. Coming to the economic merit of demonetization, it has its own pros and cons. This government is telling us that demonetization had become inevitable. This is a clear cut admission by the government that their machinery has failed to nab the black money hoarders and is incapable of stopping the entry and circulation of counterfeit notes. The demonetization would severely affect the liquidity bringing down the monetary transactions while hurting the economy at least in the short term. What the present regime has done is not exactly the demonetization of high currency denominations but this is essentially an exercise for replacement of the existing currency. Thus liquidity is expected to return to normalcy after the government’s promised 50 days. Coming to the advantages of demonetization, it makes people reluctant in hoarding the money in cash form. This propels spending which is favourable for wealth distribution. In the last three days, I have seen some of the most stingy people willing to share their money with others. The long pending receivables and payments are getting settled. Suddenly the people are discoverning new meanings of money. This jolt albeit a very short lived one is helping people to question the real meaning of life. Those who did not find any purpose in life beyond material pleasures are suddenly realizing that all their money may render useless within a flash. Obviously, these benefits are never thought of by the policy makers while implementing the demonetization moves. In the longer run, this is indeed a statement by the government. A statement to the people at large that they just cannot escape from the state. By instilling the fear of punitive measures, the government would indeed be able to make a sizeable chunk of the population to adhere to the laws of the land. This means that the state and its machinery would become more powerful in the coming days. Here again, the philosophical question arises on how to take a powerful state in our stride. If the state was powerful and benign then it ought to be the best thing happening to its citizens. However, a state is as benign or as hostile as the set of people in the ruling dispensation. Going by the history of the BJP, this may not be a very good news for the marginalized sections of the society. On the flip side there is no reason to not believe in the democratic processes laid down by the Indian constitution. Keeping my fingers crossed on what the future is going to unfold.

Investment Avenues for AlBurooj Society Corpus Fund

Salam, to all the elders and friends. This write up is exclusively about the Investment Avenues for the Corpus Fund of the AlBurooj Maintenance Society. We would be soon handed over the realms of the maintenance of the Society. We have had a very good beginning with the formation of a committee and a very competent set of selfless office bearers. The best part was the unanimity about the decisions taken which very much speaks about the quality of the people we are having. The members are obviously a little apprehensive about moving forward and meeting the financial requirements of such a gigantic residential set up. It is a norm with the most Housing Societies of the day to create a corpus and deploy it in Bank Deposits or Mutual Funds or any financial product which yields a regular monthly cash flow. This is easily the best way of assuring regular incomes to meet the tall financial needs of the maintenance activities. The only catch about the financial products in contention is that they are interest bearing and antagonistic to our faith. Allah swt says in Quran in Surah Baqarah, Ayat no.275, “Those who consume interest cannot stand [on the Day of Resurrection] except as one stands who is being beaten by Satan into insanity. That is because they say, "Trade is [just] like interest." But Allah has permitted trade and has forbidden interest. So whoever has received an admonition from his Lord and desists may have what is past, and his affair rests with Allah. But whoever returns to [dealing in interest or usury] - those are the companions of the Fire; they will abide eternally therein”. I am aware that there are also differing Fiqhi positions in Islam which allow participation in interest based transactions in certain conditions. And many of our esteemed members might have leanings to such interpretations and it is absolutely fine. We should respect the faith of all the individuals and must not impose our interpretations on others. This is where we can explore other possible investment avenues which are very much compatible with the teachings of Islam. One of the probable options is to invest with a going business concern who would share profits with us but each one of us would agree that finding such a business concern and further to trust them with an amount running in Crores is not a wise thing to do. The other tangible option is to make investments in real estate or shops. As for real estate, we would be handicapped for not having liquidity to meet our regular requirements and thus it becomes a no-no option. For shops, the rates of returns are generally modest and managing the rental collection and disciplining the tenants would almost be an impossible task. Apart from the faith related problems, the interest based income from the Bank Deposits has one more issue. Best rates are offered by the Co-operative Banks which are not inherently zero risk. In Gujarat, we had a very hard time for the investors who parked their funds with the Co-operative Banks as many of them busted in the past. Those at the helm of the affairs have often been found indulged in creating a nexus with the defaulters and siphoning off Crores of rupees of the investors. Thus, even if Bank Deposits is an any option to by, the only probable risk free option is Nationalised Banks which obviously promise lower returns. This pretty much leaves us with an option of equity markets. However, we are all aware that inspite of the better returns promised by the equity markets, fund management is a full time job requiring a lot of skills and that too a risky proposition if investments are done in unworthy scrips. Here comes the utility of a Shariah compliant Equity Fund. Presently, the SEBI has approved two products form fund houses viz. Taurus and Tata Mutual Fund. I would not elaborate about Taurus due to relatively low brand equity and uncertainties involved with an unknown player. Speaking about Tata Mutual Fund it comes from the house a very reputed business house of the Tatas. They had launched a Shariah compliant fund “Tata Ethical Fund” back in 1996 and has been going strong since last twenty years. It has continuously outperformed the debt funds, Equity funds as well as the Sensex in its journey of twenty years. Those unaware about the Shariah compliant Mutual funds may note that this fund invests in the shares of those companies which do not trade in an unIslamic fashion. Thus the companies which do not deal in Interest, Gambling, Alcohol, Tobacco and Entertainment are qualified as Shariah complaint. There is one more speciality about these scrips which is that the companies where the money is interested are cash rich and are mostly zero debt companies. Since Islam also forbids from paying interest, the companies chosen are also the ones which has least debt exposure. This automatically means that companies are financially very healthy. A tabular presentation of the returns is as under: 1 mth 4.0 172 3 mth 4.6 218 6 mth 10.6 202 1 year -0.6 149 2 year 13.1 72 3 year 19.8 100 5 year 14.6 20 Source: http://www.moneycontrol.com/mutual-funds/nav/tata-ethical-fund-direct/MTA736 Fund Details: http://www.tatamutualfund.com/our-funds/equity/diversified/tata-ethical-fund In 2013, the SEBI has mandated all the fund houses to launch the direct plans of mutual funds thus bypassing brokers who chunk away a significant portion of the returns as brokerage. We can thus directly interact with the Fund House and ask them to devise services suitable to us. Thus, we can opt for Systematic WithDrawal plans of say Rs.3.5 lacs to Rs.4.0 lacs a month which would be adjusted from our portfolio. If the dividend earning is less than the withdrawn amount then our portfolio goes down by that amount and if the earnings are on a higher side our portfolio inflates by that amount. Thus, we would be saved from the volatilities of the stock market and would be benefited from the expertise of top class fund managers. I am feeling a little awkward while writing all this due to the fact that this seems to be a propaganda to drawing people to buy a specific product. However, my only intention is to avoid interest based incomes and thus demonstrate our deep faith in Almight Allah swt and his perfection of life made for us which is Islam. Even if the returns are slightly lower on side, we should not shy away from paying a couple of hundreds bucks extra per month. However, if the trend is to be believed we would be better off with the investments in the Mutual Fund. There are many more wiser, saner and mature people in our Society and the Committee. The decision would be eventually taken by all of you after making all considerations. This is my humble plea to give this investment a consideration. In case, further details are required I would be more than happy for volunteering this cause whenever required.

Where is the pride in taking Pride?

I moved into my new apartment at a relatively posh Muslim locality in Ahmedabad a few months back. While I am not very sociable and generally don’t expect to get cosy with the neighbourhood, I have found most residents to be quite decent. While almost half of more than 400 hundred flats remain unoccupied, those moving in are trying to foster a healthy relationship among themselves and doing their bit to make the place a little better for living. In a bid to overcome the little differences on certain issues, some people try to pacify the situation by expressing metaphors like “Proud to be a Member of the Society” (I am refraining from naming the Society for obvious reasons). This sparked a thought in me on what people are actually taking pride about? Their obvious intention is to develop a shared vision and a common ground for a joyful and peaceful co-existence. However the kind of skeptic I am, I sometimes feel that such metaphors turn out to be traps. Traps of deriving pride from certain ideas which we care least about; traps which push the individuals, nations and civilizations in loving some abstracts while creating an indifference to many things around them. If we carefully study the human history, the mankind has been plundered to wars and reckless killings by this very pride which people take in their ethnic identities, religious identities and national identities. The rich Indian philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (The whole world is a family) or the Islamic traditions of Universal Brotherhood tend to get lost when such identities try to assert themselves. While none can deny the utility of wearing the identities which help people to extract warmth from their fellow beings, but the overdose has a potential threat of relegating us to the lowest depths. The depths, which bring pain and misery to the mankind. What explains a man hating someone whom he has never met just because he happens to have a different nationality? What are the reasons for a man following a certain faith being looked upon as a lesser mortal from his fellow beings? Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him famously quoted in his last Hajj sermon for not claiming superiority or taking pride on the basis of race, caste or creed. He instead termed those as superiors who are better in their conduct and are God fearing. And what better way to fear God than to love to his creations. Any pride resulting in looking someone down is a sure shot recipe for disaster. This write up is not at all about catching someone from his collar for taking pride in his being but it is only about making a casual reminder for not missing out on the larger view of loving the people and the world around us. I have got an enough share of hostilities of my friends and foes alike for my opinions and would be the last one in inviting wrath from my “proud” fellow beings for writing such a crude piece. I would conclude this by a line from Annie-Marie Slaughter “The false pride of perennial celebration, of wearing flag label pins while betraying the values that the flag stands for, is like the self-esteem curriculum for toddlers, where everything is praised and no achievement ultimately has meaning.”

The Real Purpose of Education

There is no moment when the Universe fails to inspire us. There are indeed great lessons in the radiation of sun, serenity of moon, turns of days and nights, music of flowing rivers, awe of mountains, depths of oceans, fragrance of flowers, flight of birds and the mesmerizing greenery of the vegetation. They all combine to become a grand natural design and exist in a tremendous harmony. Each one is unique and inevitable to this larger design. This design is in a way preaching a lesson that there is a purpose to our life. No matter how wonderful or beautiful they are but they never fail to perform their duties and go on incessantly about their jobs. This amazing collage thus teaches us a lesson in humility. The sheer grandiose of the universe may leave us with a feeling of insignificance about ourselves but a mere look at our own selves changes everything. The body which we carry is an ultra-complex unit formed of millions of neurons, billions of cells and is full of vitality. The human beings are easily the most beautiful creation of the nature blessed with intellect and power to choose. A look at ourselves gives us strength and hope to discover the truth of nature and life. With this humility and strength we need to find a meaning to our lives. Education is essentially this process of discovering the meaning to our existence. Are we on this beautiful earth just to accumulate material comforts or is it something more than that? Is education all about acquiring degrees and building great careers? The answers lie in knowing the real purpose of the education. The real purpose of education is therefore to liberate us from the petty ambitions and to prepare us for various roles in our lives. Education is to identify our creator and the nature. Education is to realize our responsibilities to our fellow human beings, to our society and to our environment. Education is to develop compassion not just to our near and dear ones but to the entire mankind and further to the universe itself. Education is about propelling our strengths and imaginations to do a larger good. Let us all pray to the Almighty to bless us with the real understanding of the education. Let us all wish that with this knowledge we make a world around us full of love, joy, peace and tranquility.

Mr.India and his sons Amar, Akbar and Anthony

Amar, Akbar and Anthony are called in the guest room by their father Mr.India. He assumes his place in his usual armchair while his three sons occupy their place on the sofa-sets placed infront of him. He starts the conversation saying that I feel a need for change in our lifestyle. All of you have been obeying my rules diligently and I feel like rewarding your good conduct. We shall make-over our entire house, redo the interiors and install Air-conditioners. Thats great daddy jumped Anthony with joy. I will now be a proud husband and father giving away all luxuries to his family. Akbar was puzzled a little and gathered courage in asking his father about where the money is going to come from. Mr.India replied with all smiles, I am parking all my savings for this make over and also arranging for loans. All you my dear kids you just need to pay me Rs.5000 a month which is only marginally higher than Rs.3000 a month which you have been paying me for your accommodation. Anthony employed with an MNC as an engineer hugged Mr.India, O My dad! You care so much about us. I really love you and this paltry hike is nothing against the happiness which it will bring. Akbar an accountant with a private enterprise was little uncomfortable but soon joined Anthony and said that I should be able to manage it. Akbar thought that yes I may have a tight budget to cover food costs and education for my two children but I am anyways getting a pay hike and I should not let this opportunity to go by. Mr.India turned to Amar who was speechless. What do you say son? Amar sheepishly replied, Dad! you know I don’t have a secured income and I somehow manage Rs.3000 to pay you. My kids are growing and so are their demands. This additional expense is beyond me. What’s wrong with our house? Anthony roared at Amar in anger that it is people like you who are anti-development. You are not willing to part away a meagre amount for such bounties. I feel ashamed of calling you a brother. Akbar was quick to pounce, Hey Amar do you think that you are only one with the problems. Grow up and learn to move with the time. Why are you becoming an enemy of happiness of all of us? Dad, this Amar is ungrateful and we just should not deviate from our plans for him. Nowhere to go, Amar is scratching his head. He is unable to imagine his plight with this unexpected twist of turns.

Creative Campus & Ideal Students

Ravi was back to his room after completing his evening classes. As usual, he and his room mate Aryan went for a walk while their class mates went onto have a round of table tennis and badminton. Both Ravi and Aryan would walk through the campus and met Shahid on almost daily basis. Shahid was pursuing his Ph.D in Political Science. Shahid’s father and Ravi’s father used to work in the same company. This association was a reason why Ravi had chosen this University to pursue his MBA program. Ravi was a bright student since childhood and used to perform very well in studies as well as his extra curricular activities. He had completed his B.Tech from a very reputed institution and wanted to get into the field of Busines Management. He was fascinated by the idea of earning an MBA degree and stepping into the corporate world. He aspired to be a CEO one day. He could immerse himself into business dailies and magazines for hours together even during his Engineering days. Inspite of being a good student, he could never develop a taste for the Engineering Discipline. Most of his talks would be on brands, advertising, business strategy and so on. He always felt that he did not want to lead his life like his dad who inspite of years of hard work and experience, could not even afford foreign travel and a luxury car for himself and the family.

Ravi wondered how fast an year has gone by. It just seemed a few days back when he was bullied by his seniors on his first day in the hostel. He remembered how his room mate Aryan was unfettered by the behaviour of seniors. Ravi recollected his first day in the hostel when he was made to answer silly questions by his seniors. He was determined not to bend against seniors. While he made this little grill very heavy on himself, Aryan was as cool as a cucumber. He smiled off few questions from the seniors when they had ganged up and barged in their room. The drill ended after few moments and Ravi was trying to let Aryan know that he knew few students in the University who could take their rowdy seniors to the task. Aryan was not interested in Ravi’s macho talk and just settled down calmly.

As the time passed, Ravi realised that his seniors were not all that bad and impossible. He even laughed on himself for being extremely judgemental. He also got inspired by few of his seniors who went on to win few Inter University contests on business quizzes, Business plans and so on. He was especially impressed with his Finance Professor, Dr.Rajan who used to teach in an American accent and had an American degree as well as a McGraw Hill publication to his credit. While he had settled down in the University environment, he was very keen to get into the corporate world.

Ravi’s room mate Aryan came from a very well to do business family. While Aryan was not as good as Ravi in his studies, he exhibited tremendous maturity in his behaviour. He never had to struggle in his life. He had completed his primary studies from a convent school and earned his Undergraduation degree from a leading Commerce college of the city. He and his father had made a mind to enrol him into an American college for an MBA. However, his mother did not wish to send her only child so far away. Aryan respected her mother’s emotions and decided to enrol into the University’s MBA program. Aryan was not very passionate about studies as he knew that he would eventually go on to occupy his father’s Chemicals business which had a developed into a virtual empire within two decades and yielded great fortunes to them.
Being room mates, Ravi and Aryan had become close to each other. They would dine together and even spent leisure time with each other during shoppings, long walks and movies. Shahid being a family friend and senior, Ravi started visiting his dorm which was some half a mile away in the adjacent campus. Shahid was a very upright character and had tremendous self confidence. He was a great critique of the society, the government and the people. He believed in divinity and in the Creator of the Universe. He would follow his faith and was very proud of it. He used to pray five times a day and practiced other rituals of Islam with tremendous regularity. He had built up his ideology around the teachings of Quran. He used to write various articles for magazines. He was very popular among his class mates as well as his teachers. He was in a way ideal student who was very knowledgeable, sincere, polite and endowed with tremendous leadership ability. How could have Ravi saved himself from the charishma of Shahid.

Ravi would love to listen to Shahid and Aryan was also hooked on to the enlighting sessions with Shahid. Every evening all three of them would have a stroll in the park and they used to talk on almost all issues under the sun. However, Shahid would leave them after a while when he listened to Azan, the call for evening prayers. Shahid during his talks had informed of several interesting stories happened in the University. In one such incident, Shalin a student from a small village had to face a lot of hardships before securing admission in the first year of his Biotech program. The incident happened when Shahid just joined his PG course in the University.

Shahid was at Administrative building to collect his money receipt, when he found a boy pleading to the Sr.Clerk. He heard him saying that my life will be destroyed. Please don’t do this to me. Upon inquiring with the boy Shahid found it that he was Shalin who had cleared an entrance exam for the Biotech program and his name also featured in the merit list. However, he could not deposit fees and documents to the University office in the stipulated time, which meant he was not eligible for admission. As Shalin was starting from his place, he lost his mother in a tragic incident. He had to stay back for his mother’s funeral and by the time he was through, he had missed the deadline. He was trying to explain the same thing at the University Office. However, the University officials were constrained by the rules and inspite of having sympathy for Shalin could not do anything for him.

Shahid decided to help Shalin. It was just his second day in the University but he displayed courage and took Shalin to his hostel. He then presented this case to his seniors,his HOD and the staff of his department. He also interacted with few seniors about the unfortunate incident but most people could not suggest him the way out. But Shahid had other ideas. He could convince few of his seniors with whom he was meeting for the first time to join him to the Vice Chancellor’s office. The VC gave them a patient hearing but said that he cannot bend rules and would not be able to help Shalin.

At the dinner table, he was greeted by the seniors who expressed their concerns. Some even advised him to forget the matter lest he may face trouble for going against the University management. However, Sunil one of his seniors asked him to speak with the Warden Mr.Mohan who was a lecturer in the Journalism department. Mr.Mohan had a reputation of being a nice guy. Shahid requested Sunil to join him and they immediately went to Warden’s room who was about to leave his cabin. After listening attentively to the case, he said there was very little scope as the University Management was always shy of inviting any controversy. Shahid in a last effort asked very naively that whether it was possible to raise this issue in the media. Mr.Mohan gave contacts of a few of his Media friends. Shahid approached two of these media professionals and they agreed to carry the story. Shalin’s story got a small but back page mention in one of the leading news dailies. The local Member of Parliament read this story and immediately decided to help Shalin as he belonged to his own village. His intervention proved to be very effective as the VC granted him the seat from his discretionary quota. This incident actually vindicated the saying that if there is a will then there is a way.

There were many such inspiring stories of Shahid. Before Shahid had joined his PG Course, the University was notorious for ragging. Shahid was not needed to face this as he had won himself many friends within a short duration. It so happened once that two of his class mates Nitin and Hussain who were sharing the same room had invited trouble from seniors. Nitin was a man with short temperament and he tried to manhandle one of his seniors who was trying to show off his authority to him. A bunch of ten to twelve students barged in their room to teach them a lesson. It was certain that both Nitin and Hussain would be facing a nightmare that day. However, Shahid who was occupying the next room sensed the trouble and assembled few of his friends. Shahid in a loud tone tried to calm down everyone and managed the situation with great ease. He even convinced Nitin to apologise to his senior. Shahid did not stop there. From next day onwards, he and five of his friends started a signature campaign, “Down Down Ragging, Down Down Violence”. The idea was received very well not only in his hostel but also in his department. They could collect 300 signatures in first two days. The campaign got extended to a few other departments and soon the idea caught the fancy of the entire University. The Faculty of Education went on to organise a symposium on the subject. Shahid was also invited to express his views in the Symposium. He thus started gaining popularity in the University.

Shahid felt that it was imperative to continue the good work in the University and it was not possible without an organised effort. He convinced his friends to create a “Forum for Students Democracy”. It was basically a small group established to facilitate good causes by motivating fellow students to understand their role towards the Society. This forum was built on strong principles. Ravi and Aryan had by now enrolled themselves into the Forum and attended various programs organised by the Forum.

One of the big achievements of the Forum was alleviation of the problem of Ragging in the University. The Forum had institutionalised an annual event of forming a group of eight to ten seniors. Each group of seniors was assigned a group of two to four juniors. Each group of seniors would then spend one day with juniors and extend them the hospitality. After a duration of one month, juniors would vote on who was the most hospitable group. The winners among the seniors were then recognised in the University journal. This had ensured that almost all the seniors were very keen to win the hearts of their juniors. Ravi also remembered how nicely he was treated by a few of his seniors. He then laughed on himself about his plans for messing up with his seniors.

This Forum which was a brainchild of Shahid and had grown much bigger than individuals. Shahid was very happy that it had exactly turned out the way he expected. He wanted the dormant talents of the students to surface through this Forum. The Forum true to its name remained democratic and promoted new leadership. Through this Forum, the University had witnessed many changes. Few of the courses which had been stopped by the University Management re-started with the activism of the students. University Elections were banned since long but they were resumed with the efforts of the Forum. Many such issues like improving students amenities, hostel facilities, Plastic Ban in the Campuses, Upgradation of Research facilities, Industry Contacts and Society Contact Programs were being taken up by the Forum.

Ravi by now had understood that all the glamour which he was trying to find in the pink papers and the jazzy designations was mere an eyewash. The real success did not lie in glass buildings or big cars but in being someone who would utilise his skills to be good to people. He had completely changed the way of looking at Business Management. He started questioning the idea of Businesses. This actually was a game changer for him. He went on to get plum offerings from huge MNCs. However, he chose a relatively smaller company which worked on bringing the grass root Innovations of small people to big industries. Ravi eventually received what he always yearned for. His job made him to travel the world but he was doing this not for fat paycheques but for uplifting lives of the underprivileged ones. Aryan did occupy his father’s business. He changed the way his father did business. He introduced a policy of profit sharing with employees and result was to be seen. His business empire had reached new heights without being exploitative in nature.

The story of Shahid and his Forum is essentially a story of Creative Campus and Ideal Students. Let us dream for such an education system which churns leaders for the Society and not the Corporate Slaves.

The Science of Marketing & Its Social Impact

Marketing has developed as a Science in the 20th Century and has flourished in the last few decades. The impact is such that there is virtually no business organisation around which does not have a marketing department. For smaller organisations too there are dedicated personnel for Marketing and even independent entrepreneurs are having a lot of marketing inclination.

Marketing can be understood as a process of understanding your selling environment. Philip Kotler, the legend in Marketing has coined a phrase called 4Ps viz. Product, Price, Place & Promotion. Looking at these 4Ps, one can get a very fair idea of the Marketing Mix of any selling organisation. Product refers to goods or services which are on offer. Price refers to the selling price of the product or service on offer. Place refers to the point of sale i.e. the place at which the selling transaction happens between the buyer and the seller. Promotion refers to the efforts undertaken by the selling organisation in order to educate the customer about its offerings.

Let us apply this Marketing concept to our magazine Yuva Saathi. Take first P i.e. Product. The product on offer in a monthly magazine in Gujarati. It is a collection of informative as well as thought provoking articles targeted to students and youth community. Price: The product is being sold at an annual price of Rs.180 for 12 issues. Place: One can buy this magazine through its authorized agents or through online subscription. Promotion: The magazine is promoted through the network of SIO and word of mouth.

Although all these 4PS are not exhaustive in understanding the marketing mix but give a very fair idea about the marketing approach. Many management scientists have tried to improve the Kotler Model and have floated their own theories.

Marketing as such is not a disruptive Science which has completely changed the fundamentals of doing business. However, none can deny the fact that it has changed the way people look at their business and has also had a great impact in defining the priorities of their business.

The underlying object of the Marketing still remains selling and selling more. The objective of the marketing is consistent with the objectives of Finance Management as well as Management Science which is Wealth Maximisation. First lesson imparted to any management science student across all the business schools in the globe is that you exist for maximization of the shareholder’s wealth.

This Marketing Approach has had a lot of impact on the collective as well as individual behavior in the Society.

Consumerism: Marketing can be directly held responsible for an excessive consumerist orientation of the society. The Marketers in order to sell more of their products apply a lot of energy in finding more buyers of their products and also try to sell more to their existing consumers. Just to cite an example, a shampoo marketer would try to find more and more buyers by way of making his products available at maximum number of outlets. Moreover, he will communicate that in order to have better hair one must use shampoo daily. This would help him to sell more to his existing set of buyers. This phenomenon leads to a creation of a new class called consumerist class. There are hundreds of examples around us who are having a dozen cars, tens of houses, hundreds of pair of clothes, shoes, sun-glasses and what not. Then there is this is aspiration class which wants to consume as much as this consumerist class is consuming.

One can list thousands of ills of this consumerist orientation of the society. Nature has endowed us with limited resources but this consumerism ensures that everyone wants to have more and more, thus creating conflict of interests among human beings. This conflict of interest is not only damaging human relationships but is also proving to be a disaster to environment. Thousands of species have got extinct from the earth due to this desire of consuming more and more.

This love for consumption ensures that everyone out there is fighting to control finite resources. If one analyses the reasons of wars within the human civilization over the recorded history of centuries, one can infer that the underlying reason for these wars for desire to consume more. Experts have also suggested that recent gulf wars and the US war against Iraq and Afghanisan were desperate attempts to control their rich natural resources.

Pestering: Marketers in order to achieve their goals have found a very shrewd way of using pester power to their advantage. Targeting Children and using their influence over their parents and guardians has been the new mantra of marketers. To communicate with children, they have created a highway of cartoon channels and characters. Through these cartoon icons they try and sell their products. A large number of parents are forced to bow down to this pester power in varying degrees. This pestering not only exerts undue pressure on parents but also create an inferiority complex among them for not being able to fulfill their wards’ demands. The children on the other hand tend to develop negativity about their parents. There have been a few reported cases of even suicides by the children. To quote one such example, a teenage girl committed suicide when her mother did not allow her to put on western outfits.

The constant exposure to these cartoon channels also creates a dream fancy world to children. Reality then becomes so bitter to them that they are seldom prepared to face the harsh realities of life.

Compromise on Social Values: Most Marketers believe that everything is fair in love, war and business. For them all the techniques which help them to sell more are successful techniques. They have used Advertising to plant their version on the consumers’ mindset. To capture the mind space of their consumers, Marketers don’t even shy away from using obscene advertisements. Continuous bombardment of nudity through TV and other media have ensured that nudity and all are no longer taboo word for a large number of people. They start feeling that everything is fine. This casual approach is having a very detrimental effect on the society.

Human Exploitation: Marketers in their pursuit to sell more and more go to any extent. In order to differentiate their products and services, they try to walk an extra mile over others. Retailers for example now keep their shops open for almost 365 days a year and for more than 12 hours a day. This really takes a toll on the employees. Although there are some statutory regulations like week-offs, the marketers try and ensure maximum utilization of manpower by compensating with meager amounts. Same stands true for those who are involved in producing goods and transporting goods. There is a huge class of these people who are busy in producing and distributing goods while others make merry during holidays and festivals. This mad pursuit to sell more reduces human beings to mere economic machines deprived of human values and ambitions. Precisely, this approach of the marketers (read capitalists) created a new class of people which was hell bent on killing their masters. The idea of Marxism arose from this exploitation and has inflicted huge damage to human lives.

Creation of Cartels: Marketers also found out that it is easier to sell when there are less sellers. This idea led to a concept called Cartel which means that competition is systematically killed and only a small set of sellers then control the market. The biggest criticism of the globalization was the idea of killing competition. The existence of cartels is now evident in a large number of sectors. If one analyses the number of organisations present in sectors like Mining, Information Technology, Chemicals, Iron & Steel, Pharmaceuticals, Paints, Industrial Raw Materials etc there are very few sellers. They all come together to virtually dictate the market place.

If one analyses how Bill Gates and his Microsoft did grew to a multibillion dollar enterprise, then this idea of killing the competition was the underlying driver. Microsoft never allowed flourishing of small organisations which came up with powerful ideas and values. He used to buy these small organisations through hostile acquisitions and bundled the entire computing system within his domain.

The similar phenomenon has also been witnessed in the Advertisement Business. The ad agency business is so integrated across the globe that majority of the ad agencies belong to one of the four big groups. These groups just like Bill Gates kept on acquiring small agencies. If we look at our own Reliance Industries, it systemically killed all the yarn producers and dominated the textile space. If one speaks of US there are only five to six leading retailers which control 80% of the market space. Same case is true in Fast Food Joints like McDonalds, Starbucks Coffee chain etc.

These cartels are created over a number of years and a point comes when they start dictating the consumption pattern of their consumers. The consumer interest takes a back-seat when cartels rise their ugly face. All the hue and cry against FDI in our country is owing to the prospects of creation of these cartels and killing of local competition thereof.

False Promises & Propaganda: The Marketing Approach has had a very detrimental effect on the gentleman virtue of delivering the promises. The Marketer in desperation of selling their goods or services don’t even shy off claiming false promises to their consumers. This phenomenon is not just restricted to local vendors who is trying to sell his inexpensive goods in a local market set up, but also holds true for large conglomerates. There have been numerous instances of banks, financial institutions, tour operators, white goods sellers etc making unrealistic promises and then betraying their consumers.

The Marketers also don’t shy away from planning long term actions in order to achieve their objective of selling more. One example can be sited of an Intel funded education program. The microprocessor major Intel whose chips go in almost all the computing devices, has started a literacy program in schools through its funded NGOs. Their underlying objective is to promote computer literacy across the globe which would in the long run serve their selling interests. There are host of such propaganda going across the world. One more such example was creating a hype around bird flu across the globe. While the apprehensions may not be completely misplaced, but all those who were crying hard were those who wanted to ensure sale of their medicines. Same thing is true for sale of many types of pesticides, vaccines etc.

All this propaganda has an economic as well as social cost. Not only does these things make living a costly affair but also adds lot of doubts to individuals.

Before conclusion, I must clarify that all marketing is not bad marketing. Marketers don’t just exist for exploitation but to serve the needs of fellow human beings. It definitely may be having some marginal success stories like empowering consumers, but one cannot deny the adverse social impacts it is having.

All the budding marketers and management students before stepping into the business world must always ask a question to themselves. What value am I adding to the society? If he finds positive answers then he must definitely walk that path but when he finds that his actions has more prospects of social damage then he must stop, ponder and may be change his course of action.