Does India really need Lok Pal.

Over years various versions of Jan Lok Pal bill have been introduced in the Indian parliament, one of it narrowly passed the Lok Sabha but was rejected later.

Subsequent attempts to introduced this bill have failed and Indians are yet to see this bill passed, one wonders does India really need this bill.

Supporters of this bill would defend this bill as a citizen's ombudsman bill, an impartial governing body similar to election commission. Responsible for investigating and resolving complaints from consumers or other members of the public against any MP,
Prime minister or any government officer. People would have the right to complain and have their side heard when it comes to corruption investigations.

Logically this does make sense for a country like US where corruption happens at a very high level and common man isn't directly affected by this corruption and it is more infrequent.
When it comes to a developing country like India corruption happens at every level and it is part of doing business in India.

People often joke, of being fortunate, for not asked to pay a fee (bribe) to enter a government office, current state of affairs in India.

Imagine the number of cases this Jan lok bill would have to deal with once it comes into existence. Logistic wise this would be a big nightmare, talk about job security for people representing Jan lok pal :) their jobs are secured for life, who do I have to bribe to get in :).

Sorry, jokes apart but the logistic is not the only thing here, people who are unhappy with their current local government official might just complain against him/her and create what we call here in US law suits.
Lawyers and malpractice insurance companies will have a sudden jump in demand.
Every official under the gun would need a lawyer to represent him and would need to have a malpractice insurance if he/she needed to pay for the damages.

Instead of a having a lok pal bill, why don't we use our police force to its full potential.
Make them autonomous so that they are not reporting to any government official that they might have arrested in past.
This would help them stay focused in doing their job and not worry about consequences that might lead to any politician's arrest.
Instead of adding a new Lok pal, let us add an autonomous body that the cops would be answerable to and people representing this body are elected by people in the particular state.

Proposed solution is a part of lok pal bill but not a fully functional organization, I believe it is a best compromise for now instead of a fully blown lok pal bill.

Irony- Customers do not know what they want!

Transitioning to a non-technical job, the first thing I was told to remember is "customers are always right and knows exacly what they want" and we have to meet his needs even if we thing there are better alternatives. Now is retrospect, I believe this statement has major flaws, and most of the time the customer is confused and doesn't know what's right or wrong. History teaches us a lot, and if you look back through modern history the customer has majorly been confused about what his/her needs are. The class example is an automobile, when it first started people were really confused why they needed to have an automobile when they had a perfectly fine horse cart to take them from point A to B, what they forgot was the costs of owning and maintaining a horse cart was far higher than the automobile, apart from the fact that its top speed was faster than that of a horse. Second example to quote here is what Steve Jobs did with the whole Apple gig.He had people not only embrace the product but adore it, 20 years ago if someone told me that you could actually listen to music on a device that fits in your palm I would answer back why! What is the need of having such a device, when my walkman can do the exact same thing except it can be hooked on to my belt. Now 20 years later, people like me can't get their hands off one. More often we see customers completely unclear about what their actual needs are, they are unsure and need guidance constanly from entrepreneurs/ manufacturers. A good manufacturer is not the one who creates a good product but the one who creates a need for the product. The old saying "Necessity drives invention" is challenged at every step in modern history. This often makes me wonder if it is the other way round today.

Indian rupee crisis- possible solutions

Indian rupee crisis- possible solutions. There are headlines circulating all over the world about the currency crisis Indian reserve bank is facing due to ever increasing current account deficit. For naïve people like myself, current account deficit in simple terms means "India as a whole is shelling out more USD than it is attracting through investments, exports etc. This makes it a primary target for currency attacks " people start pulling their investments out of the country and are risk adverse to invest due to currency fluctuations, once this happens the reserve bank has to intervene and start buying Indian currency. Major problem here is that India has 300 billion in foreign exchange reserve available to meet this demand. Once this the foreign exchange reserve is meet the only option felt is to go to IMF (International Monetary Fund) and beg for more money "similar to Asian currency crisis in late 90's". Adverse affects of begging to IMF would be slower growth and further devaluation of rupee. One might say this would increase imports and attract investment in India, but on the other hand the major backlash would be increased inflation and higher priced imports. To get out of this spiral, Indian reserve bank should restore investor confidence and start attracting further investments into the country. For starters it would need to open up some of its markets especially retail for FDI "Foreign direct investment" this not only helps regain investor confidence but also lower the food prices within the country. Competion within the retail industry would mean lower prices for common man! However the person who is currently in this industry would get wiped out or would need to migrate into something different. But by providing them opportunities India would be in a better position than the current path they are on. Lastly, they would need to increase interest rate for investments within India, to a level where it would manage to attract FDI. There isn't a silver bullet to get out of this current crisis but by implementing these initial steps, India would give out a positive message to the world that they understand the magnitude of the problem and a pro active in finding the right solution. Amit