PM Modi ignore Anil Agarwal

Recently Anil Agarwal (Vedanta Group) stated that "Government has no business to be in business" and hence divest in mining companies.

Clarification here Anil Agarwal is an NRI (Non Resident India) staying at London. He has key holding in mining and other industries in India.

My request to Prime Minister Modi, ignore him.

An article by Matt Stoller and Lucas Kunce on "America’s Monopoly Crisis Hits the Military" is a must read. The article covers excellently the problems plagued by Key American Industries which are important from national perspective.

The authors has clearly stated how Made in America is very important step in National Security. I will reproduce here some sections which are worth reading:

The story here is similar. When Wall Street targeted the commercial industrial base in the 1990s, the same financial trends shifted the defense industry. Well before any of the more recent conflicts, financial pressure led to a change in focus for many in the defense industry—from technological engineering to balance sheet engineering. The result is that some of the biggest names in the industry have never created any defense product. Instead of innovating new technology to support our national security, they innovate new ways of creating monopolies to take advantage of it.

Even more unsettling is the reliance on foreign, and often adversarial, manufacturing and supplies. The report found that “China is the single or sole supplier for a number of specialty chemicals used in munitions and missiles…. A sudden and catastrophic loss of supply would disrupt DoD missile, satellite, space launch, and other defense manufacturing programs. In many cases, there are no substitutes readily available.” Other examples of foreign reliance included circuit boards, night vision systems, batteries, and space sensors.

“The middle-class Americans who did the manufacturing work, all that capability, machine tools, knowledge, it just became worthless, driven by the stock price,” he said. “The national ability to produce is a national treasure. If you can’t produce you won’t consume, and you can’t defend yourself.”

It achieves these returns for its shareholders by buying up companies that are sole or single-source suppliers of obscure airplane parts that the government needs, and then increasing prices by as much as eight times the original amount. If the government balks at paying, TransDigm has no qualms daring the military to risk its mission and its crew by not buying the parts. The military, held hostage, often pays the ransom. TransDigm’s gross profit margins using this model to gouge the U.S. government are a robust 54.5 percent. To put that into perspective, Boeing and Lockheed’s profit margins are listed at 13.6 percent and 10.91 percent. In many ways, TransDigm is like the pharmaceutical company run by Martin Shkreli, which bought rare treatments and then price gouged those who could not do without the product. Earlier this year, TransDigm recently bought the remaining supplier of chaff and one of two suppliers of flares, products identified in the Defense Department’s supply chain fragility report.

Yet, Trandigm’s stock price thrives because Wall Street loves monopolies, regardless of who they are taking advantage of. 

In other words, because L3 has a monopoly, there was no one else to pick. The system—a system designed by the financial industry that rewards monopoly and consolidation at the expense of innovation and national security—essentially made the pick for him. It is no wonder our military capacities are ebbing, despite the large budget outlays—the money isn’t going to defense.

The article is very lengthy and informative regarding National Security.

Worth reading.

Article source: Shankar Sharma

Charlie Munger on Contracts

Below statement by Charlie Munger on contracts is worth reading:

In May 2009, when the world was emerging out of the credit crisis, Buffett’s partner Charlie Munger said something fundamental about Berkshire Hathaway that resonated with the 35,000 people present at the annual meeting: “Our model is a seamless web of trust that’s deserved on both sides. That’s what we’re aiming for. The Hollywood model, where everyone has a contract and no trust is deserved on either side, is not what we want at all.” To which Buffett had added, “We don’t want relationships that are based on contracts.” It is this seamless web of deserved trust that is unique to Berkshire.

Thanks : Deepak M Nadiger

Reading a quality article is my wish. I continuously search for it day in and day out.

Thanks to @deepakmnadiger i could read three wonderful articles. I will provide the link below and suggest readers to visit and read these articles. These articles were accessed in @deepakmnadiger twitter handle.

The article displays power of words and beauty of imagination by the three writers:

The Nataraja And Epilepsy: An Interpretation Of The Cosmic Dancer

Averting deaths in Muzaffarpur

The rock that broke liberalism

Sections of the article from The Nataraja and Epilepsy is reproduced here for generating interest in the readers:

Apasmara is generally translated as “ignorance” in English descriptions of the Nataraja statue. But look closer at its etymology – from the Sanskrit roots “apa”, meaning negation, and “smara”, meaning memory or recollection (as in Smarana and Smriti).

Here’s where the fascinating part starts. Apasmara is also the Sanskrit term for epilepsy, the medical term for what we call “fits” or seizures.

Apasmara was one of the eight mahagada, or dreadful diseases, in Ayurveda, and, in my opinion, for good reason.

The reason a seizure is so striking is that for its duration, you see the animal that hides behind the human.

The healthy brain maintains a neat, manicured appearance, like the well-mowed lawns you see in wealthy American suburbs. It hides most of its functioning from public view, like a pretty girl who will never admit to digging her nose.

In a seizing patient, though, the pretence breaks down. The purdah parts, and for a brief interlude you see the raw power of the brain. The feeling you get watching it is difficult to describe – it is a combination of terrifying fear and stunned admiration. Perhaps the word ‘awe’ comes closest to describing it.

The scales fall from your eyes, and you see that you, your patient, the nurses, everyone you’ve ever known is nothing but a bag of flesh and bones under the dictatorial command of the nervous system. Your hand moves because your brain’s motor cortex makes it. Your bowels stay continent because there are neurons that ensure they stay that way. Your eyes swivel to follow a moving cricket ball because at the back of your brain is a complicated network that controls every little twitch they make with millimeter precision.

Here is where I began to appreciate the beauty of the philosophical tradition named Kashmiri Shaivism, and its concept of Pratyabhijna. Pratyabhijna means recognition. As in re-cognition – remembering something which you already knew but had temporarily forgotten. And what you have forgotten, according to Kashmiri Shaivism, is the knowledge of the self. In their philosophy, your inner consciousness or self is of the nature of Shiva. Their concept of divinity was the conscious self within each of us, which was identical with the universe as it existed.

In essence, my interpretation of the Nataraja would be that it is telling us that most “unawakened” people are living their entire lives as though in a continuous seizure. Ever forgetful, caught up in the machinations and worries and ruminations of everyday life.

Nataraja stands within you, in the hall of your consciousness, holding down Apasmara, the embodiment of your forgetfulness. Nataraja’s grace is meant to save you from forgetting your true nature, so you may come out of the seizure-like condition that is the fate of most people’s daily lives.

e-Pharmacies and Brand Ambassadors

An article in Business Today stated:

A Frost & Sullivan report on e-pharmacies in India says the market size of e-pharmacies is estimated to be around $512 million (Rs 3,500 crore) in 2018. It predicts a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 63 per cent to reach $3.6 billion (Rs 25,000 crore) by 2022. That will be over 30 per cent of the drugs sold in India a year.

Online pharmacies were providing discounts ( sample provided below):

Considering the growth mentioned in the report following questions emerge about online pharmacies:

1. Is each and every medicine is checked for its authenticity?

2. Do they report how many fake medicines they have caught? is supplier name of those caught displayed / reported to Government / Pharma regulatory body?

3. How many Indians know that Delhi High Court has banned online sale of pharmacy? 

4. Are the brand ambassadors aware about hazards involved in online pharmacy? or they are interested in fees (or brand equity)?

Little digression here but related to online pharmacies:

In fact Advertisement regulatory body in India or by Government order should ask advertisers to mention in the advertisement whether the brand ambassador has received a Brand Equity. If yes then he is responsible for the false acts committed by the Company. I don't think there is any legal precedence there / regulatory bindings on brand ambassadors. Hope some day in future brand ambassadors will be held liable.

Classic case cricketer MS Dhoni and Amrapali Develeopers. 

An article Blog: Dhoni sues Amrapali -- is the pot calling the kettle black?  stated:

For the record, in the Amrapali case, Dhoni’s involvement with the disgraced builder was not merely that of a brand ambassador, much as he may have claimed in media as part of his innocence act. Dhoni’s wife Sakshi was a director at Amrapali Mahi Developers Private Limited and this firm was involved in running a hospital and a charity in Dhoni's home state Jharkhand. Sakshi remained a director of this entity well after Dhoni quit as Amrapali’s brand ambassador.  

The conclusion in the article is worth reading and it is reproduced below:

Dhoni’s claim in the Supreme Court is a mere legal ploy by smart lawyers to ensure he remains unaffected and unharmed in the Amrapali matter. This may not immediately benefit or enrich Dhoni but gives his legal team a tenable position vis-à-vis his erstwhile partners and friends. The home buyers have been cheated. They have no homes. They have no savings left. They have little or no hope. But Dhoni still has a potential Rs. 40 crore claim : he is a lucky captain, some say…. 

Readers are requested to read the excellent article Blog: Dhoni sues Amrapali -- is the pot calling the kettle black?

In fact there is no mechanism today to check whether the medicine purchased from the Medical Shop is a genuine / fake. Neither the Pharma Companies / any Government agencies help in knowing the originality of the product by SMS or phone call.

Watch below video to understand the risk involved in buying medicines from online pharmacies:

Sample list of online pharmacies:

1 Practo

2 1mg

3 NetMeds

4 BookMeds

5 Yodawy

Saying No

Article The Ultimate Productive Hack is Saying no by James Clear is worth reading.

Key takeaways:

No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility.

Saying no is an important skill to develop at any stage of your career because it retains the most important asset in life: your time. As the investor Pedro Sorrentino put it, “If you don’t guard your time, people will steal it from you.

Nobody embodied this idea better than Steve Jobs, who said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.” 


More effort is wasted doing things that don't matter than is wasted doing things inefficiently. And if that is the case, elimination is a more useful skill than optimization.

Forgotten Facts

Bibek Debroy listed down six reasons why Indian Epics should be read and it is covered in a column written by Akrita Reyar.

The new facts that emerged out of the column is reproduced below:

1. “The word ‘Itihasa’ should not be really translated as anything other than history because the literal translation of the word itihas is iti-hi-hasa (it - so - transpired).

2. ......first avatar is Matsya avatar. Everyone knows the story - Manu went to bathe in a river, found a small fish. The fish said ‘save me from the larger fish’, so Manu put it in a small bowl of water. At home, the fish became larger and larger and larger and so on… The simple question then is what was the name of the river and where is that river? The name of the river is Kritamala and it is a tributary of the Vaiga River in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai. And this Kritamala today is a nullah and no one even remembers that it was a river. The Puranas and the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are not only about dharma but a wealth of geographical material. 

3. Sometimes when I mention to people that did you know that Baramulla is actually Varahamulah because that is where Vishnu in his Varaha avatar rescued the earth from when it had been taken down in the water stream, they mostly don’t know.”

4. There are other words for a king such as nripa and rajan; but every nripa is not a rajan. A nripa becomes rajan only when he ensures governance and makes sure that the subjects are happy and delighted. The first rajan was a king named Prithu.

5 An atithi is someone who turns up unannounced, a-tithi (without date or appointment).

Thanks Bibek Debroy.

Column by Akrita Reyar is worth reading.

2019 Indian Election Review

Centre for Policy Research (CPR) conducted "How India Voted" in 2019 elections. There were five members along with Ms Yamini Aiyar (Co-ordinator for the panel and she is the current President and Chief Executive of CPR).

The discussion covered almost all aspects of Election 2019. Mr. Yogendra Yadav and Mr. Shekhar Gupta spoke brilliantly touching heart of the matter. Other panelist were also great in presenting their perception on 2019 Indian Elections.

One aspect which i feel was not covered was Amit Shah factor. The panelist covered Election 2019 from Modi perspective, Institution perspective i.e. respective parties and factors considered by voters at the time of voting (May be).

One of the key factors for losing 2004 and winning 2019 elections by Bhartiya Janata Party was:

1. Amit Shah factor

2. Telecommunication / Whats App in the hands of voters

3. Millennial kids in voting

4. Republic TV, Times Now, CNN IBN  

The link to the video is given below:

Viewers can directly start from 40 minutes if they wan to skip the initial presentation made.

The panel discussion is worth listening as to how they present ideas without any anger, excitement and drama.

Well conducted panel discussion.

Who is Ghulam Dastagir?

A presentation by Mr. Nilesh Shah at Bullet Proof 2019 conference drew a very fine comparison to understand a True Hero. I will reproduce the section from the notes prepared by Akshat Jain.

○ Ghulam Dastagir - he was at Bhopal station, he saw the Union Carbide leak and he departed trains ahead of the scheduled time. He took the risk on his own responsibility. And he stopped Mumbai & Delhi trains coming towards Bhopal because he felt they might inhaled the poison gas. He also inhaled the same gas and suffered but he did all that without WhatsApp, social media, etc. Some of his own family members also died. He did a fantastic job - yet he got no Padma Bhushan or award. He lived the life of an ordinary citizen

○ Fali Sam Nariman - he represented Union Carbide and they walked away scot free. We recognized him with many awards too.

To understand the depth of contribution to mankind by what Ghulam Dastagir did please read:

"The Forgotten Stationmaster Who Saved Countless Lives During the Bhopal Gas Tragedy".

Taking Fali Nariman case further Mr. Desai wrote brilliantly about Mr. Nariman:

I felt only disdain after reading today that so-called human rights campaigner, Fali Nariman, commenting on the calamitous Bhopal gas verdict in an interview to a television channel, had stated: "If I had to live my life all over again, as a lawyer, and the brief came to me and I had the foreknowledge of everything that later came in, I would certainly not have accepted the civil liability case which I did."

Nariman remained additional solicitor general of India from May 1972 to June 1975. He resigned to protest against the imposition of Emergency in India and that is his main claim to fame as a champion of human rights. The Nariman I saw between 1985 and 1989 arguing the case on behalf of the Union Cabide Corporation (UCC) in the Bhopal court was an ace legal eagle trying his best to justify the high legal fees that his American clients were paying to escape the clutches of Indian law. And, in the process, crushing the legal rights and hopes of justice of hundreds of thousands of gas victims like me. Whose human rights did he protect? Clearly, UCC chairman Warren Anderson’s.

Further, article by Mr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta posed a very true picture of Supreme Court:

The implications of this judgment are being pondered for sundry issues, including India’s geo-strategic position in relation to the US. Much of this discussion has focused on the political implications of this for the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill. But for those who think that even such colossal suffering should be assessed through the geo-strategic prism, the important question should be what this says about the credibility of our own institutions to serve our citizens. There is no doubt that the judgment has come again as a reminder of how fragile the authority of the Indian judiciary is. The last few years have made a huge dent in the reputation of the Indian Supreme Court on several dimensions, so much so that a propitious political ground has been created for more political oversight and superintendence of the judiciary. In terms of public reputation and authority the Indian Supreme Court is probably at its weakest in a number of years, with greater clamour for its accountability. The decision has again drawn attention to the fact that for all its thunderous bluster, the Supreme Court has, at crucial moments, let the country down. In a sense it has to constantly reclaim its legitimacy.

The legal twists and turns of the Bhopal case are enormous. Upendra Baxi’s work should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in excavating how the law sent justice for a toss in this case. A lot of the criticism of the Supreme Court in recent times has focused on institutional matters: the reluctance of judges to disclose assets, the lack of self-regulation within the judiciary, its failure to deal with corruption cases, the lack of judicial consistency, the gerrymandering of benches, the undue deference it consistently shows to top lawyers, the politics and lack of transparency of appointments, and so forth. The more serious and consequential critique of the Supreme Court should focus on its substantive failures in matters of law and governance. Bhopal was an illustrative case of how the Supreme Court could go seriously wrong.

I think Modi Government should honor men like Mr. Gulam Dastagir.

Additional reading: Lest we forget Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

Notes by Akshat Jain on Bullet Proof 2019 (for Investors) is worth reading.