Tushar Mangl

The much talked about the decision by Prime Minister Modi to demonetize most of our currency will turn out to be dud as it has drastically failed on its key objective. The goal The major goal as announced to invalidate the 1000 and 500 currency was to weed out black money and corruption. A minor aim was to work ahead with the noble idea of the Prime Minister to push for a less cash/ cashless society.  A major failure However, the idea failed big time. You go to any bank in India today, ask people who are in the know of things and they will tell you the exact commission being charged by bank staff to convert your cash into a new currency. The commission ranges from 25-35% . If you had 50 lakhs under your mattress, you will still have most of it, before November ends and can shove it back under the mattress.  But this simple idea came later. First came the usual plain boring ideas. Put money in gold. Clear your past dues in old cash. Pay...

Indian banking system is a sad story. We have one of the largest concentrations of government dominated banks around the world. India has also a rigid and strict regulatory system for banks. Such is the inscrutably of the regulators that they encourage cheap and bulk loans to large corporates but should such big people try to own banks, it is frowned upon. Customer service is an alien concept to Indian banks, public or private. Convenience to the public is least of their worries as the penetration of formal lending is quite less giving them a God like status. It is no wonder though that a parallel economy exists in India right under the nose of well-heeled bankers and regulators. They act as enablers to this system, fostering an economic activity that forms most of the financial transactions in the country. Indeed, India being a cash-oriented economy is largely due to indifference and lack sided attitude of banks. People prefer to keep cash at home than banks ev...

So our Prime Minister told us all on Tuesday who the real boss in the country was. Let the UP wallahs and Tata walas debate on their own bosses. The country knows clearly who its boss is. The extreme reaction to his announcement is bewildering. You had shops opening way past midnight even of those branded companies whose CEOs tell you how concerned they are for the economy and bullshit. They opened over night to facilitate currency conversion to gold and other expensive items. And then there was the mad rush to ATMs. Within hours every ATM in the country was bled dry of its hundred rupees notes and other currency. As the PM announced that old currency will still work at Petrol Pumps, each pump was made bone dry as if cars were lurking around thirsty without petrol nd diesel. This coming from people who want their politics clean and neat. Who rant about at every forum how their government does nothing for them. I feel that the way situation was handled by the government was super...

It is a decade now since I started my first blog, My Musings in October of 2006. Over the years, it has transformed into different avatars, some successful some not, but my effort to blog has remained as eager as ever. In ten years, the blog not only changed names or URLs at times but also its themes and genres. It became the launch pad for my first story The Thakur Boy which I wrote in 2007.  The Avenging Act also became possible due to this blog. Whenever I am about to do something new, I like to come back here, the comfort place for all things creative for me. So many people ask me, how did you manage so far. Several bloggers drop down after some time of beginning to blog. In my case, blogging gave me a life I had never known. I never knew I could write stories. I still can't believe I could even attempt to pen poetry (hence I named my poetry collection as The Reluctant Scribbler). There have been a variety of lows, including declining readership with advent of microb...

Nearly four years ago when Cyrus Mistry became chairman of the Tata Sons Board, one of India's largest conglomerate, he inherited a huge mess left over by his predecessor. Nearly any company your pick from the Tata stable, mismanagement from the top is clearly written over them. Like a sarkari company, they all are moving along in a zombie kind of way, knowing that their name would survive them. Indeed, Ratan Tata started off his own stint at Tata started in the 70s with big duds like NELCO and Empress Mills that failed badly. In recent years, his Nano project was by and large a media hype and nothing else. You declare a car for 1 lakh, sell it for more than that, and then the cars keep burning on roads. They are not sold properly, they have quality issues. Again, the name kept him going. In another company, in another country, perhaps the chairman would have been asked questions. Here, things were coated in PR about affordable cars which no one wanted. Look at the Indian Ho...

When some terrorists from Pakistan attacked Uri the other week, the biggest casualty was the image of our Prime Minister. A quick peep into social media would have shown anyone the impatience for action, like he had promised. I was amused to see people bringing out Indira Gandhi's name as someone who was really bold enough leader. That was of course more insulting to Dr. Manmohan Singh then to Mr. Modi as Singh unlike Modi had been at help for a decade yet the Congress had to dig into 70s to find a name to prop against Modi By sanctioning a surgical strike yesterday Modi has really shown his mettle as one of the shrewdest PMs we ever had. What he tried was risky, innovative and immensely successful, First, he took the bitter pill of bad publicity to his name as someone not doing enough. Then with Sushma Swaraj's help at the United Nations, a diplomatic offensive was launched. At the sideline was talks about Indus Water Treaty and MFN status to India. With people hammering fo...

A reporter goes deep into the Maoist's territory and brings out an amazing account of one of the most turbulent movements of Independent India. Rahul Pandita does not simply go by secondary research, indeed most of the reportage here is first hand. He has himself interviewed various people supposedly associated with the Maoists. The cause itself is a lost one now. Even China could not benefit entirely from his vision. It was the men who followed him, truly built the superpower that China is. But the bitter truth also is that the Maoist movement succeeded and failed mostly due to the complete apathy of large urban populace to the plight of the country.  A book I would highly recommend to all who are interested in India's modern history.