16-12-2016 Update on Demonetization

Please revisit my blog post How to use any bonanza the Govt gets in which I had reported suggestions from Swaminathan Aiyar (SA) for utilizing the 3 Trillion Rupees he expected will be the Govt’s bonanza coming out of demonetization of high value currency notes. Now, the chances of getting 3 Trillion bonanza needs downsizing! I guess he must be re-working his calculations!

The thriller has 14 days more to run, and the climax scene is eagerly awaited. How many of the anti-social elements holding black money will burn their “invalid” notes? How many of them will make asses of the honest tax payers? Crooks are usually no idiots! Besides, many top politicians are willing to serve as their advisers and lawyers! 

RBI says Rs 12.44 Crores of banned currency has been deposited with banks. The Govt. thinks that the figure may be wrong because the banks may have mixed up deposits of valid currency as well while adding up the total. Visit

Banks get Rs 12.44 lakh crore in old notes till Dec 10

Rs. 12.44 lakh crore in invalid notes may not have come back

The following is the picture if the RBI figures are to be believed; the unit used for money is Rs. Trillions. (I don't talk to my wife anymore about 500 Rs. and 2000 Rs. It is always about Trillions!)  

Strange are the ways of those who declare large incomes!

Photo by Sumita Roy Dutta (Own work) 

[CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

One family declares an income of Two Trillion Rupees! 

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/rs-2-lakh-crore-income-declaration-by-mumbai-family-being-investigated-government-1633843

Fantastic! If there were twenty other families like that, other Indians can quit their jobs and do whatever they like – writing philosophy, climbing Everest, practicing Holistic health, etc. The tax from the twenty-one families can be distributed to the rest of us, and we will take human life to a new plane!

What looks like small potatoes in comparison to the income of the Mumbai family, is the income declared by a poor businessman from Ahmadabad! He has declared only 150 Billion rupees! It is hard to save much in Ahmadabad nowadays!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Businessman-declares-Rs-13000-crore-under-disclosure-scheme-fails-to-pay-tax/articleshow/55748408.cms

Our real heroes are, however, two officers of the Karnataka Govt. who on their Govt. salaries have managed to save Rs 1.52 Billion!

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/Rs.-152-cr.-unearthed-in-3-days-two-Karnataka-officials-suspended/article16754145.ece

You see, vegetables are cheap in Bangalore! A frugal family can always save one or two billion rupees!

Regulating private educational institutions

Ravi Iyer runs an interesting blog titled the

Indian CS & IT Academic Reform Activism

There are interesting discussions on that blog on profit-oriented private sector education. There is a comment on some explosive news from New York Times on a large for-profit higher education institution in the US. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/03/upshot/corinthian-colleges-is-closing-its-students-may-be-better-off-as-a-result.html?_r=0

There is also comment on a recent Indian report that estimates black money generated in education sector at US$ 8 Billion per year!
CRPCC-education-black-money-corruption

At this level, the Government can dig out more Indian black money locally rather than in Switzerland!

There are also references to older events in India which we cannot afford to forget, such as those reported in the following.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fee_Reimbursement_Scheme_(Andhra_Pradesh)

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120325/jsp/nation/story_15292366.jsp

http://www.indiaeducationreview.com/features/indias-education-system-second-only-politics-corruption-wikileaks

What about government-funded education? Is that as pure as Ganga Jal? What have the politicians done to it? 

Srinivasan Ramani