बकौल गिर्दा
पानी बिच मीन प्यासी
खेतों में भूख उदासी
पलाश विश्वास
युवा मित्र भास्कर उप्रेती,जो मेरे भाई पद्दो के ज्यादा गहरे मित्र हैं और युवा लेखिका सुनीता के हमसफर भी,से बेहतर गिर्दा को याद दिलाने वाला हो नहीं सकता।आजके रोजनामचा के लिए उनका आभार।
गिर्दा व्यक्ति-पूजा में नहीं विचार में विश्वास करने वाले इंसान थे. उन्होंने खुद को हमेशा समूह और समाज का उत्पाद बताया. लेकिन जिसका डर था उनके जाने के बाद उनकी जगह भर सकने वाला कोई नहीं दिखाई दिया है. भावों, विचारों, उद्वेगों, कल्पनाओं, विविधताओं को बल देने वाला दूसरा कवि अभी हमारे आस-पास नहीं है. लेकिन बीज-रूप में गिर्दा की कविताओं की ऊष्मा अब भी मौजूद है. आईये जनकवि गिर्दा को फिर से पढ़ें. (चित्रांकन: शिक्षक खीम सिंह बोहरा)
देश हमारा।नदी,पहाड़,समुंदर,जल,जंगल,जमीन,पर्यावरण यानि कि सारे संसाधन हमारे।ऐसा बाबासाहेब ने संविधान के धारा 32 केतहत सुनिश्चित भी किया है।संविधान की पांचवीं और छठीं अनुसूचियों में जल जंगल जमीन से बेदखली के खिलाफ प्रावधान हैं।
देश के कानून,लोकतंत्र,न्याय्रमाली भी हमारे ही हुए कमसकम लिखत पढ़त में संयुक्त राष्ट्र के मानवाधिकार चार्टर हैं।मूलनिवासियों और पर्यावरण के देशज और आंतरजातिक कायदे कानून हैं।
लेकिन सीने पर वही हिमालय है जो हमारे दिलोदिमाग से उतरकर हमारे लिए कयामत की शक्ल का बना दिया गया है।सबकुछ हमारा और बाजार और उसकी बेडपार्टनर सरकारें हमसे सबकुछ छीन रही हैं।
प्यारे भास्कर,भुला,त्यर पोस्ट म,स्त रिलिवेंट छन।अबे मेरे पहाड़ के बगते खपते मरते जागर बिन,पानी बिच मीन मानुष,जाग जाओ और कम से कम गिरदा को तो दोबारा पढ़ लो।फिर इकोनामिक्स समझन में देर नहीं लगेगी।
हम तो साहित्य के मामूली विद्यार्थी छन।उत्ते काबिले होते तो लाखटकिया मुलाजिम भये रहते,चकाचक स्टेटस होता।डफर हैं,इसीलिए जो कुछ नहीं बनने की औकात रखता है,वह पत्रकार होता है,वही हमारी औकात है।
हम जैसे अधपढ़ आदमी इकोनामिक्स पढ़ने समझने का साहस कर सकते हैं इन्ही गिर्दा की चमत्कारी पंक्तियों के सान्निध्य की वजह से.शारे पेंच खुल जाते हैं अगर अपने लोगों के लिए दल में तड़प हो प्यारे।
वही तड़प जो मैंने अंबेडकर में देखी नही,लेकिन हर पल आग की आंच के मानिंद महसूसता हूं।झुलसता रहता हूं पल छिन।संध्या सकाले।
वही तड़प जो गिर्दा के जिगर को जलाती रही पल छिन संध्या सकाले।
वही तड़प जो रीढ़ में कैंसर के बावजूद मेरे बाप के कदम को अक्लांत योद्धा बनाती रही।
वही तड़प जो अग्नाशय में लेकर पुत्रवधू व नातिकंठे वी शैल ओवरकम सुनते सुनते बैरीकेड बनाने का काम हमाकरे हवाले कर गयी।जिस तड़प में गिर्दा और नवारुषदा हमशक्ल हो गये।
सारा देश हमारा।
दुनिया हमारी।
हमीं लौ के दक्षिण में।
अब उत्तरी ध्रूव में भी कुछ बवाल करने की सोचो दद्दा,दीदी,बैणी और भुला,फिर दोबारा पढ़ लो गिर्दा।
Aug 12 2014 : The Economic Times (Kolkata)
INSURANCE BILL - Govt Invites Names for Select Panel
| CL MANOJ |
NEW DELHI |
Formal announcement to come in a day or two
Notwithstanding its continued efforts to break the political logjam over the insurance bill, the NDA government has privately conceded to the Congress-led Opposition demand to refer the bill to a select committee. On Monday, its representatives approached various Opposition parties, asking them to forward names of nominees to be included in the select committee.
The government is expected to formally announce the decision to constitute the select committee in a day or two while expressing the hope that the panel would complete the processing of the bill in a timebound manner so that it could be taken up for consideration and passing in the next session of Parliament.
According to sources, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and his deputy Prakash Javedkar reached out to various Opposition parties. "Yes, the government side has requested us to forward our party's representatives to be included in the select committee that will look into the insurance bill", a senior Congress leader told ET. Leaders of the Trinamool Congress, AIADMK, SP, JD(U) and CPM confirmed being contacted by the ministers.
While Congress is in the process of forwarding two to three nominees for the panel, there are indications that names of Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh are under consideration to be included in the panel to be headed by a ruling alliance member. While Derek O'Brien is to be Trinamool Congress nominee, M Maitreyan will represent AIADMK in the select committee, sources said. Ramgopal Yadav (SP), OP Tyagi (JD(U)), P Rajeev (CPM) too are being included in the panel.
NDA parties too are in the process of forwarding their names as well.
"The government is expected to move a resolution in the Rajya Sabha, formally referring the insurance bill to the select committee within days. Already, many parties have requested for concluding the budget session on Wednesday, one day before the scheduled conclusion," said an official source.
There is a possibility that the government would notify the election of the deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha in a day or two. AIADMK's Thambidurai is expected to be elected deputy Speaker.
The government move to constitute the select committee comes at the end of a prolonged stand off between the NDA government and Congress, with the latter objecting to several provisions in the bill, with many other Opposition parties to joining hands against the bill.
Aug 12 2014 : The Economic Times (Kolkata)
ONLINE SURVEY ON MODI GOVERNANCE - `Majority Happy with Modi Govt'
| BHAVNA VIJ-AURORA |
NEW DELHI |
The results of the first poll on the performance of the Narendra Modi government are out.
The Modi government has met the expectations of half the people surveyed, while 30% think that the performance has been below expectations. The remaining 20% seem to believe that the government has exceeded expectations, keeping the `slide' in the past 10 years of UPA government.
The poll was conducted among the 1,30,000 members of online community of `Transform India with Modi' to gauge the public mood after 60 days of Modi government. Thirtythousand members of the citizen-government engagement initiative responded to the poll.
Launched by public policy expert Rajendra Pratap Gupta, a BJP member, the Local Circles community has members from various backgrounds like industry, employed professionals, investors, farmers, social activists, students, home makers, academicians, bureaucrats and senior citizens. The communication cell of BJP is also associated with the community. Gupta was also incharge of penning down BJP's election manifesto on behalf of the manifesto committee led by Murli Manohar Joshi.
"Outstanding is the perfect word to describe the performance of the BJP led NDA government. If the elections are held today for four states (going to polls later this year), BJP on its own will win over 80% of the seats" Gupta told ET.
In a bid to keep the government on its toes, the poll is likely to become a regular feature, borrowing from USA's system of President's approval rating.
The poll threw up a surprise as it emerged that, according to 42% people, fighting corruption should be the biggest priority for the government.
Curbing inflation and price rise was a distant third (24% respondents) with boosting jobs and economic growth taking the number two slot with 26% people voting for it.
Interestingly, in Modi's constituency, Varanasi, cleaning Ganga and modernisation of ghats did not figure in the list of priorities. For 75% people improving cleanliness and civic sense was more important and required immediate government action. The remaining 25% people voted for creation of new opportunities and infrastructure in the holy city.
The question about Modi's constituency was put to Varanasi citizens' circle and 31,000 members voted to decide the priority area for the government.
Aug 12 2014 : The Economic Times (Kolkata)
FIIs Push Nifty Bets to SGX to Escape Tax Net
| PALAK SHAH |
MUMBAI |
Singapore Exchange now controls 65% of outstanding positions in Nifty futures
Are foreign institutional investors (FIIs) moving their equity derivatives bets on India's key stock index to Singapore in response to a Budget announcement by the new government?
Nifty futures listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) has seen a jump in activity since June, while trading in this contract on the National Stock Exchange has declined in this period.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley's announcement in the Budget on characterisation (or classification) of derivatives income for FIIs has been a key catalyst for Nifty bets moving to Singapore, said lawyers and tax experts. Also, the uncertainty over general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) and concerns over volatility in the rupee are also contributing to the shift in activity.
The average monthly open interest (OI) in SGX Nifty has seen a 14.45% jump to Rs. 35,039 crore since June. In comparison, ` the OI fell by 27% in the Nifty index on NSE to ` Rs. 12,514 crore. SGX now controls 65% of Nifty futures OI.
Siddharth Shah, partner with law firm Khaitan & Co, says that a rise in Nifty trading in Singapore was only expected as most FIIs lost their edge on tax structuring in India, post FY15 Budget.
"Until recently , most FIIs had structured their trades in such a way that their net tax effect was almost zero in India, but the recent Budget announcement has changed that," said Shah.
The Budget spelt out that all gains to FIIs will now be treated as capital gains and, hence, these funds would have to fork out 15% tax even on derivatives trades. Till now, FIIs were exempt from paying business tax in India (around 40% for foreign companies with permanent establishment) but had to pay capital gains tax only if they sold their equity holding in cash segment within a year of purchase. There is no long-term capital gains tax if equities are sold after a year from the purchase date. Thus, FIIs averted tax even on derivatives income on the grounds that they have no "permanent establishment" in India. The net result: they paid no tax in India even if they did not route their investments through Mauritius or Singapore with whom India has a complete tax avoidance treaty .
"FIIs claimed their income from derivatives as business tax and did not pay any tax in India. It was convenient as FIIs used long-short strategies (went long on the cash segment and hedged it with short positions in futures)," said Shah.
This is the first time the Indian government spelt out characterisation for derivatives income. "Characterisation of income from equity derivatives has been a big motivation for fund managers to move their bets to SGX," said Mahesh Kumar, head of tax for Nishith Desai Associates in Singapore. "FIIs see this move as a precursor of the changing nature of the tax regime in India for them."
Some FIIs have been spooked by the confusion surrounding the implementation of the much-feared GAAR, which allows the Indian tax authority to scrutinise tax transactions that they believe are structured solely to avoid taxes. The government did not give a clear picture of its implementation in the Budget.
Executives at foreign banks said various FIIs may be looking at dollar-denominated Nifty futures to avoid any possible volatility in the rupee.
Aug 12 2014 : The Economic Times (Kolkata)
Study Vindicates DIPP's Cautious Stand on FTAs
| DILASHA SETH |
NEW DELHI |
Commerce dept internal studies say India may not have really benefited from many free trade agreements
In a damning admission, Commerce Department's internal studies have suggested that India has not benefited much from the many free trade agreements and investments pact signed by it.
While the reduction in tariffs have increased manufactured goods imports, but the offsetting gains India expected in services exports and higher investments have not materialized.
This will give ammunition to the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) that had suggested India should not sign any more such agreements and the ones signed should be reviewed as they were hurting domestic manufacturing.
Commerce secretary Rajiv Kher had strongly defended comprehensive trade pacts signed by India in his letter to his counterpart in DIPP Amitabh Kant.
Various desks in the commerce department are doing in impact analysis after the new government asked for a review.
"We could not have gained much in merchandize exports as all our partner countries anyway had much lower tariffs compared to us. We had to undergo a sharp tariff reduction, offering them a large market access", said a government official privy to the study .
India has one of the highest average tariff in the world at around 14% and preferential access though trade agreements has benefited regional manufacturing powers, which many experts say may have undermine India's attempts to revive manufacturing. The BJP government sees manufacturing revival key to higher growth and more jobs.
India was hoping it would gains in services and investments, but those have not materialized. One study shows that India's share in Japan's global investments has shrunk post comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) from 4.5% to 1.6% between 2008 and 2013, halving in absolute terms from $5.5 billion to $2.1 billion respectively .
India and Japan CEPA came into force in 2011. In fact, the share of India in Japanese investment in Asia saw a sharp decline from 23.7% in 2008 to 5.3% in 2013.
While India's share in Japan's exports rose form 1% to 1.2%, share in imports grew from 0.7% to 0.9% Apart from Japan, India has a CEPA with Korea, and CECA with Singapore and Malaysia. "Even in services, we are not able to deliver. Besides IT, the flow of professionals in filed like teachers, doctors and teachers has been very weak. Be it banking or tourism, we have not been able to use any of these", said the official.
India needs to sign mutual recognition agreement of professional degrees for is professionals to get access, but not one of these has been signed. "We need to negotiate a way out so we can make available our services to the partner country even without an MRA (mutual recognition agreement)", he said.
Presently , Indian community in Korea is estimated at only 7500 which include businessmen, IT professionals, scientists, research fellows, students and workers and government officials. This is much smaller when compared to other countries such as USA, UK, Australia and Canada where Indians are present in large numbers, said Nisha Taneja of Icrier in her study . "Another possible barrier in services trade is language. Indians are well versed in English but will have to learn Korean to render services to and in Korea," Taneja added.
Aug 12 2014 : The Economic Times (Kolkata)
STRONGER FROM THE SLOWDOWN
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A sluggish economy tends to choke corporate performance and possibilities. Not for these four companies, though. Each has enginee significant cost savings, adopted new revenue strategies, and emerged a stronger business from the slowdown over the past three yea
A slowdown can mean different things to different companies.
There are companies that take a step back, or two. There are companies that press pause. Bu if there's one thing that runs through the four companies fea tured on this page, it's this: they became bolder in the slowdown demonstrated greater urgency t move forward, and made calculated choices that entailed a risk they felt confident of managing HCL pushed ahead with a pricey buy, one that Infosys declined, and added more range to its IT business. Maruti drove down patchwork roads to find a whol new market, one whose bottom it does not know yet. Staring at a currency crisis, and needing to shore up its bottom line, Firstsource dared to refuse business for a good reason. Britannia ma many small decisions that adde up to a substantial whole.
During this period of economic sluggishness, from 2011-12 to 2013-14, all four companies saw their revenues grow faster than costs -and their operating margin expand. The economy is looking up, but the levers they pulled remain just as relevant as they did then.
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Aug 12 2014 : The Times of India (Ahmedabad)
LIC will intervene in cos when necessary'
| Mayur Shetty@timesgroup.com |
Country's Largest Institutional Investor To Ensure Its Interests Are Protected
Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) -the country's largest institutional investor -is looking at an FY15 investment surplus of Rs 3 lakh crore (up from Rs 2.3 lakh crore last year), and 15% of that will go into equities with the rest going into debt. Chairman S K Roy speaks of how the recent industry slowdown is only a blip.
You took charge in the midst of a slowdown and restriction on some of the best selling policies. How do you see the industry growing?
Although private sector companies as a group did not grow, the large companies did. LIC continued to show growth. This is a positive feature of the industry and is an indication that perhaps the companies are getting things right now . The Budget has raised tax breaks on investments up to Rs 1.5 lakh from Rs 1 lakh earlier. This opens up the HNI segment which was hesitant to go in for further insurance.
But don't restrictions on investment type products make it difficult to mop up maturity proceeds of earlier plans?
This is not a major issue. When Jeevan Shree came up for maturity, the same questions were asked. One of our new singlepremium plans -Bima Bachat -is doing fantastically well. I don't know if that has to do with maturity of the older policies.
Are you planning to promote alternate channels like internet and bancassurance?
Our alternate channels are doing very well, but when it gets compared with the sales of the 1.2 million agents, it does not come across as significant. Our direct marketing channel generates as much premium as the sixth or seventh life insurance company in the industry , but within LIC it is contributing only 1%. We are number 3 in bancassurance sales, which means that we have overtaken some bank-promoted life insurance companies. But the achievement is not noticed because they account for only 3% of our premium.
What is the size of LIC's investments?
We can declare our investment corpus only after tabling the annual report. Our assets in the earlier year stood at over Rs 17 lakh crore. As a prudent company, we have been doing all our valuations on the conservative side. This building (LIC headquarters `Yogakshema' at Nariman Point in Mumbai), for instance, is still valued at book value. I had a visitor from Hong Kong who was amazed to know that this building had a 20x30ft mural by M F Hussain. Considering that his canvases were being sold for Rs 11 crore, I don't know how many zeroes would be there in the mural's value.
Have you seen a rise in NPAs?
Our lending to the corporate sector is largely by way of debentures. We do provide corporate loans, but that is not a large segment of our portfolio. At no point of time can LIC's NPA be as high as that of banks not because we are brilliant with our due dili gence but because we do not lend like banks and we cannot go below `BB' rated instruments.
What kind of headroom do you have for investment in equities? Are you likely to invest in PSU banks since many are looking to raise capital?
We are expecting an investment surplus of Rs 3 lakh crore. Headroom is not an issue for us as we keep churning our portfolio. In PSU banks, if it is a capital matter, the government has made it very clear that it will address this issue. If it is a bond being issued by the bank and the regulatory threshold is available to us, we will look at it. Unlike many people, we have been consistently bullish on the banking sector .
History shows that our bullishness has been a fairly good decision.
There were reports on LIC questioning Cairn's loan to its parent. Insurance regulator IRDA had recently said that insurers should look at corporate governance in investee companies. Is LIC turning activist?
It is not as if we are becoming more active compared to what we were in the past. Essentially , it is to ensure that our rights and interests are protected. It is part of our standard procedure that, if we come across a situation where our intervention in the company is required, we will intervene. We seek information and clarification from the company and we try to sort out the matter.
Historically, LIC has gone along with managements...
I don't think data supports that.
We have taken independent decisions -independent of what the company or promoter would like us to do.
Aug 12 2014 : The Times of India (Ahmedabad)
Oil ministry proposes changes so as to allow flexibility to explorers
| Sanjay.Dutta |
New Delhi: |
Oil ministry is proposing about 11 changes in production sharing contracts (PSCs) to allow explorers more flexibility to meet timelines for developing fields or make it easier for them to exit in case of defence and environmental restrictions as well as give block oversight committees powers to decide dispute over technicalities.
Government sources said the proposed changes, once approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, would apply to existing and future contracts. They would bring relief to several companies, including Reliance Industries and its partner BP Plc, Cairn India as well as state-run ONGC.
Dispute between Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the ministry's technical arm which monitors PSCs, and explorers over PSC technicalities have stalled work on bringing as many as 62 discoveries into production and soured investment climate in the oil sector.
Changes outlined in the ministry's note, sent to the finance ministry last week for vetting before being sent for Cabinet approval, reflects the Narendra Modi government's desire to clear the air by establishing a rational and clear procedure to deal with delays and other issues reported by explorers.
The present PSCs are unbending in format and have several provisions that are ambiguous. This leaves little scope for DGH or the block oversight committees to decide technical ities raised by explorers. As a result, the ministry has been inundated with requests from DGH to decide such issues that are beyond its powers.
The note lists out broadly 10 areas needing more flexibility .
"Such rigidity in the PSC provisions is jeopardising the objectives of explorationproduction, thereby undermining the energy security of the country... Some of these timelines cannot always be directly adhered to, considering the uncertainties associated with E&P activities. Non-relaxation of these timelines would result in non-monetisation of discoveries and also may lead to litigation." The crux of the proposals lies in allowing more flexibility in block oversight for dealing with issues and make it easier to extend timelines that are missed due to genuine reasons.
Two of these proposals particul-arly would go a long way in smoothening government's dealings with explorers.
Aug 12 2014 : The Economic Times (Kolkata)
Desi MF Inflows may Keep D-St Party Going
| ASHUTOSH R SHYAM |
ET INTELLIGENCE GROUP |
Healthy infusion likely to offset moderating FII inflows
Rising geopolitical tensions over developments such Ukraine-Russia standoff and the conflict in Gaza have impacted the amount of money pumped by foreign institutional investors into emerging markets including India. But analysts say the increasing flows into domestic mutual funds will be able to offset the moderating FII inflows into the Indian equity markets.
According to the Association of Mutual Funds of India, the domestic funds have received as much as ` . 20,784 crore since the beginning of the year, reaching the highest level in July over the past 78 months.
"Geopolitical tensions in various geographies have turned investors cagey and more risk-averse. But the healthy inflows into the domestic equity mutual funds are likely to offset the pressure emerging from the moderation of FII flows into the Indian equity markets," said Rajesh Cheruvu, chief investment officer of RBS private banking.
Aug 12 2014 : The Times of India (Ahmedabad)
Tatas unveil `luxury airline' Vistara, target Oct take-off
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New Delhi: TIMES NEWS NETWORK |
The Tata-Singapore Airlines combine on Monday unveiled Vistara, its much-awaited joint-venture full service carrier, and said that new `luxury' airline should fly by October, in time for Diwali.
The announcement immediately caused a stir in the industry. Within hours, Jet Airways said it was disbanding its low-cost JetKonnect and turning into an FSC under the single brand, Jet.
While Vistara (which means `limitless expanse') will as per rules begin as a domestic airline, it is eying expanding beyond India's border soon. "We look forward to the repeal of the 520 rule (which says an Indian carrier must be in service for five years and have a fleet of 20 aircraft before flying overseas)," TSAL CEO Phee Teik Yeoh said at the unveiling of the airline's branding, livery and crew uniform on Monday.
He said the airline -which promises to "redefine travel" -was in the "last lap" of its licencing process with the aviation regulator.
As of now, the Delhibased airline plans to have five Airbus A-320s by the end of this year and a fleet of 20 planes in five years.
The first Vistara aircraft will arrive next month.
Jet feels the heat, shuts low-cost arm
The launch of Tata-SIA's airline has turned on the heat in India's full service carrier space. Within hours of the Vistara announcement, Jet Airways said it was disbanding its low cost arm, JetKonnect, and turning into an FSC under the single brand, Jet.
Aug 12 2014 : The Times of India (Ahmedabad)
RBI chief warns against crony capitalism
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Mumbai TIMES NEWS NETWORK |
Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan has warned against crony capitalism, which he said creates oligarchies and slows down growth.
"One of the greatest dangers to the growth of developing countries is the middle income trap, where crony capitalism creates oligarchies that slow down growth. If the debate during the elections is any pointer, this is a very real concern of the public in India today ," said Rajan while delivering the Lalit Doshi memorial lecture here on Monday .
The last general election was fraught with allegations of nexus between politicians and business groups.
Rajan extolled the virtues of India's democracy before turning to its darker aspects.
"An important issue in the recent elections was whether we had substituted the crony socialism of the past with crony capitalism, where the rich and the influential are alleged to have received land, natural resources and spectrum in return for payoffs to venal politicians.
"By killing transparency and competition, crony capitalism is harmful to free enterprise, opportunity, and economic growth. And by
substituting special interests for the public interest, it is harmful to democratic expression. If there is some truth to these perceptions of crony capitalism, a natural question is why people tolerate it. Why do they vote for the venal politician who perpetuates it?" Rajan continued by saying, "One widely held hypoth esis is that our country suffers from want of a 'few good men' in politics. This view is unfair to the many upstanding people in politics.
" But even assuming it is true, every so often we see the emergence of a group, usually upper middle class professionals, who want to clean up politics. But when these 'good' people stand for election, they tend to lose their deposits.
Does the electorate really not want squeaky clean government? "Apart from the conceit that high morals lie only with the upper middle class, the error in this hypothesis may be in believing that problems stem from individual ethics rather than the system we have.
"In a speech I made before the Bombay Chamber of Commerce in 2008, I argued that the tolerance for the venal politician is because he is the
crutch that helps the poor and underprivileged navigate a system that gives them so little access. This may be why he survives." The governor's warning against crony capitalism and oligarchies is a reiteration of his statements four days before the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008.
In a speech at the Bombay Chamber, Rajan had highlighted that India had the highest number of billionaires per trillion dollars of GDP after Russia.
While excluding N R Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, and Ratan Tata as 'deservedly respected', Rajan had said "three factors — land, natural resources, and government contracts or licenses — are the predominant sources of the wealth of our billionaires.
And all of these factors come from the government."
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