IITF - 32 years - at the crossroads

As a visitor of the trade fair from its 3rd edition till now i have seen the same grow from one populated with state pavilions, then the SAARC nations and more recently the chinese invasion - it has been one of great anticipation every year.

As school kids we would roam the 2 days of the weekend and generally hang around the book stores and hope that on the last day - the owners would sell us some books at deeply discounted rates as books weigh a lot to ship back!!

Those were the times when terorrism was somthing in Punjab and Kashmir and rest of India was a different state. The cops on duty would allow us school students in for free!! BUt something happened post liberalisation in '91 - the liberalised cops became overnight money makers!! Anyways i digress, the main theme of this note is to comment on the IITF itself.

The IITF has now become a major marketing extravaganza in the Indian calendar and as such the denizens of Delhi NCR look forward to a fortnight of shoping frenzy. This is India's own shopping festival to rival the one of Dubai. And herein lies the oppotunity lost.

It is beyond one's thinking as to why the concept of a global village (as in Dubai) and its shopping festival have still not been imported here by the IITF?

The state pavilions are closed the year round except for these 14days and maybe the odd day or two in the year when the respective state governmenets have some state events/ functions. These pavilions can be used as the global village options during the rest of the year and for one week of the IIFT the same can be part of the exhibitors and open to only business visitors. This would also stagger the crowds throughout the year and also make delhi a more pleasurable destination for the tourists who otherwise have a forced diet of "death mounuments" starting with gandhi, indira, rajiv, etc etc and also their homes which are now "museums" (a subtle land grab of sorts?).

The trade fair if it does not reinvent itself sooner rather than later - it may soon be consigned to the back benchers in international trade fairs and it may just remain as a marketing show for local demestic retail customers (as i fear it has already become the past 4-5years).

Politics of subsidies and vote banks of the poor

All subsidies are scams. They only transfer the potential exploitation of the poor by the rich in a local area to exploitation of consolidated poor as a VOTE BANK by the politician at the cost of the poor and the rich through INFLATION.

The only way has been as in the past - the truly poor(read those who dont have the wherewithal for even one meal a day) - they are taken care of by local bigwigs and in return they provide some odd service - this is the only way there is some direct quid pro quo between the subsidiser and the beneficiary - the socio economic benefits of this (and the one con of possible exploitation) are too numerous to be ignored for the sake of the one con against. BUT polititcans benefit by interfering here as they have a so called "blank cheque" which only ends up stoking inflation which kills everybody (even the abv e mentioned donor) in the long term making him fearful of the future due to rising prices and hence REDUCE his donor activities!

Subsides are acceptable only in education (NOT RESERVATIONS - JUST SUBSIDY), and this should be a fixed amount and will be given to certain schools directly - ergo anybody who studies in these schools will get the benefit - no individual transfers etc etc. HOW to go about selecting these schools - very simple those which have fixed a fee of less than INR300 per month to get 100% subsidy and those less than 1000 to get 10% and those above 1000 - nil and so on. if a rich man wants to send his child for some free education - he is most welcome to do so!! :-)

This kind of investment subsidy will enable a whole generation to educate itself and hence maybe over 2 generations provide a platform for the next level of growth.

what have subsidies provided by the govt achieved till date?
1. Each and every subsidy scheme has created a scam without exception
2. the cost of administration of retail subsidy is by itself 10% of the cost of the service / product provided
3. large Mafia's have been created which kills IPS/ IAS / Politicians with impunity etc etc
4. Inflation is rampant due to the printing of money to finance these "subsidies" resulting in the rich becoming poor and the middle class becoming poor and the poor forever being dependent on this largesse of the politician with no real "growth" doomed to a lifetime of being served the fish (instead of learning to catch their own fish) and binding themselves willingly to a life of servitude to the party in power!

only wish will live to see the day of TRUE empowerment of the people - the day they reject the party which promises things for free and elects a party which promises only work and no freebies!!