Geeta Padmanabhan
People in the know – CEOs and HR consultants – have told me that the impact of global economic meltdown will be relatively less in India. Among the many reasons they proffer are
-financial conservatism
-smaller % of exports
-large local markets
-strong banking regulations.
Yesterday an activist added two:
-a lot of our money is safely stored in Swiss banks
-we can’t get poorer than this.
Of course, the IT industry has had to make “corrections”. No one talks about increments and salaries that have been pruned to jaw-closing levels. Appointment orders for fresh graduates have been put on hold. Workers have been retrenched in export oriented industries (Tirupur, Surat).
In this election year, the government and the political parties aren’t taking chances. Unlike in the US where every dollar spent comes under an electron microscope( editor’s note – we wish!), the parties here have come to a tacit understanding. We need economic stimulus. We can’t allow the country to slide into massive unemployment . We need to pump money into the markets, purchasing power into people’s hands. So we will make the general elections a grand one. We can’t let all the cash and kind to go into IPL players’ hands alone!
How does the election stimulus work?
Apart from placing full-page ads in newspapers and clippings/jingles on TV, Radio, Internet and Social networks, political parties are seeking professional help to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress Party has announced that it will be using the services of three advertising agencies. Rs. 150 crore has been allocated for this. If you think this is huge, well, the party doesn’t. Additional amounts will be distributed on public rallies, posters and handouts.
The party has bought the rights of Jai Ho for campaign use. (Amount paid not disclosed.)
I hear a lot of people who lost their jobs will make a killing in this election market. You get paid for joining the rallies – every party needs “crowds” to wave flags, to clap – hey, the TV cameras are rolling! In a previous election, Congress lackeys hired dancers known for their off-colour antics on stage to “attract” crowds.
Mayavathi of BSP has made huge elephant statues (1 crore each) to be placed in vantage points. I saw them. They are works of art. This is her election symbol.
It speaks to the level of maturity of the Indian electorate that they are completely bi-partisan.
The same guys will make posters for all parties (500?), do wall paintings, clean those up on election commission’s orders, and then write them again. You might even see the same crowds in all the meetings and rallies.
The same ad agencies will make posters, videos, newspaper page-outs. Ad agency Crayons has extended its services impartially to Congress, BJP, Samajwadi Party and Shiromani Akali Dal. It is not likely to go out of business ever. Ad budgets are likely to go up by 25-30% (Economic Times, Sep 23 2008) the Business Standard ran its story under the heading “Political Advertising comes of Age”. Ha!
All this is official. Unofficially, money is disbursed on the pretext of “It is our culture to give money when a kid is named.” “We always distribute cash during Holi!” All this has been caught on camera. One board in Thirumangalam whose townizens got instant fame for auctioning votes said: “Twelve votes here. Bids invited.”
Political watcher Vinod Anand writes in his report, “Unlike the US, there is no requirement for political parties in India to disclose their campaign expenditure. The media has speculated that all the political parties are expected to spend around 500 crore rupees on advertising and communication alone, which will be but a fraction of the total campaign cost.”
The report concludes, “What will be the total cost of campaigning for this Lok Sabha election? It might be enough to fund the free mid-day meal scheme in (all)our schools for the duration of this campaign. So next time you trash a publicity flier/brochure handed to you by your friendly neighbourhood politician, just consider that a kid in India went hungry to fund it.”
How much is the government spending for this great exercise in democracy?
Here is a sample: 20,140 litres of violet ink will be used in elections this year. This, when we have electronic voting machines that work.
Watch this space for more.
Picture by Bryce Edwards under Creative Commons License
Every South Indian growing up in almost every major city between Delhi and Madras has some memory of the Thyagaraja Aradhanai: Melodious singing and rhythmic beats round the clock, the crinkle of rich kanjeevarams, the sharp commentaries by mamas, the reverence on the faces of the audience as maestros ascended the heights of achievement, the performing children looking quite grown up in their pattu pavadais and mundus; the aroma of vadais and kaapi, the ongoing musical discussion at home and en route.
Who doesn’t love cake? But most of us try to avoid it. All those calories! For those of us with a sweet tooth having to refuse that slice of cake causes a lot of heartbreak and inner turmoil and the few times that we do give in (few!! who am I kidding ? I give in almost every time) we are full of guilt.
One of the easiest ways to decorate is with cupcake picks. You can pick up readymade picks from party stores or make them at home. Print two copies each of any design example tiaras or animals etc. Take a tooth pick and stick the printout on both sides of the tooth pick, ice your cupcake any color you like and stick in your picks. I recently made special Obama cupcakes for my daughter’s class on the Presidents inauguration day.
Last but certainly not the least I was able to use my hobby as a means to teach my children a lesson in charity. Last year my daughters sold cupcakes at the Induz volunteer
Bay Area non-profit 
About 1 in 8 kids in the US has special needs. Despite this alarmingly high number, parents of kids with special needs face incredible loneliness in their challenge to deal with their child’s disability.
“Jeena Yahaan gives hope to parents. They meet other like minded parents, and form networks and are inspired to live life here and now. My son Neel, who is autistic, has benefited a tremendous amount from Jeena Yahaan,” says Sanjita Dhingra, a long time Jeena member who is putting together this year’s show. “Thanks to Jeena, he has got over his anxiety over performing in public.” 13 year-old Neel is now confident enough to participate in his school band with over a 100 other kids, a real challenge for an autistic child.
While your pocketbook may be thin because of the current economic environment, I urge you to help Jeena put together their annual show this year. It is an incredibly important event for the kids who look forward to it all year. I have attended previous shows and have been moved by the look of pride on both the children’s and the parents’ faces.
“I’m the president of a couple of clubs at my school,” says Arun Bajaj, “ and let me tell you, it is a lot easier managing a group of my peers than a group of 40 young kids!” 17 year-old Arun, a senior at Saratoga High School, volunteered at the 
Karan Suri agrees. “I think the once a week program is a great idea,” he says enthusiastically.” Karan, a senior at Los Altos High, has been volunteering at the summer camp program since he was a freshman. “I brought my drum set and taught the kids the elements of drumming. Another counselor who was good at drawing helped the kids design their own comic books.” Thanks to his experience, Karan is eligible to be a camp director this year. In his senior position, he would plan schedules, hire instructors and develop the curriculum for some of the camps, an invaluable training in managerial responsibilities. “I am grateful for the opportunity to meet people in business and develop my leadership skills,” he says.
As a mother of a young daughter, the new vaccine for cervical cancer has been at the top of my mind. On one hand, I am not wildly enthusiastic about vaccines. Personal experience with the older child has shown that some immune systems just can’t deal with the onslaught of vaccines that we seem to be subjecting young bodies to these days. On the other hand, cervical cancer, caused by the Human Pappilomavirus(HPV), is the second leading cancer in women (worldwide – in India it is the leading cancer) and is responsible for about 250,000 deaths worldwide.
Dr. Shobha Krishnan, a gynecologist based at Columbia University, set out to educate parents about the cancer and the vaccine and its risks and benefits. I spoke with her about her well-researched tome, “The HPV Vaccine Controversy Book-: Sex, Cancer, God and Politics.”
Our first major task this week was to settle Dhruv into school. As I mentioned in my last post, we had a meeting with the Admissions Director scheduled for Monday, and we rode the M16 cross-town bus to our appointment. Riding public transit regularly has been the single biggest change so far, from checking schedules prior to departure (Google maps’ “Public Transit” feature has been really useful — I don’t think I even noticed it in the Bay Area) to waiting for the bus, queuing up to get in, swiping your MetroCard to pay the fare, giving up one’s seat for old ladies, pressing the “tape” to ask the bus to stop… a whole slew of fascinating new experiences that become more familiar with every passing occasion.
On Monday evening, at short notice, we decided to go and buy all the remaining furniture we needed at IKEA in Brooklyn. This meant taking the Number 6 Subway line to Bleecker Street, and then changing to the F line. Bleecker Street! Made famous by Simon and Garfunkel’s song of the same name!
I had a business meeting in the Union Square area on Friday morning, and Sandhya made me meet her at Macy’s at Harold Square after that, to buy a much-needed warm woolen overcoat. It was fun to try to figure out the right Subway line to take (I installed a really cool app on Sandhya’s iPhone, called KickMap, which gives you a very useful map of the NYC subway system) and I met her at the store.
On Sunday, we decided that Noble Tasks Should Not Be Delayed, and signed up for an annual membership at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). A taxi (we missed the bus by 2 minutes) and subway ride later, we walked into this magnificent museum on Central Park. Dhruv had a real blast going around the exhibits, and we just spent three hours there, taking in a few sections slowly and deliberately. It was really satisfying to see him take it all in – jaw dropping in wonderment at the enormous skeleton of an Apatosaurus / Brontosaurus, or the teeth of a T-Rex. This is what we moved for – for easy access to these great institutions, and we think we’ve made a good start.
Water, No Ice 