GD Topic

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail sector.

BackGround

The recent cabinet decision on FDI in retail has triggered protests by opposition and key allies of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), who are demanding a roll back of the policy. The hour-long meeting held in Parliament House failed to resolve the logjam in the two Houses as opposition parties, led by BJP and the Left, stuck to their stand and demanded rollback of the Cabinet decision to allow 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail. Though at present only 53 cities with population not less than 10 lakh in the country have been identified for FDI As the fourth-largest economy in the world in PPP terms, India is a preferred destination for FDI. During 2000â€“10, the country attracted $178 billion as FDI.

Favor

This will bring modern technology to the country. Improve rural infrastructure.It would help build infrastructure and

create a competitive market. Reduce wastage of agricultural produce. Enable our farmers to get better prices for their crops. consumers will get commodities of daily use at reduced prices. Biggest beneficiary of this would be small farmers, who would be able

to improve productivity and realize higher remuneration by selling directly to large organized players and shorten the chain from farm to consumers.

Government too stands to gain by this move through more transparent and accountable monitoring of goods and supply chain management systems. It can expect to receive an additional US$ 25-30 billion by way of taxes

Opening of retail can be seen as a solution for food inflation, which has been confounding policy-makers. FDI in retail would help in building much needed back end infrastructure. Additionally, he said, investments in cold storage chain infrastructure would reduce loss of agricultural produce and provide more options to farmers.

Against

Our interest rates today are as high as 14 per cent to 16 per cent how do we compete with the economies which have a 4 per cent interest rate. Our infrastructure our trade facilitations our labor laws, all these factors collectively don't make India low cost. So do you want India to become a center where we allow foreign companies to come in and set up these large chains which eventually instead of selling domestic products out sourcing internationally the cheapest sources and selling those products. Please remember domestic retail normally sources domestically, international retail sources internationally because they source from the cheapest sources.

Even if big retail companies help the farmers in resurrecting their economy, what plan does the government has for millions of middlemen who are part of the business process chain that ensures manufactured products reach end users.

We engage millions of uneducated and semi-educated people at various stages of retail business spread across towns and cities but we are afraid that Tesco and Wal-Mart will only engage smart and educated workforce in small strength, comparatively.

Conclusion

Government is taking this decision in good faith.Few persons and lobbies controlling the rates of food commodities in India.And bringing more competition in market will bring better prices for buyers as well as sellers of commodities. Parties protesting against FDIs in retail have choice to not allow FDIs in the states they are ruling.Government should make a regulatory body for the commodity trade as we have for cellular services.

Lokpal Bill

BackGround

The Jan Lokpal Bill also referred to as the citizens' ombudsman bill. The Jan Lokpal Bill aims to effectively deter corruption, redress

grievances of citizens, and protect whistle-blowers. If made into law, the bill would create an independent ombudsman body called the Lokpal (Sanskrit: protector of the people).It would be empowered to register and investigate complaints of corruption against politicians and bureaucrats without prior government approval.

In April 2011, civil activist Anna Hazare started a Satyagraha movement by commencing an indefinite fast in New Delhi to demand

the passing of the bill. The movement attracted attention in the media, and hundreds of thousands of supporters, in part due to the organizational skills of Arvind Kejriwal.Following Hazare's four day hunger strike, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that the bill would be re-introduced in the 2011 monsoon session of the Parliament.

Features of proposed bill

To establish a central government anti-corruption institution called Lokpal, supported by Lokayukta at the state level. As in the case of the Supreme Court and Cabinet Secretariat, the Lokpal will be supervised by the Cabinet Secretary and the Election Commission . As a result , it will be completely independent of the government and free from ministerial influence in its investigations.

Members will be appointed by judges, Indian Administrative Service officers with a clean record, private citizens and constitutional authorities through a transparent and participator process.

A selection committee will invite short-listed candidates for interviews, videorecordings of which will thereafter be made public.

Every month on its website, the Lokayukta will publish a list of cases dealt with , brief details of each, their outcome and any action taken or proposed. It will also publish lists of all cases received by the Lokayukta during the previous month, cases dealt with and those which are pending.

Investigations of each case must be completed in one year. Any resulting trials should be concluded in the following year, giving a total maximum process time of two years.

Losses to the government by a corrupt individual will be recovered at the time of conviction.

Government office work required by a citizen that is not completed within a prescribed time period will result in Lokpal imposing financial penalties on those responsible, which will then be given as compensation to the complainant.

Complaints against any officer of Lokpal will be investigated and completed within month and, if found to be substantive, will result in the officer being dismissed within two months.

The existing anti-corruption agencies [CVC], departmental vigilance and the anti-corruption branch of the [CBI] will be merged into Lokpal which will have complete power authority to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.

Whistleblowers who alert the agency to potential corruption cases will also be provided with protection by it.

Content on internet should be censored!Or

Government's action on social networking sites is justified

BackGround

Internet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of government or on their own initiative. Individuals and organizations may engage in self-censorship on their own or due to intimidation and fear.Internet censorship in India is selectively practiced by both federal and state governments. While there is no sustained government policy or strategy to block access to Internet content on a large scale, measures for removing content that is obscene or otherwise objectionable, or that endangers public order or national security have become more common in recent years.

Favor

The words and images users post on the Internet may be available for years, and your profile may be viewed by future employers and school admissions officials, as well as identity thieves, spammers, and stalkers.This information can be used for the different purpose without any acknowledgement to user.

Many individuals and groups are using the social networking sites to provoke the users against the government.Its all politically motivated.They are using the tactics which are not acceptable in real world.

Apart from political motives many terrorist and racist organizations are using the social media for hurting the emotions of people and spewing hate against the castes, religions and races.

Internet is in a completely in chaos due to less censorship.There is need to censor the content and usage or the internet.People are abusing each other anonymously there is no one out on internet who can take care on these Problems.We need internet police.

Internet censorship is not at all about the hindering the freedom it is about the mapping the virtual world with the real world ethics.

Against

Internet is a open and free medium.It can be accessed by anyone by any where.That is the power of internet.If government start censoring voices of the people then internet will loose its charm.

I agree that on internet and on social media websites lot of content available which could be against few groups or government.But content available is a view of another group.We can not stop people of keeping a different perception.We cant hinder the freedom.

The content available on different forums or social networking sites are always publish with a report feature.If a person or group find it offensive they can report it.And the site could take action on the content.Need is to make generic standards for all sites to filter the content based on the hate.This mechanism is already there so what is need to censor further.

Why government need to control the content.Political parties can be use the content for their personal profit. Parties would censor only content what is against them not against the opposition. So if required to regulate there must be a third party censorship firm or agency or regulatory body.Which can take action without partiality.

Conclusion

There is no need to censor the internet.What is required is to setup the a mechanism or regulatory body which can take care of websites to manage their content.

Internet is free medium and no one should have right to censor things on it.

Film-makers are indulging in cinematic Fortitution in the name of folk culture.

Favour

Movie released in theaters is a result of what the producer and director along with his crew put together. The producer being the investor and the director the creator it is left to them to decide what they want to create and produce.

The producer and the director take a gamble trying to woo the crowd by showing what they want.

Current trend in movies is towards folk culture, which may fade away soon.

The producers are distorting the history and represnet in wrongly in front of viwers for sake of money.

Against

Film makers are prmoting our values and traditions by these movies. If the movie is on folk culture then it should elucidate the beauty of the

culture and there should not be any masala added to lure the audience.

Folk culture is to be preserved in its natural and an inheritance should not be used to make money out of it by depicting the same in movies.

Conclusion

It should ok if filmamakers are making folk movies but one thing they should kept in mind they must not present wrong facts in front of viwers.

Under Indian parliamentary democracy it is impossible to ensure balanced regional development. (IIMC)

Favour

The fundamental principles of democracy preach to ensure balanced regional development.

Uniform representation in the Lower House by MPs from all over the country is to bring out regional problems and demands of people from across the country.

Constitution is completely unbiased for any kind of regional growth

Against

The government tends to be biased towards vote banks while making and implementing policies.

The minorities are usually left out in the power game and all the agitation by various minorities is an example of the lopsided development.

Most of the important people of our country stays in metros or frequently visits metros so the expect the better facilties there so they them selves take such decisons which prmote the growth of only metros whereas rest of india being untouched with growth.

Conclusion

The Democracy and constitution dont support any kind of regional bias but politician them selves only biased.

Corruption is the main outcome of democracy in India.(IIML)

Favour

The fact that the system provides equality to everyone ,from whatsoever background and competency makes it easier to play around loopholes in the Indian Statute

Democracy not play a direct role to prmote the corruption but it give power to the people who could be non capable and have there own aims and shelfishness.

Democracy not play a direct role to prmote the corruption but it give power to the people who could be non capable and have there own aims and shelfishness.

In damocratic system a person is chosen by other people.This procedure could be faulty because human being can be motivated trough the means of greed,or fear.

Against

The risk of Democracy is a systemic risk ; corruption is a personal equation and holds good or bad depending on an individual's and organization's personal value systems. The two should therefore not be construed/ read as a cause- effect relationship.

Democracy give choice to people to select the leaders on the basis of there capabilty and goodness.If people choose the wrong leaders then that is not the problem with democracy that is the problem with people.

Conclusion

The democracy dont support the curruption at all.But the people them selves are greedy and selfish who are motivatd for corruption.

In an over-regulated society corruption is inevitable.(MICA)

Favour

Forcing human mind to follow the rules which are unnecessary and biased make them revolutionary and they move towards revange and corruption is one of the way to take that revange form governement.

Few people believe laws are made to be broken so this is case of the economic phenomenon of regulatory arbitrage

Against

corruption is a personal equation and holds good or bad depending on an individual's and organization's personal value systems.Regulations , like democracy is a systemic phenomenon ;Both have nothing to do with each other.

Conclusion

Over regulating simple things of daily life can create problem in daily life but regulations are must to run the complex morden life .

For the poorer sections of society, a state controlled economy is better than a liberalized economy

Favour

China is biggest example of success of state controlled economy. In libral ecnomies richer become more richer and poors are getting

more poor. A controlled economy will result in proper flow of benefits towards the

rural masses. The state has control over the production and the markets helping the

poorer sections to avail benefits which they otherwise would have been deprived of.

Against

The state controlled economies are big problem in the path of growing business in country which will surely affect the country's growth which eventually affects poors.

Russia is biggest example of failure of state controlled economy The communist countries are a bright example that state controlled

economies do not result in uplifting the poor. As history stands a proof state controlled economies have higher rates

of corruption and mismanaged economies. A liberalized economy with sound regulatory framework will ensure

employment and a healthy economy.

Conclusion

State controlled ecnomy is having few benefits but from evidances from history the conclusion is that state controlled economy is big failure.

The money being put into cricket is harming the development of other sports. (SCMHRD)

Favour

Every sponser is running behind cricket Getting sponsored to other sports is difficult, and the players could not have the latest equipment (sport gears).

Cannot not compete with other countries the money flowing in to cricket attracting all the young population less

people intrested in making career in other sports.

Against

Department of sports or the Sports ministry has a fixed budget and has to allocate the same to productive use. If the demands from cricket are high the dept. has no other option but to fund them.

The number of aspiring cricketers speaks for itself how popular a game it is in the nation.

A lot of funding also comes from sponsors who will fund the game that gives them maximum publicity and in India cricket is no doubt the game.

Conclusion

It seems true that money in cricket is harming other games because the youths only want to play cricket due to this money.

The formation of European Union has a drastic effect on India's trade.

Favour

This may be read in light of trading equations with our biggest partners USA, UK and Germany where we had miserably failed to bargain given that most of our trade consumables have import exposures from these nations ; the European Union will further augment this situation.

EU-India trade talks began well in June 2007. India’s rapidly expanding role in the world economy as a buyer and seller make this an important free trade agreement for the EU, as recent research shows.

Against

The EU-India negotiations began well in June 2007. But the hard issues are always left to last in such discussions. The benefits of an agreement for the two nations are especially hard to quantify given the importance that each places on hard-to-measure gains in areas like investment and services.

The EU would mean more exposure to a more stable currency vis-à-vis the presently volatile dollar tranche ; this would mean healthier earnings and repatriation .

Conclusion

India’s rapidly expanding role in the world economy as a buyer and seller make this an important target for the EU. It would be an agreement well worth having. Of course, such bilateral progress should come in addition to, rather than in place of progress in the WTO’s current multilateral talks (the Doha Round) but such progress depends only partly on the EU’s stance. From the Indian side, the free trade agreement would be a move from its reliance on a unilateral liberalisation policy with extreme reluctance to commit multilaterally.

Computers result in unemployment

Favour

Computers replace a lot of jobs. A developing country like India cannot afford to have computerization

at the cost of unemployment. Computers making lot of jobs complex unnecssarily which was going

on easyly in past in manual mode.

Against

In a Knowledge and service economy computers are a necessity and a must for development.

They create more jobs and types of jobs and also have multiplier effect.

computer cant work in isolation most of the time still they needs human handling so basically they are facilatating human beings.

Conclusion

Computer are not increasing unemployment actully they are helping humans to making complex jobs simple.

With IT replacing middle level management, soft-ware jobs are more lucrative than MBAs

Favour

As a software person is having analytical skills which can be utilised in the management job very well

In software onsite opportunities makes the income and growth bigger then management people.

MBA's cant get exposure and benfits of working Onsite.

Against

Software jobs are not lucrative like the mba's average income of software middile level employee is 10 lakhs per annum but an MBa can make around 15 to 20 lakhs per annum.

People who wanaa manage other people not having scope in the software field.

Conclusion

MBA and software both having there advantages it depends on the ,what kind of opportunity we are getting.

Do you think accent holds you back? Would you prefer everyone speaking uniformly?

Favour

Communication between people of different languages will be faster and easier.

No politicization of language base issues. No discrimnation on the basis of ascent.

Against

Loss of traditions. With different languages in India, it is difficult to have same accent. It is a personal issue, everybody has a right to speak his mother

tongue. Hindi and English are serving as the bridge for the variety of languages

we have and there is no need to force a common language.

Conclusion

It would surely make the communication easier but need to analyze its impact in broadway.

Youth in India are becoming greedy by the day

Favour

Surely the young genration is becoming greedy every one running behind easy money and dont want to put the efforts to earn it by hard work.

The youth is getting so much opportunities ,still they want to go to ONsite and earn money from there they dont want to contribute in nations growth but want more benfits from government.

Youth dont want to stay in india they want to sattle abroad.

Against

Ambition is being misunderstood for greediness. The way youth behaved in last decade in india the way they have

worked and shown there qualities made the india one of the biggest contender for next super power.

Conclusion

The youth some how running behind money but there ambitions and dreams are acelrated by there own hard work so they derve it.

MBAs should be taxed at higher rates in the country (IIMB)

Favour

Understandably so in the areas of income and wealth taxes , given their propensity to earn higher through these routes

The kind of money the MBA's reciving is huge .so goverment should charge them more.

Against

Taxation is a policy and policies are decided for the masses at large. In order to avoid any discrepancy and bias rates are fixed on income and not on the basis of profession.

MBAs and other such professional people are taxed "professional tax". So charging them again a higher rate is not required.

Conclusion

Taxation should be based on the income rather than profession

1. Is coalition politics here to stay?

The following points could be discussed under this topic:

Nature of coalition politics. Indecisiveness of elections. No particular party is getting the peoples mandate. Advantage of coalition politics in enabling formation of government. Flipside of coalition politics- a party with a handful of seats become powerful. Government falls before tenure. Fresh elections each time. Suggest a way out of this problem, for e.g.: once a party pledges support to a coalition, it will not withdraw its support until it has watched a governments performance for at least three years...etc The future -will it only have coalitions ,emerging political trends...etc...

2. Does India need a dictator?


The current political structure. Drawbacks of it. Bureaucracy, layers in decision making, anarchy. Dictatorship would mean centralized power and faster decision making. But, country run on whims and fancies of an individual. Freedom on individuals could be clamped..etc....Present a balanced argument for and against and take up your position on the issue.

3. Is India moving away from a secularist state?


Define secularism.Constitution calls our country such a state, but how things have changed over the last 50 years.Spread of nationalism. Division into majority and minority groups-e.g. benefits given to minority groups perceived as a threat by others. Role of non-tolerant neighbors in fuelling fundamentalism. It is a passing phenomenon. We have the national character to overcome this....Points along these lines can be discussed.

4. Education in India-or the lack of it.


Discuss current education system. Discuss our sociological structure.Poverty which forces kids to drop out to supplement family income.Vicious circle-poverty due to lack of education and vice versa.Suggest solutions to get out of this-for e.g., governments are doing a commendable job with the midday meal schemes but we need more of such efforts. Going down further , why restrict it to government alone? why cant private people, NGOs and other voluntary bodies come forward to do the same? How about tapping corporate funds for such causes .....etc.....

5. What ails Indian sports?


A nation of 950 million, we fail to produce great champions barring the occasional Vishwanathan Anand or Geet Sethi. Sports system steeped in bureaucracy. Overriding popularity of cricket leading to neglect in other sports.Traditionally , sports not accorded much importance by us as a career. Need to develop sports from the primary school level-"catch em young". Various incentives to be given to budding sportsmen like academic credits, sports in lieu of a few other subjects etc. Development of sports infrastructure, making it amenable and affordable...etc.....

6. The Age of Information.


Today a plethora of sources to provide information-Newspapers, radio, Television, Internet etc. Information available at the touch of a button. Greater decision making power to the individual. Also easier decision making for the individual.Information is the key to ones success today. One who is

more informed forges ahead. The flipside-information overkill. At times deciding is tough due to too much information ...etc.....

7. Is Philosophy just arm chair theory?

(This is an example of an abstract topic which is thrown up to students once in a while by the examiners)

The following points could be discussed under this topic:Talk what you know about this topic . Talk of its relevance in day to day life( or irrelevance if you feel so..). Talk of its influence in literature e.g. Influence of Kant on the romantic poets especially Wordsworth or of Bacon , Voltaire et al on the "Enlightenment"period etc. Talk of its influence in politics e.g. Influence of Nietszche on Hitler and subsequent genocide during Nazi regime etc. Talk of ethics and morals and their importance in life. talk of Indian philosophy. the Gita . Discuss whether we use any of these in our lives and their importance in moulding our values...etc...

8. Success is all about human relations


The most important skill for success in to have people on your side. One can get a lot of work done by superiority and hierarchy but one cannot be a leader of men unless one maintains excellent human relations.Its importance not only in professional life but personal life too.Knowledge and expertise does one no good if one cannot maintain proper human relations...etc.....

9. Borderless worlds-Dream or reality?


Globalization of business. Opening up of the various economies. Cross cultural exchanges. More and more people getting an opportunity to work in different lands among different peoples and absorbing a bit of their values and culture. This leads to greater tolerance and understanding of others' problems. The other side-people despite all this have nationalistic and regionalist chauvinism . A world divided into first, second and third worlds. People still talk of "their" economy and not world economy. Europe has shown a step in this direction with EU but its feasibility remains to be seen. So while people clamor for globalization, they still think only in terms of their national interests...etc...

10. Quality is a myth in India.


The Indian products and manufacturing techniques. Why are we unable to sustain against global competition. Our mindset towards quality. Indian attitude of "chalta hai" which leads to an undemanding customer which in turn lets people get away with substandard products and services. Today competition is forcing our industry to adhere to global standards so we are getting there in terms of quality. Examples of our software industry which is recognized for its ability to meet global standards etc. Since the topic is general, we can extrapolate it to our quality of life-the air , the water , the facilities we have, the infrastructure we have, the services we get and put up with etc.

GD Topic

Documents

Transcript of GD Topic