INDIA celebrated its 60th republic day in bewilderment. There was, we are told, an unprecedented security all over the country to ward off terrorist attacks. Good, but how about the poverty and deprivation. Over 40 crores people, totally illiterate, living in abject poverty and without any basic amenities like water would know very little of this aging republic or an emerging super power. Indians are more illiterate than even our poor neighbour, Bangladesh. Forty crore people have little access to safe drinking water. 70 crore or even more have not enjoyed the privilege of toilets. Another 45 crore live a pitiable life on less than Rs 50 per day.

Over 78,000 women die at the time of delivery each year. It is three times more than China. Ten lakh children born in India are dying every year even before they become 28 days old. A child born in India is 14 times more likely to die during the first 28 days than one born in the US or UK. It is an acute case of economic divide when the health infrastructure is virtually nonexistent or deciceint , we are said to be developing the state of art facilities for making india a medical tourism destination.

We have the largest number of sick children among the nations of our size. Yet we are spending more on our national security than on education or health or even water supply. Last year alone over ten lakh workers have lost their jobs due to what the government calls slow down of economy. The textile ministry has estimated that job losses in that sector alone could add up to 5, 00,000 by March 2009. The government lost in political games has little assessment of ground realities. There is virtually no mechanism to ascertain or verify employment creation or shrinkage trends on a monthly basis. Demand slowdown in developed countries has already hit jobs or working conditions across several export-related, employment-intensive sectors like gems and jewellery, leather, carpets, handlooms and marine products. Though the first two fiscal stimulus packages announced by the Centre in the last two months have sought to allay the lot of exporters and ease up credit to industry, there have been no direct steps taken to stop job losses or adverse changes in working conditions, like longer working hours and lower salaries.

Facts do tell a horrid tale if we care to confront the Indian reality in circa 2009. Poverty in India is still rampant despite an economic growth. India is home to roughly one-third of all poor people in the world. It also has a higher proportion of its population living on less than $2 per day than even sub-Saharan Africa. That is the sobering news coming out of the World Bank’s latest estimates on global poverty. The estimates also show that the rate of decline of poverty in India was faster between 1981 and 1990 than between 1990 and 2005. This clearly shows that economic reforms, which started in 1991, have failed to reduce poverty at a faster rate. Our policy makers discuss poverty and malnutrition over dinners at the five star hotels and plan hunger elimination strategies at the high heeled seminars.

India’s development strategy since 1991 has deprived its agricutlre sector of public funds. Result is that nealry two lakh debt ridden famers have been forced to end their lives. 60 per cent people still dpend upon the farm sector for their survival. Yet it is industry and trade etc that claim major inverstments. It is true that there has been poverty reduction if we look at the levels of early 1950s. we have a very large ever increasing middle class too. But this strategy has also created a class of neo rich who mostly live by corrupt means.

Take the case of Satyam alone. Bank statements show that Satyam had funds of over Rs 5,000 crore as of September 2008, but by January 2009 when company founder Ramalinga Raju admitted to fudging accounts this information technology giant with 50,000 employees in 60 countries could have been left with just Rs 200 crore of measurable fixed deposits. Raju has been pocketing Rs 20 crore each month as salaries of non existing 13,000 high paid staff .

The scam-tainted firm had short-term or long-term fixed deposits of over Rs 3,300 crore, and another Rs 300 crore of accrued interest, in addition to current account deposits of over Rs 1,800 crore, as per the last auditing done by Price Water House for the quarter ending September 2008. The company is believed not to have made any term deposit after mid-February 2007, though it did make a few short-term or margin money deposits, amounting to about Rs 10 crore till September 2008.

In his statement on January 7, Raju had said that he was disclosing the manipulation of accounts after failing in his last-ditch effort to salvage Satyam through acquisition of the two Maytas firms on December 16. However, the bank statements reveal that more than 90 per cent of the total deposits had matured by January 7. Price WaterHouse, whose two top officials are under arrest in Andhra Pradesh, is understood to have prepared its defense on the basis of these documents, besides foreign exchange earnings and receivables of Satyam, as per the export clearance documents of Software Technology Parks of India. According to the available information pertaining to deposits of the company, Satyam had total long-term deposits of over Rs 3,300 crore for maturity during the October- February period, while its short-term deposits to mature till October 2011 were about Rs 10 crore. According to the statements, deposits were largely held with HDFC Bank, HSBC, ICICI Bank, BNP Paribas and Citibank, while the current accounts were mostly with Bank of Baroda.

Satyam was allowed to divert funds with the connivance of helpful politicians to buy land, real estate property and push money to banks outside the country. It runs into thousands of crores. It went on for years. Those government agencies that are supposed to keep a check looked at the other way. SEBI which is supposed to control and supervise stock markets and central government departments like income tax and revenue intelligence were either conniving or sleeping over the matter. The American accounting firm the Price WaterHouse which earns crores of rupees each year from India was only helping the company’s corrupt deals. Several governments including Punjab and Haryana pay crores of rupees to this firm for auditing accounts. But no one will be punished for this big fraud. Only somebody somewhere shall make some money. Corrupt will prosper. The matter would end there. A small thief can be beaten to death in police custody, but no one will touch these big thugs.

BACK