By Raman Jokhakar,Co-chairman, Journal Committee
Welcome 2017! Wishing you a very happy new year from the
BCAJ! As Indians, we have the privilege to wish Happy New Year many times
throughout a 365 days period! Each new year is an opportunity to wish well to
people around us, to send blessings to so many we don’t even know, take time to
reflect on the days that went by, refresh our hopes and aspirations and renew
our resolve to realize our dreams. While we prefer to look at the past, as
‘what we know’ is embedded only in the past, we cannot benefit from that
completely until we look into the future. In the words of Micheal Chibenko “One
problem with gazing too frequently into the past is that we may turn around to
find the future has run out on us.” So
best we combine reflecting on the past and look into how we want our future to
be!
Surge since Surgical Strike
The hangover of demonetization lingers on beyond 2016! This
is perhaps one of the longest lasting HOT TOPIC that has caught fascination of
one and all and doesn’t seem like it will die out anytime soon. The so called
surgical strike has caused a SURGE in so many things. In lighter vain, since 9th
November 2016, there has been a spike in lay people talking confidently like
economists on every aspect of demonetization. On a more serious note, I have never
seen such all encompassing SURGE in every facet of citizens’ lives, from
social, economic, political to psychological, covering everyone and everything.
Be it surge in queues, in cash flow of banks, in worries of the black money
hoarders, in the risks of downturn for several businesses, to a surge in blood
pressure of tax evaders and hoarders of illicit cash. There was a surge in
issuance and flip flops of government clarifications, in forwards and debates
on media and chat applications, in digital transactions, in uncertainty for
politicians who anticipated to use those notes to buy votes, in coffers of
local bodies and utility companies and so many areas that no one can list out.
Shall we call this move a bold ‘disruption’ in the sphere of ‘illicit’ economy?
While the ‘demons’ got demonetized of their ill-gotten money,
the ‘commons’ had to go through pains of this sweeping change. The problem of
tainted money was so widespread that people began to believe it to be
legitimate. Sometimes pervasiveness becomes a cause for people to
wrongly believe it to be legitimate? This was a wakeup call, an alarm
and a siren to push people to make a change at a fundamental level. Let
2017 bring before us a strong and decisive follow through to ‘disrupt’ the
business of the corruption in India.
Gazing into 2017
As I write we have the news of BHIM1 being unveiled. If I had one wish for the
year I would love to see ‘disruption’ through innovation in the sphere of
governance and law making. There are a thousand problems, but there can be
million solutions to deal with them. All we need is to find SIMPLE, FUNDAMENTAL
and DIRECT ways to deal with them. With power of technology and innovation, we
are no lesser gods, to turn around a massive problem on to our side.
The last three bastions that are embedded in the old mind set
and remain considerably untouched by innovation are organised religions,
politics and legal frameworks. As a professional in practice, I would expect
innovation at least in the Union Budget 2017 as this will be the last one to
make significant changes before the one that will precede the election year. In
the current context, one dream, and perhaps a bit far out, is to see changes in
Sections 13A and 13B.
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1 An App that will allow Digital transfers from
mobile handset other than smart phones
When churning takes place, it throws up both desirable and
undesirable. While we see billion commons queue up to get few thousands in new
currency, we also saw many others with new currency worth crores (equivalent to
lacs of people queuing up for months). It only showed how an ‘inside job’ was
still at it. If the government is
serious, bold and willing to go to the end of the road of weeding out corruption,
a good start can be right in the backyard of its own class. A measure to ban
and regulate cash donations to political parties beyond a certain percentage of
total receipts, investigate cash ‘donations’, and prescribe stringent record
keeping, usage and audit is the need of the hour. A good beginning could be to
appoint a high powered committee with past or present CEC, SC judge/s, CAG
amongst others to suggest ‘surgical’ reform in this area with time bound
implementation. Here is a big ‘break
point’2 , for the good in the government to ‘walk the talk’ on
corruption by starting from where it needs to start – from those who seek and
wield political power.
Let’s leave that topic aside for a while and look at many
other changes our world is seeing! A big change at a high level is that a
fossil fuel company has lost its top spot which is now taken over by a
technology giant. The top three most valuable companies are tech giants, and
that does tell us where things are headed. The solar power advocates are reaching
new heights and will lead to a new wave at how we look at energy. This could
also result in disruption of oil based middle-east geopolitics. . Electorates
in the west – particularly the US and UK have shown unpredictable and volatile
mood, and Germany and France will tell us what is next in store for EU. We can
look forward to fireworks from the Trump term starting this month. Media power,
fake news and propaganda are areas to watch out for. We will be challenged to
distinguish between misinformation and information; and differentiate and
depend on facts over pouring propaganda. We can look forward to more and more
of Artificial Intelligence (AI) surrounding and hounding us. A White House
report3 predicts massive job
losses in the US, between 9 – 47 percentages, which seems unprecedented and
unstoppable and will impact India too. Imagine all back office and routine
tasks taken over by AI! Winner-take-most will continue to dominate and
therefore competition might shrink more in many important areas, and result in
more wealth inequality.
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2 In tennis lingo
3 Artificial
Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy,
December 2016
In the end – Don’t postpone Joy!
Clouding human mind has never been such an important
business. Directing large numbers of people has never been so critical for
control – of their beliefs, habits, preferences and choices. With nearly 3
billion connected to internet the ‘market opportunity’ is humongous for every
selfish goal to find takers. Today we are surrounded, rather ambushed through
‘media’ that is incessantly seeking us.
In this maze, I wish to leave you with a short anecdote
attributed to John Lennon, “When I was five years old my mother always told
me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me
what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t
understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” I
guess that is why we wish a Happy New Year! For all we need is TO BE HAPPY! May
you find that all through 2017!
