Inflated Inflation!!

The news is all out. It always comes in the first page, with the finance minister as a cartoon, tearing his hair away. Why is it such an ambivalent issue, that everyone seems to be behind it. What is inflation exactly? Put in simple words it is just, the amount of supply of goods available today is running short of the demands of the same.


The growth has gone into such an orbit that, the demand for more and more resources in all the sectors have also plunged into a new high. But the resource's production of goods, is just not meeting that demand. For example consider the Construction industry. The most essential goods required for this industry is the steel, bricks, cement, gravel, sand, etc... What if some of these goods are not available in enough quantities. The construction industry will suffer. The growth is affected.

Due to less availability of resources, the demand in the market will increase. The cost of such resources will also increase. The more the cost of such goods increase, will again hinder the growth of the construction industry. Lets consider the basic everyday factor like say food. The demand of food requirement today is not reaching the food production. When Mr. Bush said the "Middle class of India and China have grown beyond bounds are eating a lot; which has led to global food scarcity.", the whole of Middle class were behind his comment. They started getting figures of how much Americans eat.

Just to understand, Americans have their demand and supply under control, which our growing economy has to get an hang on. The double figure inflation rate is just staring at them, which will itch the economy for a long time, unless the finance minister and the reserve bank of India pull a bunny out of the hat.

What can they do? The resources are limited, hence increasing them will take a long time for it to meet the demand of the countries ever growing hunger. Another method is to curb the growth, have a lower growth target and potential, which will lower the growth rate. Hence an balance between the inflation and growth rate is a juggle that keeps the finance minister on his feet.

This will involve, RBI increasing the interest rates. Which inturn will affect borrowing of money by loans, as the rate of repayment would be very high. This will affect the growth, which will bring demands down. This will keep the growth rate in check and also bring the inflation rate to an comfortable and stable level. There are many other such measures that have to be done, to lower the demand in the market. It sure will be decelerating the growth of the market, but has to be done to curb the inflated inflation.

Dhirubhaism!!

Vision, people say is not what all can see. Swami Vivekananda once said, "Even if I would loose my eyes, I would not have lost my vision." What is this vision, which makes people so great! Listening to their heart all the time, overcoming many obstacles, and winning at last. A vision that makes people constantly run behind it to acheive it. A vision that makes them think beyond everything that a normal man can perceive.

Dhirubhaism, is a book written by A G Krishnamurty, gives us glimpses of one of the visionary of 20th century, Dhirubhai Ambani. Born in a remote village in Gujarat, how can a normal guy like him with very less knowledge, leap to such an heights.

The book explains the qualities of the man. The way he man-handled all his situation and people. He was a genius in persuading people, in getting his things done. His aim was to acheive his goals. He would adopt all the possible way he can to reach his goal. A buring desire for success. A ruthless ambition, coupled with intuited vision. A great combination of dream and hardwork.

3 things that impressed me was, "The arm around the shoulder"- This part explains how down to the earth Dhirubhai was. He would put his arm around any guy and explain him what he needs. This kind of a gesture makes the subordinates under him at complete ease. This made Dhirubhai break the ice, talk freely and most of all nip any kind of dissatisfaction or anger in the bud.

The second thing I liked was the fact that, Dhirubhai, was optimistic to the core. Never did he think he will not win. Even at the face of defeat, he would be optimistic and find a way out. At several patches of his life, he has faced number of hard ships. Phases where he has had losses. But he never went down, always came back. That is a the tenacity of the man, who always wants to win come what may.

The third thing that struck me was the his "magic of thinking big". He had a great vision and always thought very big. All his project would be so gigantic and enormous in size that his competitors would not dare to put a foot into it. They would rather play safe. When he used to work in Aden for a pertoleum firm, his dream was to own one such firm. Every person at that time would have laughed at him. But he never gave up. Reliance petrochemicals, was the dream come true.

The author at certain locations could have avoided reputations. The fact that his advertising company Mudra, started from stratch, in just nine years became among the top three in India, has been repeated multi number of times. He could have added more stories of Dhirubhai itself, that would have made the reader more curious.

Nevertheless, a good book, just 96 pages, could be read in an hour or two. It has been 2 days that I have read this book; but vision of the great man still strikes me. To add to all in a recent interview, Sunil Mittal, CEO Airtel-Bharti, said openly that, "we cannot match the plans of Reliance". He said "Reliance plans are so mind bogglingly huge, that Bharati cannot match it". That is how huge Dhirubhai and his vision stand.