5 Small Steps To Take To Strengthen Indian Rupee

We have been hearing about the weakening of the rupee in last few days, Irrespective of whether it is a Local Indian fretting about increase in the fuel, interest and food prices because of it, or a happy NRI thinking of making more money by exchange rates, or the great Indian Media happy that they have something to make long news about it, It has been in the news nevertheless.

So It got me thinking as well, and devoured a lot of articles about it thus,If you are keen on why it is falling there is one such interestig explanation here. Athough a person from  non-economic background there were some ground truths that hit me, when there is nothing I can do about the falling rupee at the national level it struck me that If do my part and if every Indian does then yeah we could do a great deal about it. There are a lot of small changes that we can easily make in our day to day life which would have huge impact on our nation and us in turn..Also these are the changes that would do a lot good for our health and ecology as well.

I thought Let me make a list of changes that would be great.

1.  One of the most common and big impact is petrol and diesel, As the petrol and diesel  are traded in $'s and depreciating rupee means you pay more for it, and given that diesel is partially deregulated there is government money going when you drive your luxury diesel car which inturn affect the rupee. Also the increase in transportation would inturn push the inflation high. Thus a small step to take either public commute or common transportation to office and schools, or use bicycle to work would actually save the rupee.

2. In India we take great pride in telling that we are using imported products, Every other conversation you hear, be your neighbor who takes pride in saying that she bought an imported apple or used imported kale and parsley for her soup  or your co-worker filling him/herself with so-called sugar filled fresh juices we unknowingly increase the import and thus indirectly cause in rupee fall. Instead using local seasonal vegetables and fruits close to the home while reducing packaged foods would not only help the rupee but also your health, and ease environmental pollution by reducing the carbon footprint by reducing the distance your food travels.

3.India which is known for its variety of culinary dishes with tons of local beverages and foods, It is sad state of affairs to see kids addicted to Coke, Pepsi and burgers, This addiction when increases the obesity of people having it, depletes health of consumers and sadly rupee strength as well.This sugar drink with profit margin is more than 100% is indeed a costly addiction, Going to home made dishes and local drinks like lemonade and lassi's is something which all of us can imbibe.

4. Fashion market has grown very big in India with loads of shopping malls mushrooming in every corner of the city, All the internationally branded clothes and fashion we buy impacts our import and hence the rupee, When the international market craves for Indian made clothes we ourselves look at it with contempt, so next time give desi-brands a try and I'm sure you will not regret.

5. One of the most innocent looking industry is that of beauty products, every channel that you browse, every actress tries to sell some or the other beauty product be it for hair care or face care.

All the fairness cream ad's that come create a false need, We Indians who were once proud of our golden brown to wheatish skin tone are now craving fair skin thanks to those ad's, because they have created a  need that  to be confident and likable you need to be fair and sadly we fall prey to it. Most of those brands have SLES, parabens etc which are considered a bane for skin health, more about that in another blog, Instead we could use local organic  brands which have low margins and thus not widely advertised.Also I plan to talk about organic stuff and DIY's in another blog in here in coming months.

These are very simple steps which you and me can take to save rupee instead of cribbing about it.Do share it. I would add more points if I can think of and I would be glad to take comments on this.

What is stopping Brand india ?Education system ,mindset or election?

A concern about brand India struck me when i was reading an article shared by a friend of mine on google reader , It was about how a 20 year old in UK designed a compact fold able All Europe adapter which could fit into any kind of electric plug , but i was wondering what is so great about it ? I remember having bought such a connector almost a year back in a local shop SP road (Bangalore) which can adapt to Indian/uk/us electrical plugging system and yes it is compact and fold able.

That made me wonder if we are lacking in innovation/creating new things or its just missing out in marketing our strength ?

But it struck me more when i had recently been to a nearby shop(which is a rare sight :)) with my niece and I had to yield to her whims to buy her a chocolate to save myself from creating a scene , when i asked the shop keeper for a diary milk he gave me some fancily covered chocolate, when i insisted that it was diary milk i wanted he started telling me that "madam it is china chocolate imported and see how fancy it is and there is a free sticker along"and he started cajoling my niece to which she yielded as i expected.It is not a new scene to see that most of the cheap gadgets/toys reaching masses have a 'made in china' , So where are Indian markets heading??

Then in sp road again where i wanted to buy something to upgrade my pc , there was a young boy of 8-10 years old who was busy sticking some label on adapters when i asked him what was it he grinned sheepishly as if he was caught redhanded doing something wrong ;He told akka dont tell anyone , see we get people from all small electrical shops around to buy adapters,lights etc and they all ask for china made one's but we get all these adapters lights etc from a small scale industry in peenya(Its in bangalore), so im sticking made in china sticker on it.

I was seriously taken by shock. what the hell is happening here are we hesitant to use our own brands?

Right since vedic period india has contributed greatly to the world be it shushruta in the field of medicine , aryabhata in physics ,bramhagupta in mathematics . How can we forget that it was we who gave 0 to world , I want to call it shunya as that is what explains its greatness , Not to forget arabic numerals is also a tweaked version of our number system.The whole world still follows mahabharata and arthashastra for politics and economics.but with all this heritage why have landed up in a situation where we are hesitant of our brand , Is it because of the british who ruled for 200 years a seeded slavery into our blood stream?

Today even history is tweaked to suit political parties and our heritage is sidelined and lost in the name of secularism , It is this attitude that has made us invertebrates without even having power to raise our voice.

I wonder why secularism should prevent us from acknowledging our heritage and inculcating good things in hinduism ? Vedic mathematics is one of the best way of calculating.Why should we learn from westerners that sanskrit is the most optimized language and the concepts of object oriented programming is derived from its grammar.I have already listed all great books written 1000 years back.

Now coming to made in china, I am not against made in china as i completely understand that globalization is the key in current market and low price and quality are the key but what troubles me is In spite of having diverse crops why do we export only raw material and not finished products? Why is that indian cotton goes to china , uk and comes back to india as peter england , van heusen or whatever and we pay heavy price for it ? Why is it that we grow more to export than to satisfy our own needs first ? Why is it that there are great artists who make great stone artifacts ,paintings , brass items etc in rural india still below poverty line ? Inspite of all the reservations they still find it hard to get a single meal a day ? Why the hell do so many farmers commit suicide when the the food grain and vegetables reaching consumers is sky rocketing ? Why Do we need so many middle men?

Even when India boasts of so many international quality MBA colleges we as India cannot create "brand India" , why do all the educated mass be it so called world class engineers or MBA's run for an MNC job and not be entrepreneurs or take up government job?

But when all the mass are blaming us for not taking up social cause has anyone questioned how fair our politics is? It is the elections whose foundation is based on corruption that has led us to this state . When there are certain decision makers who fall prey for peanuts and sell our country and its brand elsewhere.Right from tadpole legs to turtles to elephant tusks to sandalwood we have been ruining ourselves and not if you shed crocodile tears is it any worth i wonder if in future people will know what alligator is as we have exploited even that.

And all of us know the plight of an honest civil servant who try to serve the cause either they are maimed psychologically for life or may their soul rest in peace.

Now coming to software industry everyone asks the very same question why in india there was no facebook or google revolution created , but before asking this question haven't we thought that it is mainly Indians who constitute a considerable chunk in this industry? but then why not start it , if that is the next question then why don't we have a vocational education which allows individuals to try and do what one is natural at? why does out education system leads us like a shepherd who streamline scape goats ? And when it comes to establishing one;s own firm does our education system provide even basic insights about it and how much support do we get in funding it or can anyone keep a tab of levels of corruption one should go through to get it set up.

That makes an average educated urban Indian careless of what is happening in the country and a rural Indian least bothered about surrounding as he/she has lost hope of a better future.

Isn't it time for us to wake up ? Isn't it time to revisit our education system and inculcate best practices and not deny younger generations of our heritage in the name secularism? Isn't it time to shed our shells and look at what we are and what can be done before it is too late ? and think of creating self sufficiency and creating brand India :-) acclaimed world wide and get back to the level of past glory currently than reading it in history books? Its better to light a single candle than struggle in darkness.