Government allocates 1000 crores to BSNL and MTNL to clear February wages

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March 13, 2019

PSUs BSNL and MTNL have suffered tremendous loss due to low – tariff and unavailability of 4G spectrum. The loss is so huge that they are not able to pay-off the wages. Government came to the rescue and allocated Rs. 1000 crores to clear their wage bill.

A senior official of the Department of Telecom (DoT) said BSNL will clear about Rs 850 crore dues of its employees before Holi (March 21). MTNL was given Rs 171 crore on Monday and instructed to pay salaries by Wednesday.

Due to stiff competition in a low-tariff market and crippled by lack of services due to no 4G spectrum, a huge work force of 1.76 lakh and without Delhi and Mumbai as operational bases, BSNL’s profitability has suffered heavily in recent years. It’s losses widened to Rs 7,992 crore in 2017-18.

According to financial data shared by the Telecom Minister in the Lok Sabha, the company posted a loss of Rs 4,793 crore in 2016-17.

MTNL too has been on the decline. Its Q3FY19 losses widened to Rs 833 crore. The government has been footing the bill for monthly salaries of its 23,000 employees since November 2018.

While BSNL’s annual wage bill is Rs 15,000 crore, which is 85 per cent of its revenue, MTNL’s yearly wage bill is Rs 2,500 crore, 95 per cent of its revenue. In contrast, the salary bills of private operators are less than 10 per cent of their revenues.

It’s quite depressing that these already established PSUs have to rely on government. Not able to generate any profit is a failure for any company. Not only BSNL and MTNL but also many PSUs suffer from the same fate. They are walking on the crutches of government. These PSU should introspect and find why they are incompetent despite hiring the best talent pool through national level exams.

Finance Ministry questioned HRD Ministry over Institute of Eminence tag to non-existent Institutes

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Sugat Srivastava

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August 29, 2018

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Yet to be set-up Jio Institute got the tag of Institute of Eminence and world-class institutes like IIT Madras didn’t even make the cut. HRD Ministry’s list of IoEs raised a lot of eyebrows around the globe. Through an RTI, it was revealed that Finance Ministry questioned the intent of HRD Ministry for giving IoE status to greenfield Institutes. After the failure of PMRF and IIT Council rejecting Ministry’s proposal to scrap JEE Advance, The revelation is another set-back for the government’s plan for improving Higher Education

Finance Ministry interrogated HRD Ministry over selection of ‘greenfield’ institutes instead of already established ‘brownfield’ institutes much before the list was published. In a report published in Indian Express,

Reacting to the greenfield category mentioned in the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) note moved by the HRD Ministry early last year, the Department of Expenditure (DoE) wrote back on February 23, 2017: “…for the private institutions which are yet to be established, granting of the status of Institutions of Eminence based on future plans is beyond rationale and is not supported. The laid down criteria in this regard is highly subjective.”
The DoE’s five-page note is clear: “This methodology will give an edge to an institution which is not even established yet by improving its brand value and positioning it above the already established government and private institutions. This will be demotivational and therefore, detrimental to higher education ecosystem. Grading an institution as ‘Institutions of Eminence’ only based on intentions and a plan defies all logic. Hence the same should be revised.”

RTI documents also revealed that the HRD Ministry is free to choose another six non-existent private institutes as IoEs. “It is expected that of the 20 institutions, around one third (seven) may be greenfield and the balance 13 shall be brownfield with average student strength of 9,000,” states HRD Ministry’s EFC note on IoEs.

The first list of IoEs contained 3 public and 3 private institutes. Reliance Foundation’s proposed Jio Institute was the only Institute chosen under greenfield category. IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi, IISc-Bangalore, Birla Institute of Science and Technology and Manipal Academy of Higher Education were the others selected for the eminence status.

It is not like only Jio Institute applied for the eminence tag. Apart from it, there were 10 other applicants under the greenfield category. They were: Vedanta’s proposed university in Odisha, Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad, Satya Bharti Foundation, Indian Institute of Human Settlement in Bengaluru, Indian Institute of Public Health in Gandhinagar, Maharashtra Institute of Technology in Pune, KREA University in Chennai, DICE Knowledge Foundation, Acharya Institutes in Bengaluru and Indus Tech University in Delhi.

Now the reluctance of HRD Ministry to listen to Finance Ministry raised some more questions over its functioning. Why do the government keep such large number of slots for greenfield institutes? Don’t they trust the already established private institutes which stood the test of time? Don’t they trust the institutes which were earlier approved by UGC and/or AICTE? Doesn’t this verify the allegations on the government to be Adani-Ambani beneficiary organization?

Santosh Vashistha: Predicting your financial future through astrology

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Sugat Srivastava

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January 24, 2018

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Santosh Vashistha hails from a little-known town in southeastern Nepal called Jhapa. Vashistha has gained international recognition for his ability to read the stars. In 2017, he was named the best astrologer in Asia by the Asian Astrologer Congress and the World Astrology Federation. His readings focus more on substantive geopolitical predictions and personal fortunes than hokey horoscope drivel. His regular clients include Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala, Nepal’s Finance Minister and various American celebrities.

Vashistha incorporates unrivaled astrology knowledge gained in formal academic training and experience with thousands of clients. He got his master’s in astrology at Banaras Hindu University, and a Ph.D. in raja yoga. Raja yoga is a part of Hindu astrology focused on planetary situations that indicate wealth and power.

Financial Astrology in the world

Although it might sound peculiar but the practice has ancient roots. W.D. Gann, a financial astrologer born in Texas in 1875, became a legendary trader. Even J.P. Morgan and Charles Schwab consulted astrologers, notably Evangeline Adams, throughout the early 20th century. “Millionaires don’t need astrology—billionaires do,” Morgan supposedly quipped.

In May 2008, when crude oil had broken through $100 a barrel, Raymond Merriman, a world-renowned astrologer, astrologically predicted that it would top out at $144 (give or take $8) before dropping within two years. Then he said it would decline, somewhere between 77 percent and 93 percent. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., by contrast, thought crude could hit $200 a barrel. A traditional energy economist at Deutsche Bank AG were stupefied by the confusing market dynamics. Crude did hit $147.27 on July 11, 2008 and slid to $32.48 five months later.

Grace K. Morris, a professional astrologer and president of Astro Economics Inc., similarly boasted that during the Great Recession. She accurately predicted that the market would bottom out on March 9, 2009. Traditional economists such as Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini, meanwhile, struggled to pinpoint a specific date when the market would turn.

Vashistha’s technique

Vashistha’s technique is simple. He requires place, date and time of birth. After that, he sees what was happening in the skies at that moment. Then he maps the planetary configurations on paper, forming a grid-like schema that represented various areas of my destiny: health, wealth, love, and longevity.

Conclusion

The procedure seems simple as all the astrologers use the same. The only thing that makes him the best is the analysis of the stars and then integrating with his financial knowledge and past experience. He knows that everything in financial world is periodical in nature. It requires a deep understanding of the trends in stock market, crude prices, currencies, precious metal market and their dependency on the country’s economy. The stars can only tell their position but to read them and draw conclusion requires a lifetime of knowledge and skills.

Tag: Finance