https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS 12 ISSUES AND INSIGHTS MUMBAI | MONDAY, 3 JULY 2017 1 >

ance”. Nike succeeded because it man- not pass the muster of sugar/health or aged to hit on a new emerging cultural organic/natural, but it hit on the cultur- > CHINESE WHISPERS Cultural infusion in brands phenomenon in the US, of people run- al truth of authentic, almost forgotten ning to stay fit. Anyone and everyone old taste. In a sense even Fab India has After rational, emotional and social factors, experts have now decoded yet could do it. Nike’s heroes were not sports infused its brand with a strong cultural another magic ingredient that has been helping brands stay ahead celebrities (though they were featured in truth; authentic, natural, home-grown Who coined good & simple tax? the ads), but the everyday Joe who had fabrics and also great social values of pay- In his address at the Central Hall of bought it for purely emotional reasons, of time. So a detergent brand not only re- taken up running. Or take the brand ing a fair price to their vendors. Parliament on Friday to mark the launch of they will never be satisfied.” moved dirt, thereby giving the mother Patagonia. This very successful brand of This is just an indicative list. I am sure the goods and services tax (GST), Prime So rational reasons help the consumer the confidence to let her kids play in the outdoor wear hit on the cultural truth of there are many more brands in the Indian Minister Narendra Modi delivered a catchy stay satisfied with the purchase. But real dirt (because dirt is good), but also used love for the environment. So the brand market that are able to score a win over phrase to describe the indirect taxes happiness with the purchase comes from a lot less water. A food brand speaks of promises to recycle, commit resources deep pocketed competition, by hitting reform initiative. He described GST as the the emotional infusion into the brand. using organically sourced raw materi- for environmental development. Or take on a cultural truth and infusing itself good and simple tax. A few minutes later So a soap is not just a cleaning agent, but als. A notebook brand speaks of being Body Shop, which is now being sold off by with that truth. the audio-visual presentation made at the is also the beauty secret (of film stars). A green-conscious through its plantations L’Oreal, that pleaded to a “no animal test- Is there a way to unearth such cultur- roll-out function also described GST as the toothpaste not only cleans your teeth, (we will plant a tree for every book you ing” commitment. They hit on the cul- al truths? Or is it just a hit and miss? good and simple tax. Who coined this but gives you a unique “ring of confi- buy). And so on. tural truth of a caring woman who did not For a start you could start brushing up catchy phrase for GST? It turns out that dence”, a life free of bad breath problems. As if these three raison d’être is not want to hurt animals in the process of on some basic readings on cultural well-known tax expert Satya Poddar used AMBI M G PARAMESWARAN A detergent not only washes away stains, enough, now experts have decoded yet getting a better eyeliner. branding and anthropology research. this phrase to reiterate what GST must but helps your child feel confident in another magic ingredient that has been If you look closer home, Royal Enfield Then spend more time in the market, stand for. And he did so in one of his here was a time when branding school and win the merit badge. helping some brands stay ahead of the has managed to mine the cultural truth with consumers. Invest in trying to und- articles published in Business Standard. was a relatively simple affair. You Life was humming along and a few curve. They have looked beyond the usu- behind an older bike lover, who is no erstand how socio-cultural trends are The headline of Poddar’s article published Thad to ensure that your brand had years ago companies started mouthing al rational and emotional reasons for longer a speed fiend. He likes it a little being captured in mainstream popular on May 18, 2015, said : “GST should be a a strong rational reason for consumers the need for brands for espousing social their success and have unearthed yet slower and hence culturally a little dif- culture and fringe popular culture. good and simple tax.” to buy it and you need to ensure that you causes as well. So we now have a three- another dimension. ferent from a typical mobile user, and we Finally you need to take that leap of faith. stuff it with enough emotional reasons legged stool. Rational. Emotional. Social. In his book Cultural Strategy, Douglas may say a little more rooted. Or take Classical consumer research may not be as well. As Jonathan Harries, then Companies started identifying social Holt speaks of brands that managed to Manyawar which mined into the cultur- able to green-light a cultural infusion Some relief after GST worldwide creative director at Foote causes that specific brands will embrace. get ahead of the competition by latching al truth behind big weddings and the idea. You may need to explore new met- Cone Belding, put it, “You need brands I am not speaking of inane five-minute on to an emerging important cultural concept of “YaarkiShaadi”. No amount hodologies to get your reconfirmation. to be both emotional and rationally videos on YouTube that celebrate the truth. Nike did not succeed, according of rational, emotional, social mining But I assure you it will be a fun ride. anchored. Because if the consumer fashion of the month social cause. I am to Prof Holt, because of empty superstar would have unearthed that cultural truth. bought if for purely rational reasons referring to key social causes that brands celebrity endorsements or their com- Or take Paper Boat which mined into the The writer is an independent brand strategist, they will never be happy. And if they embrace at their core and over a period mitment to “Authentic Athletic Perform- cultural truth of “childhood tastes”. It did author and founder, Brand-Building.com The fast-growing analytics opportunity Analytics will remain the differentiator for winning firms in an increasingly competitive hiring and customer environment

prescriptive models that will enable The global environment is dominated them to garner higher market and by four key solution vendors — SAP, SAS,

opportunity share. Banking, financial IBM and Oracle — with others like ILLUSTRATION: BINAY SINHA services and manufacturing are likely Microsoft, Qlik, Tableau, Teradata, to lead the adoption and with increas- MicroStrategy and Informatica also ing focus on digital transformation in becoming partners of choice to many Mumbaikars are heaving a sigh of relief every sector, changes in the way organ- corporations with their solution stacks. after octroi at the entry points to the city isations interact with all stakeholders The service provider space predictably was abolished under the goods and and everything — data, applications has most of the large incumbents — services tax (GST) regime and the five check and infrastructure — moving to the IBM, Accenture, the Indian top six IT nakas are being dismantled. According to cloud, the imperative and opportunities firms and business process specialists estimates, for every rupee earned by the GANESH NATARAJAN for gathering quantitative and qualita- like Genpact, WNS and EXL. Some very Mumbai municipal corporation, another tive data from multiple sources will interesting niche vendors like LA-based rupee was paid as bribe. Mumbaikars are e are justifiably proud of our only multiply every year. Systech Inc. and Bengaluru-based Bridge hoping the state government would IT and business process serv- Indian firms, too, like their counter- i2i Ltd. are holding their own, largely remove even the toll collection points at the Wices industry, which has grown parts in the West, have taken to the ana- because of the deep insights they have entry to the city that delay free movement from humble beginnings to a 150 bil- lytics imperative in recent months and developed in key customer domains of goods — for hours at times — thus lion-dollar global powerhouse in a few it’s good to see analytics centres of excel- globally and the collaborative approach increasing the cost burden on traders. decades. Today, there may be signs of lence springing up in key corporates aro- they bring to customers. The service Traders suggest the government levy the the growth slowing down to single dig- und the country. Not surprisingly, the provider landscape extends from pure same tax at fuel pumps. its but there are some segments that will primary focus of many new centres is play vendors to small start-ups, KPO continue to present enormous oppor- on customer behaviour with the design helping to optimise inventories and correlations to multi-variable modelling players and IT vendors, and most of the tunities — the evolving world of analyt- of marketing analytics solutions that tar- demand and supply chain management and analysis, and artificial intelligence global in-house centres of large corpo- ics is clearly one of the most exciting. get marketing spends optimisation, pro- across countrywide and multi-country and machine learning enabling predic- rations in India have built deep analytics A party gathering The big data and analytics market motion campaign effectiveness and networks, do route optimisation, ship- tions and prescriptions to become sharp- capabilities to support global teams. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is planning globally, including software, services dynamic campaign management. Apart ment scheduling and over- er and deeper, the early All these developments also open up to celebrate its foundation day on July 5 and hardware, is expected to be at the from improving the return on invest- all logistics management and Most of the global adopters are exulting in the enormous manpower opportunities in with great fanfare. Its MLAs and MLCs will same level as our total industry, over ment on marketing spend, analytics cen- publish transportation ana- in-house centres of increasing maturity that the analytics space and for industry wat- gather at the party office in the morning USD 150 billion by the end of 2017 and tres are also helping marketers manage lytics. HR analytics is also large corporations they are able to get in their chers who are in panic at the decline of and then move to founder Lalu Prasad’s will record substantial growth, to touch the entire customer life cycle — acquisi- catching on in a big way and in India have built analytics centres. Analytics traditional high employment areas like residence in the afternoon. The afternoon USD 210 billion by 2020. More than 50 tion to retention and predicting custo- substantially improving offer deep analytics is and will continue to be the applications and infrastructure man- meeting has been called to discuss per cent of all big data and business mer response to new campaigns by to joining ratios as well as capabilities to true differentiator for win- agement and package implementation Prasad’s August 27 rally — the “BJP analytics revenues will come from the response modelling and ongoing cus- retention and engagement of support global ning firms in an increasing- services, it will be heartening to note Bhagao Desh Bachao” rally for which all US market followed predictably by tomer satisfaction and churn analysis. employees in large corpora- teams ly competitive hiring and that the inexorable drive towards digital leaders of the Opposition parties have Western Europe. The two regions with Risk analytics products are also helping tions with widely spread out customer environment. transformation everywhere and the been invited — and the political scenario the fastest growth in the next five years firms to profile customers based on cred- workforce. Analytics helps in providing With social listening, text mining and growing interest in analytics will create in the state over support to the two are expected to be Latin America and it risk analysis, model the collection and touch points at every stage in the employ- sentiment analysis capabilities provid- a swathe of new opportunities for career presidential candidates and the Asia Pacific excluding Japan, both recovery risks and enable fraud detec- ee attraction, hiring and retention jour- ing deeper insights into customer and seekers and those who would like to just-introduced GST. Prasad has growing at over 14 per cent. tion and monitoring. Companies en- ney, design compensation plans that are employee behaviour, web and social reskill themselves to take on the new personally invited Congress President Corporations everywhere are look- gaged in extensive analytics usage are in line with current market realities and media analytics is truly providing a cut- opportunities in this field. There has Sonia Gandhi and West Bengal Chief ing at analytics as the next big oppor- already showing better bad debt man- provide the spur for new solutions for ting edge to customer relationship man- never been so good a time to be a learn- Minister Mamata Banerjee. Chief tunity to differentiate themselves, agement through the continuous gen- performance measurement, just-in-time agement and human capital manage- er in this country than now. Minister and Janata Dal (United) founder undertake deep descriptive analysis of eration of collection and recovery score- skilling and employee engagement to ment solutions. Nitish Kumar has said he will attend the customer journeys and buying behav- cards and prediction of default patterns. maximise productivity and performance. How does one find the right solution The writers is chairman of 5F World rally if he gets an invite. iour and move towards predictive and On the supply chain side, analytics is With analytics moving from simple partner in the exciting analytics space? and Nasscom Foundation

BUSINESS LIFE > LETTERS

Darling disruptors also need sound biz models Industry leaders ernor Y V Reddy was a tough man who tr- ied to wield institutional autonomy in the Like Blue Apron, too few of Silicon Valley ‘reimaginers’ see clear path to profit With respect to Vikram Johri’s “Slippery larger interest of India’s economy. He did slope” in BS Weekend (July 1), the headline not mince words in expressing his views LEONID BERSHIDSKY REUTERS was a rule-breaking company with a drew my attention to the fine article. The and often had to face the displeasure of the business model that delivered revenue author has done a wonderful job of intro- government. He was, like any other RBI Blue Apron is a company that claims to growth but offered a very narrow path ducing the fallacies of two of the biggest governors, not for farm loan waivers. But have “reimagined the traditional to profitability. After these news contemporary industry leaders and char- some reviews of his new book, Advice & grocery business model”. Thursday’s stories, the story remains the same but mers. It does so in such a fashion that we Dissent, suggest a mellowed personality. disappointing initial public offering Uber has just made its narrow path do not lose our respect for their creativity He says although farm loan waiver isn’t makes you wonder if investors are even narrower and much rests on who and contribution and at the same time un- a good thing it is not a disaster. He can’t be losing faith in such “reimaginings”. will head the company on this path. derstand (as Indians) why it is vital to strike well fit into the government scheme of wrong. The total outstanding in agricul- Perhaps not, but it’s time to ask Spotify, Deezer and their peers — an emotional balance if one wishes to con- things and possibly the Tatas might res- ture loan was around ~12.40 lakh crore, ourselves whether even some of audio streaming companies, which tribute to the lives of employees by not pond to its offer by submitting an appro- 12.1 per cent of the outstanding bank cred- Silicon Valley’s most vaunted attempts have disrupted the music business — behaving like a demigod. The last para- priate proposal. Yet, it is doubtful if the it, as on September 30, 2016. While 70 per to rethink traditional business lose money. LendingClub, the banking graph is an amazing piece of writing that carrier would be able to effect a turnaro- cent of the total stressed debts of ~600,000 processes are sound, and what kind of innovator, reports steady losses after a thrashes the expectations of lofty morali- und. Thus, even with this arrangement crore, as of March 2016, are of corporates, future awaits them. brief period in the black. Tesla eats ty from leaders. It teaches us to look at the government will perhaps continue to one per cent accounts for the farm sector. Marc Andreessen, the outspoken The logo of Blue Apron is shown through cash faster than Elon Musk their achievements and learn from the nurse for sometime longer until the restr- As many as 1.36 crore farmers in Mahara- and successful venture capitalist, says on a large sign in front of the talks. Disruptive media companies one-role wonders. When I look at our lea- uctured entity is able to stand on its legs. shtra have an outstanding loan of ~1.14 there are “no bad ideas, only early New York Stock Exchange before like BuzzFeed and Vice may be highly ders of industry, we are proud of their all- Alternatively, besides Tata as the main crore. The farmers, by and large, have been ones”. The example he gives is its recent disappointing IPO valued, but their revenues depend on round personalities. Nevertheless, we player the government can also think of driven to commit suicide (no corporate Pets.com — the start-up that dared to a shaky advertising market that’s want industry leaders to change people’s inducting a few more such strategic part- borrower is constrained to commit sui- sell pet supplies online and flopped about grocery lists or figuring out what being eaten by Google and Facebook. lives and impact the society in larger ways ners including existing private airlines cide) as they were or are not in a position famously in the dot-com era. But to make. But the IPO prospectus also But aren’t Google and Facebook like some of their counterparts in the US. such as IndiGo that have proven experien- to repay debts mainly because of loss of earlier this year, as Andreessen points says this: “We may not be able to themselves huge, disruptive success Nayan Sheth Pune ce. In that case, the debt burden will not crop on account of the vagaries of nature, out, PetSmart paid $3.35 billion for achieve or maintain profitability, and stories? Isn’t Airbnb, which turned a fall on one partner, which would be diffi- coupled with non-remunerative prices on Chewy.com, which does exactly what we may incur significant losses for the profit for the first time in the second Restructuring Air India cult to manage. India has adopted a mixed their produce received from middlemen Pets.com did; it’s now a major foreseeable future.” That was a softer half of 2016? pattern of economy where both the public and/or from successive governments. competitor to Amazon in pet food and version of this line in Snapchat’s I wouldn’t rush on those, either. With reference to “IndiGo wants Air India’s and private sectors have an equal and Ramanath Nakhate Mumbai litter sales. parent IPO filing: “We have incurred Facebook is beginning to commit overseas business” (June 30), the nation- important role to play in the socio-eco- From an investor’s perspective, operating losses in the past, expect to crimes against user experience with al carrier is reported to be up for sale fol- nomic development of the country. Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to: Andreessen is right: Money can be incur operating losses in the future, sound-on, self-launching videos bec- lowing its huge accumulated losses and Srinivasan Umashankar Nagpur The Editor, Business Standard made on many of these disruptive and may never achieve or maintain ause it’s running out of non-intrusive mounting debts. Air India is believed to be Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg New Delhi 110 002 ideas, especially if there’s a good profitability.” Snapchat, of course, bills ways to increase its revenues. Google carrying a whopping debt burden of close Farm loan waiver Fax: (011) 23720201 · E-mail: [email protected] narrative to sell. But consumers don’t itself as a company that’s reimagining has just run into dangerous obstacles to ~50,000 crore, which is unsustainable. All letters must have a postal address and telephone care how much money an idea can how we use the camera (as a in Europe, where the $2.7 billion The carrier is also believed to be spending Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Gov- number make for those who invest in it, so communication tool). antitrust fine it has received is only the ~4,000 crore every year on servicing debts. much as whether the service can be After years of relentless hype, the beginning of a series of challenges to The real problem began with the merger of relied on over time. Many “disruptive” disruptors and reimaginers of its use of dominance in “free” products Indian Airlines with Air India a few years > HAMBONE BY MIKE FLANAGAN ideas can’t be. Chewy.com, which transportation, such as Uber and Lyft, such as search and mobile operating ago. The best option is to restructure by commissions oil portraits of its are still highly unprofitable, and it’s systems to push various ad formats. inducting some strategic private partners. customers’ pets to retain their not quite clear how that can change. Google and Facebook have been The government is reported to have right- business, was unprofitable by the time Aswath Damodaran, a finance successful with their promise of ly approached the Tatas who were pio- it was acquired. professor at New York University’s personalised advertising, but regula- neers in the aviation business. Blue Apron, which placed its Stern business school who specialises tors and fickle advertisers themselves The Tatas in India are well known for shares at $10 each rather than the in business valuation, wrote in a recent will inevitably dig deeper into how the their business ethics, grace in dealings and expected range of $15 to $17, sends blog post about Uber’s latest culture companies deliver on this promise. philanthropic approach, and it is perhaps people ingredients and recipes so they and management troubles: the one amongst very few business enter- can cook at home without worrying Prior to these news stories, Uber © Bloomberg prises that has the characteristics of both the public and private sectors. That could https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS OPINION 13 > STAY INFORMED THROUGH THE DAY @ WWW.BUSINESS-STANDARD.COM.

Volume XXI Number 226 ILLUSTRATION BY AJAY MOHANTY MUMBAI | MONDAY, 3 JULY 2017 state remains. This was one of the crucial reasons why the early GST was a great idea, and it has been lost in the current conception of the tax. Partly, Good and simple this is to placate the indirect tax bureaucracies in the various states — a terrible motive if ever there But improving GST's design should be a priority was one. Finally, what of the overall tax rate? It is possi- t long last, India has been able to enter the goods and services tax ble that many staples will not be taxed at a higher (GST) regime. It was opportune that the glittering ceremony to ush- rate than earlier — in fact, controlling or reducing er in the biggest tax reform since Independence was held at the the tax rate on goods that comprise the bundle from which the Consumer Price Index is calculat- Central Hall of Parliament, even though several opposition parties, ed seems to have been a primary objective. This Amost notably the Congress, decided to boycott the event. But none of that can might help the government sell the reform to vot- take away from the fact that the GST will be celebrated as a watershed moment ers — “Look, inflation has not gone up according to in the history of India’s economic reforms. Nor can anyone deny that it is, as both the numbers!” But if the prices of other goods go up, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in their voters won’t be fooled. More to the point, it is far speeches, a “high point” of Indian politics and a shining example of the success from clear that this GST will have the silver bullet effect that the “pure” GST would have provided. of its federal structure. The GST was first mooted by a task force headed by That would have both reduced the incidence of Vijay Kelkar in 2003 and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government welcomed the tax on the honest and increased government rev- recommendation. Later, the Congress-led government of the United Progressive enue. In the current form of the GST, however, the Alliance took the first concrete legislative steps in 2011. Over time, the GST’s effect on total government revenue is uncertain, framework received critical inputs across party lines: From the BJP’s Yashwant while the effect on private consumption, invest- Sinha, who led the Parliamentary Committee and gave the format of the GST ment and production is emphatically not going to be the immediate boost that a flat, lower rate would Council, to several leaders from Opposition parties who served as the head of the have provided. empowered group of state finance ministers such as Asim Dasgupta of the It is to be hoped that the GST Council is aware CPI(M) in West Bengal, K M Mani of the Kerala Congress (M) in Kerala, and A R of these problems; and that the central govern- Rather of the National Conference in Jammu & Kashmir. It is indeed credit- ment, in particular, recognises that its responsi- worthy that notwithstanding the 14-year-long wait, all decisions by the GST bility does not end with the introduction of an Council were taken by consensus. Perfecting the GST imperfect GST. It has to keep on building a politi- cal consensus for improvements to the GST, while In terms of economics, the GST replaces 17 indirect taxes (each requiring keeping this “ideal” GST in mind as the target. As a separate return) and 23 cesses and will thus unify the country (Jammu & The current GST is imperfect. To fix it, the government must keep comfort grows in the broader political class with Kashmir will hopefully join the new system by next week) into a single market, an open mind about complaints regard to the changes that the GST will wreak, these at least in terms of all the goods and services that are covered in it. Since it is a reforms should be introduced into the actual GST tax based on the value addition at each stage of production, allowing produc- he goods and services tax (GST) is now a another head with lower taxes. Third, it opens up through rulings and changes mandated by the GST ers to claim input tax credit, it removes the cascading effect of indirect taxation reality. The GST might be imperfect, but it the possibility for rent-seeking, as various indus- Council. In other words, the work is not over, so the remains the best hope of knitting India tries and sectors clamour for lower tax rates for government should stop patting itself on the back. that existed till now. It also is more equitable and socially reformative since it T together into a single market. We need to welcome their particular products or services — some of The government also needs to be on the look- strengthens the hands of the honest taxpayer while making it more arduous for it — but also to agitate for its improvement, and to which, according to reports, has already started out for the various problems in implementation the corrupt to evade taxes. In the process, it expands the tax base, allowing low- stand ready to remedy its deficiencies and happening. that are inevitably going to arise — as well as oth- er tax rates to possibly throw up higher revenues for the central and state gov- ill-effects. Then look at the second condition I originally er, more serious problems inherent to the GST. ernments, and those, in turn, could be spent on increased welfare spending. As it stands, the GST dearly and mention, the question of paperwork. For example, the effect on small and medium Apart from simplifying processes for the domestic producers and reducing the desperately needs improvement. To Ideally, you should not be forced to enterprises should be carefully gauged. SMEs were see why, let’s try and compare it with submit monthly returns. Some the drivers of a nascent growth revival about a year discretionary powers with tax officials, the GST also makes it easy for the glob- the “ideal” GST — in other words, major indirect taxes are currently ago; but the investment crunch turned that into a al investors looking to plough their money into India. Clearly, the GST does pro- the one we were promised when the collected quarterly, and that should slowdown and then demonetisation hammered vide India with a truly modern “way of doing business”. idea was first floated. have been the expectation for the SMEs still further. Now their compliance and work- However, it is also true that many commodities such as petrol, diesel, and That GST was simple — entic- GST. In Australia, for example, only ing capital costs have been increased at a stroke — potable alcohol as well as over 80 services have been kept out of the GST net. This ingly simple — and corresponding- very large companies have to pay which was, again, certainly not the intention of will not only restrict expanding the tax net as well as the potential revenues but also ly powerful. It suggested a single tax the GST monthly; smaller compa- the original GST. Their demands will need con- rate, or at most a narrow band of nies can pay the GST quarterly. In stant attention. impede the prime minister’s express objective of curbing black economy. Moreover, rates; a reduction in paperwork; and India, this benefit is possible only More broadly, the concerns of certain states as several reports suggest, many a small business appears ill-equipped as of now to a reduction in the overall tax rate POLICY RULES under the “composition” scheme, in about their tax revenue should be carefully kept in transition to the GST framework, thanks to the breakneck speed with which the gov- paid for by the expected increase in which smaller companies can’t mind. The current system has one major benefit: It ernment has chosen to run the last lap of the GST’s introduction. It is important to total tax revenue. MIHIR S SHARMA claim input credits. In the current allows states to raise or lower indirect taxes, and note that such wrinkles need to be ironed out at the earliest to strengthen the peo- None of these conditions has GST, a taxpayer has to submit three thereby control their own spending-taxation choic- ple’s faith in the tax system. It is in this regard that it is yet again the shared respon- been met. Definitely not in full, and returns a month for every single es. State governments’ degrees of freedom have only some in part. Consider first the idea that there state it’s in. Some of these are “auto-populated” — been reduced. That may have deleterious political sibility of the governments — both at the Centre and the states — to heed the pres- should be a single tax rate. Instead of this we have but that’s not as much of a relief as all that, for effects in the long run if efforts are not made to ident’s advice and continuously review and improve the implementation of the GST. been left, thanks to the political bargaining you’re still liable for any errors in them. As one tax ensure that they still have sufficient room to between states and parties — and also thanks to expert told the news service India Abroad: “Though manoeuvre in response to local political demands. some judicious lobbying — with a plethora of tax inward returns and monthly returns will be auto- As problems, gaps and imperfections in the GST rates, five or six depending on how you count. Food populated, the taxpayer will still have to validate are brought to its attention, the government will in a restaurant, for example, can be taxed at any of these details before submission and add addition- need to be open to these complaints, and not dis- four rates from 5 per cent to 28 per cent, depending al information like GST paid under reverse charge miss them as the ravings of the corrupt. In order to The mute Opposition on various factors such as air-conditioning and the mechanism, details of credit notes etc.” make this vast reform a success, a government that Why is it so silent on lynchings? star rating of the hotel the restaurant is in. Why is The idea should have been that all but the both listens and acts will be crucial. this a problem? First, it is not simple to administer. largest taxpayers have to produce at most four or he President of India has spoken out. So has Prime Minister Second, it leaves the door open for taxpayers to five returns nationally. As it stands, the strong dis- [email protected] evade taxes by moving revenue from one head to incentive for small firms to expand beyond a single Twitter: @mihirssharma Narendra Modi. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has con- demned it. But what about the leaders of the Opposition? Only Brinda Karat, the Rajya Sabha MP from the Communist Party of TIndia (Marxist), took the trouble to visit the family of Junaid Khan, a recent victim of such attacks against Muslims and Dalits, and robustly denounced the incident. Apart from her, leaders from Rahul Gandhi to Nitish Kumar The idea of a road to Mayawati and Mamata Banerjee — all vocal defenders of Indian secu- larism when it suits them — are yet to be heard. Instead, it has been the peo- have been on the road these past few days. It left also cross the same road. There is no right; it is Lutyens’ Delhi, where the government and the ple who chose to respond to a Facebook post and gather to protest the has been fascinating to notice the differences a privilege. Car drivers tell you they are waiting. powerful live, the footpaths gleam. But just imag- growing culture of lynchings. Those headline-grabbing protests may have I between roads and between cities. First, I was You scurry across as fast as possible. ine, they are made with granite and polished encouraged Mr Modi to issue his statement from Sabarmati Ashram, where, in Stockholm. Roads there are designed first for the In Delhi, when our streets were not roads, we so that you cannot walk. Or possibly for the pow- people and then for the cars. As a Delhi resident, could cross them. There was chaos, mixed traffic, erful people to roll down the windows of their bul- invoking Mahatma Gandhi and his creed of non-violence, he declared that I hesitated stepping on the road even at a zebra- everything on the street, but also safety for women let-proof cars and feel good about their violence was unacceptable and killing in the name of cow vigilantism was crossing because I feared the car would not stop; because of the numbers. The street was for walk- modern city. wrong. In choosing to speak out, Mr Modi has displayed mettle. Which is it would knock me down. I realised how deep- ing and even talking. But then we moved to roads. The question is: What is your vision of what a more than can be said of the Opposition, which has registered its protest only rooted our sense of insecurity is. The roads were designed for the road should look like? My colleague Anumita against the inadequacy of Mr Modi’s statement. Our road is not for walking. efficient movement of just one Roychowdhury, who works on mobility, will tell Why is the Opposition so reluctant to champion a cause that concerns a In Stockholm, the pavements kind of traffic: Cars. As cars spilled you that her most frequent conversation with deci- are also low. It makes for effortless over, more space had to be created. sion-makers is exactly about this. What is their foundational value of the Indian republic? Part of the problem lies in the huge- walking. In my city, the pavements This space came from footpaths. idea of a road? ly polarised climate. The “whataboutery” that passes for public discourse has are high. It takes some effort to step Delhi sacrificed its walking spaces. On the one hand is the road — most frequent- reduced the issue to a childish trading of charges as to which political party has on to them, making it difficult for Now I go to other cities, where the ly captured in photographs from the US or now been responsible for banning beef, presiding over past lynchings, and so on and all, and not just the old and the same thing is happening. even China and India — where cars move bumper- so forth. It is possible that the Opposition’s hesitation has to do with narrow elec- disabled, to move on foot. The rea- Another difference between to-bumper. There is no diversity of vehicles. Few toral concerns: The over 280 seats that the Bharatiya Janata Party commands son given is if pavements are low, Stockholm and Washington is the motorcycles, fewer buses, and non-existent people will park their cars on them. width of the road. In Stockholm, cyclists and pedestrians. On the other hand is the in the Lok Sabha and 312 seats it won in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly have been But that is because we do roads are not highways. Cities are picture of a street in African cities or any smaller possible without giving due representation to Muslims among the candidates not enforce regulations for illegal DOWN TO EARTH meant for easy movement. In Indian city, where everything is moving side by it fielded in these polls. From these numbers, it is easy to conclude that parking. Washington, road widths are huge. side. Here people walk, cycle and take para-tran- Hindutva as an ideology is widely popular, and a “soft Hindutva” stance ahead Then comes the priority: Who SUNITA NARAIN It feels as if highways cross the sit systems like auto-rickshaws. All side by side. of 2019 may pay dividends for Opposition parties. has the right of way, cars or pedes- cities. This means as the light turns This is seen as the chaos we would like to get rid of Apart from the practical fact that “soft Hindutva” will never be able to com- trians? This is where I noticed a difference between white for pedestrians, it requires running to cross. as we get rich, modern, and successful. But, as Stockholm and the next city I visited and walked In Delhi, we are now building in such a manner Roychowdhury will tell you, a chaotic road carries pete with the Parivar’s proven ability to generate a competing and escalating in, Washington DC. In Washington, as compared to that highways transect our cities. Ridiculous. more people and is, therefore, a much more cost- hard line, such a cynical calculation ignores the weaknesses of the first-past- Delhi, you are in heaven as a walker. From the If we are not able to walk, we cannot really efficient instrument for mobility than the car- the-post electoral system and a fractured polity that often delivers results that moment, you get off a train or a bus you will find build a vibrant public transport network. Today, filled road. do not reflect majority opinion. In neither the 2014 Lok Sabha elections nor in pavements, mostly accessible and connected, till the Delhi Metro — efficient and clean — would be The trouble is that we are lost between these UP in 2017 did the BJP win a majority of the total vote share. At 31 per cent, the you walk to your home, office, or any other desti- my choice of transport. In fact, there are two metro worlds, where walking works because we are poor lowest vote share for a single majority party in the Lok Sabha since 1967, and nation. The city is walkable but with a difference. stops within a few kilometres of my home and and walking works because they are rich. We need In Washington, you have to wait for long for the office. But I can’t walk. I can’t cross the road. I am to cross this road, and for this we need to rethink 40 per cent in UP, respectively, it is clear that a large number of Indian people traffic signal to change before you can cross the unsafe when I walk as a woman. I am likely to trip our view of the road itself. do not subscribe to Hindutva. Ergo the Opposition leaders can safely jettison road. If there is no signal and only a zebra-cross- over all the businesses that have taken over the their indecisiveness and come forward to robustly defend India’s secular val- ing, then cars don’t respect the walker. They let footpaths where they exist. The writer is at the Centre for Science and Environment ues. At the very least, it will make them more relevant than they are at present. you pass, but with a grimace. Worse, when you The only part of my city that has footpaths is [email protected] cross the road, it is also when cars turning right or where nobody walks. In this part of Delhi, called Twitter: @sunitanar

lead to inventions like the internet. And who war for hearts and minds and the “arrogance” Oddballs and their transformative power could have judged, when they were first of “treating nations as living test beds.” pitched, that armed drones or brain-con- Just a few pages before her concluding neglected to notice the people inside. In The Godel, a veteran spy who helped recruit for- cash-stuffed briefcases and, in connection trolled prosthetics were any less the stuff of nostalgic dip, she condemns the “allure of Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of mer Nazi rocket scientists in the late 1940s, with that, was sentenced to five years in fantasy than many of the projects dismissed applying the wizardry of science and tech- DARPA, the Pentagon Agency That Changed then took on various roles in the NSA and the prison on fraud-related charges in the mid- here, in retrospect, as “lunatic” or “comical”? nology to warfare,” which makes wars “more the World, Sharon Weinberger, an executive Pentagon’s special-operations directorate. 1960s. After leaving ARPA, he ran guns to The key to Darpa’s successes and failures, inviting” and has “entangled the United editor at Foreign Policy and the author or co- It was Godel who turned ARPA into a Southeast Asia. Some suspected he was a apparently, was that it operated “below the States in a ‘forever war.’” This is a cogent author of two previous books about the mil- forum for ideas that were “completely screw- security risk. radar,” as Weinberger writes, “unencumbered (though not original) critique, worthy of a BOOK REVIEW itary-scientific complex, traces the ups and ball,” in Weinberger’s words, but got funded The book — deeply researched and by the typical bureaucratic oversight and separate book, but it’s a bit overstated for this downs of this agency, with its “mix of genius- anyway because they were “bold and scien- briskly paced — saunters down a gallery of uninhibited by the restraints of scientific peer one. Darpa invented the armed drone, but, as FRED KAPLAN es and mediocre bureaucrats” and the “pro- tifically interesting.” These included a plan to oddballs apart from Godel. There’s Nicholas review.” The initial $1 million Budget for a she notes, a quarter-century passed before it cession of nuts, opportunists and salesmen” control Vietnamese villages through mass Christofilos, a flamboyant Greek, whose ideas cross-country computer network — the came into wide production and use. “The Few have heard of the Defense Advanced who pitched wild ideas and often won con- hypnosis, an acoustic sniper-detection sys- were “scientifically sound but required tech- beginnings of the internet — was given the agency has largely been absent from the past Research Projects Agency, but this small tracts to pursue them. tem (which produced 5,000 false positives in nological miracles to make them work” and go-ahead after a 15-minute conversation. 10 years of national security debates,” she Pentagon enclave has spawned some of the The agency was established, originally as field tests), an interplanetary spaceship pow- whose charisma stemmed from his lacking That was in 1965, when the agency was observes. The question, which she leaves transformative inventions not just of modern ARPA, in 1958, to get the United States into ered by thousands of nuclear explosions and “any self-awareness that the concepts he pro- ensconced in the elite E Ring of the Pentagon. uncertain, is whether that’s good or bad. war but of modern life: The Saturn rocket, space after the Soviets beat us to the punch a magnetic force-field to repel incoming posed were outrageous.” There’s Herman In later years, as it lost favour and was moved stealth aircraft, armed drones, biofeedback with the Sputnik satellite. Within a year, a Soviet warheads, among others. Kahn, the ur-strategist of nuclear war and out farther into the suburbs, it also lost some ©2017 The New York Times News Service systems and — biggest of all — the internet. new civilian agency, NASA, assumed that With access to Godel’s unpublished mem- the probable model for Dr Strangelove, who of its élan and autonomy. In her final chapter, Yet Darpa has also devised some of the mission. So ARPA, “struggling to find a new oir (from his daughter), Weinberger paints proposed building a moat around Saigon to Weinberger laments the current Darpa’s focus THE IMAGINEERS OF WAR most disastrous fusions of science and war, role for itself,” turned to the escalating war in him as not only the driving force in this sto- keep out the Vietcong. Anthony Tether, a on narrow “technical problems” and all but The Untold History of DARPA, the including Agent Orange (the defoliant that Vietnam. President John F Kennedy, an ry — “more than any other ARPA official,” she more recent Darpa director, told Weinberger pines for the days when it “sought to under- Pentagon Agency That Changed disabled thousands of American troops, as enthusiast of counterinsurgency, funded writes, he “shaped the agency’s future” — that the agency’s best program managers stand the fundamentals of society and the the World well as untold numbers of civilians, in ARPA’s Combat Development and Test but also a colourful character. His house was “have inside them the desire to be a science causes of insurgency.” Yet a recurring theme Sharon Weinberger Vietnam) and myriad other projects that Center, which put in motion Project Agile, a filled with gadgets straight out of James fiction writer.” of her book, up to this point, has been the fal- Alfred A Knopf treated the world as a giant laboratory but “covert-operations shop” run by William Bond’s Q lab. He travelled the world with Yet a desire to write science fiction could lacy of believing that technology can win a 475 pages; $32.50