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16 THE ECONOMIC TIMES The Edit Page THE ECONOMIC TIMES | BENGALURU | THURSDAY | 4 MAY 2017 Needed, Standards New institutions are changing the way GoI channelises financing resources across sectors for Aadhaar Data Freeing the Reforms Genie Standards & privacy law to assuage concerns It is welcome that the minister for information technolo- vernment. NIIF will invest along dif- ferent strategies, as a direct investor, gy, Ravi Shankar Prasad, has held out the assurance that in a fund of funds format, into opera- the biometric data collected for Aadhaar are safe, encry- ting assets as the sector deleverages pted and secure, even as the Aadhaar database is used for and in strategic greenfield projects. Intensity This remarkable forward-looking authentication with the permission of the individual initiative offers foreign investors the of Faith concerned. But it is also a fact that government websites comfort of having a material voice at the table, a strong pipeline of propri- have published Aadhaar numbers, alongside the names T G L IYER Jayant Sinha etary deals, and government support of beneficiaries under assorted government schemes. in speeding up projects. A devotee asked Ramakrishna This shows two things. One, the essential mistake that s part of Reforms 3.0, India LTIF: Small and fragmented farms Parmahansa, “Sir, is God real any cyber security primer would point out, of obsessing has created institutions for means that the ability of farmers to and can I see Him?” Ramakri- long-term pools of capital ac- come together and create large-scale shna replied, “Yes, God is real. over technological fixes while glossing over the proto- A ross a range of sectors ran- irrigation infrastructure is low. Und- I see Him just as I see you or cols of process and procedure that people need to be trai- ging from infrastructure to erthese circumstances, it is necessary any other object around me.”

agriculture, from startups to educati- for the government to step in to aug- O ned in, to secure sensitive data and data systems. Two, T The devotee continued, “Can on. The National Infrastructure and ment financial and organising abili- O I also see Him as you do?” Said the need for a strict law to penalise breaches of privacy, Investment Fund (NIIF), the Long- ty. LTIF has, hence, been instituted in PH the sage, “Yes, you can, if the LE I including via Aadhaar. Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF), the Hi- the Nabard as part of the Pradhan F intensity of your longing for If someone’s Aadhaar number and a one-time password gher Education Financing Authority Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana. Therein lies the rub God is equal to the intensity of (Hefa) and the India Aspiration Fund drowning man longing for fresh sent to the linked phone number are sufficient to comple- (IAF) are changing the way govern- Money on Tap `.1,000 crore each as equity. This SPV of IAF are made to funds that invest air; or the intensity of a mother te a financial transaction, as has been reported, that wou- ment channelises financing resourc- A total of 76 lakh hectares of land is is expected to leverage equity to raise at least half their corpus in MSMEs, longing for the life of her only `. ld clearly be inadequate. Since Aadh- es to these critical sectors. These ins- estimated to be brought under irriga- up to 20,000 crore for infrastructure including early-stage enterprises. child in the grip of serious ill- titutions empower key groups like stu- tion through 99 identified incomplete development of world-class laborator- The Small Industries Development ness; or of the miser longing for aar allows for verification using bio- dents, farmers and job creators, and major and medium irrigation projec- ies at IITs, IIMs, NITs and such other Bank of India generally contributes more wealth. If your longing metrics, financial transactions using enhance the quality of hard and soft in- ts. Over a period of four years betwe- institutions. Hefa can also mobilise between 10% and 15% of the fund. VC for God is at least a fraction of Aadhaar should ideally make use of frastructure available to the country. en 2016 and 2020, the central and state corporate social responsibility funds funds floated by experienced fund the longing that Radha had for NIIF: The NIIF’s mission is to cata- governments will invest `. 31,342 crore from public and private corporates. managers and institutional asset ma- Krishna, then you will see God.” this capability, with point-of-sale equ- lyse long-term capital to the infrastru- and `. 46,253 crore respectively. All centrally funded higher educa- nagement companies are eligible for When your thoughts accumu- ipment that can scan and authentica- cture sector in India. The fund is pro- LTIF’s initial corpus of about tional institutions are eligible to bec- coverage under IAF. late, they become your beliefs, `. `. te biometrics by querying the Aadha- posed to be 40,000 crore ($6 billion) 20,000 crore will be further augment- ome Hefa members to receive funding and the beliefs haunt your mind. initially, wherein the Indian govern- edby way of budgetary resources and support. Institutions should agree to Seeding the Money Plant The mind is a vast ocean of po- ar database without such data getting ment would invest 49%, or around market borrowings. The initial seed escrow a specific amount from their Converting a budgetary ‘grant’ from tential. You can dive into that, locally stored and being used without the data owner’s `. 20,000 crore ($3 billion). The NIIF contribution will form the contribu- internal accruals to Hefa for a period the government into financial reso- surf it; float on it, swim in it, explicit permission. This would be possible only with a will raise third-party capital for the re- tion from the central government of 10 years. These secured future flo- urces for financing such institutions play and have fun in it. God sp- maining `. 20,000 crore, from long-term that can be leveraged by LTIF to raise ws will be securitised by Hefa for mo- significantly leverages budgetary re- eaks through dreams, hunch- combination of technology and standards of data securi- international investors, such as sov- debt funds from the market. bilising funds from the market. Each sources. The government estimates es, instincts and inner voices, ty on the lines of, and possibly superior to, the Payment ereign wealth funds, insurance and  Hefa: Building world-class univer- member institution will be eligible that with appropriate leverage and opening closed doors. Card Industry Data Security Standard. These could sp- pension funds, and endowments. sities requires significant financial re- for a credit limit as decided by Hefa profit generation, GoI has been able to Joseph Murphy, who spent NIIF Ltd, the investment manager sources. Indian institutes of higher le- based on the amount agreed to be esc- multiply manifold (2-5 times) funds many years in India, writes, ecify who can and cannot ask for Aadhaar data — today, to the NIIF, shall be majority-owned by arning, dependent on the governme- rowed from internal accruals. allocated from the budget. “The law of your mind is the nursery schools demand the parents’ Aadhaar numbers. investors in the fund other than the nt for meeting their annual running  IAF: Entrepreneurs take risks to Seeded initially using budgetary re- law of belief itself.” Whatever create new markets, build new prod- This would stem from clarifying to what end the govern- government. It shall be operated at expenditure, do not have access to sources, these new institutions exte- we feed our subconscious mind, an arm’s-length basis from GoI. NIIF long-term capital to invest in physical ucts, find new consumers and, most ndcontributions of equity or debt co- false or true, good or evil, will ment is enrolling everyone into Aadhaar. Ltd is managed by an independent and human infrastructure. importantly, create jobs that requir- ming from other entities like sovere- register as a fact. So, be careful Preventing misuse of Aadhaar — for example, using team of professionals recruited from Hefa has been formed as a special es high-risk-taking financial capital. ign wealth funds, state governments about misfortune, as the sub- The venture capital (VC) industry ra- just the number to collate the data that resides in stand- the market with relevant experience purpose vehicle (SPV) with the gov- and public sector enterprises. With conscious has no sense of hu- and backed by the support of the go- ernment and Canara Bank putting in ises funds globally to invest in India. multiple stakeholders contributing mour and the misfortune can alone silos for health, finance, taxation, etc — calls for an The country lacks its own sources of financially and intellectually in each occur if the mind figured it in explicit law on privacy that goes beyond Aadhaar. Aadh- high-risk equity capital. such entity, these institutions distil the beginning. Murphy refers IAF has been set up as a fund of fu- aar would be rendered more wholesome by swift enact- the sector’s requirements and help to the rituals of ancient India Seeded using budgetary resources, the new institutions nds that invests in VC funds for meet- create a win-win for all participants. with the mixture of incantati- ment of a rigorous law to protect privacy. extend equity or debt contributions coming from other ing the equity requirements of micro, ons and repetitions that con- small, medium enterprises (MSMEs), The writer is minister of state, verts suggestions into realiti- entities like sovereign wealth funds, states and PSEs especially startups. Contributions out civil aviation, GoI es. Real faith is about things happening in the present. If it is 100% faith, it must happen. India’s Moviemaking MEME’S THE WORD Unicorn Varsities Chat Room Must Turn Businesslike Here’s a list of universities that have several unicorn founders as alumni. US institutions account for nine of the top 15. As many as Conviction or Close on the heels of the movie Bahubali’s blockbuster opening, 12 unicorn founders are from India’s IITs… `. earning over 400 crore, twice its production cost, comes the Universities* with most unicorn founders as alumni Commitment? `. “The truth news of a Malayalam movie that would cost a whopping 1,000 Apropos ‘Put Dogmas on a Lea- `. Stanford University 51 crore. Movie budgets — Prem Ratan Dhan Payo ( 180 crore), will set you Harvard University 37 sh’ by Gaurav Dalmia (May 3), `. `. Dhoom 3 ( 175 crore), Bang Bang ( 160 crore), Happy New Year University of California 18 many leaders fail to distingui- free, but sh between their conviction (`. 160 crore) and Enthiran (`. 132 crore) — are no longer small IITs 12 and escalation of their commit- first it will MIT 9 change. But every film is a risky venture. The sheer scale of in- ment. Conviction is a needed vestment, which is largely cash-driven, makes a compelling make you University of Pennsylvania 9 trait in a leader because her case for the industry to organise itself better, become transpar- University of Oxford 8 new ideas are going to be chal- miserable.” Tel Aviv University 7 ent and pay their due share of corporate tax. Running like any lenged. Mahatma Gandhi’s ad- James A Garfield Cornell University 6 herence to non-violence as a other organised business will allow production companies to Politician Univ of Southern California 6 weapon for freeing India from set off their losses against profits from hits. University of Waterloo 6 the British rule won people’s The KPMG India-Ficci Media and Enter- INSEAD 5 faith, even as Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose of- tainment Report 2017 paints a gloomy pic- WHU 5 fered alternatives. Long wars University of Michigan 5 ture of Bollywood movies compared to re- Statista Sage, in Vietnam and Iraq were the gional cinema. Between 2014 and 2016, rev- Brigham Young University 5 result of overcommitment by

*Where most advanced degree was attained; unicorn: a private company valued more than $1 billion Source: enues from Bollywood films did not grow. US presidents. The ability to Only half-a-dozen movies crossed `.100 cro- be resilient in a changing situ- ation and open-mindedness to re in terms of net box-office collections accept dissent can save many since 2012. Last year, the Indian film indus- a leader from such a trap. try grew by a mere 3% to `. 143 billion. Of the 225 movies, the top NATIONAL POLITICS Citings Y G CHOUKSEY 50 contributed to about 96% of the overall net box-office collec- Pune tion. But ancillary revenues, including digital and movie rig- Taxing hts, showed an uptick. No More Standard Opp The Paradigm Entry barriers to film production are low. So are exit barriers. Which makes it easy for fly-by-night operators to try their luck Matters Shift in Banking at making movies. High entertainment tax is a problem, as is Modi’s winning spree since he took and the lack of clarity on who their This refers to ‘The Threat of KENT SMETTERS preferential tax treatment given by some states to local langu- over as PM has been broken only by main adversary is, has helped the BJP. Automation’ by Saloni Shukla age films. Goods and services tax should bring some relief on results in Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal It is the major opposition groups — The US corporate tax rate is and Joel Rebello (May 3). The and Punjab. While three of these vic- past rivals — who will have to come to- very high, and the fact is that coming invasion of robotics the entertainment tax front. Getting stars to take payment by tories were due to the iconic status of gether, as Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yad- we don’t have this border adju- in the banking space will sha- way of a revenue share would help cut costs. Drama and melo- the leaders steering the winning parti- av did in Bihar. The story might have stment that’s currently being ke up things like never before drama are fine within movies, but corporate governance is es — Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Baner- been different had the SP and the BSP debated in Washington. There’s and a new banking paradigm what moviemaking calls for as a business. Neerja Chowdhury jee and Amarinder Singh respectively tied up in the 2017 UP polls, instead of all this distortion [that leads can be expect- — it is Bihar, with its mahagathban- just the SP and the Congress. companies] to locate income ed to emerge dhan (grand alliance) recipe, which In the 2017 bypolls, one reason for the offshore.… And so, what hap- soon. As hum- The 95th birth anniversary on May 1of could show the way. unexpected Congress victory in two as- pens is companies like Apple, anoids replace socialist leader Madhu Limaye broug- In any case, Kejriwal is battered after sembly seats in Karnataka was the de- Microsoft, Google and Oracle humans, most ht together nine parties on a platform the Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi muni- cision of the Janata Dal (Secular) not and others are able to figure of the banking Good that we Indians don’t have a to create a ‘unity of progressive forces’ cipal election defeats. Banerjee is fi- to field candidates against the Cong- out how to shift a lot of their operations will colon-ial hangover about grammar in Delhi. The Samajwadi Party (SP) ghting with her back to the wall with ress. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha earnings offshore to avoid that be done by the was conspicuous by its absence. This many Trinamool leaders under the (JMM) got the better of the BJP in the very high corporate tax rate. AI machines. indicated the disarray that still preva- investigative scanner. state’s Littipara assembly seat because Now, in some cases, we also The banks will transform into ils in the party, which was once seen as It is arithmetic, not chemistry, that it had other opposition parties’ support. have rewards for investing in core marketing organisations, the centre piece of an opposition front compels today. Despite Modi’s popula- In the 1989 elections, when the entire new capital. So, that’s sometim- with existing staff getting re- Punctuation Marks against the central BJP government. rity, the BJP won by a 31% vote in 2014, opposition had united against the Cong- escalled bonus depreciation or trained and reskilled in sales, The Congress was represented only the remaining 69% garnered by other ress, leaders had painstakingly created expensing. That’s already part CRM and business-building. by Digvijaya Singh, now seen more as parties. In Uttar Pradesh, where the one-on-one contests, particularly in UP of the existing corporate tax Those who adapt will progress, What Exactly? an outsider. There was a toning down BJP won a stunning 312 of the 403 seats, against the Congress. This prevented rate: that’s one reason why the those who don’t will stagnate. of anti-Congressism that socialist gro- the party got less than 40% of the vote. a division of the opposition votes. effective rate is a little bit low- When Sir Mark Tully proclaimed from the cover of his book ups of the past had thrived on. A pitch Between them, the SP, the BSP and the It is this that contributed to the emer- er. But the case of large compa- SUNDER G was also made to field a joint opposition Congress polled 50%. gence of V P Singh as prime minister Navi Mumbai that there are No Full Stops In India, he was probably also al- nies not paying anything, that’s presidential candidate. But the pithiest Even in the MCD polls, the BJP got at the head of a united opposition gov- mainly income shifting.… luding to our propensity to hurtle through our pronounce- comments came from Limaye’s non- only 37% of votes, while the AAP and ernment made up of the Janata Dal, The issue with the consumpti- ments with nary a pause, much like our history. It is, therefo- politician son, Anirudh. the Congress together polled 47%. But regional parties, supported by the Left on tax — something like a sim- Jingoism Can’t re, not surprising that grammatical proprieties do not weigh There was hardly anyone under-40 at the Congress’ Ajay Maken was more and the BJP. Thereby, he replaced Rajiv ple national sales tax or VAT the meeting, Anirudh noted. He also busy targeting Kejriwal than the BJP. Gandhi, who had only five years earli- — is how do you maintain the be the Answer heavily on our collective conscience. Most Indians feel that warned that neither the concept of The division in the opposition ranks, er come to power with 415 seats, a num- progressivity of the tax sys- Pakistan is not going to chan- the present is too tense for perfect punctuation; a missing ap- ‘opposition unity’ nor the ‘secular vs ber not clocked even by Jawaharlal tem. Now, here’s the ironic twi- ge, no matter who is in power ostrophe — or an extraneous one on the Singh’s or the Kapo- communal’ debate had traction with Nehru in his heyday. st. In the old days, it used to be at Islamabad or Delhi. The on- or’s gateposts — is not a cat’ostrophe. We do not have a colon- large sections of the electorate today. However, a mechanical coming to- conservatives loved the idea of line warriors are screaming The Opposition parties would, there- gether of opposition forces merely to the consumption tax, the VAT, for retaliation, and being the ial hangover in this regard or even a semi-colon-ial one; and fore, have to evolve new themes and a defeat the BJP runs the risk of being and so forth — a flat tax. And major support base of the BJP, the comma is a chameleon anyway. Besides, punctuation new idiom. And create a structure to counterproductive. It can hardly be a it’s very simple — didn’t hit their voices are bound to carry marks made a rather late entry into the grammar arena and match the BJP-RSS’ organisational theme to enthuse the voter, particular- household saving. weight with the government. many of the ancient texts of India, China and Greece mana- muscle, if they were serious about ly the young one driving election vic- Today, it’s switched. The rea- Further, some media outlets taking on Narendra Modi’s BJP. tories today. What the opposition par- son why is that conservatives, have added fuel to the fire by ged without them, though reading aloud without practice Following the BJP’s recent mega- ties lack today is an alternative narra- people like [Nobel laureate eco- conducting online polls as to had its obvious pitfalls. victories, it is becoming increasingly tive to the one being pursued by Modi. nomist] Milton Friedman some which would be the best meth- So, the kerfuffle over the new £5 note in the UK carrying the clear to the opposition parties that The creation of a broad opposition fro- years ago noticed that countri- od of retaliation. The govern- image of Winston Churchill and one of his famous lines un- they have to swim together. Or they nt and the selection of a leader to steer es that added the VAT actually ment would do well to heed to will sink individually. it could follow — rather than precede weren’t replacing their income your editorial, ‘Respond to At- fettered by quotation marks — I have nothing to offer but blo- Even someone like Mayawati, who — one-on-one contests in the ensuing tax. They were just adding on rocity, Don’t Retaliate’ (May 3). od, toil, tears and sweat — would strike us as being much ado had over the last 20 years steadfastly state elections this year and in 2018. top of their income tax — coun-

ruled out an alliance — and certainly O Given political contradictions and the tries like France and so forth. ANTHONY HENRIQUES about nothing. Considering the quote appears directly below T not one with the SP — is suddenly am- O mega egos of our politicians, however, By email the famous wartime British PM’s face and is one of his most PH enable to it. There are unconfirmed this is easier said than done. Be as it From “Thirty Years After the

LE Letters to the editor may be addressed to famous pronouncements, it cannot possibly be mistaken for, I Last Major Tax Reform, is it reports that Akhilesh Yadav called F may, India could certainly do with a say, as an election promise by the current incumbent. on her recently. Raksha gathbandhan stronger opposition than it has now. Time to Retool?” [email protected]