Improve the image of Tourism through meaningful Governance.

  The Need to Improve the image of Tourism through Effective Governance is paramount.  

I would just like to narrate below my recent unpleasant and unforgettable experience at Salem and the avoidable irritations and problems that I had undergone due to the lackadaisical approach and indifferent attitude of the service providers in booking the hotel online. The callous attitude  and insensitive response to the Customer’s woes after taking the full money only smacks of total disregard for customers,  disrespect for the authorities and lack of  awareness of the importance, the  need and the  development of our Tourism Industry. Sorry to observe that Greed unfortunately blinds the Wisdom is what I experienced. Given a chance, Cheat seems to be a business model as per my personal experience.

Invasion of digital payments and  online transactions have become very handy for unscrupulous, dishonest businessmen and fraudsters. Myself and my wife recently attended a marriage at Salem and our sojourn in Salem assisted by GOIBIBO (for our stay) claiming to be serving 5 Million Customers turned out to be an adventure and Life Experience Par- excellence perhaps of learning a lesson of modern day dependence on Technology and how people can be taken for an easy ride to make easy money without understanding the value of money, the emotional, sentimental, psychological, physical ,mental, financial  agony the aged people undergo in the process unnoticed by the authorities. Luckily we didn't suffer severely except for the loss of a few Rupees and physical and mental strain in a new place and surroundings for some few hours. No learning is possible without suffering physically, financially and mentally.

I booked through online a room offered by GOIBIBO in WINDSOR Apartments, Iyyan Thirumalligai , Salem Municipal town DOOR NO ¼, paying the full amount as an advance.for our one day stay commencing at 12 noon 7th September to 12 noon on 8th September 2024. Salem being an industrial and tourist attractive Center thanks to Yercaud and its natural surroundings,I found the rate in a service apartment is reasonable though comparatively high as subsequently experienced by me in Salem. However, the entire expectation of spending a night in the room offered turned out to be a total disappointment, nightmare and disaster when we saw the apartment in a dilapidated condition and the room in a very pathetic, unliveable and horrible state. Without having a second thought we canceled the accommodation on the spot and sent an email to GOIBIBO as advised by the receptionist in the Windsor Apartment with the assurance that I would be fully refunded. My worry at that moment was not the refund but to have our Lunch being aged and diabetic patients and finding alternate accommodation taking into consideration our health issues. Being strangers to the City and urgency to have lunch at that point of time around 12.45 PM.as we had exhausted ourselves travelling by car covering a distance of 200kms. The fact is that we missed taking a photograph of the room allotted to us in that melee.Unfortunately, the missing photograph of the room and the toilet which became the inevitable and essence of the issue for not considering the refund of our money by IBIBO was a surprise to us. May God save the noble minds with their greedy thoughts and avaricious actions. Does not matter as I can very well  understand the thoughts of petty minds. “Given a chance, Cheat”.Jane Do attitude of Customers Provides escape route as the remedial  and follow up measures are not worth the recovery of loss incurred. Never Had I been informed that the amount was not refundable.      

The concept of online booking is very good, innovative  and definitely convenient to save time, carry out the needed transactions and free from many of the known and unknown hassles, provided the culture of ethics, values, honesty and reliability are guaranteed by dependable practices and high levels of morality and integrity of the highest order are maintained at all levels of Execution and Administration. Herein lies the problem as this mode of carrying out the transactions has become a source of easy money and no traceability for further follow up and remedial action for want of any dependable and accountable administrative and other systems and procedures. Unfortunately this concept of online transaction seems to be an EASY source of FRAUD by smart operators, business establishments, involving banks and exploiting the people including intelligent, smart, literate , illiterate, gullible taking advantage of laxity in governance, corruption, ignorance and easy go culture in vogue knowingly or unknowingly developed with the invasion of liberalisation of rules under the guise of ease of doing business and lack of accountability seen anywhere and everywhere.The free and upper hand enjoyed by these types of business establishments can turn out to be a disaster and can definitely damage the reputation of authorities all around. Fraudsters adhere to a different KYC norms ( though not desirable ) which our own commercial establishments like banks, internet and mobile service providers fail to adhere although it is a strict requirement by rule.

 

 My objective of bringing a brief note is that such frauds and cheating of innocent, gullible public of all ages ignoring the impressions such perpetrators of frauds, tricksters, liars and cheats can create /  cause unpardonable  damage to the State’s and Nation’s  economy, image, very high culture, heritage, and civilisation and Law enforcing Authorities’ reputation, which by all means is avoidable and needs to be nipped in the bud itself however, or whatever  may be the might or powerful the people behind such business ventures. In the above referred case that I badly  experienced, I strongly feel that  the whole issue could have been  well avoided /handled better had the GOIBIBO taken  a little effort and care to ensure that only standardised and reputed service apartments and hotel come in their approved list and they are amenable to the norms and conditions well prescribed by the laws of the nation and the enforcement  authorities.The amount if at all refunded (though chances are very remote), would rather be spent in the upkeep of the room on my behalf or given for some charities.The most important aspect that I would like to highlight is that the technology commissioned by the GOIBIBO is customer friendly perhaps only to cheat or perpetrate fraud and the customer service support and seeking feedback and all is only an eyewash as the feedback sought by them will not reach them or is designed not to reach them as they know that the complaints are genuine and and their intentions / greed are met/is satisfied. This is my experience .My worldly knowledge /wisdom and understanding perhaps make me believe  that thieves, robbers, fraudsters outsmart others and authorities.as well. Survival for intelligent,  innocent, and ignorant people is becoming rather difficult.

I maintain a view that Tourists should carry some good image and impression of the state and places of their visits, the hospitality, the law and order situations, and a feeling of comfort, confidence, safety and well being and urge them to think of more of such visits often.       

I would like to emphasize here that the Success of businesses associated with the tourism Industry depends on their ability to make Travel And STAY more pleasant, Comfortable , memorable , highly reliable and trustworthy service. The authorities and all Service providers should feel proud of the facilities and hospitality they provide to tourists coming from India and abroad with lots of expectations from a fast developing nation. GOIBIBO definitely is a miserable failure by any standard and May God save them from disaster.  One can only feel ashamed the way they have modelled their business from my personal experience. Unfortunately, the authorities both the State Government and its police Department did not bother even to acknowldge the complaints is a poor reflexion of their sensitivity / apathy to public grievances.    

Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavanthu.

May God BLESS  US All  ALWAYS  and  IN All WAYS.

T V G Krishnan,

Honourable PM's Clarion Call

  PM MODI’s Clarion Call 

      I PROMISE To FACILITATE, You Must Promise to Innovate 

      I PROMISE STABLE POLICY REGIME, You Must Promise Positive Disruption

      I PROMISE Reform, You Must Promise to Perform

      I PROMISE HIGH GROWTH, You Must Promise High Quality

AT the inaugural edition of The Economic Times World Leaders Forum, Honourable PM Narendra Modi said, India is a land of opportunities and in its prosperity lies the prosperity of the world. ( ET dated 1/09 /24).

  

These are all words of Wisdom Coming from Noble thoughts and expectations of actions from all those who matter in the development of the Nation Politically, Economically, Socially and Technologically to ensure universal welfare for all. The Country has all the potential in terms of human and natural resources and the need of the hour is to use these resources optimally to benefit nature and  humanity. After all life is a  mystery and temporal whereas nature is perennial, all powerful and  provider of  everything that is needed  to sustain life. No doubt, Religion and Science provide the wherewithal,  guidance and support system to make the life wonderful, worth living enjoying the nature and adding to the comforts , discipline and order and bringing in some challenges of quality in living through evolutionary processes, civilisation, culture,  education and strong  administration to  avail  of all  opportunities and at the same time devoid of negatives for want of equality of Justice in the system.  Political Stability is sine qua non for the nation to look forward to developing the economy and provide social justice. The right leadership and the right direction of the economy can eliminate all stumbling blocks if any in moving  the economy forward without,  however, allowing rising of any malpractices which is an easy possibility in any democratic set up with a poor economic  background.

People the major beneficiaries of economic development should turn out to be watchdogs to prevent spread of corrupt practices and emergence of wrong doings taking advantage of lapses of administration, weaknesses of judiciary, and accountability of political set up.Wealth of the nation is for all to enjoy , but the way wealth is  generated, distributed, and deployed for further growth matters a lot and herein lies the smartness of the leaders and efficacy of the Governance system. Inequality in the generation and distribution of wealth needs to be minimized by provision of equality of opportunities in all respects. The key area perhaps requiring all round attention is reduction of Cost of Living , through reduction of Cost of  Education,Cost of  Production, Distribution, Marketing,  Traveling and  diligent elimination of Corrupt Practices seen practically in all areas of day to day life particularly of average person. The need for a very simple,  equitable and acceptable  tax system for all segments of the population and the economy is perhaps the KEY to kickstart the economy and bring in all round achievements to realize the dream of an advanced nation in terms of economic performance and welfare for all .From the development angle, a review of construction of Inflation Index, influence of GST, fuel levies, black money , corrupt practices seen in and around all high end consumption areas having both imported and domestic inflation impact would make sense followed by prompt corrective action. The proof  of pudding is in eating and not in the ingredients.        

Inorder to derive the full benefits of intended reforms, the time has come for all well intended people to perform well in their respective field with devotion, commitment, sincerity , utmost loyalty and above all  with adherence to the very noble  message of Bhagavat gita that  we should do our best and serve the respective profession with perfection and without expecting any self gain or reward. Reward comes in the form of national prospirity and welfare for all to share and rejoice.

Every institution and every individual irrespective of their stature in the overall system should feel highly proud of their involvement and contribution to take the country forward utilising all their potential and resources and see that the efforts they put in bring in benefits in terms of joy, delight. happiness, satisfaction and self actualisation. There should be unity of thoughts and actions among the Constitutional Experts, Administrators, Agriculturists,  Educationists, Financiers,Industrialists,Journalists, Law Enforcing authorities, Legislators, Religious Leaders, Scientists, Social Reformers, Technocrats and all Well Wishers who relish welfare of all in letter and spirit. The Year 2047 is not that far off to realise the dream of the developed world with the Readiness of All Citizens  under the leadership of the honourable  PM MAN OF DEVELOPING INDIA.

Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu. Hope the whole nation accepts the  promises,  works,  achieves and fulfills the aspirations of all everywhere.      

T V G Krishnan

( Personal Views )

Congratulations to Times of India Team

 Hearty Congratulations to the Times of India Team for its edition of 15th August 2024  i.e. India's 78th independence day for bringing out the  Independence Day Special supplement as an Advertorial and promotional feature presentation under the Title Leaders of Change. It is  not only a very timely and imaginative presentation but also the most appropriate,  very motivative and provokingly excellent food for thought  to the people of the Great Nation to introspect, act and  realise the dream of being a developed nation by 2047. The topics covered inter- alia include broadly Politics, Economics, Social and Technological aspects and provide enough of ideas  to all intellectuals and leaders engaged and sincerely interested in the development of the nation and making it a powerful economy of the world ensuring welfare of the humanity in the whole Universe in terms of peace, prosperity and fulfilment in every sense. Such a well intended and highly objective journalism would definitely add values and enrich the people a lot. Keep going strong and let us all be really proud of our nations' highly potential  capabilities, resources and  achievements. May God bless us All Always and in All Ways. 

Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu. 

TVG Krishnan 

(personal Views)

Deposits the Bread and Butter of Banks and THE DEPOSITORS as well.

 

         

          Deposits the Bread and Butter of Banks and the Depositors as well.

This refers to the  news report ' FM tells lenders to bulk up Deposits (ET 11th Aug)' .The need to enhance the deposits of banks is sine qua non for not only for  banks but also for the economy to realise the dream of the PM to make the  economy fastest growing  and realise the dream of our PM  to take the nation forward and outsmart other advanced economies to reach on top of the world by 2047. Banks, the most powerful engine for the growth of the economy, need to mobilise the savings of the masses particularly the household savings  lying in different forms searching for better returns, safety and liquidity despite high inflation, dwindling deposit rates, varieties of taxes  and risks of loss of savings itself in speculative ventures.Even the RBI Governor has goaded the banks to find innovative ways to augment deposits and minimise the mismatch between the deposits growth and credit growth. The fact that both the FM and the RBI Governor have  echoed the  same views on the need  for banks to augment deposits by all means , it should make the policy makers to introspect deeply on  arriving at the fundamental causes that lead to erosion  in  deposits, household  financial savings , diversion to speculative savings to make a little extra and think of a fresh approach to have well coordinated  fiscal and monetary policy measures through a well thought out economic policy. While the  Fiscal policy of the Government  can definitely incentivise the savers and banks to augment the deposits through tax changes  , the monetary policy of the RBI can definitely influence the banks to have innovative ways to attract deposits and quality credit deployment . Added to these, better, meaningful, result oriented administrative initiatives in enhancing the quality of Customer Service intended and rendered by banks at the ground level can do wonders in augmenting the deposits by leaps and bounds.  As long as the real rate of interest earned remains 0 or negative because of inflation and high cost of living , the banks cannot expect to mobilise  household savings and public cannot be expected to provide any  emotional and economic support  to the Government for all its economic development. Ground realities at micro level need to be understood and factored into while making economic policies  by policy makers and administrators while implementing the policies.       

Though  the  Middle class remains the backbone of any nation and the banking system remains the backbone of the economy the approach and treatment meted out to  the middle class  need to be reexamined, reviewed and effectively  managed diplomatically, logically, politically, financially  and socially in letter and spirit. Hope some sensible and noble thoughts and actions would follow from the authorities for a change in outlook in policies aiming at the welfare of the masses all round and  betterment of the economy covering all segments of the economy and faster growth of the country. 

Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu. 

T V G Krishnan

(personal Views )

Mysore Boat Ride in Karanji Lake. Very pathetic administration.

 I happened to visit the lake this Sunday the 28th July with family consisting of six members including two kids. Just for the sake of Kids, I purchased tickets at 12.20 Noon for six passengers for Pedalling Boat but it was a total chaos at the boarding place in the  absence of any organised approach to have a queue in order of tickets numbers and timing of Booking , distribution of jackets, priority for seniors and elders and kids to  have the ride. Might is right was the approach and literally pushing pulling and shouting were the arrangements to get into the boat. After spending an hour and finding no way of handling the crowd in a decent way, I decided to approach the counter clerk who was unfortunately found not only arrogant but also defiant of the way things are handled. Since argument with such insensitive fellows made no sense I decided to get back without going for the ride . I handed over the tickets to some uniformed person at the  main entrance of the Lake and in the absence of any supervisor worth the name advised the officials found  in Kwaki Uniform at the main entrance the matter and left the place for our good. It is not the question of loss of money but the way one carries an image of the arrangement and callousness  and insensitivity of the administration is something definitely avoidable if at all some attention and care are taken care of by those who manage the show. Only very few will take the pain to report out of love for the country and better image of the administration.  

Since Mysore attracts tourists from all over the world and having experienced by them top class arrangements in handling the crowd in a decent and highly organised manner, the expectation of the crowd in enjoying a visit to Mysore and having the joy of seeing the Mysore attractions in a dignified manner and carrying an image worth keeping for long is natural. But unfortunately the arrangement was missing and no semblance of any supervision and accountability for such a small avoidable lapse was found except for selling tickets .Very sorry state of affairs indeed. In this context, I would like to draw the attention of the readers to the concluding para of the  Editorial that appeared in Times of India dated 30th July 2024 "Cities Our tragedies" which says' Urban Chaos and zero oversight by municipal bodies are India's terrifying new normal.' 

Dr T V Gopalakrishnan.

     

RBIs message of ZERO TOLERANCE on Banks'Regulatory and Compliance lapses.

                             RBIs message  of ZERO TOLERANCE on Banks' Regulatory and Compliance lapses.

Apropos to the  news item RBI to Hand -Deliver a message of Zero Tolerance on lapses (Et 9/7/2024), the need to boost the trust in banks and bring them back to be the powerful engine of growth to the economy though mobilisation of deposits and judicious deployment of credit is paramount in the background of depleting household savings in banks and the need for expansion of growth of credit to the essential sectors of the economy to meet the target of the Government to achieve the status of a developed economy by 1947. Having ensured better management of credit portfolio through reduction of non performing assets of banks by solid steps, now it is time for banks to take care of depositors who provide the bread and butter to banks, by enhancing their entitled real  interest rates on their savings devoid of taxes , improved customer service particularly the elder and super senior customers and rebuilding the trust in banks which is  seen to be eroding for  no valid reasons other than the tendency to ignore the customers and adopt technology without human intervention and need based Artificial intelligence. The fiscal policies of the Government need to be essentially people and growth oriented and the financial system particularly the banking system which holds the key to ensure fast and equitable growth needs to be sufficiently strengthened and secured from fraudsters, fraudulent borrowers, misuse and abuse of technology and laxity in Governance standards. The proposed address by the Dy Governors to the Chief Financial Officers and External Auditors are very timely and this needs to be supported by the fiscal incentives from the Government through the ensuing budget to be presented on the 23rd of this month.

T V G Krishnan

( Views are personal)

Sustaining Capital Market and the Highly Bullish Sensex need Imaginative Fiscal policy.

 

Though the trend seen in the stock market is encouraging  due to both enhanced participation of retailers in the market and improved performance of the economy, the need to sustain the stability in the market and confidence in the economic growth is paramount to realize the dream of the Government to achieve the developed status for the economy by 2047.The fact, however, remains that the entire bull run does not seem to have  the full backing of the strong  fundamental macroeconomic factors like mass physical production and employment expansion in tune with the global expectations and also not so encouraging global trends in terms of growth, employment and favorable geopolitical conditions. Even domestically, the widening inequality and uncertainties seen in retail inflation in particular food inflation affecting national savings , employment, investment and production trends can have an adverse impact on the capital market as this segment alone cannot prove to be a support system to sustain the economic growth envisaged. No doubt political stability and the well deserved psychological boost provided by it so far in the system can do a lot of wonders , but the real success can be counted only through very imaginative fiscal and monetary policies capable of taking the full potential of the country to meet the global challenges seen politically, economically, socially and technologically. The capital market boost is welcome but needs to be  made healthy, reflective of all round progress in terms of sustainable savings, investment, employment, production and above all fair and equitable distribution of wealth. Rationalization of both direct and indirect taxes factoring therein the need to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, aiming at fair distribution of wealth created through dividend distribution, inflation control to help the poorest of the poor, enhancing the  household savings potential to generate demand for goods and services and  keeping the cost of production at reasonably low levels are perhaps some of the  the essential  measures available to the Government to achieve the economic growth  and keep the macroeconomic factors at encouraging levels. This may call for some harsh decisions  to include petroleum products under GST and rationalize GST rates in such a way that the change in rates does not add to inflation but helps to reduce the inequality between the haves and have nots through tweets in the rates by differentaiting goods and services which have inflationary and non inflationary impacts.For instance while any change in rates in respect of mass consumption items like food and travel which has cascading effects on inflation can be minimized where as change in the prices of luxury items like Gold , diamond, foreign travels and high luxury items which are non inflationary can be thought of to lessen the inequality and fair distribution of wealth. Security Transaction Tax and some other innovative products to augment revenues of the government without affecting the cost of living of the masses can also be thought of. The overall approach should be to generate more wealth to benefit all people through enhanced employment, productive investments, fair distribution of wealth through salaries, dividend, bonuses, etc and ensuring perfect and full  utilization of all resources without any leakage of income generation by capturing and improving quality data.  

         

                                Loka samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu 

T V G Krishnan