State of Media

While going through the news channels and the anchors in it,i feel bad at the quality of media and am concerned about the effects that this kind of media activism can bring in to the country. Other than a handful of journalists (and probably no mainstream press or TV channels) are there in our country who exists in the true spirit of journalism. Rather than bringing in the facts on an issue to the audience, they bring in their particular opinions also in to these and thus affecting the public's thoughts on such a matter. What is more annoying is the purposeful efforts from these entities to create a public opinion in favor or disfavor of a particular person or organisation (paid news scandal is an annoying example to depict this fact). PTI cheif Justice Markandey Katju, in an interview with Karan Thapar has argued that the intellectual level of the Indian media is very poor and it deliberately creates divide among the people. He says that this part of history, where India is moving out from feudal system to a more liberal system, media has a powerful role to play. He is also concerned about the illiteracy among media activists on economics, politics,literature, sociology etc.Well,these concerns on media has been highlighted by many people in recent years and there is no great meaning in repeating those arguments here. What we have to muse upon is a solution to this problem.

I thought on superimposing a different story to this state of media in our country. The story of the growth of quality of movies in our country. It has widely been accepted that the quality of our main stream movies has increased in the past couple of years. Though we have a long way ahead before getting at par with the Hollywood and French movies,the future of the film industry in terms of quality seems to be hopeful. What has been the factors contributing to this change? The film makers who used to take those "masala" movies with stereotype dialogues and songs are still out there. What has changed is the quality of audience. The demand for "masala" has decreased and the demand for better quality movies has increased. The exposure that the Indian audience got to the Hollywood and other industries,especially after the liberalization policies of 1991 have heightened the standard of audience of the country. The efforts by some channels to bring in more 'film-literacy' to the audience through subtitles and translation of foreign movies needs to be appreciated. This has kept film makers on toes and has forced them to come out of their 'formula' films. 

Similarly, a decrease in the demand for the less quality news and analysis is probably the only way through which we can reduce the negative media- activism. This can arise only through educating the masses on good journalism and exposing them to the quality programmes available elsewhere. Such an educated mass can keep the media on toes and to bring in contents which are really helpful for the masses. It also has lot of backward and forward linkages. It can also affect the quality of politics and political institutions in our country and lead us to a better democracy.

Banking as a Fundamental Right of People!

Courtesy- RBI Website

Address by Dr. K.C. Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, at the 27th National Conference of the AIBEA at Kochi on February 9, 2013

Com. Rajen Nagar, President and Com. C H Venkatachalam, General Secretary of All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), Shri P. Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor, The Hindu, Prof. Victor Louis Anthuvan, other office bearers of the AIBEA, Office bearers and delegates from other trade union bodies, guest delegates from abroad and dear friends. I am extremely happy to be here today in Kochi in the “God’s Own Country” to address this gathering of fellow bankers at this National Seminar organized as part of the 27th National Conference of the AIBEA. The fact that the AIBEA is one of the oldest and widely respected associations of Bank employees is made clear by the fact that Deputy Governor of RBI could not say no to a call from Mr. Venkatachalam, your General Secretary.

2. Having said that, I would admit that I have come here with a vested interest. Vested interest in the sense that the subject you have selected for this seminar is very close to my heart; to the hearts of the senior management in the Reserve Bank of India. Also, being in-charge of the administration and human resource in the Reserve Bank of India, which is the regulator of the entire banking system in India, we want a responsible and strong trade union system in the banks because we feel that strong trade unions are a pre-condition for strong managements in the banks. I will come back to this issue a little later.

3. It is, indeed, very heartening to note that the AIBEA has organized this conference on the theme “Meeting the Challenges of the Decade”. In fact, this could very well have been titled “Meeting the Challenges of the Century”. The banking system is unlikely to face the kind of challenges that it has been facing for the last 4 -5 years. The challenges for the banking and financial sector are, indeed, gargantuan as is revealed by a recent survey conducted by research firm StrategyOne, across the globe. The interview based survey involving some 30,000 people in 25 countries has identified the financial services and banking sectors as the world’s least-trusted industry for the second year in a row. The financial crisis has dealt such a blow to the people that they have lost faith in the banking system. Globally, the basic challenge for the industry at the present juncture is, therefore, to restore the credibility and trust that the banking and finance profession enjoyed before the onset of the Financial Crisis. I hope the Conference is focusing on these challenges that the banking industry currently faces and is critically deliberating on the role that the bank employees, as the most important stakeholder, can play in managing them. I am sure that discussions held during these four days would trigger new thought processes and help chalk out future course of action for the employees to make the Indian banking system not just more efficient and  resilient but also socially more relevant.

Role of the Trade Unions

4. Over the years, the trade union movement has played a very important role. Across the globe, they have not only been instrumental in preventing exploitation of the employees but have also brought dignity to labour. Not only this, the unions also play a very important role in bringing equity and social justice into the system and preventing managements from inflicting exploitative practices, not only on the employees but also on the society at large.

Happiness Economics

“There is nothing good or bad; thinking makes it so.”  - William Shakespeare

I have always wondered on the difference between ‘my world’, ‘your world’ and ‘THE world’. This has prompted me to think on growth, development and success from various viewpoints.  I have also wondered on the excessive importance placed by our policy makers and the media on the economic indicators like GDP. While I understand that ‘money’, ‘wealth’, ‘richness’ and ‘finance’ are all greatly important at micro and macro levels, I have felt that we often exaggerate the importance of these terms in our personal and public lives. There is a great importance for non-financial variables also in our lives and society. This thought has prompted me to use my dissertation in my quest to find the meaning and aim to which we perform all our businesses in life. Many a times, we call this ‘feeling’ that we would like to attain, or the level of ‘satisfaction’ that we aim in our activities as “HAPPINESS”. Hence, I had combined my interest in economics and my thoughts on aim and meanings of life’s activities to name my subject area of dissertation in my master's course, to be broadly called ‘HAPPINESS ECONOMICS’.

Thus, I came to see studies on happiness for the last few decades. Studies before 1970s were mainly from psychology and other related social sciences. Economists became more interested in it after Easterlin’s study (Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence; 1974). Bruno S. Frey, AloisStutzer, David G Blanchflower , Andrew J Oswald, Richard Layard, Daniel Kahneman etc. have made contributions to this field.