Bet on Betting- To combat inflation....

After months of joblessness, endless hours of idling,frittering eons watching some nonsense on tv and researching on why namibian tribals like ping pong, i finally decided to something that ideally i should have done approximately an eon ago, revive my blog. and what better way to do it than talking bout the topic that is currently everyones favorite, Inflation.

Like it or not, Inflation affects us all.From the price of the latest shade of lipstick, to the latest mobile phone accessory, it has affected everything.(Hell it costs two bucks to pee in tamil nadu, call it inflation in deflation). And anyone who has a beard, sports a pair of glasses and who knows some complicated economic terms, (PLR,CRR,ROY etc etc, sometimes aayo naga poetry sounds more familiar) is suggesting ways to combat this monster, on the idiot box. Hiking loan rates, reducing the flow of currency in the market, analysis of cost expense graph, makes them sound like intellectuals, and give an impression that govt is doing something to combat inflation(Trust me, they are doing their bit). But then for the mungeri lal on the street,only when tomato starts costin 10 bucks a kilo like good old days(and for some desperates, it takes only 50ps to pee) he will believe that inflation has gone southward. I am not manmohan singh to suggest how to achieve this goal, but try to give some out of the box methods that might just work.(Inspiration is Freakonomics, so if u find this post shit u know who is to blame).

Just for starters, theoretically, reduction in price will reduce inflation.And simple logic suggests that reduction in prices of oil will have a cascading effect on prices of all other commodities.It is because Oil plays a part in everything today, and i mean everything. Oil is needed in the cars that carry us to the trucks that carry our daily needs.Oil is there everywhere, from electricity generators to the latest shade of Elle 18. Reduce the price of oil and u have the mantra to reduce all prices,and in effect curb inflation. Sounds Very simple, Isnt it. But the moot point is how to reduce the price of this useful demon, when global prices resemble a lamborghini which has had its brakes disabled?

Oil,crude or whatever it is called is priced in a very complicated manner. And as India is a land of complications, the problem is more acute than the rest of the world. Sales tax, central excise, for our beloved central government, and then the state excise and VAT to ensure the survival of our state governments( and to help our beloved netas to trade in Mps, go on jaunts and and to buy gucci footwear costing a small matter of 50k). Add to all this, the profit component for the oil companies, and then the petrol bunk owners, fuel in India ends up costing twice or almost twice the global prices(Hell it costs 30 bucks a litre in Pakistan). Common sense says, all the government has to do to reduce inflation is that it has to reduce the price of oil. But then if it does, government argues that it will lose revenue. Agreed that it is important for our animal husbandries minister to visit Interlaken in Switzerland,loss of this major source of revenue cant be tolerated, and so this reduction will never come in our lifetime. Is there a way, where, government will get the revenue as it used to get, and at the same time, reduce the price of the black gold? yess there is, a bit wacky, a bit freakonomicky, but it can just work.

What i told above aint form an economic textbook, but plain logic. Its as simple as saying if u want water, dig a well. And sometimes answers to lifes problems are simple, but it is we who make it compicated. And the answer to the question of increasing revenues, well i quote Rahul Gandhi from Parliament, is diversification. We need to find more sources of income, more places where money can be generated. And most importantly, where the money is significant and substatntial. Agreed the ways and methods i suggest may attract the wrath and ire of the moral police, but when there is money, there is no time for morality, honey.

India, As i said is a land of complications, complications that are so complicated that it will be very complicated if i begin to explain the complications. Amdist these complications, there is one inherent quality in indians(well most of the indians), that is, everyone wants to earn money, without working hard(including urs truly). and we are willing to take a few risks, and we do try to seduce lady luck. What i am suggesting, is that we play on this attitude and encourage this seduction. What i am looking at is betting...legal betting.

Betting is a part of our culture, its a part of our philosophy and hell, part of our psyche.We have fought wars over lost bets, leveraged ourselves and our wives(Mahabharata my friends) on a wager. Agreed times have changed, but betting still remains firmly engraved in our minds. What i am saying is not new, and it is not news either. we hear random figures in papers, 400 crores riding on last weeks, parliament tamasha. And 4000 crores on the IPL final. And remember my friends these are unofficial and conservative. Truth definitely lies on a point that is higher than that mark. All i am saying is tap into that amazing amounts of cash, that today is completely illegal, and never gets to the government(though few govt employees see a part of this cash). All i am saying is legalize it.No harm in legalizing somethin that is already happening right.

Betting is this huge gravy train, that the government can ride on. And in India, there are dime a dozen events which u can bet on. From the monsoon to the parliamentary elections, everything is fair game to the bookies. They even take bets on Us election primaries, let alone the main presidential elections. And i have not even touched sports. 54 IPL matches, international matches, champions league, everything, is bettable and is betted upon.(And when football takes root in India,well the picture will be bigger than the canvas itself). Figures and reports say, that the IPL itself had 5 billion dollars riding on it at current rates amounts to bout 21,000 crores, enough to distribute 1000 bucks to every bangladeshi, and still have enough money to buy the rest of the countrys land. And again mind you these are conservative figures. Sources say illegal betting in India amounts to as much as 400-500k crores in an year. To put it relatively, enough to convert every running automobile in this country, into a Lambhorghini Gallardo
(now u know which is my avourite automobile), and buy a million more of them. And all this money is waste and goes into the hands of the elite few, whose lifestyle, is better left unsaid.

Legalizing betting is a complicated process, but can be done effectively. The model exists in Uk and Us where betting is completely legal and heavily taxed. We can invite the pioneers from Uk(Our foster parents after all) like betfair, ladbrokes to name a few, to come and set up shop n India. Let them evolve the rules and systems to deal with the Indian market, and more importantly Indians. And i am telling you they will be very happy,coz as i said there is a huge market here. Systems like online betting, real time betting(Betting on the next ball, Who will score how many apart from who'll win or lose) will make betting more of a science than something that is a lottery. We will have special analysts, pondering over technical aspects of the game and situations(Huge employment opportunity there for armchair critics, hey thats is one more problem, unemployment). Betting from home, will make the system so accessible that even a casual better can try his luck.Best part of all this is that the odds are arrived scientifically, using past 10 years data,so out goes ur fav bookie. And simply extrapolating the figures above, if bettings legalized, the stakes will zoom.Tax it, and u have a proverbial El dorado in the making.And the best part is, all these betting firms are registered companies, who have annual balance sheets, so the systems are transparent, no chance of foul play.If there is any inconsistency, strict action, including expulsion, should be a deterrant enough.As i said,only a fool will want to leave El dorado.

And what bout the tax structure?I ll leave that to the IRS guys, don wanna be a reason for unemployment yo see. But what i suggest is a very heavy tax structure, wel if u can earn easy money, might as well give some to the government. And it will work because the ocean is so vast, there will still be plenty left for the companies to make a profit(which is what they are established for). And these companies will keep striving for improving their product, so theyll put their money back into the country or their cash cow(invariably sports). So u can count on better facilities for athletes, better infrastructure and environment for sportsmen and better avenues and sources of entertainment for us.And undoubtedly, more innovative ways to make money. And the some part of the money that the government will get, will be written in the revenues column because of which the bottom line there will reflect a massive surge. Which will enable the government to reduce the taxes on the item that is taxed heaviest-read oil. This will reduce the prices, bring it down to global levels, and in the end reduce inflation here. Cant believe it, here is a small illustration,for guys who pay upto sixty bucks a litre for petrol, imagine one day u just pay 30 bucks, just think bout how much money u will save,or rather how much more u can spend. Just ponder, and u will find my idea tenable.

Not that it is not been tried before.Lottery constitutes upto 80 percent of the income earned by the states that are commonly called as seven sisters. And its no coincidence to note that the prices of fuel there are the cheapest. And it is not that betting firms arent interested, ladbrokes came to set up shop in mumbai, but was refused over moral grounds. All i am saying is, let us shed our cloak of morality, and legalize this awesome source of income. It will reduce prices and make us all happy, and isn't this what Mahatma Gandhi said Live and Let live....Let these betting agencies live and let the common man live..in peace and prosperity.