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Why Did I decide to lose my 70,000?

For all the financial decisions, people say that you should always look at the larger picture and strategic goals in life and this weekend I did the same. After giving a lot of thought process finally I decided to bite the bullet by surrendering my LIC Jeevan Anand policy which was indeed a wrong investment. In the process I will have to lose my 70K out of the premium deposited so far.

I know first reaction from everyone would be why? This is expected because every one of us must have heard the LIC agent saying that “Jeevan Anand” is the most selling and best rewarding policy from LIC. Today, I would like to question that with the rationale behind my decision. I hope you would agree to me by the time you will finish reading this article.

Current Scenario:

I had a Jeeven Anand policy since 2007 with an annual premium of 28,260 with sum assured of 7lakhs. If all goes well, I would have received around 14.0Lakhs (considering last 5 years historical payout ratio of the same plan) at the maturity in 2032. This is an annual return of 4.5% over a 25 years period. If some mishap happens, you get your investment along with 100000 as bonus and sum assured. In total, it should not be more than 14-15 lakhs for sure. The surrender value of my investment is 89000 as on date.

• Total life cover: 7 lakhs (for next 20 years)

• If not availed total amount paid at maturity – 14lakhs. (subject to change depending on certain parameters set by LIC in future)

Revised Planning:

I have bifurcated my insurance and investment. I have opted for a 50 lakh life cover via a term insurance for which I have to pay around 4,260 (Agon Religare online plan for non-smoker, non-drinker) every year for next 20 years.

Another Investment that I have planned is recurring deposit of the same premium amount minus the term insurance premium to PPF on monthly basis. So I will be putting 2000 {(28260-4260)/12} in my PPF account every month for next 20 years. Considering the current annual rate of 8.25% this investment will fetch me around 12.2 lakhs and if I add the 89,000 that I have received as a surrender value the amount reaches to 16.9 lakhs. This amounts to a net profit of 2.9 lakhs over the rest of the policy term.

Do not forget in the revised planning, my life coverage is more than 7 times what I had with Jeevan Anand. Also, the investment made via PPF is dual tax beneficial (at the time of investment and redemption both) and moreover, after 5 years I may withdraw upto 50% of my investment if some urgency required which is not a case if I continue investing in Jeevan Anand. (I can avail a loan but interest on loan taken is always on the higher side). Hence summary of the revised planning-

• Life cover for next 20 years – 50 lakhs

• Assured return of 16.9 lakhs at the end of 20th year.

• This also gives a flexibility to withdraw up to 50% of your investment after 5 years.

Summary:

It’s always good to separate your insurance and investment. Just think if I had started investing this 2000 six years ago in PPF in place of LIC Jeevan Anand and the corpus would have been 1.9 lakhs today. But it is said better late than never. I took a hard decision where I have notional loss of 70k but by the time policy gets matured I will be benefited by around 3 lakhs with a life cover of more than 7 times what my current policy was offering.

Food for thought:

For someone at the age of 25, starts investing 200/day in PPF, this will fetch him a corpus of 1.5 Crores (considering an annualized return of 8.25%) by the time he will retire at the age of 60.

Thank You PAPA!!!

Laxman, a daily wage laborer whose livelihood mainly depends on the tiny amount he gets from loading and unloading stuffs of my building material shop run by my father and a fare that he gets from his manual three-wheeler. When asked, how much he manage to make in a month and how much he is able to save. To my surprise, he said he manages to earn around 6000 per month and has taken life insurance policies for himself and his wife and never defaulted for any of the premiums. Asking about what is he targeting next… He says- “I am saving for the marriage of his daughter who is just 10 and his son who is 12 and whom he wants to become a graduate someday so that his son had not to do what he is doing today”. I could sense a clear determination and dream in his eyes. I got emotional when I heard this. A man with 200 rupees of earning per day has a dream and he is trying to achieve his dream in his own limited way. I said to him, make your son graduate and I will make sure that he gets a job. He was delighted and there was a special spark in his eyes to hear this.

When I shared this to my dad, he said something very significant and I was left with moist eyes. He said – “Whatever he is trying to achieve today for his kids is something what I wanted some 20 years back with Rs. 1000 as my monthly earnings. I was doing the same thing what Laxman is doing today but I always wanted that my kids get the best education possible and I was determined to make this happen. I had to compromise on many of the basic necessities in my life but I made sure that you and your sister do well in studies. I always tried to give the best with the limited resources available to me and I do not have any regret after seeing you and Chanda with whatever you have achieved.” He made me first graduate in the family and first MBA in my village. My sister became the second graduate in commerce and would become a post graduate by December this year. A dream that started decades ago and got a shape as time progressed. I think I am blessed to have a father like him who always wanted me to do well so that I can make a difference. Today when people appreciate his effort I can sense the proudness he carries but at the same time I do not forget it has come with a lots of sacrifices my family had to make.

After looking back, I notice that no matter whatever heights I attain in my professional and personal life, it is this background which always holds me grounded and I feel really lucky to go through all these because life’s biggest lesson is hidden in this journey. The more I grow the more grounded I feel as time progresses. Also, this gives me so much of strength that if my father can have a dream of making me and my sister graduate with a tiny thousand rupees of earning per month, for me sky should be the limit. Just wish and hope that I will make it big one day and make my parents more proud for whatever he has done for me and my family.

With Love,

Nandlal

I regret that I could not send you to an Engish medium school

Down Memory Lane:

• 27th Apr 2005: My dad was a proud man because I became the first one in my family to complete Graduation. BUT He said "I regret that I could never send you in an English Medium school..."
• May'05-07: I was working on English so that I can make it big someday and finally got it to full-time MBA. It took me two years to bridge the gap that i had missed in twelve years of school education. Finally It paid off...
• May'07-09: MBA with distinction while availing 60% fees as scholarship. Also awarded "Best All Rounder of the Batch 2009".
• May’09-12: Worked with MNCs like BNYMellon and Ernst & Young.
• Apr’13: Handling multi-county, multi-currency deals, budgeting, planning and reporting at NIIT Technologies.

My dad is again proud with no regrets any more.... :-)

One sentence made all the difference....  Never thought tat I would be able to do it but thanks papa for all the support to make it happen.

Treasure Every Moment You Have

To realize
The value of a sister
Ask someone
Who doesn't have one.

To realize
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.

To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a still born.

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
who has given birth to
A premature baby.

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize
The value of one hour:
Ask the lovers who are waiting to Meet.

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
The value of one-second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident...

To! realize
The value of one millisecond:
Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics

Time waits for no one.

Treasure every moment you have.
You will treasure it even more when

you can share it with someone special.

To realize the value of a friend:
Lose one.

- Unknown

2nd Term in Delhi: One year Completed!!

Hi all,

It has been exactly once year since I shifted to Delhi from Pune. What a time I had in Pune both personally and professionally. Even after one year, all the memories are still afresh as if it has happened just couple of weeks ago. Never the less, last one year in Delhi has been equally exciting and challanging and I am enjoying every moment of it.
Previously, I was in Delhi during Aug 2002 to May 2009 for my education but When I returned to Delhi on 30th Mar 2011, For me it was a different Delhi altogether. Be it a lot of flyovers, smooth & wide roads with proper lighting or be it nice, comfortable and compact low floor AC buses. Thanks to Common Wealth Games due to which Delhi was blessed with all these aminties. I am not sure how much cost it has paid in real sense but It resulted into a better infrastructure in Delhi for sure.
Joining one of Big Fours as my second job after BNYMellon India in Pune was quite exciting and challanging too. But with time I did come to the terms and made my space in some time. My thanks to all my friends and well wishers who supperted and guided me whenever I was in doubt. Also, Let me accept the fact that I am blessed to be associated with some eminant personalities in the industry along with my teachers from IBS and my school days, who are just a cal away. Their input has always been encouraging and it made my life easier to take any decision. My gratitute to all of them for being so kind and humble to me.
There has been so much developments on both political and financial front in the last year but I could not write about those development but now onwards, I have promised to myself that I will be regular with my blogs.

Will come back with some new topics and issues in the coming weeks....

Regards,
Nandlal

Railways getting derailed

On Feb 25, 2011 when Railway minister Mamta Banarjee rose in the parliament to start her railway speech, the whole country was watching it with lots of hope and expectations. By the end of the speech it was evident that It is nothing more than a populist budget. General public would be happy to know the fact that there in once again no increase in fairs (both general and freight). Along with that there are few routine additions of trains, some got extended routes and few got the daily run in place of bi-weekly or tri-weekly. Everything was on the expected lines as it was highly influenced by the coming West Bangal’s state assembly elections. She had to take that factor at the top of everything and no matter who comes in next as the minister (Its very likely that She has a good chance of winning the election and she would go to state politics).

Having said that, there certain issues that needed real attention that the minister has failed to do. It has been 7 years since the general fair has not been touched. This being a very sensitive and politically motivated thing, it was never an easy for any of the Railway minister to do so. Nitish Kumar was the last one who dared to do so to make sure that It does not get out of the track. With a account deficit of almost 2,500 Crores for the current year, It was very important to have some long term plans so that it come out of this mess and we are better prepared for long term. In last one year, operating expenses has increased from 75% to almost 95%, however the minister has claimed that its still around 84%. Never the less, the way things are going on, I am sure next year, railway will once again go to net losses. Above that, as an institution, the railway has its own problems. There have been quite a few management issues in the recent past and even the minister is considered and criticized by media being more close to West Bangal focusing on state election than on railways. She was lucky enough to get rid of it due to our coalition politics.

In long term, railways need a revamp as far as infrastructure is concerned. Unlike this year, we always have fright charges going up and it adds to the inflation that too indirectly to the common man. Railways is banking on the fact that there are many routes where there are no other options than railways as a transportation mode. So no matter whatever the charges they would put, no one is going to question till the time it is adding the value in top and bottom line of the balance sheet. But, now when revenues are almost stagnant and expenses are going high like anything, one has to look into this more closely and come with some short of solution so that in long term, railways could be sustainable. Also, on the infrastructure side, since 1950, we have been able to add just 12,000 kilometers of the expansion to make it a net of 62,000 km. I am afraid its too too little in this much long period.

Having stated the issues, there are few things that railways can do in near future. Someone has to go out there and look for a complete over hall of it for the betterment of everyone in long term. With a profit margin of 30% no financial institution will be shy away to provide the funding for its expansion. Also, to make sure that it is not going to mess once again like it did prior to Nitish Kumar tenure, the government has to look at it closely and take some concrete actions so that its back on track. Major issue with railways is, whatever initiative you take, it takes sometime to get visible and this is one of the reasons, political parties do not get motivated to go and take the bold steps. BUT the time has come to see the long term view and take some hard steps. Its better to have some pain rather being perished. I hope some one in the government is having the same view and we will see some action on this after the Bangal elections. 

How to Plan Financial Life

What is Financial Planning?

Financial planning is the roadmap to realise and achieve financial goals in life. Everyone has financial goals in life. These goals may include:
• Planning for children’s education
• Planning for children’s marriage
• Buying a house or buying a second larger house
• Buying a car
• Enjoying a vacation with family every year
• Living a comfortable retirement life without any compromises
• Leaving behind an estate for children
Through proper financial planning a person can accomplish all the above goals. Given this it is so scary to know how less people know about money. As they say “Being wealthy is not about how much you earn or what you do. It is just a matter of proper Financial Planning”. Financial planning can help a person identify his / her goals, invest towards achieving those goals and regularly review the investments every year to make sure they are on track to meet the desired goals. In short financial planning is a journey and not a destination.

Financial Planning Stepping Stones 
The process of financial planning is divided into seven steps. Let us try to understand the process of financial planning with the help of an example. 

Ajay is an MBA working for a MNC and is reasonably well placed. Ajay is married, has a 7 year old son Karan. Ajay stays with his parents. Ajay’s parents are retired and are dependent on Ajay. Ajay now wants to buy a new home and start saving money for his child’s education and marriage and his own retirement. He would also like to go on a short vacation once every year. 

Let us see how financial planning can help Ajay realize his goals with a high degree of certainty. The first step to financial planning is to assess the strengths and the risks involved.

Strengths:
Ajay is (30 years of age). That means a 30 year investment horizon till retirement.
Ajay has regular income @ 8 Lakhs per annum
Ajay is debt free and has no financial liabilities. 

Risks Involved: 
Ajay is sole bread earner of the family. 
Ajay’s parents are old and hence more susceptible to health issues. 
Now keeping Ajay’s example in mind let us see how the process of financial planning works.

1. Emergency / Reserve Fund
This is the first step of financial planning. Ajay should have a reserve fund equivalent to meet his 3 to 6 months expenses. A reverse fund is needed for the purpose of covering unforeseeable expenses like medical emergencies or temporary job loss etc. With an adequate reserve fund Ajay will not be required to dip into his investments in times of crisis.

2. Insurance
Life is full of uncertainties and so it is imperative that one has adequate insurance cover to help mitigate the risks that might arise due these uncertainties. A term insurance plan for Ajay would ensure that the family’s survival is not at stake in Ajay’s absence. Ajay’s insurance cover should be equivalent to the present value of his future earnings till his retirement. Also Ajay should buy a good health insurance policy for the entire family to take care of any expenses that might arise due to medical emergencies. Ajay’s parents are dependent on Ajay. If his parents get hospitalised due to some critical illness the huge hospital bill can burn a big hole in Ajay’s pocket. 

3. Child Education Fund
Ajay wants his son Karan to become a doctor. Ajay wants to start saving for his son’s education from now onwards. If the cost of the course as on today is Rs. 10 lakhs then the same course will cost Rs. 41,77,248 (Rs. 42 lakhs approximately) 15 years down the line if the cost of education increases by 10% (inflation) every year. If Ajay wants to reach this target of Rs. 42 lakhs 15 years down the line then he will have to start investing Rs. 9300 per month (Rs. 1,12,000 per annum) if his investments earn him a return of 12% per annum. 

4. Child Marriage Fund
Ajay wants to start saving for his son’s marriage from now onwards. The marriage is planned 18 years from now. If the cost of an normal wedding as on today is Rs. 6,00,000 then the same marriage will cost Rs. 33,36,000 (33.36 lakhs) 18 years down the line if marriage expenses increase by 10% (inflation) every year. If Ajay wants to reach this target of Rs. 33.36 lakhs 18 years from now then he will have to start investing Rs. 5000 per month (Rs. 60,000 per annum) if his investments earn him a return of 12% per annum. 

5. Buying a House
Ajay wants to buy a house worth 25 lakhs 3 years from now. For this he will have to make a down payment of Rs. 5 lakhs (20% margin money). He will have to start setting aside Rs. 13,000 every month in a recurring deposit account. 

6. Annual Vacation
Ajay wants to go for an annual vacation every year. This will cost him anywhere in the range of Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 40,000. Ajay can make provision for this from his monthly cash flows. He can set aside Rs. 3,500 from his monthly salary in a recurring deposit account and withdraw the money at the end of the year and go for a vacation at the end of the year. 

7. Retirement Planning
With advancement in medicine and technology the life expectancy of individuals is on the rise, this means more number of years of retirement. Therefore in order to reduce dependency on others; individuals must start working early on building their retirement corpus. Ajay wants to live a comfortable retirement life. So he wants to start investing for it from today itself. Based on his current monthly expenses Ajay can calculate his retirement expenses assuming an average inflation rate of 5%. And accordingly Ajay can start investing from today onwards to build his retirement nest. 

8. Asset Allocation
Ajay needs to invest for various goals like Karan’s education and marriage, his own retirement. Ajay can invest in a mix of asset classes like equity mutual funds, fixed income securities, commodities etc. to meet these goals. Initially Ajay can have a higher exposure to equity mutual funds. As his age goes on increasing he can change his asset allocation and go on gradually reducing the equity exposure and go on gradually increasing the fixed income securities exposure. 

9. Tax Planning
Ajay should make sure that while choosing his investment instruments he gets maximum income tax benefits. Under various Sections of the Income Tax Act (like Section 80C, 80D, 80E, Section 24) an individual can avail deduction from taxable income. 

Conclusion
In this way with Ajay’s example we have seen how proper financial planning can help a person plan for all his financial goals and start investing towards achieving these goals. Also financial planning is not a one time process. It is an ongoing activity wherein the investments need to be reviewed year after year till the targets are not achieved. Also above we have mentioned the Financial Planning is a journey and not a destination. 

Disclaimer: The above information is collected from various sources. Readers are requested to investigate themselves & take legal & professional advice before entering any tie-ups.

Jatkauli- A Village with special Attention

On 27^th of January, Central Bank of India In collaboration with Red Cross society have selected my village “Jatkauli” as one of 100 villages across the country for the social development in healthcare and education along with financial inclusion. It has been done to mark Bank’s 100 year of operation this year. Under the program, the selected villages will be having a special attention by the bank for its social development that includes health care services, Education loans, Agricultural activity loans and other initiatives to enhance the standard of living of the village.

Jatkauli, A village with around 850 household and roughly a population of 5000 people is situated near Vaishali, a famous pilgrim place of Buddha. On the occasion, in the supervision of its Muzaffarpur zonal office, 2 people have been allotted the Auto loan, 29 people have been selected for self-group for financial help and also 400 school children got the gift of their bank account. Along with that with the help of Red cross society, 400 people got free health check-up.

My association with Central bank has been for last 4 years as I had applied for my education loan for my MBA Program. It was surprising to see that my loan application was the first case of an education loan of amount higher than 4 lakhs in its 30 years of history. It shows the kind of education and social backwardness of the nearby area. Having said that, in last 5 years or so I have notices many families has sent their children for the higher education to make their life better and convenient. I feel proud to be one of them.

With the initiative by Central Bank and Red Cross will surely help the people of my village to improve their lives and will add immense value as far as education and healthcare is concerned. A village which is still waiting for its first high school, first bank, first hospital…. The list is endless, would be looking forward to this initiative. I hope in future many more such organizations should come forward to help the people to uplift their lifestyle. A well thought step by the Bank and I am truly truly thankful to them for this noble cause.

Thanks a lot for your contribution

On this republic day, on a different note, I tried to recall people who has made me able to reach me wherever I am today. It’s a small token of love from my side for all the blessings and love they have shown for me.

1.        Raghuwansh Pd. Singh & Uma Shankar Singh, ABVM School, Bidupur

This was the time when I was just 7 and was put into hostel. These two people made me realize that there is place called Boarding school as good as home and for the betterment of my life my dad has put me there. I still recall the period when I grew up with love and affection of these two people during my boarding days.

2.        Pramod Ranjan & Mrs. Kumkum Rani, DAV High School, Hajipur

I shifted to DAV High school in 1996 for my further schooling. I completed my 10^th (called matriculation) in year 1999. The contribution of these two people has been immense. Even today, I go to them take their blessings whenever I get a chance. It was not their teaching that helped me but moreover the kind of inputs these people inculcated in me that has shaped my character for my entire life. All credit goes to these two for all the good things I have since long.

3.        Kameshwar Singh

Although I completed my 1oth from a private boarding school but the syllabus was based on the Bihar Education Board, that has English as one of the subject, rest of the subjects were in Hindi medium. Here is man, a 24 year old person who impressed me like anything. I went to him and devoted my next 3 months for English. I was upgraded to his 3^rd batch on the basis of my learning and hard work. And that day I realized that If I have to go ahead in life, this is the language that will help me reach there. Just to mention, If this was the beginning, during my stay at Patna, Dr. Asif Anwer was the person who helped me to polish my English. I was awarded the best speaker of the batch and headed towards Delhi with lots of hope and aspirations in life.

4.        Vimal Bansal & Neeraj Nagpal, During my graduation

There are few people in life who comes like a little surprise and gives you so much that you cherish it for a long long time. These two people fall in that category. The contribution has been so immense that I am not able to put it down BUT I am pretty happy that the blessing of these two is still with me like always.

5.        Sugandha Tuli

Well, If I could get an idea of doing MBA, it was this lady who shown me the door. Believe me  before meeting her in May 2005, I did not know even what is CAT is all about?? She was the one who guided me and today I am here crossing all the hurdles and working with one of the best companies in India to work with.

6.        Ankur Jain & DhruvaJyoti Banik, TIME New Delhi

Once decided that I will be preparing for MBA entrance Exams, These were two people who shaped my preparation in their own way. Dhruva is the one person who polished me for DI and also GD/PI. My score of 92+ percentile at both of my CAT attempts is dedicated to him only. Ankur sir has his own “pedagogy” that he had used for himself and almost everyone had written off his this idea. I took it as a chalange and believe me it was a real task to come to his expectations. Today No one can even say that I have done all my schooling in Hindi medium and I can say after looking at the sentence whether this is sounding correct or incorrect. This is something that He has given me.

7.        V Shekhar, Vivek Bhatia, A. Gopalakrishnan, Dr. K P Chinda- ICFAI BUSINESS SCHOOL

The 2 years of MBA was something that I will cherish for my entire lifetime. There were many people with whom I interacted and there were so much to imbibe from each of them. Still there were few with whom I shared a special bonding and this is still today. These three people went out of their way and guided and helped me to make me a better individual and better professional.

Apart from there have been many people whom names I would not have been able to include here but their contribution is equally important towards the goal that I achieved so far.  I am humbled and my gratitude is towards everyone who has been a part of my life throughout. A special thanks to my school/college mates Aditya, Abhishek, Rajeev (Dadhi), Bhupesh, Chotu, Chandan, Prabhash, Mamta, Deepu, Suman, Mayank, Kanika, Fida…… and the list goes on for being there whenever I need them.

Regards-

Nandlal

IPL4 - The show has just began

The much awaited auctions for the players for the coming 3 editions of IPL took place this weekend. Live coverage on MAX shows its popularity and with Ad rates going up to three times to the normal add fees for the event has proved its critics wrong who thought that this would not be a mega event. Max has made crores of rupees to begin with.

More than 300 players including 48 Indian cricketers were on sale and at the end of the day We had many Carorpaties in their twenties without playing “Kaun Banega Carorepati”.  At the same time, there were some great names who were not considered fit or efficient enough to even at their base price. The game was played by 10 IPL team franchisees and with a $90 million in their kitty, They played it at their best. Different team owners had different approach towards the auctions. Defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) wanted to retained as many as players they can from their last composition and they were able to retain 9 out their 11 playing 11 that won last edition of IPL for them. They must be disappointed to lose out Murlidharan to team Kochi at a staggering 1.2million dollars BUT Murli must be having a last laugh with 5 crores in the kitty. On the other side teams like Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were in the complete overhaul of their teams and the way they picked up the players it showed it. There were many who got confused about their approach and landed into a 50-50 situation. Team Kochi, Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils were in this category. Rajasthan Royals were the most unfortunate to have just 7 million dollars in their kitty and it impacted their selection of players.

Overall, Gautam Gambhir became the highest bid player with a auction price of 2.2 million dollars followed by Yusuf Pathan, Robin Uthappa and Rohit Sharma who also got couple of million dollars. The most surprising was Irfan Pathan who got 1.9 Million dollars, time will say if it was a wise decision. From the overseas players Sri Lankan stalwarts Muridharan, Jayawardhnae, Dilshan and Sangakara were among the top paid individuals. In the celebration of all the big money getters we must not forget that there were big names like Saurav Ganguly, Gale, Lara, Bouchar, Gibbs and Swann who were unsold. It shows that no matter how good you were at some point of your career, If you do not fit in the current scheme of things of these teams, You will not be considered.

If I look at the current team standings, CSK and Mumbai Indians are looking most formidable as they had retained all their 4 major players before the auctions. Team Pune has shown a lot of promise in picking up the players and they have a very good unit. RCB and KKR is also looking very good shape after the overhaul. Rest 5 have to make things happen and may be work harder than ever to make a presence felt in the coming season starting in Apr.

At last, No matter what happens to teams’ owners and their revenues and top and bottom lines, these players have become richer by leaps and bounds in last couple of days. I am sure even Umesh yadav (sold to DD for 950,000 dollars) would not have dreamt of having this money for himself, but this is what a auction can provide you. The calculations suggests that it will take another 3-4 years for most of team to reach the break-even and god forbid in case the event fails in between, there will be millions of dollars at stake. I hope and pray this would not happen in coming future. Looking forward to another extravaganza in Apr where we will have 10 teams fighting for the title of 4^th edition of IPL. 

IPL4 - The show has just began

Bihar Elections 2010: A view from sideline

A history has been created with a massive win by the NDA Alliance in Bihar in the current state assembly Elections 2010. Getting a more than Three-Fourth majority was not an easy task though everyone was expecting NDA to come to the power for the second term, BUT with this scale, probably even Its party leaders too would not have estimated. It has witnessed a second largest landslide victory in the history of Indian democracy after 1984 National Elections where Rajeev Gandhi had a remarkable win due to absence of any formidable opposition. The results in itself shows the maturity of the Bihar Voters who has come out of caste-creed politics which was prevailed for almost 3 decades in Bihar. The people of Bihar has voted for development and with this win their expectations has gone much much higher than It was 5 years ago when Nitish Kumar Came to the power for the first time.

There were certain fascinating statistics as far as this election is concerned. For the first time in Bihar election history, Women had come out in large numbers to cast their votes in this election. Not only that they (52%) have left men (50%) behind in percentage term for the number of votes casted. It is a very good sign for the future of Bihar where women are getting their voice. It will help towards women empowerment and self development in the state in coming time. There has been many scheme and initiatives for women on the ground and It has replicated into votes in the favor of Nitish Kumar. Not only state has witnessed a second best growth rate of over 11% after Gujrat in last 5 years of Nitish period but also it has also witnessed the highest number of girls child enrollment in the history of Bihar at schools. Be It Free school dress to all the children getting the enrollment, Mid-day meal or free bicycle for all the boys and girls enrolling in class 8^th onwards. It has also added a huge number of classrooms and schools for better education and living for the children of Bihar. All these have motivated people in general to send their kids to school. All this has provided the people of Bihar a hope that this progress and good work can be retained and given a second change even this can be made better.

Lets recall about some of the facts on which the Nitish and company has fought this election. There was a issue of Caste vs Development before the elections but I am afraid how can you fight an election on this basis where these two should not be even compared. RJD & LJP alliance fell in trap of brand “Nitish” and his development work done during last 5 years. Do not forget, Bihar had witnessed a lawlessness state of situation for 15 years and things were never easy for Nitish Kumar. Having said that the commitment shown by the chief Minister is of immense appreciation. In last 5 years, Bihar has seen as many as 1500 bridges along with hundreds of kilometers of roads being build (literally build as there were hardly any road left in most part of the state). Also we must not forget the efforts and initiatives to bring law and order in place. This is something Bihar will cherish for a long time.

With this kind of mandate, the path ahead will not be easy either. The expectation and hope from the people of state is immense and It will require ever greater effort and commitment to come to the terms in next 5 years. We have witnessed the development in certain areas but still there is a lot left to do in the state. Three major challenges that Nitish Government has to tackle is corruption, Power and Investment in different sectors including industry, education and healthcare. But with the kind of commitment and track record, It may seem extreme difficult but It will not leave any stone unturned to reach there. What he has done was like an impossible task when he resumed office in 2005 so we hope that Bihar again will have a bright future with the brand Nitish Kumar.