Consider this: the price of any CNG-run auto-rickshaw running on the Delhi roads is something around Rs 1,30,000. Yet, the buyer eventually ends up paying around Rs 4,50,000 for the same. Sounds shocking? Well, that’s what licensing system does. To make sure that
the number of auto-rickshaws plying on Delhi roads don't go beyond the stipulated, it is mandatory for the buyer of a new auto-rickshaw to deposit an old one. And as it creates a major demand of the old and rusted auto-rickshaws, their owners make a killing by selling the old ones to the people who want to buy a new auto. The average price of a junk auto rickshaw, whose scrap price in the market won't be more than a few thousand rupees, then becomes nothing less than two lakh. In fact, there are instances where middlemen buy such junk autos in scores to make a fortune later. And, thanks to the hassles faced by buyers while seeking a bank loan to buy a new vehicle, they (mostly poor and lower middle class) often end up taking money from private financiers at high interest rates. All of it together takes up the price to the tune of Rs 4,50,000. The government doesn’t see a problem with a rise in the number of radio cabs in the city but for the auto-rickshaws, such irrational systems only create entry barriers for those in the lower strata who want to get respectfully self employed.
In the same league, a few days back it was reported that more than thirty people died in the suburbs of Kolkata by drinking illicit liquor. Such deaths are not rare but a frequent happening in India, thanks to the prohibitive pricing of the much safer and better quality Indian Made Foreign Liquors (IMFL), due to high taxation for restricting consumption. Net result? The poor lot of this country ends up resorting to lesser priced, lesser refined and more toxic country-made liquor as it’s perhaps in mankind instinct to have an affinity for alcohol and no amount of lecturing on morality would dissuade them from gulping it down. If restrictive licensing practice for opening IMFL shops (which only adds to corruption in disbursal of such license) and prohibitive pricing is done away with, it would go a long way in reducing the number of untimely and painful deaths caused by consumption of illicit liquor.
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has caught the imagination of people worldwide and catapulted its actors into the limelight, as they grace film festivals and the world’s leading award shows. At one such do, its young star Dev Patel was found floored as Hollywood’s lead actress Anne Hathaway complimented his work and told him how much she loved him in the film. The 18-year-old thanked ‘Mrs Hathaway’, but was soon corrected by the lady that it was ‘Miss’ not Mrs Hathaway! Dev immediately began to apologise to the amused Hathaway, who took no offence of course.....Continue
has caught the imagination of people worldwide and catapulted its actors into the limelight, as they grace film festivals and the world’s leading award shows. At one such do, its young star Dev Patel was found floored as Hollywood’s lead actress Anne Hathaway complimented his work and told him how much she loved him in the film. The 18-year-old thanked ‘Mrs Hathaway’, but was soon corrected by the lady that it was ‘Miss’ not Mrs Hathaway! Dev immediately began to apologise to the amused Hathaway, who took no offence of course.....Continue
