Direct Benefit Transfer

The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) also known as the Direct Cash Transfer Scheme (DCT) is the recent ambitious national level policy of the UPA government. The direct cash transfer is an anti poverty program launched by the central government on January 1 2013. This program transfers the subsidies directly to the people living below the poverty line. This is one of the landmark programs of the congress that has received warm welcome by the country.  Cash transfers or direct transfer payment of money to the eligible people is the primary objective of the newly launched scheme. The congress, caught in a web of scams and scandal, this one comes along the way as an opportunity to get away from political opposition and criticism. The scheme with a genuine and helpful objective is bound to serve the nation greatly. Let us now see the overall structure of the policy and how it has been functioning since its inception.

Generally, cash transfer programmes in developing countries like India are constrained by three factors viz. financial resources, institutional capacity and ideology. These factors affect in targeting the people who are entitled to the scheme. This is because governments in developing countries tend to have restricted financial resources and are therefore limited in the amount they can invest both directly in cash transfers and in measures to ensure that such programmes are effective. However, this is a notable initiative taken by the government to directly serve the people in a more efficient manner. In many countries it is considered as a poverty reduction measure because government subsidies and other benefits are given directly to the beneficiaries in the form cash rather than subsidies. Several countries like Jamaica, Turkey, Chile, Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa and Morocco have adopted this system earlier in the form Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT). Under such programs direct cash is provided to poor families on condition that it is used for proper investments or attaining basic nutritional health care. But so far this is unconditional in the Indian case.

The Direct Cash Transfer in India is implemented by Aadhar program launched a few months back. According to which the residents of our country are provided with aadhar card which is a unique identity card by which all the benefits and subsidies amount is directly credited to the beneficiaries bank account using the Aadhar numbers. Such a transaction would result in transparency, fewer leakages and less chance to corruption. It would also develop the financial infrastructure of the country. The DBT scheme was first rolled out in the capital city, Delhi and soon covered other districts. The Direct cash Transfer scheme was initially rolled out in 51 districts. It was then later extended to 18 districts. In December 2012 UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi launched a similar cash transfer scheme in Delhi for a beneficiary scheme which provides Rs.600 per month to around six lakh families from economically weaker sections of the society. The launch was later dropped for certain reasons. One serious concern is that how is the amount determined under the DCT. The difference between the market price and the subsidized price is calculated and transferred in proportion to the quantity uplifted from the market. Presently 34 schemes have been identified in 43 districts to implement the DCT scheme.

The DCT policy would help poor access basic goods by reducing demand constraints. The transaction is a carried out by the guidance of a task force and hence is reliable. The commodity purchase and then the transfer of the cash subsidy to the target account will be based on authentication of the beneficiary through aadhar at a point of sale.  Currently, the government subsidizes certain products and services like food grains, fertilizers, education and healthcare by providing them at below the market price.  The scheme though a significant and welcoming one has its own pros and cons. The aadhar enabled direct cash transfer is transacted to only those people who have an UID bank account. This makes the process easier and excludes people who don’t have aadhar numbers but claim to get the subsidies. An aadhar enabled bank account can be used by the beneficiary to receive multiple welfare payments. The scheme eliminates the chances of rent seeking middlemen and also fake identities. It will reduce leakages and diversion of the intended subsidies. This would reduce the burden on the government revenue and cost structure thereby reducing the high fiscal deficit. The cash transferred to the target account will make them buy the goods and services  directly in the open market. This would make people to buy the goods and services at the market price thereby creating a healthy competitive environment. The DCT scheme through the aadhar system will also transfer the cash immediately avoiding delays that is usually an issue in India.  The scheme overall is said to increase the efficiency of the welfare programs. On the other hand the few disadvantages are there is a lack of clarity on whether the aadhar is mandatory. Targeting and identification of the right beneficiaries for the right subsidies is also a problem. The scheme as meant to transfer cash is also likely to lack privacy. India consist a huge number of adult illiterates as a consequence of which many people are unaware about the scheme and how to access it. Most of the BPL families in India don’t even have a bank account and several villages in India presently don’t have any bank branches. Finally, unlike in other countries, India has rolled out the cash transfer scheme in an unconditional way which allows people to wean away from the intended purpose and spend lavishly in an unhealthy way.

                                                                                    

An analysis of the scheme since its first roll out suggests that the DCT has helped the people in more than one way. The congress has also stated an election slogan to the scheme with ‘ Aapka paise aapke haath’ (your money in your hand). People regard it as one of the landmark and prestigious schemes of the government recently. The scheme has said to promote savings habit of many wise consumers. The DCT has provided many benefits to students and children by providing vocational training and scholarships. It is said that those villages in the remote areas where there are no bank branches are likely to get the cash by business correspondents. The scheme is also intended to promote flexible pricing system in the market. As of now it is said that only some small subsidies such as scholarships and pension funds have been given as promised. Other big welfare subsidies such as LPG, fuel and others are likely to come later by this year. The government is still working on to make the DCT scheme a more reliable and efficient scheme to remove the constraints in the administrative side and is also planning to set an authority to overlook the distribution system. The scheme so far is only in the nascent stage and has been partially functioning only in certain districts. Access to aadhar card is still working in many states and the scheme is to serve fully on a large scale when the process of creating UID bank account in all the states is complete. Meanwhile, the central government which is backing on the DBT being a gamechanger with an eye on the upcoming general election is bent on rolling out the scheme all over the country as soon as possible. At the end of the day the political dividends of implementing the scheme are much less important than the real dividends.

Food Security Bill

The National Food Security Bill (NFSB) is one of the flagship programs of the UPA government. It is the election promise made by the congress while taking office in 2009.  The idea of implementing the scheme as desired on the national level started in 2010 following the recommendations of Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC). The government soon on her request started to look into the implications of the program under an expert committee lead by Dr. C. Rangarajan as suggested by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. The Food Security Bill was then finally introduced in the Lok Saba on December 2011.The main objective of the bill is to provide food and basic nutritional security to the deserving by ensuring adequate quantity and quality food at affordable prices to people to live life with dignity.

A country can be healthy only if its people are healthy and productive. India as an emerging nation needs to address the health issue seriously to move on to the development path. This has taken a view by seeing the poor health status of her people. India’s high economic growth rate in the past decade has not been fully reflected in the health status of its people, with 22 percent of people undernourished. According to the National Family Health Survey 2005-06, 40.4 per cent of children under the age of three are underweight, 33 per cent of women in the age group of 15-49 have a body mass index below normal and 78.9 per cent of children in the age group of 6-35 months are anaemic. These are disturbing statistics which point to the nutritional deficiencies. The NAC proposal for a National Food Security Bill is perhaps the most important national effort yet to address these deficiencies in India.

The food security mission is said to increase the production and productivity of wheat, rice and pulses on a sustainable basis so as to ensure food security of the country. The food security bill gives two categories of people the right to get food grains at affordable prices namely the priority households and general households. The problem is with identifying a priority household. Priority household will be entitled to 7Kg food grains per person and general household not less than 3Kg. The priority household will also get access to coarse grain for one rupee, wheat for Rs. 2 and rice for Rs. 3 per kg. The basic structure of the bill is to provide subsidized food grains to at least 75% of the country’s population, 90% in rural area and 50% in urban area. The bill has promised that in the first phase food entitlement will be extended to 72 percent of the population and in the final phase to be completed before March 31 2014; full coverage of food entitlement to 75 percent of the population will be ensured. The bill is said to provide legal entitlements for children, destitute and other vulnerable groups. The National Food Security Bill is to be implemented through the Public Distribution System (PDS).

So now that the basic objective of the NFSB is said and cleared let us analyze whether the proposed bill by the UPA government is feasible and bound to achieve its desired results. A country with a huge population, any policy that concerns the public and one that is of public interest needs attention as it is mostly seen as a just another election game played by the politicians to get votes. First, we all know that India presently faces a tough political uncertainty that may call off the general election anytime soon maybe even by this year. No wonder the congress is in a hurry to implement the scheme hastily before the election as promised. Will a policy that is said to address the poor and mass of the population implemented among such criticism and chaos reach and achieve its full objective? The answer is no because many of the policies implemented earlier on such occasions has been a failure.

Given the fact that the bill is proposed to reach on the national level, the first question arises is that is it not extravagant to subsidize food for such a large part of the population when the poor constitute only 30 percent of the population? India is already running a high fiscal deficit and current account deficit. Not only that, India also faces many other serious macroeconomic challenges, sluggish growth and weakening rupee. So in such a scenario isn’t wise for the congress do something to improve the economy rather than running madly to pass the bill successfully? The proposed food security bill would cost the government $23 billion a year and take a third of the annual grain production. Official projections are that it would cost close to 1.5% of the GDP. But even in the most pessimistic case our GDP is expected to grow only by 5% in the near future. This would hurt the already swollen budget deficit of India next year increasing the risk of the rating agencies to downgrade its investment status. If the bill is passed, India needs as much as 1.3 trillion next year, adding to a total subsidy burden that already eats upto 2.4% of GDP. The international oil and coal prices are likely to rise and don’t seem to come down in the short run. The domestic coal production is also weak and coal India is struggling to meet the growing demand. This has already proved costly for the fuel and fertilizer subsidy. The higher imports results in higher prices and will eventually affect the agricultural sector and farmers who is dependent on fertilizers to enhance his production and is the primary supplier to achieve the objectives of the NFSB. The extra cost would be further translated by spending cuts and higher taxes which is not a healthy way of achieving a sustainable development.

In a bid to reduce the fiscal deficit to 4.8 percent of the GDP in the current fiscal, the finance minister has laid out a budget targeting an efficient allocation by the plan and non plan expenditure. The food subsidy has hence been postponed curbing the financial cost. Another important aspect is the distribution system, India already has 54.7 million tonnes of rice and wheat as stocks with the centre and states. Due to the poor storage facilities the piled up stock will get rot and wasted. By piling up huge volumes of grain stock, the government reduces the supply in the open market, putting upward pressures on the prices. Since the scheme is to be passed through the PDS there will exist leakages and corruption as the government holds the control over the grain trade. Another problem is the exclusion, some people do not have access to ration card and hence subsidized food, from which arouse horrifying reports of starvation. The primary problem is also with identifying the beneficiaries. The government often talks about the poor as if it is well defined group but that is hardly the case. The official poverty threshold is low and many people above the poverty line are also poor and look like people below the poverty line. As a result, there is no reliable way in which subsidies can be targeted to people only below the official threshold.

The government among much criticism and argument is still sticking up with the bill and has now taken an ordinance route to pass the bill in the next parliament session. One point to be noted here is that many Indian states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, west Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are already providing subsidized grain. Feeding its poor is a matter of urgency for India, home to 25 percent of the world’s hungry poor. Also india ranks 65 among 79 nations on the global hunger index. Ofcourse, the bill is one of the landmark schemes of the congress but how far is the bill ready to achieve the results in the present situation is a matter of concern. The FSB is not the best way to reach the poor and hungry, who are dispersed across the country. The best way to go about it is through UID linked bank accounts through which states will be encouraged to switch to cash transfers. The extra cost of government storage and distribution will then be saved and the problems caused by the distortion of grain trade will be mitigated. Many worries from the identification of the food bill with the PDS will disappear. The FSB instead through PDS, if implemented by cash transfers will serve as an income transfer. The effect of the subsidy is that households save money that would have otherwise been used to buy food at market price. The objective of serving the people subsidized foodgrain can be achieved only if the agricultural sector is healthy. But India since the beginning of the 21^st century has been continuously ignoring the sector resulting in weak production and disappointment among the Indian farmers. One of the main reasons of slow economic growth is also because of supply constraints and bottlenecks which the government has to seriously look into before implementing such a massive scheme on a large scale. The promise of near universal coverage is nowhere in sight and the UPA’s seemingly fretful efforts to get the measure through do not appear to be convincing. The policy is noteworthy and the objectives of the bill is highly helpful to the Indian poor but before going ahead with the scheme its wise to clear the present problems, revise the bill to the needs of the poorest of the poor and plan to truly serve the people on the long run rather than sticking to short term political pay off. The country is waiting but for a most reliable FSB. However it is wise to go by the saying:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a whole lifetime.”

Rupee Depriciation - The Falling Indian Rupee

The rupee is the common currency of India and its neighboring country Pakistan. Each country has its own currency that facilitates transaction both within domestic and global market. Europe is an exception to this where a group of countries in the euro zone area follow a single common currency. Ever since the globalization of world economies the value of each currency changes or fluctuates rapidly due to increasing transaction of goods and services. But this is not the only factor for the change in the value of currencies around the world. There are various factors for the currency of each country to appreciate and depreciate. In this article we will look at one of the macroeconomic concern India is facing recently, the depreciation of rupee.

The US dollar is considered to be the global currency and forerunner of the world currencies. The value of each currency around the world is compared against the US dollar to know the real value of the respective currency in a particular period of time. The interesting thing about currencies is that it changes every day with respect to the behavior of the markets. However, one has to know that each currency is traded with other currencies all over the world and in that aspect the value of a particular currency varies with the value of each currency of the countries across the world. Have you ever wondered what rupee has got to do outside our country? Does it hold any significance in the foreign market? Why is it important to know the value of our rupee? Why is it necessary to keep our rupee value high?  If you have given a thought about it, am sure you have an interest in knowing the economic condition of our country and if you haven’t let us try to seek answers to understand what is really happening around the world in terms of our monetary value because it plays a significant role in the economy.

First, we will get the basics right. Now and then almost every day we hear that the rupee is weakening against the dollar. We see in newspapers that the rupee falls to an all time low on a daily basis. So what is it actually means? The rupee or any currency is said to appreciate or depreciate over a period of time. Generally, it is good if the value of rupee appreciates i.e the value of Indian rupee against the dollar strengthens. But the Indian rupee in the recent years is undergoing continuous depreciation i.e its real value is weakening against the US dollar which is really bad to our economy. It not only affects the economy but it also influences our spending on goods and services. Example, at a point of time let us say the rupee value is Rs.55/$ which means that we have to shed out Rs.55 for each dollar we consume. Later, the value is Rs.52/$ which means that the rupee value has appreciated or strengthened against the dollar that will make us spend less against the dollar. On the economy side it affects the cash inflows and outflows, capital inflows and outflows, foreign reserves and foreign trade. On our expenditure side the imported goods becomes expensive when the rupee depreciates. In this globalized world most of the products that we buy are mostly imported as we look for superior quality and better choices.

The Indian rupee can be converted into any other currency. The rate at which we convert one currency into the other currency is known as the conversion rate. This rate changes on the daily basis based on the demand and supply of the currencies. The Indian rupee can be converted into dollar based on the prevailing rate on that day and this is usually done in a foreign exchange market or a commercialized bank. The Indian rupee appreciates and depreciates for various reasons and there is no straight cut answer as to explain why the currency value changes on a daily basis. But there are few common reasons as to understand why the Indian rupee changes against other currencies. Generally, economic conditions of other countries say US influence the Indian rupee. If the US economy is performing well there will be a huge demand for dollar and people tend to sell rupee and buy dollar. This strengthens the US dollar against the Indian rupee and the value of rupee is said to depreciate against dollar. The value of Indian rupee is determined through various factors such as forex reserves, FDI & FII inflows, rate of interest, exchange rate and so on. With the change in the indicators, the value of rupee as per the dollar changes. So now you know that just like any other commodity the rupee also has a price, the value you pay to exchange a rupee.

The rupee value mostly fluctuates with changes in the behavior of the market. The spot and share market greatly affects the rupee value and is influenced by the changes in the value of rupee. Each currency value depends on the domestic macroeconomic condition of the country. The rupee value changes if we expect any changes in the fiscal and monetary policies. The rupee value also tends to move along with the speculation of the markets and its agents. The trading market opens and closes on the value of rupee against the US dollar thus equity investors and corporate tend to track the values of the currencies. In the last few months demand for dollar by oil companies and increasing selling pressure in domestic equities precipitated the fall of rupee. The major reason for the fall in rupee is the immense strength of the dollar index which reached its three year high of 84.30. The record setting performance of the US equities and improvement in the labour market has made Americans and global rating agencies more optimistic of the outlook for US economy, thereby spurring greater hopes. And also the strengthening of dollar against major currencies globally aided the fall. The increasing demand for oil and gold imports has also affected the rupee. This continuous depreciation of the rupee makes our struggling economy further vulnerable as imports become costlier, inflation risk higher, growth plummets as a result of low aggregate demand and record high Current Account Deficit worsens. Negative capital inflows in the recent months also impacted the currency value to slide. Political and domestic market uncertainity has also added to the woes.

The changes in the value of rupee either appreciating or depreciating influence a whole lot of economic agents mainly the exporters and importers. The fluctuation has both positive and negative aspects. Rupee depreciation brings cheers to exporters on the long run as they will get more money against other currencies when they sell their goods. Indian companies borrowing money from other countries will benefit big time as they get more rupees for the dollars they bring in. Similarly, families of NRIs remitting money from abroad get more rupees. If a foreign MNC is planning to invest in Indian business for lesser dollars they will get more value in India. Broadly, for those who receive dollars it is happy time. On the other hand a falling rupee brings rib tickling experience to importers. Indian importers have to shed out more rupees for the goods they buy against dollars. Overseas travel will become expensive as you need to allocate more rupees to get the same amount of dollars. The budget of parents whose children staying abroad will feel the pinch of a depreciating rupee.  If you look at the trade data of India over the years you will see that Indian imports exceed the exports. At the end a depreciating rupee is just bad for the majority of us. If you see weakening of all currencies against the dollar, the rupee is also not unaffected in that sense. But this is panic in the market which is unwarranted. Experts are already forecasting the rupee to sink further to near 60 levels against the dollar. It is also expected that the Indian rupee may depreciate 10% versus the US dollar by the end of December. According to Nomura, a Japanese financial services company, a 10% depreciation in rupee value cause the CAD to rise by 0.4%. In the last few months there were no visible signs of RBI intervention to check rupee slide. Unless RBI takes some kind of steps to stabilize the currency the rupee may touch alarming levels. As the rupee is depreciating at a faster rate RBI is highly expected to intervene to check the volatility of the market as a result of a falling rupee and control it from falling further to improve the market sentiment and meet the various other macroeconomic challenges. The present value of rupee against the US dollar as on June 20th is 59.57 a great fall in the last ten month following US Fed chief Ben Bernanke's revelation on plans to withdraw on quantitative easing stimulas this year as US economy has started to grow. The following graph shows the rupee movement against the US dollar since 2000.

IPL Betting - Sports or Business?

Cricket is the game that is been celebrated and followed greatly in India with a lot of passion and enthusiasm. The sport has always been the favorite both to watch and play. Cricket has a great fan following around the world compared to all other sports and thus continues to dominate the sports world. Cricket is called the gentleman’s game which is deeply celebrated with abundant passion and love for the game by the Indians particularly. No matter the age, in this country, both young children and the old are so fond of this particular game. It is also so surprising that even the grandparents and parents go crazy by the game. You could very well see every streets and empty grounds in India occupied with people of all age passionately playing cricket even during the scorching summer heat. The players are celebrated and treated godly in this land and the cricketers are seen as the one by all when the game is on. This has given the players popularity and fame but at the same time open to criticism and comments. Unlike other sport, cricket has always gained attention and is thus open to continuous change and welcome to new game formats. The one that has gained popularity recently is the 20-20 format which gave way to the concept of Indian Premier League.

The IPL was first introduced in 2008 with warm welcome and enthusiasm among the cricket fraternity. The young generation of India was looking forward to more excitement from the new league. Ever since its first edition the IPL has believed that roping in actors and celebrities from the film world would gain the attention of a larger audience which would help in generating more revenue. This trick of involving actors and other big business magnets made the IPL and particularly the game commercialized with a big dose of entertainment than the spirits of the game and sportsmanship. I don’t have to say and there is no need to introduce the rules of this great league but I would like to mention the formation of teams and its ownership. There are totally nine teams in the IPL each of which is either owned by a Bollywood celebrity or bureaucrats. The players of the teams are formed based on an auction prior to the beginning of the league. So the very formation and ownership of the teams brings in the practices of business. The players and the teams are valued based on the highest bid and their performance in the league every year. So you happen to see no big shuffle in the teams as the owners try to retain their old players. Here let me mention the owners of the nine teams, Chennai super kings owned by Gurnath Meyiapaan who is the grandson of Meyiappan and is the owner of AVM a big production house in south. Rajasthan Royals owned by Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, Mumbai Indians by Reliance owner Mukesh Ambani and his wife, Kolkata Knight riders by Badshah of bollywood Sharukh khan, Delhi Daredevils by GMR group, Bangalore Royal Challengers by Kingfisher owner Vijay Mallya, Kings XI Punjab by Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, Sunrisers Hyderabad by Kalanidhi Maran and Pune warriors by Sahara India Pariwar.

The concept of IPL is interesting as it gives the viewers a T-20 game format which makes the audience adrenaline rush as the matches are mostly edge of the seat thriller where anything can happen in the last minute which can turn the whole fate of the game. Apart from this the IPL encourages the concept of integrating foreign players. This is one of the facts that I personally like most, where the mixing of foreign players is a sign of good sportsmanship that allow players to share their ideas and strategy with their fellow players. When I first heard about the IPL I was really thrilled and curious for the tournament to begin because I am generally not that cricket enthuse. But I really love the T-20 format as it makes us glued to the game rather than the usual ODI and test cricket. Ever since the IPL begun I eagerly await the summer holidays during which the IPL season take off. I have been regularly watching the IPL in the last five years with the same excitement and this year too its no exception. But this time towards the end when the dark side of the sport revealed and the story of spot fixing made flash on the news channels I seriously started thinking what this whole thing of IPL is all about. For a die hard cricket fan the drama of spot fixing surrounding the IPL in this season may not be a matter of concern or excuse to wean away from watching the great league. As an amateur viewer of the game, I really started to ponder over the issue and what the league gives its loyal consumers at the end.

As usual, this year too the IPL season 6 started with the same celebrations and fanfare but this year apart from the game it gave us the story of betting and spot fixing. IPL is born in the land where cricket is treated as the god of sports and where cricketers are seen as super heroes sent to the ground to fight the battle. So in such a land you can imagine how crazy and loving the people will be when a great cricket tournament like IPL takes place.  Does the IPL brand live up to the expectations of these people? Does it continue to provide good sport? The question needs to be answered. The cricket world in India is managed by a separate official body called BCCI. This year when the match fixing and betting threw light on the other side of the sport world it makes clear that the official body has not managed the sport effectively making the people of this country a victim to false game and match fixing. However the BCCI cannot take the whole blame as the IPL involves other intermediaries and franchises who are big boss in the corporate world who have the right to rule the league as they happen to be the sponsors and owners of the teams. But now that the dirty picture got revealed the BCCI has to take moral responsibilities to avoid such scams further in the coming years in order to make the IPL survive.

The picture of spot fixing got reveled days before the quarterfinals and when fans of the four teams that qualified for quarterfinals were curiously waiting for the climax of the tournament. It started with Sreesanth a player of Rajasthan Royals involved in fixing. Subsequently the police probed the issue and provided more evidence of Sreesanth involved in spot fixing and finally confirmed that his firm owned betting houses. Within a day other two players of the same team were accused and arrested on match fixing. The Rajasthan Royals was then on a fix and the police started to investigate whether other teams were linked to spot fixing. And within days other big heads of the IPL betting scam came into the spotlight. It was then Gurunath Meiyappan the team principal of CSK and son in law of the president of BCCI Mr. Srinivasan. Further investigation by the Mumbai and Delhi police officials found other big names who was allegedly involved in the betting scam. Bollywood actor Vinod singh was one of the main accused who was in frequent touch with Ramesh Vyas a bookie. Soon it came to know that Meiyappan, Vinod singh and few other suspects placed heavy bets not only in the T-20 matches in the IPL but also on Indian Cricket League (ICL) and Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). Further investigation by the police officials on the case revealed that there were more bookies involved in the betting scandal and some of them had been earlier arrested on charges of betting. The investigation and court case is still on and many more insights and evidences are yet to pop out once the case is taken to the jurisdiction. So far the Delhi police say the betting operation exactly follows a well planned hierarchy. The big bosses of the game provide protection since the entire betting operation is illegal. The CEOs seem to initiate the bets and manage a network of sub bookies. These sub bookies fix matches through mediators.  The whole betting scandal involved big cats like Meiyappan and Vinod singh, Chief bookies from the Indian metros, sub bookies and also some international heads.

The Indian Premier League is now rotten to the core but this rot did not set in yesterday. In the previous years also we saw the former chairman of the IPL, Lalit Modi accused of corruption and fixing, its now just the turn of his successor. Whoever thought these two gentlemen were fit to head IPL ought to be hauled up for all its present ills. Let us at least hope for a new successor who is really capable of handling the league for what it actually meant to serve the nation. The Indian Cricket is now in ferment and its credibility is lost in a crisis caused by the dirty game played by the body that controls it. The great golden IPL trophy seems to lose all its prestige and shine now because of the greedy nature of its administrators. The IPL has become a brand of its own in this country that glorifies the sport. A well established brand is bound to generate crores of money and IPL is no exception to this since its inception. The payment made to players for a twenty 20 match seem to be Rs. 2 Lakh. A rough expenditure for cricketing activities in India seem to be around Rs. 340 Crore and for associations Rs. 275 Crore out of which the share to players come around Rs. 47.49 Crore and coaching around 6.58 Crore. The gross income from the IPL turns out to be Rs. 265.14 Crore. So in a place where money seems to play a vital role few stringent regulations are mandatory for a clean sport. On this regard there were some strong recommendations and few of them are the Anti Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) of the BCCI has said that from the next IPL edition every franchise will have to appoint an ACSU officer who would monitor access to the players. The process of educating the players on the perils of spot and match fixing have to be further strengthened. The ministry of law and sports together has said a bill to effectively tackle spot fixing and match fixing would hopefully be introduced in the next parliament session. There is a strong support for making the betting process legal which would help in creating a legal environment and avoid such illegal dirty fixing process in the future. It is said that Cricket is a game that is played by eleven idiots and watched by eleven thousand fools, this year the IPL and the ongoing betting scandal makes it true. However, just because some of the players were involved in spot fixing it doesn’t mean that the entire IPL is wrong, there are still legends playing the game passionately being true to their inner self. A country where millions of fans watch the game seriously and prayers are on air for their respective teams to win, it is the duty of the IPL to give a fair game to its audience. But this time the matches were predictable and it was obvious that CSK will lose in the final which by no means provide a good sport and justice to their fans and people watching the tournament. The controversies surrounding the IPL seem to have not affected the audiences viewing the sport which is a good sign but its now in the hands of the BCCI and IPL administrators to make the league survive in the future. However, the IPL betting and spot fixing scandal has put India’s cricket establishment in the dock and left people wondering whether the sport will ever regain its lost image as a gentleman’s game.