Startup pangs

where is the money?

Where is the money I ask? Every day I pick up the pink papers, the Government has raised more money by selling spectrum, increasing oil prices, increasing taxes, GST, Vat, Service tax etc etc and more. Plus they are selling stakes in PSU s to all and sundry at prices at which even seasoned Investment Banks are baulking to take the mandate.

I would have thought that with all these resources that are being raised we can see better infrastructure, better security, better standard of living for everybody, education, health care, unemployment insurance. There are so many wise and pressing ways to spend the money. But wherever I look, any new investment or infrastructure is all private..So you have swanking new airports being built with private money, roads being privatised and tolled to death, new private and expensive schools ( when is the last time the Government built a school, or hospital for that matter?)

And if you have the misfortune of having no choice but to use Government schools or hospitals, God help you, cos they are not spending money there either. Armed forces are ill equipped and the police force have weapons that they stole from Noahs Ark. They announce big schemes with impossible acronyms like NREGA and JNUURM, and no one knows where it is spent. Because if anything is built it is being built with private money and political patronage.They are doing less and less and it is costing us more and more..

So where is the money going?

Is it gone?