Medical outcome

 

Medical outcome is at the end of a long chain starting from a patient realizing when to seek medical help. Competent doctor, correct diagnosis, right prescription, corresponding medicine that is not counterfeit, side effects of medicine, attendant problems sometimes mistaken as side effects, availability of a competent doctor at crucial times (an in-patient in a hospital suffering a heart attack on a Sunday morning is more likely to die), etc. are critical variables. With so many impondèrable links in the chain, prognosis is bound to be uncertain. An admission in any hospital will convince even the most rational among us that luck is a critical factor in life (and death). Late Dr.K.P.Misra , a well known cardiologist, would humorously express his pleasant surprise whenever a patient came out of this ordeal hale and healthy.

LIC Policy claimants beware !

LIC keeps advertising that its claims settlement process is simple . The advertisements claim that the nominees need to submit only Death Certificate, Policy, Claim Form and Bank Account details along with proof of identity of the nominee / claimant.  They also claim that the claim can be lodged in any branch of LIC. 

The reality is far from all these claims. LIC insists that the nominee should lodge the claim only in the base branch which has issued the policy. Even within Chennai, the branches require the nominee to go to  the policy issuing branch. Death Certificate is not enough. Hospital should confirm the details of admission and death. ( I do not know what LIC will want if the insured passes away at home.) A person who has seen the dead body should certify the insured is dead and that he or she has seen the body. The challan issued by the crematorium is insisted upon. All these need to be notarised also !

Why is the LIC so thoughtlessly and sadistically bureaucratic? Why is the LIC making false claims in its publicity?

A person on the death bed , thinking about the torture of claim settlement, would prefer not to die. Perhaps LIC wants all of us to be Chiranjeevis !

Rahul Gandhi's theatrics

 

The Bharat Jodo Yatra has made news. It is not possible to say if it was a success because we do not know what its objectives were. Perhaps Rahul himself is not aware.

He observed during the yatra that " women are still being sexually assaulted." This is indeed a serious allegation, the kind that makes other nations sit up and wonder what is happening in and to India.

The police obviously wants to know who are sexually assaulting women so that they can be dealt with legally. Rahul is unable to give details immediately. He only wants to know if the government is crass with him because he is raising the Adani issue.

Rahul Gandhi is unable to abstain from making crude allegations without preparing groundwork. He is coached by advisors who perhaps are misleading him. 

Silicon Valley Bank

 

The unforeseen rapid fall of SVB is an appropriate plot for a business novel. This was caused not by mismanagement. The unholy combination of substantial withdrawal of deposits and drop in value of government securities was the primary cause of this debacle. 

Nearly 95% of deposits were above the insured limit. The government, the FED and FDIC have decided that all deposits will be repaid. This is possibly a moral hazard. There will hereafter be a clamour for such exemptions during any future bank failure.

HSBC (UK) has agreed to purchase SVB (UK) at a nominal price of 1 British Pound. SVB (UK) earned profit of 88 million pounds last year. Its deposit is 6.7 billion pounds and advances 5.5 billion pounds. HSBC has made a sensible decision.

There are two features in the American banking system which deserve a revisit. The moment loss exceeds the capital, a bank is declared insolvent and final rites are set in motion. Secondly, there is rarely any regulatory forbearance. The Indian system gives time for the bank to recover. The RBI does not hesitate to provide forbearance to a deserving bank.

The FED hopes that the SVB problem has been contained and there will not be any major fallout. But banking events have a tendency to upset the regulator's calculations. 

Pegasus again

 Rahul Gandhi has raised the Pegasus issue once again, this time from Cambridge. He states that his mobile had Pegasus earlier and some opposition leaders are spied on even now. He has even clarified that some intelligence officials had approached him with the information that they were recording his mobile conversations. When the Supreme Court - appointed Committee had earlier asked for the mobiles of opposition leaders to see if they were subject to surveillance, they preferred not to hand over their mobiles. 

Too many allegations without evidence trivialises governance in a democracy. Since the Supreme Court is a sentinel on the qui vive to protect and nurture democracy (evidenced by its order on appointment of Election Commissioners) and governance (evidenced by its appointment of a committee to investigate lapses in capital market regulations), it should suo motu ask Rahul Gandhi to identify, under oath,  the intelligence officials who warned him that they were recording his mobile conversations. This will enable the nation to know the truth.

Teesta Setalvad

 The Supreme Court has sharply questioned the bona fides of Teesta Setalvad  in the Gujarat Riots case. The court has also observed that those who unlawfully instigated cases against the then chief minister need to be brought to book.

Consistent with the court's observations, Teesta Setalvad has been taken into custody. It is surprising that the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders has called for her release and an end to "persecution by the Indian state." Can compliance with a court directive be called as persecution by the state? Does the UN want anarchy in India?

Crusade against Modi

 Opposition parties in India have been failing the nation by focusing exclusively on Mr.Modi and blaming him for all ills of the country. This adversarial strategy has only antagonised the public.

Now that the Supreme Court has finally exonerated Mr.Modi of any guilt in the Gujarat riots case, one hopes that non-BJP parties will give up their obsession with Modi and start acting responsibly. Responsible opposition will enhance the polity in any democracy.