COWS ARE NOT IMPORTED. WHY IS MILK PRICE GOING UP?By Rajan Narayan

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COWS ARE NOT IMPORTED. WHY IS MILK PRICE GOING UP?By Rajan Narayan

It is not purchases of gold and silver or the use of edible oil by housewives that is putting a strain on foreign exchange reserves. It is our dependence on foreign multinationals for everything, ranging from smartphones to Kurkure manufactured by the US multinational Pepsi….

AMUL Dairy has raised the price of milk by Rs2 for a half-liter milk. Goa Dairy has hiked it by Rs5 per liter. Modern Bread, the biggest sliced brand in the county has raised its price by Rs5 for its standard white bread loaf. The price of the most popular snacks like Lay wafers and Kurkare made by the multinational Pepsi has also gone up. So too is the case with biscuits made by Britannia and Parle, cakes, buns and even Maggie noodles. So much for the myth of atma nirbhar or the self-sufficient India of Narendra Modi dreams.
The bitter ground reality is that while cows may not be imported, cattle feed is in short supply and imported in large quantities. The raw material for the plastic pouches in which dairy products are sold, namely plastic powder, is imported in large quantities. And then of course, the cost of transportation has gone up because of a huge increase in the prices of petrol and diesel. The cost of any fried snack has gone up because the cost of the edible oils has shot up. India is not self-sufficient in the production of sunflower oil, soybean oil, and a host of other edible oils. The list of items of common consumption that are affected by the steep fall in the price of the rupee affects all products that have an imported component. The rupee has fallen from Rs70 per dollar during Manmohan Singh’s time to almost Rs100 per dollar now.
INDIA imports over 50% of its requirements of petrol, diesel and both compressed natural gas and liquid natural gas. We all get agitated when the cost of petrol and diesel goes up even by Rs3 liter. I understand that a further increase of Rs2 has already been decided, taking the total Rs5 per liter. We do not realize that the increase in the price of petrol and diesel also means that all vegetables, meat and chicken coming from Belgavi will become more expensive. This is why the price of tomatoes and other vegetables has shot up. Onions still come from Nasik. They have to travel a long way to reach Goa. Every product we consume is affected by the increase in the price of petrol and diesel. Many of our trains still run on diesel, not only mass consumption products but even cool fans, which give you so much relief in summer, are transported by trucks. There is a factory manufacturing fans in Goa. The huge truck transporting fans to Mumbai overturned on the Zuari bridge, last week.
It is not only petroleum product which are imported. Though an increase in the price of petrol and CNG has a cascading effect. To manufacture, you still need CNG. To make glass bottles, you need CNG. You cannot make stainless steel or aluminum vessels without gas, which is the cheapest substitute for electricity. So much so, most items of common consumption, from soaps and detergents to shampoos and toothpaste and cleaning products like Harpic, are all affected when the value of the rupee goes down and imported raw material has to be used.
The products that have been affected due to India’s huge dependence on imported petroleum, edible oils, and yeast for fermenting bread. The variety of dals like chana dal and urad dal all affect the budget of the common man. The decline in the value of the rupee against the dollar has a devastating effect even on baby products. The price of baby formula, milk, diapers, medicines and vitamins are likely to go up soon if they have not already been increased. Do not forget that the leading baby food brands like Cerelac are made by a multinational Swedish Nestle company. The most popular brands of baby and adult diapers, Pampers and Mamy Poko Pants, are also imported. Children going to school and even adults going to work are affected because water bottles, plastic containers and food wrappers are all petroleum-linked products. Because all grades of plastic are derived from petroleum.

POLYESTOR LOVE
IF you wear a polyester saree, you are using petroleum products. Similarly, all the tools in your make-up bag, from lipstick to mascara to lip gloss, are all linked in some way to petroleum, as are the fairness creams. Fair & Lovely may have changed its name to Fair & Glow. There is still a brand called White Tone which guarantees to bleach your skin. Just as detergent powders like Surf and Nirma bleach your clothes.
India imports crude oil and petroleum worth $220 billion every year. India imports electronic items comprising mobiles and semi-conductor components worth $120 billion a year. India imports gold and silver worth $70 billion every year. India imports coal, LNG and fuel worth $50 billion per year. India imports fertilizers for agricultural production worth $15 billion. India imports drugs and medicine worth $20 billion. So the total imports as of today is $800 billion.
Every time the value of the rupee falls the cost of value of imports goes up. If the cost of imports goes up the cost of products of common consumption like edible oils, electronic items, and pharma items goes up.
This is why Narendra Modi is telling you to postpone purchases of gold. This is why Sachin Tendulkar is asking you to exchange old gold instead of buying new gold. Never mind it is an advertisement for Tanishq. Modi is telling all housewives to do less tadka as edible oils are imported. Modi is asking you not to travel as this is a drain on foreign exchange. Never mind that Modi is on a five-nation tour of Europe, including Germany and Switzerland. Rules apply only for ordinary citizens and not for neta lok.
Modi wants you to buy swadeshi. The problem is the quality of swadeshi goods. We have yet to find a desi nail cutter which is as good as the old British brand called Cooks, and we are yet to find a decent Indian chocolate, including the British Cadbury which is much better in London then in India, let alone Goa.

INDIAN FOOD IS BETTER
I CANNOT understand why India should depend on Pepsi companies of US to make Kurkure and Lay chips. Why does India need KFC, McDonald’s hamburgers, and Starbucks coffee? Surely, our humble vada-pau is a much better and perhaps a marginally healthier substitute for industrialized hamburgers. Incidentally, hamburger fillings in the countries of the West are normally of pork or beef. Indians will buy swadeshi if the quality of the product matches international standards. This is laughable. Apple manufactures Iphone in India but there is no smartphone based on Indian technology.
China is not affected by the Gulf War because it does not depend on Imports for common mass consumption products. Russia is not affected by the increase in the price of oil. Most countries in Europe and even countries in Asia like Malaysia and Thailand, are not so badly affected. India is very badly affected because it is not “atma nirbhar.” This has remained a slogan and has not been translated into making local products for local consumption.
Modi was wearing Maybach dark glasses, a premium German product costing Rs4 lakh, during a recent foreign visit. Modi wears Rolex watches from Switzerland. It is rumored that Modi uses Fair Glow skin tonics, all imported. It may be recalled that a member of the World Cup winning women’s teams asked Modi what was the secret of his glowing skin.