The web of technocracy

I'm participating in a lively discussion on 'Cashless Society' on another forum, where I posted the Hindu BusinessLine article on India's Finance Ministry calling on banks to ensure that every family in India must have at least one bank account within six months.

I had to clarify that this action is among the last strands in a vast technocratic web of corporate "partnerships", an extensive IT network, and a comprehensive legislative framework that's already put in place.

The following are the other strands in the e-governance web in India - where the "e-citizen" is stealthly, silently transformed into an "e-customer"...

1. There is a biometrics-based Unique ID (UID) project being rolled out in India as we speak; it's the largest such database in history - and it is ultimately meant to enable a cashless society. (This article quotes the CEO of MindTree, one of the key IT companies involved.)

2. The framework for a mobile-based, biometrics-validated transaction system has already been worked-out by the Government of India. (This article is from the India's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. There is also an extremely detailed pdf report at the end of the article, on the framework that is in place.)

3. In my previous post I have covered how this system is designed to create government-corporate monopolies that have sinister precedents in the "chartered companies" of the colonies; What the possible agenda may be; and the possible significance of the timing of all this.

And there is NO WAY to stay outside this web. Let me clarify...

As most of us are aware, 'money' is created every time 'debt' (i.e, IOUs) is created by a bank. I am no economist but my understanding is that the medium-of-exchange that a government authorises for repayment for all debts, public and private (legal tender) eventually dominates all other media-of-exchange. So if the new legal tender is electronic cash, eventually we all MUST 'work' to earn e-cash pay our taxes in e-cash!

(I don't believe it will be India alone that is taking this route. The privatisation of governance via public-private partnerships is spearheded by companies like Accenture - including for basic areas like food, income, healthcare, etc.)

I am confident that all this is not coincidence. There are powerful groups within the ruling classes that see "crisis" as "opportunity" - because populations in panic tend not to question "solutions" - no matter how horrendous they seem in hindsight.

The announcement I mentioned in the beginning of this post was one of the last ones - but perhaps among the most ambitious - moves by Pranab Mukherjee as Finance Minister. It is now a near-certainty that he will be appointed as the next President of India - with two significant powers: ONE, to make the vital "call to form the government" in case of a hung parliament in the 2013 elections. Two, to declare a state of national emergency when he perceives an internal or external threat - or a financial crisis!

Remember, India - after multiple downgrades by sundry Wall Street rating vultures - is now at the edge of a much greater financial precipice than we were in 1991. Incidentally, then, we were "rescued" by Manmohan Singh, a former Finance Minister and present Prime Minister, who has NEVER been elected into Parliament. He is just a technocrat who came into prominence and power during a crisis!