Time is nigh for the tenth avatar

I had blogged earlier about an oligarchy-technocracy web that is creeping globally - and is about to envelope India as well. The IT backbone is ready, the policies are in place, financial institutions are all prepared, and monoplies are waiting in the wing... Now all that was needed is to spring it on the unsuspecting public.

Today, they inform the sheeple of India via The Times of India that cashless/electronic payments can be made at your neighbourhood kirana store!



The article states,

"Micro transactions for payments such as local taxi fares and kirana store purchases are set to go cashless with the National Payment Corporation of India on Monday extending the Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) for merchants."

The 'electronic cash' agenda is obviously in an accelerated mode. It was only in June this year that the former Finance Minister (current President of India), Pranab Mukherjee, called for banks in the country to ensure that EVERY Indian family has a bank account within six months!

This is the sequence of what is likely to follow:
1. Major financial turbulence in the public sector ...including severe crises in central and state budget deficits, and large-scale recapitalisation requirements for pubic sector banks due to bad loans and NPAs
2. Runaway inflation and/or economic crisis ...setting the stage for far-reaching and comprehensive government deregulation and reforms
3. Massive increases in 'austerity' measures, utilities charges and taxes ...multiple drains on their meagre income will put the average citizen at the complete mercy of the governing elite
4. Disinvestment of public assets ..."distress sale" of everything public - from the cash-rich Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) to 'sick' Public Sector Units (PSUs), and public land holdings
5. Privatisation of public services ...creating dependence on private service-providers for food, healthcare, education and security - instead of the Public Distribution System (PDS), primary healthcare & education networks, and public pension funds
6. Gradual transfer of real public & monetary policy-making powers to a cabal of global oligarchs (via lobbyists) ...with a pliant, indoctrinated and/or greedy political class acting as the citizens' lightning rod
7. Vilification, marginalising, criminalising and/or usurpation any movement or individual with a different or opposing point-of-view ...and the internet is NOT an exception

But what else can one expect when much of government policy-making in India (and indeed, worldwide) is already outsourced to consultants, think tanks, universities and NGOs funded or run by the private sector?

Welcome to the Kali Yuga. And considering all that could go wrong - perhaps, the time is ripe for the tenth avatar of Vishnu.

Only God can save us now.