The Formula One fraud - India

[notsuperstitious]

This thread is fast running down the road of insanity.

Private individuals money should not give lower abdomenal cramps to anyone, if it does, its THEIR problem.

Now you are just trolling Think Tank

Of course she is, maybe we can return the favor by adding some comments on how pakistan has entered the high end cutting edge field of unmanned drones???

 

[nForce]

Yo roadrunner, this is the fastest Indian car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmPD65QBLt

You better start running.

The link says "An error occurred.Please try again later."

What happened? the car drove off the screen or what?

 

[guest11]

The link says "An error occurred.Please try again later."

What happened? the car drove off the screen or what?

Done. That thing is light years ahead of the best Pakistan ever made.

 

[pmukherjee]

“Vettel is the Champ, India the Winner.” “Vettel Wins, World Raises Toast to India.” Thus screamed the headlines in India’s leading newspapers reporting on the first-ever round of the Formula One (F1) motor-racing championship held in the country. The race – to watch which India’s tycoons and sports and film celebrities travelled in private jets, thus creating congestion at Delhi airport – was over in less than 91 minutes.

Having burned hundreds of millions on building the special Grand Prix track at the Buddh International Circuit, sunk tens of millions into generating publicity, and hyped up the 60-percent stall occupancy as an unprecedented success, the organisers declared victory “for India,” no less.

India, they claim, has finally entered the global league of elite high-technology sports, with a premium on money, glamour and monstrous power derived........................................

Bullshit yaar. It was great fun and I loved it. Yes we need hospitals and schools and drinking water and so on and so forth. But a bit of fun and games will not kill anyone. Moreover, it was not the tax payer's money that went into it. We can't very well tell private businessmen not to organise the F1 but to go and build primary health centers in remote villages, now can we? It is their money. And these guys did a damn good job of it too.
Congratulations to the organisers. Really enjoyed the show.

 

[Loyus]

Bullshit yaar. It was great fun and I loved it. Yes we need hospitals and schools and drinking water and so on and so forth. But a bit of fun and games will not kill anyone. Moreover, it was not the tax payer's money that went into it. We can't very well tell private businessmen not to organise the F1 but to go and build primary health centers in remote villages, now can we? It is their money. And these guys did a damn good job of it too.
Congratulations to the organisers. Really enjoyed the show.

I had in my introduction thread written something:

Just because India is poor does not means that we should stop building rockets or stoip investing in supercomputters..
We should invest in both ..

Why ?
Because when we develop as a nation able to feed all its population we do not want to be that nation which cannot build a rocket or supercomputer..

Same goes for F1...
If it establishes in India then it is going to be a huge job creator and good for our tecnoligical advancement !!!
Besides it is a private initiative

 

[navtrek]

The article raises a good point imo. My point would be that India cannot claim to have entered the world of high tech motorsport because it hosts an F1 race. All it shows is that it can host an F1 race. Not the pinaccle of motorsport. It's not a big achievement.

Achievement or no achievement its a relative topic. What seems achievement for one might be nothing to another, So no point commenting on it.

The article is not written with the right mind set. Authors fault.

 

[STEELMAN]

Iam embarassed by reading these words poverty starving citizen of India

In practical I dont find that situation is so bad.Iam into construction business and beleive me freinds we are not getting labours to work in our sites.Minimum wages for the labour is Rs 150/-(approx 3 dollars).There are exception where might labours are getting less than this and also this rate are for unskilled labour.If its skilled one than it can go upto 600 or 700 Rs per day also.

In India Rs 150 a person can easily feed his family of 4 persons.Yes foods may not match the standards made by organization like WHO or any other.Efforts made by GOVT for helping poors like giving grains in subsidised rates of just Rs 2/-per kg Rice and that also 35 kg in one Ration Card, there are no of schemes which are running through NGO.All these I have mentioned just because there is nothing called starving in India at present. If even a single person will die just for starving in India District Collector will be responsible.Tons of food grains are wasted everey year.
Poverty in India is not Economical problem it is more a social problem.

 

[fd24]

I think its interesting reading of all points. I think we are here as forum members to discuss and share opinions. I feel there is almost a defensive response from most of you guys. I indeed watched the F1 and enjoyed it. However i have been open to comments made by third parties and to ignore or simply treating these articles with distaste is i believe not the right approach. Lets knock the source - take on board what it they say THEN pick and choose the best bits and move forward.

Away from the glamour of Formula One, poverty stalks India's villages

A single pitted track leads to the village of Bhatta-Parsaul. A line of women carry firewood on their heads, bending under its weight. In a nearby rice field, a labourer stands ankle-deep in mud, talking on a mobile phone. A man whose wife and three children are perched on his motorbike weaves between potholes as an expensive-looking SUV accelerates, forcing boys on bicycles off the road.

Five miles away is another strip of tarmac, in better condition, which is the focus of considerable attention this weekend. India's first Formula One grand prix is being held on a new £130m track. Last week, the chairman of the construction group behind the project said that it was now possible to "safely say that India has arrived in the 21st century as a force to reckon with".

The disparity between headline-grabbing projects such as the Buddh circuit and the poverty that surrounds them has been well documented. But the myriad conflicts generated by the transformation of India are heard about less often.

Bhatta-Parsaul made headlines in the summer when police attacked farmers who had been protesting about the compulsory purchase of their lands by the government of Uttar Pradesh.

"We were out in the fields as we had been every morning for nearly three months to demonstrate, when the state police arrived and started shooting," said Manoj Kumar, a farmer. "Then they went through the village, smashing things up, beating people and assaulting women."

Allegations of police brutality and violence provoked by land disputes are commonplace. This is particularly true on the outskirts of cities where exploding populations, growing wealth and rampant property speculation combine with repressive colonial-era laws and corrupt officials.

The Buddh circuit has been built as a flagship development for a bigger project: a new town with a population of several hundred thousand, which will have malls, sports and education facilities, and will sit astride a new motorway linking it to Delhi, 32km away, and Agra, 190km away. The government wanted to sell the land, belonging to Kumar and other farmers, to the developers behind the motorway and the town. Greater Noida will be a satellite of a satellite town of Delhi, a city with a population of about 20 million. The result is that, only a few miles from the Indian capital, lies a vast swath of land undergoing extraordinary change at an extraordinary pace.

Tourists rarely come here – although they will pass through this weekend on the way to the circuit. If they did, they would find a no man's-land stuck between the new India, with its wealth and information technology and fashion industries, and the old India, rural and grotesquely underdeveloped.

The six-lane road that leads to Greater Noida is flanked by scores of half-built tower blocks. The frames of hoardings bereft of adverts loom above the traffic. Modern hotels back on to rivers black with human waste. On the fringes of this zone are villages such as Bhatta-Parsaul, just a few minutes' drive from the "Grand Venezia" development that, says the blurb, will provide shoppers with an authentically Venetian experience, right down to gondolas on artificial canals.

Although it might be tempting to portray the farmers resisting this development as rural heroes fighting to preserve a bucolic existence, the situation is more complex. First, life in rural villages is far from bucolic, and almost all Bhatta-Parsaul's inhabitants would prefer to live in a city. Second, their main grievance is that the state government does not pay sufficient compensation not that the viability of their community is threatened.

Third, the farmers of Bhatta-Parsaul are not exactly horny-handed sons of toil. Instead, they employ landless day labourers for a pittance. Illiterate, effectively homeless and unprotected, these are almost all migrants from the poorest parts of Uttar Pradesh or nearby states. They are from the lowest ranks of India's entrenched social hierarchy of "castes". Some are "tribal people" who are at the very bottom of the scale."We are higher caste than them and have held land for generations," said Kumar, "so, it's normal that they work for us."

Inevitably, the lines of conflict are being exploited by politicians. Uttar Pradesh has a population of 200 million, and the outcome of next year's elections will have a significant impact at national level. One visitor to Bhatta-Parsaul after the summer violence was Rahul Gandhi, 41, who is being groomed as the next prime minister by the ruling Congress party.The son of Sonia Gandhi, the party's current president, he evaded a police cordon to sit with farmers and discuss their problems. Gandhi's main opponent in Uttar Pradesh is the outspoken chief minister, Mayawati Kumari, who has mobilised the state's Dalits, or untouchables, as a power base.

One of the biggest developments in Noida is a huge park with giant bronze statues of Mayawati, as she is known, who is herself a Dalit, and other low-caste heroes. The park has yet to formally open but is already drawing visitors."We will vote for Mayawati, and when we are dead our children will vote for her. We are Dalit and this makes us feel proud," said Vinod, 38, who had come to the park from Agra to see the monuments.

Naturally, all parties are seeking to exploit the grand prix. Last week it was reported that Mayawati's government had given the developers a giant tax break to build the circuit. Posters featuring the chief minister that have gone up in Greater Noida might explain why. "Speed is progress," they say.


Away from the glamour of Formula One, poverty stalks India's villages | World news | The Observer

and....

Formula 1 Meets Poverty

India is a complex country beset with contradictions. This was no clearer in evidence than with the country’s hosting of its first Formula One race at the weekend, an event that divided opinion here.

Greater Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi, falls under the state of Uttar Pradesh. UP, as it’s commonly known, is one of the poorest parts of India. Hundreds of people have already died from an outbreak of encephalitis this year, while many hundreds more are struggling for their lives in poorly funded hospitals without access to adequate medication. Yet despite the failure to allocate sufficient funds to medical care, the other side of the state has just played host to an event that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to put together.

The Buddh International Circuit, which was built for this event, sits on land that was acquired under controversial circumstances. In 2007, the state government bought the land from local farmers, supposedly for the development of roads and industry. However, it sold the land to a private developer, Jaypee Group, at a hefty profit.

UP Chief Minister Mayawati is a Dalit (once known as the untouchable caste) and claims to represent the interests of a community that has historically been marginalized in both economic and political terms. Yet for some reason she exempted Jaypee Group, which was responsible for the Formula One track, from paying entertainment tax.

During my visit to the circuit this month, I spoke to Mohan Singh, who was watering parts of the track. He told me that his village, which is just five kilometers from the circuit, doesn’t have a proper water supply. He added that his wife walks at least two kilometers a day to fetch drinking water.

Such stories beg the question of what kind of message we are sending to the outside world. In a country where malnutrition rates are in some areas comparable with those in sub-Saharan Africa, and where millions of poor children can’t get a good education, why are we holding an event that the average Indian simply can’t afford?

The founding chairman of the Jaypee Group, Jaiprakash Gaur, has said the event is about national pride. ‘The world's perception of India is going to change after the Grand Prix,’ he is quoted by Reuters as saying. ‘People will forget what happened because of the Commonwealth Games.’

But as political commentator Paranjoy Guha Thakurta also told Reuters, this event, in many ways, actually epitomizes what is wrong with this country.

In a way, the whole F1 debate shouldn’t come as a surprise – it’s all part of India’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde personality. On the one hand, India is happy to receive poverty aid from countries such as Japan. Yet it also has one of the highest number of billionaires in the world. One of the most famous of these is Mukesh Ambani, who reportedly spent billions of dollars building a house in Mumbai not far from a cluster of slums. Yet it’s now being said that he has decided he doesn’t want to move into the 27-story building, with some reports suggesting it's because the structure doesn’t conform to Vastu Shastra (a belief that a dwelling’s architectural alignment should create spiritual harmony).

India undoubtedly needs its billionaires. But at the same time, it’s troubling that so many of India’s wealthy businessmen are forsaking their social responsibilities. The laborers that build their mansions and work for their firms need more than meager wages – they need a genuine chance to realize their aspirations.

F1 events shouldn’t exist side-by-side with abject poverty.

and finally

Can Formula One pull it off in India and should it be there at all?

There are reasons why Formula One is, perhaps, not the most sensitive of sports. Its vast wealth, catwalk vanity and air of boffinish self-obsession certainly do not help. That is why the sport is unlikely to be troubled by those who question the morality of holding a Formula One race in Uttar Pradesh, one of the poorest regions in this heart-achingly poor land.

Is it viable, though? Can interest in this event be sustained during the five years of its contract? Ask those questions and the F1 deal-makers will prick up their ears. For when this noisy circus has travelled east, to South Korea and China for example, it has not been an overwhelming success. The future of the South Korea race is in doubt after two events and interest in China, which has been on the schedule since only 2004, is falling fast.

Boria Majumdar, a respected author and sports economist, has no doubts. "I think Formula One in India will be a great success," he says. "The upwardly middle class in this country is bigger than the population of many countries and I include Britain when I say that.

"And the upwardly middle class here have not been much affected by the recession. India has been relatively recession-proof. So Formula One is coming to India at a time when many people are grappling with questions of how to spend the money. This was waiting to happen in India and finally it has happened."

Majumdar, born in Kolkata, a Rhodes scholar and the author of Twenty-Two Yards to Freedom – A Social History of Indian Cricket, added: "There is an oversaturation with cricket in this country and we made a mess of ourselves in front of the world with the Commonwealth Games.

"But if you don't tap into one of the world's fastest growing economies at a time of recession, you are making a mistake. You can ask plenty of social questions about whether this [is] relevant for India. That is a different argument and I have my doubts. But whether it is viable? The answer to that is yes."

The India GP has some obvious advantages over South Korea or China. It has been financed by private developers, rather than the government, which means its future will depend on the success of the event in generating the revenue required rather than being at the whim of a change in ruling party. India also has a foothold in the sport beyond hosting a grand prix; it has two drivers – Karun Chandhok, who tests for Lotus, and Narain Karthikeyan, who will drive for HRT on Sunday – and an Indian-backed team, Sahara Force India.

The communication company Airtel is the title sponsor of Sunday's grand prix, having ended its sponsorship of Champions League Twenty20 cricket, the sport that dominates advertising in India.

But Suhel Seth, one of the country's best-known marketing managers and the managing partner of Counselage India, is not so sure there is any guarantee of long-term success. "There will be a good crowd on Sunday and crowds will continue to come," he says. "But it is not sustainable. It's not going to enjoy the advertising that cricket enjoys. And where is the tourism, the infrastructure? I don't know what is going to attract the revenue that is needed. I think it will be a case of operation successful, patient dead."

Seth says the Indian Grand Prix does not show its people at their best. "In typical Indian style – and this is where we have to be self-deprecatory – in typical Indian style we have gone into this event at the last minute, with some dubious people involved, who no one really knows, and it is taking place in a state which is so corrupt, so it doesn't augur well. This is one of the three poorest areas in all India.

"And the irony is we're going to have high-speed racing cars in a state where, even today, 42% of the area doesn't have proper roads and where recently 459 children died of a strain of malaria."

But Seth is making a marketing, not a moral, judgment. In India only about 5% of the population belong to the middle class. Some 70-80% are poor, with half that number destitute.

But, Seth says, it is the crass and aggressive materialism of the middle class that has made them overreach themselves. These people stand out from the rest just as the opulence of nearby Delhi, the glory of Agra's Taj Mahal down the road and now the Buddh International Circuit stand out from the fetid streets of Uttar Pradesh.

"I'm not against this race taking place," Seth adds. "But I'm against the hypocrisy by which certain people believe we have arrived. We're being silly. We're only fooling ourselves. We're using the stadium of Formula One [as] a way of telling the world we have arrived. The Commonwealth Games were not only a PR disaster but also a fiscal disaster.

"The race hasn't happened yet, so we can't be too sceptical, and let's hope it goes off well. But while integrating sports, like cricket, bring people together, other sports are just spectacles where the people have no role to play, except give up their farmland, which is the case here. Here sport is a mockery, mocking the co-existence of poverty and wealth." And that, Seth argues, has marketing repercussions.

Formula One saw poverty at first hand at the circuit when four children appeared behind Renault's hospitality area. A Renault hostess, Adriana Maccarone, said: "A couple of truckies and myself went out and bought them some shoes, clothes and toys. We drew the shape of their feet on some A4 paper to get their shoe sizes. The whole cost came to between 10 and 15 pounds. They were so excited, even when we put ribbons in their hair. Force India and Williams, who are nearby, also gave them some goods and we gave them some chocolate and crisps from our hospitality area."


My opinion is if in the next couple of years the Indian poor around this area get benefits, jobs and pleasure - then why not? Prosperity shared is indeed a welcome pleasure. So people like me 5000 miles away can enjoy India Formula 1 and so can the Indians.This post is NOT having a go at ANYONE so before you get excited read my post please properly.

 

[praful]

India did a remarkable job to pull off formula 1 successfully. A lot of people will visit India in future will promote a lot of tourism. this will help us to promote our Soft Power.

 

[Doctor09]

Poor and underdeveloped countries can not afford such luxurious sports .... first you should make life better for your common man then after this you have right to enjoy such luxuries .... but if you spend 300million dollars for fun and your common men is suffering from poverty , illness and many more then there is no use of such money .... it can generate hate in common man against elite class..... these types of things can create sense of social injustice

 

[praful]

Poor and underdeveloped countries can not afford such luxurious sports .... first you should make life better for your common man then after this you have right to enjoy such luxuries .... but if you spend 300million dollars for fun and your common men is suffering from poverty , illness and many more then there is no use of such money .... it can generate hate in common man against elite class..... these types of things can create sense of social injustice

these was a private sector money which would remain idle in case we don't use it. A hell of a people got employment because of that. This is an "Economic Activity" which generates lot of revenue for government through taxes, a lot of jobs and tourism opportunity for the people in the region. And also project our soft power to the world. A win win sitauation for all the stakeholders of the country.

P.S. I think few people are pissed off because this we didn't donated money as like last time.

 

[Doctor09]

these was a private sector money which would remain idle in case we don't use it. A hell of a people got employment because of that. This is an "Economic Activity" which generates lot of revenue for government through taxes, a lot of jobs and tourism opportunity for the people in the region. And also project our soft power to the world. A win win sitauation for all the stakeholders of the country.

P.S. I think few people are pissed off because this we didn't donated money as like last time.

but you can utilize private sector money to invest in such projects which give quick results in fight against poverty and unemployment ..... this racing tract is a seasonal thing not give permanent jobs and tourism during event is also a seasonal thing and may be you can not organize such events on yearly basis

 

[rajnikant]

Poor and underdeveloped countries can not afford such luxurious sports .... first you should make life better for your common man then after this you have right to enjoy such luxuries .... but if you spend 300million dollars for fun and your common men is suffering from poverty , illness and many more then there is no use of such money .... it can generate hate in common man against elite class..... these types of things can create sense of social injustice

There is no F1 in Pakistan..so nobody is poor or below poverty in your country? if it is so then we are at the fault otherwise stop trolling. even China has the poverty and poor so they should stop making J-10, jf-17 right..why don't you preach this to them.
More over, its not govt who is spending, its Private spending and has benefited poor(in the form contract labrours involved in the project) and will also benefit in the future in the future in the form of Tourism.

so exactly now tell us what is the problem? Do I need to look in Poverty ratio of my country before spending my salary???

 

[Dalai Lama]

Poor and underdeveloped countries can not afford such luxurious sports .... first you should make life better for your common man then after this you have right to enjoy such luxuries .... but if you spend 300million dollars for fun and your common men is suffering from poverty , illness and many more then there is no use of such money .... it can generate hate in common man against elite class..... these types of things can create sense of social injustice

I know you lot love to dream about the disintegration of India at every chance you get but sorry bruv, not gonna' happen.

 

[harpoon]

but you can utilize private sector money to invest in such projects which give quick results in fight against poverty and unemployment ..... this racing tract is a seasonal thing not give permanent jobs and tourism during event is also a seasonal thing and may be you can not organize such events on yearly basis

Its up to the private sector to decide where they want their money to be invested. As far as I know GoI didn't spend a single paisa on this track, but on the other hand this race gave back GoI hundreds of crores in tax, and will continue to do so. This tax can be then used by GoI for various poverty alleviation programs.