Mineral water!

I was watching a talk show on an entertainment channel. The guest was great social-worker Medha Patkar. The host was asking her about her work. In between he asked why did she refused to drink mineral water before the show? She said, I hate the mineral water! Then she started explaining what she meant. This mineral water companies get water from underground. They soak the underground water which is the reason it is decreasing day by day. The government charges them only 50 paise per litre of water and how much do they take from us? Rs. 10 per half litre that means around Rs.18-20 per litre. Whats the percentage of profit? Just calculate. This was the explanation given by her.
I had once been to a mineral water plant in my school days. There I had seen the purifying and the filling process. There was a very big metal purifier and there there where small cabins where the packaging was done. I saw how the plastic bottles were made. There was small plastic test tube. Air was filled in that test-tube and given the shape of the bottle. It happened in minutes. From this we can actually make out that it costs so less to prepare these bottles. There is more than 100% profit in this business.
Medha Patkar had also said that actually water should be sold free. Even if not free it should be sold at minimal rate. Even at home, we get water 24*7 for very less price. So why do these companies charge so much? Time to think! 

The hospital bill......

When it comes to the hospital, people become emotionally and doctors and nurses gets a chance to loot them. Yes thats what i said! Loot them! Don't get emotional and think practically about what I am going to say. When my grandfather was in the hospital, I always used to be there, I used to see the medical of the hospital giving bills twice, thrice a day. And the amount on every bill used to exceed beyond Rs.300. One day on seeing the bill, one of my aunt said, two businesses in this world are very profitable-one is hotel business and second is hospital. I started thinking. Its true that in both the places, hotel or hospital, whatever the amount might be, we just pay it without thinking.
When we left the hospital, there came in front of us a huge bill of about Rs. 70,000 for just 15 days and Rs. 17,000 of medication. No operations had taken place. My grandfather just laid on the bed for whole 15 days. Seeing the bill we were really surprised. Its not that we didn't had money to pay, we could have paid more than that for the life of my grandfather but we didn't wanted to get looted. So we asked for the break-up of the bill. My dad, my uncle wanted to know for what all we have been charged. The room called the special room with just an additional bed and no toilet and wash-basin in the room cost Rs. 1500 everyday. They had done many tests. (God knows when. They had hardly taken his blood) We asked for the reports of all the tests and found out that they had doubled the money. They said it was by-mistake and decreased the amount. There were many other things where we could see that they had charged much like the ICU room, doctor's visiting charges extra. But could not say anything about them. I felt that instead of giving the money to the doctor who visited once in the whole day, give them to the nurses and other staff because they had really worked hard and done much more than their job throughout 15 days. But they got very little share. When we bought the medicines from a medical outside the hospital, we came to know that the hospital had charged more than the actual price in medicines too.
From all these experiences, i learnt a lot. I learnt that doctors practice for money and not to provide service. Then I realized that its a circle. When the fees of medical colleges are Rs. 4,00,000, why the doctor would not try to retrieve his fees. As he tries to do so, he earns lot and ultimately doctors children land up becoming doctors! This may not be the case in each hospital but it can be in coming future. So be aware and think practically while paying hospital bills!

The Dairy Budget!

Finally i got the interview of the shopkeeper. The article based on his interview follows:-

How much do you think would be a shopkeeper having a milk dairy, earning? We know that the prices of milk are continuously rising. So it can be a profitable business! Or is it not? The answers to these questions are not as simple as we think. I got to learn this from the shopkeeper named Mr. Milind Mangesh Parulekar. He has a dairy shop in Dombivli named Swastik Dairy. It was started by his father in 1988. When started, it was just a dairy where they used to sell only milk and curd. But now, bread, butter, biscuits, chocolates are available as Swastik  Dairy and it has become a general store too. He even has mobile recharge of every available service provider.
What made Mr. Parulekar increase no.of items in the shop? Yes, the increasing demand is the right answer. As the area around the store started flourishing, Parulekar father-son recognized the need of the people and started providing them with basic eateries.
As the items increased, business increased, income also increased but along with that inflation increased too. So apart from demand it became a need of the family to earn more. Earlier, the milk used to come from Chalisgaon. There were no private companies. The government used to supply milk. Also he used to buy milk from 'Arey'. Then as private companies entered the market, he started buying milk from private companies. Now he gets the milk from Vashi and Bhiwandi.
When talking about the income from milk, he said, milk business is very much risky. Today he buys 150 litres of milk everyday. Out of 150, 70 litres is delivered to households directly. And remaining 80 litres of milk is kept in the store. He says everyday the dealer comes at about 7-8pm to take money. Everyday he has to pay Rs. 4500. He has a delivery boy who delivers 30 litres of milk. Remaining 40 litres is delivered by himself before coming to the store. The people who get the home delivery, pay him the complete amount once in a month and he has to pay the dealer everyday, so he says for about 30-40 days he has pay all the money from his pockets. Then between 1st and 10th of every month he gets the money back from the households. The other 80 litres that he keeps at store should also get sold. If they don't the dealer don't replace them or take them back. Mr. Milind has to pay for the left out and also take all the milk home or just throw it away if it gets spoiled. So there is a loss if the milk doesn't get sold. Also he has to pay to the delivery boy. He says that if the boy keeps the milk outside some-one's house and rings the bell and goes away and if nobody in the house hears the bell, then there is a possibility that some outsider might pickup the milk and go away. Then the customer comes to Mr. Milind complaining that we didnt get the milk, the boy says he put and rang the bell, so this is again the loss. When asked about his margin in milk business, he says, we get Rs.1.50 behind every litre. It is very less.
The prices of milk are continuously rising. When asked about its effect, he said, when prices rise, for 2-3 days  the customers are less but then again their number increases because even though the prices rise people need milk. But even if the prices rise we don't get much profit.
He narrated an incident. He was delivering the milk when he came to know that his uncle expired, still he had to complete his round, make someone sit at the store and then leave. He says, its a daily business and he cannot give any excuse. But he doesn't want to quit it because its going on since 22 years. He says, its not all that bad. There are many other items that he sells and gains good profit out of it. Other items are replaceable. The mobile recharge is a profitable business where he gets Rs.25 on recharge of Rs.1000.
Overall his GDP remains steady. There is no fiscal deficit but fiscal 'profit'! Hence he lives a nice life and though he shuts the shop every-night at 10pm, in the morning it gets closed before 12noon everyday when others start theirs'!