By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when it looks as though bells are tolling for the casino industry. For a Saturday following the week when Narayan Murthy, founder of Infosys, was promoting a quick Bitcoin investment platform. For a Saturday following the week when all the inner roads in Panaji city continue to be in terrible shape. For a Saturday following the week when Rohan Khaunte wanted to diversify the tourism industry. For a Saturday following the week when fines were imposed on the contractor who built the new GMC super-speciality block.
AND a few stray thoughts on what it looks like is that bells are tolling for the casino industry. The Central government has turned against the offshore casinos occupying prime space on the Mandovi river. It would appear that both the Deltin casinos and Big Daddy casino have to close down. This is primarily because of the change in the method of charging Goods & Service Tax.
Earlier the GST was on the net profit made by the casinos. Under the new regime, GST will be charged to the bets placed by those visiting the casinos. The impact on the casino business is bound to be fatal. Deltin Corporation has received a demand notice for GST over Rs16,800 crore.
With retrospective effect from 2017 to 2022 this huge amount of GST and income-tax will squeeze the profits of the company. Deltin which is the only company listed on the Stock Exchange itself has seen a drop of 20% in the value of its shares. The new GST rules apply to all casinos regardless of whether they are offshore casinos or land-based casinos in the starred hotels. It also applies to casinos running online over the Internet.
For almost a decade there was only one offshore casino in Goa, namely the pioneering Sundar Advani’s Caravela (at Caravela Beach Resort) down south Goa. Then came in Jaydev Mody, the promoter of Deltin casinos, he was very close to former Union Home Minister LK Advani. In fact, he was present at the swearing-in of late Manohar Parrikar as a chief minister of Goa in 2000.
Now Deltin has four offshore casinos and a few casinos in five-star hotels. Besides Deltin the other major operators are the Pride Group and Big Daddy owned by Gopal Kanda who’s a former minister of the Haryana government. Gopal Kanda has been acquitted on the charge of molesting air-hostess Geetika Sharma in 2012.
The casinos in Goa serve as a money laundry pass-time for politicians and big business houses. The BJP has more than enough funds to fight the parliamentary 2024 elections. This is unlike the other political parties like the Congress which are in power in a six states (Manipur, Assam, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh).
It is possible that the BJP is shutting down the casinos so that the grand Opposition group calling itself I.N.D.I.A. (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) cannot take advantage of converting black money into white. Though the BJP has received the largest contribution from corporate houses and individuals, the richest chief minister in the country is YS Jagan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh.
Both Deltin and other companies involved in gambling have appealed in the High Court against the GST order we understand. However, the closure of the casinos will seriously affect both tourism and the hospitality industry in Goa. The casinos were offering good deals of free luxury hotel stays to big-time gamblers with everything laid on if they were willing to deposit Rs1,00,000 with them.

NARAYAN MURTHY PLATFORM
AND a few stray thoughts on Narayan Murthy, founder of Infosys, who is promoting a quick Bitcoin investment platform. At one time the only crypto currency was Bitcoin. Unlike our normal currency crypto currency is virtual and is minted on a computer network. At least in the case of Bitcoin strict control is said to be in place on the amounts the user generated.
Since the volume of Bitcoin available was strictly controlled its value kept rising. However, with Bitcoin, there is no guarantee that you will make a profit. Bitcoin has now been supplemented by several artificial intelligence-empowered investment platforms. These investment platforms trade not only in shares but all kinds of securities and even in gold silver and commodities. The scheme involves investing $250 to $500. Thereafter the fund manager decides where the money will be invested for maximum return. Very sophisticated algorithms are used to keep track of the markets so that maximum profits can be made.
Amongst the early entrant in this spin business was Gautam Adani, who is facing many charges of cheating and corruption. Adani announced his investment platform and demonstrated how even the ordinary aam aadmi could become a lakhpati if not the crorepati. He demonstrated his money-making plan to the media. The average citizen is so greedy that he will invest in many schemes which promise a big return.
Apparently, there was a rush to invest in the scheme at the banks when Adani announced the scheme. We can understand doubts about investing in any scheme floated by Adani. However, Nandan Nilenkani, co-founder and chairperson of Infosys Ltd has also floated an investment platform which promises to generate revenue for the aam adami.
In fact, the latest to join the cryptocurrency investment platforms is founder chairperson of Infosys Narayan Murthy himself. This is the most economical of the investments as he had to pay only Rs 18,000 to start off with. The promise is that it could multiply to Rs1,00,000 within a month. When people normally trade in the stock markets those who on the basis of trends in the markets and the state of the economy. The stock market in Mumbai registered a sharp fall in the phase of development in Canada and an interest rate hacked by the Federal Reserve in the United States. With the new industry backgrounds, the algorithms powered by Artificial Intelligence are much faster and can analyse trends in several markets simultaneously.
For instance, if the price of gold is higher in India as compared to the United States, gold will be bought in India and sold in countries where its price is higher. No investment platform is fail-safe. A colleague who invested in one of the schemes gained Rs50,000 initially but ended up losing Rs1 lakh later. The scheme is floated by Nandan Nilenkani and Narayan Murthy and has greater credibility as both are very highly respected figures.

DEVILISH PANAJI ROADS
AND a few stray thoughts on the roads in Panaji city continuing to be in terrible shape. Manoj Caculo probably wants to shift Caculo Mall to a new destination. The road from Tonca to Caculo Mall is full of treacherous potholes and very difficult to negotiate even if you are in a grand four-wheeler or SUV.
The tragedy in Goa is that industrialists do not contribute to maintaining or creating infrastructure for their own benefit. The Caculo Mall is making enough money to repair and fill up the potholes on its own initiative. The malls’ business is affected we are sure but the access road has been in an utter mess for some months now with two-wheeler riders ignoring the route altogether. Maybe other roads are okay and customers continue to lure customers.
A road in Panaji is named after a leading industrialist. The road was in very bad shape. I asked the son of the industrialist why he did not repair it? He turned around and said that it was the business of the CCP or Corporation of the City of Panaji. It did not bother him that it was also an insult to his father that the road named after him should be in such horrible condition.
Unfortunately, most of us are selfish. We will take great pains to ensure that our indoors will be spotlessly maintained and clean. And turn a blind eye to all the broken pavements and garbage piles piling up at our doorstep or around about it. Panaji is the only town in India if not world which has door-to-door garbage collection scheme. All it requires it residents purchase two plastic bins, black for dry waste and green for wet waste. The waste is collected by the CCP-supervised workers but unfortunately, most Ponjekars will not bother to separate their dry and wet garbage. The pick-up team of workers have a tough time educating them but they give up in disgust and sometimes skip their bins until the people learn to do the needful and appreciate it.