What should India, rising but still plagued by poverty, do with a newly discovered treasure of gold coins, statues and jewels in the vault of a Hindu temple, valued at about $22 billion? Suggestions are pouring in from across the country and the world. Some say it should be used to establish universities and colleges. The man who brought the court case that resulted in the unveiling of the treasure wants it handed over to the Kerala state government. Others want a new subway system. Click here for more on that from Denver Post.
Senior Advocate, Mr K K Venugopal, representing the royal family, suggested the money could be used for opening a `ved pathsala' (school for study in ancient scriptures), training of pujaris and supporting other temples which are not as wealthy as Sree Swami Padmanbhaswamy temple.
For the full text of that report in the ToI, click here.
There is speculation that there are large caches of wealth even in the temples of Karnataka, like in Udupi, Mookambika, etc, though of course they may not compare in magnitude with the ones in Thiruvananthapuram.
Now, rather than just preserving these treasures, or pursuing some limited activity like the Ved Pathsala, etc, why not use them to pursue key infrastructure projects/ services, such as public bus transport, power distribution, water supply, solid waste disposal, effluent treatment and disposal, district hospitals management, Sabarimala and Guruvayoor temple pilgrimage facilities management, etc, on a social entrepreneurship basis? These have all so far been the monopoly domains of the government, and they have repeatedly been found wanting in capacity to meet the rapidly growing demand. For this, the temple management trusts could be made more broad-based to include retired and serving professionals of eminence, and executed by a professional team under a CEO.
I am sure such pursuits will have the fullest blessings of Lord Padmanabha.
Muralidhar Rao
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'Sterling' example
Given the one-way flow of gold over the centuries, a staggering amount has accumulated in India. The World Gold Council estimates it to be over 20,000 tonnes, worth $1.1 trillion or half of India’s GDP. For years economists have wanted to use this unproductive asset for productive investment. And happily, the process has begun. Gold loans, bonds, and deposit schemes are all steps in the right direction. In these schemes owners of gold earn interest by depositing it with banks, which in turn releases part of it in the market, thus reducing India’s demand for imported gold.
The bigger prize is to convince temples to do the right thing and deposit their vast gold stocks in banks and earn interest. Jamal Mecklai, the currency expert, had suggested earlier this year that if Tirupati temple were to deposit a third of its holdings at two per cent interest, it could earn Rs 3,000 crore a year. Tirupati did just that in May, beginning with a 2,250-kg deposit with the State Bank of India. This is a triumph! If major temples follow suit, gold will soon flood the domestic market, imports will stop, the global gold price will fall and the rupee will strengthen.
For the full text of the blog in the SToI by Gurcharan Das, click here
Now, shouldn't this be what the Kerala temples, starting with the Padmanabhaswamy kshteram, too, being doing?
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