SHARING EQUAL POVERTY

     The National Food Security Bill is going to become a law. Even though there had been many efforts, to improve the standard of living of the marginalized sections of the society, the fundamental difference of the Bill is that it focuses to insure the availability of food grains at a free rate to these masses. The food security declaration of UN in 1996 says that it is the duty of a welfare state to insure food security of its citizens. The very root of their declaration implies that every nation is responsible to make available nutritional food for its people. The implementation of the National food security bill is based on this UN declaration.

     The world in which we live is a picture of contrasts. On the one hand we have a few countries which are economically developed and prosperous. On the other we have mainly two thirds of population living in a state of poverty and dependency. The famous Indian Welfare Economist Amartya Sen defines ‘poverty is the inability to access basic standard of living’. The emphasize here is on the word ‘basic’. Basic standard of living means getting clean water, nutrition, health care, educational, clothing and shelter. According to the definition given by World Bank, people who earn less than $1.25 per day come under Below Poverty Line (BPL). On the basis of this definition 42% of Indian population fall under Below Poverty Line. According to the statistics of Planning Commission (2004-2005) 27.5% of the population live below poverty line. N.C Saxena Committee appointed by the Central Government says that 50% of the Indian population is still poor.

     The newest estimation of poverty in India is done by Tendulkar Committee. The committee is lead by the famous Indian economist Suresh Tendulkar. He has adopted a new method to define and measure poverty. Beyond the definition of the World Bank based on the income earning, he considers health, education, sanitation facilities and amiability of nutritional food along with income earning.

     Since 1972, the estimation of poverty in India was taken place on the basis of food calorie. The people who earn and income which is not enough to make available food from which they get 2100 calorie in cities and 2400 calorie in villages come under below poverty line.

     Poverty is a relative concept. It is very difficult to determine a criterion that differentiate poverty and richness. According to beggars they are poor because they don’t get enough food to overcome hunger. There are millions of laborers who have work but don’t have even a hut. On the other hand there are people who have a shelter but don’t have income or employment. Before 2 centuries Adam Smith in his famous book “An Enquiry in to the nature and causes of Wealth of Nations” said a man is said to be rich or poor depending on the possibility of getting the living facilities to him.

     Poverty is a situation which have multiple faces. It is the sum of non availability of income, shelter, health, education and drinking water. Its is the most vulgarous social and economic face of a nation. Mainly it is caused by the absence of resources. The largest number of people living below poverty line is in India. 2260.3 million people is said to be poor. 193.2 million is from villages and the rest 67.1 form cities. According to Tendulkar Committee, in Kerala there 19.7 % people who are below poverty line.

     According to food security act going to be implemented, only BPL families will get free good grains. But it remains as an unquestionable truth there are millions of poor people who are above poverty line only in the records. However it is the best time for the govt. for a rethink to make available this facility to those kinds of people also. To achieve the purpose we have to develop in a good public distribution system (PDS). A well developed public distribution system can resist food inflation to certain extent. In India the basic living facilities that is got by a poor, and a lower middle income citizen is almost the same.

     A untited nations backed study conducted by Oxford University revealed that poverty in atlas 8 Indian States Bihar, Ulttarpradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were worse than in some of the poorest countries of Sub Saharan Africa. These Indian states and some of the African countries whose multy dimensional poverty index (MPI) was equal to or greater than .32. (The MPI was calculated 104 countries ranging from 0 to 0.64). These states along with 26 African countries fall below that cutoff. For West Bengal, the MPI value is .32 in which 58% of people are poor. Actually the intensity of poverty In African countries is high. The population weighted MPI for 26 African countries is 0.43 where as for these Indian states it is 0.39. Even though there are signs of wiping out of poverty, one thing is sure that India has to wait many more years for the complete liberation from this curse. Perhaps Paul Octopus in Germany can predict how many years India has to wait.

GLOBAL WARMING...... WILL WE EXIST...............?????

          A combination of light and heat energy from the sun reaches earth and warms the land, oceans, and air. When earth’s surface warms up, it radiates heat which rises towards the sky. A few gases in the atmosphere called greenhouse gases (water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone etc) absorb this heat and prevent it from escaping into space, thus warming earth. Greenhouse gases keep earth warm for all living things to survive; without this warmth , earth would be about 33*C colder than it is today! However when the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increase, they trap the excess heat. Over time this results in global warming, i e , an increase in the temperature of the earth. Since 1880, large scale burning of fossil fuels and the other human activities led to an increase in the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. As a result earth has warmed by 0.8*Celsius.

         Since 1980 earth has experienced 19 of its 20 hottest year on record. The sea levels are rising faster , threatening to flood coasts, wetlands and many low-lying islands. On an average, rainfall and snowfall patterns have changed across the globe. Around the world, glaciers are melting rapidly. Raised temperature has also triggered the extinction of many animal and plant species.

         It is projected that the Arctic summers might become ice free by 2040. This could prove dangerous for animals like polar bears that rely on ice for hunting. According to a report, “two thirds of the polar bear population will become extinct by 2050.” In order to survive rising temperature, all the animals and birds will be forced to adapt to their changing habitat. If the warming is gradual, many of them will be successful in doing this. If it is sudden, most of them will be unable to adapt and will become extinct. As the earth heats, 25% of earth’s species would vanish by 2050. The population of Antarctic Emperor penguins has dropped by 50 % over the past 50 years. The Himalayan glaciers are the source of some of Asia’s biggest rivers. They provide water to one third of the world’s population. Now these glaciers are receding faster than glaciers anywhere else in the world. According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the melting of glaciers caused by climate change could seriously affect half billion people in the Himalaya-Hindu-Kush region. Warmer temperature also increase air and water pollution. Therefore 2*C rise in temperature or more will result in health problems. According to World Health Organization, conditions directly related to climate change cause 5 million illnesses each year.

IMPORTANCE OF SAVINGS AND INVESTMENT IN ONE’S LIFE

Every branch of knowledge has its own contributions that made a turning point in the historical lanes of human beings. In mechanics it is wheel, in science it is fire. In political science it is vote and in economics it is money. Money is the queen among all these fundamental discoveries. Money is anything that is generally acceptable as a means of exchange and that at the same time act a store of value. So there is no question in the fact that money is important and money does matter.

Until the middle part of twentieth century, the whole economic system was run on the basis of classical economic principles associated with the names of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, T R Malthus, J B Say, Alfred Marshall etc. their economic doctrines enjoyed wide spread authority during the late eighteenth and nineteenth century. According to them, money acts as a medium of exchange. It means that money has only one function that is transaction. But after the Great depression of 1930’s, an intellectual giant John Maynard Keynes, a favorite student of Alfred Marshall in Cambridge University came with a new set of thoughts and ideas. He published a book named ‘General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money’ in 1936. it has created a great revolution in economic history and became a landmark in modern economic thinking. In this theory Keynes examined the sore of value function of money along with transaction function. According to him demand for money arises due to three motives. They are transaction motive, precautionary motive and speculative motive.

1. Transaction motive

It refers to the demand for money for the current transaction of the people. People hold cash in order to bridge the interval between receipt of income and the expenditure. This amount will depend upon the interval at which income is received. The businessmen and entrepreneurs also will keep a portion of their resource in ready cash to meet the current needs. Keynes calls this as business motive. The amount hold in liquid form will depend upon the business turnover. Transaction demand for money is independent of rate of interest and it will remain constant at a particular level of income.

2. Precautionary motive

It refers to the desire of the public to hold cash balances for meeting unforeseen or unpredictable contingencies such as unemployment, sickness, accidents etc. The amount of money hold under this motive will depend on the nature of individuals’ income.

3. Speculative motive

It refers to the desire to hold one’s resources in liquid form in order to take advantage in market movements regarding future changes in price and rate of interest. There is an inverse relation between rate of interest and people’s tendency to spend money.

Precautionary and speculative motive induce people to save money. When people save, banks will lend this amount to businessmen for investment. Thus there is a very close relationship between savings and investment. While we understand the importance of savings and investment in one’s life it is very essential to understand the interconnection between them.

Savings refers to that part of income which is not consumed. On the other hand by the term investment we mean an addition to the stock of physical capital. Savings and investment are two crucial economic variables by which we can measure a person’s physical quality of life and standard of living. Everyone can agree that saving money as early as possible will help one and his family to achieve more stable life than someone who has no savings. Long term habit of saving money is a way of protecting someone from natural adversity that comes in his life.

According to Warren Buffet, world’s second richest person, if a person has to become a millionaire at the age of 65, then he has to save $10 per day if he is at the age of 25. If he has 35 year old, he must save $22 in a day. If he is at the age of 45, his savings requirement is $55 per day. If he wait until the age of 55, he has to save $182 per day. He assumes the saved amount of money generate 8% returns per year. This example shows the importance of savings in one’s life. The importance of savings may be analyzed on the basis of the reasons by which people are induced to save.

1. To meet unexpected expenditure in life: According to a modern monetarist Milton Friedman, people’s current income has two components namely permanent and transitory component. Transitory component refers to the amount of income generated accidentally and unanticipated. It may be positive or negative. If it is negative people’s current income will decrease and they will become unable to meet their needs. At this time savings plays a crucial role in compensating this adverse situation and rescue them from borrowing.

2. Savings act as an inducement for investment: If a person has considerable savings, he will have a feeling that he is able to meet some unexpected expenditure and to face moderate risk. This feeling induces him to make investments. Savings can provide an excellent source for future business ventures as capital. It also allows for exploring sleeping talents and other interests that may increase one’s income.

3. Makes a felling of rationality: Every normal human beings are rational in behavior. It means that they try to maximize their satisfaction with minimum spending. It induces them to save a part of their income.

4. Children’s education: One of the most important things a person can do is to educate his children. In today’s world education is very essential and so expensive. Therefore savings is very important on the side of education also. Quality based education will provide a great sense of accomplishment and peace of mind foe a person.

5. Achieve a feeling of self reliance: A habit of savings give people the ability to enjoy independence and power to do things.

6. Security of the family: Even though in the process of income determination, we take income of an individual over his entire life span, death is an accidental fact. Everyone fears death. So they are always aware of the stability and security of their family. It forces them to save a portion of their income.

Savings and investment are mutually interconnected economic variables. When we examine the importance of savings, it is very essential to understand what is the role of investment in one’s life. Keynes’s psychological law of consumption shows that income is not equal to expenditure and it makes a gap between income and consumption. It can be filled in by additional investment only. If additional investment does not take place, income and employment will inevitably fall.

According to classicals, level of investment depends on the rate of interest only. But Keynes has introduced some dynamic variables such as expectation and Marginal Efficiency of Capital. Marginal Efficiency of Capital ( MEC ) is the expected returns fro additional unit of investment. An investor will decide to invest only if the expected profit is higher than the rate of interest he has to pay. According to Keynes, out of these determinants of investment, MEC is of crucial importance. Keynes has assumed that rate of interest changes quickly and remains more or less constant. Then if MEC is higher than rate of interest, investment will be higher and vise versa. Fluctuations in the investment are due to fluctuations in the MEC. Profit is essential to induce businessmen to take risk. The probable risks are from competition and business cycles. Great the risk, higher will be the level of profit which the entrepreneur will expect. An entrepreneur is not influenced by current rate of profit but the expected rate of profit.

In modern times people prefer to invest in human capital than non human assets. It is because they have convinced that man power is the richest asset. Benjamin Franklin says “an investment in knowledge always pays the best interest”. According to Census Bureau, the agency responsible for taking the census, provide demographic information in United States, people with a bachelor’s degree earn on average nearly twice as much as people with only a high school diploma. College may be expensive but it is one of the best investments we can make. We have to invest in man power that turn the dreams we have into realities. Only an educated society can transform the world. Only a person with confidence, competence, responsibility and honesty can become a good businessman or investor. Everyday thousands of people become unemployed by working under untruthful entrepreneurs. Good investors create the backbone of the society.

In order to achieve higher growth in savings and investment, banking system has a important role to play. Banking institutions have been playing a vital role in economic development of different countries of the world. An efficient and diversified banking system is must for promoting savings and canalizing them into investment and helps to achieve a faster rate in economic growth. Thus the good health of an economy is reflected in the good health of its banking system. In modern economies banks are considered to be the dealers of money as well as leaders of development.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC RECESSION – LESSONS AND IMPACTS

In the language of economics, recession is a negative growth of Gross Domestic Product of an economy for a certain period of time. In simple words recession means a period of stress and strain when the businessmen find it difficult to meet their commitments. As the economic system is revolving around the trade cycle, recession is a part of the economic cycle. When we are discussing about global economic meltdown, it’s consequences and the lessons we get from this, we have to analyze many other things also such as how does it happen ?, what are the major factors which lead to recession?, how does it become a threat to economic growth?, efficient measures that can be taken to control this situation etc.

Global economic recession has been become a subject of discussion at local, national and international levels hundreds of time. Last hundred years of the world history has witnessed five economic meltdowns including a great depression in 1929. Before 1930s, functioning of the economy was based on the principles of classical economics associated with the names of Alfred Marshall, David Ricardo, T R Malthus, J B Say, J S Mill and so on. Their economic doctrines enjoyed wide spread authority till the Great depression. But in 1936, an intellectual giant named John Maynard Keyenes, a favorite student of Alfred Marshall in Cambridge came with a set of new inventions and ideas with the publication of a book “General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”. It is a landmark in the economic history and made a great revolution in the modern economic thought.

At present, the modern world is in the hands of a severe economic recession even though the signs of recovery have been seen. At the beginning of this essay we have seen that recession is a situation when businessmen find difficulty to meet their commitments. Then naturally arise a question why does it happen? The answer is that during recession there will arise a tremendous imbalance between aggregate demand and aggregate supply in the economy. Demand will be very much less than aggregate supply. Therefore the firms will be urged to reduce their production. It will lead to an increase in the rate of unemployment and it in turn reduces income. The only way to over come this situation is to create additional demand in the economy. For this purpose the present governments are declaring stimulus packages of billions and billions of dollars to stabilize the economy. In order to increase the demand, we have to increase consumption or investment or both. During the time of recession, marginal efficiency of capital or amount of profit from additional unit of investment will be low due to the declined state of demand. Therefore private investors will not come to invest. At this time more investment and consumption must be done by the government. In other words government should act as an agent who does not have any profit motive.

When we enquire the background of this contemporary recession, it can be seen that the roots were grew first in U S A and it showed it’s symptoms in September 2008. In 2005, Bush government in U S A brought a policy to meet the aim that there should be no person without house in the country by 2010. So the government wanted the monetary institutions to give housing loans in a liberalized manner. By this reason many people were given loan irrespective of their income. And they became unable to repay this debt with interest even they sell their houses. This situation caused a sudden decline in the aggregate demand of the American economy. Even though classicals and Keyenes created their theories by taking a two sector closed economy model, modern economy is open with external sector or foreign trade. Therefore the situation in the U S economy spread to world wide as many counties are good trading partners of U S A. Indian economy has also affected by the recession to certain extend. But the strong base of banking sector in India and effective and accurate steps taken by the government and monetary authority rescued the country from a great slow down. During the middles of 2008, Indian economy was suffering from acute inflation. Inflation occurs when aggregate demand exceed aggregate supply. In other words inflation is the reverse of recession. Due to the global financial meltdown, India could reduce it’s inflation rate and we have experienced a state of deflation before a few weeks.

Impacts of global economic recession

Even though recession is a part of trade cycle, it has wide range of impacts. It will take a lot of time to cure from the influence of this slow down. Some of he major impacts can be discussed below.

High unemployment rate: Recession means a fall in aggregate demand with respect to the availability of goods and services. So producers will be forced to reduce their production. It will cause high unemployment in the economy.

Deflation or Disinflation: Recession cause deflation up to a certain extend. We have seen that there will be unemployment during recession. As a result these unemployed people become income less. Therefore the aggregate income in the economy decreases. Then the value of money increases and it will lead to deflation.

Foreclosure: Due to a large amount of unemployment in the economy, people will become unable to discharge their debts. Therefore they loss their security resources.

Heavy fall in investment: During recession, people’s marginal propensity to consume will be less. Therefore there arises a fall in demand. It will destroy the expectation of the producers to invest more.

Bankruptcies: We have seen that amount of expected profit will be low at the time of recession. At the same time some of the firms will have to shut down their operation if they can not cover the variable cost. This situation will create bankruptcies in the economy.

Stock Market losses: Performance of the sock market of a country is an indicator of the economic performance. During recession the marginal efficiency of capital is very low. So the people will not have a mind to invest their money in the stock markets. It causes stock market failure.

Fall in Exports and Imports: Demand will be less with respect to supply during recession. It will lead to decline in exports and imports. It affects the balance of trade of the exporting country adversely. America is one of the major trade partners of India. Due to the meltdown, exports to America were stopped for a period of time. This situation played a crucial role in reducing the growth of Indian economy in the financial year 2008 -09.

Lessons from the global economic recession

Present economic system is open with international trade. Therefore recession become a global phenomenon. It is an insomniac and nightmare of many prominent economists. This time we have to learn a lot of lessons from this economic turmoil. If the economy is in the hands of fluctuations every time, it can’t achieve full employment equilibrium. Only an economy without worse effects of trade cycles brings about growth and development. The lessons that can be learned from the recessionary experience may be detailed below.

Need of more government intervention in the financial sector: Earlier we have seen that level of income, employment and output will decrease during recession. In order to overcome recession, demand in the economy should be pushed up. Due to a declined state of aggregate demand, individuals will not invest their money because of the lack of expectation. According to Keynesian sense, this tome government should come to consume and invest more without any profit motive. It will raise aggregate demand and then private investors also will come. Thus the economy will be stabilized from recessionary state.

Don’t spend more than our income: Aggregate demand is good for the economy. But there is a limit in the availability of goods and services. Roots of the present economic recession were from the intemperate consumption. So we have to use money only to satisfy effective demand.

Understand the store of value function of money: According to the classical view, money is only a medium of exchange. It means money has only transaction function. So increase in the quantity of money affects only the price level and other macro economic variables will remain unaffected. But Keyenes said money have three motives. They are transaction, precautionary and speculative motive. Precautionary and speculative motive represents the store of value function of money. From this we can understand that we should be prepared to meet emergencies.

Keep a limit in savings: Savings is good for individuals. But when the full aggregate economy saves more, it will lead to a deficiency in aggregate demand by reducing the marginal propensity to consume. It will in turn lead to recession and then to depression.

Understand the equal importance of product market and money market in the modern economy: People have a misconception that investing money in the monetary institution is the safest way. But along with this saving we have to invest money in the product market also. Only by this way there will be responsible supply of outputs with respect to the demand.

Improvement of social security measures: In order to achieve effective demand and full employment equilibrium, consumption must be increased. People will consume more than their savings only if they have enough social security. Giving more social security is the responsibility of the government.

Need of a strong basement in the monetary sector: The financial sector of a country should be very strong. Central bank of that country can play a crucial role in performing this function. The Central bank should fix strict cash reserve ratio in order to stabilize other banks and monetary institutions.

In the economic history of the world, the most discussed economic systems are capitalism and socialism. All economic theories are formed on the basis of a capitalist economy. Though J M Keyenes created his theory on the basis of a laissez fair two sector closed economy model, he advocated government intervention and gave more importance to fiscal policy than monetary policy. When the recession of 2008 struck the whole world, there arose a question that “should the world move to socialism?”. Even though this is a debatable topic, the meltdown arise the importance of a mixed economic system like Indian economy. In India almost all financial institutions whether it is private or public have a strong base. The best example is when the world sank into deep recession, public and private sector banks in India (except a few ones) achieved more profit. Suitable and effective fixed and monitory measures lead to growth and development. More over we individual should be careful about our economic condition and try to improve our productivity as Keyenes says “If you have no work, go and dig the soil even from their income will generate.”

WHAT IS THE MAJOR PROBLEM NOW INDIA FACES?

India is said to be the largest technological reservoir in the world, but india is the country where the largest number of illiterates are living. In India the largest number of millionaires are living, but we can find the largest number of people living below povert line is in India. India is said to have attained food self sufficiency during 1960s by Green Revolution. Now India is the second largest producer of food grains in the world, yet 200 million people , one forth of the world's under nourished population live in India. 41% of the world's under weight children call India their home. The largest number of children living in slums is in India and they ace numerous growth challenges. 47% of children under 5 years old are under weight, 45% are stunted and 16% have severe malnutrition. Thus India is a country of various kinds of contradictions.

The time has attacked to think what is the major one among these problems. We cant find out the solution for every problem together. So in the language of Economics " we want to make choice'. We can easily understand " food security for all" is the primary concern India face now. Because for a hungry man " food is God". About 30% of our brothers and sisters go to bed with empty stomach at night.

Food security refers to the availability of food and one's physical and economic access to it. It involves balanced diet with micro nutrients, safe drinking water, environmental sanitation, basic health and primary education.

The new U P A Government is going to pass a Food Security Act to give 25 kg of rice or wheat to about 260 million people who live below poverty line or those who earn less than one dollar( $1) a day at Rs 3 per kg. And the government is examining to merge the various food schemes implemented by different ministeries as a part of an exercise to enact Food Security Act. Some critics say " teaching how to catch fish is more effective than giving fish". The statement can be agreed , but this is possible only in the longrun. If we take a long run approach to solve this problem, we have to give the price of thousands and thousands of hunger affected deaths day by day. Enacting Food Security Act is a very good approach from the Government for the eradicatiion of poverty and it will meet the dream of Mahatma Gandhi for independent India: " the God of bread should bless every home and hut". But the Government have to ensure that the misusage of the Act is comlpetely restricted and the food grains reach only to the marginalised sections of the society.

Basic health care lies at the heart of attaining Food security. It has become one of the thrust areas under the National Common Minimum Programme of U P A Government. The Government mandates an increase in the expenditure on the health sectorwith main focus on Primary Health Care. National Rural Health Mission is the main vehicle for giving effect to the above mandate was launched in April 2005 by our Prime Minister. It has been operationalized through out the country with special focus on 18 states including Bihar, Jharkhand, U P , Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttaranjal, Orissa, Rajastan etc.

The main aim of N R H M is to provide accesible, affordable, accountable and effective primary health care facilities especially to the poor and valunerable sections of the population. It also aims at bridging the gap in Rural Health Care Service through creation of a Cadre of Accredited Social Health Activists and improved hospital care.

Some kind of price control of medicines is necessary perticularely for providing affordable health care to the disadvantaged sections of the society whose disposable income is extremely low and who do not have easy access to institutional health care. Another important way for the improvement of our health care system is development of the Health Insurance Sector

Beyond the availability of food and improvement of health care system, primary education is a key part that comes under the attainment of food security for all. The term " education" is comprehensive and it has a wide scope that includes in its ambit, the "individual" as well as the "society". It also includes the development of all aspects of the personality of an individual.

Our present and past Governments have passed many programmes to enlarge the level of education of the country. Even though our constitution provides the right for basic education , "education for all" is still remaining as a distant dream. There are also some programmes to educate the adults. I think it is an unproductive and unlogical approach. We have to give educatiion to the children by these huge expended. If we dont educate the adults, it will not create any problem. It will be automatically corrected by the life cycle mechanism of human beings in the long run. Children are the aset and future capital resource of the nation. The challenge is to transform is to this mass into skilled man power to harness the advantages of the global economy. For this purpose education is inevitable. Only an educated society can transform the country as Nelson Mandela says" education is the most powerful weapon tht you can use to change the world".

ABOUT ME

THIS IS YOUR FRIEND GEORGE PAILY , A PROUD INDIAN WHO WISH TO MAKE A MARK IN THE WORLD HISTORY. NOW I AM DOING MY GRADUATION IN ECONOMICS FROM MAR IVANIOS COLLEGE TRIVANDRUM. MY DREAM OF BEING IN INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE. IN MY VIEW A CIVIL SERVANT SHOULD BE THE FIRST PERSON TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT THE PEOPLE AND THE WELFARE OF THE NATION AND THE LAST ONE TO ENJOY THEMSELVES. LIFE IS A JOURNEY SO THAT WE HAVE A LONG WAY BEFORE US TO GO. MY ULTIMATE AIM IS TO SUBMIT MY THEORIES TO LIBERATE MY INDIA FROM POVERTY, UNEMPLOYMENT AND ALL OTHER SOCIO ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.

Dont worry about tomorrrow

worry about today.

because today is a gift given by god

that is why it is called PRESENT

Wish you a mega success in your life

your friend

George Paily

indianglorians@gmail.com

09447326596