Lucifer

JLF : “Stage by Stage”

2012-01-20T21:01:00.000+05:30

Stage by Stage : an event at the JaipurLiterature Festival (JLF) raised many question concerning the modern Indian theater. Among them, the one which particularly touched my conscience was: “why did the theater movement died in India post 1980s?”

Girish Karnad was oneof the speakers for this particular event and according to him the spread andreach of television and spatial disadvantage (location of theaters) were the main causes among manyfor the fall of theatre in India. I agree with his remark to the procedural failureof theater movement but at the same time I find myself confronting with thequestion of its continued absence in India. Can I find solace in putting allthe blame on the apathy of Indian audience?

Sometime during the show Grisih Karnad agreed that Indian societyfailed to produce good play writers. Now if we juxtapose this absence of goodplay writers with the spatial disadvantage then we find that the contemporary Indiantheatre is either mere improvisation of earlier Indian plays or repetition of westernplays. Therefore it is not the apathy of Indian audience but a systemic failureto cultivate and nurture our heritage.

Protected heritage in India is largelystatic and monolithic; therefore cultural practises such as,those practiced by tribal and rural people is left to be scavenged by either thecultural tourism or directionless development. The future of Indian theater depends on the survival of Indian culture (not the pseudo Indian Culture) because good plays always draw clues form cultural uniqueness.

Devra Destined to Doom

2011-04-13T12:10:00.004+05:30

And we thought Delhi is the most unsafe place for females!!!

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There are just 13 girls in the village of Devra. A possible 14th could have been the victim of the widespread practice of female infanticide

In 1997, Devra village in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district reported the first marriage of a girl belonging to a local family in over 100 years. Jaswant Kanwar survived to reach marriageable age in a village where female infanticide was ritually and ruthlessly practiced. A newspaper article at the time stated that there were just two other little girls in the village.

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Read more: InfoChange

APMC Act : part of the problem, part of the solution

2011-04-08T12:40:00.008+05:30

The sustained inflation in perishable food items for over a year is most debated and worrisome issue. The debate on this issue made us look at the wide range of solutions, ranging from opening up of FDI in retail to mega food park schemes. However, the solutions proposed appear partial as they either demand overhauling of the existing system or provide marginal solution.

The solution of the ongoing phenomenon lies in focused intervention akin to cure of a disease in medicine. The solution of food inflation lies in overhauling of Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act. The APMC Act was instituted in 1960s to ensure farmers get the right price for their produce with immediate cash payment. With time, trading volumes have improved. Meanwhile, few vagaries have cropped up, traders who continue to hold licenses by default since generations have become a strong cartel. The Act discourages competition by limiting the number of players and naturally lends to the collusion. The multiple levels and taxes charged by different APMC and state level rules and regulation distort trade.

The APMC was supposed to provide efficient system of buying and selling of agricultural commodities. Ideally like an organic system APMC should have evolved but it defied principle of natural selection. The existence of this system in short run is essential to protect any systemic collapse. In this regard an attempt was made in 2002 through an amendment in Companies Act, the proposed amendment provides for Producer Company (different form a co-operative).

The producer companies should undertake two primary functions: aggregation of local produce and information dissemination. The upcoming producer companies in perishables food items can take a leaf out of Amul and e-Choupal functioning. The other initiatives like FDI in supply chain and cold storage will supplement their functioning by further reducing the transaction costs. The collective bargaining power of producer companies will protect farmer’s interest from large retail houses.

The union budget 2011-12 has propounded to reform APMC Act but the unanimity on this subject will test political will of states as it is a subject of their purview. The reform would attempt to delist perishables from APMC Act.

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What are Producer Companies as per Companies Act 2002 ?

In a `Producer Company', only persons engaged in an activity connected with, or related to, primary produce can participate in the ownership. The members necessarily have to be `primary producers.'

Primary produce has been defined as a produce of farmers arising from agriculture including animal husbandry, horticulture, floriculture, pisciculture, viticulture, forestry, forest products, re-vegetation, bee raising and farming plantation products: produce of persons engaged in handloom, handicraft and other cottage industries: by - products of such products; and products arising out of ancillary industries.

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Anupam Mishra: The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting

2011-04-03T23:32:00.001+05:30

Has the time for Mumbai consensus arrived?

2011-03-28T00:17:00.010+05:30

Globally in business world “the India way” is redefining management practice. Indian art of management is people centric it calls for holistic engagement with employees or employee’s first, customers second. This makes one ponder “is it right time to propagate the Idea of India”? The idea of India neither stands for emerging market nor desire to represent United Nations Security Council rather, it stands for secular, plural and inclusive democracy.

It is this idea that global community respects and values. The approach of connecting people to people of India is long lasting and humanistic. This approach is about shouldering responsibility and not shedding responsibility. The future of climate change negotiations is contingent upon the spread of the Mumbai consensus. The Mumbai consensus in political sphere draws its dimensions form the constitution of India. The idea of India is mother of Mumbai consensus.

An early offshoot of Mumbai consensus is reflected in the call from Muslim brotherhood party to India for helping Egyptians in establishing democratic institutions.

On the other end of spectrum lies the Washington Consensus. Its failure in political sphere is evident in Iraq and Afghanistan. Any attempt to save it would be futile. As in a market a product thrives till it has critical mass of buyers else it dies down, the same holds true for an idea. Washington consensus no longer finds any buyers, it appears to have sunk in rubble of the crash of Wall Street in 2008-09. The revolution for democracy in West Asia and North African counties out-rightly discarded Washington consensus.

The operation “Odyssey Dawn” is an attempt to resurrect Washington consensus. This operation will jeopardize democratic interest of Libyan people. Democracy can neither be exported nor can it be forced on people. The genesis of democracy lies in the fact that it derives its power form people. In Libya people had divisive opinion on this matter till UNSC imposed sanctions. Thus the military intervention in a volatile scenario is unjust and uncalled. Moreover, the selective approach of intervention adopted by west is against the spirit of human rights.

Like Mumbai consensus there exists Beijing consensus but it is so fragile that even a call on twitter can evoke sensation in Beijing. The financial crisis has contested the India way and it stood ground firmly. The clash of Washington and Mumbai consensus is a hypothetical situation because India does not believe in exporting democracy unlike western nations.

The fragrance of Mumbai consensus will grow stronger in coming years and world will itself embrace it.

Revolution within revolution

2011-03-23T00:49:00.008+05:30

Little did Peter Merholz (online journalist) knew when he took Jorn Brager’s word "Weblog" and splits it into the phrase "We blog". Two subtle things followed then, Blog soon become shorthand for weblog and people of least open societies became largest bloggers.

China became the largest blogger's nation by virtue of its largest population. However, Iran becoming the third largest blogger's nation is by any standards a miracle. What is even more amazing about Iran is that it was Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi launched his own blog, well before many U.S. politicians catch on to the idea.The inherent desire of people to express has come out succinctly through Twitters and Blog-sphere.

Source:Iran: A nation of bloggers from Mr.Aaron on Vimeo.

All honour to Mohun Bagan!!

2011-03-20T00:19:00.005+05:30

"All honour to Mohun Bagan!! Those eleven players are not only a glory to themselves and to their Club and to the great nation to which they belong; they are the glory to the game itself" - this was a line from a report in The Empire about the 1911 Mohun Bagan IFA Shield victory.

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Egaro (The Eleven) is a celluloid tribute to the eleven players of Mohan Bagan who won the IFA Shield in the final match against East Yorkshire in 1911. This year marks the 100th year of that wonderful win. The Indian team was comprised of ill-equipped, under-nourished soldiers competing against eleven physically stronger and better prepared British footballers. Ten of the eleven members of the team played the match on bare feet. Only one of them, Rev. Sudhir Chatterjee (Chandan Bhattacharya), who was a professor of a noted college, wore boots. The opponents, East Yorkshire, were well-equipped with proper football gear.

But the match had significance beyond the contest on the field, and that proved to be Bagan's strength. The game was played in the aftermath of Lord Curzon's engineered partition of Bengal in 1905, and the execution of Khudiram Bose for his attempt to murder Kingsford in 1908. Against this background, Mohun Bagan's victory against a team repesenting the rulers became a turning point in consolidating the discontentment and anger of Indians against the British administration.

The battle spread out to the entire state of Bengal, with crowds of people thronging in to watch the match. The British side of the audience was just a trickle in comparison. And the eventual victory by the Indian side is said to have driven the British administration to shift its capital in India from Calcutta to Delhi the same year.

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Source: India Together

Mahatma Gandhi and football

2011-03-16T11:18:00.006+05:30

It is interesting to know how much Gandhiji liked football.

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As the undisputed leader of non-violent resistance to the apartheid regime of the time, Gandhi helped establish three football clubs at the beginning of the last century, in Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg (where he moved at the end of 1904), all of which were given the same name: Passive Resisters Soccer Club. Sadly, there is no evidence proving that Gandhi ever turned out himself for any of the teams or took on any coaching roles, but photos unearthed at Durban’s Old Court House Museum do show him posing alongside team players and even delivering speeches to crowds at the pitchside.

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Source:Mahatma Gandhi, football legend

Web 2.0: 12th Five Year Plan

2011-03-13T19:35:00.004+05:30

Crowdsourcing is a concept that has gained much currency over the last few years. It essentially refers to the idea that many people, distributed across time and space, outside the organization, can often perform a task more efficiently than a few people, inside an organization, thanks to Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is presently in its full swing. It gave life to Revolution 2.0 in Arab world and made many news channels flourish. Taking a leaf out of the success of Web 2.0, Planning Commission of India(PCI) has created an open Facebook profile "Twelfth Plan". For the first time in its history PCI has made an effort to make idea of planning inclusive and transparent. Its facebook profile speaks for itself by letting planning at least pseudo-decentralized. In the times to come Web2.0 will have multiple functions as number of users is going to increase with increase in teledensity & education.

Brilliant Indians

2011-02-18T00:04:00.000+05:30

In his book 'India: A Portrait', Patrick French' retells the stories of brilliant Indians, from the preface of this book following is the short story:
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An Indian man walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan officer. He tells the loan officer that he is going to India on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $ 5,000. The bank officer tells him that the bank will need some form of security for the loan, so the Indian man hands over the keys of a new Ferrari parked on the street in front of the bank. He produces the title and everything checks out. The loan officer agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan.

The bank’s President and its officer all enjoy a good laugh at the Indian for using a $250,000 Ferrari as collateral against a $5000 loan.

An employee of the bank then drives the Ferrari into the bank’s underground garage and parks it there. Two weeks later, the Indian returns, repays the $5000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41.

The Loan officer says, ‘Sir, we are happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away we checked you out and found that you are a multi millionaire. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $ 5000’.

The Indian replies: ‘Where else in New York City can I park my car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?’Ah, the mind of the Indian!

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See everyone knows Indians are good in finance and business. Jai Ho !!

Must read for those who have read India After Gandhi .

Origin of Kyriarchy in India

2011-02-15T23:15:00.007+05:30

"The apprehension about political abuse in India is growing with the fall of average age of population", as it is generally believed by most of us. Contrary to this belief the apprehension is because of escalation of Kyriarchy in Indian democracy. It has nothing to do with functioning of our constitution. The origin of the problem lies in the fact that our leaders are unsympathetic to the aspirations of youth.

This single fact gave birth to Jasmine Revolution in Arab World. The median age of Egypt is 24 and the age of their leader was 82.

Consider this

Does the difference between the age of a country's people and its leader matter?

Gerontocracy

Source:Economist

In India the Gerontocracy has produced mixed results. Gerontocracy, on the one hand has not let the India- Pakistan conflict get escalated, managed economic crisis well, while on the hand side it has caused loss of multiple corers to exchequers because of Kyriachy. The unhealthy growth of Kyriachy is because of coalition government compromises and ignorance by leader.

Wisdom may comes with age but governance has nothing to do with age and people of India wants good governance.

Dark side of valentine; Roman and Indian

2011-02-14T01:30:00.002+05:30

Indian and much known side.

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Feb 13 2011, KANPUR: The members of Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have decided to oppose the Valentine's Day celebrations on February 14, saying that the day promotes public display of obscenity.

"We will oppose Valentine's Day because the concept has come from the West, and through it, an attempt is being made to spoil the Indian culture," said Awadh Bihari, general secretary, VHP, while talking to TOI.

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Source: TOI

Here is the Roman side of love and lesser known.

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From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. The men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain.

The Roman romantics "were drunk. They were naked," says Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, Lenski says. They believed this would make them fertile.

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Source:NPR

And here is what a boy said to TOI

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"It is an irony of sorts that when the day calls for a universal celebration of love on February 14, in India - the country that boasts of the largest symbol of love - the Taj Mahal, the day would witness protests and demonstrations."

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Disruptive Vs Reverse innovation

2011-02-13T00:31:00.002+05:30

In 1995, Clayton Christensen coined the term disruptive innovation: “A process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and relentlessly moves up the market, eventually displacing established competitors.”

According to Scott D. Anthony, managing director of Innosight Ventures;

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“Many of the most powerful Indian companies grew by disrupting higher-cost Western competitors—Infosys is a great example of this. Western companies are fighting back on those companies’ home turf. Consider General Electric’s well publicized ‘reverse innovation’ efforts, where it develops new medical devices that are attuned to the needs of lower-income customers in emerging markets. Wouldn’t it be a twist if the emerging giants lost the battle on their own turf? If they don’t frame their domestic markets in the right way, they just might,” he adds.

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Source: livemint

I think his concern is legitimate but don’t forget, similar set of market forces act in developed markets as well. The question of "who will gain maximum share of pie" is irrelevant as the size of pie itself is getting enlarged with the better growth prospects in emerging markets.

Now is the time for emerging nations to leverage their comparative advantage, as developed world is coming out of economic slump. The competition is tougher where comparative advantage is primarily driven by cost drivers. Emerging nations must work to create innovative market offering, such that it carves out niche for itself in developed world.

In economic sense emerging nation’s companies must use competition in home market to develop monopolistic market offerings for developed world to maximize its profits in long run. This war is not about sustaining fight rather it is about adopting guerrilla tactics to win sequential battles.

Zeitgeist of Indian IT Industry

2011-02-11T01:14:00.003+05:30

Indian IT Industry

Year	1995-2000	2000 Onwards	2007 Onwards	2010-2020
Nature of Business	Body Shopping	Off shoring	Business Transformation	Close to Core
Operations	Companies supply IT engineers to global customers primarily to fix the Y2K bug	Labour arbitrage and shortage of engineers in the US and UK compels Fortune 500 companies to move IT work to India	Clients seek solutions. An insurer, say, asks what kind of customers should it sell new policies to. IT firms strengthen BPO and business analytics	From labour arbitrage to intellectual arbitrage. An insurer, say, asks Indian IT to take charge of its actuarial services. Offshore companies manage complete businesse

Source:Economic Times

If one would have to draw similar time line for Indian Automotive industry then I bet last column would be nothing but “direct import” form foreign market to India.

Ease of doing business in India:Testimony “Cairn –Vedanta Deal”

2011-02-10T00:18:00.004+05:30

India ranked 134 amongst 183 nations across world in “ease of doing business” as reported by World Bank report this year. It used nine critical variables to explain status of market operations in a given country. One of the variables is “enforcing contract” in this India ranked 182 out of 183 countries.

The World Bank

Given the status of contract enforcement in India, the ongoing controversy of ONGC - Cairn Energy Plc puts India in a vulnerable position. Last year Vedanta showed interest in buying 51% stake in Cairns India. Subsequently ONGC invoked its right of first refusal which it believes flows from the joint operating agreement. The contract is however silent on prior government approval in case of buyout.

Under the terms of production sharing contract (PSC) singed 15 years ago, ONGC owns the liability to pay royalty to Rajasthan government and Cairn is exempted. However, Cairn has to pay 70% of the cess on production. As per contract ONGC holds 30% stake in the largest oilfield block in Rajasthan along with its right of first refusal (ROFR) in case Cairn has to exit contract.

The contractual obligation to pay complete royalty makes ONGC’s business proposition non commercial. By invoking ROFR, ONGC claims its approval is must for Cairns to sell its controlling stakes. ONGC in returns wants Cairns to make royalty “cost recoverable”. This means royalty cost should be recovered from sales revenue before profit is shared between companies and government.

If ONGC is allowed to recover cost form sales revenue then governments share and cairns profit will fall. At present capital and operating expenditure are allowed to be deducted from sales revenue and profit share is calculated thereafter. Presently cairns is pumping 125,000 barrels of oil from Rajasthan and it is expected to ramp up production to 175,000 barrels by next year. Clearly with increase in production the burden of liability will increase for ONGC.

The commercially non profitable contract formulation has thus put national interest subservient to private interest. This whole corporate conundrum should make government ponder about its foreign invest polices, the energy security and about brand India. This time around government will have to make it clear whether it lets private commercial contracts overrule national interest or not.

Egyptian uprising and India

2011-02-08T22:51:00.009+05:30

The present day political turmoil in Egypt has a capacity to alter the course of regional and international security and economic dynamics. This is not first time in the history of independent Egypt that such a decisive moment has come. India has lot to learn from such an unfortunate incidence vis-à-vis has economic and security concerns.

Socio-Economic concern

It is rather unfortunate that the cause of this uprising is failure of government to address the persistent rise in inequality, inflation and unemployment rate. The Egyptian economy was liberalized in 1990s, when India too started its economic liberalization process. Egyptian economy grew at an average of 7% from 2006 to 2009, and is expected to grow by 5% in year 2010 and 2011.

The gains of liberalization and faster economic growth have led to increase in income inequality and high rate of unemployment. According to World Bank report two third of Egyptian are under the age of 30 years and they constitute the 90% of unemployed and 40% of population lives on less than $2 a day.

Somewhat similar situation is present in India. The Indian government would do just if it take corrective policy measure in time to prevent similar political fallout. The MNREGA and Right to Education, Inclusive growth and financial inclusion measures were timely taken actions but now time has come to increase their spread and quality.

Economic concerns

India imports 70 % of its oil requirement and majority of it from Arab nations. The political turmoil in Egypt is likely to promote speculative tendencies in futures market, leading to persistently higher oil prices as it is already visible from recent rise in oil prices. Even though Egypt is not a major oil exporter but it controls trade through Suez Canal. The unfortunate rise in oil prices and blockade in trade flow at Suez Canal can put India’s current account in further strain.

India does bilateral trade of approximately $ 2.7 billion per annum and has investment of over $2 billion in Egypt. Many Indian oil and gas companies have equity & stakes in oil and gas distribution in Egyptian exploration missions. India is forth largest trading partner of Egypt, with significant presence of many public and private firms having operations in Cairo. If there is a regime change in Egypt, it citizens may demand a review of economic policies in general and specifically foreign companies licensing in areas of natural resources. Unfavorable policy change will certainly cause strain in our relations and impede India’s economic growth .

Security concerns

Indian Ocean region is plagued by sea piracy and its recent spread till Lakshadweep is cause of concern for India and international community. The political uncertainty in Arab region will breed such non state elements and thus causing significant damage to India’s trade.

The pro Islamic & ousted political group “Muslim Brotherhood” is likely to play a major role in new government formation if and when such a situation occurs. This is most feared by western and Israeli security analyst as this is likely to endanger the 1978 Camp David (peace) Accord between Egypt and Israel. Any type of instability in Arab nations will provide favorable breeding ground for non state terrorism. The rise of Yemen like state will not only endanger human rights of Egyptian people but will also cause international security threat.

As each day passes the uncertainty builds up in Egypt and raises the concern of Indian government and private investors. Formation of democratic government is in the interest of India in long run but in short run volatility is cause of concern for India.

Beautiful game of Football and India

2011-02-07T23:49:00.002+05:30

Indian football team qualified for world cup in 1950 because its group teams from qualifying tournament withdrew their names. Following this India was placed in Group C of world cup along with Italy, Sweden and Paraguay. But in the end India too did not play these games. According to the then president of All India Football Federation(AIFF) Mr.Moin –Ul –Haq India considered only Olympics as an important sports event and would have had less time to prepare for Olympics had they participle in world cup event. It looks like India has got red card and waiting for its call.

* Source: Fit to Post

Our lemmings are Philargyrist

2011-01-29T22:45:00.003+05:30

I came across this article The lurch of the Lemmings through Facebook links. I couldn’t agree more with Mr. P Sainath regarding lemming’s behavior myth. Like Mr. Sainath has stated that some of the lemmings die accidentally while crossing water also happens to endorse our system of governance quite well.

Extending the stated analogy to our system of governance, one would find that the ‘Lemming-like behavior’ is projected to disguise us. To understand how I came to such a radical conclusion consider; the lemmings as our politicians, bureaucrats and corporate, the water as our governance system, the act of jumping from the cliff as being exposed and the cliff as height of moral hazard or corruption.

Our lemmings are philargyrist, feeding mostly money, gold , property and at times fodder. Unlike Arctic lemmings our lemmings hibernate when they lose election. The behavior of our lemmings is much the same as that of Arctic, they devour when in power. Ironically our lemmings do not face the threat of extinction.

Our lemmings too die accidentally but often the length of the process of prosecution is larger than average human life. Thanks to lengthy justice process. The water and tides are maneuvered by our lemmings for their safe passage. Our lemmings are accommodative and this is evident from the recent cabinet reshuffling. Our media is like 1958 Disney thus does good job while exposing but does not keep pace with Mr. Lemming.

Myth of Natural Allies

2010-11-27T23:40:00.006+05:30

The idea of defining nations as “Natural Allies” has more to do with marketing then with redefining relationship. The concept of natural allies provides “Exotic Avenue” for selling preposition under changed labels.

There are no universally recognized set of converging interests and values, which can potentially be classified as basis for defining a relationship as that of natural allies. It is because of this the whole idea of defining relationship under changed label is marketing tactic. It is marketing because it lets you shape the perception of people without altering your stance at policy level. It allows both the nations to gain through this newfound label.

It is under this perspective I would like to believe that the India- Israel relationship has character of qualified natural allies. It is qualified because neither of them has similar approach towards dealing similar threats though they have common interest (at global level) and largely similar values.

On the other hand, India and Bhutan are friends rather than natural allies. The position of natural allies allows one to take opposite stance while that of friendship does not.

India as Failing State

2010-01-03T01:30:00.005+05:30

“Incredible India” was ranked 78 among 128 nations in the “Fund for Peace” report published by an international agency. The index considered multidimensional approach to classify countries as sustainable state, failing state and failed state. The cumulative result of the multi-dimensional analysis placed India among the failing states.

Indeed it is surprising to see India ranked so low even when it has over performed many developed nations during the present financial crisis and had been registering GDP growth rate higher then many others. But a rational person will factor in other parameters like poverty reduction, unemployment rate and life expectancy level achieved during the given period. Human development index reflects India’s position on above stated parameters, thus it is not hard to grasp why India is ranked 78th among 128 nations.

If that is not sufficient then put social and political dimension in perspective along with above economic dimension to get holistic picture. The corruption in polity has dented in a big way; the case in point is Koda’s miraculous rise in less then a decade time. Law and order is marginalized by powerful bureaucrats, the case in point is Justice Dinakaran and DSP Rathore among many. These were the incidences that impacted middle class most but what about those which occur every day in rural India and are never reported.

In India every thing seems to function well for wealthy and powerful, and it is still a curse to born in poor family as it was before liberalization. Moreover, prior to liberalization we had never heard of incidences of farmer committing suicide. The fact is our effort to liberalize economy has worked counter to the argument of growth and poverty eradication. In last 20 years of liberalization only a small strata of population grew in economic well being but the social and political rights of even these people are marginalized. Majority of the population in India does not have access to hygienic water supply, electricity supply and health care, picture of rural India is unthinkable. Indian democracy is surviving because poor people still have faith in it. Urban population hardly turns for voting during election. They have their priorities which rank higher over national interest. They make fuzz about every public policy but avoid shouldering responsibility. Soon the nexuses of politician, business giants, bureaucrats and media will silent the uproar of these minuscule intellects. Paid news is changing the opinion of people silently; if this practice continues then poor will have no means to fight for their rights. Politicians and Bureaucrats are already getting together to strip the power that RTI Act provides to the people the power of questioning the action of government.

Gandhiji dreamt India as a federation of republic villages in independent India. But what we have today is democracy in which poor (economically, socially and politically…. In a sense we all are poor) have no say. We need to change the present situation but for that we need to change the way we act. Unless we come out of our comfort zones we will not see any change happening. At the economic front we need to make our laws more democratic and liberalization to be complete & transparent. To make democracy function effectively we need to decentralize every function of government apart from law and order.Privatization is good for economy as long as it generates not only private returns but also social returns. The integrity of Indian democracy will be questioned if we fail to act decisively and swiftly.

ECONOMICS OF SUGARCANE IN INDIA

2009-11-21T22:15:00.005+05:30

Academically, I am not an economics graduate but my recent exploration in this field has made me understand an iota of this mammoth subject and how do various economic systems work in real world.

A noteworthy of these explorations is, why did we failed to have a common understanding or agreement on climate change?, why are farmers getting even poorer even after they are provided huge subsidies (baring leakages)?, why PSUs have failed to perform? and many similar questions. The answer to all these questions has been explored by this year's Nobel Prize winners of Economics, Mr. Williamson and Ms.Ostrom, though not in the form as I mentioned here.

I thing we must looking at the government for support to sort out issues, which are very much in our own reach. These issues must be tackled by us through collective effort. Amul is the classic case of such effort where in community takes the ownership of the asset utilization, distribution of gains and responsibility. Why cannot we replicate this kind of system which is arguably better than other two forms of organizations namely private and public.

Mr. Williamson has made a case where in it is more profitable for farmers to vertically integrate with firms rather than integrate with markets. Therefore, it makes us understand the efficient functioning of Amul. We can take a leaf out of his work and apply that in our sugarcane industry. The present day sugarcane industry in

India

is of seller’s market character. The sugarcane industry is constrained by its very nature of being non-footloose industry. Thus the farmers have to sell the produce to the nearby mill owners, which makes them vulnerable to the price volatility in case of sudden surge of supply in local market which is often the case in local markets. Thus mill owns buy sugarcane at the local market price rather than national price for the same good. This situation can be dealt with community partnership that means if farmers collectively agree to produce and sell it to the mill owned by them self. This way they can share the profits and responsibility.

The present company law does not allow sugarcane farmers to own a company thus it requires a sanction from the government.

I think government needs to understand the holistic picture and thus it must take necessary steps in this direction rather then working on patchy solutions that cost to the tax payers and to the nation at large.

Complicity-------It kind of matchs my taste!

2009-11-21T20:01:00.003+05:30

Complicity by Julian Barnes

"I used the word “complicity” a bit ago. I like the word. To me, it indicates an unspoken understanding between two people, a kind of pre-sense, if you like. The first hint that you may be suited, before the nervous trudgery of finding out whether you “share the same interests,” or have the same metabolism, or are sexually compatible, or both want children, or however it is that we argue consciously about our unconscious decisions. Later, looking back, we will fetishize and celebrate the first date, the first kiss, the first holiday together, but what really counts is what happened before this public story: that moment, more of pulse than of thought, which goes, Yes, perhaps her, and Yes, perhaps him.

I tried to explain this to Ben, a few days after his party. Ben is a crossword-doer, a dictionary lover, a pedant. He told me that “complicity” means a shared involvement in a crime or a sin or a nefarious act. It means planning to do something bad.
I prefer to keep the term as I understand it. For me, it means planning to do something good. She and I were both free adults, capable of making our own decisions. And nobody plans to do anything bad at that moment, do they?"

Why India needs World Bank?

2009-11-18T14:43:00.003+05:30

Recently a friend of mine argued that ever since liberalization our financial sector is getting stronger and resilient and now that we have alternate source of financing our economic needs through FDI and bilateral loans then why should India take loan from Work Bank particularly for infrastructure which can be and which are financed by Public Private Partnership.

Adding to that, we are already paying millions of dollar of interest on idle loans that we took from Bank.

His argument if weighed in pure financial terms makes sense, however if we take a holistic picture of the case in point and state of Indian economy than things fall in line. Following points we must consider while evaluating the case:

· Growth rate of GDP vis-à-vis rate of interest charged on loan by world bank

· Stage of Economic growth

· Projected Growth rate of Indian Economy in coming two decades

· Saving-foreign Investment Gap

· State of Infrastructure (social and physical) in India

· Impact of external market volatility and disturbance on domestic demand

· World Bank loan terms and conditions

· State of Foreign exchange reserves

It makes complete sense to take World Bank loan owing to the fact that our economic needs are immense and we have the capacity to pay back the loan, as our economy is growing at a higher rate than rate of interest charged by World Bank.

World Bank loans are attractive since these the loan which comes at (a) relatively easy terms of servicing and

(b) technical consultancy.

As we know that the technical consultancy that World Bank can provide can not be bought anywhere else, reason being World Bank controls huge knowledge pool. Thus the financial argument underestimates the economic need.

How we all are responsible for growing Naxalism?

2009-11-14T23:03:00.005+05:30

The stories of Lalbagh, Salwa Judam and rise of many similar movements in tribal areas every now and then are know to us. If we turn the pages of history we will find that such movements have one single cause and that is multi-dimensional inequality. The inequality has got even starker after 50 years of independence. We all are in some way or other are contributing to this persistent rise in inequality.

An analysis of unequal growth,( done by some NGOs and economist ) reveals that the externalities are pervasive in every single land acquisition in tribal areas. The largest gainers of these acquisitions are industrialist and after them, we who live in urban area. The recent discloser of “Biggest land grab after Columbus” makes all of us the consumers of unethical products. Just like every single diamond bought by us made us promoters of blood diamond trade. It is time that we raise our voices and make change in the socio-political system.

This change will not occur without people’s participation. History shows no such evidence when changed occurred by mere serendipity. It takes lot of courage and commitment vis-à-vis people’s involvement. Unless we the people of India, who calls ourselves sovereign (supreme power of democracy), unleash our power to make it a mass movement, as we did to make ourselves free from the hands of colonial rulers, will not see this change occurring soon.

India- U.S Relationship: Triumph of Diplomacy or Demise ?

2009-08-02T23:17:00.003+05:30

“Diplomacy is an art of conducting relationship for gain without conflict”. It is the chief instrument of foreign policy. The goal of diplomacy is to further the nation’s interest as dictated by geography, history and economics. Diplomacy is vital in international relations to safeguard the nation’s independence, security and integrity. The triumph or failure of diplomacy is subject to achievement of both short term and long term objectives. India’s relationship with the United Sates has always been subject of debate. The recent developments show signs of transformation in relations between world’s largest democracy “India” and world’s oldest democracy “U.S”. The changing perception of U.S administration about India’s capabilities and its desire for restoring peace & security, economic growth has helped them work together. At times like this when terrorism coupled with nuclear proliferation is matter of global concern, U.S considers India as a responsible partner to help him in restoring balance in Asia. The interest of U.S in India is also because of its strategy of balancing Chinese power and other axis of evil in Asia. The intricacies involved in this new found relationship of India and U.S needs a thorough understanding to assess correctness of diplomatic stance taken by India.

It is now well accepted fact that the India will soon become global economic power, next to only China and U.S in coming years. Therefore, it is but natural that developed nations must acknowledge the role that India wish to play in shaping global economics and politics. United States has geo-political interest in Asia in general and economic interest in India particularly and to pursue these interests it has forged diplomatic ties with India. On the other hand India too has vision for itself in global arena and it is probably the best of the times for it to give meaningful shape to those dreams and thus it has changed its diplomatic stance in resent years. India has forged couple of agreements with U.S in resent years. Assessing some of the key strategic agreements between India and U.S and there implications can be taken as the proxy for understanding the stance taken by Indian diplomacy. The strategic implication of India and U.S relationship has three most significant facets namely Economic, Defense and Political.

Case I: 123 Nuclear Deal

The Indian Interest in civil nuclear deal can be at best understood as:

ECONOMIC GAINS:

· Growing demand for energy, for sustainable high economic growth but at the same time respecting Kyoto Protocol and thus providing access to Nuclear energy as viable source of clean energy

· India’s desire to enhance and advance in strategic areas like Nuclear R&D, Pharmacy, Healthcare and Science and Technology

POLITICAL GAINS:

· Nuclear waiver leading to elimination of psychological barriers, thus India is de-facto recognized as Nuclear power state that would mean now, India’s desire to have permanent seat in U.N (means increased say in international geo-politics) is not far from reality

· Increase soft power to pressurize Pakistan and make him rethink its policies towards India

· Increased ability to keep China in check and to be able to counter China, as it claims over a portion of Arunachal Pradesh and has secretly developed advanced warfare in recent years

DEFENSE GAIN:

· Diversification of military hardware supplier, over last 40 years Russia had been the most reliable supplier but presently he too had become money minded. Therefore, now India can access the advance hardware form other countries such as Israel and France.

e.g: Airborne warning and control system (AWAS) which India has recently got it from Israel is a direct outcome of 123 engagement

· Enhancement of military R&D capabilities in coming years and making India self reliant.

U.S INTEREST:

What U.S got from this deal, is access to our defense market and expects to grab half of the Nuclear power plants projects which are to be awarded, to fall in his kitty. India, as strategic partner to counter increasing power of China in Asia and a low cost outsourcing hub for U.S auto parts and pharmaceuticals industry. Major chunk of oil supply to U.S passes through Indian Ocean Sea lanes. Sea pirates pray on commerce as this portion is unprotected. Indian cooperation can help in keeping sea lanes clear.

Case II: 26/11 Mumbai Attach

It is a case which throws light on United States geo-political interest in South East Asia and India’s diplomatic ability to pressurize Pakistan.

………………………………. In part II

Union Budget 2009-10... Analysis

2009-07-08T16:21:00.008+05:30

The Annual Budget is a statement by the government about its policies, priorities and goals. The crux of a good budget or fiscal policy lies in striking a balance between revenue and expenditure side vis-a vis achieving Distributive justice, Allocative efficiency and Stabilization in the economy.

Before making any judgment about the Union Budget 2009-10, it is vital to understand the conditions under which it is presented. Current economic scenario of global economy is bleak as global trade is shrinking, industrial output is falling and stock markets are at substantially low level. The scenario at home is quite better, as our industrial output has started to show signs of recovery. The good news for Indian economy is, it grew by over 5 percent when most of the world economies are contracting. The sad news is fiscal deficit had grown by 5.5 percent of GDP because of fiscal stimulus targeted to promote and protect domestic production and consumption.

The Union Budget 2009-10 is clearly an “aam aadmi Budget” with focus on development and inclusive growth. Some of the beneficiaries of Budget are: Infrastructure, agriculture, education and rural development. The key features of the Budget are following:

• An aim to reach and sustain 9% growth which had earlier slipped to 6.7%
• A present acknowledgement of a fiscal deficit of 6.2%
• A focus to improve infrastructure and PPP (Public Private Partnership)
• Stimulus package for print media
• Benefits to exports (includes services like Software)
• Focus on Inclusive development and rural reforms (might include a specific allocation for telecommunication and access in rural sectors)
• UIADI (Unique Identification Authority of India) to setup an online data base.
• Centralized processing Centre (CPC) at Benagluru - moving towards E-Governance
• Implementation of GST by 1st April, 2010
• No changes in corporate taxation policy
• Fringe Benefit Tax eliminated
• Deduction fo 150% on expenditure incurred on in-house R&D
• MAT (Minimum Alternate Tax) increased to 15% of book profits from 10%.
• Tax disputes resolution Mechanism for international transactions

****Sectoral specifics are:

Infrastructure Development

IIFCL to refinance 60 per cent of commercial bank loans for PPP projects in critical sectors over the next fifteen to eighteen months. IIFCL and Banks are now in a position to support projects involving total investment of Rs 100,000 crore (US$ 20.61 billion).

Highway and Railways

Allocation to National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) increased by 23 per cent over B.E. 2008-09 in B.E. 2009-10 and allocation for Railways increased from Rs 10,800 crore (US$ 2.23 billion) in Interim B.E. 2009-10 to Rs 15,800 crore (US$ 3.27 billion) in B.E. 2009-10.

Urban Infrastructure

Allocation under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) stepped up by 87 per cent to Rs 12,887 crore (US$ 2.65 billion) in B.E. 2009-10 over B.E. 2008-09.

Power

Allocation under Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP) increased by 160 per cent to Rs 2,080 crore (US$ 429 million) in B.E. 2009-10 over B.E. 2008-09.

Gas

Blueprint to be developed for long distance gas pipelines leading to a National Gas Grid to facilitate transportation of gas across the length and breadth of the country.

Agriculture Development

Target for agriculture credit flow set at Rs 325,000 crore (US$ 67.14 billion) for the year 2009-10. In 2008-09 agriculture credit flow was at Rs 287,000 crore (US$ 59.3 billion).

Restoring Export Growth

Adjustment assistance scheme to provide enhanced Export Credit and Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) cover at 95 per cent to badly hit sectors extended upto March 2010.

Health

Allocation under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) increased by Rs 2,057 crore (US$ 424.3 million) over Interim B.E. 2009-10 of Rs 12,070 crore (US$ 2.49 billion).

Education

Rs 2,113 crore (US$ 436.32 million) allocated for IITs and NITs which includes a provision of Rs 450 crore (US$ 92.91 million) for new IITs and NITs.
The overall Plan budget for higher education is to be increased by Rs 2,000 crore (US$ 412.86 million) over Interim B.E. 2009-10.

Budget Estimate 2009-10

Budget Estimates provide for a total expenditure of Rs 10,20,838 crore (US$ 211.1 billion) consisting of Rs 695,689 crore (US$ 143.81 billion) under Non-plan and Rs 325,149 crore (US$ 67.31 billion) under Plan registering an increase of 37 per cent in Non-plan expenditure and 34 per cent in Plan expenditure over B.E. 2008-09.
Total expenditure in B.E. 2009-10 increased by 36 per cent over B.E. 2008-09.

*** Courtesy Economic times and Business Standard

Below is an analysis of each policy and its implications.

The Budget has tried to put money in the hands of consumers by cutting Taxes and increasing spending. The abolition of FBT (which was deceptive in nature) and surcharges on income tax is encouraging. However, the important benefits covered under FBT, such as employee stock options would now be taxed directly at the hands of employee. The introduction of GST by April 2010 will also help in simplifying taxation system, reducing leakages and arbitrage between organized and unorganized sector. The increase in MAT from 10% to 15%, it would hurt corporate profitability. In a way the increase in MAT will widen the Tax collection because at present there are many corporate that are enjoying low tax rate. Overall the Direct Taxes are revenue neutral. On the Indirect Tax front the central excise duty has been increased form 4% to 8% on wide array of goods. At the some time the excise duty on branded jewelry is reduced from 2% to nil, which is an open promotion to great Indian habit of Hoarding.

In times like this when investor’s sentiment is low and investment needs are high for development of Infrastructure. The Budget does reflect upon these needs and rightly allocates considerable amount to their development through its own going various schemes.

• Allocation made to key infrastructure programs is as follows:

*Program*	*Allocation (Rs.)*		*Increase (%)*
Bharat Nirman	454 bn		45
Indira Awas Yojna		88bn	63
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna	120bn		59
Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna	70bn		27
JNNURM	129bn		88
ARDRP	21bn		160
AIBP	350bn		75

Continuing its (government) effort to promote PPP projects in Infrastructure, it enhanced the scope and role of IIFCL to facilitate lending to player of this sector. Infrastructure hold key to the sustainable development over long run and in short run as well it has a strong multiplier effect on economy. In short run it provides employment and thus pushing purchasing power upward which leads to improvement in high standard of living. While is medium and long run, the access to markets changes the complete dynamics in rural economy starting from changing crop pattern to access to credit to improvement in social capital formation. Thus investment in Infrastructure is need of the hour and increasing focus on it is a welcome development.
The budget also reflects upon the agenda of inclusive growth and social equity. Moreover, establishment of social equity without imposing progressive taxation further. The sharp increase in allocation to NREGA and its expansion to include more households will ensures increased purchasing power of poor who spends most of their earnings over basic necessity goods. On a lighter note, increase in market size for FMCG companies. Other initiatives like Bill to ensure food security to be moved soon, full interest subsidy on education loans to weaker sections, increase in allocation to rural health schemes and schemes for inclusion of women.

The mid term policy perspective to ensure stability, once economy is again on the track of high growth momentum, would be to bring down deficit in shortest possible time. As most businesses fear that high deficit will crowd out there investment needs by increasing cost of borrowing. Some economist fears that, BoP crisis will once again crop up if deficit is not controlled in time and at times they claim that fiscal deficit in India is more of structural in nature than of cyclical. Thus India needs second wave of reforms to tackle these problems. It is hard to decide the nature of the cause of deficit because of the lack of appropriate indicators. Since times like this demand fiscal stimulus to promote production and consumption demand, hence, the argument of reforms based on size of deficit is logically unconceivable. And the possibility of BoP crisis is also distinct, because since 1990 the Indian economy has undergone drastic change. And at present when investment possibilities in developed countries are limited because of lower interest rates offered and negative business sentiment where as Indian economy continue to grow and offers better returns to investors as interest rates are appropriate to make investment. Thus the fear of drying up of exchange reserves is distinct. But government must push to restore the deficit to lower levels as it does crowd out the medium to long term business needs.

NREGA and Road Ahead...

2009-07-05T18:55:00.003+05:30

NREGA may not have made India shine, but it certainly did light the life of most needy in rural areas. NREGA is one such program that has been applauded globally. However, the success of NREGA is contingent upon the sustained economic growth and outcome oriented planning and execution. Factors that contributed to the success of NREGA are both micro and macro in nature. The simple yet powerful idea, transparency, accountability and inclusion of mass are some the striking features of NREGA.

NREGA is modeled on the basic needs framework. Basic needs were first time targeted through various programs of fifth five year plan, but success in true sense could only be felt in eleventh five year plan and that too only in the NREGA program. It is largely because of the faster economic growth in recent years and increased focus and orientation towards development of rural India. From planning to effective execution, like any other programs its success too was contingent upon supply of resources, accountability and transparency and a framework that takes care of nitty-gritty. The shear magnitude of the program makes it imperative to include local bodies for achieving desired goals in stipulated time.

NREGA aimed at creating a social safety net for the vulnerable by providing a fall-back employment source, when other employment alternatives are scarce or inadequate. It creates a right based framework for wage employment in time bound manner; this makes Government accountable for providing employment. The tasks that are chosen and prioritized under it emphasis the creation of durable assets and potential for sustained development of agriculture based economy. By decentralizing the operations it let local authorities accountable to community and created a virtual governance model based on the principles of transparency.

How far NREGA could achieve its stated objects (distributive justice) is a moot topic and indeed requires through auditing of it at national level. The work allocated in first phase of NREGA was more of Keynesian type “digging hole and filling it up”. In the second phase of NREGA, it must focus on following:

· Quality work allocation that lead to development of infrastructure and thus promote sustainable development in rural areas

· Percentage of women participation

· Elimination of inefficiencies and leakages

Quality of work allocation calls for decentralized planning, where in lowest level of organization would identify work based on certain predefined criterion and the intermediate level will judge the merit of it and highest level would plane finances for the same. The predefined criterion should be such that they fall in sync with requirements of sustainable development and poverty elevation.

Distributive justice would not be achieved unless, women participation in work force increases, as they are the one that are involved in subsistence farming and contribute to the disguised unemployment in rural areas. Moreover, economic empowerment leads to social justice and thus it makes imperative to ensure women participation to the maximum possible extant.

I hate writing about inefficiencies and lack of transparencies because these are the $@#@ of our backwardness.

Bottom of the pyramid is calling!

2009-01-28T23:12:00.005+05:30

It would not be wrong, if we call the last few years as the years of unipolar market or monopsony market centric to America. The virtually low interest rate in America made cheap/easy money available to its citizens. This resulted in hoarding of assets which were otherwise not easily accessible. But ever since the financial meltdown triggered the consumers in America have learnt their lesson, an indication of it came when US government made its first move to stimulate demand/market by transfer payment of $80 million to its citizens but they spent as little as $12 million. Fed has still not figured out the solution for the troubled assets of banks and quarter after quarter they (US Banks) are declaring mammoth losses. The fiscal policy is also out of shape. What would have happened long time ago has happened now, it is time when financial investors would pull their money out of volatile markets and may start investing in emerging markets and more importantly India and China. Last year (2008) saw largest flow of FDI’s after several years.

“India‘s economy is driven by one half of the population. The other half is mute witness to what is happening in India. If the other half also becomes a part of the driving forces of the growth, India’s economy will not grow by 8-9 percent; rather it will easily grow between 10-11 percent.” These are the words of honorable finance minster - Mr. P Chidambaram

Towards the faster and more Inclusive growth this is the theme for our eleventh five year plan and yes, there can be no better time then this when we must act. We must understand the fact that the largest market of the world is right here in our villages not anymore in US. It is time when we must innovate and let the bottom 40% of population participates in socio economic development. It is quintessential for us to let them have access to money, banks and institutions. It can only be possible when we pillars (educated class of Thinkers, Leaders, Technocrats, Entrepreneurs and Teachers ) of the nation focus on the development of human capital vis-à-vis development of small scale labor intensive industry in these villages. By doing so we as a nation will be in better shape and position to fight this war if competitive advantage triggered by forerunners of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG).

The last quarter results of our giant public and private firms were clear indicators of how whole world has came so close because of globalization. The domino effect of financial crisis has not left single industry unturned but agriculture in India. It would be unjustified to think that our economy will be least suffered from global crisis because of our exceptionally large service sector. Though, the share of services (approximately 53%) in our GDP is largest but it is still smaller than global average of 69%.

A deeper look at services sector will unveil the depth of this sector and it’s potential. Largely services can be classified in four categories: trade and hotels, transport and communication, finance, real estate and housing and community services. Trade and Hotels are looking gloomy as tourism is hit globally people is saving more and spending less. Transport is hit maximum as short term credits are not available for most of the auto manufacturers and their sales is down too. Communication is certainly has large potential for growth now more so after allocation of 3G bandwidth. Real estate and housing is touch rock bottom and clearly have no sign of getting back on track in short and medium term.

Agriculture (18% of GDP in 2007-08) is the only sector that is poised to show positive results year -after -year continuously form past seven years (Thanks to good monsoon). It has been growing at 4% annually and has been insulated form global meltdown. Ironically eleventh five year plan yet again underestimated its importance and has allotted too little for this sector which provides employment to 70% of Indian population.

Jaagoo India jaagoo!, too much for too little and too little for too many will not make India a superpower/an economic giant by 2020- the so called millennium goal of India is at the verge of failure like our every other five year plan.

Global Financial Crisis

2009-01-24T23:57:00.007+05:30

This is third time after “The great depression of 1930” that a significantly larger (in terms of its geographical span) financial crisis has triggered. Though the previous crises were somewhat geographically local in nature and were of different era. Banking Crisis of Japan in 1990 followed by collapse of Tiger Economies of Asia in 1997 were the prominent ones.

This crisis is no different than previous crisis of either 1990 or 1997 it differs only in its magnitude (financially) and spread (geographically). Globally so far many analyst and economist has predicted the longevity vis-à-vis shape of the curve for coming quarters of economic cycle. The Index of industrial Production (IIP) fell steeply in giant economies like Germany, Japan, US and China. The liquidity crisis of financial markets has paved its way into capital goods industry and exposed its vulnerability and too much reliance on short term credit.

This crisis will be a real test for Big 4 currencies (Dollar, Yen, British pound and Euro ) and they will soon see parity check. Going by the current global scenario, exchange rate movement if happened vis-à-vis interest rates in these big 4 then the large gainer will be those nations who could isolate their economy from the global meltdown. In other words investors will seek safe markets where in they can place/park their money for short duration of 1 to 3 years. Euro will face the biggest test of its time as most of the European nations are already hitting high unemployment rate and not all European nations have huge pockets (International reserves) like Germany. Grease, Spain and Italy are already finding their arsenal short of tools to tackle this unprecedented crisis. To make matter worse for European nations global warming has been on the centre stage too.

In times like this to relinquish the philosophy of creating free trade regime would prevail. An evidence to this is WTO’s Doha round once again ended in imbalance. The surprising fact is almost similar mistakes were done at the time of 1930s great depression. In order to protect domestic industries huge trade barriers and quotas were created in Europe and US. It was the time when most of countries where facing both Internal and external trade imbalance. Thanks to the flexible exchange rate system this time the crisis might not impact Balance of Payment devastatingly.

Well one thing is clear that the giant economies will probably take it long time before they will actually learn (if they wish to) from their mistakes. During great depression Keynes exposed weakness of capitalist economies and called for an end of laissez faire. He argued in favor of strong public interventions to restore the equilibrium in market. Clearly Fed was traped in the systemic chaos and hence failed to take measure which non but only it could take. Rather it remained silent and left the market to the mercy of invisible hand of Adam Smith. An interesting thing would be look at how Reserve Bank of India outperformed at times when too much of greed was contaminating the market. RBI acted shrewedly and kept the interest rates high and increased CRR to keep the liquidity intact/checked. It was the real test for RBI, when most Indian Industries were asking for rate cuts. Too much of greed and reliance on complex mathematics of securities has exposed the hollowness and vulnerability of global banking system. This crisis has shown how banks were focusing more on off-balance sheet activities.

Thanks to RBI for saving 1,120 million strong nation.

More on privatization, SEZs and balance score card for government policies will be coming soon.

2008-01-22T10:16:00.001+05:30

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi-मिर्जा गालिब (Mirza Ghalib)

हजारों ख्वाहिशें ऐसी कि हर ख्वाहिश पे दम निकले
बहुत निकले मेरे अरमाँ, लेकिन फिर भी कम निकले

डरे क्यों मेरा कातिल क्या रहेगा उसकी गर्दन पर
वो खून जो चश्म-ऐ-तर से उम्र भर यूं दम-ब-दम निकले

निकलना खुल्द से आदम का सुनते आये हैं लेकिन
बहुत बे-आबरू होकर तेरे कूचे से हम निकले

भ्रम खुल जाये जालीम तेरे कामत कि दराजी का
अगर इस तुर्रा-ए-पुरपेच-ओ-खम का पेच-ओ-खम निकले

मगर लिखवाये कोई उसको खत तो हमसे लिखवाये
हुई सुबह और घर से कान पर रखकर कलम निकले

हुई इस दौर में मनसूब मुझसे बादा-आशामी
फिर आया वो जमाना जो जहाँ से जाम-ए-जम निकले

हुई जिनसे तव्वको खस्तगी की दाद पाने की
वो हमसे भी ज्यादा खस्ता-ए-तेग-ए-सितम निकले

मुहब्बत में नहीं है फ़र्क जीने और मरने का
उसी को देख कर जीते हैं जिस काफिर पे दम निकले

जरा कर जोर सिने पर कि तीर-ऐ-पुरसितम निकले
जो वो निकले तो दिल निकले, जो दिल निकले तो दम निकले

खुदा के बासते पर्दा ना काबे से उठा जालिम
कहीं ऐसा न हो याँ भी वही काफिर सनम निकले

कहाँ मयखाने का दरवाजा 'गालिब' और कहाँ वाइज़
पर इतना जानते हैं, कल वो जाता था के हम निकले.

KAVITA---Neeraj

2008-01-08T20:21:00.003+05:30

Swapnjhhare phool se,
meet chubhhe shool se,
lut gaye shringaar sabhii baag ke babool se ;
aur hum khhade-khhade bahaar dekhte rahe |
kaarwaan guzar gayaa, gubaar dekhte rahe !

Neend bhi khulii na thii ki haay dhoop dhhal gayii,
paav jab talak uthein ki zindagii phisal gayii,
paatpaat jhhar gaye ki shaakhh-shaakhh jal gayii,
chaah to nikal sakii na, par umar nikal gayii,
geet ashk ban gaye,
chhand ho dafan gaye,
saath ke sabhi diye dhhuaa-dhhuaa pehan gaye,
aur hum jhhuke-jhhuke,
mod par ruke-ruke,
umr ke chadhhaav ka utaar dekhte rahe |
kaarwaan guzar gayaa, gubaar dekhte rahe !

Kya shabaab tha ki phool-phool pyaar kar uthhaa,
kya suroop thha ki dekhh aayinaa sihar uthha,
is taraf zameen aur aasmaan udhar uthha
thhaam kar jigar uthha ki jo milaa nazar uthha,
ek din magar yahaan,
aisii kuchh hawaan chalii,
lut gayii kalii-kalii ki ghhut gayii galii-galii,
aur hum lute-lute,
waqt se pite-pite,
saans ki sharaab ka khumaar dekhte rahe |
kaarwaan guzar gaya, gubaar dekhte rahe !

Haath the mile ki zulf chaand ki sanwaar doon,
honthh the khule ki har bahaar ko pukaar doon,
dard tha diyaa gayaa ki har dukhii ko pyaar doon,
aur saans yun ki swarg bhoomi par utaar doon,
ho sakaa na kuch magar,
shaam ban gayi sahar,
vah uthi lahar ki deh gaye kile bikhar-bikhar,
aur hum dare-dare,
neer nayan mein bhare,
odhkar kafan, pade mazaar dekhte rahe |
kaarwaan guzar gaya, gubaar dekhte rahe !

By: Gopal Das Neeraj

Life is just what happens to us, while we are busy making other plans.

2007-04-06T11:47:00.001+05:30

Fear of darkness.

2007-03-26T00:15:00.001+05:30

Here in this post I am trying to touch upon the most elementary and yet so bewildering and abstract element of our identity called shadow. I call it darkness.

Fear of darkness!

We see each other because we are opaque, hence we have a shadow. But what is that which makes us see ourselves? It is nothing but “Darkness”. Darkness is a heap of good and ghastly experiences of life. Every time we are down it extends its arms “called hope” and holds us from disintegrating. Darkness subconsciously keeps us moving.

We “Fear” because we have illegitimate desire for almost everything. If, we evaluate our desires in the light of our darkness. A beam of light will touch our soul if there is hope and if there is purity in our desires. It is the fear of darkness which stops us from doing cardinal sins, provided we are human. We don’t fear anything tangible in this world rather it is the sonorous beat of our soul that causes our heart pump faster and faster when we try to foresee future. When we fear, our heart makes our mind go perplexed. Then this confused mind starts searching solution for its own chaos of desires in random thoughts of ages. This leads to filtering of cluttered thoughts causing cleaning of soul through introspection, hence crafting fearless man. It is the soul which is the triggering element in creating fearless man.

Darkness is curse! Is it because it makes us feel so fragile and vulnerable when we are wrong. Self-respect is the derivative of darkness, it gives meaningful life. Self respect never lets fear intervene our decisions. Dearth of self-esteem is the main cause of our failure, our fear.

Darkness is beauty, it is the greatest mentor, and it is the gift of time.

"I dream I live"

2007-03-24T00:08:00.002+05:30

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

~ Orion Mountain Dreamer

How true these lines are! Have we ever asked ourselves “what do we ache for?” I never really did, till I was forced to do so. I know it is easier said than done, but think we have just one life to live, to dream, to love and to create immortal thoughts.

At the fag end we ourselves judge our deeds, so don’t leave any window for regret.

Someone once said “Discontent is the first necessity of progress”, but there is a difference between discontent and regret. Regret eradicates passion where as discontent augments it. Passion is the pulsation of dreams, we have pulses we have dreams. Hence “we dream for living”.

We cry when some of our dreams get shattered. I believe dreams are “love” and love never dies a natural death, it dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. Thus fascination for dreams never let our ecstasy evaporate.

MUSIC

2007-03-22T21:00:00.001+05:30

We humans find solace in different things at different times but the striking fact is that everything in this world is connected with a thread of music. Although I am no Beethoven but my heart too cries and laughs with every note of music. Music is ubiquitous, be it vacuum or cacophony. God has given us ears to listen to this mortal world but he knew that we must listen to our inner self too and hence he gave us a pulp of meat and we humans called it “heart”. What ever be the name, to me it is just an extension of the strings of harp that God is continuously playing.

Ask me the total number of different kinds of music, my answer would be “one”. I know it sounds quite ridiculous but so is the question. Music is not what we hear; music is in the silence between any two consecutive notes and silence is unique.

Have you ever thought “why God has given us a heart that beats? Why not something that continuously pumps or hum without any pause? Reason he knew or rather say he wanted us to listen to our heart too.

Songs are like clothes that dresses the music. It does not mean that naked music is not as good as music with aesthetics. We humans are bounded by selective perception and hence we end up creating a chaotic world of infinite names. In the end this phenomena is not all that bad, after all it gave birth to creativity.

The day I was teleported on earth.

2007-03-20T12:09:00.000+05:30