India : The Great Democrazic Nation
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Last month, businessweek ran a good article on How the India is building its economy on shaky grounds!This is a must read for every one who tend to be Indians and stay in India.As a person, I love to stay back in India, even the inflation goes beyond 10 or India loses the 2011 cricket world cup. I thought of sharing my thoughts over the same. India is one of the biggest democrazy.yes its driving the country into a bottomless pit.The self minded politicians with no interest on nation's growth,the awful Indian youth with no care for the nation and the left behind farmers (once who were the backbone of the Indian economy).Quoting the chief mentor of Infosys,the article points out India's exports total less than 1% of global trade,
compared with 7% for China.
Now-a-days,China and India had become synonymous in economic debates and market comparisons,due to the similarities in the population level, land stretch, continental market opportunities and and uhm, I cant find one more reason.Probably I don't know much, but I strongly disagree with comparing India and China.Now India is like how China was 10 years back.And ten years from now,there are lot of chances we will stay back at the same level,if not deteriorate to ground zero.
Without building a proper infrastructure and the logistic facilities,there is no upward journey for India after few years.China takes credit at this point and the article clearly points out "Beijing launched a massive upgrade initiative, building more than 25,000 miles of expressways that now crisscross the country and are as good as the best roads in the U.S. or Europe. India, by contrast, has just 3,700 miles of such highways. It's no wonder that when foreign companies weigh putting new plants in China vs. India to produce global exports, China more often wins out". Hey cmon,we are a democrazy and china is a communist republic.huh,who needs democracy.Freedom, they say, dont come for free.and many of us had forget this.And the uphill task needs lots of funds. And the article continues as " China's lead in infrastructure is likely to grow, too. Beijing plows about 9% of its GDP into public works, compared with New Delhi's 4%. And because of its authoritarian government, China gets faster results". Do you realize now, why I said that as "democrazy".
And they haven't pointed literacy, and I believe its the major building block for any Nation.Literate citizens are boon for every country.Literacy is an indispensable means for effective social and economic participation,contributing to human development and poverty reduction, says UNESCO.India has a youth literacy level of 70+%,a great achievement though, not when compared to china having a literacy rate of 98+%.Who needs schools, when we have hotels,match factories,cracker manufacturing hubs and quaries to where we send our youth to.
Now-a-days,all the news television channels and dailies blaring on a same slogan - "India has arrived". Where? and for Whom? It might be a good attraction for the retail giants trying to cope up with their loss in other markets, to make use of India's middle class,who are ready to spend upto 55 US$ for things which they don't necessarily need to have."India has arrived" for the Outsourcing giants, who are all making record profits and unstoppable growth(to all the day dreamers,Vietnam and China is coming to the software front and they will arrive soon).But not for the Indians whole together who still sweat everyday to earn 3 US$ and who take their wife and kids to work with them for additional income of 3$."India has arrived" for all the mobile operatiors who try to have a bite in the pie into the again cursed Indians who were paying twice as much for even the basic right of all,speech.ok,we make a call speak to person in a nearby town, but United States makes this call free for its citizens.And all those people who are blaring at India's coming should also think about the insurmountable disadvantages of the nation, atleast with the democrazy system we follow relegiously.
They clearly point out "The infrastructure deficit is so critical that it could prevent India from achieving the prosperity that finally seems to be within its grasp. Without reliable power and water and a modern transportation network, the chasm between India's moneyed elite and its 800 million poor will continue to widen, potentially destabilizing the country." According to the Press release by Indian Foreign trade, the trade deficit for April- February, 2007 was estimated at US $ 55858.54 million which was higher than the deficit of US $ 37575.61(P)
million during April- February, 2006. Hey wait I will search for China's trade deficit.(after a very lonnnnggg search),I can't find any defecit data for China and I found myself a dumbo.How come a country which is now the world's No. 3 trading nation, exporting and importing about $1.5 trillion worth of goods and services a year, can have trade defecit.Instead its global trade surplus hit $177 billion in 2006 and is on track to finish this year at more than $220 billion, says business week article on "China: One Hungry Industrial Dragon".I think its good to say, the dragon started roaring.
Ok. I want to complete this blog.Final words from the same article " And so it goes in India. Unless the nation shakes off its legacy of bureaucracy, politics, and corruption, its ability to build adequate infrastructure will remain in doubt. So will its economic destiny." And I doubt we will overcome this paralysis.
Image courtesy: Businessweek.
posted by Unknown @ 10:16 AM,
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Inniya Tamil Puthandu Nalvazhthukkal
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Kal Thondree man thondraa kaalathae mun thondriyaa mootha kudee nam Tamilā¯ kude endru nam munnorgal iyambiyirupathu nisamaa endru naan ariyeen. Irupinum enakku antha nambikai endrum undu. Tamil puthaandu indru. Intha "Sarvasitthu" varudam ellorkum nal varudamaaka vendum.
sirithu kaalamaha enakkoru mana varutham undu,engae Tamil puthandu enbathu sirchila tholaikatchee alaivarisagalil varum thiraipadam parka oru edhuvaaga mattumae aagivittadhooo endru.uhm.ethu eppadiyooo, tamil kude ennum palgee peruga vendum enbathu en avaa.
Tamilai ninaithu enathu manaseega guruvai ninayaamal irukku iyalathu. itho avar ninaivaaaga, naan thinam ninaivu koorum oru paadal.
posted by Unknown @ 9:38 PM,
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home sweet home
one among the thousand other Bangaloreans, who bought a flat in some area around the greater Bangalore area, i wanted to
spill out my many grievances and few happy moments.attracted by the smaller interest rates and bigger tax savings,
(hey the story starts one year back huh), I booked a smaller two bedroom apartment in outer ring road which is
built by some lesser known builder group,during the November 2k5. They had a neatly printed and glossy catalogue which showed the apartment in
3 D view with multi-colors in the walls (it sucks now) ,swimming pool (hey you need some gut or you should be a
kid,to bath before the windows of 90 plus houses,at least for a shy guy like me), a plush car parking area with
ample space (i think it will be difficult to park my two wheeler either in the space they have alloted) and twenty
others in the list to attract me and 90 plus other me's.At the time , when i booked the flat, they just had dig a big
hole,not for me yaar, for my block.There were six other too.and the building started growing.ok.Now i will enter the economics of this,when they
were busy building the apartments.i went for a loan with a bank which gave me an attractive offer,of a loan with
two percent interest rate.oh sorry. it's not april one and my interest rate was 7.25 percent. pretty manageable with my salary.the bank executive asked for all the details about me with supported documents and they gave a hefty booklet to me to sign in every other page.I didnt read it fully and it will take some two weeks and 4 hours to read and understand it clearly, by then the builder would find another person for my flat, who can sign those books without reading it.I didn't left another guy to overtake me.Wish,I could have.then came the D-Day for all loan applicants.the approval day.my loan got approved for 75 percent of the amount I actually needed.Then started the bargaining process and finally i had to be happy with the 90 percent of the amount,if and only if I chose accept the floating interest rate procedure.I did and I didnt see any evil with three pronged sword laughing at me.but now i think it would have. When the total amount is in double digit lacs,10 percent counts yaar and i started counting my bank balance.finally, i settled out everything.these banks have a strange concept called pre-emi's.that is the amount that goes to the bank,out for no use to us to reduce the total principal of our loan.after six months of payment, i got entitled to start paying back the loan.hey isn't something fishy over here.yup. i lost all my Pre-EMI payment for nothing and now i have started paying the equated monthly installments in which the majoooooooor part goes to the interest component of the loan and small part gets reduced from the principal.and then bank earned happily ever after. hey its a happy ending for the loaner alone.
They say everything that goes up, comes down. budget was proposed and the budget got accepted,inflation went up and came down,but the floating interest rates for the home loans are gravity defying.rates sky rocketed and reached International space station without paying 20 million dollars to Russians, just a bad joke to console myself in this grave situation, the rates are now at 13 percent.nearly 80 percent raise in less than 6 months.how good it would be,if our salary rise in the same percent level.wildest of the dreams.The trick here is the Pre-EMI that I used to pay stays the same, even the rates have gone up like the inflation time onion price.So, obviously the duration of payment increased. Now its around 25 years and hopefully , I won't leave this debt to my son and eventually my grand son.
Ok,ok.I understand and I will stop my cribbing.Some happy moments too.The square foot value of the land also went up. Many people are adding more square feet under them and the rates had gone up by 20 percent to add to my self consolation. I got in touch with a good interior designer in Bangalore, they too are less known,minnows like Bangladesh cricket team, but did a very good job and I finally have a own house.A dream fulfilled(yet to be,but crossed most of the sea) for me at last.
posted by Unknown @ 12:42 AM,
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impossible is nothing
Friday, April 13, 2007
The first step is very difficult and now its the last one.the inspirational words which i used to read, from a adidas hoarding,everyday while commuting to office.
Now its my last step,err atleast the one to create a blog. hey its friday the thirteenth. uhm, not a good day to start? gosh. I believe the evil lies within every one of us (even for spiderman) and thats what makes us unique among the billion other evils ,huh ok, some like to call themselves gods.Once when somebody asked Charles Darwin , whether there is any super being called God, he promptly replied "..might be. But I don't waste time in thinking about that".How good it will be if everyone thinks the same way.
I started thinking about blogging myself after reading Nussabaum on design, Seth Godin, guy kawasaki, endless innovation, monkey bites and sex drive @ wired and some more. I love these topics and they are blog heavyweights, spreading new ideas across.Uhm,its the world for fittest who can survive longer.Am I going to ? I have no idea. Even I didn't see the latest blogger rules,O'Riely's,"Blogging Code of Conduct".lol. I remember one more quote in the same adidas board.impossible is nothing.
ssssh.... Its raining outside my windows.a pleasant summer shower after a succesive 35+ degrees for the past one week in bangalore. In my place, they used to say that it rains suddenly, without any pre signs, when something unusual happens.I started blogging.... Let me go and enjoy the rain. let the rain keep pouring.
Now its my last step,err atleast the one to create a blog. hey its friday the thirteenth. uhm, not a good day to start? gosh. I believe the evil lies within every one of us (even for spiderman) and thats what makes us unique among the billion other evils ,huh ok, some like to call themselves gods.Once when somebody asked Charles Darwin , whether there is any super being called God, he promptly replied "..might be. But I don't waste time in thinking about that".How good it will be if everyone thinks the same way.
I started thinking about blogging myself after reading Nussabaum on design, Seth Godin, guy kawasaki, endless innovation, monkey bites and sex drive @ wired and some more. I love these topics and they are blog heavyweights, spreading new ideas across.Uhm,its the world for fittest who can survive longer.Am I going to ? I have no idea. Even I didn't see the latest blogger rules,O'Riely's,"Blogging Code of Conduct".lol. I remember one more quote in the same adidas board.impossible is nothing.
ssssh.... Its raining outside my windows.a pleasant summer shower after a succesive 35+ degrees for the past one week in bangalore. In my place, they used to say that it rains suddenly, without any pre signs, when something unusual happens.I started blogging.... Let me go and enjoy the rain. let the rain keep pouring.
posted by Unknown @ 11:37 PM,
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