Expression Re-defined

viva socialist order !!

2011-11-27T21:10:00.002+05:30

Mapping the Deccan region

2011-11-13T08:27:00.002+05:30

The Muslim rule in india did not start with Mughals as it is widely perceived , there are less sources or perhaps very little written about pre mughal muslims or rather Islamic Sultantes that ruled india during 1100 AD to 1500 AD , what is intereting is that these rulers came from far away regions like Turkey, Iran and central asia.
Bhaman shahi in Karnataka - Bidar
Alauddin Khilji -
Mohammed Bin Tuglaq
Qutub shahis in Hyderabad (southern India)

all these Kingdoms rose during the early medieval times prior to mughal consolidation, what i thought is that there is an interesting aspect as far as popularising tourism in this region especially by mapping regions of Deccan covering the aurangabad marathwada region of Maharashtra , Bidar, raichur , Bijapur of Karnataka and Hyderabad of Telangana region (presently under andhra state).

Questions like - who were the kings, How come Islam never became state religion in their kingdoms, what was their life style , what is the significance of Daultabad , what is the style of architecture ...sounds interesting but it is value for money if someone visits and maps these places as an ardent admirer of History

The Aurangabad Diary - 1

2011-11-12T18:05:00.006+05:30

Here are some of My experiences of Aurangabad visit which indeed deserves to be a great tourist Destination of Deccan region first up are Ajanta Caves the great heritage site and indeed the symbol of Buddhism in India :-

A tragedy called UPA

2011-09-30T19:37:00.003+05:30

The UPA government led by Manmohan singh has been a biggest disaster and a shame to country like india, Even though it has got a sound mandate , but its leadership lacks competence and gut feeling as far as taking decisions on public policy , defence and foreign policy are concerned . The record of its governance bears testimony to its deeds and pathetic conduct . Several of its Union ministers have been accused of gross manipulation, corruption and nepotism.

Dangerous scams which impact security , law and order have been unearthed by CBI and other investigating agencies and these include 2G scam, antrix scam by ISRO, Adarsh scam, common wealth games scam, cash for money scam . And unaccounted accumulation of wealth from Ministries of Agriculture , Ministry of aviation etc. The leadership currently running this mammoth nation is incompetent - for example Sonia Gandhi commands neither good oratory or negotiation skills nor the Prime Minister Manmohan singh never been elected for any office not even that of a municipal counselor ! Both do not possesses the language the masses of India use in their day to day life ! The congress party runs clearly with a mindset of conducting praise melas in the name of Gandhi family Dynasty and a false propaganda of Secularism and development - on the contrary it divides the local politics in the name of caste and religion by inducting powerful classes as mascots of poor .

it is also India's misfortune that its opposition parties are not much dynamic as they ought to be , they are clearly divided on the basis of their ideology and political interests. Only dynamic leadership coupled with strong regulations in law making process would enable India to compete globally as responsible country and as nation which is just humane (as Manmohan puts it )

Brahmanism nearing its End

2011-09-05T20:39:00.000+05:30

The Idea of praising imaginary Gods and giving authority or certain privileges to few classes "to Brahmins to be precise " will be a story of the past as India is witnessing more number of intercaste marriages and the concept of Hard work, sincerity and being good to fellow human beings irrespective caste , color and creed is spreading fast in metros of India, which is a good sign, as Brahmins for too long been a parasitic classes who do not believe in productive labor , have time and again exploited, manipulated and even constructed a myth of so called Hindu society ! with more inter caste marriages the gap between the backward classes and scheduled classes will narrow down and with opening of the economy and liberalisation, more opportunities will knock at doors to people who are hardworking and industrious ( especially backward and sceduled caste people) ! which will also bring them closer to materialistic life and will end their false dependence on false brahminic world of praising or worshipping brahamic Gods ! Brahmins will continue to suffer under false dogmas such as astrology, worshipping stones , practicing racism and hating minority community and No amount of foreign education can change their attitude towards fellow Indians , because the concept of casteist supremacy has deeply intruded their physche and DNA. In such case with open Knowledge and open society, the biggest sufferers will be Brahmins with their orthodox minds and will eventually will lead to their isolation in India and thus nearing their End of centuries of parasitic dependence on the masses of India.

In the near future with increased open societies, people will realise the true teachings of Gautham Buddha and then there shall be a time when people will embrace the indeed true relgion or culture that India gave to the world - Buddhism

Post Osama and India's silence

2011-05-10T19:02:00.004+05:30

Ever since Osama's death, India has been conscious of its silence, yet diplomatically it looks like India's stand against international terrorism has been vindicated especially against Pakistan. But India's fight against terrorism is far from over given its internal turmoil and chaos at Home, that could be the reason why India's polity seems to be silent or rather making less noise.

there is a trust deficit with in the political parties of India when it comes to taking decision on formulating military and foreign policy, while India continues to accuse Pakistan on abetting terrorism on the other hand India has been rather shy in addressing the root causes of terrorism and dealing it politically via its foreign policy. the ghost of communalism and partition still haunts the nationalists in India, this has compounded exponentially with the rise of Islamic extremism in Kashmir and violence unlished by elements supported by Pakistan ever since the demolition of Babri masjid.

for India to grab this unprecendented success of Osama's killing , it should get the polity inline with a single policy on reforming its outdated secular laws by replacing personal law or Hindu law and reform it with a clear cut demarcation between church and state, secondly it should enhance its cooperation with major powers like US and Russia with increased military cooperation and intelligence sharing.

Question of Nuclear non proliferation:-

Increasing efforts must be made on the area of nuclear non proliferation so as to ensure that nuclear weapons making technology does not fall into rouge hands, this issue becomes a priority as a nuclear armed pakistan has a made a mess of regional security due to its poser to the world with a tag of "Nuclear power" yet its (Pakistan's ) soil became a breeding ground of terrorists.

all these accounts remind us that the so called globalised world is not just a combination of commerce and technology , but it is the era of ensuring regional and global security against extremism and fundamentalism, given all these facts India's silence post Osama's death is a welcome sign!

Telangana - A saga of Betrayal

2011-01-08T13:03:00.003+05:30

This is an intersting question that every individual who considers himself intellectually liberal should ask on Telangana

why is the Government beating around the bush on the subject of forming a separate state to be carved out of the so called Andhra pradesh?

the answer simply boils down to one thing " the rulers simply won't let the ruled to rule themselves" , in another words one indian is trying subjugate another indian much against their wishes! that's what makes Indian democracy not only world's largest democracy but a mediocre and a quasi democracy. Given the fact that the demand is well above 50 years old since formation of Indian union, Powerful politicians from rich regions of coastal andhra region and Rayalaseema systematically raped the Telangana region by depriving its people from their socio economic rights from education to employment and even to an extent in not allowing irrigation projects to be implemented much to the anguish of local farmers.

what makes Telangana issue tricky ?

theory of Hypothetical chauvinism :-

if one were to analyse the Physhe of protaganists who demand the status quo to be maintained a false philosophy prevails amongst them which calls for chauvinistic rehtoric for Telugu Nationhood, hatred against Telangana language / its dilacet and much to the anguish of political elites of Telangana as they are categorized in India and andhra region in particular as people belonging to backward classes, that apart, an illogical argument that Hyderabad was built by people of andhra runs contrary to their claims , but the fact is that the Judicial infrastructure , university system, railways and airports were already thriving entities under Nizam's dominion, the only contribution from andhra region was that they made successful ghettos for their well being in the form of colonies in Hyderabad by living a reclusive life untouched by local feel and thus becoming branded as settlers in recent times . Note that a marwari, a kayasta , a muslim from other regions is not branded as settlers but a fellow Telugu man is branded in Telangana as settler ? This sounds contrary to the people who argue for their claim on Hyderabad and also gives an ample proof for the demand of Separate Telangana !

Congress a sinking boat ?

History tells us that congress consolidated its political base in Hyderabad / Telangana region much earlier during 1928 by forming pradesh congress comittee under Nizam's rule. yet the shots were called by politicians from Madras presidency which still continues in New Delhi, this makes congress an hallow entity in Telanagana unless AICC recognizes the political clout of Telangana region and its congressmen it is bound to loose in future politically. In a sense Congress party a centre is reduced a laughing stock of Jokes which forms committes , divides people and manipulates findings and satisfies the super rich families and lobbyists of different regions

the fact is - the BJP has shown statesmenship and maturity by forming 3 states as soon as it came to power with out being buded by regional blackmails , which the congress miserably failed throughout its 50 years of its rule due to its internal politics !

what is the way round ?

A separate state is the only way out as this takes out the whole confusion which surround around Telangana statehood demand , this process requires statesmenship and national reconcialliation among all the parties , which should protect and defend the constitution of India and thus forming a great union of Indians for future generations.

Allahabad High court, Ayodhya Verdict

2010-10-02T16:22:00.002+05:30

The verdict given by the high court is not a rational one, The Judges kept faith over evidence , leaving little scope for arguments and analysis of historical facts.

it was Just a balancing act, which again leaves questions on transparency, secular ethos and of course the benchmarks set by the Judiciary in our country.

only time and wisdom of our policy makers can deliver ultimate Justice . which will go long way in reconciling differences between Hindus and Muslims.

Here' s what communist felt on India and Gandhi

2010-06-13T11:53:00.004+05:30

An Open Letter to the Workers of India - Leon Trotsky

The Indian bourgeoisie is incapable of leading a revolutionary struggle. They are closely bound up with and dependent upon British capitalism. They tremble for their own property. They stand in fear of the masses. They seek compromises with British imperialism no matter what the price and lull the Indian masses with hopes of reforms from above. The leader and prophet of this bourgeoisie is Gandhi.

the rest of the letter can be found at :- http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/07/india.htm

yatras , political canvassing and Telangana formation

2010-06-05T16:54:00.004+05:30

Last week witnessed a bitter struggle between image versus emotions of the masses . the image being that of YSR's son Jagan mohan reddy who wanted to console family members or supporters of late YSR who reportedly committed suicide due to YSR's death in Telangana region ( these deaths may not be factual, perhaps represent a degree of propaganda by YSR fans ) .

it resulted in huge stone pelting on Jagan mohan reddy's entrouge and his supporters. as their opposition was not against his cosoling yatra (odarpu yatra) , but his staunch opposition towards Telangana state formation. it is widely belived that YSR was bitterly opposed to seperate state and even threatned to resign from cheif minsterial post, he followed a silent strategy of consolidating Telangana MPs, MLAs and public representatives through political manipulation. but he failed to understand the pulse of the people , that the movement for seperate statehood is now under the hands of Village councils, NGOs and intellectuals of Telangana alike.

No matter , what people believe or indulge in their own permudations and combinations, people of Telangana no longer attach themselves as part of the so called andhra pradesh state. it is like , people just represent themselves from andhra pradesh physically , but mentally , they have no emotion or allegiance towards the so called andhra pradesh state.

it is high time , that Telangana state is formed . as any further delay would only add fuel to the growing disontent between the two regions of Telangana and Seemandhra. in the words of one famous leader - Civil war situation would prevail.
it is also a known fact that, politicians with real estate background and commercial temperament of andhra / Rayalseema regions are the only ones who are opposed to the Telangana state as Hyderabad , the nerve centre of Telangana has now emerged as alternative commercial hub of south India. it is the image or self esteem of andhra leaders of loosing Hyderabad , that is making wrong noises in Telangana , not the opposition Telangana people towards the poor and exploited masses of Rayalseema / andhra region.

My analysis of UPA -2 's one year in power

2010-05-21T13:04:00.003+05:30

I intend to focus here on United progressive alliance's 1 year performance in power :-

Minister's taking full charge in IPL betting in the name of sweat equity and as members of BCCI (which i call it "Brazen crony cricket in India" ) , two union minsters directly involved in betting and making illegal money , namely sharad pawar and Shashi tharoor and ofcourse praful patel.
Dismal performance and inadequate corruption in the Dept of communication and information technology led by the minister Raja .
Mismangement and ill commitment by the P. Chidambaram on a senstive issue like Telangana state formation, which is pending since 60 years.
lack of policy cordination on international relations amongst the cabinet member with Jai Ram Ramesh's openely attacking fellow ministries in China , while equally applauding the proliferator China.
Crony corruption scandals in telcom, Medical education (with the arrest of MCI cheif ) .

------ if we really take the exact valuations (of corruption ) and the people behind mismanagement , will we get to a point of where we genuinely recognize our politcians and their policies ? NO never !!

Terrorism, secularism and a quest for Justice

2010-03-21T08:19:00.003+05:30

What makes Chota shakeel, Ajmal Kasab, Telgi, Afjal guru (the guy who attacked the parliement ) stand common amongst an array of criminals and fugitives in this country, the answer is simply they are first things first virtual terrorists guests of India , who are perhaps are being shielded / covered for the crimes they have committed in the past under the pretext of secularism , the definition of Secularism it self has taken worst hit , where secularism is often being made a two variable equation amonst the indian polity and media , which equates Muslims versus Hindutva groups, which is an absolute absurd as far political landscape in india is concerned, rather the equation must be made between secular muslims who are moderate, liberal and have Nationalistic outlook and those who practice the orthodox version of Islam which consists of Hijabs, Taliban and Kafir outlook of perceiving things through the prism of wahabi Islam and groups that use Islamic extremism as a bogey for creating hysteria and for obtaining power for themselves .

it is ironical that the judiciary and executive in this country have made mockery of Judicial system in which cases or trials relating terrorists / organised crimes often run into months and months into years with out proper justice being meted out to the victims of who lost their dear ones and their properties . we often come across court proceedings with much media fanfare with out any concrete results being given by the concerned court or a Judge, much to our despair they are either postponed for further delay or they get delayed by the investigative agencies concerned.

So, what makes this whole process cumbersome and time consuming , it is not our lack of faith in our systems but rather it is the divided society and lack of gut feeling among the ruling executive to take charge of things. and this has further compounded over the years owing to insurgency in Kashmir , demolition of Babri Mosque and indeed the communal riots in Gujrat state.

Then how can the state deliver justice to its citizens ?

In such a scenario , the government must come up with a strategies that are holistic and practical in nature

A comprehensive anti terrorist law on the lines of POTA must be passed to ensure stricter and stringent Punishment for the offenders of all terrorist related activities , with a conditional clause stating that comparision with any faith or faith based group is deemed to be anti state.
Removal of Personal laws or article 370 which does not allows state Judiciary to indulge in cases pertaining to muslim community , as this will allow further alienation of Muslims from the national mainstream
Affirmative action through reservations amongst the most backward communities must be stepped up in to nullify the growth of extremism
At an International level, there must be an effort to unite like minded nations , especially Islamic states to fight the menace of terrorism.

Above all, it is the good leaders who are bold enough to take on the cacophony of interest groups will give the much needed results, to provide Justice to the victims of terrorists activities and organised crimes.

Appointing Governors : Non performing liabilities

2010-01-18T16:05:00.002+05:30

The government of India as always recently came up with a list of who's of who to be appointed as governors of various states across India . constitutionally governors are nominal heads of states who appoint the elected premiere or chief ministers . their Job is limited to attending functions, Participating / conducting awards ceremonies , addressing joint sessions of assemblies etc..

I was wondering, why the hell the posts of governors were created as they serve no official purpose , they are an absolute waste of federal funds , as these posts serve with either minimum or zero contribution to the state in law making process. Quite frankly these are an utter syndicate of Non performing liabilities (NPL or Non performing assets ) . History of political landscape in india shows that , as always congress party sets up a trend in appointing these Non performing liabilities as governors across indian states, whose main Job is to raise flags (flag hoisting ) , distribute awards, praise freedom fighters and lead a lavish royal life style at free of cost with their extended family members ..., and needless to say their role often becomes like a Single point of contact (SPOC ) for non official recommendations, celebrations at their official places called Raj bhavans across state capitals.

most of these governors are either retired bureaucrats, political cronies, corrupt officials and of course party loyalist ..at worst shrewd offenders of law of the land !! if people with such backgrounds of such an utter disgrace are appointed as a token gesture for their loyalism towards ruling elite . then obviously , there is a fundamental flawed in the way Indian political landscape functions . the best remedy to eliminate "appointing governors drama" is to eliminate them completely from the constitutional process , as they neither serve any official purpose nor they are constitutionally advantageous for the growth of society at large !!

why are we afraid of Perfecting our union ?

2009-12-31T06:59:00.002+05:30

Ever since, the demand or agitation for a separate Telangana broke out media organizations, Neo intellectuals (who either lived life with out a struggle or perhaps never saw one ! ) and of course newly made capitalists are hell bent with a rot rhetoric for no further division of states , their argument is simple , they believe that dividing states is a ploy of politicians and there is no scope for common man to involve themselves with such agitation. for me this argument is absolutely a non sense and ill logical and perhaps shows , the extent to which this generation has come to believe in the philosophy of "All is well".

less these people may know that a country of 1 billion population with an imperialistic structure for governanace and adminstration requires more number of states to streamline efficiency and governance to the needy. it is a know fact that , modern Indian states were formed on linguistic basis but , there are uncharted regions with in india , which were forcilbly integrated with states solely on the basis language rather than cultural / socio economic disparities, Telangana presents a case in point, its Language, custom and tribal culture differs in contrast with the Andhra culture. another example being the region of Gorkhaland in Darjeeling which is altogether a different story and even a different ball game alltogether, its language, race, customs and lifestyle simply doesn't match up with Bengali culture. so where is the logic of states formed on linguistic basis ?

for decades the ruling classes who were aware fortunately / unfortunately about how system works in this country , exploited these common masses who form the bulk of India's population , and who include the tribes and the backward communities. the list of exploitation in official places has never ended be it from a Job of a local school teacher to seceretary to a minster, where mocking on people's language, accent and culture was a routine occupation of people who are now opposed to smaller states, Even now these pseudo ruling classes are on their way by manipulating cultures with emotional blackmailing , igniting passions of disadvantages of sepaprate states and with rhetoric like weakening of nationalism are being used to deny the rights of ethinic people. it is this very attitude of not empowering people , which has let us down on being backward when compared with the rest of the world.

good news and ray of Hope:

the good news is that freedom of Speech and right to liberty or fundamental rights are still firm in india and as a citizen I am proud of these attributes that my nation gives me . recently the cheif Minister of the most populous state Uttar pradesh Mayawati voluntarily wrote a letter to the prime minister for (urging him ) creating new states dividing U.P , which in it self is a bold decision . where else you can find the head of the state urging the federal government to disintegrate the state for the purpose of development and strengthening regional identity ?

unwanted and unrelenting fear or hatred against fellow citizen and to exploit the weak has been the hall mark of Indian society , that same mentality is pushing a minority group of Indians to propagate their version of imaginary India , which is far from reality..where empowerment and affirmative actions have become mere political bogey to garner votes rather than truely empowering people with efficient administration and governance.

where should we head now ?

Government should rise above partisan politics and empower backward regions , Just the way it created new states of Jharkhand, chattisgarh and uttarakhand it should create new states from backward regions of Northeast, Telangana, Vidharbha and break U.P to Bhundelkand, Harith pradesh . so that all the areas develop to their full potential . and government should not be carried away by emotional blackmailing of super rich politicians who are either fundamentalist chauvnist / lunatic about their faith or have vested family interest in real estates or mining. let lowly and poor of India be served so that our federal structure becomes truly democratic .

Triumph of the will - Telangana

2009-12-10T17:20:00.003+05:30

After a bitter struggle of 50 years or so and countless agitations, encounters, silent Judicial killings and most importantly an imperialistic , lunatical domination of Andhra culture over the rich culture and custom of Telangana. a new era has been heralded with a process to form the separate state of Telangana.

I congratulate people who include University professors , singers, NGOs and ofcourse the daring political icons. this is truely a begining of the start of the new state of Telangana. As a famous hail goes by saying in Telangana " Telangana Amaraveerulaku Johar Johar "....which litterally means long live the Matyrs of Telangana and their aspirations!!

Human rights violation in Telangana

2009-12-09T08:20:00.002+05:30

The Rosaiah government in the state of Andhra pradesh has been very shrewdly and smartly executing gross human rights violation by silencing the voices of students, political opponents and telanagana activists by threatening them through torture, arrests and falsely implicating the intellectuals, who are out for silent and non violent protests against the state government's opposition towards formation of Telangana.

scores of battalions were bought not just from the state but from delhi including special forces to threaten agitators who are demanding a Separate Telangana state since 50 years.

By not heeding to political outcry, congress leaders are maintaining a mute silence ! the ruling congress, has virtually become a den of loyalists under the money power led dictatorship control of congress partymen from rayalaseema and andhra regions . every MLA and MP of the congress is making sure that he / she should not be found to be disloyal towards andhra Jagirdar politicians who often had the last laugh in their anti Telanagan tirade .

several proofs suggest that leaders hailing from Andhra and Rayalseema regions of the state are going all out to disrupt the people's movement by playing conspiring roles like deploying additional police forces mainly from coastal region, closing university campuses, blocking highways and even arresting prominent members political dissidents, under the guidance of rich andhra leaders , who have commercial interest in real estate, mineral assets and industrial compounds in the Telangana region and specifically Hyderabad .

with Rosiah , the cheif minister becoming a silent spectator and a mute puppet, it surely is turning out to be gruesome weekend in the Telangana's struggle for statehood.

I urge to all students, intellectuals and every section of the society to expose the gross human rights violation of the state machinery against the backward and neglected people of Telanagana !!! your thoughts are much appreciated , please spread the awareness among common man ...regarding this silent genocide in Telangana !!!

Telangana reverberates once again

2009-12-03T12:27:00.003+05:30

After general elections to Lok Sabha , the echoes of Telanagana and a desire for a Separate state is reverberating once again with the fast unto death stance of KCR (K. Chandrashekar Rao ) of TRS party that is spearheading the campaign for a Separate state , for any insane Telanganite like me it gives me a sense that the movement for creating a Separate state is well under way with all its Obstacles of political rhetoric. the impressive protests from the intelligentsia and students of Telangana more than conveys , the desire of the people of the region for a Separate entity from Andhra Sanskrit language speaking population of coastal region and Rayalaseema.

history tell us that this movement has often been hijacked by individuals who were either short sighted people with in Telangana or people who bought rich political clout with an ability to manipulate administration for sake of power. the movement for a Separate state has its genesis from the fact that people of this region were vehemently oppressed first by Islamic rulers of Qutub shahi and Asaf Jahi (Nizams) dynasties in the form cultural oppression , imperialism and the peasant / agrarian revolution against Nizam's razzakars and Local Jagirdars . secondly , with in the Indian caste hierarchy the people (majority of Telanganites belong to backward castes ) were (and are still being continuously) subjected to caste based discrimination with in Telanagana.

the other perspective for Telanagana agitation can be attributed to economic and socio political inequalities between Andhra region and Telangana, with the former being a society based upon British model of adminstration and the latter being a society that was built on Islamic censorship led thought process with either minimum or zero access to education to ethnic people of Telangana with exception being the rich aristocratic classes. add to that, the mismanagement of irrigation projects between Andhra region and Telangana basically fueld the growing gulf.

in popular culture like Telugu cinema dominated by Andhramen , the typical Telangana citizen is a victim of cultural oppression where in he is often portrayed as a villain, gangster or demon who kills innocents,rapes women, uses Vulgar slang and loots public property ( while ironically , actors, actresses who speak a fluent Sanskrit Telugu / andhra actors are good people who only do good and make the telangana villains accountable for every problem ..). Similarly in bureaucratic circles majority of officers were appointed owing to caste based affiliations , predominantly brahminic officers , which is completely opposite to their demographic representation in Telanagana .

one of the important conspiracy theories that surrounds community discussions in Telangana is the role played by congress party with ups and downs in promises which it made for Separate telangana state . given this background the movement launched by TRS is a welcome one , as it is not a movement which was done unlike the utmost recklessness of TPS days of 1969-1970s led by controversial Chenna Reddy . which led to deaths of several students in Hyderabad and throughout Telangana. I welcome this new resurgence because it is a movement that is Just and focussed on achieving only with one objective and that is to form a Separate state , which is to preserve its unique history , language and culture, which is in contrast with regions of Andhra , Rayalaseema

Tariq Ali's analysis of Pakistan

2009-11-07T08:37:00.000+05:30

Superb take on pakistan as told by a wonderful pakistani -- Tariq Ali

part 1

part 2

Social Sciences gone for toss in A.P

2009-10-30T14:29:00.001+05:30

As an admirer of social studies and enthusiast of political economy and international relations, i wanted to have some basic books for my personal library and that's how i set out for some book shopping , but my experience with book shopping was of utter disappointment, as the main market for books in Hyderabad the Koti area was filled with books pertaining only to computer languages, technical guides and easy read books for dummies. there were hardly any collection of books on humanities except familiar texts of high school.

what does this experience convey me ? it gave a feeling that, India is on a verge of producing more number of software writers/coders , where there is an element of serving the multinationals of the west for most of their backend and clerical Jobs at a cheaper labor price and there is an increasing marginalization or stratification of social sciences and pure sciences in the state of Andhra pradesh where teaching is being merely defined on the basis of serving clients of MNCs and not as a mechanism to bring social development with humane values.

Academic domains such as Political science lest International relations , Economics and perhaps other areas like sociology have considerably suffered due to the lack interest of state machinery and mechanical mindset of people in Andhra pradesh . the Osmania University at a time known for its research scholars in social studies is an example , reeling under the shadow of cheap engineering colleges , who have successfully built an easy way of making pseudo technical professionals , who only teach writing of software codes !!

its time that teachers, academicians take a lead in making people aware of the importance of social studies , while giving equal importance to technical education. creation of technical Jobs must not be at an expense of social development, because learning of social systems embeds an individual to think and act in coherence towards reform and lead a quality life, while techincal Jobs may provide the easy money , but they cannot guarantee a society that is humane and transparent.

Over burdening our children by make them mere rote learners, with ready made technical - semi skills and politicization / Bureaucratization of university system will no doubt harm (still harming ) our society in long run , but it will also make our social systems weak with dangerous consequences to the economy in future.

no doubt we need engineers , doctors and teachers but what if ? the future generation is not given the education, which does not allow them to think of contributing to society ? an emphasis must be laid in universities and colleges to rejuvenate applied social studies like Economics, Political sciences and Law. so that we can shape visionaries for tomorrow .

Live and let others live "but" in Mess please !!

2009-10-13T18:06:00.000+05:30

few days ago one of my freind who read my blog posts , called up to me and said that i write the borest of bore stuff filled with mocking, rediculing and often potraying india in negative light. i was quick and rather frank enough to accept his criticism . i told him that for me Indian public life has hardly offered any thing concrete that indians would be proud of and most often be recognized in other parts of the world for their uniqueness. as most of my commentary in my blogs is on indian society and on a nation as a whole , which heavly identifies it self in a world of lacunae , that somewhere drags india into a precolonial , thirdworld mentality marred by negligence in public life , through leaders who are popular because of their wrong doings , a breaucracy that acts merely as a red tape in the name of national interests by further stagnating economic reforms, an education system marred by hyper layered regulatory system , where corruption, mediocrity and politics takes over innovation and good of teaching .

adding further, we have a culture which is predominantly Hindu with out any concrete rule or customs and where a few people are told be high caste and rest of the class as mere followers who practice faith blindly, we have created a political system which gives automatic license to political leaders to install or make their children to succeed them in political fortunes.

security and foreign policy wise also , we have never progressed any where ! our foreign policy has never been dynamic it did not take aspirations of millions of indians rather it took interest of few individuals (Nehru ) . porous borders, illegal immigration and communalisation of internal seculrity is often seen as a problem of India Vs Pakistan problem not as a social problem, what example can better examplify my statement " take the examples of teenaged kids from pakistan who were brainwshed with Jehadi literature virtually created a mayhem in Bombay by taking the Taj palace hotel, and our politicians merely paid a lip service and most often made it look like a two way ball game between ministry of external affairs and illiterate terrorits . these are, some of the examples that our "bureaucrats and politican " nexus presents to our future generations . where mulitplication of a problem outweighs finding a solution !!!!!!!!

that is the reason i will continue to criticise indian society for its own good !!

Criminal negligence of education in India

2009-09-29T20:43:00.000+05:30

If you carefully analyse the way speculators, students and some politicians ., it seems they will never become tired of India china comparisions , stories on emerging markets and also the optimism on human capital in India, some of the points are worth appreciating , but when it comes to the core aspect of economy, human capital will always continue to play a dominant role and yet it seems it just remains a mere bogey in academic and political realms of India.

Consider this , about 60% of India's population drops out of school by the time a child reaches an age of 15, worst the functioning of state schools display a pathetic condition of rotten bureaucracy and political corruption, where promotions, strikes on salary increments and poor facilities provided by state schools lead a child's future at cross roads or perhaps to the inroads of unorganized sectors of an economy, where skills and literacy hardly matter. Interstingly there is an improvement in private sector education, where semi skilled teachers and people with interest in money making through education , perform more or less better than those of the state sponsored schools. this can be attributed to a tendency of "loss of hope " of the people on state machinery and casteist and brahmanical mentality of Indian masses , where the feeling of "private Vs public " is still rampant in India .

on the other hand , the government has never initiated a sustainable campaign to draw parents and students under their web , with quality and efficiency as the core values and perhaps as a state's gurantee for a child's future. interetingly , the human resource ministry makes tall claims under the media hype under the auspicious of CBSE vs state schools ! but the fact remains that state schools outweigh in more numbers than the sanskrit model based CBSE schools .

at a higher educational level, the situation is alarmingly pathetic, where India's best move to west in search of quality education as for decades the government has not appointed teachers, proffessors and academicians in universities and colleges ! this can be attributed to the ongoing academic civil war in india about Job reservations or affirmative action versus considering merit as propounded by some brahmanical elites with in india, but which ultimately led our universities in becoming engines of conducting examinations.........

all these things need critical analyses , if we were to compete in 21st century !!!!!!! mere sloganeering and politics won't fetch indian's the quality life required for 21st century

A must watch conversation for understanding contemporary history and politics of Islam

2009-09-20T11:01:00.000+05:30

After a long time, i found an important of piece of Ahmed Rashid's views on islam , terrorism and emerging scenario of a contemporary islamic society in central and south asia. to my utter surprise this video is an old 2002 one , but still very valid in present times. i think its a must watch for people who interested to know the cultural , political dimensions of Islam after the collapse of soviet union . I think , India lacks scholars of Mr. Rashid's intellectual capacity to interpret the history as is .

another low level of Indian democracy

2009-08-29T19:46:00.001+05:30

Here is another example of How cheap, can a nation's politics can become , now its not about opposition versus ruling party , but about , how politicians begin to place their so called ideology over the much needed attention on public policy issues. needless to say , the main opposition party , the BJP , it seems is in turmoil owing to one of its members, an elected representative being removed from the membership of BJP, as he had written a book on Pakistani founder Jinnah , for all his good ( not to mention , the ethinic cleansing of Punjab during the partition and subsequent communalisation of Indian subcontinent ) .

As a concerned citizen of India , i have three main "concerns "

one:- what will be the fate of indian democracy if pitty issues like Jaswant - Jinnah become so pertinant , that it ultimately over takes important issues concerning the nation.

two :- will such an issue weaken the opposition as a whole and rebuild the congress party to rule for another considerable time as a ruling party ?

three :- How cheap, indian politics has become , that the tax payer's money is now being utilised indirectly by our representatives to make beeline to the offices of clergy (RSS and BJP dilema ) to find the future course of " survival", isn't it naive?

God bless the opposition and ignorant citizens in general ..

Balochistan faux paus !!

2009-08-05T07:30:00.000+05:30

Here is an intersting thing, a state (India ) already in a complication, surrounded by nations marred with civil wars and political instability is some how, unable to find a coherent strategy to deal with its immediate neighbhours ! needless to say , we lack absolute clarity of thought on whole of South Asia, SA region is now slowly but surely is turning out to be an experimental ground for Powers such as U.S and China .

Adding to woes , the Prime Minister recently at a summit committed a blunder by including a joint communique on Balochistan , where India's non intereference in Balochistan was the underlying along with Pakistan's interference in Kashmir and terrorism , it has already created a widespread discontent among india's polity and with in the congress party . there is nothing substantial and concrete for such a rediculous commnique to form a basis for future interaction with Pakistan ( a state with a tag of unofficial sponsorer of International terrorism as a state policy ) , this Faux pauss of Manmohan singh will continue to haunt india's regional strategy and further dilute our approach towards pakistan.. GOD Bless Manmohan singh !!!

Lacunae in Regional security and cooperation.

2009-07-27T15:10:00.000+05:30

Regional dynamics are often characterized by regional configurations where intersection of common interests in regional politics and economic developement dominate as the two important themes , But the dynamics of regional cooperation both in security and cooperation has witnessed a paradigm shift owing to cold war politics and America's involvement in rebuilding of europe after the second world war, this can be attributed from the fact that , America's economy has grown significantly while implementing the Marshall plan for the post war europe, in the similar vein , its transatlantic partnership on strategic functions like governance, Millitary, economic development expanded vastly , with majority of western nations following the same strategies for economic development that involved trade and transatlantic investments to augument their growth , ofcourse coperation in science and technology and millitary capability also augumented significantly during the cold war ! but big power politics and cold war dynmaics has most often created a vaccum where newly independent and poor nationas began asserting their rights in the equity in world politics , their growth is particularly hampered by the fact that , their institutions like governance, education system and polity is not as advanced as the industralised states do.
that Apart, Balance of power games by a few powers to assert their influence in a region via their sheer economic and military might has also reduced , these states as mere pawns in the hands of super powers (Arab states becoming virtual hubs for American Military bases ), the obvious result of such environments where cultural and political differences outweigh from the practices of western world, thus creating chaos, ethnic conflicts, undemocratic regimes and worst violence as a strategy to gain political power amongst various regions, All these factors have inherently contributed towards the underdevelopment of various regions be it Sub Saharan Africa, the middle east, South Asia or South east Asia and Latin America per Se. The only thing that thrived for too long is the dollar economy and the booming profits of Multinational corporations Mostly of western Powers. All these factors are and will continue to be seen as responsible for the Lacunae / ineffective regional cooperation that several regions witness for their economic growth.

Understanding Regionalism or regional cooperation.

2009-07-20T11:54:00.000+05:30

Regionalism is a broader concept that encompasses interdependence or connecting of geographies of different states , that have common political, economical and defense interests. the sole notion or underlying for states to follow a regional strategy in their conduct of foreign and defense policy is to acheive their economic development through collective use of region's resources either military or political ones .

prior to cold war, this concept was excessively used just to defend colonial interests and as well as to strengthen military positions or to build military alliances , just to maintain their balance of power, but after the second world war, this strategy of regional cooperation has shifted from a purely a defense or military one to a strategy involving cooperation in politics and economics. But the shadow of a defense led regional approach is still visible in the form of NATO and Warsaw pact of the east , with the then Soviet union. with emergence of new states after decolonization, there emerged a pseudo war against the west or against the developed countries by the developing countries to exert their influence in multilateral organisations such as U.N and its constituent bodies like the WTO and IMF . which ultimately culminated into regional cooperation between states , where in supporting each other politically in the realm of international law and restraining the emergence of unilateralism by super powers have been dominant features of pre and post cold war politics.

The underlying notion behind regionalism is that, it minimizes the tensions in the form of conflicts with in a region, it adjusts people of similar cultures to think for welfare towards their own people , cooperation in international politics through vote blocks in U.N or WTO , historically speaking, the approach of regional cooperation has been a fairly successful story in much of the western hemisphere, this can be attributed to the developed institutions that govern these regions (particularly the U.S ) , where institutional development in the form of stable governments, democracy and rule of law have played a considerable role in alligning the states of the west towards regional cooperation. on the other hand dictatorship led governments tried equally well , but never been able to successfully implement regional cooperation to build their economies or liberalise their markets .

Organisations such as NATO (North Atlantic treaty organisation), CENTO (Central treaty organisation), LAFTA (latin American free trade agreement), NAFTA (North American free trade Agreement) ASEAN (Association of south east asian nations ), E.U (European union ) the common wealth . represent regional agreements that cater to functional areas , which are subject specific involving regional polictics, economic developement and some of them are purely defense or military led ones like the NATO which concentrates only on strategic area of defense led approach. Unfortunately , the concept of regional cooperation is late to come by in South Asia or perhaps not successful enough to be fruitful in the commity of nations, this can be attributed to either too diverse ethinic or sub nationalistic tendencies with in South Asia or deep suspicion by India's neighbors against india and vice verca . Regional conflict between India and pakistan has always follwed as a ghost in all the meetings of SAARC. South Asia represents both an opportunity as well as a challange to the very meaning of regional cooperation.

On a Different note.

2009-07-19T18:34:00.000+05:30

After a brief gap , On this blog, I intend to write and perhaps would like share my further thoughts on two critical areas viz,. regional security in south Asia (India in particular ) and foreign policy of India in general for a considerable time , visitors to this blog would find articles or commentaries relating to above two issues.

would like to confess , that my writings are most often based on secondary research through news papers , websites and by already published books.

Yashpal committee report and educational reforms

2009-07-06T10:44:00.000+05:30

The Human resource minister , Kapil Sibal's new initiative of improving the access to education to the indian massess is now generating considerable debate and discussion in the area of education , which no doubt requires the much needed attention from the government both in the form of monetary as well as political . some of the basic recommendations given by the yash pal report (under the leadership of MIT trained Physicst prof.Yashpal ) include :

Srcaping of Bodies such as UGC,AICTE with a statuatory regulatory body called the "Nation commission for higher education and research (NCHER) "
Regulating the mushrooming of management and engineering colleges, which have become centres of profit making in market economy and to an extent , providers of poor quality education
Creating an environment in universities , which favours joy of teaching and research and potentially alligning university reserach programs with National research centres of ISRO and CSIR.
Identifying atleast 1500 top colleges to make them potential universities with full fledged government support , so that these 1500 may will grow and help other colleges with smart infrastructures to grow as colleges of excellence.
Making the IITs,IIMs and NITs to diversify to innovative programs in social sciences and humanities
and then, there is a talk of allowing FDI in education by judging the pros and cons and also recognition for certifications provided by private colleges with in India.

Apart from the holisitic outlining of educational reforms , the report and the minstry spells the following plans:

Scrapping of Board tenth exams
Common national syllabus across higher education which encompasses state universities and high schools
A single point of contact (SPOC ) responsible solely for conducting examinations, which can keep the universities to focus on core areas of research and teaching

I am not sure about the data and statistics to analyse the patterns of educational reforms , but the above broad initiatives may help in long way for the much needed reforms in education sector. you can down load the yashpal committee report here :-

Yashpal Committee Report

The day when a legend closed his eyes from the world - Michael Jackson

2009-06-26T17:08:00.000+05:30

The tragic death of one of the greatest pop singer and a legendary icon Michael Jackson , who popularized music of the masses by combining hip hop and pop, is indeed a great loss to the free world , his music clearly reflected some harsh realities of this world like racism, frustration of young , discrimination and poverty .

He was perhaps the best of what America (in particular, black America ) has offered to the rest of the world , where pursuit of happiness , respect for individual's artistic freedom came first for many (often breaking the dogmatic glass ceiling , under which totalitarian & theocratic societies survive to this day ). whatever may be his personal conduct in his later part of life ! his Kindness, music and his vision will always be with his admirers and especially his fans !!

Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

lessons from a social networking site .

2009-06-10T17:52:00.000+05:30

what began as an informal discussion in one of the communities (International relations ) of social networking site orkut , which you can see here , gives me a fair amount of idea , that there are healthy and rational discussions among people of different faiths and cultures , people might disagree to agree on sensitive issues such as faith and customs, yet social networking sites will , definetly give you an insight , about the thoughts and ideas or rather can provid you a small sample to quantify , how the dynamics of our environment is changing for good !

What is International Political Economy?

2009-05-31T16:42:00.001+05:30

What is International Political Economy?

Shared via AddThis

The Politics of Sons and daughters : A parivar Raj in the making

2009-05-31T11:07:00.000+05:30

To my surprise / dismay , indian political parties led by the congress party have virtually institutionalised the concept of dynastic politics , right from allocating party tickets for fighting elections to inducting children ( children of either dead political leaders or extended families of politicians ) as cabinet and union minsters.

Here are the few examples:-

Priya dutt ; s/o : Sunil dutt
Sachin pilot ; s/o : Rajesh pilot
Milind Deor ; s/o : Murli Deora
Jitin prasad ; s/o : Jitender prasada
Rahul Gandhi ; s/o : Rajiv Gandhi
Jyothiraditya scindia : s/o : Madhav Rao Scindia
Agatha sangma ; d/o : PA sangma
jagan reddy ; s/o : YSR reddy
Uhav thakrey ; c/o : Bal thakrey
Raj thakrey ; c/o : Bal thakrey
Dayanidhi maran ; c/o : Karunanidhi

..................the list does not end here ! one wonders where are those innocent karyakartas, party workers and innocent public . who toil through out the day irrespective of day and night ...yet these very people are not rewarded either with a party ticket or a responsibility as a minster or as a strategist within the parties per se.

will, hard work and loyalty towards political party is not rewarded , instead they are reserved for a few ..who belong to class of affluent , powerful and super rich people. A law must be enacted to safeguard democracy from a barbaric invasion of dynastic politics ...so that politically conscious and visionaries have the final say on important issues concerning our nation , rather than policies amended through the hands of fathers , mothers and sons !

UPA part - 2

2009-05-26T17:33:00.000+05:30

"Team Manmohan is ready" after a decisive mandate coupled with media euphoria, its now clear that economy seems to be getting the much needed attention , same is the case with security being one of the important strategeis of the new team , the very issue that rocked the parliement , media and general public over the intelligence failure during the Mumbai attacks and increased violence due to terrorism. what is interesting to see is that, how will the dynamics of the new government will take shape under the second tenure , if not during the first hundred days of this adminstration and will the Indo - US relations take another new trajectory ?

But one thing is for sure , with no tussle of coallition politics , the government should be more assertive in implementing policies that will have a value addition towards longterm future of india , viz, disinvestment, regional co-operation within south asia and renewed security strategy to fight terror ! only time will tell , how things will shape on the ground .

India Verdict 09, and the return of family Praise atmosphere !

2009-05-17T15:15:00.000+05:30

Finally , its official after a gap of 25 yrs or so , the congress is gaining its lost ground in strategic states like U.P and west Bengal , praises and showers on individuals are a natural extension of rejoicing , but there is a harsh reality and a bitter truth that an average indian electorate must understand , that our democracy still carries a heavy burden of producing political leaders who merely rely and expect a blessing hand for their political fortunes by praising individuals , single families (Gandhi family ) , conducting praise melas across the states through Pradesh congress committes (PCCs) and ofcourse their discourses always start and end with family praises , rather than their own individual contributions and efforts for developing states and their individual constituencies. it is a well know fact that the indian democracy rose to fight this physche through formation of political parties and coalition governments that guranteed a culture of reality based with revolutionary programs that had a far reaching impact on our society be it the formation of Minority government led by V.P singh that bought Mandal before the national scene or the emergence of Parties that had a primarily backward caste led orientation like the Janta dal or samaj wadi party and needless to say the complete white wash of Andhra politics by the Advent of Telugu desam in 1983.

Power transfers and verdicts or Mandates are a sign of healthy democracy , but at one end it is also giving space to crooks , goons and Mafia based groups (and individuals ) who find a safe ground by becoming a part of a larger organization to meet their personal goals whose main job revolves around "conducting family praise melas" and not talk about innovative programs or ways to develop their own communities . the ultimate victim in this scenario is an avergae indian electorate who sees national building through the prism of Propaganda, praises on family led parties by local leaders rather than the leadership qualities of their own representatives, in a country characterised by huge social divide its easy for any one to be carried away by this mass hysteria of keeping the legacy of family led politics alive in the minds of people.

In a way our democracy offers both parts of the world , the worst and the best , the former seems to be taking its lost ground after a long time . congratulations congressmen ! you bought our old memories alive ...!

Pakistan's paranoiac Media : a saga of propagating falsehood

2009-05-04T12:44:00.000+05:30

we know that during the Gujarat riots , the media in the state of Gujarat had an indirect role in inciting violence ( Brilliantly exposed in a book called Gujarat Making of a tragedy , edited by sidharth Varadarajan ) , where the local news papers used vernacular language often consisting of inflammatory language sure to provoke outrage against a particular community , over a perceived threat either by individuals or groups , which has resulted in public resorting to violence towards fellow citizens and turning the state as a mere spectator & perhaps an indirect instigator of violence ..thus making the word Gujarat becoming synonymous with the word violence in the minds of common man , such was the anxiety that for the first time , it can be said media had an indirect role in civilian conflict in modern india . the idea of media becoming paranoiac is not a new thing , the same psyche was witnessed during the course of world wars and off late during the cold war , bitter propaganda by either side ( to a lesser extent from the western bloc ) , made serious implications on the idea of information versus reality , as it goes by saying that history often repeats it self , the tension between the arch rivals India and pakistan display a pathetic scenario of pakistan's paranoiac media that compounds itself, with unwanted anxiety over India , owing to the lack of understanding on the part of history , excessive use of communal hatred and ofcourse the foundation laid by her rulers which makes their citizens as virtual haters of India, on a perceived dream of a society based on the idea of communalism.

watch how information is misinterpreted:

As an avid watcher of youtube , I was stuck with the magnitude and rehtoric of Pakistan media and its self styled political and defense analysts , whose main job revolves around bashing anti India rehtoric and assert their countrymen that india is a state that practices fascism against their Muslim population (mind you:- not against sikh, not christian , not Bhuddhist , not Parsis ) .

watch how information is misinterpreted:

Imagine how poor it would be when the future genrations are taught history by replacing facts with fiction and reality with perceived threats, and on the other hand provoking ordinary citizens that, a state practicing a faith XYZ is deemed to be direct threat to people practicing faith ABC thus, it not only lays the foundation of communal divide between the people , but also make their fellow citizens for an eventual conflict over the perceived threat through anxiety and false information.

it goes with out concluding that, India can pat herself on its acheivements in media and education .. which atleast distinguishes between fiction and reality by providing information , that is just rational and ideal.

IPL Drama & the Question of security

2009-04-19T15:11:00.000+05:30

the much awaited IPL season 2 has finally kicked off in South Africa with its colors of money and celebrities , But the irony and sad part is that , this branded event is being celebrated away from the Indian shores due to the "percerived threat " or incapable security appartus of the states , that gave conflicting commitments on providing security to both the organisers as well as to the general public / sport fans.

it is another facet of our establisment's inefficiency in not providing security to events like IPL and an unwanted fear pyschosis that is being made up from a perceived threat of terrorism. if we can't provide security to such sporting events, and make electioneering and sporting dates clash as an excuse , instead of managing the crisis . then , I think we should stop comparing ourselves with other countries of the east or perhaps don't project our selves as an emerging 21st century superpower.

perhaps , the adminstration could have taken this(event) , as a challange by providing security and helped the IPL-2 become a success , instead of either giving conflicting signals or if not providing security in the context of elections 09.

Elections 2009, where Politics and Economics are two different ball games indeed .

2009-04-12T16:51:00.000+05:30

The elections of 2009, are special for every reason, apart from the media hype and bundle of promises from politicians, it has failed to generate meaningful and implementable debate among the polity of this country , issues such as terrorism, communal hate speeches , casteism are being once again raised to get the much needed easy votes . But , what is interesting and note worthy is that, the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, saw an unprecedented rise in prices of essential food items with inflation in India touching whooping 11% and coming back at a deflationary stage (drastic decrease or a downward movement of prices ) of around 1% or so. even while the world reels under global recession, its political significance at a policy level still looks minuscule going by the ignorance , if not the callous attitude among the political parties in India.

None of our politicians and even their much hyped political honchos have spoken about revitalizing the economy in the face of global recession and the economy's over dependence on the volatile U.S market , barring few statements about its "affects" on the poor ( obviously forming the basis for populist policies ) . the talk or even the idea of economic plan for coming years have few takers in this country.

Outsourcing Backlash and Job losses in India and political ignorance :

there is no doubt, that there exists a direct relation between globalization and its impact on national economies as it is evident from the fact, that it creates Jobs at one geographic location and contention at another location, owing to political backlashes and public outcry over fears of Job loss and its effects on domestic economies . it is a known fact that much of the western hemisphere outsources its work to India in virtually every aspect of Business operations be at technical or functional levels. But with recession in financial markets , coupled with rising unemployment and political pressure in west against outsourcing , especially against cheaper locations such as India, the result could be Bad news for India , if not worst. Already some Lakhs of Jobs have been lost in India , sectors such as textiles in areas like Coimbatore , Salem and Ludhiana are witnessing bad times. the same logic applies to the much hyped India's IT story , which relies heavily on the financial markets of the west for maintainence and repair of their operations especially on the instruments that facilitated the recent credit crisis like the Derivatives. needless to say , many of the home grown vendors like Wipro, TCS et all, have avoided , if not decreased their recruitment plans, which unchecked could lead to stagnation or addition in an already unemployed atmosphere. add to this , some of the U.S based companies , are even considering to transfer / abandon their work from India to create more Jobs on their respective home turfs to help their economies . on the other side some companies have virtually asked their employees in india to leave as they don't have any tangible work to pay them . A recent Economic times report says that , the process of Job losses could continue , even in near future and as much as 100,000 are at stake in cities like Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Bangalore , especially in IT and BPO domains. At a more fundamental level, educational standards in india have been miserably low , owing to poor standards of state universities and lack of innovation in the higher education segment , which tend to supplement or perhaps act as catalyst in increasing unemployment and underdevelopment. the analysis here does not take pessimistic versus optimistic stand , rather it explains a realistic view point of prevailing conditions in India and the degree of callous nature with which political economy exists in India.

No politician , No party has raised critical issues such as unemployment , inflation and the over dependence of India on volatile U.S or western markets at a practical level during this campaign . the very silence and ineffective communication between the average Indian electorate and major parties is a testimony of ignorance on the part of politicians, which is bubble in waiting to explode .

Make your fellow citizens Beggars, they will fetch you Power ! :

A dangerous trend in the evolution of democracy is being witnessed in india, it goes with a saying that " Give someone a fish and you feed him for a day , teach someone to fish and you feed him for a life time " instead of empowering fellow citizens , the political parties are setting a dangerous trend of promises versus delivery formula. this proposition involves , give and take philosophy ideally practiced in India (shrewdly) . cheap promises (culture) that make fellow citizens to expect freebies is being systematically cultivated , thus , making fellow citizens as virtual beggars , who are ready to give votes , when showered with freebies. some of the freebies coupled with populist policies include:

* Rs 2 per Kg rice
* Money for girl child
* free power
* Distribution of Money to praise leaders (politicians)

some states in down south have gone a step further , of promising color Televisions if voted to power . through these cheap tactics , the very basic idea of empowerment and harnessing the power of human resources is being systematically degenerated , by making fellow citizens as virtual beggars and reserving the role of a politician as a person involved in charity.

Given these facts, one interesting fact emerges out that , in today's scenario an average politician's income has increased exponentially , he is now a Arabpati (billionaire ) rather than crorepati (millionaire) . some politicians run colleges, "farm lands", trusts (to generate black revenues) . with their affidavits showing incomes in millions of rupees , what is again note worthy is that , these very super rich politicians never spoke a single word on recession and its impact on the indian economy in the midst of globalization process .

all these leads us to a understanding that , ignorance on part of voters and loop holes with in the system often results in leadership , which can be incompetent and more so unassertive on public policy domain , the end result during election campaign would definitely be narrating sensational stories, creating make belief environments of threat , excessive use of populist announcements to lure voters, instead of holistic approach towards development. Democracy gives everyone the chance to speak his / her mind , but at times in an over crowded atmosphere e, the real issues and its implementation aspect take the worst hit, making political economy the ultimate victim of politics.

The most unlucky Prime Ministerial candidates in the history of India, which India Misses today !

2009-04-03T17:15:00.000+05:30

They may not be midst of us, yet their vision, charisma and oratory with right intellect and technocratic ideas have left indelible mark and a created a vacuum in the decision making aspect of Indian polity. they were a few good men, for whom politics was about being innovative , away from old values and bureaucracy ridden systems. here are the , list of of Prime Ministerial candidates , who deserved to be @ 7th race course . But sadly they died during "most productive stage" of their political careers barely in their 50s !

Rajesh Pilot
Madhav Rao Scindhia
Rangarajan Kumaramangalam
Pramod Mahajan

Its not about people, rather its about "few " for congress in AP!

2009-04-01T16:19:00.000+05:30

If congress party led UPA is to be credited with bringing OBC reservations bill in parliement , and if its leaders are to be believed for their promises to weaker sections of the soceity for creating political space for weaker sections , particularly in the electoral baston state of Andhra pradesh, reality might tell you another story. the state of Andhra Pradesh known along with Bihar& U.P as state dominated by caste equations with heavy influence of voters belonging to the so called OBC/SCs/ST categories with nearly 75% of population, has another story ! and that is, this election campaign for both Lok sabha and state Assembly is special because , leaders belonging to Reddy community or Reddy caste known as the so called "High caste " category have been allocated a majority of tickets to fight elections , virtually every constituency is witnessing a surge of candidates with surnames called Reddy ......one wonders how a party that harps on secularism and equality in a society is now fighting elections by fielding candidates belonging to one caste/family/ community & how true is the congress party's commitment towards affirmative action and social upliftment of weaker sections ? only time will tell.

But one thing is for sure , with emergence of new political outfits like Praja Rajyam and TRS the political equations tend to get nullified as candidates across the section of the society are being fielded by them , that means the vaccum created by congress of not allocating the desired number of tickets to SC/ST and OBCs party workers is being nullified by TRS and PR parties and upto some extent the BJP.

Left Dreams of a third front .

2009-03-12T20:01:00.000+05:30

Every time general election knocked the doors of indians , left parties fantasize the idea of alternative alliance , which is both non congress and non BJP , for almost five years , the communists either directly or indirectly kept controll on virtually every aspect of UPA adminstration be it through the much hyped common minimum program (CMP ) or their bitter opposition against the nuclear deal , one cannot forget the names of unknown or not very known communists leaders making rehtoric and perhaps hue and cry on economy as if , they are the vanguards of indian economy , these very left entities , with a poor popular vote and minscule of electorate , with outdated models of economic well being talk of third alternative at a political stage.

History, perhaps has shown that a society like India neither achieved a socialist based society nor an economy based on socialist character and never will so, due to the very averse nature of Indians against the concept of revolution , so much so that the communist parties enjoyed exposure only during the initial days of united front government of Gujral and Gowda , as a political force , they have never enjoyed the status of being a popular political party at a national level , with states like Bengal and kerala being exception. even their initiative of alternative third front is a distant dream in itself , because a majority of smaller parties have lost previous election with heavy losses on their respective home turfs. But only time will tell, if communists and their idea of third alternative is feasible or not!

Now they call it "seat sharing agreement " !

2009-03-03T18:36:00.001+05:30

The great Indian election circus has finally kicked off starting from April 16 to mid of May and political parties are jostling with each other to get their pie in a so called seat sharing agreement with regional parties . as it is evident from news coming from each state of the union , what is even more interesting is that the number crunching calculus over the constituencies across the states is now being referred to as seat sharing arrangement rather than eventual " power sharing " arrangement . its clear from the recent past that , the dynamics of Indian electorate has changed considerably with major parties like the congress going from a one party image ( gandhi family party ) to a minuscle force in states like Tamil nadu, west Bengal , U.P and Bihar. with emphasis on local administration and strengthening of local polity, the impact of regional parties will continue to have a significant influence over national politics particularly over decisions that concern the public policy domain . it would be interesting to watch out how the strategies of major parties like congress and BJP work during this summer ! let us wait and witness the real drama of Indian politics .......which i would like to welcome in Rehman's words Jai HO ... (hail ..)

All for Telangana promise ..

2009-02-26T18:46:00.000+05:30

As election time is nearing in, virtually every political party of Andhra pradesh have some thing to say about formation of a separate Telangana state, what is more interesting is that , the dynamics of political rehtoric has changed considerably over the years on a sensitive issue like Telangana , with all the parties toeing the same line for a seperate state, populist economic policies like Rs. 2/kg rice , government Jobs or political vendata seems to be taking a backseat as of now, what is more interesting is the fact that the main political party , the Telugu Desam , which is known for linguistic chauvinism and adherence towards a united state has made things very easy for Telangana leaders of both congress and TRS (Telanagana rashtra samithi ) and perhaps gave strength to their conviction of a seperate state ! the only party that has not come clearly is congress ..left alone without Telangana sloganeering , with Praja Rajyam party floated by Telugu movie star cheeranjeevi...things are hotting up in A.P,

Needless to say , the region of Telangana is counted as among the most backward regions of India, blended with rich culture consisting of de-sanskirtised Telugu and Deccani speaking population..this area is perhaps known in India for its moaist (naxal ) menace and ofcourse with recent rise of Islamic fundamentalism, previous agitations during 1960's , 1970's have not resulted any thing other than bitter power struggle between leaders of Telangana region , hope the promise of a seperate Telangana finds its voice through this year's general election.

Surviving under uncertainty, where is your regional approach India?

2009-02-25T15:59:00.000+05:30

Its becoming more clear that we Indians are now surrounded by troubled neighbors where there is a real possibility of conflict , be it the civil war or war created exclusively on ideological grounds taking top slots as trouble making instruments with virtually every state of south asia being in direct or indirect conflict be it in Sri Lanka which till date struggles with LTTE , or Pakistan with its internal power struggles between the millitary and the mullahs and perhaps due to the dictats of America, and even poor and unstable democracies like Bangladesh and Nepal (Nascent democracy ) can't be guranteed with a trouble / conflict free certificate , as struggle between opposition parties and maoist are a common phenomenon and with Afghanistan becoming the new state to join the SAARC association , it carries herself the burden of broken society and a tarnished image internationally from the experiments of Taliban and Pakistan and of course it alignment with allied forces against war on terror.

Standing at the other end is our very own Indian foreign policy that is neither dynamic nor realist in her approach towards finding problems to regional issues of South Asia , which are more political in nature rather than economic , often representing a set of fragile and incompetent policy makers with huge amount of distrust among themselves (alas "moi " nuclear deal ) .

Perhaps , this is the time that we as Indians must rise above our domestic politics and give a certain amount of direction and a sense of dynamism to solve the problems of our region , of course the risks are quite higher , but strategies to tackle problems should be implemented in careful ways that seeks out the best of national interests, if we miss this bus of challange and opportunity , there are chances that our future generations will never forgive us on the dirt and filth that we have accumilated over the years ( from ethininc tensions to internal crisis in south asia ) , its time that we indians play a leading role in shaping a regional foreign policy , that is effective , realist and dynamic in nature , which assures concrete and tangible results .

Interstingly slumdog wins @ the Oscars

2009-02-23T11:14:00.000+05:30

My previous comments sounded like a sarcastic one, but for critics it meant another thing ..finally slumdog ended up winning the academy for Best picture, original score, Director et al....finally it meant an exposure for india . away from its masala movies!!

the Hype on Slumdog millionare..!

2009-02-18T19:02:00.000+05:30

Danny Boyle , perhaps does not understand that majority of india surely lives in slums , but the picturisation and utter vulgar potrayal of slumdwellers was just a hype to secure critics rather than showcase the reality in which slumdwellers lead their lives. to our surprise , the transformation of much of urban india and its "colony / flat culture " , comes from these very slumdwellers.

its not that slums mean litter, pollution or filthy environment around the habitat , but they are the primary support for businesses across cities and towns, these slumdwellers play an important role , creating wealth not only for themselves but also for others ....this movie most often would definetly suit to people , who never saw the hardship of village and slum life in india ......remember that the british society might have been, if not less ..on the same lines during pre industralisation period.

movies like slumdog still linger in the minds of people ( especially in west ) with an idea that India = slums alias poverty....if any one still wonders , with such thoughts, they are on the wrong side of the history !!........infact this movie is well "inspired" from India's salam Bombay ...

Add another "I" to prove .., that you are some thing !

2009-02-10T18:07:00.000+05:30

Did any one of us ever observed , the number of I's that are being added to represent beginning of an institute or an institution to prove a point that they have some thing to say and they are indeed the change agents of the society , the list does of course starts with I for India or Indian ..at times, what is interesting is the never ending of words starting with "I"..........

here it goes ....

I -- one outfit calls it self Institute of planning and Management , often claiming to be the vangaurd of Management education .. offering virtually every thing of Management Education and it rarely gets recognized about its faculty and academic research or about its poor infrastructure .

another set of I's belong to government category starting every thing with Indian ( lets be patriotic, even while making hollow claims...) Indian institute of forest management , hotel management , horticulture , communication et al.

The other I's are institutions are of "International" one's type and these are interesting ones " group of "institutions "......their USP ...make fast bucks while serving the society !!

these ones are my favourite ; SVIIIT , CBIT, MCCCCTIT, SCINSCT , CMIS ..........to give a rough idea , these outfits ( local technical colleges ) call themselves with varied names as institutes of technology , institutes of sciences , institutes of computers and management studies etc...

But what the poor state local governments and innocent public don't Know, is that the majority of these " institutes don't bother about Research, innovation, quality and faculty learning programs...words like scholarly contribution, scientific temperament and of course designing pedagogy are strange or perhaps rarely heared abberations. they care only about generating revenue to suit their commercial purposes ...in the end India produces skilled labour force which either knows how to write a software program or Knows how to sell it , rather than creating social, scientific base that auguments a society's evolution through contribution of Knowledge and innovation...not necessarily in one area ...but as diverse as the planet it self ...are we making sense of india ..while dreaming to become a Superpower of 21st Century !!!

Behind the walls of castles ..

2009-01-25T10:51:00.001+05:30

For one thing you should appreciate the City of Hyderabad..not only on development front , but also on How smartly people have learnt (or rather learnt through their genes) to make people fool, be it Karvy fiasco (few years ago ), Nagarjuna finance or the recent Satyam's dubious lies ....all of them have common links . and here they are :

1. Government's (state) role in investigations never gave concrete proofs or evidences and never bought the perpetrators to Justice , needless to say ..the conduct of the probe it self is not transparent and perhaps undemocratic.

2. No action on Part of investor Law suits, where thousands of investors have lost , their money and good will.

3. Poorly regulated state's management system , where nexus and blame game among politicians grabs local headlines more quickly than matters pertaining to Economic well being of the state.

chaotic Raj...

Obama, I Like you...

2009-01-23T11:41:00.000+05:30

I was watching the inaguration ceremony of Barak Obama, got a bit emotional seeing a colored man taking oath , just reminds me how divided , this world is ! over race and faith . credit must certainly go to the American people for choosing a leader of Obama's calibre , and yet again setting a trend as an example for other countries to emualte the best of what democratic world has to offer. But what i see in india is a namesake gesture of not respecting intellectuals or leaders belonging to segregated communities like sceduled castes and tribes , only to mock at them and use abusive language against them seems to be the idea , that people of so called elite class of india have begun to use , Even a advanced society like America through affirmative action for societal change continues to help its backward colored communities in education , so that , they too have a diginity and societal standing in this hate filled world ....yet in india even after 60 years gone by, affirmative action still remains as a mere political sloganeering rather than a tool to empower ethinic communities ...Obama's victory underscores a point that a society that elects colored or individuals from once segregated community through popular vote can certainly heal the wounds of race relations, Obama's recent events certainly have a co relation with India , given the segregated past of Afro Americans and Dalits of India...its time we retrospect deeply with in indian system and give respect to all ethinic communities in india .

The Idea of Hyper Journalism and hunger of quality information.

2008-12-15T12:46:00.000+05:30

There seems to be a tug of War between News channels in delivering content that rarely meets the expectation of growing middle class families, who are hungry of quality information in the form of analysis and results . The reasons could be that today's news channels harp on the same story lines because of either the lack of news or poorly organized journalism teams. I am using "Poorly organized", because most often the two prime English News Channels NDTV and off late CNN-IBN, have used their regular mascots Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai, both of whom happen to be products of New Delhi Television (NDTV) . now , they are there with every major event, that impacts news reporting, be it Mumbai attacks, U.S election or local elections with in india, what an Irony even after 12 to 10 years you are made to witness the same anchors or rather journalists interpreting the news as they see and you are gluded to the idiot box to understand their polished language that always combines rehtoric and emotion before their studio audience,which often consists of "intellectuals " of Delhi and couple of Bollywood and cricket stars ( two pillars of Indian mediocrity in sports and Cinema ) to carry a point that , they care both tragic and triumphant events that as their indian brethern do . needless to say , that do not have teams that exclusively report on political, economical and social news that impacts this nation . for every major event be it social or political , there is a barkha dutt or Rajdeep sardesai and not the "young" bollywood and cricket loving journalists , who are conscious of their absence in such " tragic " and sober events. they resurface once again with news that relates with Crime, Corruption , Cricket and Bollywood.

the condition of Hindi news channels is a story of pathetic saga of commentary , that never ceases to end , one wonders , Is there any meaning to the world of reporting and analysis. the popular Hindi news channels like Aaj Tak (sab se tez ) meaning "very fast " as it claims it self to be ! is filled with Brahminical rehtoric , which clearly reflected during OBC quota reservations bill , that was tabelled a year ago in the parliement. needless to say its cousins like India TV and star News are not far behind. have a look at their news program titles , one program says "Sansani " literal meaning being "sensation ", that shows crime related stories , Bhagwan Bhole Baba ki Mahima , a program , which telecasted to showcase the greatness of God Shiva and the never ending programs on Babas or so called astrologers , who speak on the future . haven't they predicted about Mumbai attacks ?.

But , off late to our self satisfaction we are left with some good news still left with some channels and print media , that might certainly make our day look good. thanks to a variety of choices we have there is a print and web media. that often writes and comments effectively on important events as they occur.

the point is :- if News channels can strategise on subject specific content, by employing people with an oreintation towards their interests , then results with effective, clear news and information will definitly reach the masses and particularly the growing midlle class in india. and it may happen that , such reporting will not go un noticed by policy makers and that would definiltly make them accountable on their future actions. lets hope good sense may prevail in days to come.

Once again, the big question of leadership crisis, which is haunting india in the wake of Mumbai attacks !!

2008-12-01T20:47:00.000+05:30

More than ever, India now needs a true leader to guide her in times of turbulence marked by carnage from Delhi to Mumbai , with an ugly war called Jihad, being waged by fundamentalist , who believe in a false philosophy of " lost nationhood " , this silent but venomous ware is fueling discontent among Indians , whose aspirations are touching skies in this market economy, on the same , this very aspirations are being systematically ignored in the name of secularism and power.

we see today an open Political drama being played by leaders whose democratic credentials do not represent neither the popular vote among the masses nor the political influence with in the ruling party . all the leaders , ranging from the prime minster to the defense minster do not dwell comfortably with strategic issues facing an emerging economy like India , be it the foreign policy or a plan of action for dealing with terrorism. in each of the crucial aspects , we see a vacum being created in the form leadership. today , the philosophy of leadership is being increasingly marginalised by a mere " paper reading " gesture before the media , with out eloborating personally on its implementation aspect, this can be attributed to the lack of political will or a factor of incompetency among the ruling party ( Congress ) .

too much of rhetoric on secularism and human rights in the name of minority rights (Islamic or Muslim rights ) is severely hampering a comprehensive anti terror legislation for curbing terror related activities . in many ways, this weakness among the legislation in not rising above political and religious affiliations is working against the very system , whose main beneficiaries seem to be underground sleeper cells , that believe in a false philosophy of Islamic terrorism, which propagates non Muslims as infidels and Muslims as human beings sure to have a place in " "heaven " ,

India cannot become just another state, we cannot become a state whose past, present and future is determined by theocratic structure of perceiving different faiths with a communal angle, for this to stop , we need a leadership that rises beyond politics and whose leader mingles well with the masses and understands the pulse of the nation and guide her future in years to come for a better society. Hope such a sense prevails among our Indian politicians for the good of the country.

Attacks on Mumbai , a reminder of a slow , yet a monsterous War !

2008-11-28T18:18:00.000+05:30

Modern warfare has changed since the collapse of the soviet union , it has taken the dimensions of culture and civilization , by integrating hatred and jealousy against other faiths . terrorist groups like the Al-qaeda and rouge states like Pakistan survive on the basis of hatred towards other faiths like Hinduism and Judaism, its not that , the policy makers make their citizens as suicide bombers , but the state it self along with policy makers get emotional over false philosophies of " lost nation hood " or creating a pan Islamic calipha as proponded by some defense experts . in the case of Mumbai attacks , the terrorist were brainwashed to the extent that they named themselves as "Deccan Mujahaedden " literal meaning being " holy warriors " of southern India (Deccan ) because deccan region happened to be ruled by a Muslim ruler over Majority Hindus. this was certainly a surprise and was intended to give a communal angle to the whole episode, needless to say, the word Deccan it self is rarely to be found anywhere in india , in modern literature (post independence india), this clearly indicates , the crocodile tears nature of pakistani terrorists towards colonial india , epousing a sense of lost islamic brother hood.

whatever may be the motives of terrorists , but one thing is certainly worth debating and analysing and that is the " total failure of inteligence agencies" . i have said in my previous posts (Yet another attack ) and i repeat it again about a unified approach towards fighting terror , may be tragic events like these , would open eyes towards aggressive approach towards rouge ideology of terrorism.

Reflection on Obama Mania.

2008-11-09T09:45:00.000+05:30

One of my earlier comments on this blog was based on leaders who can inspire their countrymen ,not merely political rhetoric ones , but through real hardcore values of long term vision coupled with persona that radiates humility and dream for a nation, these intrinsic qualities are rarely to be found in present day leadership of India. Barack Obama, represents this rare species of leaders who knock our doors once in a life time , to have an open and enlarged vision. My earlier post " Indians require leaders who can Inspire generations, but not people who have a compromise formula for solving problems " was actually an inspiration taken from Obama's electoral campaign . A country like India's size surely requires leaders of highest caliber , and India for sure is a land of "the " talented technocrats, and if groomed & encouraged in our political process . I am sure there will be many more Obamas who can inspire their own countrymen.

Credit Default Swaps :- Insurance or mess in the making ?

2008-10-25T18:49:00.001+05:30

It is widely accepted now , that derivative products and mortgages were primarily responsible for the recent global financial crisis, one of instrument was Credit default swaps, where excessive borrowing of insurance was done with out really understanding the credit risks that corporates and financial institutions were facing . each institution began to buy insurance in the name of creditworthiness of the Counter parties involved in the trades (swaps). but in true sense every one of the parties involved simply lacked creditworthiness , due to their heavy exposures to mortgage financing (sub primes ) and too much liquidity chasing fewer returns on the futures market. it was simply the play ground of the rich and fund houses , who donned the role of speculators in bearish market like U.S, understand this , the U.S was already facing a crisis of recession coupled with Job losses on domestic front due to poor demand and transfer of the Jobs to off shore centres in Asia and Eastern Europe, fundamentally the U.S economy was weakening and is continuing to do so.

the question is how come instruments like CDs became such toxic weapons that disturbed the whole financial system, the reason is simple, it is one of the many products that is unregulated and whose valuation in terms of creditworthiness of reference entities is heavily disputed in terms of the way insurance is bought and sold in the market. many financial institutions like AIG, Lehman , wachovia simply brought insurance against each other fearing their creditworthiness , but in reality each one of them was simply bankrupt due to their ruthless lending towards mortgage financing and falling corporate earnings . Now, the things to watch out for are :
1. How will the Treasury Dept's bail out packages work out in the near medium to long term .

2. what impact will it have on Indian bourses considering the fact that foreign money is parked in as FIIs (foreign institutional investments ) whose dynamics changes , with world markets.

3.And finally the Two super Dogs of U.S :- IMF & World Bank, what are they up to now ? will these Creations of U.S help out their master ?

....Interesting observations , from my side . Is there any concrete Ideas that really make sense to take this discussion to a logical end (although its never ending ) .

How did it all happen ??

2008-10-13T21:31:00.000+05:30

The recent credit crisis in U.S and its aftermath effects on her economy as well as on the rest of the world , leaves every one with lots of questions, debates and discussions. but one may really wonder how did it all happen in a country like U.S, which attracts , perhaps the smartest brains, which practices perhaps "the" innovative business models , preaches the same to the world in the name of markets and as lessons in capitalism. the financial tsunami as some people may call ,nearly took everyone with surprise right from the subprime crisis which affected every major bank in U.S , needless to say these are the very banks that have huge investments in countries of Europe and Asia under the Derivative products such as the credit default swaps and swaps ( which i would write briefly in my further posts ) in a way the trading partners in these countries of investment were also got affected by the bug of creditworthiness, mostly under the insurance segment , where every other firm took cover against the creditworthiness of their borrower , but actually they failed to take into account their own creditworthiness. that's how the whole financial system got under the trap of aggregate insolvency ( if i may call it ) . which ultimately suck the liquidity from the system as a whole. thankfully our indian banks are immune to the world of derivatives , few banks may have exposure in the international markets .

but luckly India has a tighter regulations in place due to virtue of her mixed economic background and partly because of nascent stage of her financial reforms. but this crisis may well prove to be a value proposition for our policy makers to amend existing laws and understand well the dynamics of international finance.

OTC & Exchange traded..

2008-10-10T18:28:00.001+05:30

Going further on Derivatives, the functioning of most of these products are either OTC (Over the Counter ) or exchange traded ones involving regulation from governments . over counter trades are those trades where the terms and conditions of exchanging or transaction depend on the counter parties concerned, it involves high degree of counter party risk, meaning dishonoring commitments made during entering of a contract. much of trade during early periods took place through OTC mode in europe and U.S., the worst part of early trades conducted via OTC suffered due to lack of market information pertaining to company and government actions . but with the advent of swaps & swaptions (derivative products ) and increase in information technology its now fair to agree about the OTC trades in the International financial system , particularly trades based on assets such as currencies and commodities, instead of state regulation to oversee transperancy and smooth transactions, market participants themselves over the time evolved a trading mechanism to decrease counter party risk , one prime example to my knowledge is the setting up of International swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) which provides investors , traders and financial institutions with a set of rules , calculation mechanisms and transaction methodolgy to overcome the disadvantages of conducting trade among the investors . ISDA has pioneerd it self by educating public and governments in showcasing the importance of derivatives in mobilising capital .

on the other hand, exchange traded securities involves regulation by governments through autonomous bodies like Securities exchange comission (SEC) of U.S and SEBI of India. these state regulators review the markets through quality, quantity and transactional mechanisms of products traded , and usually act as a bridge to serve the interest of investors by regulating market participants through taxes, maintaing depositories ( an account to conduct trading ) , curbing unethical activies and so forth. well, the true role and the services that account for conducting OTC and exchange trades goes beyond my knowledge . but it looks fair to me though to represent a rough idea to understand another facet of derivatives .

Derivatives : the first line of defense against the market uncertainty

2008-10-04T17:43:00.002+05:30

if there is one strong reason for markets to be volatile with huge volumes of trading and quick profit booking that would ultimately be the role of derivatives, these are financial instruments or mechanisms through which the future price of an underlying security can be derived. the underlying or base could be any other asset that would give returns in a future period. it can be equity, debt, currency or of that matter deriving future value of assets such as commodities , real estate etc. people often refer the market system of valuing securities as gambling or betting , but it is certainly not . several studies in economics and finance have proved that risk and uncertainty are complementary parts of market dynamics. this is can be understood from the simple fact that either individuals or businesses hedge themselves against risks , that may or may not be suitable for them. similarly investors tend to value assets (mostly securities ) with the background of uncertainty and risks associated with them. In this scenario , derivatives seeks to protect the investor from going too adverse incase of downward trend or an upward trend of the market by predicting the future value of securities by entering into agreement between two counterparties. conventionally , it consists of a seller and buyer entering into an agreement to buy and sell securities . usually a buyer pays an upfront amount or a fee called premium to the seller or in other words the seller charges an initial / advance amount from the buyer to sell the security. the buyer usually does this to buy the right to excesice , if it makes sense for him , usually if he is in the profit or benifiting . where as the seller has no right , but has an obligation to fullfill the contract agreement that he entered with the buyer.

there are two important questions that one might ask , why do the buyer and seller enter into a contract when there is an already functioning market with ever changing prices of securities ? the answer lies in the beauty of derivatives that seeks to discover the value of assets at a later point of time. as future prices are uncertain so do the value of securities that individuals or businesses hold . in order to make profit from the rising prices of securities a seller enters into contract to sell . similarly if an investor is of the opinion that the prices might fall and that would become a good proposition to buy securities at a cheaper price , he would enter into a contract with the opposite party to buy. in both the cases the risks associated with the buyer as well as the seller are equally strong , as far as the seller concerned , if the markets are bearish during the contract, he is at loss during the course of contract that he entered with the buyer . and from the stand point of buyer is at profit as he predicted buying securities at a cheaper price.

Example: Party A is a buyer and Party B is a seller
Party A is bearish on the market trend and enetrs in to a contract to buy a lot (usually) a 50 or 100 securites each having a present market value of Rs. 10, if 100 securities lot is taken in to consideration , that would be the present value of around Rs ( 100*10) = Rs . 1000.

Now, the party A takes a bearish stance of believing that price of the security might come down to less than Rs. 10, in the same way, the seller's (party B) prediction includes a bullish hope of rising value of securities, that is, he predicts that price of a security will move beyond Rs. 10 to any upward limit. in both cases the assumptions made by the seller and the buyer is equally correct. in order to take both their positions the buyer pays a premium on the notional (in this example Rs. 1000 ) and the seller charges a premuim based again on the notional , in both cases a percenatage on the total value. lets assume 5 % premuim charged , that turns out to be Rs.50. which the buyer pays to the seller . there are two probablities buyer benifits and seller looses or seller benifits and buyer looses.

probability 1 : - if buyer benfits , then in that case the price of the security falls below Rs. 10 let us assume Rs. 8, then he pays to the seller Rs. 800, in this case his loss is the premuim he pays to the seller i,e Rs. 50 . if this transaction would have done on the spot, the buyer would have spent Rs. 1000 and miscilleneous charges of around say Rs. 50, that amounts to Rs. 1050 . by buying at a future date , the buyer saved Rs. 1050 - Rs. 850 = Rs . 200, which not only fetched him the 100 securities but also return on his investment of premium amount. since this contract was favourable to him (buyer ) he surely would have exercised the right ( of buying ) by paying premium.

probability 2:- as in this example, conditions favoured Party A , the seller has no other obligation other than selling the securities at a loss of Rs.1050-800= Rs. 250, and his only profit includes the premium he got from the seller.

this mechanism of derivatives is practiced under the Options segment of derivatives , where prediction of future prices of securities involves usual payment of premuim by the buyer to buy the right from the seller.

ABCDs of Investment Banking :

2008-10-03T12:27:00.001+05:30

Lets have a breif (rough) idea about the much talked investment banking arena, basically these financial institutions are just like any other banks that follow borrowing and lending mechanisms, but the magnitude and scale of their operations is huge, involving technology, portfolio of investors and markets across geographies, unlike ordinary banks, these banks finance the capital requirements of governments, corporates and High net individuals. they do so by raising money from the capital markets, not necessarily through initial public offer , but rather by investing across all categories of assets (tangible and intangible ) like commodities, Equities, Debt instruments, currencies and of course through their internal resources of accruing interest returns. apart from these activities , these banks act as intermediaries between capital markets and corporations in designing their capital requirements, managing portfolios , advising corporations about the direction ( only up to some extent ) of their businesses and helping companies process their financials during the merger and acquisitions. they are banks of banks whose vision extends beyond traditional way of financing capital. and with opening of several economies across eastern Europe and Asia, investments are being made in emerging markets like Chinese, Russian and Indian capital markets in the form of fund houses , hedge funds or as asset management companies that pump the money of individual investors in the emerging capital markets. Investment banks just like any other banks act under the regulations of governments usually a regulatory body like the securities exchange commission of U.S.

But the reason , why these banks came under public scrutiny particularly during the recent credit crisis of U.S is from the fact that, they operate under an unregulated over the counter (OTC) market of derivatives , which heavily depends on predicting future prices of securities and movement of regulated indexes, and most of these banks heavily exposed their capital towards the OTC trades ( which ultimately showed exit doors to firms like Lehman ) . currently the investment banking is almost negligible if not zero in India . perhaps events like these may turn out to be learning lesson for emerging economies for strengthening regulatory mechanism to avoid any crisis.

Turning to the world of Finance and Economics..

2008-10-01T19:40:00.000+05:30

The recent credit events certainly shook major banks particularly Investment banks with shock and despair, I was wondering , how did it happen with in months after the sub prime crisis, and indeed with volatile oil prices, affecting international markets which are now linked more than ever in the world of International finance. the reason is quite straight forward and simple, large investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and the dead Lehman brothers quite simply learnt if not masterd , the art of making quick money by luring national governments, banks and Major MNCs by mangaging their Investments. they did so by creating products that gave near short term to medium term requirements to the investors through the use of financial tools like Derivatives and Credit Default Swaps (CDs) this complete month I will be concentrating on the tools i,e Credit Derivatives and role of derivatives in the collapse of investment banking giants and near fundamental aspects like the role of the U.S and world economy in triggering this sudden change!

would be delighted and happy to share your thoughts on this subject .

Started Sharing My file Docs with Every one !!

2008-10-01T19:29:00.000+05:30

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6332450/Macro-Economics-Monetary-implications-college-ppt?secret_password=1uy4betn1v1gla7y3j3l

Yet another attack...

2008-09-13T21:46:00.000+05:30

There seems to be no end to the brutal campaign of terror by the lunatics of terror, their aim is to revive communal passions filled with hatred , only to justify their actions as revenge, lesser known organisation called " Indian Mujahedeen" seems to be making news in the indian media circles, whatever it may be , but there seems to be a deliberate attempt to undermine the indian democracy by re-inventing terror in various forms " the name indian Mujahedeen" is a case in point.

given this scenario of insecurity in the urban areas, there is no doubt whatsoever that our indian polity is clearly divided over a comprehensive law on internal security, first came TADA , then POTA both of which were repealed much to the wishes of ruling party at the helm of ipower and their interests , but not at the expense of security of ordinary citizens. few political organisations feel that anti-terror laws represent a communal color , yet some feel as a neccesity to fight the evil of terror. but the end result of all this political tussle over anti-terrorist law seems to be working for the terrorists and their sleeper cells , who are spread across the country . while the BJP justifies anti terrorists operations as a measure to safegaurd nationalism (Hindutva) and the congress seems to justify or at times relectutant to use such laws in the name of communalism or Human rights voilation of minorities ( only muslims) . if our law makers fail to agree on a comprehensive law to combat the scourge of terror , then what's the need of sending law makers to parliement to safegaurd the interests of their fellow citizens . the root cause of all these evil differences over anti terror operations seems to be " party ideology" that governs the minds of cadres at the grass root levels in a complex democracy like india .

historical blunders like kashmir or making separate laws for one community made this difference possible , whose end result continues to haunt the indian democracy, added to that , there is a lack of political and visionary leadership , which complicates the problems both interms of time and money . then one might well ask , how should we tackle such a menace ( terror) , nothing but, political consensus and dynamic leadership at federal level might be first step to begin a never ending process of curbing evil acts of terror.

Add to that the concept of secularism must be replicated in every facet of our lives not just political interepretations by parties that concentrate to seek power . but it should extend beyond politics , whether in media, education or in commerce, we should bring a system or a level playing field where , communal or fundamentalists passions cancel out against the spirit of democracy and freedom. that should be the true essence of governance in a vibrant muti facet society like india.

Indians require Leaders who can Inspire generations, not people who have a compromise formula for solving problems.

2008-08-31T07:03:00.000+05:30

I have been a keen enthusiast of U.S elections since my high school, to be frank I have no idea about the election process of the world's richest country. But for me their elections present an interesting drama from one stand point and that is the word "Inspiration", the typical leader in any U.S election speaks about American society and a dream about making things possible during his/her tenure of leadership. obviously in any democracy leaders bound to represent the aspirations and dreams of the societies in which they serve, what's more interesting with the U.S process is that , every time a potential leader speaks , he tends to set a benchmark of goals and aspirations compared to his rival candidate,

I want the same thing to happen in India, where political drama should be replaced by realistic goals and Political leadership should be replaced by genuine leaders , who not just provide leadership for time being, but inspire generations of Indians in search of quality adminstration and effcient results. I remember reading old speeches of Gandhi , Nehru , Jayprakash Narayan , VP singh and ofcourse Rajiv Gandhi, their speeches tend to highlight the miseries faced by millions of Indians since generations. off late, the political landscape was slowly replaced by family led politics that laid emphasis on relationships , struggle for power and influence among the beauracracy to get things done! that suited handful of politicians . In the midst of this chaos of political bickering they (Indian politics) have completely forgotten , what constitutes the "Indian Dream" similar to the American Dream . Is it generating Jobs, is it making our political culture genuinly fair and transparent in their conduct or is it eradicating the social evils like casteism , discrimination or is it empowering indians with tools like education and opportunities. there is a simple yet a difficult proposition that can deliver those much needed results and it can only come with two letters and that is " To Inspire " , but this inspiration comes with a true cost and that is to be realistic with the problems. I believe it can be a wonderful idea if each one of us including our local leadership to inpire and strive for better results and that's how every thing boils down to the top leadership , where the management and leadership delivers the much needed results and not the disgusting compromise formula that haunts the indian society without solutions and thus repeating the cycle of confusion again and again.

"the point is : let us be inspired and lets inspire our fellow mates not for achieving short living compromise formulas but genuine results that deliver satisfaction among every one . each one of us can be a leader with in our own realm and limits "

Modern Bollywood a melting pot of Mediocrity

2008-08-25T13:54:00.000+05:30

Modern Bollywood with its much Hyped Award functions and marketing mania, never promises to deliver quality entertainment to its audience, its movies off late in 2000's have miserably failed both in terms of content and quality. this can be attributed to the mindset of film makers , where the business is run by a fairly large number of families associated with film making , since decades these families have substituted their children at the expense of talent and creatitvity, to name a few Raj kapoor was a pioneer of this model , slowly during the late 70's and 80's the same trend continued , where more or less it survived the competition owing to either zero competition or less competition in Bollywood film making.

off late independent film makers and talented directors like Ashutosh gawarikar, farahan akhtar and rajat kapoor have made a little impact of changing physche of indian film making, but even this makes a little meaning to a country of the size of india. so what makes movies click at the "Box office", its a simple funda which comes with two worded sentence :- script & screen play.

History tell us that Bollywood enjoyed a talented bunch of writers with a good flair of story, mixed with family drama made always sense among the indian masses . movies of 50's 60's and even 70's had writers of exceptional talent , who enjoyed working with great directors like Mehboob, Asif, BR chopra , shakti samanta , Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. most of these direcors focused on social themes of message and Entertainment.

But sadly, today's movies are all about watching the indian actors go funky with mediocre dances on the roads of west, stars with NRI tags and ofcourse dialouges that make heavy use of english . Things will only change when right creatitvity that combines indian tradition of "Tehzeeb and adab" with a mix of social message only then there can be a slight improvment in the way we adore Bollyood... lets wait and see how things change for the better!

Traffic Blues of Hyderabad

2008-04-20T11:20:00.000+05:30

Come monday and see the ugly face of traffic in Hyderabad , the most happening city of south India, you will be caught between meeting the targets of your daily work schedules and the Lazy traffic system, that moves at snail's pace. you will be amazed to see maximum motorists pressing their horn buttons unnecessarily only to find out that , they are disturbing themselves and fellow motorists through mindless sound pollution. you see, the fault lies not with the system or government per se , it lies with in each of us for not making our policy makers accountable on crucial areas of governance and public safety.

How many of us have noticed those shanty government offices in the name of "Office of assistant commissioner of police" near Lakdi-ka-pool the mecca Hyderabad Traffic Jam and the array of Khadi shops which make a brisk business causing huge congestion near khairtabad and lakdi-ka-pool road , the list doesn't end here . add to that there are some communal hot spots in the name of Darghas, Masjids and Mandirs in middle of the road, which obviously cause Jams during rush hours at morning and evening. every one talks of traffic jams and increasing sound pollution. But the obvious remedy to this continuing problem lies only in better public transportation system and this need not come necessarily by Increasing the loss making Road transport Buses (RTC), which also contribute towards traffic chaos. but the real solution lies in laying both under and off ground Metro railway system . covering the entire length and breadth of Hyderabad region and not Just the posh areas or "Brainy" areas of Disukhnagar and vanasthalipuram. Majority of Traffic system can be reduced through systematic planning of Old city area , covering large distances . kids have to be discouraged from using bikes at an early stage . A process must be initiated to track traffic volumes versus noise/air pollution by setting up a technical committee led by technocrats ranging from economists to engineers to study its effects on communities and logistical system of the city as a whole . But , what i believe is that every thing starts from we the " Individuals" only then implementation of any plan becomes a holistic approach.

India and its neighbours - I

2008-03-30T13:53:00.000+05:30

India has always been case of too many contradictions and too many problems , which are yet to be solved and Its foreign policy at regional level is no exception. She is (India) now living at a time which can be well categorized as a phase where potential crisis like natural disasters , medium to low level conflicts coupled with economic losses can undermine its march towards economic freedom. Its very important for the policy makers of this nation to understand the gravity of situation across south Asia and its spill over effects on its economy at a macro level. A Brief outlook on each south Asian neighbor gives us a clear indication of having India as a leader to take bold initiatives for solving some of the genuine problems facing the sub continent.

Pakistan:

This country has always been a problem through her own identity , Past trends have clearly indicated that Pakistan has always been at conflict with India owing to cultural and communal differences , its obvious , as its founding fathers have built nothing concrete for future generations to carry a legacy of national development , except sowing the seed of communal disharmony with its big brother India . time and again the Pakistani society was blackmailed by the military establishment through propaganda, that it ( Pakistan) is in danger as Indian military and its policy makers have plans of attacking Pakistan , which is nothing but a stupid , example of exaggerated fear. It exploited all the options of undermining and disturbing the peaceful rise of India , throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s , whether in the form of aligning with U.S for building its arsenal or directly assisting the American intelligence while arming the Islamic militants against the soviets in Afghanistan. Needless to say its crimes against humanity in Bangladesh against ethnic Bengalis in the form of genocide and mass murders are yet to be verified and prosecuted in the international law. Its misdeeds against India are equally horrifying and reminding the worst practices in Indian Intelligence circles. whether its creating the Idea of Khalistan or arming Islamic militants in Kashmir ( ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Kashmir ) . Apart from the human side of the story, its record of economic relationship with the Indians is far from satisfactory, it has time and again rejected and declined the much needed economic relationship with India , by excusing itself (Pakistan) on the grounds of communal issues such as Kashmir , by supporting local clerics of Kashmir under the banner of Hurriyat conference. In summary , the Pakistani society in particular the political class has failed to give a direction to her future and its very important for India to focus its efforts of being aggressively pushing a sound agenda of India-Pakistani treaty of economic and political relationship based on practical terms with zero sum game on either side. A study on Simla and Lahore accord has to be conducted and each party have to ascertain the pros and cons of conducting future relationship.

A new , but certainly a great change has taken place inside the Pakistani political spectrum, democratically elected regime and slowing down of Pakistani military interference in politics of Pakistan will definitely impact the relationship with India in long run.

SriLanka:

This nation has seen its worst over the decades , with the never ending violence between the ethnic Tamils represented by the milita force the LTTE, and the Sinhalese majority . India has played its part by indirectly supporting the separatist elements of Sri lanka, much the same way as the great game between the U.S , Jehadis during the 1980's soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, while the prime motive of India supporting the Tamil rebels was a short lived story , and her (India's ) sudden stance of political reconciliation between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government has been consistent, even one of the former members of cabinet virtually declared the term "LTTE" as threat to India. Historically the two countries share ancient ties with each other , since the time of Emperor Asoka to the great King of Chola Kingdom , yet differences over ethnic and cultural Issues have hampered the emergence of Sri lanka as a culturally diverse nation .

Its time that India , move away from the past trauma of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's killing by LTTE and the sad days of Indian peace keeping force (IPKF) of 1980s, the one positive step has been the evolving relationship between sri lanka on economic and political dialogue with its biggest neighbor India . Sri lanka has been a consistent supporter of India's vision of south Asia , especially on economic front . It ( sri lanka ) favorably adopted the SAFTA and commercial ties with India at ease compared to Bangladesh and Pakistan. India must adopt a long term strategy of solving or perhaps helping the sri lankan state to achieve political stability through the offices of Prime Minister and not necessarily through the Ministry of External affairs. given the sensitive Issue of ethnic Tamilians of Sri lanka , India has its share of challenges at the domestic front of confronting chauvinist Tamil politicians from their separatist rhetoric, Its a tight balance that Indian policy makers always had to walk to solve any problem.

Bangladesh:

The reminants of Bangladesh's war of Independence has been a sensitive issue in this country as this country has always been divided between the liberals and the rightist , as the later supporting the cause of Islamic nationhood and the former supporting nationhood on the basis of Bangla culture . In all the perpetrators of crime never been punished and some even managed to come to power through their vocal agenda of Bangladesh on the basis of Islam . Elements such as Jamaite-i-Islami and Harkatul Jihad along with the Awami league call for an anti India agenda and unsecular agenda based upon mistrust during the liberation war of 1971 . Even now India faces problems with Bangladesh on several issues such as usage of Bangladesh soil by anti India operatives, illegal migration and attitude of Bangladesh opposition regimes towards open trade with India. A road map for stronger links between the two states on Education, cultural and economic status has to be studied and must become a genuine partner in Bangladesh's development by infusing more funds and investing in its abundant natural resources to secure the much needed raw material for India's developement and help Bangladesh by creating more Jobs .

Western Systems or Eastern system , who Influenced whom?

2008-01-08T20:20:00.000+05:30

A lot of talk, debate, discussion is centered around comparing one country's relative performance with its immediate competitor or perhaps a neighbor , which is quite good , while judging one's position relative to another. But, as we compare more deeply, we may encounter several differences that are very much Intrinsic and deep rooted in the state system. One of the finest examples of this whole comparison debate, can be further refined through the cultural dimension.

The western part of the world gives us a fair amount of Idea of understanding a state's slow evolution as well as progress in term of Human development . The Relationship between the Church and the state, in implementing reforms in the form of studying Bible in the medieval Europe , or the diktats of the Vatican , in the form of "God Fearing Environment " or Emphasis on Bible in the form of Gospel , As true words of God. Needless to mention the impact of Missionary activities to promote the Gospel , in various ways such as Education, hygiene and a model Christian family system has been remarkably implemented , which is very evident , from the fact how the western scientific and political thoughts have influenced and continue to Influence our world .

This is not to say that , Eastern philosophy is inferior when compared to the western one's . One cannot just ignore the contributions of Indians and Chinese in the form of early civilization , which is still, the rock bed for Understanding , the history of the east . who can forget, the massive wave Buddhism from the remotest Islands of Java to the mountainous regions of central Asia, which is Indeed a truly thought provoking process of Missionary activity of Ancient times .

Then in one sense , then why did the eastern part has lagged behind in adopting systems of their own, in the form of political and scientific outlook . One reason perhaps can be attributed to the feudal mentality of Individuals of thinking too smart and exercising too much self control against friends and enemies , similarly other reasons like Discrimination towards fellow citizens in the form economic exploitation, whether in the form of Merchant & Brahamanical class in India against the "Original" Inhabitants or may be the poor role played by the church in the eastern part of the world , which might have resulted in lesser or no Intellectuals shaping the cause of Humanity during the medieval period of history.

Its only through Imperial conquests and Hegemony that , the eastern world particularly China and India have regained their true national stature . In sense , Imperialism had indirectly Influenced the eastern world by Imposing and exposing the eastern world with social and scientific systems .

(well, this writing/my self discussion seems to be heading no where, But, if any one reading this comment , please drop in your suggestions and Ideas , so that , i can take it up further )

Foreign Investment In Education & Influence on our system

2008-01-04T20:56:00.000+05:30

I think, the talk of foreign Universities entering into India, in the form of collaboration and Industry-academia Interaction is a most welcome thing in the recent years, As India opens up its economy , it needs critical talent to augment its much needed strategic clout in the form of Economic , Cultural and Industrial Influence globally. A lot factors define , while Judging the competitiveness of India and Education is one of the important component, as It not only gives a theoretical estimation of scientific temperament of the society , but also acts as an indicator to Judge the Industrial competitiveness of India Inc.

As the economy grows, there will be a substantial growth in the middle class,who aspire for quality education coupled with changing life styles to achieve higher goals in their lives. In this Scenario , the education sector in India is hampered with deficiencies in the form of poor Infrastructure and Inadequate quality of faculty and funds, It is a situation in which , the long term goals of state and destiny of its citizens are Inter linked , The 11th plan talks more about Investments in education ( which is always a welcome news ) , as we move towards more market oriented economy, its obvious that we cannot ignore to allow private forces ,whether in the form of Educational Institutions or research organizations of International repute to facilitate our growth process. Already , there have been collaborations with foreign universities in the form of faculty and student exchange , this will change for sure as more foreign universities set up their very own campuses in India. for example, they could either end up in setting up a department or a study center.

There is a win-win opportunity for Both (i,e foreign Universities and Indians ) firstly, the Indian Industry may rope in the best of best human capital in the form of students and processes , from the foreign Universities off campuses and secondly, the foreign Universities will be able to support their core strengths by attracting the brightest scholars for University research programs, this situation will no doubt will have impact on the state run universities, that thrived for too long under criminal negligence and Bureaucratic blackmails , it will also expose, the way funds are uitilized in the Indian University system.

But , Having said that , It must be noted more than 250 million people still live below the poverty line , with little access to education and necessary amenities , it becomes an obligation for state like India to Balance the market forces ( foreign Education Institutions ) with welfare programs of the state to ensure equitable distribution is made at the end of the day. all in all, Entry of foreign University might definitely bring the best of best practices in India, which also come at a cost of some thing ( fees and remunerations ) , which is nothing but the commercial angle towards maximizing wealth .

Its up to the government to make a regulatory frame work to balance the Imbalance , those who can afford and those who cannot afford University education and to what extent, Investment in Education will have Implications in this era of globalization , it will be an Interesting balancing act, that India will follow in years to come .

Education system and its slow metamorphosis

2007-12-23T12:23:00.000+05:30

with the emerging of India Inc, on global platform coupled with international competition among nation states, to secure the much needed market share for Businesses , the hunt for quality talent of human capital has finally arrived in India. the quest for quality engineers and social scientists becomes even more critical to off set, the developments with social responsibility . The Indian government in recent years has rightly identified this need by substantially allocating the budget towards education ( primary and higher education combined ) , the 11th five year plan envisages emphasis on education as a key component that would drive future growth , the public expenditure on education has been increased in the 11th planning commission with plans of 16 central universities , 8 IITs ,7 IIMs and 5 IISERs . the total out lay according to the government resources is around 2.5 lac crore rupees .

it is always a welcome step, but a country like India with a population of 1.1 billion people , still needs a system which is cost effective and efficient enough to produce highly skilled labor , not Just in the form of ready-made technical people , but competent and qualified Phd candidates who can become future innovators or teachers for the future generations. To point out this unique difference , historically it is a proven fact that countries like U.S, Japan and much of the developed world relied on their education system for their economic well being in the form of their manufacturing competency and Innovation ( converting Ideas into Business opportunity ) . it is a well known fact that Institutions like IITs and IIMs draw the best of best brains in the form of faculty and students, but a country of billion population cannot expect results from few institutions, each and every university must install a quality control system with in the university that takes into account , "auditing" of faculty and students in the form of their creative ideas and experiments . Universities in the west have this system called "Incubation labs" where , there is a defacto corporate office is made to make Idea into a business opportunity that has significant Industrial application. as far as India is concerned it has few Incubation Labs in IITs .But , this philosophy must come down to colleges and state universities that are languashing under budget constraints and poor Infrastructure.

all in all, it would be wise to set up another regulatory authority on the lines of UGC and AICTE to ensure quality standards are met , which match both organizational and societal requirements, growth is a constant process , but from a long term point of view, India's health in education will be determined not by the few elite institutions but from the distant colleges and universities that form the core of Indian education system.

Marketing as I see it

2007-12-11T15:57:00.000+05:30

For Many marketing , relates to the process of selling the products to the end user (Individual, groups and organisations) but from an organisation point of view , Marketing is much more than that , it encompasses from scratch idea to selling(what i call S2S) process , The marketing philosophy gets even more Technical and Interesting , if it is mixed with the techincal aspect of production. of which the classical 3 out of 5 p's represent a unique insight into the working of marketing arena.

Product
process
Price

the later Ps seems to have no end , all seem to convey more or less about selling process. it would be worth useful to discuss a few of them, the explanation for product extends beyond what a customer wants and How products suit his/her requirements. In technicality, a product for an engineer represents a challenge in terms of production efficiency , Packaging and Branding. of course , the demands by consumers play a paramount role in production.

process: In laymen terms , it is a designed sequence of changes of system, meaning, the sub systems in a system facilitate the end result, of producing a product. a typical process in any business calls for commercialization of the product , that involves right from sourcing the raw materials to manufacturing and then selling , often this process can be referred to as production operations , which takes into account the whole chain of sub-systems (supply chain management)

Price: Any business is bound to have its commercial as well as profit sharing interests, and that's where pricing takes a bigger role in deciding , whether a product can sustain in the market or not. Competition and advent of technology no longer , make companies bother about recovering the cost of production . with economies of scale, the cost of production is generally gets reduced and due to competition in the market, consumer gets more choices to buy products , which also makes a point that, players in a given market are efficient enough to sustain a competition , unless , there are too much variations in pricing. this whole, process of pricing requires a financial insight of what goes into production by considering aspects such as -> what a supplier charges upon a quantity, what is the capacity of production in a given season and most importantly pricing in the overall Industry ( understanding competitors )

But given , technical aspects of any business , it all comes down to one thing Selling. its purely a costumer persuading process, between the end customer and the seller. and in any un matured or matured market it plays equally important role, which not only generates, the much needed revenue but also drives the business in to the future.

(Its Jargon all the way Baby, But that's fact Baby to remind ourselves of, how things work)

Declining Trend of Hollywood flicks in Hyderabad

2007-12-01T19:14:00.000+05:30

Ive been watching Hollywood flicks since my childhood roughly from 6th standard , but then , there were no movie channels like HBO, star movies ,ZEE movies or AXN. the ideal place to watch a movie was Hyderabad's then "cosmopolitan theaters" like Sky line, sterling, sangeet 70mm and Anand. these theaters attracted the few of Hyderabad who longed to watch a English thriller or a story and the experience what i have , as a vivid memory. the audience during then were few families, but were sizable in numbers to fully occupy the theaters during the weekends .

as far as i think, there has been a declining trend in Hollywood movie goers, this can be attributed to the changing demographics of Hyderabad in terms of migration of people for a better life in Hyderabad and obvious shift towards local tastes ( i.e, inclination towards Telugu and Hindi flicks..with even Hindi flicks finding hard times in Hyderabad ) . the movies that do come to Hyderabad are the usual marketing Hyped movies that represent more in graphics, violence than the usual Oscar winning stuff and not surprisingly dubbed in Telugu at times . no body can blame any one its natural, with advent of satellite television, pirated CDs and off late Internet torrents , anyone can watch the movie with in minutes . But , what is bothering me is that there has been a steady decline of theaters which used to show case , quality Hollywood stuff. they are no longer in a position to display them , as one employee at skyline theater tells me that "dhanda nahi chal raha", it means they no longer attract movie goers except during the weekends and not surprisingly even skyline & sterling people are showing Hindi stuff for their survival.

then, how about other theatres, sangeet is on the verge of closure and so is Anand after several decades perhaps my father used to have good times during his youth. the reason for their closure and change is partly a happy thing as reports suggests that , these two theaters are planning to build multi plexes, involving more than two screens for daily showcase of movies. lets hope that they also show some English stuff for enjoying cinema experience.

PVR & I max:

multiplexes are no longer new to Hyderabad, as pvr and imax have been entertaining the audience through their mix of shopping and entertainment stuff ( hmm..great business model ) but , they remained largely inclined towards local taste of action Hollywood stuff plus a masala Telugu and Hindi movie, the reason is obvious they sell what is required by the market.

But I have a case in point for arguing "for" more inclusion of quality Hollywood stuff, because firstly,

Hyderabad is no longer a place for local culture melt-down
with the city emerging as an IT and financial center in decades to come people need the so called "soft skills" to groom themselves in organizational environment
and by the way, what's the point in watching an Oscar stuff that hits the theaters after an year in U.S...that's the hunger of quality entertainment required!!

lets hope that DTH (direct to home ) becomes cheaper alternative for escaping mediocre flicks , so that quality cinema creates awareness among the masses to understand different cultures.

India and South Asian Vision

2007-11-30T13:15:00.000+05:30

When the geographic regions of this world are consolidating through economic zones, free trade areas and partnerships in development. south Asia seems to be going no where. Just consider this, India is now surrounded by troubled neighbors which are volatile due their civil conflicts, with virtually no democracy or inconsistent nature of democratic forces in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, the stakes can be potentially dangerous for India with large scale migration in the form of refugees and perhaps burden on India's economy.

For too long , India avoided intervening in south Asian region apart from putting diplomatic pressure and aid , it never adopted a political and military oriented approach of solving the problems in the region partly because of her turbulence on the domestic front (Viz., khalistan movement, LTTE problem and off late Kashmir and North east .) and may be because India has never had a leadership whose vision integrates both economic and foreign policy that influences the region (with Nepal and Bhutan being two exceptions). India's failure of not solving her problems are proving to be an indirect obstacle on influencing her neighborhood.

it would be worth mentioning that, apart from India's own reservations of not intervening. its neighborhood has its own characteristics in the form of ethnic and cultural differences , for example, the Pakistani society survives on the basis of hatred towards India and an empty promise of creating a Pan Islamic society in south Asia, the Sri lankan case presents another facet of distrust between Sinhalese and Tamils, similarly for sake of power struggle the tribes of Afghanistan played in the hands of Soviets and Americans there by virtually spoiling their nationhood. How about Nepal ? a society whose constitution which remained under monarchy is finding its transition from a monarchy to democracy a difficult one ! but thats how reforms come at a cost, this "costs " could have been minimized in the region had India played a positive role through timely interventions in resolving potential conflicts.

with world witnessing virtual market places in the form of trade regions like ASEAN, NAFTA and E.U . we are witnessing a consolidation of geographies in Americas, South east Asia and Europe , with central Asia and East being exceptions. this consolidation becomes all the more important to India and south Asia at large due to their vast regions of poverty and pockets of ethnic strifes.

But achieving the scale of consolidation in the form of common currency, common trade regulations and common agenda of south Asia at international level will continue to remain a gigantic task at the disposal of south Asian leadership. this philosophy of integration can be achieved only when India takes a keen interest in the form of a important neighbor in the region. The Indian strategy must not necessarily be in the form of mere diplomacy, as economics and free trade provide more choices , taking the help of these tools might go in long way in ensuring that south asia catches up with the rest of the world as a proud region independent of conflicts and turmoil.

My Review of "Making Globalisation Work"

2007-11-30T12:39:00.000+05:30

"Making globalization work" represents another amazing product, that Prof. Joseph stiglitz never ceases to deliver to the world wide audience about our understanding on globalization and international economics. his style of writing is lucid and clear in making us aware about the disparity between the developed and the developing world. His analysis of multilateral institutions and its rules which almost tend to favor the rich countries gives an insight about the economic differences that are plaugeing this world since decades. whether it is related to trade agreements at WTO or forming unilateral agreements between nations. This amazing book exposes the reality in the favor of poor countries or rather developing countries.

chapters concerning with global warming, Multi national corporations and free trade are worth appreciating . the whole epitome of this book revolves around strategies as given by prof. stiglitz for fair conduct of international agreements , where the market forces can give maximum efficiency in well being of humanity. the book is written in such a way that it exposes the double standards of rich countries in their dealing on trade and investments with the developing world. the empathy of developing countries, is wonderfully illustrated through their quest for attracting investments and there by becoming a pawn in the hands of MNCs and Washington , which favors their economic and foreign policies. all in all, this book argues for a space for developing countries in decision making bodies of WTO, IMF and Climate change , so that the voices of not so rich are heard, and there by allowing them to reap the benefits of their liberalized economies. as usual there are examples of China, Brazil and India. most Importantly African perspectives were well documented. this is a must read for any scholar of International Business and obviously for people related with economics. According to the author himself it is a sequel to his book globalisation and its discontents.

Engaging China strategically

2007-11-23T16:58:00.000+05:30

India ‘s interaction with china dates back to the ancient times , then the relationship was based primarily upon cultural exchanges centered around Buddhism and informal trade in commodities like silk ,china clay and artifacts-

By the end of nineteenth century India happened to be the first country to officially recognize the people’s republic of china (PRC). This recognition by India can be attributed by factors such as 1)Both countries were early civilizations of the world .2) China and India faced the same problems of imperialism. 3) Both countries had the same problems of poverty and ignorance .4) India’s own smart decision to consider china as a country of high strategic importance in enhancing its foreign policy.

The subsequent diplomatic ties and signing of panchsheel ,a five principled agreement for mutual coexistence showed the world of india’s maturity in diplomacy. Yet, the war of 1962(termed as border dispute) left an unerased mark on india’s quest for stable and healthy relationship with china . china claims that India occupies majority portion of north-east India with sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh being its prime targets of contention , while India refutes the claim and blames china of occupying

Askai-chin region of Kashmir and inability of china to recognize the sikkim state as an integral part of indian union . Even then china and India being the heavy weights of Asia showed great degree of maturity in dealing with such complex and suspicious issues.

China’s strategic implications on India

China due to its sheer size and weight in the international community maintains a strong 1.5 million people’s liberation army(PLA) .its spending on military has been increasing dramatically since it opened its markets , its huge military spending in areas like weapons development and modernization certainly requires debate in the Indian strategic community as a result of these developments china can influence India’s neighbours like Myanmar, Bangldesh and Pakistan in their foreign policy towards India and upto some degree disturbing the strategic balance between India and china .

With the increase in the Chinese economy china is spending aggressively on frontier areas of research and development which includes space exploration, weapons design and nuclear energy. Most of decisions in defense and civilian infrastructure are becoming a medium for the official communist party to showcase its growing weight to the international community particularly the U.S. as the Chinese economy increases its forex reserves ,GDP, manufacturing and trade increases . thus it gives china an upper hand in dealing with international community and influencing the dynamics of world economy(revaluation of yuan).

How should India purview these developments.

India has a huge potential for countering (balancing) china both by militarily and economically . But sadly India has never been aggressive as china (being a communist state) is. India can counter china by improving its social parameters like literacy and poverty . on the other hand concentrating on areas like attracting $300bn worth of foreign direct investment annually, having said that the Indian leadership must be coherent and active in pursuing policies that yield long term benefits by reducing its bureaucracy , disinvesting all its public sector units(psus) and eliminating corruption. This is purely a political aspect on the domestic front . the other aspect includes India gaining a permanent seat in the U.N security council , being bold in pursuing defense relationship with the U.S and increasing its investments in energy security. The foreign policy aspect includes engaging china diplomatically in solving border disputes and allowing access to each other’s markets . International forums like U.N, SCO(shanghai co-operation organization), Asean regional forum(ARF), WTO and G20 provide both countries an ideal ground for closing the strategic gap between India and china both from defense/foreign and Trade point of view .This means that India has to do lot of ground work for bringing itself to the point of equilibrium , where china and India can play greater role for well being of their people and Asia as whole. So that twenty first century belongs to India and china.

Indian news channels pioneers in cricket analysis

2007-11-23T16:13:00.000+05:30

I wonder, if there is any sports channel that discusses, debates and comments more on cricket than the Indian news channels. take this, I start of my morning by going through news in one or two channels , expecting to watch some thing or stuff related to the capital. But sadly i end up in watching either a debate on cricket or a show pack edition of Bollywood. i wonder , how in a country like India, cricket manages to occupy the center stage than all the more important news related to India's foreign policy ( weak policy ), her unstable neighbors like sri lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and of course Pakistan .

But fortunately you are always left with more options of going through business channels that are tempting to bring more informed and well documented analysis both on politics and on business. I some how, have this sixth sense that a majority of people in the electronic media in Delhi are often those who are not connected with their interest and tastes while reporting or documenting issues concerning with news and analysis, it becomes all the more obvious when you see young (young ladies ) anchors taking a deeper dig at the performances of Indian cricket team and the selectors of Indian cricket team. just take this, one channel runs a discussion program about cricket with audience and cricketers discussing why is india winning , loosing and what each member of the team contributes !! huu huu.....that's lot of understanding on cricket.

you get shocked or bombarded with fun when you seriously watch commentary on "condition of wicket", " condition of pitches " & of course about the comments about selectors being reported by slim - trim figure girls who also report on politics as well as on cricket --"after all they are great at their english ahhh..."

I would suggest a serious advise to the news channels of entering an MoU (memorandum of understanding ) with the sports channels to out source their work to the Indian news channels. off late you cannot criticize all the time when technology gives you the much needed scope with ample number of channels . but being national news channels they have to realize that serious reporting on foreign policy, economy and intricacies of political theories are what a democratic country like india deserves in the form of information .

my Love and hate affair with Indian society

2007-11-23T15:23:00.000+05:30

I am always amused by my country (India), may be for a sociologist it represents a treasure for research and conveying a new (another ) meaning of India through her ethnic and cultural backgrounds . yet for me it always represents a dogmatic society guarded by boundary lines that separates different tribes and ethnicities in the name of castes, family backgrounds and off late faith. now, that's what i call an "exaggerated and hyper" differentiating society, where every one leads a mechanical life of marrying partners chosen by their family members ( needless to say mother & father ) and continue their life under the same domains of "surnames, caste names, reservations and of course keeping the long and ever long relationships with their community members, in the same sense as parents did or with the members of the extended families and further expect their children to follow the same legacy of mechanical life through out their lives .

But times are changing and people are opening up and perhaps thinking the other way round of forgetting their tribal oriented (castes ) backgrounds, thereby creating a "common core" new generation of families and communities that care for good life , independent of ancient-irrelevant dogmas and emphasize more on quality driven lives through education and individual value systems (No Jargons here pls serious stuff !!)

Now, this is a general understanding of an evolving Indian society, which is not meant for degrading or classifying behaviors, this mentality is common among Indians independent of caste or community affiliations.

To move away from this circle of differentiation , Iam always reminded by a great man named Swami Dayanand Saraswati , whose idea of rejecting Idol worship and abandoning caste system was a revolutionary step at the zenith of post 18th century period. But sadly his ideas were hijacked by a community called Brahmins who never allowed the system of caste to be changed fearing their loss of domination over the Indian masses. But the legacy of his ideas can be still found in the few remaining temples of Arya samaj - which are sadly becoming marriage centres for the people who wish to have a love marriage yet forgeting the very oaths they take while marrying in arya samaj temples of following the principles of Arya samaj.

Its time we change this false philosophy of shedding tears over internally divided India society , which is marred by strange family and community behaviors , which is not only harming the so called Hindu society but also the Indian society in general. only time and individual awareness among the young can ensure a positive change .