Friday, December 21, 2012

The Confusing Congress Chimera

 Just a few days ago, I was in Lucknow arguing vociferously with my father-in-law. He is a die hard supporter of Congress and would have cast his vote in favour of Rita Bahuguna Joshi. I personally think the chances of her winning are about as high as Shah Rukh’s Knight Riders winning IPL 2. But then faith and optimism are eternal. In fact, my father-in-law, who is a middle class Bihari settled in U.P. is convinced that there is a strong undercurrent in favour of Congress this time in the Hindi heartland. He is almost wistful when he talks about how the glory days of Congress can come back with Rahul Gandhi by the time the next Lok Sabha elections are organised. I have come across hundreds of such Congress well wishers who are sick and tired of regional parties ‘holding the nation to ransom’. I empathize with them, but can’t help pointing out some hard realities that make the challenge of reviving the Congress so formidable for Rahul Gandhi and his well meaning earnestness.

Here is a list of major states where the Congress can hope to win a lot of seats on its own: Assam, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Orissa and Karnataka. That works out to about 230 plus seats. Here is a list of states where the Congress cannot hope to win even a few seats without strong regional allies: West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and J&K. That works out to almost 300 seats. The last time Congress won in Tamil Nadu was in 1967; it was 1967 in West Bengal; 1984-85 in Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh; 1991 in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and Maharashtra on its own. In the states where the Congress can win many seats on its own, the party already has about 110 out of 130. In the second category of states, the party has about 50 out of 300.

Even a school child will know that it is the second category of states that will be the biggest challenge for Rahul Gandhi and his so called youth brigade. To be able to cross even 200 Lok Sabha seats, it needs to at least double its tally in the second category of states. More importantly, Rahul Gandhi needs to plan and execute a strategy which can help the Congress have even a decent chance of winning a large number of seats on its own in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand which send almost 225 MPs to the Lok Sabha. Currently, the Congress has just about 50 representatives from these important states.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Social no more


Is Keynes’ theory relevant today?

Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson wrote, “Economists have correctly predicted nine of the last five recessions.” Poor John Maynard Keynes. Falling to gallery criticism, his theory has been much criticised over the years.

Keynes’ ‘The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money’, which was published in 1936, states that there is a chance of aggregate demand to be insufficient during a downturn, and this leads to high unemployment and low output. In such a situation, government intervention by lowering interest rates and increasing investment to increase aggregate demand will help recover the economy. Franklin Roosevelt was amongst the more famous leaders who were influenced by this theory. He adopted some aspects of this theory amidst The Great Depression. The success of Keynesian theory was further witnessed after the World War II in rebuilding war ravaged countries. It became more prevalent in socialist-democratic European countries and even in the US in 1960s.


 Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.


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Sunday, December 9, 2012

Golden words...

... are not repeated, but they can be cherished. Some interesting quotes by UPA’s ministers, which we don’t think they would want to be caught dead repeating!

Manmohan Singh:

“The public sector banks have been instructed to ensure that they act counter cyclically in this situation to counter the general erosion of confidence...” (November 2008, in a speech to the Indian industry)

Shivraj Patil:

“We had bits of information, but we didn’t know when and where it would happen… we are taking all steps to stop this terror violence...” (August 2007, post the twin bomb blasts in Hyderabad)

Kamal Nath:

“The huge growth in FDI in India despite global economic slowdown shows how sound and resilient our economy is.” (October 2008)

P. Chidambaram:

“We will remain vigilant. Our regulators have shown great agility. Going forward, we can still end this year with a growth rate of 8%. I am confident that in 2009/10, the growth rate will bounce back to 9%...” (October, 2008)

A. Raja:

“Guidelines for 3G and Wimax will be announced by June and the roll out will start by January 2009 or end of December 2008.” (May 2008)


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.


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Friday, December 7, 2012

Useless effort!!!

Example of a responsible ministry

The Indian Ministry of Finance has announced a public competition to select a design for the new symbol of the rupee. Currently, rupee has no globally recognised symbol like the Dollar, Pound, Yen, or the Euro. The word “rupee” originated from the word ‘rup’ or ‘rupa’ which means ‘silver’. The rupee is generally abbreviated to Rs or INR (Indian National Rupee). To encourage participants, Government has also promised a prize money of Rs 25,000 to the five shortlisted participants and whopping Rs 2,50,000 for the winner.

One should not forgot that changing the currency symbol can be a costly exercise for the government. For example, when Euro was introduced after the replacement of guilder in 1999, it cost Europe’s biggest companies more than $50 billion to update their computer systems. Europe had to replace 70 billion coins which was an expensive proposition. Turkey too changed its currency. In January 2009, Turkey officially started using the Turkish Lira (TL) instead of Yeni Turkish Lira (YTL).


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Thursday, December 6, 2012

US: WEST ASIA

A recent release of classified documents shows how US has manipulated West Asia. A B&E exclusive

President Nixon's crown national security aides including James Schlesinger and William Colby met right away and chuckled that they could clarify their abrupt decision by blaming “Russian treachery”. They indicted Moscow of commissioning a “massive” airlift, falsely, according to the CIA's guesstimate. Kissinger rough drafted what the government would say to the world: “We can now say there was Russian treachery on the negotiations.

They have made an abortion of our peace move and sent in 200 flights of arms. We can run the Russians into the ground and we can call it an act of Russian treachery,” Schlesinger added. There was laughter in the room when Schlesinger added, “We had anticipated that!” Also, while the US was non-committal over a peace initiative, it was very active in securing its oil interests in the region. In July 1973, Henry Kissinger opened a clandestine channel to the Shah of Iran to synchronise the development of contingency tactics to snatch control of Saudi Arabia and its colossal oil riches, in the backdrop of instability in the House of Saud. “Any contingency planning on Saudi Arabia must be most hush-hush,” the Shah told Kissinger. He also added that he was a supporter of the Israelis.

Later Arabia''s King Fahd made an official visit to the White House when it was aggressively cooperating with the US operation to drive out the Soviet force from Afghanistan. Documents reveal that the Saudis also were clandestinely sponsoring US-backed Contra insurgents fighting the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. George Bush may have been a great damager in the Middle East impasse... but he is certainly not the only US President in that ‘Hall of shame’.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.



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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Icing off the cake!

Iceland's PM resigns on the back of global economic turmoil

Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde has quit office following violent protests against his coalition’s policies that resulted in the collapse of the country’s currency and banking system. But Haarde said his coalition would stay around till the elections scheduled for early May 2009. Iceland's economic meltdown is so severe that Haarde’s Independence Party and its Social Democratic Alliance partners are unable to find even wiggle space. If it was not for the meltdown, Haarde and Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, who heads the Alliance party, would have held on till 2011. Their two-thirds parliamentary majority would have ensured their blissful sojourn, but now, with things deteriorating steadily, the 57-year-old Haarde is the first world leader forced to exit due to the financial turmoil.

Haarde's popularity fell steeply in public ratings after Iceland’s deeply indebted economy fell apart in the midst of the global debt crisis. As the crown (Iceland's currency) fell, the government was left with just one option: to seize control of its three major banks.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Monday, December 3, 2012

A new form of social ‘Capitalism’

Muhammad Yunus, Nobel laureate, explains why creative capitalism in fact holds all the answers to improve human life, as told to B&E’s Neha Sarin

This Chittagong University economics professor is better known as the man who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his thirty-three year old dream venture – Grameen Bank. Muhammad Yunus, the Father of Micro-credit and a staunch believer in the principle of the ‘social business enterprise’. So while the world hails ‘conventional capitalism’ and accepts the modern theory of ‘creative capitalism’, Yunus – can boast of his brainchild Grameen Bank’s 2,422 branches with aggregate loans of more than $6.8 billion (lent to more than 7.4 million people) – believes that he perhaps had always been a ‘creative capitalist’! The only difference is – he called it a socially favourable economic act. Business&Economy presents an exclusive one-on-one with one of the ‘Greatest Entrepreneurs of All Times’.

B&E: What are your viewpoints about creative capitalism? Is it necessary?
MY: It’s good to be creative and there is no doubt about it. I am very happy that Bill Gates is promoting this idea of ‘creative capitalism’. By doing so, he has recognised that the current form of capitalism is not doing its job as we all expect it to do and what we want to see happen; it is not addressing poverty, healthcare problems and many more social issues. He is mentioning and highlighting, and he is admitting that we need creative capitalism to do the job, and do it well. However, it really doesn’t come with a guarantee of how well it will be done.

If you just look at the word ‘creative’, it means the very essence of progress. So capitalism has to be creative too.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.



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Sunday, December 2, 2012

Looking for character(s)

The Indian animation industry desperately needs some brand recall

Mickey Mouse turned 80 last week amidst much fanfare and celebrations all over the world, including India. In fact, our forever ‘desperate for any news’ news channels used this opportunity to blanket their screens with images of Mickey Mouse’s adventures over the eight decades. However, even after discounting the current over-hyped nature of India’s news media, the fact is that the eponymous mouse has deep resonance for millions of Indians. And although the current generation has a multitude of choices, Mickey Mouse is still capable of eliciting a smile from any child’s (and many adults’) face. But the mouse’s longevity and relevance begs a question, why hasn’t Indian animation industry, with India’s rich cultural and mythological history to mime, been able to come up with somebody remotely approaching the stature of Mickey?

The Indian animation and gaming industry currently achieves a modest turnover of $400 million, but is expected to reach the $1 billion mark by 2010 (although this estimate is likely to be revised downwards as the global economic downturn intensifies). The strength of the industry, as with almost all industries in India, is the cost of labour (it’s been estimated that the cost of making an animation movie in India is 15 times cheaper than the west). With relatively cheap, English speaking, adequately trained professionals being the backbone of Indian animation industry, global animation studios are getting interested. Yash Raj Films’ three picture deal with The Walt Disney Studios, of which the first was Roadside Romeo, and UTV’s $20 million co-production with Overbrook Entertainment are steps in the right direction. Such deals will give access to the studios to state-of-the-art equipment, talent and quality of the US animation industry, which it badly needs.
 

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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