Confessions!!

Ethical dilemma ~ another assignment

2011-09-30T18:46:00.005+05:30

The situation

The situation I have chosen is one of the worst tragedies in which about 90 school children aged between eight and ten years were charred to death in a major fire accident in a girls elementary school at Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu. The fire which sparked from the kitchen set ablaze the thatched roofs spread rapidly and engulfed the class rooms of Sri Krishna Aided Higher Secondary School on Kasiram Street, Dharasuram, Kumbakonam. The children from classes LKG to standard five were trapped in the flames and perished.

Seventeen persons were arrested in connection with the fire. Among them five belong to the school, including the correspondent, Pulavar Palanisamy, the staff of the noon-meal scheme and others belong to the education department.

Ethical issues

Greed and the callous indifference on the part of school management running the three schools within the same compound abetted by education authorities who failed to enforce the laws and safety standards and carelessness of midday meal staff caused the fire.

The school, as it turns out, had violated several rules and regulations governing the building and safety. The entrance and the exit to the three-storey, partly thatched building on Kasiraman street was a narrow door that led to a narrower stairway.

The school was started in 1950 as a Tamil-medium aided school, but in the 1990s two more schools were started in the same building, against the rules. At the time of the tragedy three schools were operating from the same building - the Sri Krishna Girls High School, an aided Tamil-medium school; the Sri Krishna Middle School, with a Tamil-medium aided section and an English-medium unaided one; and the unrecognised Saraswati Vidyalaya, with classes from LKG to Standard V.

On the day of the tragedy, an Additional Education Officer was to inspect the Tamil section. And, as is the normal practice of the school - to inflate the number of students in the Tamil section during inspections in order to secure a higher grant from the government - students from the English-medium section on the ground floor were sent to the Tamil-medium section on the first floor, which eventually resulted in more casualities.

Few days later another fire broke out in the school, this time on the second floor. Alert neighbours informed the fire service, who put it out. The fire seemingly emanated from an almirah in which books were kept and it led to speculation that this was an act of sabotage meant to destroy records.

Ethical dilemma: There are several such schools in the country which fail to meet the conditions specified; however there is also a shortage of schools. So by closing these schools a large number of children might be deprived of the opportunity to be educated. But by allowing such schools to function poses a threat to the lives of people. On the other hand gruesome incidents like the one above suggest that education cannot be imparted at the cost of one’s life. Building and safety regulations cannot be comprised at any cost.

The stakeholders

· Children, who got injured and those who had lost their lives

· Parents, who lost their children. Their mental trauma would’ve been unbearable.

· Management of the institution, whose greed was the cause of the situation

· Teachers and staff, who were also present there

· The mid day meal staff, whose carelessness caused the fire

· Government and the ministry of education, which is responsible for enforcing the laws and safety standards in the schools

Solution

Schools that do not comply with the safety regulations should be given a month notice to make the necessary changes.
If the schools fail to meet the standards after the given time, they should be derecognized and at the same time provisions should be made the children to be enrolled into other schools in the locality.
For schools functioning without recognition, strict compliance with every detail of the norms must be made mandatory and verified by an inspecting officer before recognition is granted.
Such schools must be given a month or two to apply for recognition, and the department of education must process their applications as soon as possible.
Conditional recognition or approval should not be allowed.
A state-level committee should be formed to undertake surprise checks on schools frequently.

· The government apart from laying down rules and regulations and incorporating them should also focus on creating awareness about these to the general public in this case the parents so that they can also be whistleblowers.

Personal beliefs or feelings

I feel the parents are to be blamed equally or even more than the government. At the time of enrolment it is the duty of the parents to check whether the school is recognized and whether they are following safety regulations.

Finally everything comes down to greed and corruption. Greed of the management to earn more has damaged the reputation they might’ve gained among the people.

Why is it necessary for such a gruesome incident to happen for the government to check whether the schools are following the safety norms? The school would’ve come under the scan of the education department at some point but they might’ve bribed the concerned officials to get away with inadequate safety standards. Corruption in the education department was the main reason for the loss of the lives of these unfortunate children.

Ps. hmph formating n alignment r pain in d dash..!!! why cant things just get aligned automatically:p

Lord of the flies ~ Learnings from the movie

2011-09-23T02:10:00.003+05:30

The movie brings out the conflict between two competing impulses that exist within all human beings instinct to live by rules, follow morals, and value the good of the group against the instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforce one’s will.

Ralph is engaged in working for the public good by enforcing rules, bringing order and thus forming a small civilization. While Jack tussles for power and he is disappointed on being voted down. The conch found by Piggy serves as a symbol of civilization, the children assemble for meeting when it is blown and the person who has the conch has the right to speak. They light a fire using Piggy's glasses which represent power of science and intellectual endeavor in society. Ralph assigns duties to everyone. Jack is given the role of keeping the fire lit. However we see that he fails on keeping up his duty due to his desire to hunt. Due to this they miss the opportunity of being seen. Again all seems to be fine till the factor of fear creeps in the form of a beast. Ralph wanted to deal it in a logical manner by believing that there isn’t a beast while Jack on the other hand wanted to hunt it down. When he is out voted again he is disappointed and leaves the clan. Initially he is alone but over the course of the movie majority join him. We see that a majority of them allow evil to master over their good. Eventually Piggy is killed and the conch is crushed showing the destruction of civilization.

As the boys on the island progress from well-behaved, orderly children longing for rescue to cruel, bloodthirsty hunters who have no desire to return to civilization, they naturally lose the sense of innocence that they possessed. The children even go to the extent of killing.

When we all join an organization we will be undergoing similar phases like the one in the movie. Initially all of us will be welcomed in the corporate world and slowly there will be tussle for power. We might forget our duties and responsibilities while focussing on doing what interests us rather than what is our role. We might deviate from the public policies and finally reach the stage of violence and harassment.

There is evil within each one of us. Some of them master the art of keeping it at bay while others are doomed by the evil within us.

Sovereign debt crisis in Europe

2011-09-21T21:45:00.013+05:30

Root cause and problem in a nut shell:

In 1958, an organisation called European Coal and Steel Community was formed. This evolved into the European Union (EU) which was established by the Maastricht Treaty in 1993. The European Union introduced the euro on January 1, 1999. On this day, 11 member countries of the EU started using euro as their currency. It benefited countries such as Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain (together now known as the PIIGS).

Before these countries started to use the euro as a currency, they had to borrow money at interest rates much higher than the rates at which a country like Germany borrowed. When these countries started to use the euro they could borrow money at interest rates close to that of Germany, which was economically the best managed country in the EU.

The rest of Europe, in effect, used Germany's credit rating to indulge its material desires. They borrowed as cheaply as Germans could to buy stuff they couldn't afford. Also other than the low interest rates, the inflation in the PIIGS countries was higher than the rate of interest. That means that if the borrowing rate is 3 per cent while inflation is 4 per cent you're effectively borrowing for 1 per cent less than inflation. You're being paid to borrow. And borrow they did. And the European peripheral countries (PIIGS) racked up enormous amount of debt in Euros. Other than the citizens, the governments also started to borrow. This helped politicians keep their constituency of voters happy.

Every time there are default threats, the European Central Bank (ECB), helps out with a bailout. Since the start of the financial crisis it (the ECB) has bought, outright, something like $80 billion of Greek and Irish and Portuguese government bonds, and lent another $450 billion or so to various European governments and European banks, accepting virtually any collateral, including Greek government bonds. Of the 126 countries with rated debt, Greece now ranked 126th: the Greeks were officially regarded as the least likely people on the planet to repay their debts.

The situation is pretty messy because it is interlinked. Germany keeps contributing the ECB rescue fund. The German government gives money to the rescue fund so that it can give money to the Irish government so that the Irish government can give money to Irish banks so the Irish banks can repay their loans to the German banks. In case of Greece, a lot of German and French banks which have lent money will be in trouble if Greece defaults.

Introduction:

The Euro zone is facing a serious sovereign debt crisis. Several Euro zone member countries have high, potentially unsustainable levels of public debt. Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Portugal have borrowed money from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to avoid default. With the largest public debt and one of the largest budget deficits in the Euro zone, Greece is at the centre of the crisis.

In the 2000s, Greece had abundant access to cheap capital, fuelled by flush capital markets and increased investor confidence after adopting the Euro in 2001. Capital inflows were not used to increase the competitiveness of the economy, however, and European Union (EU) rules designed to limit the accumulation of public debt failed to do so. The global financial crisis of 2008-2009 strained public finances, and subsequent revelations about falsified statistical data drove up Greece’s borrowing costs. By early 2010, Greece risked defaulting on its public debt. Unemployment is close to 16%. Currently, its public debt is around 166% of GDP. Greece’s economy is small, but its crisis exposes the problems of a common currency combined with national fiscal policies.

Additionally, its crisis set precedents for responding to crises in other Euro zone countries; highlighted concerns about the health of the European financial sector; created new financial liabilities for other Euro zone countries struggling debt; and sparked reforms to EU economic governance. It has also revealed tensions among EU member states about the desirability of closer integration. Several large European banks, such as BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Deutsche Bank, UniCredit, and Intesa, are believed to be major private holders of Greek bonds.

The ECB has provided substantial liquidity support to private banks in Greece and other countries in the Euro zone, and has provided more flexibility in doing so than it did before the crisis. ECB liquidity support for Greek banks climbed from €47 billion (about $68 billion) in January 2010 to €98 billion (about $141 billion) in May 2011, roughly 40% of Greece’s 2011 GDP. The economy is contracting more severely than expected, and, as a member of the Euro zone, Greece cannot depreciate its currency to spur export-led growth. In the decade before the crisis, a significant portion of rising government expenditures was allocated to rising public sector wages and benefits.

As investors became increasingly nervous that the Greek government’s debt was too high, and that it would default on its debt, they started demanding higher interest rates for buying and holding Greek bonds. Higher interest rates compensated investors for the higher risk involved in holding Greek government bonds, but they also drove up Greece’s borrowing costs, exacerbated its debt levels, and caused Greece to veer towards default.

The ECB announced in May 2010 that, for the first time, it would start buying European government bonds in secondary markets to increase confidence and lower bond spreads for Euro zone bonds under market pressure. Market analysts estimate that more than half (€45 billion, about $65 billion) of the ECB’s bond purchases were Greek bonds. In July 2011, European leaders and the Institute for International Finance (IIF), an association of private financial institutions, announced that holders of Greek bonds would contribute €50 billion (about $72 billion) through 2014 to the crisis response. Specifically, they would participate, on a voluntary basis, in bond exchanges and bond rollovers (€37 billion, about $53 billion) and debt buybacks (€12.6 billion, about $18 billion) to lower Greek debt payments over the short-term.

Italy

Debt to GDP ratio: Italy is in the firing line because of worries about the sustainability of a debt burden equal to 120 per cent of the country's GDP. At one stage the yields on Italian 10-year bonds shot past 6 per cent for the first time since 1997. They subsequently fell to 5.7 per cent - still a level which, according to bankers, will put heavy pressure on finances.

Greece, Portugal, Ireland, as awful as the sovereign crises have turned out for their populations, were just shadow boxing for this. Now the real crisis has begun - the start of a credible loss of market confidence in the ability of a major member of the single currency to repay its debt. The debts of the PIG nations were just 8 per cent of that of the euro zone. If push came to shove, Germany or France could just have bought the lot.
Italy and Spain, however, may well be too big to fail, but Italy is almost definitely too big to save. Italy's gross government debt, at 1.7 trillion Euros, is an astonishing 23.5 per cent of the existing euro zone debt. So the pressure is on to settle these fiscal problems within Italy. But Italy's politics is straining under this pressure. And it's not just that. Its economy is sclerotic and unreformed. The unemployment rate is 8.4%

French banks, including BNP Paribas SA and Credit Agricole SA (ACA), have the most at risk from the euro- region’s debt crisis infecting Europe’s largest borrower, Italy. About 45 percent of Italian debt held by foreign banks is carried by French institutions, according to BIS data. At the end of 2010, French banks carried $392.6 billion in Italian government and private debt, according to data from Basel, Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements. That’s the most for financial institutions from any foreign country and more than double held by German lenders. French banks’ Italian debt holding is more than their combined exposure to Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece.

Italian Acquisitions by French banks: Drawn by the lucrative financial industry in Italy, French financial companies spent at least 20 billion Euros since 2006 to buy banking and insurance assets in the euro-area’s third- largest economy. BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole, France’s second-largest bank, bought two of Italy’s 10 largest lenders. At the end of 2010, BNP Paribas held more Italian than French sovereign debt. BNP Paribas, which acquired Rome-based Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA in 2006 for 9 billion Euros, has about 900 branches in Italy. Credit Agricole operates about 960 branches in Italy. BNP’s 19,000 and Credit Agricole’s 12,000 employees in Italy are the most outside their home market. Paris-based BNP had 71.2 billion Euros of loans at its BNL unit at the end of March, compared with BNL’s 31.7 billion Euros of deposits, according to its website. Credit Agricole’s Italian retail-banking unit, Cariparma, had 31.6 billion Euros of loans and 30.3 billion Euros of deposits at the end of March, company data show.

Stock and bond markets: Italian stocks and bonds have been roiled on concerns about the country’s ability to trim debt after warnings by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor and infighting in Silvio Berlusconi’s government over a budget-cutting plan. Italy’s woes may overshadow efforts to fix Greece’s finances, which have left European policy makers struggling to find a strategy that won’t spark a region-wide debt panic.

Italy, whose 1.6 trillion Euros ($2.23 trillion) of bonds outstanding is the largest debt load in Europe and behind only the U.S. and Japan, had avoided being sucked into the financial crises engulfing Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Confidence eroded after both Moody’s and S&P in the past two months said they were reviewing ratings for Italy and its banks.

Italian stocks entered a bear market on July 11, defined as losses of more than 20 percent from a previous high, and 10-year Italian yields reached the highest in 14 years. Stocks recovered and yields on 10-year Italian notes retreated from a euro-era high of 6.02 percent after the completion yesterday of an auction of 6.75 billion Euros of treasury bills and Berlusconi’s reassurances on hastening the passage of a 40 billion-euro deficit-cutting plan.

BNP Paribas(BNP), which slid to its lowest level in 7 ½ months this week, rose 1.2 percent to 47.51 euros in Paris trading as of 12:30 p.m. France’s’s biggest bank has fallen 11 percent this month, more than double the 5.1 percent decline in the 49-member Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index. Credit Agricole has dropped 13 percent, while Societe Generale, France’s third-largest bank by assets, slid 11 percent.

Implications in case of Italy’s default: An insolvent Italy unable to meet debt obligations would be a body blow to EU finances, which are already burdened by the Greek situation. The size of a bailout for Italy would vastly eclipse the combined amount of cash needed to save Greece, Portugal and Ireland. The European Financial Stabilization Facility, set up to deal with the failing European economies, has total lending capacity just over 300 billion Euros. Italy needs nearly double that amount over the next two years to stay afloat. The world can ill-afford to allow Italy to fail, but another euro zone bailout will cause resentment among the wealthy countries. Despite their exposure, France and Germany are likely to balk at providing direct assistance to Italy if the European Financial Stabilization Facility is unable to fund the rescue. Germany already is fiercely divided over its role in the helping nations suffering from the financial crisis, and an added bailout request would fuel internal dissent and possibly lead to a refusal to provide additional funds. However, without some form of EU support, the Italian economy could collapse which would cause collateral damage to even the strongest EU countries.

Spain: Part of European crisis problem is the Spanish financial crisis from 2008-2011. Mainly the crisis was generated by long term loans whose yields rose substantially to 5.5 % compared to other European bonds (2%), real-estate market crash and severe spike in unemployment which rose to 13.9 %. There are major fundamental problems with Spain’s economy such as its huge trade deficit, loss of competitive pricing of its goods and services, high inflation and property bubble has contributed to economic crisis in Spain. The structural problem which is evident in spain is the rate of growth in population exceeds GDP growth thereby exerting pressure on sustenance of growth and development. To revive the growth and come-out of European debt crisis, spain has taken austerity measures such as “hire and fire employees and restrict excessive wage growth in order to increase competitiveness and productivity”, to bring saving to about 5 bn euros by providing incentives to savers.

Implications in case Spain defaults:

Spain is too big an economy to default in euro zone, if it does then whole euro-zone will be investor unfriendly, even internal investors will see new avenues to invest instead of investing in their own markets. Euro would seldom continue to common currency because of pressure Spain would bring on euro. French and German are not in position to bail-out Spain because of size of economy but nevertheless Spain has one of the strongest banking system in world.

Portugal: Unlike Spain’s crisis Portugal is suffering from deficiencies in its economy. It has exhibited prolonged low productivity growth potential reflected in low economic rates. It is facing challenging crisis with respect to public finances (debt- 91% of GDP) and has substantial external imbalances which resulted in huge trade deficits and increasing level of debt. The possible reasons for such low indexes are Portugal’s “competitiveness problems” in world markets, poor economic problems – being more pro-cyclical. Other reasons would be loss of competitiveness due to adoption of strong currency and rise of unit labour costs.

Implications in case Portugal defaults: Portugal defaulting would hurt its internal economy, growth and unemployment rate than the whole euro zone. It would definitely have cascading effect on bringing down the value of euro, effecting the overall growth in Europe.

Ireland: Some of the reasons why Ireland went into recession were overheated boom due to lowest tax rates in whole Europe. The tax cuts started from 1990’s and continued; initially it helped in improving competitiveness and productivity. It’s inability to afford unlimited federal deposit insurance. It tried to take over all the bad debts that banks held and this has failed because Ireland never had that kind of money which is needed to pay back all the savings if banks fail. Highly influential trade/labour unions in elections constrain government from imposing austerity measures and revive the economy thereby losing investor’s confidence.

Implications in case Ireland defaults: If Ireland defaults on its debt, it will enter into downward spiral of devaluation and deflation as it cannot take austerity measures nor prudence because of strong unionized labour force. So it would definitely require external help to sustain its growth.

Impact of the European debt crisis on India:

The current debt crisis in some European Union member states will have a negative impact on Indian exports and the Indian stock market. At least 27 percent of India’s trade is with Europe and the crisis will impact India’s export to the region. However Exports to Greece, Spain and Portugal, including Italy, are marginally low (around 4%) and will not have any impact. India export mainly textiles, pharmacy products, Gems etc to European countries.

The ongoing debt crisis in the US and Europe is expected to impact inbound tourism into India this season. There could be at least 8-10 per cent dip in total inbound tourists, especially those coming from the UK, Italy, France and Spain. The loss, however, will be partly offset by tourists coming from Asian countries such as Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Russia and the Middle East.

What if euro weakens? What could be the repercussions on European members and world? Will countries go back to prior currencies? What happens if they do?

The European banking system would be nearly bust if the euro were to be abandoned. If the euro is abandoned, then they go back to the peseta, lira, escudo, drachma etc. Simply put, the Euro zone would revert to what it was before the Euro existed. The European Central Bank would have to return all of its gold to the member States in proportion to their initial contributions. Their old currencies would have to be resurrected and Euro reserves converted back to the mix passed to the European Central banks from the beginning of the Euro zone. Dollar reserves would be built up again to replace the lost Euro reserves. The world's Foreign Exchange Markets would be in chaos. Confidence in most if not all currencies would almost disappear. By extension the ripple effect through the economies of the world and business in general, would be destructive. There would be a huge scramble for all hard assets devaluations would follow immediately. The exchange rate of the exiting countries would initially fall heavily then take a long time to recover. Devaluations mean write-offs of a size that would render the whole European banking system completely insolvent.

European authorities are concerned, is to implement the agreement struck on July 21. Under the deal, Greece was offered a second programme of loans, worth euro 109 billion (Dh553.33 billion), including the guarantee that Athens would not need to return to financial markets for years, borrowing instead from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund at low interest rates. The private sector would take a writedown of its debt to help ease the burden facing Greece and the European financial stability facility the temporary bailout fund would become more flexible in order to limit contagion from one euro zone country's bonds to others. But the contagion from Europe’s sovereign debt crisis is spreading to Spain, sparking concern that the European rescue fund set up in May isn’t large enough. French, German and U.K. banks could lose 360 billion euros ($479 billion) if the euro collapsed, assuming 30 percent devaluation in the wake of the restoration of national currencies. The damage caused by the abandonment of the euro would be such that such an outcome is impossible and the only way forward for Europe is fiscal union.( figures given by Evolution Securities)

Angela Merkel in her speech suggested "We have a common currency, but no common political and economic union," she said. "And this is exactly what we must change. To achieve this -- therein lies the opportunity of the crisis." The cost of a weak country leaving the Euro is significant. Consequences include sovereign default, corporate default, collapse of the banking system and collapse of international trade [emphasis added]. There is little prospect of devaluation offering much assistance. We estimate that a weak Euro country leaving the Euro would incur a cost of around €9,500 to €11,500 per person in the exiting country during the first year. That cost would then probably amount to €3,000 to €4,000 per person per year over subsequent years. That equates to a range of 40% to 50% of GDP in the first year.( “Euro Break Up—The Consequences,” a report published by The Union Bank of Switzerland).

Were a stronger country such as Germany to leave the Euro, the consequences would include corporate default, recapitalization of the banking system and collapse of international trade. If Germany were to leave, we believe the cost to be around €6,000 [$8,400] to €8,000 [$11,200] for every German adult and child in the first year, and a range of €3,500 [$4,900] to €4,500 [$6,300] per person per year thereafter. That is the equivalent of 20 [percent] to 25 [percent] of GDP in the first year. It is without doubt that a German exodus would result in an almost instantaneous diminution in Europe’s fiscal and social stability.

Possible solutions to the sovereign debt crisis:

As the origin of the problem lies in fiscal policy, confidence needs to be re-established there: strong and coordinated signals must be sent about the ability of the weak states in the Euro zone to put their fiscal situation in order, accepting the imposition of strong monitoring and discipline on fiscal policy by the Union institutions. This implies a significant limitation on the fiscal sovereignty of member states, which comes on top of their delegation of monetary sovereignty to the ECB. Member counties in EU have to implement strong fiscal policies to protect themselves from all kind of risks they may face .EU must have an over archiving mechanism to monitor the fiscal performance of member countries. A simple Maastricht rule regarding fiscal deficit is not enough. EU must also think in terms of creating a fund which can come to the aid of the member countries at the time of crisis.

FIRST SCENARIO FOR SOLUTION

European leaders have come up with many proposals for restoring confidence in the European economy. Jean- Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), has called for stricter budgetary rules for the nation. Mario Draghi, head of the Bank of Italy has called for binding limits not on just budgets, but also on many of the national economic policies. Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament, along with others has said creation of euro bonds might solve the problem. Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has suggested that Europe needs to move to full fiscal union.

But, none of these proposals can actually solve the immediate problems in Europe. Some proposals, like stronger fiscal rules and closer surveillance of policies affecting competitiveness, might help to prevent some future crisis, but they will do nothing to resolve the one right in front of us. Other proposals like moving to full fiscal union would require a fundamental revision of the EU's founding treaties and issuing euro bonds would require a lot of political consensus that will take months and even years to materialize.

But Europe doesn't have months and years to resolve its crisis. At this point, it has only days to avert the worst. It is critical that leaders distinguish what must be done now from what can be left for later. The first urgent task is for Europe to protect its banks. There are serious doubts about the stability of the banks. This has to be done keeping in mind the fact that bank stocks were hit hardest in the recent financial crash of US. There are several ways to fuel Europe's weak banks. The French and German governments, which have enough budgets, can do so on their own. In the case of countries with poor fiscal positions, Europe's rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), can lend for this purpose. If still more money is required, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) can create a special facility, using its own resources and funds put up by Asian governments and sovereign wealth funds.

The second urgent task is to create breathing space for Greece. The Greek people are making an almost superhuman effort to stabilize their finances and restructure their economy. But the government continues to miss its fiscal targets, more because of the global slowdown than through any fault of its own. This raises the danger that the EU and IMF will feel compelled to withdraw their support, leading to a disorderly debt default--and the social, political, and economic chaos that this scenario portends. In Greece itself, political and social stability are already tenuous. Again, help can come in any number of ways. Creditors can agree to relax Greece's fiscal targets. The limp debt exchange agreed to in July can be thrown out and replaced by one that grants the country meaningful debt relief. Other EU countries, led by France and Germany, can provide foreign aid.

The third urgent task is to restart economic growth. Financial stability, throughout Europe, depends on it. Without growth, tax revenues will remain stagnant, and capacity to service debts will continue to erode. Social stability, similarly, depends on it. Greece should bring tax parity depending on wealth of people. Without growth, austerity will become in- tolerable. Here, too, the problem has several solutions. Germany can cut taxes. Better still would be coordinated fiscal stimulus across northern Europe. But the fact of the matter is that northern European governments, constrained by domestic public opinion, remain unwilling to act. Under these circumstances, the only practical source of stimulus is ECB. Interest rates will have to be slashed, and ECB will have to follow up with large-scale asset purchases like those recently announced by the Swiss National Bank.

SECOND SCENARIO FOR SOLUTION

A rescue to the Euro zone must do four things fast. First, it must make clear which of Europe’s governments are deemed illiquid and which are insolvent, giving unlimited backing to the solvent governments but restructuring the debt of those that can never repay it. Second, it has to shore up Europe’s banks to ensure they can withstand a sovereign default. Third, it needs to shift the euro zone’s macroeconomic policy from budget-cutting towards an agenda for growth. And finally, it must start the process of designing a new system to stop such a mess ever being created again. The fourth part will take a long time to complete: it will involve new treaties and approval by parliaments and voters. The others need to be decided on speedily (say over a weekend, when the markets are shut) with the clear aim that European governments and the European Central Bank (ECB) act together to end today’s vicious circle of panic, in which the weakness of government finances, the fragility of banks and worries about low growth all feed on each other. Greece should bring about structural changes in its economy by scrutinizing the government policies such as tax policy, strengthening banking system etc.

So far the euro zone’s response has relied too much on two things: austerity and pretence. Sharply cutting budget deficits has been the priority—hence the tax rises and spending cuts. Instead of austerity and pretence, a credible rescue should start with growth and, where it is unavoidable, a serious restructuring of debt. In this scenario the Greek government should create short–term jobs (3- 6 months ) for 16 % unemployed population of the country. This will generate purchasing parity of population thereby stabilizing economy, infusing growth stage wise and boosting investors’ confidence. Europe must make an honest judgment about which side of the line countries are on. Greece, which is unambiguously insolvent, ought to have a hard but orderly write-down. The latest, inadequate plan for a second Greek bail-out, agreed at a summit in July, should be thrown away and rewritten. But all the other euro members (and on present numbers Portugal is just about in the solvent camp) should be defended with overwhelming financial firepower. All the troubled economies, solvent or insolvent, need a renewed programme of structural reform and liberalisation. Freeing up services and professions, privatising companies, cutting bureaucracy and delaying retirement will create conditions for renewed growth—and that is the best way to reduce debts.

A Greek default would threaten many banks, not just in Greece but also French banks that hold southern European debt. Moreover, solvent countries need a breathing-space to push through reforms. That points to agreeing to two measures at the same time: a scheme to shore up the banks, which may take months to put into practice, and a rock-solid promise to support solvent governments, which has to be immediate.

The recapitalisation of Europe’s banks must be based on proper stress tests (which should this time include possible default on Greek sovereign debts). Some banks may be able to raise money in the equity markets, but the most vulnerable will need government help. Core countries like Germany and the Netherlands have enough cash to look after their own banks, but peripheral governments may need euro-zone money. Ideally that would come from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), whose overhaul was the most useful thing to emerge from the July summit. But it also makes sense to set up a euro-zone bank fund, together with a euro-zone bank-resolution authority. That is part of the longer-term institution building. However, the ECB could help the banks by giving a commitment to provide unlimited liquidity for as long as it is required, rather than a rolling six months, as now.

The ECB must declare that it stands behind all solvent countries’ sovereign debts and that it is ready to use unlimited resources to ward off market panic. That is consistent with the ECB’s goal to ensure price and financial stability for the euro zone as a whole. So long as governments are solvent and the bank sells the bonds back to the market after the crisis, this does not amount to monetising government debt. In today’s recessionary world, the ECB could buy several trillion Euros worth of bonds without unleashing inflation.

Many analysts say that Greece would be better off if it could exit the Euro zone and issue a new national currency with the assumption that a new national currency, devalued against the Euro, would spur Greek exports and help growth return to economy. The sobering truth about the single currency is that getting in is a lot easier than getting out again. Legally, the euro has no exit clause. If Greece stormed out, as it might yet have to do, it would suffer a run on its banks, as depositors would withdraw Euros before they are forcibly converted into devalued new drachma. It would have to impose capital controls. Greek companies with international bills would risk bankruptcy, as they would suddenly be without the cash to cover them; and the pressure on other wobbly countries would increase. It would trigger a severe banking and financial crisis as a new devalued currency would increase the value of its debt in terms of national currency. So its better that Greece gets restructured but staying with the Euro.

If, on the other hand, a strong country like Germany walked out of the euro, probably taking other strong countries with it, the result would be just as terrible. The new hard currency would soar, hitting German exporters. Turmoil in the core of the euro zone would hit export markets just as the north’s firms became less competitive. German banks and companies, in a mirror image of what would happen in Greece, would suffer from the sudden devaluation of euro assets outside the new hard-currency zone. And the backbone of the Euro zone might still break apart, as Italy or Spain would not want anything to do with Greece. Amid the debris of broken treaties, wild currency swings and bitter accusation, Europe’s single market could collapse and the EU itself—the rock of the continent’s post-war stability—could start to crumble.

Another possibility is that furious Germans will demand that Greece is thrown out (or bullied out) of the euro to frighten the others. Such a horrific event would indeed scare Portugal and Ireland, but a threat to expel Italy or Spain is empty: they are too big and too tightly tied into the EU. Simply chucking out Greece because it was convenient would permanently undermine the security of small members of the EU. Besides, once Greece defaults and restructures, its economy stands a good chance of making a credible start on its long journey to economic health. The rescue plan should begin with a democratic deficit that needs to be fixed if steps towards closer fiscal union are to work. But there must be ways for good governments to force bad ones to keep in line that do not require the building of a huge new federal super state.

My Nephew♥♥

2011-09-20T18:29:00.001+05:30

aaawwww... isn't he cute...!! wana see him..♥♥♥

Changes in life!! ~ I aint what I was

2011-09-20T13:07:00.034+05:30

Something is wrong with me. Either i'm jobless or I'm bored. Anyway coming to the point, due to this I happened to visit my orkut profile after ages. It was vaguely recognizable. They have changed a lot of stuff and made it even more horrible than it was when they first changed it. I remember the way it was initially and d blue colour is the only thing that has been there since then:p

Was reading my testimonials. Here is a copy:

My expression after reading it: ummm errr was this me?!!

Why have I become so serious in life. Why am i so boring now.. we used to hav so much fun in engineering even though the subjects were damn boring and the teachers were pathetic... We had profs who used to do nothing but dictate or just scribble somethin in d board n force us to copy it even though everything wud be there in d text book..

I cant remember the number of times we used to get caught by the teachers for talking in engineering days. I still remember vasanth sir saying "enga ukkara vechalum ore nimishathula pesa arambichureengale ma" all of us started laughing :D he asked me to sit in the first row next to shyamz as i was talkin sittin in the last row.. he dint realise place doesn't matter.. actually we used to practice talkin without movin the lips much so that we dint get caught.. Subhashini mam once got bored of taking our names and said she felt bad to keep callin us again and again but v never seem too be bothered.. That was the extent to which v used to chat..

I dont think there was a single prof except our hod and deputy hod (vaal surutified in these lectures.. no risks:p) who dint catch us chatting or giggling in class.. The number of times LIC(Linear Integrated Circuits) mam used to call us.. The worst part was whenever we used to laugh she used to think that we were making fun of her, which is partly true:D Once she saw us writin on the desk n lectured us for around 10 mins about learning to be attentive in class.. lol.. Thank goodness she dint come to read it. Had written dat LIC is Lots of Insane Crap:d But we have always been within our limits.. Never been thrown out of the class even once u see :D I remember evry tiny bit of those days.. And it brings happiness when i get reminded of those days..

Here in MBA I like the subjects and most of the teachers but not the environment.. Actually speaking section b was better. At least I liked my place. I hardly talk to people in my present class. I dont talk even to the ones sitting beside me.. I hate the people.. I'm some times not even sure of the reasons behind this hatred.. I just feel all alone sitting in a class of strength 78.. This makes me depressed.. No one likes me.. Am sure of dat much... The feeling is mutual. I hate them; they hate me.. Thats it!! And all this gives me the feeling that I live in a separate universe :D

Anyway I have come here for learning so I shud use this time n do so as much as I can...!!

Ps. On the upside thanks to swati I have a nice roomie.. :):)

the other side is always green!!

2011-09-19T13:20:00.001+05:30

Dated: 10/7/2011

Was talking to my cousin bro after a long time today. And he is the sole reason for me writing this today.

I wish I was a guy. There are several reasons to it starting from bilogical reasons to societal ones (not interested in getting into the details right now). And so I always thought guys were really lucky. I have been brought up in a society where equal importance is given to the girl child and I have always been adored by my parents. However when it came sending me to nit for studies they gave reasons like civil isn't suitable for girls. They still want me to get a job in Chennai n stay at home. But now both me n my parents have come out of it. The tantrums I had thrown during 4 yrs of my ug for not takin me to the aieee counselling has paid off :D

I was tellin my cousin about my worries in gettin a good job blah blah and he tells me "What exactly is ur problem? You can get married and settle" How rude?!! As if girls can not have their own career. And that he wished that he was a girl. So that he can marry some rich guy n get settled. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard from a guy in my life. Hmph! So ya isn't the other side always green.

Marketing and pevertedness;)

2011-07-29T21:55:00.001+05:30

Are these synonyms?!! Two months into the course makes me feel so. The teachers, my fellow students everyones' mind works in a peverted manner. Want to hear a lot of dirty jokes, then I'd suggest you take up marketing. Starting from the adds that are shown to the topics discussed, they somehow manage to make it non veg.

Placecom people perfectly fit in here:D We were given an assignment in consumer behaviour regarding culture. In that we were supposed to think of a product or service to be launched in Greece. One of them said sewage pipes. Another suggested ayurvedic cosmetics. The best idea was given by our dear fellow placecom member; it was to open a brothel as prostitution is legal in Greece. And not just that take people from India, get them "WORK" permits so that there is an Indian feel.

The ads we make:

This print ad for Roux Breast enhancement pills was made by a group of friends in our marketing class. This is a fictional company btw.:P

God save the advertising industry... These are the people who would be making ads few months down the lane:D

And here is an example of the kind of ads we get to analyse. This was given to us by the cb prof. We aren't the only ones who are peverted even our profs are:D

The irony was I had to present this in front of around 60 people. Believe me, I have completely forgotten what it feels like to be shy. I really have no idea how, but I managed to explain the consumer behaviour concepts associated with the ad without laughing or making a fool of myself in front of the class:D

Anyway we are all grown ups now.. We had all about stds and contraceptives even in the 10th grade.. So all this isn't a big deal actually:D

But tell me after looking at the ads, is there any possibility of a person being in marketing and not being peverted?!! :p

How boring can Life get!!

2011-07-29T21:34:00.001+05:30

Dated: 26th July

Seriously man, I feel my life is boring to the power of infinity. Thought of bunking consumer behaviour lecture as I had bunked only one out of 30 lectures so far. But then I ended up attending the lecture bcoz I dint know what else to do. HOW BORING CAN THINGS BE!! How sad is my life!! I just cant believe that I have no better job to do other than attending the lecture and looking at the professor's face. And that too CB of all subjects!! Hmph I pity my own state..

Ask me my to do list.. There will be n assignments to do, m tests and so on. When was the last time I went out?! 19th july to watch Harry potter. Okay that isn't long before. But I haven't stepped out of electronic city after that. And in the last two months I've been to the city only twice: once for hp and another time for watching Xmen. Now tell me aint I in a pitiable state:(

Life has become too boring... Aren't there better stuff to do than sitting in classes and doing assignments, projects... Hmph... anyway all this just for few more months... n then i think i'll say i miss this place.. I really dunno why this happens always... Curse everyone around you till you are in a place and miss the same place after you move out...

Life and the choices we make

2011-07-17T19:35:00.000+05:30

Isn't life all about making choices?! or dat is wat I've felt so far.. When we are kids our parents made the decisions on our behalf and later we do... Sometimes or perhaps always if the things proceed in a fine manner we wouldn't appreciate the choice we had made, but once things backfire we'd be cursing ourselves every minute...

I am really not sure of the number of times I've cursed myself :D So am writing about the choices i've made in my life and the goof ups.. This started from 8th grade... like every Indian kid I wanted to be a doctor.. without the slightest clue of what exactly I'd be doing out there... Then came to 10th grade n decided even dissection of cockroaches was too much for me, forget corpses... Biology was interesting, I loved to draw diagrams but dissection wasn't my area... So gave up the idea...

And ya another so called decision in 10th grade... whether to continue in cbse or switch to state board... I was completely against state board bcoz of the stuff I heard from my cousins... I wasn't a master of by hearting stuff... I've always preferred understanding and learning... or dat s wat I learnt being in cbse... Not trying to say it s some great curriculum but on a comparative basis I'd always prefer cbse... So decided to continue in cbse...

Dint take bio as I had no intentions of dissecting few more cockroaches and perhaps a few rats :D And for the first time I actually loved a subject... Computer coz of C++... somehow I enjoyed programming... It is still one of my areas of interest though I have come a long way dat there aren't chances of geting back...

Chemistry was my least fav sub... i liked the labs though... I'd still like to do salt analysis :D And I cant forget d H2S kipps apparatus disaster (one of my friends broke d nob... n u'll know wat followed if u had done chemistry at any point)... n titrations n pale pink which i never managed to get.. I hated the equations... anything live was gud... but on paper it sucked...

Physics was gud on paper but I dint like the experiments... Equations in physics was something i liked... may be bcoz physics had a lot of problems like maths... Was never great at maths but that is a subject i've never had the difficulty to learn... As in I messed it sometimes in exams so have never got a centum.. Careless mistakes as ppl call it or concentration problem according to me:p

So wat after 12th... not a doc so an engineer... wrote some 5 entrance exams including iit, aieee, tnpcee... iit was a joke... got a positive score and dat too around 50 though:D unexpectedly;)

aieee is something for which i had put efforts for two years... it went on fine... got a decent rank... state rank was gud... I got a call but guess wat I dint go for the counselling bcoz my rank wasn't gud enough for me to get a seat in trichy and my parents dint want me to go to other states.... WHOM SHUD I CURSE... After the counselling results were out I was frustrated when i knew that ppl with a rank lower than mine had managed to get civil engg in calicut... So no NIT for me... HATED THE FACT THAT I WAS A GIRL OOPS I MEAN I STILL AM... BUT EVEN NOW I DO HATE BEING ONE... I still wish I had a NIT degree instead of an ordinary engg degree... I also hated the fact that i dint have siblings for the first time bcoz i think that was also a reason for my parents' decision...

No point complaining so wat next... Ended up in an engg col and took ece... Now don't ask me why ece... I liked gadgets and also physics and ece was a branch of physics... That s what I thought till i joined the course....

I complain a lot but prefer doing the work which i am supposed to do at least at an average level if not outstanding... I HATED ECE... very few profs knew d subject and made us understand stuff... cursed the other teachers bcoz they never explained stuff it was either dictation class or copying from d board... but that dint stop me from doing the course bcoz i had no choice... :x

Again what next?? Job or Masters... both:D prepare for interviews and masters... MS /M.Tech/MBA.?? I thought i had had enough with ECE and i cant tolerate a masters in electronics so chose MBA... prepared for CAT... Gave around 10 exams...cat, xat, mat, snap, iift, dce etc.... and ended up finally in SIBM, bangalore...

Got placed in infy before dat... decided to give up the offer n took MBA... sometimes i still feel i should have worked for a year or two and then came here...

Struggled a lot in the first year... hated anything and everything... wanted to run back to chennai, to home, my zone of comfort... I was an alien to this culture... partyin, puffin, boozin, ATTITUDE everywhere around... not that ppl dint in graduation days but i never stayed in hostel over there so dint get to see much of the crap... I found it to be hell... look at the same set of ppl who you hate (for some unidentified mixture of reasons) 24*7....

Got used to the class and ppl by the end of the year but that was of no use bcoz we had to take different specializations...

The next choice: specialization!! y marketing is something i'm still wondering.... The answer s elimination like wat the zonal mgr from pepsi, who had come to our campus yesterday said. Lets see where I end up after this... THIS WILL DEPEND ON MY PLACEMENT.

I am dead sure of one thing. I'm am not going to go for recommendation for my job.. That is the last thing I'd want my dad to do for me... Having spent so much time, effort and money on me; it is time for m to give him back something... He doesn't need money... Being a hard worker he has somehow managed to start from zero and create assets which will be enough not just for mum n dad but even for my lifetime.... so that is definitely not what I can do for him... So all i need to do is work hard n make him proud... I admire him and I've always been proud of him... I want a day when he'd be proud to have me as his daughter...

signing off.......

44 kgs?? holy shit!!

2011-07-14T18:46:00.000+05:30

I very badly hope the weight machine wasn't working properly today..!! I was 54 before joining MBA... 50 when i went home after 1st year.. 53 again in the begining of this yr... What the hell??!! I have gone back to my 11th grade weight... High time i start eating properly..!!! Now I understand why all my formals have become ill fitting..!! I so hate this... Somebody please give me few kgs...

The last person on earth I want to share this info is my mom... Dunno how I'm gona manage to keep my big fat mouth shut.. Somehow I blabber a lot to her.. I am not calling for few days:D and hopefully by then even I'll forget it.. :D

soupa......

2011-07-08T19:06:00.000+05:30

Yup dats my name... People have always asked the meaning of it. I have answered all of them; probably a couple more than zillion times saying it doesn't have a meaning and its just a fusion of my mum's and dad's name. I have come across weird situations where people tried figuring out a meaning for my name.. How jobless can they be!! One of my school mates tried very hard and explained to me that my name was actually short form of sowbhagya... Ridiculous i say..!! I know what it means and why i was named so... Why on earth would I wan2 listen to a 3rd person telling me the meaning of my name!!

Was jobless after sip presentation today so just tried googling the meaning and this is the result i got:

"We describe a shared ontology called SOUPA -- Standard Ontology for Ubiquitous and Pervasive Applications. SOUPA is designed to model and support pervasive computing applications. This ontology is expressed using the Web Ontology Language OWL and includes modular component vocabularies to represent intelligent agents with associated beliefs, desires, and intentions, time, space, actions and events, user profiles, actions, and policies for security and privacy. We discuss how SOUPA can be extended and used to support the applications of Cobra, a broker-centric agent architecture for building smart meeting rooms, and MoGATU, a peer-to-peer pervasive data management system."

My friends at college already used to call me human chitti. This again seems somewhat similar to that.. Whom should i blame?? I'm not a robot for heavens' sake. :D Sincerely hope nandhini never comes across this page:D

And I've always loved my name despite the fact that there s hardly a single person who got the pronunciation right the first time. It is an unique name and that's exactly what I like about it. so am not much bothered if people call me "soup"-a :D You do have a lot of advantages with such names...there will never be a need for people to refer to u by initials or sometimes dob, roll no.s (when your initials r also d same :D)...

try signing up for a mail id... everything is yours... no need for adding stupid n sometimes irrelevant numbers or symbols :P And any interview I attend I know one of their questions beforehand :D

Get married and you'd think MBA was loads better

2011-07-06T14:16:00.001+05:30

No no... dont mistake me!! I'm not saying this by experience.. I am still doing my business mgt course and there r atleast two more happy years left before the necessary evil would come into my life:D:D

Was chatting with my bestie after a long time for hours together and I think I ended up complaining a lot. I was also saying that every stage in life u feel the previous phase was better.. There cant be a single thing that I dint complain about my engineering days, starting from college infra, faculty, boring lectures to the canteen food, bus timings, labs where equipments don't work etc the list would go on.. But the same person now actually thinks those days were fun and it would be great to go back by few years!! I just cant believe this change..

That s when she said "Get married and you will feel MBA was better. Have kids and you'll feel being married was better" rotfwl... I could not help but agree with both her statements..

After all LIFE IS A VIGOROUS CYCLE!!!!!

Work experience!!

2011-07-04T00:31:00.000+05:30

These are the two words i hate the most as I dont have it :D And that is one of the reasons for my pathetic feeling and me being insecure about getting a job.. The people with work experience seem to be very knowledgeable.. And I feel i'm very theoretical and boring. The way few of my classmates in first year used to speak made me wonder whether I was actually fit to be in the class. It took me a certain while to actually start understanding what they were speaking. Now I can relate and understand but I'm more worried about when I'll start thinking like that!!

Previously I never used to speak in group meetings or even committee meetings. I have changed a bit this year. I am not anymore afraid to voice my views whether it is stupid or sensible.

Now I am actually desperate to speak whenever and wherever possible. This is not good either. I dunno what will people think when I speak and they are not interested in the shit I'm speaking. Anyway I have other things to be bothered about in life than what people over here think about me. I am going to use this as a training ground. Mess up as much as possible. And learn what to do n what not to. But being in marketing I need to speak up. I really cant afford to be silent.

Double meaning!!

2011-07-03T20:42:00.000+05:30

This is something i am really sick of!! I dunno y but i feel i'm the last person on earth to understand wat ppl speak..!! Sometimes I feel I'm the world's BIGGEST TUBELIGHT!!

It s embarassing to ask ppl d meaning.. I wan2 understand stuff without taking ages to think or googling anythin and evrythin.. Am 22 years and y d hell am i like this.. I feel kind of foolish when everyone around understands stuff n i end up being the only one to blink...!

Sometimes I wish i wan2 rewind life n go back to school or even KG....
When everyone around was innocent; when hunger only meant u wanted food..
but now dat s d last thing i'm hungry for..!!

Life sucks!!

2011-07-03T19:58:00.000+05:30

I dunno y am in such a mood!! but i just hate life.. everything around sucks or probably i suck at everythin!!
I am physically and mentally sick..! frustrated to the core.!!
I just feel like running off to a very distant place without looking behind.. Given a choice with the state of mind I'm in at present I wouldn't mind going to another planet as well.!! I feel very lonely..

look at the name of the blog - Zany??! AND the stuff i write.. there seems to be no relevance in what i'm doin.. This is exactly how my life is going on at the moment.. Isn't that enough to explain the reason behind my frustration..
Okay I'm changing the name of the blog to "confessions" instead!!

It is not like i'm not fit for anything.. But i dunno why the hell i haven't made the right choices in life.. I have been stupid enough to choose irrelevant stuff for myself for two continuous years.. I would'e taken operations and done something that i might've liked.. but look at where i'm.. Dad wanted me to take marketin n here i am.. Not that he forced me to do it either... Then y...??

Here comes the most important thing- my CONFIDENCE level...
Why is it that i feel insecure and am never confident in wat i do.. The irony is that what I do makes sense most of the time. I was the topper in my engineering days. And at present in marketing... But am the only person with 0 confidence..
And in loss of words! "You always are" as mentioned by one of my friends..
Am not bad at communicating... Then where d hell is the effing problem..!!
I am yet to discover this..!!!!!! This is exactly what I hate abt myself..

Go get a life!!!!

2011-02-07T19:56:00.000+05:30

This is a very common phrase we come across. But what is life? It is our perception ! Each one of us will be having a particular view and we might be thinking that it is the most accepted one. But just because it is accepted by many it doesn't become the right one. Partying, movies, BOOZING, games may be life for someone but for another it may be a small telephonic conversation with friends or family. And for some it may be studies, dedication and work life. Who are we to decide what is right and what is wrong and tell people "go get a life". For all you know even the one whom you are saying this to might want to say it back to you. :P I am writing this because I've seen people bullying one of my batchmate because he is studious. He has a hundred percent attendance record and he is the topper with 3.48 CGPA. Everyone says he doesn't have a life. This sounds ridiculous according to me. People smoke, drink and certain exceptions even dope, is that life??
Then most certainly I dont have a life!!!! :D

Sounds like I'm being too philosophical.... so I'll stop here :D

India and the world in 2025 (our economics project)

2011-02-07T18:54:00.000+05:30

India overtakes China to become the most populous country in the world:

For centuries, China has been the most populous nation on Earth. The recent survey by the UN revealed that India has finally overtaken China in population. India’s population has reached 1.396 billion as against 1.394 billion of China. China and India put together account for 34% of the world’s population.

According to the UN, the world population has reached 8.1 billion out of which 61 %, nearly two third is in Asia. Today, Asia’s population's impact on the environment is evident even in the most remote areas. Population is increasing but the standard of living of a vast majority of people is deteriorating. The number of the inhabitants of slums at world has doubled in the last 15 years and the slum population has reached about 1.5 billion according to the UN estimates. The population of the all the countries in the European Union now accounts for only 6.5% of the world population.

China since 1980 has allowed most women to bear only one child, in a controversial policy aimed at creating a more sustainable population. Should India also start taking such stringent measures for population reduction like the Chinese or not? This debate has been going on for the past three decades but no outcomes were there. Another major problem at present is the aging European Union. The Union at present has the highest proportion of people of more than 65 years old in the world (30 % of the population). The rate of aging in the union has overtaken that of Japan which has only 20% of its population above 65 years of age.

BSE Sensex turns 40: The climb from 549 to 90385

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex, the barometer of India’s stock market fortunes, is entering its 40th year. BSE was launched on January 2, 1986 with 30 most actively traded stocks of that period, with 1979 as the base year. Today, the 30 stocks on the BSE Sensex, account less than 1/20th of the market capitalization of the Bombay Stock Exchange. The composition of the index too has undergone change many times as only 7 of the original 30 companies continue to be part of the Sensex.

There are more than 11,050 companies listed on the BSE, making it the biggest stock exchange in the world on the basis of number of listed companies. But not all stocks are actively traded. Even fewer are significant pointers of the trends in the market and the economy. At the launch of the Sensex, the Bombay Stock Exchange had said that "the absence of an index number of equity prices to reflect the general trend of the market was felt for a long time by investors and also by newspapers who do not compile their own index numbers”.

From its early days in 1986, the Sensex has travelled a long way and has increased by nearly 165 times to the present. On the first day of trading on April 1, 1986, the Sensex had closed at 549.43. It has closed at 90385 on December 31, 2024. It is expected to cross the milestone of 1,00,000 points in the coming months.

Petrol prices up by Rs. 4.50 to Rs. 250/lit

Petroleum minister Sachin Pilot announced yesterday that the government will hike the price of petrol by Rs. 4.50, effective from 3rd of January 2025. The retail price of petrol will be 250 Rs/lit in New Delhi and 255Rs/lit in Chennai. Price of diesel would also go up by 3 Rs. to 206.50 Rs/lit in Delhi and 210 Rs/lit in Chennai.

Pilot announced that the price hike was inevitable as global crude price touched $400 a barrel in December 2024. He stated that the price hike was not excessive and was in line with the Government’s policy of maintaining a steady 9% hike per annum that it has been doing for the past 30 years. As a measure of reducing the diesel subsidy burden, the government will hike the price of diesel even further throughout the year as it aims to cut the subsidy on diesel to less than 15% by the end of 2025. By the end of the year the retail petrol price is expected to touch 275Rs/lit & the retail diesel price to 235Rs/lit.

Changing pattern of cost of capital in India

The cost of capital in the Indian economy has significantly gone down over the last 10 years from about 9.5% to 4%, with the introduction of IFRS accounting standards in the year 2014. It provides for greater standardization of resulting providing better information to the investors. High quality of financial information helps investors distinguish between good and bad investments and also between good and bad management. The corporate governance system has led to better transparency in the functions of the management. This in turn has reduced the risk of estimation by the markets which are usually reflected in a discount on the valuation of a company on the bourses.

Banks and investors in the market which lacks credible financial information protect themselves by increasing their sell price and decreasing their buy price. This increases the transaction cost, which induces a shareholder to expect a higher return on equity for compensation of perceived risks. This phenomenon to a great extend is seen to be of the past with the credible information flowing in the market, with one form of accounting practiced by all firms, thus helping the investors take a better decision. The accounting standards practiced today does not take into account the country specific issues.

The number of funds in the form of private equity, venture capital has reduced over the years from 540 in the year 2009 to 118 today which is good enough as the cost of private equity today is 15% as compared to about 25% 15 years ago. The companies are attracting investors with margin expansions in their profits by significant reduction in their working capital and high growth in demand across major sector. The profit after tax of the Indian corporate sector today is 6.9% which gives good returns to the investors at low risk. With government reducing its stamp duty, it has become convenient for the corporate sector to bring in the efficiency in its balance sheet by easy replacement of assets to suit its business requirements. India still runs on a fiscal deficit, but with its rising export revenue, its deficit is reducing making it easier for the companies to reduce their cost of capital. Though the exports of India are rising, the appreciation in the currency rate has kept a check on the inflation.

Politics:

Election commission celebrates a stunning 74% voter turn-up for the Lok Sabha elections:

First time in Indian history we have seen that 74% of the population turned up for elections. The credit for this definitely goes to the Election Commission and “Janagrah” a Bangalore based NGO which also handled the JNURM project in 2010. The continuous efforts to digitalize the voting system have finally paid off well. The “E-Voting” system is the online voting system which had long been a demand by the people. The Right to live and settle anywhere in the country had been a major challenge to maintain the voter’s list.

Also the frequent migration of employees in the IT/ITES industries made it very difficult to register these voters. Many a times the voters were registered under different constituency but resided in some other and made no sense to vote in the constituency they were registered in. The process of registration also took so long that changing or updating it to their current residential area was never exercised. This kept the majority of educated population away from elections which made it easier for the corrupted politicians to buy votes from the poorer sections of the society. Politicians then elected were nothing but a bunch of crooks.

But the picture has completely changed because of the new ‘E- Voting’ system where each individual can update its constituency and be verified within a week’s time. The UID has also helped in the verification process and made the work easier as most of the data is already available in the govt database. The updating process only requires previous voter’s card detail, UID no., reason for a shift, current employer NOC and residential proof. At the time of the election the voter can vote on the online portal with its valid Voter’s no., UID no and password at the polling booth so as to avoid any sort of influential voting. This has been a great step towards development of the Indian Political system and the whole country is looking forward to it to bring fruitful results.

New surge in India’s Political Demography

If an award has to be declared for the most dramatic event in 2024, it has to be won by the 2024 Lok Sabha elections which saw a splurge in the history of India’s election where the number of turnarounds of voters was the highest ever. 73% of Indians casted a vote this time. It was not only the rural population but also the urban population who voted in good number. The number of voters turned out to be 1.22 billion which is about 74% of the total voting population which is the best figure, India has ever received. The urban votes were about 456 million people which was about 79% of the votes. With 10% of the Lok Sabha seats taken by IIM graduates, we are holding our breath to see the positive changes that is yet to come. The Lok Sabha today looks like an ideal picture of the demographic representation with 48% of it filled with candidates below 35 years of age and 56% of the cabinet ministry filled with candidates below 40 years of age. This shows the increasing interest that the youth is taking in Indian politics today to make this country grow and supersede China.
This picture clearly represents India’s expectations from the current government. UPA government is back in power after 2 successive defeats in the elections by the BJP Government. Rahul Gandhi who was considered the youth icon of the country 10 years ago, may not be as much a youth more but he has definitely brought a wave of youthful zeal in the country. The promises of total eradication of illiteracy, electricity generation, and greater employment opportunities to make the number of people below poverty line, a negligible % are some of the mega plans that Rahul Gandhi has come up with. Hope the plans that are being undertaken by him to eradicate these problems with 1/3rd of government funds going into solving these major issues is what the government proposes to do. Some of the schemes are already in operation like Ubharta Yuva to generate greater employment opportunities. How well this government will do is a question yet to be answered.

Clash of North and South

In 2024, the political powers of North and South India clashed for the seat of Prime Ministership of India. Rahul Gandhi emerged a winner as Kanimozhi was defeated in the congressional voting for Prime Minister’s post. Rahul Gandhi had the political backing of the northern states. Especially people from UP and MP were keen on having Rahul as their PM.

The political and economic divide between North and South India has been growing for the last decade. In 2010s, the Southern states had the advantage of having higher number of working population and these states had economic power. Southern India has shown steady economic growth but the political power has remained in Northern India. The Northern states have had more representation in Parliament due to higher population of these states.

In the words of Kanimozhi, leader of DMK, "Leaders from South Indian states should hold political power as they are more economically advanced. Northern states get more benefits in allocation of budget and policy formulation procedures due to high representation of Northern leaders in Parliament. Only people from Southern India can help Northern India in development. As we have developed our states, we will help in developing their states also." Southern leaders have been fighting for representation in Parliament based on economic power and not based on population, as is the situation now. Also Southern states have been fighting for their PM, who they believe would make fair policies and distribute the wealth of the nation as per the income generation capacities of each state. The leaders from Southern India have been shouting against using the income generated by them to uplift the Northern states.

While leaders from Northern India have felt that people from Southern India are anti- nationalist. They accuse South Indians of disrespecting the Nation because they are not able to speak hindi and are more into their own culture rather than accepting the popularistic North Indian culture. The leaders from North state have also blamed southern states for not promoting inclusive growth, they feel that southern India has grown leaving the northern India behind. As per Rajaram, the leader of Bahujan samaj Party (BSP), "Southern states have used their economic power to manipulate the politicians and the policies are biased toward South Indian states. They have more SEZs than Northern India even when the area available for SEZs is more in Northern India."

India has peculiar demographics, which resulted in double demographic dividend; one in Southern India and the other in Northern India. The Southern states have had the advantage of demographic dividend in 2010s and the advantage is now shifting towards Northern India. The leaders from Southern India want the political power to help the declining growth rate of their states while leaders from Northern India want the power to ensure that the benefits of demographic dividend are reaped to the full extent.

Changing face of Retail Industry

Global Retail industry is a mature industry. It is considered to be timeless industry, people would always buy. But technological advancement of “PIH” (Purchase In Home) has created a major threat to the industry. The technology has been a game changer in the world market. Many major global players are suffering due to their inability to adopt the new technology and higher cost of exiting the market.

“PIH” (Purchase In Home) is new technology by which the end consumers are given a goggle like device which simulates the retail store and the consumers pick up the goods that they want to buy. The picked goods are then delivered to the consumers preferred address. Consumers’ Bank details are available to the retailer who directly deducts the amount from the Bank. The Bank is notified every time any transaction takes place and Bank confirms the delivery of the goods from the consumers before transferring the money. The major advantage of PIH over an online service provided by the retailers was the convenience factor. PIH was preferred as the payment was easier. Also the system is designed in a way that you still get the feeling of being in a retail store.

The technology was introduced first in Japan in 2018 by a new retailer Kaimono. The PIH technology is an extension of NVIDIA technology introduced in 2010. Need for such a technology was found in Japan because of the rising aging population. Kaimono was able to gain market share of 43% in Japan in just about last four years. The traditional retailers in Japan are suffering because they have large investments in the real estate and distribution network. The company has targeted other major markets like US, Britain, Germany, France. It has already entered US and Germany couple of years back. The sales of Kaimono in these countries are increasing at a great speed.

When the technology was first introduced, almost all retailers believed that it will not work because people would prefer the shopping experience in a retail store than purchasing anything through PIH. It was also portrayed risky as the Bank details will be shared with the retailer. But the predictions turned out to be wrong and PIH is now threatening to destroy the retail industry as we know it.

An insider in Wal-Mart, who did not want to be named said that the management is worried about the continuous reduction of sales in US and Germany. There is a lot of unrest in retail industry due to this technology. Representative of Spencers was unwilling to comment on the issue. The traditional retailers in Japan are suffering because they have large investments in the real estate and distribution network.

Labour unrest in India

The year 2024 will remain alive in Indian IT history for its first labour strike. The labourers from Aakash Clouding Companies, Bengaluru went on strike for a week. The Labour union was demanding better pay scale and more fringe benefits. The management of Aakash Clouding Companies was unwilling to succumb to the demands of the Union. They said that they were under pressure from Chinese and Korian IT industry and needed to remain competitive. The strike was later called off because of government intervention.

As per the 14th amendment to Factories act (1948), the IT/ ITES employees and service sector employees also come under the definition of “Labour”. They have the rights of a labourer in a factory. This has given the IT/ ITES workers right to create unions. Many IT firms now have a Labour union which looks after the welfare of its members.

The amendment was demanded by the workers for about a decade. In the decade of 2010, many political and economic forces debated on such an amendment. There was PIL filed for the same reason in 2011 by Mr. Sachin Devaraman. The basis for the PIL was that the number of employable people for IT/ ITES industry has increased tremendously, giving superior bargaining power to the employers. Employees were easily replaceable and this was taken as huge advantage by the employers to exploit the employees. In 5-7 years preceding the PIL filing, the salaries of the workers had gone down continuously.

After a lot of agitation from workers, in 2017, government passed the law that IT/ ITES workers can be classified as workers. This gives them the right to form Unions and make a collective bargaining with the management of the company. Also there are certain minimum standards with respect to the salary, benefits, working conditions that an IT/ ITES firm has to maintain as per the guidelines given in the amendment.

The underdog named Uttar Pradesh

India is a country always known for its diverse cultures and secularism divided between north, south, east, west, rich, poor, ... Known for its BIMARU states once upon a time, it has seen a massive surge in the development by these states especially by Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Uttar Pradesh is one of the most preferred destinations for FIIs with massive construction projects being undertaken with a number of Indian and multinational firms like Morgan Stanley investment bank, Goldman Sachs, Star Bazaar etc. finding a place in the market to reap the benefits of the growing markets in the city and the nearby states. Uttar Pradesh has already taken over states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as preferred destination for investment by major companies.

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous city holding India’s 20% population and contributing 13% to India’s GDP is another state which with the advent of education, employment, infrastructure and reduced corruption rate, has contributed to this economic and social development. UP has always been known for its caste based politics where parties like BSP and SP had fought a battle to take over the state politics but now under the BJP leadership of Mihir Gadre, UP is seeing a great economic prosperity witnessing a growth of about 10.23% per annum. The migration rate which was about 8.9 million in the year 2012, is now reduced to 4.9 million people. This is a direct result of greater employment generation plans of the government in the past 5 years providing good employment opportunities in IT and financial sectors. with the food retailers supporting the agriculture, it has seen a new surge of improvement despite low monsoon last year. The infrastructural development is on the rise with Uttar Pradesh metro taking the lead. “ The city of parks and monuments” as it is known, has seen an increase in its tourism revenues by 56% in last 10 years with Himachal Pradesh taking the main credit for it.

More than 7,300 km of roads have been relaid and 3,620 bridges and culverts constructed in the last ten years. Journey time in India’s 4th largest state, sprawling over 2,94,411sq km, has been cut by half today in many places. Automobile sales in the state grew 45% last year. Is this buying spree an indication that a section of people have more money to splurge than they did earlier? May be, yes. With the government having disinvested the power sector to Reliance, the state has seen a great improvement in the state electricity.

This economic growth has happened with great contributions from agriculture, manufacturing and service sector. According to former UPIA president K P S Keshri, private investments in the manufacturing sector have been as much as Rs 87,948 crore during the last ten years.
Today Uttar Pradesh is not known for the Income tax raids, Rs.5 crore garlands and the birthday of the Chief Minister being celebrated in a grander manner than Republic Day or Independence Day, but it captures the headlines for its growth stories.

Automobile Industry:

India overtakes the US to become World’s second biggest car market

Indian automotive market put a clean, F1 style overtaking maneuver on its US counterpart on account of a solid 14% YOY growth in 2024. Sales in India increased from 12.45 million units in 2023 to 14.2 million units in 2024, while the American car sales languished at 13.95 million units, showing a measly 1.3% growth over 2023. Experts predict that India will increase its lead over the US market by a whopping 2.3 million by end of this year. With rising middle class incomes and India’s B & C tows driving demand like never before, the Indian automotive industry is expected to maintain a growth rate of around 15% in 2025. It was 16 years ago in 2009 that China overtook US to gain the no.1 spot. In 2024, sales in the Chinese market stood at a robust 32 million units.

Hyundai’s small car Optima topped the sales charts with annual sales of 8.64 lakh units, thanks to the spectacular sales of 78,000 units in the month of December. Tata’s Nano Europa was a close runner up with annual sales of 7.92 lakh with 71,200 units flying out of the showrooms in December. Toyota’s Aygo, VW’s Up & Ford’s Ka followed with sales of 5.76 lakh, 5.52 lakh & 5.28 lakh units respectively.

Toyota remained the undisputed market leader in the Indian market with annual sales of 3.26 million units, increasing its market share by 2 percentage points from 21% to 23%. After 4 years of trying and failing, Hyundai finally managed to relegate Maruti-Suzuki to the 3rd spot. Hyundai managed to corner a market share of 16.2% selling 2.3 million units in 2010 compared to Maruti-Suzuki’s 2.27 million. Maruti-Suzuki which used to command half of the Indian market about a decade ago has seen its market share get eroded down to just 16% over the years. However, its ageing portfolio of ‘bread and butter’ small cars continues to find favor in rural India. World’s biggest car maker VW has seen a steady climb to the no.4 position in India, with a market share of 12.8%. It has got the competition worried as it plans to launch the world first truly affordable hybrid small car in 2026. Ford rounded up the top 5 with a market share of 9.4%, much better compared to that of its arch-rival GM’s measly 3.6%.

Indian companies were dealt a mixed bag of fortunes in 2024 with Tata Motors capitalizing on a 6.8% market share in the Indian market. The Nano Europa accounted for almost 80% of its sales, while its range of MUVs making up for the rest. Tata’s JLR subsidiary continued to flourish, with Land-Rover leading the premium SUV market with sales of 4.2 million units worldwide, thanks in no small measure to the thundering success of its newly launched mini-SUV, Evoque.

Jaguar managed to outsell two if German rivals Mercedes & BMW with annual sales of 7.3 million units, while Audi continued to dominate the luxury car market with sales of 9.2 million units in 2024. Mahindra & Mahindra’s market share fell by 0.2% to 2.9% with its archaic SUVs losing favor with urban India. Mahindra’s fortunes were mirrored by its Korean subsidiary Ssangyong whose global sales fell from 7.4 lakh to 5.6 lakh units.

Indian exports grew by 8.4% to 5.75 million units. Hyundai led the pack with exports of 1.56 million units, mainly consisting of its small cars i10, i20 & i30. Volkswagen and Toyota followed with 1.2 and 1.13 million units respectively. India has truly emerged as a small car export hub with the Global big 5, namely Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai, Ford and Nissan manufacturing almost 40% of their small cars in India. However China remained the top car-exporter in the world with annual exports of 8.8 million units in 2024, up from practically non-existent exports a decade ago.

Indian car imports increased 2.4% to 2.9 million units of which 2.8 million were imported from China. Although GM, Nissan and Honda’s Chinese car brands didn’t quite takeover the entire market as was feared during their launch some 7-8 years back but they have made significant inroads into the Indian market, since.

GM-Baujon’s 650 and Dongfeng-Honda’s Bravo topped the import charts, with sales of 3.34 and 2.8 lakh units, mostly in smaller B & C towns. Chinese trio of BYD and Geely & Hover continued to make significant inroads into the Indian car market. BYD managed sell 2.34 lakh units through its 200 dealerships, its E6 electric hatch outselling Mahindra-Reva’s NXR by 2000 units. Geely & Hover both crossed the 100 dealerships marker in 2024, targeting smaller cities and towns for their expansion strategy.

Hybrid Car sales soar Globally, Indian market remains sceptical

Hybrid cars accounted for 15% of the total car sales in India, with 12% of them being petrol-electric hybrids and 3% being the new diesel-electric hybrids pioneered by VW. Toyota’s Etios and Liva hybrids occupied the top 2 spots of the hybrid car market with sales of 1.92 and 1.8 lakh units respectively. Honda’s futuristic looking City-Hybrid stood 3rd with sales of 1.41 lakh units followed closely by VW’s Vento & Polo diesel-hybrids managing 1.38 lakh & 1.14 lakh units. It would be interesting to see how long the City can hold off against the Vento-Hybrid, which has been the first hybrid car ever to top the global sales charts. Whereas, elsewhere in the world hybrids have garnered a 55% market share, pure-electrics struggled at 14%.

Gone are the days when there used to be only 2 types of power-train options, petrol and diesel to choose from. Today, the marketplace is populated with dozens of options ranging from micro-hybrids, range-extenders, series and parallel hybrids, rotary-hybrids & plug-in hybrids, with the car manufacturers complicating matters further with their own acronyms like Honda’s IMA-II and Hyundai’s A-Ypsilon, which are essentially different names for the same technology. Adding to the melee are electric cars with options of fixed or swappable batteries and differentiated further by the various types of battery technologies like lead-acid, lithium-ion and nickel-cadmium to chose from. The German big 3 firms, Audi, BMW & Mercedes continued to push sales of their futuristic hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles with the hydrogen vehicles accounting for almost 30% of their sales in 2024. However, the availability of hydrogen fuelling stations remains a major hurdle and the companies are working with over 50 metropolitan governments build refueling infrastructure. Sports-car makers Porsche & Ferrari continue to push the envelope with their hydrogen internal combustion and turbine powered supercars equipped with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS).

Spurious Auto-components scam uncovered

VOKSJADE MOTOR (fictional name) Manesar based auto component supplier settles lawsuit with Daimler AG. For selling home-made spares as ‘Made in Germany’, and since India is known as one of the largest automotive hub all across the globe, this scam has struck the news at its peak.

The raw material and the motor parts which were to be imported specially from German companies were being manufactured internally in the same premises of Voksjade motors, Surat, and tagged it as made in Germany, this mother of all scams reported a figure of Rs.3,00,000 crore as the scam size. The scam kingpin, the chairperson of Voksjade motors Mr. Albert Motorwala (fiction) bribed from workers to official for letting the illegalalities inside the walls of the company.

Today morning the chairperson himself admitted to the falsification of the motor parts production, company accounts and various other irregularities. The matter is still under investigation and litigation and the true extent of the scam will be known in the future.
Indian financial system has been facing irregularities not only today in 2025A.D. but since its independence and to such extent that we simply do not pay heed to smaller scams that take place around us on a daily basis. To remind a few which even brought change in the financial system would be the insurance scam in 1947 which lead to the formation of LIC and similarly security, CRB, UTI, Home trade, Fake stamp, DSQ software’s, Satyam and many more.

BS X emission norms to be effective from 1st of April

India’s Bharat Stage X norms will come in effect simultaneously with the Euro X norms from 1st
of April 2025. The norms will come into immediate effect across the 20 metros. The BS X norms adopt similar limits as that of Euro X capping off the maximum permissible CO2 emissions to 40 gm/km. Manufacturers like Maruti-Suzuki and Mahindra as well as the Chinese imports will be required to undertake technological updates and consequently cause a 2% price increase due to expensive R&D required for cutting particulate emissions. Maruti-Suzuki will phase out its once-bestselling Alto from major cities as the modifications required to make it BS X compatible will be too expensive for it to remain competitive in the market.

BS X norms will also put pressure on manufacturers to control particulate emissions of their diesel powered cars. Today, diesel is the fuel of choice for 65% of the buyers whereas petrol is favored by just 25%. The top 3 cars on sales chart prove that a lethal combo of ultra-efficient 900cc diesel engine and automatic transmission remains a firm favorite among value conscious Indian buyers. However, the demand for diesel cars is expected to recede as Government plans to further reduce the subsidy on diesel to less than 10% and launch affordable hybrids in India by 2026. This is expected to spark a surge in demand for hybrid cars from their current market share of 15% to about 27% in 2030.

Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) will also be given a 25% subsidy strengthening demand for electric cars from the current 1.42 million units to 3 million units by 2030.

Technology:

Google wins the market with Cloud Power

Google has gain 70% market with its new OS on cloud. Cloud computing has evolved tremendously. It has been successful in mitigating the risk in all three sections like Software, Hardware and Platform as services. Thanks to Intel, Processing power of Pc’s has improved three folds because of which it has created favorable environment for cloud computing to flourish. Internet services across the globe have improved to a great ex tent and hence internet speed is no more a constraint in major parts of world. Companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft have taken full advantage of this improved infrastructure and are able to generate huge amount of revenue through their cloud services.

Earlier cost involved in purchasing PC’s use to be for Hard Disks, Mother board, Monitors and other accessories’ cost, operating System, other software license’s cost. Time to boot or start PC use to be in minutes. Every new useful software had to be purchased. But now because of cloud computing the only cost involved is hardware. This was possible only because of browser based operating system which is deployed on cloud.

Cloud is a simplified operating system that runs just a web browser, providing access to a variety of web-based applications that allow the user to perform many simple tasks without booting a full-scale operating system. Because of its simplicity, Cloud can boot in just a few seconds. The operating system is designed for Netbooks, Mobile Internet Devices, and PCs that are mainly used to browse the Internet. From Cloud the user can quickly boot into the main OS, because Cloud continues booting the main OS in the background. Combining a browser with a basic operating system also allows the use of cloud computing, in which applications and data "live and run" on the Internet instead of on the hard drive. Cloud can be installed and used together with other operating systems, or can act as a standalone operating system. When used as a standalone operating system, hardware requirements are relatively low.

So now PC or any other device as a matter of fact have browser installed directly into micro processor which hardly takes seconds to load and you can browse on internet or load operating system through cloud. These innovations has provided boon in many sectors of industries. Some of the major advantages of browser based operating system being if you have one OS running over and everybody can login remotely, with its own personal preferences. IT managers can decide what users can use and what not. Centrally secured and cost of software can be controlled. Since cloud are using pay per use model many start-ups who were earlier finding difficult to invest in IT infrastructure can now easily build up required infrastructure with latest software and improve their business. Cost of maintenance reduced drastically since all the pc’s are having minimum hardware. Data security has improved especially for SME’s who don’t invest in this area since all the data centers of cloud are under severe surveillance. Waiting time has reduced to greater extent thus improving the productivity of employee’s. Any handheld device, by using just browser can login and do required work. Cloud computing has still has some disadvantages. With increase in infrastructure related to cloud, cyber crimes have also increased. For large companies and banks data on cloud is still at risk. Many IT companies are finding work around for it.

India’s Desalination drive

New Delhi: With the increase in depletion of natural resources of clean water, the demand for desalination projects have increased. In order to meet this increasing demand government is planning to invest Rs.5000 crores in desalination projects.

Each of the three metros: Bombay, Chennai and Calcutta to get two additional desalination plants of capacity 100 million litres per day (MLD). Two of these will be nuclear run desalination plants and the other four will be thermal desalination plants. Delhi which has a major drawback of distance from the sea obstructing it from getting large desalination plants will be getting about 61 smaller plants (20,000 to 300,000 litres per day capacity) that have been designed for treating brackish water from bore-well sources.

With the installation of these the total number of desalination plants would increase to around 600. Other places over 21 states which are either far away from the sea or at a higher level from the sea in to get similar small capacity desalination plants in the next two years.
Having planned to invest huge amounts in desalination plants the government has invited for tenders from manufacturers of desalination plants. Given the raising levels of water scarcity the investments are likely to increase further and higher growth rate can be expected in the desalination plant manufacturing industry.

There are further plans to set about 20 floating desalination plants of capacity 1 million litres per day. The floating desalination plant is the brainchild of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) and it was first installed in 2007. Government is also planning to set aside Rs. 500 crores towards the research of such projects in a view to improve the water standards and also to reduce the cost involved in production.

High speed rail network in India:

India to open the much awaited high speed rail route, connecting Delhi and Mumbai. Prime Minister Mr. Rahul Gandhi will be inaugurating it on the 15th of this month. Construction of HSR networks in India started early in 2016 and the first route was expected to be completed by 2021. However the project got delayed several times due to various land acquisition problems.

The maximum speed of the line would be 650 km/h (415 mph), giving an end-to-end journey time of just over 2 hours with an average speed of 575 km/h (366 mph). The round trip distance of the route is 2732 km. “Having invested several billion dollars in HSR projects the delay in their completion and commencement of operations has resulted in huge losses for the Indian Railways”, Mr. Karanjith Singh, spokesperson for the Indian Railways said.

Other routes under construction:
Delhi and Kolkata 2894 km
Chennai and Delhi 4352 km
Delhi and Hyderabad 3320 km
Mumbai and Kolkata 3936 km

“These routes are nearing completion and expected to opened by 2026” the Railway Minister Mr. Rajmukh Desai said. These routes put together are about 16734km (10340miles) long. The Ministry also confirmed that the other routes between second tier cities are going on at a rapid pace and are expected to be completed by 2028. This would add another 9575km (5950 miles) to the HSR network in India.

After the completion of these high speed rail routes in India might overtake China to become the world’s longest high speed rail (HSR) network. China at present has the world’s longest HSR network with about 14,358 km (8920miles) of routes in service as of December 2024 and another 9,995 km (6210 miles) is under construction. So according to the projected figures India would have 26309kms (16347 miles) long HSR network as against China’s 24353kms (15132 miles) by 2028.

India waiting for 6G

Even as the operators are yet to start offering next generation 5G mobile services on full stream, and the implementation is still going on, India is waiting for 6G services to start in the nation. Good news is that 6G technology will be soon implemented after the fully fledged functionality of 5G starts. Telecom regulator TRAI said it would come out with a consultation paper on sixth generation mobile (6G) services by the middle of this year. "I expect 6G to come in India in 2027. TRAI will bring out a consultation paper on 6G in the middle of this year," TRAI Chairman Ms. Brinda Chatterji told reporters.

The sixth generation or 6G technology offers download at faster speed, transmission of holo videos and other similar features. Holo videos allow you to see holograms of the person you are interacting. Data rates of 6g wireless communication are expected to reach 100 Gbytes/sec. The sixth generation wirless communication also makes use of Pranav Mistry’s sixth sense technology, so you can carry your digital world with you where ever you go and you can use any wall you find as an interface. Several mobile phone makers like Nokia, Motorola and Ericson have already started focusing on the sixth generation mobile phones.

Ecology

The Development of Eco-Friendly Weapons

A UK based BAe Systems, who happens to be one of the world’s largest arms manufacturers, is going green. The company is looking at ways to reduce the environmental hazards to those who live near the conflicts by producing bullets which contains less lead, rockets which will burn with less toxins when released into the atmosphere and they are also finding an alternative fuels to replace the rocket fuel, grenades that explode with less smoke.

For the purpose of reducing the smoke of a rocket at the time of releasing into the atmosphere, the environment-friendly propellant made from aluminium powder and water ice is being used. Highly enriched uranium (HEU) that is used to make a weapon is being reduced from 20% - 16%.

BAe are doing a great job, they are also conducting a study whether the remnants of such weapons could be turned into manure and cause less harm to the inhabitants of the region, environmental, water pollution, air pollution which has resulted in the degradation of grasslands, extinction of wildlife, desertification, floods, soil erosion and landslides.

Green buildings on rise

Green buildings, a concept of zero energy consumption buildings have risen tremendously over the last 8 years. More than 85 housing projects have come up which employ green building concept in the last 3 years, a report by CII confirmed. In realty sector, the contribution of green buildings projects has been around 38% in this year. “The government has become proactive due to the rising concerns over the environmental factors worldwide. Strict framework being enforced by Environmental Forums have resulted into Government giving subsidiaries to construction houses”, says Dr Arun Pathak, Former Member, Ministry of Environment.

These houses implement facilities like ‘solar water heater’, ‘maximum natural lighting’, air- conditioning with the help of ‘solar absorption system’ etc. Moreover the materials used are mostly eco-friendly like wood, corkboard. It has become a popular trend in the market. Even the buyers are on the lookout for eco-friendly homes.

Major construction companies like DLF, Hiranandani, JLL. Shobha Enterprise in Bangalore and Lunkad Developers in Pune have set up some exemplary houses. Around 20 projects are coming up in the next 2 years in Tier 1 cities.

International News:

Growing unrest about US Dollar

In the Delhi summit of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) nations held in Sept, 2024, the issue of reliance on Dollar was discussed heavily. The country which majorly criticized US Dollar was Russia which has been vocal about the same since 2009. Russian PM said in his speech to the BRICS nations,” The US Dollar has lost its value due to low productivity of US citizens. The US Government has behaved in a very immature fashion by printing out Dollars to keep its currency steady. US deficit though had reduced at the turn of the decade, it still is a bankrupt nation which will not be able to payoff its debt to other nations.”

Total US debt is around 42 Trillion Dollars which is about to explode, as per many analysts. There was pressure put in US Dollar during 2008 Financial crises which had led to 14 Trillion Dollar debt. America came out of the crises under the leadership of President Obama in 2012-2016. Obama’s second term was considered to be beneficial to US economy. During the time, America had a trade surplus with almost all nations, except China. The economic growth was triggered due to removal of military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. Also a lot of industrial growth was recorded during the time. Also, China had major exposure to US debt and hence helped US Dollar to survive with major concessions and bartering of technology and crude oil for reduction of US liability.

Now again US is in same situation but this time, China is not highly exposed to US debt. Major exposure to US now comes from European countries except Germany, Greece and France. But European countries themselves are in no condition to help US. The US Dollar has been depreciating in value due to falling productivity and increased social security burden on the US government. Many nations have demanded that the Dollar should not remain the pegged currency but the question of replacement of Dollar has still been left unanswered. Some have said that Chinese Yuan should now be the new “Dollar” but China is not ready as they will loose their export advantage. Some nations have suggested a global currency monitored by a global agency like IMF.

The question if the US Dollar will fall or not remains one of the major economic issues of our times. US has come out of major economic crises even before this and many are hoping for it to find some magical wand to make the debt disappear. If America finds such a wand only time can tell.

The countdown that has begun for “CSR trading” to end:

The year 2025 will be last financial year for the multinational corporations to trade their CSR points as the labor laws become strict in the sub Saharan countries. With the African Union becoming stronger and independent in the real sense, the Union does not feel the necessity of giving the monetary benefits to MNC’s for following the labor laws which is now a Right to the African citizens. This CSR points trading was a facility given in the process of uplifting the African people mainly the labor population.

Labor exploitation or Sweatshop in the under developed countries had been a common phenomenon for almost a century and has a vast history behind it. This was mainly done to get cheap labor and earn more profits by the organizations. There have been a couple of such incidents in the last thirty years such as in the Diamond diggers in Sub Saharan Africa, the child labor exploitation in cocoa plantation and sexual exploitation in Africa , in fire cracker factories and carpet weaving in India, the Shell exploitation of the Ogonis etc. There have been many conflicts within the African states that were fuelled by weapon sales and military training by the multinational corporations for natural resources and monetary gains. The reasons were poverty, illiteracy which led high unemployment rate of around 30-40%.

At the same time it’s also true that many human rights and social organizations and the govts are trying to curb such activities. As a senator, Barack Obama introduced legislation, ultimately signed into law in 2006 by President George W. Bush, that requires the U.S. Secretary of State to “withhold assistance made available under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 … other than humanitarian, peacekeeping, and counterterrorism assistance, for a foreign country if the Secretary determines that the government of the foreign country is taking actions to destabilize the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” Furthermore a bill in 2016 was passed by the CSR activists in the US following a revolt by the miners of coltan and tungsten in eastern Congo in 2013 for the organizations responsible for the mining process should be responsible and follow the labor laws stringently. Any employer found not following these would penalized .As a step to uplift these underdeveloped countries the employers would receive CSR points which could be further monetized. Thus, the laborers should be provided with the minimum wages, suitable working conditions and no child labor should be entertained. The CSR activists, the human rights groups and the local NGO’s have been very active in monitoring these activities. Also with the process of political unification of African States and the formation of African Union the job of these NGO’s has become easy. Thus, after 10 yrs of implementation of this UN bill its time the DRC govt takes matters in their hands.

Chip embedded in the bodies

After the establishment of biometric ID systems, now the US government is planning to embed technology in the bodies of the citizens residing within the United States for the purpose of tracking and identification. To over-come the pressure of enactment of the laws that will require citizens to produce an ID whenever a government official demands it, the US government have come up with this unique technology.

It will include finger print, signature, details of driving licence, house number and all the other relevant details. It will enable generic profiling and tracking the movements of the people regardless of their location, their current state, their actions or their desires. It is a chip embedded in your hand to be used like a credit card.

It will begin with parents afraid for the safety of their children; the elderly will find themselves implanted in case of accidents, cardiac arrest or Alzheimer's disease. However, it does not seem to be easy for the US government as the human rights people have already started protesting against this issue. The government cannot insist every citizen of the country to implant this chip in their bodies. Forcing anything of that nature would immediately cause a natural human reaction: rebellion. Though few citizens are in the favour of this technology because of its ability to serve in case of emergency.

The 30th Annual African Summit

After 23 yrs of continuous measures taken by the African Union for the development of the member countries. The AU is now moving towards creating the African Economic Community under the Abuja Treaty with almost 53 member states coming under the political unification umbrella by signing the Pan African Parliament treaty signed in 2000. The AU since then has been able to address many social and political issues such as the infrastructure development, NEPAD, the human rights commission, the Mechanism for conflicts prevention, Women Education and upliftment, increased health care facilities, CSR points etc.

The African citizens are now getting quality education with 80% literacy rate. Health care facilities have also improved with the number of patients detected of HIV/AIDS has reduced by 1 %.The AU has been able to work on industrial development, development of secondary processing and tourism, its own oil and gas industry in the North Africa, hydroelectricity power generation in DRC. Africa being abundant in natural resources has been able to dictate the world with its own terms. The foreign investments have been made with tying with the local companies to develop local industries. To increase its tourism AU has promoted its handicraft industries to a large extent creating large employment.

South Africa, however, is a unique example in the African Union, and other economies in the region face a different set of challenges. An increasing number of investors are looking at other countries on the continent, in particular the so-called frontier markets of Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana. These countries have been growing over the past ten years at sustained levels, but are only partially integrated in the global financial system. Unlike in other emerging markets, currencies in African frontier economies have not appreciated consistently over the years. With the exception of southern African countries, some of which are pegged to the rand. The single currency decisions are on their way with the 30Th African Union Summit scheduled in Ethiopia on 24th Feb 2025.

Water wars in South East Asia:

India–China relations have been at an all-time low since the completion of the 40,000MW dam at the ‘Great Bend’ of the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra River in 2019, harnessing the power of the deepest canyon in the world. This far exceeds the scale of projects such as the Three Gorges Dam, and the maximum river flow to India has already been reduced by 20%.

In the face of Chinese aggression, India constructed dams to move water from the upper parts of the Ganges, Yamuna and Brahmaputra Rivers westward, ending in the Luni and Sabarmati Rivers in Rajasthan and Gujarat. This diverts water away from the Ganges, a few kilometres from the India–Bangladesh border. The immense levels of construction along the river severely affected the flow of water downstream in Bangladesh. Stagnant reservoirs have led to high levels of toxic algae and bacteria that Bangladesh claims are now poisoning hundreds of thousands of people.

Groundwater tables under the northern plain have dried up in, or at least sunk so deep that farmers are unable to extract the remaining water. The continuing melt of the Himalayan glaciers and rising temperatures have rendered the Yellow River and its major tributaries seasonal resources. The Shiyang River in Gansu has completely disappeared. The oases of the northern plains are particularly reliant on glacier water melt, and many, like that of Minqin County, have been completely evacuated. The early 2020s saw the water availability per person in the Hai, Huai, and Yellow river basins fall well below the minimum requirement for human existence. In the former breadbasket, desertification continues to overwhelm arable land on all sides. Dwindling glaciers have caused the Gobi desert to encroach further upon the oases in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Desertification now affects 600 million people, nearly half the country’s population.

China has also diverted water from the Mekong River, and a series of 15 cascading dams has been completed. The 292-metre Woriua dam is now the world’s tallest, as high as the Eiffel Tower. The reservoir behind the dam has grown to 105 miles long. Able to store half the entire flow of the Mekong, the cascade of dams is having a devastating effect downstream on Cambodia and Vietnam.

The Mekong River Commission dissolved in 2015, after failing to prevent China’s dam-construction programme. Therefore, there are now no regional mechanisms in place to cope with a humanitarian disaster of this massive scale. China without considering the global impact is building dams at a rapid pace. The Chinese government has completely forgotten about the impacts of the dam collapses in the past. With China building dams and diverting the flow of all the rivers, India is being forced to follow suit and countries like Bangladesh and Pakisthan with less resources are being affected very badly.

China: growth, pollution and food crisis:

The scale and pace of China’s urbanization has continued at an unprecedented rate. China’s urban population has expanded from 572 million to 926 million in the last two decades. China now has 219 cities with more than one million inhabitants and 24 cities with more than five million people. China’s GDP is now $26 Trillion. But the trade off China has given for this growth is its environment. For the past one and half decades China has remained the world’s largest polluter. At present China pollutes the world at a rate equal to twice that of US, Europe and Japan put together. China at present has the world's highest number of lung cancer patients. It adds about 1 million a year according to the World Health Organization (WHO) figures.

Decades of waste poured from factories and cities into China's rivers have turned many of them into open sewers. About 60% of the water in the country's rivers is unfit for human consumption.
With the increasing population the demand for food is also increasing. As rightly said population grows exponentially however agricultural production grows linearly. The exponential increase in population has resulted in exploitation of the soils. Added to this air pollution is also leading to soil erosion. Desertification has already swept over almost 45% of China’s land. While the desert expands, the soil disappears and nutrients lost, which in turn increases the amount of chemical fertilizer used annually by Chinese agriculture.

China has been a surplus state in food grains but off late the country has stated importing grains and the imports are expected to rise rapidly in the coming years. This it could have a powerful effect on the cost and availability of food.

North Korea threatens to attack Sahkalin Pipeline

As the tensions between South and North Korea rises, there is a mounting fear within Russian government that North Korea will attack Sahkalin pipeline which supplies natural gas to South Korea. North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un accused the South Korean and Russian governments of planning a war against North Korea.

North Korea's minister of armed forces said that its military was prepared to wage a "holy war" against the South using its nuclear deterrent after what he called Seoul's attempt to initiate conflict. Pyongyang has launched continuous small scale attacks on South Korea saying that U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises provoked its attack. Many nations, especially, Russia and U.S. have been very vocal about criticizing the nuclear powers of North Korea.
Though China has criticized North Korea, it is not putting pressure for peaceful negotiations. UN Security Council and the international community has started condemning North Korea and has tried to make North Korea take responsibility for its actions so that North Korea does not commit violent provocations again.

Sakhalin, the largest island of Russia, faces the Sea of Okhotsk to the east and extends in a north-south direction across the Tatar Strait to the west. A total of 700 million tons of oil and gas condensate, as well as 2.5 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, are reportedly deposited along the continental shelf of the Sea of Okhotsk in north-eastern Sakhalin. The pipeline is a 3,000-km seabed pipeline between northern Sakhalin and the Russian Far East, which would then connect to a ground pipeline that extends to South Korea by way of Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and North Korea. It supplies gas to Russia's Maritime Province and other Far East areas, including South Korea and China. South Korea is dependent on the pipeline and is scared that North Korea may want to target the pipeline.

If an attack is launched by North Korea on the Sahklin pipeline, Russia and US may get in the war on the side of South Korea. While, if such a situation comes, North Korea is hoping for Chinese support. What may follow is a WW-III and with nuclear weapons’ stock with all these nations, the existence of the world may come under a threat.

CSR : voluntary or mandatory

2011-01-30T09:59:00.003+05:30

According to me CSR has to be incorporated using legislations. It cannot be made voluntary because ignorance or reluctance to follow CSR practises by companies is a serious threat to the public. It is now a global phenomenon. Any imbalance in one particular region or country will affect people across the globe. In the past we have seen several ruthless practices by large companies like ENRON and Shell; and the way they exploited environment in under developed countries just for increasing their profit margins by reducing costs. This was not because they were unaware of the consequences. These companies were following a different set of rules in their home country and a completely different set of practises in the others. This itself shows that they were doing this even after knowing its adverse consequences. So I believe there has to be stringent rules for CSR as well.

Abolishing CSR laws and regulations would be similar to abolishment of a country’s penal codes saying that criminal activities too should stop voluntarily and laws should not be forced upon people. There can be another argument stating that this may lead to illegal practises and companies hiding what they are actually doing. But for this we can't forgo all rules and regulations. Every law in the country is broken by individuals and sometimes they are penalised and sometimes they escape but this doesn't mean we can repeal all laws. A vast majority of people generally follow the laws and similarly these CSR laws will be followed by majority of companies. There might be few who would break these laws but this number would be much lesser than the number without these laws.

Apart from regulations there should be awards given to such initiatives. Nominations and selection for these awards should involve public.

Wherever the company sets a unit, it should take care of all its surroundings. Just as they take care of their home base, it should be the same in any part of the world even if there aren’t any laws in the other countries. European nations and U.S. should also try framing regulations for their companies to follow CSR across the globe and not just in their land; protecting the interests of the world as a whole. This would prevent exploitation of under developed regions like Africa by companies in US and EU.

After looking at the way Shell presents the issues that prompted the company to reinvent itself as a CSR-oriented organization i.e. Brent Spar and oil spills in Nigeria; I feel Shell's reaction was nowhere close to genuine self realization activity or commitment to change. It was mainly done in order to bring back the reputation they had lost. They dint want this to affect their business or their brand image they had among the stakeholders.

In the case of Brent Spar, Shell’s initial decision to dispose of the buoy at the deep Atlantic waters, causing damage to marine and bird life was ruthless. They had estimated the amount of oil in the buoy and felt that its effects in the ocean would be minimal but why should it be dumped in the oceans and cause the estimated damage. Due to this decision they were met with huge opposition by Greenpeace who had also made estimates of the oil in the buoy and found it to be much larger than Shell’s estimates. Later it turned out that Greenpeace’s estimations were wrong. The initial wrong estimate by Greenpeace had created a lot of pressure on Shell, which was the reason for Shell to change its decision to put the hull of the buoy in use for the port authorities such that it didn’t harm the eco-system. This shows that Shell had to follow CSR, due to pressure from stakeholders and change dint come from within.

The incidents that occurred in Nigeria in the Niger delta with the native Ogoni people makes you think how low organizations can sink. Ogoni people felt the oil spills by Shell were causing huge environmental damages so they organized large protests against Shell and the government, often occupying the refineries. Due to this, Shell withdrew its operations from the Ogoni areas. But even after withdrawing operations from the Niger delta, the Nigerian government arrested the prominent leaders who had protested against Shell for their activities in the belt and later on they were executed. A 2001 Greenpeace report claimed that two witnesses that accused them later admitted that Shell and the military had bribed them with promises of money and jobs at Shell. Shell denied these accusations outright. However Shell admitted having given money to the Nigerian military.

It’s very contradicting: on one hand they showed so much interest on the stakeholders with Brent Spar and on the other executions took place after they exited the Niger belt.

It makes us think whether they followed the interest of stakeholders in the Brent Spar’s case just because the opposition was from people in UK. They found out a different way instead of disposing it into the oceans and went in favour of protection of marine life. But in the case of Niger delta they showed their true colours as they weren’t bothered about their image in that region and dint mind damaging human lives as their operations or sales wasn’t there anymore.

Vulnerability to terrorism

2010-02-15T19:26:00.000+05:30

While addressing the press conference regarding the recent blast in German bakery Pune our honourable HM said that Indian cities are NO MORE VULNERABLE OR NO LESS VULNERABLE to terrorist attacks than any other city in the world be it London or New york or Tokyo.
I just dont understand on what grounds this has been said. US was attacked by terrorist groups on 9/11 and they followed the 4D (Defeat, Deny, Diminish and Defend) approach to combat terrorism - that is what wikipedia says. There hasn't been any other form of terrorist attack on the state till date. London trains were bombed few years back and there wasn't any other attack in the country after that.

Let us see the case of India

Number of times Mumbai has been attacked:

12 March 1993 - Series of 13 bombs go off killing 257
6 December 2002 - Bomb goes off in a bus in Ghatkopar killing 2
27 January 2003 - Bomb goes off on a bicycle in Vile Parle killing 1
14 March 2003 - Bomb goes off in a train in Mulund killing 10
28 July 2003 - Bomb goes of in a bus in Ghatkopar killing 4
25 August 2003 - Two bombs go off in cars near the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar killing 50
11 July 2006 - Series of seven bombs go off in trains killing 209
26 November 2008 to 29 November 2008 - Coordinated series of attacks killing atleast 172.

Other than this there were several blasts in various other cities like Delhi (attacks at the markets and even our Parliment was attacked), Bangalore, Varanasi, Ahmedabad etc.
The state of Jammu and Kashmir and the north eastern states are prone to attacks all the time.
But even after all this what have we done to combat terrorism. Several steps have been taken but nothing has proved to be foolproof.

In an article regarding India in the year 2020 it was given that there will be attacks often but a few people dying in blasts will not affect our growth rate. I was just shocked. Even though it is just a prediction things that are happening seem to add strength to that point.

An Ode to Plurals

2010-02-13T20:40:00.001+05:30

An Ode to Plurals

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,

Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,But though we say mother, we never say methren.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it -- English is a crazy language.

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England.We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.

If you have a bunch of odds and ends; and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship. We have noses that run and feet that smell.We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And, in closing: if Father is Pop,

how come Mother's not Mop?

Q & A ON HEALTH ( Humour)

2010-02-13T20:32:00.000+05:30

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow .......?

DON'T KNOW WHICH DOCTOR WROTE THIS, BUT YOU'LL LIKE HIM OR HER !

Q : I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?

A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it...

Don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually.

Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer.

That's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster.
Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q : Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?

A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies.

What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables.

So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system.

Need grain ? Eat chicken.

Beef is also a good source of field grass ( green leafy vegetable ).

And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q : Should I reduce my alcohol intake?

A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine,

that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way.

Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up !

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?

A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one.

If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q : What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program ?

A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is : No Pain ... good !

Q : Aren't fried foods bad for you ?

A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING !!!

Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil.

In fact, they're permeated in it.

How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q : Is chocolate bad for me ?

A: Are you crazy? HELLO. Cocoa beans! Another vegetable !!!

It's the best feel-good food around !

Q : Is swimming good for your figure ?

A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

And remember:

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body,

but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out
and screaming : " Woo Hoo, what a ride ! "

Cheers