Do it yourself

Many may argue we are celebrating little too early. We disagree. The outburst of Rahul Gandhi at a press conference on last Friday was the second good omen for Indian politics and therefore economy in the month of September; the first being announcement of Narendra Modi as PMship candidate of opposition BJP. This outburst conspicuously seemed against the feudal lords dominating the Congress party and national political agenda disregarding the socio-economic realities and growing disillusionment and dissent amongst youth. This Ordinance, in our view, was just a mean to demonstrate the frustration many young progressive leaders must be feeling with the present system. The angst against the feudal mindset and urge to liberalize the society from the clutches of (as Rahul Gandhi himself admitted few months back) these 200-300 families is a good omen and must be welcomed. The immediate acceptance to Rahul Gandhi’s view by the entire youth leadership within the Con...

“Whenever there is decline of Dharma (righteousness and rise of Adharma (unrighteousness); To protect the virtuous to destroy the wicked and to re-establish Dharma, I manifest myself, through the ages. Bhagavad Gita, Chapter IV, Verse 7. KEY MESSAGE NaMo – the divine intervention!!! Based on our interaction with numerous people across the country, we are of the view that Narendra Modi is emerging as a “phenomenon”, much like Mrs. Indira Gandhi. He had been a popular leader amongst urban middle class for long. However, in recent times his popularity is extending beyond the traditional base as he gains more popularity amongst rural and semi urban population. Increasingly seen as divine intervention At this point in time most of Modi’s support from outside the traditional BJP support base is emanating from strong anti establishment sentiments, especially amongst youth. Not surprisin...

After a very hectic couple of months, the financial markets globally have been mostly calm in past few days. Globally, the sensationalism seen ahead of US Federal Reserve’s FOMC meeting earlier this month has certainly subsided. The US government shut down threat is getting only guarded response from market participants. The Fed statement post FOMC meet, caution urged   by legendary investors like Warren Buffet, Mark Faber etc. and ECB’s dissatisfaction over speed of EU economic recovery has also calmed the over enthusiastic bulls who were unusually upbeat on the US economic growth in particular. UK housing prices also briefly provided fuel to bull’s flight, but the regulatory concerns over the trend has highlighted that it would perhaps be a mistake to see housing prices as reflection of economic strength. The alternative global financial center Singapore has also echoed the same sentiments. In domestic markets, the recent RBI policy statement facilitated a t...

  Based on our interaction with numerous people across the country, we are of the view that Narendra Modi is emerging as a “phenomenon”, much like Mrs. Indira Gandhi. He had been a popular leader amongst urban middle class for long. However, in recent times his popularity is extending beyond the traditional base as he gains popularity amongst rural and semi urban population. The following are some key conclusions we draw from our interactions: What Modi means to his supporters At this point in time most of Modi’s support from outside the traditional BJP support base is emanating from strong anti establishment sentiments, especially amongst youth. Not surprisingly, the traditional Indian psychology of divine intervention at the time of crisis is playing in his favor. We discovered that he is being seen as divine intervention that will get India rid of the current social, political, and economic crisis. What it means for Indian politics In th...

As suggested yesterday, the Nehruvian model of industry led growth has mostly failed in evolving a strong structural base for the Indian economy in past more than 6 decades. Consequently, we still continue to be an economy largely dependent on labor & resource arbitrage and trading. We have failed in making significant progress in the areas such as technological advancement, productivity gains, innovation and localization. In our view, we have focused too much on our weaknesses and tried hard to overcome by importing technology, energy, intellectual property, capital and consumption patterns. We have thus failed in exploiting our strengths and allowed outflow of precious resources both natural and human. We can hope the things to change in any substantial manner only if material corrections are made to the current economic model. Narendra Modi has indeed raised hopes. A mission scale program to reverse the flow of trade to pre British era is what we need to ensure i...