Thought for the day
”The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.”
-
Thomas Carlyle (Scottish, 1795-1881)
Word for the day
Gloaming (n)
Twilight; dusk.
(Source:
Dictionary.com)
Teaser for the day
Name 3 Congress leaders who can successfully succeed Gandhi
family?
Trade, trust, nationalism and overtime
Yesterday, a simple query to St.
Google for the meaning of term Trade led me to St. Wikipedia, which said " Trade exists for man due to specialization and
division of labor, in which most people concentrate on a small aspect of
production, trading for other products. Trade exists between regions because
different regions have a comparative advantage in the production of some
tradable commodity, or because different regions size allows for the benefits
of mass production. As such, trade at market prices between locations benefits
both locations."
This left no doubt in my mind that countries trade with India
because she has few things (labor, raw material, skills, etc.) which others
lack. GAAT, WTO, FTA etc. may be merely negotiating platforms to extract best
deal out of each other. Countries will trade with India if it benefits their
populace and politicians. They would not if it does not help.
Anyways WTO is an institution on decline since past decade or
so. Numerous FTAs and bilateral treaties and frequent disputes and rising
number of pendency of disputes at WTO only emphasize this.
Judging the attitude of Indian Government by its stand on WTO
negotiation is inappropriate. Suggesting that a rigid stand at WTO will
prejudice India's advantages in international trade is preposterous.
Those who believe that global investor's will rethink their
India strategy post failure of current WTO talks, may like to study the history
of Indian markets and FII flows post nuclear tests in 1998 to get a sense that
investor's look for a country and company that negotiates hard and knows to
protect its interest rather than those who surrender to counterparty pressures
easily.
In a substantive administrative reform the Modi government has
asked its offices to trust Indian Citizens by their words and not subject them
to seek certification and attestation for most trivial of the issues. This to
mind will go much further in increasing productivity than many of the economic
reforms markets participants clamor about.
In a first, the government through public sector oil marketing
companies, has sought support of citizens on a specific issue. The LPG users
have been urged to voluntarily give up their claim on annual quota of
subsidized cooking gas cylinders. If propagated properly the results of this
campaign could potentially equal the Shastri's call for fasting once a week or
Gandhi's call to adopt Swadeshi. I hope this just a tiny beginning on the path
to progressive nationalism. A steady progress would solve much of the economic
problems without any governmental intervention.
Reports suggest that the new government has made the
Parliamentarians work overtime in the very first session itself. "After a
deadlock of nearly three years, there is a flurry of activity on the floor of
the House. In the last three weeks, the 16th Lok Sabha recorded a productivity
of 103%, in sharp contrast to the 15th Lok Sabha that worked for only 61% of
the scheduled time."
Is it correct to say. "the Prime Minister is not
communicating enough"? I guess if results are showing I would rather not
care about the speech. However, it would be a healthy practice if Modi holds a
"State of the Union" address to nation once every quarter, to outline
his government's views over important matters before the nation.
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