Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Some catching up

Thought for the day
”It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
-          Mark Twain (American, 1835-1910)
Word for the day
Stoic (n)
Not affected by passion; indifferent to pleasure or pain, joy or grief.
(Source: Dictionary.com)
Teaser for the day
Should the government enforce a mandatory "Annual Cleanliness Certification" for all residential areas (urban and rural). All elected representatives (Corporator/Panchayat member, MLA, MP etc, of the areas should be collectively responsible for obtaining the certificate from the "National Cleanliness Authority of India".

Some catching up

After having a great holiday in panoramic Himachal Pradesh, I am back to work. I have spent past two days catching up with the events of past ten days. It appears to me that last week was quite eventful in terms of news flow. Though I could not find little material that about which I can say authentically that "I missed it", there are few things worth taking note of.
In particular I find the following event noteworthy as these could have long term impact on general economic environment of the country and therefore may influence the investment strategy.
(a)   Law of the land caught up with the mighty Ms. J. Jayalalithaa. She is the third tall leader after Lalu Prasad Yadav and O. P. Chautala to have been sentenced in a corruption case. Though Mr. Chautala has shown brazen contempt for the law last week, I am sure he will regret it, much like Sahara group chief Subrata Roy, in days to come.
(b)   The prime minister Narendra Modi made most of his elusive US VISA by staging a grand show at famous Madison Square Garden of New York city. A typical Indian shown organized by the local Indian community seems to have impressed many US lawmakers. May be many of them will want to emulate Modi's campaigning style for their forthcoming elections. PM also seems to have promised a lot to global businessmen in terms of the quality and length of "Red Carpet" waiting for them on Indian shores.
       I guess they take some time in formulating their fresh India plans. A hurried visit may compound their disappointment.
(c)   After Sardar Patel, BJP and RSS have sought to appropriate legacy of Mahatma Gandhi. This is an auspicious sign for the socio-economic structure of the country. I have been advocating since long that salvation for Indian economy lies only in Gandhian economic thoughts. (For example, see here).
       Besides, the attempt to mainstream RSS is also approvable. In my view, it is akin to listing of a PSU. The board who is used to work in surreptitious ways, suddenly becomes transparent and accountable to public and open to media scrutiny. The content of the supremo Mohan Bhagwat's RSS establishment day's speech only advocated secularism, tolerance, nationalism and inclusiveness.
(d)   The PM Modi made yet another serious attempt to move up the political ladder. Rising above the image of a protagonist of free market and business interests, he sought to don the robe of a Lok Nayak. A success in this endeavor could potentially accelerate India's socio-economic development exponentially.
(e)   Hong Kong students scared the mighty Chinese regime by putting up a spirited demonstration. In my view, we shall see far reaching impact of this resistance on Chinese administrative and governance structure.
(f)    Commodities' world witnessed turmoil with oil, metals, food, rubber all taking a serious plunge. Equities corrected slightly, while USD surged.
At the end I would advice tourists to Himachal Pradesh to avoid Shimla, a city having 1000x more people & vehicles than it is designed to handle.

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