Do it yourself

Thought for the day "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. " -           Dr. Seuss (American,1904-1991) Word for the day mot juste (n)(French) The exact, appropriate word. (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day Three things BJP could have avoided: (a) Not holding Delhi elections last summer. (b) Publicly acknowledging AAP as main opposition. (c) Turning this tiny election into a critical one by lending the face of PM to it. Sustainability vs. speed In summer of 2013, the tribal villages of Niyamgiri in Odisha, unanimously rejected the proposal of Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) and Vedanta group to mine bauxite from Niyamgiri hills and forests under the Forest Rights Act of 2006. The decision was widely hailed as historic. Two years later, similar situation is emerging in the forests of Chhattis...

Thought for the day "I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities." -           Dr. Seuss (American,1904-1991) Word for the day Subrogate (v) T o put into the place of another; substitute for another. (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day Obama bhai is gone. Let's sit and count tangibles - "kya khoya, kya paya". Swinging between reason and hope The sunrise cottage industry in US - the shale oil - has reportedly begun to feel the heat of crashing oil prices. If media reports are to be believed "Collapsing crude prices are confronting scores of smaller U.S. oil producers with the grim choice of either shutting older high-cost wells or burning through cash in the hope of riding out t...

Thought for the day "When at last we are sure, You've been properly pilled, Then a few paper forms, Must be properly filled. So that you and your heirs, May be properly billed." -           Dr. Seuss (American,1904-1991) Word for the day Apposite (adj) Being of striking appropriateness and relevance; very applicable; apt. (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day      XYZ Channel   Breaking News: Our latest survey   - Will President Obama's rally at Rajpath on 26th January help BJP in Delhi Election? Yes - 55.4% No - 28.2% Can't say - 16.4% 5km in 2hrs To all those who were afraid of global liquidity tightening post conclusion of US Federal Reserve's (Fed) bond buying program (QE-3) last quarter, I have been assuring that in the new world economic order QE is a matter of fact and it is not going away anytime sooner. La...

Thought for the day "If there existed no external means for dimming their consciences, one-half of the men would at once shoot themselves, because to live contrary to one's reason is a most intolerable state, and all men of our time are in such a state." -           Leo Tolstoy (Russian,1828-1910) Word for the day Pyrophoric (adj) Capable of igniting spontaneously in air. (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day The rich and famous have forgiven and forgotten Kejriwal almost as fast as they had embraced AAP! Not so random thoughts Following on the heels of Swiss and Danish Central Banks, the Bank of Canada also delivered a shocking surprise to the market by unexpectedly cutting its key policy rate by 25bps. Apparently, the Canadian move came in response to a sharp drop in oil prices hitting the commodity-dependent economy, that is expected to grow by just 1.5 percent in th...

Thought for the day "Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them." -           Leo Tolstoy (Russian,1828-1910) Word for the day Afflated (adj) Having inspiration; inspired (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day Akar Patel compares Congress Party with Mogul dynasty! Guess to whom he is being unreasonable! Make vs. buy At 7.4%, Chinese economy recorded its lowest rate of expansion in 24years in the year 2014. The consensus amongst global economists appears that the momentum may slow down further in the current year due to cooling property market and stressed financial system. Though the government is trying, through a series of modest stimulus measures, to maintain the economic activities around the current levels, analysts are assigning material probability to a hard landing in China. Since the Chinese economy has b...

Thought for the day "The changes in our life must come from the impossibility to live otherwise than according to the demands of our conscience, not from our mental resolution to try a new form of life." -           Leo Tolstoy (Russian,1828-1910) Word for the day Daunt (v) To discourage; lessen the courage of (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day For BJP, from a distance of 35k feet, Kiran Bedi looks no different from Sakshi Maharaj; semantics apart. Water, oil and PM's 3D "Next War will be fought over water" has been a popular dictum since past few decades. While till date the peak oil theory has been challenged seriously and proved wrong time and again, there appears little challenge to the ever looming threat of a global water crisis. I wonder whether the investors who are sounding so bullish on ONGC, would be equally interested, if not more, if water corporat...

Thought for the day "In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful." -           Leo Tolstoy (Russian,1828-1910) Word for the day C ataract (n) A great fall of water over a precipice; a large waterfall. (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day Could Swiss Franc challenge USD supremacy? Interesting times The Europe has long been known by the world community for its strong and deep rooted idea of Nationalism. Though with the winding up of large European empires globally, at macro level the idea of nationalism begin to fade post WWII, popular groups advocating strong nation states have never really been absent. The protagonists who were marginalized with the formation of European Union have found new vigor in financial cris...

Thought for the day "The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over." -           Aesop (Greek, 620-560BC) Word for the day Quagmire (n) A difficult or precarious position or situation; a predicament. (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day Kiran (Crane) Bedi as Delhi CM! Finally I can expect some pavements   to walk on! Beyond the cut The 'surprise' repo rate reduction by RBI is much more than a cut. In my view, to see it as purely a move in the inflation-growth matrix might be a mistake. The 25bps rate cut may not have much impact on the cost of borrowing in the near term. For one, the effective rate in the money market are already much lower than the base lending rates of most banks. Secondly, the re-pricing of the existing corporate debt may take much longer than usual two quarters given the ...