Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Do you believe in what you know?

"I know of no way of judging the future but by the past."
— Patrick Henry (American, 1736-1799)
Word for the day
Hebetude (n)
The state of being dull; lethargy.
(Source: Dictionary.com)
Malice towards none
Guess the market reaction if the Finance Bill 2016 provides for a 10% long term capital gain for equity shares sold after 3yrs!
(Note: Equity shares include shares of both listed and unlisted companies. 30% LTCG payable for sale before 3yrs of holding.)
First random thought this morning
The markets are witnessing a healthy correction. The excess flab that had collected in the middle and lower end of the market is melting fast; in a fashion very similar to seen in the past instances of market correction. As usual, with the flab some gold and silver is also melting.
The market commentators have suddenly developed strong love for large caps. I feel, it is time to break silos of size, sector and categories and look for bargains wherever these are available.

Do you believe in what you know?

Many years ago someone told me "believe in your strengths and weakness". I said, "I do!" He paused for a while and said calmly, "knowing is different from believing. For example, you know that you will die someday. But do you really believe it?"
Mingling with the crowd at the Haridwar Kumbh last weekend, I understood the meaning of what that person was trying to tell me many years ago.
We all, especially our politicians and social media activists, know the strengths and glorious past of our country. But do we really believe in that? In my firm opinion, no, we do not!
We all know, Religion is at the core of the Indian society. The Indian political and economic paradigms therefore must be constructed around religion.
Even a cursory study of Indian history, whether critically proven or mythological, would suggest that the best economic and political periods in the history of the sub-continent were when a righteous king was at the helm and he protected and promoted the religion. Conversely, the worst periods, economic and political, were those when some tyrant attempted to destroy the religious beliefs and knowledge.
Traditionally in India, education, research, arts, architecture, science, and the State itself, have all developed and prospered around religion. Religion was woven intricately with agriculture, which was the primary profession.
By adopting secularism as a major social construct, especially since 1970s, the Indian State has unfortunately equated religion with bigotry. This has not only made religion a divisive (instead of bonding) force, but has also led to the degeneration of strong traditions of pursuing spiritual, scientific and material knowledge for the larger welfare of human kind.
In past four decades we have reached a stage where religion is used to evoke fear & violent passion in people's mind and manipulate them. Money & power, and not the knowledge & evolution, seem to have become the primary aim of religion. Ignorance and superstitions are destroying people's life. It is commonly seen that the gullible people borrow money to feed illiterate and dirty persons, whose only quality is their surname.
Intelligentsia and academics are scared to explore and propagate the tremendous wealth of knowledge stored in traditional scriptures for the fear of being labeled "communal and bigot". Politicians are scared to promote the traditions of knowledge seeking and spiritual evolution.
The consequences are that the entire nation bothers about winning one medal in any global supporting event but does never bother about winning a Nobel in mathematics, physics or medicine.
Start ups are good. But PM Modi must believe that Apple, Facebook, Twitter and Amzon et. al. are outcome of a Society that promotes and cherishes knowledge seeking and freedom of thought. It is not the other way round.
In a country where most Magistrates seriously believe that God can be disparaged and insulted, something urgently needs to be done......to continue tomorrow

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