"Every kid has a bug
period... I never grew out of mine."
—E. O. Wilson (American,
1929)
Word for the day
Heuristic (adj)
Encouraging a person to
learn, discover, understand, or solve problems on his or her own, as by
experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error:
a
heuristic teaching method.
Malice towards none
Making ROI of all elected
offices "NIL" through constitutional provisions could be a short cut
to eliminate corruption in the society!
First random thought this morning
The children who were born after liberalization of the economy in 1990s,
have not seen unending queues for everything, including food, cement, two
wheelers, houses, passport, etc. These are the people whose thinking is not
constricted by the mindset of forced abstinence. These are the children who
could freely dream big and aspire for the best.
PM Modi is lucky to be at the helm when this free spirited
generation is coming out of colleges and joining the work force and
entrepreneurial pool. With them marching ahead, India might have grown faster
anyways - regardless of who is occupying 7RCR!
Brexit & Me
On 23rd June 2016 the citizens of UK will vote in a referendum to
decide whether UK shall remain a part of the 28 member European Union (EU).
The incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron had promised to hold
this referendum if he won the 2015 general election, in response to growing
calls from his own Conservative MPs and the UK Independence Party (UKIP), who
argued that Britain had not had a say since 1975, when it voted to stay in the
EU in a referendum.
The latest opinion polls conducted to assess the mood of the
people have found the "Leave" group leading the "Remain"
group; thus suggesting the prospects of UK leaving EU. The markets
participants, who are watching this referendum keenly, have been jittery
lately. The global risk assets have accordingly corrected sharply in past few
days.
Many of my regular readers have asked for my opinion on the issue.
In summary, the inquiry is focused on the likely impact of the referendum on
(1) Indian stock markets; (2) INR-GBP & INR-EUR; (3) Indian exports of good
& services to EU and UK; (4) Gold prices; and (5) Immigration & VISA
policies of UK and EU.
Well I am no expert in international economics and foreign relations.
I may therefore not be able to answer these queries in much intelligent manner.
In anyways, millions of reams of paper and thousands of terabytes of cyberspace
has been consumed by experts in analyzing the situation and answering these
questions. Back home I see a number of studio experts expressing concerns &
views over the issue every day.
Nonetheless, much like an unsuccessful poet, I will not miss this
opportunity to recite my poem!
I understand that this referendum is mostly political with collateral
economic implications. Two things are clear to me - (a) In case of
"Leave" verdict, it will take minimum of two years for UK to exit EU.
The general view is that it may actually take much longer to give effect to the
verdict; and (b) In case of a "Remain" verdict, UK will still get to
re-negotiate the terms of stay to its advantage. So in effect, 24th June will
not be much different from 23rd June.
I have been saying this repeatedly, the core of European
(including UK) problems lies in the fact that for decade some people have been
spending more than their earnings. There are therefore only two probable
solutions to the problem – (a) They start earning more than what they spend and
redeem their debt from the surplus earning; or (b) they start spending less
than their present income and start redeeming their debt from the residual
earning. Any third solution (including Brexit and doles as proposed by Swiss
government) will only be temporary and unsustainable.
Europe urgently needs significant productivity gains, pick up in
investment activity and creation of additional jobs, austerity in public
spending, deleveraging, changes in policies for immigration to improve
demography, and household & public deleveraging.
.....to continue tomorrow
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