Do it yourself

Thought for the day “Don't fight forces, use them.” -           R. Buckminster Fuller (American, 1895-1983) Word of the day Inexorable (adj) Firm; determined; unyielding; unchangeable; inflexible; relentless. (Source: Dictionary.com) Shri Nārada Uvāca Package for Sugar Industry in UP, package for Bihar, 50% cheaper electricity in Delhi, G-Sec yields above 9%, INR back to 63/USD levels – everyone seems to be attacking P. Chidambaram’s red lines with vengeance! Whatever goes around comes around Dear Mr. Modi, on a rather simplistic analysis of the present economic conditions we could reasonably trace the roots of some of the malaise to economic crisis of late 1990s and early 2000s when incidentally NDA government was in power. We acknowledge that asking NDA government to share some of the blame for current inflation, corruption, unemployment and slower economic growth etc. ...

Thought for the day “A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.” -           Oscar Wilde (Irish, 1854-1900) Word of the day Moiety (n) One of two equal parts; a half. (Source: Dictionary.com) Shri Nārada Uvāca On World Toilet Day, a World Bank report says 53% Indian households defecate in open. No one has so far challenged this report. Should all politicians making claims of development, equity and social justice be barred from public life forever for making false claims, lying and misrepresentation of facts? Letter to Mr. Narendra Modi Since you were declared PMship candidate of BJP two months ago, you have very aggressively accused the Congress Party for all the mess in the country. In particular, you have raised issues of food inflation, corruption in public life, poor governance, incompetence, nepotism (dynasty), and dichotomy of power sharing between 7RCR and 10 J...

Thought for the day “Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” -           Gloria Steinem (American, 1934-) Word of the day Commix (v) To mix together; blend. (Source: Dictionary.com) Shri Nārada Uvāca Is the Congress’s failure enough reason to vote for BJP? What would be the shape of next government if BSP gets 38-40 seats? Side effects of food security Travelling from Delhi to Lucknow on NH24 a couple of weeks ago we were stuck at Fatehganj (west) railway crossing for over 2hours. This is a critical highway which connects national capital Delhi with state capital Lucknow and important towns like Moradabad, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur. Most traffic from the industrial towns in Uttrakhand Rudrapur, Kashipur and hill station of Nainital also flows through this road via Rampur. The work on ...

Thought for the day “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” -           Oscar Wilde (Irish, 1854-1900) Word of the day Serotinal (adj) Pertaining to or occurring in late summer. (Source: Dictionary.com) Shri Nārada Uvāca Could the “vegetable loot” incident of West Bengal become a trend? Can we? Hum ko maloom hai jannat ki haqeeqat lekin, Dil ke khush rakhane ko Ghalib ye khayal achha hai (I am aware heaven is an illusion; but I do not mind striving for it) – Mirza Ghalib Since long Taj Mahal has been used to symbolize the India’s history, tradition and culture. In recent time, Yamuna Expressway, a highway connecting the National Capital Region (NCR) to Agra, the city of Taj Mahal, has become a popular metaphor for economic development and growth of India. In our recent trip of some north India...

Thought for the day “Who seeks shall find.” -           Sophocles (Greek, 496-406BC) Word of the day Roger (Interjection) All right; Ok; message received and understood (Source: Dictionary.com) Shri Nārada Uvāca Is it a good strategy for BJP to invoke history in all their election rallies? Food inflation conundrum III After discussing with many farmers, agriculture scientists, government officials, bankers & social workers working in rural areas and agriculture related departments we discovered that small initiatives at village and panchayat level could enhance agriculture productivity substantially. The more complex reforms (land, labor, administrative, legal etc.) though highly desirable are not necessary to achieve the initial productivity gains. We witnessed one such initiative in Shahjahanpur district of western UP, named after the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. ...

Thought for the day “If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.” -           Albert Einstein (German, 1879-1955) Word of the day Lam (v) To beay; thrash (Source: Dictionary.com) Shri Nārada Uvāca A large majority of Delhites indulge in a variety of corrupt acts in their daily routine –squatting on public land being the most popular act of corruption. No political party has spoken about this so far. Food inflation conundrum II …continuing from yesterday As we suggested yesterday, to bring down food inflation on a sustainable basis, it is critical to make agriculture a viable business. In our view it would take a combination of administrative, legal, social, economic and financial sector reforms to achieve the objective. In short the following three things need to happen, viz., (a) Substantial rise in productivity; (b) Substantial rise in price of ...

Thought for the day “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.” -           Albert Einstein (German, 1879-1955) Word of the day N ovitiate (n) The state or period of being a beginner in anything, especially religion. (Source: Dictionary.com) Shri Nārada Uvāca Do you find any similarity in the most popular prime time English News show and popular TV show Big Boss?   Food inflation conundrum The economic and political commentary in past few months has emphasized a lot on positive impact of above average monsoon on the Indian economy, especially food inflation. Most have hoped that bumper crop would help bring down the persistent food inflation that would eventually lead to much needed monetary easing. In past one week, we made an effort to assess the validity of this argument and found it thoroughly invalid in the current circumstanc...

Thought for the day “A pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.” -           Robert A. Heinlein (American, 1907-1988) Word of the day Obsequy (n) A funeral rite or ceremony. (Source: Dictionary.com) Shri Nārada Uvāca Is Arvind Kejariwal new Kanshi Ram? Congress has much more to worry than mere losing power The opinion polls conducted so far have predicted substantial losses for Congress Party in the coming election, both at the state and center level. If the current mood of people prevails till 2014 elections, there is strong possibility that Narendra Modi might lead the next government with Congress getting reduced to its lowest strength in the Parliament. The popular debate presently is focused on (a) who will emerge winner Modi or Rahul in this contest of personalities; Modi seems to have cl...