Do it yourself

Thought for the day ”The formula 'Two and two make five' is not without its attractions.” -           Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian, 1821-1881) Word for the day Mot juste (n) The exact, appropriate word. (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day Heard on Raisina Hills - "The real budget will be presented from the ramparts of Red Fort on 15th August. Arun Jaitley just fulfilled the accountant's job. Arundhati Roy is not wrong in calling Modi a totalitarian. But she has belittled herself by calling Mahatma 'Casteist'." Be ready for market rally on 18th August! Hope is a good thing... The economic and political commentary last year emphasized a lot on positive impact of above average monsoon on the Indian economy, especially food inflation. Most had hoped that bumper crop would help bring down the persistent food inflation that would eventually lead to much needed ...

Thought for the day ”Without doubt, machinery has greatly increased the number of well-to-do idlers.” -           Karl Marx (German, 1818-1883) Word for the day Polaris (n) The North Star (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day Ved Pratap Vaidik...Digvijay Singh...Arvind Kejriwal....Rakhi Sawant....Veena Malik....Poonam Pandey! Some random thoughts Since its formation Modi government has advocated the use of private public partnership (PPP) model of development rather aggressively. Both railway as well general budgets respective ministers have laid strong emphasis on use of PPP for developing infrastructure of national importance. However, recently the Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari suggested that "the government has decided to put all public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the road sector on hold for two to three years as just a few infrastructure firms ...

Thought for the day ” History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.” -           Karl Marx (German, 1818-1883) Word for the day Writhen (adj) Twisted (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day BRICS Bank - Delhi gets the corner office, Shanghai all other jobs! A new star is born This is part of "a system of measures that would help prevent the harassment of countries that do not agree with some foreign policy decisions made by the United States and their allies." - Russian president Vladimir Putin “The BRICS are gaining political weight and demonstrating their role in the international arena.” - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. "We are pleased to announce the signing of the Treaty for the establishment of the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) with an initial size of U...

Thought for the day ” If anything is certain, it is that I myself am not a Marxist.” -           Karl Marx (German, 1818-1883) Word for the day Hypocorism (n) The practice of using a pet name. (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day Acche Din (Good days) means - more compliance and less corruption; less controls and more supplies. Match stricter compliance with good governance Participating in a couple of discussions on Union Budget for FY15 yesterday, disillusioned me a little further. I could see a rather stark expectation mismatch amongst participants from various fields. Nonetheless the national agenda was on no one's mind. While everyone tried reading and interpreting the budget proposal from their myopic vested interest view points, none appeared concerned about the impact on the large section of the population that suffers most from inadequate social and econo...

Thought for the day ” The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.” -           Karl Marx (German, 1818-1883) Word for the day T umultuary (adj) Confused; disorderly; haphazard (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day FIFA World Cup over. Let's catch up some sleep, markets permitting! Union budget FY15: Customary praise and misdirected criticism The first budget of Modi government has evoked mixed response from various quarters. The views supporting the budget are customary and sound rather obliged to praise it. These voices have come mostly from large industrialists. Their views are mostly driven by hope. "It's only a beginning", "they had little time", "It is a trailer, big picture will emerge only in February" etc. are common refrains. I believe no one taking these views seriously; not even those expressing these views. On the...

Thought for the day ”From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” -           Karl Marx (German, 1818-1883) Word for the day Shoat (n) A young pig. (Source: Dictionary.com) Teaser for the day We have heard numerous voices raising concern about money laundered out of India. Has anybody spoken about the money laundered into India yet? The third dimension An annexure attached to the Union Budget outlines the Revenue foregone under the Central Tax System during Financial Years 2012-13 and 2013-14. I find this often ignored part of the budget document quite interesting and to an extent intriguing. The statement highlights the extent of concentration of financial power in the hands of few top corporate and the tax disparities between smaller and larger tax payers. This also raises some doubts about potential misuse of corporate veil for wron...

Budget 2014-15:  Prologue to Modi 2014-19 Without pressure The maiden budget of Modi government presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitely on Thursday, was only a continuation of the rail budget presented earlier this week. The minister showed no sign of any pressure from any lobby or economic conditions; though the longest budget speech did stretched him physically. Status quo The minister did not attempt to disturb the status quo on anything. He skillfully skirted all tricky issues like GST, GAAR, food subsidy, etc. by avoiding specifics. Resource constraint The resource constraint was conspicuous throughout his speech. He made meager allocations to numerous schemes that have mark of Modi and RSS. He avoided committing any resource for areas like bank recapitalization and pledged sub-optimal money for infrastructure development. Focus on strengths As we have been repeatedly suggesting, the finance minister emphasized the need to fo...