United States: 236 Not Out

July 4

United States: 236 Not Out

Chidanand Rajghatta

Of course! The fourth of July and we were expecting an article on the independence of America. So here it is. Written by an Indian about the perception of an American, it is sort of hard to really rely upon in terms of judgments about the people of the states. But then of course, it did provide an outlook towards what a general population feels about their country. 236 years of independence and to them it still feels like yesterday. The author suggests that a majority of the population is bent upon thinking that their country is the best in the world and does not have any idea about the social evils that are poised to take the American society to a downfall. We may look at it as a lesson. The simple reason being that a lot of Indians today look at the states as a benchmark, many a times ignoring the social evils that prevail in that country. No doubt, they prevail here as well, but those are age old evils, as we have a history backed by a culture, theirs are rather urban cultural influences. The author does come about to say that some of the greatest inventions of the 21st century have been done in USA by their citizens, but there is also the vivid and known fact that their population is strongly multinational and they have a lot of diversity in terms of the people and their respective origins. This also gives them a very good advantage in terms of manpower skills. But we as a country on this day need to realize that me must go ahead and provide a more friendly environment for business establishment and expansion. We must harbor new thoughts and profess ethics that can promote development ground up. For even after the existence of all the social evils, the United States remain to be a global superpower. Not just rich, that would be an understatement, they are filthy rich! The defense budget of the United States of America remains to be more than the 26 other countries right behind it, 25 out of which are its allies. The country spends recklessly for its citizens and cities to make them more livable areas. The final learning that comes out of the article is that we need to set up a system that helps us grow the way they do, develop a market policy that allows stable commodity rates and helps people led a more consistent life in terms of living funds.

Misplaced Water Diplomacy-editorial review

July 3

Misplaced Water Diplomacy

Brahma Chellaney

This is one of the very worked around articles about a simple yet very stupid mistakes that the nation is committing. Call him the right person placed at the wrong place, but Manmohan Singh has made some really big flaws in terms of the Indian foreign policies of natural resource sharing. In that particular sector, water is one of the most basic and essential commodity obtained exclusively out of rivers and rain waters. As the country faces constant deficit of water, we have landed some really compromising water treaties with our unthankful neighbors. Starting with the Indus River Treaty, India gave away more than 80% of the total Indus river water to Pakistan soon after being declared a republic, keeping to itself less that 20% of the total share even though the nation caters to a major section of the upstream branch of the river. Apart form that we have also shared 50% of the waters with Bangladesh derived from the common rivers according to the Teesta River Treaty despite of the fact the India plays a sole role in the upstream development of all the shared rivers. This immense generosity towards her neighbors has only invited trouble for the country. The diplomacy has never been backed with proper purpose. Pakistan, even after enjoying immense freedom of region and resources, has sought to takeover more from the nation. Ever since the war of 1965 when India had hardly recovered rom the 1961 war with China. They still stand to occupy a majority of Kashmir and are demanding more. It has become very crucial from the country now that it stops the charity spree as its own citizens are dying under the weight of the something along the lines of a deliberate inflation. The nation has also been providing billions of dollars of aid to the neighbors despite of the fact that its own citizens crib every night with only with the sky as the shelter. This may be backed up by the argument that the center is trying to maintain strategic ties with the surrounding nations but that infact has not been fruitful directly in any manner. We do not have any solid grounds of support for that fact, and to add to that misery, we have our past experiences to prove the point that being friendly to these nations (say China and Pakistan ) has never been of very much benefit to us and has always opened gateways towards troubles. It is very important for the country now to for a very strict and strong foreign policy towards its neighbors and act accordingly. There is also a constant necessity to make the water laws (which already are but not strictly followed) a state matter and not a federal matter. This will allow stronger governance at the border and a multilateral solution to every problem that we face in terms of resource sharing with our neighbors on international grounds. To sum it all up, it is high time that we may act greedy and shellfish for our own good.

Shift Course Now- Editorial Review

July 2

Shift Course Now

Amidst much ado, we finally have one article that is pointing to wards a small yet significant change in the recent economic. With the resignation of Pranab Mukherjee, Manmohan Singh has taken up the post of the interim finance minister. The place that I felt he was always most suitable for. As we all know, he did form the policies for the globalization phase of India pot 1991 and that has always been his domain of expertise. Though the PM right now denies this, it is pretty clear that the ex-FM office and the current interim office did had a slightly different schools of thoughts. The current office is now looking forwards towards changing policies for FDI and making a lot of other changes, the absence of which has been repelling businesses and investors from putting in their money. A lot of changes have been put into place to bring the economy to stability. And possibly they might also be aiming at more flexible laws for FDI and some more changes in the oil and gas laws. Why that becomes critical for any government in the first place is explained by a simple example. India is the fourth largest consumer and fifth largest importer of oil and oil equivalent. Now the three companies that are ahead of us in consumption are USA, China and Japan in both the cases with Germany added in the latter. Now all of these are far better off than our own nation. The simple reason being the gas prices. The rates are so high in India compared to anywhere else in the developing and developed nations, that it becomes a big question of viability for the companies to set up their plants in India. So we are pretty sure that the interim office will surely be working upon the fuel prices as well and we will get a better picture soon. The current office is also probing into the coalition's sluggishness in implementing reforms and is asking them to act with greater agility. Not being an expert on economics myself, there isnt exactly much that I can share about this topic, but of course, we can rest assured that at least for a short time, a more able finanace minister has taken the spot.

The underage optimist-editorial review

July 1

The Underage Optimist

By Chetan Bhagat

Again a person who I particularly dislike, and so choose to write for my own dose of morning humor. This article in particular dealt with the favoritism towards Modi over Rahul Gandhi (the congress in general) that has recently taken over the popularity scene of politics. The author takes the basis of an internet post he made asking for responses between the two posed as the next CM to India and a phenomenally huge number voted towards the snow white of Gujarat. Yes, I use that simile simply because he does match the profile. Every morning Sonia Gandhi wakes up, goes to the mirror and says, "Mirror mirror on the wall, who d'most favorite of em'all?"
for the last 10 years, the mirror has always said," you my queen". Yes the mirror of public ignorance, the mirror of irresponsible systems, the mirror of a state destined to economic anarchy in an absolutely unchecked state. Just as they say, 'the world suffers a lot not because of the violence of the bad people, but more because of the silence of the good people' , the only reason why all these years, the mirror on Sonia's wall never raised a voice over her rule. But off late, people have started questioning, for however low, the people of a country do posses, at least a minimal, threshold of tolerance. Below that, the first criticize, if not answered they then question, and if not responded to they revolt. We have been cursing the government since ages, then we critically questioned it in the past decade and when that too didn’t avail any answers, we go down to revolt as is clear from the last few years. Congress on every occasion has turned it's back towards the nation and so the people are having the most natural reaction. Even if a majority are not exactly in support of Modi, the fallback from congress has only one spot of salvation, and that is this public figure. So adapting him was quite natural. In the wake of such circumstances it was pretty certain that a national youth figure and once very proudly posed Rahul Gandhi is now finding it very difficult to gain public support even on cyber media at large which consists of people who are relatively more educated and well informed than a lot of others. To sum it up, the author has tried to point out how constant ignorance of a party resulted in the loss of popularity of their only remaining trustworthy candidate and how this helped the BJP to rise from ashes in the central government forming scenario.

Mahi and State Indifference

June 30

Mahi and State Indifference

This article in true sense revokes the concept of contemporary media. It deals with how inactive the executive powers of this country are. Taking up the subject of the recent rescue of Mahi, a toddler stuck in a 700 ft. bore well, the author probes of how the district based executive authority are showing a lethargic attitude towards the protection of the people and enhancement of civic security. The acrticle further states that the district collector holds the right to protect the lives of the people of his region and has complete jurisdiction over collecting funds from the errand for the repairs or compensation purposes. This fact is not unheard by the collectors of today, but they simply choose to ignore it and move ahead. People in urban areas are more sniffy about their security and so such incidents do not very often happen in the urban areas, but still, we find numerous places and half-done municipal corporation jobs that can take a toll of anybody's life under a set of simplistic circumstances. This only tells us that not just the people who are ignorant, but those who take cautions as well are no longer safe. The simple reason being that the state executives simply refuse to take interest in this very basic safety operation for the people. Having talked about it, it becomes necessary now for the citizen himself to take a stand for his own rights in front of the government. It becomes necessary for us as 'the people' to make it clear to our executives that such ignorance which can cause even the slightest harm to the life of a citizen cannot be taken for granted.

Power Drive

June 29

Power Drive

This article mainly talks about fighting the electricity shortages of the country. It quotes about how there has been an 8.8% rise in the power demand and only an 8.2% rise in production. It is quite clear , even to a normal mind that the power supply, and infact a consistent and ample power supply is necessary to the growth of the nation. This fact needs to be drastically addressed in our country. It is in fact quite clear that any sort of lousy attitude of the government in implementing policies can result in the country falling back by decades compared to its competitors. We have already been declared as the first fallen angle out of the four BRIC countries. This only is a sign that we should be more vigilant about the corner stones that make a country strong. Even more vigilance is required on the utilization of these corner stones towards efficient sustainable development. Some of the examples are, electricity being the most important, followed by transport, communication in terms of voice as well as high speed data, stronger legislature, a more powerful and determined executive, and a way more active judiciary. Coming back to the point of power, the government is already facing losses by providing free power to a lot of farmers as the political obligations of some of the leaders which is again taking  toll on the revenue. The government is already on a loss of Rs. 45000 crore and looking at the current election scenario, It is poised for more. This all in all sums up to the fact that we need a more reasonable structure of subsidies if at all we do give them out. The power sector is certainly a very important part of the economy and must be addressed appropriately for a brighter future.