India is going through a very crucial phase economically. The Inflation rate is just getting back to normalcy,although at the cost of the GDP growth rate. The global financial crisis has impacted the financial situation of the country and the RBI is trying its best to restore credit stability into the system. But, Terrorism worsening the efforts is the last thing that India would ever want.
Several attacks spread across the length and breadth of the country and a major terrorist operation that lasted as long as 60 hrs, does raise a question against the lackadaisical attitude of the policy and decision makers. Most of us would agree that in order to get these things into control we need a government that can create a system which should be assertive in suppressing terrorism. That said and understood, there are a few key aspects beyond the democratic setup that have fallen apart which need to be focused before drawing action plans for the future. They are:
1. The weakness of the relations we have with the Pakistani Government - The root of a lot of problems pertaining to peace and religion faced today have their roots in Pakistan. The terrorists have been proved to have Pakistani Origin. The Pakistani Government's non co-operative acts like sending an ISI Director and not wanting to send the Chief add to the misery of the relation. The mud slinging by politicians in Pakistan on their Indian counterparts by claiming that similar attacks have been planned against Pakistan as well ,worsens the little respect we have for each other. All we can infer from this political drama is that peaceful co-operation amidst the neighbours on issues like terrorism is impossible.
2. The negligence of the Indian Intelligence System - With all due respect to the CBI, an attack of this size and duration cannot come as a surprise package to the Indian Intelligence and it in fact did not. If the media is to be trusted as a source it claims that the CBI had information that the Taj would be attacked. But, the seriousness associated with the information died with time. As the attention faded the terrorists had actually utilized this time to such an extent that they had a dry run before the execution.
3. The vulnerability of the Sea Shore - The terrorists apparently hijacked a vessel in the Indian waters, killed everybody on board and used it to enter the city. A lot of these terrorists have fake fishermen licenses which help them enter the city through the harbours. Issues like this expose the vulnerability at the sea ports of the country and more because its a peninsular region with a vast sea border.
4. Business relations - Targeting foreigners is not something new but targeting people who stay in these hotels implies that the intent was to shake well established business relations and damage the country's reputation in the world of business. Trade relations of a few major Indian companies with Israel(majorly Jewish nation) seem to be another interesting reason sited for the attacks. Isn't the India - Pak - Iran Gas pipeline a much bigger proposition than these deals? Why is that being pushed into oblivion?
5. The extremely weak security system - The security guards outside the Taj were armed with service revolvers and were facing an attack without protection ,let alone bullet proof jackets. This makes the attack simpler once the border is breached.
As pointed out at the begin of the blog, the phase that India currently exists shall be etched in the pages of history as a lot of momentum is being gathered to bring the country from the shadows to the forefront. All these weaknesses need to be done away with ASAP. For as long as all these issues aren't addressed properly the dream of attaining superpower status by 2050 will stay a dream.
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PS : The blog would be meaningless without paying tribute to all those people that have lost their lives safeguarding us, so we can brood over these things and fight for a better country. "May all their souls rest in peace. Amen !"
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Implications of the bailout !!!
There is a lot of controversy surrounding the bailout and its implications and I am very sure the common man is not bothered beyond knowing whether things will be good for him or not. This post is for that common man who should have a certain assumptions cleared before he gets to understand the bailout and starts smiling.
First a little history. The Wall Street is witnessing turmoil many thanks to the American way of life - "Borrow and spend". All the pillars that gave to the world too many innovative financial products are all set to bite the dust if they haven't yet. The bailout is to rescue the ones that haven't yet got stung by the fangs of the venomous snake that was fed collectively by all these pillars.
Getting back to the Layman, all he would know is that the bailout sanction will do good for him, improve the financial markets which would translate to easy availability of loans at slightly higher rates of interest. Mistake !!!! Why then would the whole American Congress vote against it in the first place? Elementary logic, we cant buy out the shit we are in. For the bailout to possibly show us a way out, the housing market should become stable which looks like a far fetched reality with the number of people defaulting on their houses.
By stability I mean the Real Estate prices should not drop as they are doing right now, else the banks will never get to know when they can get easy on lending. The exclusivity that they now show to people with sterling creditworthiness needs to be done away with. Its a simple vicious circle -- stricter loans means lesser buying,which means lesser selling which means more defaults because of falling prices (Demand far less than Supply )which means graver situations for the ages to come.
The point here is that bailing out the so called "distressed assets" which are in the form of Mortgage backed securities may not help as much in improving the financial conditions all over the world.
The post is not intended at criticizing the bailout as this is one of the only pragmatic solutions that could be offered. Its just to clear a notion that blinds the common man and reads "Happy days are here again" and to make the policy makers realize the fact that one should pay for one's faults and the payment mode will not be through "Cash or Credit Card". Unfortunately it's not as simple as that.
All said and done the bailout offers hope to people who are really gloomed by the fallout of the markets worldwide. All I could end the post is with this "Hope is a good thing and no good thing ever dies". Amen!!!!
First a little history. The Wall Street is witnessing turmoil many thanks to the American way of life - "Borrow and spend". All the pillars that gave to the world too many innovative financial products are all set to bite the dust if they haven't yet. The bailout is to rescue the ones that haven't yet got stung by the fangs of the venomous snake that was fed collectively by all these pillars.
Getting back to the Layman, all he would know is that the bailout sanction will do good for him, improve the financial markets which would translate to easy availability of loans at slightly higher rates of interest. Mistake !!!! Why then would the whole American Congress vote against it in the first place? Elementary logic, we cant buy out the shit we are in. For the bailout to possibly show us a way out, the housing market should become stable which looks like a far fetched reality with the number of people defaulting on their houses.
By stability I mean the Real Estate prices should not drop as they are doing right now, else the banks will never get to know when they can get easy on lending. The exclusivity that they now show to people with sterling creditworthiness needs to be done away with. Its a simple vicious circle -- stricter loans means lesser buying,which means lesser selling which means more defaults because of falling prices (Demand far less than Supply )which means graver situations for the ages to come.
The point here is that bailing out the so called "distressed assets" which are in the form of Mortgage backed securities may not help as much in improving the financial conditions all over the world.
The post is not intended at criticizing the bailout as this is one of the only pragmatic solutions that could be offered. Its just to clear a notion that blinds the common man and reads "Happy days are here again" and to make the policy makers realize the fact that one should pay for one's faults and the payment mode will not be through "Cash or Credit Card". Unfortunately it's not as simple as that.
All said and done the bailout offers hope to people who are really gloomed by the fallout of the markets worldwide. All I could end the post is with this "Hope is a good thing and no good thing ever dies". Amen!!!!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Whatz TalkOfCampus
TalkOfCampus(ToC) is a venture started by us, the students dedicated to the student community !!!!
Before you understand what ToC I want to highlight a peculiar problem thats prevalent not only in India but across the world which disables the student from connecting to a college. Let me ask you a question that will help understanding it better
How frequently do you check your mails ?
How frequently do you checkout the Notice Board of your college ?
Though both these things are not far too separated in the level of importance they ought to be given ,our survey shows that there is a significant difference in the numbers they quoted as the answers to these questions. And we were sure it doesn't take an intelligent guess to assume reasons for this difference .Its the ease with which both these things could be done. Hence,what we could have done is either asked the people "why the difference ?" or provide a solution to "narrow the difference". We chose to do the latter as we were sure we can not provide solutions that can wipe out a deep rooted problem in lesser time. This is where ToC fits in and provides an online notice board packaged with several other features like Discussion Forums , Blog Space , News etc which help the student to network with peers everywhere and broaden the horizon of learning.
ToC offers students a gamut of services which are:-
•Notices – Find important notices in the college that ought not to be missed here.
•Forums – Discuss, debate anything to everything be it academics or otherwise here.
•Projects – Share, develop and deliberate on projects, form teams with peers outside your college, do it all here.
•Blog – Encourage the intellect in you, share your views regarding different and diverse topics and read others here.
•Trivia – Hone your General Knowledge by testing your skills, answer the questions here.
•News – Stay upbeat with all the recent happenings worth noting both in the campus and off it, find them all here.
•IDesk – Reply to friends that have personally messaged you and search for whatever you need at ToC here.
•Polls – Have a problem with something that is happening in the campus, find out how many feel similar and voice your opinion here.
Visit http://www.talkofcampus.com/ and register. Stick to what our teachers right from kindergarten have always told us " Enjoy Studying !!! "
http://www.talkofcampus.com/ .... Here you hear :-)
Before you understand what ToC I want to highlight a peculiar problem thats prevalent not only in India but across the world which disables the student from connecting to a college. Let me ask you a question that will help understanding it better
How frequently do you check your mails ?
How frequently do you checkout the Notice Board of your college ?
Though both these things are not far too separated in the level of importance they ought to be given ,our survey shows that there is a significant difference in the numbers they quoted as the answers to these questions. And we were sure it doesn't take an intelligent guess to assume reasons for this difference .Its the ease with which both these things could be done. Hence,what we could have done is either asked the people "why the difference ?" or provide a solution to "narrow the difference". We chose to do the latter as we were sure we can not provide solutions that can wipe out a deep rooted problem in lesser time. This is where ToC fits in and provides an online notice board packaged with several other features like Discussion Forums , Blog Space , News etc which help the student to network with peers everywhere and broaden the horizon of learning.
ToC offers students a gamut of services which are:-
•Notices – Find important notices in the college that ought not to be missed here.
•Forums – Discuss, debate anything to everything be it academics or otherwise here.
•Projects – Share, develop and deliberate on projects, form teams with peers outside your college, do it all here.
•Blog – Encourage the intellect in you, share your views regarding different and diverse topics and read others here.
•Trivia – Hone your General Knowledge by testing your skills, answer the questions here.
•News – Stay upbeat with all the recent happenings worth noting both in the campus and off it, find them all here.
•IDesk – Reply to friends that have personally messaged you and search for whatever you need at ToC here.
•Polls – Have a problem with something that is happening in the campus, find out how many feel similar and voice your opinion here.
Visit http://www.talkofcampus.com/ and register. Stick to what our teachers right from kindergarten have always told us " Enjoy Studying !!! "
http://www.talkofcampus.com/ .... Here you hear :-)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Whozz me?
Hey,
Am Sandilya Konduri , am doing my MBA @ NITIE , Mumbai . Ive done my B.E from BITS Pilani ....
More in the posts to follow....
BTW , Ive written a few blogs by now and u can find them at :
http://our-coterie.blogspot.com/search/label/By%20-%20Sandy
http://thecauverytribunal-sandy.blogspot.com/
Am Sandilya Konduri , am doing my MBA @ NITIE , Mumbai . Ive done my B.E from BITS Pilani ....
More in the posts to follow....
BTW , Ive written a few blogs by now and u can find them at :
http://our-coterie.blogspot.com/search/label/By%20-%20Sandy
http://thecauverytribunal-sandy.blogspot.com/
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