Monday, September 17, 2012
Small is Beautiful!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Debt & Taxes in US - the Fallout for India!
Furthermore, the legislators at the helm of the world’s only superpower had no clue on how to cut on the spending and thereby reduce the sovereign debt. The Republicans were hell bent against raising the government’s borrowing limit. What followed was a fractious debate over various moot issues like, raising the nation’s debt ceiling, increasing the tax rates, measures to lessen the spending etc. All this ended in a hasty last minute compromise of raising the debt ceiling (to avert a debt default) by around $3 trillion that would reduce the country’s debt by more than $2 trillion (how this happens still remains a mystery!). This political pandemonium has had its effects on the S&P’s and if concrete measures are not taken, other rating agencies would follow the suit.
If we were to look at all these developments from India’s point of view, the picture does not look all gloomy. Of course, there is no denying the fact that the dollar depreciation would hurt Indian exports by making them less competitive, while cheaper imports will put pressure on domestic manufacturers. The data gathered suggests that Indian exports had declined sharply in the second half of 2008-09 owing to a slowdown in the US economy. The sector that seems to loose the most is the one that is the largest beneficiary of outsourcing (no prizes for guessing that!), i.e., the Great Indian IT sector. Also the Reserve Bank of India has cautioned that in the immediate future its priority will be to ensure that adequate rupee and forex liquidity are maintained to prevent excessive volatility in interest and exchange rates.
But there are also some rosily tinted facets to this turmoil. The slowing down of the world economy will definitely pull down the oil and gas prices which would cut the import bill for India (a great relief indeed!). Moreover, the growth of the country depends to a large extent on the domestic market. This kind of ensures a steady growth rate. Another round of Quantitative easing in the US (third in a row!) is very much on the cards. Every time this happens, some good amount of investments seems to find its way to the emerging markets like India. At the same time, there may be higher inflows of foreign institutional investor (FII) funds. This will lead to appreciation of the rupee, which in turn will help bring down the current account deficit. An obvious course of action for the global investors would be to consider diversifying their assets out of US treasuries. This can very much exert pressure on the dollar. There is also fear that some funds that are not allowed to hold any asset without an AAA rating might be forced to sell treasuries. Also India may not be as vulnerable as compared to China, Japan, Hong Kong or Brazil to loose on its forex portfolio from a spike in US interest rates, as only 13 per cent of its forex reserves are in US treasuries.
But to have all these goodies in our kitty, India needs a whole bunch of economic reforms. It’s high time we take advantage of these happenings and improvise on our BBB- debt rating status in the world. The government should sit up and take stock of it. The reforms should be in the areas of controlling inflation and reducing fiscal deficit; improving economic efficiency; ensuring equitable growth; thrust on education, health and sanitation; an additional three to four per cent investment on infrastructure; addressing issues of land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement; deepening policy reforms in the financial sector; addressing gaps in the overall economic regulatory architecture; and last but not the least, to the various environmental issues.
A Solemn Pledge!!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Examination heroics!!
Date: 24.12.08
Time: 3.00 am
Scenario: I was studying feverishly for my last exam of the seventh semester…the syllabus was minuscule and the subject matter wasn’t troublesome…even after a study leave of good four days, my accrued know how of the subject was poor…I had to mug up things till the eleventh hour to be able to sit for the exam…
Conclusion: Either it seems that I seldom prefer to grasp things in a calm and composed atmosphere or the level of procrastination needs a serious check…
Usually the mood after semester exams is jovial…there are plenty of reasons to be…but this time it’s a bit tensed…though the impending result is not a concern…wo to jab aayega tab dekhi jayegi…the thing I m perturbed about is, where would my ever increasing levels of carelessness lead me unto…with each semester, the time frame allocated for the preparation stage is squeezing…this time it crossed all permissible limits...didn’t have a hint of diligence during the exams (“nhi aata hoga to bhi kya…kuch bhi likh aayenge, 30 to aa hi jayenge kisi tareh!”,sums up the attitude)…three and a half years into engineering have taught me the art of fatte bazi if not anything else (like say…you are being asked about a tree and u don’t have a clue…tie a goat to the tree and talk about the goat...lol!)...the way I would tackle the last semester really bugs me…kisi bhi improvement ka scope nhi bacha hai ab (farji engineers hi sahi but B.Tech 4 saal me to poori karni hi hai!)…its not a novel thing for an engineering student to study during the last few days before exams…but at least those few days are assumed to be utilized in an effective manner, to have a good understanding of the prescribed curriculum…here its an altogether different story…just a few days after the exam…the topics studied would revive a faint recollection and probably nothing else…
ye sab sochke to lagta hai...kari kyu engineering!!!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Jasu ben Jayanti lal Joshi ki Joint family!!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Memories...
Thursday, October 4, 2007
DAY DREAMING !!!
I just love this thing about me…rosy day dreaming…a trait I had picked up quite early…or being a Piscean , maybe that was inherent…creating a world of your own…getting lost …losing sync with the reality…until here its quite a lovely thing to do…but when u start believing the dreams to be real without making any efforts for the same…the line between the real and the virtual gets blurred…and then one fine day something happens which awakens u from the deep slumber…the reality comes crashing down…then it might become a herculean task to bring life back on track...so its always a better option to not to get carried away…would like to conclude with a famous quote:
“Don’t dream in the dusty recesses of your mind , to wake up and find that it was vanity; but dream with open eyes and act to make it possible!!!”