Indian Economy

As we had often come back to discussing economic benefits/impact of sports I thought it was about time for an economic discussion forum.
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by prasen9 »

Oh. Yes, he was not too bad. At least the direction was right even though progress was incremental.
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by Atithee »

What I'm trying to say is that young political office holders, despite their noble intentions, are not able to bring about the changes in India. To me, Rajiv Gandhi is the best example of such failures. However, I blame these failures squarely on the people of India -- if we keep electing the same people and their offspring after them, we deserve what befalls India as a nation. Caste, region, and religion based bloc voting has no place in (particularly) a developing nation.

I wonder what the average age of people's representatives is in other countries of the world. We seem to have way too many older MPs, MLAs, etc. And the younger ones are either just a chip off the old block, or caste based victors.

P.S. I consider Rajiv Gandhi to be one of better offsprings to hold office. I had better hopes from Akhilesh Yadav too, but then again, Mulayam is no Indira.
Last edited by Atithee on Thu Aug 08, 2013 9:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by prasen9 »

Rajiv did bring some incremental positive changes in India. It was a different era. You could not sell liberalization to the country and get it passed. Rajiv tried it in 1985. It took the 1991 crisis for a large scale change to be affected.
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by jayakris »

I remember one of his speeches, in the US if I remember correctly (or to a US deligation in India?), Rajiv Gandhi said something like this -- "Computers are great, but my problem with computers is that somebody needs to write the programs. Then you need the programs to be correct. So somebody else needs to write a program to correct the program. Then you need another program to check THAT program"... Pretty far-out thinking back in early 1985 when many were just waking up to the idea of computers running the world. But may be because of his delivery, it elicited a big laughter from everybody. I need to check if my memory is correct and what exactly he said. The other thing I remember is his getting hit by a soldier with a batton while inspecting a guard of honor (in Sri Lanka?). He jumped away like a little kid, all scared! ... He was a decent fellow though.

Jay
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by Atithee »

Update -- I found the following news item confirming my suspicion. It is also worth mentioning that succession planning and distribution of election tickets is largely handled by these aging leaders.

Average Indian is 25, average minister is 65
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by prasen9 »

jayakris wrote:So somebody else needs to write a program to correct the program.
This is still an active area of research. Automatic bug fixing and software repair.
Then you need another program to check THAT program"...
Program verification/formal verification work has been there for a long time. As early as 1969, Tony Hoare proposed Hoare logic. Floyd had done some work in the area in 1967. And, people pretty much knew programs were mathematical constructs and proving theorems and formalizing things have been done for a long time. The inspiration for work in the area stems from Kurt Goedel's incompleteness theorem, which threw cold water on Bertrand Russell's efforts. I find this history fascinating. Read some pop math books to learn about the works and your time will be well spent.

p.s. Everytime I derive something and some problem comes out undecidable, I curse Goedel. [joking, of course :-)]
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by Peter »

New RBI directives
The headline is sensational, but the changes appear broad and swaying. Anybody want to take a stab at the implications? PK, pretty please.

Just one thought for now. Banning import of gold coins, really?
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by Sandeep »

Indian economic policies over the last 5 years have been absurd to say the least. It is full of stop gap arrangements and there is not a single policy which can take India forward over the next 10 years.

Having said that, I think Indians are overly obsessed with gold. The amount of gold that Indian households have is unbelievable. There has to be a check to it. I don't even mind if there is a complete ban on gold for the next two years. This is one single product which doesn't help India in any way. Also, our government should encourage Indian households to spend more and save a little less. Again, the amount of savings is unbelievable. Far higher than any other economy in the world!
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by sanjay5goel »

LSD and Marijuana in the 60's and 70's were associated with experiments attempting to achieve mind expansion :)

If anyone is really interested in mind expansion I recommend reading this book on Economics called "Lessons in Spiritual Economics - From the Bhagavad Gita". Here is a brief introduction of the author as given on his website.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Dhanesvara Das

Dhanesvara Das
The Formal Version

Dhanesvara Das (Don Rousse), MS, is a social healer, social economist, spiritual teacher, speaker and monk. He is a father of three wonderful people and the grandfather (so far) of two. His interests include applying Vedic Dharma to current cultural and social issues, especially economic activity, and developing practices that encourage and support the gift economy. Dhanesvara was initiated into the Gaudiya-Vaishnava sampradaya spiritual order 40 years ago, which introduced him to his current way of life. He travels throughout the United States, Europe, India, and the former Soviet Union teaching the methods of living a spiritual life, Spiritual Economics, spiritual psychology, etc. Besides writing for his websites and blogs, he is currently working on his next book “Change the Karma!” aimed at helping protesters worldwide understand the root cause of our global problems.

Looking at this bio one may wonder what my qualification is for writing a book about economics. Good question and one that deserves to be answered.

Please take note of the title of my book: “Lessons in Spiritual Economics from the Bhagavad-gita – Part 1 Understanding and Solving the Economic Problem.” Another way of stating that is: “Lessons from the Bhagavad-gita in Economics.” The book is an application of the principles of the Bhagavad-gita applied to both psychology and economics. My qualification for this is my 40 year study of the Bhagavad-gita. While my treatment of economic theory heavily references those who are established in the field, my unique individual contribution is to explain economic behavior as a function of human consciousness and explain how consciousness, the symptom of the spiritual soul, is influenced by activities in the material world.

I make no claims about being an economist in the traditional sense of the word. Instead I claim to be a “social economist” in that I write about how the economic practices of the world affect people and their social well being, and comment from the perspective of the Vedic worldview. I claim to be a “social healer” in that I understand how this world works from a spiritual perspective, and thus understand how to heal it from the root level of existence.
A More Personal Introduction to Dhanesvara Das

Besides giving you the formal version of me, I want to provide you with a more personal story about myself. Knowing who I am and how my life has developed will give you a better idea of what I am about, and what my work is about. The official ‘public persona’ above may not allow you to understand me in the same way.

I was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in Dearborn, home-town of Henry Ford, and suburb of Detroit. Our family was middle class, which in the years of my upbringing was quite nice. We didn’t want for anything. I attended Michigan State University and graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Engineering in 1970, and went on to graduate school at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Two years later I was awarded a Master of Science Degree in Materials Science and Engineering.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

to continue reading further you may do so here - http://www.spiritual-economics.com/about-autho/

If you would like to read the book he has authored - paid and free versions of the book are available at this link - http://www.spiritual-economics.com/

Please share your thoughts after reading for the benefit of us forum-mongers :)

Regards
Sanjay
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by Peter »

From the Sydney Morning Herald, on the recent crash of the rupee.

With inflation still at 9.3 per cent last year and possibly higher in 2013, the new governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Raghuram Rajan, has his work cut out for him.
His job is to decide the supply of rupees, and by slowing the printing presses he could stem inflation. Yet by curtailing access to credit even further, he could also cool the economy, and not at a good time.
...
So what’s the endgame here? As long as the RBI doesn’t start printing rupees like there’s no tomorrow - and with Rajan in charge they almost certainly won’t - the currency’s freefall will be temporary. At some point, Indian assets, goods and services will seem cheap, and buyers will return.
But for that to happen, the currency markets must be left to their own devices. The pre-Rajan RBI has moved in the opposite direction by limiting Indians’ ability to sell rupees, which investors will interpret as a last-ditch effort to maintain the currency’s value at an artificially high level.
In Argentina, similar measures recently led to a black market in pesos and further undermined confidence in the country’s economic policies. For Rajan, reversing course will be job one.
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by PKBasu »

jayakris wrote:I remember one of his speeches, in the US if I remember correctly (or to a US deligation in India?), Rajiv Gandhi said something like this -- "Computers are great, but my problem with computers is that somebody needs to write the programs. Then you need the programs to be correct. So somebody else needs to write a program to correct the program. Then you need another program to check THAT program"... Pretty far-out thinking back in early 1985 when many were just waking up to the idea of computers running the world. But may be because of his delivery, it elicited a big laughter from everybody. I need to check if my memory is correct and what exactly he said. The other thing I remember is his getting hit by a soldier with a batton while inspecting a guard of honor (in Sri Lanka?). He jumped away like a little kid, all scared! ... He was a decent fellow though.

Jay
I think Rajiv was the most sensible and pragmatic member of the Nehru dynasty. What he tried to do was eminently sensible (at the start), and on computers he had foresight and guts -- at a time when there was intense opposition to introducing them into the country. Today, it is easier to book a train or plane ticket online in India than almost anywhere else partly because of Rajiv's political courage in forcing through change. Unfortunately, the cynics within Congress eventually got to him. (On the Sri Lanka episode, Rajiv wasn't hit by a baton but by the butt of a soldier's rifle; he fended it off, and continued inspecting the honour guard, relatively unruffled). In 1991, Rajiv designed a boldly reformist election manifesto for Congress, but I don't think he would have been able to implement with as much vigour as Narasimha Rao was able to. Despite his pout, PV Narasimha Rao was the finest of the Congress Prime Ministers: he not only got the economy back on track, he fixed the Khalistan problem, resolved the Assam issue, and restored peace in Kashmir -- apart from re-orienting our foreign policy to be pro-US, and to re-engage with the rest of Asia. A genuinely good PM, who will hopefully be remembered by posterity with much more fondness than the Nehru family allows currently.
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by Omkara »

Met Mr. Subramanian Swamy yesterday. He said the same as pkb said above. There was small detail he added. His point was Rajeev wanted reforms Rao did but Soviet was still strong. Economic liberalization being pro capitalism, meant if Rajeev pushed reforms he would be seen pro US. There was tremendous pressure from Russia to continue with the license raj. After soviet degenerated, people realized key problems with the system.
The 1991 manifesto was probably made given the soviet could no longer bully. To think about the pro US stance came after soviet ceased to be a power. Rajeev still would have gone for reforms but I am certain he wouldn't have been as successful as Rao. Rao was our best PM only challenged by Atalji who was much more popular
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by prasen9 »

On Manmohan Singh: Article
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by bhagatghavri »

India is the fastest growing country. It has 10th largest rank in the world economy by GDP. On the basis of per capita income, India is improving own rank.
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Re: Indian Economy

Post by Omkara »

The challenge remains... will the mods be able to block these guys :p
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