News updates

I haven't been writing at all for sometime. Let me just summarize the developments over the past 3-4 weeks.

• Inflation:Sharad Pawar is in no mood in fighting food inflation. The Govt. too has gone in for easier option of using monetary policy tools. CRR has been hiked and there should be a reduction in inflation. However, this would also affect growth. What we need is High Growth and Low Inflation. Why can't a Manmohan led UPA understand this.
• Reforms: After GST, its now the turn of 3 G auctions which will be delayed. There has hardly been any reforms. No progress on the disinvestment side. All that this Govt is doing is populist measure like NREGA. Even that is hardly efficient.
  
• India-Pak: There seems to be a definite softening of stand from the Indian side, and honestly I won't be surprised if there would resumption of talks at any level within next 3-4 months.
• Marathi Manoos:Eversince  attacking IBN Lokmat office, Shiv Sena has been constantly marching on a path towards self destruction. As I had pointed out earlier, it is MNS which has cleverly kept itself out of all this. It did not attack Sachin or Ambani when they said that Mumbai was for all. But they did issue a dictat saying all taxi-drivers must know Marathi. Bal Thackeray seems to have lost his acumen.
• Hockey: Good to see that the hockey issue was resolved. But I would like that the womens team also get their due. After all, off late they have been much more successful than the men's team.
• Unfortunately, the Telengana struggle suddenly seems have lost its steam. I don't expect that the new state will be created anytime soon.
• With Dravid out, India will struggle to hold on to its Number 1 ranking. But the good news is that finally Yuvraj is out and Badrinath will make his debut. He has been the most consistent player on domestic circuit. He has led India A sides. After trying out Yuvraj for nearly a decade, he needs to be shown the door. He has rare;y scored outside India particularly when the team is in trouble. Even Dhoni averages more than him.
• Budget: Over the next one month, expect the print and electronic media to be full of news on the upcoming Budget. However, I don't have any hope from this Govt. For 5 years they kept making an excuse that it was the Left that was blocking reforms. Who is blocking them now.

India- Bangladesh Accord: A historical opportunity for North-East India

Even though I was on a blogging sabbatical, I could not resist when I heard about the India-Bangladesh accord.

This is a historic opportunity for the North-East India that has lagged behind primarily because of geography. Readers may go through this article to understand how beyond the Chickens Neck area, a different world exists.
Prior to 1965 war, India had transit rights over East Pakistan. But even after 1971 they were not given.

I am not going into the details of the benefits to both countries as it has already been widely written. Here are two articles - 1 and 2 that sum it up. But ofcourse, there are no free lunches. India would need to pay high transit fees. This may also give higher bargaining power to Bangladesh vis-a-vis Water disputes. But is that really a price too much? I think not as economic growth could finally bring an end to the insurgency in the region.

Sabbatical

Hello Readers,
I am sorry to say that I am taking an indefinite blogging sabbatical. I am not in the right frame of mind to continue this blog. I hope I shall return soon, but can't promise. I have thoroughly enjoyed here.


- Sandy