Thursday, July 9, 2009
Barso Re!!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Unveil the Veil
Monday, June 8, 2009
Budget Aala Re!!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Racism: Is India Any Different?
Racism, the hated yet globally omnipresent phenomenon is in the headlines again. There has been a spate of vicious attacks on the Indian students studying in Australia in the last month or so, including the attack on a student from Andhra Pradesh which left him in a extremely critical condition. Needless to mention, the attacks and the lacklustre response of Australian authorities led to a spark of protests by the Indian government and the Indian community throughout the globe. The protest was legitimate and as was the desire to live securely in a peaceful society. The Indian media went a step ahead and labelled the entire country as 'Racist' and some groups flagged slogans such as 'Boycott Australia.'
While, I seriously condone the attacks on Indian students in down under and hope that the culprits are put behind the bars soon, are we justified in terming the entire country as 'Racist'? Agreed, there are people with racist mindset in Australia, but which country does not. How sensible is it to label the citizens of an entire nation as racists, because of the misdoings of a few hoodlums? The news channels as irresponsible as they can be have hyped up the issue to increase their viewership and TRP ratings, caring less about the aftermath effects of this generalisation. Has media been thoughtful of the repercussions which approximately 90,000 Indian students and a huge number of Indians families who will continue to stay in the Oz land face?
On one hand, I am happy to see that all the Indians are united against the attacks on their countrymen in a different country, but on the other hand what amazes me is where does our sense of countrymenship goes when it comes to racism in our own country. The racist comment on Shilpa Shetty (Bollywood actress) on a British TV reality show saw such an outrage from Indians that Jade Goody had to apologize publicly. Great work India, but where does this anger disappear when it comes to similar or even more offensive racial discrimination within India. The people from north eastern states are referred with derogatory names and looked down upon because of their eating habits in various parts of India. Is that not racism? Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackrey against the racist attacks in Australia, wrote in an article in Saamna - “Australian players in IPL teams should be removed. Team owners like Vijay Mallya, Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta should display nationalism by doing so.” Where was his feeling of nationalism, when his nephew Raj Thackerey and the MNS were vandalizing shops and beating people from UP and Bihar claiming that Mumbai belong to the Maharashtrians? Are people from UP & Bihar not citizens of India? Several cities in Gujarat have hoardings enunciating India as "Hindu Rashtra." Does a pre-dominant Hindu population makes India a Hindu nation? The North-South divide is just another example of racism.
The racism in India is not only region based, but also on the basis of religion/caste and skin color. Our obsession with skin color can be guaged from the matrimonial advertisements in the newspapers and also from the fact that the immigrant students from Africa are denied housing and termed as scary & dirty in most of our metropolitans. Caste based discrimination can be seen in India on a day to day basis. In a country that prides itself as being the world’s biggest democracy, more than 200 million people from the Dalit communities suffer from caste discrimination. So much is the level of ignorance that at the United Nations conference on Racism in 2001 in Geneva, the Indian government diplomatically ensured that topic of caste discrimination was excluded from the agenda. On the contrary, the government has made reservations for the backward communities in a plethora of government jobs and even education (whether or not they deserve it is a rabbit's chase for another day). What's the need for these reservations if there is no discrimination, is beyond my imagination? Our lack of committment to erase racism within our own country has weakened our stance to deal with racism against our countrymen abroad.
Coming back to Australia, the attacks on Indian students has to be condemned and dealt with serious concern. The Aussie authorities if they are to sustain their $2 billion education industry (just from Indians) and maintain its nick name of 'God's own country,' should crack down on such violent acts against any community. Indians on the other hand should not only stand united when the rights of their fellow-citizens are squashed in a foreign land, but also when they are trampled within the country. The Aussies who committed the attacks must surely be punished, but at the same time we have a greater responsibility to introspect ourselves and erase racism from India first. We proclaim pride in our unity in diversity, so its our duty to ensure that despite of his/her caste, color, creed, and culture India belongs to every Indian.
-Kartavya Jain
Friday, May 29, 2009
Investment in the Times of Recession
Aapka apna, jo karde aapka Money Dugna Portfolio Manager
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Outsourcing: Can It Be Stopped?
However, in the current economic downturn when companies are applying different cost-cutting measures to survive & grow, and outsourcing being among the tested one, how feasible will it be for Obama & Co. to push companies to do something which is not in their best economic interests. As rightly pointed by the vice-president of one of the outsourcing firms based in Nashville,TN that "Even if the government amends the US tax policy on companies doing work offshore, the changes wouldn't be large enough to compete with the 20-30 % benefit companies get in lower labor costs. With the world economy like an inter-connected web and inter-dependent, the obvious question that comes to mind is - Is this tax proposal anywhere close to becoming a reality or is it just a mere post-election rhetoric ?
First of all there is no such thing as tax breaks awarded to US companies creating job overseas. What the US tax law has is a provision or 'loop-hole' that allows American companies to defer income tax payments on offshore profits until they are repatriated back home in the form of investments & dividends, and this is what Mr. Obama wants to eliminate (probably). Moreover, this move towards protectionism to create jobs at home lacks credibility, because US started loosing jobs long before the economic crisis to countries like Japan & China in automobile and manufacturing sectors respectively, pertaining to their lack of competitiveness and efficiency. Obama & Co. will also be answerable to the multinational companies and the hopefuls who plan to become MNCs? Why would the companies invest overseas if they don't get any incentives to do so? Protectionist measures such as these will not only dent the competitiveness and quality but also aggravate the economic crisis due to the increased costs and hinder the revival of world economy.
There's still a lot of smoke around that if implemented, which companies will be at the receiving end of this tax code change. Will it be the companies such as Wipro, Infosys who provide IT services to American companies ---- probably No, because most of these companies are working in India through a third party. So, who will be affected? As far as my understanding goes, multinationals like IBM, HP, P&G, GM, Accenture with their own offshore centres & operations will be hurt most by the proposed tax code change. So, the next question which comes up is --- Can Barack Obama get the Congress backing to pass this bill ? With the American populace favouring him and wanting to keep the jobs at home, may be he can. But history has proven how much clout does the US multinationals and lobbyists have on the Capitol Hill and with all these grumbling MNCs leaving no stone unturned to make sure that this proposal die a premature death, it won't be a cakewalk for the Obama administration to implement the tax code. Secondly, it is highly unlikely that rest of the world will be indifferent towards this protectionist tax policy.
To summarize, Obama's stringent tax and immigrant laws may turn good for the US in short term, but in long term once the economy is back on the path of recovery, US will certainly need the services of immigrants & foreigners. After all nearly half of start-ups in Silicon Valley were started by immigrants and a quarter of US global patent applications are from foreigners (according to an independent study conducted by Harvard Law School). Importantly, even the implementation of tax code doesn't guarnatee that jobs will stay in US, because it will be in the hands of the businesses to decide what is best for their survival & growth.
-Kartavya Jain
Monday, May 18, 2009
General Elections 2009: A Win Win Situation
Saturday's results as I would put it is a WIN-WIN situation for Indian democracy. The so-called 'weak' PM of India Manmohan Singh, was smiling and greeting people at 7, Race Course Road, while the self acclaimed strong PM candidate L.K. Advani was hiding and considering retirement. Indian voters displayed remarkable maturity and smartness in keeping both the Left and Right at bay and handing UPA (Congress) a resounding electoral win. As expected, all the election pundits and psephologists failed to read and understand the mind of voters and were way off the mark. Shobha De rightly states in her column -- "Gyaan givers should now go into hiding and hang up their brains."
The resurgence of UPA/Congress back into the power without the support of the left will expedite various economic reforms & policies such as opening up insurance sector for foreign investment and establishing Pension Regulatory and Development Authority to name a few. Authority. The importance and euphoria of having a stable UPA government w/o the support of opportunists Left can be fathomed from the fact that the stock trading was halted at upper circuit one minute after it began on Monday (a first timer in the history of Indian stock markets). Congress's victory proved that their two-pronged strategy of bringing in modern economic reforms and programmes such as nuclear deal, National Rural Employment Act worked well in their favor with both the urbal and rural class voting for them.
Congress turned to be the biggest winner, while BJP the biggest loser in these elections. BJP needs to understand that the pragmatic Indian Junta can't be won anymore by making hate speeches and hollow hindutva ideology. I can't agree more with MJ Akbar that "India is not a secular country just because Indian Muslims want it be secular, but because Indian Hindus want it to be secular." India needs leaders who can prevent Talibanisation of our culture and not create a Taliban.
Kudos to Indian voters for clipping the wings of leaders like Karat, Laloo, Mayawati, Mulayam, Jayalalitha, and Advani and showing that they care for good governance and not religion and caste based politics. By backing the good governance in states of Bihar, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu, Indian voters have shown that they have a come a long way and will only vote for people/party committed to India's development.
India has reinstated its faith in Manmohan Singh and with a few opportunist coalition partners around, economic reforms agenda should be pushed with a big thrust and India should be firmly placed on the path of economic prosperity and growth in the years to come. That said, it's now in the hands of the government to consolidate voter's faith that a stable government (with few partners) is indeed a strong government.
-Kartavya Jain