Peepli Live : Nuggets from Anusha Rizvi & Mahmood Farooqui

It was primarily the idea that there are policies for farmers who are dead, but there is nothing for those who are still alive. And that is a repeated sense in the film.

How many of our films show rural India and believe that India has a rural side. People just think about big cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore. So have we come to a juncture where there will be one India for the rich and the other of the poor villagers? And we will have visas and passports for the villagers to go into the world of rich Indians?

India - 3rd most powerful country in the world

India has been named as the third most powerful country in the world. With 8% of global power in its hands, India stands 3rd after United States (22% of power) and China (12% of power). If the European Union is included as a block, then it would account for 16% of global power, making India the fourth most powerful nation in the world. The model used by the agency took into account GDP, defense spending, population and technology for each country to come up with its rankings.

Obamanomics and US – The Great Divide Within

The reforms of Obama is being heatedly debated in the United States between the two sects of American public. The first sect is Pro-Big-Business guys who feel that Obama hates Business, is driving US to State Capitalism and feel that he is an anti-colonialist like his father Obama Sr.

Taking a strong opposition to Obamanomics, Dinesh D’Souza in his Forbes Article, “Obama’s Problem with Business” articulates his scathing attack on Obama:

A good way to discern what motivates Obama is to ask a simple question: What is his dream? Is it the American dream? Is it Martin Luther King's dream? Or something else? It is certainly not the American dream as conceived by the founders. They believed the nation was a "new order for the ages." A half-century later Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of America as creating "a distinct species of mankind." This is known as American exceptionalism. But when asked at a 2009 press conference whether he believed in this ideal, Obama said no. America, he suggested, is no more unique or exceptional than Britain or Greece or any other country.

Perhaps Obama shares Martin Luther King's dream of a color-blind society. The President has benefited from that dream; he campaigned as a nonracial candidate, and many Americans voted for him because he represents the color-blind ideal. Even so, King's dream is not Obama's: The President never champions the idea of color-blindness or race-neutrality. The race issue simply isn't what drives Obama

What then is Obama's dream? We don't have to speculate because the President tells us himself in his autobiography, Dreams from My Father. According to Obama, his dream is his father's dream. Notice that his title is not Dreams of My Father but rather Dreams from My Father. Obama isn't writing about his father's dreams; he is writing about the dreams he received from his father.

From the anticolonial perspective, American imperialism is on a rampage. For a while, U.S. power was checked by the Soviet Union, but since the end of the Cold War America has been the sole superpower. Moreover, 9/11 provided the occasion for America to invade and occupy two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, and also to seek political and economic domination in the same way the French and the British empires once did. So in the anticolonial view, America is now the rogue elephant that subjugates and tramples the people of the world.

It may seem incredible to suggest that the anticolonial ideology of Barack Obama Sr. is espoused by his son, the President of the United States. That is what I am saying. From a very young age and through his formative years Obama learned to see America as a force for global domination and destruction. He came to view America's military as an instrument of neocolonial occupation. He adopted his father's position that capitalism and free markets are code words for economic plunder. Obama grew to perceive the rich as an oppressive class, a kind of neocolonial power within America. In his worldview, profits are a measure of how effectively you have ripped off the rest of society, and America's power in the world is a measure of how selfishly it consumes the globe's resources and how ruthlessly it bullies and dominates the rest of the planet.

The other faction which support Obamanomics feel that Obama is trying to save the American Middle Class. For them, Obamanomics also means understanding that America has to now adjust to the new realities of globalization. Simon Tay, in his Forbes article titled “America’s Call to globalization” states that America needs to react proactively to Asia’s Rise and Obama himself represents the new economic realities in the globalized world.

He says ” For a long time, globalization has effectively meant "Americanization." This has meant that others in the world adjust to American mores and culture and that the dispersion of American brands across the world accompanies the spread of commercial interdependence. Americans had little to adjust to in globalization when it was the same as Americanization.

This, however, will change in the globalization that is coming in the wake of the crisis. This deeper globalization is coming back to America in hybrid forms that take in more influences from more sources, especially from a rising Asia. The new globalization is not as such Americanization but is something that could be called "Global-as-Asian." This would be more of a two-way street for people, trade, finance, influence, and ideas.”

Perhaps President Barack Obama can provide not just a political message but a personal example of Global-as-Asian. As a child, Obama followed his mother to live in Indonesia and, from 1967 to 1971, at the formative ages of six to ten, he attended the Besuki Elementary School in Jakarta before returning to Hawaii for school and going on to Columbia University and Harvard Law School.

The Besuki school did not espouse an extremist Muslim religion, as rumors falsely alleged when Obama was campaigning for office. The school had mixed races and religions, including Christians and international students. Given this and his own background, the young boy who is now president could fairly be said not to be a product of a typical American education but instead to have received a kind of international education.

America does need Asia. The rise of Asia can help drive the American recovery and growth if the economies remain linked and American companies can find ways to grow in Asia. But the American need for Asia cannot be politically supported if America comes out of the crisis severely weakened and with a loss of confidence. A weak and shaken America will be likely to see greater anti-Asian, protectionist sentiments, and against allowing more influence and investment to flow from the region into the United States.

On the other hand, if it can show signs of recovery and rebuilding after this crisis, then America can respond proactively to the rise of Asia and the new and deeper processes of globalization--Global-as-Asian.

Carry Trades - The Secret of Indian Stock Market's FDI

Interest Rates and Economic Stimulus

How did the US Banks so much during the financial crisis?

America Without a Middle Class - I

Elizabeth Warren : On the disappearing American Middle-Class

Can you imagine an America without a strong middle class? If you can, would it still be America as we know it?

Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street.

The crisis facing the middle class started more than a generation ago. Even as productivity rose, the wages of the average fully-employed male have been flat since the 1970s. But core expenses kept going up. By the early 2000s, families were spending twice as much (adjusted for inflation) on mortgages than they did a generation ago -- for a house that was, on average, only ten percent bigger and 25 years older. They also had to pay twice as much to hang on to their health insurance.

To cope, millions of families put a second parent into the workforce. But higher housing and medical costs combined with new expenses for child care, the costs of a second car to get to work and higher taxes combined to squeeze families even harder. Even with two incomes, they tightened their belts. Families today spend less than they did a generation ago on food, clothing, furniture, appliances, and other flexible purchases -- but it hasn't been enough to save them. Today's families have spent all their income, have spent all their savings, and have gone into debt to pay for college, to cover serious medical problems, and just to stay afloat a little while longer.

America today has plenty of rich and super-rich. But it has far more families who did all the right things, but who still have no real security. Going to college and finding a good job no longer guarantee economic safety. Paying for a child's education and setting aside enough for a decent retirement have become distant dreams. Tens of millions of once-secure middle class families now live paycheck to paycheck, watching as their debts pile up and worrying about whether a pink slip or a bad diagnosis will send them hurtling over an economic cliff.

America without a strong middle class? Unthinkable, but the once-solid foundation is shaking.

Asatyameva Jayete.

I came across the following Social Media Mail - MOHAN MARUTI--INDIA

A few days ago I was in a panel discussion on mergers and acquisitions in Frankfurt, Germany, organised by Euroforum and The Handelsblatt, one of the most prestigious newspapers in German-speaking Europe.

The other panellists were senior officials of two of the largest carmakers and two top insurance companies — all German multinationals operating in India.
The panel discussion was moderated by a professor from the esteemed European Business School. The hall had an audience that exceeded a hundred well-known European CEOs. I was the only Indian.

After the panel discussion, the floor was open for questions.That was when my “moment of truth” turned into an hour of shame, embarrassment — when the participants fired questions and made remarks on their experiences with the evil of corruption in India.

The awkwardness and humiliation I went through reminded of The Moment of Truth, the popular Anglo-American game. The more questions I answered truthfully, the more the questions got tougher. Tougher, here means more embarrassing.

European disquiet

Questions ranged from “Is your nation in a coma?”, the corruption in adminstration, even in judiciary, the possible impeachment of a judge, the 2G,teecom scam and to the moneyin billions, parked illegally in tax havens.
It is a fact that the problem of corruption in India has assumed enormous and embarrassing proportions in recent years, although it has been with us for decades. The questions and the debate that followed in the panel discussion was indicative of the European disquiet. At the end of the Q&A session, I surmised Europeans perceive India to be at one of those junctures where tripping over the precipice cannot be ruled out.
Let me substantiate this further with what the European media has to say in recent days.
In a popular prime-time television discussion in Germany, the panellist, a member of the German Parliament quoting a blog said: “If all the scams of the last five years are added up, they are likely to rival and exceed the British colonial loot of India of about a trillion dollars.”

Banana Republic

One German business daily which wrote an editorial on India said: “India is becoming a Banana Republic instead of being an economic superpower. To get the cut motion designated out, assurances are made to political allays. Special treatment is promised at the expense of the people. So, Ms Mayawati who is Chief Minister of the most densely inhabited state, is calmed when an intelligence agency probe is scrapped. The multi-million dollars fodder scam by another former chief minister wielding enormous power is put in cold storage. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chairs over this kind of unparalleled loot.”
An article in a French newspaper titled “Playing the Game, Indian Style” wrote: “Investigations into the shadowy financial deals of the Indian cricket league have revealed a web of transactions across tax havens like Switzerland, the Virgin Islands, Mauritius and Cyprus.” In the same article, the name of one Hassan Ali of Pune is mentioned as operating with his wife a one-billion-dollar illegal Swiss account with “sanction of the Indian regime”.
A third story narrated in the damaging article is that of the former chief minister of Jharkhand, Madhu Koda, who was reported to have funds in various tax havens that were partly used to buy mines in Liberia. “Unfortunately, the Indian public do not know the status of that enquiry,” the article concluded.
“In the nastiest business scam in Indian records (Satyam) the government adroitly covered up the political aspects of the swindle — predominantly involving real estate,” wrote an Austrian newspaper. “If the Indian Prime Minister knows nothing about these scandals, he is ignorant of ground realities and does not deserve to be Prime Minister. If he does, is he a collaborator in crime?”
The Telegraph of the UK reported the 2G scam saying: “Naturally, India's elephantine legal system will ensure culpability, is delayed.”

Blinded by wealth

This seems true. In the European mind, caricature of a typical Indian encompasses qualities of falsification, telling lies, being fraudulent, dishonest, corrupt, arrogant, boastful, speaking loudly and bothering others in public places or, while travelling, swindling when the slightest of opportunity arises and spreading rumours about others. The list is truly incessant.
My(MOHAN'S) father, who is 81 years old, is utterly frustrated, shocked and disgruntled with whatever is happening and said in a recent discussion that our country's motto should truly be CHANGED TO

Asatyameva Jayete.

Europeans believe that Indian leaders in politics and business are so blissfully blinded by the new, sometimes ill-gotten, wealth and deceit that they are living in defiance, insolence and denial to comprehend that the day will come, sooner than later, when the have-nots would hit the streets.

In a way, it seems to have already started with the monstrous and grotesque acts of the Maoists. And, when that rot occurs, not one political turncoat will escape being lynched.

The drumbeats for these rebellions are going to get louder and louder as our leaders refuse to listen to the voices of the people. Eventually, it will lead to a revolution that will spill to streets across the whole of India, I fear.

Perhaps we are the architects of our own misfortune. It is our sab chalta hai (everything goes) attitude that has allowed people to mislead us with impunity.

No wonder Aesop said. “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to high office.”
(The author is former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany. )

Transportation Innovation : Now in India

Last Month, I came across the MegaBus, Chinese Transportation Innovation. Now India seems to be not that far behind. Transportation Pods are being planned in Gurgaon, Delhi.

Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has a high-tech solution that will address commuters' problems in one shot: Pod taxis. And he is serious about it.

As Gurgaon residents well know, the city roads are an optical illusion. The unbroken chain of craters and ditches that pass for roads have for long burned holes in the pockets and hearts of the residents.

But, if Hooda has his way, you could bypass the troublesome roads altogether. " Pod taxis seem to be the best way to take public transport through all the built up areas," Hooda told TOI in an exclusive interview. Clearly, the chief minister aims high.

The CM believes that these battery-operated, driverless vehicles that run on an elevated track, will begin to ply in the next few years and connect people point to point - what the government claims as "providing last mile connectivity".

Read more: Forget potholes, ride pod taxis in Gurgaon: Hooda - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgoan/Forget-potholes-ride-pod-taxis-in-Gurgaon-Hooda/articleshow/6550018.cms#ixzz0zZ9DIQxI

One in three Indians 'utterly corrupt': watchdog head

Almost one-third of Indians are "utterly corrupt" and half are "borderline", the outgoing head of the country's corruption watchdog has said, blaming increased wealth for much of the problem.

Pratyush Sinha, who retired as India's Central Vigilance Commissioner this week, said the worst part of his "thankless job" was observing how corruption had increased as people became more materialistic.

"When we were growing up I remember if somebody was corrupt, they were generally looked down upon," he said. "There was at least some social stigma attached to it. That is gone. So there is greater social acceptance."

Transparency International, the global anti-graft body, puts India 84th on its corruption perception index with a 3.4-point rating, out of a best possible score of 10.

New Zealand ranks first with 9.4 points and Somalia last on 1.1 points.

The campaign group has said that each year millions of poor Indian families have to bribe officials for access to basic public services.

Sinha told the Mint newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday that 20 percent of Indians were "honest, regardless of the temptations, because this is how they are. They have a conscience.

"There would be around 30 percent who would be utterly corrupt. But the rest are the people who are on the borderline," he said, adding that corruption was "palpable".

Sinha said that in modern India "if somebody has a lot of money, he is respectable. Nobody questions by what means he has got the money."