From the monthly archives:

October 2008

The Global Economic Crisis

by Dr. Anjan K Das on October 29, 2008

The global economic crisis has struck and sob sob, all those poor flight crew who used to earn Rs 35000 a month are out of a job. The Times Of India informs me that they can now barely earn Rs 10000 a month in any other job. How will the poor souls make ends meet? And guess who are agitating for them? The CITU no less, in Kolkata and their twin, Raj Thackeray in Mumbai. And there is no reason not to believe that Amar Singh or Jayalalithaaaaaa (Or however many a s she is using nowadays) will leap into the fray in no time.

Please forgive me if I am not too sympathetic for these kids who were being paid at a level that even a doctor or a scientist with the highest qualifications are sometimes unable to earn. I know many many students of mine who would be glad to earn Rs 10000 a month and they are qualified doctors. The total lack of any sort of relationship between the type of work that a person does and the remuneration is something that shocks me. I am not surprised that the famous financial institutions are crashing left and right. Can you imagine, they are paying a person who studied engineering and then took a two year course from an IIM, literary crores of rupees. I mean, he is brilliant no doubt, but what business strategies can he have learnt in these two years that he will be paid more than many successful businessmen earn after twenty years in the rough and tumble of business? And the HR people who are paying these salaries are just wasting the company’s money and such a company is bound to collapse in the long run.

When I read the long mast heads in the newspapers about the flight attendants who have been laid off, and mind you here were all on probation, I wonder where all this outrage is buried when people are literally starving to death all over India? I recommend that you all should read the News item published widely but not discussed in yesterday’s papers. The Global Hunger index has placed India 66th among 88 developing countries in numbers of people going to bed hungry. There is NO STATE in India that does not have severe levels of hunger. In case you are interested, West Bengal ranks below Rajastan in the scale.

Forget the sufferings of the IIM grads who will have to sell off their fourth cars, forget the plight of the poor flight attendants who will not be able to eat out next Saturday and will be unable to buy the jewelery they had their eyes on for ages. Think of the wretched of the Indian Earth. Or else they will drag you into the reality in a way that you will not like. Believe me, that is what History teaches us.

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Dollar Flee Hits Rupee!

by Nipon on October 29, 2008

With the financial biggies like Layman Brothers collapsing and ‘bail outs’ being the flavour of the season, the full-blown financial crisis in the western markets is a well known story by this time. Concurrent with the stock markets crashing worldwide, the Indian Rupee has continued its downhill march over the last few months, finally sliding past the all-time low of 50 mark in the last few days. Not even a year ago, it stood robust at 40 a dollar which we have talked about at that time.

Chidambaram, our smart and suave FM, has spared no effort to pacify things. Come what may, PC is ever assuring. The sweet words from his mouth meant to be vocal tonic for investors could not however prevent the dollar outflow from the Indian market. Foreign investors unloaded their investments from the Indian economy in the face of severe credit crunch in the US and European markets. It is the foreign fund riding on which the sensex had soared to 20,000 mark in the past. The depleting dollar reserve has led to this rupee depreciation & sensex crash.

A weak rupee translates to higher revenues in export sectors for example IT and Auto ancillaries. However, in a globalised market, almost every industry is hit by recession where firms are trying to cut costs and ‘lay off’ seems to be the order of the day.

A friend has observed that the US dollar has itself weakened against Yen which shows how badly the INR is hit.  Another opinion which I read in Economic Times is – rupee has not fallen much in terms of most global currencies. Rather it is the dollar, with its advantage of being the global currency, which has strenthened in this period of crisis.

The usual regulatory measures continue, as always. Central bank RBI and also other state-owned banks are selling dollars to prevent further rupee depreciation. What happens in the long run remains to be seen.

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Sensex turnarounds on Diwali

October 29, 2008

It has almost been a couple of months we are continuously seeing the great turmoil in world economy and its effect on various sectors like banks,private firms,insurance sectors,share maket from Dow Jones to Nasdaq to Nifty.And people especially the  small investors  of the share market who lives from hand to mouth depending on the NSE, BSE [...]

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Letter to a Daughter

October 20, 2008

Tinni,
Just read your blog.
Gawd ! Is this the 21st century definition of gengap? I wonder how many mothers share their teenage romantic melting moments with their adult daughter these days!! Tinni, after reading this on bongbuzz I dint know how to react really. Should I feel mad at your mother for sharing such private things [...]

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A Recipe for Poetry

October 18, 2008

Shred onions over the skyline,
Drop three spoonfuls of the Pacific Ocean into it,
One cup of snow flakes from the tip of Mt. Everest.
Stir the mixture gradually,
Whipping in two bowls of sand from the Sahara.
Sprinkle a pinch of earth dug up for the Metro Rail back home,
And heat it over the Vesuvius.
Three centuries and ten and [...]

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‘Hello’ – The dismantled welcome

October 12, 2008

It was a post Dashami meeting and we all had our gung-ho zeal preserved in ourselves from the day we read Chetan Bhagat’s One night @ the call center and literally we had the phantasmagoria in front of our eyes.Yes, ‘Hello’,the movie on CB’s novel was to release and Nipon,Subhodip & I planned for the first [...]

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