inflation figures hovering above 7, has shoot up the blood pressure of the UPA government, what with general election not far away. this hardly surprises me. what i am surprised to see is threats of agitations, nation-wide bandhs and fiery speeches by opposition leaders against govt’s inaction in controlling price rise. i mean you would be laughing your heart out at those images of opposition leaders on TV wearing colourful banners, rising prices of food products written all over it. huh. blame not them.
well inflation rate moving above 7 is certainly something to be worry about. but its still not something that warrants such over wild imaginations of our opposition leaders of a doomsday situation. the hype around rising prices seems more of politics than economics. at the same time govt’s blame on a difficult global situation to this price rise can not be accepted fully. i mean not that its baseless, but there is no gain in saying that high inflation rate in india is a reflection of global rise in commodity and crude oil prices.
india is a fast growing developing economy. any economy experiencing such a high growth, unfortunately has to bear with price rise. its a fairly common trade-off between growth and inflation. as income of individuals increases due to high growth and this puts pressure on prices. this is demand driven inflation. but is this the reason behind current price rise in india. well, not exactly. primary reason behind rise in food prices in india is less supply. our agricultural productivity is miserable. investment in improving agricultural productivity is far less than what is required. this has resulted in low yields compared to other emerging economies like china. also govt encouraging export of agricultural products has resulted in low supply in domestic markets. apart from this, inherent inefficiencies in our public distribution system has also not helped in controlling price rise.
now our govt has taken certain monetary (increasing CRR and interest rate) as well as fiscal (barring exports of rice and other food items, reducing duty on edible oil imports etc) measures to bring a halt in price rise. these are all short term measures. though it will help in reducing inflation to a certain extent, its impact on our growth will be negative. hence, govt has to seriously think about increase in our agricultural productivity by investing in agricultural research and marketing, improving the financial condition of farmers, etc.
books on shivaji banned, dance bars banned, television channels banned, rakhi sawant shows banned, and now sex education banned. after this in a day or two the decision will come out that cheer leaders in IPL banned. the list continues. where is it going to end?
the maharashtra govt believes that indian culture and values are offended by sex education in schools. thats why they have decided that children should not be taught about various aspects of human sexual behavior in school. and they have banned it in all schools across the state including CBSE and ICSC. this decision of the state govt was supported by all our ignorant, stupid, insane, wicked, nescient and inefficient politicians, cutting across party lines. they seem to pay no attention to the concerns of educationists or parents on this issue. and yeah, they would not agree for an open debate on this because they believe through ban the issue will be solved. maharashtra is home to around one in five of all people living with HIV in india. this ban would certainly make things worse.
now…………how and from where children are going to learn about human sexual behavior? we all know that indian parents rarely discuss matters related to sex openly with their children. so like all their previous generations, todays children also have no option but to discover the facts of life for themselves through experiments or watching kama sutra dvd.
at a time when around 3.6 million indians are living with HIV, when india dreams of becoming a global super power with a liberal and progressive culture,
- how justified is the maharashtra govt in baning sex education?
- should we trust our politicians dealing with this issue, when all of them are fuckin interested in pleasing certain vote banks?
have your say.
well its 12′o clock noon time now. both the fat and slim arrows in my clock are sitting pretty on number 12. but i can’t wait for the fat one to move in between 6 n 7 and the slim one to reach 6. yes that 6.30 pm and thats when the live telecast for the inaugural edition of the IPL starts on sony max (check out the IPL schedule). from what i have seen across news channels, the inaugural ceremony promises to be spectacular laser show. hell, it will be. hot babes from washington redskins cheerleaders are here guys.
more on IPL. well, its 8 cricket teams fighting it out over 44 days, paying 56 matches in all on home and away basis. with most of the best cricketers around the world playing, it will be pretty tough competition.
Among these 8 teams i will be rooting for kolkata knight riders. choice for me is simple. dada aka sourav ganguly is leading the side. also knight riders have some prominent faces in ricky ponting, chris gayle, brendon mccullum, shoaib akhtar and the current indian sesnsation ishant sharma.
while there is still some time for the IPL to start, you can start playing your own crickets and win some fantastic prizes too.
- log on to airtel indian fantasy league
- sign up and choose your team of 16 players among the pool
- pick your playing 11
- and score points based on your players’ scores in IPL matches.
to know more on how to play click here.
all the best and hope you win many prizes.
currently, cigarette packets sold in india carry only a statutory text warning, ‘cigarette smoking is injurious to health‘. this is in a fairly small font size, at the bottom of the packets which hardly gets noticed. if i may put an image here of a fairly common brand of cigarette in india called, ‘wills classic milds‘. at the bottom of the image you can notice (may not read properly) a thin line of text. wells thats the warning that cigarette packets here in india carry.
but come june, things are going to change. all packets of tobacco products sold in india are required to carry pictorial warnings in a bid to deter people from smoking. in this regard the union health ministry has issued the final notification. the notification says,
“every person engaged directly or indirectly in the production, supply, import and distribution of tobacco products should ensure that every package has the specified health warning. the warnings will have to occupy 40% of the principal display area of the pack. none of the elements of the specified warning are severed, covered or hidden in any manner when the packet is sealed. no package can be sold unless it carries the health warnings.”
the ministry has also finalized on a set of images to be used on the packages.
hands down you will agree with me that these images look gruesome.
now i don’t know, how i will react when i see these on my packet of smoke? but my question is, why does the government bully smokers in this way? not undermining the health risks involved with smoking, ultimately, it comes down to an individual’s right to choose when it comes to personal risk. i have only two points to make here.
- if the government is really worried about health issues, would it not be doing the same exercise of putting pictorial warnings on bottles of alcohol? but our government does not seem to be thinking about that. the truth is alcohol lobbying groups are much stronger and the govt does not want to offend them.
- and if smoking is really so dangerous and anti-social, why does not the government make it illegal? you know they won’t do it. simply because they generate huge amounts of revenue in excise duty from tobacco products. to make smoking illegal means, they will loose out on a huge sum of revenue.
have anything to say ? drop a comment.
