Rupee Appreciation

The recent trends have shown that rupee has appreciated and it will continue to do so for some more time. But I believe that natural trend of fall and catch-up is not such a good idea for our economy.

Some facts that have contributed in appreciation of rupee are as follows:

1. Huge capital inflow into India from developed countries is increasing the demand for rupee.
2. The US economic slowdown, many economists including the former fed chairman Greenspan expect the US economy to falter in the coming period.
3. Interest rate differential - brings in foreign money.

So this large inflow of dollars into our country has appreciated the value of rupee. As more and more foreigners wants to invest in India, but are falling short of Rupee.

The impact will be that, with appreciated rupee, we will have our exports reduced and imports increased. The result will be beneficial for our oil imports and reducing the inflation, as it make’s the import cheaper. And congress Government can now save their face from the ire of common man, which had been witnessing a high inflation of prices. But on the contrary, our exports will be hit, which will now receive less dollars per export.

China with 9.5% growth annually relies heavily on its export. And so it has pegged its currency with US Dollars. While India is letting it run naturally with the flow in market. I think the time has come for the RBI to step in and correct the rupee value, to help the exports. And I feel that the letting the currency flow naturally is not good for our country. Our country should also tag the rupee value with dollars and so encourage the exports. If India has to grow at a fast pace, then it has to control its rupee value.

SEZ’s, Sardar Sarovar and Displacement

Some days back, Government made a limit to SEZ and restricted it to 5000 hectares maximum. As this is my blog so I am presenting my views. I have a mixed view on this, because the SEZ are obtained at the cost of land from poor farmers, who are, at last get’s displaced from their long native land.
Development has to be done. And for the country to have booming economy and socially secured society, some strata of society have to pay the price. And most people are with the idea that economy should improve at any cost. But what they miss in their view is displacement is not mere a movement from one place to other. The brunt of displacement is not shown in the media. It is only felt by the people who are getting displaced. Even if the Government pays 10% bonus etc, this price is too small for the farmer who has lived his whole life on that land, and has dreamt of his future with his kids on the same land. The displacement is not just a movement for them, but displacement is at the cost of there dreams. And dreams are worth more then what Government announces and provide to the farmers.
And so I am in totally support for the Arundhati roy and Medha Patkar movement on Sardar Sarover too. But then what about economy? Everyone agrees that the society has to pay price for development – “No pains, no gains”. So I think that Government has to make moves toward development, but with proper compensation. What government is offering to the poor at present is very less. Displacement is very harsh, so government should provide proper re-habilitation to them plus they should be compensated heavily. What Government is providing at present is too low for the cost of dreams of displaced families.

Greg Chappell's Resignation

Today’s big news was "Greg Chappell resigned from the post of coach of Indian cricket team". Adding one more controversy to his name, he mentioned that Senior players acts like Mafia in the team. This followed with the outburst from Tendulkar that he is deeply hurt from his comments because he is one of the senior member. I had a big disscussion on this issue with my coleague Santosh. The following are the excerpts from our disscussion.

Respecting Sachins seniority and his lifetime dedication to cricket, my point of view suggests Greg Chappel has not said any wrong. Our Indian cricket team do have a attitude problem. Especially senior players play very casually on the field. They play like they don’t have any responsibility of sentiments of cricket fans on the field. Let’s just compare the running between the wickets. The players from team like South Africa and NewZealand are if not scoring big sixes or fours, always are on the lookout for singles or doubles and try’s to take two where there is single and three where there is two. Our player like Ganguly runs 1 where there is 2 and 2 where there is 3. Not only in batting, even on the field, our Indian cricket team is afraid of getting their cloth’s dirty, like they will be scolded by their parents. Until our team does not have that killing spirit to win, it can’t win matches and tournaments. Only if our team will not get hurt by the comments from media but instead will start training more rigorously on the nets and field after getting defeated, will our team be able to win any big tournament. And their low quality Fielding and Batting attributes that the team has not been training well. And Greg Chappell is not the only default party but the team players attitude toward training is also questionable.

Flight Training

Been Nostalgic about the past, today I am going to write about my most memorable training time days.

Our batch was on flight training at IIT-Kanpur. Flight training is where we are flown in aircraft to note down its characteristics of flight. As always, nobody from our class had any special interest in studying. Specially our group consisting of me, Vasu, Ganja (Deepak), Shiv and Danny (Dayanand). Who were more interested in playing “teen patti” instead. We used to spend all our evening and nights in playing “teen patti”. We didn’t had any prize for the winner but a big punishment for the looser was assured. The looser used to get …..lets say “something inexplicably horrible” punishment or had to complete a dare.

First few days, everybody chose “the horrible” but never chose it twice because trust me it was horrible enough not to be disclosed here. The second time we three Ganja, me and Shiv were the looser’s and we chose to do the dare instead. First candidate was me and was given a dare toget a hug from the Chaunkidar. It was around 11:30 in the night and the chaunkidar was sleeping in sitting position on his chair. The rest of the group was watching intently through the windows. I slowly approached the chaunkidar and don’t know what came into my mind, I said “Chankidar bhayia aaj eid hai to mein aapke gale milna chahta hun”. As soon as the chaunkidar heard this, he understood that its an attack on his modesty and he stood up and showed me his “danda”. This was the most embarrassing moment in my life and I just ran back to my room as fast as I can. Everyone was laughing in the window. My dare was not complete. So mine and others dare was postponed to next days morning.

In the morning I was now given a dare to wear sleeveless sweater on sweat shirt and a baggy pyjama. Ganja was given the dare to give single sentence reply every time he is asked about anything; the reply was “Aja pyare pass hamare, kahen ghabrae”. And the most comedy dare was given to Shiv. Shiv was supposed to carry my big large Red suitcase for the whole day. Mind it, this suitcase was the biggest suitcase one can ever have and had a bright red colour. In the morning we three monkeys were ready to be the laughing stock of whole IIT. Nobody took much interest in my cloths as most of the IITians themselves wore such kind of cloths. But Shiv was the talk of the class and IIT, wherever we went. Many classmates asked him why he is carrying the suitcase. But he was not supposed to tell anyone. Even until today some of my classmates don’t know why he was carrying the suitcase that day. Then came the moment when IIT-Professor came to take our class. Our Shiv bhai came into the class with his big suitcase. We were all laughing onto him, the rest of the class started laughing too. Professor kept on watching, and our Shiv bhayia took the last seat of our class, and placed the suitcase on the chairs. After some time while taking our lecture, Professor at last asked Shiv “why is he moving around with suitcase”. Our bold Shiv said “aise hi”. Professor didn’t ask twice. Then we were taken on the ride to wind tunnels. Everyone was loaded onto the jeeps. Our Shiv bhai with his suitcase also joined in. He was sitting with girls and made them whole lot of uncomfortable while we kept on laughing. Then through the whole visit to the wind tunnels and various labs, our Shiv bhai continued his dare. On the other hand our Ganja was replying every question with his one sentence. He was supposed to answer every query by the single sentence. The rest of a class had gala time with him. Luckily he was not questioned by professor.

Remembering those days I still get to laugh sometime on those days of “Our mutual Bachpana” whenever I disscuss them with my friends.

There is a lot more to write about those training days. But I will like to finish this blog here. I will write about the rest sometime.