Snapshot of recent happenings

It has been really long since I penned my last blog, thanks to ICL and IPL. I wanted this blog to be different when compared with my previous posts and hence instead of concentrating on a specific topic, I would like to bring out my thoughts on topics that have influenced me over the past few months.

 

1)      Food Crisis at Its peak: These are torrid times for chief economists and policy makers the world over. The ruling UPA would not have imagined a worse situation, hardly a year to go before the general elections. The government has been taking measures to tide over the food crisis by banning exports of rice, reducing import duty on items etc. The question that I would like to ask here is “If the farmers are not assured of a good return on their produce by way of exports, how would they be motivated to continue growing these primary crops instead of moving to alternate crops?” The Government could do a couple of things in this regard

•  Eliminate the effect of too many middle men and ensure that farmers get the motivation to grow the primary crops; Ensuring that the farmers get the Minimum Support Price as promised would be a right step in this regard.
• Rather than banning exports of crops, it makes sense to ensure that hoarding of food items and essentials are prevented. A good way of estimating this is by monitoring the Public Distribution System (PDS) and preventing leakages.

 

 

2)      Banks Bail Out, Advantage India:

 

While the whole world was blasting India for its laid back financial policies during the 90s and the early part of 2000’s, post the sub prime crisis, it seems that all is well with India. Though India has also been affected by the crisis, albeit in a smaller scale, it sounds interesting when we find that the policies prevalent in India are now being followed by these foreign banks and Organizations. In India, we find a practice of the Central Bank with the assistance of other financial institutions rescuing ailing banks. This policy was widely criticized by these supposed foreign Central Banks. Now, life has come a full circle when we find that the US FED and Bank of England playing a vital part in rescuing struggling banks. Conservative India and its policies, at least in Banking Sector, serve as a helping hand for the struggling West

 

3)      Corporate Social  (Ir) Responsibility:

 

I cannot think of many Organizations in the Indian context who feel that have a Responsibility to the society. It feels sad to see that in this modern India, companies are eager to get that extra dime of nickel to their profits by not caring about the choice of their employees’ workplace, its accessibility, whether the place is free of health hazards etc. We witness several instances of offices of Corporate close to dumping yards which puts employees’ health at risk. It is a high time that these issues are regulated than a mere blind focus on regulating only the companies’ financials

 

4)      Enter- T 20; Exit- Test Cricket/ 50 Overs format?

 

T-20 has captured our imagination to the hilt. The question that arises throughout the cricket fraternity is the impact of T-20 on the other existing formats. I strongly feel that 50- Over cricket stands to lose as Test Cricket would always retain its charm. Test cricket is a purists’ delight and has its own target audience. Infact, the advent of T-20 would fasten scoring in test cricket. But, T-20, in addition to adding new audience is eating into the traditional audience of 50-overs cricket. After the power play overs, a 50- over game crawls to a snail’s pace and the momentum picks up only during the slog overs. The cricket administrators, though take all the kudos for the success of T-20, it is no wonder that T-20 would result in lessened interest in the 50- over format. As Cricket aims to globalize and venture into unchartered territories, T-20 could be the format to attract the global audience, who are so used to watching matches of a shorter duration in other Sports.