Upgrade of Indian Bonds by Moody’s to Benefit Indian Economy

There had been spates of upgrades and downgrades about Indian economy for some time by credit rating agencies, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s. The Indian banks and rupee bond have been rated by these rating agencies over last few weeks.
S & P has upgraded the Indian banking sector contrary to Moody’s and Moody’s have upgraded the long term rupee bonds to investment categories.
These two upgrades when the Indian economy is facing the slowdown in economy and lack of confidence in Indian economy by the investors (domestic as well as foreign), the weak rupee, political uncertainty at policy level as well as the social unrest that India has been witnessing since last one year will boost the confidence in the Indian economy.
India is expected to grow at a rate of 6.9% this fiscal year and has capacity to grow even at higher rates but the political reasons, policy paralysis as well as social unrest are making things worse for Indian economy for long time. The economy needs second phase of economic and financial reforms to the increase its growth rates but the government has failed to keep its promises.
In such events the bonds upgrade will helps a lot Indian economy in many aspects from foreign investment to management of fiscal deficit to issue of weakening rupee. This is expected to increase the capital inflow to Indian shores from other economies that are witnessing higher volatility as the investors are getting a promising investment in relatively strong bonds. So in coming days Indian economy is going to witness some increase in its portfolio investment and a stronger rupee compared to 2011 in 2012.

Fallacy of MGNREGA

The rules of economics are very simple for everyone and don’t change in almost all the circumstance. But when one tries to makes it complicated, results are often unwanted and sometimes disastrous. For any economy it is normal and fundamental rule that it must reinvest what it earns from all the economic activities into various types of assets from human to material (physical and virtual) to grow and maintain that growth. But in our country in case of MGNREGA, this is not true.

No doubt MGNREGA is a very good and most inclusive social security scheme that a government can offer to its people but when we look into the structure of this scheme as well as implementation part, a lot of questions start pouring in the minds about its sustainability and role in economic growth.

Till now, under MGNREGA, no physical asset is being created and all the money is spent on operational expenditure in forms of wages. That means thousands of crores are spent just to create no asset. Also the employment it generates is disguised in nature not permanent. Besides increasing consumption, it seems to play no other role in economy, at least no capital building at all. This nature of this scheme makes it unsustainable until all the future governments are ready to spend more and more money every year.

Economic Problems in the US

The rules are simple for everyone in economics and when one tries to makes things complicated, results are often disastrous. For any economy it is normal and fundamental rule that it must reinvest what it earns from all the economic activities into various types of assets from human to material (physical and virtual) to grow and maintain growth.
And when markets start saturating, reinvestment is the most important function for any economy and there is no other way to escape or ignore it. Reinvest helps to maintain the growth by keeping the demand and supply in balance.
The same basic rules are haunting the US economy today. The US has been not reinvesting its earnings back into its economy and people since very long. Instead it has been wasting into some adventures in Asia and Africa and in some other military campaigns. This is simple economics but the US (political and administrative classes) is not ready to understand it. Since long the US has been investing billions of dollars in so called strategic future interests and plans for 21th century and so. But it is miserably failing to plan for its present. 
It is sending huge money out of the US monetary system to some projects and missions that hardly have any significant returns for the US economy in short and medium term, leave apart long term, by ignoring spending on some basic social security programs. This is leading to problems like unemployment, insecurity and lack of confidence in its people. Also the growth rate in the US economy had been lower than many emerging economies in Asia and Latin America. The scope for expansion in the US markets for private corporations is limited as the market has saturated. This has led to capital and intellectual outflows in huge amounts to these emerging countries for expansion, better returns and opportunities. These factors have resulted into drastic fall in reinvestment in the US economy by both the government as well as private sector. This is hitting hard the economic system in the US. 
Besides the lack of reinvestment, there are some policy issues in the economy as well. The innovation that has been USP of the US economy has fallen sharply. There has been fall in entrepreneurship in the US. The immigration and visa policies have made flow of human capital difficult to the US from other parts of world. Over the decades, the ever increasing income gaps between the poor and rich and concentration of wealth in few hands is leading to dissatisfaction in common Americans After 9/11, the image of ‘The Land of Dreams’ has been damaged because of some political decisions and deteriorating social cohesiveness. The falling government expenditure on social services, visa and immigration policy, falling entrepreneurship, saturated markets, lack of innovation, deteriorating social cohesiveness, some popular political decisions and unchecked capitalism are some of the important reasons for the problems in the US economy. So there is need to rethink about the models and modules of free market economy or capitalism.
It is very important for any economy that is becoming saturated in terms of domestic demands that it must put efforts to increase the domestic demands for goods and services so that domestic consumption increases over time. The reinvestment in economy serves this purpose as it tends to increase the per capita income and so demands for the goods and services.
The US, a champion of free market economy, is a different economy altogether. Whatever happens in the US has immediate and significant effects on other economies too. 
The US economy is the largest economy in the world and has huge business and economic exposure to a number of economies across the world and vice-versa. The proportion of the exports and imports of goods and services in the GDP of the US economy is very large. So it is important for the US economy to maintain this balance between the exports and the imports as if any of the exports or imports is affected adversely while trying to revive the economy will hurt the interests of the US economy in short, medium and long term. If the import from other countries to the US falls, the per capita income of those related economies will fall and as a result the demands for export from the US in those countries will fall and that will lead to fall in the overall demands for goods and services in the US economy. This overall fall in the demands will lead to increase in unemployment in the US as the private corporations will not reinvest their profits in the US and this reinvestment by the private corporations are very important to increase the employment rate and tackle the current problems of increasing unemployment rates. This will also affect the fiscal positions. 
So it is important for the policy makers in the US (political and administrative classes) to be careful while drafting and implementing any policies and whatever policy decisions are taken must not hurt its associate countries. 
"As of now the US does not need some political decisions but a set of balanced fair economic decisions. Else it will be victim it own champion cause of free market economy."

Unethical Practices by India Inc. in Red Zones

The Naxal problem is one of the most critical internal security and democratic threats that India is facing today besides the problems in the North East and Kashmir. It is has become common for Indian people to read news about the struggle between Indian security forces and Maoists. The Maoists strike and security forces respond. When Indian security forces starts search operations they are brutally killed by the Maoists and again one more operations by security forces. This cycle of attack and counter attack is continuing for many decades. And all over there is only blood and tears in the eyes of people for whom both the security forces and Naxalites claim to be fighting for. 


The continuous struggle between the security forces and the Maoists has worsened the situation in the Naxal zones. The Indian government has failed on every count in these areas. Neither the governments (central and state) have been able to control and balance the Maoists; nor has they been able to strike any peace deals. Because of these, the life and business has been impacted adversely in these areas of Naxal or Red zones. 

Indian Economy Headed for Slowdown

For years India has been seen as one most promising economies in world. But things are changing swiftly and India is losing its position in world economy mainly in minds of the investors. It is not that the basics of India's economic growth story have changed. No it has not changed. The basics are the same and now that have become problem for Indian economy. It is true that India as an economic destination has huge potential and also strengths as well. But only India being a promising and place of huge opportunities cannot help us.

Business Environment in India and Entrepreneurship

Doing business in India as just business seems to have become something inferior and politics and business has become two sides of same coin although they simply are not even the same coin. In the recent times, we have seen so many unpleasant incidents taking place in business world of India. There have been so many revelations about the relationships between businesses and the politics in one way or other. 

There was 2 G scam sometimes back this year that had huge negative impact on the business environment in which people like Mr. Ratan Tata and Reliance ADAG became party. Then Mr. Jagan from Andhra Pradesh was said to have made money because his father’s political influences and now it is time for Bellary’s Reddy brothers. 

Reliance will do the WalMart

There have been so much outcry about the foreign direct investment in retail sector. All the stakeholders whether opposition parties or retailers have been shouting loud against FDI. It is perhaps the only issue when left meets right and right cherry with left else they are born enemies. Even many parties in the alliance were against the government’s proposal of allowing FDI in retail. Finally the government has called off the decision to allow FDI in retail. So entry of WalMart is postponed for now.

India has Got her Poor Man

Believe India believe! Not surprising why India is considered as land of wonders. India has finally got her poor man in Sharad Pawar. Yes, News reports suggest that Mr. Sharad Pawar has a little assets of just Rs. 12 Crores. Meagre 12 crores. 

This is an information that we are forced to accept. Now we Indians cannot question him of his hard earned money that is just Rs. 12 crores. Nor can we accuse him that looted money from all the foods and agricultural deals as central minister and chief minister. And those who have been say so are wrong. He is just another holy cow. Another poor guy who earns very less. Well done newspapers. You are really so caring.

Anna Breaks His Fast

After all government has agreed to constitute Jan Lokpal. So Anna has broken his fast. I am happy and think that it can be construed as our victory but it’s a long battle and will continue for longer than expected. So it’s imperative the pressure on the government is mounted until this proposed law becomes reality. 

Anything is possible in politics and nothing is stable. It keeps on changing. So promised made today may not matter tomorrow for the government. So it’s very important that government is forced to not turn on.

Sorry but Anna is Turning Undemocratic

I don't understand whether to support Anna now or not. His agenda is the best thing India can hope for but the way he is now functioning i am finding it somehow undemocratic. Being arrogant is sometimes good for democracy but dictating the nation is never good.

What Anna is doing I appreciate and support in all the ways and forms. I have been part of this change since early days in June and July by participating in many events as a volunteer and some money as well. But we must decide what we want from this Lokpal? And do we want Lokpal under the current constitution or outside the preview of the constitution? Accountability is important for everyone. We have to decide in what way this Lokpal will function and at what would be the cost? And accountability too. Without accountability it will turn into another demon.