CONTRACT WITH INDIA
…our mission is to make India great by developing and promoting policies based on the principles of limited government, free markets, individual freedom and rights, equality of justice and individual responsibility…
LATEST POSTS
IN THE PRESS
WHAT MODI CAN LEARN FROM TRUMP
The New York Times (NYT) is as rabidly anti-Trump as any other newspaper in the world. So recently (June 1, 2018) when the NYT carried an article claiming that “we ran out of words to describe how good the job numbers are” it was the strongest endorsement of Mr Trump’s economic policy that has created remarkable economic growth and employment in the US. Here are some astounding numbers for the [...]
POOR PLANNING SCREWS UP THE AIR INDIA DEAL
Recently the government put Air India up for sale. Predictably, they made the terms of the deal so onerous that there were no bidders. Not only is this an embarrassment for a government already reeling from complicating and destroying a good tax like GST, but, sadly, it also reduces the market price of a very valuable asset. Remember this in context of the fact that Air India has a vast [...]
POLITICS AND INDIA: A DEEP EMOTIONAL CONNECT
India will hold its national elections in the next 12 months. Indians love their politics and emotions are sure to get charged up. The evening news will be full of shouting matches, charges and counter-charges, lies, promises, and the obligatory fake news. There will be political discussions on social groups and disagreements will flare up into personal insults, fights, people leaving the group, old friends being unfriended or blocked--the whole drama. [...]
TIME FOR INDIAN VOTERS TO WAKE UP
Governments never learn--only people learn. Voting, therefore, is a right best exercised by people who have taken time to learn about the issues It will soon be election time in India--a season for meaningless rhetoric and false promises. Politicians will outdo each other in making irresponsible statements about a lot of things. A big hot-button issue will be corruption. Politicians will attack each other as corrupt, yet as every Indian [...]
INDIA NEEDS LEADERS NOT POLITICIANS
We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the pressing urgencies of the great cause of freedom…..a time like this demands great leaders. — Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. As India gets ready to vote in twelve months, Dr King’s inspiring words from 1956 become even more [...]
INDIA NEEDS A STRONGER RUPEE
Since January 2018 the Indian Rupee (INR) has depreciated almost 6% against the US Dollar. Over the last seven years, the INR has depreciated 35% against the USD in nominal terms. The Rupee is now grossly undervalued and this has serious repercussions for the country’s growth. A weak Rupee makes imports more expensive, and if oil prices go up another 10%, as predicted, India’s oil imports will produce substantial inflation [...]
DOES INDIA’S SHAME-BASED CULTURE ENCOURAGE WRONDOING?
The recent rape and brutal murder of an 8-year old girl in Kathua ( Jammu ) have been universally condemned. What is equally shocking is that many politicians and lawyers whose oath of allegiance is to fight for justice came out in support, not of the girl and her family, but the alleged killers. Is this a manifestation of a cultural bias towards how people view right and wrong? Anthropologist [...]
SKILLING MODERN INDIA’S WORKFORCE
Education and skill development fulfil two goals simultaneously: an economic goal to provide businesses with a skilled workforce necessary to enhance productivity, improve competitiveness and increase economic growth, and a social goal of creating employment, reducing poverty and inequality and helping people realize their potential. Traditionally, education and skills-development policy have largely been driven by the state, but evidence now points to serious flaws in that model. The fast-moving modern [...]
MORE SELF-RESPONSIBILITY, NOT MORE REGULATIONS
You signed on to Facebook, voluntarily. You posted information on it freely. You liked other people’s posts and commented on them willingly. You connected with friends and updated your information and activities on Facebook without any coercion, and you were free to stop posting information whenever you wanted. It was your choice to keep your account active. No one from Facebook called or coerced you to sign up for Facebook [...]
INCOME INEQUALITY: FACTS AND FICTION
There is a world of difference between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal It appears fashionable these days to blame capitalism for all that ails modern society including inequality, environmental problems, global warming, extinction of animal species, unemployment, healthcare costs etc. Everything miserable is somehow caused by capitalism. One thing is clear: those who articulate these views have no knowledge of either history or economics, and their [...]