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Showing posts from 2018

MIND it!

“Don’t change your mind now.” This particular sentence is faced by all of us at some time or other, but is the human mind as simple as it is implied? The mind of a human being is just like a library full of books, books of varied emotions with full of complex pathways leading from one book to another, and we are the maze runner in this maze of emotions. Rage, happiness, confusion, disappointment, all are part of this library. For a particular decision or result we go through a flood of emotions, but is it worth it? It’s quite funny that we mostly prefer temporary happiness even though we know the consequences of disappointment, frustration. The little bits of happiness in one’s life sums to make someone complete. Disappointment equals self-realisation or self-reflection? In both the cases the effect becomes almost same. With these comes the feeling where you are shattered from within but fail to express it, want to cry but tears don’t come out, your heart becomes heavy, every

The financial future

We learn from mistakes. The terrorist attacks of September 2001 helped us to take terrorists far more seriously. The global financial crisis of 2008 can help us predict the next crisis and take necessary back-ups as we cannot avoid a financial crisis as per economist Keen, the one who predicted the last crisis. The failure of Lehman brothers unleashed chaos, but it's not the only cause. It is also expected that after huge rate hikes specially by the Fed have resulted in a recession, and like other crisis, there is reason to believe that this is also going to be the same. The size of financial crisis maybe reduced. The banks are now in more equity and less debt, also, they depend less on trading to make money and on short term wholesale borrowing to finance their activities. The banks must be kept under regular surveillance and keep a check on their plans and the NPA's. The 2008 crisis was neglected by most of the economists due to the 'great moderation', but this can

Long term growth is the way forward

Short term growth is the output of a country in terms of GDP over a given short period of time, generally a year. It is measured by the annual percentage change in GDP. While, long term growth is when the country's productive potential is increased, the potential of the country's GDP is increased. Due to an expansion in either the quality or quantity of factor inputs, the country is now able to produce more. A student who crams for an exam by memorizing answers or developing absurd mnemonics and gets 100 percent tomorrow only to forget everything he learned one month from now is more harmful than a student who has “learned” the concept for the long-run. Similarly, even a runner can’t afford to win only the upcoming race by risking his whole career. While short term strategies can deliver an immediate impact, to stay in the top in uncertain times, the champions are the ones to take the long view. Ferrari has reached it’s peak in racing world, the earlier CEO Montezelo had long

Google home vs Amazon echo - a comparative study through Indian perspective

The home speakers hit the Indian market on April 10 and as that of echo devices hit the market much before on October, 2017. It's been 6 months since Google home has become part of many families in India, even before its launch I was using home mini but was not able to use all its features and was eagerly waiting for an official release. Now, for quite a time I have been acquainted with both Alexa as well as Google home, and it's a perfect time to check where the two kindred virtual spirits lie with respect to the Indian market. Google home devices Alexa already had a head start of 4 months and on top of that was well configured for the Indian market right from the beginning. On the other hand, when home released the only thing that changed was that I was able to choose my default music provided from 2 more options - saavn and gaana, rest it was all the same as before. Though Google enthusiasts (me being one too) were quite confident about home getting all the features

Remembering Naipaul

 Nobel laureate VS Naipaul left for his heavenly abode at the age of 85. He is famous for his stern views on India's working and the comparisons he made between us and the western civilization. Right from his teenage he had developed a certain distaste for the Indian ethics. For nearly a year he traveled India to gain information about his book. His trip to India, certainly left a deep negative impact on him. As he witnessed lack of maintenance at public places, poverty stricken people everywhere - for a man who grew up in abroad, all these factors within five years of India's independence was shocking - and finally, his witnessing of caste division. He firmly believed that our Indian government and customs were responsible for abstaining India from growth. His book 'Area of darkness' dealt with these matters in an unrefined way. Though the book was banned, his next book 'India: A wounded civilization' was a strong comeback of the former book. He pored his obse

Dissent is a way forward

Just like a magnet has two poles, every judgement has many viewpoints. No one is perfect. We can never accept anyone’s opinion to be the omniscient one. Dissenting judgement ensures the democracy’s principles and the voice of the varied. Recently, the SC is on a flurry of comeuppance in judgements, some resulting in a dissent. In the history of judgements by the SC, three dissenting judgements stand out. The HR Khanna’s dissent in ADM Jabalpur vs SP Shukla case of 1976, where he stood for the Right to life. Chief Justice Subba Rao’s dissent in Kharak Singh vs State of UP (1962), holding against five of his brother judges that the Constitution guaranteed a fundamental Right to privacy, and that police surveillance regulations were entirely unconstitutional. Justice Fazl Ali’s dissent in AK Gopalan vs State of Madras (1950), one of the earliest judgments of the Supreme Court. He supported that the phrase in article 21 of the constitution, “procedure established by law” required that d