Monday, May 01, 2006
Untrustworthy Indians
Can India trust the United States? "No", said 61 per cent Indians in a nationwide poll conducted by a Delhi based publication. The question is-has US ever betrayed India or broke a promise which she had had given to India? If not, then what makes a majority of Indians think that the 'US is untrustworthy'!
As a matter of fact, the US has been exceptionally magnanimous toward India. After partition, Western Punjab, India's wheat bowl, had gone to Pakistan. A food crisis awaited India. A spell of successive bad monsoons aggravated situation even more.
By 1955, India was faced with a sever food crisis. Memories of Bengal famine (1943) were still fresh. Over three million people had died in Bengal famine. During famine, people had begun eating leaves, banyan fruits hitherto eaten by animals and birds.
India had ran out of options. Chinese were already dying of starvation. Russia didn't have any grain to spare. The war ravaged Europe was in no position to help others. Even if there was food available in the world market, India didn't any foreign currency to buy it.
India in 1955 thus had only two options - either leave millions of its people to starve, or some Goddess came in with millions of tones of food as a free gift. It was at this point of time the US came to rescue. India signed a PL 480 wheat import deal with US in 1956.
The US was to supply 3.1 million tones of wheat annually for three years. Since India didn't have foreign currency to pay for even the transportation cost. The magnanimous US agreed to accept the money in rupees.
By 1966, volume of PL 480 wheat import had gone up to 10.36 million tones annually.
By 1971, US was faced with a very moral dilemma as one fifth of India's currency had accumulated in the US account in New Delhi. The US didn't know what to do with that Himalayan money.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the then US Ambassador to India, requested his Government to write off this debt as India was neither in any position to pay it in foreign currency, and nor the US has any usefulness of the Indian currency.
Approved by the Government, Mr Patrick issued a cheque worth $1.26 billion (about Rs 50 billion) to the Government of India writing off that massive debt. That cheque is considered as one of the largest amount of donation given to any nation.
The US however, knew that the PL 480 free feast was no solution to India's food problem. India too recognised that reality. If India had to become self-sufficient, there must be a revolution in its agriculture. But who would help accomplish that task?
Again, US stepped in to transform India. Sponsored by Rockefeller Foundation, America sent agronomist Norman E Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution, to replicate his Mexican experiment in India. He successfully produced Sharbati Sonora variety of high yielding wheat. With that, Borlaug had implanted a Green Revolution for India as well.
During 50s' and 60s', over three thousand American agro-scientists had worked in India. Over six thousand Indian scientists were trained in American during the same period.
American agro-scientists helped India to establish chain of agricultural universities in States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. "Over 300 American Professors gave more than 700 teaching years of service to India", says an India supportive website.
The present day Punjab, Haryana, and West UP became motherland of the Green Revolution. This highly fertile landmass however, had neither water and nor electricity.
To make this region green one needed to make a Bhakra Dam over Sutlej. But, who would do it? On a personal initiative of Pandit Nehru, US sent Harvey Stocum to build Bhakra Dam.
Completed by early 60s', three times taller than Qutub Minar, Bhakra Dam is considered one of the greatest engineering marvels of the 20th Century.
The US thus, turned a famine prone India into a food exporting nation in less than half a century. US saved millions of Indians from dying, and saved India's honour by transforming a perpetual food importer to a food exporter nation. A million and half Indians are having fun in the US, and another million got jobs due to outsourcing phenomenon.
Yet, 61 per cent Indians can't trust America. How untrustworthy Indians can become.
Article by Chandrabhan Prasad, at the Daily Pioneer.
A rare example of American magnanimity; there is that side to America too.
As a matter of fact, the US has been exceptionally magnanimous toward India. After partition, Western Punjab, India's wheat bowl, had gone to Pakistan. A food crisis awaited India. A spell of successive bad monsoons aggravated situation even more.
By 1955, India was faced with a sever food crisis. Memories of Bengal famine (1943) were still fresh. Over three million people had died in Bengal famine. During famine, people had begun eating leaves, banyan fruits hitherto eaten by animals and birds.
India had ran out of options. Chinese were already dying of starvation. Russia didn't have any grain to spare. The war ravaged Europe was in no position to help others. Even if there was food available in the world market, India didn't any foreign currency to buy it.
India in 1955 thus had only two options - either leave millions of its people to starve, or some Goddess came in with millions of tones of food as a free gift. It was at this point of time the US came to rescue. India signed a PL 480 wheat import deal with US in 1956.
The US was to supply 3.1 million tones of wheat annually for three years. Since India didn't have foreign currency to pay for even the transportation cost. The magnanimous US agreed to accept the money in rupees.
By 1966, volume of PL 480 wheat import had gone up to 10.36 million tones annually.
By 1971, US was faced with a very moral dilemma as one fifth of India's currency had accumulated in the US account in New Delhi. The US didn't know what to do with that Himalayan money.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the then US Ambassador to India, requested his Government to write off this debt as India was neither in any position to pay it in foreign currency, and nor the US has any usefulness of the Indian currency.
Approved by the Government, Mr Patrick issued a cheque worth $1.26 billion (about Rs 50 billion) to the Government of India writing off that massive debt. That cheque is considered as one of the largest amount of donation given to any nation.
The US however, knew that the PL 480 free feast was no solution to India's food problem. India too recognised that reality. If India had to become self-sufficient, there must be a revolution in its agriculture. But who would help accomplish that task?
Again, US stepped in to transform India. Sponsored by Rockefeller Foundation, America sent agronomist Norman E Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution, to replicate his Mexican experiment in India. He successfully produced Sharbati Sonora variety of high yielding wheat. With that, Borlaug had implanted a Green Revolution for India as well.
During 50s' and 60s', over three thousand American agro-scientists had worked in India. Over six thousand Indian scientists were trained in American during the same period.
American agro-scientists helped India to establish chain of agricultural universities in States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. "Over 300 American Professors gave more than 700 teaching years of service to India", says an India supportive website.
The present day Punjab, Haryana, and West UP became motherland of the Green Revolution. This highly fertile landmass however, had neither water and nor electricity.
To make this region green one needed to make a Bhakra Dam over Sutlej. But, who would do it? On a personal initiative of Pandit Nehru, US sent Harvey Stocum to build Bhakra Dam.
Completed by early 60s', three times taller than Qutub Minar, Bhakra Dam is considered one of the greatest engineering marvels of the 20th Century.
The US thus, turned a famine prone India into a food exporting nation in less than half a century. US saved millions of Indians from dying, and saved India's honour by transforming a perpetual food importer to a food exporter nation. A million and half Indians are having fun in the US, and another million got jobs due to outsourcing phenomenon.
Yet, 61 per cent Indians can't trust America. How untrustworthy Indians can become.
Article by Chandrabhan Prasad, at the Daily Pioneer.
A rare example of American magnanimity; there is that side to America too.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Billions of dollars
Billions of dollars are waiting to flow into India as soon as the investment climate improves, according to US Treasury Under Secretary Timothy Adams, who is visiting India next week. On the eve of his departure to Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, where he will be participating in meetings of the Asian Development Bank, Mr Adams told reporters here, “I think there’s billions of dollars sitting on the border of India waiting to rush in. It’s just waiting to be invited in, and part of that is having the appropriate investment climate. You know, there’s an old adage that capital is a coward, it goes where it’s treated well, and it flees where it’s treated badly. The best thing to do is improve your investment climate, and there are lots of ways to do that.” Mr Adams explained, “We’ve talked to the Indian officials about dispute resolution mechanisms so that companies who put a tremendous amount of capital in the ground through infrastructure, whether it’s an energy facility or a plant, feels like that somehow – if something were to go wrong, they can adjudicate their demands. But it really is about creating an overall investment climate – the number of days it takes to get a business license, the number of days it takes to enforce a contract. And India has a long way to go on those metrics.”
“I know it’s tiresome to compare to China, and there’s probably some resentment to it, but on a number of these business investment climates, China does remarkably well. We’ve seen $70 billion of FDI that flows into China every year. The money’s there from the private sector. It does not need to be subsidised. It just has to be invited in and treated well.” Commenting on the evolving global partnership between the US and India, Mr Adams referred to President Bush’s recent successful trip, “It’s important that our economic ties are strengthened too. Over the past 15 years, India has been the second-fastest growing economy in the world, and it is now the 12th largest economy in the world and a growing important economy for the US for export, of goods and services. Our exports to India jumped by 30 per cent last year.” “India is also an important source and destination for US foreign direct investment, and under the right set of circumstances we could see even more US foreign direct investment into India.” “It is also an important destination portfolio capital as well. I was in India last November with Secretary Snow in which we discussed a number of financial and economic issues, some of those we’ll be reiterating on this trip, and they were issues that were also discussed during the President’s visit, and, as you know, there’s a CEO forum which has looked at some of these economic issues, these joint challenges and come up with a set of recommendations.” A measure of the importance that the US attaches to India’s strengthening economy and the emerging rise of Mumbai as a global financial centre is the Treasury’s decision to post a financial attache to the American embassy to will liase with the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank. Mr Adams praised India’s plans to improve the country’s infrastructure, saying this was vital if the economy was to grow beyond 8 per cent. He added, “Opening up the financial sector is an important topic. We think it would import important risk management systems. It would allow Indian savers and investors to better manage their risk by expanding their portfolio options. A vibrant banking centre and system, one that makes decisions based on commercial terms, is an important ingredient to economic growth.” “We’ll also be talking about fiscal policy. The Indian budget deficit is about 8 per cent of GDP, and it is dominated by subsidies and wages. And we think that for the long-term, sustainable health of the Indian economy and their fiscal outlook that makes adjustments in the budget deficit is important, but also changing the mix of expenditures away from subsidies and away from wages, more towards infrastructure and investments in human capital.” Asked about future trading opportunities between India and the US, Mr Adams said nuclear energy and nuclear issues were at the centre of the debate, as were related environmental issues, such as sharing clean coal technology and working together on agricultural development. He also hinted at a more important future role for India in the International Monetary Fund.
“I know it’s tiresome to compare to China, and there’s probably some resentment to it, but on a number of these business investment climates, China does remarkably well. We’ve seen $70 billion of FDI that flows into China every year. The money’s there from the private sector. It does not need to be subsidised. It just has to be invited in and treated well.” Commenting on the evolving global partnership between the US and India, Mr Adams referred to President Bush’s recent successful trip, “It’s important that our economic ties are strengthened too. Over the past 15 years, India has been the second-fastest growing economy in the world, and it is now the 12th largest economy in the world and a growing important economy for the US for export, of goods and services. Our exports to India jumped by 30 per cent last year.” “India is also an important source and destination for US foreign direct investment, and under the right set of circumstances we could see even more US foreign direct investment into India.” “It is also an important destination portfolio capital as well. I was in India last November with Secretary Snow in which we discussed a number of financial and economic issues, some of those we’ll be reiterating on this trip, and they were issues that were also discussed during the President’s visit, and, as you know, there’s a CEO forum which has looked at some of these economic issues, these joint challenges and come up with a set of recommendations.” A measure of the importance that the US attaches to India’s strengthening economy and the emerging rise of Mumbai as a global financial centre is the Treasury’s decision to post a financial attache to the American embassy to will liase with the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank. Mr Adams praised India’s plans to improve the country’s infrastructure, saying this was vital if the economy was to grow beyond 8 per cent. He added, “Opening up the financial sector is an important topic. We think it would import important risk management systems. It would allow Indian savers and investors to better manage their risk by expanding their portfolio options. A vibrant banking centre and system, one that makes decisions based on commercial terms, is an important ingredient to economic growth.” “We’ll also be talking about fiscal policy. The Indian budget deficit is about 8 per cent of GDP, and it is dominated by subsidies and wages. And we think that for the long-term, sustainable health of the Indian economy and their fiscal outlook that makes adjustments in the budget deficit is important, but also changing the mix of expenditures away from subsidies and away from wages, more towards infrastructure and investments in human capital.” Asked about future trading opportunities between India and the US, Mr Adams said nuclear energy and nuclear issues were at the centre of the debate, as were related environmental issues, such as sharing clean coal technology and working together on agricultural development. He also hinted at a more important future role for India in the International Monetary Fund.
Friday, April 07, 2006
'Why can't we be more American in our manners?'
I'm tired of psuedo-liberal evangelicals ( with their 'more-liberal-than-thou' ) attitude preaching on, about how Indian's should behave more like Americans.
Check this article out: The Indian Attitude Toward Sex? We'd Rather Be Born Immaculate!
Check this gem out :
For Christssakes, grow the fuck up Indians! Sanskriti my friggin arse. Sexual suppression is the worst kind of phobia that most Indian teenagers seem to suffer from.
Ask any Indian teenage boy what the vulva is, he would tell you that it's probably the car - Volvo. No, its no joke, despite sex education being taught in most urban school most Indians don't even know the names of the sexual organs forget about doing it the right way.
1000 says - Ask any Indian teenage boy what the vulva is..."
wrong question ......sister
ask him what a ch**t is......and u will be amazed,why he is not a gynaecologist ...
Check this article out: The Indian Attitude Toward Sex? We'd Rather Be Born Immaculate!
Check this gem out :
For Christssakes, grow the fuck up Indians! Sanskriti my friggin arse. Sexual suppression is the worst kind of phobia that most Indian teenagers seem to suffer from.
Ask any Indian teenage boy what the vulva is, he would tell you that it's probably the car - Volvo. No, its no joke, despite sex education being taught in most urban school most Indians don't even know the names of the sexual organs forget about doing it the right way.
1000 says - Ask any Indian teenage boy what the vulva is..."
wrong question ......sister
ask him what a ch**t is......and u will be amazed,why he is not a gynaecologist ...
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Democracy no guarantor of rights
CNN says: Democracy no guarantor of rights
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department on Wednesday said that laudable human-rights practices tend to occur in democracies, but it noted in its annual report on human rights that democracy does not guarantee what President Bush has called a commitment to "the non-negotiable demands of human dignity." ....
...Let's set Bush aside, he probably didn't coin the phrase anyway, but what are the "non-negotiable demands of human dignity" ?
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department on Wednesday said that laudable human-rights practices tend to occur in democracies, but it noted in its annual report on human rights that democracy does not guarantee what President Bush has called a commitment to "the non-negotiable demands of human dignity." ....
...Let's set Bush aside, he probably didn't coin the phrase anyway, but what are the "non-negotiable demands of human dignity" ?
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Which State is best for business in India?
Which the State that is most friendly to Business in India? Which is the State should Indian entrepreneurs look to setup their business?
Which State has the least beaureacratic red-tape? A robust police-force, fast resolution of legal disputes?
Can anybody give a ranking?
Note: I am not talking about location of natural resources, or human resources - let's assume the business does not involve natural resources, and there is easy access to educated labor.
Which State has the least beaureacratic red-tape? A robust police-force, fast resolution of legal disputes?
Can anybody give a ranking?
Note: I am not talking about location of natural resources, or human resources - let's assume the business does not involve natural resources, and there is easy access to educated labor.
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