UNDERSTAFFED INDIAN POLICE FORCE

The statistics for number of Police personnel per lakh of population throws up an interesting question “Are Indians living in much PEACEFUL, SAFER and LOW CRIME society since it has less than half of the internal security force as compared to the most advance countries in the world, which have most advanced and sophisticated safety systems and crime regulations?”.

Country	Number of Police Personnel Per Lakh of Population	Global Peace Index Rankings in 2011 (out of the 153 Countries Assessed)	Homicide Rate Per Lakh Of Population per year in 2011.
The United States	233	82	4.8
Germany	301	15	0.84
The United Kingdom	333	26	1.23
France	369	36	1.09
India	131	135	3.4
Note: 1 Lakh is equivalent to 100,000 or 10% of a million.

However, the ground reality based on reputed International organization’s studies paints a totally different picture of India.

Internal Security forces are utilized for a wide ranging normal security operations like regulating law & order, VIP protection, election security (Of late, elections in India to various tiers of democracy are being held in phases and for longer durations and has almost become a perennial phenomenon.), traffic regulations etc.   Over and above the normal operations, police forces are deployed to tackle special security issues such as, security and combing operations in Naxal infected areas, foiling Terrorist attacks, managing social unrest fuelled by caste-ist forces, religious forces, regionalism, Anti-capitalist forces etc.

Increasing deployment of security forces for VIP’s protection coupled with deployment requirements for tackling insurgent, naxal and terrorist activities have strained the already limited police forces. 

A report, prepared by Bureau of Police Research and Development, said as on January 1, 2011, the actual strength of the police personnel for per lakh population was 131.39 against the sanctioned posts of 173.51. The report, released by Federal Home Minister P Chidambaram in April 2012, said manpower for protected persons’ protection duty is drawn from available resources generally without corresponding increase in sanctioned strength for the purpose.

Nonetheless, the total police-population ratio (total sanctioned number of police personnel available for per lakh population) has shown wide variations across the country. Intriguingly, the most populous states have relatively much less sanctioned strength of police men than warranted by their total population. West Bengal has just 81 police personnel for per lakh population, followed by 88 personnel in Bihar, 115 in Madhya Pradesh and 118 in Rajasthan against the national average of 174 policemen for per lakh population. Contrarily, sparsely populated states like Tripura have 1,124, Manipur has 1,147 and Mizoram has 1,112 police personnel per lakh population.

Hence, the following measures are immediately warranted by the government to justly meet the law & order situations of ever exploding population, increasing internal security threats, VIP protection requirements and social unrest.

ü  Immediate recruitment and training to meet the sanctioned strength requirements.

ü  Correcting the anomalies in the wide variations of sanctioned strength of the states across the country.

ü  Reviewing the sanctioned strength criteria periodically vis-à-vis deployment requirements.

 With increasing unemployment in India and passion in the younger generation for secured government jobs, it is perplexing to notice the delays in recruitment.

The argument of additional pressure on the exchequer due to increase of security forces may not hold much ice since, peace and harmony with in the country can act as a catalyst for the country’s economic development, thus yielding indirect social and financial benefits to the government and the citizens.

To supplement the above corollary, Stern Review noted that, if the world was 25% more peaceful in 2011, an additional economic benefit of just over US$2 trillion could have been accrued.

THE MAVERICKS: AMMA, BEHENJI & DIDI

I am still and will continue to be intrigued and at times fascinated by the infamous Roman Emperor Nero’s anecdote. By some accounts, Nero ran away to Macedonia with his lady love Claudia Acte, a former slave, against the wishes of his aggressive, cunning and ruthless mother Agrippina, after he was declared a successor to the throne. However, an unwilling and reluctant Nero was crowned the Emperor, at the tender age of 17, after the untimely death of Emperor Claudius in 54AD. Post succession, Nero often made rulings that pleased the lower class and was criticized as being obsessed with being popular. Nevertheless, over time, Nero faced a number of rebellions and power struggles that made him insecure, bitter, resentful and paranoid. Nero progressively seized more political power through tyranny, freeing himself of his advisers and eliminating rivals to the throne to consolidate his power and authoritarianism. The notable of his political adversaries eliminated by him included, his own mother Agrippina along with his teacher and mentor Seneca, close advisor Burrus, apart from his other step brothers and dissenting senators. Rightfully, over the 14 years of his rule, disenchantment among the ruling elite and masses and rebellion in his armed forces alarmingly grew, which forced Nero to commit suicide at the age of 30 in the year 68 AD.

Unfortunately, all martyred rulers hustled to power right from Nero failed to realize their follies when it mattered. Moreover, the life history of late Indira Gandhi is another great example of an honest individual ruined by unrestricted political power.  

Jayalalitha of Tamil Nadu (popularly called AMMA), Mayawati of Uttar Pradesh (popularly called BEHENJI) and Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal (popularly called DID) have gate-crashed into the male club of Indian regional politics, absolutely by their own choice and were readily embraced by the regional masses as the most viable alternative to those in power in their respective states. Regrettably, they had to endure constant insults and veiled wounds from their respective political adversaries since their opponents could not match the political intelligence, energy and allure of the charismatic ladies who rammed in to their political bastions.

Fortunately, all the three women politicians were given huge mandate by masses in their respective states with great anticipation of betterment and optimism. People overly mandated them and hustled them to power expecting them to become CRUSADERS against the evils and deeds of the previous governments that decelerated their progress and wellbeing. On the contrary, they all failed to realize that the fighter in them must cease to exist once the election battles are won, but instead continued to be relentless fighters against their political adversaries and critics. Smitten by power and delimited by sycophants all-round, their fighting tendencies metamorphosed themselves in to more furious, bitter, arrogant, constantly suspicious, insecure, intolerant and dictatorial.

The flaunting of authority, never ending loyalty tests to their loyalists, misappropriation of state finances, personal exuberance to make themselves immortal in the eyes of common man (ala, statues by Mayawati) and wielding of a heavy hand of the state and police against the political adversaries and dissenters alienated loyalists, friends, media, intelligentsia and masses alike and thus made them perceive conspiracies in anything negative and every reversal they had to endure during their time in power. Precisely, this is what Amma and Behenji had experienced in their earlier terms and is currently happening to Didi. Amma and Behenji became imperious, lonely and ill-advised due to desertions by intelligentsia as well as loyalists and were trapped in a state of siege by highly self-centered sycophants and had to chew the dust during the subsequent provincial elections.

Amma, after being out of power for a decade, seemed to have settled well in her new term of office due to the lessons learnt from the past, justifying the rightful mandate against the decade long limitlessly corrupt Karunanidhi regime.

Conversely, Didi seems to be treading the dangerous tyrannical path by installing fear in the masses, being arbitrary, hot-tempered, arrogant and showing little sensitivity and lack of discretion when it comes to atrocities on women and assaults on intelligentsia by political goons. The public outcry, of late, by the disgusted and angered citizens along the media is a testimony of her misrule and highlights the immediate need to completely change her style of functioning.

Although we empathize with Didi concerning the unhealed wounds of those long years of persecution by the previous regimes, she shall realize at once, that her wounds shall be healed and her pain turned to pleasure by keeping her political detractors away from power as long as she can. However, this can be a reality only if, she can relentlessly work for the public causes as well as pragmatically crusade against the misdeeds of the previous government and build enormous warmth and faith in the masses.

The histories of all martyred rulers hustled to power right from Nero can never be glorified due to the existence of factual evidences while as the present crop of politicians still have a great opportunity to learn from the history and imprint themselves graciously and gloriously in to the history books of the future.

COALITION POLITICS VEILING INDIA'S ECONOMIC GROWTH

The federal governments in India since late 1990’s are dominated by coalition politics due to mushrooming of many regional leaders with notional national vision coupled with the inability of the National parties to strengthen and widen their influence in all the regions with diverse linguistic, religious and developmental/ regional growth issues.  

The compulsions of coalition politics in addition to the intermittent elections to either the National parliament or State assemblies had a tremendous impact on the India’s economic progress. Every Indian Finance Minister, since the last decade, was in a catch 22 situation to balance the budget to appease the coalition partners as well as the poor sections of the Indian society to garner the votes on one hand and on the other hand not to derail the Indian economic growth.

P.V.Narasimha Rao’s government, during mid 1990’s, with Dr. Manmohan Singh at the helm of Finance ministry, gave the necessary momentum to the Indian economy by easing measures pertaining to inflows of foreign funds and investments, gave impetus to investments in Private sector, facilitated divestments in public sectors companies to enhance spending on non-existent infrastructure, as well as Industrial, fiscal and monitory policy reforms etc., together with booming software industry augmented the employment opportunities, domestic demand driven growth of small and medium sized businesses, enhanced exports and India’s foreign exchange reserves. The momentum in economic growth sustained despite change of Federal governments. Nonetheless, all the federal governments succeeding P.V.Narasimha Rao’s government were coalition governments and economists cautiously note that successive governments neither presented formidable economic reforms nor imparted the required growth impetus as warranted by global economic dynamics. However, It is widely believed and acknowledged that Indian economic growth since the last decade at around 7-8% is despite the successive federal government’s sincere efforts.

ECONOMIC CONCERNS

NON-REVENUE EXPENDITURE: Non-revenue expenditure coupled with ever increasing, non-directional and porous social expenditure including populist subsidies continuous to be the major hindrance to the economic growth of the country. This unproductive expenditure has been widening the country’s fiscal deficit to intolerable proportion of India’s GDP.

REVENUE GENERATION: Indian Finance Ministers, in the 1980’s and 1990’s, were relying heavily on increasing revenue receipts through rise in Income tax, Customs duty and Excise duties, when economic growth was mere 2-4%. Moreover, the Income tax payers base till the new millennium remained in single digit percentage of the population.

However, the computerisation of accounts and networking of government agencies had widened the tax net to considerable levels which facilitated increased direct and indirect tax receipts.  Additionally, acceleration of Indian economic growth to around 8% had eased the pressure on Indian Finance Ministers to unilaterally increase the direct and Indirect taxes with every passing budget. Every Indian Finance minister since this millennium had either eased the Income tax and customs duty rates or increased the slabs for Income tax or minimised the indirect tax rates on some of the popular products used by the common man, thereby facilitating increased domestic demand driven consumption related growth. Moreover, the introduction of Service tax as a new source of revenue generation eased the direct tax burden especially on lower middle class, middle class and higher middle class population in this country.

FISCAL & ECONOMIC MEASURES & REFORMS: Acceleration of Indian economic growth to around 8% was possible essentially due to Industrial and services sector growth with Agricultural sector growth stagnating at very low levels. Additionally, Indian economic growth had been involuntarily coupled with the global economy in the past decade, vis-a-vis foreign fund inflows and investments; product and services exports; strategic technology tie-ups and partnerships; raw material, equipment and country’s indispensable energy imports. However, the global financial crisis in 2007-08 and financial crisis in Europe in 2010-2011 coupled with high inflationary pressures in India had its decelerating effects on India’s economic growth, which needed timely and well oiled fiscal and monetary policy measures together with Industrial, Agricultural and services sector reforms from the Finance minister, in FY 2011-12. However, the vital policy measures and reforms had become hostage to the hostile coalition politics which unfortunately resulted in the India’s growth slipping to circa 6%.  In addition, the financial aid demands from Federal government from coalition partners for their states, to aid populist measures, have alarmingly increased in the recent years.

The slither in the economic growth and lack of fiscal prudence means loss of confidence by overseas investors resulting in reduction in foreign fund inflows, which will further result in reduced investments and working capital requirements in the vital sectors that will make Industrial and Services sectors vulnerable.  This furthur reduces revenue generation by government, increased expenditure and widening fiscal deficit. Additionally, the widening fiscal deficit will further de-value the Indian currency thereby making the essential energy related imports very expensive and shall elevate inflation. The combined impact of deceleration in economic growth and lack of Fiscal prudence is unfortunately very daunting.

The Union Finance Minister, with a right perspective, identified five objectives with obligatory measures to be addressed effectively in the ensuing fiscal year (2012-13) to give the much needed impetus to the economy. However, the onus firmly lies on other coalition partners as well, to bury their petty political ambitions and short sighted interests in the long term interests of this mighty and vibrant nation.

KINGFISHER AIRLINES: MALLYA’S NEXT CASUALTY

Vijay Mallya inherited an alcoholic beverage business empire from his father Vithal Mallya in 1984. Consequent to his takeover of UB group as its chairman, he established several new business units;  UB Petrochemicals, UB Engineering, Aventis Pharma, Kingfisher airlines to name a few, apart from acquiring many well known Indian companies namely, Kissan, Managlore Chemicals and Fertilizers, McDowell and a host of offshore companies. Investments poured in to all his business ventures, till recently, through Public and private funding and investments, as investors, fund houses and banks had reposed great faith in his abilities and exuberance.

Regrettably, he never reciprocated earnestly to any of the investors, financial institutions and shareholders in his group companies due to gross mismanagement and draining funds from majority of his group companies for building a sham and deceptive public image for himself and his brands through profligate non-revenue expenditure, penchant for flamboyant lifestyle, extravagant events associated with his ventures coupled with his prejudice towards his rival business units and/or brands and his penchant to wipe them out through shrewd acquisition and business practices.

Kingfisher Airlines has come in to existence with an assurance from Vijay Mallya, as a dependable alternative to Indian Airlines, in 2005. He promised unparalleled levels of service, comfort, and convenience to all the guests flying on his airlines. During 2007, when the King fisher’s operations are at its nascent phase, he acquired Air Deccan, the first low cost airline, which revolutionised the air travel industry by reaching out to the middle class Indian citizen. The media and his rivals in Industry at that time, alleged the motive behind the acquisition, was to kill the low cost airline business in India.

However, Vijay Mallya despite consolidating his aviation business, went for acquisition of large number of new aircrafts through debt route and equity dilution from circa 66% to 50%. Despite charging a hefty premium on passenger fares over the other airlines, King Fisher airlines accumulated a loss of over Rs 6,000 crore till date apart from an accumulated debt of Rs 7,057 crore. Interestingly, all his liquor business deals namely, Whyte and Mackay acquisition etc., which are supposedly, highly profitable and niche businesses are funded and managed by foreign banks, while as highly competitive and non-profitable business from the UB group are funded and managed by several India’s premier public sector banks, incuding, State Bank of India, IDBI bank and Punjab National Bank. The public sector banks owned by Indian Citizen either directly (Public share holding) or indirectly (Indian government Share holding) has funded the airlines to an extent of Rs. 3000 Crores. It is anyone’s guess as to what the Banks are up to, when they confront with bad and non-recoverable debts; WRITE-OFF.

Furthermore, the Airlines management stopped paying salaries to its employees, dues to its vendors, dues to the oil companies for ATF, dues to the Airport Authority of India, service tax dues etc. The 40 bank accounts of the King Fisher airlines have been frozen by the government authorities and the airlines have been cash strapped for its day to day expenses. Subsequently, the airlines have been operating only 16 of its 64 aircrafts since last month and have quit Kolkata and Hyderabad routes completely. It has also wound up international operations in mid March. Vijay Mallya and his team have failed miserably to stick to a carefully drafted recovery plan.

Agonisingly, Vijay Mallya was in the denial mode until the late stages of the crisis. However, of late and true to his nature, he has again been falsely assuring Civil Aviation ministry, DGCA and other agencies of reviving the airlines and nurturing it back to health.

The most pertinent question that arises given the huge financial liabilities, loss of good will among its customers, shareholders and investors, Airlines Management’s lack of commitment as well as poor attitude and disastrous recovery plan: Is Airlines businesses in India, so profitable, to turn around a company with so much financial liability, nevertheless with Vijay Mallya at its helm?

Government has been threatening to cancel the 7-year-old King fisher Airlines' licence if safety norms, passenger convenience, operating schedules and financial viability conditions are not met.

Likewise, the grapevine is that, Vijay Mallya has been treading on a pre-drafted and premeditated plan of letting the Government of India close the King Fisher Airlines, through DGCA, so that he will NOT be blamed nor responsible for the loans he took from PSU banks.

MILITANCY IN INDIAN INDUSTRIAL ESTABLISHMENTS

Blue collared work force in India, of late, has been resorting to senseless, deplorable and condemnable acts of mob violence, destruction and homicide of their co-workers.
There have been numerous incidents of unjust flash strikes and damages to the Industrial establishments causing enormous damage to the reputation of our country as a fast developing nation and its GDP growth. However, the most deplorable is the killing of White collared co-workers and management personnel of their own establishments.
The following homicide incidents are a stark admonition of the bleak work culture, attitudes and human relationships with in the Industrial establishments:
·        Mr. Chandrasekhar, President of Regency ceramics, Yanam plant in Andhra Pradesh state of    Federal India is beaten to death by disgruntled workers in support of a laid-off worker.
·        Mr. Roy George, Vice President of Pricol Ltd, on the outskirts of Coimbatore city, Tamil Nadu, India was attacked and killed by angry workers in support of a laid-off worker.
·        Mr. Joginder Singh, the human resources manager of Allied Nippon, Ghaziabad, India, succumbed to his injuries after he and other senior officials were attacked by the dismissed employees.
·        Mr. Radhey Shyam Roy, Deputy General Manager at Graphite India Ltd., in the town of Balangir, Orissa state, India, was set ablaze and burnt to death by the laid-off workers of the plant.
·        Mr. Lalit Kishore Choudhary, the head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni, a manufacturer of car parts that has its headquarters in Italy, died of severe head wounds after being attacked by scores of laid-off employees.

The main reason behind all these incidents is laying-off workers and suspension of the workers union leaders due to their illegal activities and their in-efficient work at their work place.
Logically and practically, no company, in its elements will try foregoing a trained, well-oiled and efficient work force as this move of purging existing workforce not only affects its productivity but also burdens its financial and human resources in training new work force.
Unfortunately, formation of trade unions by blue collared workers and its consequent election processes, is nurturing both political ambitions and desire for financial benefits in some individuals. Thus they are growing beyond their defined roles and causing unrest in the Industrial establishments. Unfortunately, our Vote bank politics and its masters have rehabilitated such scrupulous leaders as their protégés for political gains. There are many instances of unconnected politicians getting elected to trade union bodies and diluting the work culture in the Industrial establishments.  Unfortunately, Indian Industry managers are faced with a unique situation of competing with Global peers by increasing productivity at the same time dealing with unruly trade union leaders and their unjust demands.
As a case in view, Regency ceramics is a loss making company and its workers have been demanding bonuses and perks beyond the company’s means which resulted in suspension of a founder leader of the unit’s trade union, subsequent flash strike, punching of attendance cards by union leaders despite not working, forcing their co-workers from working, disrupting daily production activities despite giving an undertaking not to disrupt the work et al. The death of a trade union leader in imminent police action, no doubt, is highly regrettable and avoidable. However, consequent actions by the irate militant workers of brutally killing the President of the ceramic plant, setting fire in the plant premises and physically causing severe damage to the important equipment, electronic parts, vehicles, computers and other assets is not only condemnable but liable to be instantly punishable by law.

Such acts have not only affected the livelihood of their co-workers, but also are affecting thousands of people who are making their livelihood indirectly. It is high time that Governments at federal level and regional level, setting aside vote bank politics, regulate the trade unionism, safe guard interests of all sections of Industry and formulate stringent actions against violators.
Opening up of the economy to the Global competition alone is meaningless unless it is supplemented by considerable improvement in Infrastructure, thrust on Human Resources development and improvement in work culture & their attitudes.  The ONUS is not only on Governments but also on all sections of society including Print and visual media to portray and react to the events rightly in the long term interest of the nation and our future generations.

TRUSTWORTHY MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS

Medical profession in India has transformed over time, from being a noble one to a highly commercial and money spinning profession with a steep decline in Professional ETHICS. Corporatization of medical services since last three decades, Government’s half baked and porous medical schemes and success of Medical insurance schemes have rapidly accelerated commercialism and decelerated professional ethics.

Nevertheless, these developments have unfortunately led to a considerable loss of faith for the patients in the medical professionals and are becoming victims, of their loss of faith, by resorting to Self-medication, neglect of malignant ailments, reposing faith in un-proven medical practices and inefficient self professed, unqualified practitioners etc.

Recently, I had to endure a few un-explicable as well as physically damaging medical experiences ranging from wrong treatment to an avoidable surgical procedure due to limited information, available with me, to identify the trustworthy medical professionals. Some of my acquaintances and friends were even victims of wrong diagnosis, which is paramount to a accurate treatment.

Hence, I am endeavouring to maintain a data base of medical professionals, in the public domain, who will be certified by fellow bloggers and visitors, of meeting the following parameters:

a.      Good professional integrity and commitment.
b.      Diagnosis capabilities and accessibility.
c.      Respect for customers/ patients and value for their time.
d.      Minimal Indirect costs (Costs towards Invasive procedures, Laboratory and other medical tests, hospitalisation costs, references hitherto etc.) to which the customers/ patients will be subject to during the treatment phase vis-a-vis Direct costs. High Direct costs (Consultancy fee of the doctor) are most welcome, as professionals needs to be compensated for their expertise.

The following is a concise list of medical professionals, meeting the above parameters, based on my personal experiences and feedback from my friends and acquaintances.

a.  Dr. P.V.Ramachandra Raju, MD.,DM (Cardiology), Consultant cardiologist, STAR hospitals, Hyderabad.

b.  Dr. S.Thanikachalam, MD.,DM (Cardiology), Consultant cardiologist, Anna Nagar, Chennai.

c.  Dr. Anil Kumar Cherukuri, MRCP, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Near Model house, Panjagutta, Hyderabad.

d. Dr. P.Narasimha Rao. MD.,DD.,PHD., Consulting Dermatologist, Masab Tank, Hyderabad.
 

e. Dr. Poludasu Ravi Kumar, MD., Pathologist, Sharjah, UAE.

f. Dr.M.V.Reddy, MS., Orthopaedic surgeon (Hand), Sunshine hospitals, Behind Paradise, Secunderabad

I welcome my fellow bloggers and visitors to suggest the details of medical professionals who meet the above parameters.

(Disclaimer: Please note that this post is not an advertisement for medical professionals, but a medium to identify dependable medical consultants and medically benefit from their commitment and professionalism.)

BHARAT RATNA - THE LATEST PASSTIME OF MEDIOCRE INDIA

Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of India has been bestowed upon 41 people, as on date, some of them richly deserving and the rest with highly questionable and debatable credentials.

Unfortunately, in India, the eligibility norms are very indistinct for awarding the highest Civilian award. This has resulted in some politicians being awarded by the ruling parties to consolidate their vote banks or to calm a section of citizen’s passion and frenzy. Unfortunately, some of the highly deserving names like Dr. Varghese Kurien, Dr. Homi Jahangir Bhabha and Ratan Tata, who were instrumental in making colossal difference to the lives of ordinary Indian citizens in their respective fields, were never considered. Instead, the highest honor is bestowed on some musicians in the recent past.

The highest military award or the highest civilian award shall be bestowed on those individuals whose personal sacrifices or relenting works have directly or indirectly either benefits India as a country or are instrumental in uplifting the living standards of its ordinary citizens. Moreover, it is agonizing to see a section of citizen’s frenzy and demand to award the highest civilian award to a professional cricketer, by bye-passing several richly deserving individuals.

It is high time for every citizen of India, including politicians to ponder over upholding the deserved stature of the highest national award by not using it as an instrument for achieving political gains and whipping regional, linguistic and sectional passions.

TRANS FATS

Refer to the hyperlink below to access the article.

Article on Trans fats.

OBAMA'S POLICIES AND HIS RE-ELECTION PROSPECTS

US foreign policy measures post terrorist attacks on twin towers in New York coupled with US citizen’s security concerns and fears secured the re-election of George W Bush in 2004. However, peoples disenchantment over considerable economic and human losses in its war with Iraq and Afghanistan coupled with credit crisis in 2007 and 2008 catapulted Obama in to the White house in 2008 elections.

The continued weakness in US economy, despite strong economic measures by Obama administration and Federal Reserve, has put the security concerns and foreign policy issues on a backburner for the ordinary US citizen. Obama has succeeded, to a great extent, in fulfilling his major foreign policy promises to the voters during the 2008 elections, by recalling all his troops from Iraq, killing Al Qaeda founder and terrorist Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and revitalizing his countries fight against Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Obama and his economic team including Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke have taken a few aggressive measures to mitigate the financial crisis, that included $862 billion stimulus program, investing in public works projects to generate employment, slashing short-term interest rates to zero, offering loans to cash-strapped banks, Quantitative Easing in two tranches and bought Treasury and mortgage bonds to push down interest rates and calm financial markets.

However, economy proved weaker than expected; Obama’s stimulus program had its share of weaknesses; his inability to overcome political imbroglio and obstacles to push for more government spending or tax cuts to stimulate growth; Obama’s prioritization for overhauling the nation's health care system did not propel the anticipated economic growth, as expected of his administration. Moreover, Obama's 2009 stimulus program proved to be a boon to corporate, financial institutions and fuelled a rally in financial markets without a desired impact on country’s economy and unemployment. Obama and his team spent major component of stimulus package on public works projects that were slow to get going and generate adequate jobs. Obama and his team failed to learn from Japanese unsuccessful experience of investing in Public works projects in the 1990’s which led to even larger deficits and debts without propelling the desired economic growth and unemployment. The unemployment rate is at a recession-level of 8.6 percent, up from 7.8 percent when Obama took office in January 2009.

Nevertheless, the economy is still struggling to recover from the Great Recession of 2007-2009; the housing market remains weak, unemployment rate is up and a debt crisis in Europe is threatening US economic growth in 2012. Zero interest rates have hurt retirees and savers without delivering many economic benefits. Consequently, 60 percent of American adults disapprove of Obama's performance on economic issues, based on an Associated Press-GfK poll of American adults.

However, everything is not lost for President Obama.

On economic front, some economists expect economic growth to pick up to 2.4 percent in 2012. That would be an improvement from the under-2 percent growth expected for 2011. But the economists foresee little improvement — a dip to 8.4 percent — in the unemployment rate by Election Day. Perhaps Obama can take heart from President Ronald Reagan's experience. The unemployment rate was 8.5 percent — a tick away from where it was last month — a year before Reagan was re-elected in a 1984 landslide.

On political front, Obama’s re-election rival, in all probability will be Republican front runner and former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, a Harvard Business School graduate. Mitt Romney served as CEO of Bain & Company, a management consulting business in Boston, and Bain Capital, a spinoff investment firm, in the 1980s and 90s. Given Romney’s corporate background and his economic plans to repeal the Obama administration's health-care law and cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent, the US younger generation, who are on the forefront of the “OCCUPY WALL STREET” movement, may prefer Obama over Romney.

Moreover, Obama will win hands down when it comes to the electoral gains emanating from Foreign policy and internal security successes.

Perhaps, Time is a better judge and unforeseen events in 2012 may also have a bearing on the outcome of the impending US presidential elections.

SAFETY INFORMATION ON FOOD ADDITIVES

Junk foods have become a part of our modern day living. Unfortunately, junk foods are known to possess high calorific values apart from harmful chemical additives such as Sodium nitrite, Saccharin, Aspartame, Caffeine, Olestra, Food Dyes/ Artificial food colors etc.

The following hyperlink furnishes a detailed summary of the safety of all food additives encountered in our day to day lives and a list of banned food additives.

http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm

GUIDE TO TEAMS & TEAMWORK

Useful article for professionals.


Article can be accessed from the hyperlink: Guide to Teams & Team work

WISDOM OF SUCCESS

Many of us, at times in our lives, must have enjoyed Success and basked in its glory. However, Success is a big teaser. Many a times, it neither lasts long enough to give contentment to one-self nor encompasses all other important facets of our lives.

Interestingly, most of us dread to admit that they are contented with socially acknowledged Success achieved in their lives. The reasons can be many; firstly, the definition of the word “SUCCESS” may mean different for people from diverse socio-economic environments, societies and countries; secondly, the duration of the Success shall matter; and finally, did the Success in an aspect of one’s life positively metamorphose the other important facets of his/ her life?

Interestingly, SUCCESS is a word which has the most vibrant interpretations and has wide ranging standards of measurement. The dynamics can be attributed to quite a number of variables, the prominent among them being the subtlety of bench marks and the standards that measure them (yardsticks).

Nevertheless, externally acknowledged “bench marks” are seldom permanent but are invariably supple, relative and at times is unleveraged. The above conundrum is similarly applicable to “Yardstick” too. Hence, it is irrational to focus on such socially acknowledged bench marks and yard sticks of success and presume that such successes gives perpetual conscious satisfaction and unconscious happiness.

The ultimate goal of a self is to live with perpetual conscious satisfaction and unconscious happiness which emanates from a SUCCESS encompassing all spheres of life that is identified, defined, executed and evaluated by self rather than others.

Similar article by Brahmakumaris "ANALYZING SUCCESS AND FAILURE" can be accessed in Vijay Karanam's other blog http://vijaykaranam.blogspot.com/.

BUBBLE SIGNALS IN GOLD INVESTMENTS

The price of Gold has been rising uniformly in the past decade and has returned an average of about 17% annually during that time. However, hedge funds and HNI’s (high net-worth investors) have been cutting down their investments in gold over the past few months. It is estimated that roughly $4.5 billion had been disinvested by hedge funds and HNI’s due to which gold prices have been very volatile of-late. Let us check out some of the signals, what hedge fund managers & HNI’s have been wary of.

Increased strength of US Dollar

Federal Reserve’s discontinuation of Quantitative Easing (Infusion of excess liquidity in to the economy) and improved US macro-economic indicators indicates a swift recovery of US economy. US economy’s strength coupled with debt crisis in European Union, slowing down of economies in developing countries and recession fears in other developed nations has been strengthening US dollar. Many investors who used gold as an effective hedging instrument against weak dollar when US economy was struggling, have started showing confidence in US Dollar and US economy  by switching over to dollar investments from gold.

Low Inflation and high interest rates

Inflation across developing nations is showing signs of moderation to more acceptable levels due to slowing down of economic growth in majority of developing and developed economies. Debt crisis and stopping of quantitative easing has resulted in high interest rate environments in many countries. Investors and fund managers, who used gold as a hedge against inflation, have started switching to debt instruments and US Dollar.

High level of speculation in Yellow metal and wider interest in street

The speculative investment patterns, large investor base, trading volumes and volatility in gold prices can suggest the formation of gold price bubbles. Unprecedented and wider interest in any instrument is a big sign that the price has peaked and may be set for a major slide. There are lessons from the recent past regarding the fallout of high speculative investments viz., bursting of the technology bubble a decade ago and stock market capitulation in 2007 & early 2008.

Abstract

There are strong signs that the gold has peaked and might even crash in the near future. It is impractical to predict the time frame for the burst of the Gold bubble. Hence, if you are planning a new investment in gold, think twice about buying it now; if you do own gold, then review your investment strategies at the earliest.BUBBLE SIGNALS IN GOLD INVESTMENTS

CHRISTMAS – OCCASSION TO CELEBRATE & INTROSPECT

As we decorate the Christmas tree, let us remind ourselves.

The tree is a symbol of humanity.

The trunk is when we were all united in one religion of peace, love and truth.
We then divided into branches of different religions and then each religion divided into twigs.
The leaves of the tree represent each soul of humanity.
The Shining Star on the top is God who is now giving us the message to unite once again.

As we decorate the tree, let us decorate the soul with virtues of compassion, forgiveness and trust.

Santa Claus symbolises The Supreme God Father, who comes in these times of darkness, into the dirty old world (chimney), to give us gifts of Purity, Power and Peace.

Christmas is the time of Angels

We have always looked for our guarding angel, one who would always be there for us, guide us and love us.
Today let us start becoming an angel instead of looking for angels.
When we remember our original nature of love and purity, we accept each one as they are.
We love them and our love and acceptance protects them and empowers them.
We then become an angel to them
When we live by our virtues, we are angels to each one around us.

Christmas is a reminder for what Jesus Christ lived for - Love and Forgiveness.


(Article courtesy: Postive reflections by Brahmakumaris, Partly edited by Vijay Karanam)