From 1,000 to 13,000

Here is the ulitmate stock market story. The Indian stock market boom from 1,000 to 13,000. (link), along with other goodies about the Indian Stock Exchanges.

Sallu Bhai

The Miss Universe thinks Salman Khan is hot. Where did they find each other

Zuleyka Rivera, a Puerto Rican, met the star who gave her a ride on his motorbike in Mumbai.

Way to go Sallu Bhai. And pray tell me, how did you get to know she was standing there...

link

Anbumani Ramadoss

Karan Thapar interviews Anbumani Ramadoss on CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate. Here are some excerpts.

Mr Ramadoss, there is a widespread belief that as Health Minister you have been immature and defiant or arrogant and obsessive. Are the press being unfair or can you accept that you have made a few mistakes?
Anbumani Ramadoss: .....Because of my virtue of being a doctor, I am professional.....

Karan Thapar: Can I interrupt you there? You say he is one of the worst administrators in this country and yet on two separate occasions, the Delhi High Court had to intervene. In July, they stayed your initial action and in October, Justice Anil Kumar speaking in open court alleged that you had a one-point agenda to oust an eminent doctor by any means. He went on to say of Dr Venugopal that he was a director whose contribution to the institution and its functioning cannot be doubted. The High Court disagrees with you.
Anbumani Ramadoss: .....I am also a doctor and in the same profession as him.....

Karan Thapar: Can I point out to you why people have lost confidence in your handling of Dr Venugopal? You have capped everything by slapping 45 charges against the man, including discriminating against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, financial irregularities, administrative deficiencies, indiscipline and not tackling the dengue crisis properly. Do you have an ego problem with him or simply dislike the man?
Anbumani Ramadoss: .....I am a professional. I am a doctor.....

Karan Thapar: Do you know the impression in the country? In the end, the Supreme Court on July 18 had to order you to pay and you complied. You ended up embarrassing yourself, not proving a point.
Anbumani Ramadoss: .....Karan, I’m also a doctor.....

More questions follow, You are an arrogant, slick, two-faced bastard, I am a doctor, You are haughty and have brains smaller than an ant, I know that becuase I am a doctor, You should go and screw yourself, I can't becuause they taught me that at medical school that I can't do that, but I am a doctor and a professional.

Thanks Karan. (link)

Demolitions in Delhi

Delhi would not be trading for the next few days becuase illegal houses and shops are going to be broken down.

The traders are doing so becuase they say that the government is not providing alternate governments.

The same traders, who bought illegal property, knowing what they were buying was illegal, but still chose to steal.

Now they want the government to pay up, since what they stole has to be taken back.

I think that not only should the building be torn down, but also the bill be sent to the traders.

Capital Punishment

Santosh Singh, charged with the rape and gruesome murder of Priyadarshini Mattoo, has finally been sentenced to death.

There is no alternative.

The Rich Professors

I agree you need to be smart to be teaching economics at Harvard, but this guy is a brooding genius. On his blog, he says

If people no smarter or better than you are making ten or 50 or 100 million dollars in a single year while you're working yourself ragged to earn a million or two - or, God forbid, $400,000 - then something must be wrong.

Does Harvard really pay its professors that much?? More than $400,000???

Link

GDP Growth Rate

India's GDP growth rate (7.60%) has been tops over the last few years. You might think that a growth rate is quite high, and that China's growth rate (9.90%) is outrageous. But here is the true picture. China with a growth rate of 9.90% is ranked 9th, while India at 7.60% is ranked 25th if you rank all countries with ascending GDP growth rates.

Well, USA is ranked 124th and the UK is 171st.

The winners: Azerbaijan with 26.40% and the losers: Zimbabwe with -7.00%.

Link

Comparitive Advantage

This is how you explain it. (link)

Science and Religion

While discussing over drinks yesterday, we came to conclude that the reason why religion is more popular that science must be because of the fact it is simply simpler. Scientists for some reason or the other, keep contradicting themselves after every few years. Hence keeping up with science would require constant learning. However, religion stays the same for centuries, no contradictions, no complications. Therefore, it is easier for the masses to follow.

Defining Children

How would you define children?? Here is how Tim Harford, from Dear Economist defines them

Children are rational utility maximisers, but they have a high discount rate and therefore a short time horizon (link)

but that is not all, there are more words of wisdom by the man, like this:

Divorced women tend to take a financial hit while divorced men tend to be better off than they were when they were married. What does that tell you? You might think that it suggests divorce is bad for women, but it equally suggests that marriage is bad for them. Women must hate being married if they are willing to pay to get divorced. And men must like marriage, since they would be richer if they walked out the door. (link)

My dear economist might tell me that I might love marriages, but there are times when I know he's bluffing.

How do you find the one

Finding your prospective mate can be difficult, but if you a run a Speed Dating agency, it is possible for you to find out what exactly people look for in a mate. Michèle Belot and Marco Francesconi conducted a similar researched and after much analysis, they report that "the role of individual preferences is overshadowed by that of market opportunities".

Of the estimated variation in attribute demand, preferences can explain as little as one percent along occupation, height, and smoking, and up to 30-40 percent along age and weight for male subjects and 45 percent along age among female subjects. The rest is explained by opportunities. But despite this, preferences have a part when we observe a match, i.e., when two individuals propose to one another. Matches are driven by more pronounced preferences for socioeconomic similarity along attributes like age, education, and occupation

So if you're looking for a partner, no matter what your occupation or height or smoking tendencies, just make sure you get enough opportunities with the one, you want to be the one.

Link

Understanding the GDP Growth

Ajay Shah, links to one his articles on his blog, about understanding the high GDP growth rate in India over the last few years, and provides reasons for the same. Here is what he has to say

The first quarter 2006 GDP growth figure of 8.9 percent has surpassed all forecasts. It was the 12th consecutive quarter in this streak of marvelous high growth in India, which began from the Jun-Sep 2003 quarter. In this three-year period, the mean and median of growth was roughly 8.4%. Three years at 8.4% GDP growth in India have never happened before.

Some people believe that India has moved up to trend GDP growth of 8.5%. I believe this is not the case; that average GDP growth in the next 12 quarters will come out significantly below this remarkable performance.

Trend GDP growth has slowly accelerated from 3.5% to 6.5% over the 1979 to 2006 period. This has reflected a combination of economic reforms, a higher investment rate, and the "demographic dividend" from a bigger workforce.

Layered on top of this slowly accelerating trend is a business cycle. This is a new phenomenon, which was not found when India was a socialist country, and one which has been a key feature of Indian macroeconomics from the mid 1990s onwards. We had a low of the business cycle in 2001-02, which was followed by a high of the business cycle which we are presently in. The 12 quarters of 8.5% growth reflect a combination of trend growth at 6.5% with an extra two percentage points owing to favorable business cycle conditions.

So, according to him India was just riding high on good times, things would start looking dull soon. A little later Ajay also mentions that the world economies are going to fall soon, including the US, (similar to what was predicted here), and it would prompt India to fall too.

Here is his remedy.

One element of the economic reforms program that is needed is an examination of fiscal policy, monetary policy and banking regulation, seeking to address the problem of their being destabilising (i.e. procyclical). This would reduce the extent to which India suffers from these patterns of boom and bust. Sound fiscal institutions and sound banking regulation can reduce the extent to which these two elements are destabilising. The big opportunity is with monetary policy. Instead of doing harm by being destabilising, as is the case today, it can be the mainstay of countercyclical macroeconomic policy, as is the case in all mature market economies. This requires the creation of a monetary authority with the narrow mandate of achieving an inflation target.

Link

Do you believe in reincarnation?

Desipundit is back from the dead....
... but Mr Patrix is gone, now we have a new ringmaster.

Happy Birthday!!!

Polygamy anybody?

There is an interesting discussion on at the Becker-Posner Blog about the legality of Polygamy. Now I think it is a cool idea, but as Bono might say, Posner thinks in mysterious ways.

My view is that polygamy would impose substantial social costs in a modern Western-type society that probably would not be offset by the benefits to the parties to polygamous marriages. Especially given the large disparities in wealth in the United States, legalizing polygamy would enable wealthy men to have multiple wives, even harems, which would reduce the supply of women to men of lower incomes and thus aggravate inequality. The resulting shortage of women would lead to queuing, and thus to a high age of marriage for men, which in turn would increase the demand for prostitution. Moreover, intense competition for women would lower the age of marriage for women, which would be likely to result in less investment by them in education (because household production is a substitute for market production) and therefore reduce women's market output.

No no that is not all, here is some more

In polygamous households, the father invests less time in the upbringing of his children, because there are more of them. There is also less reciprocal affection between husband and wife, because they spend less time together. Household goverance under polygamy is bound to be more hierarchical than in monogamous marriage, because the household is larger and the ties of affection weaker; as a result, "agency costs" are higher and so the principal (the husband, as head of the household) has to devise and implement means of supervision that would be unnecessary in a monogamous household. (An additional factor is that women in a polygamous household have a greater incentive to commit adultery since they have less frequent sex with, and affection for, their husband, so the husband has to watch them more carefully to prevent their straying.) This managerial responsibility deflects the husband from more socially productive activities.

. But one man, brings out the real basis of the fear against polygamy

It potentially destabilizes a society in which the total number of men and women are roughly equal. So, for every man with four wives, there are three other sexually frustrated men with nobody.

There it is.

So in a democracy, the number of frustrated people would always be more, hence a law against polygamy will always win. Hence, if you want more wives, get out of the bloody democracy.

Link

Brazil Central Bank betting on a US Slowdown

Brad Setser's blog claims that Brazil's and other cenral banks are betting on a US slowdown in the next quarter.

First, Brazil’s reserves increased by a bit less than $5b in August. Second, Brazilian central bank/ banks reduced their short-term claims on the US by $2.7b or so. So even Brazil's central bank accounted for all the fall in short-term claims, it would have only been able to generate $7.5b or so of $11b in purchases .... Yet even if Brazil's central bank didn’t do all the buying, it rather clearly invested a decent chunk of growing reserves in Treasuries and shifted a significant sum from short-term investments to longer-term investments.

That is the sort of thing you do if you think US rates are about to fall. In other words, it was the sort of bet that makes sense if you think Mr. Recession in 2007 is going to be at least ½ right, and not just about the third quarter.

Question: What would be the effects on India, in case it turns out to be true?

Link

Reason and Faith

What should a college graduate of the 21st century know? This was the question in front of a Harvard comittee. The answer to which, includes, "the role of religion in contemporary, historical, or future events -- personal, cultural, national, or international."

The Harvard committee rightly noted that students coming to college today struggle with an academy that is "profoundly secular." This was not always the case, at Harvard or at many other universities. For centuries scholars, scientists and artists agreed that convictions of faith were wholly compatible with the highest levels of reasoning, inquiry and creativity. But in recent centuries this assumption had been challenged and assertions of faith marginalized in, and even banished from, academic departments and university curricula. Requiring courses in "Reason and Faith" would be a welcome step toward reintroducing faith to the academy.

What should be the content of such courses? The Harvard committee hastens to explain that its proposal is not for "religious apologetics." Rather, the courses it envisions would offer an examination of "the interplay between religion and various aspects of national and/or international culture and society." They would deal not so much with the relationship between reason and faith as with reasoning about faith, religion and religious institutions and their impact in the world.

Link

Talking about Films

Two film makers from JNU were denied their freedom of expression. Link. However, the young men who got thrashed by the police too because they were making a documentary on child labor, seem to be resolved to continue with the film. Maybe there are more Rakesh Sharma's in the making.

However, one man gets his chance to be famous for atleast a little while, by making Jesus Black. Link. Now this one is going to get a lot of publicity, and for no good reason. I feel compelled to watch the movie, though I am quite sure, that even if the movie turns out to be excellent, contrary to my expectations, I would still count black Jesus to be a cheap publicity stunt.

But this is what really feels good, when the medium of films expands itself and grows into reality
Link . Farmers have started their agitation, in a movement called Lage Raho Kisanbhai. This is what I call, bringing the movies to the masses. I am just waiting for the time, when people will copy Rang De Basanti.

Another thing you might notice this year is that, two of the best movies this year, were based on change, Rand De Basanti and Lage Raho Munnabhai. Is it because the nation is heading towards one, or because change is yet another real world impossibility like poverty?

PS. While we are at it, the International Film Festival of India for this year is being held in Goa again this year. Anybody interested?

Seven Years

Domestic violence is now punishable with an year in jail or Rs 20,000 or both, but it has also been heard the law states that you can hit your wife after you've been married for seven years.

Next in line: Hitting your children is going to be a punishable offence.

Infact here's a list of things you can't do

Link

The Ultimate Guide to Manali

After spending the last few days, and a huge number of hours in the bug, I'm back from Manali, a small little town in the Kulu Valley, on the banks of the Beas.

Delhi - Chandigarh - Manali

I left Delhi on Monday, and took a state transport bus, which took me as far as Chandigarh. The 250 km drive was covered in about 5 long hours. After a short run up to Dhillon's place, we were back at ISBT in Sector 17 to catch our bus to Manali. We caught the bus at 8:30 pm and reached Manali at 6:00 am in the morning, out of which we spend atleast two hours sitting and having tea, while bloody driver rested.

Booking a room and a cab

It was cold, though active morning in Manali, where the bus, is chased by about 50 men, as soon as it enters the city limits. There is visible friction on the ground, and as soon as the bus stops, all of it comes inside. Before people can get down the bus, the agents fill up the place. Each of them seems to be looking for a 'capple' (couple), and they fight bitterly for each one that is lost. After a long ten minutes we managed to get down from the bus, and light up.

In another 20 minutes, we booked up a place in some 'Hotel Pawan' at the end of the Mall Road for Rs 250 a day, and a cab to take us around for Rs 1000 a day. However, if you're looking for cheap accommodation, you can get a room in a dormitory for Rs 75 a day, or if you're looking for someplace nice, then try Beas, which costs around Rs 600 a day. Regarding the cab, you'd be better off if you don't take one from the Hotel, rather walk down to the Union and catch one. The costs would be Rs 1000 to take you to Rohtang La (Rohtang Pass) and Rs 400 for local sight seeing, which really isn't much. If you're interested, you can also rent bikes, mostly Enfield and Yamaha for around Rs 300 for 8 hours.

Anyways, we reached Manali early in the morning, got ourselves a room and a cab, had breakfast at the duplicate shier-e-Pujab (there was another Sher-e-Punjab which said that they were the original one and did not have any branches. By the way there was another Shan-e-punjab too, but let's leave that) and then set off for Rohtang. We also got some 'mink' coats in between (which cost around Rs 100 for the trip). It was more 'yak' I guess, but we preferred to call it 'mink'. Anyways, the coats were warm, and the shoes couldn't get wet, so they were a formidable pair in the snow.

Rohtang Pass

After about two and a half hours we got to Rohtang Pass, where we didn't get to see any snowfall, but did enjoy some snow there. It's easy to get dead tired in the snow, especially if you're smoking, and so we did. People around us were busy throwing snow at each other, a majority was stuck in a traffic jam, (yes, there are a lot of them), but interestingly, some were skiing. It was a shameful sort of a skiing if you ask me. Parents were pushing their kids around, who would move like half a foot, and then jump around with ecstasy. Pure filth.

On the way back, we thought about paragliding, but when we heard they were charging Rs 700 for a minute, we got out fast. Anyways, if you are interested, you could try the other paragliding place on the way to Roerich museum. They charge Rs 1500 for a flight of about 20 minutes, but you have to book one day in advance.

Place to Drink

After coming back to our room, we decided to go out for a drink. Dhillon had read about Moondance on some blog, so we decided to check it out. We got there at 7 and it looked like it had been closed for months. That was when we came to know that most of the places shut down when there was no business (ie from November to May). Anyways, the only other place we know about was Cafe Shiva. We later found out that it was a creaky old place, which served disgusting Lasagne. So early in the night, we were done with dinner and started walking back the dark lanes of manali. That was when I remembered about the only decent place we had seen on the way, where drinks were served.

In the same lane as hotel pinewood, there is an amazing hotel, which has a terrific pub, by any standards. The place is called 'Caverna' something. The pub has an warm fireplace, a host of drinks to choose from and a pool table, definitely worth spending all your evenings in.

For the record, there is also Khyber on the main crossing, but the service sucked there.

Charas Finally

That was the end of day one. Day two started with Charas :) It's worth the first few puffs atleast. I found atleast two places to get it, basically you can ask just about anybody to tell you where to get it. Incase you need my directions, go here. After that we started on the local sight seeing tour. The only thing of note was the Roerich museum, one great man I had never heard of. He gave lectures, painted, read loads and books and knew all the important people of his time, including Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Yuri Gargarin and a lot of others I can't recall. They don't let you smoke in there, so we got out real fast, but it would have been great if you like that kind of stuff.

Smoking on the Beas

Anyways, that evening, we sent the car back, rented an Enfield and trekked down to the Beas. The water was cold and the wind was chilly, and there we sat and smoked everything we had. hah. It's not just beautiful, it's cold, and it's comforting. And when the lights start fading, it starts getting a little scary, but still retains all it's beauty. If you ask me, those were the best two hours in Manali.

From then on, there wasn't much to look upto. If you're on a bike, do drive on the road beyond Moondance and Cafe Shiva, and remember me on the way back.

Way Back

We left the next morning, got into a state transport bus, which took 10 hours to get to Chandigarh. The journey was all the more painful in the day, when we realized that it took us 8 hours to leave the Himalayas. Anyways, we had chicken at Tejal Singh's and things started looking better. Though we just crashed for the night after that. Finally, I caught a bus to Delhi early in the morning, and got back here in one-piece, waiting eagerly for the trip to Nanital next week.

Where to find Charas in Manali

After much traveling I found two places to find Charas in Manali. (Charas, another form of marijuana, is quite popular in Manali, Himachal Pradesh in India. Also called the Indian Manali Cream and grows everywhere) One is at the bottom end of the Main Mall Road in New Manali. If you keep going down the road, you cross the Taxi union, then you cross the road to the monastery, then you cross the Parking lot. A short distance away, right next to a restraint, on the right side of the road there is a 'Dhaba' where you get eggs, paranthas and tea. And if you ask him, you'll get Charas too.

Anyways, if you're too fucking scared to ask people near the Mall Road, there is another place you can find the stuff. What you have to do is that, from the main crossing of Manali, you take the road towards old Manali (there are two other roads, one towards Rohtang, and the second is where you came from), on that road, after a little while, you take a left towards Hadimba temple. On that road, if you go down some distance, you ask for 'Rohit Dhaba'. It is a small, blue colored shop, on the left hand side of the road, right next to it, and is impossible to miss it. There you will find and old lady, who would give you the stuff.

So the next time you go to Manali, Happy Trekking....

Snow by Orhan Pamuk

It has been a week since I bought the book but somehow I haven't been able to come up and read it yet. I book is called 'Snow' by Orhan Pamuk. Christopher Hitchins, tells us why does 'Snow' give us important insights into Turkey, which might be our idea of a modern Muslim nation, there is much which doesn't meet the eye.

When frozen in the present, the mise-en-scène discloses a community of miserably underemployed people, caught among a ramshackle state machine, a nascent Islamism, and the claims of competing nationalist minorities. A troupe of quasi-Brechtian traveling players is in town, and it enacts a "play within a play," in which the bitter violence of the region is translated with shocking effect directly onto the stage. Drawn into the social and religious conflict, Ka seems to alternate between visions of "snow" in its macrocosmic form—the chilly and hostile masses—and its microcosmic: the individual beauty and uniqueness of each flake. Along the scrutinized axes that every flake manifests he rediscovers his vocation and inspiration as a poet and arranges a cycle of verses. This collection is lost when, on his return to Frankfurt, he is shot down in a street of the red-light district.

Indian

Here is why Atanu Dey thinks that the name of Indian Airlines was changed to Indian:

First, it was not as if the name “Indian Airlines” was biting someone in the butt. It was not as if a person was not very sure what that name meant. It was not that someone else claimed that domain name and the airline was forced to change its moniker. No sir, there was no problem with that name. But then, you may say that perhaps the name was getting old and somewhat generic. It could happen, you know. You say “Indian Airlines” and someone thinks you are talking of Indian air carriers in general and not about the specific carrier. I have found that about “American Airlines.” You have to be careful to distinguish between the specific and the general. So alright, “Indian Airlines” could have been changed to something else.

But removing the “airlines” and just retaining “Indian” is as astoundingly stupid as one can ever get. So now when you say “Indian” you don’t know whether you are talking about food, clothing, land, thought, behavior, or . . . an airline! Making a bad thing worse is not an improvement.

This man is funny. If the government servants stop stealing, how will their kids survive.

After all, you are well read Atanu, look at your biography (besides, you are also working on putting together a new and improved bio), what have they got?

And I agree with every word he says here. I see those young kids begging on the red lights, because there is no school they can go to and I just imagine that a lot more would be joining them soon, becuase the government of our great nation, wants them to.

Mr Afzal

Everybody has something to say on the clemency petition by Mr Afzal, and most of it is either repitition or utter crap. Atleast this one is well said. (link)

If I was the SC, I would make Afzal join the Indian Air Force and make him fly the Mig-21's. For once, people would be happy after the crash.

The people at Acorn take themselves very seriously most of the time, but they linked up to something really funny - Mahatma Gandhi praising Kim Jong Il - who was 7 when Gandhi died. (link)

I wonder if Munnabhai writes that blog? Then who writes this?

He is like this only

A will from the twenty second floor.
Who wrote it? And for whom? And why is it on his blog? Link

But sometimes he's awesome Link

Point of View

An interesting Point of View, by Point of View

The Supreme Court has held that unlike the charge of attempt to murder, the Indian Penal Code does not recognise the charge of attempt to rape. Rape is said to have been committed only if a man inserts his sexual organ into the victim. Any other act only qualifies for the offence of outraging a woman or child’s modesty.

How about a failed attempt to blow up Parliament? Would that be terrorism or merely an offence of outraging our nationalistic and patriotic sensibilities.

or indeed a failed attempt to evade taxes?

Link (There seems to be a problem with a permalinks!!)