Analysis of Indian news dated 29-Jul-2012
July 29, 2012
On July 19 the first reports of communal violence in lower Assam emerged. A day later, four former Bodo Liberation Tigers men were murdered. Then, the ethnic clashes between the indigenous Bodos and Bengali Muslims raged out of control. Entire villages were set on fire, thousands were left homeless everyday. But the Indian Army was waiting for orders to act. On July 25th, the first Army columns were rolled into action.
State governments seek the help of the Indian armed forces in three broad categories – to help restore law and order, to maintain essential services during strikes or crisis, and to provide assistance during natural disasters like earthquakes or floods. In all these cases, the armed forces do not need prior permission and clearances from the Ministry of Defence if a state government asks for help.
Why did the Indian armed forces delay action in Assam? Who is responsible? How come this person has not yet been suspended?
Olympics is transfer of wealth from tax-payers to corporates and governmental agencies. Olympics benefits corporates because they get contracts in billion of dollars. Olympics benefits governments because it gets more taxes. Politicians like games like Olympics, Common Wealth Games, etc because there is a potential for kickbacks. Olympics hurts the tax-payer. The tax-payer pays for these games. What does the tax-payer gain? Some entertainment maybe.
Olympics should not be conducted by government. If private corporates want to conduct these games, let them do so with their own finances. There should be no tax-payer contribution directly or indirectly via government subsidies.
India spends huge amounts on Olympics. Usually India wins little or sometimes no medals. To make India win more medals and lower the cost for tax-payer, I suggest privatization of sports. Just as cricket is privatized; BCCI handles it without government intervention. In the same way, all sports should be privatized. There should be no government intervention. Corporates are free to sponsor any sport, just as they sponsor cricket. Then, there will be no cost to tax-payer and probably the efficiency of private corporates will ensure that India’s performance is much better.
Anything where the government is involved, tends to be inefficient, corrupt and costly. Anything that can be opened for competition among private companies, tends to be efficient, less-corrupt and cheap (for tax-payers).
RBI has increased M3 money supply by 14.3% y-o-y. Indian rupee has been falling causing rise of fuel prices. All these factors have caused food prices have risen by about 25% y-o-y.
Only a small portion of food price rise can be blamed on weather. Most of inflation is created by government by increasing money supply, trade deficit and budget deficit.
Why is China developing faster than India? The main reason is lesser bureaucracy.
In India, a residential project requires anywhere between 30-70 permissions from a range of government agencies, which takes up to three years to have all of them in place. No one has heard of regulatory delays of more than few weeks in China.
Developers in India usually start work and even sell flats before they have obtained all the permissions. In India, it is better to purchase a constructed flat. While purchasing an under construction flat, the buyer should demand certified copies of all approvals, titles, construction schedule and payment schedule should be based not on time but on work completed.
UK says it will provide more support (Weapons) to Syrian rebels. UK, USA and Europe have same coordinated foreign policy. More than 20,000 people have already died in Syria in this fight for control of oil. A sane person would ask USA, “How much is enough?”
As soon as full-scale war with Syria / Iran starts, both oil and gold will spike. In fact, usually the spike occurs a few days before the war starts because insiders start purchasing first.
Buy physical gold and silver to protect yourself. If you cannot touch it, you don’t own it. Exit all paper investments including ETFs, stocks, PF, PPF, NSC, etc.
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