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by Abhijeet
29 Sep 2013 23:29
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: PRC Economy - New Reflections : Dec 15 2011
Replies: 3942
Views: 529461

Re: PRC Economy - New Reflections : Dec 15 2011

Deleted to avoid Suraj's clumsy attempt at censorship. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.
by Abhijeet
20 Sep 2013 12:49
Forum: Science, Economics & Technology Forum
Topic: Civil Aviation Development & Discussion
Replies: 6030
Views: 1214312

Re: Civil Aviation Development & Discussion

Will it make travel between India and the US faster?
by Abhijeet
12 Sep 2013 13:31
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

In the vein of the well-known phrase "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway", I'll offer another: Never underestimate the ingenuity of hundreds of millions of well-educated people with humanity's sharpest tools at their disposal. Predi...
by Abhijeet
30 Aug 2013 12:07
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

To play the devil's advocate: if the Food Security Bill is really the vote security bill, then it means that a majority of Indian citizens want it. What is wrong with a democratic government acting according to the wishes of its citizens? :twisted: Most of the reforms that have benefited India have ...
by Abhijeet
26 Aug 2013 01:58
Forum: Science, Economics & Technology Forum
Topic: Indian Education System
Replies: 3954
Views: 707245

Re: Indian Education System

Vivek Wadhwa has written a number of articles on smaller pieces of the study. I remember he had a series of guest posts on Techcrunch which should still be searchable.
by Abhijeet
24 Aug 2013 05:21
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

GoI's actions are lame, but there's still a $50billion plus import component in the form of precious metals, gems and jewelry, which falls in the luxury item basket, and they see it fix to impose duties on it, or even ban imports. The $50 billion import of luxury items includes items that are proce...
by Abhijeet
24 Aug 2013 04:09
Forum: Science, Economics & Technology Forum
Topic: Indian Autos Thread
Replies: 3776
Views: 674868

Re: Indian Autos Thread

Does India not have crash test ratings for cars? I don't remember any car being advertised in India with anything like the equivalent of the "5-star NHTSA rating" that most car ads include in the US. The kmpl is always prominently advertised.
by Abhijeet
24 Aug 2013 02:10
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

Never mind luxury trinklets; we import a significant part of our power equipment to the tune of ~$40 billion a year, and a significant amount of the fuel driving that equipment. We even import $25 billion of iron/steel and fertilizers. Exactly. None of these are "luxury trinkets" -- they ...
by Abhijeet
24 Aug 2013 00:05
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

All this talk of "overspending", "splurging on luxury items" etc is far removed from reality. Spending on luxury items like CBU cars is such a minuscule part of the economy that it is not worth talking about. On a per-capita basis, Indians consume at Sub-Saharan Africa levels. We...
by Abhijeet
22 Aug 2013 11:03
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

To look at the silver lining, I think the fall of the rupee is one thing that will bring home to people just how incompetent the government is -- this is extraordinary even for India. Things like high inflation, poor infrastructure, poor governance, scams etc have been around for so long that most p...
by Abhijeet
21 Aug 2013 10:23
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: Perspectives on the global economic meltdown- (Nov 28 2010)
Replies: 4994
Views: 553719

Re: Perspectives on the global economic meltdown- (Nov 28 20

What does that mean? That has nothing to do whether their relative situation is better or worse than it was two decades ago. Given the growth in the economy since then, it should be better, but the numbers somehow do not reflect it. Why is this? This has nothing to do with whether I (or any other we...
by Abhijeet
21 Aug 2013 03:22
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: Perspectives on the global economic meltdown- (Nov 28 2010)
Replies: 4994
Views: 553719

Re: Perspectives on the global economic meltdown- (Nov 28 20

I don't get this food consumption issue. Can someone give a clear explanation for why per-capita calorie intake has come down when the economy has grown so much in the last couple of decades? Everything I've seen is some confused mess of "the measurements are wrong" or "the rich are g...
by Abhijeet
20 Aug 2013 01:41
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

Looks like over the last 2 years INR has performed better than the Brazilian real and much worse than the Indonesian rupiah. Same over the last 5 years.

So why the recent panic?
by Abhijeet
20 Aug 2013 00:56
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

I'm trying to understand the reason for the suddenness of the changes that have been taking place. The rupee has now slid from 50 to 63 in the space of a few months, the government is making lunatic-level tweaking at the fringes (no more duty free TVs :roll: ), the stock market is tanking, and sudde...
by Abhijeet
15 Aug 2013 02:03
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

Good interview with Jim Rogers. http://www.livemint.com/Companies/pqNgQUDoOPsQCli4EgZLMM/Jim-Rogers-Why-Im-shorting-India.html Nails the usual suspects: politicians looking for scapegoats rather than fixing the fundamentals, poor education system, one of the worst places in the world in which to sta...
by Abhijeet
15 Aug 2013 02:00
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: Perspectives on the global economic meltdown- (Nov 28 2010)
Replies: 4994
Views: 553719

Re: Perspectives on the global economic meltdown- (Nov 28 20

Note that Rs. 1 lakh in 1990 = $7K @ an exchange rate of Rs.14/$.
Rs. 60 lakh today = $100K

So about a 14x appreciation for a 7x increase in GDP, which is reasonable if you were good at picking companies that outpaced GDP growth.

For comparison:

Sensex in 1990 = 1000
Sensex today = 20,000
by Abhijeet
13 Aug 2013 12:11
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

Good article by the Economist, racist rag or not. Good rundown of all the different areas in which India is not competitive: duties, ports, financial regulation, the legal system, air hubs, basic infrastructure. So much to do. ======= On a related note: a(n Indian) friend of mine recently got a US g...
by Abhijeet
02 Aug 2013 03:57
Forum: Science, Economics & Technology Forum
Topic: Indian Autos Thread
Replies: 3776
Views: 674868

Re: Indian Autos Thread

If you don't have a budget constraint, Innova continues to be the best choice in the segment IMVHO, despite it being 8+ yrs in the market with little change in the looks/features department over the years. Manish, why do think there isn't more innovation/churn in the Indian auto market? That's a ve...
by Abhijeet
01 Aug 2013 03:23
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02
Replies: 8048
Views: 680427

Re: Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

SV is SV because of the concentration of capital and talent. Startups tend to cluster together and the effect is self-reinforcing. It's hard for Boston or Austin to catch up in terms of sheer numbers. The clustering effect is also why there are micro-regions within the Bay Area where startups are di...
by Abhijeet
01 Aug 2013 02:47
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

It sounds like one needs an imported CBU car like a BMW 7 series class to be considered civilized in India these days - buying a locally assembled 3-series doesn't qualify :) Ha. If only. In any case, a "locally assembled 3-series" still costs twice as much in India as it would in the US ...
by Abhijeet
01 Aug 2013 00:54
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

Japan and South Korea invested heavily in infrastructure and education (the carrot) at the same time as they restricted imports (the stick). You can't have one without the other. As is typical for India, however, we will continue to see the stick without the carrot. The government will not develop i...
by Abhijeet
24 Jul 2013 05:09
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

I think the post above is a good example of how the general standard of discourse on the forum has gone down. It simultaneously does a couple of things that lead to a lowered level of discussion: 1. Name calling: People who support social development programs are socialists 2. Non-sequitur equal-equ...
by Abhijeet
24 Jul 2013 04:31
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

The point -- that I agree with -- is that well-designed social development programs are a very important part of the government's role, especially in an extremely poor country like India. The key phrase, of course, being "well designed". The fact that the government throws money down the d...
by Abhijeet
22 Jul 2013 08:11
Forum: Science, Economics & Technology Forum
Topic: Indian Autos Thread
Replies: 3776
Views: 674868

Re: Indian Autos Thread

I don't think most companies come into a market with an attitude to screw the consumer or to push inferior products. They do what they can within the parameters they have. India's car market is still fairly small, doesn't have a lot of competition at anything other than the base (A) segment, and has...
by Abhijeet
13 Jul 2013 03:42
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: PRC Economy - New Reflections : Dec 15 2011
Replies: 3942
Views: 529461

Re: PRC Economy - New Reflections : Dec 15 2011

Serious question. What is the place -- if there is one -- on this forum to talk about the Chinese and Indian economies in relation to one another? I'm assuming that the reason to have a thread about the Chinese economy on an Indian forum like BR is to compare and contrast with the economy that matte...
by Abhijeet
13 Jul 2013 03:33
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

Musings on banks of the Huangpu: Admiral Arun Prakash China succeeded in every aspect of socio-economic endeavour where India has failed. Great articulation. I've felt this same sense of "silent rage" this author talks about when living in India. It's too easy to explain away India's gove...
by Abhijeet
11 Jul 2013 01:41
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

India has consistently dithered too long and missed windows of opportunity before they closed. - Mass manufacturing, obviously - Building up global airlines through rules like requiring 5 years of operation before flying abroad. By the time domestic airlines satisfied this requirement, the global re...
by Abhijeet
28 Jun 2013 13:25
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013
Replies: 3962
Views: 596754

Re: Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013

Gah. Ask a simple question like "What are UK Indians doing to fight against this discriminatory law", and you get jumped on by a bunch of self-righteous simpletons who will drown out any discussion with cries of "Briturd", "Gungadeen", "cognitive dissonance" a...
by Abhijeet
28 Jun 2013 13:14
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013
Replies: 3962
Views: 596754

Re: Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013

Au contraire, I believe it's you who are missing the point. (I'm sure we could do this all day.) I'll spell it out more clearly, although I'm not sure what's controversial here. It's a trivial statement to say that the British are racist and have screwed over India in a major way. Yes and yes. Howev...
by Abhijeet
28 Jun 2013 12:38
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013
Replies: 3962
Views: 596754

Re: Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013

Exact similar utterings were poured by his excellency Mahatma Gandhi, eons ago, " how come indians are lumped together with the unwashed kaffirs -africans". Expressed outrage because racism was not correctly applied, while happy to condone the institutional racism of these chaps. Looks li...
by Abhijeet
27 Jun 2013 23:14
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013
Replies: 3962
Views: 596754

Re: Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013

Incredible story. So even if someone is married to a British citizen, they will not be allowed into Britain unless their spouse earns more than a specific amount. Could the rules be more unfriendly? Specifically with regard to the bond issue, I always thought the Indian community in the UK was too r...
by Abhijeet
27 Jun 2013 14:26
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013
Replies: 3962
Views: 596754

Re: Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013

Can UK-based posters comment on how the visa bond issue is being seen there? Is it being talked about at all in mainstream media or within the Indian community? Are there any plans to mobilize the community around the issue?

On the face of it it seems an outrageous imposition.
by Abhijeet
27 Jun 2013 14:03
Forum: History & Current Affairs Archive
Topic: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012
Replies: 3973
Views: 386902

Re: Indian Economy - News & Discussion 27 May 2012

USD-INR chart since 2009. For the last two years USD looks like a growth stock -- buy buy buy! https://www.google.com/finance/chart?q=CURRENCY:USDINR&tkr=1&p=5Y&chst=vkc&chs=229x94&chsc=1 Hard to believe that INR can get back into its typical (for the last 10+ years) range of 40-...
by Abhijeet
27 Jun 2013 13:39
Forum: Science, Economics & Technology Forum
Topic: Indian IT Industry
Replies: 3916
Views: 589476

Re: Indian IT Industry

Some good news amid the gloom: India is now the world's third largest smartphone market according to a research firm, overtaking Japan and behind China and the US.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/26/india- ... hone-world
by Abhijeet
15 Jun 2013 10:53
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02
Replies: 8048
Views: 680427

Re: Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

iOS 7 has a back gesture in place of the Back button apparently.

I think all Canadian airports have US immigration on the Canadian side. I've gone through it at Ottawa and Toronto. Going from the US to Canada, immigration is on the Canadian side though.
by Abhijeet
15 Jun 2013 03:31
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: PRC Economy - New Reflections : Dec 15 2011
Replies: 3942
Views: 529461

Re: PRC Economy - New Reflections : Dec 15 2011

With all due respect, that is nonsense. The per capita income in Mumbai is about Rs. 1.25 lakh. For a family of 4, that's about Rs. 5 lakh in annual income. Do you seriously think that that family could pay Rs. 1.2 lakh a year -- 24% of its annual pre-tax income -- in electricity bills? And there ar...
by Abhijeet
15 Jun 2013 00:07
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: PRC Economy - New Reflections : Dec 15 2011
Replies: 3942
Views: 529461

Re: PRC Economy - New Reflections : Dec 15 2011

So about Rs. 3700 for Internet+phone and Rs. 10K per month for electricity. It's a tautology to say that if Indians paid more they would get better services. Of course. The point is that Indians cannot afford to pay these rates right now because they are too poor. In China, the fact that hundreds of...
by Abhijeet
14 Jun 2013 11:41
Forum: Trash Can Archive
Topic: PRC Economy - New Reflections : Dec 15 2011
Replies: 3942
Views: 529461

Re: PRC Economy - New Reflections : Dec 15 2011

Was speaking with someone running a China-focused online game startup in the Bay Area. Some interesting points: - China this year will surpass the US to become the largest online game market in the world - Most gaming is still PC-based massively multiplayer online (MMO) games -- think World of Warcr...