Economic Dilution

Indian economy is one of the fastest growing economy in the world, a fact that we are all well versed with. Over the past few years it has achieved a significant growth rate close to 8-9%. It is projected that the Indian GDP will surpass the American GDP by 2041 if the growth rate continues to be at the current level over the next 30-40 years. If we look at the sector wise break-up, then the major chunk of our GDP is contributed by the services sector which is close to 60% and the rest being added by agricultural and industrial output each being close to 20%. Okay! enough of numbers. The major driver of our economy is the services sector and the economy owes a lot to the global dominance of our outsourcing and IT capabilities. But a bigger question which crops in my mind is whether we are relying excessively on this outsourcing bandwagon for our economy to grow! The services industry employs just 15-20% of our population. Isn't this creating some kind of income disparity in our society? This economic sensation isn't tickling the majority of Indians who depend on agriculture for their living. The whole 'India Shining' thing looks like a mirage.

We consider ourselves as the champions of this outsourcing business. But can we claim to be the kings forever? Can we continue to beat our slowly rising opponents and prevent them from taking a share out of the 'pie which belongs to us'. India is undoubtedly the most preferred outsourcing destination because of ample availability of skilled manpower, low payscales compared to western countries and our proficiency in english. But can we sustain our presence in the outsourcing universe and continue to grow at this unprecedented rate with the salaries rising rapidly and other nations like Philippines, Thailand and China embarking on this novel journey? The growth enjoyed by India today is confined within the boundaries of mega cities and doesn't seem to percolate down to the lowest order. Now just try to imagine our economy sans outsourcing! Does the picture look scary to you? It certainly looks like that to me. In finance we learn that "Dont put all your eggs in one basket"..yes the diversifying business!! But are we pegging all our hopes on this single machine? Shouldn't we move ahead and diversify our economy for it to be more robust and sustainable? I am not becoming paranoid here but as they say that nothing is permanent and so might be the case with this outsourcing thing. Even if we continue to outsmart the impending competition which we might face in our arena, still the growth extracted out of it is not far reaching as I mentioned. We definitely need to vitalize our other sectors for an all round development which we aim to achieve. 

If we look at our agricultural sector, then we find that the agricultural output of India is second in the world just behind China. This is in spite of all the perils like flood and drought which the nature throws at us. But Indian agriculture suffers from some serious problems like poor productivity, limited use of technology, poor irrigation facilities, poor infrastructure like power etc. The farm output per unit land is quite low compared to the global standards. The growth rate of our agriculture is also quite low at 4-5% which is below the overall growth level of our nation. The government is playing its role in improving the condition of our agriculture but catering to the needs of the largest part of our society is rather difficult. Provision of subsidies, farm credit and insurance seem to be good ways of dealing with the problems but turn out to be less effective because the root cause of the problems is not attacked. 

Industrial output of India also speaks less in the growth story. China remains the undisputed leader of the manufacturing business and the industrial output of China alone is more than the whole of India's GDP. I read somewhere that today China exports more in 1 day than what it used to export in the whole of year 1979. India is lagging colossally on this front. Even small countries like Mexico and South Korea produce more than India's industrial output. Why India is not able to  perform well in this area? The obvious reasons which prevent this sector from picking up are the hindrances created by poor infrastructure, unattractive FDI policies, outdated labour laws and excessive red-tapism. We need to energize this sector urgently if we wish to experience an all round growth and prosperity. The industrial sector holds a great promise for employing the vast majority of population having lower literacy levels. Services sector is definitely incapable of delivering this. I believe that infrastructure holds the key for triggering growth in manufacturing sector. There is an immediate need to improve the infrastructure which includes power, airports, ports, roads etc. The industrial sector can make our economy more robust and help in achieving a sustainable growth rate. These things are certainly easier said than done. The road to prosperity is rather difficult to traverse, but definitely not impossible!

We must think about rising from all directions and shed our dependence on just one business. We got to enter new realms by challenging our competitors in their own domain and beat them before they try to beat us. Only then we can realize a nation which the world will really look upto.

Play your own Game

I love playing games. Don't think otherwise please! I mean I love playing video games. This has been my passion for years and I consider myself to a be bigtime gaming enthusiast. I know it sounds weird to some people who think that gaming is meant for kids and not for grown ups but I hate to disagree with those people. In fact I would ask them to visualize 'this world' my way. It's one of the most creative thing on this earth and you cant find this creativity even in the movies. Infact, many movies are based on video games like Tomb Raider, Hitman, Max Payne etc. Here you can be someone you always desired to be and live your moment. Where else on earth can you become a cop, a footballer, a racer, an actor and may be a hooligan!! In my opinion it stimulates your grey cells to the best possible level and pumps you up from within. The mind becomes agile and you cant get the thrills and the goose-bumps in a better manner! I do agree however that some people are naturally incapable of handling the gyrating screens, the lightning fast motions and the cacophony of bizarre sounds which become hindrances for generating the quick responses needed.

I reminisce my engineering days when I played those numerous games and I was able to pass my entire days with ease while bunking classes. Not only days but I even disturbed my roomies during the night with the "highly irritating" noise of the keyboard. One of my buddy seriously couldn't sleep many a times because of the mission which used to revolve in my mind- the mission to clear all the 'missions'. The craze lasted till the end of my engineering days. After that I have not been able to pursue it for obvious reasons like job and now MBA. But the spark is still there inside and the craze has not died down yet.

While all this went on during my golden days of college, one more desire always remained inside. Actually it wasnt a desire but a dream to work in a game development industry. This particular industry always facinated me. What else can be better than working at a place which captivates you and doing something which you love doing? This dream always stayed somewhere deep in my brain and never bubbled enough and as a result it never transformed into a goal. The obvious career choices which most people pursue after engineering probably overpowered my dream career. I often regret that I didnt give it a shot which it deserved. We all would have experienced it sometimes that we dont do something which we truly love doing. We always follow a constrained path and restrict ourselves from reaching out to newer destinations. Then we regret later on somewhere in our life. We always choose our careers based on some ridiculous 'career' rules which prescribe banking, software, engineering, medical as the standard and 'right' choices. And then we force ourselves to love the mess we've got into and even manage to say occasionally to some people "Oh! I love numbers. Banking is perfect for me" when deep down inside we detest the grilling we have to go through everyday at work.

Can I do something about it now? The answer is probably NO coz I am into this new world of MBA and 'business' has become my second language. Whether I like it or not I got to learn this new language for me to survive. But I am afraid of one thing though. I am apprehensive about reaching a stage where the creative person inside me will be killed in the hustle bustle of this industry. Doing something which we dont love doing can never give us the internal bliss we all crave for. So the moral of the story is "Get the things which you love, else you'll be forced to love the things which you get". These are ofcourse not my lines :). So guys, just go ahead and chase your dreams.

The rules of 'power'

Our world is so imbalanced. The power lies with a few countries and some nations are absolutely powerless. Everybody is hungry for power which happens to be a basic human trait and this applies even to the nations. But what is this fuss about 'responsible nations'? Who has christened the so called responsible nations as 'responsible' and the not so liked nations as 'rogue' nations? I believe they are none other than some self-certified 'responsible' nations and self-proclaimed 'leaders' of the world. But, why does this self-certification work? Why not any objections to it? The answer is simple enough because these are The Powerful nations and you better listen to them! The quest for power is immense and every nations wants to dominate the world. At least if they could! The messiahs of 'equality for mankind' and 'human rights' are the ones who are leading the race for creating inequality between nations. I wish to ask them as to how about equality among nations with all nations enjoying equal rights ? If they call this world a family, then why not all members of the family be equal? Why this hunger for power and superiority?(P.S. I might sound crazy to some people. Proceed only if you can handle it.)

The history has been witness to numerous examples of prejudices and inequalities which many nations have faced. The mother of all discrepancies in this world is the very existence of the UN security council. The concept of only 5 members leading the world on important matters which concern the entire world, epitomizes the inequality among nations which I am trying to enunciate. Our motherland, India has been victim to so many of these biases which have become the norms of this world. Again, these norms are made by 'now you know who'. It's like succumbing to these biases and justifying them by saying 'that's the way things are. that's the way things work here.' And the saddest part is that 'I' cant do anything about it. 'I' don't have the right to change it. The rules are just set and forever. Nobody dare ask for a change! Even if anybody asks then just "Go to hell. We don't give a damn" or if you crave for some respect then we give you this "Probably we have other important issues on hand. This is not the right time to discuss this." or "the world has other priorities right now".

Lets talk about the N-word now. Hey! I am talking about the latest buzzword 'Nuclear'. The NPT recognizes only 5 nations as Nuclear powers or more appropriately Nuclear Weapons State (NWS). They have been endowed with this privilege because they were the ones who possesed nuclear arms at the time when the treaty was floated. So they can continue with the possession and manufacturing of the nuclear arms. Even if any non-signatory country decides to sign the treaty, they forfeit the right to produce or acquire any nuclear weapons because they fall under the category of Non NWS. The boundaries cannot alter. Even if a country like India which is surrounded by hostile neighbours like China and Pakistan and who perceives them as a threat to its national security, decides to sign the treaty, still the same rules apply because the rules are made once and for all. No consideration is given even if you are a proven nuclear state and you too are responsible. But hey, India does not have the right to self certify its responsible status!! This right solely lies with the so called powerful states. We don't have that decision power! No Non-NWS country can think about its national safety even if it perceives nuclear threat and is ready to act responsible! The situation is just ironical at its best. Today India fulfills every criteria for being a NWS country which the 5 countries met at the time when the NPT was instituted. But as I said, rules have been made and forever. Just because we got late in developing the technology, we lost out in the battle for reaching the acme. And the people who made it till there created these impervious boundaries. It's just like neglecting a kid because he learnt the poem late. No marks for learning late even if you are perfect at it now!

The arguments are simply endless and so is the vast ocean of this power imbalance. The things dont seem to be changing. The rules of this world are inscribed on a piece of stone and I dont see any knife capable of scraping them off. Dont know, when this pursuit of power will end or will it ever end? I hope someday it will and the world will truly be a better place to live in. We must start sharpening our knives to rewrite the rules which can change the world for better.

-chandradeeps@gmail.com

Is GOD there?

We all believe in GOD. At least the most of us. But have you ever wondered why do we believe in the almighty? Or why do we call him the ALMIGHTY in the first place, somebody whom we have never seen? We all have been taught or we have experienced or heard somewhere in our life that we shouldn't believe in something which we haven't seen. Then why do we believe in him and have faith in his powers? If god exists and if he is watching us, then why doesn't he appear atleast on some occasions? God is believed to have reigned our planet thousands of years ago. But why not today? Why cant a Ram or a Christ or a Mohammad be born now? What does believing in god mean actually? Do we just follow him because we identify ourselves with his spiritual teachings or do we believe god to possess some supernatural powers? What is god actually? Is it just a matter of powerful faith or there exists a mightiest of all the entities?

The answers to all these questions are very difficult for me to determine. But this belief in god is very good for the world indeed. Whether god exists or not, but this belief is certainly needed for goodness to prevail on this earth. We all are incited for doing good things for the people around us and for the humanity because of the fear of this unknown, someone we believe is more powerful than us. We believe that god is watching us always and we will be inflicted with misery, grief and pain if we don't comply with his teachings. It acts as an incentive for us to adopt the right moral values and for goodness to prevail as I mentioned earlier. Imagine a world without any god and I wouldn't be surprised to see this goodness becoming execrably low as the fear of the X-factor will cease to exist. But as we all know that exceptions are always there which explains the existence of evilness in our world.

Large groups of people claim to believe in god but don't seem to be because they do exactly opposite to what their almighty preaches. No religion preaches violence and physical aggression. But people still resort to such means in the name of religion for achieving their selfish motives. Treachery, hatred, selfishness, cheating, crime and all such negative things do exist in spite of the thing called god. Why don't such people have that fear? If god creates everybody why would he want anybody to not follow him? Again I find myself clueless when I look for the answer.

The battle between good and evil, faith and disbelief, virtues and vices seems to be a never ending one. But I would wish that the GOD will appear someday and demonstrate his powers so that the whole world can believe in him alike and the goodness can prevail forever ceasing the ongoing battle. Whether god exists or not, I always wish to believe in him because it gives me the inner strength, courage and conviction to follow the right path and be a good human being at the end of the day. After all, faith is indeed the most powerful force.