Tuesday, December 25, 2012

New imperialism

Why the WTO remains a non-starter

There are always moments in history when the optimists start thinking that the meek might actually end up inheriting the earth. But no such illusions accompanies the conceptualisation and actual formation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Even from the days when debates about its composition and structure started, it was very clear that the First World had decided to keep two sets of double standards. One double standard was hectoring the Third World to lower import tarriffs even as it found new ways to keep away Third World imports. The other double standard was to hector and pressurise Third World nations to open their industry and agriculture to global multinationals even as First World farmers were molly coddled with hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies every year. Unjust and prejudiced regimes are not meant to last long; and no wonder the WTO has spluttered and struggled to survive.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Friday, December 21, 2012

New imperialism

Why the WTO remains a non-starter

There are always moments in history when the optimists start thinking that the meek might actually end up inheriting the earth. But no such illusions accompanies the conceptualisation and actual formation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Even from the days when debates about its composition and structure started, it was very clear that the First World had decided to keep two sets of double standards. One double standard was hectoring the Third World to lower import tarriffs even as it found new ways to keep away Third World imports. The other double standard was to hector and pressurise Third World nations to open their industry and agriculture to global multinationals even as First World farmers were molly coddled with hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies every year. Unjust and prejudiced regimes are not meant to last long; and no wonder the WTO has spluttered and struggled to survive.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles. 
 
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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Spot on Tom!

Malthus debate surges on today

Since centuries, experts have predicted that human needs would outpace the earth’s growing resources. This is what Thomas Malthus published in his research named An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, popularly known as Malthusian catastrophe. In simple terms, Thomas predicted that the tendency of population to grow faster than the food supply will eventually keep most people at the edge of starvation. During the Industrial Revolution, the first escape from the Malthusian trap occurred when, in England, around 1790, the efficiency of production accelerated to outpace population growth; thus allowing average incomes to rise and purchase the increased production. In the rest of Europe and East Asia, populations had also long been trained to handle the Malthusian trap of their stable agrarian economies. Their workforce easily absorbed new production technologies.

But Julian Lincoln Simon’s criticized the Malthusian philosophy and argued that population is the solution to resource scarcities and environmental problems, as a decrease in per capita availability of resources makes [or forces] people and markets innovate.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Sunday, December 9, 2012

Poor man’s labour lost

The UPA announced some schemes for the working class, but largely ignored the issues that really needed to be urgently addressed, says vikas kumar

When the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government assumed office, hardly anybody had expected drastic steps in the direction of the much contentious labour reforms. This was because the oxygen for the government’s survival was being supplied by Left parties. However, its performance on many accounts was even below the modest expectations.

The National Common Minimum Programme specifically mentions about the implementation of minimum wage laws, “ The UPA administration will ensure the fullest implementation of minimum wage laws for farm labour. Comprehensive protective legislation will be enacted for all agricultural workers.” Minister of Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes says to B&E, “Whatever we had promised in the CMP for the organised or unorganised sector, we have fulfilled it.”

Labour laws face severe challenges at the grassroots level. One major problem is that there is a paucity of clear statistics on the number of people working as domestic labour. The estimated number of domestic workers in India is 90 million, but this is probably an underestimate as there has been hardly any systematic study to document such workers throughout the country.

The other issue which haunts a majority of the labour class is lack of a credible social safety net. This forces them towards bonded labour-like situation under appalling conditions for less than decent wages, often from childhood to old age.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Friday, December 7, 2012

The dark side of a bright idea...

NREGA is at fault but not for the reasons stated by World Bank...

Recently in its ‘World Development Report 2009, World Bank has described the much hyped UPA’s flagship program NREGA as a social barrier. According to the report, since NREGA is confined to rural areas and promises 100 days of employment, it in turn forces the unemployed rural crowd to remain in their villages and await their turn. This eventually reduces the rural migration, which (according to the report) is very important to uplift people from poverty. Now this is where lies the fallacy of World Bank Report. One of the most important reasons for the existence of the slums in India’s urban centres is the huge influx of rural people that happen in all these places all the time. For a country as big as India, it has too few big cities. And in the absence of any vibrant economic activity or infrastructure in most parts of rural India, people over there have no option but to migrate. Yet there is a limit on how much India’s cities can withstand the pressure of the influx. Thus, it becomes important that the right kind of economic activity is created in rural India. And for that to happen it’s crucial to create infrastructure in rural India and to empower the villagers with the right kind of education and health facilities. What actually is being done with NREGA is nothing but the creation of disguise unemployment as there are several restrictions on the use of machines and raw materials in the works done under NREGA. The objective seems not to create social assets like schools and hospitals with local labour or impart skill sets to make them employable but just to keep them engaged with labour work which would never benefit rural India in the long run. This is where NREGA is at fault and not the way as World Bank states. More migration would mean more slums.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Thursday, December 6, 2012

VENEZUELA: POLLS

Chavez may have won the right to relections, but it would be in vain if he cannot revive the economy

But then, the future will not be very easy for Chavez as much as it seems to him. Despite the current victory, opinion polls have suggested that people are actually against his getting re-elected. While his recent win does put a question mark on how much reliable these opinion polls are, it can’t be denied that Chavez is sitting at the helm of all the activities in Venezuela. The reduction in poverty and all the economic growth that Chavez talks about has been possible because of the high rate of Venezuelan oil in the market and the way he has given Venezuelans equitable share of the oil bounty. Now that the prices have fallen from $90 last year to below $40, it would be tough for Chavez to go with his economic talk.

Moreover, inflation is now touching the 30% level. As per projections by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Venezuelan economy is expected to contract by 3% in 2009 and 5.4% in 2010.

“What Venezuelan voters decide is their business,” said John Walsh, Washington Office on Latin America, an independent think tank, “but a threshold does seem to have been crossed.” Chavez often jokes that he wants to stay in power till 2049! But if his governance model falls flat, he may have to cut down on that hugely ambitious target by quite a bit!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Don't look dude, we are changing!

Obama's brigade promises a fresh perspective to the Middle East issue, but is treading on a difficult terrain

With a near thunderbolt pace, American President Barack Obama has transformed the line of US foreign policy in less than a week. After taking the oath to the Oval office, the new President made it clear that America’s aspirations and objectives will be in accordance with its ideals and the rule of law. By saying “we have no time to lose,” Obama summarised in a curt reply how pressing he deems it to bolster American foreign relations. In the first two days, the new-fangled government has been taking actions at a pace that were unheard and unseen in the previous administration. Giving orders from the White House and State Department headquarters, Obama pronounced the shutting down of the Guantanamo Bay confinement centre in Cuba; the selection of two extraordinary diplomatic envoys to aid in achieving Arab-Israeli amity; the issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan are also being addressed. However, some experts believe that the Guantanamo step has been taken in haste. Reacting on the decision, Michael Scheuer, a previous CIA agent and an old hand on al-Qaeda told B&E, “It is pretty unclear what will happen to the detainees. I don't make out where they would be taken. We have two choices with us. Either we can gun them down in the combat zone or treat them as POWs and discharge them when the conflict is over; so possibly never!”

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that ex-Senator George Mitchell would join the Obama bandwagon as a special envoy for the Middle East peace process, particularly the resolution of Arab-Israeli issues.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Monday, December 3, 2012

This is my road ahead...

Bill Gates writes about his theory of creative capitalism... inputs coordinated by B&E’s Ruchika Chawla

Capitalism has improved the lives of billions of people – something that’s easy to forget at a time of great economic uncertainty. But it has left out billions more. They have great needs, but they can’t express those needs in ways that matter to markets. So they are stuck in poverty, suffer from preventable diseases and never have a chance to make the most of their lives. Governments and non-profit groups have an irreplaceable role in helping them, but it will take too long if they try to do it alone. It is mainly corporations that have the skills to make technological innovations work for the poor. To make the most of those skills, we need a more creative capitalism: an attempt to stretch the reach of market forces so that more companies can benefit from doing work that makes more people better off.

There’s much still to be done, but the good news is that creative capitalism is already with us. Some corporations have identified brand-new markets among the poor for life-changing technologies like cell phones. Others – sometimes with a nudge from activists – have seen how they can do good and do well at the same time. To take a real-world example, a few years ago I was sitting in a bar with Bono, and frankly, I thought he was a little nuts. It was late, we’d had a few drinks, and Bono was all fired up over a scheme to get companies to help tackle global poverty and disease. He kept dialing the private numbers of top executives and thrusting his cell phone at me to hear their sleepy yet enthusiastic replies. As crazy as it seemed that night, Bono’s persistence soon gave birth to the (RED) campaign. Today, companies like Gap, Hallmark and Dell sell (RED)-branded products and donate a portion of their profits to fight AIDS. (Microsoft recently signed up too.) It’s a great thing: the companies make a difference while adding to their bottom line, consumers get to show their support for a good cause, and – most important – lives are saved. In the past year and a half, (RED) has generated $100 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, helping put nearly 80,000 people in poor countries on lifesaving drugs and helping more than 1.6 million get tested for HIV. That’s creative capitalism at work.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Sunday, December 2, 2012

Promises of the Promised Land

The magical city of Jerusalem presents an exceptional amalgamation of spirituality, ancient history and colourful cultures. Nestled in the Judean Hills, Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is one of the most extraordinary cities in the world. The beauty of this holy place lies in its pristine natural settings, presence of old and new cultures, fine craftsmanship and architecture, and of course in its sacred and religious shrines. This fascinating city of contrasts and diversities was established 3,000 years ago by King David. Jerusalem is sacred to the world’s three main religions, namely Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

A visit to the Old City of Jerusalem usually starts at Jaffa Gate – going clockwise towards Lion’s Gate, ending at Dung Gate. The Dung Gate provides the best access to the Western Wall, the holiest site for Jews. A vacation at Jerusalem would offer more than just holy sites – in the New City, the famous King David Hotel, main shopping areas, recreational and entertainment activities are just a short ride away. Shopping at the Shuk is blissful for the shopaholics, but one should remember that it's also home to plenty of dishonest vendors.

A visit to Mount Scopus and Montefiore Windmill – a famous Jerusalem landmark – is a must. If you’re looking forward to a spectacular evening, the Nahalat Shiva Street should be a good place to head to. For those who love nature, a tour to the Western outskirts of Jerusalem would be a pleasurable and captivating experience.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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