Is Bengaluru women firendly?

Dear Bangalorean women and supportive spouses/family members,

Do you return home from work after dark every day and use a bus to get back?
Have you been reluctant to get into an auto, do you worry about select stretches of unlit roads while walking or driving? Or if you are a spouse, have you had the nagging feeling that your wife or daughter might be risking too much by returning home late?
If any of this has bothered you, and you feel as a Bangalorean, the city needs to accommodate girls and women better, then the most important event of the year 2010 is for you, on Dec 18th evening 4pm. Do not miss it, for anything.

Citizen Matters and JustFemme present
"Is Bengaluru women-friendly?"
A panel discussion Dec 18th, 4-5.30pm @ NGMA Auditorium, Palace Road, Bangalore
All are welcome.
The Bangalorean panelists (in alphabetical order)

Prakash Belawadi, a well-known journalist, theatre enthusiast and a filmmaker from Bengaluru. "Among the most significant markers of a civilised society is that it is conscious and sensible to the female half of itself", he says. Earlier this year, he ran for a Bengaluru city council seat on the Lok Satta party ticket.


Mithila Jha, an Urban Planner, currently working with BMTC. Over the past two years, she has been involved in projects seeking to popularise the Volvo bus services. She holds a Masters degree in Urban Planning from MIT, Cambridge, USA. Her interests are in marketing public transport and make it more accessible and user friendly.


Suneel Kumar (IPS), is Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) for Bangalore. He will speak from the vantage of the state police and law enforcement. C K Meena, an author and a long-time Bangalorean, known for witty columns on life in Bengaluru's ever-changing cityscape, has written two books of fiction - the semi-autobiographical Black Lentil Doughnuts and the crime thriller Dreams for the Dying.


Deepika Nagabushan, a freelance photographer who likes to capture people and stories. As an active member of Bangalore Photography Club she was recently involved with Frames of Mind 2010, a photo exhibition. She is a marketing communication professional working with Schneider Electric.


S T Ramesh (IPS), Director General of Police (Training), for Karnataka and is two-time winner of the Police Medal from the President of India. His successes range from seizures of illegal wildlife products and prison reforms to HIV-AIDS training for Karnataka police and being awarded a Doctor of Literature for his 'Reflections on Law enforcement'. He is currently focussed on the challenges to police training, including social issues and human rights.

Siri Srinivas, a gen-next sharpie, born and raised in Bengaluru, a recently graduated-engineer and working at a global financial major in the city.

Moderator
Vasanthi Hariprakash, is presently Special Correspondent at NDTV's Bangalore bureau and an award winning RJ and journalist. She has 16 years of media experience that spans across print, radio, online and visual media.


The panelists will be asked by the moderator to respond with their views on whether the city is friendly or not for women and why, from three vantage points: Transport, public spaces and cultural factors such as 'local vs outsider'. 


This is event is part of pEtE Maatu, city conversations in her own words, a three-day international film festival. Organisers: National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore Film Society and JustFemme.
Just Femme an online magazine for women in India, based out of Bangalore. Citizen Matters is Bangalore's own interactive community newsmagazine, published online and in print, as a south Bangalore fortnightly.
The National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru is at the intersection of Palace Road and Cunningham Road, south of Mount Carmel College.

Venue: NGMA, 49, Manikyavelu Mansion, Palace Road, Bengaluru, 560052. Dec 17-19 1130am-7pm.Tel: Tel: +91-9611106477

Crisis of Economics

Extremely interesting podcast on The Guardian. Is Economics in Crisis? Extremely important arguments are made here ranging from Mathematics In Economics to the idea of hatred of the government to the greatest of them all 'Keynes' and his continuing relevance. How does Economics deal with complex issues and how does it deal with simple issues? If the issues Economics deals with are more complex than what any other field of science that is shaped by other disciplines like Mathematics deals with, then does Economics have to reduce everything to Mathematical equations or move towards more simple but practical grasping of these more complex issues? Can Economic issues really be reduced to mathematics? Institutional economist Elinor Ostrom argues otherwise, that 'complexity' should not be a dirty word, and that we do infact need complex systems to simplify complex issues. Are numbers phony? Do they have no connection to objective reality? What would Keynes say about the stimulus package? Is Economics really that simple...or are academicians making it seem really complex to maintain a so called scientific image of the discipline, when what it ultimately deals with is so much uncertainty. Is the failure of one school of thought, (the dominant one), really the failure of Economics as a whole? These insightful arguments, uncomfortable at times, yet honest, are things any serious student of economics facing up to the strangely exciting time we as students are in would want to hear and think about! How wonderful really it would be to be able to watch the greats, including Keynes and Adam Smith battle it out before our eyes...what a sight it would be!!!

G20: Words and Walls

Germany's finance minister calls the US economic model "in deep crisis" and describes the country's policy response as "clueless".

Germany regards the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing programme as a dangerous dance with inflation; the US sees it as a legitimate attempt to generate demand for the benefit of all.

"The issue of the Renminbi is one that is an irritant not just to the United States, but is an irritant to a lot of China's trading partners..." - Barack Obama

China says it risks social unrest if it allows the yuan to appreciate rapidly against the dollar.

 4% cap on current account surpluses - says Tim Geithner, U.S Treasury Secretary  - Germany slams this down.

"Smiling family photographs marking the attendance at international gatherings are no substitute for specific actions" (January) - Mervy King, Governor Bank of England

"The fear we should all have is a return to what happened in the 30s: protectionism, trade barriers, currency wars, countries pursuing beggar my neighbour policies – trying to do well for themselves but not caring about the rest of the world. That is the danger..."
"Now on the big battle, the biggest issue of all is the cause of the last crisis – a wall of money in the east, a wall of debt in the west. We've got to deal with that imbalance and I think it's a real test for this summit and one that Britain will play a very positive part in trying to make sure we really look at these imbalances and deal with them." - David Cameron

Just for some perspective, it's important to see who is a surplus country and who is a deficit country.

"Recycling surplus savings into investment in developing countries will not only address the immediate demand imbalance, it will also help to address developmental imbalances. In other words, we should leverage imbalances of one kind to redress imbalances of the other kind." - says Dr. Manmohan Singh


Our PM also says we must avoid competitive devaluation and protectionism. He said advanced deficit countries should move towards fiscal consolidation and sustainable borrowing. For rebalancing of global demand he suggests the advanced deficit countries should work on their competitiveness and efficiency. And the surplus countries should increase domestic demand. And finally he added that countries must not manipulate their exchange rates.

Democracy's Shining Hero

Aung San Suu Kyi's release will end one of the worst violations of democratic right and liberty. If this brings in the needed democratic values into Burma, with no strings attached then this marks the beginning of true empowerment for the people of Burma. But if there will be conditions put on her freedom, then just like before we should expect her to break them. But let's hope this is for real and there will be no looking back from here.

"There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk. People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal.", she said after her release.

Interactive Buildings and Public Art

What if we could decide on the kind of public art we want in our cities? I know Indian cities don't really have the tradition of grafiti, but I suppose this technology is useful for only those cases...for now. But I'm sure this can be extended even to sculptures and other kinds of public art. How? I have no idea, I'm not a technology person or an architect from GSAPP but check this amazing innovation out for making the public have a say in what kind of grafiti stays and what kind does not. It's extremely futuristic and I suppose a lot of artists wil have problems with this, but I can think of two instances where I would love for this to work in an Indian city, Bangalore.

1. Dairy Circle has this horrid sculpting, of a man bleeding to death while he has a a bottle of alcohol in his hand. I'm pretty sure that the local officials can justify that by saying that it doesn't get into people's heads if we don't explicitly show the results of drinking and driving. But even so, it's ghastly and extremely disturbing to see that. Wouldn't a large board with the message and with the fine to be paid if caught drunk be enough? I suppose not, but it just makes the junction ugly! I googled for an image and found one. It's not exactly clear but gives you a hint. I suppose we could appreciate the fact that local talent was used to make this and it is for a good cause. But with Applied Things we could vote it out, if we didn't want it, provided technology applies to not just grafiti.

2. The second instance would be at D.G Pump junction in Banashankari. All along the wall opposite to the petrol station is a grafiti, a series of images, that apparently uses Michael Jackson's life as an example of what drug addiction can do to us. It's not clear how the Michael Jackson in the grafiti starts out to be a young teenage girl and then turns out to be a bloated up fat man that resembles Michael Jackson and then finally dies. I can bet it's one of the worst grafitis on the planet. Again it's for a good cause, it tries to convey a message, and again local talent was used no matter how far away the art is from perfection. But at the same time, I can't help but think that a beautiful piece of wall is gone and we have no say in for how long this grafiti will stay on...no say on whether it can be changed...maybe call another artist to do the same, but in a more subtle and better manner at the same time the message the government wants to give out gets across. It has to be appreciated that this grafiti was made in not more than a few months after MJ's death. The local govt's quick thinking has to be appreciated. I couldn't get a picture of the grafiti sitting here in Chennai to show you what they look like. Speaking of Chennai, as dirty as the city may be compared to Bangalore, in iterms of public art it ranks higher. The best example is the gorgeous stretch along Marina Beach. Statues of Avvaiyaar, Bahartidasan, Subramaniya Bharathi, an important Christian Missionary, Kannagi, Tiruvalluvar, Subash Chandra Bose, Gandhi and many more...and not to forget my favourite, the mighty, Triumph of Labour statue. And for most of them the artist's name who was commsioned to create it appears in a tag at the bottom. I'm not sure if it's for all though. The promenade along the beach itself has some interesting architecture to look at apart from these statues.

Bangalore's thing of beauty is it's many beautiful grreen parks everywhere and gulmohar trees! Which brings it back in the race once again.

But Applied Things is a thing to look at! Read how it works and how it can make our cities and its art more for the public and by the public

The Elephant Man

The remarkable story of a daring World War II operation in which hundreds of people fleeing the Japanese advance through Burma were rescued by elephant is to be told in full for the first time. The expedition was organised by Gyles Mackrell, a British tea planter who shot amateur films during its course.

Current Account Deficit and Capital Inflow

What does it mean when Kaushik Basu says we don't need capital controls yet, even while the rupee appreciates and imports grow at a much faster rate than exports. In my attempt to understand why and how experts say that our current account deficit (above 3% GDP) is alright, I found an article written in 1998 at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York website - Viewing the Current Account Deficit as a Capital Inflow. This article explains the scenario when U.S was witnessing huge capital inflows while it had a considerably large current account deficit. It talks about some people claiming that the unemployment they had at that time was because they were allowing the current account deficit to rise. The authors argue that looking at the situation from a micro angle of imports exceeding exports does not entirely justify the claim that there is unemployment. They in turn make us look at the economy wide perspective where these inflows financing the deficit were actually employment generating foreign investment capital. The reason for decline in  U.S. exports at that time was the recession in Asia. It also gives an example of recession in Japan which brought investment in Japan down, shifting all their excess savings to U.S. and other parts of the world.

"Given the low level of domestic private saving in recent years, U.S. economic growth would likely be choked off by higher interest rates and reduced investment spending if the nation had no access to this capital."

It gives some insight into the current situation of both U.S. and India. Indeed the situation today is different. U.S. faces high unemployment and huge trade deficit. India faces a considerable current account deficit as well while we also have huge capital inflows. One of the aims of QE2 is to encourage investment spending and notwithstanding the claims made by Germany and China that QE2 aims at manipulating the exchange rate, the indirect impact of a weaker dollar is also a positive thing. And what about India? We have to note that unlike Brazil we are not an export dependent economy. India would have faced tight liquidity conditions if not for the inflows, given the persistent inflation RBI would have anyway raised rates. But how does the government make sure that the inflows coming in will definitely lead to employment and high growth?

Economics Students ATTENTION! - Part 2

This is the final part of this dialogue.

Here's a resource on understanding Economics as a Business Science.

Contemporary classic in business studies: Competitive Strategy by Michael  Porter of Harvard Business School. Porter presents his famous five forces model of competition in simple English. This model has entered some managerial economics books. 
 This book is an example of applying economic reasoning to the world of business. Read the first two chapters, and you will find another "direction" to  your studies.

Hope these resources will help other students of economics the way it has helped me.

On Obama's Promise

Okay there's a lot of talk on how disappointing Obama's visit has been. Added to that is a lot of talk about how the promise of India's permanent seat in UNSC is just an empty promise. And that India, Germany, Brazil and Japan are all equally good candidates but there's no guarantee US' backing can get any one's membership through.

Obama's offers for future collaboration in areas ranging from Agriculture to Education to Governance and the deals already signed between businesses from the two nations in Bombay clearly indicate the potential of the relationship that will deepen further.

If at all we face any heat from Pakistan or China, we know we have the support of the most powerful nation in the world. When Obama says India should engage East and not just look East it clearly indicates the leadership role U.S expects India to boldly take up in the region and India knows that it is beneficial strategically to both nations.

As for the promise of permanent membership in UNSC, Obama's visit has helped create some noise. It's like the long campaign in the run up to elections. In this period of time, media will write about the deepening relationship between the two nations, experts will debate, and UN permanent members - China, U.K, Russia and France will observe closely. It's not just our actions or good deeds we have to watch out for like being a good boy in the run up to Christmas will get you what you wish for from Santa, it's the only way to do it in that case, no deals allowed with Santa.

But in this case we have options to negotiate, cooperate and make smart choices. Besides U.S is not our only 'friend' or 'partner' we can send our wish list to. There will always be people saying it's all empty talk, but that just shows lack of ambition and courage. And India today is lacking in anything but those two.

The Amazing Rare Earth Race

Our edge - We are the second largest producer of rare earth after China. We have the share of about 2% of the world output. The race for rare earth elements is making India change a lot of its strategies.

The government is firming up plans to triple rare earths production from 2,700 tonnes to 7,700 tonnes by the end of 2011, according to R.N. Patra, chairman of Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL), a state-run firm set up in 1950.

India signed a deal to supply rare earths to Japan. China banned exports of rare earths to Japan in protest against the detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain who had strayed into Japanese waters that are claimed by China.

Here's an article that predicts trade war because of the rare earth race.
http://news.discovery.com/earth/rare-earth-metals-trade-wars.html

The rare earth's story - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5973996/Users/Rajendra/Rare%20Earth_Indetail.pdf - what are the elements and what will they do for us in the future.

Not just the fancy high-tech things...check this out - The neo cube

Composed of 216 individual high-energy rare-earth magnets, the NeoCube allows you to create and recreate an outrageous number of shapes and patterns.

UNSC here we come!

What does it mean to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council? Here's what I think it means. It means that India would now be part of efforts to maintain democracy and peace in areas that seriously lack the two. It would mean that if there are military interventions to do the same anywhere in the world, India might have a say but will at all times have to act. India cannot anymore be diplomatic and not be vocal about its stand on international issues such as peace and human rights violations. Obama said with power comes responsibility. He spoke in length about Gandhi. All this to drive home the point that it's not just about having 8.5% GDP growth anymore or it's not going to be enough to command the kind of attention and respect we do now by just being economically one of the fastest economies of the world, but from now on we will have to play the role of an aggressive nation that believes through these kind of international partnerships, the world can be made better through actively leading the parts of the world that need to be led.

Phew! This sounds like a lot. These issues are inevitable but complex. It's not easy to be in the limelight. Upsetting people off at this stage would be trouble. It's time to get our priorities straight, it'll help us be a better leader globally. We can either lead and influence or we're not there in the big league. No more shying away, we need the world to know our opinions, our opinions will count. So what are our stands on Afghanistan, Israel, Iran, Burma and China ? Or is Pakistan all we care about? Or is Pakistan the reason we want to be in the UNSC? Will this limit our freedom of opinion or increase it? Or is it somewhere in the middle? Is it better then to have all the power and call the shots or is it better to handle the more complex situation where in the real world we have to share these spheres of influences with people sticking around for different reasons and interests and stakes.

Will we make more enemies or more friends? At what costs?

It is indeed an opportunity for us to show that we can be strong and put our feet down when we have to and that we have the right to do so now when it comes to security and peace. This is an opportunity like never before to officially become the leader of South and East Asia, that is very much needed if the region is to become together the region of the world's strongest economies.

"...with great power there must also be great responsibility..."

But India will now have to make choices that, get our priorities right and show that we need not only be about the problems but we can now be part of the solutions to the problems of the world.

"Whatever comes our way, whatever battle we have raging inside us, we always have a choice. We can choose to be the best of ourselves. It's the choices that make us who we are, and we can always choose to do what's right."

Our generation is officially the luckiest generation to be witnessing the most exciting times in the life of this great nation. And it's only just begun.

Economics Students ATTENTION! - Part 1

I am feeling extremely positive and happy about this blog all of a sudden. Nothing much really. But...... something wonderful has happened.


One wonderful thing was that I finally started this blog after all the struggling with myself and all the good ol' whining.


The other wonderful thing that happened is that some very valuable piece of advice and golden words has come my way. Simply because I asked for it and the professor kindly answered my queries through e-mail!!


Here I'm going to for the benefit of other students of Economics who find it hard to put the pieces of this puzzling world together and are in dire need for focus and direction as a student of economics which is constantly changing and making it hard for us to move along with it all. This direction and focus shall come to us in parts, as the author fills me in on them gradually indicating that we too should read these directions, reflect on them and then act!


How and what must I read? How can I consolidate what I have to learn in class with what I learn about the “real” world?


There can be two ways to solve this. He says one can pick either:


1) Don’t bother about this now. Just learn what you have to and let the real world wait till you have mastered enough to think about it like an economist.


2) Conversely, you can learn by reading  how others consolidate theory with the “real” world.


You can start reading EPW and the Journal Of Economic Perspectives. JEP is available free online here


http://www.aeaweb.org/jep/contents/index.php


And the current issue of EPW is free online here


http://epw.in/epw/user/userindexHome.jsp


EPW is just Rs.750 per year for students.


Reading financial dailies also helps you consolidate classroom instruction with the "real world".


I think Business Line is sold for Rs1 for students if they form a BL Club. Every Tuesday there is a column called Macroscan. Read it carefully. It will not only provide the consolidation you seek but also help you in cracking NET. It will be useful for IES exam and for the economics paper in IAS exam too, if you are interested in the civil services.


Read the Café Economics column of the Mint editor Ninranjan Rajadhyaksha . He is a brilliant economist trained in Bombay University, at home in theory and empirical work.  His columns are here:


http://www.livemint.com/articles/Authors.aspx?author=Cafe%20Economics%20&type=wa
   
 I also suggest you purchase the book Dear Undercover Economist by Tim Harford. Harford, who writes for Financial Times, answers queries on things ranging from education to child rearing to romance using economic theory! 




Read Economic Times and Business Standard online. Glancing through the editorial pages is enough.
 
I feel my reading is not taking me anywhere. I am like a rudderless boat. How should an economics student work so as to make learning more meaningful?


So what should be your learning goals?

1.      First, your overall goal is to learn the skills required of an economist, just as a medico's goal is to learn the skills needed to be a doctor. To attain this goal you learn micro, macro, econometrics etc., as a doctor learns anatomy, physiology etc.

2.      Second, each individual subject has a learning goal. Micro, macro, public finance etc. provide you the knowledge to understand the different facets of the economy. Econometrics and mathematical economics provide the tools needed to study the various facets of the economy.  Once you think of yourself as aiming at attaining the learning goals for each course, your learning will be more meaningful.

3.      But it does not end there. You will also have a career goal. Now here economics differs from all other disciplines. MBBS and BE programmes are aimed at specific careers. The late Srinivasa Ambirajan , who was an economist at IIT Madras, used to say that economics provides a serious student general skills which enable one to be in a variety of  occupations: politics, teaching, research, finance, corporate sector, journalism etc.

Having acquired the general skills, and if you have a specific career goal later, you can specialize.


I think you will find economics exciting if you keep in mind that whatever career you take up, economics will help you do it well. Even if you decide to be a political activist, economics will help you be a more intelligent activist!

Economics is a social inquiry and also a business-centred study. You can learn it as a social inquiry or a business science.

A good example of how economics is a social science, Economics: A very Short Introduction ( Oxford University Press, sold cheap in India. ) by the outstanding Cambridge economist Partha Dasgupta. He is a potential Nobel Laureate. In this small book he demonstrates how economics helps us to think deeply about social issues.

Read this book and you will have a clear understanding as to why you are learning economics.

When you keep in mind that one purpose of learning economics is to think about society the way Dasgupta demonstrates, you will read your economics texts with some purpose and the subject comes alive.

That's it for part 1.


I am grateful to the World Wide Web for making dialogues, such as this, between students and professors possible as they form extremely important sources of motivation and help students in clear and simple thinking.

QE2 : Quick Analysis

All eyes are going to be on whether QE2 will do what it sets out to do. Especially emerging economies like India. If QE2 doesn't achieve it's goals to discourage saving by raising inflationary expectations, then what?  If this doesn't encourage enough spending to bring back unemployment to full employment levels, hence increase income and aggregate demand (AD), then what?

Here's my attempt at trying to answer this question with the little I know about applying Economic theory I learn in the classroom. If QE2 doesn't work in effectively raising prices, the economy will be stuck on the keynesian side of the short run aggregate supply curve (SRAS) (from AD to AD') where prices don't really change, and equilibrium output is way below the full employment level of ouput indicated by the long run aggregate supply curve (LRAS), which is what implies the so called recessionary gap (AE). This is where there is high unemployment, prices refuse to really decline (prices are sticky or inflexible downward on this side of SRAS, i.e. even though demand is low prices don't drop) and so there is no reason why demand and spending should ever go up from here and that just keeps going on and we reach e'. But if fiscal policy or monetary policy is aggressive enough things are different and the economy will be able to move the AD curve outwards to the desired extent.
(really sketchy graph, done on paint ;-) )

So what the fed essentially is trying to do is this: Usually when AD curve moves outward (from AD to AD''), equilibrium is at a higher output and clearly higher price level(inflation). On this part of the SRAS, no matter how the prices move, demand grows until we reach e''. So if it's hard to stimulate spending in times when nearly zero percent interest rate becomes ineffective in doing the same, we do the opposite, i.e. we try to shift the AD curve outwards by raisng infaltionary expectation first and then that should induce spending now (rather than later; basic aim of inflationary expectation). And this point is reached through the inlfationary gap (EB).

If QE2 doesn't achieve its objectives, then will it push up inflows into emerging economies like India? it's hard to tell. In the second quarter review RBI mentioned a very important point that factors apart from the interest rate differential are driving the current FII surge in our capital markets. We'll just have to wait and watch.

Can this be one of fed's last few chances to prove those people wrong, the ones who krugman claims use "shibboleths" to oppose fed's attempts to use inflation to bring about negative interest rates? Obama's streak of bad times just got worse, would this further reduce support for Bernanke's policies and give room for his opposers to make more noise?