Ten Issues - 7

1- How America Can Rise Again : The simplest measure of whether a culture is dominant is whether outsiders want to be part of it Any great nation can be judged on two parameters : continued openness to immigration, and a continued concentration of universities that people around the world want to attend.

2- (Hi)Story, Truth and Nation: South Africa is facing the process of developing a new identity for itself and its people, and to deal with its past. Jyoti Mistry looks at the meaning of nations and the nation state in examining this process of creation of a national identity. Story-telling, history and memory play vital parts, particularly in South Africa, in building this "whole". In a story that has no end in sight, she looks at how a country is dealing with its past and stepping into its future.

3- A virtual counter-revolution: The internet has been a great unifier of people, companies and online networks. Powerful forces are threatening to balkanise it. The future of the internet is looking bleak;

4- Power, privilege, corruption, hypocrisy : There is nothing to be proud of India's ranking in the Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index 2009. The country ranked low also in the Bribe Payers Index among emerging economic giants.

5- The Economics of Monogamy and Polygyny : Overview of the the economics surrounding marriage institutions by professor Marina Adshade who teaches a popular undergraduate course called "Economics of Sex and Love," in which students apply the analytical and statistical tools available to economists to examine human sexuality.

6- Creating scientific culture : The first step towards an African culture of science is to make science relevant to local people, says development expert Oyeniyi Akande.

7-Loving the enemy: Al qaeda version of west - 9/11 organizer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed exploited his trial to remind the court of its own human rights obligations, while Osama bin Laden's video statements include appeals to religious pluralism. Al-Qaeda's use of liberal categories is central to its rhetoric on war and justice, writes Faisal Devji.

8- Language, Poetry, and Singularity: A joint Arab-Jewish identity seems an impossibility given the current political situation in the Middle East. And yet it was a reality, exemplified by Arabic-speaking Jews and their writers. In his extensive essay Reuven Snir investigates the complex history of Arab Jews.

9- Fellows Friday with Sunita Nadhamuni: Water and sanitation are among the most crucial issues facing India today, Sunita Nadhamuni notes in her interview with TED. But while these problems are daunting, Sunita says India’s many innovations in managing water can teach the rest of the world a thing or two.

10- An Open Letter to Manmohan Singh : Not everyone is happy with the working of our appointed prime minister due to his apathy towards corruption and the issue becomes large as an IAS officer wrote an open letter in Livemint journal - The government has lost all credibility with the people, and the buck stops with Manmohan Singh;

Quotes:

“The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion” - Henry Steele Commager

"Political tyranny is nothing compared to the social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies Government." - B. R. Ambedkar

The Buddha said: ‘If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.’

Development of India - 2

I like three points in the recent reading material on the Internet. I don't know source of them but they are quite hard to pass by without a glance.

1- A market-led urbanization policy is the accepted norm in developed countries and one that is recommended in theory. However, we should not fall in the trap of making a fetish of markets. It is often the case in developing countries that the markets that exist are incomplete or legacies of past colonial regimes whose objectives might have been at odds with those of present governments.

2- India is facing a challenge that the developed world never did - of driving growth around an entirely new energy model. Coal based manufacturing or oil led industrial revolution. Here everyone competes to destroy as those natural resources don't clearly belong to any individual or community. That is why it will be over exploited since conserving them is of no individual's interest.

3- Acknowledging the existence of every single citizen, for instance, automatically compels the state to improve the quality of services, and immediately gives the citizen better access. No one else can then claim a benefit that is rightfully yours, and no one can deny their economic status, whether abjectly poor or extremely wealthy. More than anything else, this recognition creates among all parties concerned a deeper awareness of their rights, entitlements and duties. It becomes far more difficult for both the citizen and the government to dodge any of these.

Nandan Nilekani's ideas for India's future:-


Nandan Nilekani, the visionary co-founder of outsourcing pioneer Infosys, explains four brands of ideas that will determine whether India can continue its recent breakneck progress.

Web links on Development :-

1- The Poverty of Plenty: In Punjab today, almost every conversation has a mention of someone ruined by alcohol and drug abuse. Because, everything Punjab does, it overdoes.

2- In an Interview of Dr. Kaushik Basu, India's Chief Economic Advisor makes a strong case for overhauling the subsidy mechanism, even as he cautions against over-interpreting growth numbers.

3- Steps in a Stages-of-Progress Inquiry into Poverty and its Causes; Rationale and Methodology.

4- Commercial Micro nance and Social Responsibility: A Critique by T Nair

5- Look into Orangi Pilot Project and Comilla Model.

6- Malin Mukti Plan : Look into sanitation scheme applied by Kerala state government (malinya muktha keralam in PDF).

Quote of the day : We've had a nirvana of anarchy in infrastructure. It's where we need the government the most, but where our government has present the least. By default than design that is the nature of growth in India It was a decision taken at the hour of crisis when only one way was left. - Nandan Nilekani

Development of India -1

Anil Gupta: India's hidden hotbeds of invention



Employment, Investment and Entrepreneurship can change the future of India.

The institutional reform in India is usually the outcome of pressure from the middle and educated class. Opinions of poor are under represented due to their illiteracy and lack of access to information in judging good and bad systems and demanding reforms. Under representation of weak gender and lower caste is hindering inclusive growth. We have to form new partnerships on the basis of equality and not on the basis of domination. In democracy, political parties are learning it. In business and educational sector, its still out of scope.

Our government believe that they could direct economic growth in top down model. The state of India typically encompassed two aspects : as provider of goods and services and as a regulator and decision maker. But a country's economic structures are finally run by people, and power held in a vacuum- either by the state or by markets- allows them to circumvent rules and tilt decisions in their favor. That causes corruption to grow

Ignorance of ability brings disability. To be effective and sustainable, there is no need of political compulsion. Extrapolate only from what happening in present, we can expect transformation. When we start thinking of solutions in terms of the future, rather than just the present our past, it unlocks the imagination and energizes people.

Here's a simple management lesson that I follow with the money: borrow money to buy things that go up in value. Bad policy is the result of bad lobbying. In a limited and closed (localized) market, increased productivity only resulted in surplus goods and falling prices and there is no legal limit on how little you could offer a human being for their labor. Avoid both glitches to see the new incentives at grass root level.

Ten Issues - 5

1- Who pays the price for paid news? : In mid-June, the Election Commission of India directed Chief Electoral Officers of all states and Union Territories to enforce the law against "paid news" during elections. The institutionalised racket has been running into hundreds of crores of rupees. Ammu Joseph brings you up to speed.

2- Lokayukta stand on illegal Bellary mining has put Government of Karnataka in trouble. Santosh Hegde, the Lokayukta (ombudsman) for Karnataka gives first hand account to Tehelka Magazine.

3- Why you must read this censored chapter: Raman Kirpal reports, When the truth about the flouting of tribal rights in the Red Corridor struck home, the government dropped a whole chunk of damning material from a report it had itself commissioned.

4- Living with the Enemy: Applying the ideas of Holocaust survivor Jean Améry to present day Rwanda, our author argues that reconciliation after genocide is just another form of torture.

5- How Goldman gambled on starvation: Speculators set up a casino where the chips were the stomachs of millions. What does it say about our system that we can so casually inflict so much pain?

6- Why You Shouldn’t Leave the Web to the Web Guys : Here are a few simple rules that will help you get the most out of your web development and digital strategy.

7- “10 Ways to Run a Banana State” ; Kopach, a columnist for the independent portal Okno.mk, published a list translated at Global Voice Online.

8- Size of the Public Domain : The basic take away from the analysis was the finding that, based on library catalogue data. A take on copyright issues.

9- Narayana Hrudayalaya: A Model for Accessible, Affordable Health Care.

10- The Narcissism of the Small Difference: In ethno-national conflicts, it really is the little things that tick people off. Check conclusion of article here only :

One of the great advantages possessed by Homo sapiens is the amazing lack of variation between its different "branches." Since we left Africa, we have diverged as a species hardly at all. If we were dogs, we would all be the same breed. We do not suffer from the enormous differences that separate other primates, let alone other mammals. As if to spite this huge natural gift, and to disfigure what could be our overwhelming solidarity, we manage to find excuses for chauvinism and racism on the most minor of occasions and then to make the most of them. This is why condemnation of bigotry and superstition is not just a moral question but a matter of survival.

Thought of Day : When an ordinary farmer unable to feed his family commits suicide, it is not even a footnote. When a model, no matter how faded, kills herself, it is in headlines on all television channels. That is corporate media for us.

Ten Issues - 1

The first step in solving any issue is accepting the presence of the problem. A man convinced against will is of the same opinion still. So let us broadened our opinions about issues here -

1- Before the home ministry raises new paramilitary battalions, it needs to ask why the old ones are quitting in droves. raman kirpal reports on a brewing crisis : Soldiers of Misfortune .

2- Taking offense an be a competitive sport. Islam is forefront runner in this game : Not Even in South Park?

3- Opposition to reservations for women in Parliament have centred on at least four points. Step by step Vaijayanti Gupta rebuts the arguments and re-iterates the case for reservations. Women’s reservation Bill – the 2010 story .

4- Need tribal voices for their rights to counter corporate propagandist nationalism. The Fall Out Of Dantewada By Vidya Bhushan Rawat.

5- David Mumford reviews Kim Plofker's Mathematics in India ;

6- In this interesting paper [PDF], Lant Pritchett argues that India, despite its economic strides and democracy, is a "flailing" state:

7- Micro-foundations of Inclusive Growth [PDF]: The aim of this chapter is to go beyond these short-term and sector-specific concerns to broader questions of policy making in India and, at the same time, to focus on the relatively neglected subject of the micro-foundations of macroeconomic policy.

8- Remedial Education : Research by J-PAL affiliates has shown that providing remedial tutoring for children who have fallen behind academically can improve learning outcomes. Evidence from their study has contributed to the scale-up of NGO Pratham's Read India program in 19 states in India. In 2008-09, 33 million children benefited from remedial education through the Read India program.

9- Dropout engineering a hundred orphan dreams. Society needs person like Rajesh Singh as their role model. Thanks Vivek Padmanabham for the weblink.

10- Selections from Dalit Writing ; Let me close 10th section with an old Indian tale which maybe has some insights. A father used to read his child bedtime stories. One day the child asked the father, ‘Dad, how come in all the stories you read, the hunter always bags the tiger.’ The father thought for a moment and replied, ‘When the tiger learns to write you will hear that story.’

Thought of the Day: Conversations have three levels : people, incidents and ideas. The lowest form of conversation is about people. When we go up one rung we reach incidents which have a slightly larger spectrum than talking about people. But the conversation which really matters is when we talk about ideas, because they are universal and live beyond time and space. - Javed Akhtar

Understanding Economics

General Theory of Reflexivity: Lecture


Open Society Institute chairman and founder George Soros shares his latest thinking on economics and politics in a five-part lecture series recorded at Central European University, October 26-30, 2009. The lectures are the culmination of a lifetime of practical and philosophical reflection.

Soros discusses his general theory of reflexivity and its application to financial markets, providing insights into the recent financial crisis. The third and fourth lectures examine the concept of open society, which has guided Soros’s global philanthropy, as well as the potential for conflict between capitalism and open society. The closing lecture focuses on the way ahead, examining the increasingly important economic and political role that China will play in the future. [Source]

What I like in enormous winnings of George Soros, it is his push for emerging nations to become 'open societies,' open not only in the sense of freedom of commerce but—more important—tolerant of new ideas and different modes of thinking and behavior.

My amateur learning in Economics : Economics is too mathematical model done by technological student and neglecting risk and chaos. Neither any economic policy can ensure economic stability indefinitely nor any complex mathematical formulae could tame uncertainty. The probelm lies in an intellectual default within economics, but they seem oblivious of the role of ideology in producing this default. I assume that economics is insulated from the world not only by its narrow explanatory methodology but also because it rewards the mathematical modelling that resuls to bind the economics as a game of numbers & statistics.

Something about Indian economy

There is huge learning resource by PBS here in this weblink. PBS is sharing with us the interview, profiles, essay and debates of great economists, leaders and entrepreneurs of recent 100 years. Commanding Heights. Few of them are 3,4 years old but are worth reading Interviews :Dr. Manmohan Singh , P. Chidambaram and NarayanMurthy.

Featuring India's Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development Shri Kapil Sibal on MIT.


This video is part of the B&K Securities MIT India Forum with featured speaker: Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Indian Planning Commission.


Crash Lecture on Indian Economy 1947- 2010:

Post 1947, Institutional capacities were created. The social institutions and the legal framework for a market economy were put in place. A system of higher education was developed. Entrepreneurial talents and managerial capabilities were fostered. Science and technology was accorded a priority. The capital goods sector was established. Much of this did not exist in colonial India. They all were started from the scratch with weightage given to huge public sector investment.

Then reform is several sectors were stopped completely. The social sector,i.e. Healthcare and primary education was given very low priority in developmental growth. Our independent India was against anything foreign. Its march to self dependency hindered free flow of information and capital flow in the development of nation. But protective economy was the need of those moment. There was need to move ahead and Dr. Manmohan singh predicted it long back in his days at England. Now its time to swing back to socialist reign to capitalsitic nature.

Indian Bureaucracy:

We've all heard, "It's not what you know, it's who you know.

British invented bureaucracy for India, the Indians perfected it. They built a perfect system of such complexity that nobody could penetrate it,nobody could defeat it. It is immensely elaborate and best brain of India working it. Today, RTI is slowly uncovering the hidden veils and making it more transparent. Still accountability part is far from the dream. The Right to Information Act can be regarded as an aberration in view of the government's longstanding penchant for secrecy, which is a colonial-era legacy. IT sector and bollywood succeed because government did not make it as a national priority. It was just investment of smart people in these respective fields. BCCI working very well unlike other sports bodies. Private Sector has mobilized the youths and enable them to be risk taking.

Bureaucracy liked things to be frozen. That showed their power. Hence, you will find government offices to be always either ruled by the books or moulded in favour of corrupt and powerful. As the social, economic or political events become dynamic, the wheel of power shifts to other person. Hence, the static rule of bureaucracy disappear.

Vichaar Shoonya +3

A lot has been said, but not by me. I give weblinks of few articles in 'Vichaar Shoonya' because its just that their voices are not in all the noise that gets heard.

1- The disgraceful Armed Forces Special Powers Act allows the army the right to, among other things, shoot to kill based on mere suspicion that it is necessary to do so in order to "maintain the public order". For more details please read this article. This law is applicable in Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. Interestingly the residents of these states don't find it exciting to sacrifice their fundamental rights for the rest of us. I see their point.

2- The Ready-made Garment Industry: Global Chain Of Imperialist Exploitation : A revolt of ready-made garment workers have broken out in the last two years in different so-called ‘developing’ countries. A report by Debabrata Mondal.

3- Anjumans deprive Muslim women of microcredit by S A Aiyar, Economist.

4- How the Servant Became a Predator: Finance's Five Fatal Flaws by William K. Black, Univ. of Missouri: What exactly is the function of the financial sector in our society? Simply this: Its sole function is supplying capital efficiently to aid the real economy. The financial sector is a tool to help those that make real tools, not an end in itself. But five fatal flaws in the financial sector's current structure have created a monster that drains the real economy, promotes fraud and corruption, threatens democracy, and causes recurrent, intensifying crises.

5- ‘India is prospering, but Indians are not’ by Mani Shankar Aiyar : The same people who are brushing under the carpet that our relative position on the HDI has not increased are the very same people who are boasting again in comparative terms that ours is the second highest rate of growth. So, obviously, the high GDP growth is not translating itself into commensurate high HDI growth, with the consequence India is prospering, but Indians are not.

6- 'Indian democracy in a state of emergency' : Arundhati roy talking to Karan Thapar

7- Business Of Knowledge- Article on Higer Education.

8- Ten Simple Rules for Choosing between Industry and Academia. --- Journal from Computational Biology.

9- Lessons for life, in black and white. - On power of books.

Unoriginal Vichaar

When I read the stories of Deep joshi, Venkat Krishnan, Sandeep Pandey & Kiran bedi, it helped me realise that these were ordinary guys who fell in love with something, worked hard at it and came through excellently. I hope that someday I will do something on my own merit, and earn the right to meet them. Till then, learning is the way to go.

Death of Nationalism: CPM is known to have extreme intolerance to any struggle that is not led by them. They will label those struggles as foreign funded or a Maoist uprising, how much public support behind the struggle becomes irrelevant to them. Congress is the mother of all regional parties in nepotism. There are only kripa-patras (sychophants) and chamchas (yes-men) left in the so-called socialist and regional outfit. 'Elections are fought to win and not to lose' , a nepotism supporter proclaim. 'But what of socialism? The lumpen brigade of socialist parties cannot be trusted to usher in socialism. Patriotism is the love to your country, not the refuge of scoundrels like BJP. Nationalism will have fulfilled itself and lost it militancy and would no longer find these things incompatible with self-preservation and the integrability of its outlook. Its the era of transcendentalism by eliminating boundaries of region, religion, color and caste. I dream that a new spirit of oneness will take hold of India.

Message: While awaiting for joining at CSC, Abhishek Arora sent me a sms one day. And It is the best SMS ever received by me---
Hum kuch iss tarah dosti nibhaenge, naukari na mili to bilkul nahi ghabrayenge
dono stationpar chai ki dukan lageynge, tum chai banana, hum chai chai chillayenge.

Mail: This one is from my mailbox (sender name kept secret) about youth icon Sania Mirza (no disrespect, but she is too hot)---
Kashti toofan se nikal sakti hai, Taqdeer kisi bhi waqt bhi badal sakti hai,
Hausla rakh, channel na badal, Sania Mirza kisi bhi waqt jhuk sakti hai...... 


Weblinks:

1- Blogs cannot change India: Atanu Dey

2- Interview of Lord Meghnad Desai

3- Capitalism and Humans Nature

4-Why Operation Green Hunt will fail ?

Today's fortune: To know the road ahead, ask those coming back. Otherwise, Those who forget history are condemned to relive it.

A scene of the flood

Krishna river flowing over red alert

People caught amid flood situation near Wadi

Railway Tracks

All Photoes are taken by my sister who reached to Hyderabad from Bangalore in 60 hours through Rajdhani express and returned to Bangalore in 60 minutes through airways.

Andhra and Karnataka are facing worst flood in 100 years. Reaching Bangalore or Hyderabad was never so difficult. Both the bus and train services are affected. In this season of problems, suddenly air fares rocketed thrice the normal rate. Not more than 0.1 % of people of India travel through air route, still this opportunism shown by airlines prove that air fare needs to be regulated for making air services to the reach of more people.

In economics, collective bargaining, psychology, and political science, "free riders" are those who consume more than their fair share of a public resource, or shoulder less than a fair share of the costs of its production. Free riding is usually considered to be an economic "problem" only when it leads to the non-production or under-production of a public good (and thus to Pareto inefficiency) , or when it leads to the excessive use of a common property resource. People breed less as they become richer, but they don’t consume less — they consume more. As the habits of the super-rich show, there are no limits to human extravagance. Consumption can be expected to rise with economic growth until the biosphere hits the buffers. To be 'living luxurious lifestyle' and 'free rider' on national income is the worst crime in my eyes. World needs more proportionate than equal distribution of wealth among its citizens.

Dumpimg Ideas & Weblinks

Talking of ‘IP’, here’s what Krzysztof Zanussi has said about it. (Source)

“Intellectual property, to me, is important because I benefit from it when sometimes, author’s rights are paid to me. However, I doubt it from the moral point of view that intellectual property should ever be protected. I want to be popular and I want my work to be accessible to anybody who wants to read it.

When I saw pirated cassettes of my films in Russia I wanted to embrace the seller because they bhad taken pains to make it accessible. I found pirated DVDs of my films in China and was proud. I probably lost some money, but what a joy. There is a contradiction between my desire to be accessible to anybody who is interested in my work and my greed to be paid for it. I was paid for making the film.

In fact any intellectual who is defending his property has already been paid for it, and now we want something extra. I am not in a position to find a solution to this issue. I have participated in a number of sessions about author’s rights and I have seen pressure being mounted on poor countries like Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan. Steven Spielberg feels victimized because his author’s rights have not been respected in these countries.

I do not feel emotionally towards the law. I am for the people who want to see these films free. They have been deprived of money and Spielberg is very well off anyway. So my sense of justice and my sense of law are in collision. As an artist, I have the right to point out this problem.”

I have seen much of the good works of American and world cinema through torrents. The huge amount of download culture in college has helped me a lot in making collection of pirated dvd gems. I oppose intellectual piracy of the bollywood copy cats, still watch cinema with the help of piracy. As an artist, I have the right to point out this dilemna. I need suggesation in this case from the blog readers (if any) as it is hypocrite in practice. And funny thing is that, I am currently doing a distance learning course on IP rights. Where I stand in this ethical fight of copyright and copyleft (this terminology exist) ? Few noteworthy reading weblinks

1- Rethinking handloom -A look at cotton handloom industry of India. Weavers are children of a lesser god in India.
2- Why Arabs lose wars? - A look from the POV of retired U.S. Army colonel.
3- The return of history and the end of dreams - It emphazises that history repeats itself by looking at current world power order.
4- Unto This Last (1860): Four Essays On The First Principles Of Political Economy by John Ruskin. It is said to have influenced Mahatma Gandhi on his views on economics and society.
5- A take on Sach ka Samna by Santosh Desai.
6- The other side of education and Education's five fault lines .

This weblinks are motivated by line - 'Empty yourself totally, Become a Nothingness, Only then you would feel a sense of Completeness'.

End of an Argument. How ?

Agrippa's Trilemma :The trilemma is a breakdown of all possible proofs for a theory into three general types:

* The circular argument, in which theory and proof support each other.
* The regressive argument, in which each proof requires a further proof.
* The axiomatic argument, which rests on accepted precepts.

This Trilemma is just for giving you an idea about types of arguments and little bit of creating impression about me (:P).

We came across several heated debates on the online community, forums and blogs about any topic. In a typical argument, each person tries to prove themselves right and the other person wrong. Instead of synthesis or refining of ideas, our focus shifts to stick to our owns idea as prime and supreme one. In the end, each person only ends up either more entrenched in their views or influenced by dominant juggling of words, regardless of who seems to deliver the most rational argument. Arguments are done for the sake of progress than victory. An argument can't be won by resistance. It will only increase the stubbornness of others and a little communication of importance will be achieved. Trying to prove yourself right and the other person wrong is like making a frontal assault on an entrenched enemy position. The goal of your argument is attempting to raise the other person’s awareness while maintaining your own sense of inner peace and identity with the idea.

I wanted to know why so brilliant individuals can't agree on a small point for evolving into next level of discussion. Its major reason which I can catch was that our education system fosters competitive excellence rather than intellectual curiosity or cooperation . Also, I want to know how to conclude these arguments as per seen similar situations in much popular fish market like Group discussions (GD). Any suggestions ??????????????

For good reading purpose,

1- Tagore and his India --- Amartya Sen.

2- Leszek Kołakowski (1927- 2009)

3- Who killed the Indian University ?

4- An interview with Fatima Bhutto.

5- Recession: How Risk Models Failed Wall St. and Washington?

Vichaar Shoonya-1

1. To start a culture change all we need to do is two simple things:

- Do dramatic story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then let other people tell stories about it.
- other people who do story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then tell stories about them.

Example: A story of sheer passion by Santosh Ojha.--- Jo Chaho Ujiyaar.

2. Best Compliment ever received by Banaras Hindu University. Remark is given by Bhupen Hazarika.

"In Guwahati, I was an Assamese. In Kolkata, I became a Bengali but I became an Indian after coming to Uttar Pradesh, particularly BHU." [Source]

#For More BHU nostalgia, Download this ppt.

3. Matt Tabbi 's reveal us about some hidden facts and his hypothessi about Goldman Sachs:
The Great American Bubble Machine. [Quite Long Article]

Moral for us: "Organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy."

Thought of the day:
A man far greater than you, far greater than any we have known, once said, “To be in good moral condition requires at least as much training as to be in good physical condition.” This man was called Jawahar Lal Nehru.

Vichaar Shoonya-2

1- Media evades real issues by Balbir Punj.

2-All the facts and prraise of Atal Bihari Vajpayee on this weblog. [Stand on Gujrat riot is missing here].

3- Cops Caught on Camera ; An news article on Bollywood and real life cop inspiration.

4- Anurag Kashyap brutal and honest take on 'Black' and Bollywood. Read the full article.

5- BJP apes Congress, fails by Koenraad Elst.

6-Economic Freedom of the World 2008 Annual Report. [PDF Version]