"Here, There and Everywhere" Nope we are not talking about God here, we are talking about Bombs in India. The word Security seems to have been removed from the Country's dictionary. More than the explosions i am alarmed at the ease with which these terror networks are able to operate. Terror network is growing at an alarmingly fast rate. Blasts are no more confined to MUMBAI and SRINAGAR .

How come they have been able to grow at this alarming rate?

1. "Vote Bank Politics", the bane of any Democracy, more so in the case of India with it being a culturally diverse country,is the single biggest factor. With the educated class not voting, the minorities and the oppressed become the deciding forces and this Government has gone way too far to get the share of the minority vote. The Pending execution of Afazal whose involvement in the attack was prove beyond doubt is a standing testimony to that. Terrorism is being equated to Religion and this if continues spells nothing but "DISASTER".Can vote bank politics be removed from the system? "NO" it can never be done in any democracy. So can it be minimized?" Yes". How?

Action Item for Us:

People must for their own sake must excercise their franchise, the more the voting percentage we have the better as that and only that can minimize the game of Vote bank politics.

Now for the Govt:

And I doubt whether someone in Redfort will see this, So what even if they see it? They see so many newspapers which all cry for action, but are unpertrubed by it. Then why are we writing, all hoping that someday or the other some awareness is created or some change takes place.

Action Points for Govt:

Invest Heavily in Technology. It is not going to be possible to monitor a billion people with out dated systems. Invest for the future.

Implement "POTA". Networks need to be broken, for which fear needs to be sent down the spines of the people who support the networks.

And

Educate the minorities and make them feel comfortable. Get rid of their apprehensions and fears and Insecurities.

Finally,A single attack on a Country, was reason gud enf for that country to carpet bomb another nation. I am not asking for Carpet Bombing, but please make sure that u dont welcome the anti social elements with a Red Carpet.

P.S: My good friend Nagrockz is also writing a very good series on Indian Politics and what needs to be done. Readers can also have a look at that too. His blog URL is nagrockz.blogspot.com

Is one of the very few lessons which i still remember vividly. Gandhiji's writings on how he tried to imitate the English Gentleman is something etched in my memory. Forward 50 odd years and the author gets a chance to travel abroad and Well! Well!! Well!!!! the author is reminded of that same lesson.

When i look at People trying so desperately hard to prove to the citizens of the Western countries that they too are as developed(???) as my Western friends, i am baffled. What makes these people do this? What makes my own friends and colleagues speak with me in a neutral accent and then speak with my Western friends in a....well, Can i Call it American?? Nope its neither here nor there accent? What makes them try and owe the alien culture on themselves ???. Thankfully they dont spend as much as their Western Counterparts.

I am not generalizing, i never do that. Its just that most of them whom i happen to meet with or speak with fall in this bracket. What makes them do this? Are they going by the saying "When in Rome, Be a Roman", Well, then here is a question, Will these fellas do the same things, if they are posted in Kenya or Carribean Islands? I wonder.....( I might be wrong, though).

Well I am no psychologist, but i feel this is due to the sub conscious feeling that Westerners are superior to us. Citizens of US n Europe are God to us. Hence the attitude,We must do whatever we can to please them. This makes us bend before them. Not for a moment I am sayin that we must fight with them and assert our authority. But am saying that sub consciously most of these people are also racist in nature. They look down upon Blacks ook up at Whites and stoop low before the Whites and cry Foul terming their dominance as Racism. My question is who asked u to bend so low and make the other person think that he is superior?

Whats in a name? goes a saying, i will go ahead and ask Whats in the color of skin? or for that matter the nationality, after all these nationalities are all notional. We at the end of the day are humans and i dont see any disparities between a whte skinned person and a black skinned one. I am not advicing, some might feel that I am jumping the gun here(well could be true..), but all i would say is Plz be Urself. Forget about Imitating, its a cheap thing for us to spend our time on. U are what U are and be proud of that.

P.S: At the time of writing this, Blasts have rocked the Nation. Well, Condolonces to all the family members of the dead. Hope the society stands united and helps them get over this irrecoverable loss.

Readers please go ahead and listen to "Mungaru Male" songs in case if u have not yet listened. ( Guess most of u would have by now). Wat an amazin album!!! Songs simply take me into a different world altogether. Mano Murthy has come out with a GEM.

P.S: Mungaru Male is the Highest Grossing Cinema in the History of Kannada Cinema.

Well on seeing the topic, ppl might ask,Are u an economist or for that matter someone who has got any expertise in Finance? My answer to that is A Big "NO", I am neither of them. Then what makes me write on these topics? Well its simply the interest and the love for this field.

Before gettin into the topic, a bit of History on the INR. Before 1991 when we we had our License Permit Raj and other rigid policies which prevented International Investment and made sure that Indian Companies also never grew to match the International Standards, the Rupee was not very attractively priced against the dollar.

Cometh 1991 and the economic crisis ( which came as a result of decades of poor governance and policies which were suited for the Industrailists and the politicians to make money), cometh Manmohan Singh, who liberalized the Indian Economy, devalued the Rupee to save the Country. Thats the end of Part 1

Part 2 had Indian companies ( IT/ITES in particular) exploting the arbitration advantage to its maximum and minting money like anything. Indian Companies started showing its mettle. TATA group did a historical buy out of Corus, bought over Tetley and so did the Aditya Birla Group, they expanded into different continents and India Inc started attracting huge Foreign Inflows. Sensex zipped and zoomed and the strength of Indian Economy coupled with the weakness in the US meant that Rupee started appreciating against the dollar.

So Part 3 must have been Indian Rupee strengthening further against the dollar. But it is not happening. Rupee is weakening now. But how is it happening, that too at a stage when Crude is rising and US is also in a recession. There lies the greatness of our politicians.

What is that they have done? They invented P-Notes, an arrangement by which someone can invest( ???) in India without giving their Identity. Money which came through the P-Note route was Hot Money and this huge Influx of Dollars meant that the demand for Rupee went up and Rupee appreciated. (Software Companies cried Foul. )Now the moment Disaster Struck US this Hot Money vanished and so did the demand for Rupee. Had they encouraged more long term Money like that of CALPERS and allowed EPF to invest into Share markets, 2 things would have happened
1. Sensex would not have gone into such a big downward spiral and 2. Rupee would not have fallen this much now.

Why is Strong Rupee Important?

A strong Rupee means that we spend less for Crude. Ex: Let us assume that Crude is trading at 140 Dollars US, right now, and Rupee is trading at 40 against the USD,it means that government will spend Rs 140 * 40 per barrell. Now assume that the Rupee is at 43 against the dollar and now we spend 140 * 43 per barrell. Now there it is for all to see.India imports 70% of its Crude Requirements and imagine the amount of saving that a strong Rupee will bring us.

Also Crude is the basic material for all the operations, hence high Crude leads to a overall high cost of Living. So howmuch ever u make through ur lucrative software job or any job u will end up shelling far more to sustain the standard of living.

Now, wont the Software companies and the other export oriented companies be affected? is a question that will arise in the minds of the readers. My answer to that is, A rising currency will weed out all the Incompetent players who primarily rely only on the arbitration to make profits.A strong currency will only strengthen the competent and the efficient players. A Strong Currency is the Need of the Hour, from an econmical point of view.

My knowledge on Futures Trading is minsicule.Constructive criticism and alternate view points are most welcome.

Reams and Reams of Paper have been used up to paint a story of Oil Guzzling India and China as the main reasons behind the increase in the price of oil. If u have the habit of watching news channels then again ur opinion would not be any different. How True a Statement is it though?

Futures Market:

Introduction:

For benefit or readers who dunno what a Futures market is( guess most of them will be knowing about it). It is a place where an agreement is made between the parties to buy at a particular price on a Future date. To give an Illustration( am not happy with my definition), let say that u have 10 litres of oil with u, i need 10 litres for the next month, now i would want to secure my supplies for the next month and i am afraid that it might go up.So i enter into an agreement with u by which i agree to buy the oil at a price of say Rs 10 per litre( when the current market price is say Rs 8.50 paise per litre). Now if Oil shoots beyond Rs 10 i save my money and if it does not and goes down i lose my money.

Now what if i feel if the price of oil will go down to say Rs 6, i go ahead and make a sell agreement and sell Oil for say Rs 8 and if it comes to Rs 6 i go ahead and buy it back. Now my profit in this case will be Rs 2 per litre.

Time Bound Contracts:

All these contracts are time bound say 1 month, 2 months and these contracts can be extended, called as Roll Over in Futures market parlance. This extension cannot be beyond a particular time frame ( which i guess is 6 months or 1 year max).

Payment Terms:

There is no need to pay the entire amount when u enter into the contract. U need to pay only a percentage say 5 or 10% of the total contract. At the end of the contract if u want to buy the oil physically u can go ahead and pay the balance amount or if u want to make the transaction completely notional u go ahead and sell the contract and take the difference or pay the difference depending on whether u made profit or loss

Why Futures Market?

This market was originally evloved as a means to hedge ur portfolio against losses in the primary markets. Since these Futures are based on the primary markets they are also called as Derivatives.

Why about Futures Market here?

Futures which was originally conceived as something of a Hedge Tool, slowly became a Income generating option thanks to the brains in the Wall Street who managed to get as many commodities as possible under the gamut of Commodity trading.

Now the point to be noted is that none of the big Wall Street banks nor the Big shots who trade actively in Futures market actually take delivery of the stocks. They stick themselves to the notional buying and selling. Which means if there are more of such speculators who believe that Demand is going to go up and they pump money into the market, the price of Oil actually rises without even a single barrel beng bought or sold Physically(!!!)

What is Happening Now?

US through its mind blowing policies gave these speculators a great chance to have a field day, Everytime a bomb exploded in Bagdad or Saudi the price of Oil Shot up. Rather we can say that these speculators drove it up. India and China stories were used as camaflogues. When the prices went up the Oil Producing Nations thought of holding back supplies to increase profits,which gave the speculators reason to push the price again. More the prices went up the more these Oil Countries reduced to increase the supply, the more they did that the more the prices were pushed.

This vicious circle has resulted in Oil Trading at 145 Dollars per barrel (at the time of writing).

What needs to be done?

So what needs to be done? can we go ahead and ban the futures trading in Oil? Just because people are misusing it, it does not mean the system is bad. We need to fix the excesses of speculators.

The sad thing however is that it does not seem possible since the parties involved in this are Too Big for any rule to be applicable to them. So it seems like that the prices will continue to move up and we are in for some tough times.

P.S: It is not that these traders came into the scene all of a sudden, they have been there for years but it is just that they found the conditions conducive for them to ply their trade around, thanks to...Is there any need to mention the name???

Federer's reign at the Hallowed Centre Court came to an end yesterday, Although Federer lost to the number 2 player in the world and that too in a final, i would term this as one of the biggest upset in recent times.

Nadal's win reenforces my point about the grass getting slower. Take nothing away from Nadal though. He played Great tennis.

My real worry is about Federer not volleying enough. He came in as a good serve and volley player and from there on has gone to become a baseline player. If he wants to challenge and beat Nadal from now on, on a consistent basis, he would need to get his volleying in tact.

Staying away from home without any gr8 company is by itself a very difficult task, Now add the fact that one does not know to cook and is required to cook, and it does become underably difficult for the person.

Whom shall i thank ? God or Nature or Stars, no problem i will go ahead and thank all of them for not letting me get into such a position. I can now say that i have found a "Home Away from Home", thanks to my friend and his family. As all things in this world, even this shall pass ( yeah this honeymoon period shall also end :( ). Never bother this little phase has provided me with an enviornment which has made my learning of this wonderful art called Cooking much easier( Yes U heard me right, I did call it as Wonderful, thts what a gud environment does to you)

I am reminded of my home when my friend's wife in a husky voice prompts my friend to ask my opinion on something or asks him to listen to me. This is how it happens at my home and i guess that will be the case with most of the homes.

FLIP SIDE:

However there is a flip side, as it is with most of the things in this world. I feel bad for being an unnecessary burden on them and also for me intruding into their private space :(. Sorry about that my dear friend.

GOD Bless Both of You Prashanth n Archana

P.S: My hearty congratulations to both my friends Anand( who i guess will be reading this from the US) and Srinivas who is all set to travel to Britan. Wish u all the gud luck guys, have a gr8 time and remember to rake in the millions like Deepak