Globalization: Nothing but Broken Promises - Rajeev Upadhyay

It has been around two years since the license of Johnson & Johnson to make cosmetics at a plant outside Mumbai was cancelled in March 2013 on finding that ingredients causing cancer to babies. But there had been no outrage by the highly qualified media (national and international), intellectuals and obviously government about this. This is quite strange and obvious as well. What we can expect from us than this? We as a nation prefer to just talk about something that has passed but not something that is challenging us.

This is not an isolated and single case of such negligence by the reputed MNCs in India. There have been a lot of controversies for different products qualities such as Nestle, Cadbury and soft drinks by Coca-Cola and Pepsi. In case of colas, claims have been made by farmers across India that they use different soft drinks as pesticide. Also there had been numerous reports that cola products can be used as toilet cleaner. That means colas are not good for health in any ways if these claims are true and can be substantiated. But there had hardly been any investigation about these claims. Rather these claims have underplayed by so called experts, media houses and intellectuals coloring these as false, saffron and other.

Education as Investment - Sudarshan Sharma

Equitable distribution of resources is the key instrument in bringing about the socio-cultural changes and in turn accelerating the pace of economic growth. It enables the real deprived sections of the society to reach the upper level in social hierarchy which is the prime need of any society or nation to develop.

Education plays a powerful role here. As The International Commission for the Twenty First Century (Delors Commission, 1996) said,

"In confronting the many challenges that the future holds in store, human kind sees in education an indispensable asset in its attempt to attain the ideals of peace, freedom and social justice."

A Different World Post-Financial Crisis - Rajeev Upadhyay

Historical events like the Great Depression, World Wars, and pandemics have had a marked impact on individual’s life course and the current financial crisis that caught the whole world into its grip seems to have similar impacts on lives of people. The crisis that resulted from the financial crisis in the US has hit people from every part of the world and walk of life. Current world wide economic downturn has changed not only changed the way of life people had been leading but also the way they think. It has not only brought millions of people on their toe but also many nations as well. The economic downturn has made nearly every country poorer than pre-crisis era but the developed countries have been hit hardest by the crisis.

Sustainable Development: Nothing but a Trade-off - Rajeev Upadhyay

The history of human beings tells that in the process of growth and development it is natural for any society and civilization to move towards modernization, urbanization and industrialization of its economies. And it is continuous process that never stops as there is no stopping where it can be said that it is done. Rather societies and civilizations demands more from this process and often lead to imbalances. Also the definition and yardsticks for these processes change over time depending on societal awareness.

Following the same ethos, at present the world is moving towards modernization, urbanization and industrialization of economies. This process of modernization, urbanization and industrialization of economies has huge impact on the economic activities and environment and has resulted into increased population, agricultural output and industrial production etc. But at the same time it has resulted into degradation of environment because of increasing pollution from the increased industrialization. Although the increased economic activities have negative impacts on the natural resources and environment but even after it, sustainable development of societies and economies is possible and can be achieved by taking care of the issues relating environment. For this societies and countries has to take initiatives in all spheres of lives such as inequality and poverty, the direction of industrialization and urbanization, population and education, lifestyle and use of fertilizers etc. because all these factors have long term relationship with each other; sometime direct and sometimes indirect.

Rising Inequality in the Whole World is Alarming for Policymakers and Economists - Rajeev Upadhyay

In last 5-6 decades the whole world has witnessed a sea change in its shape, character, life and profile. Everything since 1950 has changed. There is hardly any colony in the world today. On average life of people has bettered during this period. The percentage of people having access to basic education, health services and other basis needs have increased significantly. Also according to an estimate the prosperity in world has increased by around 25 times during this period.

Reasons of Repo Rate Cut by RBI - Rajeev Upadhyay

Finally RBI has cut down the Repo rate by 25 basis points from 8% to 7.75% and stock market responded as expected with the prices of different stocks from different sectors saw sharp rise. But question arises why RBI has taken this step of cutting repo rate at this time while it was ignoring the same demand from industry and financial sector since last 6 months as the inflation had not very high since July 2014. Answer of this question obviously not easy one but what I think is as discussed below.

RBI had been a conservative regulator in the world reflecting the typical Indian attitude that tries to lower down risks on vital and important issues relating mass interest and it remains to the same even in times of current governor Raghuram Rajan. So stemming from this cultural attitude RBI had been very observant and conscious about the inflation and it wanted to ensure that economy again would not undergo the inflationary pressure. Perhaps this six month period was enough for RBI to have confidence that the present economic scenarios would be favorable enough to take this rate cut decision.