Deswal sahab,
The responses are inline.
Originally Posted by
dndeswal
On the contrary, Chhikara ji, I hate the word ‘communist’. I am also not advocating Nehruvian socialism. The clock of path of progress cannot be reversed. I am only highlighting some adverse effects which our society has started facing because of haphazard planning and blindly adopting Western model. While the West is giving substantial subsidies to their farmers, Indian kisans are adopting the path of suicide. Cultivable farm land is squeezing. Only last year, 55 lakh tonnes of wheat was imported. Production of oilseeds and pulses has declined drastically and these items are being imported on a heavy scale. This only means that India is no longer self-reliant on food production. Corporate farming has been successful in a few countries like USA which have large farmlands and less population. This kind of farming has failed in Mexico and Brazil whereas India has begun to start such ventures. Is this not a fit topic for discussion here? All of us belong to a renowned farming community.
The real reasons for the farmers drinking pesticides are listed below..
The original post by Nitin is available at....
http://indianeconomy.org/2006/07/01/vidarbha-whodunit/
Profit is not a dirty word but in India, MNCs are interested only in fast buck. They are engaged in a business which requires less investment but gives quick returns. Such businesses include fast food restaurants like Pizza Hut and McDonalds, beverages, fashion goods, retail malls etc. which start giving immediate profit (though some of them are also maintaining call centres and outsource outlets which give employment to a few Indian youth). Presently, India’s priority is not this kind of business but that of building infrastructure like highways, ports and airports, bridges and fly-overs, power houses etc. Indian company Larson & Toubro which is engaged in such infrastructural projects, is facing shortage of civil engineers. Foreign based MNCs are not interested in such projects because these take a lot of time and investment and profits start coming after many years. Enron did construct a power house at Dabhol, Maharashtra, about 10 years back but it fled the country soon thereafter, fearing less profit.
I agree Enron's executive's were no saints - but look at our clueless and corrupt politicians.... its not all Enron's fault - its more of our foolish politicians. This might have been a case of corporate welfare........ please follow the link......
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cns23252.htm
Everyone has got some social obligations – governments and corporations too. A ‘welfare state’ is one which looks after the well-being of its common citizen rather than a few rich ones. The ‘welfare state’ is not at all a Communist ideology but a pure democratic one. Bill Gates is donating millions of dollars for a noble cause in Africa – to help AIDS victims. Let us guess how many MNCs are engaged in such charity work in India. On the contrary, several NGOs and social organizations in India are doing their job well as they have no profit motives.
There is a difference between Bill Gates charity and welfare state - Bill Gates is a private charity - It is always better than welfare state because ......
I will repeat Nobel laureate Milton Friedman's quote...
There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government.
Also, Africa needs investment more than aid.......... atleast thats what African economists are saying ........
The post is available at - http://www.wetware.blogspot.com/
I am way behind the curve in identifying the problems with the international aid industry, when compared with Bill Easterly. Easterly has been calling the bluff for years now and in this op-ed in the L.A.Times, he actually talks about the specific perception issue that I've been talking of since TED. It's called "What Bono doesn't say about Africa" and needs to be read in full. As always, a few excerpts:
It's a dark and scary picture of a helpless, backward continent that's being offered up to TV watchers and coffee drinkers. But in fact, the real Africa is quite a bit different. And the problem with all this Western stereotyping is that it manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of some current victories, fueling support for patronizing Western policies designed to rescue the allegedly helpless African people while often discouraging those policies that might actually help.
Let's begin with those rampaging Four Horsemen. Do they really explain Africa today? What percentage of the African population would you say dies in war every year? What share of male children, age 10 to 17, are child soldiers? How many Africans are afflicted by famine or died of AIDS last year or are living as refugees?
In each case, the answer is one-half of 1% of the population or less. In some cases it's much less; for example, annual war deaths have averaged 1 out of every 10,800 Africans for the last four decades. That doesn't lessen the tragedy, of course, of those who are such victims, and maybe there are things the West can do to help them. But the typical African is a long way from being a starving, AIDS-stricken refugee at the mercy of child soldiers.
[...]
The real Africa also has seen cellphone and Internet use double every year for the last seven years. Foreign private capital inflows into Africa hit $38 billion in 2006 — more than foreign aid. Africans are saving a higher percentage of their incomes than Americans are (so much for the "poverty trap" of being "too poor to save" endlessly repeated in aid reports). I agree that it's too soon to conclude that Africa is on a stable growth track, but why not celebrate what Africans have already achieved?
[...]
Why do aid organizations and their celebrity backers want to make African successes look like failures? One can only speculate, but it certainly helps aid agencies get more publicity and more money if problems seem greater than they are. As for the stars — well, could Africa be saving celebrity careers more than celebrities are saving Africa? In truth, Africans are and will be escaping poverty the same way everybody else did: through the efforts of resourceful entrepreneurs, democratic reformers and ordinary citizens at home, not through PR extravaganzas of ill-informed outsiders.
Easterly also points to the TED debate...
The real Africa needs increased trade from the West more than it needs more aid handouts. A respected Ugandan journalist, Andrew Mwenda, made this point at a recent African conference despite the fact that the world's most famous celebrity activist — Bono — was attempting to shout him down. Mwenda was suffering from too much reality for Bono's taste: "What man or nation has ever become rich by holding out a begging bowl?" asked Mwenda.
The word ‘government’ is also not a dirty word. Managing law & order and defence of a country is the job of government only – be it India, USA or any other democratic country. Nowhere is it the responsibility of an MNC. Youngmen in India now-a-days are lacking the sense of patriotism and armed forces are short of officers and jawans. USA can hire soldiers from countries like Mexico, Honduras and Colombia but India has to fight on its own. We are surrounded by enemies on all sides, internal security is being challenged by terrorist organizations like Naxalites, Maoists and Islamists. Let us discuss such topics on this site.
.
I donot consider any words as dirty.
I did'nt say so.