"Making 'Digital India' is like changing all four tyres of a moving car that is fast running out of fuel."

Said : Aashish Chandorkar, a Management Consultant based in Pune and working in Mumbai, in his article published in the Swarajya Magazine.

According to Chandorkar, the undue delay to start the work on laying the fiber-optic cables by Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), a special purpose vehicle created by UPA-2 in the year 2011, has led to the current situation which the job very difficult for the present government. The UPA II had the target to cover 2,50,000 villages, spread across 631 districts, with broadband connectivity by 2013 under its National Optic Fiber Network (NOFN) initiative.

Quoting official data, Chandorkar writes "BBNL website demonstrates the sloppy pace of work between 2011 and 2015 with just over 1% of the connectivity targets achieved thus far after a time overrun of 2 years."

"Under Digital India, the government has now set the target of laying the fiber-optic cables for BharatNet – the new avatar of NOFN which involves improved technology, multiple access modes other than fiber and improved quality of fiber – by March 2017. The work involves laying almost 600,000 kms of cables in just about 21 months or an average of 950 kms of cables every day starting immediately. This is what has been achieved in the past four years in total!" 

'Digital India' is yet another dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The program was launched recently at an event attended by government officials as well as industry leaders. The programme aims to make all citizens digitally literate and bring internet and e-governance to all sections of the society. 

Here is a tweet in praise for Aashish Chandorkar's article. 

Great piece by @c_aashish on weak foundation (tks to UPA legacy) on which Govt has premised its #digitalindia plans http://t.co/UnOsIe0pIM

— Prasanna Viswanathan (@prasannavishy) August 3, 2015

My response to the above tweet : 

I wish the article was written without involving any politics in it so as to provide the correct picture of the mission and it's challenges. By holding responsible and blaming the (dead) UPA II for the delay in implementing what was targeted under (NOFN) initiative, thereby not getting the digital foundation right for the current government is of no use at all.

Comparing implementation of the Digital India programme with changing all four tyres of a moving car is highly absurd. The punchline ("changing all four tyres of a moving car....") mocks the importance of sincerity and, in its own way, the author's own statement.

BTW, here is a video showing you how a person can change tyres on a moving car! 

Good Luck to you and PM Modi for the work ahead.

"We routinely confuse celebrity for authority." - NY Times

— Patrick Meier (@PatrickMeier) August 2, 2015

"When Donald Trump entered the race on June 16, skeptics thought he would struggle to make the debate stage at all. Instead, he will be its focal point, not only because of his braggadocio but because he is leading in many national polls."

Niall Stanage

Said : Niall Stanage, Associate Editor at The Hill, in his post analysing the rules of the first Republican presidential debate to be held on August 6 in Cleveland on Fox News cable network. 10 of the 17 candidates will be selected for the main 9 p.m. debate. The positioning of the candidates on the stage is supposed to be one of the favourable factors because contenders at the center generally benefit at the expense of those confined to its edges.

Veteran Republican strategist Charlie Black, who served as senior political adviser to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2008 presidential campaign was quoted as saying : “If [Trump] or anybody else violates the rules, it will hurt them. I’ve been focus-grouping these things for many years and people don’t like it when you keep breaking the rules." 

According to Charlie, Donald Trump has been going over the time limit.

Narendra Modi's Love for Shri Narendra Modi

I just got the above post of Narendra Modi on my FB TL. Verified. Found it was an old one but correct.

How to Tackle Terrorism? Listen mind-blowing audio speech of Shri Narendra Modi. Visit Breezy Audio Section of http://narendramodi.in/

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 31, 2009

'In economics, like elsewhere, the questions rarely change. The answers keep changing"

Source

Said : Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan while inaugurating the Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics (MDAE) in Mumbai on July 27, 2015 in presence of chairperson of MDAE, Lord Meghnad Desai, reported the Times of India under the title "RBI under 'enormous pressure' to cover up NPA: Rajan."

"Declaring an NPA is primarily an issue of cleaning up accounting. The market fully understands what is truly non-performing. Moreover, it gives the wrong incentives, as by avoiding NPAs it merely postpones the problem. There is confused understanding of this problem," TOI reported Rajan as saying.

Dr. Rajan stressed the need for a good understanding of the fundamentals of economics, such as price theory, general equilibrium which is the hardest concept to understand. According to him lot of policy-making is done without an understanding of general equilibrium which is a key contribution that an economist can make to the dialog. "The kind of economics we need is based on rigorous fundamentals - blood, sweat, tears, and toil. In economics, like elsewhere, the questions rarely change. The answers keep changing," said Rajan as per the TOI report.

LiveMint, on the other hand, reported that the move to strip Raghuram Rajan of control over India rates is faceing backlash as, already, two officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration have distanced themselves from a draft bill that would give the government control over a proposed interest-rate setting panel. 

"The kind of economics we need is based on rigorous fundamentals - blood, sweat, tears, and toil. In economics, like elsewhere, the questions rarely change. The answers keep changing" 

The Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics has been established as an institution of excellence to provide graduate students with the academic rigor and applied skills to meet the needs of a dynamic and globalized workplace. The programs have substantial input and participation by top-ranking corporates to improve the employability of young. The Academy offers 11-month Post graduate Program in Economics and Finance.

The above statement of Dr Rajan with respect to the NPAs has not got the required media attention due to Dr Kalam's untimely death which is occupying most of the social media's space today. But it is going to be a hot topic on Twitter very soon. Some have already started commenting.....

1/- for RT on July28: RBI is the last left untouched from institutionalized corruption by Sonia & Modi but, how long? http://t.co/NesnBGhCC3

— Kiran Kumar (@Yr_Conscience) July 28, 2015

Only the poorest, most isolated and socially hated few, with no clansmen to speak for and whose cases activists won't find sexy enough to defend, will go to the gallows.

Said Shekhar Gupta, former editor-in-chief of The Indian Express, in his facebook post.

My take on the Yakub Memon case in this Facebook post. What's a noose for the shd be a noose for the gander https://t.co/cTO2ykY5Eo

— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) July 26, 2015

Observer @gdjasuja
Tweets by @gdjasuja

The U.S. stock market could "easily" drop 20 percent to 40 percent

Marc Faber

Said : Marc Faber, a Swiss investor based in Thailand, reported CNBC recently. 

Faber is publisher of the Gloom Boom & Doom Report newsletter and is the director of Marc Faber Ltd which acts as an investment advisor and fund manager. His latest prediction : "The U.S. stock market could "easily" drop 20 percent to 40 percent."

In his latest blog posting, Faber advices that the safest place to be is precious metals and some cash.

"Faber has been predicting the meltdown of U.S. stocks for years, only to see the market climb higher." 

Faber is pessimistic about Asian economies and expects "no growth" from there as some countries are already in recession. According to Faber, the expansion in Europe is "anemic" and the situation in Greece is "basically Ponzi finance" that can't last. 

In his latest newsletter, Faber declares "Indochina — including Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos — is the most promising region for investment over the next 30 years."