Quick notes: GDP growth down, Delhi's racism...

• Flash. After Delhi, Rajasthan scraps FDI in multi-brand retailing.



• Kaangress brings down GDP growth: Mission accomplished!

• Delhi's Racism: "How can any parent send their child to a place that is notorious for being racist to people of the northeast? My neighbour's daughter is studying in Delhi and she often complains of being harassed on the road, being called 'chinky', even harassed by her landlord. It's a shame that the capital of the country is so hostile to its own people." 



• The benevolent source. Sun's rays could protect against high blood pressure.



• Misconception that Sun is the only cause of skin cancer. It's not. If sun exposure causes skin cancers, how is it that some skin cancers grow in body parts that never see the light of day? 



• Alcohol linked to skin cancer risk: Ethanol is converted to acetaldehyde soon after ingestion and this compound may render the skin more sensitive to harmful UV light



• Not just a swimming pool for sperm: Seminal fluid plays "an essential role in the preservation of sperm function, and in the stimulation of the female reproductive tract."

Behind the burqa of psecularism

According to Bhagwati and Panagariya, Mrs Gandhi believed that economic growth was "dangerous" for the poor if it happened while poverty still existed. She had no faith in economic growth being the vehicle to remove poverty.

Her dutiful daughter-in-law has followed in her footsteps, thereby bringing us to a situation in which economic growth has halved along with the worth of the rupee. But, just like in the times of Indira Gandhi, there has been no reduction in poverty and no improvement in the standard of living of rural Indians despite the government having spent thousands of crores on guaranteed employment, cheap food grain and all manner of other charitable schemes. 

Tavleen Singh: An India of Indira's dreams

"The moment there is a crisis, they wear the 'burqa' of secularism and hide in a bunker".

FM’s Fiscal Number Is A Load Of Bull

The total losses of the oil marketing companies will be around Rs 2,13,000 crore when Mukherjee has provided only Rs 40,000 crore for fuel subsidies, says a Business Standard report. That leaves a gap of Rs 1,73,000 crore. And we are not even talking about other subsidies like fertiliser and food – where too the provisions look inadequate.

R Jagannathan:  FM’s fiscal number is bull

The Telegraph: The Godzilla of all fudges

Almost the entire expenditure on big ticket items is being reclassified as grants. The govt can then be extravagant in splashing out money on these schemes without having to bother about the strain such fiscal profligacy can impose on deficit reduction commitments.

Discovery of Nehru

Posting this article by T.R Jawahar on the auspicious occasion of 'Chacha' Nehru's birthday, even though this was posted earlier as a comment.

goldman sachs: ten things for india to achieve its 2050 potential

jun 20th, 2008

http://www.livemint.com/2008/06/16235741/CB9BCB3C-5825-4AD6-9604-042202BBC985ArtVPF.pdf

i'd add an 11th commandment:

11. get rid of manmohan "i must have the nuke deal or else i'll resign" singh, palaniappan "mr. 11%" chidambaram, sonia "numbered swiss account" nehru

most appropriate, now that these worthies have managed to get inflation up to (an admitted) 11%, although in reality it is closer to 25%

chidambaram and the nehruvian rate of growth

mar 13th, 2007

so chidambaram hasn't yet brought india back to the nehruvian rate of growth? just give him a little more time, one or two years, and that'll do. that's his specialty: destroy whatever is doing well, so we can all go back to the good old license raj. and do nothing for agriculture or education except give lip service and provide lots of pork-barrel for the party faithful. as gurcharan das pointed out, why is it that even the poor slum dwellers prefer to send their children to private school? because the government schools are so bad. and chidambaram and yechuri and the other marigold-garland types want to put more money into government schools.

as well as into pork-barrel like:

a) the various nehru/indira/rajiv programs (you see, they are named after the dynasty, so the money should end up in the pockets of the dynasty too)

b) the idiotic rural employment guarantee (which should be renamed, for truth in advertising, as "kaangress party cadre employment guarantee schemes")

here's the atlanticist's opinion on the budget:http://www.viewswire.com/index.asp?layout=VWArticleVW3&article_id=1731975358

hmmmm, thinking again about it, let us see the arithmetic today. GDP growth rate: 9.2%. inflation rate: 7%. therefore, real growth rate: 2.2%.

yup, chidambaram has already achieved the nehruvian rate of growth! which is 2-3% real growth. hallelujah!

nice work, chidambaram and other party hacks!