holdyourthoughts

India is having a raging debate about reservations in education institutions. The government has proposed a 27% quota for OBC (Other Backward Classes) in all educational institutions including the haloed IITs , IIMs and AIIMS and all other engineering and medical colleges. This has caused a great deal of tension, anger and resentment amongst the “urban” upper castes with a lot of engineering and medical students resorting to hunger strikes outside their colleges. Let us take a dispassionate look at the issue at hand. There are 3 main reason why the quotas have come in. Reason #1: Arjun Singh, a former Congress heavyweight leader gets shunted to the HR ministry in the new UPA led government. He needs to assert his importance to the country butmore importantly to the Congress top-brass. He really needs to emphasize the fact that he is still relevant in Indian politics. Reason #2: Reservation creates a vote bank for the minister and his party. Or for those who can shout...

The BSE Sensex – the default benchmark for the Indian equity market – touched 12,000 on Friday last week. There is a sense of euphoria, disbelief and caution in people depending on which group they belong to. There are people who have been waiting for a correction from 6000 and are amazed to see the sensex at double that. There are others who are perennial optimists and expect the market to continue giving them the returns in the way it has in the last 3 years. Milestones like 12000 are a nice point to just stand back and access the overall situation. So, what is the reality of the day? Today, the price of oil is hovering around $70 with the political situation in Iran not getting a whole lot better. Don’t think its going to come down in a while. Interest rates are showing signs of hardening. Prices of gold, silver, steel, aluminium, copper, zinc and sugar are in multi year highs. Real estate prices are going through the roof. So, in a way all asset classes are seeing handsome app...

The rise of the IT industry in India is being heralded by all and sundry. State governments are falling over one another to attract investment from these companies in their states. The sunrise sector – as it has come to be known – seems the answer to one of the greatest problem facing India today – that of unemployment. The fact that Infosys, TCS, Wipro and their likes are employing nearly 50 thousand employees each and individually each of these companies have surpassed the headcount in the “old-economy” companies and are growing more than 30% per year has added to the notion of IT companies being the knight-in-shining-armour for the government. It has to be said here that over the last 50 years, governmental policy has not helped create more jobs. On the contrary the government has tried its level best to stifle entrepreneurship and industry, thereby killing any chance creating greater jobs. It is true that the IT industry has been able to create a great number of jobs. It is true th...