July is the best time for economics in India, as the farmers get all the rain they require for their harvest and the commoners get the budget. So, as a layman, what would one expect from the budget? First of all, since worldwide, there is a recession, we would like some more steps to guarantee sustainable employment. Also, we would like to see some consumer durables being cheaper than they are. The government has just raised the price of petrol and diesel; this will really be heavy on the consumers.  

We would like to see lower prices of fruits and vegetables and most of us, upper middle class people would like to see cheaper imported food stuffs, as we use a lot of the same. The common person uses medicines a lot, we would like to see their prices regulated, and most of us can’t afford to buy a home in our lifetime; so we would like to see that change. Also, the taxes levied for homeowners are so high that most of us desist from buying our first house.  

I don’t know why and how foreign brands have a free run in this country. They not only sabotage the smaller, Indian enterprises; but people end up paying a lot more than they can afford, just to keep up with the times. This is foolish, and foreign brands should be forced to sell at the domestic prices in the market.  

Hard working Indians are really prone to entertainment, so we must get some sops and cheaper prices for multiplex tickets. The railways and road transports are doing a great job and we would like to see more online bookings for the same. Air fares should also be lowered; this will lead to more people traveling by air. We want cheaper cars, scooters and cycles at the best quality possible. 

As far as the banking and insurance sector is concerned, we would like to be able to take home and business start up loans easily with the least interest rates. This is not really happening and many of us remain in debt for the major portions of our lives. We have voiced our concerns; now, its up to the government to do something!

Neha Singh

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Nandan Nilekani has just resigned after 30 eventful years at Infosys and guess what? He’s to become a cabinet minister for the Unique Identification Number project, something vaguely on the lines of the Social Security Number that the US gives to its citizens. With a SS number, a citizen of the US can gather a host of benefits from the government like pensions, retirement benefits, savings and even daily meals.  

The US government makes sure that none of its citizens fall below the poverty line, and the social security number adds to the huge governmental initiatives in America. So, India, the next in line to become a huge superpower, has toed the line and will initiate its own UIN project, whereby citizens will be given unique identification numbers that will reflect on their identities.  

And the government has roped in none other than Nandan Nilekani for the ambitious project. So Mr Nilikani will leave the safe havens of Infosys and badger on in the uncertain world of Indian politics.  

Personally, I feel the UIN project in India is a bit premature. We have so many people living below the poverty line, that to involve them all will come as a huge burden on the tax payer and the government will incur some heavy losses just getting the system in place. So, when are we going to stop imitating the US and evolve some policies suitable for the Indians, by the Indians and for the Indians? We have our own indigenous brains, economic, social and policital, so why just blindly ape the West?  

The UIN project is good for the minority urban population but will do nothing for the ‘aam aadmi’. If you have a PAN card, a ration card, a passport, a voter’s ID card, why do you need another card to establish your identity? Or are we suffering from such a huge identity crisis that only more and more cards will reduce our sufferings?

Neha Singh

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The Swat valley in Pakistan has been taken over by the Taliban who believe that they can run the country better than the government there. If the Taliban take over Pakistan, there will be mayhem and India must do all it can to gather international support to stop the Talibanisation of Pakistan. 6 months down the line, since the 26^th November attacks, Pakistan is slowly but surely striving towards utter anarchy. This just proves that the previous governments by Musharraf and the present day Gilani are just not working. Even Nawaz Sharif has been stifled before he could do anything constructive in Pakistan.  

The bizarre murder in broad daylight of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is a chilling tale on the way things are spiraling out of control in Pakistan. Where did the extremists in Pakistan come from? What led to them becoming so rampant and powerful? And how is it that the government over there is failing to control them? Working with terrorists is becoming routine in Pakistan. I wonder how their (the terrorists’) leaders justify their acts of violence and what makes them so chillingly cruel. The main points of contention in this argument are the Pakistani Army and the ISI. Both have been corrupted by the onslaught of the Taliban and other extremist groups. Instead of concentrating on education, female emancipation, industry, trade, privatization and development, the Pakistani government is struggling only to make amends with terrorist groups. The whole of Pakistan is swarming with such people and shockingly all this is happening only a few miles away from the Indian border! I wonder what the liberals and educated citizens of the country are doing. Or are they too afraid that they might be gunned down in case they do anything constructive and meaningful?  

Unfortunately, the educated elite in Pakistan have no power as the Taliban and other militant groups hold sway over the entire functioning of the country. If the Taliban are not checked, they will spread their wings to other neighbouring countries like India, and according to the Indian army, many such suicide bombers keep infiltrating into Indian territory anyway. The alarming state of affairs in Pakistan calls for a larger debate in India as well. This is what happens in military dictatorships, and India must learn a lesson that democracy is the only way out.  

Neha Singh

When I read Das Kapital, the treatise on Marxism by Marx and Engels, I was very convinced by the socialist approach Marx and Lenin adopted. Karl Marx was a huge influence on Russian society and his theories seem to have generated a lot of interest. China and West Bengal are still adopting Communist theories and China is set to be the next superpower, probably even succeeding India. The world over Capitalism is biting the dust and many great economies like the US and Germany have faced the ill-effects of Capitalism. So, has another ‘ism’ fallen into a great schism? Or is it the revival of Communism all over again? 

If you read Animal Farm, the famous parody on Communist leaders, you will find out that Stalin was the villain and the downfall of Communism was due to the greed of one man. It was he who reversed the effects of Communism and due to his gluttony, the Communist Soviets came apart and everyone was in for the running. Lenin, Marx and Engels were the true followers of Marxism and were not the reason for the corruption and rot that had set into the system then. So, it was the capitalist, greedy, ambitious Stalin due to which Russian society spun from being equal to being polarized. Up till Stalin’s rule Communism flourished abundantly and had many followers, but once Stalin came into reckoning; the system just collapsed and degenerated into a free for all. So, when we look at the reasons for the failure of Communism, there is nothing we observe attributed to the system per se. But it is the distortion of Communism into a capitalist state that brought out the mess. And from then on, Communism became totally irrelevant and Capitalism took over only to meet its nemesis in the 21 st century. As of now, the attempts of several governments to organize the polity and work effectively have all come to zero. The utopian state in which all are equal and everyone gets the same is history and will probably never be realized. Equality, as is mentioned in the Indian constitution, can only be achieved in a socialist and communist system which has no takers left in the world. So, what are we going to do except wait for another miracle, another ‘ism’?

Neha Singh



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The Lok Sabha elections have come and gone and the UPA coalition has done it again. This means that Manmohan Singh is not a weak PM and the liberal agenda of the Congress has worked with the electorate. In Mumbai and Delhi too the Congress candidates got a thumping majority with Sheila Dikshit, Milind Deora, Priya Dutt having regained a second and probably third term. This also means that Indians want nothing to do with religion, community, caste and are only concerned with progress. The only startling revelation was that Shiv Sena won 11 seats in Mumbai, which is unprecedented. This also means that local Mumbaikars value the Shiv Sena probably more than the BJP. And what has the BJP got? Besides revival of Hindu sentiments and rubbing the minorities up the wrong way, the BJP has done nothing. Even in Gujarat people laud Narendra Modi not for his developmental work, but more for his pro-Hindu agenda.  

In UP too Mayawati’s dreams of becoming PM have been dashed and so have Advani’s. But it came as a surprise that the dynastic rule of the Congress has been allowed to run unbridled. Now we have 5 Gandhis in parliament, Maneka, Varun, Sonia, Priyanka and Rahul. And why not? When a family reaffirms its faith in the nation, has had heroes in leadership since generations and is genuinely interested in the politics of the country, why should the dynasty factor work against them? I’m sure Rahul and Priyanka are proud Nehruvians. And we are proud of that.  

In Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee’s win came as a surprise, especially after the Nano Singur debacle. Kolkata seems to be caught in a time warp and even the aggressive electioneering by the young and dynamic Rahul has not brought any changes in the mindsets of the people there. For once during this election, there was no rigging and the booths and EVMs functioned properly. Indians are really waking up to the ways of democracy and even though they may be regressive in form, their spirit continues to be forward looking.

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