Homoeconomicus 2015 16

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“ If all the world economy’s a stage”

EDITOR’S PICK

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RANGABHOOMI: An Economic Perspective On Marathi Theatre 40 EDITOR’s NOTE 3  TATTLE TALES 51 WHAT IS HOMOECONOMICUS? 4 1. BANS: The ‘Ban’e Of Our Existence

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PRICEY ONIONALYSIS

CONTENTS

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1. WHAT DOES HOMOPHOBIA COST INDIA? 2.

रवींद्रनाथ

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2. FED EX RATE HIKE

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3. AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY

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8

4. WORLD FOOD CRISES

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3. INDIA’S PUBLIC DEBT

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5. ANNAPOORNA KIOKS AND STEMMING THE ROTS IN THE PDS

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4. AN INTERVIEW WITH HISTORY

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6. A CASE FOR KIVA

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5. THE LAND ACQUISITION BILL

13 7. PORNOLOGY

6. THE GLASS CEILING

15 8. MAKING INDIA’s GROWTH SUSTAINABLE 63

7. WITNESS PROTECTION: The Need Of The Hour 17 8. EMERGENCE OF SECULARISM 

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TRIPPING ON ECONOMICS

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RIGGED REVIEWS

1. EMERGING ISSUES IN INDIA’s EXTERNAL RELATIONS

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2. ATLAS SHRUGGED

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3. MY EXPERIMENTS IN READING MARX’s CAPITAL

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1. DHARAVI: An Economic Hub

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2. ECONOMISTS IN LOVE

24 4. THE WONDER WOMEN

3. SHRI JAGANATH TEMPLE: AN Economic Perspective

26 5. TRADE LIBERATION, POVERTY &

4. UNCLE SAM SCORES AN ‘E’ GRADE IN ECONOMICS

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5. NETWORK EFFECTS: The Influence In Our Lives

29 7. HIGHWAY 39: Journeys Through A Fractured

6. THE LIQUOR TALKING

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7. ERGONOMICS

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1. DEINDUSTRIALIZATION IN INDIA DURING 81 BRITISH RULE

EQUALITY 6. BRIC’s SUMMIT 15’ Land

8. COMMERCIALIZATION OF SPIRITUALITY 33 

IN OUR SHOES AND CHAPPALS

1. अथथ शास्त्र

36 38

75 77

2. A GAME THEORETIC ANALYSIS OF BIG BOSS

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3. CHANGING LIVES ONE DROP AT A TIME

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4. CONSUMPTION OF FOOD

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CREDITS 2

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PAPER MACHE

2. MAGICOF MATHS: The hunt Of A Treasurer 37 3. GOMC

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Editors’ Note Ramachandra Guha has written about the challenges the practise of pluralism poses on a University, and five essential parameters of pluralism that a University must foster that is of the student body, the teaching staff, of disciplines, approaches within a discipline, and finances. This volume of Homoeconomicus attempts to be a microcosm of this ideal that he has defined, contending with the parochialism that has set in, when it comes to such initiatives. We have accepted entries from various universities, from different faculties and programmes having diverse theoretical and methodological approaches and from both students and professors. By retaining this volume as only an e- publication and not printing a version using the department’s (Of economics) funds, we have also ensured the diversity of funding sources.

The growing elite preference for English, and foreign languages over native languages amongst students has marginalised education in these languages, as well as denied an equal platform to students writing in them. In order to promote a culture of bilingualism, in the face of the decline of whom Guha calls the “bilingual intellectual” we have encouraged authors to send in articles in Marathi.

To counter the growing divorce between economics and the other social sciences, and the increasing fixation (what Picketty calls a childish passion) for mathematics and theoretical speculation in the discipline of Economics, this volume has a feature report on the economics of the Marathi theatre industry. This report is a result of inputs and analyses from perspectives of other social sciences. Studying a non-traditional sector, which does not strictly adhere to certain economic parameters, allowed us to use a different approach as well as consider certain outliers who are otherwise neglected in aggregative methodologies pursuing scientificity.

We express our gratitude to the Department of Economics, Ramnarain Ruia College, for giving us the opportunity to work for the magazine. We are thankful to Mrs. Varsha Malwade, Mr. Vijay Tapas and Mrs. Shilpa Neve who bestowed us with great motivation and guidance, in our pursuit of understanding Marathi Theatre and preparation of the report, thereafter; as well as the artists, writers, directors, technicians et al. We are grateful to the cooperation received from our authors with regard to editing processes.

We hope HOMOECONOMICUS 2016 is an enjoyable read and encourages more of you to explore a multi-disciplinary approach to Economics.

Editors-in- Chief, Purnima M. Nair, Vasudha Ramakrishna

Department of Economics (Faculty), Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai Dr. Aditi Abhyankar (HOD) Mrs. Varsha Malwade (Asso. Professor) Mrs. Devayani Ganpule (Asso. Professor)

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knowledge and action in reality is a complete myth, and economic lens range from across the social sciences, people have what is known as “bounded rationality” at delving into the humanities, exploring world literature best* and beyond. And you’ll understand everything that is The story of this word starts with self-interest. written. Guaranteed.

Self-interest and selfishness – classical or otherwise – can’t satisfactorily explain the creation of Wikipedia, {If we ever fail with explaining terms and stuff Google This term (“the economic man”) signifies the abstract why people seed torrents, why people create and distrib- is your best friend. Trust me, we tried :’( } ideal of a cold, logical individual in calm and continuous ute freeware*, why people often vote for governments Homoeconomicus – for us – is a philosophy of inclusive pursuit of her/his self-interest. S/he knows everything, they perceive to be good for the larger society and understanding. Over here we use the social sciences, sees everything and makes learned steps to acquire nation, sometimes regardless of change in their own with our minds and hearts to openly embrace the world resources and wealth, or reduce work. This term also financial circumstances** and why I freely told a of today… accepts the primacy of economics in determining how a stranger directions to the restaurant he wanted to go society behaves and how social groups originate in the *it’s called agalmics. The study of free exchange of goods such as – to.*** social sciences. information, software, and intellectual property. Could we really be In the past, there have always been studies directly or that nice?

Marx believed that the class divide between the capitalindirectly refuting economic primacy, whether it is Ralf ** a few theories in politics under “altruistic voting behaviour”. The ists and the labour class was primarily economic, and word ‘perceive’ makes you wonder how powerful the media is.

Dahrendorf’s homo sociologicus**** or even earlier, *** I lied. that this governed the social relations between them. when the sociologist Max Weber argued that Protestant **** He said, “existing social norms and structure primarily influence The idea was that the ideological superstructure of ethics and ideology was the backbone of modern capital- human behaviour including economic behaviour”. We said “zyada capitalism assisted the social status quo that the ecoism (1905). ho gaya” and there was a big fight. nomics had built by then. Further Marxist historians such as Gramsci, came up with theories such as cultural So what then does homoeconomicus mean for us?

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hegemony (cultural and ideological manipulation by the upper ruling classes to maintain power and supremacy) to explain this.

This is why Marx thought that if the proletarian classes recognised that it’s in their self-interest to revolt, then this would result in the downfall of capitalism.

Adam Smith, viewing capitalism and free competition as fundamentally good, held that the ‘invisible hand’ of economic self-interest – the bargaining between buyers and sellers – automatically created a social arrangement which was best for its people.

If you take away the value judgements, and the moral perspectives, then even here – the economic relations come first, and the social reorganisation is what follows.

Economics now, must be more inter-disciplinary than it ever was. Without a continuous ever-evolving discourse with the other social sciences, it won’t transform into the economics needed to understand the complexities of the present or the economics that can help the other social sciences form a better picture of the world today.

However the principle of self-interest isn’t always true.

It is, and has always been, in the interest of the social sciences to lend, borrow, argue, work together, and evolve. The Internet clearly shows us how the more we learn, teach and work together, the better it is for us all. Without this philosophy, there would be no way for us to explain how so much knowledge and useful content available on the Internet is free, if evil people hoarded and sold knowledge to extract benefits of its scarcity.

“I would like to visit this magical world where people are rational economic actors, instead of the selfish, short -sighted morons that we can empirically demonstrate them to be."

We are a different economic human in the 21st century and so it follows that our economics must be different as well. We have to evolve from “self-interest” to “human interest”.

Paul Furio (a.k.a. random guy on an internet forum; comics credit: SMBC comics)

It is necessary for the social sciences to be more flexible, more inclusive, more conscious of its logical fallacies ANAND BENEGAL(18): Writer. Musician. Too many and more fun. For too long, academic writing in the One doesn’t even need to think too much to realise how social sciences has been too erudite to understand, and worlds in my mind. I dream big, and I keep the scheclassical self-interest as a central standpoint in the social matics ready by me, just in case… too defensive of its biases. And often its examples and sciences often fails dismally.

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/ subjects are too impersonal for the common reader.

It assumes “perfect knowledge” of one’s market and channel/UC9Iu_Ta7orMPTgruF1iB67A society, and that people act perfectly to maximise their In this magazine, the topics viewed from a more humble Instagram: @anandbenegal gains. We all, however, know that such perfect 4

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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/L-opinion.svg/353px-L-opinion.svg.png

ONIONALYSIS

“The Opinion Editorials in this section will make you think till you know your onions, the pricey ones.”

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WHAT DOES HOMOPHOBIA COST INDIA?

W

hat if I told you that with just a slight attitude-adjustment, India's economy could be $30.8 billion richer? Too good to be true? Hardly.

Dr. Mary Virginia Lee Badgett, a professor of Economics and the Director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, conducted a study for the World Bank on the economic cost of homophobia in India.

She showed how India lost $30.8 billion in 2012 specifically as a result of its pervasive discrimination and persecution of **LGBTQ+ individuals. The actual figure would be much higher, but due to lack of sufficient data, this remains a conservative approximation.

Just to put it into perspective, the loss is approximately 1.7 % of India's GDP. The Money Costs of Prejudice

PHOTOGRAPHY: HARSH SHAH, SY.BMM , RUIA COLLEGE

even women’s rights and rights of minorities, have focused on expressing values related to respect and equality.

However in order to effect change, arguing it is costly to exclude them could be a more powerful reason for people who don’t see human rights as important. Economic reasoning is part of what propelled the modern women’s empowerment movement. And now, it’s an emerging argument for LGBTQ+ inclusion. Unequal treatment of LGBTQ+ people can cause economic harm, leading to lower economic output for individuals, businesses, and even countries. And on the flip side, inclusive policies can boost a country’s GDP. This is especially pertinent since India's current government claims to stand for development.

“Every time a man who has sex with another man gets HIV, society pays a heavy price. Excluding sexual minorities is not only a human tragedy but it is also a significant self-inflicted economic wound, and so we at the World Bank need to listen to their voices.” (Mr Fabrice Houdart, Team Leader, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Development, World Bank.)

the micro-level, in the form of individual personal attacks or loss of wages, Badgett says that the combined effects of homophobia will aggregate into a broader macroeconomic outcome.

Individual effects of homophobia will translate into important socioeconomic trends like lower rates of education, poor health, and poverty, which in turn leads to a lower labor force and high health care costs. Badgett’s case study of India highlights the enormous cost of health care due to homophobia and the resulting isolation queer folk face along with the lack of access to medical facilities and safe spaces to discuss their issues. HIV disparity, depression, and suicide, the three health issues that are particularly high among the LGBT population, cost India between $712 million and $23.1 billion in 2012, according to Badgett’s study.

“You reduce GDP by this much, you call that a recession, actually,” Bagdett said. Let that sink in for a minute.

We lose such a significant portion of our GDP every year that it actually qualifies as an economic recession.

So what’s the secret to convincing the world to back a movement? Figure out how it could impact the global bottom line.

Considering the economic perspective challenges us to think about what we lose when any group is denied full and equal participation in society. Generally, disTo put it into perspective, the amount cussions about LGBTQ+ rights, or While discrimination takes its toll at of money India loses every year thanks 6

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to homophobia is greater than India's yearly expenditure on public healthcare. (India spends a dismal 1 % of its GDP on public healthcare and loses 1.7% of its GDP due to institutionalized homophobia.) Even worse, the total amount of money to end world hunger is estimated to be $30 billion dollars, that is to feed the 862 million starving all that is needed is thirty billion dollars. So, India loses more money every year due to its deeply bigoted attitude than the amount of money required to ensure world food security. There's a thought.

Limiting Productivity Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group, recently argued in The Washington Post, “Institutionalized discrimination is bad for people and for societies.

Widespread discrimination is also bad for economies. There is clear evidence that when societies enact laws that prevent productive people from fully participating in the workforce, economies suffer.� So how does institutionalized homophobia contribute to a loss in a country's GDP? In 2014, 587 people had been booked and arrested under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalizes "sex against the order of nature" irrespective of whether it is between consenting adults or not. So how does this translate into economic loss? The link between discrimination and the economy can be direct.

Let's assume that 100% of those 587 people are innocent homosexuals who engaged in consensual sex with an adult partner. In that case, those 587 people sitting in jail, for example, will not be contributing to the econ-

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omy and instead create an avoidable cost for the government. Their skills and knowledge might be less valuable when they get out, and if future employers are likely to discriminate against people assumed to be gay, their options might be limited to work in less productive jobs. In other cases, links are indirect, though still strong, for example, injuries from physical violence or the mentalhealth effects of stigma will mean poorer health for LGBTQ+ workers, in turn reducing their productivity at work. Simply put, disadvantaged workers can be bad for business. Absenteeism, low productivity, inadequate training, and high turnover make for higher labor costs and lower profits. Broadly speaking, the economic impact of discrimination against LGBT individuals is threefold.

and Community Business last year, the LGBT community makes up about 5-10 percent of India Inc.'s workforce. Around 80% of LGBTQ+ employees report hearing homophobic comments, jokes or anti-gay rhetoric at their workplace. Indian equal rights activist, Harish Iyer says "How does one perform well in a situation where your concentration is on concealing who you are, for the fear of getting reprimanded? How could we give 100% to our jobs when we are not 100% who we are?" Another issue is brain drain, due to the lack of acceptance and equal opportunities in India, the middle and upper class LGBTQ+ individuals choose to settle abroad, this bleeding out of young talent and expertise is again a blow to the Indian economy.

Workplace and salary discrimination and therefore, less tax revenue for the Government.

A higher poverty rate due to low income means more government spending on social programs (the lower limit of social expenditure in India in 2012 was $712 million). And poor health, in the form of higher rates of depression, suicide and HIV/ AIDS, means higher government health care costs and decreased participation in the workforce. The research on health shows that rates of depression, suicidal thinking and HIV/ AIDS are much higher among Indian LGBTQ+ people than the general Indian population. In fact, according to The Trevor Project, suicidal ideation amongst LGBTQ+ teenagers is 4 to 6 times more than in heterosexual teenagers. Healthier workers are more productive, so higher rates of illness for LGBTQ+ people reduce their ability to contribute to econom-

Higher Government expenditure on social programmes due to the low incomes earned by LGBTQ+ individuals.

Increased Government expenditure on public health to counter the high rates of HIV and depression in LGBTQ+ individuals.

Workplace and education discrimination lead to lower wages for LGBT individuals, which results in less tax revenue reaped by the government.

On an average an LGBTQ+ person earns up to 32% lesser than his/her heterosexual counterpart for a comparable job. (Badgett, 2014) According to a LGBT Resource Guide created by Google, IBM, Goldman Sachs 7

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ic output. Health disparities generate positive economic outcomes in the extra healthcare and social costs. workplace. Along with economic benThe true costs to India's GDP are like- efits, doing away with institutionalized ly far greater than these estimates, homophobia opens the doors to adopbecause of a dearth of data on how tion by gay couples. This is a significant discrimination against LGBTQ+ indi- socioeconomic step, as it would furviduals may contribute to "brain ther aid the economy by reducing drain", that is, mass emigration, as well Government expenditure on children as the economic and social costs to in state funded orphanages. family members of LGBT individuals, The way ahead is clear, dismantling who may also face discrimination. institutionalized homophobia and hoGOI following Uncle Sam’s foot- mophobic attitudes would bring myriad benefits that would not only boost steps the economy but also have significant There's plenty of evidence to suggest social benefits as well. The sad reality that acceptance of the LGBT commuis that some queer folk are so deep in nity makes for a healthier economy. the closet; they're practically in NarLegalizing gay marriage in America, for nia. This does nobody any good, and instance, has already been proven to following the US Supreme Court's add hundreds of millions of dollars to decision on legalizing marriage for the state coffers. One year after New same-sex couples, it's about time India York passed the Marriage Equality Act; opens up those closet doors and New York City alone had generated tastes the rainbow too. an extra $259 million in revenue, mainly from a boom in the wedding "Hey hey ho ho homophobia has industry. Policy changes would be a to good start to increase the economic go." - an LGBTQ+ slogan popucontributions of LGBT individuals. En- larised by National Organization acting non-discrimination laws, for for Women (NOW). example - particularly governing the REFERENCES: way LGBTQ+ individuals are treated  Dr. Mary Virginia Lee Badgett's study in educational institutions and work FAO Newsroom - Eradicating World Hunger places - would likely promote more

by Jacques Diouf

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Huffington Post - Homophobia is hurting the economy.

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World Bank Group - Open knowledge repository - Inclusion matters : the foundation for shared prosperity.

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The Wire - What homophobia costs a country's economy.

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The Wall Street Journal - India Real-time Homophobia may cost India's economy billions of dollars

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First post - SC Ruling on 377 - What happens to India Inc.'s LGBT policies now?

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The Atlantic - The economic case for supporting LGBT rights.

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UNAIDS - The economic costs and developmental impact of exclusion of LGBT people

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www.thedevelopmentofwomenrights.com Economic Effects of the Women's Suffrage Movement

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**LGBTQ+ -Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Queer, and others.

Bisexual,

ARUNDHATI JAYWANT is a student

of Economics. She is currently on a sabbatical; spending her year doing volunteer work in the field of education. She's deeply passionate about development economics, specifically the Indian education and health care systems. She hopes to be able to use her learning to bring change to these existing systems and implement new ones where possible.

SKTECHED BY SAMPIRKTA DATTA

रवींद्रनाथ : कचवतेपचलकडिे रवींद्रनाथ टागोर! प्रत्येक भारतीयाला पररचित असं नाव. ते स्वतःला 'आचि कबी' ( िी कवी) असं म्हणवून घेत असत. परं तु टागोर कवीच्या पलीकडे असलेलं, एक उत्ुंग असं व्यचि​ित्व होतं. ते न केवळ कवी होते, पण एक उत्ि कथालेखक, कादंबरीकार, चित्रकार आचण चशक्षक होते. चनसगाथ वर त्यांिं अतोनात प्रे ि होतं ; िग त्यांच्या लघुकथा घ्या चकंवा त्यांनी स्थाचपलेलं शांती चनकेतन पहा…'चनसगाथ शी जोडू न घेतलेलं िाणसािं रूप' हे साऱ्यािं िूळ होतं. त्यांच्या सगळ्या साचहत्यप्रकारांिध्ये हे िूळ त्यांनी 8

राखलं, जपलं आचण वृचधंगत केलं. परं तु टागोरांना त्याहीपचलकडे पाहताना अनेक गोष्टी चदसू लागतात. त्यांच्या चलखाणात असणारे चिटीश काळातले संदभथ भारतीय सिाजािं एक वेगळं रुपडं सिोर आणतात. चिटीश-भारतीय यांिं नातं, भारतातल्या वेगवेगळ्या जातीसिूहांिं एकिेकांशी असणारं नातं,गरीब-श्रीिंत यांच्यातील नातं आचण त्या संबंधांिधलं स्त्रीपुरुषांिं स्थान… अशाप्रकारे अनेक नात्यांिं जंजाळ टागोरांच्या चलखाणातून सिोर येतं.

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VOLUME II

बारकाईने वािायला सुरुवात केली, तर त्याकाळच्या भारतीय सिाजािं, त्यातूनही बंगाली सिाजािं चित्रण डोळ्यासिोर उभं राहतं. त्यांच्या लेखणीतील ही चित्रिय जादू त्यांनी सवथ ि चिकाणी वापरली; िग त्या कचवता असोत, कादंबरी असो, अथवा लघुकथा असोत.

ह्याला साक्षीदार असणारा वकील शचशभूषण खवळू न त्या कोळ्यांच्या वतीने न्याय िागण्यासािी चफयाथ द दाखल करतो. पण अंचतितः ते कोळी घुिजाव करून शाचशभूषणच्या चवरुध साक्ष दे तात. त्यािी बाजू आपोआप लुळी पडते. कोळ्यािे सिाजातील स्थान आचण गररबी त्याला सहजासहजी चिटीश िाणसाच्या चवरोधात उभं प्रस्तुत लेखात िी टागोरांच्या कथांिधून सिोर िाकू दे त नाही. त्यांना त्यांच्या 'ियाथ देति' वागणे येणारे तत्कालीन सिाजािे चित्रण आचण त्यातील भाग पडते. चवचवध वगा​ां िे संबंध यांिा उहापोह करण्यािा केवळ चिटीश आचण भारतीय यांच्याति असे तीव्र प्रयत्न करणार आहे. संबंध होते असे नाही. आपल्याला भारतातल्या रवींद्रनाथ टागोर स्वतः जिीनदार घराण्यातले अंतगथ त तफावतींिी कल्पना आहेि. जात आचण होते. त्यांिे वडील दे वेंद्रनाथ िाह्मो सिाजाच्या वगथ व्यिीव्यिीतील संबंधांना कसा आकार दे ऊ ै ी एक होते. त्यािुळे संपण प्रिारकांपक ू थ टागोर शकतात हे टागोरांच्या बऱ्याि कथांिधून पुढे येते. कुटु ंबाने 'िाह्मो' तत्वप्रणाली स्वीकारून पारं पाररक िाह्मण ररतीररवाजांना आचण प्रचतचहंसा' (परतफेड) या कथेतील जिीनदार हे चविारसरणीला फाटा चदला होता. या सगळ्यािा कचनष्ठ कुळातले, तर त्यांिे चदवाणजी हे िुद्दाि उल्लेख करायिे कारण म्हणजे, हे सवथ धागे उच्िकुलीन दाखवले आहेत. जेव्हा दोहोंिधले टागोरांच्या कथांिधून िायी िायी येतात. त्यांच्या िालक-नोकर संबंध वचणथ ले जातात, तेव्हा त्यांच्या बहु तेक कथा िाह्मण-उच्िभ्रू- जिीनदार वगाथ ला अचधक िहत्व चदले जाते. उच्िकुलीन वगाथ तल्या पार्श्थ भि चदवाणजी िालकांिा 'िालक' म्हणून आदर ू ीवर आधारलेल्या आहे त. यातील ज्या 'नाचयका' आहे त, त्यांनासुधा िे वतात, ते कचनष्ठ कुळातले असूनसुधा. पण बऱ्यापैकी चशचक्षत आचण आधुचनक दाखवण्यात जेव्हा नातीच्या लग्नािी वेळ येते, तेव्हा िात्र आले आहे. हे चशक्षण आचण अशी चविारसरणी उच्िकुलीन चदवाणजी कुळियाथ दा ओलांडण्यास त्यांना चवचशष्ट वगाथ त िोडल्यािुळे चिळालेली नकार देतात. आचथथ क बाबींिध्ये जरी जात/कुळ आहे , हे वेगळे सांगावयास नकोि. तात्पयथ , आडवी येत नसली, तरी वैयचिक- वैवाचहक कथांिा परीघ जरी िोिा असला तरी त्या चवचशष्ट बाबींिध्ये िात्र जातीच्या ियाथ दा ओलांडता येत वगाथ िे चित्रण करतात आचण म्हणूनि म्हणूनि नाहीत. हे चित्र अगदी आजही चदसून येते. त्यातील चनरचनराळ्या संबंधांनासुधा या वगाथ िी श्रीिंत, जिीनदार वगाथ कडू न होणाऱ्या गररबांच्या पार्श्थ भि ू ी आचण वैचशष्ट् ये प्राप्त होतात. अथाथ त या शोषणाचवरुध्दही टागोर ताशेरे ओढतात. कथा सिाजातील अचनष्ट रूढींवर टीकाही 'दुबथ ुचध' (दुबथ ुधी) या कथेतल्या गरीब शेतकऱ्याला करतात. त्यात होरपळलेल्या व्यिीसिुहांिे वणथ न िुलगी िे ल्यािं पोचलसात ररपोटथ ही करता येत करायला चवसरत नाहीत. नाही. फौजदारािी वाट पाहात त्याला ताटकळत चिटीश आचण भारतीयांिे संबंध चिचत्रत करताना पावसात चतष्ठावं लागतं. कथेिा नायक जेव्हा त्यात चिटीश-िाह्मण आचण चिटीश- इतर जातीय, फौजदारावर रागाने धावून जातो, तेव्हा कचनष्ठ वगीय जनता असे ढोबळिानाने फौजदाराच्या हातात असलेली आचथथ क-राजकीय िूल्यिापन करू शकतो. उदाहरणाथथ , 'दुई सत्ा आपोआपि नायकािं दिन करते. शोषण बोन' (दोघी बचहणी) या कथेत नायक शशांकिी होतेि, कुणीही चकतीही आवाज उिवला तरीसुधा. कुशल इंचजचनअर असूनसुधा बढती होऊ शकत उच्िवगीयांिधल्या दुतोंडे पणावर, 'hypocrisy' वर नाही, कारण त्याजागी गोऱ्या, नवचशक्या सुधा टागोरांनी कथा रिल्या आहेत. 'संस्कार' या इंचजचनअरला िहत्व चदले जाते. या पदानवतीिुळे कथेतील कचलका (पुन्हा उच्िावगाथ तली, धचनक) शशांक अपिानाने होरपळतो. हे कळल्यावर स्वदे शी- खादीिे िोि​िोि् याने सिथथ न करताना त्यािी पत्नी शचिथ ला अत्यंत कणखरपणे त्याच्या दाखवली आहे . परं तु जेव्हा रस्त्यात आडव्या पािीशी उभी राहते, आचण त्याला भांडवलािा आलेल्या भंग्याला लोक िारायला उितात, तेव्हा पुरविा करून वेगळा व्यवसाय सुरु करण्यािे िात्र ती गाडीत बसून राहू न अशा जातीयतेिे फिाथ न सोडते. हे असे करणे चतला चतच्या सिथथ न करणे उचित िानते. त्या िाणसािे 'कपडे ' जिीनदार कुळातल्या श्रीिंतीिुळे सहजशक्य चकतीही 'स्वच्छ' असले, तरीही ' जातीने भंगी आहे होते. चवचशष्ट वगथ आचण त्यांच्याकडे असलेला पैसा तो' हे चतच्या िनात येतेि. 'जात' जात नाही हे ि वेळप्रसंगी चिटीशांसिोर 'िोडे न पण वाकणार खरे , हे टागोरांना येथे सुचित करायिे आहे. नाही' असा बाणा दाखवू शकत असे. आता चनरचनराळ्या वगा​ां बद्दल बोलणे होत याउलट 'िेघ ओ रौद्र' (ऊन-सावली) या कथेत असताना, स्त्री आचण पुरुष असेही दोन चवचभन्न गरीब कोळ्याच्या नावेच्या फुगलेल्या चशडावर वगथ सिोर येतात. त्यातही चिटीश स्त्री, जिीनदार एक इंग्रज अचधकारी गंित म्हणून गोळी झाडतो. स्त्री, श्रीिंत स्त्री, गरीब स्त्री, दचलत स्त्री यांच्या या प्रकारात नावेवरिे काहीजण गतप्राण होतात.

9

प्रचतिा वेगवेगळ्या. त्यांिी आचथथ क, सािाचजक पार्श्थ भि ू ीही वेगवेगळी. त्यािुळे स्त्री-पुरुष संबंधांिी घडणही वगाथ वगाथ प्रिाणे चनराळी चदसून येते. अथाथ त या प्रकारच्या संबंधांिध्ये पुरुषी सत्ा+आचथथ क सत्ा यांिे चिश्रण झालेले बहु तेकदा चदसते. िग ती 'िालंि' िधील अलका असो, 'दुई बोन' िधील उचिथ ला असो 'प्रयचित्' िधील चवन्ध्यवाचसनी असो; हातात पैसा आचण बऱ्यापैकी बुधी असूनही या बायका पुरुषांच्या हातातल्या बाहु ल्या बनलेल्या चदसून येतात. 'खाता' िधील उिाला तर चतिा दुढ्ढािायथ नवरा चशकू-चलहू ि दे त नाही. बळाच्या जोरावर सािर्थयथ सतत पटवून चदले जाते. या साऱ्याचवरुध तळिळीने बोलणाऱ्या अनेक चस्त्रयाही टागोरांनी रं गवल्या आहे त. पण 'उच्िभ्रू' 'जिीनदारी' चकती 'पुरुषी' होती हे ही सतत सिोर येतेि. अशाप्रकारिी वेगवेगळी वगथ सिीकरणे टागोरांच्या कथांिधून सतत पुढे येतात आचण चविारप्रवृत् करतात. टागोरांिे संपण ू थ साचहत्यदशथ न चकंवा िंथन करणे चततकेसे सोपे नाही. परं तु कचवत्व, चनसगथ , स्त्रीजीवन याही पलीकडे जाऊन टागोर साचहत्यािे आचथथ क आचण सािाचजक अंगाने िुल्यिापन केले गेले, तर त्यांच्या साचहत्यािी सवां कष ओळख करून घेण्यास िदत होईल. गायत्री लेले पत्ा : १०१ रघुकुल जयवंत सावंत िागथ , दचहसर (प), िुंबई-६८

GAYATRI LELE Working as a lecturer of Political Science in Ramnarain Ruia College since August 2014 She has a Sangeet Visharad, ABGMM, Miraj.

The author has a keen interest in Poetry and literature.

She Conducts Workshops and short introductory sessions of Origami ( Japanese paper art) .

HOMOECONOMICUS

VOLUME II

INFOGRAOPIC BY TANEESHA IYANGAR ; DATA BY ADITYA SHARMA

SOURCE: Ministry of Finance, Govt. Of India

T

he present public debt scenario in India seems to be on the path of recovery as the Foreign Institutional Investors are going to pump above $2.55billion into the Indian debt that may strengthen the rupee. It is often seen on issues such as public debt the masses could be misled as the public debt data excludes intragovernmental data debt which consists of social funds such as retirement, medical care and unemployment. Public debt in simple words can be defined as the total financial obligations incurred by all governmental bodies of a nation. It is mainly classified in two categories internal debt (raised within one’s country) and external debt borrowings from other countries.

India’s fiscal policy outlines its objec-

tives such as achieving growth, advisable price levels, desirable consumption, desirable employment level, and commendable income distribution.

India also faces a fiscal and trade deficit problem. The Indian government has stretched the conventional idea of a ‘Socialist Welfare State’ for over 65 years and so we follow a deficit budget that is providing subsidies in areas like infrastructure, agriculture and other priority sectors. Hence, the fiscal deficit of India in FY15 is 3.99% which is better as compared to 5.01% during UPA’s tenure. The government plans to reduce fiscal deficit to 3.5% in 2016-17 and further bring it down to 3% in 2017-18.

There are of course various reasons for the emergence of external and internal debt over the years in India. A

large portion of Union budget is allocated for defence adding to public debt. In case the government’s projects are not successfully executed, it leads to unproductive debt. It is also observed that in public utility departments there is no agency or proper body to check the profits - there are more losses than gains which is another reason for rising public debt. Although India bears the tag of being a developing country, raising capital to meet its developmental needs is itself contributing to its woes leading to external debt accumulation. The trade deficit problem arises as the scales are tipped off in favour of imports. This can be better explained with the help of the following table:

Balance of Trade

Last -10830.00

Previous -10406.20

Highest 258.90

Lowest -20210.90

Unit USD million

Exports

22290.00

22346.75

30541.44

59.01

USD million

Imports

33120.00

32753.00

45281.90

117.40

USD million

Current Account

-1285.52

-8226.25

7360.00

-31857.20

USD million

Current Account to GDP External Debt

-1.40

-1.70

1.50

-4.70

percent

475813.00

461943.00

475813.00

96392.00

USD million

India trade

10

INFOGRAPHIC BY TANEESHA IYANGAR, SYBA, RUIA COLLEGE

INDIA’S PUBLIC DEBT

HOMOECONOMICUS

VOLUME II

The given chart explains the Government’s debt to GDP, it clearly indicates that the debt has reduced to 65.5% in 2014.

1) There needs to be a cap on subsidies and the Government must refrain from freebies as they are a financial burden.

Internal debt in India is mainly due to factors such as public loans and the debt owed by states to the Central Government .The internal debt of India as per the quarterly report April-June 2015 released by the Ministry of Finance is Rs. 4,480,246.7 crore in June 2015, which constitutes 92.3% of the total public debt. This is a worrying figure.

2) Governmental expenditure most of which is unnecessary must be brought control.

aged by reviving the manufacturing sector.

Finally, fiscal prudence is a must for a financially sound economy.

3) The Finance Minister must abolish retrospective taxes as promised in the manifesto and end tax terrorism on the 3% honest taxpayers. Instead it must widen the tax APURVA TUDEKAR is an FYBA net to catch hold of the remaining student of Ramnarain Ruia College.

97% of tax evaders. This will gener- As an Economics student, analyzing economic theories really interests ate revenue. her. Her hobbies include reading ficHowever there are some solutions 4) To solve the trade deficit probtion, playing the keyboard, painting to mitigate the public debt proband writing. lem, exports needs to be encourapueco9@gmail.com lem in India:

11

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_British_Army_in_Burma_1945_SE3910.jpg

Forgotten Chapters of History History for a student is always assumed to be textbook centric and subject to the biases of mainstream politics and propaganda. But after two years of studying history as a subject I discovered small pockets of historical sources all around me. Although they are informal remnants of the past they are not insignificant ones. Within them , lies a small and undeniable strength to contribute to the understanding of the past. It is a pity the extent to which we are oblivious to this strength cradled in our shameless bliss of ignorance.

HOMOECONOMICUS

The reluctant soldier I stumbled upon a major repository of history in my very own family.My grandfather's eldest brother G.K. Rao, served as a Subhedar in the Indian Army under the British regime whose military career offers great insight into the war time economics of the british colonies. A well-read communist ideologue, he failed his matriculation.Resuming studies was not an option for him as they were a family of five brothers, a sister and parents. Being the eldest brother, getting a job was a must for him especially in the wake of rampant unemployment under the British regime. This cornered him and many others to resorting to enlist in the armed forces which Britain was so desperately assembling against the Axis powers (Post 193839). Eventually he left Bombay for Ambala where he received his military training.

Having joined the Indian Army for a short service commission of a ten year tenure. The harassment by senior British officers during his military trainig deeply disturbed him and made it extremely difficult to continue. But back home were the days of rationing as Britain with all its colonies was in a state of war. Essential resources were being pressed into the World War effort at the cost of daily consumption, starvation along with inflation.This was not the first time that Britain was siphonig off money and man power from India for war efforts.

In such a situation his money order of rupees 100 sent home every month was a necessary aid to his father's salary of rupees 25 . Leaving the Army would have meant denying education to his siblings or worse, a meal. My grandfather, the second son in the family, recalls noticing a change in his elder brother ,after a few postings.

When back home on holidays he used to arrive in his uniform carrying a Kukri knife as his standard issued gear.

He had mellowed down and he shared little about his job until questioned profusely. He never suffered an injury

VOLUME II

in the line of duty but did participate in active combat and that possibly was the cause of this change in him. The regions he was posted in were among one of the most celebrated theatres of war but sadly not in the name of the Indian Regiments that participated in them.

In the line of fire His first posting was in Bareli, followed by Waziristan which is a part of todays Pakistan. Here he was appointed for the night duty and had to fire his weapon for the first time while trying to guard an Army Depot which frequently was raided by hunger struck natives. After a few other transfers, battling natives and the Axis forces in the middle-East over Iran, Iraq and even Palestine, in 1939 he was posted to one of the most crucial battlefields in British World War 2 history, Egypt. Here, he and a number of Indian Battalions like the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 18th, 25th and other Indian Infantry Divisions faced the Fascist Italians and predominantly the Nazis commanded

by Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel a.k.a Desert Fox. Britain's first ground victory against the Nazis was in this war theatre in the battle for Tobruk under Operation Crusader which included a majority of Indian soldiers under the command of General Claude Auchinleck (Commander in chief of the Indian Army from 1942).

He was the one who post Independence was also responsible for the division of resources between the newly formed Indian and Pakistani Army and later even claimed that Britain could not have come through both the wars (WW-1 & WW-2) if it hadn’t had the Indian Army. Soldiers died by ten thousands and more were captured as POWs not only in Egypt but even on Italian and Japanese fronts. By 1942, Britain was successful in driving the Axis powers out of Egypt into Tunisia.

Britain's defeat would have led to a loss of its sources of oil in Egypt and eventually the war. As Britain was already fighting for its survival, it wouldn’t have stood a fighting chance against the Axis powers. Egypt’s oil 12

wells were fueling a major portion of Britains world war two efforts hence economics would have been against them had the Indian Army not been there to save its oil interests .

G.K. Rao's next posting was to the new Asian frontline of the war. Japan was the aggressor of the east and its invasion of Burma posed a threat to Britain's India. He with his fellow soldiers was attempting to infiltrate Burma by crossing the Bay of Bengal. The fleet of ships they all boarded were shadowed by unidentified aircrafts, which their British superiors, when questioned, claimed were American allies aiding them. In reality, these aircrafts were Japanese and eventually started bombing this fleet of ships in which G.K Rao's was third in the row.

The two ships ahead of them sunk.

He was convinced that his death was inevitable. Somehow the ship he was on managed to escape and dock safely by the Bengal Province. The fleet made another attempt at penetrating Japanese lines, once again retreating and giving up to the Japanese Bombers. G.K. Rao was a part of the Infantry Division which couldn’t make it to Burma. But the entire death toll of Indian soldiers in the Japanese theatre of the war alone was 36,000. Further, 34,000 were wounded and 67,000 became prisoners of war in Japanese POW camps. A few got initiated into Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's infamous INA i.e. Indian National Army (a puppet to the Japanese) and many others were used for target practice by Japanese soldiers. The British defeat in Malaya against the Japanese, and their defeat and retreat to Indian borders before recapturing of Burma, had led to the formation of the largest army the British Empire ever formed by taking in more Indian troops to combat their Japanese rivals .These staggering numerical strengths were courtesy of the Indian soldiers of British India. Their sacrifice and their victory are equally unrecognised by Britishers and Indians alike. The economic and psychological damage still unpaid for.

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Although many did win Medals of Honour like the Victoria Cross and the George Cross , back home the newly independent Government was awkward about accepting this huge participation of its citizens in the war to aid their colonist captives themselves. Despite Churchill's deal with the Indian National Congress and Gandhi to promote Indian aid and enlisting to the war effort in return for Indian Independence after the end of the war, this brand of freedom struggle of the soldiers of assisting the British, was conveniently forgotten.

Forgotten Heroes The Indian participation in the World Wars is one among so many chapters of our History which have been thanklessly forgotten. It has not only been an insult to our heritage but also disdain towards the sacrifice of so many who were our own. They fought out of concern for their farms and families back home. They feared a new aggressor colonizing their homeland after the defeat of the British. Affirming their History does not mean taking a stance on the moral validity of their participation in the war, but it means admitting that they were helpless and hence their reasons for enlisting were understandable. The most decorated Indian

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Squadron leader of the Royal Air Force, Mohinder Singh Pujji was among the only 12 Indians to reach this designation. He fought on all three fronts of the war and survived two plane crashes after being shot down by the enemy. Another Indian war hero, commemorated with a statue in Gravesland, England but unknown to Indians. Everyone admires the might of the super powers and did even back then but no one saw us, the third world countries, the colonies to whom they owed their success. Nor did we see ourselves. Instead today we give Police burials and make statues for fanatic leaders and assassins.

Two million soldiers were shipped out of India to fight a war which was not really theirs. All misfortunes a soldier could suffer in the battlefield were suffered by them. They were killed, wounded, captured, executed, some caught diseases and some even went missing.

G.K. Rao is no more. My grandfather, someone who was himself a freedom fighter and gave his SSC examinations from within a jail in Mangalore, is now at the age of 90. It was his stroll down memory lane which has presented me with the facts stated above. Squadron Leader Mohinder Singh Pujji died in 2010 at the age of 92 in England, his story untold to his

fellow citizens. And with them a treasure of Historical events and tales and emotions of that era have gone undocumented. Something we Indians should have known and taken efforts to be aware of. But their legacy is not extinct. It is there, dormant, waiting to be unravelled among their children, friends, grand daughters and grand sons .

PRANAV SARMA

9699917922

Apart from being a third year BA political science student and a bit clueless in life..I am a wildlife enthusiast, a traveller, a decent photographer, car crazy and I love driving and camping..an amateur at both. Food and Fitness is a new found love and maths is an old adversary. I want to get my masters in international relations..hopefully before that..master the art of brief writing and even singing. I hold my memories close and my friends closer. Peace out, I guess!?

LAND AQUISITON IN INDIA

he Central Government has re-promulgated amendments to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, popularly known as the Land Acquisition Bill for a record fourth time; the bill remains stuck with a joint committee of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The amended bill has been the source of much controversy and debate, both inside and outside the Parliament. Here we attempt to understand what exactly the whole controversy has been about and take a balanced stance on the issue.

For almost six and a half decades post-independence, land acquisition for projects, both government sponsored and private continued to be regulated by the archaic and colonial Land Acquisition Act, 1884; termed draconian by many. It was also said 13

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to be against the interests of the common farmer. To give credence to its pro-Aam Aadmi claims, amidst the flurry of scams, the UPA brought in The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

It was to be implemented 2014 onwards amidst much fanfare. But before the implementation could begin, the UPA were booted out of power and the Modi government took centre stage with its promise of ‘Ache Din’. To fulfil its pre-election commitment of getting the India growth story up and running, the government found it necessary to bring in some amendments to the act passed in 2013.

The amendments which have been opposed fervently, deal with the doing away of the consent and Social Impact Assessment clauses when the land is being acquired for the following five purposes – Industrial Corridors, Public Private Partnership projects, Rural Infrastructure, Affordable housing and Defence. What it means in effect is that, firstly, the consent of 70-80% land owners (as stipulated by the 2013 law) won’t be necessary for acquiring land for the purposes mentioned above and secondly, since the Social Impact Assessment has been done away with, only the land owners would be compensated and not those affected indirectly by acquisition of farm land like the farm labourers.

While political opponents of the government have made out the bill to be anti-farmer, if one looks at it neutrally, some of these amendments were much needed, because with the old bill, projects would forever be stuck in the limbo, slowing down the nation’s progress to its detriment. If getting the consent of 75% flat owners, most of whom are well educated, for the cause of redevelopment of a society in a city like Mumbai is a nightmare, one can only imagine how difficult would it be to obtain the consent of such a large number of gullible farmers; who could readily be misled by some vested interests. The Social Impact Assessment is not only tedious but also a much complicated procedure; in a country already plagued by so much red-tapism, adding another layer only makes the bureaucratic tangle comparable to Abhimanyu’s Chakravyuh.

In a country as densely populated as India, land is often the limiting factor for a many different endeavours. With the ‘Make in India’ projects at the helm, it goes against practical and objective approaches to make the process of acquiring land a tedious one. While no one questions the need for appropriate compensation to the farmers for the land taken away from them, a small number of dissenters cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the larger interest of the nation. The logic is simple, the farmers themselves do not stay in an alien land; they stay in India itself. So if some part of their land is taken away for a power plant project, the electricity to be produced is going to benefit them as much as anyone else.

But yes, what the government needs to ensure is total transparency in the compensation process. Past experiences have perhaps made the farmers wary of the government’s ability to compensate them. Middlemen and bureaucrats often eat into large amounts of the monetary compensation, the promised jobs and other benefits. This needs to be curbed at the earliest to make sure that those giving up their lands for ‘national interests’ feel confident enough that their own personal interests would be taken care of in the best possible way. Such measures render a great amount of social inclusivity.

Promulgation and repeated re-promulgation of ordinances is not exactly an ideal practice in a democracy. The government first needs to set its own house in order and get its allies firmly on-board before worrying about those in the opposition.

While a consensus on such a contentious issue remains a distant dream, especially with a belligerent opposition which perhaps has sensed that scuttling of this legislation could perhaps be its grand come-back movement, all attempts must be made to have a healthy debate on the floor of the Parliament and muster the numbers required to see the legislation through both the houses.

One can only hope that the uncertainty over this crucial legislation is overcome at the earliest…

References:

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-04-26/news/61542735_1_land-acquisition-act-socialimpact-assessment-resettlement-act

DEV DESAI is a 19 year old studying at Medico @AIIMS, New Delhi. He is an avid newspaper reader, foodie and an enthusiastic dabbler in the magical 'World of Words!' Email Id: devcdesai@gmail.com Twitter Handle: @dcd1996

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A Challenge to the Development of the Economy and Humanity as a Whole. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vroom_%26_Dreesmann_(Amersfoort)_Stained_glass_ceiling.JPG

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ormally the effect of breaking the glass ceiling would result in blood and shards of glass; a lot of mess and pain but here I’m talking about a different outcome. Breaking the proverbial ceiling would result in the end of economic subservience of an entire sex due to patriarchal gender rules. Qualities of courage, independence, strength of character, and assertiveness are attributed to the male sex while innocence, docility, narcissism and a temperamental nature, are traits associated with females. This basic division of traits is what has led to the political, social, civil and economic subjugation of women all throughout. They are not given any opportunities for advancement in the work-sphere beyond a

point due to stereotypes which unfortunately are believed by more than a majority of the world’s human beings.

Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the foremost thinkers of the liberal school of feminism reasoned that if men were confined to the same cages that trap women, they would develop the same flawed characters and that instead of treating women like delicate stalks in the wind, teaching them to develop their rational and moral capacities as is taught to men, would help them be an equal contributor to society’s welfare.

What is this glass ceiling and when do women actually hit it? The glass ceiling is a very real barrier that prevents women and other minorities from 15

getting access to and achieving elite positions in a corporation despite being eligible and worthy of the post.

Gay Bryant, a former editor of The Working Woman magazine allegedly said “Women have reached a certain point—I call it the glass ceiling.

They're in the top of middle management and they're stopping and getting stuck. There isn't enough room for all those women at the top. Some are going into business for themselves.

Others are going out and raising families."

Women are constantly fighting a battle on many fronts- history and the people around them drill into their minds the importance and value of fulfilling traditional roles of wife,

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mother, daughter and sister, to the point where if you take away the male relation, the woman has no identity of her own. When they aim to work outside their homes, they are expected to work doubly hard to prove themselves- all while maintaining the perfect household because that is apparently always their foremost goal. And if they do sacrifice home for work, prejudices and stereotypes bar them from rising above mediocre jobs. Their ability to contribute to the labor force is severely constrained by their high allocation of time to unpaid work. Since most women do twice as much for the homes and families as men.

Women make up almost half the world’s population but their contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product still leaves much to be desired. Positions in an organization remain divided strictly along gender lines with men usually holding the high ranking jobs of CEOs, MDs, Heads of Departments etc. while women get relegated to more menial, clerical jobs; work in the health and social departments and part time jobs. This segregation plus reduced working hours, in combination with differentials in work experience, explain around 30 percent of the gender wage gap, on average.

While narrow for young women, the wage gap increases steeply during childbearing and childrearing years, thereby making ‘motherhood’ a condemnation too.

Women hold more positions in the informal sector than men, thus leaving them vulnerable to low degrees of job protection, job satisfaction

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and a lack of proper wages. Females now make up more than 40% of the world’s working force but a report from the International Monetary Fund estimates that the global economy has missed out on 27 percent of GDP growth per capita due to the gender gap in the labor market. The IMF estimates that having an equal number of women to men in their labor force could increase economic growth by 5 percent in the U.S. and as much as 30-35% in some of the fast developing countries. "There is ample evidence that when women are able to develop their full labor market potential, there can be significant macroeconomic gains," the report says.

the go and contribute in a dynamic business environment, we might be able to achieve greater economic growth and finally make use of the talent and abilities of millions stuck in the pipeline.

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This statement is meant to be merely illustrative, GDP as a formal concept doesn’t take into account ‘informal’ household contributions, and it is evident that despite making up half the worlds population women do not have a proportional representation in the organized work force in most regions where differences between male and female labor force participation continue to remain high.

The average gender participation gap in the Middle-Eastern countries is about 58% followed by South Asia and Central America at 35%. Most women hold positions in the primary or tertiary sectors while the secondary sector is completely dominated by men. In developing countries, it is women who bear the brunt of economic crises, as their jobs are usually the first to go.

What can be done to prevent the continuing loss of this valuable work force? For starters, we need to take a look at the existing women in top slots in companies and stomach the fact that they are in no way lesser than their male counterparts. Similar and wholesome education for females also enables them to realize their full potential and set goals in life accordingly. Lastly, instead of setting up roadblocks at each stage, if the corporation too helps women pick up skills needed to deliver on 16

ATULIA BISWAS as a Writer and

Artist, loves to reflect society's image through various media and walk the tightrope between passion and critical objectivity. At 20, she is a student of English Literature at Ramnarain Ruia College.

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WITNESS PROTECTION IN INDIA THE NEED OF THE HOUR

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find a place in the Indian Evidence Act1872. The matter is left entirely to the discretion of the court. In general a witness can be called hostile when he, in the opinion of the Judge bears a hostile animus to the party calling him and not merely when his testimony contradicts his proof. Having described a “hostile witness” it will be important to know the factors because of which a witness turns “hostile”.

WHY DOES A WITNESS TURN HOSTILE? Primarily a threat to a witness’s life is considered to be one of the most important reasons for a witness to turn hostile but it is not the only issue, the issue of witness protection should be studied in the light of the low conviction rate in India where the acquittal rate is comparatively high. Often the witnesses get frustrated because of the snail paced judicial proceeding where they are summoned only to find out that the court is adjourned.

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Many developed countries have enacted legislation with regard to Witness Protection. In England, threatening a witness from giving evidence or any act of threat or revenge against a witness after giving evidence is considered as contempt. Criminal Justice and Public Or17

der Act (1994) of U.K protects not only a person who is actually going to give evidence but also a person who is helping with the investigation of the crime.

In, the United States the Witness Protection is run under Comprehensive Crime Control Act, 1984. The Witness Security Reform Act, 1984 provides for relocation and other protection of a witness or a potential witness (and the family members or people closely associated, in some cases). The United States has one of the most well developed Witness Protection Programmes.

Effective Witness Protection schemes are there in Canada and South Africa also. In European countries such as Italy, Germany and Netherlands, the Witness Protection Programme covers organised crimes, terrorism, and other violent crimes where the accused already know the witness/victim.

LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL VENTURES IN INDIA Generally, witness protection would imply protection of a witness from any kind of physical harm, but in the Indian context it had been given a very narrow meaning with a restricted scope. The Law Commission in its 14th report (1948) referred to “witness protection” in this very limited scope where it considered “witness protection” as providing a witness with adequate arrange-

PHOTOGRAPHY: HARSH SHAH, SY BMM, RUIA COLLEGE.

INTRODUCTION witness is an indispensable part of a justice delivery system playing a pivotal role in determining the final outcome of a case. According to Bentham, witnesses are “eyes and ears of justice”.

Often these “very” witnesses turn hostile, become untraceable or simply eliminated. In India, this tendency can mostly be seen in the cases involving rich influential persons, corrupt politicians who leave the system into a bizarre condition, making rule of law, a mockery. A quick walk into the recent past, such as in the infamous Best Bakery case, the Jessica Lal murder case, Asaram Bapu case and the most recent one the Vyapam scam illustrates a lament but increasing tendency amongst the witnesses to turn hostile due to various plausible reasons. These cases come as an eye opener exposing glaring defects in the mechanism of rendering justice, as for many of these courageous witnesses taking part in the justice rendering system can be life threatening sometimes resulting in death. The lack of a comprehensive witness protection programme as part of the criminal justice system is effectively facilitating attempts to subvert justice.

WHO IS A “HOSTILE WITNESS”?

The usage of “hostile witness” does not

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ments in Court house, the scales of travelling allowance and daily batta (allowance) paid for witnesses for attending the Court in response to summons from the Court.

The Indian Judiciary has also recognised the importance of a Witness Protection Act. The Indian Judiciary has also recognised the importance of a Witness Protection Act. Kartar Singh v. State of Punjab was one important case where the Supreme Court of India addressed the issue of keeping the identity and address of the Witness It was the 54th Report of the Law Commission (1996) where it was for the first time recognised that the plight of witnesses appearing on behalf of the State was pitiable not only because of lack of proper facilities and conveniences but also because witnesses have to incur the wrath of the accused, particularly that of hardened criminals, which can result in their life falling into great peril.. In the case of Zahira Habibulla H. Sheikh and Another V. State of Gujarat and Others , it was emphatic on the role of the State to play in protecting the witnesses. Further, In PUCL v. Union of India , the validity of section.

30 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) was under discussion as it dealt with protection of witnesses, here it ruled that Section. 30 maintained a balance between the interests of the accused and the witnesses and also helped to assist the state in administration of justice and ensured anonymity of witness if a special court was convinced that the witness was under real threat. Report of the Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System, 2003 (known popularly as the “Malimath Committee”) spoke about the miserable conditions of witnesses in India and made recommendations for their protection by mentioning that a law for the protection of the witnesses and their family members should be given in the lines of the US Laws The “screen technique” was introduced by the 172nd Report of The Law Commission which took up the

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issue on request of the Supreme Court whose attention was attracted to the issue with the case of Sakshi v. Union of India, where it was suggested that in case of minor victims of sexual assault, he/she should be provided a screen to given the statement in such a manner that they can be seen by the accused in the court in order for him to instruct his lawyer to carry on the crossexamination in a particular manner while the victim cannot see the accused. This also led to the addition of the proviso to section 273 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

198th Report of The Law Commission (2006) stressed on “Witness Identity Protection” and “Witness Protection Programmes”.

Then in the Landmark case of National Human Rights Commission v. State of Gujrat which was a public interest litigation, where the Supreme Court referred to the absence of a law on the subject and the urgent need for one.

CONCLUSION Witnesses are the eyes and ears of the court. But, evidently, the plight of witnesses in many cases is pitiable.

Much deliberation has made been done for comprehensive witness protection schemes. The recommendations of the Law Commission have not been taken seriously by centre seriously. It is not that the laws are not in place, but the problem remains that they have not developed at the same pace as the crime itself. It appears from all of this that time is high for bringing out legislation for protection of witnesses and a few suggestions have been made of the same: 1.Speedy trial- Frequent adjournments should be avoided in order to ensure a witness does not have any difficulty in being present and following up the case later on.

path of justice 3.Identity Protection- It should also be ensured that the identity, addresses of the witness should be kept a secret when it is deemed necessary.

4.Treatment- the witnesses should be treated with dignity and ensured safety during the whole process, right from the police station till the court proceedings.

1

( 1994) 3 SCC 569 (2004) 4 SCC 158 3 (2004) 9 SCC 580 4 (2004) 5 SCC 518 5 (2009) 6 SCC 342 2

REFERENCES1.www.manupatra.com 2.Code of Criminal Procedure-1973 Law Commission of India, Reform of Judicial Administration, 14th Report National Police Commission, 4th Report, 1980 3.Law Commission of India, The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Act No. 2 of 1974) 4.Law Commission of India, Review of Rape Laws 5.Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System, March 2003 (Chaired by Dr. Justice V. S. Malimath) 6.Law Commission of India, 198th Report on ‘Witness Identity Protection and Witness Protection Programme 7."UK-wide witness protection programme to be launched in 2013"- 8.The Guardian

PRANJALI P. DEVURKAR ’’I love meeting new people. I am a lover of old Hindi music. Travelling to new places and learning about new cultures are also one of my interests. Apart from all this I like spending time reading and teaching kids.”

PAWAN KUMAR REDDY

“I am a lover of all kinds of sports especially 2.Monetary Benefits- The witnesses cricket and basketball occupy my time during should be given monetary allowance in vacations. I like travelling and exploring new order to make it easier for them to places. Modern history and photography also occupy my interests. Apart from all this I also reach the court and also give them an enjoy good food and music”.The authors are rd alternative job and re-locate them in situ- 3 Year B.A LLB (HONS), National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi. T. ations of need for their service to the

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EMERGENCE OF SECULARISM: GLOBAL AND INDIAN PERSPECTIVES “There are no more naïve theists, just as there are no naïve atheists.”

Charles Taylor

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oday’s society traces its steps back to the emergence of secularism in the world. This article attempts to follow and highlight the contrast between the global and Indian perspectives on the issue. It is divided into three sections that highlight the issues common to its sources. First, the sources of secularism, second, the relationship between the State and religion and third the practicality of secularism in India.

Sources of secularism Various debates on where the idea of secularism emerged from, point to Christianity, a view shared by Charles Taylor. Taylor, through his work attempts to counter other popular modernist views regarding its emergence. He denies the “death of God” or even the emergence of science and logic as ideas led to the rise of secularism.. A large part of society’s shift towards humanism and secularism, he finds, is attributed to the “disenchantment” of society leading to religion playing a far different, if not diminished role.

He believed that society in the 1500s was an “enchanted” one. God was considered to be the omnipotent maker of the natural world and the ultimate judge of all mankind, so much so that the idea of unbelief was unimaginable.

Disenchantment, Taylor explains, is the loss of belief in spirituality and this, according to him, led to the advent of exclusive humanism. The locus of the world shifted from God, to “within” an individual. He believed that the absence of God meant the absence of fear of God and the creation of scope for harnessing selfcontrol from within.

But he clarifies that disenchantment did not lead to secularism. The emergence of secularism was a result not of the rise of unbelief or the emergence of scientific thought but of the creation of new perspectives in the world. He claimed that it was not the evolution of the State that led to secularism but the following of God’s order, a shift towards humanism, as individuals realized they owed it to God to achieve their own good. This he attributes to the essence of religion, spirituality. He defines religion to be in the shape of one’s ultimate concern and holds the same place in society as it did in the past. Ultimately it was the fulfillment of this order, which led to an alternative set of moral sources. It ushered in an age of individual self-discipline.

The seeds for humanism and secularism were sown in the West and gradually these ideas have found a place in other parts of the world. Indian secularism is a result of such a transfer of 19

ideas. While Taylor produces a Godcentric view on what led to the emergence of secularism, Indian perspectives have evolved over the years.

T.N. Madan, in his work referred to secularism as a gift from Christianity.

Like Taylor, he disagreed that the neither the repudiation of religion, nor the rise of rationalism or modernity is a reason for secularism. He believed that religious tolerance should be sourced from the philosophy within religion and theology and symbolism of tolerance, were embedded in the faiths of citizens.

Madan too situated that Indian thought process was influenced by the West.He raised an issue with the direct adoption of secularism from the West into India not accounting for the difference in religious temperament.

Ashish Nandy, on the other hand goes beyond the idea that it was a concept borrowed from the West. He states that secularism chalks out an area in public life where religion is not admitted; holding different connotation in south Asia than the West.

In the West, secularism is understood as the State’s detachment from all religions. This definition is largely unsuited for India, where the term has a more accommodative meaning; equal respect for all religions. The western state pushes religion into the private sphere, which,

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several scholars argue as to be impossible in the Indian context.

While these perspectives have largely sided with Taylor on secularism being religion-centric, Partha Chatterjee and Amartya Sen take diabolically different stands.

Partha Chatterjee asserts that tolerance stems from respect for persons and morality and does not have to be sourced in religion. The emergence of Indian secularism could be attributed to this respect for religious autonomy coupled with institutional political salience on the issue.

He has observed that India refers to secularism as it was meant to be in the west and then fails to uphold this standard. Thus unlike Madan and Nandy, refuting claims of the emergence of India’s own brand of secularism.

Amartya Sen is perhaps the most promodernist/liberal scholar reflecting on the issue. He, unlike his predecessors sources secularism from within Indian history. He provides instances in history where Akbar and Ashoka ruled as secular kings before western influence. He states that secularism permits separate laws as long as different religious communities are treated with symmetry.

He clarifies that secularism is not modernism and opposing one doesn’t necessarily result in opposing the other.

Emergence of state and religion in the light of secularism The rise of secularism posed an important question regarding the relationship between the politk and religion.

Varying perspectives have emerged regarding whether the two should or can be separated.

Western secularism today implies a clear separation of church and state and the Indian standpoint is more complex owing to the multifaceted religious positions of the country.

T.N. Madan and Nandy hold similar views on the issue. Madan, like Taylor believes that religion and politics cannot be separated. Nandy was of the view that secularism in the Indian context

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cannot be pushed into the private

sphere.

Madan attributes the hierarchies in the modern state to the hierarchy in religion. Nandy states that the secular modern society has created a hierarchy where at the topmost are those who are non-believers in both public and private; the second are those who are nonbelievers in public but believers in private ;third come those who are believers in public and are nonbelievers in private and lastly those who are believers in both the public and private spheres. The modern state, Madan and Nandy suggest, forced people to follow the second category citing the prevention of religious fundamentalism, as the reason. They state that a separation of the state from religion will not do away with this inevitable hierarchy.

Both were proponents of the Gandhian ideology that religion was the source of absolute value and hence had to be constituted in social life and politics. Secularism thus, instead of appeasing religious intolerance only encouraged it and therefore state intervention became inevitable. Violence today is a result of the non-secular use of religion by secular users, and not a result of religion per se.

Madan emphasized that a state can survive only by maintaining a clear balance and affording mutual respect to religion.

Partha Chatterjee believes that Indians, as such were never opposed to state involvement in religion. They only opposed it under the colonial rule, to avoid expanding western control. Post independence, a large and emerging middle class preferred social reform in religion to bring about equality. This resulted in new legislations on religious and social matters causing secularism to enter politics. The state assumed the power of being the only authority which has the power to reform religion. The crusaders of social reform like Ambedkar, opposed the exemption of religion from legislation. This led to secular parliamentarians interpreting Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures to lay down a 20

law and blurring the separation between State and religion to a large extent.

Amartya Sen’s interpretation of secularism led him to assert that a state does not have to separate itself from religion in order to remain secular. It can treat all religions equally and still remain secular. He differentiated equal treatment from a religion dictating state policy.

This equal treatment would lead to two main issues, namely, insufficient positive discrimination upon failing to recognize religious diversity and political priority hurting public interest.

The secularization of India, therefore inevitably blurred the lines between the politics and religion but this doesn’t have to affect its identity as a secular state.

Growing criticism for the practicality of the secular state Those who source it from religion hold a common perspective regarding the practicality of secularism. Charles Taylor maintains that. God’s world propagated a certain sense of morality and that disenchantment has led to the loss of that moral spirit. This caused society to move away from the essential path of God, illustrating how disbelief leads to a wide sense of malaise in society.

The Indian perspective, including that of Ashish Nandy and Madan, view the western understanding of secularism as unfavorable in India. Madan believes that secularism isn’t suited for the Indian religious temperament because it does not cater to the nuances of religion-asfaith and only looks at religion-asideology. He supplements his view point with practical arguments on the failure of the state to implement its secular policies. The modern state, he claims has taken a “demonic” role and instigates violence.

He treats secularism as a social myth to counter this lack of power to control religion and a dream of a minority, which wishes to shape the majority by imposing its view upon history. He cited the growth of democratic participation in India, modernity as the dominant culture in politics for the lack of compro-

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mise between religion and secularism.

Nandy supplements this view by stating that, unfortunately religion has come to be understood as the ideology, which identifies a population for the convenience of non-believers.

The Hindu Right’s critique is a modernist critique of other religions. Partha Chatterjee points out the use of state legislation to achieve the modernist purpose of equality conflicting with another modernist principle of freedom of religion is an anomaly. He says, it would necessarily require state intervention and the curbing of one’s rights and a state has failed if, in achieving its goal attributes a new meaning to secularism.

Amartya Sen too opposes the idea that secularism could perpetuate violence and fundamentalism. He believes that a symmetric approach to governance and statecraft may do a lot to reduce tension and violence. He states that secularism applies to politics in general and may well reduce the violence that many societies standardly have.

ism. But pertinent issues include the sources of secularism and how it may be traced back to religion or even the rise of new thought. In understanding its emergence, questions regarding the relationship between the state and religion and whether the secular model is compatible in India have emerged as the larger themes of the issue.

References 1. Charles Taylor A secular age, Harvard University Press, 2007.

2. Rajeev Bhargava, Secularism and its Critics: themes in politics, Oxford University Press, 1999 3.http://notesonscholarlybooks.blogspot.in/2009/03/ashis-nandy-politics-ofsecularism-and.html

CONCLUSION:

The academic conversation on secularism cannot sustain without addressing several of the issues raised by Taylor, Sen and other such other scholars. It is worth noting that the existence of God is not a part of the discussion on secular-

ADITI MALLAVARAPU is a third year law student in Jindal Global Law School. She is an atheist, feminist and an aspiring marathon runner. As a student of law, she hopes to find a balance between uplifting the backward and finding a place in the corporate world.

She will be happy to engage any readers who wish to discuss the article.

Her email address is mallavarapu.aditi@gmail.com

REASONS FOR THE FAILURE OF THE GREEK ECONOMY How often do you face a situation when you end up dining at a plush café when you really can’t afford doing it in your circumscribed pocket money, but you do it just because your friend enjoys this continuous flow of money? This is what a country, rather, a developed country had been doing for eons and all it did was to give rise to a major debt crisis, which engendered the collapse of the euro zone. The country is none other than one with a rich heritage – GREECE! But it still remains hidden under the shackles as to why Greece gave up on its debtors.

Weren’t we all bowled over when we opened our eyes to the declaration of bankruptcy of the Greek economy in mid-2015? This article later throws more light on how and why Greece became the first developed country to fail to repay an IMF loan.

The Greek government’s debt crisis started in late 2009 when it declared it would give up on its debts, worth around €323bn. But although the Greek depression started in 2009, the spark was lit when Greece entered the Euro zone back in 2001. The decrease in the trade costs in the Eurozone led to the increase in the labour costs in the peripheral countries like Greece, which was the initial reason for the Greek crisis. Greek critics have been mentioning that tax evasion has been like a ‘NATIONAL SPORT’ in Greece, with €30 billion per year going uncollected. This highlights the inefficiency of the tax collection system in Greece. Moreover, their political instability has also aggravated the issue. The constant elections are a heavy burden on the economy. According to Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer 2013, 90% of surveyed households consider political parties to be corrupt or extremely corrupt—ranking as the most corrupt institution in Greece.

Greece had been investing in the military sector more than the USA and the UK. And the military is a no-returns sector. The main reason behind doing so lies in the ludicrous state of the Greek military due to their fights with the Turkish over the oil wells in the past decades. Hence, the Greek import a lot of armament increasing their deficit.

Another reason for the demise of the Greek economy is the disproportionate age structure- Greece had 2.6 million pensioners, but a work force of only 4.4 million, which itself was shrinking by around 700 workers per day in the private sector. This caused the state to take loans to keep pace with monthly payments. Tens of thousands took retirement before the minimum age requirement was raised. It is also really disgraceful of Greece to claim that Germany owes them €279bn for war reparations during the World War II. By doing this, the Greeks are also trying to cover their debts by tricking poor German taxpayers out of their hard-earned Euros.

Going by the statistics, the Greek citizens have been lethargic enough for the nation to have to import most of their goods and remain very minimal in domestic production. Further the Greek government provides subsidies on these imported goods which worsens their situation even more.

The critics have estimated that 86% of the population would be financially dependent on the Greek government by 2060 if they do not take proper measures now. Greece is a like a candle that burns itself to impart light amongst its citizens and it is high time wherein Greece starts adopting austerity measures to stop aggravating the issue more.

The Article written 2015, is an amateur analysis of the then ongoing Greece Crises.

ISHWARYA KULKARNI AND SALONI KELKAR. First Year B.A. Students of Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai.

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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/50-LyceeSuresnes-Geographie-ChapovalYoula.jpg

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TRIPPING ON ECONOMICS

“Sure we maybe amateurs,

but we know funda when we see it! “

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DHARAVI AN ECONOMIC HUB POTTERY UNIT IN DHARAVI

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Dharavi#/media

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lum, poverty, congestion, crime….these are the first things that come to people’s minds when they think of Dharavi. Famous for being Asia’s biggest slum, Dharavi is a place that is unfortunately not acknowledged as an economic hub. Located in the heart of Mumbai, Dharavi has a population of more than 600,000 people residing in 100,000 makeshift homes. It is a claimant to being one of the world's highest population densities at more than 12,000 persons per acre.

Despite its plastic and tin structures and lack of infrastructure, Dharavi is a unique, vibrant, and thriving 'cottage' industry complex, the only one of its kind in the world.

File:Pottery_unit_in_Dharavi,_Mumbai.jpg

but the labour stayed, giving Dharavi a skilled labour force, as well as cheap costs for workshops and workers, and informal networks between suppliers, middlemen and workshops.

A study by the Center for Environmental Planning & Technology indicates that Dharavi currently has close to 5,000 industrial units, producing textiles, pottery and leather, and performing services like recycling, printing, and steel fabrication. Dharavi exports goods to places all around the world. The total turnover is estimated to be between US$500 million, to over US$650 million per year, and to even over US$1 billion per year. The per capita income of the residents (depending on the estimated population ranging from around 300,000 to about 1 million) ranges between US$500 to US$2000 per year.

A unique characteristic of Dharavi is its very close workplace relationship. Productive activity takes place in nearly every home. As a result, Dharavi's economic activity is decentralized, human scale, home-based, low-tech and labourintensive.

The informal sector is the major source of India’s economic growth. It is also responsible for about 84% of

Before the 1980s, Dharavi had tanneries that dumped their effluents into the surrounding marshlands. Labourers came from southern India, especially the state of Tamil Nadu, many of them Muslims or lower-caste Hindus, fleeing drought, starvation or caste discrimination.

Once Tamil Nadu’s economy strengthened, migrants began arriving from poverty-stricken states in central India. Later, the tanneries were closed down for environmental reasons, moving south to the city of Chennai, or to other slums elsewhere. Now the rough leather from the tanneries of Kanpur and Chennai is sent here for final processing. The tanneries were removed, 23

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the total employment. What is interesting to note in Dharavi’s case is that these small scale industries received no help from the government whatsoever. But a point to note here is that like any other informal sector, the employees are not treated well. Regular working hours, safety regulations, minimum wage, medical, provident funds are not provided. That’s the way these businessmen operate so that they keep their expenses and cost of production as less as possible. For example, if a factory employs more than 100 people, they will have to become a formal firm.

This means that the firm will have to comply with regulations like The Industries Act, Shop and Establishment Act. To avoid this, they keep their operations small, divide it up and even under-report their output. This also means that they don’t pay taxes and hence don’t directly contribute to the economy. It is therefore imperative, to make these firms formal so that the owners are accountable for their worker’s health and their output can be directly added to India’s GDP. What is remarkable about this informal economy is the optimism and hope that these residents and workers show

in their everyday life in spite of the unhygienic working and living conditions and the lack of basic amenities. It is a booming hub despite them facing such hardships daily!

Dharavi has great economic prospects for India and for the workers. Government intervention is required to grant certain incentives, and to make these industries formal which will benefit the economy and the workers as well.

References 1.http://www.planetizen.com/node/35269 2.http://www.deccanherald.com/content/216254/dharavi-self-created-specialeconomic.html 3.http://wiego.org/informal-economy/statistical-picture

ADITYA SHARMA is a Second Year student pursuing his Bachelors in Economics from Ramnarain Ruia College. His interests include reading, cinema and cricket

ECONOMISTS

IN LOVE! I

f you look hard enough, you can see love everywhere!

enon where one’s supply meets the other’s demand, or, when there is a trade off between an empty wallet or being single.

Love can be described as a strong feeling of affection, but that does not sound rational to us economists. Ask an When economists are in love, their world stops being raeconomist “what is love”? And they will define it for you tional, and a highly emotional alter- ego comes in the picin any way and every way. Some will explain it as phenom- ture. If we could make theories and models on love, 24

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wouldn’t it be epic? Take the theory of the Philips curve, which explains how an economy does a trade off between inflation and unemployment. An economist would probably have a trade off between thinking rationally vs. thinking emotionally, or, optimising the given amount of income/ pocket money vs. pampering their loved one. We would create models which would have symbols such as α, β, δ and ∏ representing the rate of attraction, compromise, understanding and love. Let’s just assume that we can represent hate with ԑ. Put all these in a mathematical equation, with few derivations here and there, add a theory and Eureka! You have invented a love model! If two economists fall in love and get married even the population will be under control, so it is beneficial even from a societal point of view. J

Both individuals would practice bounded rationality, which would be pretty irrational and would go against its laws (its two economists on a date, what else can we expect?).

Each would try to communicate their adaptive expectations to the other with respect to what they want from this relationship and if the date was well enough from a point of view of personal welfare. Be careful folks! Revealed preference might play a role here. This date can also be described through the perspective of game theory.

Both have love as their dominant strategy and are aware of each other’s feelings. When one try to make the first move to profess their love for the other with a romantic gesture, the other tries to outdo the first by going one step ahead with the romance. Such a strategic scenario will surely lead them to a Nash!

In econometrics we have the concept of a co–integrating vector, which explains that two non-stationary time series {both I (1)} may have a stationary relation of I (0). We economists are crazy and so is our love, so when two economists come together, their blossoming love is nothing but a co-integrating vector my friend!

The idea of two economists being in love is a brilliant one.

And it comes with its own share of drama, gestures, expressions and heavy discussions. Who knows what new ways they will find to profess their love for each or to fight. We economists can never love irrationally, because we are built like that. Our brains are wired in such a way, that unconditional is not a part of our dictionary. But hey!

If, a husband and wife- both economists- go on a date, When you are in love who cares if it’s an economist you what would be their discussion like? Their date won’t be a love or a layman, pyaar toh pyaar hota hai na! romantic one for most of the part, it would be economical. The conversation would involve sentences which will Literally translates to “love is love, after all” make evident their love for the subject.

While looking at the menu, they would take at least an hour to do a cost benefit analysis of each dish they plan to consume, and if they will be capable of maximising their utility.

And how it will impact their household budget for the month. Waiting for their meal, they would have discussions involving a wide range of topics - from their exes which would be considered bad investments to one of them making a statement such as, “Honey! I always like to measure my risk preferences and opportunity costs when I invest in a new relationship, and you are the best investment I have ever made”! The other could well talk about how they tried Tinder to go on more than one date to have a diverse portfolio of people to choose from - just like investing in mutual funds - but realised that it was just a waste of time! Such a discussion would involve a range of topics, and, would be incomplete without the use of words such as disintermediation, stochastic, expected value (because we are secretly obsessed with this word), etc.

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DEVAYANI SHARMA is a Jai Hind alumnus and presently studying Development Economics at the masters level at Symbiosis School of Economics. She wants to bring another angle to economics through her creativity. She has a keen interest in Urban Development and Health Economics. And has worked with organizations like NIUA to help her pursue Policy making and consulting In future.

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YES! The economy rises to life. The chirping birds, mooing cows, and chattering monkeys constitute the fauna around the temple adorning the morning bliss. Soft music or the bhajans dedicated to the deity flood the city with overwhelming devotion.

The refreshing cool breeze from the sea adds flavour to the already mesmerizing environment. Flower vendors collect baskets full of flowers to sell it in front of the temple. The enchanting aroma of the flowers tickles the nostrils of devotees- they cannot help but buy them for the Lord. The flowers embellish the charismatic formation of the deities. Devotees start pouring into the temple failing to mask their temptation to be a part of the lively community. This place gives them utmost pleasure and helps them in rejuvenating their mind, body and soul before they indulge in the monotonic and conventional lives. This description understates the allure of the temple-The Jagannath temple of Puri, Odisha. I fall short of words to describe the beauty of the place.

The Jagannath temple is one of the four dhams of Hindu Religion. Every devout Hindu wishes to visit this temple at least once in his/her life. This is a huge temple of 40,000 square feet with a huge fortified wall of 20 feet with more than 500 small temples inside it. Expenditures include maintenance of the temple, salary of the employees, conducting the daily rituals and annual rituals etc. All these expenditures amount to crores of rupees. But unlike other big temples of India, the Jagannath temple is run by public revenue. When other famous temples of India earn some thousands of crores and are self-reliant, the Jagannath temple is dependent on government funding. But there is ample scope to make the temple self sufficient.Some of the ways are suggested in this write-up.

One of the most precious properties of the temple is the Ratna bhandar. The gold and jewels gifted to the deity are stored here.

This treasury is enriched by donations made by devotees from all over the world as well as the great valuables gained from the winning of wars by the- then Maharaja of Odisha. Ratna bhandar has got two chambers. one is the Bhitar bhandar (Inner treasury) and the other is the Bahar bhandar (outer treasury). A meticulously maintained record of the valuable jewels and gold ornaments etc. of Lord Jagannath is there in the records of rights prepared under Puri Sri Jagannath temple act, 1954.The list shows 150 items of gold ornaments in the Bahar Bhandar. The Bhitar Bhandar has got 180 items, 74 among them to be pure gold ornaments. According to the binding provisions of Sri Jagannath Temple Act 1954, the Sri Jagannath temple managing committee headed by the Gajapati Maharaj (the thenKing of Puri) took the responsibility of managing the Ratna Bhandar. The Ratna Bhandar is in the safe custody of the Puri Raja. In accordance to the provisions of Sri Jagannath Temple rules, 1960, the articles in Sri Ratna Bhandar are classified under three categories:

is how the reserve of gold can be used productively. The revenues generated can be used for many purposes.

This factual information yields that the Jagannath temple has a good store of fortune. It is evident that there are good stores of wealth in the form of Gold and silver jewellery as well as precious stones in the Bhitar bhandar which are never being used. They are just kept as the valuables of the temple.

In my opinion, instead of keeping the possessions in the temple premises as just a store of wealth, they can be invested in a bank and can generate huge revenues. This

His land reserves are found in countries other than India too.

The Jagannath temple is the epitome of Hindu tradition and culture and has been since time immemorial. During the British rule, the assets of Lord Jagannath temple were recognised under three categories.

Endowments consisting of assignment of revenue on certain lands by Marathas.

Certain sayer duties collected on behalf of the temple Pilgrim tax.

In the year 1809, the East India Company took over the management of the temple estates. It also took up the liability to contribute a fixed sum of money to the Temple for its maintenance. In 1840, the pilgrim tax was abolished. In 1858, the Government decided not to make annual payments but to transfer lands equivalent to it. The entire inland region of Odisha contributes less than 5% to the total landed properties of Lord Jagannath. States like West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh have large land properties under the ownership of Lord Jagannath. The stretch from Vijayanagaram to Bengal is the sacred coastal belt of Jagan1.Articles in Bhitar Bhandar and never being nath cult. used. 2.Articles used on ceremonies or There is no denying that Lord Jagfestive occasions. 3.Articles for daily use of annath Mahaprabhu is the biggest deities. landlord of the world of 21st century.

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From the data given above, it is evident that there are huge land reserves of the temple. But during settlement operations, lands have been illegally transferred and recorded in the names of many private individuals. No revenues are being generated because of this unauthorized possession of land by private individuals. The land properties of Lord Jagannath are well dispersed

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PURI_JAGANATHA_TEMPLE,_PURI,_ORISSA,_INDIA,_ASIA.jpg

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around the world. Maintaining proper records and collecting revenues regularly will need many experienced professionals and an organised committee. This would incur a huge recurring expenditure. Moreover, as most of the land has now been physically possessed by private individuals for generations, it will be difficult to collect any revenue now. According to me, these segregated lands should be auctioned out and preference should be given to the people who already are in illegal possession of it. This will give the temple a huge one-time revenue. Part of that money can be kept as fixed deposits in banks and other parts can be invested in stock markets and mutual funds.

These can generate recurring huge revenues. This revenue can be invested in private firms too.

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made to the temple in a productive way, the small cottage industries that create mud and preventing its misappropriation. utensils for serving prasad of the Lord, Now if these proposals and suggestions are earthen lamps etc. This would improve the effectively executed then a huge amount of standard of living of people dependent upon revenue can be generated. These revenues the economy of the temple. can be put into developmental purposes like providing cheap accommodation facilities to the numerous pilgrims and devotees and tourists who visit Puri every year. Accommodation expenditure is phenomenally high in Puri. This inhibits pilgrims from visiting Puri. Sanitation facilities can be provided.

The car festival or the annual Rath yatra and the Nabakalebara (Change of body or sheath of deities usually once in 12 years) festivals are the most extravagant and vibrant festivals celebrated in the temple. Every year crores of rupees are spent to organise these events which are funded solely by the GovAlthough it is a tourist hub, there is an abso- ernment of Odisha. These funds are generlute dearth of hospitals in Puri. It is high time ated from the tax revenues collected by the that good hospitals be constructed so that government from the people of Odisha. the place becomes self sufficient. A Universi- However, if the reforms mentioned above ty can be funded so that good education at are implemented, then the temple can beaffordable prices can be provided to the come self sufficient and fund the whole event individually. This would save a lot of The State Government formed a commitrevenues collected from the public which tee in 1978 for the everyday management could again be invested in some other deof the temple, time to time completion of velopmental purpose. work, etc. One of the suggestions of this These small transformations can bring committee was the formation of a Foundaabout a huge change. The temple can be the tion Fund to improve the financial status of supporting pillar to greater economic the temple. Initially an amount of 5 crore growth in the region- it can induce an ecowas to be deposited for training the servinomic transformation around itself. tors, maintenance work, daily expenditure etc. Then came in the strongest proposition of the committee for creating a HUNDI where devotees can put in their donations. children of servitors and other individuals The putting up of a Hundi was legalised in associated with the temple. Cheap meals ISHA MOHANTY acts. According to the formulated law, no can be provided to the thousands of pilECONOMICS DEPARTMENT, 1YEAR, servitor can possess the donations put into grims who visit Puri.

LADY SRI RAM COLLEGE FOR WOMEN,DELHI UNIVERSITY the Hundi. Bank accounts were opened to The Puri coastline has some of the most Contact no. 9643220906 store this donation amount. Cash books polluted beaches in the whole country. The were issued to this cause. According to the temple fund can be used for cleaning the Being a native of Bhubaneswar, the capital city of the coastal state Odisha , I grew up developing a modified law of 2003, it was decided that beaches and to make a waste water treat- taste for Indian music and ardent love for food.

10% of the donations would be distributed ment plant. The long coastline has great Through my schooling in DAV Public School, I continued being indecisive about my career. To my among the servitors and the other 90% potential for wind energy production. The fortune, I had this innate tendency to evade sociewould be used for temple development. temple can try to invest in a wind energy tal influences and follow my heart. I took up humanities in +2 and ended up loving it. I eventually For the last few years, close circuit cameras generation plant. All these developments realized that economics is to catalyst my career have been installed and the recording of the will encourage more tourists to visit Puri path. I dreamt of being a part of the privileged lady shri ram league. Earnest efforts helped me accomevent of counting the cash in the donation from around the world and will give an elec- plish my dream of being a inmate of Lady Shri Ram college, Delhi university. boxes has taken place to avoid the misap- trifying boost to the tourism industry of Hope I accomplish my new set dreams. I can be propriation of funds. This has proved to be Odisha. The temple can also microfinance reached overisha10.mohanty@gmail.com a successful way of both using the donations 27

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UNCLE SAM SCORES AN ‘E’ GRADE IN ECONOMICS

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he US presidential elections 2016 is already the biggest event in 2015 and why not? The United States of America is the (self proclaimed) ultimate super power, paving the way for other countries who keep this ‘bald eagle’ on a pedestal, so if we are talking about electing the leader or champion of this great nation then it is bound to be the biggest news that can come up. But every presidential election has its own magnetism and charm that makes it more ‘breaking news’ worthy and the 2016 election has already found its selling point- the absolute backwardness of the candidates towards the economy.

issues with political agendas, a clichéd tactic used by every other politician. How often do we see a prospective leader give her/his thoughts and plans about inflation, trade management, promotion of investments and savings, financing the smallscale sector, primary sector reforms, funding technological evolution? The US is highly vulnerable, especially after the 2008 Lehman Brothers Economic crisis. American investors, foreign investors and players need a guarantee that the market will not go through such chaos in the future (an almost impossible feat) but even if an economic crisis were to occur, the Government would be very well aware of the situation and how to work in it, functioning as a sort of ‘safety cushion’.

After so many years, you would expect that there would be more concentration

ments? The primary GOP debate was a clear indication that none of the Republican candidates knew what they were doing except for passing derogatory comments, which seems like their forte. Economic issues have not been highlighted or stressed upon, which honestly, should be their major concern.

on the workings of the economy rather than emphasizing the failure of the previous president/s, passing personal remarks about the running contestants or just basically behaving like Donald Trump whenever he gets airtime. Even this so called ‘greatest’ super power has nothing intelligent and concrete to offer with respect to its financial affairs.

let alone getting elected as the president of The United States of America, then grasping the power, knowledge and understanding of the economy should be their first step. Let’s modify the slogan from “Yes We Can” to “Yes We Can Understand”.

If you want to be a powerful leader, knowing your economy is one of the best routes. If you want to be the ultimate super power, you need to understand the concepts of economic growth and eco-

nomic development and also learn the distinguishing factors between these two concepts. If the candidates want to come even slightly close to getting selected as their party representatives, 28

So what do you take from this? Why are the economic issues not taking the center stage? Even though it’s “The United States of America”, they have their fair share of problems stretching from the debt to GDP ratio to the limited energy sources. This takes us back to the importance of education in economics as a subject, in its application and the general concepts governing the functioning of an economy. These candidates are doing a stupendous job of camouflaging economic

“Ahoy! My name is SHARIKA DHAR and I am final year student who is at the brink of becoming a graduate. Even though I am graduating in Economics, I make it a point to keep myself well learned in other disciplines like political science, psychology, literature etc. I am an avid reader who reads from a range of classics to manga! I also enjoy origami and ikebana and one day hope to visit the country from where all this originates- Japan.”

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Uncle_Sam_(pointing_finger).jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald-trump-secim-840x420.jpg

When I write the term ‘backwardness’, your mind will first jump to one of the infamous Republican Party candidates, Donald Trump. This real estate mogul has been successful in making the elections

look more like a farce but his economic policies are not one of the worn out ones.

In fact, his ideas of abolition of hereditary tax, reduction of corporate tax, changing the tax system to a ‘0-5-10-15’ system are much more planned out and systematic compared to the other “amazingly perceptive” ideas. Carly Fiorina, another Republican candidate, is praised for her different outlook (not exactly novel or original) of targeting the private sector, considering her long stint in the corporate sector.

Other than these, we come to hear the same old chants about ‘stagnant wages’, ‘targeting the middle class’, ‘health care financing’ etc. Economically, these problems are severe and definitely require attention but how many of these competitors have actually understood these obstacles? How does one tackle these issues?

What is the root cause of these predica-

GRAPHIC BY TANEESHA IYANGAR

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ery often, we entertain ourselves through television or casually use social media through Facebook, Twitter, and even WhatsApp to express our views. These interfaces have allowed us to open our windows to the world at large. And this effect is not only limited to social media. Liberalisation of trade led to widespread use of commodities and devices such as laptops, mobile phones, cars, colas to even perfumes which has had a significant influence on us. This potentially spurred what is called network effects. We are able to communicate and share our views about use and misuse, likes and dislikes, and about everything. This essentially, is the effect of networking or the synchronisation value - which is the surplus or benefit an individual derives when the number of users of the same good variate. In simple terms, higher usage of certain products makes them more valuable. This phenomenon is central to technology and network. For instance, an application like WhatsApp brings little or no utility if used by an individual or a small group of users.

But when it becomes a commodity service of mass consumption, it allows the users to connect seamlessly and brings in a much higher utility.

Also, this situation of utility could be called an externality as the producers fail to take these effects into account. These effects bifurcate into the direct effects, which refer to the sales or number of units sold e.g. the increased use of telephones. The indirect effects in cases such as ‘complimentary goods’ (e.g. cars and

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fuel) influences the sale of other goods Having too many users can deterioimplicitly. The network effects can be rate the speed and utility for the contwo sided as well, like when consump- sumers because the full capacity is attion of certain goods tends to increase tained. Thus, the producer has to enthe value of other complimentary sure an increase in capacity when this products, for example, the growing hurdle is faced. sales of software because of increasing Products which are widely hardware usage. People nowadays are used or have strong network effects influenced by the avid use of social or are able to attract new users easily business networking platforms and by rather than other competing goods. their peer groups, which are generally Established brands and companies, small. Messengers are a great example which have captured the market defor this. mand majorly, are able to provide The primary benchmark of any those goods which are relatively riskcompany producing goods or services free to a risk averse consumer. Thus, is to get enough number of users so these effects tend to make initial marthat the network effects work. This ket competition fiercer leading to new term is called critical mass. This is a companies struggling for market share. crucial stage for a company to gener- This tends to give rise to a monopoly. ate self- sustenance. After the compa- References: 1. Arun Sundararajan, Network effects, NYU Stern (URL: ny pounds the pavement and attains http://oz.stern.nyu.edu/io/network.html) 2. S. J. Liebowitz: Management School, University of Texas at critical mass, more new users will Dallas, Stephen E. Margolis: Department of Economics, North Carolina State University, Network Effects (URL: thereby be attracted to the goods https://www.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/palgrave/network.html) since it provides utility in itself. Face- 3. “Economies of Scale and Network Externalities.” Boundbook has recently doled out millions less Economics. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015. Retrieved 23 Aug. of dollars to attract potential app de- 2015 (URL: https://www.boundless.com/economics/ velopers by offering them benefits up textbooks/boundless-economics-textbook/monopoly-11/ barriers-to-entry-reasons-for-monopolies-to-exist-70/ to $80,000 under the banner of economies-of-scale-and-network-externalities-262-12359/ FbStart. This platform will enable them to generate a hub of billions of users from huge markets in Asia, like India.

ISHA SAGAR The initial phase saw only a small set Miranda House. of users, given the minimal utility it “I am a business commanded. But gradually the size of enthusiast and an users expanded along with the applicaavid reader with tion-software developments and ingreat interest in fiction and creased its popularity. classics. Being a But beyond critical mass, the Mirandian has growth in number of consumers cangiven me not continue indefinitely. After a point, opportunity to be part of various most networks get congested or satusocieties along with writing in my rated. This happens due to overuse.

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src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/13/Liquor_bottles.jpg/800px-Liquor_bottles.jpg"

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he evolution of advertising has given commodities a by default publisher and when it markets itself with an incentive, people tend to respond optimistically. If a seller at a carnival opts to offer discounts on soft drinks and snacks, he may dominate the share of customers. However, the reaction would drastically differ if he decides to sell Bacardi labeled t-shirts with a buy one get one offer. Such surrogate advertising of alcoholic products is done under the pretense of inscribing the brand name in people’s minds. The need for disguising liquor brands is due to the taboo attached to it. For centuries

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sumer) to incur loss for consuming alcohol.

Despite having a low per capital alcoAlong with that, the type of alcoholic hol consumption level, India has seen a 55% increase in alcohol drinkers over beverage demanded also defines the past two decades. According to a whether alcohol is an inferior or a research paper by Harvard University normal good. University College Dub(Alcohol and Self-Control: A Field Ex- lin, Ireland found that a low income periment in India, February 3, 2015), curtailed the alcohol intake making it the average male Indian drinker conan inferior good however during ecosumes five standard drinks a day and there has been an increase in women nomic depression it was highly conconsumers. There has been a rise in sumed and thus behaved as a normal pursuing an active nightlife, which good. These controversies are the combined with peer pressure, stress, result of consumers’ unfathomable and the need to seek adventure, behavior. The parallels cannot be proves to be common drivers amongst the urban youth. The proba- drawn in India with respect to its alcobility of future consumption increases hol market as the three main segif the first encounter with alcohol ments of alcoholic products-wine, drinking is positive. The term known beer and spirits show different conto be considered.

THE LIQUOR TALKING Alcoholic consumerism and the liquor industry - a look into how consumer behavior evades rationality as a result of advertising and branding strategies alcohol had its place in the consumer basket of individuals. Yet, the dark mist canopying it sustains. The ban on advertising only gives impetus to the Streisand effect wherein the more you hide it the more it is exposed.

Firms find new strategies by veiling a spirit’s trademark with another ordinary product to sub-consciously imprint it in the consumer’s mind and this awareness creates a positive correlation with the levels of alcohol consumption. Although the framing effect of alcohol has an impact on consumer behavior, the motives triggering it are

as hot-cold empathy coined by one of the pioneers of behavioral economics, George Loewenstein in his ‘The Behavioral Economics Guide 2014’ edition states that the contradictory actions of an individual are due to the impulse of a moment. During the cold stage an individual is aware of the outcomes of drinking and prefers to drink moderately but in the hot stage, he oversees the risks and resorts to binge drinking. These causes reflect the drinking habits of an individual while their disposable income controls their expenditure on these products.

Studies suggest that alcohol gets its value from the propensity (of a con30

sumption patterns. India is one of the largest beer markets. Only 6.8 liters per capita per year amongst age 15 and above is consumed, although it is cheaper than other alcoholic beverages. The similar benchmark consumption of spirits is 93.1 liters in spite of high price due to high percentage of alcohol content. The wine industry has recently witnessed growth due to modernizing lifestyle and prestige as well as 100% FDI in viticulture permitted in January 2015 which was posted by an article of India Briefing, but it is not an appealing product for heavy

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http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-in-2-decades-55-jump-in-indians-drinking-alcohol-2086445

drinkers due to its low alcohol content.

The alcohol market in India is quite versatile with consumers spending 345% of the income on purchase of alcohol given by 2001 WHO report.

The liquor demand and intake in rural area is more as compared to urban areas. Urban drinkers mostly choose beer, wine and foreign liquor while rural consumers go for toddy and country liquor. The alcohol sales are subject to the state wise laws and regulations and the categories of markets with open access, license bidding in auction markets; government controlled sales in few states as well as prohibited markets with no liquor sale.

The state taxes bring in huge revenue to finance state projects especially from the sales of hard liquor. However, increase in sales tax has not seen decrease in the consumption but has led to its growth in black market. Even the retailers underestimate their sales to avoid taxes. The states that prohibit alcohol have suffered human losses due to poisoning through illicit liquor.

As per the data published by the Journal of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine in 2012 (a research paper on the scenario of Hooch tragedy in Gujarat state) Gujarat was estimated to have forgone Rs 30 billion, revenue which it could have gained from liquor tax.

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the other hand when prices show a rising trend, consumers frequently switch to cheaper brands. Simultaneously if we consider the bases of alcohol production we find that IMFL produces molasses-based liquor, which does not meet the required international standards of raw material content and ageing norms thus discouraging foreign trade. Recent initiatives have been to shift from molassesbased to grain-based liquor. We can find some hope in employment brought by alcohol industries with 1.5 million people employed in production and sales in 2001. Although as per the Punjab Excise Act, women are discouraged from being employed in these arenas, in Punjab and Haryana.

However, we rarely find women working in liquor outlets. But regardless of the innumerable barricades on sale, affluent companies like United Spirits Ltd, United Breweries, Radico Khaitan, Diageo and others have expanded their business over the years in all segments.

crimes barge in. The Global Status Report, Alcohol Policy given by WHO aims to describe the effectiveness of the alcohol policies worldwide and implements critical measures. An NGO started in 2004; Indian Alcohol Policy Alliance has taken similar efforts to restrict sales production and distribution, undertake petitions to increase taxation and enlighten compatriots about alcohol laws, usage and its outcome.

The spirits fortify human spirits, as one lets liquor control him instead of controlling his habit. Although moderate consumption of alcohol is medically advised and researches have concluded moderate drinking to be helpful in reducing the risk of heart attacks but the inculcation of such advice is individualistic. The median of standard drinks to be followed is yet another issue to be probed. Nevertheless, alcohol has its own glamour and its consumers will keep providing it the required momentum enough to induce liquor firms to continue their services.

Perhaps, the next time you see KangaIf one has to analyze the crucial factors na’s drunken state scene in ‘Queen’, prompting a particular response by apart from the humor, you will have consumers, the focus should be on the above perspectives to influence unemployment, income, advertising your perception about alcohol coneffects and economic state of a coun- sumption. try. But in reality most countries end up tending to the health costs of alcohol consumption. The moment we hear news about road accidents, the first two reasons we speculate are The salient features of India’s liquor rash and inebriated driving. Also the industry comprising of Indian-made allied misery of illness, property deforeign liquor (IMFL), foreign brands struction and loss of future earnings and country liquor includes high risk, AMRUTA BAGWE due to pre-mature deaths comes TYBA Economics stringent competition, structural rigidiRamnarain Ruia College forth. Support costs of professional ties, and limited interstate trade as Endeavor your challenges today with liveliness to treatment, establishment of rehabilitalive tomorrow with a livelihood.” well as price sensitivity. At the same tion centers, law enforcement, and I stand by this motto I have created that only time the basic rate of import is 150% defines a purposeful life. private insurance companies see a hike and the local body tax is 9%, which I leave the rest for the readers to comprehend. and are periled when alcohol- related Email Id- amybagwe4455@yahoo.com increases the costs of the firms. On 31

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s a rapidly influenced and robust culture-centric nation; India as a country has seen a vast change in its perception of commodities, cultures, politics, economics, lifestyle, technology, and also a combination of some and of all, over the past decade.

Among them the most significant change we see is in that of technology and in the lifestyle of people. What we previously perceived as luxury has now become essential for day to day life. Such commodities include mobile phones and television sets among others.

Keeping in mind the wants of a particular consumer, a target market or in some cases the overall populace, product designers have set themselves with the task of designing easy to use, aesthetically pleasing, cost effective, quality and out of the box products to suit the needs of their target audience depending on their market segmentation. In many of these cases we see technology - being the future of the modern world - used along with design to make it more accessible - to all and by all. A new and important concept now practiced and incorTo satisfy the ever-increasing needs of porated in designing is the study of environthe Indian population, the concept of ments, human perspective of the product, product design has thus become most their safety, manner of use, productivity and other similar psychological aspects. prominent.

This concept of taking into account behavioral factors among humans, to optimize productivity and thus utility whilst designing products, machines, systems, jobs and work -environments, is the scientific discipline termed as

their requirements of frequent use along with reduced time and increased utility, which fits their fast-moving social and economic surroundings.

nomics such as noise, lighting, postures, sive and ever-changing consumer behavior work descriptions, stress levels amongst we observe today. (graphics are drawn by the others is also a good example to under- author from her understanding of ergonomics) REFERENCES: stand the idea. The main goals of ergonom- http://www.allsteeloffice.com/SynergyDocuments/ ics while designing workplaces include occu- ErgonomicsAndDesignReferenceGuideWhitePaper.pdf http://www.iieom.org/ieom2011/pdfs/IEOM130.pdf pational injury and illness reduction, productivity improvement, and workers’ compensation costs containment. These ideas have helped form a basis to the study and evolution of products and designs on the whole.

It is also seen that buyers enjoy products far more when they come under small budgets and yet give maximum utility. An apt example to emphasize this would be the Tupperware brand of daily use containers, which was developed as early as 1946. Tupperware products found in most households today follow a unique yet economic and utilitarian foundation plan in designing and marketing all of their products. Work places adopting the different concepts of ergo-

And thus, product designing in combination with ergonomic and marketing studies of products is a crucial component of industrial design and doubtlessly has a bright future.

This is because it reflects the ever progres32

Ergonomics.

These technological and ideological up gradations now common in commodities of daily use are seen in products like Printers with Wi-Fi technology, digital cooking timers for ovens, portable refrigerators, security systems, tetra packed products, induction cookers and others. The mass population in today’s day and age look for products that seem specifically designed for their individual and particular needs, meeting

Hare_Krishnas_rallying_at_Russian_Consulate_in_Kolkata

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COMMERCIALIZATION OF SPIRITUALITY IN INDIA Commerce came to light in the early19th century and was an activity that had widely spread outside Europe and United States, in the form of ‘gift wrapped’ invasion. The classical economic theories of the west put great importance on the ‘SelfInterest of a Rational Individual’. They imaged it as a practical approach that fulfills the ‘double coincidence of wants’ – a two way business. Commerce thus facilitated the market for exchange of utilities. But, on the sidelines every commercial agent tried their hand at exploiting the other agent. The west clearly did not see a problem in this, until of course their sails started to blow toward the east.

The notion that every form of exchange is commerce, that every idea can be valued and traded; all came from the west. This novel approach, though a cause of pain for many communities around the world, began to seep into their systems through the cracks (Greed of Leaders), including here in India. When the ideas and notions of spirituality became commercialized, it left a three-fold impact. Transparent flow of the erstwhile protected knowledge, being the first. Second, rituals becoming consumerist. Third being a shield to corruption.

When commerce knocked at India’s doors, in the form of colonization, it only meant exploitation of resources. Yet, it is gentlemanly to return gift and on pondering what we had to trade in return, our wisdom came to our rescue. We tried gifting them the moral aspect of commerce – parahdharma (the absolute occupation to ensure well-being of all); we showed them how to be the creative in commerce - jugaad; we taught them the importance of being responsible of one’s own actions- karma. Yet somewhere amidst the exchange, the ideas of the west seem to have swayed the process of imparting this knowledge, in our own nation.

We, the east have been the tillers of the spiritual soil since time unaccounted. India is a land of bounty that nourishes every seeker with her immense knowledge of the subtle perspectives of life. Spirituality is the sublime understanding of the very nature and mechanism of life; a spiritual person is just a conscious being, who bears in mind the diverse effects that arise merely out of his thoughts. It is a process of gathering receptivity to the universal scheme of nature. The process of imparting spiritual knowledge is oblique and largely follows the rules of osmosis – a form of exchange. Many think of Spirituality as an instant solution to their woes in life. It eventually became a hideout from reality; where reality for them seemed unjust, corrupt and illogical. Thus, spirituality later degenerated to ritualistic solutions and people began to see it as their last resort in a problem situation.

AN OPENING TO THE FLOW OF KNOWLEDGE Whether India was as much caste rigid before the British Raj is a matter of great debate amongst the historians. But the fact remains that the discriminative policies of the privileged (British or the Upper Castes), withheld a vast pool of knowledge from the others. Commerce aimed to create demand by increasing supplies (Say’s Law). Commercialization lead to the translation, publication and recording of the sacred teachings. The English translation of the Bhagavad Gita published in 1785 by British typographer Charles Wilkins, was the first Sanskrit text that had been translated directly into a European language. The ancient translations of Sanskrit texts into different Indian languages then followed route to be published popularly, as by then the technology of publication and large scale printing of books became accessible. When the ideas of spiritual essence began to be widely read and be recreated with respect to the context of time, it began to be accepted easily. It is noteworthy, that this opportunity was materialized for the spread of Nationalism as well.

Knowledge of the occult, which earlier was a privilege of few, now became an open source of learning. It was the spread of these translated texts, and the virtues heard about the Indian mysticism that took Swami Vivekananda to Chicago in 1885. In the mid-20th century, when the Beatles met Maharshi Yogananda in America or when Sigmund Freud flew down to the foothills of Arunachala Mountains in Tamil Nadu to meet Ramana Maharshi, we realized how far had the flowers of spirituality bloomed. Today, no longer is there a need to go up to the

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snowy mountains to learn Vedanta; a range of universities and organizations hold online courses on Vedantic Studies. Commercialization created a link between the student and the teacher. It developed communication of spiritual ideas.

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Before the UN declaration, many seemed to believe that Yoga came from California! https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30009774

ally have an implicit meaning attached. But performing the rituals without the knowledge of its relevance is mundane. Here no religion is an exception, every community witnessed this fall in virtue, all around the world. This way rituals, satsangs and japa malas become a power bank; they become mediums of corrupCONVENIENCE OF CONSUMERISM tion providing illegitimate solvency. Formation of trusts, setting Every form of ideological expansion comes with the bane of mis- up industries to produce medicines, edibles and even instant communication. Spirituality being no different was subjected to noodles! A few spiritual organizations act as a school of tradithe trade-effect. Access to spirituality came enroute religious tional knowledge, although they function as fulltime enterprises, rituals. Seeking higher prospects in life is the very nature of a with moral suasion as their prominent marketing strategy. human being. Some pursue it spiritually, some materially. Few MOKSHA: THE WAY-OUT who claimed to have divine intervention, struck deals with the What if we decide to do away with being spiritual? Then we materialistic ones, promising them fulfillment of their desired probably are murdering the very nature of human intellect that wishes, removal of their cripples in life et al. Here Spirituality is to seek higher prospects in life. At some point, we all realize came to be associated with robed God-men, than to the human- what Shakespeare famously said, ‘All world’s a play’ and we begin ity. Spirituality became synonym to rituour enquiry into the nature of this ‘play’-our existals. Here commerce did what it does ence. It is shallow to view spirituality only through the best – bring together the market the abstract lens of philosophy or religion. In any forces of demand and supply. Priesthood field of study when we penetrate into its very became a highly compensatory professpine, we are being spiritual. sion. Not denying the plight of the priest -Brahmins who had then become a miCommerce and commercialization can definitely be used as tools in the path of this enquiry. The nority, with no means of livelihood; west as always, has given us something new, not were forced to take up jobs other than entirely novel though. Dronaacharya would have their caste-based profession. Unlike been the first teacher who taught the Pandavas earlier, we can now have rituals perand the Kauravas, in exchange of a decent conformed in a customized manner, with tract – the Kuru princes would use package offers also made Duryodhana showing his army to Dronaacharya his teachings to capture King of Panhttp://archive.org/details/mahabharata00ramauoft By Ramanarayanadatta astri available. Recitation of chala who had insulted Drona, alive. sacred verses was supThis deal surely had sour outcomes, when all of his pupils got posed to initiate one onto the path of introspection and now into a war for property. But, when Arjuna accepted his dilemma amidst the war, it reflects that his schooling had made him rethere is no need to memorize the verses, the record is on! ceptive to the volatile nature of the mind and seeks solutions Well, the employment ratio of singers has definitely been up.

The pros for commercialization here, is the beautification it has accordingly; he had always been the one who sought knowledge – this was the fruit of Dronaacharya’s training that ignited spiritulend to religious practices (sic). The number of channels that show live telecasts form religious institutions, have tremendous- al enquiry. Hence, it is all up to us whether to be consumers of spirituality or be a seeker of the subtle knowledge. ly increased, so have the advertisements for the ritual related References commodities. Pilgrimage is considered to be journey for the en- https://suite.io/dawn-denmar/296m2y8 quiry of the mechanisms of life. Now, there isn’t any worry http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bal_Gangadhar_Tilak about taking grandparents on pilgrimage, just switch to the tube http://www.chinmayashripati.org/PDFs/LOGIC%20OF%20SPIRITUALITY.pdf and there you are!!

Jaya - An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata by Devdutt Pattanaik (2010) VIRTUE: A DOWNWARD MOVING SLOPE Products of Indian origin, gain tremendous value only when validated at the global platform. These products then start acquiring an identity from the nation that propagates its utility. Similarly, before the UN declaration, many seemed to believe that Yoga PURNIMA M. NAIR came from California! Ignorance towards the local culture leaves Currently a Third Year B.A Economics student; learning economics, mythology and scope for many interesting individuals (read: agents of manipulathe exchange between them interests the tion) to influence the masses in an unwanted direction. A few author. Ever ready to hear talks on varied robed men, claiming to be professionals of spiritual knowledge subjects, she looks forward to restart her have breed numerous intellects that are inflicted with the narsports activities soon. The author can be row scope of rituals. Not that all rituals are mundane, they usureached at pnair.indian@gmail.com

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GRAPHIC BY TANEESHA IYANGAR

IN OUR SHOES AND CHAPPALS

“Student Insights and student experiences working at the grassroots”

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https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQc6F2iTeT__2P8VKLbZjUehF5Y2-2J-p10bWegF7IHAaoAYCIF

अथथ शास्त्र अथथ शास्त्र ही एक गंित आहे , जीवनाच्या शास्त्रािे यात अथथ दडले आहे . रोजच्या जीवनात आपण स्वतःच्या अथाथ सािी धावतो , म्हणूनि का MARSHALL SELF INTEREST OF A RATIONAL PERSON म्हणतो ? अथथ शास्त्राच्या शाखा आहे तरी चकती ! कुणािे कल FINANCE िध्ये तर कुणी जातो DEVELOPMENT िध्ये ,कुणी चनवडे RESEARCH तर कुणाला EXPERIMENT आवडे . अथाथ शास्​्याच्या घडािोडी िाणसांवर करतात चकती िोिे पररणाि , DOLLAR झाला तगडा ,सोन्याच्या घसरण्याला नाही का लगाि ? अथथ शास्त्र असते MICRO व ते MACRO असते , एका दे शािी POLICY पूणथ दुचनयेच्या बाजाराला का नडते ?

OIKOU NOMOS िधून ECONOMICS बनले , िात्र ज्या देशाने चदला हा शब्द ,त्यािेि आज वाईट चदवस आले . कुणाला वाटते अथथ शास्त्र आहे फि तज्ांसािी , पण एक साधा िाणूस सुधा जीवनात अथथ शास्त्र वापरतो हे आपण जाणत नाही . चकतीही किवा चकतीही सािवा सिाधान होत नाही , म्हणूनि का LAW OF DMU पैशाला लागत नाही ? तुझं नाही िाझं नाही दे रुपये पाि , CONSUMER असो वा PRODUCER EQUILIBRIUM हाि ! दे शाच्या राजकारणािा कणा आहे अथथ शास्त्र , लोकांच्या कल्याणासािी आहे हा चहतशास्त्र .

STUDENTS असो ,CORPORATES असो ,असो POLICY MAKERS , व्यापले आहे अथाथ शास्त्राने पूणथ जगाला ,FROM LAW BREAKERS TO LAW MAKERS . िाणक्याच्या अथथ नीती पासून ADAM च्या WEALTH OF NATIONS पयां त , अथथ शास्त्रािी आहे पुराणी बात ,पण ECONOMICS CREATES HISTORY याला िात्र नाही अपवाद . अशा या अथथ शास्त्रािे नाही काही तोड , कोणतेही चवषय असो ,अथथ शास्त्रािी आहे त्याला जोड . अशा या अथथ शास्त्रािी गंित आहे न्यारी , कुणाला आवडो वा नावडो ,कुणाच्या जगािा काना कोपरा अथाथ शास्त्राने सोडला नाही . अशा या िहान शास्त्राला कोटी कोटी सलाि ! िी अथथ शास्त्र चशकतेय हाि िाझा अचभिान ! हाि िाझा अचभिान !

PUJA VIJESH PARMAR TYBA ECONOMICS, RUIA. I have taken Economics as my main subject and wish to pursue a career ahead in it.

My hobbies are reading and trying to gain new information. The best part about Economics is that you can connect it to the real world to understand its working and its nuances. With Economics as my weapon i would like to bring about a change in the current system of India especially in the education system such that there will be all-pervasive development of all the Indians by which India will no longer remain a rich land of the poor!

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OF A TREASURER What is maths? A simple thought or imagination, passed through recurring progressive thinking, leading to formation of a theory, by those who had incepted it, making it complicated for others to understand. No wonder mathematical theorems have no numbers involved in them, and seem like an English essay, written using the English language and yet, is not understood by anyone. But these theorems have simple logic hidden in them, which once understood, makes it easy to solve the problems that otherwise look very difficult initially. As many fail to understand this hidden logical thought, they hate maths. Thus, with the aim to make people fall in love with maths, Department of Mathematics, Ramnarain Ruia College, organized a mathematical festival “MATHTRIX: Reload the Maths in You” on 2nd and 4th January 2016 under Samanvay – The Annual Fest of Departmental Events of Ruia College. The festival included a few mathematical logic games and guest lectures by Prof. Sharad Sane, (IIT Bombay) and Prof. Amol Dighe (TIFR, Bombay).

Prof. Amol Dighe spoke about high energy particle, relating to Physics.

The lecture focused on ‘neutrinos’.

Neutrinos are high energy particles produced in a nuclear fusion in the core of a star. Research on whether these particles have mass and whether they are relevant to the future world, is still in process. Prof. Sharad Sane discussed the Game theory and Combinatorics which involved a talk about the application of the interesting games which were organized during the fest. He also showed some tricks which can be used to win the games and at what position the desired games can be won. For e.g. in tic tactoe, it is certainly easy to play a 3X3 tic tac-toe. Also, if the opponents are of the same I.Q., the game generally leads to a tie. But if this tic tac-toe is played on a 4X4 or a 5X5 table. The rules accordingly tend to change and the logic to win the game also differs.

Similarly Prof. Sharad Sane also told us a few applications of Fibonacci numbers in general.

of Rs.5 each, followed by a 400ml coke bottle for all winners.

Move’em All (Tower of Hanoi) Move’em All was the game of moving five rings of different sizes starting from small to big from first rod to the third rod using the second rod with the condition that the bigger ring cannot be placed at the smaller one and only one ring can be moved at a time, within 31 moves. As the number of rings increases, the number of moves required increases too. For e.g. to move 6 rings, required moves are 63 and similarly to move n number of rings, required moves would be 2n 1.The game was twisted a little on the next day. As before, this time the rings’ rod was placed at the second position and now the aim was to put the rings in the first rod using the second rod. This is just a recursion. The solution is as follows. Assuming that the player aims to move the 5 rings in Even as the lecture was under way on, the third rod he/she should remember the games stall were put up by the at the last i.e. the 5th ring should diMathematics Department in the quad- rectly go in the third rod and not in rangle on both the days of the fest. the second. So the second last ring i.e.

The stall consisted of four games, 4th ring will so to the second ring, so namely, ‘Move’em All’, ‘Dark knight 3rd ring in the third rod and the 2nd White knight’, ‘Place it right’ and ‘Sum it ring in the second rod. After having up’. The games had a registration fee this logical thought the player can start 37

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Knotted_torus,_6_2.png

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to play the game by placing the 1st ring in the third rod. So the 2nd ring has to be put in the second rod. Now the 2nd ring can be moved to the third rod and the 3rdring can be placed at the 2nd ring and from here the logical count of moves continue until its thirty-one leading the player to win.

Place It Right The next game was ‘Place it right’, where numbers from 1 to 25 were to be placed on a 5x5 table representing the moves of a knight. It was based on the application of Hamiltonian cycle.

While placing the numbers the player should stick to corners and borders.

On the next day, the game was changed to the famous marble game called “marble solitaire”. This game requires a logical thinking after each step and has infinite solutions.

Dark Knight-White knight In this game, 3 white knights were placed at the left side of the horizontal stripe of 7 boxes, each knight occupying one box and the other 3 black knights on the right side respectively, the middle box being empty. The aim of the game was to change the side of the knights with the condition that a knight can jump one or two boxes and a knight once moved forward cannot come backward. The hint of solving this game is alternation i.e. the player should take care not to place 2 same coloured knights consecutively and the rest is managed by the steps. Soon,

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people were acquainted with the solu- ey later on after playing as they didn’t tion and on the next day the game was had the change to give now. As the changed to ‘Dark Bishop, White Bishperson had already given the money op’. In this game, on a 3X3 table the 2 would usually play one more trail inDark Bishops were placed at the exstead to going and asking for the treme left and 2 White Bishop at the change and some would also leave extreme right. The aim was to change without taking their money. Also few the position with the condition that people would play consecutively five these Bishops move like a knight. trails of the same game to win the coke bottle which was of just Rs23. So Sum it up!! for this bottle they would spend Rs30 The last game was ‘Sum it up’. It and certainly were very happy to give seemed very easy but it tested the the amount. person’s memory and quick calculation The Department had also maintained a ability. The game had 5 dices of which ‘Hall of Fame’ where the participants 3 dices consisted of numbers and 2 were asked to write their thoughts were of operations. As the dice rolled about mathematics. Many people reone by one, the player had to give the plied saying they love maths, like final answer by calculating the expres- maths, score well in maths etc. Few sion on the dice within 10 seconds. commented that they just missed K.T Though the game had a small twist in maths and are a little weak in maths. with the dice, it was the most appeal- But all came to a final conclusion that ing game for people to play and had ‘Maths is indeed Fun when explained the highest number of wins with the using games!’ most repeated trials.

Unlike any other stalls put up, the aim of this stall was also to compensate the price of coke bottles and also, the price of game models, with some profit in hand. But with just Rs5 registration fee, it seemed difficult. To make this job easy, they took the advantage of something called ‘Consumer PsyROSHANI GUPTA chology’ The person sitting at the A typical thinker, an observer and a registration desk would take Rs10 Math lover. Roshani is a Third Year B.A. Mathematics student at Ramnarain Ruia note from those who didn’t had College, Mumbai. She pursues an avid change, would ask them to play reinterest in writing short stories in Hindi. questing them to collecting rest mon-

GOMC Google online marketing challenge

2015

I

n February 2015, in the confines of another mundane lab of a typical engineering college, while surfing the Internet, Agastya Sanjai stumbled upon the Google Online Marketing Challenge 2015. A global student competition, GOMC, calls upon students to take up a running business of their choice and show their proficiency in the domain of Digital Marketing including Google’s AdWords platform. In its eight years, this competition has received participation from over 1,00,000 students globally from over 100 universities, ranging from the Oxford University to the IITs and IIMs. Intercepting an exciting opportunity, 38

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the team of Agastya Sanjai, Jelam Bhatt, Jainam Talsania, Saumil Tripathi and Shreeyash Dharmadhikari came into being, all five classmates excited to strive for the global prize: a 7-day fully paid trip to Google’s headquarters at Mountain View, California, USA. Apart from the challenge of learning the AdWords platform from scratch, competing against 2,500 teams from all over the world was a rather unnerving factor. Nevertheless, the journey of four months of hard work began with learning AdWords from various platforms including textbooks, video tutorials, and Google guides and even reaching out to various professionals worldwide. The research extended to learning in detail about e-commerce, web-design, social media, and Photoshop amongst other areas that would be required in this competition.

Google provides a credit of $250 (Rs. 15,600) on Adwords in a window of 21 days and consequently a very important decision was shaping up in choosing the business, for which the team would undertake Digital Marketing. Many options came up, from businesses serving nocturnal food-cravings to psychological help lines but the perfect idea would be that to approach a seasonal business which may show maximum demand in the 21 day window of the AdWords campaign. Planning to roll out our campaign in April, the IPL or mangoes seemed safe seasonal bets. Shreeyash Dharmadhikari, made the first call to a Pune-based Alphonso Mango company called Devgad Mango which sells, online, the produce of a cooperative of 700 low income farmers of the Devgad District in Maharashtra.

In a short one hour, the deal was sealed and the team found a client to work for, and as they later discovered, a rather ideal client to work with.

Despite academic tests and submissions running in the background work for the competition went on and the team went on to find direction with a newfound client and the frequency of meetings increased. The master researcher of the team: Agastya Sanjai continued in-depth understanding of the AdWords platform while Saumil Tripathi and Jelam Bhatt continued onto making a pre-campaign report for the competition, explaining to their judging panel the choice of client and their plan of action. Shreeyash Dharmadhikari along with Jainam Talsania handled search engine optimization and website up gradation. Kicking off the campaign on the April 10th, the campaign ran to 19 days with the first purchase coming in on the third day of the campaign itself. In the window of time that the campaign ran for, the team went onto generate $2560

(equivalent of Rs. 1.62 L) in revenue on an ad spend, being a ten fold return on ad investment, generating that extra amount of money for Devgad Mango (which at that point of time was struggling with its mango produce having shortened shelf life due to a fungal attack called Anthracnose caused by the off-season rains which largely affected Mango crops across India.)

The team made 101 textual search Google ads for the campaign and touched upon display ads as well apart from social media marketing, thus ending a lucrative campaign.

The summarization of the campaign remained in a postcampaign report.

The team got back to GOMC after 20 days of examinations with a short span of 5 days remaining for the final deadline with the report being submitted 3 minutes short of the deadline. Thence, the summer vacations ensued and the hard work put into the competition was pushed into the recesses of their brains. Come 6th of August, this very team from Mumbai was declared the Global Winning Team for the year 2015, receiving a cash prize from their institution: Mukesh Patel School of Technology, Management and Engineering under the aegis of the NMIMS University apart from the promised devices worth $1000 and a full-paid trip to San Francisco, USA. Had the team not participated in this competition, they would have not gained the kind of experience and knowledge they did, about digital advertising.

It is one of those fields of knowledge that engineering and management schools continue to avoid.

The Internet sees thousands of websites and pages coming live each day. Within such a vast Internet space, it becomes difficult for the average user to find your website or your e-commerce website. That is where digital marketing comes in. It is something so essential for running a successful business on the internet that recent times have seen digital advertising budgets of major companies overshadowing traditional marketing budgets.

Leaving behind 1800 participating teams from across the world and becoming the first winning team from India, the team went on to get published in national news papers.

They have scheduled a visit to California in January 2016, along with their professor Shilpa Sawant with an entire day at the Mecca of Work culture: The Google Headquarters

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JELAM BHATT is

an engineering student with her heart in marketing.

She studies in the Mukesh Patel School of Technology, Engineering and Management, and is a part of Google Online Marketing Challenge 2015 Global Winning team.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Stage_Theater_%28Dniprodzerzhynsk%29.jpg

HOMOECONOMICUS VOLUME II

रं गभूमी

AN ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE ON MARATHI THEATRE

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H

uman beings live with a constant urge to live better, with some of us seeking and hoping for the fulfilment of our aspirations. The complex, yet beautiful network of events in our life, are factors that ignite our imagination. We subconsciously alter, modify and ideate reality, to fit it into our vision of the perfect picture. Despite a person’s imagination being an abstract entity, it does not hesitate to transform into a workhouse of reflection, a playground of contemplation and ends up seeking a stage for expression. What we reflect and contemplate on, or seek to express, is undeniably sourced out of the environmental context we thrive in.

Theatre is a form of popular expression; it is a product of social contemplation. Theatre is a tinted mirror that reflects what the playwright witnesses in the humdrum of daily, real roleplays by ordinary people. On the path of conveying their perspective of reality, a playwright seems to model and re-module superlative ideas in a manner such that they either give a snippet review of hypocrisy in society or flesh out an image of human behaviour in a certain light. The final performance on stage fluidly illustrates how the artists, not only the actors but also the designers, light-men, musicians et al, are capable of imbibing the virtues the playwright intends to depict and put forth a visual paradise with an inherent purpose to it.

We set out on a journey to understand the economic principal that underlies the inception, production and reception of Marathi Plays in Mumbai.

The Law of Manifestation, states that every behaviour, conscious or sub-conscious, is provoked by some expectation or aspiration; it is the universal nature of human ideas that seek manifestation through thoughts and then, actions. Given the wide scale of activities that theatre undertakes, it is obvious to draw conclusions to find what strengthens the theatre industry. We inspect whether theatre is overdue to be recognized as a complete commercial activity or does it still stand under the shadow of the Law of Manifestation? We enquire about where do the resources to implement a script and to take it to a theatre, come from? We attempt to gauge the sphere and scope of the audience’s reception and the effect of economic phenomena over their behaviour. Over the course of our study we realized that Marathi theatre industry cannot be subjected to traditional economic parameters. We learnt that a narrow utilitarian lens rather than an inter-disciplinary approach, which borrows from history sociology and psychology, is more sensible and might lead to a more profound analysis.

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मराठी

THEATRE A BACKGROUND This introduction is incredibly synoptic, but its only purpose is to assist in a rough and sketchy visualisation of the context in which Marathi theatre has operated since the 19th century.

M

odern Marathi theatre can be said to have begun with ‘Sita Swayamvar’ by Vishnudas Bhave (1843). It was heavily influenced by Carnatic Yakshagana folk theatre with regard to

costumes and presentation and it also depended upon royal patronage. Afterwards, Vishnudas came to Bombay in the 1850s – the period also marked an increase in the number of Marathi plays and playwrights, who were mostly Brahmins writing for Brahmins. The content of the plays was mythopoeic or historical and served as a glorification of the past amidst British colonisation.

GRAPHICS BY TANEESHA IYANGAR

Marathi theatre had obvious upper and upper-middle class economic roots. In that backdrop - the emerging mills of Mumbai together with a growing middle class, newly graduating from the city colleges such as Elphinstone, Wilson, and the newly set-up Mumbai University was perhaps the best thing to happen to it.

It was because of this politically aware middle class that – in Makarand Sathe’s words, it evolved to become a tool to fight colonialism and incorporated social issues including women’s issues at the time. Plays like ‘Sharda’ by G.B. Deval (1890) were landmarks as they made social issues such as child marriage points of public discussion. These plays were performed in closed spaces and prosceniums, only possible in a big city like Mumbai. There were also local theatres in regions such as Girgaum, frequented by the mill-goers, and the lower-middle class clerks and office workers.

From 1900-20, the Swadeshi movement of Tilak and his nationalism influenced theatre in a major way, and the financing of such plays could be attributed to the 42

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Swadeshi movement’s crowd-funded approach and its support base of indigenous businessmen and industrialists.

However, the banning of nationalist plays was quite common, such as Kaka Khadilkar’s ‘Kichakvadh’ (1907).

From 1930-60, Marathi theatre faced a state of crisis due to the emergence of cinema. A lot of theatre spaces were lost to screenings. In Shanta Gokhale’s words, “Theatre got pushed into clubs, school halls and unspecified recreation spaces.”

From the 1960s onwards, the experimental theatre of stalwart writers and actors such as Vijay Tendulkar, Vijaya Mehta, Shriram Lagoo, Mohan Agashe, etc. became immensely popular and many regard the 1970s as the ‘golden age’ of Marathi theatre. This also has a lot to do with the middle-class tastes of the audience, which demanded such originality of style and fashion. Another trend, which emerged, was that of Dalit street theatre, which was proletarian in nature. However, it is the very absence of a proscenium stage and the traditional middle-class patronage, which as severely limited its appeal and influence even if it is significant in regard to its portrayal of socially conscious themes.

It is noticeable, that Marathi theatre has lasted into the 21st century, thriving because of its thematic flexibility. It is willing to make thematic sacrifices to ensure its economic survival. Thus, Shanta Gokhale writes: “Till the early 1990s, the mainstream theatre offered scope for cautious shifts in theme and form as long as play endings were happy and the plays contained a few fine speeches. Thereafter, coinciding with the economic boom, theatre became not just conventional but often positively regressive. A shining example of mainstream success was the late VasantKanetkar, who had begun his career writing off-mainstream plays.

Expounding on his theory of kalatmaktartamya (artistic propriety) in a series of lectures delivered at the Mumbai Marathi SahityaSangh in 1974, he asserted that the duty of theatre was to give the audience an opportunity to experience rasa. The bibhatsa rasa was inappropriate on stage. Kanetkar roundly condemned the scene in Vijay Tendulkar’s ‘Gidhade’ where Manik runs out of the house with bloodstains on her sari indicating a miscarriage. He also vigorously argued against showing dinner scenes and scenes of lovemaking on stage because he thought they released the audience’s baser appetites. He also believed, taking Rangayan’s production of ‘Chairs’ as an example that plays should not be difficult for the audience to understand.”

In the present, there still exists a niche middle-class audience for Marathi theatre. But such regional theatre could very well face a crisis of relevance amidst globalisation and an exponential increase in entertainment alternatives.

Marathi theatre nowadays is looked upon as a stepping stone for actors, such as Sharman Joshi, Shreyas Talpade, who then go onto act in television and cinema – both regional and Bollywood – which is where the real money lies. After that, the decision to continue acting on stage is often a personal one. Some actors like Sharman Joshi do continue acting in the occasional theatre production.

As it stands now, Marathi theatre is on the precipice of change – the growing popularity of cosmopolitan stand-up stage drama pioneered by groups such as AIB, East India Comedy (EIC), etc. which trickles down to even local college-level acts, threatens to further marginalise the local regional-language play which competes for the same local stage. But whether or not such theatre survives depends on the malleability of local theatre traditions – given how many times Marathi theatre has embraced change, it could very well mutate into a different form or medium (perhaps web-content?) to sustain itself in the future.

The study our magazine has conducted gives readers amise-en-scene point-of-view of contemporary Marathi theatre going into its economics.

REFERENCES 1

http;//euacademic.org/UploadArticle/445.pdf

2

http://www.india-seminar.com/2008/588/588_shanta_gokhale.htm

3

http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai/marathi-theatre-a-staging-of-history/story-QztXsb7neYxLROChA1D8JN.html

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THE ECONOMIC INFERENCES DERIVED

T

PRODUCTION

he Marathi theatre industry, despite being a regional sector is a well-established industry when compared to other regional theatres, and has an economically significant role in the entertainment industry. However it functions quite differently from the mainstream English theatre scene in India. The Marathi theatre industry is divided into two functional sections one being the commercial mainstream sector and the other, parallel theatre. While the commercial side functions similar to the commercial movie industry by seeking to maximize revenue, attracting large crowds by showing them popular content; the parallel runs on more non- profit making lines and explores more experimental concepts. This report seeks to understand the workings of the commercial Marathi theatre industry. Comparing it to a mini economy, the industry has a production function, which is a function of Land; Labour, Capital, Technology and Natural Resources, P = f(N, L,K,T,R).

Where, Land = Theatre houses, Auditoriums

Labour = Artists- (Directors, Writers, Actors, Technicians) Capital = Investments Technology = Lights, Music, Equipment Natural Resources = New ideas, Concepts and Scripts During our interviews we noticed that the auditoriums were not only hubs for all theatre activity but also were associated with the major production houses. Just like every local team has a home ground, every production house has a home theatre (Like, Bhadrakali Productions at Yashwant Natya Mandir, Matunga). While each of the prominent localities across the city has an auditorium, most of these are very old. Unlike cinema multiplexes, these auditoriums have been slow on development in the areas of modern acoustics, backstage equipment and infrastructural up gradation. The existing capacity has a direct bearing on audiences and might deter novel entertainment mediums from being developed. For example the Marathi Banadue to the technical requirements of the production is usually staged at Vishnudas Bhave Auditorium which being at Vashi, excludes the audiences from the suburbs. These auditoriums also do not cater to the tastes of the younger audiences, because of the ancient canteens as opposed to housing popular modern cafĂŠs and fast food joints.

The labour pool for the theatre industry is very small and is shared with the cinema, television and other theatre industries.

The remuneration and payment indicate that the agents in the theatre industry are in it for the passion for theatre as the payment has never been a strong monetary reinforcement, especially in comparison to the rest of the entertainment industry.

This industry acts as a transition space for the aspiring younger actors who do theatre, before moving on to cinema or television. For actors there seems to be more or less, no standard of pay; while at times it is based on experience, at others it is based on the significance of their role. This also extends to writers, directors and technicians. The actors are not paid during the rehearsal period and are paid per show as per a contract, once the play starts running, and are compensated irrespective of the per show revenues. The technicians are paid in instalments, with an initial payment followed by per show packets. Our interaction with the cast and crew of a play revealed that the payment is not substantial which leads to a lot of them moving on to other better paying avenues, while some others continue their work here, while simultaneously doing a steady income job. The traditional utilitarian lens fails here, because the value of the monetary compensation is not high with people sometimes working on credit, or at times for no pay. They enjoy no other benefits, as there is no formalized labour representation or association. The theatre industry seems to prefer the traditional school of personalized training (the GuruShishyaParampara ) where both actors and technicians learn from experience on the sets as very few seem to have undergone institutionalized training.

The Marathi theatre industry has few investors, and barely any corporate sponsors unlike the English theatre industry. In the absence of institutional funding the traditional production houses dominate the scene. With a small number of major, veteran production houses, and only about fifty odd producers the source of funding remains restricted to those who appreciate the art and have a personal interest in promoting theatre. The industry offers more flops than hits and is brutal on investors, leaving only the true patrons to invest. Since it has been identified as a high-risk industry, borrowing from banks proves to be highly difficult. Most of the transactions are cash based making it is a cash business, leaving scope for many individuals to convert black money to white. For a typical production a total investment of around 15-20 lakh Rupees is needed, with an initial investment of 5-8 lakhs covering the rehearsal, set-design, and costume and music expenses. The running costs per show may go 44

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up to Rupees 2 lakhs covering the theatre, backstage costs as well as payments of actors and technicians. Advertisements for plays is noted to take up around 25% of the production capital and has been diversified -using social media campaigns and celebrity promotion, wherein artists and writers are made to promote the play through television; unlike the traditional print and radio advertisements. Despite of the large-scale capital deployed for advertising, the production is not subject to proportionate returns. The production companies continue to work as the traditional production houses did, with strong family based functioning. This allows them the flexibility of not having to adhere to contemporary professional standards, which at times seems to hamper their efficiency. They also lack a strong corporate branding, which is preventing their global reception.

However having identified this limitation many production houses are moving in this direction.

The Maharashtra State Government allocates funds for promoting Marathi Culture, some of which are channelized to the Marathi theatre industry. However, such grants prove to be a medium for executing coveted control of the sitting government, on the content and financial management of the production. It thus has a crippling effect on the freedom of theatre.

There is an obvious inclination to use modern technology and techniques, and the industry has adopted many new techniques. However the absence of financial capital, and the existing infrastructure is limiting progress in this direction. Producers feel that rather than offering subsidies for production, the government should channel their efforts towards developing a strong infrastructural base.

The very inception of theatre is the idea that props in the writers mind. The idea being a unique human resource reflects the vision of the writer. The Marathi Theatre industry is known to have transited easily from staging stories of the Puran, turning quickly to issues of social relevance. This phase seemed to be at its best in the 70’s era, where writers were receptive and sensitive to the flaws and peaks of the society. Contemporary plays are dimerised owing to slow content development and poor script writing. Where youngsters come into the industry attracted by the glamour of acting, very few turn to start with story and script writing or even direction for that matter. There thus is a dearth of novel ideas due to which the trend of content revivalism has emerged. The production houses restage plays after a two-to-three year gap. Many such scripts are on a re-run with certain modifications, while some come back on stage due to public demand. Prominent theatre personalities have expressed their concerns over the lack of versatile actors, writers, directors amongst the Gen-Next that has contributed to a slowing down of growth in the content and quality of Marathi Theatre.

RECEPTION: Demand = Audiences, Audience taste and preference, and composition of demand Marathi theatre enjoys a relatively small discerning audience, compared to other entertainment media. The audience is devoted to this medium, and prefers it to other forms of entertainment. However the industry is unable to expand the audience base given the lure and glamour of people enamoured by movies and television.

Modern plays have maintained a relationship with the traditional sangeet natak and its traditional audience, by continuing to use music and songs in the narrative, albeit less generously, and also maintaining well-defined, extensive sets which is in alignment with the partiality towards architecture that traditional theatre displayed. However after the advent of cinema mainstream theatre has “become a reflection of middle class mores. It now dealt exclusively with middle class problems set in middle class drawing rooms. This is the class that has kept mainstream theatre alive in 45

SURVEY AND RESULTS We conducted interviews of audiences across major auditoriums of the city. From the subjects interviewed only 10 per cent of the people seem to be watching plays in languages other than Marathi. This shows that the audiences enjoy watching Marathi plays and are loyal towards it, and are not necessarily partial to theatre in general. Also, on an average only 2 in 10 people prefer cinema to theatre because many find the live experience more entertaining than cinema. Many also believe that even today Marathi theatre handles socially relevant issues in a more sensitive manner.

Some of the youngsters like the new themes; while some of the respondents find old plays more interesting, as it had better content and storylines.

HOMOECONOMICUS

Maharashtra till today. Other sections, which once patronised folk theatre, turned to the cinema in overwhelming numbers.”

Marathi theatre has been able to establish a balance of both the traditional and the modern, attracting audiences who are very evolved and appreciate good content. ‘Goshta Tashi Gamtichi’, is a recent example of a successful play that successfully achieves this feat by focusing on the generation gap between a father and son.

On interviewing theatre audiences we gathered that comedy plays by the likes of Bharat Jadhav and Vaibhav Mangle have a considerable fan following and are liked by all age brackets. When asked about whether the audiences prefer theatre as a genre or only Marathi theatre, most commented that they prefer to watch only Marathi plays as they feel it is more creative, experimental and at the same time touches their heart.

The industry had briefly lost its appeal to youngsters but now the younger generation is once again turning towards theatre in recent times as the content is focusing on the issues faced by the youth. However the youth still do not turn up in large numbers, owing to lack of awareness, location of auditoriums, and slow digitisation of ticketing. We noticed to Marathi that even students who are actively pursuing theatre in our college are not a regular audience to Marathi Theatre. The age group watching Marathi theatre, even today remains restricted mostly consisting of people above the age of 45.The tastes of theatre audiences have changed and Marathi theatre has been quite successful in adapting to the changes. Yet the audiences remain niche. Some people are also not very happy with the changing storylines as they feel it will take away the uniqueness of Marathi theatre.

CONCLUSION:

NAVIGATING THROUGH THE DISEQUILIBRIUM

VOLUME II

Natyavalaya ;A legacy of Marathi Theatre in Ruia Rounds of interviews and discussions on the nuances of Marathi Natak, brought to light the essential fact that alongside the mainstream commercial theatre there exists a ‘Parallel Theatre’, which is the playhouse of experimental genre in the Marathi theatre industry. The parallel stream proves to be an arena for training of younger aspirants, providing for a firm base that initiates them to the comprehensive stage of mainstream theatre. This space for student participation is of exceptional importance as it gives a firsthand experience at understanding the nooks and corners of Marathi Theatre. When coupled with professional guidance, parallel theatre becomes an oven that bakes out talent. Starting from college-levels to informal associations, such groups have been prominent across the city. Their forte lies in production of plays with strong sociological and behavioural relevance, including that of Novel and film adaptations; restaging of the old plays et al.

The Ruia Natyavalaya, which literally means the Theatre Group of Ruia College, is one of the best and most popular among the theatre and acting circles amongst Mumbai colleges. Even today, Natyavalaya continues to develop personalities who have a firm foot in the Marathi as well as Hindi theatre, television and cinematic industries.

NATYAVALAY has a long legacy of 40 years. Each year, Ruia Natyavalaya participates in varied one-act-play competitions and has won accolades at prestigious competitions including at INT (Indian National Theatre), Mrugajal, Sawaai, over a course of multiple years. Every year over a hundred students are auditioned before taking them in as a part of Natyavalay. The group comprises of 60 students currently The Natyavalaya works through June to December. Their latest production Sushegat (to be free) was put up for the INT and two other competitions. Their production ‘Ga Ma Bha Na’ (2008), produced by Éclat Infotainment had not just been restricted to college stages. The three-hour-long theatre production, based on Milind Bokil’s novel Shala was critically appraised and recognized amongst the best. The reason behind the easy acceptance of the production by the students can be traced to the fact that students can easily relate to the situations, and identify with the characters, as the plot revolves around unspoken adolescent love.

Natyavalaya is a tradition that is carefully passed on, with great Having analysed the Marathi theatre industry as a enthusiasm and zest each year. It goes without doubt that this will mini economy, one can identify many areas where be carried on for years to come. there is disequilibrium. Following are the policy recommendations to neutralize the uncertainty in the Information Courtesy: Akash Shinde (Natyavaly Student Comarket. ordinator for 2015-2016), Suyash Mahtre (Member, Auditoriums prove to be a major asset in the theatre Natyavalay) industry as they are not only a venue for stage related work but also for production work. Directing Public expenditure towards rebuilding auditoriums 46

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would lay down the essential framework for the development of the industry. Some venues need to develop on an identity to which youngsters can relate to; like Prithvi Theatre’s Prithvi Café.

We observed that most aspiring actors turn to direction, production and to other technical areas, when their acting career does not take flight. They need to be incentivized to make technical roles their first priority. To encourage youngsters to pursue a career in theatre, more prestigious and exhaustive courses need to be established. Once institutional training is popularized it will have a signalling effect on the market by increasing the value of their profession, thereby increasing their compensation. This will also bridge the dearth of new ideas by shaping new talent.

Banks have to be initiated to finance to production of new projects, on a priority basis. Sound financing options will allow upgraded technology to be at the disposal of the stakeholders. Production houses need to further engage in rebranding exercises by initiating theatre festival, social media campaigns etc.

Simple strategies such as use of online booking, mobile phone apps can help with attracting the young audiences. There seems to be a fundamental flaw with the approach of education, which neglects developing an appreciation for theatre. Reinforcing the importance of theatre as a medium of social change amongst the youth is essential. Increase in westernization of education and the halo around English education, is preventing students from exploring regional literature, cinema and theatre. In schools, regional languages should be at par with English and the insecurity associated with studying regional languages needs to be addressed.

This report is based on interviews of professors, directors, actors, producers and technicians– Smt. VarshaMalwade, Shri. Vijay Tapas, Smt. Shilpa Neve, Shri. Deenu Pednekar, Shri. Sanjay Pawar, Smt. Reshma Ramchandra, Smt. Asha Dnyate, Shri. Prashant Dalvi , Shri. Prasad Kambli and Shri Sharad Sawant.

References: http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol19-issue3/Version-4/ D019342024.pdf http://www.indiaseminar.com/2008/588/588_shanta_gokhale.htm http://wiki.phalkefactory.net/index.php? title=MARATHI_THEATRE

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“The ode lives upon the ideal, the epic upon the grandiose, the drama upon the real.”

VICTOR HUGO

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FOOTPRINTS OF MARATHI THEATRE IN RUIA STALWART SHARAD SAWANT Mr. Sharad Sawant – An Award winning makeup artist, who has worked in almost 300 Marathi plays

and movies for over 30 years.

“The great man is the man who makes every man feel great.”

We came to know the veracity of these words when we interviewed Mr. Sharad Sawant who was awarded the title of “Best makeup artist” by the Maharashtra State government and the jury of the 52nd and 53rd film festival, who has been working at Ruia College in the administrative section.

While scouting for the perfect spot to interview Mr. Sawant, we were initiated into rooms that housed thousands of books, finally finding a spot in the ‘never-seen-before’ recesses of the College Library. Keeping in line with the reception we got while interviewing varied Marathi Theatre Artists, Sharad Kaka made us feel completely at ease; departing from the usual stereotype we associated with artists of the entertainment industry.

The Contours As a little boy he was initiated into the world of theatre, when he performed in the school plays, back home in Sindhudurg. This passion for acting continued and he started off with small roles, his first platform being the Indian National Theatre. All these developments took place in the absence of any encouragement from his family to pursue theatre. Bleak economic circumstances, lead him to begin working at the Ruia College Library.

He found a mentor in well-known Make-up Artist, Shree Babunath Kudtarkar, who gave him an insight into the actuality of theatre as a profession. Under his advisement, “तंत्रज्ञंची कञरकीर्द मोठी असते. ते अधिक कञळञपर्यंत लक्षञत रञहतञत“ (Technicians unlike actors have no age restrictions), he then made the shift from actor to Make-up artist. In the absence of any formal training, he acquired his skills while apprenticing for his mentor and learnt his way into the field merely by assisting his Guru on Assignments at night, after working during day at Ruia College. Soon he came to realize that being a known makeup artist is what gives him ultimate satisfaction.

Devoid of Cosmetics He speaks fondly of his association with many celebrity artists in Marathi film industry and even in Bollywood, who keep pursuing him for their projects. However, these proposals do not excite him because work ethics, human relations precede any form of monetary gain. His passion for theatre has lead him to support many upcoming and needy directors, actors in their difficult time, often taking up their assignments without any remuneration. He expressed his displeasure at the lack of respect for Make-up as an art form in the television and movie industry. He considers the theatre industry as his family and values the warmth and respect he receives from here, which also induces him to stay back. He is grateful for the support, which he gets, from his colleagues and management in the Ruia College. He believes in passing on his skills to aspiring make-up artists and has taken four youngsters as trainees under him. His valuable suggestions and guidance has helped Ruia ‘Natyavalay’ in many prestigious competitions.

Shadows Our interview with Mr. Sawant has helped us discern certain realities of Make-up Artists in the Marathi Theatre Industry. Their Profession is full of uncertainty and the field is not well organized. The lack of any union representation has left them without any fixed criteria for remuneration. The usual monetary compensation not being substantial makes a parallel job or an alternate source of income, essential to secure a decent standard of living. Despite the lack of monetary incentives, these artists continue to work in the industry out of their passion for Make-up, which also leads them to take up assignments with payment on credit, or sometimes for free. Most technicians start off as aspiring actors and later transition into taking up a technical role, owing to the limitations, expectations of the acting profession. In the Theatre scene, the market is dived amongst 5-6 make-up artists, with not much competition amongst them. Resembling an Oligopolistic model, these artists tend to cooperate as a unit sharing the market amicably. However, their small number leaves them with no bargaining powers. The industry doesn’t greatly value institutionalized training in the art of Make-up, given the poor quality of the few courses available. They seem to reject these courses in favour of ‘on-the-job’ training and experience. Just like every other technical field, the make-up artists also keep themselves updated with the modern and international techniques of the art.

Many award-winning artists like Mr. Sharad Sawant, go unnoticed by audiences in the glitter of the entertainment industry. Make-up should also be recognized as a serious art form, which would propel more takers for this field and ensure value for its contribution to a production.

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MARRIAGE THROUGH THE EYES OF FOUR WOMEN

Thashata –‘tharlela lagna modleleya mulinchi goshata’, has a name, which is indicative of its content. It is written and directed by the very talented Marathi director Sanjay Pawar.

This play throws light on many issues regarding the life of women in a patriarchal society and conveys it through the story of four girls sharing a room in a working women’s hostel. These four girls represent four diametrically different women personalities, each with a diverse background.

Picture courtesy: www.loksatta.com

Anamika is a modern feminist and an intelligent woman in her thirties. She is individualistic and against social norms that encroach upon the freedom and identity of women. Her roommate Sulabha Patil represents a demure, traditional lady from western Maharashtra.

Anamika’s pragmatism influences Sulabha, to some extent.

Akshata is another girl with unconventional and free spirited thoughts. She is very freethinking when it comes to her relationships with men. She is not at all inclined towards getting married. At this juncture one more girl named Preeti joins them. Preeti is the youngest of them, and is still unaware of bitter truths in life. She is desperately waiting to get married to her lover and looks forward to enjoying her future life with him.

Gradually though, things start changing. As Preeti joins room no.302 in the hostel, she experiences major clashes with her boyfriend. The warden and maid tell her that the root cause of her problem is the room no.302 and the company of Anamika and Akshata. With all this emotional tension in the background, Sulabha’s stepmother forces one of her younger sister to marry an old man in the village. As a result both of Sulabha’s sisters commit suicide. Unable to bear this shock Sulahba murders her father and stepmother.

This act pushes us and looms over our head, for quite some period of time. The play does not end with just the curtains drawing; instead it continues to grip the audiences’ conscience. Each character has a story to tell. Each character makes us think about how marriage in India, defines the life of a woman (and the same standards do not hold for a man, highlighting the inherent double standards of our society) in various perspectives. This play cannot be classified into mainstream Marathi theatre. It can be called as ‘Vidrohi Kalakruti’, but at the same time it fits into the traditional Marathi theatre framework since the music and extensive sets and engagement with props are in tandem with the same. In fact, the actors, continually, actively engage with props, illustrated by the actors smoking a cigarette, eating a sandwich and so on. Both, the languages as well as the thoughts are bold and aggressive enough to project the issue in the exact intensity, which it deserves.

All characters in Thashta represent women in a modern, aspirational and multicultural society. Their style, appearance and the attitude they carry clearly personify it. The language used throughout the show is casual though some with a rather conservative mind-set might find it offensive. Use of English sentences and slang terms make it more appealing and convincing. Audiences can easily relate with the characters. The use of expletives, serves to show how the characters aren’t afraid to break societal norms.

Thashta has been reintroduced in the theatre after about a year. Though the response from the audience is not bad, generating a great response from the young generation is surely not an aim for the group given its strong content and some impactful performances.

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HOMOECONOMICUS VOLUME II

TATTLE TALES

“Discuss( Rant) out loud your loud appre-

hensions and thoughts about policy and

socio-economic issues”

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Everyone must have recently heard about the four-day ban on selling poultry and meat in Mumbai during the Jain festival of Paryushan on the grounds of ‘religious sentiments’, this being enforced just weeks after the ban on sale of beef (exclusive of water buffalo) throughout Maharashtra. Although everyone is surprised by this ban, only a few would believe that by a resolution passed by the BMC in 1964, a two -day ban had been in action during this period. So why the sudden reactions and debates from all parts of society?

Probably, it is because that time there wasn’t a beef ban in force. Maybe, it is because Maharashtra is the only state to ban the possession and consumption of beef as well. Probably, it is because the period has been extended to four from two. Or mainly, we just didn’t know about such a resolution (at least I didn’t). People are against the ban simply because it caters only to a minor community in a city like Mumbai which has many such minor communities and is known to be secular. So such a ban clearly goes against secularism as it inconveniences the majority in favour of the minority.

Plus, the costs of poultry and mutton increased after the ban. But my reasons for being against this are slightly different.

The Job-Rob That reason being, you are stealing the livelihood of many people. In an economy like ours that suffers from unemployment, especially in the urban areas, such bans just add on to our prob-

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lems. When the beef ban was enforced, it permitted the sale of water buffalo. But it only constituted 25 percent of the beef market. So the remaining 75 percent had to shut shop or face 5 years in jail. Considering we are the second largest exporter of beef (earning almost $4.3 billion last year), such a ban in even one state does affect our trade considerably, especially since almost 50% of the 29 Indian states have banned beef. And what about the sellers? Most of the beef sellers are lower middle class or poor families who depend on meat sales for their living. Prior to the ban, there were more than 900 licensed retail shops and more than 4000 people employed in the meat trade. Most families have had 4-5 generations invested in this trade. In fact approximately 20 families depend on one beef shop. Imagine when one day they are threatened with hefty fines or jail terms for carrying on their daily practise? That too because of people who don’t even interact with them?

What other options do they have?

Most of them have minimal education and chances of other employment opportunities are bleak. Shouldn’t they receive some monetary or other help from the Government so that they can continue living a stable life?

Dharavi is known for its leather industry. It contributes heavily to the slums’ informal economy with an annual turnover of over $500 million. These markets are already suffering from cut throat competition on account of 51

cheap Chinese goods, higher material costs and shortage of labour. Banning beef adds one more headache—that they have to import leather from other states to carry on their business.

This just leads to most costs for them and lesser profits on account of the competition. Shouldn’t they be assured a decent standard of living at least in spite of their living conditions?

There are exceptions to the exceptions of the rule Let us not stick to humans alone. Animals also suffer. As per news reports, carnivores at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park have to survive on chicken instead of their usual diet of red meat.

Chicken may be healthier, but its rising costs have lead to major expenses for the Park simply because the quantity to be consumed to maintain the nutrition level is much more. How would you feel if instead of Paneer you were forced to consume Tofu instead since it is healthier? Does this make the forcing of carnivores to eat poultry fair?

Clearly the Government had a one sided opinion when enforcing this.

And we know what it was. They say slaughtering animals is cruel. So what are poultry and fish then?

We have the largest population of cattle in the world. The costs of maintaining cattle is extremely high, especially to find pastures for them to graze in a land deficient country like ours. Selling their meat is one way to recover those costs much faster. Un-

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fortunately instead of that, people prefer to starve them and leave them to die during droughts. So much for respecting them indeed!

The ‘beef’ between prohibition and personal freedom But back to why bans shouldn’t exist, it is because you are hindering your own chances to earn more revenue.

Earlier there was a debate on banning hoardings all together. But do you know how viable an investment in billboard sites is? Renting an outdoor ad site costs as little as Rs. 5000 per month but you earn revenues of almost Rs.50000 easily! Sometimes, the returns are almost 200 percent! As a result, the outdoor ad agency market (Bright Outdoor Media being an example) is a thriving one and the investments in this field are increasing to even places outside the city. Sounds much better than real estate which is steep, and where recovery costs are much slower (I don’t see World One or Palais Royale being completed anytime soon) on account of late deliveries, high interest rates and lack of buyers in spite of lower prices. Also, real estate is restricted to the economically higher -class people and 30% of real estate is financed by black money. This is just going to increase the economic inequality. Ultimately the Government would want higher incomes for everyone as it leads to more investments right? And I strictly mean billboards for advertising and not the ones used for political party propaganda. Those should just not exist altogether.

Prohibition of consumption of anything just leads to negative effects on the society as well as the markets. According to a survey

by Dr. Johnathan T Tomlin on the effects of one proposed smoking ban in India, discovered that it significantly lowered the market values of hospitality firms, which included bars, restaurants and hotels. Since every country depends on tourism to a huge extent, anyone can guess the impact on the whole economy by banning just one product. Smoking is injurious to health, but people who smoke do

VOLUME II

know the side effects of the same.

Consumption of saturated fats is injurious as well, but clearly no one is bothered about that. Cigarettes earn more than saturated fats, so why try to ban them?

For those who clearly want to understand the implications of prohibition, read about the Prohibition in the USA from 1920-1933, which was a nationwide constitutional ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. In a nutshell, it lead to increase in organized crimes, particularly boot-legging (smuggling alcohol), reduced revenues for the Government, disrespect for the law as well as religion, corruption amongst officials, overburdening of the police, courts and the penal system, deaths from consumption of illegal alcohol and increase in over all consumption after initial decrease. Many rebels took up cigarette smoking during this period. But the most important and my major point throughout the article—people lost jobs and had no alternate source of income which lead them towards organized crimes and earning black money.

When we are trying to tackle problems of poverty and unemployment, why are we actually increasing them simply because one tiny section of our society is against the consumption habits of others? So many people’s livelihood depends on the said ‘immoral’ commodities. And yes, I mean the air quotes.

If there is one thing the Prohibition declared, it was that the government’s role is to protect citizens and their property — not legislate what people are allowed to do for recreation, or what they are allowed to eat. Clearly our Government doesn’t believe in that and slowly plans to dictate our lives for us. Everyone applauded Shashi Tharoor for speaking about how England should compensate us for what they stole from us during their Rule. But if our own Government is not compensating the people for stealing their livelihood and employment, isn’t it hypocritical to ex52

pect outsiders to do the same for us?

My constant usage of the word ‘ban’ throughout the article may be irritating, but the whole concept of a ‘ban’ is itself irritating and useless. Frankly, one should ban the concept of a ban altogether! A ban isn’t a solution but just adds fuel to the fire.

Important notes:  Most of the people who consume beef in the cities are lower-caste Hindus, Muslims, Christian, Dalits and Kolis who are the original inhabitants of Mumbai. Nothing fishy or ‘beefy’ about that?  Don’t be surprised to find more cattle sleeping on the streets.

Since one can’t earn money from their meat, more will be bound to trees since that seems more respectful to them and the only way to earn money from them.  To those who complain that billboards are eyesores, they at least serve a purpose and earn revenue unlike the many statues that adorn the city.  The new Government made reduction of unemployment and inflation, eradication of corruption as their main priorities and the beef ban as a minor one. Clearly we know where their priorities lie.

References

http://www.firstpost.com/india/law-of-unintended-consequences-whythe-beef-ban-in-maharashtra-is-bad-news-for-dharavi-2142845.html http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-07-07/ news/51133889_1_hoardings-laqshya-media-outdoor-media-advertising http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/04/economic-impact-bars-restaurantsopinions-contributors-smoking-ban.html http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2009/03/12-badeffects-of-prohibition-you-should-know/ http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/can-real-estate-inindia-recover-from-its-slump-115071600466_1.html BBC World Service: The Food Chain Podcast on ‘India: Faith, Food and Politics’

SANJUKTA NAIR (The Shy Chef), 20 Along with her shameless love for food, this to be Economics graduate from Ramnarain Ruia College loves travelling, languages, fiction, finding answers to the most absurd questions, and enlightening conversations over a cup of coffee.

HOMOECONOMICUS

VOLUME II

FED EX RATE HIKE!

M

aking the world econ- financial crisis and the policies initiated the cornerstone of monetary policy is omy dance: A story by to combat it. But first, let us underthe Central Bank interest rate. the Fed stand the importance of interest rates It is not the purpose of this article to themselves.

Recently, there was have an in-depth discussion regarding quite a stir in the world markets about The role of Interest Rates in Monetary the relationship between interest rates the question of the Federal Reserve Policy, the Central Bank is likely to hi and inflation, but it is enough to sumBank of the United States (the ‘Fed’) marize their relationship in the followraising its interest rate. Was the Fed Macroeconomic theory states that the ing manner:-When there is excess about to end an extraordinary period interactions of interest rates and mon- money supply ey supply plays an important role in the in the history of its monetary policy in the economy, it may lead to when the Fed rate hovered around 0%, determination of a country’s price lev- increases in the price-level and result in and push it up? There were good rea- el. The price level remains stable when inflation. In such a scenarioke interest sons to do so; the unemployment rate the interest rates are in equilibrium rates to bring liquidity (i.e. money supwith the money supply.

Changes in the ply) and thus inflation under control. had fallen to its natural level, there was interest rates lead to inverse changes This is known as a contractionary mona clearly noticeable trend of growth and investment in the economy. These in the money supply. However, assum- etary policy. signs were pointing to increasing infla- ing the quantity theory of money holds In the opposite scenario, i.e. if there in the long run, what is ultimately af- is a fall in liquidity, the Central Bank tion levels. However, the carnage in the emerging markets and the Chinese fected is only the aggregate price-level may cut interest rates (obviously up of the country, i.e. the result is either to a cap of 0%) to increase the moey crisis were arguments against an increase. On 17 September, the Fed de- inflation or deflation, depending on the supply and head off the threat of direction of the change. The key to deflation. This is called as expasiarary cided against a rate hike. manage the aggregate price-level is to monetary policy.

To understand how this rate landed up manage the money-supply. The moneyThe Federal Funds Rate near 0% in the first place and why supply is managed through the counthere were demands to hike it up from try’s monetary policy. In modern times, The Federal Open Market Committee that exceptionally low figure, and why it generally falls to the Central Bank of (the ‘FOMC’) of the Fed is responsible these demands were resisted, we must a country to dictate its monetary polifor setting the Fed funds target rate delve into the past decade, i.e. into the cy. And having regard for the above,

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(what was referred to as the Fed rate so far). This is the rate which “banks with excess reserves at a Federal Reserve district bank charge other banks that need overnight loans.” These loans are generally provided on an uncollateralized basis. Any movement of the Fed rate generates lots of excitement not only in American markets but in the world’s markets too.

This is simply because the US economy being the largest in the world is so inextricably tied to the world economy that any changes in the American markets are bound to have profound effects on the world economy as a whole. Prior to 2007, the Fed rate had hovered around 5%. The last time it had been hiked came in 2006, when it was pushed up by 25 basis points from 5% to 5.25%.

Response to the Financial Crisis During the financial crisis of 2007, massive defaults in the American CMBS market severely affected the lending ability of many major American financial institutions. This caused huge contractions in liquidity, firstly in the housing and then in the financial sector. This liquidity-crunch further spread to other sectors of the American economy and thereon to the rest of the world. In response to this sudden crisis, the Fed in tandem with the Central Banks of other affected countries began, among a host of initiatives, to steadily bring down Central Bank interest rates. Between September 2007 and April 2008, the Fed rate was brought down from 5.25% to 2%. This was done to restore liquidity and credit to a market lacking severely in both, a prerequisite to increased investment and spending which was needed to keep deflation at bay.

However, despite further rate cuts, which had brought the Fed rate to 0.25% by 2009; the signs from the American economy were still discour-

VOLUME II

aging, prompting the Fed to implement its policy of Quantitative Easing.

Starting in November 2008, the Fed started buying mortgage-backed securities through open market operations in three phases. This resulted in a large-scale release of funds into the economy and slowly, the American economy started to recover and regain momentum. Hence, the Fed stopped the quantitative easing of money into the economy by the end of 2014. Despite the revival of the American economy, the Fed has still kept its rate rock-bottom.

Do we need a rate-hike right now?

Since the beginning of this year, there have been clamors for a rate hike.

Many analysts and economists hold the view that there will never be a better time for the Fed to increase the rate as smoothly as they perceive it to be possible right now. However, there are still many who feel that now is not the right time to push it up. Let us briefly understand the chief arguments put forward by either of the parties to support their opposing views: For:There were many signs that the US stock market had become significantly overvalued. The amount of margin interest had also reached its highest levels in recent times.

Valuations of many companies were indicating that the investment market had become significantly stretched.

Cheaply available credit had made it easier for companies to raise funds, including companies with relatively unproven earnings models, especially in the technology and app generating sectors.

The low interest rates were probing investors to turn to other, riskier assets to earn higher returns. This was leading to increased investment 54

in much riskier asset-classes in search of attractive returns.

The Central Banks’ central bank, the International Bank for Settlements, had highlighted the risk of increase worldwide dollar loans to non-US borrowers other than banks reaching 150% of their 2009 levels.

This suggested that the easy availability of dollar loans had allowed borrowers to come highly leveraged to potentially risky levels.

Signs within the American economy were quite positive. The unemployment rate had reached its “natural” levels, the economy was growing robustly, inflation was at 2% but there were fears of a further I crease, and investment and spending were back up.

Against:Despite improving economic conditions, there is still not enough confidence in the continued growth of the economy to consider a rate hike that, if premature, could result in the return of deflationary conditions. While much better compared to that of earlier years, the growth cannot be termed as sustainable as it is still sluggish.

While it is true that the unemployment rate has fallen to about 5%, the labor market is still not robust enough and high numbers of employees report being employed at jobs below their level of education, i.e. the labor market is beset by the problem of underemployment. Also, part-time jobs have replaced full-time jobs, and low-paying service jobs have replaced more lucrative manufacturing jobs.

While inflation is very low at just 2% as of September, it is predicted that even a slight elevation in the rate could tilt prices back into expensive

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VOLUME II liquidity was reduced. The sharp increase in foreclosures and the problems in the subprime mortgage market were blamed largely on loose lending practices, low interest rates, a housing bubble, and excessive risk taking by lenders and investors. It is also known as the subprime collapse or the subprime crisis.

Definition – The Financial Dictionary (http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/2007+Subprime+mortgage+financial+crisis)

territory.

The largest debtor to the Fed has been the American government itself, which had borrowed heavily in the recessionary years of the financial crisis to prop up investment spending. Hence, a rate hike would hurt the Federal US government the most of all, as it would result in higher interest payments.

It is a type of mortgage-backed security that is secured by the loan on a commercial property. A CMBS can provide liquidity to real estate investors and to commercial lenders. As with other types of MBS, the increased use of CMBS can be attributable to the rapid rise in real estate prices over the years.

Definition – Investopedia.com (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cmbs.asp)

With the ongoing economic crisis in the emerging markets, a rate hike could result in a very serious problem for these economies, as the foreign outflows that would occur due to the rate hike would be very damaging. There would be a significant drying-up of liquidity and credit in those markets.

An unconventional monetary policy in which a central bank purchases government securities or other securities from the market in order to lower interest rates and increase the money supply. Quantitative easing increases the money supply by flooding financial institutions with capital in an effort to promote increased lending and liquidity. Quantitative easing is considered when short-term interest rates are at or approaching zero, and does not involve the printing of new banknotes.

Definition – Investopedia.com (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/quantitative-easing.asp)

Ultimately, the FOMC found more force in the latter set of arguments and announced their decision to stick to the current rate. However, this has been viewed critically and met with skepticism, and certain influential persons have privately admitted that the rate may yet be revised before the year’s end. But for now, the Fed rate of 0.25% stays.

Explanations and References:In monetary economics, the quantity theory of money states that money supply has a direct, proportional relationship with the price level. For example, if the currency in circulation increased, there would be a proportional increase in the price of goods.

SHANTANU TILAK Having completed his B.Com from R. A. Podar College, Shantanu is pursuing Chartered Accountancy and is currently interning at EY. An avid reader and a die-hard Manchester United fan; Shantanu is ever ready for a discussion on history, economics and Tolstoy. He can be reached at svtilak123@gmail.com

For more information refer to – http://www.investopedia.com/articles/05/010705.asp Source – nasdaq.com (http://www.nasdaq.com/investing/glossary/f/federal-funds-rate) A term that refers to the 2008 financial crisis that arose out of the subprime mortgage market collapse brought on by borrowers who defaulted on their loans in record numbers.

This led to the collapse of many mortgage lenders, banks, and hedge funds. The meltdown spilled over into the global credit market as risk premiums increased rapidly and capital

AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY

I

t has always been an interesting task to study American foreign policy. The students of International Relations understand U.S. foreign policy as a proper example of the Realist approach, which states that nation-states have the ‘desire to be in the driver’s seat. It will thus be relevant here to analyse at what juncture Realist principles entered Ameri-

can foreign policy and what the reasons were behind it.

LANDMARKS IN THE AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY 13 colonies in America liberated themselves from the rule of the British Empire in the year 1776. Immediately after the independence it developed an isolationist 55

approach towards world affairs. During the Napoleonic Wars it followed the principle of neutrality. America asserted the ‘right to trade with both sides.’ – England and France. In the third decade of the 19th century emerged the famous Monroe Doctrine. It had prevented Spain’s intervention in Latin America. It underlined the theme of America for Americans. Therefore, American foreign policy emphasised

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VOLUME II

on continental expansion whilst simultaneously remaining isolationist while dealing with the rest of the world.

It can be observed that at the end of the 19th century U.S. foreign policy experienced significant transformation. Its manufacturing sector contributed in its economic growth. Gradually, it began to exhibit its interest in overseas expansion.

This changing trend in foreign policy can be seen in its Open Door Policy with China.

Therefore, it invited America to replace its role of policeman. Apart from the external scenario, the legacy of American foreign policy also directed leaders and foreign policy makers. “American leaders concluded that they had to resist further Soviet expansion. But their national tradition caused them to seek to justify this resistance on nearly any basis other than as an appeal to the traditional balance of power.” According to Clark Clifford, President Truman’s advisor, “the SovietDuring 1914-1919, the whole world was American conflict was not caused by involved in the First World War. Presiclashing national interests - which by defident Woodrow Wilson was leading nition might be negotiated - but by the America during the wartime. He brought moral shortcomings of the Soviet leaderan internationalist approach to the Ameri- ship. Therefore, the goal of American can foreign policy. He tried to inject liber- foreign policy was not so much to restore al values into it. He wanted America to be the balance of power as to transform soa member of the League of Nations. But viet society.” he failed in his attempts due to the rejecSuch opinions became the philosophical tion of the treaty concerned by the U.S. base for the Truman Doctrine. America Senate. was ready to give economic aid to Greece World War two (WWII) started in 1939. and Turkey. The Marshall Plan had been On 7th December 1941 Japanese attack on declared. It was an economic recovery Pearl Harbour compelled America to en- programme. Its objective was to remove ter in Second World War. It ended its poverty, hunger, chaos but was not isolationist policy in international politics. against any ideology. During the latter half of the Truman administration, America After the Second World War, American came up with a containment policy. It was foreign policy makers initiated discussions oriented towards maintaining the statuson the possible strategies which could be quo. adopted in their foreign policy. The presiTherefore, it can be concluded that, the dent Franklin. D. Roosevelt envisioned the Truman Doctrine was not realist in naresponsibility of world peace in the hands ture. It lacked an offensive strategy. of the U.S.A, the USSR, Britain and China.

America didn’t willingly take the driver’s He was unable to fulfil his dream because seat. Though NATO was formed, it was a the USSR then began to show its age old political move. The Truman Doctrine was aspirations of conquering the world. It designed to protect liberty. It was not to expanded its sphere of influence in Eastdeter the USSR or to maintain the balance ern Europe, threatening the geo-strategic of power. position of Western Europe. Historically, Britain had been playing the role of the It is under the leadership of Dwight Eisenpoliceman in European politics. As stated hower, accompanied by the Secretary of

by Henry Kissinger “Ever since the end of State John Foster Dulles that the U.S forthe war, Great Britain had supported both eign policy took a 360 degree change and Greece and Turkey economically as well followed realist principles. The then- inas militarily. In the winter of 1946-47, the ternational structure forced America to Atlee government of Britain informed prepare a foreign policy in accordance Washington that it could no longer shoul- with realist themes. der the burden.”

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After the Second World War, economically and militarily, the U.S emerged as the most powerful nation-state. Its geostrategic position had helped America strengthen its power capabilities. For instance, it participated in the Second World War but the war didn’t take place on its mainland. However, the European countries were economically and militarily affected very badly.

On the other hand, the USSR managed to survive and become a powerful nationstate. It started accomplishing its dream of world expansion. For this purpose it used altruism in communist ideology. If U.S.A had not become offensive then USSR would have threatened the rest of the world. In the absence of the balance of power, international system would have lost security and peace. So, America adopting the realist approach was the need of international structure.

NEW LOOK POLICY: A REFLECTION OF REALISM New look policy includes following strategies‘Massive Retaliation’ implied that the U.S.A would fight against communist aggression forcefully and with means of their own choice.

‘Brinkmanship’ meant to go to the verge of war but not to start with war.

‘Rolling Back’ indicated to remove the control of the Soviet Union from East Europe and to make people free.

Covert operations were carried out to overthrow local governments whom the U.S. government felt were tilting towards the U.S.S.R. APPLICATION OF THE NEW LOOK POLICY IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD Vietnam was colonised by the French in the 19th century. Later on, during the Second World War, Japan occupied it. After the defeat of Japan, the French returned to Vietnam. During that time, Ho-Chi-

HOMOECONOMICUS Mihn and his Communist party Vietmihn declared the independence of Vietnam. In 1954, both the parties came into conflict at Dien Bien Phu. The French had demanded military help from the U.S.A. Eisenhower got concerned about the Domino theory impact which then meant that if one country in South-east Asia became Communist, the rest of South-east Asia would come under Communist influence.

America thus supported an active intervention.

Iran- In 1951, the Iranian premier Mohammad Mosaddeq had nationalized the Anglo -Iranian oil company. It was a British owned company. Nationalization of an Oil Company meant that the profits would remain in Iran. Thus the international oil companies boycotted Iran. Mosaddeq asked for American help. Eisenhower denied it. Mosaddeq turned to the U.S.S.R. So, Mosaddeq was removed from his place by CIA’s covert operations and Reza Shah Pahlavi came to power.

During the Suez Crisis, the Egyptian government wanted to build the Aswan dam.

The U.S, Britain and the World Bank were ready to finance it. But when America realised that Nasser was tilting towards the U.S.S.R., it stopped the financing to Egypt. It later became an international issue, as Israel was being used by Western countries to attack Egypt. One can state that the adoption of the new look policy had made the U.S approach towards the USSR more reactive.

VOLUME II international relations becomes an area of power politics. In such an anarchic condition, the survival of the state receives attention.

Kenneth Waltz, a 20th century neo-realist thinker has recognised the basic tenets of conventional (classical) realism except one. He argued that, international structure compels nation-states to behave in a certain manner and not vice versa. ‘State leaders are prisoners of the structure of the state system and its determinist logic which dictates what they must do in their conduct of foreign policy.’ In this situation state survival, conflict between states gets importance automatically. Neo-realism points out that foreign policy is dependent on the structure of the system. For example- it is due to the imbalance of power, geo-strategy and the interest of other nation-states that the Israel-Palestine conflict exists. Religion is not the only factor in it.

1

Jackson Robert and Sorensen George, Realism, Introduction to International Relations, , Oxford University Press Inc, New York 1999, pp.68-105 2 Woods, Randall. “Bipartisanship” ,Ed. Richard Dean Burns, Alexander DeConde, and Fredrik Logevall Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York 2002, Vol.1,pp. 155 -165, Global Issues In Context, 9th Feb.2012, http:// find.galegroup.com.vlib.interchange.at/gic/ infomark.

3 Ibid 4 Kissinger Henry, Reflections on ContainCONCLUSION ment, Foreign Affairs, , Council on Foreign Many scholars have evaluated American Relations, 1994, Vol,73,No.3.pp.113-130, rd foreign policy during the cold war by using 3 Dec.2015, http://www.jstor.org/ stable/20046662 the classical realist approach. This article 5 Ibid has attempted to examine it with a neo6 Ibid realist approach. Realism assumes that the 7 Jackson, Sorenson, op.cit. , p1 state is the primary unit in international REFERENCES relations. Nation-states look to achieve their national interests and differ in capa- A Worldwide Cold War, Ed. Hans.M.Sharon, Hans.

C.Richard, Barker.W.Lawrence, , Cold War Reference bilities. Hence, they indulge in rivalries.

Library, Detroit: U*X*L, 2004, Vol, 1, (Gale, Cengage LerrnState leaders initiate tactful means, not by ing), Global Issues In Context, 17th Feb 2012, http:// compulsion but by their subjective analysis find.galegroup.com.vlib.interchange.at/gic/infomark.do? &source of the international system. As a result Dulles, John Foster, Ed. Sharon M, Richard C. Hanes, and

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Lawrence W. Baker, Cold War Reference Library, Detroit: U*X*L, 2004, Vol, 1, (Gale Cengage Learning), Global Issues In Context, 17th Feb. 2012 http:// find.galegroup.com.vlib.interchange.at/gic/infomark.do? &source Eisenhower Doctrin: Did the Eisenhower Doctrine Work?

History In Dispute, Lesch. David,The Middle East Since 1945:Second Series, St. James Press,2004, Vol, 15, (Gale), Global Issues In Context, 17th Feb2012 http:// find.galegroup.com.vlib.interchange.at/gic/infomark.do? &source Jackson Robert and Sorensen George, Realism, Introduction to International Relations, Oxford University Press Inc, New York 1999 Karabell Zachary, Dulles John Foster (1888-1959), Ed. Philip Mattar, Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa , Macmillan Reference ,New York, 2004,Vol, 2, (Gale, Cengage Lerrning), Global Issues In Context, 17th Feb 2012, http://find.galegroup.com.vlib.interchange.at/gic/infomark.do? &source Kissinger Henry, Reflections on Containment, Foreign Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, 3rd Dec.2015, http:// www.jstor.org/stable/20046662 Neumann, Caryn E, Eisenhower Administration(1953-1961), United States National Security Policy, Ed. K.Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security, Detroit: Gale, 2004, Vol.1, (Gale, Cengage Lerrning), Global Issues In Context, 19th Feb 2012, http://find.galegroup.com.vlib.interchange.at/gic/infomark.do? &source Paranjape Shrikant, kashmirchya palikadachi charcha chaukat, Sakal, 11 Dec.2015 Rollback:Did the Eisenhower Administration Regard Rollback As a Viable Policy Option? History in Dispute, Ed. Benjamin Frankel, The cold War first Series, St. James Press,2000, Vol, 1, (Gale), Global Issues In Context, 17th Feb 2012, http://find.galegroup.com.vlib.interchange.at/gic/ infomark.do?&source Woods, Randall, “Bipartisanship, Ed.Richard Dean Burns, Alexander DeConde, and Fredrik Logevall, Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 2002, , Vol. 1, (Gale, Cengage Lerrning), Global Issues In Context, 19th Feb 2012, http:// find.galegroup.com.vlib.interchange.at/gic/infomark.do? &source

MADHURA BANE is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science in Ramnarian Ruia College.

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WORLD FOOD

CRISIS FOOD SHORTAGE OR A SYSTEMIC FOOD MARKET FAILURE?

Food is a necessity; you can’t do without food, nobody can. Why is it that this fundamental requisite continues to elude millions of people worldwide in spite of a recent boom in world food production?

The banal retort tends to be: phenomenal rise in world population, which is conventional knowledge. While a large population certainly makes it difficult to provide a decent living standard for all, empirical evidence suggests that growing world population is not the root cause of world food crisis. The fear that there are just too many people in the world is unfounded, as suggested by FAO; the world is producing enough food for everybody. In

2007 there were record grain harvests. In fact, in the last 20 years, food production has been steadily outstripping population growth by a reasonable margin. Food production has risen steadily over 2% while global population growth rate has dropped to 1.14%, reinforcing the fact that there is enough food being produced to feed the existing (and steadily growing) population.

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So why is hunger ubiquitous? Why are millions starving to death? Why does chronic hunger kill more people every year than AIDS, TB and malaria combined?

Why are we undergoing a ‘Global Food Crisis’? The answer lies with the faulty and poorly designed food markets across the world.

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Food unavailability is very closely linked to high and volatile food prices. Food price pattern, in the contemporary globalized world has become increasingly erratic and is the primary cause of rising hunger.

We’re now seeing more hungry people than ever before, with food scarcity be4. coming a major source of conflict and social unrest, world over.

The proximate causes of food scarcity are well known and widely debated: 1.

Climate change continues to grip the world’s imagination and will keep af58

fecting food production in an unpredictable and volatile manner. Lack of adequate rainfall in countries with a traditional agricultural sector, devoid of widespread use of modern irrigation facilities, puts enormous pressure on the prices of essential food grains; further perpetuating the cycle of poverty and hunger.

The shift from food crops to Agro Fuels: Today an increasingly important share of so-called bioenergy is produced from agricultural crops traditionally used as food. This creates direct competition for the resources to feed the world’s population and results in food price inflation.

Food insufficiency is most widespread in the developing world where the poorest people reside. The policy web and the inefficient public distribution system saddled with messy bureaucracy makes it almost impossible for people to access food.

Volatile and high oil prices in recent decades have led to a dramatic increase in the cost of food production.

On an average, prices of fertilizers have tripled and transportation costs have almost doubled causing grain prices to spiral up.

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Everyone%20Else/images-14/somalia-food-crisis-famine.jpg

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t’s no ‘new’ news that nearly half the world’s population is food insecure.

Hunger riots and food wars have become commonplace in countries like Haiti, with even resource rich countries such as Brazil experiencing instability due to food shortage. According to latest statistics 795 million people (WFP Statistics) in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy, decent life. That's about one in nine people on earth. The vast majority of the world's hungry people live in developing countries, where 13.5 percent of the population is severely undernourished. Over 11 million people are acutely malnourished in the developed word.

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Since national grain reserve systems were dismantled in 1990s, global food dependency has led to a steady fall in the global grain stock, making food prices more volatile than ever.

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Food dumping by wealthier nations onto poor countries (often in the name of aid) and the resultant fall in commodity prices (when poor nations tried to sell their produce to rich nations, undervaluing their produce in the process) lead to unsettled food prices.

VOLUME II world population, shortages occur from lack of proper distribution and inability of most people to afford enough food to feed themselves and their families. The cause of the crisis is a global food system that is highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shock.

ture is the primary source of livelihood for most people. The capitalist hand has stripped the poorest people of these countries to their cadaverous skins. This unbalanced global arrangement has led to serious food shortages in such countries.

Thus, the world food crisis is essentially a food market failure, primarily due to inequitable distribution of adequate resources and systemic policy failures. There is plenty of food available on the shelves, but it’s way too pricey for most people to buy.

Take the exposition of the food crisis in Policies and the very fundamentals of the Africa. Populations of sub-Saharan Africa existing economic arrangements world .The proximate causes of food scarcity saw a 292% increase from 1961 to 2000. over need to be revised, keeping in mind discussed above lead to wide fluctuation However, domestic food production did the egalitarian societal view. Only then, of food prices, effectively denying the not keep pace. World bank and IMF, in can we dream of providing the humanity poor, their right to food. Understandably, their attempt to assuage hunger and lower with enough food. food price volatility is an issue that needs malnutrition, failed miserably, when they to be addressed urgently and permanently, pressurized the African countries to abanbecause when prices rise, food becomes don small farm agriculture, which they saw as unproductive. Development policies unavailable to the poor. pushed people to cities where they proThe principal problem is that many people vided labor for industry. Valuable industriin the world still do not have sufficient al agricultural crops like cocoa and coffee income to purchase (or land to grow) were exported to pay off foreign debt. enough food. Thus, the principal cause of The decline in production of food crops hunger is poverty, coupled with inefficient led to burgeoning poverty and forced Afriand poorly constructed policies and instica to import food, compounding the altutions. Magnification of the crisis occurs ready pervasive food crisis. The net effect when so-called solutions are rooted in the of the policies was a ten-fold increase in very system responsible for sprouting the imports of food crops by Africa. The policataclysm. The problem lies in the prodcies put in place to steer Africa towards ding, greased distribution system, which is growth, debilitated the continent’s already designed to subtly favour the rich while systematically sidelining the poor. A glob- fragile self-sufficient economy.

I’m AESHWARYA JAIN, a second alised and intricately linked world food This goes to show that the dominance of year Economics (hons) student at Lady economy provides the rich nations with richer countries and wealthy companies in Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University. the opportunity to create a favourable the international arena with vested monetrade balance for themselves. So even tary interests has seriously undermined My E-mail ID is tellash96@yahoo.co.in though in absolute terms, there is abunthe sovereignty of comparatively poorer dant food being produced to sustain the nations, in Africa and Asia, where agriculIn many developing countries of Asia and Africa, right to food for a major proportion of the most vulnerable population is still a distant dream.

‘ANNAPOORNA KIOSKS and STEMMING THE ROT IN THE PDS’

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can’t such a system be replicated on a large he other day, I was travelling scale to tackle a lot of problems faced in in the Delhi Metro when I implementing the Public Distribution Syssuddenly felt thirsty. Once I got down at tem in India? my destination, I promptly inserted a Rs. 10 However ridiculous it may sound, note in the Self Help Kiosk and out came a the idea is simple and if implemented packet of fruit juice. This is when an idea properly could actually help us get rid of a struck me. If one can have such kiosks to lot of the shortcomings of the present Pubstock juices, mineral water and snacks, why 59

lic Distribution System (PDS). At present the PDS is India’s largest food security system. It is meant to provide 35kg of grain (rice or wheat) to each Below Poverty Line (BPL) family every month through its expansive network of approximately 5 lakh PDS or Ration Shops. While the objective of this scheme is very noble, its impact on the ground is not as envisioned. Rampant

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corruption at every level means that a lot of would have several advantages. grain meant for the poor makes its way to First and foremost, through a regthe black market while the real beneficiaries ulated electronic system, a lot of corruption go to sleep on an empty stomach. Secondly, and pilfering can be avoided. Secondly, ineven when the grain makes its way to the PDS Shop, the attitude of the shop owners PHOTOGRAPHY BY HARSH SHAH is often callous and there are widespread instances of cheating and weighing discrepancies.

The solution according to me is simple, bring in technology and cut off the middlemen; computers are not known to cheat after all. Like we have ATM Machines to distribute cash (even villages have started to have their own ATMs nowadays) we could have ‘ANNAPOORNA RATION KIOSKS’ to distribute the supplies which citizens of India are entitled to. First, all the grain procured from farmers across the nation must be processed and packed hygienically into bags of 1kg, 5kg, 10kg and so on. This would not only give an assurance of quality to the consumer, but also provide the much needed boost to the food processing industry. Plus, the often repeated crises wherein grain meant for the PDS rots out in the open due to poor storage facilities can be taken care of. Then these packed bags can be deposited into various ‘Annapoorna Kiosks’ from where the beneficiaries can procure grain as and when required. This

Using these, only the entitled persons may obtain the rations. Fourthly, once quality is assured, even the upper strata of the society may be encouraged to buy products from such kiosks at market rates, thereby augmenting the self-sustainability of such schemes and reducing the subsidy burden. It has been seen that wherever and whenever the government service providers have been able to guarantee quality, the middle classes have gotten over their qualms of accessing that service. The ‘Idli at Re. 1 each’ scheme of the Tamil Nadu government being a prominent example.

Clearly if such a system were accepted and properly implemented, it could revolutionise the ailing Public Distribution System in India and usher in ‘Achche Din’ for the large stead of queuing up only on when the ration sections of the population dependent upon shop is open, people can access these ki- it for their two square meals a day. osks at any time of their choosing and ob'एधित '(Aedhit) is the Sanskrit word tain whatever amount of grain they need; for 'Eternally Growing'. Much like accessibility at the grassroots would imits meaning I expect will be my prove drastically. Thirdly with the advent of 'दृष्टिकोण' (Perspective). For feedback AADHAR and the Biometric system, tarI'm available geting such subsidies would be much easier on drishtikontheperspective@gmail.co and far more efficient. Since direct cash m and my blog Drishtikon transfers of subsidies are already underway, The Perspective http://drishtikonthe subsidy amounts could be transferred theperspective.blogspot.com directly to the beneficiaries’ bank account and a biometrically linked ‘Annapoorna Card’ could be issued.

M A CASE FOR KIVA HOW MICROFINANACE CAN HELP FIGHT WORLD POVERTY

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ukula hails from the Nuapada district of Odisha.

She was married at an early age, before she turned eighteen. She has little formal education. However, she has an eye for colour. One look at the yarn she weaves for saris reveals a riot of colours. Sapphire blue, burning red, soothing turquoise.

She is one of the five women entrepreneurs from her village who had

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words of its founder Jessica Jackley, “Kiva is about retelling the story of the poor.�

Kiva doesn't charge interest on its loans. Its working is strictly non-profit. They have the opportunity to connect with entrepreneurs, see their plans, and become a part of their dreams.

They essentially invest in human capital.

As opposed to donations, loans do not end with a single person. The credit is invested and reinvested. Lenders also get the satisfaction of knowing their money is being utilized well.

Crowdsourcing loans ensure the amount is raised quicker.

Poverty and Redemption Questions of world poverty are often accompanied by calls for charity. Charity, while being noble and selfless, can often become a tool to absolve us of meaningful intervention in the lives of the less privileged. Plus, it does little to safeguard the dignity of the poor. By using a platform like Kiva, we can help people bring about practical changes in their lives.

By tapping into their entrepreneurial spirit, we can ensure their self-sufficiency.

If Kiva has taught us anything, it's that people do have the force and the will to bring about a change in their lives. Provided we trust in them, one loan at a time. https://medium.com/@Kiva/mukula-s-dream-giving-herboys-a-better-future-ae4e16153b76

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A freelance writer, RAZI SHAIKH likes to read borrowed books and punch innocent house walls. He's an aspiring journalist and an erratic graphologist. Presently, he's waiting for his publishers to provide him with a better by-line.

Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Microfinance_in_India#/media/File:An_ESAF_%27Sangam%27_Meeting_in_progress_in_Kerala.jpg

decided to take a Kiva loan. With the help of the $570 loan she received, she had managed to expand her sari-weaving business.

She now employs two skilled labourers. Her husband also works part-time for her.

Mukula dreams to get her two sons married, and buy a larger house for their entire family. Thanks to Kiva, her business is now flourishing. Her dreams don't look intimidating anymore.

Kiva is an online lending platform, founded by Jessica Jackley in 2005. It's the world first and largest platform for microcredit lending. Microfinance, as a practical tool was first pioneered in Bangladesh by the economist Muhammad Yunus.

Grameen Bank Post its independence in 1971, Bangladesh was a war-torn and famine ravaged country, with a high level of poverty. In 1976, Professor Muhammad Yunus founded the Grameen Bank, aimed primarily at the rural poor. The argument was that the poor have skills, which due to lack of capital, are underutilized. By advancing small loans (microcredit) to them without collaterals, these skills can be utilized to earn some money.

Today, through its 2500 branches, the bank provides loans to 8 million people, impacting over 40 million people. Its loan recovery rate is higher than 98%. About 96% of its loans are provided to rural women. This model of microcredit lending is now followed in over sixty countries. For his pioneering work in microfinance, Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2006.

Loans That Change Lives A visit to kiva.org explains their working model best. On their homepage, you see images of prospective borrowers. On clicking any one of them, you're taken to their loan page, where you learn about their loan needs, their repayment schedule and the amount they require. If interested, you can contribute an amount (as small as $25) towards their loan.

Once the loan amount has been fully contributed, the borrower is notified by the Kiva field partner (usually non-profit organizations) with whom they co-ordinate. When the loan is repaid, the borrowers are returned their money. They have the option to withdraw it, or to lend the money to another borrower. Most lenders choose to lend it again.

Today, Kiva operates in over 83 countries. Till date, close to a million loans have been advanced through its platform, amounting to over half a billion dollars. Over 1.3 million people are lending money using Kiva.

Advantage Kiva Kiva offers a new perspective on the developing world and the way in which its people can be helped. It creates real connections. In the

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PORNOLOGY M

orality - a façade so frequently masquerading as an elevated principle which in effect only serves as a spurious pretext for regression - has been harnessed by the saffron brigade spearheaded by the BJP, incumbents of the pantheons of power in the state of Maharashtra and at the Union.

Earlier this August, as 2000-odd URLs or Universal Resource Locators were screened and then effectively taken off the bitmap of the Indian spectrum of the World Wide Web, adherents of the ideal of liberty and proponents of the freedoms of speech & expression cried foul as prospective repercussions and concerns regarding thereof were vociferously put forth through mediums ranging from locker-rooms & bedrooms to the chambers of legislature and the corridors of power frequented by personages belied by saffronization of the moral and cultural fabric of Indian society.

The existence of pornography (when etymologically transliterated from Greek to English implies “illustration of prostitution”) and the currency it garnered can be traced to rock art and figurines that predate the very advent of civilization. Legislations that outlawed the depiction of, retailing and creation of pornography can be found only until as recently the 19th Century, A.D.; self-explanatorily implicit of the liberality (some would say “misplaced leniency”) of the people over the world towards need for alternative means of carnal appeasement, nay, satiation.

es that this attitude towards what is deemed as “base” results less from indigenous pre-colonial leanings than from colonial and post-colonial idealist subjugation.

Prosecution by invocation of the Act aforementioned and those akin to this exemplary legislation was contingent on whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such susceptible and/or impressionable influences. Hitherto, despite the attempts levelled at their canning and relative suppression with varying degrees of success has largely been in vain as depictions of erotic imagery through variegated mediums never ceased to be in continual clandestine consumption.

The clandestine – the less accessible – has always illustrated an aspiration, often undermining the very act of subjugation by drawing interest to that which is the forbidden fruit.

Ethics, anti-sexualism, censorship and most prominently the pretence of the upkeep of public morality have been planks made use of to bridge the thin gap that is to be engulfed between the liberties to express and embrace one’s sexuality with that of the maxims of propriety and moderation of excesses. More often than not, these planks have served as units composed of the paraphernalia to suppress, stem and hinder high-handedly the means of expression of human need regardless of how carnal or base albeit necessary they might be in order to fructify their own agendas The seminal instance of an act of jurisprudence denouncing meant to prod and entrench (read: pull back) society into and debarring the distribution of the lascivious matter inthe mudtrap that is the annals of regression. trinsic and characteristic to pornography was the Obscene Publications Act, 1857 as recently as two centuries ago in The manifestations of regression often occur under a façade of cyclic revolution and counter-revolution, forming a England. The Victorian era and its ideologic foundations mise-en-scene to social change and often undesirable antiform the root as well as the superstructure (albeit: reprogressive social relapse. branded) of the repressive tendencies towards carnal pleasures in our society today. Academic belief presuppos62

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The BJP-NDA administration domineered and steered by the saffron-tinged top-heavy power structure which was already facing an ignominious quantum of censure for the legislation that made the sale, distribution, marketing and consumption of beef a contravention, was once again plummeted hard by that face of public opinion that leaned towards (or at least preferred to do so in the interest of prudence and keeping with the times) liberalism and unencumbered sexual expression.

OM ATHVALE

This organization has made matters shoddier by its repressive miasma of ideologic superstructure which threatens to wreak havoc on the nascent tendencies – the leanings and predispositions and inclinations – of the youth, thus alienating what consists of a momentous segment of Indian society.

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limate Change and environmental degradation are arguably the biggest difficulties the world faces today. The veritable threat has failed to – secure a consensus that it is a threat at all, as well as an unconditional, absolute agreement on the course of action against it amongst those who believe it to be a threat. For the majority of the world (especially emerging economies) recognising environment related risks while making the decisive growth transitions means the deflection of crucial resources (sometimes notional), towards diminishing this future risk in the face of conceivably greater existential risks of poverty and hunger. It is clear that the human race is capable of developing cleaner technology, and other methods of mitigating potential environmental risks. The true challenge therefore does not lie in the development of cleaner even affordable technology, renewable energy or cleaner coal but on the choice of deploying these innovations and reconciling its applications with the achievement of eco-

nomic growth. Whether to achieve sustainable development in a low-income, crowded country that is eager to cater to its patient poor is the climacteric question that a country like India needs to answer.

Enrolled in the final year of B.A programme at Ramnarain Ruia College, I am also engaged in preparations by virtue of being one of the copious aspirants vying for the UPSC examinations.

sources essential for growth.

The “nature” of economic growth A key issue for sustainable growth is the manner in which growth is defined, and the frameworks, which are being used to While it would be obvious to directly dive measure growth. The position of developinto the numerous possibilities in techno- ment theorists has been indulgent towards logical innovations for cleaner and envithe idea of economic growth being growth ronmentally conscious growth, this article in gross domestic product. The implicit focuses on the requirement for a change assumption being that an increase in GDP in narratives in- defining growth by exwould result in diminishing inequality, of perts, which has led to the neglecting of course with the redistribution efforts of the environment in key growth related the government. There has been a major policy developments and of understanding controversy in India about the sequence the role of the environment in economic of the two- whether to first increase prosperity by the common people. More GDP, and then focus on development and than the economic, political and technothe reverse, calling for human capacity logical challenges for environmental susbuilding first, which would automatically tainability, today we face an intellectual, result in higher GDP growth rates. Neiand behavioural challenge, which is mani- ther of these positions makes any referfest in the ill-logical ignoring of the envience toward sustainability of this growth, ronment in growth strategies, as well as and environmental well being while pursuthe irrational de-linking of environmental ing economic growth. These two growth sustainability and growth when the natural models neglect the important links beenvironment forms the reservoir of re63

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tween degraded environments and poverty, both of which are usually treated separately but have a lot in common. It is bewildering how nature, which is a huge asset, and literally fuels the economy, is given barely any importance while making economic decisions.

Excessive dependence on aggregative figures such as GDP growth further heighten this issue as they fail to account for the implicit environmental costs of value addition. India’s fixation with GDP growth is a mere reflection of global recognition of GDP as a supreme parameter of growth.

Introducing more economically conscious growth aggregates would encourage countries like India to more whole-heartedly embrace the implicit relationship between economic and environmental prosperity.

While it is true that developed nations design protocols and standards and largely fail to adhere to them, but display a double standard by expecting emerging economies to adhere to the same, the emerging economies cannot continue to use development as an excuse for neglecting sustainable practices. They can definitely learn from the past mistakes of developed economies, and incorporate more sustainable practices today given the advent of ingenious technology and innovation.

Environmental sustainability need not be pursued at the cost of growth, because it is already implicit in economic growth.

The link between the environment and growth is so obvious that often the power of natural capital is forgotten or neglected. The argument that the government in India is more worried about feeding the poor thus becomes moot, when a scarcely The developing economy syndrome acknowledged determinant of food securiThe world has seen a standard form of ty is the well being of the environment. development where developing econoHence countries like India would do well mies indiscriminately focus on growth at to break away from the typical trajectory the cost of the environment, and only at a of growth that today’s developed nations later stage, after achieving sustained pros- had followed, and quit arguing about the perity do they consider environmental past infringements of these countries. well being and strive to achieve it. The Environmental consciousness and awarequestion is why should a developing econ- ness is greater today than at the time of omy focus on the environment, and can it their transitioning. As the facts have afford to? Some development theorists changed we need to change our opinions and policy makers argue that growth and of the appropriate time for incorporating poverty reduction are the primary focus sustainability in the growth process. of a developing economy and environmental friendly initiatives would be diminishing Nudging people to get insured the funds and resources aligned towards the former cause. The accepted view While changing the global narrative is cruhence has been that growth has to occur cial to sustainable growth so is influencing at the cost of the environment at least in individual opinion. If a government like the early stages of growth. However India is to decide on investing in sustainaGrowth and environment can never be ble growth, it depends on how much citizens value money over perishability in the mutually exclusive.

In a hypothetical world I presume if there future resulting from environmental degradation. Are people willing to spend weren’t any developed economies and more on preventing another statistical for most economies were transitioning together in the face of environmental prob- mortality risk? It is difficult to do a costlems, the focus on environmental sustaina- benefit analysis on investing in reducing extinction risk (especially that resulting bility would be unchallenged. Today due to the playing of power dynamics and the from environmental issues) for an individdeveloped nations already having had their ual because of the karma like temporal distance between environmentally detrishare of environmentally destructive growth periods it has become a competi- mental actions and their consequences. tion between two siblings with a huge age The biggest perpetrators of environmental damage may not even be around to endifference. The elder of the two dure the consequences of their actions. (developed economies) informed by his This results in major biases in individual experience advises the younger against decision-making, which directly affects the the same erroneous choices he made; however the younger (developing econo- efficacy of sustainable environmental policy. Environment related policies have asmies) eager to have his own share of fun sumed that individuals are governed by obstinately continues on the same path.

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rationality and self-interested behaviour driven by profit maximising or utility maximising incentives. But behavioural sciences have proven otherwise. Individuals have demonstrated a discounting of future risk, and hence have displayed a hesitance in investing today for the future. Promoting sustainability amongst Indians thus lies in identifying the “irrational” drives that propel decision-making. As a community Indians are majorly dominated by the need to belong, and adhere to strict social norms.

Promoting sustainability as part of the Indian ethos will go a longer way than the utility-based incentivising practised today.

The other big opposition lies in converting the non-believers, gainsayers, delusional, Darwinian ideologues, happily oblivious and those in denial to the cause of the environment. It is important to convince all of these groups on the imminent inevitable eventuality, if not for the pursuit of sustainable growth, by any means apart from evidence, because they remain unfazed in the face of overwhelming evidence.

It is in man’s nature to devise sustainable technology, due to his instinctual selfpreservation at the face of adversity, the real challenge lies in making man realise a forthcoming disaster and broadening the idea of ‘self’ to ensure proactive action.

It is these temporal, and perception related challenges as well as the issue of identifying methods to appeal to those who do not believe in evidence that deserve greater attention. If India is to undertake a strong sustainable growth policy it needs to fight its ideological battles, because those victories alone can neutralise the challenges of resources and innovation.

References: http://isecoeco.org/pdf/stern.pdf

Economic Development and Social Opportunity (Dreze, Sen) http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2015/07/ climate-change

VASUDHA RAMAKRISHNA A final year economics student and Bharathanatyam dancer, I am hoping to combine my two interests by experimenting with portraying economic concepts or theorems through dance!

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RIGGED REVIEWS

“Get your late-est (economic) reviews on Movies, Books, Public Lectures and People .”

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EMERGING IN INDIA’s EXTERNAL

The book is divided into four parts. The first part speaks of the changes in the world order in the post cold war era and simultaneous chang-

es in Indian foreign policy. The article

by Rajendra M. Abhyankar highlights change of focus of the world politics from east to west. . After having analyzed major transformative events which had a bearing on foreign policy, he concludes that there is a need of 'thinking out of the box and breaking the mould' given the needs of the time. The second article authored by Shrikant Paranjpe effectively underlines the strategic concerns of India in the post cold war era. It creates a clear picture of the internal and external threats to the security of India.

The author traces terrorism to the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. He considers communalism, fundamentalism, migration and narco terrorism to be the important internal problems. He argues that there is a need of strategic planning at various levels. For instance at the regional level of South Asia, it would be achieving territorial democracy. He concludes on a positive note stating that there are new opportunities for India in the post cold war era which should be identified and exploited.

The second part of the book focuses on India's relations with major powers in the world. The article by Rashmi Bhure, traces the evolution of bilateral relations between India and US from adversaries to strategic part66

ners. The author describes the important events which brought about major changes in the relations. She underlines the important areas wherein cooperation can be achieved.

She points out that India needs to bear in mind the strategic importance of Pakistan for US and design the foreign policy in such a way that cooperation is achieved in as many areas as possible. The article by Dr. Uttara Saharasrabuddhe very effectively tracks the relations between India and Russia. The author highlights the importance of Russia for India during the Cold war period in many ways.

The role played by Russia in providing the financial and military assistance to India when countries like US, Germany and England showed lack of interest, is underlined. The author explains decline of the relations in the post cold war period and then analyzes the revival after 1998. She states that credit of the normalization of the bilateral relations should be given to Primakov, the Russian Prime minister and foreign minister. She mentions the current trend in the relations which involves identifying the areas of cooperation and entering into strategic partnership. India – China relations are discussed in two articles. The first article is written by Swaran Singh in which after a detailed analysis of the relations he predicts three possible

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he foreign policy of India is one of the core areas of interest for students of political science and international relations. It is one crucial subject which attracts the researchers of international politics. The book under review is edited by Dr.Uttara Sahasrabuddhe. The essays in the book are contributed by various experts in the area of international relations and Indian foreign policy. The introductory article by Dr.Uttara Sahasrabuddhe clarifies the context in which the articles of the book attempt to analyze the Indian foreign policy. The changes in the international scenario in the post cold war such as the disintegration of USSR, rise of United States of America as the only superpower and then the shift from uni-polarity to multi-polarity have been highlighted.

These changes had an impact of the way India looked upon herself and the rest of the world. The article also highlights the changes in India's national politics in the post 1989 period. The rise of coalition, increasing importance of regional parties and the power struggle between two important parties Congress and BJP gave a different direction to the foreign policy.

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scenarios of the future of the relationship. Amit Dholakia, in his article on India-China relations draws attention to the importance of China in the world politics in the post cold war multipolar world order. He concludes that India needs to understand the term 'power' in the world of interdependence and accordingly frame its policy towards China.

tial of these countries vis a vis India is highlighted. The author argues that the challenge of Islamic predominance in these countries has to be understood while framing Indian foreign policy. Apajrajita Biswas, in her article examines the relations of India with the African Countries. She states that India's interest in raw materials and energy sources in Africa can be related to the fact that the partnership The third part of the book deals with with these countries will reduce InIndia's relations with the extended dia's dependence of West Asia. neighborhood. The relations with Pakistan have been an area of interest The last part of the book fofor Indian scholars of foreign policy. cuses on other emerging issues which Vaibhavi Palsule examines the rela- have an effect on Indian foreign policy. tions as they pass through various Shankari Sundararaman writes about stages. The most important issue of increasing importance of regional orKashmir which was a crucial part of ganizations in the era marked by multhe relations has been effectively ex- tilateralism. She underlines the role plained by the author. The most im- played by India in Asia Pacific and conportant part of the article is analysis of cludes that even though India is a new the change in the relations in the af- player in the regional forums that termath of nuclearisation of both the does not undermine her role. RD Licountries. The author concludes by maye describes the new opportunities saying that the improvement in the available for India in the post cold war relations will take place only if at- era and argues that there is need statempts are made at various levels such bility and security in the South Asian as promoting people to people con- region free from communalism, tertact between the two neighbors. The rorism, conflicts if India is to make the two Himalayan countries of Bhutan best of the opportunities. Hence he and Nepal are equally important for concludes that it is in the very national India. India's relations with these two interest of India to work towards countries are analyzed in article by South Asian collective security mechaRajesh Kharat. He identifies cultural nism. The last two articles deal with similarities in the Himalayan countries India's maritime security and role of with the north Indian states of India, navy in Indian foreign policy respecHaving said that Chinese interference tively. A Subaramanyam draws attenin these regions poses threat to India, tion to the threats to Indian maritime he argues that there is a need for India security and goes on to examine the to take into consideration the sensitiv- need of to ensure the security from ity of these regions. The article on the point of view of India's economic Central Asia written by P.N.Dash de- interests. Vijay Shukla on the other picts a very good analysis of the im- hand highlights the role of Indian navy portance of Central Asian countries as an instrument of diplomacy. He to India. Post soviet economic poten- concludes by saying that, in the era of 67

multilateralism secure maritime environment can be established through mutual understanding and cooperation of all the countries in the region.

This book stands out because some of its peculiar features. Firstly, the book is all comprehensive as it takes into consideration almost all the factors which have an impact on Indian foreign policy. Hence, it can be great assistance to undergraduate and post graduate students of political science and international relations, research scholars and all those who are interested in understanding Indian foreign policy in the post cold war era. It is remarkable that the authors of the book have taken effort to make the book interesting yet simple enough to understand. Secondly and more significantly the authors have kept aside their ideological orientations and focused on rationally analyzing their topics in an unbiased way. The book symbolizes the genius of Dr.Uttara Sahasrabuddhe expertise of the authors.

and

the

It can be concluded without a shadow of doubt that this book is a masterpiece on foreign policy. Emerging issues in India's External Relations is published by G.B.Books. It will soon available for purchase on internet.

MANASI MISAL The Author is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science of Ramnarain Ruia College. She has written for various leading newspapers and pursues an keen interest in the subject international relations .

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‘Who is John Galt?’

VOLUME II The

book begins with this question, which has become a common phrase. The phrase implies that one mustn’t ask questions nobody has the answers to, just like the existence of John Galt. There are numerous theories about the existence of Galt but nobody knows for sure. This question is the ultimate portrayal of how a lack of reason and awareness does not upset people. The title of the novel is given in reference to this Strike. ‘Atlas Shrugged’ has its roots in mythology. It refers to a giant named Atlas who carried planet Earth on his shoulders. But no matter how hard he tried, the burden only increased with additional efforts. What should Atlas do at such a time? The answer to this question is to simply shrug and let go of the burden.

strengths to achieve success and earn money. They only wish to bank on their merit. The looters on the other hand are parasites that wish to exploit the prime movers by portraying themselves to be less fortunate and therefore thinking that it is their privilege to be entitled to a reflected glory of the hard earned success of the former. The issue does not end at this exploitation; the looters consider this reflected glory to be their own and refuse to give the prime movers their deserved credit. This hypocrisy is the prime objection made by the writer. In the writer’s

cation for not being successful as it is the consequence of their own inaction in life.

Throughout the novel, people keep quitting their jobs and disappearing. These quitters are prime movers that have given up on the system and with each new quitter the system weakens. This quitting is a ‘Strike’, and they go on because they grow weary of the constant exploitation, which they have to undergo. Like every other strike, they refuse to return unless their demands of a Capitalist economy are met.

The titular analogy has been used to explain the rationale behind the Strike of the prime movers. When efforts cannot be translated into desired results, it is only natural to want to quit the system.

Ayn Rand’s solution to the all the problems of an economy is Capitalism. She favours an extreme form of Capitalism, which would ensure perfect mobility of factors and factor rewards. The circular flow of the econ-

The plot builds around four lead characters- Dagny Taggart -heiress of the Taggart Transcontinental railroad, Hank Rearden-a self-made

ATLAS SHRUGGED The book is a beauty of thought which leaves its trace in the mind forever. steel king who owns Rearden metal, Francisco D’Anconia-an aristocrat and owner of the D’Anconia copper mines and John Galt, the hero of the story a self-made geopinion there is no concept of ‘haves’ and nius who only makes his presence in part ‘have nots’. Even if these concepts do prethree of the book. vail, their existence with respect to one The characters are divided into two individual need not be permanent. A ‘have groups-the prime movers and the not’ can transform into a ‘have’ if he looters. The prime movers are the ones works towards it. The vice versa is also who wish to capitalize on each of their true. Therefore the looters have no justifi68

omy would thus be smoother. The prevalent system in the book is greatly inclined towards leftism (that the protagonist has to face), which she is a strong critic of.

In my opinion, the book puts forth an ideology of rationalism, objectivity and fairness. The hideout of the prime movers is Ayn Rand’s utopia. It is a world where existence is solely based on her

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philosophy of Objectivism .It is described in agreement with. The notion that there by her as follows: are so many prime movers that wish to “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept give up everything and join the “Strike” is highly unlikely. Most people would just of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, fetch their way around and ensure their with productive achievement as his noself-interest. An incident is described in blest activity, and reason as his only abso- which Dagny Taggart meets a tramp on lute.” -Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. Along the train. He also has lost his source of with its economical relevance, this novel has been a philosophical journey for me as livelihood due to the condition of the well. It is a beauty of thought which leaves economy and has his basic needs of food its trace in the mind forever. The writer and shelter to worry about. His ideals draws a sketch of the psyche instead of however match those of Dagny Taggart. highlighting their outwardly aspects makThis is highly improbable. When one is ing it very easy to form a connect with them and understand the writer through starved, he is driven by his hunger and not by a sense of morality. Even the expecthem.

A tradeoff between fundamentals Lillian Rearden, Hank Rearden’s wife says that if he called a beautiful person beautiful, he was only giving them what is rightfully theirs. But if he called an ugly person beautiful, he owed them the sacrifice of defiling the honor of beauty. The latter was a bigger honor. Lillian had no other existence apart from being Mrs.Rearden.

The reflected glory as his wife was her loot, as she did not repay it with her support and love. She wanted Hank to think of her as somebody who is morally right in considering the reflected glory of his success as her own. Even after basking in his glory, she felt no qualms in pointing a finger at him like the ‘looters’. Lillian’s words stunned Hank and as a reader, even me. Her statement that demeaned a virtue he held in utmost regard for somebody, as a sacrifice seemed to have no flaw, while reading at that juncture of the storyline.

But as the story progresses, Hank realizes that somebody who truly loves and respects him for his virtues would be let down if he chooses to sacrifice those very virtues for the sake of love. The likes of Lillian only choose to do so because they are devoid and envious of those virtues.

Hank learned to respect himself for his virtues and not look at them as a burden he refused to sacrifice for the sake of love.

tation of idealism from somebody whose basic needs are not met to have a sense of self actualization, is very wrong and armchair in my opinion.

Having made my point by mentioning some of the unrealistic aspects, I do not criticize the novel for the very same. This is because I am not looking for reality. It is a philosophical fantasy of fairness and excellence and I really admire that the writer embraces her genuine self, albeit in her dreamland.

The world is not black or white.

There are many shades between black and white. Idealism is not every person’s need. Just as nobody can deny her from being an extremist or upholding the virtues she does, it is equally important that she not despise those who aren’t firm or extreme like herself. This would be individualistic in the true sense.

The fallacy of ignoring the causal relationship Dagny Taggart holds ‘reason’ to be superior to the extent that she is unable to accept its inexistence in certain situations and people. She is perplexed at times by how reason can be deemed unnecessary and its would-be repercussions taken so lightly. The prevalent system of Communism and the (according to her) resultant corruption suffocates the hardworking and deserving like herself. The book has shed a sufficient amount of light on the analysis of the impact of this unfit economic system. It, however, makes no attempt to analyze the causes for the inception of such a system. Despising the degeneration of meritocracy and Capitalism is not enough. As a reader, what bothers me more is that no effort to understand the other side or be open to some alternate view was even felt necessary by Miss Rand. I would have therefore preferred even an inaccurate economic and philosophical analysis because it would showcase an effort made to understand the other side of the story.

Miss Rand is a propagator of

individualism. The book’s characters (the good ones or the prime

movers) are idealistic and extreme while the bad guys (the looters like James Taggart) do not stand by anything strongly Ideal-Individualism and are not idealistic. But this expectation The major criticism faced by this book is of idealism and extremism itself contrathat it is not rooted in reality, which I am dicts Rand’s philosophy of individualism.

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GAYATRI GANPULE I am a third year student at St. Xavier's College, currently pursuing my BA in Economics, I have an interest in reading and love writing poems based on Personification of an abstract notion.gsganpule@gmail.com

Source:www’wikimediacommons.org/McGeddon own work

Source: www. wikimediacomons.org/disegno opera propria, da fotografia degli anni '40/'50

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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Karl_Marx_001.jpg/421px-Karl_Marx_001.jpg

which Marx was trying to finish his project, his eventual magnum opus, but one can also perhaps guess that Marx wasn't all too sure of what he was constructing. For starters, Capital was- is- huge, and a study of it would take economists across the world a more than keen interest in what Marx has to say. To attain this purpose, hence, Marx had to concentrate upon the literary aspect of his economic theory- that if his text were touted as purely an academic text, he knew, it wouldn’t be read by the people it should be read by the mostthe commoners. Hence, Marx ohn Cassidy is the famed Ameri- tried to make the language simple, and can magazine, New Yorker's finan- the flow of his theory readable. In this, cial correspondent. One day one can say, he succeeded, although while eating a hot-dog, he related only in part, for what Capital eventualto a bunch of his journalist friends that ly remained was a difficult-toWall Street- that place reeking with a comprehend-theory-of-an-erraticpro-active sense of capitalism, and communist. crunched with wannabe bourgeoisie- But Capital is not Communism, or not is full of study groups studying relijust that anyway. It is a poetic in the giously a text generally regarded to be dialectics, the work of not a political the seminal work of and for the prole- and philosophical thinker but a man tariat- Karl Marx's Das Kapital, the who considered himself to be a crealiterary masterpiece written almost tive artist, whose objective of writing throughout Marx's short life, and pub- both Capital and The Communist Manilished in volumes by the end of it. festo was to bring before the readers-

MY

EXPERIMENTS WITH

MARX’S

CAPITAL

J

First off, Capital- as it has come to be known to the common public in recent years- had attained a legendary significance even before it was published. The first volume came out in the 60's, but it was already long due in the 1840's, and for the next two decades Marx put off his publisher and, consequently, his future readers, excusing himself every time they asked for its pages (and his excuses included, among others, a stomach infection and a failed love affair). One can obviously see the dedication and passion with

and especially the readers of the working class- the value of class struggle and economic conflict through natural, simple and readable words. The success of Marx, hence, was thus sealed at the time he stopped taking himself too seriously as a thinker and started working towards developing himself as a writer (he was a journalist before any of this, though). “Whatever shortcomings they may have,” wrote Marx to his comrade-in-arms, Friedrich Engels, in 1865, “The advantage of my writings is that they are an artis70

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tic whole.” Ah well, perhaps. But one has also to believe that not many were altogether convinced with Marx's picture of capitalism's onslaught and then its eventual destruction. Come fin de siècle, economists all around the world were already raising questions regarding Marx’s theory as theorized in the Manifesto and Capital. Thinkers were, quite naturally, not entirely convinced with Marx's idealistic doctrines.

Their questioning of the text, coupled with the fact that economists and political analysts all around the world began thinking of Capital only as a certain volume that had to be either praised or criticised, was a far cry from what Marx had thought of it as initially- a work of art that, if not anything else, at last projected the fury with which it was composed.

I, on my part, read not the book first, but books, which dealt with the book in question. This was, I suppose, where I went wrong, for when I read Capital, I read it with a certain bias towards it. I read it in the manner in which I would read a textbook, which is to say that I read it with interest but only academic, and never literary. Of course, when I read Capital for the first time, I couldn't understand most of it- probably because I was apolitical then, and had no idea what Communism meant. When I read it for the second time, however, I had some idea what the text touted, but even yet I was unable to decipher the theory that Marx wanted to propose in Capital. I had subjected my copy-, which belonged to my library- to several jottings and markings, with angry remarks and seemingly intellectual comments scribbled on pages after pages for better effect. All this, of course, did not yield any positive result. Frustrated, I decided that understanding

References: “Marx to Engels in Manchester,” Marxist Internet Archive.

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Marx wasn't meant for me- until I attended a seminar sometime in late 2011, wherein a professor from JNU related his experience reading Lenin and Marx for the first time. I don't remember his exact words, but he explained that Marx and Lenin both considered themselves to be literary figures more than world leaders. They wanted their books to be read not as theoretical texts but as literary pieces only influenced by political affiliations.

This was new to me, and it in turn changed the way I perceived Marx (and, consequently, Lenin.)

political economy. It is no easy read, but then it certainly is worth all the effort put. One needs to read Capital, Marx and Lenin- irrespective of whether one agrees with them or notbecause we live in an age of capitalism, in an age which Marx already predicted long back as the century where the classes would clash. Capitalism is at its height all over the world, so are newer progress, development and investment but so are exploitation and the struggle of the working class. Neoliberalism, it is necessary to understand, might solve the problems of inflation and decreasing profit margins, but it only seeks to wage a war against the lower strata of the society. In order to envisage an at least equal society (if not the Communist utopia), we must study Marx and his writings, but not as academic texts, but simply as works of unusual art.

ATHARVA PANDIT I am an SYBA student at Ramnarain Ruia College, Matunga. My interests include writing, reading and being a genuine anti-Fascist.

Reflections of the status of women in our society in lieu of the times set in the 2005 movie ‘WATER’ by Deepa Mehta.

THE WONDER WOMEN

O

ne monsoon afternoon, on the recommendation of a friend, I came across a movie which was released way back in 2005. The movie was WATER: by Deepa Mehta. It was an Oscar nominated movie and brought to the audience a completely different perception about society at large.

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ration of investments and newer ventures, it also hoards up the energy of the working class into a structure beyond which there can be no economic society. Capitalism, according to Marx, restricts the flow of libidinal energy, thus exploiting what the working society inherently deserves. But then, I was sure, there could be no society that does not possibly desire power, and thus exploitation. Therefore, there is no society free from exploitation and hierarchy, irrespective of whether it is prerevolution or post-revolution. And the simple truth remains that postI looked up the copy of Capital from revolutionary societies have failed, be my library once again. Initially, I only it the nations of Iron Curtain, Albania breezed through it and then, when I realised that there indeed lies poetry or North Korea. The fall of the Berlin within Marx's words, I began reading it Wall, and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union was enough proof all over again. Of course, I would be lying if I claim to have understood Cap- of that. Hence, while I did not put my ital in all of its glory, but the scenario faith entirely in Marx's dialectics, it was worth noting, for me, that Marx was better than before. I underwas not just an idealist writing- he was stood that Marx was both right and wrong with what he wanted a great teacher, a journalist with sufficient quality and, more than anything to propose- capitalism is the working class' enemy, of that one else, a prose-stylist. can be sure, for while capitalism Capital is a great work of poetry interdoes encourage enterprise explo- woven with a greater understanding of

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To brief you about the movie: The film is set in the year 1938, when India was still British-occupied. Child marriage was a common practice back then. Widows had a diminished position in the society, and were expected to spend their lives in poverty, they had to swear by the family traditions and worship their husband. Widow re-marriages were legalised by the colonial laws, but in practice, they were still largely considered a taboo. Women were considered slaves under the hands of law and had no independence or an identity of their own. Being a girl child wasn’t a blessing and nor was growing up to be a lady considered joyous.

This got me to reflect on how times have changed with the changing generations. While women back then were even afraid to speak their heart out, they now are creating waves of history in every field.

The movie under consideration, brings to light that whilst women were practically responsible to bring about development within the family setup; yet, how the male chauvinistic the society remained unfair to women, then. Many socialists voiced that half of the woman die when the husband dies (sati-pratha), but the narrow minded still thought that half of the woman are alive! Deepa Mehta, throughout the movie speaks boldly of times when women were treated like ‘objects’ that could be bought and sold for a ‘price’.

For quiet a long time, women in India remained within the four walls of their household. They were brought in a manner that made them totally dependent on men.

Many changes were brought about in the post-independence era on gender equality and more rights and privileges were enshrined on women. The subject of empowerment of women has been a burning issue all over the world, including in India since the last few decades. Many agencies of United Nations, in their reports, have emphasized on the fact that gender related issues were to be given utmost priority. It is held that, women now cannot be asked to wait for equality.

Today, we have women leading in almost every field. Chanda Kocchar, P.T.Usha, Archana Ramsundaram, Ela Bhatt, Mrinalini Sarabhai et al have shown that women can be excellent leaders in their own way. Now, we witness women in almost every field: architecture, lawyers, financial and medical services and even in the predominantly male centric - IT and engineering sectors.

Teaching, Nursing, Hospitality as always, remains the major forte for women seeking empowerment.

They are increasingly and gradually seen marching into domains which were previously reserved for males (police, army, pilots, chartered accoun­tants, commandos). In spite of their increasing number in every field, women still remain perhaps the world’s most underutilized human resources.

Inspite of the drawbacks that still pertain in India, women are not apologetic or hesitant to claim their share of visibility at work or family or public places.

The biggest change is- women are now proud to be women!

LAKSHMI HARIHARAN is a 19 year old student management student of SIES College of Commerce and Economics. She been passionate about writing and creativity. Lakshmi has an ardent love for travelling and meeting new people. She aspires touch people's lives in some way, on her path of empowering herself.

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The position and role of women all around the world, enhanced in the 20 th century. Women’s quest for equality – A voice that seeks recognition for what they are - is a universal phenomenon. Women are playing an increasingly major role in the economic field: as workers, consumers, entrepreneurs, managers and investors. According to a report of The Economist, ‘Women and the World Economy’, in 1950, only one-third of American women of working age had a paid job. Today, two-thirds do, and women make up almost half of American’s workforce. In fact, almost everywhere, in India as well, more women are being employed. Yet, their share still remains lower than the average numbers. This indicates that further efforts need to be directed towards creating empowerment opportunities for women in all - social-political-economic spheres of life.

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A PAPER BY PETIA TOPALOVA

TRADE LIBERALIZATION,

Introduction The paper under consideration elucidates upon the impact of trade reforms on the level of poverty and inequality in India. It has attempted to do so by studying the data on the level of industrialisation in the rural areas after trade reforms. This paper has segregated India into different districts and built a model on the basis of reduction of tariff on specific goods and its impact on the labour class of that region. The findings established facts on the wages earned and the poverty levels over the years from the time the reforms began in India. It was observed that, in rural areas where industries that were more exposed to liberalisation, poverty reduction took a hit of over 15 percent in the 90’s. Inequality was unchanged over the period under consideration. The paper focuses on the immobility of labour within India, leading to convergence of gains in fewer hands. This article presents a critique of the paper “Trade Liberalization, Poverty and Inequality: Evidence from Indian Districts”; with respect to the notion of globalization and reforms presented at large.

Comments on Poverty, Inequality and Global Integration Based on the study conducted by David Dollar and Aart Kraay (2001), it has been found that increased trade has strongly encouraged growth and poverty reduction leading to narrowing of the gap between rich and poor worldwide. They studied a few countries, which had undertaken reforms, and classified them as the “Post-1980 Globalizers”. These included some well-known trade liberalizers like China, India, Malaysia and Mexico. Trade as a share of GDP doubled to 33 percent in all these countries, whereas trade relative to GDP actually declined in other NonGlobalizers. This growth in trade for Globalizers converted into phenomenal growth in per capita GDP as well. The growth in per capita GDP was much higher than other developed nations after the reforms were undertaken. Hence, increase in trade led to an overall growth for the nations. Also, one cannot expect a “Trickle-down” effect without having anything to trickle down.

Hence, the judgment of the paper regarding trade reforms and poverty cannot be accepted at its face value neglecting the other positive aspects related to it.

A very conspicuous fact about the paper under consideration is that, it has entangled the causes of slower poverty reduction in India. Other reasons for the same being, policy paralysis or improper domestic policy choices. The endogenous factors are much more responsible for the slow rate of reduction in poverty than exogenous factors like trade liberalization. The other factors have been considered as a separate variable, which neglects the effect of some specific variable on the slower rate of poverty reduction. Although, the statistical significance has been achieved in the paper, neglecting other factors would only lead to a biased result of the overall study.

In the David Dollar and Art Kraay (2001) study, it has also been found that inequality has not increased systematically in the Post 1980 Globalizers. It has maintained its level when these countries are grouped together. Individually, some countries have

POVERTY AND EQUALITY : EVIDENCE FROM INDIAN DISTRICTS shown divergence in the rate of inequality. For example, India has a relatively higher inequality because of factor immobility in India. Constitutionally, there is no restriction on labour movement in India. However, factors like skill, education and lack of proper opportunities create hindrances for mobility, thus creating pockets of very high and very low income levels. The paper has also conceded that inequality levels have not changed in the period under consideration. But, one can observe a wide gap between urban and rural wages making income inequality an inevitable occurrence. Therefore, trade reforms like Freer Imports and Exports, Rationalization of Tariff Structure have not played a major role in increasing inequality in India.

As seen above, the combination of growth in per capita GDP and little change in inequality has led to a reduction in poverty in different countries that have carried out reforms in the globalization era. The paper has conceded that poverty has been reducing after trade reforms. However, the argument put forward by the paper is that the rate of reduction in poverty has been lesser due to the trade reforms. On the contrary, if the trade reforms were absent, there could not have been the amount of poverty reduction that has been experienced by India. The new opportunities generated by liberalization have led many people above poverty line. The poverty reduction rate has increased after the liberalization process in India, which was unprecedented in the socialist planning era preceding it. The integration of the world economy has led to dramatic changes in the countries that have participated in this process of globalization leading to favorable changes in the levels of poverty and growth in GDP. The progressive trends in reducing poverty have been a result of the increasing rate of economic integration among different countries. This has led to efficient use of resources and specialization of the regions according to their comparative advantage.

It has also been seen that the gap between Developed and Developing countries has decreased after the liberalization era.

Problems in the Methodology Looking at the methodology of the paper under consideration, it can be seen that the author has considered Deaton (2003a, 2003b) method of calculating the poverty line to examine the

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poverty relative to a single international poverty line. However, Deaton has constructed a single international poverty line with the use of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).

It is well-known that Purchasing Power Parity is not a widely accepted measure because of its certain flaws like different range and quality of goods wherein PPP tends to overemphasize the primary sector contribution and underemphasize the industrial and service sector contributions to the economy. PPP is also weakened by trade barriers such as transport costs and government restrictions. Also, according to Krugman and Obstfeld, production differentiation and segmented markets would lead to invalidation of PPP over time. Also, change in the relative prices of basket components can cause relative PPP to fail tests that are based on official price indexes.

The aforementioned flaws of PPP magnify the lacuna in the methodology of the paper under consideration. The author has calculated the number of poor according to the poverty line suggested by Deaton, and hence cannot be totally trusted in the context of the increment in poverty depth as elucidated by the paper. Such a poverty line may ignore the intrinsic patterns of income, consumption and overall standard of living of the people. This has been proved in many research papers where it has been seen that the poverty headcount is very sensitive to the precise level of the international poverty lines. Also, this has been observed mostly in the developing nations where the shape of income distribution near the poverty line is such that a certain percentage change in the poverty line brings similar or greater percentage change in the number of people below it.

Another pertinent problem about the poverty headcount ratio used in the paper is the reliability of the household data. The surveys prepared for the household are of varying quality and most of them do not follow a standard template. Due to this problem, the author of the paper under consideration has shied away from the NSSO data and relied on Deaton’s international poverty line. However, it has been explained in the section above that this line has its major flaws which creates more distortions for the measurement of poverty. Thus, the paper has fallen into the problem of “The Theory of Second Best”.

Conclusion It has been widely accepted by Economists and development practitioners that the key to sustained alleviation of poverty is primarily economic growth along with other concomitant measures. . Growth in an economy creates resources to raise incomes. This has been further linked with the “trickle-down” effect in the economy that arises as an after-effect of growth.

Even if “trickle-down” is unsuccessful in bringing the benefits of growth to the poor, governments still have a great scope for redistributive measures when income is higher and growing faster.

Howard White and Edward Anderson (2001) have categorized growth histories into pro and anti-poor. In this analysis, they have found that only 25 percent of the overall cases were antipoor; and the most important result of their analysis has been that growth has instigated income increment in the lower quintile more than the top quintile. Thus, growth has been progres-

sive over the years according to their research.

Growth has also resulted into multiplier effects in many economies. If this growth is induced by an open trade regime, it creates production and expenditure linkages in the economy. Demand in certain sector creates demand for inputs in other sectors. In this manner, different sectors of the economy experience growth and a surge in employment for able individuals. This leads to alleviation of many households where there are skilled as well as unskilled workers. An open economy exposes the domestic economy to the perks of the world economy. It does expose them to the problems of the world economy too. However, proper regulation and guidelines can guide the economy to filter out the problems of the world economy and learn the way of high growth from different nations. This asks for strong domestic institutions in the finance and other key sectors.

To conclude, India has seen a veritable reduction in poverty over the years after the reforms, however this cannot be completely linked to the reforms. As seen before, the measurement of poverty in the paper under consideration is flawed due to many reasons. Therefore, it is difficult to believe the estimates about poverty calculated in this paper. Moreover, the point presented about the gap in rural and urban wages is a universal phenomenon. Rural wages have always been lesser than urban wages. Hence, a model like Harris-Todaro was developed. The paper has not put forward anything new in the case of the gap between rural and urban wages. Although the reforms have not created absolute negative or absolute positive effects on the Indian economy, it has launched India towards a positive phase.

Therefore the success of reforms in India lies in that achievement.

REFERENCES Dollar, D., & Kraay, A. (2001). Trade, Growth, and Poverty. Washington: World Bank Policy Research Department Working Paper No. 2615.

Ravallion, M. (2001). Measuring Aggregate Welfare in Developing Countries. The World Bank Development Research Group.

Wade, R. H. (2004). Is Globalization Reducing Poverty and Inequality? World Development, XX(X).

White, H., & Anderson, E. (2001, September). Growth versus Distribution: Does the Pattern of Growth Matter? Development Policy Review, 19(3), 267-289.

Winters, L., McCulloch, N., & McKay, A. (2004, March). Trade Liberalization and Poverty: The Evidence So Far. Journal of Economic Literature, XLII, 72-115.

OMKAR

RAUT

(Symbiosis

International

University, Pune, M.A. Economics) Connect with Omkar via rautomkar@yahoo.co.in ‘Currently working in Analytics, just to follow my passion of connecting dots. Economics creates a base for me, and the data I work on creates a gateway for a composition of theory and pragmatism to produce something which is practically more viable. I believe there is a linkage in everything. We should have that logic and awareness to understand the connection between different theories and incidents.’

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BRICS SUMMIT-15’ Should we be Upbeat about Ufa? Ten thousand people converged in Ufa, Russia for the VIIth BRICS Summit from July 8th to July 10th, 2015. Ufa is a city in southwest Russia not entirely unknown to history (during World War II, a number of industries were evacuated to Ufa, and it also became the seat of the Soviet Ukrainian government). This summit dealt with a number of issues, with varying implications on international relations. Of course, a summit sceptic would say it was no more than a bit of “chai pe charcha” diplomacy and yet another opportunity for Narendra Modi to plane-hop. It was all that, and more, because some major initiatives like the BRICS Bank saw the light of day.

BRICS is an association formed in 2006, of five emerging world economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa(who joined in 2010).

These are all members of the G-20, and are developing with a key role in global economic affairs. They represent 3 billion of the world’s population and 20% of the Gross World Product.

The leaders of the five BRICS states, Dilma Rousseff (Brazil), Vladimir Putin (Russia), Narendra Modi(India), Xi Jinping (China) and Jacob Zuma (South Africa) attended the summit, whose current chair is Russia. On the 9th of July, a joint summit was held with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a Eurasian political, military and economic organisation, and the European Economic Union (EAEU), which is primarily a Russian initiative. Hence, there were a number of other world leaders present too, from Afghanistan, Armenia, Belarus, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Mongolia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. China and Russia have called the BRICS-SCO-EAEU the core of a new international order, defined by a multipolar world.

ately kept out of the loop over talks between then PMs Manmohan Singh India’s dum and dus kadam and Pervez Musharraf, over fear that he would attempt to subvert them.

The eyes of the Indian media were The agenda was decided not by the drawn more towards the meeting beMinistry, but by the National Security tween Modi and Nawaz Sharif, Prime Advisers, and a decision of sorts was Minister of Pakistan, than to the actual reached on the Kashmir dispute. The summit. “The meeting was held in a present PM too seems to have finally cordial atmosphere," said Pakistani established a firm grip over something Foreign Secretary Auzaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Indian Foreign Secretary other than his fashion sense.

We should have probably seen the Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in a jointly issued statement. The statement said writing on the wall back then; an affectionate and a rather speedily built rela"They agreed that India and Pakistan have a collective responsibility to en- tionship between Modi and Sharif, exhibit A: Modi's recent trip home from sure and promote development. To Russia en route Lahore. do so, they are prepared to discuss outstanding issues.” However, a five point agenda was stressed on: a meet- Modi espoused the merits of collaboing to discuss all issues linked to terration and cooperation. He spoke of rorism; meetings on border security; "Dus Kadam", or 10 steps for boosting releasing fishermen in each other’s cooperation including a BRICS trade custody; religious tourism, and expe- fair, railway and agricultural research diting the Mumbai case trial. This agen- centres, cooperation among supreme da certainly seems to have been met audit institutions, a digital initiative, a given Pakistan's eagerness to cooper- forum of state/local governments ate, having actually translating into co- among the BRICS nations, cooperation operation in light of the recent among cities in the field of urbanization, a sports council and an annual Pathankot attacks. sports meet, the first major project of Barring the rhetoric, this meeting har- the New Development Bank to be in bours far more for India’s government. the field of clean energy and a film festival. This received lukewarm praise, Foreign policy is supposed to be the baby of the Ministry of External Affairs with teen of the dus being agreed to.

India, the BRICS chair for 2016, will be (MoEA), with bilateral talks carried hosting the first BRICS trade fair, a out between the countries’ foreign secretaries. Talks between the foreign film festival and an under-17 football tournament, chairing the group for a secretaries had been abruptly called off on August 19 last year because the period of eleven months, beginning February 2016. One assumes that the Pakistani High Commissioner met Kashmiri separatists. However, Modi spirit of healthy competition and a shared appreciation of popcorn will insisted at Ufa that talks must take bind the nations closer together. place between National Security Advisers – signalling that the Prime Minister’s Office will have control of foreign ADV Russia and sanction-free policy rather than the MoEA. The Iran PMO’s desire to control foreign policy is not new and not without reason.

Apart from this, there were developWhen Natwar Singh was External Af- ments on the Ukrainian front, with the fairs Minister in 2004, he was deliber- BRICS declaration expressing deep 75

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concern about the deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine which is pitting government forces against pro-Russian separatists. It called on both sides to abide by a cease-fire signed in February by Ukraine, Russia, the rebels, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE.) Putin said BRICS nations stood united in countering terrorism, battling drug trafficking, piracy, and what he called the "revival of Nazi ideology,” construed by many as a veiled jab at the pro-Western leadership that came to power in Ukraine following protests that toppled Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych last year. The BRICS declaration urged the international community to avoid what it described as "political approaches" in fighting terrorism, a rather nebulous term as it gave no further details. This seems to be a diplomatic victory for Russia, as the BRICS bloc opposed the West. The Iranian nuclear issue was also on the agenda. Negotiators from Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States had met at Vienna in July, before the summit, to strike a deal to curb Tehran's controversial nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The declaration said a nuclear agreement with Iran "is meant to restore full confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. "It signals increasing friendliness to Iran, who has previously expressed interest in joining BRICS. Iran’s close ally, Russia, has long insisted that Tehran's nuclear program poses no threat despite Western concerns that it is a cover up to build nuclear-weapons capability.

Moving on from the IMF and towards the NDB The most momentous development was the outlining of the functioning and stakeholder ship of the BRICS Bank, or the New Development Bank (NDB). The NDB was first agreed to in 2013, and came into being in 2014.

K.V. Kamath of India has been appointed its first President this year.

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The reason for the NDB’s importance lies not just in the collective economic clout of the BRICS nations but also in the difference in its power structure.

This summit slammed the USA for blocking IMF reforms and consequently the NDB’s rules are a sharp break from those of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF is based on a principle of giving voting and borrowing rights to its member countries on the basis of their share in the Gross World Product about twenty odd years ago. Thus most of the authority is wielded by the USA and the OECD and it fails to take into account the phenomenal rise of economies like India and China. The NDB, on the other hand, is based on a principle of equality and will give its first loan on April 1, 2016. The initial capital of $50 billion has been created by equal contributions. A contingency reserve fund of $100 billion will be set up to meet currency crises and balance of payments contingencies. The NDB may not insist on conditions like those imposed on Greece. Significantly, it will work to promote trade between member countries in their respective currencies instead of the dollar. With the entry of China and Russia into a 30-year gas sharing arrangement denominated in their currencies, some feel that the dollar could gradually lose its pre-eminence.

and movement towards hegemony.

Nevertheless, it is a good opportunity for the Reserve Bank of India to diversify its currency holdings, most of which are firmly plonked in US treasuries. The larger number of multilateral financial associations will help India obtain better credit, but we must also be guarded and careful about where we lay our eggs.

All in all, the 7th BRICS Summit saw a greater focus on mutual cooperation between member nations, with a token consideration given to problems of the environment and a burgeoning world population. The construction of new efficient transport and logistics chains to link the rapidly growing markets in Asia and Europe’s economies was stressed on. The biggest takeaway would be the decisions regarding the NDB and the use of national currencies in mutual trade transactions between the BRICS countries. The issue of the Greek crisis was addressed only

by Putin, who questioned the European Commission for not taking adequate measures to salvage the situation during the previous Greek government. Putin deserves a pat on the back for his performance at Ufa. India’s Report Card-Dus mein Dus?

In comparison to Russia and China, India fared poorly as she received nothing she wanted when it came to However, one must not be fooled by terrorism, as the BRICS declaration this egalitarian façade, as China is ignored the vital UN Resolution 1267 clearly the dominant partner. She dealing with suppression of financing hopes to earn a better return on her and other forms of supporting terrorreserves than she is currently making ists and principles of respect for the through her investments in US treas- sovereignty of the states. India’s efuries. Chinese Premier Xi Jinping forts in this direction were blocked by spoke of China’s Belt and Road initia- China, though she was more successtives, the establishment of the Asian ful when it came to bilateral relations Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) with Pakistan. Modi and Sharif’s meetand the $ 40 billion Silk Road Fund. ing could promise a period of bonhoChina is the key player in the AIIB, and mie, coming after the former’s acrimoensured that it would not compete nious comments in June 2015 about with NDB. India, the second largest the “nuisance” which “promotes terstakeholder in AIIB, must beware of rorism”. Sharif seems committed to China’s expanding financial footprint bettering ties with India, and Modi has Red Dragon Breathes Fire?

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the backing of a strong mandate, which indicates that they are in a better position than their predecessors. There is hope. If that doesn’t brighten your day, Mr. Modi’s selfies

URVI KHAITAN is a 2nd year History student in St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, originally from Calcutta, who is curious about things she doesn’t understand, like Economics.

Once a voracious reader, academic constraints mean she is now confined to authors whose names she can barely pronounce. She spends her time trying to dumb down highfalutin concepts, and drawing strange parallels. Feedback and constructive criticism is most welcome at urvikhaitan@gmail.com.

will. Not. References: 1. RADIOFREEEUROPE/RADIOLIBERTY BRICS Summit Held In Russia In-text: (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty) Bibliography: RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty,.

'BRICS Summit Held In Russia'

Late NNC Leader Kevilevor Phizo

“Madam, do you want an honest answer? I don’t consider myself an Indian” SudeepChakravarti’s“Highway 39: Journeys through a fractured land” was launched in May 2012. The Goa-based journalist-turned author published his best-selling book,“Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country”, in 2008, which proved to be his most popular, critically acclaimed novel till date. It was a non-fiction work based on the Maoist Rebellion in India, the book was selected for Vodafone Crossword non-fiction Award, 2008. Highway 39 is his fifth novel. Chakravarti has completed his studies from Mayo College, Ajmer and St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. His career as a jour-

nalist began at the Asian Wall Street Journal.

His media writing has been widely published including India Today, Hindustan Times, Business World, OPEN and so forth.

The book is partly written as a travelogue and partly as a commentary of the social and political realities of Nagaland and Manipur.

The book starts off with the beginning of the author’s journey as he stepped into Dimapur, Nagaland and continues with his travels along the Highway 39- Kohima, Senapati, Imphal, Thoubal and other hinterlands of Nagaland and Manipur. Spanning for 436 kilometres, from Numaligarh in Assam to Moreh in Manipur, Highway 39 touches all points of brutalized aspiration, identity, conflict and tragedy of the North Eastern states of India. The author 77

accounts for the same, with specific reference to Nagaland and Manipur.

An interesting aspect of this book is that it accommodates two very different narratives. One is of a journalist, aiming at revealing the truth and producing it as bluntly as possible. Other is that of a deeply troubled Indian, who is troubled by the paternalistic idea of the Indian Government of preserving India at all costs. The book very aptly portrays the concept of human development from various parameters- about vulnerabilities of the North Eastern people and the role of institutions that has resulted into the current state of affairs.

The book begins with the initial miseries of the author’s train reaches Dimapurat the middle of the night. Dimapurhas the only rail-

Source: Late NNC Leader Kevilevor Phizo Nepsonline-Own Work.www.commons.wikimedia.org

HIGHWAY 39: JOURNEYS THROUGH A FRACTURED LAND AUTHOR SUDEEP CHATTERJEE

HOMOECONOMICUS way station in Nagaland. This too is poorly built and remains completely deserted at night.

This small information portrays the extent of neglects that our North-Eastern states have been subjected to. The author hires a taxi that would take him to his temporary destinationKohima. On his way, his mind flashes back to previous visits to this part of the country and the various local tales he had heard then.

Institutions play a significant role in determining a nation’s sociopolitical integration and development.

Chakravarti, in his book, pointed out that the Indian Government has made several attempts for the past six decades to integrate its North Eastern states with the Indian Mainland, but has failed profusely. He raised the question of whether our institutions have been fundamentally wrong when it came to tackling the issues in Nagaland and Manipur. Since India’s Independence from the British domination, in 1947, till today, the Nagas have been demanding a separate entity, a different nationhood. However, our Founding Fathers and their successors have continuously denied them with the aim to keep India integrated. And in the process, the North East has become further alienated from the rest of the country. The situation is so worse in Nagaland that people there do not consider themselves as “Indians”.

As the author’s taxi passes through the prime tourist attraction of Nagaland, the cemetery full of Allied troops and officers, he reminiscences his visit to the grave of AngamiZapuPhizo, the Naga rebel legend.

Entrance to Phizo’s village, Khonoma,is the living testament of how much alienated our North-Eastern brethren from the Mainland India. A marker along the twisting track reads: “Nagas are not Indian: their territory is not a part of the Indian Union” Phizo, regarded as the ‘Father of the Nagas’, was inclined towards seeking secession of Nagaland through terrorism and armed rebellion. Under his leadership, the Naga National Council (NNC) gained influence. He met Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with proposal of Nagaland’s independence, which failed.However, in order to avoid arrest, Phizo fled to London and spent the rest of his years supporting Nagaland’s secession from abroad. In 1977, Morarji Desai, after winning the Prime Ministerial elections, agreed to meet Phizo in London. The meeting was conducted under the condition that Nagaland would not be on the agenda. An excerpt of the conversation suggests how far the Indian forefathers had turneda deaf ear to the Naga problems:

VOLUME II “Phizo: When you were elected Prime Minister, because all through your life you fought, the Nagas thought you will be the man for the final settlement of the Naga problem.

Desai: What is there to settle?,,, I will have absolutely no leniency on rebels. If you want to persist on [sic] independence I will have nothing to talk… I will certainly exterminate the Naga rebels. I have no compunction in that.

Phizo: Mr. Prime Minister, will there be further opportunity for discussions?

Desai: What discussion? There will be no discussion.”

There is an evident inability of the Indian Government- then as well as now- to comprehend to significance to bridge the gap between the North- Eastern States and the Mainland India. Forceful prevention of rebellion would only lead to further rebellion. The book is an unerringly detailed narrative of the collective and the individual criminality and impunity at different layers of the State combined with the familiar tones and language of ‘National Integration through Cultural Interaction’ which turned out to be the vilest abuse of Northern Indian origin- the absolute boorishness of the army officials and the foot soldiers.

The author uses instances to prove the point that Indian institutions have been discriminatory when it came to Nagaland and Manipur.For instance, the author narrates the real-life incident of young Apenyo, about which he read in the book ‘The Last Song’ written by the Naga writer, TemsulaAo. It was the time when the Naga Independence Movement was gaining momentum.Apenyo was gangraped by the soldiers infront of her mother, during the Christmas celebration in her village.

These discriminatory institutions have augmented the vulnerabilities and insecurities of the young and the old, the ethnic minorities, the women and the children.

This Easternmost region of India is littered with acronyms, both threatening and peaceful. Undoubtedly, the one that draws maximum discussion and ire is AFSPA- Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958. AFSPA is an Act of Parliament of India which was passed on 11 September 1958, granting special powers to the Indian Armed Forces in what the act terms as “disturbed areas.” The author reminds the readers how it needed the death of ThangjamManorama Devi on 11th July, 2004 for the Government of India to set up a committee to review the Act. The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee recommended the Act to be repealed on Constitutional and humanitarian grounds. However, the ministry buried the recommendation thereby denying the North Eastern people of their 78

freedom, liberty and justice. Human Development, as described by Amartya Sen, suffered a backlash. So did the rest of the country, in a way. The author mentions that Nagaland or Manipur, no longer remains a tourist attraction even for the rest of the Indians. Despite belonging to the same nation, the tourists are subjected to identity checks and a lot of interrogations regarding the purpose of visits by the army officials.

“Here, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act permits them to do practically anything they want: arrest, question, beat, torture, kill. Turning back tourists is relatively a gentle pursuit.”

The book is a classic example that addresses the notions of the Structural Vulnerability and Group Violence. The author has interviewed and gathered information locals, bureaucrats, intellectuals and entrepreneurs to add instances of ground reality in his book.

Discrimination and racial proliferation are words and phrases that have come up in the metros like Delhi, Mumbai and so forth, where robust reactions are forcing the Governments to pay heed. However, discrimination against people in this part of the country has always been given lesser importance. The North Eastern people face discrimination under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and other assaults. The book accounts the story of an eleven year old Manipuri girl, VidyaraniChanu, who was arrested by a combined force ofAssam Rifles and Manipur Police commandos, so as to compel her parents surrender. She was released after four days, only after her parents came out of their hiding to protect their daughter. The author, along with two of his acquaintances who work for the Imphal-based Human Rights Alert, had gone to meet Vidyarani. The principal of her school narrated how changed Vidyarani has become post the incident: “She was so active. She loved to be with her friends. She had a good presence of mind.

Now, she doesn’t like to talk. She doesn’t want to talk. She is afraid of other people.”

This is one instance in the book, where the author becomes emotional, stating that Vidyarani reminded him of his own daughter who is of the same age, living a secured life, unperturbed. Indian institutions, in the wilfulness to keep the country integrated, have been neglecting the issue of Human Security to a great extent. Security of existence has longterm consequences in the development of children. It is the stepping stone that helps building the sense of stability and confidence

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amongst the future citizens of the nation. The author, during his stay in Manipur, meets a few survivors of the army tortures. Their stories are nerve wrecking and painful. At times, the technique of waterboarding is applied, where a cloth is put over the prisoner’s face and water is poured over the nose. At other times, pliers are used to squeeze a body part or to yank out nails. The focus is to inflict maximum pain and psychological pressure sans the oblivious, visible marks of torture.

The initial chapters in the book highlight that Nagaland in not only suffering because of the neglect of the Indian Government but also because of her internal conflicts and factionalism.

Although fighting for the same cause- of developing a formal peace process with the Government of India- the differences in ideologies between the National Socialist Council of Nagaland is currently the greatest hurdle in arriving at a workable solution for the Naga issues. The two factions of the party-one led by IsakChisiSwu and Thuingaleng Muivah (NSCN-IM) and the other led by S.S. Khaplang (NSCN-K) have not stopped pointing their guns at each other and are involved into the filthy fight “where brother kills brother.” The result is unending violence and fratricidal bloodshed.

Chakravarti, in his book brings out several areas where the Indian Government has discriminated, neglected and denied its North Eastern states of their rights. He expressed cynicism at the fact that the Indian Government has not only denied the North East of their justified attention but also with the freedom to follow a different time zone. The North Eastern States of India have been demanding for a separate time zone for several years now. Shifting the Indian Standard Time to six hours ahead of GMT instead of five and a half hours would allow all the states to save 2.7 billion units of electricity, enough to provide energy to additional 1.35 million urban households. However, the Indian Government has delayed attention to this demand on the grounds of administrative difficulties because of dual time zones.

The book tells the story of Irom Sharmila, the anti-AFSPA icon of Manipur.Sharmila was working in the Human Rights Alert, when she met a Kabui lady, who was gang raped by the army in front of her father-in-law. Deeply inspired by this incident Sharmila decided to fight for the repeal of AFSPA, which she believed was the root cause of vulnerabilities of the Manipuri women and children.

Sharmila, considered a ‘living martyr’, decided to fight against the rule of AFSPA in Manipur by fasting for an in deterministic period.

She has been arrested and detained in her home under Section 302 for attempting to commit suicide. Till date, she is continuing with her protest and has been forcefully fed through nasal tubes. Her walk in the path of non-violent protests was received with scepticism in the initial years by many of her people who believe in the powers of guns more than in anything else. However, today, her sacrifice has been widely recognised and she along with her brother, Irom Singh ajit, have become protest icons. Chakravarti has unabashedly expressed his anger at both armed groups and the military through several other instances.

The entire experience of reading the book is enriching for the reader, with unknown and untold facts about our North Eastern countrymen. Every incident gives goose bumps and compels the reader to wonder about the righteousness of the world’s largest democracy. ‘Highway 39’ is a well written book, though greater simplicity in the language used would have made it a more appealing read.

Another weakness of the book is that it focuses only on Manipur and Nagaland. Bringing in the issues of Assam and the other states would have made it further enriching and complete.

‘Highway 39’ bristles with impatience, indignation and insistently points out that the fractured land is not just the one through which the writer was travelling but that to which it is bound, constitutionally, if not umbilically.

Bibliography Chakravarti, S. (2012). Highway 39: Journeys through a Fractured Land. Harper Collins Publishers.

(2014). Human Development Report. UNDP. 1Manorama Devi was picked up from house in 2004 by the 17th Assam Rifles on uncertain allegation of being a member of the Peoples’ Liberation Army. Her raped and bullet-ridden body was found the next morning, in the field."

SHRABANA MUKHERJEE shrabana.mukherjee91@gmail.com Shrabana is currently working with Association of Indian Forging Industry, Pune. Originally from Durgapur, West Bengal, Shrabana has done B.Sc. Economics (Honors) from Lady Brabourne College, Calcutta University. She completed her post graduation (M.Sc. Economics) from Symbiosis School of Economics, Pune, with a specialization Development Studies.

Shrabana is an ardent reader of fiction novels and has a knack for dramatics and writing short stories and plays in her free time.

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PAPER MACHE MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA.

SUNDAY, 14th FEBRUARY, 2016.

“Get your taza research finding served hot from the field (data)”

** THE RESEARCH PAPERS PUBLISHED IN THIS SECTION HAVE BEEN MODIFIED TO FIT THE LENGTH OF THE MAGAZINE. Please CONTACT THE AUTHORS FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THEIR PAPERS. 80

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DE-INDUSTRIALIZATON IN INDIA DURING THE BRITISH RULE INTRODUCTION During the 18th century, India was one of the biggest players in the world economy in terms of exports, especially in terms of the export of textile products. Things changed and by the end of the 19th century India lost its place in the world market in terms of its share of exports and this also coincided with the rapid fall in the condition of the domestic market in the country. It is estimated that in the 1700’s, India’s share in the world market, in terms of trade, was close to 25% of the total output, which then fell rapidly to a meagre 2% by the year 1900. It is this phase that is referred to when we say that under the British rule, India went through the process of ‘Deindustrialization’.

Deindustrialization refers to the stage/phase during which India’s large and successfully operating industrial sector went through a rough phase/ slump, which lead to the decline of the domestic/traditional industry in the country. It refers to a process whereby there is an economic and social change in a country/state caused primarily by the reduction of the role of the dominant domestic industry. Deindustrialization has many effects, some of them being- loss of employment, a state of balance of trade deficit faced by the country, the country’s inability to maintain a surplus of exports over imports etc. It is said that the adverse effects of the British regime’s policies slowly but surely managed to reduce India’s domestic industry to a shadow of its former self.

Many scholars have written about this gradual process of marginalizing India’s domestic industry and in this paper, we will discuss the views and opinions of scholars such as Amiya Bagchi, Irfan Habib, Morris D Morris, Twomey and Tirthankar Roy. We will discuss their take on the entire process and try to understand their interpretative analysis.

DEINDUSTRALISATION-DIVERGING PERSPECTIVES I would like to begin by explaining Morris D Morris’s take on the deindustrialization in India during the British rule. Morris’s basic premise was that the entire concept of deindustrialization was not necessarily as it was made out to be. To back this up, he said that there could have been a possibility that the sharp increase in the import of manufactured goods and a rise in the per capita consumption of cloth could have aided in the expansion of domestic market. Hence, he said that the argument which suggested that deindustrialization took place due to rising manufactured imports may not hold true. In his article, Morris states the classical viewpoint of the 19 th century Indian economy, often characterized by features such as the destruction of the handicrafts sector, weakening of the agricultural sector and the persistent agony of the industrial sector. The economy of India in the 19th century was a period of stagnation, some would even call it a phase of deterioration. There seemed to be a lack of political stability during this era, which could also suggest that this was one of the reasons that played a secondary role in the cause of deindustrialization. According to Morris, this period was marked by dismal levels of agricultural productivity, low levels of capital accumulation which lead to a slump in commerce, an underdeveloped system in terms of waterways and roads (many of which could be used only during certain times of the year) etc. All these factors also contributed to the slump in economic activity during this period and resulted in India having a very low per capita income, which lasted till around 1800.

When the British colonized India, they took control of a country that was not necessarily equipped to undergo rapid industrialization. The British imposed their laws on the country and this seemed effective in a way, leading to an increase in the stability and efficiency of the administration.

Morris suggests that there seemed to be an increase in the average agricultural output during the 19 th century. This, he suggests, happened due to various reasons, some of them being- new irrigation techniques that replaced the older and obsolete methods, expansion of the area under cultivation and also, a shift from cultivating crops of lower value to those of higher value. Many have argued that the British goods, manufactured in Manchester, wiped out the traditional Indian goods from the market by the mid-19th century. Morris, however, suggests that this is not true and states that although the British goods (cloth) were competing with the Indian handloom sector, there was a rise in competitiveness and inspite of the falling price of cotton, which then lead to an increase in the demand for cotton. He further suggests that this could have been true for other industries and that, the increase in other relatively new activities could have nullified the decline in the other sectors. The latter half of the 19th century witnessed the growth of industries in the country and by 1900, India had one of the most developed textile industries in comparison to the world. The latter half of the 19th century also saw the growth of the coal industry and the expansion of the railway network.

According to Morris, this stage of growth suggests that the common perception that Indians did not have a spirit for entrepreneurship was proved wrong and even though it is commonly assumed that the British policies deliberately prevented the growth of the Indian industries, this wasn’t the case. Morris also argues that during the period between World War 1 and India’s independence, the total output of the country dipped and that there wasn’t was a stagnation or even a decline in the per capita income. Before World War 1, India had made massive strides in the textile, jute and railway sector. However, this did not result in an improvement in the economy and there existed a state of stagnation in the 20th century. Some of the proposed views regarding this stagnation were - limited effectiveness of the government’s policies, ineffective government spending and so on. The basic premise of Morris’s argument is that the slump in the traditional sector (economically) did not translate into a

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slump in the entire economy as a whole in the 19th century and that maybe, even some form of absolute growth did take place.

Tirthankar Roy’s views on the issue of deindustrialization in India during the British rule match, to some extent, those stated by Morris D Morris.

He too suggests that traditional industries in India did not decline during this period. He simply suggests that they may have changed in terms of shape and structure, but did not decline. He suggests that the decline in the traditional industries took place not only in India but in Britain as well. However, the difference is that in Britain, the rise of the new industries made up for this loss whereas in India, this did not happen, resulting in a downfall of sorts. Roy suggests that deindustrialization came to be known as the ‘left-nationalist’ view of the decline that took place in the Indian economy under the rule of the British.

One important premise of this ‘left-nationalist’ view was that the decline that took place in the economy outweighed the growth. He also argues that the entire phase of deindustrialization forced many former artisans, the then unemployed, into the agricultural sector. Roy says that there are three basic factors, based on which ‘deindustrialization’ can be shown to be not entirely true, the factors being- the employment scenario in industry, the state of the textile industry and national income. In talking about the industrial aspect, Roy says that the issue of technological obsolescence cannot be denied, but this doesn’t necessarily imply that it can be used as a broad phenomena that is spread across all sectors. He states that incomes in the industrial sector rose between 1900 and 1947 and thus, this cannot be used to prove the point of deindustrialization.

When we consider the other factor, textiles, it is true, that ‘spinning by hand’ was the only sector that was in a state of crisis, whereas the handloom industry survived inspite of the fact that there existed technological constraints in this sector. Finally, we consider the third factor, i.e, employment. Roy states that a fall in employment was a feature that was common to all sectors and that this occurred even in those industries which did not face stiff competition. Hence, Roy argues that the employment rates do not necessarily reflect the process of deindustrialization.

If we take into account National Income, it shows an increase in the real income of the traditional sector of the economy. It also reflects a faster growth rate(in terms of income) of the traditional sector over that of the so-called ‘modern’ industry. Roy, in his article, also talks about the ‘Commercialization Thesis’. He states that the traditional and modern industry were not competitive, meaning that the traditional industry used more labour-intensive methods to create their products as the access to machines to do so was inhibited due to financial constraints. It is said that the traditional industry underwent a change due to internal competition, ultimately leading to a contraction in employment, which lead to a rise in the total income of the industry. This is what is referred to as ‘commercialization’. It is said that there was a rapid spurt of this ‘commercialization’ in India during 1869-1929. Due to various factors like improved transport and communication, increased foreign trade and other such conducive factors, there was a huge increase in trade and revenues.

There was a shift in the motives, meaning, more and more goods were being produced not for the purpose of local markets, but with the intention of selling these products to those in the distant markets. Thus, this ‘commercialization’ lead to an increase in terms of competition and further lead to structural changes in the industrial sector. There was an increase in ‘long-distance’ trade and due to the increased competition, there was an increase in specialization. Roy also states that because family run enterprises could not ‘specialize’ that much due to financial constraints, they died out over a period of time. Roy concludes by saying that the process of deindustrialization took place around the world and that in some cases, more attention was given to finding and implementing methods through which the labour force of the country could be used more productively. He reiterates that the two main processes through which this was made possible were- ‘Commercialization’ and ‘Modernization’ of the socalled traditional industry. Twomey too shared a similar view on this issue.

I would now like to move on to discuss the works of Amiya Bagchi and Irfan Habib. Bagchi, in his writings, suggests that the mass and large scale decline of the traditional industry, to an extent, can be attributed to the entire process of Industrial Revolution. He goes on to say that while the total population, in absolute terms, was larger in 1901, the population (absolute number) which was dependent on the industrial sector fell by approximately 50% during the time period 1813-1901. This, he suggests, was to a large extent caused by the rapid decline of the traditional textile industry. Bagchi, in his article, discusses the scenario in various parts of the country. In respect to the Bengal province, he suggests that close to one million people lost their jobs (mainly drawing from the textile industry) by the year 1828. In the case of the Gangetic Bihar region, roughly 62% of the population was dependent on cotton weaving and other related activities. This figure then fell to around 15% by the year 1901. This then lead to a mass migration of these newly unemployed workers/artisans to various surrounding areas in search of work. Bagchi also suggests that a major portion of the process of deindustrialization can be linked to the fact that traditional manufacturers who supplied a bulk of the consumer goods to markets within the country were displaced and that this further depreciated the value of the economy.

Moving on, it is said that in the year 1851, Britain, which had just undergone the process of Industrial Revolution, was the leading industrial nation.

It accounted for almost half of the cotton textile products (in comparison with other countries). Britain sort of forced India and its other colonies to import the goods manufactured in Manchester. This forced inflow of textile goods into India continued right up till World War 1. Bagchi also ascertains that certain parts of India, such as the Deccan region, were protected from this process, which therefore implied that their indigenous/ domestic industries were still intact. There are multiple reasons for this, some of them being- relative inaccessibility and the so called notion of a lack of westernization on the part of these regions (for instance, it is said that most of the upper class members of these societies continued wearing traditional clothes). Bagchi argues that these market processes lead to a drain of investable resources from the third world countries to the British Treasury. Another major aspect was that it lead to a vast cut on the job frontier. Many of those working in the agricultural and industrial sectors lost their jobs. He argues that this adverse effect could have been remedied by investing heavily in aid of this aspect, but this did not

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become a reality because of the fact that neither the government nor the business classes were willing to do so. In effect, this lead to a large scale migration of Indian nationals to other countries in search of employment.

Another vital point that Bagchi makes is that capital intensive techniques, though not the major factor, did still play a secondary role in the entire phenomenon. It is also stated that in most cases, the ‘services’ sector can be a boon in the sense that it can provide employment to many thousands. However, this sector, in many third world countries, is often characterized by poor wage rates and is often seen in terms of ‘disguised unemployment’. Another major remark that he makes is that though technological innovations and resources are helpful in overcoming this ‘hurdle’, they are, in third world countries, concentrated in the hands of a few, not percolating to every section of the society. Bagchi, in conclusion, refers to the Chinese growth story. It comprises of- focussing on the development of the countryside, the production of necessities first and luxury goods later and ensuring that every section of the population has access to the benefits of the social service schemes. Bagchi concludes by saying that every nation will have to, on its own, choose a set of policy regulations that best fit the country and analyse what adaptations of these paradigms need to be used.

Irfan Habib, in his article, seems to think along the same lines as Amiya Bagchi, of the entire process of deindustrialization. Habib states that there exist two starting points to better understand deindustrialization- (1) the ‘mode of production’, i.e, the process by which the investable ‘surplus’ of India was extracted, mainly through the method of levying land revenue, The British expected the land revenue to include the major bulk of the surplus that was over and above what the peasants needed for subsistence. Habib talks about the Indian economy in the pre-colonial era and states that the zamindars collected exorbitant amounts of revenue. There existed a certain amount of division within the peasantry too. The farmers that belonged to the higher castes generally imposed unreasonable rates of taxes on those belonging to the lower classes. Things didn’t improve much during the British rule. The British managed to establish a firm base for themselves by acquiring ‘diwani’ in the Bengal province and ‘jagirs’ in the Northern Circars. They used these to extract large amounts of taxes on the pretext of collecting land revenue. They used this money, that they extracted out of the country, to maintain their administration, army and so on.

Habib, in his article, also speaks about the ‘Permanent Settlement’ Act of 1793. It was an agreement between the East India Company and the Bengali landlords to fix the amount of revenue to be extracted. This helped the British to extract large amounts of money from the country. They were unrelenting in their ways and the rate of revenue to be paid didn’t change even during the Great Famine that took place in Bengal. There was a difference of opinion within the British administration regarding the amount of revenue to be collected. James Grant, an officer of the Company, lobbied for the land revenue to be increased. Lord Cornwallis realized that this wasn’t possible and hence suggested a compromised deal to the ‘zamindars’. This lead to the proclamation of the ‘Permanent Settlement’ Act in 1793, which led to the ‘drain of wealth’ from India to Britain.

The effects of the drain were horrendous. An offshoot of this was the disruption of the trading pattern of India due to large scale exports of Indian goods. Habib states that India was (forcefully) providing funds that amounted to almost 30% of the total national savings. Excluding certain years, there seemed to be a progressive drop in the prices of food grains. The British exported opium produced in India to China, in exchange for Chinese tea and silk. In this entire process, India received nothing. Habib states that the process of ‘deindustrialization’ was completed by the 1880’s. This also resulted in the complete decline of the domestic food industry, resulting in famines. Also, the practice of lending money at exorbitant t rates (usury) aided this process. Its impact was felt by small time farmers and aided the growth of the zamindars and the administration.

CONCLUSION Thus, this is how the process of deindustrialization took place in India. Scholars like Irfan Habib and Amiya Bagchi highlight the negative role it played on the Indian economy, whereas others like Morris D Morris and Tirthankar Roy hold a more favourable view of the effect this process had on the economy of the country and on the development of the country.

REFERENCES (1)Habib, I.1975.Colonisation of the Indian Economy: 1757-1900.Social Scientist.

(2)Habib, I. 2006.Indian Economy: 1858-1914, Tulika Books.

(3)Michael Twomey.1983. Employment in Nineteenth Century Indian Textiles. Explorations in Economic History.

(4)Morris D. Morris.1963. Towards a Re-interpretation of Nineteenth Century Economic History.

(5)Tirthankar Roy.2000. De-industrialisation: Alternative View. Economic and Political Weekly.

(6)Bagchi, A.1976. De-industrialisation in India in the Nineteenth Century. Journal of Development Studies.

1

Tirthankar Roy. Source:Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 35, No. 17 (Apr. 22-28, 2000), pp.

1442-1447 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly 2 Tirthankar Roy. Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 35, No. 17 (Apr. 22-28, 2000), pp.

1442-1447 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly 3 Irfan Habib. Source: Social Scientist, Vol. 3, No. 8 (Mar., 1975), pp. 23-53 Published by: Social Scientist

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K. EASHAAN The author did his B.A in Economics from Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai and is currently pursuing his Masters in Development Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Eashaan enjoys reading, sketching and is avid football fan.

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A GAME THEORETIC ANALYSIS OF BIG BOSS Bigg Boss is a reality television show that has currently completed a run of eight seasons on Colors (Viacom), and is based on Endemol UK’s reality show ‘Big Brother.’ In a nutshell, several participants cohabit a house in which each of them must perform tasks and duties in order to avoid being voted out, all this under the watchful cameras of an omnipresent overseer, (Bigg Brother/Boss) and not to mention millions of viewers. As the show unfolds, there is a single aspect that becomes clear: Bigg Boss is less of a game show, and more of an elaborate social experiment.

Typically, Bigg Boss participants come from diverse backgrounds (e.g., artists, sportspersons, politicians, among others), but are largely those who are already familiar with the cold, stolid stare of the camera lens. In fact, their behaviour on the show can be attributed to their specific backgrounds, while still being largely generalizable to what a ‘common man’ would do. Bigg Boss offers a view into the strategic (and sometimes notso-strategic) interaction between participants and decision-making in the vein of game theory; evidently, this show is of considerable interest to psychologists and economists alike.

There has been some study of applying game-theoretic frameworks to reality television shows (e.g., Summers, 2002), finding that there is an optimal size of alliance that will help achieve victory (but only for one player). While most economics research focuses on TV shows with salient monetary payoffs (e.g. Baltussen, van den Assem, & van Dolder, 2015; Belot, Bhaskar, & van de Ven, 2010), social psychology research has focused on the role of gossip (Thornborrow & Morris, 2004) and displays of power (Coleman, 2010). Furthermore, one of the key dynamics that influences strategic behavior may be attributed to conflict between self-interest and other-regarding behavior on such reality shows (Wall, 2011).

There is therefore a tradeoff between cooperating with others and ensuring that no one else gains from such cooperation.

As with any game theoretic analysis, we first set up the model for interaction between players (or teams of players): Players: Multiple players (16 at the start of each season), often grouped into teams Actions: Each player’s set of actions consists of a strategy to avoid being voted out of the show. We assume that they can achieve this either by being aggressive and dominating over other players, or by being cooperative and passive toward other players.

Preferences: Each player prefers to be the last person remaining in the house. We assume (with some lack of generality) that players’ preferences are consistent with gaining the largest payoff from staying till end with no outside options.

Readers familiar with common models in game theory will see that this set up is similar to the Hawk-Dove game (or War of attrition). The basis for such games rides greatly on cooperative and coordinating behaviour. In the classic Hawk-Dove game, two teams fight for a particular resource, which is beneficial to both. Think of it as two animals fighting for a piece of food. The animal/team that plays aggressively is termed as the Hawk and the team that plays passively is the Dove. Now if both teams turn out to be aggressive, both lose the resource; but if one is aggressive and the other passive, the aggressive player benefits more. The Nash equilibrium solution is to adopt a mixed strategy between playing Hawk and Dove (since each player would ideally like to do the opposite of what the other player does and achieve the maximum payoff of V). The following is the depiction of the Hawk-Dove payoff matrix ;TABLE 1; Payoff table for Hawk-Dove game.

HAWK

DOVE

HAWK

(V-C)/2

V

DOVE

0

V/2

We now consider a sample task in Bigg Boss that we hypothesize to be similar to the Hawk -Dove game: In the Toy Factory Task (Days 79 and 80), Bigg Boss divides the players in two teams. Team A consisted of Sofia (Captain), Kushal, Aijaaz, and Kamya. Team B consisted of Armaan (Captain), Tanisha, Sangram, and Andy. Gauhar was the Managing Director (a supervising authority) of the Toy Factory. Both teams had to make 25 stuffed toys within a time frame

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and with a certain set of rules. At any given time, there had to be at least two workers from each team working in the factory. The respective captains could mutually decide whether to reject all of the opposite teams’ toys, partly accept, or completely accept all toys. A unilateral decision was also a possibility, but since communication between teams was allowed, cooperation appeared optimal relative to conflict, the captains decided to jointly evaluate the toys, based on agreed rules.

In the first iteration (with a target of 25 toys), we found that Armaan’s team cooperated initially and stuck to achieving their target. Sofia’s team, on the other hand, did not cooperate and frequently complained about their spot being under the sun; perhaps an excuse to avoid working or to test the flexibility of the rules. They even intimidated the opposing team, by reminding them of the rules. In the second round, both teams were required to make 50 teddy bears and 50 sock bunnies. Again, both teams failed to complete the task. Several conflicts were observed during the entire task, which showed non-cooperation between both the teams. However, Armaan’s team were relatively more cooperative in the initial stages of the task. As the task progressed, Armaan’s team turned non-cooperative due to the continuous insults by Kushal and Aijaaz. There were also disagreements among the captains in the second and third rounds.

Considering both the teams, we can consider Armaan's team as the Dove and Sofia's team as the Hawk in the initial two rounds. This assumption is not in the context of types, but rather in terms of strategies used: cooperative (Dove) and non-cooperative (Hawk). We propose several motivations for this choice of strategies. Given that Armaan’s team were constantly reminded of the opposite team’s dominance (via repeated insults and/or ‘cheap talk’), adopting an aggressive approach to the problem may be optimal. Another possible reason could be that they observed Gauhar (who was tasked with a neutral role) to be biased towards Sofia's team (since a previous alliance between Kushal and Gauhar had been established over the course of the season) and thus decided to not cooperate at all. This turns them into a Hawk team as well. As the Managing Director, we assume Gauhar’s role was to ensure maximum production from both the teams, which would result in the socially optimal outcome of both teams gaining but neither one losing. From the generic Hawk-Dove game, we see that the social optimum is achieved only when both teams cooperate and play as Doves. Perhaps Gauhar’s role was to ensure that both teams cooperate meaningfully and emerge as Doves, instead, they both turn out as Hawks.

However, since Bigg Boss rules dictate that a winner must be declared with certainty (since the progression of the game depends on this), one team had to emerge the winner. Armaan's team wins because of their efforts and Sofia's team loses (despite playing Hawk all along). While there are several reasons for why this decision was reached, an iterated Hawk-Dove game (as the Toy Factory task is seen) implies that both teams should converge to cooperation and avoid competition that is costly in terms of payoffs. Since this was not the case, we propose that any team that played as a dove (cooperative strategy) in a majority of the rounds is awarded the higher payoff—since cooperative behaviour was more likely to be rewarded at the start of the game.

In conclusion, we have shown how seemingly mundane and entertaining games in reality TV shows can be viewed through a scientific lens. Applying game theory to Bigg Boss is just one small step in the journey of understanding how reality TV shows are highly controlled social experiments, worthy of serious study. Not only do games in shows enable a correspondence with theoretical games, they are also embedded in rich social contexts, which demand interactions with other players. Understanding the similarities and differences in theory and applications via TV game shows makes this anything but a frivolous area of enquiry.

References Baltussen, G., van den Assem, M. J., & van Dolder, D. (2015). Risky Choice in the Limelight. Review of Economics and Statistics, 150129132035004.

Retrieved from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/REST_a_00505#.VXvO__mqqko Belot, M., Bhaskar, V., & van de Ven, J. (2010). Promises and cooperation: Evidence from a TV game show. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 73(3), 396–405. doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2010.01.001 Coleman, S. (2010). Acting powerfully: Performances of power in Big Brother. International Journal of Cultural Studies. doi:10.1177/1367877909356722 Summers, G. (2002). Outwit, Outplay, Outlast: A Game-Theoretic Analysis of “Survivor.” Stanford University. Stanford University. Retrieved from https:// economics.stanford.edu/files/Theses/Theses_2002/Summers.pdf Thornborrow, J. S., & Morris, D. (2004). Gossip as strategy: The management of talk about others reality TV show “Big Brother.” Journal of Socio-

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linguistics, 8(2), 246–271. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2004.00260.x Wall, G. (2011). Outwit, outplay, outcast? Sex discrimination in voting behaviour in the reality television show Survivor. New Zealand Economic Papers, 45(1-2), 183. doi:10.1080/00779954.2011.556078 Author Note Anirudh Tagat is Research Author at Department of Economics at Monk® Prayogshala® Pankti Shah is Research Intern at Department of Economics at Monk® Prayogshala® Hansika Kapoor is Research Author at Department of Psychology at Monk® Prayogshala® We are grateful to Kahini Shah for ongoing research assistance.

ANIRUDH TAGAT is Research Author PANKTI SHAH is Research Intern at HANSIKA KAPOOR is Research Author at Department of Economics at Monk® Department of Economics at Monk® at Department of Psychology at Monk® Prayogshala®. Anirudh completed his Prayogshala®. Pankti graduated from the ® MSc in Economics from the University Sarla Anil Modi School of Economics at Prayogshala . Hansika completed her MA of Warwick and is currently researching NMIMS, and is currently pursuing an in Clinical Psychology from Mumbai in behavioural and experimental University and is currently researching MSc in Behavioural Science at the economics University of Stirling, UK morality, decision-making, and gender ABOUT MONK PRAYOGSHALA; Monk Prayogshala is a not-for-profit academic research institution that undertakes projects covering the en-

tire research life cycle from proposals to experimentation through to publishing and feedback integration. MP follows rigorous processes in the development of research proposals, while ensuring adherence to ethical considerations prescribed by international organisations. To learn more about Monk Prayogshala’s research, visit www.monkprayogshala.in/research-at-prayogshala/

CHANGING LIVES ONE DROP AT A TIME: CLEAN DRINKING WATER INTERVENTION IN A VILLAGE IN RAJASTHAN An Impact Assessment and Experience from the field Introduction Consumption of contaminated water and the subsequent water-borne diseases are one of the primary causes of stunted growth and child mortality; nearly 20% of deaths under the age of 5 are due to water-related diseases (World Health Organisation). A country can improve upon issues ranging from school retention and performance to labour productivity by providing access to clean drinking water to all its citizens. According to World Health Organization, for every $1 invested in water and sanitation, the economic return is between $3 and $34 (WHO/ UNICEF). This translates into a return of at least 200-300%. ‘Providing clean drinking water to all’ has thus been made a permanent fixture on the checklist of the Indian policy makers and Non-governmental organisations.

Provision of access to clean drinking water and sanitation to the rural population is the mandate of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. The Ministry has introduced two central programmes to carry out its mandate: a. Swachh Bharat Mission- Grameen b. Rural Drinking Water Programme (RDWP). The RDWP has a target of providing 90% of the households in the country with piped water by 2022 (Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation). It aims to assist state governments and thereby gram panchayats in providing households with a sustainable source of water (Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation).

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The United Nations had listed provision of ‘clean drinking water to all by 2015’ as a Millennium Development Goal. In a bid to achieve this goal, UNICEF and the WHO have initiated the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Health) programme. It also funds the Child Development Program along with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan to increase the levels of sanitation in schools in India (UNICEF). The various types of clean drinking water interventions include: providing piped water to households; decreasing contamination of water at point of access and at the place of storage; building wells and tanks to provide and store water, etc.

In this paper we attempt to assess the impact of a clean drinking water intervention by Sewa Mandir in a tribal village in Southern Rajasthan. The intervention is a water tank constructed in each of the three hamlets of the village to provide clean drinking water to the inhabitants. The intervention consists of construction of a water tank in each hamlet; improving the drinking water quality at point of use; and influencing linkage between water supply, sanitation and hygiene. The intervention was introduced with the primary objectives of reduction in drudgery and water-borne disease incidence, and for providing a safe and sustainable water resource. The main objective of the impact assessment is to evaluate the impact of the intervention in light of the set objectives in the three hamlets. We then draw recommendations from the results of the impact assessment for future interventions.

Methodology The authors have adopted a mix method approach to assess the impact of the intervention. In addition to using qualitative and quantitative data, we use both primary and secondary data to assess the impact. We relied on surveys and semi-structured interviews to collect data. A prepost methodology was adopted to conduct the impact assessment. The base-line survey was made available to us by the NGO. The baseline data set consisted of information of 169 households in total.

The authors conducted the end-line survey in the 3 hamlets of the village in December, 2014. Data set consisted of a sample of 23 households out of 70 households in the three hamlets. We have dropped 1 hamlet from the analysis because of inconsistencies in data.

Therefore, we use a sample of 10 out of 20 households in Mamadev and 8 out of 25 households in Dumper Valley. Though, we do not do a quantitative analysis in Thori Magri, the qualitative data collected there is used in the overall assessment.

We used the same survey questionnaire which was used in the baseline survey to assess the impact of the intervention on the same parameters. The survey questionnaire asked the respondents to report the time taken and distance travelled to collect water. In addition, frequency of water collection; size of ‘matkis’ used; member of household who went for collection.

To assess the quality of water the villagers were asked to rate the quality of water on a number of parameters which included colour; odour; presence of insects; oil and rust; and algae formation.

They were also asked to mention whether they had been inflicted with a water-borne disease in the past one year. Other components of the survey included questions on presence of toilets, hand-washing habits, and suggestions for other interventions.

The three indicators of assessment used are drudgery reduction; decrease in water-borne diseases; and sustainability of the intervention. Wilcoxon Matched‐Pairs T‐test was used to analyse reduction in drudgery. We had to use secondary data to predict the potential impact of the intervention on health because this being a mid-term evaluation, the benefits on health are not entirely visible. We measure sustainability on three aspects- sustainability of source of water, infrastructure and longevity of the impact.

Intervention Overview Rajasthan is one of the most arid regions of the country, with southern Rajasthan being one of the drier regions of the state. The village of Jogio ka guda, the location of the water intervention, is 35 km away from the City of Udaipur which is located in Southern Rajasthan. Sewa Mandir built a tank because settlements in this region are highly dispersed; hence a central pipe cannot be built. In addition wells and handpumps suffer from bacterial contamination and have maintenance issues, therefore building a tank was the only viable option.

The main village of Jogio ka Guda has a separate government tank constructed, whereas Sewa Mandir constructed 3 tanks in the three hamlets located a kilometre away from the main village. The three hamlets- Thori Magri, Mamadev and Dumper Valley are located 300400 metres away from each other. The area has a population of 795, with 48% women and 52% men. The combined literacy level of the area is 52%, and 42% of the households are BPL card holders.

Village Meeting

Baseline Survey

Select well

Reconstruction

Construct

of well

Tank

Figure 1 Process of building the tank To construct the tank, the NGO first conducted a Participatory Rural-Appraisal (PRA) in the area to identify the key problems faced by the people in the village. They then administered a base-line survey on various parameters as described in the methodology. Once the need for the tank is felt, the NGO asked the Panchayat and the villagers to identify wells for construction of the tank. The tank is constructed so as to provide water to 15-20 households for a period of 5 days. It has a capacity of 4000-5000 litres. To construct the tank, a citizen partnership model was adopted, wherein, the villagers contributed up to 20% of the cost of construction of the tank by providing labour and stones. Sewa Mandir contributed to 80% of the cost by providing technical expertise and other inputs. Due to unavailability of public wells in the hamlets, the NGO identified private wells suitable to be connected to the tank. The owners of the wells were convinced to let the tank be connected to the well by incentivising them with repairs of the wells sponsored by the NGO. The NGO also imparted technical knowledge, pertaining to upkeep of the tank, to 2 villagers from each hamlet. The women self-help groups in the hamlets had decided on a maintenance fee to be paid by every villager for the upkeep of the tank. The SHGs and trained villagers were responsible for cleanliness of the tank- by way of chlorination and other methods.

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Impact Assessment A. Drudgery Reduction In India 93 per 1000 households have to travel more than 200m to get water, whereas in Rajasthan the number rises to 190 (Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation). It takes a person 30 minutes to collect water in rural Rajasthan as compared to the national rural average of 20 minutes (MoSP). Women and young girls have to bear the lion’s share of the duty of collecting water for the entire household. In our survey, only in 1 household did the men partake in this duty. Carrying heavy loads over long distances adversely affects the health of the women (Geere et al 52). In addition, they are unable to help in supplementing the family income and look after young kids, due to time lost in traversing long distances.

With the mothers out all day, young girls are then entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of the youngest. This results in the young girls missing school (Shaheed et al 283-289). The economic cost of fetching water is extremely high. According to a study conducted by the World Bank in 2006, time spent in hauling water led to a loss of 673 million days for rural residents with an attached cost of Rs.36 billion (World Bank).

The primary objective of Sewa Mandir was to reduce drudgery by reducing the time taken and distance travelled in collecting water.

We attempt to answer the following questions in this section: 1.Has distance travelled to collect water reduced significantly?

2.What has been the effect on time spent on collection of water?

A Wilcoxon Matched‐Pairs T‐test indicated significant difference between before intervention and after-intervention distance travelled t collect water in Mamadev, T (N = 7) =0, p < .05. However, surprisingly, in the adjacent hamlet (Dumper Valley) the test indicated no significant difference between before-intervention and after-intervention distance travelled to collect water, T (N = 8) =7, p < .05.

The time taken to collect water in Mamadev reduced from 28.33 minutes to 15 minutes; a reduction by 47%. The intervention was thus successful in reducing the average time taken to collect water below the national average of 20 minutes (MoSP). In Dumper Valley, because the tank was

QUANTUTATIVE MEASURES OF REDUCTION

Mean Distance travelled (meters)

Before

After

Mamadev

77.142

21.428

Dumper Valley

98.571

85.741

Time (min)

Before

After

Mamadev

28.33

15

not operational, data for time taken to collect water after construction of tank could not be collected.

Table 1: Quantitative Measures of Drudgery Reduction However, there is a need to look beyond the quantitative measures of drudgery to gauge the actual impact of the assessment. Our semi-structured interviews with the women in the hamlet of Mamadev highlighted the following:



It was easier for the women to collect water late at night, after returning from work.



The efforts required in pulling out heavy buckets of water from well are immense. The construction of tank saved them from straining their arms and backs, multiple times a day, while collecting water.

“Main hun ghar ki mukhiya”: When asked who the head of the household was, this was the reply we got from the lady being interviewed. The reason she gave was that the power now lay with her. She felt ‘responsible’ for the successful implementation of the water tank project. It instilled a sense of empowerment in the women. The affairs of the tank were managed by a women self-help group in the village. Their responsibilities included collection of money for maintenance and chlorination of the tank. This made them feel both accountable and empowered.



B. Health Water-borne diseases are one of the major fatal diseases in developing countries; in fact, a joint study by UNESCO and WHO says that they kill more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined (WHO/UNICEF). Diarrhoea is a particularly widespread disease in developing countries. Of all diseases, diarrhoea is the second leading killer of children (WHO/UNICEF).

An enquiry into the cause of the ubiquity of the disease reveals a common thread. An estimated 88% of diarrhoeal deaths can be attributed to consumption of contaminated water (WHO). Safe and clean drinking water and improved sanitation are thus, pivotal in improving on account of child mortality rates and general health in such regions.

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The CDW intervention by Sewa Mandir includes reduction in diarrhoeal disease incidence as one of its major objective. The methodology used to assess the impact on this account is to ask the households to report the diseases in the family in the past year. However, this approach suffers from the following limitations:

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The diseases being reported are dependent on the recollection by the interviewee. Several gaps were noticed in the data because of perceivably imperfect memory of the respondents. Often, the diseases reported in the baseline survey were not reported in the endline survey which was conducted in the same year.

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The impact of improved drinking water quality in terms of health is long-term. This being a mid-term assessment, the quantitative impact of the intervention in terms of reduction in the number of cases of diarrhoea and vomiting is not very conclusive.

Hence, we present our observations and data to gain some insights on the efficacy of the intervention but make no claims of certainty until further data is available.

Incidence of diarrhoea and vomiting was found to have gone down from 15% to 2% since the tank has been operational in Mamadev.

Interviewees reported that “earlier, diseases were a common occurrence” but since then “there haven’t been many so far”. In addition, with reduction of drudgery being significant in Mamadev, it is expected that there would concomitant benefits to the health of the carriers of the water load. Also, when asked to rate the quality of water on various parameters (Annexure 1), none of the respondents found any anomaly in the water supplied by the tank. On the other hand water from the handpump was deemed unfit for consumption; and while the water from the well was found to be largely clean, a few respondents reported finding insects in the water from the well.

Though provision of a tank to provide clean drinking water can reduce the intake of contaminated water; this may be offset by flow of particles from human excreta into the well, or by unhygienic practices. It is important to assess the impact of an infrastructure intervention on the health indicator by combining it with other sanitation interventions (UNICEF). A literature review of drinking water assessments points to the fact that improving supply or source of water alone cannot achieve the target of reduction water-borne diseases (UNICEF).It needs to be supported with sanitation measure. In the three hamlets, all the villagers reported to defecate in the open.

Open defecation can be a potential source of contamination of the well from. Also, all the villagers used a hand mug to take water out from the container where water is stored. If the villagers do not wash their hands properly (50% of the households reported to wash their hands only with water after defecation, and before eating), the container might get contaminated which offsets the impact on health of the intervention.

Thus, it is necessary to supplement the construction of the tank with sanitation measures such as building of working toilets, and awareness campaigns regarding benefits of washing hands.

C. Sustainability This being a mid-term evaluation we do not explicitly state whether the intervention performs on this indicator. Instead we report our findings in this section and list pointers so that the intervention can be improved at an early stage. We assess the sustainability of the tank by exploring whether sustainable management of the facilities by beneficiary communities has been ensured?

The sustainability of the intervention is measured on three parameters:

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Sustainability of source of water: In the three hamlets of the village, the tanks were connected to wells from which water was supplied to fill the tank. The two tanks in Thori Magri and Dumper Valley were connected to perennial sources of water (wells), while the well in Mamadev was seasonal. The seasonality of the well in Mamadev would result in disruption in operation of the tank in summers, the season in which the need for the tank is felt most. In addition transfer of water from the well to tank depends on the functioning of the motor. In Thori Magri, the tank was rendered inoperative because of a fault in the motor. Thus, the source of water for the tank is not reliable.

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Sustainability of physical infrastructure of tank: Sewa Mandir has ensured maintenance of the tank by allocating the responsibility of the upkeep of the tank on the villagers. They have imparted technical expertise to villagers and trained them in ensuring that the water in the tank is clean. The women SHGs in Mamadev ensured that the tank was chlorinated at the scheduled date. Thus, sustainability of the physical infrastructure has been ensured.

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Sustainability of impact: For the impact of the tank to be sustained over a long period of time, it is necessary that there are no breaks in the supply of water (UNICEF). This however can only be ensured if the sustainability of the source of water is guaranteed.

Recommendations For Other interventions based on the salient features of the tank built by Sewa Mandir A.

Interventions should involve Citizen Partnership:

Citizen Partnership by way of community management and instilling a sense of ownership has played a pivotal role in the success of the intervention by Sewa Mandir. This is further highlighted by the limited success of the water tank intervention by the government in the main village.

It is observed that the clean drinking water intervention in the main village of Jogio ka Guda with 60 households did not achieve its primary

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objective of making the tank the primary source of drinking water. An interview with an inhabitant from the village highlighted the fact that the villagers were using the water from the tank for washing clothes or utensils. This was further corroborated from the survey done in village where only 36% of the households used the tank water for primary use i.e. for drinking and cooking, and 48% reported using it for secondary uses, such as washing of clothes and utensils. On the other hand, Sewa Mandir had entrusted the women SHG with the responsibility of ensuring that everybody used the water from the tank from purpose of drinking and cooking, our findings from the semi-structured interviews and corresponding questions in the survey complemented this. The purpose for which the tank was built was being fulfilled in the hamlet where the citizens were involved in the intervention.

B. Interventions should be demand-driven and cost of intervention should be shared : The utter failure of the sanitation intervention in Dumper Valley hamlet shows how partnering with the locals helps sustain the intervention.

Every BPL family in the hamlet of Dumper Valley had an attached dry latrine built by the government. However, the latrines were not used by the villagers, despite not having toilets of their own. The reasons cited for the same was that the villagers were hesitant in using dry toilets without water. In addition most toilets built were not constructed properly, without proper piping and pans. The villagers themselves were not willing to improve these toilets on their own because they felt that this was the government’s job. On the other hand, the villagers were ready to pay for the upkeep of the tank built by Sewa Mandir because they had initially contributed 20% to the cost of the tank. They felt that they would incur a ‘loss’ if the tank did not function properly.

The situation described above highlights two recommendations:

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Interventions should be demand driven: The village did not have a demand for dry toilets, or for toilets without running water.

The villagers were not interested in using the toilets built for them. Thus, governments should follow the practice of NGOs of conducting a PRA before introducing an intervention. The PRA would help the government agency understand what the rural populace has a requirement for, and what they would use.

Prospective beneficiaries should contribute to the cost of the project: It is observed that the villagers are pro-active in maintaining the tank set-up by Sewa Mandir because they feel that they contributed to the cost of the tank. Also, the villagers are also responsible for the maintenance of the tank; hence they know that if they wish to reap the benefits, they need to pitch in.

Conclusion Consumption of contaminated water has been known to be the cause of a number of water borne diseases, which in turn are a primary cause of child mortality. Respiratory infections and diarrhoea account for 36 per cent of all deaths in children under five years of age (UNICEF). If a child is afflicted by a disease in his or her formative years, its growth is stunted and may lead to future abnormalities.

This may cause financial hardship on the parents, escalating into the family being caught in severe debt. Consumption of water of inferior quality can thus cause child mortality, poverty among other problems. A country can get rid of a number of problems plaguing it by providing access to clean drinking water to all its citizens.

In this paper we assess the impact of a tank built by Sewa Mandir in a tribal village in Southern Rajasthan. While, reduction in drudgery is statistically significant in one hamlet, it is not significant in the adjacent hamlet. The potential impact on health can be realised only when the water supply intervention is supplemented with sanitation interventions. In addition, for the tank to be sustainable it is necessary to ensure that its source of water is perennial. In addition, community management is instrumental in maintenance of the tank.

The salient features of the tank constructed by Sewa Mandir that can be applied to other interventions include increased citizen partnership in the implementation of interventions. Second, the reforms introduced should be demand driven. Third, the recommendations for improvement of the tank include increasing flexibility in the ‘kind’ of contribution by potential beneficiaries; supplementing construction of tank with other sanitation interventions; and finally making sure that the tank is a sustainable intervention for a sustained impact on the lives of the beneficiaries.

References Geere, Jo-Anne L., Paul R. Hunter, and Paul Jagals. Domestic water carrying and its implications for health: a review and mixed methods pilot study in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Environmental Health 9.1 (2010): 52. Web. 20 January 2015.

Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. E-Book on Rural Drinking Water Programme. 2014. Web. 25 January 2015 <http://indiawater.gov.in/mdws_ebook/ebook.html> Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation. Key Indicators of Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition in India. 2012. Web. 26 January 2015 <http://mospi.nic.in/mospi_new/upload/kye_indi_of_water_Sanitation69rou_24dec13.pdf.> Shaheed, Ameer, et al. Why improved water sources are not always safe?.Bulletin of the World Health Organization 92.4 (2014): 283-289.Web. 28 January 2015.

UNICEF.Water, Environment and Sanitation. Web. 3 February 2015 <http://www.unicef.org/india/wes.html>.

UNICEF. Impact evaluation of drinking water supply and sanitation interventions in rural Mozambique: More than Water. 2011. Web. 1 February 2015 <http://www.unicef.org/evaldatabase/index_61812.html>.

World Bank. Economic Impacts of Inadequate Sanitation in India. Water and Sanitation Program. 2007. Web. 20 January 2015 <http://www.wsp.org/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/WSP-esi-india.pdf>.

World Health Organization. Costs and benefits of water and sanitation improvements at the global level. 2004. Web. 27 January 2015 <www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/wsh0404summary/en/>.

WHO/UNICEF. Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done. 2009. Web. 25 January 2015 <http://

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AUTHORS : ANANYA GOYAL (Miranda House); SHRISHTI SINGH (Jesus and Mary College) Email: srishti.singh1994@gmail.com; goyalananyaa@gmail.com Phone: 8130368528 (Srishti Singh); 8527531271(Ananya Goyal)

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www.unicef.org/health/index_51412.html>.

CONSUMPTION OF FOOD

Introduction Food, the basic necessity of living beings, can be said as the most important thing for the survival of all living species especially humans. When humans eat, they eat with the ‘mind’ as much as with the mouth. We not only eat to satisfy our hunger but also to satisfy our tongue which is tempted by the taste of different items. In this research project I have tried to focus on this consumption of food. Well, the topic ‘food’ is really vast, so I have narrowed it down and focused on the consumption of food in restaurant chains and its linkage with the society or other social aspects.

When we go to eat in restaurant chains with friends, family or anyone else how many of us think there is something social about it!? Very very few and that’s what my research project focuses on. It’s relation with sociology, society, social reasons and social implications etc. From social groups to status symbol, all have an impact and connection with the consumption of food and that’s what my project focuses on.

Aims and Objectives Consumption of food in restaurant chains as a reflection of social behaviour and social relations is my research topic.

When we go and eat in restaurant chains very few of us think about the actual social reasons for our visit, people just go there and eat; not at all thinking that there is something ‘Social’ about going to these restaurant chains and eating there. My research project focuses on the various social reasons and implications related with people who go and eat in these chains. I have tried my very best to bring about the social relations and reasons of visiting these chains and many others social aspect alike.

Sociological Relevance Food, the basic need of humans, is no more limited as a basic need for survival; it has many social connections as well.

There are different ways in which people eat food which differs from society to society. Also, there are many differences in what food people eat; each and every section of the population do not eat the same food, there are various class differences. There is great difference in the place where people eat food, ranging from homes, restaurant chains, streets etc while many people cannot afford to eat food and thus die out of hunger. Consumption of food has become a social and class status, a privilege. All these elements associated with food, itself has a social relevance.

My research topic is “Consumption of food in restaurant chains as reflection of social behavior and social relations”, therefore it focuses on consumption of food in restaurant and the various social relations associated with it. The sociological relevance of my topic is that consumption of food is a privilege, each and every person cannot afford it, and it’s more of a status symbol. In addition, these places are usually visited by individuals along with their friends, family and therefore it adds to the social interaction part in these chains.

Analysis After conducting numerous surveys, I the researcher, have found the following information related to my research topic- “Consumption of food in restaurant chains as a reflection of social behavior and social relations” and the following are my findings:The main aims and objectives of this project was to bring in light the various social reasons, relations and other social aspect related to consumption of food in restaurant chains such as KFC, Domino’s and Pizza Hut.  After the completion of this project, the researcher has found that very few people consciously think about the social reasons for their visit to the restaurant chains. Most of them never think about it which is clearly reflected in the pie chart below.  It has also been found that youths usually tend to go to KFC more in comparison to Pizza hut and Dominos (in Guwahati). While people prefer Dominos over Pizza Hut. Therefore, it seems KFC and Dominos (partially) are sociologically more dominant and preferred by people in Guwahati.  In terms of number of times people visit these restaurant chains monthly, it has been found that most of the people visit these chains less than five times a month.  Another interesting observation among non- working teens/youth who do not earn, is that majority of them does not have fixed pocket money. For eating and socializing they get money whenever they require it from their par91

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ents/guardians, the reason for which is not clearly known.

Half of the people spend more than Rs 500 and less than Rs 1000 per month. While the other half is split between more than Rs 1000 and less than Rs 2000 per month and more than Rs 2000 per month, indicating that they are economically sound enough.

Apart from eating, the majority of people visit the restaurant chains to hang out with friends, to party, for refreshments, get together with peer groups; indicating that these chains have become places to socialize, reflecting various social relations. Nevertheless, there are very few people who go to these chains just to eat, with no emphasis on socializing with known people, though they are socializing with the waiters there and other unknown people alike.

The majority of the people spend around 1-2 hours at the most, while socializing i.e. enjoying with friends, partying etc.

It has been found that the majority of the people visit these chains with ‘friends and or companions of the same age group’. The reason for which they state is that friends have the same mind set as theirs, they can easily get along with friends, talk about things which they cannot talk with their family; another indicator of social relations as ‘friends’ or ‘peer groups’ are who are part of primary social group and therefore, going and eating with them itself is a sociological activity. Also, there is a minority who come to these chains with their family as they feel better with them.

The majority, when asked why they prefer a fast food restaurant chain to meet their friends, companions or family stated that the food is delicious (with respect to the restaurant chains chosen by different subjects), the ambience is great, the food is delivered fast (indicating lack of ample time), and they like the food of these chains (with respect to the chains chosen by different subjects), brand equity and comfort are also a few reasons.

Almost everybody feel that eating in these chains have negative implications on their body. When asked “Why are you still eating in these chains in spite of knowing it has negative implications on your health?”, different people gave different responses; ranging from “I cannot resist my temptation, hook or crook taste matters” to “ My body is used to it, I don’t think it will hamper me anymore”. Few people had a general argument that there should be balanced consumption in these chains, anything too much is bad, and so there should be a limited consumption, so that it does not hamper one’s health and body to a great extent.

When asked “Do you think status symbol or class status is associated with eating in these restaurant chains?” the majority did not agree. They said that they never show off about eating in these chains, they do not think status symbol or class status is associated. In spite of spending more than Rs 500 to more than Rs 2000 a month, still most think no status symbol is associated. On the other hand, there exist a small minority of people who actually think that status symbol or class status is associated with eating in these establishments. They put forward that“We don’t see everybody visiting the restaurant chains, we see people mainly from the upper class and upper middle class, not a rickshaw puller, truck driver or a Below Poverty Line person. Therefore, status symbol and or class status is definitely associated”. As status symbol and or class status is associated, it is another indicator of the social relations regarding visit to these restaurant chains.

Almost half of the people stated that both eating food and meeting people is important for them in these restaurant chains, indicating socialization and various other social aspects. There were people who stated that both eating food and meeting people is important, while very few said that eating food was their main purpose of visit.

More than half of the people prefer ‘home food’ over ‘fast food’, stating that it is healthy, is tasty, is more hygienic and the food cooked by one’s mother is the best; indicating sustenance of home food in spite of the big domination by fast food. No matter what, they say home food is the best.

A majority of the people visit the restaurant chains during the evening, maybe because the morning and afternoon are working hours and so evening is preferred for the leisure.

Different people had different viewpoints regarding other people visiting these chains, few had no such opinions, others said it is completely others preference; few brought in the health issue and said that other people should also have balanced consumption. No individual brought in the political issue or the economic or the social issues related to other people visiting these chains and their social implications, as the rich are becoming richer, spending more than Rs 2000 per month on these restaurant chains while the majority of the population cannot even afford to visit these restaurant chains.

When asked “Do you think consumption of food is no more what it used to be, has there been a change?”, every92

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body agreed to it, though different people had different answers. Few said that nowadays people have less time to eat; they care less about their health, so they prefer fast food more, which is quick and cheap. Another said that the consumption of food is now a status symbol, generally what people eat, cannot be eaten by all. It is a privilege.

Another said that earlier people used to eat to fill up their stomach, now it’s for taste and all this is because of globalization.

Very few people before responding to my questions had the idea/knowledge that going and eating in these restaurant chains has some social relations and reasons. While the majority of them had no idea or never thought about it. They said - “I just go there and eat, nothing social I see”

Limitations When there is a will, there is a way. I too had the will to complete this research project and so I did find a way to complete it; but I too, like many other researchers faced many obstacles and limitations, some which are: As my field was restaurant chains across Guwhati, therefore the people eating did not cooperate with me that much as they may not want to sacrifice their food time to answer my questions.  Few people weren’t sure of their answers and therefore their answers were not valid and so those respondents were cancelled out.  Many working people felt uneasy at giving their monthly income.  The lady respondents to my questions weren’t that cooperative and answered hesitantly.

Conclusion After the completion of my research project, I have acquired a great deal of empirical evidence to proof that ‘there are social

relations, social reasons and various other social aspects related to people who go to various restaurant chains and eat there’.

Therefore, the following conclusions can be drawn Only a few think about the social reasons for their visit to the restaurant chains.  Individuals of every gender visit these chains.  Apart from eating, the other reasons for visiting these chains were to hang out, for enjoying, for refreshment, to party, to meet friends and, i.e. basically to socialize. Though few do visit these chains just to eat.  Majority of the people visit these chains with friends/companions of the same age group as they feel more comfortable with them. Though few do visit the restaurant chains with their family as well.  The reasons for visiting the chains with their respective companion(s) was somewhat common amongst all as they put forward that they visit these chains because of the taste and quality of the food, ambience and also because of brand equity and comfort.  In spite of knowing and even stating that eating in these chains has negative effects on their health, different people put forward different reasons for their visits. Some said they are accustomed to it, others said that there must be balanced and limited consumption.  Most of the people did not agree that status symbol and class status is associated with eating these restaurant chains; while a minority agreed to it.  The majority of the people put forward that meeting people was more important for them, while few said that both eating food and meeting people was important and very few put forward that eating food was the main reason for their visit.  Everyone agreed that the consumption of food is no more what it used to be, there has been a great change.  Very few people actually thought about the social reasons and implications related to visiting these chains; the majority did know that there is something ‘social’ about going to these establishments before responding to my questions.

This is MANISH SHEKHAR DAS GUPTA, currently pursuing B.A. at Ramnarain Ruia College.

I'm fascinated by books, The Beatles, football, time and the uncertainties of life. Mail me at manishshekhardasgupta@gmail.com

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COMMUNITY CURRENCY – WORGL EXPERIMENT “Pecuniam Habens Habet Omnem Rem Quem Vult Habere” “ONE WHO HAS MONEY HAS ALL HE WANTS” INTRODUCTION: Before endeavouring to commit our intellectual faculties to the lofty enterprise of comprehending community currency systems, which is but an adjunct of our monetary system, I would like to sincerely venture forth the modus operandi and suggest that we first encumber and dispose ourselves towards the procurement of a succinct and brief elucidation of money and its functions.

According to the Oxford dictionary money has been defined as “a medium of exchange in the form of coins and bank notes”. Now money is entrusted and invested with the performance of the following functions:Medium Of Financial Exchange Legal tender for the repayment of debt Standard of value Unit of accounting measure Means to save or store purchasing power Central Bank and Its Functions:The central bank of an economy is emblematic of a nucleus as for as the economy is concerned, since it is the director, regulator, controller, supervisor and manger of all the financial institutions and their activities, varying from issuance of subtle declarations to symbolic measures, or by effectuation of conspicuous initiatives, delineating the quantity of money supply as well as the orientation of the money by exercise of measures which can be broadly classified as quantitative and qualitative measures.

Part I Trade Cycles:Now, another theory of consideration is that of Robert Lucas which aptly and concisely states: “Trade cycles are caused by unanticipated changes in aggregate demand”. It is as precise and as simple as a definition can be. It means that if expected is higher than aggregate demand then there is excess capacity and receipts below our over blown expectations and demand expected is lower than aggregate demand then due to scarcity of the goods the prices rise and thus the revenues are higher than our estimates.

When one takes the liberty of combining the monetarist and rational expectation theory we get a more appropriate view on the formation of bubbles. The process is briefly described below.

Firstly in an economy majority of sectors have inherent tendency to overestimate their future profits and revenues making them expand their capacities and thus they end up borrowing more These estimates are however recurrently belied and thus lowered over time with ensuing adjustments and restructuring done by the company to even survive.

The Central Bank instead of analysing and presenting to the companies the truth of reality about their overly tinted and optimistic views as being flawed instead starts to witness the economy from the same jaundiced prism as others and thus ends up supporting those forecasts with its array of instruments under its disposal of both qualitative and quantitative nature for expansion of those industries instead of rationally and prudently intervening to prevent the building up expectations in the market and thus we have an economy where the central bank reinforces complaisantly the creation of needless growth leading to depression.

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The diagram above explains in a condensed format the process and mechanism behind any recession or downturns occuring in an economy with the positive and negative feedback effects,those effects which have a immediate effect on some other factor(s) ,set in motion by an initial event(an unanticipated and sudden exaceberation in any of the parameters central to the economy) resulting in a rapid decline in all the parameters from bonds to capital markets to exports to consumption to production and so on and so forth. Positive feedback effects are directly correlated to other factors and negative feedback effects have inverse or countermanding effects on other factors.

Now a recurrent feature of all the trade cycles is when the economy in general is prosperous and inflationary, the central bank steps in to prevent an occurrence of bubble but if it faults in commissioning such measures of countercyclical natures, the economy finding money superfluously avialble at low rates in considerate of the long terms risk and only considerate of short term gains resulting in all sectors growing tremendously but once the bubble busts as a quote goes “fear and euphoria are the dominant forces, when the fear strikes it is many multiples the size of euphoria and everything melts down rapidly”. Then the money is entirely desiccated from the economy due to liquidation and payment of debts this results in drastic reduction of credit available in the society, prices, employment, output, trade, etc. Most essential however is the fact that since output is dependent on trade, trade dependent on money and money on credit a contraction in credit results in realisation of two possibilities broadly speaking :The central bank does not enact expansionary or countercyclical measures.

The central bank has enacted countercyclical measures are notoriously ineffective, because of either liquidity trap – minimal demand for money despite low rates of interest because of postponement of purchases or aversion to borrowings postofacto depression, paucity of financial institutions(because they are themselves bankrupted and severely affected and thus are closed or in case of developing economies there are great dearth of financial institutions in the first place that is limited reach) , or reluctance on part of banks because of provisioning for stressed assets during or after the recession or excessive caution ex posto facto,which can be characterised as transmission problem originating traditionally from banks leading to constrained credit creation or distribution.

We fortunately are living in era where the central banks(of Japan,European Union,U.S.A) do act and therefore want to pursue that course of action which would absolve them of absolutely any blame by the posterity of needless parsimony and thus further instigating and worsening the crisis by insouciance and indifference and so they have utilised every weapon in their arsenal and indeed having exhausted the conventional intruments went ahead and overexceeding their assigned insruments under their purview(ZIRPs,QEs,etc) by using every policy instrument imaginable short of actual distriution of money.However most disappointingly these measures are puzzlingly futile and reinnforcing the belief that income growth is entirely dependent on productivity growth which is regressing, in fact and thus denying the use of monetary methods to arouse a dead horse(global economy).This elicits a abounding and ceaseless solicitation for any eminently workable method leading to the preparation monograph which attempts to carry out an edifying examination and analysis into the subject matter of alternative methods of awakening a slumberous macroeconomy by expounding on the efficacy of introducing community or demurrage based currencies among which Worgl(a backed community currency), was a pioneer, and a paradigm of success demonstrative of the wonders of which money allied with liquidity can exhibit Backed commmunity currency systems[BCCs]:The correct application of stamp scrips(i.e. backed currency) Would certainly solve the depression crises within three weeks!

-Irving Fisher in 1933 A] History:- SIilvio Gesell a merchant cum economist with laissez faire theories faded into obscurity after publishing Natural economic order(1929) had first envisioned BCCs. The most essential, practical and distinctive characteristic of BCC was the concept of demurrage which if defined as it is in its original sense would mean-“A charge payable to the owner of a chartered ship on failure to 95

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load or discharge the ship on the predetermined time.”,thus coming to mean in the most simplest sense the cost for keeping something beyond the premediated time.However what is interesting to afford our consideration is that once this concept is extended to money it means money in the form of stamps which would be subject to a certain amount of penalty or cost proportionate to the amount of money(stamp) held.

Now theoretically speaking the classical quantity theory of money postulates that national income is the product of money supply and velocity equalling price level and total output,which symbolically expressed is:NI=Y*P=M*V Where, NI=National Income, Y=Quantity of output produced P=Price level M=Money supply V=Velocity of money.

Now in a depressed economy where money is meagre,sales enfeebled,trade reduced to bare minimum and employees are few the prices are lowered by the companies most affected at the beginning of the downturn which would result in many industries of that sector being downsized,restructured,or worse closed due to bankruptcy and liquidation subsequently,which will have a cascading effect on demand for other sectors which too will try boosting demand by various marketing measures with little effect resulting in closures in other sectors as well(generally they are from the luxury goods category) and the recurrent reiteration of this effect on the economy will drain and demolish the economy of all but its most vital sectors(which too are propped up by the government by subsidies,eg-agriculture,mining,etc in case of developing nations).In these straitened circumstances money is spent as little as possible thus further reinforcing and deepening the recession.

But now assuming that we charge demurrage then the velocity of money or the number of transactions that ensue per year increases manifold induced by the fear of having to pay the demurrage in the form of purchasing stamps amounting to a certain percentage of the money held or have the stamps reduced into worthless paper,which in turn has twofold effect on the economy:1)It releases the money which would otherwise be hoarded or saved into the market creating demand and accelerating thus recovery.

2)The increase in velocity stimulates many times the demand the normal currency would have because of the sheer volume of the number of transactions occuring within the economy and as we have seen earlier if there is rise in money or velocity there would be analogous increase in either price level or output produced.Now since in a depressed economy there can be no possibility of lots of money chasing few goods because the decline in the quantity of money is what has caused the depression in the first place means an increase in velocity,note not in money supply because the stamps have simply replaced the already scarce ordinary money and so it will only effectuate one outcome which is lucidly produced below. ↑V*M=↑Y*P→ ↑NI Thus the introduction of stamps pave way for increase in income and eventual increase in inflation thus reflating the economy to normalcy and stability.

Part III Worgl Experiment “The thinker dies but the thoughts are beyond the reach of destruction Men are mortal but thoughts are immortal” -Richard Adams The same could be said of Gesell and his theories they acquired flesh and blood long after his existence and still continue to cast their splendor on our society.His ideas in those times had fixated and found residence in the minds of a gentleman in a small town who expended his time, money and energy in its creation and challenged the conventional beliefs and astonished us by readily confronting and vindicating the oft empirically validated truth that, during times of crises how insignificant and trivial amounts of money can revitalize and extend the lifespan of that economy time and again.

Worgl Miracle:Wörgl is a small town. Its population had increased from 648 in 1900 to 4427 just after the war. Michael Unterguggenberger was elected town councilor. Soon he became deputy mayor and in 1931 mayor. The stable prices of the late 1920s had made possible the building of the courthouse road, of the secondary school, as well as supplying Wörgl with piped water and electric power.

This lasted until 1929. Then came Black Friday, the baneful 24th October 1929: the Great Crash and then night over Europe. Up until 1951 we are suffering the consequences of that crisis, which expanding the Wörgl experiment could have ended immediately.

Even before the "Money" reached the hands of the welfare subcommittee, the Austrian National Bank protested, claiming that 96

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money was being printed, thereby violating the banknote issuing privilege of the National Bank in Vienna. The mayor answered that the Bills were not money - only certificates of work done. But he smiled as he said that, for he knew that no sooner the term "money" appeared in the argument than all sorts of theoreticians would enter the fray, never coming to an agreement as to what "money" is, and as to whether these Certified Compensation Bills were money or not. But until that was settled the controversial Bills would circulate. And so it happened.

On the 31st of July 1932 the town administration purchased the first lot of Bills from the Welfare Subcommittee for a total face value of 1000 Schillings and used them to pay wages. The 1000 Schilling official money paid to the Welfare for the Bills were deposited at the local "Reiffeisenkasse". The town treasury was thus ready to issue the Bills, which could be exchanged at the local bank at the rate established by the program. Within three days the money that the worgl government received was worth 5100 shillings just by the dint of its superior velocity. The government employees were paid with scrips just comprising of 50% of their wages while the wages of hired workers composed entirely of scrips. The money within circulation was low because within the payment of their wages the since they immediately disposed off their scrips for goods and tax payments and arrears. This happened in the inception of scrips however once the grocers had paid their taxes the scrips started to circulate upwards to the producers of Worgl yet the total amount of money within circulation was low until the factory owners acquiesced to paying in scrips as well creating a tight network effect where the retailers had to work with absolute faith in the economy since this section was considered to be capricious and their misdirected efforts could maim and undermine the currency

By March 1933 the following public works were instituted:Swimming pool Roads built and asphalted with total length of 4 miles.

Repairing and improvement of sewage Construction of a ski jump Bridge with length of 100 meters constructed Many houses built Reservoir for water storage Twelve roads improved Now the astute mayor controlled inflation by means of keeping the value of scrips at par with that of Austrian shillings by reducing the amount within circulation so much so that the facts state that after the deposition of 40000 Austrian shillings in the local bank to give the scrips adequate backing only 32000 were minted out of which the mayor prudently issued only 12000 and only 8000 are said to be in circulation because of the supposed preservation of 4000 scrips as rarities thus was inflation controlled ,without these actions however it ran a risk of runaway inflation quite naturally. The velocities of these scrips at their most conservative estimates show a velocity of money equal to 416!The Austrian shillings on the other hand had a rate of circulation or velocity

of just 8 per year. However it was removed by court order two years later by which time it had been adopted by 200 villages in Austria Conclusion:Encapsulating from where I had started I would restate my position by recalling to your attention the sturdy truth that has held true since times immemorial “pecuniam habens habet omnem rem quem vult habere” which translates as “One who has money has all he wants” and thus implying conversely that one who doesn’t have money doesn’t have anything. Thus if one has money then and only then can production, growth, stability and efficiency be achieved. CCS may be the palliative for any depressed economy and if we can legally disallow and prevent the purchase of gold, land and other assets using the CCS we can further prevent the building up of a property bubble or bubble in the market. Also notable is its concentration in the developed parts of the world leading me to wonder of the introduction and application of such mechanisms in developing nations say India or the nations from the bottom billion (the least developed nations with a cumulative population of 1000 million living on less than 0.85 dollars) where there is a profusion of pockets with stunted growth or even entire nations isolated from proper money supply and its allocation due to one or the other reason and ruminating over the opportunities lost by mankind by such obstinate non-implementation and avoidance of such enriching systems makes me immeasurably sad seeing the present for what it is-A world where just a billion and half derive access to basic amenities and facilities and so cogitating upon the loss for collective humanity effected by the non inclusion and unused manpower of the other five billion, existing, yet only to be squandered upon attainment of primary objectives and needs ,worse is that we people, despite having the means to uplift and alleviate them all are impotent or indifferent to their plight; only serves to proselytize the most optimistic gentleman into a remorseful diehard cynic about the future of mankind and even leading him to question the sustainability of such a world ; for how long will it take for a Hitler-like dictatorial character or a inconsiderate totalitarian nation to take advantage of etiolated monetary system in many other nations where the people will be receptive to host such autocrats and thus embracing destruction only to stop after the occurrence of a Gotterdammerung eerily similar to what Hitler was capable to achieving in Germany post 1931 when depression was raging and by the providential revocation and absence of a Wara(first BCC) in Germany and Stamp Scrip in 97

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Austria to be able to cause another destructive world war reminding me of an anecdote by Albert Einstein –“I don’t know with what weapons world war III will be fought however I know that world war IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”.However humanity has demonstrated a strange condition to come out with flying colours; sustaining hope despite all round disenchantment so there`s always case to be made for a better tomorrow.

A wonderful case in point being repo rate, since only 1% of commercial banks borrow from federal bank, yet all the commercial banks align their interest rates more or less to the repo rate of central bank. http://www.dinodudes.com/ken/ Here in this diagram the dotted lines represent negative feedback and straight red lines indicate positive feedbacks.

I am AJAYANAND CHARI studying SYBA in Ruia college with specific inclination and predilection towards developmental economics and the highly intriguing unpredictable phenomena of booms and busts interest me.

To Read and What To Read?

How does your typical morning begin? A cup of garam-garam chai in one hand and a folded newspaper in the other marks the perfect beginning of a new day. Who doesn’t love munching on the latest gossips, market trends, scams and two Marie biscuits? An activity as routine as reading newspapers can become challenging if you aren’t sure which newspaper to trust, which one should be your go-to and which one is full of publicity stunts. Being the widely criticized ‘aaj-kal ke bacche’, it is important for us, as a generation, to be fairly well-informed about current events and situations. This calls for a decent understanding of which newspapers sell what, so you can subscribe to one without any guilt according to your liking. Which is why, we have here a comparative analysis of the leading English newspapers in India.

The Hindu To the teenager who is just going to start reading newspapers, trust me this is a secular newspaper and it is the best one out there if you’re looking for facts and an abundance of information. For anyone majoring in Political Science or preparing for UPSC exam, The Hindu is a musthave. It is well-updated with current affairs, has highly professional and well-written editorials and is relatively less-filled with celebrity gossips.

The Times of India If we can ignore the fact that this was the newspaper responsible for the Deepika Padukone scandal, one can objectively judge this newspaper to have a long history of reliable and respectable information. The data is well-presented in articles and pictures. Someone looking for Bollywood mirch-masala can bank on the Bombay Times section of this paper. For the Comic enthusiast, there is a variety of fun and colorful comics occupying one whole page of this newspaper. One drawback is that there are too many advertisements and it compulsorily charges more for the Mumbai Mirror tabloid.

DNA (Daily News & Analysis) The DNA is very comfortable to read if you’re someone who does not like much of glitz and glamour. It has precise information, less advertisements and very clean arrangement and presentation of information. It is known for digging out shady social issues and scams. ‘Irregular by Manjul’ is a cartoon featured daily on the front page and is usually very clever and funny. The DNA Afterhrs has great fashion advice for the fashion fanatics out there.

The Indian Express If you’re the guy who skips ten pages straight to read the Sports section, this is the paper for you. It has lots of news articles and pictures. The newspaper is self sufficient and provides all-round coverage of national information. It has separate northern and southern sections. The Sunday Express has its own standing in the world of newspapers and is something Indian Express readers eagerly look forward to.

Hindustan Times One major flaw in this newspaper is the fairly recent ‘Plus One’ page that hides half the front page, cannot be folded along with the rest of the paper and is just a general frustration. Apart from that, it has very good information on gadgets and gizmos, a section that has regularly updates.

I can hear the Tech-Geeks drooling (wink). News reports are factual and well grounded. The HT café section, although well-updated with the glitterati, is full of meaningless and long advertisements. The Comics section is an average one as they put up only one strip of Calvin and Hobbes every day. However, the Brunch, launched every Sunday is absorbing and full of interesting people and articles.

Hope this analysis helps you to make the right choice of newspapers and soon you find yourself welcoming the pleasure of reading one daily.

SAEE PATKAR "I am a lively seventeen year old, studying in Ruia, with a passion for writing. I enjoy coffee, Harry Potter, German definite articles and conversations that make me think. Do feel free to drop me an email at saeepatkar@gmail.com"

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CREDITS

EDITORIAL TEAM: ADITYA JANGLE ANAND BENEGAL APURVA TUDEKAR MANISH DAS GUPTA MOKSHDA KAUL PURNIMA M. NAIR VASUDHA RAMAKRISHNA YASHIKA DOSHI DESIGN: TANEESHA IYANGAR INFOGRAPHICS DATA: ADITYA SHARMA

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