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When a country faces excessive restrictions on the civil liberties of its young population, it is nothing but bullying by older lawmakers. A sign of mistrust in the integrity of the young reflects bad on own actions.
Recently trending in India is the rise of the “Anti-Romeo” squads. Instead of stopping eve teasing, a bunch of cops are empowered to harass the general public. Roaming around to pick on mixed sex groups, moral policing on free will.
It is never a great idea to let people act without a code of conduct. Cops free from a code of conduct will of course abuse it. Not trusting the Integrity of Indian youth is what leads to such drastic measures.
By restricting interaction between the sexes, such a draconian practice hinders economic development. It is like spitting on the face of the idea that boys and girls can be just friends. Why shouldn’t women have the authority to make friends with men?
Nothing can be more insulting to women empowerment. Minimizing contact between the genders is forcing the young of both the sexes to live in ignorance. The women unfortunately will be more affected as they will face the brunt of the new curfew. Maybe the “Elders” feel that the children need to study rather than get distracted.
For these older Indians, this is what I have to say.
I used to binge drink alcohol in India in the weekends because of high utility and limited availability. Whereas in Italy, in-spite of having bottles lying around my house, I haven’t had a proper drink for more than a month. Not like I do not drink in Italy, I just drink less.
Have more important things to worry about than how to find alcohol and waste away my evening.
Hope you understand my feelings on this issue. Your actions are counterproductive if not a waste of limited police forces.
Adding hassles is not the best strategy to control our country’s population. Instead, we need to facilitate learning from across the spectrum. So that they develop a broad mind capable of accepting new ideas. Giving them more flexibility to achieve greatness should be our role. Instead we treat our young like cattle herd.
Think about it, if we Indians treated our animals better we would treat each other much better.
Recently, I saw a video on NDTV of some forest officials in India bring a loose tiger down by smashing it with an earth mover. The Jugaad in this example cannot be applied to the future of our children.
Young Indians need to be smarter, productive, prosperous and happy. Any approach of governance that promises greatness by authoritativeness ignoring the above will not go far.
Fascism will lead to many of the privileged leaving the country. There are better solutions available in governance. Like how in Delhi, the AAP government is striving to educate all of its masses.
By doing this, they are empowering women by creating a more educated environment. You will need lesser wild cops hitting the streets to control a mob when everyone is educated. Any protests would take to the social media or the Internet instead.
Thinking about it, Is this just a part of encouraging digital India?
I mean for every force there is an equal and opposite reaction. Restricting physical interaction will only boost digital interaction among the masses.
Maybe our “Elders” feel that the Indian youth should develop a more platonic relationship based on extensive communication digitally. A relationship with more depth than the wildest imaginations of our Bollywood films.
They might have thought, if the youth wants to flirt, let them do it digitally.
Digital India is a big project. The more I think about it the more excited I get.
The possibilities of my Blog being read by a much bigger Indian market in a few years is high. India can become the country with the most people on-line if everything goes well.
Something that goes viral and also encourages the masses to use the Internet more. And Oh Boy, our government does deliver in creating viral content. So often, that I am now convinced that its all done on purpose.
The script is quasi-fascism. As everyone loves stories of Hitler and Mussolini.
The logic here is:
First they enjoy the Internet, then they use it to do useful stuff, then they start creating content for the Internet.
Young India is under a big game plan. Most possibly in their best interests by some parameters. But by some other metrics, not very much so.
Everyone has a tough job and life is tough. Life is tough every where. In every country the cleaner the road, the more the taxes you pay for it. Life will never get easy if we do nothing and just wait for charity.
Nobody is going to take care of you. You may get lucky with the Universal Basic Income (UBI), but it really won’t be much. You will of course need to do more to live a decent life.
The only way you can ensure your happiness is by acting on it by yourself. You need to catch life by its two horns and wrestle it down to win.
Easier said than done. Life isn’t a y= mx, where m is a high positive number. It is more like the price time charts of stocks.
Based on how you live your life, you can be a high dividend paying blue chip or a zero dividend paying penny stock.
By dividend paying, I refer to the act of returning back to those who have invested in you. Parents, family and good friends tend to be the Promoters in your Life – Stocks analogy.
Not wanting to get carried away from the topic, do read my insightful piece on stock investing.
The point I am trying to make here is that just like the average stock price having its ups and downs every day, your life too faces similar hurdles and opportunities.
Just like a multi bagger stock, you will need to invest in yourself appropriately to heap big returns in the future. As a young Indian, your biggest resource is time. Just like most stocks, with time your gains get compounded to grow exponentially.
At a young age, you may fail to see the returns of your hard work. But with time, over the years the experience you gain gets compounded to give bigger returns.
Present hurdles in civil liberties in India can be a real pain in the @$$. Nonetheless, it is every man for themselves. If with patience and determination, you invest enough time productively you will see big returns over time. An opportunity to live the better life you have been deprived off.
Remember the key to a better life is to add value in society. The more value you add, the better you get at it.
If you have helped 10 people with a task for free, you are now an expert and can charge the 11th person a hefty fee for your expert service.
So don’t worry if nobody is looking, Integrity is not just a respected attribute. It is the smart thing to do. The lesser you copy in your exams, the more you have learned.
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Here is a topic I have never cared enough to research in my life. Putting my trust on the government to provide best for me, I have left these discussions to the experts like these guys on this NDTV debate. Not any more I said, as I finished watching that confusion among the participants. So I decided to dig deeper like most Indians by finding a more global debate on Genetically Modified Organisms or GMO. The complexities of the GMO debate requires thorough understanding of the needs of the stakeholders.
The stake holders in this debate revolve around the big GMO companies and the poor farmers. To establish a regular supply chain with farmers subscribing to these seeds, profitability for all stake holders is crucial. Unfortunately, in the real world, it is every man for himself. The plight of the poor farmers needs better understanding.
The changing dynamics of using GMO has motivated many Indian farmers to shift to cash crop cultivation. Only problem with cash crops cultivation is that it all draws down to the future price of your harvest.
If you are not the only one with the jackpot idea, you will be forced to sell cheap. Many farmers hope to make big profits in an unpredictable market which requires a higher fixed cost for purchase of seeds. Reuse of seeds is unfortunately not possible with GMO.
Many get caught in the rat race and do what everyone else around is doing. Ignoring cultivation of basic essential food in an organic environment can prove to be a big error. Indian farmers are prone to take high risks relying a lot on yearly rains.
Due to lack of proper guidance and assistance, many farmers ignore a risk free approach to farming. Holding smaller lands and urgently requiring funds for social obligations, the farmer becomes a risk taker.
My grand parents are farmers and I am a stock Investor. They advice me to work hard. My only farming advice to them is to diversify. Growing organic can actually lead to better sales in todays Bio age.
Unfortunately, when the farmer suffers due to improper planning, the instant blame goes to the big GMO corporations. GMO companies should invest more in maintaining a sustainable business.
As a former sales executive, I have always profited from speaking more with my customers and clients. Understanding the problems with farmers adapting to GMO and encouraging a product mix of both GM and Organic crops is beneficial and sustainable. It also provides the Indian consumer with a choice in purchasing both cheaper GMO food and expensive Organic food.
Looking at each GMO on a case by case basis is important. The government should also ensure an optimal mix of agricultural output by boosting logistics and irrigation in an efficient manner. Enabling the use of technology to map farming activity and providing real time data would help keep track on what farm output to expect and when to expect it, enabling a better forecast of prices.
While the monopoly of seeds in developing countries is not encouraged, discouraging GMO in India will have adverse effects.
Before we jump in on conclusions let us examine the Pros & Cons researched upon on this eluding never ending debate that grapples nations around the world, to bring in some expert layman conclusions.
To conclude from the above points, use of GMO in a country like India can help provide minimum nutrition to our masses, while boosting the entire agriculture industry with increased investments from big players. The consumers in India are informed of the risks. They would also be provided with the alternative higher priced organic product grown by small farmers.
Growing an organic alternative will not only sustain own family, but also add value in the market full of GMO. Organic crops can always be marketed as natural and free from genetic modification.
Though a steam engine was never an environmental friendly invention, it evolved in to electric trains. Today they can run entirely on solar and wind energy. I believe that Genetically Modified Organisms needs further research and attention. Regulated usage would ensure basic food availability across India.
Regulation can encompass some of the government’s responsibilities by encouraging CSR. GMO companies should work along with the farmers for a common goal of boosting local agriculture and environment.
Moreover, agriculture is a great flexible business that can promote tourism and education. GMO companies need to be encouraged to build long term commitments with their consumers. If they wish to profit, it has to be sustainable. Since traces of GMO may remain in the soil, a big seed company should be monitored for environmental accountability. A truly sustainable method would ensure efficient monitoring of crops, consumers and environment.
Overall, I see the case of GMO in India as an opportunity for us to further explore the possibilities of eliminating world hunger and environmental problems. The solution is incomplete like the solution to every problem in the world. While we may worry about the peculiarities of GMO in our food, we could highly benefit as a nation with massive forest cover from GMO that could cater to our oxygen and fossil fuel needs. [4]
Let us look at the GMO debate as a glass half full of water and half full of air.
[1]: http://www.livestrong.com/
[2]: https://www.quora.com
[3] http://flowpsychology.com/12-pros-and-cons-of-genetically-modified-foods/
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/nov/15/gm-trees-bred-world-energy
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2016 was a rough year for Indian equities, with Currency Demonetization, Fed rate hike, Trump presidency, Brexit, year end stabilization of crude oil prices happening all at once, causing massive FII outflows from the Indian stock market. Fortunately 2017 saw big returns and my multi bagger stocks have risen.
The year saw a good recovery from the Sensex, but a good part of that recovery was destroyed in the year end. Sensex saw over all a good 500 points rise. Simple math will show this impressive number to be nothing more than a 1.8% rise ((26642-26161)/(26161)=1.8%).
Updating my blog in 2017, I can reiterate the fact that diversification is the way to invest in the stock markets. Seeking to make a killing with a few big picks may not always work upon your convenience. You never know when the stock will rise. Just like fishing, it is important to stay patient.
My own portfolio did not fare too well in 2016. Also because I did a little big value investing towards the end of the year between August-October. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much capital to invest in March when the markets really bottomed out. I still made some good picks capitalizing on some well thought ideas.
Check my best performing stocks out and I will later explain my rationale in buying them.
Thats it for my top stock picks for 2016. These were just the best performing stocks of 2016 and I am sure to find a new list of top performers next year. The important thing is to go for the big long term gains from fundamentally strong companies. One year is often too short to judge a company’s future performance.
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