Barackface: Manmohan Singh

Showing posts with label Manmohan Singh. Show all posts

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Modi's Night

a state poll that has taken on the flavor of a national referendum. ..... he will cement his position as India's leading opposition politician and its top contender to succeed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ..... Modi is the messiah who will rid Indian politics of sloth, corruption, and petty identity politics. With his no-nonsense management style and inspirational leadership, only he can deliver the economic development Indians crave ..... For his equally vocal detractors, Modi is forever tarred by anti-Muslim riots that occurred 10 years ago ..... his reputation as the country's best economic administrator and most business-friendly politician .... the chief minister is that rarest of creatures in India: a politician more interested in public service than in pelf or promoting his progeny. .... In a land swaddled with red tape, Modi is seen as a go-getter. In a culture of inherited privilege -- where politicians tend to hand down power to their children like a family heirloom -- the chief minister comes from humble stock and has risen through dint of effort. He began his career helping an uncle run a railway-station tea stall in his hometown and then worked his way up the ranks of the Hindu-nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps) and its sister organization, the BJP, before being catapulted to the chief minister's job in 2001. .... He's one of India's few politicians -- Singh is another -- whose declaration of a meager net worth (about $245,000) doesn't evoke guffaws of disbelief. .... The state has averaged double-digit growth rates over much of Modi's 11-year rule. With only 5 percent of India's population, last year Gujarat accounted for 16 percent of the country's manufacturing and 22 percent of its exports. The Economist calls it India's Guangdong. .... While much of India continues to suffer from potholed roads and daily brownouts, Gujarat offers investors modern highways and a reliable power supply. Many of India's tycoons have lavished praise on Modi for running an administration responsive to their needs. In 2008, Modi famously persuaded Ratan Tata to build the Nano, the world's cheapest car, in Gujarat after Tata Motors ran into land-acquisition troubles in West Bengal. Every two years, Indian and global businesses line up at the Vibrant Gujarat summit to pledge billions of dollars to the state in India's most high-profile investor gathering. Foreign companies that have set up shop in Gujarat under Modi, or announced plans to do so, include Abbott, Bombardier, Ford, Peugeot, and Suzuki. ....... a strong following among the pan-Indian middle class and the Indian diaspora. A poll by India Today this year declared Modi the country's top pick for prime minister: 24 percent of respondents chose him, compared to 17 percent who preferred Rahul Gandhi. ...... Traffic at a Google Plus "hangout" featuring Modi in August reportedly crashed the website's servers. Many of Modi's most fervent supporters are hypernationalists who seem to view opposition to him as unpatriotic. ..... garnered the third-most votes worldwide in Time magazine's annual poll to help choose the "100 most influential people" in the world. But though 256,828 people plumped for Modi -- about 10 times the number who picked U.S. President Barack Obama -- even more (266,739 people) gave the chief minister a thumbs-down. ..... For his part, Modi stoutly denies any wrongdoing and says he should be hanged if found guilty. In April, an investigation ordered by the Supreme Court cleared him of culpability for the riots ..... while Gujarat has grown fast, other states have grown faster still .... Most states that have grown faster than Gujarat either are much smaller or are starting from a much lower base. ..... No other Indian chief minister stands up publicly for the idea of small government, fiscal responsibility, getting the government out of business, and providing people jobs rather than handouts. ..... Narendra Modi may well be India's best chief minister. But he'd still make a terrible choice for prime minister.

Gujarat's economy: India's Guangdong

So many things work properly in Gujarat that it hardly feels like India..... There is constant electricity, gas and abundant water. The state government, he says, kept red tape to a minimum, did not ask for bribes, and does not interfere much now. .... Most of the men, the villagers say, work for small industrial firms for a wage about 50% higher than they would get in the fields. The road to Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city, is privately operated and boasts four lanes. It passes through a countryside that is visibly industrialising. ...... It might yet play the role of industrial locomotive for the country, as Guangdong province did for China in the 1990s. There is lots of excited talk about exporters switching from China to India. Sanjay Lalbhai, the chairman of Arvind, a textiles maker and clothing retailer based in Ahmedabad, says such a move is "imminent" in his industry. ..... The state government uses the usual tricks to try to jump-start growth, including special economic zones. ..... less onerous labour laws, passable roads, reliable electricity and effective bureaucracy. ...... Gujarat could be a vision of India's future, in which manufacturing flourishes, soaking up rural labour. Its economy is expected to grow by double digits, even as India's rate slows to 7-8% this year. The state may also be a springboard for Mr Modi, who may contest the national leadership of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party

Modi to plan BJP’s 2014 battle from CM office

there is buzz in the party’s central office about how to leverage the man who has emerged the most important figure in the party gallery. There is also ambivalence about Modi on the way to become numero uno in the party. ..... The BJP enthusiasts of Modi feel that the Gujarat strongman will make mincemeat of the Gandhi scion in a duel between the two. ..... the choice of making Modi the campaign committee chairman. ..... Asked as to who would replace Modi in Gujarat and who is the second most important person in the state BJP, the reticent office-bearer said that there is no second man in the state party hierarchy, and that Modi occupies all the slots from “1 to 1001”. Modi will not leave his chief minister’s office in Gandhinagar until after victory in the Lok Sabha election. It is for this reason that there is talk of giving him a role in the poll campaign without disturbing the set-up either in Gandhinagar or in New Delhi.

88 per cent of 35,808 India Today website survey users LIKE Modi

Out of the nearly 35,808 votes polled till 9 am on Thursday, 87.5 per cent netizens liked him as the leader of the state .... The survey findings, in fact, indicate that he might look beyond the political boundaries of the state and might go ahead to achieve his prime ministerial aspirations as an NDA candidate in the 2014 general election.

Record 70.2 per cent voter turnout in Gujarat Assembly polls, says CEC
Modi, touted as PM candidate, set for Indian poll win

Election results due in the Indian state of Gujarat on Thursday are likely to seal Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi's status as a frontrunner in 2014 national polls....... Gujarat, which has a population of 60 million people ..... He campaigned during the state election on a platform of economic expansion and investment. .... "The development in Gujarat is only but a manifestation of good governance"

Gujarat elections: The rise of Narendra Modi

As a child, he runs away from home and heads to north India, living with sadhus - or holy men - for months before returning to Gujarat in the late 1960s to serve steaming cups of tea alongside one of his brothers at a stall in Ahmedabad. ..... To this day, the riots haunt Modi's government. In 2012, one of Modi's former ministers, Maya Kodnani, is sentenced to 28 years in jail alongside 30 others for the violence. ........ Gujarat today is one of India's wealthiest states and Modi's supporters credit him for bringing uninterrupted power supplies, smooth roads and a flood of investment to the state. ..... the 62-year-old is also an avid Twitter user ..... For the first time during campaigning in India, Modi uses 3-D projections of himself to appear "live" on stage at simultaneous events.

Exit poll predicts huge win for BJP's Narendra Modi in Gujarat Assembly elections

A post-poll survey today predicted a bigger victory margin for BJP in Gujarat Assembly elections as compared to the 2007 outcome, saying the ruling party could get 129 to 141 seats out of a total of 182. .... Congress is likely to get 37 to 45 seats in the Assembly with a vote share of 36 per cent against BJP's 48 per cent ..... In the 2007 Assembly polls, BJP had won in 117 seats while Congress had bagged 59.

Gujarat poll success imminent for Narendra Modi; PM candidature still under doubt

The forecasts range from around two-thirds seats to a landslide for the ruling BJP in the 182-seat Gujarat assembly, relegating the opposition Congress to even fewer seats than its tally of 59 in the 2007 polls.

Exit Polls Predict Landslide Victory for Modi

the BJP was likely to win between 118 and 140 seats, the Congress party a distant second with between 40 to 59 seats ..... Gross domestic product in the state has grown at an average of 9.59% in the five years to March 31, 2012, compared to the national average of 7.9% ...... Gujarat is home to several of India’s largest industrial projects, including the world’s largest oil refinery, run by Reliance Industries Ltd., and Tata Motors’ factory for its Nano mini-car. ...... Critics point to his links with Hindu right-wing groups and his administration’s failure to stop communal violence in his state in 2002 that killed over 1,000 people, mostly Muslim. This, they say, makes him unfit to lead a state, let alone a country as diverse as India. Mr. Modi has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He has tried to win over more of Gujarat’s Muslims through initiatives like last year’s three-day public fast for social harmony. .... Mr. Modi himself has never publicly stated his ambition to become prime minister. ...... “My impression is that he will not be acceptable. Other political parties in the NDA are not prepared to go with a person whom not a single Muslim will vote for” ..... Current BJP allies such as the Janata Dal (United) and the Telugu Desam Party are staunchly against him as a PM candidate because of his alleged links to the 2002 communal riots. Putting Mr. Modi as the BJP’s candidate for Prime Minister, may push these parties in the hands of the rival Congress party-led alliance

Why India Is Forced to Reform Its Economy
Will Narendra Modi's PM ambitions be boosted after Gujarat win?

a victory that could launch the prime ministerial ambitions of one of the country's most popular but controversial leaders.

Modi spent all Wednesday in office, clearing pending files

He also reviewed the preparations of Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit - 2013..... More than 5,000 delegates from 100 countries are likely to participate in the biannual event. Japan and Canada are the partner countries for the 2013 summit. The event is scheduled on January 11, 12, 13 at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar. This year, a facility for online signing of Memoranda of Understanding has been created. Innovative initiatives, small-scale industries and technology will be the focus areas of the summit.

Guj polls: Parties’ poll SMSes beeped on 1.5 crore mobiles

By the time campaigning for the first phase of assembly elections ended, BJP and Congress together had sent text or voice messages to about one lakh people in each constituency. ..... at the rate of 20 paise per message .... Gupta added that through candidates and friends, they had gathered leads of at least 80,000 mobile numbers in each constituency. ..... the messages sent by the BJP were routed through a Mumbai-based firm. Congress used a portal created by a Pune-based company to send its messages.

Monday, November 08, 2010

Image via WikipediaAmerica never felt like 200 little, small countries got in the way when it has exercised or threatened veto power. But America always complains that the UN is too inefficient as an organization to be propped up, too mushy to be given more power. The powerless, the poor do look poorly managed, don't they? They don't seem to have their s____ together. Should not America take the lead on changing that inefficiency?

The Importance Of The Private Sector

America has not lacked any confidence in its use of veto power. America should not lack confidence to tidy up the UN as an organization. Of course it is poorly managed.

My Third World People Don't Get To Vote In This City

It is kind of like the schools in the poor neighborhoods in this country. Of course they are poorly managed. But their number one ailment is lack of funds, not lack of great management. The management would improve if they had more money.

I do think there is going to have to be a total spread of democracy before the UN can truly

Image via Wikipedia be the world government it deserves to be. But you can not wait for that total spread of democracy before you can start giving the UN more teeth, before you can shift the power from the Security Council to the General Assembly, before you bring about fundamental reform in the way the UN works. The hiring and firing practices will have to meet the highest management standards.

The long term idea can not be to add a few more countries to the list of veto carrying powers. The idea has to be get rid of the veto power itself. But then that idea looks far fetched at this juncture, just like the idea of one global currency, a total elimination of all nuclear weapons, elimination of hunger.

But then it is idealism that drives the best kind of pragmatism. You have to have lofty goals to make the best short term moves.

Each country having its own separate currency is quite a ridiculous idea. It makes no economic sense. And some day. Similarly it is a lack of world government that gives rise to all sorts of regional blocs, regional conferences, and yet another global conference on this and that. One world government would be vastly more efficient. And the long term goal is to have rule of law for nations just like we have rule of law for individuals in many countries.

New York Times

Countering China, Obama Backs India for U.N. Council a priority for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ..... a United Nations that is efficient, effective, credible and legitimate ..... Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. .... China has been especially cool to the idea of permanent Security Council membership for rival Asian powers Japan and India. ..... a 10-day trip to Asia that will take him to four countries, all democracies; it is no accident that China is not on the list ...... “India has emerged.” .... India’s foreign policy establishment had been divided on the issue, with some arguing that the United Nations is increasingly outdated compared with groups like the Group of 20, where India is a major player. ...... Obama on Monday signaled the United States’ intention to create a deeper partnership of the world’s two largest democracies that would expand commercial ties and check the influence of an increasingly assertive China. ...... the almost giddy reaction to the president and his wife, Michelle, in the Indian press

Image via Wikipedia ..... Mr. Singh emphasized the need for the two countries “to work as equal partners in a strategic relationship.” ..... Obama arrived in India on Saturday bearing a big gift: his decision to lift longstanding export controls on sensitive technologies ..... “It’s a bold move — no president has said that before .. It’s a recognition of India’s emergence as a global power and the United States’ desire to be close to India.” ..... during a question and answer session with college students, one demanded to know why he had not declared Pakistan a “terrorist state.”

Between India and the United States, a Defining Partnership two men, neither known for their social ebullience ..... Obama called the relationship between India and the United States “the defining partnership of the 21st century.” ..... Obama has called Mr. Singh his guru ..... Mrs. Gandhi had notoriously noxious relations with President Richard M. Nixon. ..... Singh, a reserved academic 14 years his senior .... Mr. Singh replied that he appreciated Mr. Bush’s straightforward nature. .... Obama and Mr. Singh .... Both are better policy wonks than glad-handing politicians. Both enjoy adulation on the global stage that seems to have eluded them at home.

Our Banana Republic The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976. .... the United States now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana. .... From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent.

Manmohan Singh, current prime minister of India.

Image via Wikipedia ..... The richest 0.1 percent of taxpayers would get a tax cut of $61,000 from President Obama. They would get $370,000 from Republicans ..... the levels of inequality we’ve now reached may actually suppress growth. A drop of inequality lubricates economic growth, but too much may gum it up. ..... places where inequality increased the most also endured the greatest surges in bankruptcies. .... Rising inequality also led to more divorces, presumably a byproduct of the strains of financial distress. ..... losing a job or a home can rock our identity and savage our self-esteem. ..... we’ve reached a banana republic point where our inequality has become both economically unhealthy and morally repugnant.

Senator Gillibrand Has New York Home on the Market about two hours’ drive from New York City

What Obama Can Learn From India Many American business executives now consider India the "new China" -- an increasingly important manufacturing and service hub as well as consumer market for their products .... India's economy is growing at an impressive 9 percent this year.

My Endless New York London was the commercial and financial center of the world from the defeat of Napoleon until the rise of Hitler ..... By the time I got to Paris, most people in the world had stopped speaking French (something the French have been slow to acknowledge). .... The French have a word for the disposition to look insecurely inward, to be preoccupied with self-interrogation: nombrilisme — “navel-gazing.” They have been doing it for over a century. .... It looks outward, and is thus attractive to people who would not feel comfortable further inland. It has never been American in the way that Paris is French ..... They shout at one another all day in Sicilian dialect, drowning out their main source of entertainment and information: a 24-hour Italian-language radio station. ..... the cultures of contemporary London are balkanized by district and income — Canary Wharf, the financial hub, keeps its distance from the ethnic enclaves at the center. Contrast Wall Street, within easy walking distance of my neighborhood. As for Paris, it has its sequestered quarters where the grandchildren of Algerian guest workers rub shoulders with Senegalese street vendors, while Amsterdam has its Surinamese and Indonesian districts: but these are the backwash of empire, what Europeans now refer to as the “immigrant question.” .... at night they return home to Queens or New Jersey .... New York — a city more at home in the world than in its home country ..... As a European, I feel more myself in New York than in the European Union’s semi-detached British satellite, and I have Brazilian and Arab friends here who share the sentiment.

Image via Wikipedia... there is no other city where I could imagine living .... . Chance made me an American, but I chose to be a New Yorker. I probably always was.

For Afghan Wives, a Desperate, Fiery Way Out a horrifying escape: from poverty, from forced marriages, from the abuse and despondency that can be the fate of Afghan women. .... The choices for Afghan women are extraordinarily restricted: Their family is their fate. .... Her primary job is to serve her husband’s family. Outside that world, she is an outcast. ..... The most sinister burn cases are actually homicides masquerading as suicides .... the extremes that in-laws often inflict on their son’s wives .... at least 45 percent of Afghan women marry before they are 18; a large percentage before they are 16. Many girls are still given as payment for debts, which sentences them to a life of servitude and, almost always, abuse. ...... “No one in our family has asked for divorce. So how can I be the first?” ..... “The thing that forced me to set myself on fire was when my father-in-law said: ‘You are not able to set yourself on fire,’ ” she recalled. ..... “My marriage was for other people. They should never have given me in a child marriage.” ..... Many women mistakenly think death will be instant. ..... Halima, 20, a patient in the hospital in August, said she considered jumping from a roof but worried she would only break her leg. If she set herself on fire, she said, “It would all be over.” ..... Iran shares in the culture of suicide by burning. ...... Even badly burned and infected patients can speak almost up to the hour of their death, often giving families false hopes....Two weeks after his mother set herself on fire, he stood by her bed as she stopped breathing.

Paul Krugman: Doing It Again as in the 1930s, every proposal to do something to improve the situation is met with a firestorm of opposition and criticism. As a result, by the time the actual policy emerges, it’s watered down to such an extent that it’s almost guaranteed to fail. ..... the small rise in federal spending was effectively offset by cuts at the state and local level, so that there was no real stimulus to the economy.

Image via Wikipedia..... The case for a more expansionary policy by the Fed is overwhelming. Unemployment is disastrously high, while U.S. inflation data over the past few years almost perfectly match the early stages of Japan’s relentless slide into corrosive deflation. ..... conventional monetary policy is no longer available ..... the Fed is shifting from its usual policy of buying only short-term debt, and is now buying long-term debt ...... the Pain Caucus — my term for those who have opposed every effort to break out of our economic trap — is going wild. ..... our domestic inflationistas — the people who have spent every step of our march toward Japan-style deflation warning about runaway inflation just around the corner ...... The only way the Fed might accomplish more is by changing expectations — specifically, by leading people to believe that we will have somewhat above-normal inflation over the next few years, which would reduce the incentive to sit on cash. ..... He’s facing intense, knee-jerk opposition to his efforts to rescue the economy. In an effort to mute that criticism, he’s scaling back his plans in such a way as to guarantee that they’ll fail. ...... as the slump goes on and on.

Where Marijuana Is a Point of Pride almost one in 20 residents qualify for cannabis treatment .... a disproportionate amount of debilitating pain diagnosed in men in their 20s ..... Nederland’s ganja-tinged reputation

In Lame-Duck Session, a Hint of the Governing to Come Conservatives warned that Democrats might use the session to push through their cap-and-trade plan to curb climate change by limiting carbon dioxide emissions; environmentalists hoped that was possible....A fuller picture will unfold as Republican leaders grapple with the demands of the Tea Party and Democrats cope with internal tensions caused by Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to run as her party’s leader in the House, despite last week’s drubbing.

Friday, November 05, 2010

Happy Diwali

Monday, May 18, 2009

Laloo Should Be Brought Back As Railway Minister

Image via Wikipedia

Lalu Prasad Yadav - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Laloo is never going to be Prime Minister. Now we know that. It is Manmohan, and then it will be Rahul's turn after Manmohan is done with it. And granted Laloo has only four MPs under his belt now from the 24 he used to have. But he was the best railway minister in the world. And he should be brought back as railway minister. And the UPA does not garner a majority on its own. And if ever the Congress might need to reach out to the Left down the line, Laloo would be the best middle man they could find. It was Laloo Yadav who saved the Manmohan Singh government when the Left threatened to pull away on the nuclear deal issue.

Laloo should be brought back as railway minister primarily for his stellar performance over the past five years as railway minister. That is the number one reason. But it also makes parliamentary arithmetic sense.

If Manmohan Singh was among the top five heads of state in the world over the last five years, Laloo was the very best railway minister in the world. That is reason enough to bring him back.

The BJP is still the Congress Party's number one rival, and there is no bigger opponent than Laloo that the BJP has. Noone else plays the game better.

Manmohan Gave China Like Growth To India

Coalition	Total	Party	Seats
United Progressive Alliance	262	Indian National Congress	206
		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	18
		Nationalist Congress Party	9
		Jharkhand Mukti Morcha	2
		All India Trinamool Congress	19
		Republican Party of India (Athvale)	0
		Jammu and Kashmir National Conference	3
		Assam United Democratic Front	1
		Kerala Congress (M)	1
		Muslim League Kerala State Committee	2
		All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen	1
National Democratic Alliance	158	Bharatiya Janata Party	116
		Janata Dal (United)	20
		Shiv Sena	11
		Shiromani Akali Dal	4
		Indian National Lok Dal	0
		Asam Gana Parishad	1
		Rashtriya Lok Dal	5
		Nagaland People's Front	1
Third Front	76	Communist Party of India	4
		Communist Party of India (Marxist)	16
		Revolutionary Socialist Party	2
		All India Forward Bloc	2
		Bahujan Samaj Party	21
		AIADMK	9
		Biju Janata Dal	14
		Telugu Desam Party	6
		Telangana Rashtra Samithi	2
Fourth Front	27	Samajwadi Party	23
		Rashtriya Janata Dal	4
		Lok Jan Shakti Party	0
		Praja Rajyam Party	0
Main Other Parties	5	Pattali Makkal Katchi	0
		Janata Dal (Secular)	3
		Haryana Janahit Party	1
		Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	1
		Janhit Congress Party	0