ranjan

In recent years, there has been an increased realization that the tourism growth potential can be harnessed as a strategy for Rural Development. Rural tourism exhorts tourists to spend quality time in a nuanced by engaging them in different ethnic, indigenous and aesthetic practices in rural areas. The stresses generating from urban life, detachment and distance from urban life and natural environment occasionally provoke the urbanites to escape from their monoculture city life. In such case, rural locations seem to be an ideal place to release stress and peace for certain time.   With 70% population living in rural India, and about 6.5 million units spread across the country, India foresees itself as a strong platform for harnessing tourism. With increasing level of awareness, growing interest in heritage and culture, improved accessibility and environmental consciousness have shifted trends towards rural tourism. Besides culture and heritage, it will also generate employment...

The Aviation sector contributes significantly to the Indian economy. It provides the only worldwide rapid transportation network, which makes it essential for global business. It generates economic growth, crates jobs and facilitates international trade and tourism.     This industry including Airline and its supply chain, is estimated to contribute directly or indirectly of 72 Billion Dollars of GDP to India.  Aviation is among the worst effected sectors amidst the COVID 19 crisis that has taken the scale of a pandemic. In India, 29.32 lacs jobs in the Aviation sector are at risk. Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region may see the largest revenue drop and Indian aviation sector, among the Asia -Pacific countries will be worst hit by COVID 19 crisis.  Further, the periodic shutdown has eroded the capital of most airlines. The cost of maintaining aircraft on ground is extremely high, and with nil revenues, this is a sure-shot recipe of disaster. Airlines in India ar...

In 1947, India was not engaged in trade and had no external borrowing, so it was not possible for Rupee to be equal to Dollar. India had a very low growth of less than 1% at that time, so it was not possible for the INR to have the same value as equal to USD. Before the Dollar became the standard global currency, INR was measured against the British Pound.   In 1966, USD was equal to INR 4.76 and after devaluation when it was pegged to USD,  it was equal to INR 7.50. Devaluation happened because India was facing big financial crisis. This crisis effected the foreign currency reserves adversely and INR became unacceptable overseas.  India was unable to pay for imports and the option left was to borrow money from abroad.  There were several factors which contributed  to the depreciation of Indian rupee against the Dollar like the Capital flows, Crude oil prices, Govt. debt, Current account and balance of payments, Currency war, Dollar index, Inflation rate, P...

After India gained Independence in 1947 it basically had to rebuild its economy from scratch. The leaders of those times had to pick the type of economy India would be and also outline economic planning as well. This is where the five year plan was born. The concept of economic planning in India is derived from Russia (now USSR). Since 1951 to 2017 India has launched 12 five year plans.  From 1947 to 2017, Indian economy is committed to the concept of planning. This planning was carried through the Budget and five years plan developed, executed and monitored by Planning Commission (1951-2014) and Niti Aayog (2014 -2017).   It is due to the following basic facts about Indian economy, five year plans acquired more significance: 1. Country's savings were very low and could only be raised substantially if the Government follows totalitarian methods (form of Govt. which includes control of everything under one authority and allows no opposition). This is against the principles...

The Indian economy has had the distinction of being one of the fastest  growing economies in the world over the last three decades. Yet today, there is a sense of economic malaise in the air.  The young are feeling frustrated as there are too few god jobs on the horizon for them.   About half of the households of Indian population are living in rural areas and more than 70% of the household does not have means of assured income, work as agricultural laborers as they do not own any land and are poor. The Govt. of states and Union should stop pampering the employees employed by them for massive pay increases by periodic pay commissions and direct the money accrued out of austerity into capital infrastructure to provide viable employment like dairy, farming machinery and provide means of poverty alleviation by Aadhaar based direct transfer of funds and scrap the corrupt public distribution system.  As the Govt. run on public money, they have no mandate in running l...

Following are issues which highlight the major problems of Indian economy. 1. Low level of National Income and per Capita Income -      After 70 years after independence, India not only has a low per-capita income, but Indian economy also has great inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth. The logical corollary of this inequality is mass poverty.      2. Macro economic stability - The present Government has been putting efforts to maintain the fiscal moderation. India still runs a deficit of about 2% of GDP and successive governments have not done enough work to eliminate it. A top priority for credible macroeconomic performance will be to target a low current account deficit and a small but positive revenue surplus.     3. Predominance of  Agriculture - Less developed countries live mainly upon Agriculture, and extractive industries e.g. mining, fisheries, forests etc. Occupational structure give a view of pre-dominance of ...

A number of studies and reports exist on bank frauds. There appears to be no positive effect on Indian economy from the Bank scams. A brief of view of, how such scams damage the economy and steps taken to manage it effectively to improve upon the system are as follows -         Post liberalization period, Indian economy has witnessed several scams. These scams have just not led to the loss of millions of Rupees but also effected the economy in a major way. The scale of these economic crimes and the way in which these crimes have been committed are of a serious concern to the Government and to people as well.       Financial or Banking scams have never been a rare phenomenon in economy of any country. However, India has witnessed a plethora of these unwanted aliens over the past 3-4 decades. Economic offenders by engaging in various illegal trade practices and by way of scams have swindled off billions of money and have exploited all areas of ...

Demonetization has been implemented thrice in India - in 1946, 1978 and in 2016.  In 1946, the currency note of Rs.1,000/- and Rs.10,000/-were removed from circulation.The ban did not have much impact, as the currency of higher denomination was not accessible to common people. However, both the notes were reintroduced in 1954 with an additional  introduction of Rs.5,000/- currency. The second currency ban came in 1978 when currencies of  Rs.1,000, Rs.5,000/- and Rs.10,000/- were taken out of circulation. The sole aim was to curb black money generation in the country. It didn't have much effect on the people and effected only the privilege few while the ban in 2016 has shaken the whole country.  In 2016, the objectives and the outcomes of the Demonetization were:     -To plug financing of Terrorists.    -To help unearth black money - will expand the fiscal space of the Government.    -To help reduce interest rates in the banking syst...

India has long taken efforts to expand credit availability to rural areas. Early programs yielded disappointed results, were gradually replaced by efforts to establish Self - Help groups (SHGs) and link them to banks. This approach differs from traditional micro finance in a number of ways. SHG is a brain child of Gramin Bank of Bangladesh founded in 1975 who tried a new approach to rural credit in Bangladesh.   In 1991-92, NABARD started promoting self-help groups on a large scale marking the real take-off point for the SHG movement. In 1993, Reserve Bank of India also allowed the SHGs to open savings accounts in banks. his facility of availing bank service was a major boost to the movement.  SHGs  (Self Help Groups) is a financial intermediary usually consisting of 10 to 20 local men or women in between 18 to 40 years of age. It provides and growth and helps the resurgence of weaker section of the society in terms of outreach, social position and sustainability....

The Rigveda (one of the oldest known four sacred Vedic Sanskrit text) describes the war drum as the fist of Indra (king of Gods in Hindu mythology). Among ancient war drums that can be mentioned, junjung (a royal war drum) of the Serer people ( a west African group) in Senegal and Gambia - Played on the way to battlefield, on special state occasions as well as Serer religious ceremonies.   Drum is one of the oldest instruments invented by mankind. The first are believed to have originated in China around 6000 BC. They were often used for rituals and to direct the spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world for healing or some other purposes. These ancient drums were made of alligator hides and wood or clay. The first drumsticks were sticks and bones. Soon animal skins were stretched over bowls to create a booming sound. Thereafter, drums started to pop up in Egypt, Peru, Israel and Mesopotamia. By the 2nd century BC, African drums had made their way into Rome and Gre...

During the pre -British period, the problem of stagnation, poverty and backwardness of Indian economy was not so acute. With the advent of British in India, the economic structure in India had to face a lot of change. During the first period of 100 years i.e. from 1757 to 1857, British looted huge amounts of resources from India. Cottage industries were totally destroyed due to the colonial strategy followed by the British rulers. The gradual disappearance of Indian rulers and their courts who were the main customers of Handicrafts produced also gave a big jolt to these industries.       British did not permit to modernize the industrial sector during 18th and 19th century. Indian economy was turned into importer of British manufactured goods and exporter of tea, coffee, oil seeds, foodstuffs and other industrial raw materials which were considered essential for running British industries in England.    The huge amount of drain of capital assets started aft...

Gold is among the three primary imports in India which are Crude oil, cooking oil and Gold of which the first two are vital necessities. There are small things the Government can do to decrease the damage dealt by the massive amounts of gold being imported. As a commodity, gold does not add any real value to the productive capacity of the economy. The fluctuations in the economy affects the gold prices in India. The price of gold was seen to reflect the monetary inflation. Rising inflation often coincides with a booming economy. Rise in gold prices can be attributed to the booming economy.   India's gold market is driven primarily by consumption and fabrication of the yellow metal.  Both have a significant effect in terms of economic value employment, contribution of foreign exchange earnings, and the trade balance.    Most of the gold purchased in India is stashed away in lockers, safe boxes or gets converted into jewellery. Those who hold gold are just waiting...

The great contraction of Indian economy would effect all products and services which are not essential for a living. Government revenues would decline because of lower consumption and resultant lower profits. It would set the economy back by 28 months - country has never seen such unprecedented happening in its recent history. There are two fears which caused the fall in demand - fear of coronavirus infection and the fear of future financial security. With no surety for their job or salary, people have stopped spending on non-essential products, affecting the country's industrial activity. This is where the Govt. should step in, not merely by giving sermons but by releasing its dues to the private sector and by increasing spending on big infrastructure projects.  While the Govt. has been hesitant about deficit financing option, there appears to be no option other than this. The dipping into cash reserves of PSUs by the State Governments to bail them out, may not be available this y...

It has been a routine to read almost daily in newspaper about some war or disturbance which is happening in different parts of the world. Previously, all the wars/ any disturbance that were created/fought in the history of mankind  taught a horrible lessons of its futility. War is the march of hell on the surface of earth which leaves in its wake ruins, corpses, rubble, families destroyed, and regret for having invited this monster from hell. Wars can never end conflicts, they complicate it further.     A review of history of causes of war/ disturbances, which took place in  last century, their results as well as expected of (seems to be) in the current one must be looked into:    WORLD WAR I -  On 28th June, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria - Hungary was shot and killed by a Serbian man who thought Serbia should control Bosnia instead of Austria. Due to their leader had been shot, Austria - Hungary declared war on Ser...

The preparation of Budget for 2021-22 in a crisis of Covid -19 will be a challenging one. This pandemic has erupted when most countries had just begun to implement their 2020 budget. The short term priority, since then, has been designing and implementing immediate responses to the crisis through supplementary budgets, contingency reserve funds and emergency decrees.  The preparation of Budget for 2021-22 will be a challenging task given the unprecedented uncertainty about the post lock-down economic outlook and the massive fiscal shock from the pandemic, compounded in resource - risk countries with decline in commodity prices. Therefore, preparation of Budget for 2020-21 will need to :  1) Evaluate the fiscal space for continued priority crisis spending and recovery             measures. 2) Take stock of the impact of the COVID crisis on the economy and the Govt.'s          fiscal position. 3)  Assess the Govt.'...

Democracy is very important for freedom of life and the collective growth of a nation. Claims promoting the positive benefits of democracy on voter turnout and engagement have appeared periodically since the wave of progressive era reforms during the early 20th century leading to establishment of state ballot initiative process.      A reason why Politicians get away with unfulfilled promises is that there are no checks and balances made before or during their tenure in office. This raises further questions - Who is a politician accountable to when making promises? What happens when other institutions do not align with the political promise? The answers are multifaceted, but with sensitive topics like quotas, which carry the potential to cause riots, destruction of property and loss of lives, a politician's actions could have consequences that outlive their incumbency.          At the pre-election stage, Political parties are using a variety of de...

Respect is such a simple thing in concept. In practice, since other people are involved, respect gets more complicated. Self interests are mixed in, so emotions and actions impact us in adverse or unexpected ways. We cannot get distracted from who we really are and we really want to be. After all, respect begins with self respect, and this is the starting point in how to get and keep respect.     To have self respect is to take yourself for who you are to wake up and forget yourself for the mistakes you have made. If you focus on the bad actions that you have done, you cave yourself into darkness and can't see the good in life, which is what lot of teenagers do. When you are down, try to remember the good that you have done and not the bad, because focusing on negative thoughts leads you to nothingness at the end. It is hard to overcome some self respect issues, but when you're able to look in the mirror and smile and tell yourself you are a beautiful person, it is an ama...

Migraine is a neurological condition that can cause multiple symptoms. It is frequently characterized by intense, debilitating headaches. Symptoms may include vomiting, nausea, difficulty in speaking, numbness or tingling and sensitivity to light and sound. It often run in families and and affect all ages. Most common categories of migraine are those without aura (previously known as common migraines) and those with aura (previously known as classic migraines). Symptoms during this stage can include:- Depression, Food cravings, Frequent yawning, Fatigue or low energy, Neck stiffness, Hyperactivity, Irritability. Other factors that may trigger a migraine are - Severe heat, or other extremes in weather, bright lights, Dehydration, Hormonal changes, excess stress, loud sounds, skipping meals, intense physical activity, changes in sleep patterns, changes in barometric pressure, use of certain medicines, smoking, alcohol, travelling.  Migraine without aura is called common migraine. Suc...

Honest mistake is a mistake done innocently, or without malice intended. There was no thought of harming someone else or taking advantage of a situation caused by the mistake. Mistakes are part of being human. If you want to let go of your past, change your mindset.   I wish I had a better answer, but that would make life too easy and end all the great accomplishments achieved through adversity. Never forget mistakes do not define you. How you respond and react to them does. When others make mistakes, we easily share the truth that it is okay to make mistakes. We usually accept their apologies easily (if they seem honest at least) and forgive them. After all, to err is human.  But when we are confronted with our own mistakes, it suddenly becomes a lot harder to accept ours. We once again show the length to which we will go to try and cover up the mistakes. Shame about what is done, anger at yourself for being so stupid, fear of the consequences, they can all contribute to...

Criticism is a useful tool in any relationship - no matter whether it is business-related or otherwise which if not done correctly, can lead to confrontation.  Though many frown upon criticism and the critics who deliver it, criticism is necessary for building a successful relationship. Many of us automatically judge anything coming from a critic is of the wrong sort. It is much more valuable to look for the strength in others. One can gain nothing by criticizing their imperfections.   The world is not kind of self esteem. It takes only one ill-received piece of feedback or a bold comment to completely derail anybody's day. Being alive in 2020 means getting hit by wave after wave of criticism, both online and offline -as anyone who has ever left themselves of a You tube comments section or a Twitter pile on - will be able to testify.       Dealing with criticism positively is an important life skill. You can either use criticism in a positive way to im...