I read this interesting post about how a strong willed man overcome his disability and regular, able-bodied athletes are using every dirty trick in the book to ensure that this man without any legs is ineligible for participation in the Beijing Olympics.
Well they should be scared, Oscar Pistorius, the 21-year-old South African paralympic, can run 400m in just 46.34 seconds (against the 8 year old world record by Michael Johnson of 43.18 seconds).
Livemint today published a wonderful article emphasizing that NGO need to be accountable to the donors and there is a need for rating them. Their argument that when people know that their money is being well spend, they like to give more. Hence rating agencies like GiveWell can really transform the way NGOs manage themselves.
The entire world knows that Reliance power IPO was overpriced. Even the promoter admits that he made a mistake and that his folly caused the January 2008 stock market crash. He even tried to correct his folly by offering shares for free. Then why does our Finance ministry have to lie about it?
Today our junior finance minister Pawan Kumar Bansal lied openly in the parliament that Reliance power IPO was not oversubscribed.
A month ago his boss P Chidambram tried to fudge the data by not taking into account the Oil Subsidy and the Loan waiver into the fiscal deficit calculations. Do these people think that they are the only smart guys and rest of the world is stupid?
PS: Our Prime minister is perceived as a lap dog who knows when and how to wag his talk and as Ram pointed out, now even our President is not taken seriously.
And Prax forwarded a nice article detailing how the real fiscal deficit is 4 times what is being claimed by PC.
Photo courtesy: BBC news
The above pictured in the BBC website.
I felt very sad looking at the photo.
The Woman was collecting rice that was spilt on the
ground. Its really heart breaking to see somebody
lowered to such a state. 
Whether this Woman is a terrorist, muslim, Iraqi etc., etc., she is a Woman first. She is so caring that she
picks up rice for her family.
To top all this, the Photographer thought that it was appropriate to photograph her. Dear Photographer, do
the words “Photography ethics” tell you something? Shame on you.
And a soldier is happily posing for the photo without even a shade of shame or pity for the women.
Cross posted from Sri’s views
IT WAS called the “French disease” by the Italians and the “Italian disease” by the French. In the Netherlands it was assumed to be Spanish; in Russia, Polish. The Turks thought it was a Christian affliction. The Tahitians thought it came from Britain. What exactly is it?
Here is a nice article from economist explaining how this New world Bacteria went global.
Well if you do, then don’t read about the new injection which my college IIT Kharagpur has developed. Because in wrong hands, it has change the course of next 10 years of your life.
According to an research by IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute):
For every million rupees spent, roads raised 335 people above the poverty line, and R&D 323. Every million rupees spent on education reduced poverty by 109 people, and on irrigation by 67 people. The lowest returns came from subsidies that are the most popular with politicians - subsidies on credit (42 people), power (27 people) and fertilisers (24 people).
Swami has recently published a very good article on how roads can be one of the most effective way for poverty elevation.
Connectivity enhances the value of every other rural investment, since it empowers people through improved mobility and access. People can more easily buy agricultural inputs and sell their produce. Children can go more easily to schools, cattle can more easily get veterinary help, and the sick can get to health centres. Remote areas have, by definition, the worst connectivity. They are among the poorest and slowest-growing, but accelerate when given connectivity.
Roads can incubate a thousand small businesses, and can convert villages into towns. Government staff are much more willing to be posted to places with good connectivity, so roads improve administration. Rural productivity cannot be high without roads, but can be very high with them.
No wonder even in America the railroad boom came first and then came the rapid growth and development.
When will Indians understand it
Hard to believe?
Well if you add the cost of Hotel, rental car and air line tickets, it would be much cheaper to go for a trip to Thailand, Singapore or Sri Lanka than to go for one in India. Here is a nice article which compares the prices.
This editorial from livemint highlights a very new aspect. How countries with higher higher interpersonal trust and civic cooperation have a higher growth rates.
Recently Indian Express published a very good article by a former director general, NHRC, and former director, National Police Academy. The editorial raises some valid questions about should Police/Law Enforcement be allowed to break laws sometimes for the greater good?
If so in what extra-ordinary circumstances? Does Ends Justify the means? How do we draw a line between abuse of power and breaking laws for the greater common good.
Its slightly long, but do Read if you have time (more…)
