Tuesday, August 4, 2009
FIRST HURDLE CROSSED
GUJRAL DOCTRINE
The principles of Gujral Doctrine includes
- India should give and accommodate nations like Bangladesh,Bhutan,Sri Lanka,Nepal without any expectation of reciprocity
- No south Asian nation should allow its soil to be used by the enemies of any of the nations o the region.
- There should not be any interference in the internal affairs of the other nations
- Mutual respect for each others territorial integrity and sovereignty.
- Settlement of disputes by bilateral discussions
The basic objective of the doctrine was to create an environment of mutual trust and friendship among the nations, where the weight and size of India are regarded by the nations positively and as an asset.Moreover it is also the proclamation of India's leadership for socio-cultural and economic integration of the region.
In the recent years the doctrine has faced severe criticism especially after the 26/11 incidence.It is also believed in many quarters that the doctrine was one of the cardinal reasons for the failure of the secret information services prior to the Kargil war.However,its importance in strengthening relationship with nations like Maldives,Bhutan ,Nepal can not be ignored while it must not be forgot that expectation of reciprocity should be the governing priciple in dealing with Pakistan.
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
The 21st century has seen terrorism on a scale never experienced before.Incidences like 9/11 or 11/26 have shaken the very base of the world.Civil wars have torn many nations apart.Global warming has reached an alarming level.Selfish economic policies of a few nations have made poorer nations suffer.It is in this context that the importance of global governance has been realized by many thinkers of the world.However it must not be confused with the term"World Government".In fact it is the coordination of the efforts of all the governments to keep aside narrow interests and strive for overall prosperity of the world in socio economic and environmental matters.The unidirectional approach towards global governance is based on a few principles.These include-legitimacy of the use of power and its rooting,respect for other nations' sovereignty,competence and efficacy,cooperation and partnership,linking local demands with global ones to name a few.
However various challenges are ahead of the mammoth task of making Global Governance a reality.First of all it is essential to carry out reforms in the global institutions like UN, where still the grievances of the smaller nations are being ignored and majority of the decisions are being taken in the interest of the major nations like US or UK.Moreover in the age of so called"neoliberalism", organizations like WTO or IMF have to be more transparent in their governing policies so that economic interests of the poorer nations are not put at stake for the benefit of the big ones.Moreover there is an urgent need for coming to a global consensus for the restrictions to be imposed upon the industrialy developed nations for minimizing pollution.
Although the future of global governance does rosy, yet it is not impossible to achieve.What needed is the sense of cooperation among the bigger nations, so that a unilateral action plan can be chalked out.In the process, it is essential to shed off various prejudices that have so far isolated many nations from the world.Only with a greater degree of cooperation and better sense of brotherhood that the myth can be a soon be a reality.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
CONVERTIBILITY OF INDIAN RUPEE
After the economic liberalization process started in India in 1991, a Liberalised Exchange Rate Mechanism was introduced in 1992.This allowed partial convertibility of Indian rupee, thus introducing dual exchange rate.After that full convertibility on trade account started from 1993.It was followed by Full convertibility on current account from 1994.However after the Mexico crisis in early 1990s or the mammoth East Asia Crisis where there was sudden flow of capital internationally debilitating the economies of the involved nations,India was reluctant to adopt capital account convertibility.
However the Tarapore committee,appointed in 1997,recommended phased implementation of capital account convertibility with certain prerequisites like fiscal deficit to be 3.5% of GDP,CRR to be brought down to 3%, gross NPA of public sector banks to be 5% of the total assets,inflation rate to be around 3.5%.The committee was reappointed almost a decade later and submitted almost the same recommendations with some modifications.
It must be remembered that the movement towards fuller CAC should be aprocess and not an event.Macroeconomic stability is a must before achieving full CAC.Any adhoc arrangement from the fixed regime maintained for a long period of time might disturb the foreign exchange market and disrupt the economic progress.
ROLE OF NATO IN THE POST COLD WAR ERA
The first major step taken by NATO was Operation Sharp Guard, military intervention in Yugoslavian crisis.This was followed by a few more operations in the Eastern Europe.From 1994 onwards, NATO shed off its initial reservations and involved in partnerships with regional forums.Partnership for Peace, Euro Atlantic Partnership Council,Mediterranean Dialogue are some of such initiatives.In 1999, Poland,Hungary and the Czech Republic became the first three former communist states to join NATO.In 1998 NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council was established.
After September 11 attack on USA NATO invoked Article 5 of its Charter for the first time in history.It states that attack on any member nation will be considered as attack on all the nations.It culminated in the war against terrorism.NATO also took command of International Security Assistance Force.After that NATO involved in Iraq and Afghanistan invasion as well.In 2002 the Berlin Plus Agreement was signed between NATO and EU.It enabled EU the option to use NATO's assets in an international crisis where NATO was reluctant to take steps.From then onwards there has been continuous increase in NATO membership.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
SHORT NOTES
- Measurement of HDI for life expectancy:
HDI (le)= Real age - Minimum age
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Maximum age- Minimum age Max age=85, Minimum age=25
- Medical Tourism: By providing modern and skilled solutions and facilities at cheap rate and higher care for health problems India is trying to attract patients for better treatment.This is known as medical tourism.
- Copy left:It is a group of licenses.Applied to software, art or other copyright works.Enables person to use,modify or redistribute any copy of works.
- RCI:Rehabilitation Council of India.It arranges for the rehabilitation of the people displaced after various development projects.It was et up as a registered society in 1986.
- Contagion is the cross-border spread of financial shocks. Such international spillover means that economic or financial troubles that originate in one nation can affect others.
Absolute advantage refers to the ability of an economic unit (a country, for example) to produce more of any given goods at a lower cost of production than another economic unit. It is a relative term and is calculated through comparisons with other economic units.Absolute advantage is used to compare the productive efficiencies between different countries.
- Amortization can be referred as a process of paying off of certain amount of debt in regular installments over a certain period of time. Amortization in business is referred to a process of decreasing capital expenses over a definite period of time. This type of deduction is usually accounted over the property life. To be more specific, this method of accounting is used to compute expenditure of the value of intangible assets, like a patent or a copyright.
Kleptocracy is when a government increases wealth and political power of bureaucrats and ruling class at common people's cost. Kleptocracy can also be named as cleptocracy or kleptarchy.Kleptocracy arises in such cases where a government is inefficient and not working properly for welfare of people. Kleptocracy can be also referred as a kind of despotism or some other form of domineering and favoritism that prevails in any government rule.
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Crony literally means a longtime friend. Crony capitalism refers to a capitalist market structure, where business men and ruling government share a close relationship. Businessmen form lobbies to extract favoritism from ruling party. Favoritism accrues in form of government grants, tax breaks and various financial incentives. It is argued that political parties and business enterprises form a kind a symbiotic relationship to stay in power via creation of networks. Both parties reap positive gains from cooperation.
- A duopoly is a market condition in which two companies producing a similar type of product have control over the market. This is similar to monopolies in which only one company controls the market and oligopolies in which multiple companies are allowed to trade in the market. The most popular example of duopoly is between Visa and Mastercard who exercise a major control over the electronic payment processing market in the world. Pepsi and Coca-cola are the two major shareholders in the soft drinks market. Airbus and Boeing are duopolies in the commercial jet aircraft market.
Future value, often expressed as FV is a financial term, which describes how much a given amount of money will be worth after interest has accrued.Future value is referred to as the expected value of present sum of money in future. Future value is a measurement that tells the amount of money that can be received for any present investment in future. Future value of any investment depends mainly on two things the number of compounding periods and interest rates.
- D-Mark or Deutsche Mark (DM) was Germany's official currency until euro became currency of choice in 1999.D-Mark was replaced by euro in circulation from that year. However,Deutsche Mark was accepted as legal payment of purchases made inside Germany until February 28, 2002.
BANANA is an acronym for Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything (or Anyone). The term is most often used to criticize the ongoing opposition of certain interest groups to land development.The term is commonly used within the context of planning in the United Kingdom.
- Stealth Tax is a term used for a tax levied in such a way that is largely unnoticed, or not recognized as a tax.Ex:Use of National Lottery by the British Government.Inflation is regarded as a form of stealth tax.
- Politburo, from German Politbüro, short for Political Bureau, is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.
Pigskin politics is a political epithet used to describe or dismiss a person's pavlovian attachment to a political persuasion or party, given that party's/persuasion's past influence within the person's region. The term is usually used within the context of a person's attachment to a region or state whereby the person holds a specific set of beliefs and ideas as a result of having lived there.
JUNK FOOD
Junk food has been a part of the consumer culture for years and now it has become an addiction for many people.Junk foods are very convenient to purchase and consume, which is one reason that millions of busy people don't think about a healthy diet or spend the time to prepare healthy meals. Junk food is also very popular among children, and with every passing day, its addiction is increasing.Moreover,spending millions of bucks by the corporates in advertisement to promote junk food as symbol of modern lifestyle is also another reason for its sky high popularity.
The effects of junk food are as below
Drowsiness
Obesity
Lethargy
Heart diseases
High blood pressure
To conclude, it can be said that junk foods can be used occasionally, but using them on a regular basis is very unhealthy and harmful.