Girish's Blog

In 2009 I posted about what had changed in Bangalore in 10 years. It's now 2020 and time to write again about what has changed in the last 11 years.   So where are we in 2020? Let me compare with my expectations of 2009. I had written: Where will be in 2019 ? In Bangalore, I expect we will have better public transport, more disputes about water, children demanding better education, more private enterprise and lesser government in daily life. The Metro has come up in parts of the city, but the parts with the most traffic - BTM Layout to KR Puram does not have good public transport. Buses are infrequent, drive rashly and are unpredictable. Most large residential communities depend on water tankers to deliver water. The quality of education has not significantly changed since 2009. Children are still being thrust with the rote learning that we had hoped would end with our generation. There is more government in daily life and less accountability.   What else h...

Today's Economic Times has a piece by Suneet Chopra, the CPI(M)'s Joint Secretary of the All India Agricultural Worker's Union about the dangers of futures trading in commodities. When we speak of ‘future trading’ in commodities, we are referring to a situation in which traders and hoarders buy out the producers cheaply and then raise prices by creating false scarcity. Wrong on two counts - futures trading offers an iron-clad contract to the producer that his output will be purchased and that any investment he makes now towards the development of better crops can be recouped. Futures trading is not a legally required activity by the producers and in case they find the spot markets offer better returns, they would gravitate to this market. In any case the farmers would get a better deal than what they are getting currently with the large chain of middlemen between the producer and eventual customer. Mr. Chopra continues: A US senate panel has not only conducted an inquiry...

The Reserve Bank of India has launched a comic book series to explain monetary policy to the public. It shows the secret control room that the RBI maintains and the levers (literally - there's a lever called Interest Rate !) they employ to control the economy. Read and enjoy ! There's more financial education from RBI on their website .