Healthy Mind: Importance of Reading

Most of the adults almost always say that, since they left college they have not read any book other than what their job requires them to read. On  a daily basis they do read something though, thanks to the Internet. But that is general news, like political, sports, entertainment or crime. Hardly anyone even checks economic news section.

I wonder how their minds are going to remain healthy enough in the long run of life. One main advantage of basic education what we have is that it forces children to read at least during their student life and that trains the mind muscles and so the mind grows healthy. Growth of mind would stops as soon as you stop feeding information into it.

Reading is as important to health as physical exercise to the body. But as soon as we complete the education and get into job we stop reading and that is the end of the growth of mind. To be able to solve life's problem and take decision regarding life's complex issues, our mind needs to be healthy and it needs to have huge information base for it to be able to take correct decisions at various stages in life. So one needs to read a wide variety of subjects. 

Goal Of my Life

Goal for my life is not a milestone to achieve, but a journey to live and enjoy. 

Any day two years from now or 10 years from now, if my wife is still saying that she can not live without me and she still feels the same love for me as two love struck youngsters feel for each other, then that’s achievement of goal for my life. 

I have two sons, and when they are teenagers or adult and if they still treat me like one of their closest friend and we have mutual respect coming deeply from heart, they are fine human beings and ready to take the challenge of their life with ease than I would say I am successful and achieved goal of my life. 

Because to achieve all this, you have to have self-respect, great health, good enough bank balance, a few great friends, else balance in life would not be there. With all this only goals of life could be achieved. That means you would have had a successful career also, because achieving all that is not possible if your job is now going well. 

So ultimately what I want in life is a balanced life where there is balance in every aspect of my life, be it career, my family, parenting, my personal finances, friends and family, community, how well I provide education to my sons etc. I want to be able to enjoy the journey better than desire to be happy after having arrived at my destination. It's journey that's important not the destination.

Just Monitory Fines for banking crimes are not enough.

One after the other major banks of the world are being fined by UK, US or European governments for their roles in tempering with the LIBOR rates and many such irregularities. And authorities are just putting a fine on banks which will be paid by the bank from it's profit which obviously was meant to be shared by the shareholders. But none of the banking officials who really committed those mistakes are being punished.  

This will not stop the banking officials in future from committing the same fraud again and in fact they will just shrug off these fines and will carry on with their work.

So where is system being improved? where are we putting more rigorous checks so that in future similar things do not happen? No where?

Just fines will not work, there has to be serious punishments to the banking officials and to the banks also which are involved in such practises.

Shocking: 1100 billion EUROs down the drain

The IMF has calculated that the European governments and central banks to Europe and other member countries have so far wasted a total of 1100 bn euro in effort to save the sinking government and banks in last 3 years. And after that much money also countries and banks in Europe are no where close to stability, still risk of them going down are same or greater as they were at start.

and all that money 1100euro spent has gone to save the banks and private investors who had invested in the banks without doing any due diligence, before investing. So by spending such huge money govts. and in fact saved private investors and banks who lent to govt. and in turn made people of the respective countries poor for generations to come as the people will have to pay all this money in forms to tax of spending cuts over many future generations.

 Just imagine if the same amount of money was spent in improving infrastructure, education , supporting small businesses or funding new future technologies/research, what a better life we would have got?

But, the govts. of the day!

Us Vs Them: Is there really democracy?

It's often told , especially by the westerners, that we in west are able to decide our government and we have freedom and Chinese don't have such a right. And I have been believing all this for years really. But now I am really starting to doubt this fact. Is there real democracy anywhere? This is a big question in my mind. In west, we have seen governments changing in many countries in last few years, especially since this financial crisis started, e.g. in US, in Spain, in Greece, in Belgium, and even in India.

And these changes in the govts. were done through the so-called democracy. But what have these changes given to the citizens, to the people? The more of the same. In India we see the same corruption, same kind of policies continuing or policy paralysis. In western countries, same policies are continuing which caused this financial crisis in the first place. Increasing level of unemployment. In fact, some govt. heads are replaced by unelected leaders like in Italy and Greece so as to make decision-taking unhindered without being concerned about the citizens. So there is no change, it's continuation of the the same even if there is change in govt. Politicians promise something when they are not in govt. but once they are in it they continue with the status quo.

But in case of Chinese communism, at least govt. act and they deliver, that too regularly. So is it not the better system for as long as at least economic management of the country is concerned?

Watch two episodes of Big Boss less and become wealthier

Yes friends, you read it RIGHT! Maybe read again the heading, it's exactly what you read. You can definitely become much more wealthier than what you currently are just if you cut down around two episodes of Big Boss (or any other mindless sitcom) per week. Most of us spend precious time in watching every week. But none spend any time in enriching oneself with personal financial education. Most of the working young Indians are horribly illiterate when it comes to managing their money. They know how to earn money but they don't know how to manage it. And what matters in life is not how much you earn every month or every day but how you manage that money over your life is what matter. People like Warren Buffett and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala have become multi-multi billionaires just by managing their money (probably they never earned any money they just managed money and that earned money for them).

But the question would be in your mind, if indeed you have come this far by reading this post, how to learn about money management? Most of us would think, I am earning enough, I can hire someone who would manage it for me. But let me warn you friends, if these guys, who we think can manage our money better, know really better then we would not be having this current financial crisis which is gripping the western world. Someone else would manage your money well only when you know enough the rules of the game. So friends I am just suggesting to learn the rules of the game which is one of the most important game of life.

So back to the question.."How to learn about money management?". Just google it and you find loads of information on it. And read religiously about it for a year and then see how your l(w)ife changes after that?

How and why West ended up in this financial crisis?

Here, in very brief , is why Europe and US is suffering from this financial crisis:

1. Banks knowingly gave loans to the customers who were, for sure, not able to pay them back. This happened mostly in US.
2. then banks sold these loans to other banks by mixing and making cocktail of the loans. This all just to earn more and more bonuses. Banks of Europe also joined this party.
3. such cocktails were sold at higher and higher prices by one bank to another and to another...like British game of "pass the parcel", with only difference that the parcel did not contain the gift but assets worth zilch so when music stopped, the bank which was holding the parcel lost everything. and in this game almost every bank had parcel when music stopped.
4. so this way almost all western banks lost most of their market value and almost became bankrupt
5. Now since all banks were "too big to fail" so govts saved them by paying money without asking anything in return
6. since govts did not have money of their own so they had to borrow, and since banks debts were so huge that govts' debt became HUGE.
7. thus most govts in West ended up becoming hugely indebted.
8. and now to repay those debts, govt have to get money from somewhere so they are squeezing their own citizens, by cutting their pensions, social services, taxing them more.
9. So as a result every citizen is suffering or will have to suffer
10. So in a line citizens will be paying for banker's mistakes.

Different satellite navigation systems

Currently four major economic power blocs have their satellite navigation systems, either fully operational or in process of being so. These systems are used for military and civilian purposes both. Here are four systems:

1. GPS - US government-run satellite navigation systems. Global Positioning System (GPS).
2. Beidou - China's own GPS. It offers location, timing and navigation data to China and surrounding areas. China has 10 setellites at the moment and plan to have 35 by 2020 to cover entire world.
3. Glonass - Russia's satellite navigation systems
4. Galileo - EU's satellite navigation systems. First satellite was launched in Oct 2011, planned to be fully operational by 2019

Why FDI in retailing is good for India?

Recently Indian govt. proposed to allow 51% FDI in retailing. As expected there is big hue and cry and opposition to this. But I think it's good for India. Here is why I say so:

1. retailing is one of the biggest employer in the western world so India would have many employement opportynities for youth. Since retail does not require very highly qualified employees so this would be good opportunity for Indian youth who can't and dont go for very high education
   


2. average standards of goods and services would increase in retailing and consumers would have more choices
   


3. there will be backward integration in the entire supply chain so many more opportunities in entire supply chain for both employement and business


4. With improved supply chain, farmers would get better prices for their produces


5. With increase in demands from retailers, better quality seeds and high yield seeds would make way into agriculture so overall agri-productivity would increase


6. Better supply chain solutions like warehousing and cold-storage would reduces the wastage of agriculture produce which is astonishingly high in India.


7. There will be knock-on effect on other secots like real estate, transport, packaging, and almost all sectors of the economy
   


8. expansion of middle class, as the employees in retail would be mostly coming from lower middle class and low-income families so with their higher earning they will join burgeoning middle class


9. in local mom-n-pop retailing, there are hardly employee friendly policies and employee generally overwork, with corporate retailing better employee policy would be followed and employees would be better paid.


10. Overall quality of life would increase in India


11. More competition so better prices for end-consumers


12. When worlds leaders in retailing like Walmart, Carrefour comes to India and they may start sourcing for their global markets also from india, thus increasing the exports.


13. There would not be much threat to mom-n-pop stores as they would still be dominating corner areas in societies and in fact they would benefit as they can source their goods from these big retailers. With stores like Lifestyle, Shoper's Stop and Central, shops on streets selling clothes did not disappear. Similarly Reliance and Big Bazaar have not displaced kirana stores, which continue to complement the services provided by these big stores.
    


14. Indian large retailers would get stronger and improve with competition as Pizza Hut could not destroy Haldiram but made it only stronger. So this fear is misplaced.
    


15. Small retailers indulge in malpractices like under-weighing, adulteration, this would go away and government can better regulate big retailers


16. better retailing technology and practices would come into India


17. This would expand overall retail market instead of just eating into share of existing players so more opportynities and growth


18. Local stores in India avoid paying taxes completely, which is huge revenue loss to govt. But with retailers, income would increase for govt.

Over a period, govt have to come up with good regulations to regulate the retail markets so the market develops well and it does not hurt others like farmers. So success depends on unbiased regulations. If the market regulations are good and there is fair competition, consumer is always going to be king.

Internet can change government too? Amazing!

I have always been fascinated by (the power of) Internet and I always feel lucky to be born at a time when Internet came into being. As I moved into my mid-twenties and Internet started to become widespread and famous and that was the time I hooked onto it and ever since have been riding on it. I feel lucky because it’s the Internet where I go when I have any doubt or any question and it has always given me an answer for my questions, I guess always right one.I was always aware of the power of Internet but never believed that it can change world so much. If one sees the events taking place in the Arab world these days, one will just be amazed at the power of Internet. It’s Internet that helped the protesters in these countries to unite and protest against the authoritative governments, it was Internet that gave people voice to share with like minded people of their countries and spread among all. Internet was the media which then spread it to another country and then another and then entire Arab world. So it’s the Internet which is trying to democratize the part of world. I never thought that Internet can change a government also.It’s just amazing.