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Showing posts from March, 2012

Indian Planning Commission's Poverty Shenanigans

Indian planning commission is out with yet another poverty estimate . They released this estimate yesterday which announced a decline in the incidence of poverty by 7.3 per cent over the past five years and stating that anyone with a daily consumption expenditure of Rs. 28.35 and Rs. 22.42 in urban and rural areas respectively is above the poverty line. Any sane person with a sensitive brain will immediately spot the planning commission shenanigans in these estimates. Let aside the whole gimmickry of measuring poverty, the poverty line [sic] which they have used to measure [sic] poverty - viz., 28.35 rupees in urban and 22.42 rupees in rural areas - is a cruel joke on the poor people of this country. In their lust of lowering the poverty numbers to win elections and bureaucratic positions these planning commission members and those phony economists have sold their souls and forgot that 28 and 22 rupees is not even going to buy a decent one time meal for anyone in this highly infla

The True Meaning of Government's Budget

The month of March is here and Indian polity is gearing up for the government's annual budget. Just a few hours ago the so-called finance minister presented the budget. Now, the MSM (mainstream media) news channels, newspapers, magazines will be busy 24x7 analyzing the pros and cons of it, while very cleverly (or foolishly) ignoring to address the most fundamental questions re the real meaning of government's budget and its implications for the hoi polloi. I am not going to spend much of my time here in describing what budget really is . Only couple of sentences will suffice for that purpose.  What Budget Really Is? For the brainwashed masses it is a statement of government's annual income [sic] and expenditure, and for those who understand the true nature of government as a Criminal Gang, writ large ( here , here , here , and here ) it is their plan of various ways in which they are going to rob, steal and loot the productive people of this society and then to distribut