Praxeology: My Reflexions on India

The international prices of Crude Oil are falling fast since last few months in the international market as can be seen in the below graph. Despite this big drop in the international prices, there is no drastic cut in the prices of Petrol and Diesel in India. Why is this? What is the cause of this price drop in the international market? In my latest economic report I answer these questions.

In this continually updating article I am going to keep track of the flip-flops of Narendra Modi's election and other promises. He and his BJP party has already began the flip-flop journey. 1. Black money: Before and during election Modi promised to bring black money back to India - some saying within 100 days (Baba Ramdev here claiming it, and Modi was in full support of Ramdev during elections) - of its government's formation (see here , here (I must say the speech of Modi in this video is the worst form of lies, socialism and propaganda of using peoples' "envy" to come to power!, and here ). And now after 6 months in power when he failed to do anything substantive about black money, his party FM is denying any such promises. They are now flip-flopping over this issue. Here's what Venkaiah Naidu recently said in parliament : "Listing out the measures taken by the BJP government to deal with the black money menace, Naidu said whenever 100 days is...

Since coming to power six months ago, the new prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, is mostly busy developing a new war machinery in India. Modi calls himself a "Hindu nationalist" and like a true nationalist he is busy consolidating power by whipping the public frenzy for war. Remember what the great American journalist Randolph Bourne said about war: the war is the health of the state . The state was born out of conquest and war, and it is only via war that it strengthens its powers. Modi knows this and he is using the war propaganda - actually one of the reasons why people voted him to power is because he has an image of a "strong man" - to consolidate and increase his powers. Here is a list of measures which Modi took after coming to power to increase the war machinery production in India: UPDATE 1: And today the new defense minister Manohar Parrikar also announced a deal of 15,750 crore rupees for buying 'artillery guns' (see here ). Some exc...

On 2nd October - the birthday of Gandhiji - newly sworn in prime minister of India Narendra Modi launched his ambitious "Clean India Mission". This scheme is likely to cost whopping rupees 62,000 crore! In my latest economic report I analyze this scheme. Is Modi's "Clean India Mission" going to clean anything except the pockets of poor hapless tax payers? More importantly, what other alternatives are available to make India clean other than using the government apparatus?

Last week prime minister Narendra Modi launched his economic scheme of " Make in India " with a big fan fare. In my latest economic report I disentangle this scheme.  

On 15th August Narendra Modi, from the Red Fort, announced that he is going to do away with the old Soviet style central planning model so he will replace the Indian Planning Commission with some other new Institution. Many people and Modi himself is saying that this replacement institution is a move in the direction of Free Market economy! Is it so? He also launched his ambitious Jan Dhan Yojana . In my latest economic report I analyze Narendra Modi's latest policy moves.

Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th century British Prime Minister said in the parliament, that there are three types of lies: Lies, damn lies and statistics. The word statistics itself has statist (politica) roots. It was first popularized by the German political scientist  Gottfried Aschenwall. "The word statistic indirectly comes from the medieval Latin word status, for a political state although there is also a closely related word in German (statistik) which is also used in a political sense. “Statistik” was popularized by German political scientist Gottfried Aschenwall (1719-1772) in his “Vorbereitung zur Staatswissenschaft” (1748). According to Leiden University, it’s difficult to know exactly when the word ceased to have a meaning close to a “political state” and became more of a mathematical term. The first time the word was used in the Oxford English Dictionary is in 1770, in W. Hooper’s translation of Bielfield’s Elementary Universal Education: “The science, that is cal...

Narendra Modi government presented its first budget recently as well as, as per the news reports , Modi personally advised the Indian commerce minister to block the recent WTO deal on trade facilitation ( the Bali Package ). Modi did this allegedly to help the poor people of India and to further the national interest. Also recently the BRICS nations decided to create their own World Bank . In my latest economic report I analyze all three events.

The price of various vegetables, fruits, grains etc., is rising fast in India e.g., the price of tomato has gone up from around 20 Rs/kg to 100 Rs/kg! New Narendra Modi government, who promised to battle inflation during his election campaign, is blaming speculative hoarders for this price rise (see this and this ). This same lame excuse was also given by the former UPA government finance minister P Chidambaram (see here ). So, is there any grain of truth in what UPA and NDA finance ministers are alleging? Are speculative hoarders responsible for inflation (defined as a rise in the general price level)? I answer this question in my following economic analysis. In short, the government's fiscal policies and central bank RBI's monetary policy are responsible for inflation, but the politicians, whether that be Narendra Modi or Manmohan Singh, will never put the blame on themselves! As always, they will blame people - like speculators and hoarders - for their own follies. ...

Recently Narendra Modi government increased Railway passenger and freight fare by whopping 14.2% and 6% respectively. Modi government and his fans are giving reasons that it is necessary to raise prices for providing better services and safety in Indian Railways! Is it true? Is it necessary to raise price to provide better services? Or is there a better alternative available? Also, recently the inflation numbers came out and the WPI jumped to 6.01% in the month of May. Immediately Modi and his finance minister Jaitley started blaming 'speculative hoarders' for this price rise. Again, is this true? Are 'speculative hoarders' responsible for price rise? I tackle these two questions in this week's economic report below.

In my latest economic report I discuss the slowly unfolding economic policies of Narendra Modi and his BJP government. RBI, mostly under the pressure from the Modi government, recently reduced its SLR by 50 basis point releasing 40,000 crore new credit in the market. This is nothing but inflation. I discuss this and other important matters below. Loop Start playing when buffered ( Only Notify ) - % Smart Buffer Estimated Time: Donate to SmartVideo! Global Preferences Loop Start playing when buffered ( Only Notify ) - % Smart Buffer Estimated Time: Donate to SmartVideo! Global Preferences Loop Start playing when buffered ( Only Notify ) - % Smart Buffer Estimated Time: Donate to SmartVideo! Global Preferences Loop Start playing when buffered ( Only Notify ) - % Smart Buffer Estimated Time: Donate to SmartVideo! Global Preferences ...

Arvind Panagaria is a, as newspapers are describing him, renowned economist from the Columbia university. He and his senior professor colleague Jagdish Bhagwati are famous for supporting and favoring Narendra Modi's so-called market oriented economic model of Gujarat. Panagaria recently gave an interview to TOI where he outlined his main economic views for the Modi government if he becomes PM's chief economic adviser. One look at his views makes it clear that if Panagaria gets his way and becomes PM Modi's adviser, then, we are surely heading for more economic troubles. Below I present Panagaria's views immediately followed by my comments. 1. Upon asked what should be the three priority areas of Modi government, Panagaria said: End the paralysis in decision-making in the Central government, end the policy uncertainty for investors including retrospective taxation and other surprises visited upon entrepreneurs by the authorities, and replace the current drac...

So, Narendra Modi and his BJP party won a clear majority in the just concluded 16th Lok Sabha election. On Monday Modi will become the new prime minister of India. The atmosphere all around the country, mostly as seen in the mainstream media frenzy, is euphoric at this moment of so-called historic win of Modi. Most people see Modi as some kind of messiah who will save this country from corruption, economic stagnation, lack of political power and influence with her neighbors etc., etc. I want to focus here on one alleged thought that is going around mainstream media re Narendra Modi's economic vision. Many articles are describing Modi's economic vision - I have dealt with his development model in past article - as, lo and behold, "Free Market" vision (see this for example)!!! Is it really true that Modi's economic policies in Gujarat were free market policies? The best way to tackle this question is to first see the true definition of the free market, and then co...

I am back from my drafted duty of working as a presiding officer in the on-going Lok Sabha election 2014. As you all know I and thousands of others like me were forced by the Indian government and its Election Commission to work in this one of the longest rounds of election. In this short article I want to describe the harrowing experiences that I had during two days of my duty - 29th and 30th April - as a presiding officer. The Training Period Before the day of election - 30th April in Gujarat - the district collector and his other election officers arranged three training programs for election officers like polling officers, assistant presiding officer and presiding officer. Anyone who attended this training program would have immediately noticed how confused the trainers themselves were regarding various election proceedings. I have already discussed elsewhere about the kind of bureaucratic mess this election is. There are so many rules and regulations that anyone will go crazy ...

Narendra Modi, the lead prime ministerial candidate of BJP party, is having an eight point development model, which he is proposing to implement if he comes to power in 2014. In this succinct write-up I want to analyze this Modi model. Although for those who have a thinking head on their shoulders this model presents nothing new, we, in any case, need to analyze it because Modi is likely to be the next PM of India. Let's take a look at the eight points of this development model one by one. My analysis follows the description of this eight point development model. Here is the model: Education & Job Opportunities for Youth: IITs, IIMs and AIIMS in all states Children & Women’s Empowerment: Beti Bachao Programme Urban Develeopment / Infrastructure: 100 smart Cities, Twin City Concept, Satellite Cities, Interlinking rivers, Golden Quadilateral of bullet trains Inflation/Price Control: Price Stabilisation Fund, Special courts for black marketeers Agriculture Reform: Dat...