Posts

The Greek Democracy: Some Lessons

I am reading Will Durant’s majestic book the Story of Civilization Part II, The Life of Greece . The Greek people, originally called as the Hellas (from Hellenes) gave our modern world so many things like, and I quote Durant, excepting machinery, there is hardly anything secular in our culture that does not come from Greece. Schools, gymnasiums, arithmetic, geometry, history, rhetoric, physics, biology, anatomy, hygiene, therapy, cosmetics, poetry, music, tragedy, drama, comedy, philosophy, theology, agnosticism, skepticism, stoicism, Epicureanism, ethics, politics, idealism, philanthropy, cynicism, tyranny, plutocracy, democracy. It was the ancient Greece and its people that gave us the political system of democracy. I have now started hearing from many Indians that the Indian democracy is not doing its work. The real question which everyone is not asking is, do we actually have a democracy in India (and elsewhere) like the one which was originally developed by the Hellas? ...

On Europe, Donald Trump and the Indian Economy

Recently I was interviewed by an Italian magazine 'Economia Italiana'. My original Italian language special invitation interview can be read here . I am posting the English language version of the same interview below the following short introduction. This is the introduction of that interview: "Europe in the throes of a disastrous experiment in government centralisation". Today at first on Economia Italiana exclusive interview of professor Madhusudan Raj of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University. Interview conducted by Carmelo Fertilo and Giuseppe Marasti. It covers the topics of Europe, Donald Trump presidency in USA and the Indian economy. The English language version of the interview: Professor Raj, you are a member of the Austrian school of economics, and therefore highly oriented toward the free market. How is the general attitude, on this regard, of Indian politicians entrepreneurs and economists? The general attitude in India regarding which ...

Demonetization Update

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It's been 48 days of Modi's demonetization policy and it is a time for a further update. Since the day of announcement of this policy on the evening of 8th November the prime minister of India Narendra Modi is shifting the time scale of his promises about when the pain of people, due to demonetization, will end. In his original speech he promised that in 2-3 days everything will be normal. Then he said give me 50 days and all your woes will end, and if not then he said punish me in public ! Later he realized even this 50 day limit is not going to be enough so he said after 50 days slowly slowly the situation will start getting normal! Bankers are now saying that after the 50 day limit it will be impossible to give full cash money to depositors because the cash crunch is still as it was in the beginning and it will continue for many more months! I was recently interviewed by the globe trotting investment advisor Mr. Jayant Bhandari on the demonetization issue. Below is our...

On Modi's Demonetization

Introduction   On the eve of 8 th November, 2016 the prime minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi came out on the national television and started announcing a rather unexpected policy decision of his. He said: To break the grip of corruption and black money, we have decided that the 500 rupee and 1,000 rupee currency notes presently in use will no longer be legal tender from midnight tonight, that is 8th November 2016. This means that these notes will not be acceptable for transactions from midnight onwards. The 500 and 1,000 rupee notes hoarded by anti-national and anti-social elements will become just worthless pieces of paper. This is how the demonetization, or as the former finance minister P Chidambaram termed the demonization of cash, policy of Narendra Modi government started. This announcement surprised the whole country. It shocked people. Objectives of this policy  So, why did Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi took this drastic step? What pr...