"Acche din" for farmers..

[TracerBullet]

I spent the next 20 minutes talking to him. He said " Modi aane ke baad, pura dandha kam ho gaya hai sahab". He went on to explain how he was making 500-600 bucks a day earlier and now his daily income had dropped to 400. He said " Log sabzi kam khane lage hai. Sabzi ke daam bhi kam nahi ho raha hai. Aloo 35/- kilo hai tho kaun khayega sahab". These were his words.

Time to buy fruits. I walked ahead to my regular fruit vendor. I usually just limit my conversation to the quality of fruits even though ive been buying from her for the last 5 years. This time i popped a question about how her dandha was. Her reply " dandha ek saal se mandha hai sahab Koi fruit leta hi nahi hai. 10 rs ka ek orange kitna log khayega. 3 rs ka kela garib nahi kha raha hai. 10 rs mein paanch kela ata tha. ab sirf 3 kela milta hai. Dandha kaise chalega sahab??"

Now i was very determined to find out more. My next stop was my regular cigarettewala. I asked " Modi sarkar banne ke baad kuch accha hua kya aap ke liye?" His reply " Haan sahab hua na. 50 rupay ka sasta toor dal 90 rupay ka ho gaya hai. Accha kya hai is mein? Modi ne ch*t*ya banaya humko".

This may be a small sample of people i talked to. I often hear the "dandha mandha hai" line everywhere i go. But i can tell that people are feeling let down. The stuff they expected are not being delivered. Im not saying that its easy to deliver in less than a year but this is more or less what i hear from poor people.

All of this are legacies of congress. Things could be better but clearly decision making is much better now than it was before. Long term plans will take time. Long term mess left behind will also take time to resolve.
I am no BJP loyalist and in india we can be forgiven for being cynical, The short term promises by parties are generally castles in the air.

In my personal opinion, true development is when the "true benefits" of the so called development starts trickling down to the poorest of the poor people in the society. When the poor have money to buy food. When the poor can buy healthcare etc. There is no deveopment if it doesnt embrace the poorest and the weakest of the society.

Yes, but trickle down development can take a long time and is not that fair. Rich man poor man, Opportunities right from birth should be as equal for all as possible.

Ideally you want a govt that spends money effectively providing good quality basic services in universal education, heathcare, security, infrastructre etc etc. Instead all we hear are cries for subsidies. So much money gets wasted in corruption and inefficiencies that we are always in deficit with no money to spend.

My personal grouse with Modi government is that they said they would get the BLACK MONEY in 100 days if they come to power. I guess no one expected them to get all the money in 100 days but im sure everyone expected the Modi govt to kick some a*s and get the process of getting the money back started. Modi govt promised that everyone would have 15 lakhs their bank ac if they got the black money back. I would be happy if i got even one rupee so far in this account.

Om Namo namah!!

I doubt too that any big guy will be caught, maybe they will find some bakras. If they are serious they could go after half our country too as most reals estate transactions it seems are part-black.

Another thing, these Nordic countries make a lot of their money by producing/selling war material.

I am not familiar with how they make money and granted i am an outsider with no direct experience.
But countries that have weapons sell weapons. That is the case everywhere. We are not taking any moral stands here. Geopolitics is hardly moral anywhere.

But this has no direct relevance to Nordic Model. I meant more in context of how the money is used rather than how it is made.

 

[Riskyman]

All of this are legacies of congress. Things could be better but clearly decision making is much better now than it was before. Long term plans will take time. Long term mess left behind will also take time to resolve.
I am no BJP loyalist and in india we can be forgiven for being cynical, The short term promises by parties are generally castles in the air.

Blaming the past government is always easy. Question we have to ask is what is the present govt doing? Decision making is one thing. Acting upon it is another. Once acted upon, controlling the on going action is the key. Let me cite you a small example here without being to critical. Modiji, took a jhadu and said lets clean up India. Great Idea. So what happened? We have cleaner cities? cleaner streets? Nope. The simplest thing to do would have been was to install dustbins on each and every street there is. But to make a political statement, Modiji himself decided to do some cleaning without any "follow up actions". Futile !

Yes, but trickle down development can take a long time and is not that fair. Rich man poor man, Opportunities right from birth should be as equal for all as possible.

Ideally you want a govt that spends money effectively providing good quality basic services in universal education, heathcare, security, infrastructre etc etc. Instead all we hear are cries for subsidies. So much money gets wasted in corruption and inefficiencies that we are always in deficit with no money to spend.

Some of the mightiest rivers start as a trickle. So long as it keeps trickling, many at the bottom will benefit from it. Example. Many years ago they started this initiative of education in very rural areas. Today that has grown. You will see that most rural areas have schools. Of course the quality of education can be questioned. Point I was making was that the development should embrace everyone in the society.

Subsidies can be beneficial so long as they are well thought of and well executed. Diesel is subsidized. Even a rich guy driving an expensive car benefits from this subsidy. So whats the point of such a subsidy? But the same subsidy is helpful to a farmer who is using that diesel to run his tractors or his water pump.

 

[timepass]

That "Trickle down" reminds me of similar slogans by Rajiv Gandhi, 30 years ago.

As for the cleaner cities, placing the dustbins is the easy part, maintaining a garbage disposal system is the more difficult one, and it is the responsibility of the govt. We haven't heard anything from the govt. about this. All we have heard is "You have to keep your area clean". Ok, I will use the jhadu as I have been doing since before you asked me to, but where will I throw the kachra ??

 

[Riskyman]

That "Trickle down" reminds me of similar slogans by Rajiv Gandhi, 30 years ago.

As for the cleaner cities, placing the dustbins is the easy part, maintaining a garbage disposal system is the more difficult one, and it is the responsibility of the govt. We haven't heard anything from the govt. about this. All we have heard is "You have to keep your area clean". Ok, I will use the jhadu as I have been doing since before you asked me to, but where will I throw the kachra ??

Again. A good system is one which will ensure that the benefits gets trickled down to the bottom most. Saying that we have a system but benefits are not trickling down to the bottom because someone in between is siphoning things out, is not a good system in the first place. So the system needs to be made efficient.

Exactly! A political gimmick is nothing more than a political gimmick. When i said installing dustbins i also meant a proper waste management/disposal system included. Here we have Modiji saying keep your place clean but he hasnt done anything to help people keep the place clean. No follow up action seen so far to make india clean.

 

[TracerBullet]

So what happened? We have cleaner cities? cleaner streets? Nope. The simplest thing to do would have been was to install dustbins on each and every street there is. But to make a political statement, Modiji himself decided to do some cleaning without any "follow up actions". Futile !

As for the cleaner cities, placing the dustbins is the easy part, maintaining a garbage disposal system is the more difficult one, and it is the responsibility of the govt. We haven't heard anything from the govt. about this. All we have heard is "You have to keep your area clean". Ok, I will use the jhadu as I have been doing since before you asked me to, but where will I throw the kachra ??

I cant speak for every city/village. Here in Mumbai i see plenty of dustbins hidden in plain sight yet there is litter everywhere. People throw grabage rather than take the effort to locate one. People take their pet dogs out to take a dump in public property ....
I am willing to give them time, its only been half a year. If there is no real push from central govt/state govt/bmc to come with ways improve cleanliness then i guess it would be only a political statement indeed.

Some of the mightiest rivers start as a trickle. So long as it keeps trickling, many at the bottom will benefit from it. Example. Many years ago they started this initiative of education in very rural areas. Today that has grown. You will see that most rural areas have schools. Of course the quality of education can be questioned. Point I was making was that the development should embrace everyone in the society.

Yes, development should touch all, but There is no need for large scale high inequality. What i meant is that, looking from outside, i like the nordic way much better than the american way as an ideal. In the end govt should be responsible to provide high quality basic services and safety net in a sustainable way. Trickle down effect cannot be an excuse for avoiding a larger scale push to fix the issues. A generation or two will remain left behind with only mild benefits. Anyway, this is just i think

Subsidies can be beneficial so long as they are well thought of and well executed. Diesel is subsidized. Even a rich guy driving an expensive car benefits from this subsidy. So whats the point of such a subsidy? But the same subsidy is helpful to a farmer who is using that diesel to run his tractors or his water pump.

I disagree. Direct transfer of subsidy with proper targeting is much better than an inefficent regime. And ideally farmers should be big and rich enough that they dont need subsidy. The purpose of subsidy should be to temporarily support people in need and give them a way to get out of trouble.

 

[Riskyman]

I disagree. Direct transfer of subsidy with proper targeting is much better than an inefficent regime. And ideally farmers should be big and rich enough that they dont need subsidy. The purpose of subsidy should be to temporarily support people in need and give them a way to get out of trouble.

Whether you agree or no, it doesnt matter (not being rude here ) because there are subsidies meant for the poor which the rich are exploiting as well. Its a systemic problem. Use of diesel being the case. Maybe we both are on the same page here.

 

[TracerBullet]

Whether you agree or no, it doesnt matter (not being rude here ) because there are subsidies meant for the poor which the rich are exploiting as well. Its a systemic problem. Use of diesel being the case. Maybe we both are on the same page here.

oh ok, i misunderstood ...

 

[cloudTrader]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india...e-of-accident-says-govt/article1-1314915.aspx


this is another very serious matter that needs to be protested

Who will protest ? Just as past 60 years have gone , same way wait for another 60 months to pass by .. :rofl: .. People have chosen to add 60 more months of same old story to be narrated .. .. This is a never ending cycle ..

 

[Krushna]

Who will protest ? Just as past 60 years have gone , same way wait for another 60 months to pass by .. :rofl: .. People have chosen to add 60 more months of same old story to be narrated .. .. This is a never ending cycle ..

A chilling story indeed... may be another "Bhopal" in waiting? May be trial ground for new material? My be this ... may be that... poor We...

 

[cloudTrader]

A chilling story indeed... may be another "Bhopal" in waiting? May be trial ground for new material? My be this ... may be that... poor We...

The nuclear accident in Japan has already shown that such technologically advanced countries have a tough time controlling such incidents . The satellite pictures taken recently show that the area surrounding Japan are experiencing quite high temperatures.

Efforts to bring swift Economic Tsunami can have ripping effects in the long term..

I sincerely pray for fellow Indians ... God be with us .