What I Learned

Let me start with a disclaimer that I am not an expert in Banking or Finance. In fact, as my family and some of my friends know, I am pretty bad at handing and managing money. Having admitted that, while thinking about subprime crisis and reading about ponzi schemes and loan defaults by some of the well known so-called Indian industrialists, I started wondering if the idea of lending and borrowing and the greed is the root cause of all this evil. Being a hardcore Hindu, the best thing I like about Islam, is the principle that lending and borrowing for interest are sins! Perfect! I think at least half the financial troubles in the world may disappear if just this one rule is put in place. If not complete ban at least there has to be a ceiling on the amount that can be borrowed or lent, to help in case of emergencies, and education for deserving student. Below are some of the consequences I could think of, of such a move. Farmers in India may stop committing suicide be

Today while studying geography, my son, Om asked me about Earth’s orbit around the Sun, the distance earth travels around the sun in a year. I didn't remember it and hence I searched on Google and read it on Wikipedia within a few seconds (many thanks to the Internet, the Web, Google and Wikipedia, and to the people who created these technologies and sites – this would have easily taken me at least over an hour without these to buy/find a book and read the information). The answer is … hold your breath, the Earth rotates around the Sun at the speed of 30 Kms/second (1800 KMs/hour) to cover a distance of about 946,080,000 KMs in a year, while rotating around its own axis at 25 KM/second (1500 KMs/hour)! ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_orbit ). Now I know why they say, fact is stranger than fiction! Facts are anytime more surprising, fascinating, amazing than fiction. Who needs fiction to get amused? And this is just one example! The world is full of such astonishi

I explaining how what is market capital, market cap index, free float or investible weight, adjusted market cap, index divisor, formula for computing market index etc.

Now since differences of opinion are public (which is a sign of an intellectually matured society), I got thinking about whose path seems more correct at India Against Corruption, Annaji or Arvindji. Good people replacing bad ones in the parliament, seems to be the only practical way to clean the political ‘system’ to me and hence I support the path of political alternative chosen by Arvindji. I  am sure at the same time that Annaji also has an elderly role to play to ensure that people who are good today don’t become corrupt tomorrow. So, we need both. If Mamta, Maya, Raj and Jagan can form separate political parties what’s wrong with an Arvind forming one? At least Arvind has a proven track record of activism and being absolutely clean, transparent and open! Aren’t these qualities required in the politics today for a change? As Gandhiji said, you must be the change you want to see in the world! If it requires giving a political alternative, so be it. And we are doing this af

Being a studious one :-), for an assignment from our real estate firm in the family, over the weekend I read guidelines by the Indian ministry of environment and forests for environment clearance of building, construction, township and area development projects in various states of India . The guidelines provide a standardized process and requirements for environment impact analysis of these projects. It is heartening to see such a comprehensive document made available by a government ministry. It will help reduce subjectivity in the environment clearance process across 25 states that have formed State Environment Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAA) and state export appraisal committees (SEAC). The guidelines make 2 categories of projects. Building and construction projects, and township and area development projects. Building and construction projects involve construction of one or more standalone buildings sans the infrastructure development while Township and area developme