The ubiquitious 20's story

  
             It was a long day at office for her, a US client meeting which somehow had not gone as per expectations. With a view of getting some clean air she opens her Facebook account just to alleviate her depression only to find it getting worse. She finds her junior who just got an admission to IIM A with 80%ile writing about the handwork and perseverance it took him to get there. Though she wants to be happy for him, she looks back at her own scorecard which reflects 97%ile. She knew she hadn't put even half of that efforts to get that score. Too bad she wasn't in reservation category. She scrolls down to find one of  closest friend of her thanking numerous people(so that that they come to know) who had helped her to get into the "university of her dreams''.  Though she wants to be happy for her she looks at her own GRE score of 325, but had restrained to apply for universities because of the financial burden it could have imposed on her family."Oh God why inst my family rich'' she thought to herself.  She scrolls down to find one of her friend is engaged to a boy in U.S . ''That is the trend these days'', she whispers to herself "to achieve your US dream"
           She ponders what other options she had to prove her self worth. A top scorer herself during her b.tech years, there was nothing she could not achieve. She did got placed in one of the first companies to come to campus but everything seemed to be stagnated after that. She curses herself of not getting that extra 2 percentile in CAT last year and picks up Arun Sharma's quant book  in a bid to solve it one more time.

Just look around you how many such friends do we have, who are smarter than you but just have been let down by situations. For the ones who have had the privilege to complete their education from a reputed college or U.S universities, or maybe doing some job in a big 4 kind of company  it doesn't giveém any right to be grandiloquent of the achievements, to think that they are better than others because there are many people who are way smarter than you,  working way lot harder to achieve the same dreams you just took for granted.
   
      So what happened to that girl, did she cracked 99% the next year? did she go to US for a  project based on her high performance, or did she got married to a US guy. Well I leave that to your figment of imagination of where you want to lead the charactor to .......

Budget expectations 2016-2017

                      BUDGET EXPECTATIONS 2016-17

India’s GDP growth rate stood at 7.3% year on year in last 3 months of 2015, decreasing further from an upwardly revised 7.7 % growth in previous quarter. The 3.9% target of fiscal deficit is to be met by the government and it is expected to set a target of 3.8% for the next year. India’s current account deficit stood at $8.2 billion in September 2015 which was 1.6% of GDP.

Among some flagship programs being promoted in the last budget some got overwhelming success while some just created nothing more than hype. MGNREGA:  Finance minister had increased the budget to 34699 crore in previous budget but  a scheme with 85% leakages can’t be proclaimed as successful. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana: Around 5.48 crore accounts have zero balance of  the 7.5 Crore accounts opened so far which indicates its failure. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna with a budget of 1000 crore rupees seems to have benefited farmers with micro-irrigation initiatives coming up.Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojna: Under this scheme a total of 21,586 crore have been disbursed so far benefiting 33.31 lakh people. Soil Health Card scheme: The 568.54 crore scheme is clearly a failure due to its slowness in implementation with only 2.83 crore samples tested out of the 5.84 crore collected.

What can we expect in the coming year?

Skill development: With Skill development as an ancillary to the make in India campaign government is expected to come up with schemes and monetary incentives under Skill development to develop small- scale entrepreneurship initiative to impart specific training to unskilled labour.

Higher investment in education: Investment in education is expected to increase with increasing infrastructures for schools which in turn will provide a boost for skill India campaign and in turn the make in India initiative

Tax exemptions and Tax deductions: Service tax limit is expected to be increased to 25 lakh from current 10 lakh rupees which will provide advancement for ease of doing business

Savings: There should be overall increase in the deduction cap which is currently consolidated  for long term savings including provident funds, pension funds and equity schemes to 1.5 lakh. Tax deductions under section 80C need to be revised. This will encourage savings

Housing: The current limit of the deduction for interest on housing loans which currently stands at 2,00,000 should be increased in a move of easy housing for common man  .      GST: Government should come up with a proper road map for the implementation of GST in this budget session. Service tax is a bane for all start-ups and with government pushing Small and medium scale enterprises, its implementation is imperative                      

Reduction in Corporate Tax rate. We expect a reduction in corporate tax base rate which stands at 30% now to around 25 %

Digital India: Government needs to come up with avenues for public private partnership which can shape the digital India Initiative

Healthcare sector : The government is expected to come up  with health insurance scheme for senior citizens and other additional benefits

Greece financial crisis in short

Greece Crisis in short

The Greece crisis which started around 2009 was 1^st of the five sovereign debt crisis. It was due to Greece’s inability to meet debt obligations .The root of the problem lay right from 1999 with the introduction of Euro as common currency. Till then Greece could devaluate its currency to increase export trade at bad times. During 2001-2007 Greece enjoyed the inflows of money .But this happened as Greece was part of Eurozone ; as creditors thought core countries like Germany would come to the rescue of Greece in crisis situation. As the Great recession spread to Europe, the inflows of money had stopped in Greece. Fiscal mismanagement and deception increased borrowing cost to a point where no inflow was possible in Greek economy. Currency depreciation could have solved the problem to payback debt in cheaper currency.But as Greece remained in Euro, the wages increased.This in turn led to increase in deflation ,leading to high debt to GDP ratio. The misreported debt obligations by previous governments came out in 2010 when credit rating agencies dubbed Greece economy as Junk Bond Status. Since then many bailout packages have been issued by TROICA namely the EC, ECB and IMF and some austerity measures to remove Greece from crisis.

Good money inflows +high government spending  = No serious troubles

But after global financial crisis

No money inflows + misreported debt by previous govt + inability to devaluate currency + inability to payback high debt = Greece Crisis

A MONTH AT GOD’s OWN KAMPUS

                                           A MONTH AT GOD’s OWN KAMPUS

It was 3.45 p.m as I was strolling past the now familiar steps that took me along blithely towards the Lahari Hostel of this prestigious IIMK . And as I walked, a sudden realization that it’s been a month in this campus made my heart skip a beat. It was just a month before when I was all but excited to get to this place I dreamt of , excitement brought along with it the anxiety of how would the new world look like. And with all that gusto as I entered this campus I realized why the campus is called God’s Own campus. All the troubles of the world seem to get lost in these lush green woods . The clouds played hide and seek with the mountains and  every flower was like a soul blossoming in nature. There was a mystic music in the silence of woods, a mystic rapture in the midst of the empty campus walls.And as the raindrops kissed my body I was lost in the enigma of the beauty , the enthralling magic of mother nature took me to a different world , and I imagined If there was heaven , possibly it was in IIMK.

            Soon after the admission process there was no respite with assignments bombarded on us .Started to get the feeling of what it means to be in IIM , what it means to be nocturnal. After some sleepless nights of completing the assignments, the hoax was broken. A completely vibrant IIMK came in front of us in the form of ‘ROOBAROO”. With music, dance, drama and events across the horizon, the enjoyment just refused to recede. It was a time of making new friends, acquaintances and people from diverse backgrounds. The plethora of talent that was in for display just mesmerized my senses and gave a proud feeling. There were times we ended having debates and there were times when the laughter refused to abate. Even the bitter comments sound sweeter now and all the compliments an infinite treasure, our section overcame challenges and proved we were not  any lesser

            The focus then shifted to case studies with students storming into J-Landing of the hostel with group discussions and assignments. The night canteen gave a festivity look to the hostel even at 2.am in the night and just the indication of how competitive yet enjoyable the life is out here. As my mind returned from reminiscing the past one month, I realized I still have a long way to go in this campus.

As I write this,one line from Robert Frost’s famous poem is reverberating in my mind “The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”