The Globalising Indian

During my growing up years, mostly Indians were going to the U.S. for higher studies, and then, many settled down there. Hardly any other destinations.

Now I find my friends/students or relatives in multiple places. Canada and Australia seem to be the popular ones, though there are a few in New Zealand, Dubai, Finland or Germany as well. This is a sign of globalisation.

I think it is also a sign that a few more countries have realised two things- that you need immigrants to bring in some new ideas, at least in some sectors. And that Indians have what it takes, in those sectors.

If immigration laws did not exist (I suspect they did not, long ago when India used to be one of the richest economies in the world, even if under monarchies), people (labour in the words of economists) would probably be better able to redistribute themselves according to need and joblessness may reduce - hypothetically at least. The alternative, globalised production according to the cheapest location that can produce anything, seems mired in tariff wars across geographies.

Anyway, interesting to see where all the nationalist, anti-immigration rhetoric in various countries leads us..and what happens to the oil-rich economies when oil runs out.

Running Out of Things

I don't mean groceries at home. It's about the world at large. We are, according to some predictions, going to

1. Run out of drinking water in 15 years,
2. Oil in 40 years,
3. Glaciers in 25 years,
4. Chocolate in 10 years,
5. Fish in 75 years,

and 6. Air in a 100 years-at least, oxygen in the air.


I am just wondering when we will run out of these crazy predictors?

Iran and the World

I have no idea of the politics that goes on in the world driven by the supercop, but I have a lot of reasons to wish it would not lead to Iran being left out of the world scene. I have had colleagues and friends who were from Iran, and I always enjoyed my interaction with them. The hide and seek that goes on between Iran and the Western powers should not cloud India's historically good ties with the country and its people.

There is good news that the sanctions will go soon. Hope Iran returns to the mainstream. I also find that Iranian films are of a high quality, and appreciated by many. I have seen around six or seven, and most were very good, if slightly political. I think we all have a lot to learn from each other culturally, and Iran and India have usually had a good exchange. We are respected there, and I think we can build on that to further ties, going beyond just oil. We all stand to benefit.

Anopheles and the Vanishing Rupee Trick

Ok, this is the latest tete-a-tete with my old friend Anopheles. For those who came in late, she is a female mosquito who specialises in intelligent conversation, sometimes giving me a complex.

This time, she asked me what problems my countrymen were facing. Brainwashed by the stories on TV every breathtaking hour, I replied, "The falling rupee."

She said, "What do you mean?"

I explained, "It's our currency. The rupee. It has fallen to an all-time low against the American currency, the US dollar."

She seemed amused. "Do you travel abroad frequently?"
"No," I said.
"Do you need something so badly that you have to import it?"
I was about to say "gold" but checked myself and said, "Not really."

"Then, pray, how does the rupee fall bother you?" she wanted to know.
I was a bit flummoxed. Then I thought of a killer reply "We need petrol and diesel, you know.That has to be imported. So we need dollars."

"Oh, so you can't do without oil." She seemed quite disdainful. "What research have you done into using solar energy, which is almost free? Or any alternative sources? Why haven't you developed electric cars, with all those millions of engineers whom you keep churning out of your wonderful colleges?"

How did she know so much about what we didn't do, I wondered. But outwardly I put up a brave front.
"Research is on, you know. We'll soon have some of those."

She was not convinced. "Are you sure? How many products or technologies have you produced out of your labs in the last sixty-five years?"
I could count about  four or five, and gave up.

"Ok, let's talk of something else," I beseeched her. She relented, so I told her how my state of birth was being split into two- Telangana and Andhra.

She was sceptical of the benefits.
"How do you expect the same bunch of people who ruled the earlier state to do anything different with the people just because you made a new boundary line?" was her searing question.

"Smaller states are easier to govern," I argued.

"Then how come you had all these great empires in the past? Were they all badly governed? The U.S. is large. Is it badly governed?" I had to admit my logic was sounding flawed, in retrospect.

Mulling over that lesson in "good governance", I bid her goodbye with a promise to meet another day.