The Third Opinion

The media houses in the West often find India's foreign policy and diplomacy ambiguous and inconsistent (as sometimes it is not beneficial to them?). One of the reasons might be unfamiliarity towards India's rich heritage of history from which she derives her foreign policy doctrine.  Arthashashtra, t he first-ever recognised document dedicated to foreign policy,   still guides India in difficult times when the world order is changing, new challenges have emerged, a new superpower has risen in the east and old equations have changed. Arthashastra,  authored by  Chanakya (the son of Chanak)  or  Kautilya  or  Vishnugupta  (all names refer to the same person), laid the foundation for India's foreign policy ( Kootniti  as described by  Kautilya ). The literature is not merely a theory, but its wisdom is tested on the battlefields of  the Mauryan  empire. It deals with the topics such as the state and its constituents, treas...

(Image courtesy - https://www.cleanpng.com) Dr. B R Ambedkar led Indian Constituency Committee, introduced reservation system in Independent India. Though this was not first time  the term was introduced  ( as Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj have introduced this before in Kolhapur, Maharashtra ) , it was the first time benefiting the people all across United India. Initially, the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) were subjected to benefits. After Mandal Commission identified 52% of population need to be provided positive affirmation, it has made provision for Other Backward Class (OBC) in 1987. Recently in 2019, EWS criteria has been determined for Economic Weaker Section of the society. The reservation policy has been facing criticism and controversy, mainly after 2000. The Gujjar in Rajasthan demanding ST status from OBC, Jaats asking for their inclusion in OBC, Patidar in Gujrat, Maratha in Maharashtra, Kapu community in Andhra Pradesh. Few groups of society, who ...

   ( Times of India :  20th July 1969)  The term nationalisation is often used to in reference to situation where Government of particular country taking control over a business, previously managed by private enterprise, for example, Venezuelan government taking control over Exxon Mobil plant, or merger of Indian banks into state owned financial institutions in the past. It is often supported with reason such as to break monopoly of few giants or to restructure the industry for common good. The recent Indian efforts to restructure its payment ecosystem with UPI and e-commerce business through ONDC seem to be a new kind of nationalisation, revolutionising these two industries. The government backed payment interface is all set to link credit cards with UPI, the interface with expected zero MDR (merchant discount rate), outcome of which may lead to VISA and MASTERCARD exit the Indian markets. Currently, UPI charges no extra cost for transactions while these foreign ins...

                    (Image Source - https://chennai.citizenmatters.in )   Many political parties promise to offer subsidized or free availability of food, electricity, transportation, laptops, electrical equipment as part of their election manifesto. Does this culture promote growth or hampers it, is the hot topic of debate these days. The first important thing to understand is the motive of providing freebies. Many of the European countries like Germany provide free healthcare and free education to their education. Germany spends almost 11% of its GDP on healthcare. To compensate for these expenses, they charge 14% tax on income and maximum up to 54,000 euros. The motive is quite clear. They don't want a family to go bankrupt just due to paying for sudden high medical costs incurred. So, the country's healthcare expense is distributed among all the taxpayers and everyone is benefited. So, the providing free...

  In the recent circumstances as of July 2022, the rupee continues to tumble and have settled around 80 Rs against US dollar. This descent is expected to go further and will have direct impact on citizens of India.As rupee continues to fall, the CPI inflation will go beyond 6.8 % reported by rating agency Crisil, whereas ideal range for inflation is 2-6% as per RBI. As India being net importer, this would lead to increase in fiscal deficit up to 3% of  total GDP. Often when the country's currency dips with respect to US dollar, the export products and services become cheaper. So, it is believed to have rise in exports' figure. But in current scenario, the Ukraine-Russia war and post effects of pandemic has weaken the overall demand. The sectors such pharmacy, textile and IT industry which contributes most of the Indian exports may not benefit due to disrupted supply chain and low demand. Moreover, Indian manufactured products which are dependent heavily on imported raw materia...