Passionate About India

The era of colonialism is over. However, exploitative trade practices by First World countries against poor nations are still alive and kicking. Overly biased import policies by richer nations, who weave a complex web of tariffs and duties, set the tone of discrimination against Third World countries. For instance, Bangladesh-made garments entering the US market are slapped with duties and taxes/tariffs that are in general 20 times higher than those that UK-made garments have to face. Similarly, imported Indian garments have to face import tariffs of around 19%, as compared to the 0-1% charge applicable on European and Japanese garment imports. Such discrimination debilitates the value additions made by producers belonging to poor countries. According to internal estimations of Brazil, its agricultural exports’ earning has reduced by more than $10 billion because of trade barriers in the West. For Mozambique, exports to EU are lower by $100 million a year because of restrictions tha...

I was watching a movie in the first floor of our house that fateful afternoon of '94 when that call came and changed our lives forever. It was my mother who had called from the ground floor of our house to inform me through her uncontrollable tears that she had just then received a call that my younger brother had died in a road accident. I rushed down hoping against hope that it was someone else. My dad was sure it wouldn't be someone else – as I drove our car frantically towards Gurgaon where the accident had happened – and advised me to drive slowly. He had done his maximum possible to see to it that we never developed a fascination for motorbikes. An avid reader of about a dozen papers everyday, my father was definite that a motorbike was a sure-shot route to disaster on Indian roads. So the soonest he could, he bought a car for us. I still remember that day in 1993, after he had bought a fifth-hand 1977 model Toyota, he entered the house, lay down on the bed in a relaxed m...

As London burns and USA is downgraded with fears of another recessionary wave hitting the world, there is one thing that becomes amply clear. You can’t have a world full of inequity and live in peace. Never before in its history has the gap between the rich and the poor widened as it has in the last 40 years in America. And every right wing party has only worked hard to enrich the rich. Every time the Democrats have come back and tried to increase even half a percent of tax on the rich to use it for those marginalized by the markets, the Republicans have screamed hoarse. No doubt, Obama has knowledge about economics, but what is happening in America right now is a shame, especially the way right wing fanatics are making the scene look worse than it is. The problem in UK is however another side of the same coin. The whites were sitting happily claiming that the blacks and other minorities live better in UK than they would have in their country of origin. However, happiness is a comparat...