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...

Since time immemorial, the entire global media fraternity has been divided between Israel and Palestine. While on one hand, a set of media has been strongly supporting Israel, on the other, there has been as staunch a support for Palestine. Amidst all this, the debate still lingers – which one of the two, Israel or Palestine, is wrong? But then, how can one be right and how can the other be wrong? In other words, how can any one of them be right! Supporting any of these nations would essentially and fundamentally mean supporting the very doctrine of war. In no given circumstance has a war been the appropriate route to a solution! Thus, the very discussion of which country is wrong or right gets futile, if one were to view the entirety of the situation through the lens of humanity. War, has always – especially in recent history – been a tool to display a nation’s military might. It is a way of flaunting newly developed state-of-the-art weaponries and defence technologies. War today...

United States’ finely tuned images of ‘land of opportunity’, ‘land of the free’ and ‘home of the brave’ – all have in recent time received a major jolt with protestors pouring in from all over the country in thousands. It is probably the biggest protest since anti-Vietnam-war demonstrations in the 70s! Finally their police are finding it tough to control their own people. This time they are failing to smoke them out, because the enemy lies in every other house. I wrote about the coming end of capitalism – the way we know it – in 2008 itself as an aftermath of the latest recession that has hit the world due to its blind belief in free market profiteering and was surprised why (despite people around the world, from countries in the Middle East to a laid back country like India, showing a tendency to come out on the streets to press for their rights) people in the western world were delaying coming out in the streets to press for what was their right – the right to stable and dignified li...