It is an Internal Affair!

 In a letter to the secretary of state a group of 25 congressmen have urged the state department to continue denying Narendra Modi a US visa.

As hypocritical as it is – the US won’t refrain from FDI in the state of Gujarat lead by Mr. Modi. In a highly unlikely event of Mr. Modi becoming the Prime Minister of the country what is the US going to do? Stop speaking with the Indian PM? The Obama administration is anyway more aligned with Pakistan in the region so hypothetical Modi’s election would serve as a means of severing ties with India even further. If you guys have such principled issue with Modi leave Gujarat alone and take your business elsewhere.

Gujarat is the next big thing in India and probably the most advanced in terms of infrastructure, so when it comes to money matters the US will never back out. What the US doesn’t understand that what happened in Gujarat is India’s internal affair and they should maintain distance. Nobody questions the US on their policies such as no aid to Katrina victims or non-stop dollar printing, so who give you the right to question others. Modi should probably ask US multinationals to butt out from Gujarat for his harassment by the US government or levy a 5% harassment tax on them. There won’t be shortage of non-US multinationals or even Indian companies vying for his business. That would bring them to their senses!

Gary Johnsons dog comment

“My next-door neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this president,” Johnson said near the end of the debate.

Why does the media think everybody is a fool...

When journalists go out and write stories, that’s what they are probably doing, making-up / cooking stories. The media reports have flavors and they keep changing, but the thing is that the in-flavor keeps repeating no matter what. This is especially true for people reporting on the stock market.

The flavor of this season is called “fiscal cliff” so no matter what happens it is about the fiscal cliff!

Yesterday the stock market was down 80 points –“Investors nervous about the impending fiscal cliff resolution”

This morning the stock market was up 40 points –“Investors hopeful of fiscal cliff deal push stocks higher”

And this afternoon the WSJ reporter who wrote this probably doesn't even know what fiscal cliff is but he had a churn out an article so for Christ sake “U.S. Stocks Tilt Higher After Fiscal-Cliff Doubts Spur Swings”

A few months ago it was all Greece! So all stock market turns were attributed to Greece Dilemma and Greece Hope.

Houston Evenings From My Phone

The best and worst airlines to travel long ....

One cannot come to terms with importance of a good airline economy seat unless you’ve travelled to the Far East sitting in the saddle for 14 to 17 hours. People interested in bargain hunting with the dollar value of the ticket as the sole criteria should try sitting in an IKEA steel chair staring at a wall before making the deal. For long journey one should at least consider the following:

Leg room

Food quality

Frequency of beverage service

Selection of entertainment

Time of travel, multiple airlines, layover etc.

Number of rest rooms

From all my travels this is my take on the following airlines:

Qatar Airways – This is probably one of the best. They have the youngest fleet in air; of course I am talking about the air crafts: D. Compared to most airlines their spacious leg room qualifies them as a Merc in the world of Hondas. Add to it the Mediterranean delicacies and the non-stop beverage service they make flying joy.

Emirates – This doesn’t come far behind Qatar and is comparable on the leg rooms and selection of in-flight entertainment.

Delta/KLM – These are the Honda Toyotas of the airline industry. The leg room cramps you up and there is a genuine urge for the ordeal to get over. The food quality isn’t that great and Delta probably has the oldest fleet in air (wink wink) with their seats all worn down and borderline smelly.

Air France – Here comes the worst of them. This is now a part of Delta but prior to that they were the bottom of them all. One can live with minor discomforts but the food really kills you. On your way to France you had to deal with ice cold fish, butter and cold Baguettes!! Limited entertainment and rude air hostesses, mainly guys are a further No No!!

Black Friday is a Rip Off!

Still dreaming about that hot deal you wish to clinch on Black Friday?

Putting off the purchases in the month of November to score some discount?

Trust me it is a total rip off. As was said in the matrix “There is no spoon” – There is no deal.

You won’t believe this until you experience and I speak from experience.

Last year I and my wife went shopping for a dining table. Upon much research we tumbled upon this beautiful round top antique design in Ashley Furniture store. It was priced at $400 and we liked it. This was a fortnight before Thanksgiving. We put off the purchase till Black Friday to get it at a discount as we had an Ad from Ashley saying a 20% discount on Black Friday, before 8.00 am. So we came back on D day early morning only to find the same set priced at $500. Haggling with the store manager and sales guys yielded no result and we ended up purchasing it for $500 – 20% = $400.

It’s a shame how stores getaway with such practices and the consumer protection agencies just dose off. So that was the story of my last bargain hunting for Black Fridays.

I wish I could report Ashley Furniture to some Govt Agency that would reprimand them.

Excerpts from India's 11th 5yr. plan (2012-2017) - Water Shortage!!

Below are major excerpts from India's 11th 5yr plan highlighting the problem of drinking water in the country!!

Water is a relatively scarce resource in India since we have 16.0 per cent of the world’s population

and only 4.0 per cent of the usable fresh water. Since the annual availability of fresh water is fixed and

demands are bound to expand as production increases

Satellite data reveals that there has been a decline in the ground water level of 4 centimetres each

year between 2002 and 2008 in the alluvial tracks of Northern India where natural rates of recharge are

high. This is equivalent to an increase in over 70.0 per cent in the rate of water extraction compared to the

previous decade

Water quality issues also arise due to chemical pollution through excessive fertiliser use and reckless

dumping of untreated waste into our rivers. Only about 30 per cent of the total sewage generated in the

country is actually treated before being dumped into available water bodies

Since groundwater is the main source of water in India, special emphasis is needed on obtaining

an accurate picture of groundwater resources, including a comprehensive mapping of our aquifers at

a watershed scale, with their storage and transmission characteristics. Our current network of around

60,000 observation wells is completely inadequate given the explosive rise in groundwater use in recent

years through nearly 30 million groundwater structures

Use of water by industry and urban areas needs to be made much more efficient. This requires

reducing dependence on fresh water, especially groundwater (which is increasingly being over-exploited

across the country) and ensuring safe disposal of waste. A major hike is required in investments in water

recycling or waste-water treatment

http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/12appdrft/appraoch_12plan.pdf

Is India the most corrupt and dictatorial country on the planet?

It is reminiscent of the Hollywood movies, shot in the most deprived of African countries where you see a drug lord / gun dealer enjoying total authoritarian regime and controlling the masses unchallenged – alike Gabbar Singh’s regime over Ramgarh in Sholay.

Today the Union Law Minister in India, Salman Khurshid gets away with threatening remarks as such -

"I don't give a visa to go there but it's a long road to Farrukhabad. It is 300 kilometers away (from Delhi). He can get there...but how will he return?" asked Mr. Khurshid at his Delhi home on Tuesday night surrounded by his supporters. "I am trained as a lawyer...to work with ink and pens...but it is time to replace ink with blood," he added.

Mr. Khurshid was talking about Mr. Kejriwal’s proposed visit to the minister's constituency of Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh!

The Indian political leaders are not taking it kindly to the fact that the corruption scams are being exposed at a much greater frequency. Few years ago where corruptions scams took several years to surface – long after they had been committed, all the money stacked away in Swiss bank accounts and the ministers deep into retirement – today the scams are being exposed right at the helm. This should have been a good thing, but all that is happening is that these people have accepted that fact that scams will be exposed and continued to commit them – as there are no consequences, and the benefits outweigh the consequences – if any!

When Baba Ramdev tried to expose Digvijay Singh, the minister resorted to labeling Baba as fraud to discredit his credibility. So respond with mudslinging by confusing the people and tarnishing the accuser – good ploy! Now Khurshid has resorted to mafiaraj, by threatening the guy accusing him.

In which country do you see a law minister threatening an anti-corruption activist openly? If you can’t answer this India is probably at the bottom of the rot!

Who will bail out India?

Indiais an integral part of the so called BRIC nations that has become the eye candy of investment for all bankers and funds and probably the envy of everyone for the scintillating growth numbers put up for the last 8 years. While Spain, Greeceand rest of the Europe struggles to keep afloat; India, China, Russia and Brazil are incurring positive growth.

While the picture is rosy for India for now; there are a multitude of problems which can be catastrophic for the country. India was registering 8 to 10% GDP growth until last year which slowed down to 6% in the first quarter of 2012. Even though still positive, the question is whether it will be sufficient to sustain the country if the slowdown continues. Even with the country considered on a development path and an ever expanding economy, the Indian government is still in deficit. China on the other hand has a surplus! So if the country is in deficit even with spectacular positive GDP growth numbers, imagine the scenario when growth slows down. One primary reason for the deficit is that Indiadoes not have any significant oil reserves, so all the invested forex dollars have to be spent on buying oil. While this problem is nobody’s fault, the other biggest problem is the level of corruption in government offices. Recently, Fitch downgraded India’s credit rating to negative citing corruption and lack of interest in the government circles towards progress.

Economy is one thing, but how about food and water? India is not self sufficient in feeding its own population thus needing to import food supplies. This is OK until the world is surplus in food, but what if other regions start experiencing droughts or famines? Who will export and how will we feed our country. The problem of food is multifold: too much dependence on monsoon, lack of programs to harvest rain water or conserve water, and large scale conversion of agricultural land into residential buildings (corruption again)! And how about that water everyone needs to drink at least 6 liters everyday? In the wake of loose policies on environment protection and local level corruption millions of gallons of chemicals get injected into the rivers that are intoxicating the rivers and ground water reserves.

So, it is not a question of an economic bailout that I am worried about; it is a question of getting bailed out on basic necessities of food and shelter. A country so deprived of natural resources and an ever exploding population cannot afford to drag its feet on reforms and corruption. The handful people in power are doing their best to drain the country of every last drop of resource we have, leaving the remaining 1.3 billion struggling in poverty. We hope we don’t need a bailout cause if such a need be no bailout will be able to rescue the situation!

Press Clippings from the Memorial World Cup win in April 2011

Comparison of Branded Gas with Discount Store Gas

Is the discount store gasoline (Sams Club / Cosco) any different than the branded stuff sold by the oil companies? I have always wondered. The branded gasoline is almost always more expensive that the discount stores and hence raises these doubts.

There is only one way to know so I decided to test the MPG in my recent road trip.

Driving conditions:

Route – TX 77 and US 59 from Houstonto South Padre Islands

Temperatures: Mid 70s with occasional rains

Car: 2006 Hyundai Sonata V6

Approximate distance travelled: 1100 miles

The results for MPG for 3 types of gasoline used are as follows:

Sams Club – Distance travelled = 339.4 miles in 13.84 gallons = 24.52 MPG

Valero - Distance travelled = 354 miles in 13.96 gallons = 25.35 MPG

ExxonMobil - Distance travelled = 335 miles in 13.13 gallons = 25.51 MPG

This shows that the branded gasoline from Valero and ExxonMobil is marginally better than that of Sams club. The difference in MPG is ~ 4%. This small difference can be attributed to number of factors such as minor traffic instances, number of starts and stops or minor traction loss due to the rains.

Given that the Sams club gas is ~7% cheaper that the branded gas the minor difference in mileage should be acceptable.

[Caveat - the long term effects of discount gas on the engine are questionable]

Last Minute Change of Plans?

There was a lot of hype a hoopla about the Bajaj Small car - bajaj's foray into the car market. The car was being dubbed as the first compititor to the Tata Nano. Bajaj did nothing to doze these speculations. When the specifications were out a few days ago the car was said to be cheaper than the Tata Nano and give 35 kmpl to the milegae thirsty Indian car buyer.

However with the launch of the car everything seems different. The competition with the Tata Nano is non existent. The cars looks are head (away) turner and it will be sold in the auto rickshaw dealerships. It has a top speed of 70 kmph and an engine of 200cc, smaller than few of the premium bikes in India.

Bajaj is placing this as an alternate to the Autos and taxi cabs, a new segment in the public transport. But was this always the plan? I am pretty sure Bajaj wanted to develop a small car for the middle class, but looking at the end product decided to place it differently. The families will stay away from the ugly car called the auto-car. The autowala's and cabi's have already rejected the product so Bajaj has a flop on its hand.

Rajnikanth of Bollywood

Shah Rukh Khan would be fooling even himself if he were to refer himself as the King Khan. As it is obvious, Salman Khan has dished out Super Duper hits and highest grossing movies of all time for each of the last 2 years. With Dabangg, Ready and Bodyguard all Bollywood box office records have been shattered. The statistics are surprising – Ready and Bodyguard had production costs of 40 – 50 Crore each and their box office collections were 120 crore and 230 crores respectively. The next hit movie in 2011 was SRKs Ra One, that cost 80 crore and grossed 90 crore.

Post Dabangg, Salman Khan has discovered a formula of superhit movies. Ridiculous story, insane star character who is capable of illogical and gravity defying acts; awesome songs with monotonous, effortless, dance moves!!! Such formula that was created, repeated and perfected in Tollywood by Rajni, Chiranjivi and Ballaya. Don’t be surprised if 2012 will have another Dabangginsh superhit from Salman Khan. (And don’t be surprised in SRK starts copying the formula – cause Don 3 wont work). Till then Salman is officially the Rajni of Bollywood.