Archive for November 22nd, 2007
Come, contribute to the jam!
India is a large country and often, people focus on the differences between East and West or North and South. But in one tragic sense, the entire country is truly unfied. No matter which large- or for that matter, small- city of India you live in, you are sure to encounter horrific traffic snarls.
To be sure, the spate of flyovers constructed in Mumbai over the past 10 years have eased congestion. And the wide roads in the NCR area may make it look like there are no traffic jams there. Bangalore, of course, is known just as much for its crumbling infrsatructure (mainly roads), as it is for being the cradle of India’s IT & ITES industries.
The trick that all our policy planners missed- or perhaps their advice was ignored- was the need to build high quality, high speed mass transit systems, with multi-modal integration. Put simply, what our cities need are London-style “tube” trains and a high frequency of US city-style buses. That would have helped ease congestion on the roads, as more people would have chosen to leave their vehicles at home.
The launch of the $3000 cars is only going to exacerbate the situation. Not just in terms of traffic density and congestion, but also in terms of expanding our carbon footprint. Perhaps it is time to view “progress” using a diferent lens- and measure it with a different measure.
Add comment November 22, 2007
What one partnership can do
India got off to a great start in the test match series against Pakistan at Delhi . Kumble’s loss of the toss did not seem a disadvantage, as Zaheer, Munaf and Kumble soon had the visitors teetering on 83/5. The visitors continued their downhill slide to reach 142/8. But Misbah and Sami played very sensibly and have brought the team to a respectable 210/8 at stumps on Day One.
Not having watched the match, I do not know if there are any devils in the track, or our bowling was simply terrific or whether the Pakistani batsmen played loose shots and got out. But the bottom line is that we had them on the mat, but were unable to complete the formalities. Depending on how much longer their tail continues to wah tomorrow morning, we may just have allowed them to claw themselves back into the game. But kudos to Sami and Misbah for a dour but doughty performance. Misbah has shown great temperament and is well on track to become a key player as Pakistan rebuild their cricket team in the months and years ahead.
Add comment November 22, 2007
Indian stock markets deliver world’s best returns over the past 3 months
In spite of the recent volatility, Indian stock markets have registered the best performance in the world (in terms of returns over the past 3 months). This is according to analysis by the firm MSCI Barra.
Indian stock markets have delivered returns of over 33% (in USD terms). About 5% lower are returns from the second best markets of Qatar and Egypt. Of the developed countries, Spain and Hong Kong delivered returns of about 18% (a tad more than half of our returns), while advanced economies like the US, Japan etc. have yielded negative returns.
Another chak de moment for India!
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Add comment November 22, 2007
