Rumi Nations

The Hindus have more than trebled in numbers in the past 50 years. Going by the comments below, these Hindus are nincompoops. Without exception. They contribute nothing in terms of innovation or in inventions. Merely keep braying about some mythical ancient glory. And lack common sense. If I were to share personal anecdote (while acknowledging that anecdote is not evidence): My grandparents generation had 13 (living) siblings. Each of them produced 6 or 7 kids on average. My parents' generation had 3 kids each on average. Thankfully, the 'young generation' seems to have got the message and usually tends to have one kid — usually a son. [I guess we will have a lot of homosexuality in the manner of the English boarding schools that Hitchens mentioned.] There is unfortunately too much ignorance or illiteracy around. Which is why absolute fossils of the BJP/VHP/RSS are able to suggest in all seriousness that Hindus should have 4 or 5 or 10 kids each. ...

I put a long, somewhat rambling comment on a Newslaundry article . Enjoy! The 'anger' in this article may be well-founded but it perhaps mangled the economics in comparing India with Greece and in using debt-to-GDP ratio as a barometer of a nation's overall economic health. I don't know how Britain and Japan managed to have such high debt-to-GDP numbers but they are among the most developed and richest nations on Earth — both being members of the G8. How do or did Britain and Japan manage to become so extraordinarily wealthy? Well, the history aside, in the 20th century and after the Second World War, they have been at the cutting edge of various kinds of technological innovations. While Japan has been the center of the automobile revolution in many ways, Britain is home to British Aerospace, Rolls Royce, and many similar companies. I bet if we look at the data of per capita number of doctors or engineers in those countries, the ratio would be better than in Ind...

You think you know what all your tax money accomplishes? Well you might find a few surprises. Apart from a bunch of Kendriya Vidyalayas and IIMs and IITs and the training colleges for everyone and the Indian Council of Medical Research and the PGIs and the astrophysics research and the particle physics research and the jute and textile research, here are a few more esoteric activities the Government sees fit to associate with: The Government of India does  fusion research . And it is planning a  mission to Mars . But does the government of India do research into pomegranate? Sure it  does . What else does it do?

Or, is it a ticking time bomb? Call it what you will, but I think Indians are not adequately appreciative of the lurking dangers that lie ahead. The United States has a population of just over 300 million. India's population is soon going to reach 1,200 million. United States has a land area that is three times as much as India's. I do not think anyone will disagree that this is the most important 'natural reource' that a nation needs. So, let's do some basic maths. Four times as many people are crammed into an area that is one-third as much. If my arithmatic is accurate, that simply means a population density 12 times that of the United States. So, considering the land surface of India, it should be having a population of 300 million to start with — equal to that of the United States. But even then India will have three times the population density of the United States. So, to match the population density of the U.S., India's population will need to go down to ...

Americans are having to scrimp … saving quarters for diapers … Americans luckily have access to a few social safety nets provided by the government such as Medicaid, unemployment benefits, food stamps, etc. Then, non-governmental organizations and religious charities pitch in to provide whatever help they can. The effects of this prolonged recession are definitely going to be far-reaching on the psyche of those who will have gone through long periods of unemployment. This is happening after some seven decades. So, very few are alive today who had experienced it the last time it happened. The last recession was followed by an economic boom aided by both government policies as well as the ‘martial’ nations of Europe who still wanted to fight one last great, climactic mother of all wars after the Great War. The lessons for India? I think the message is a very sobering one. If a nation as advanced and prosperous can suffer such havoc from economic cycles of boom and bust, what chance does...

The United Nations Population Fund has projected that India's population will be overtaking that of China by 2050 and then INDIA WILL BE NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD in population. Certainly, this calls for celebration!!! Even as other nations struggle with declining birth rates and shrinking populations, India continues to hold the fort on behalf of mankind quite valiantly ... I say: Keep it up guys!!! The current reproductive generation has a challenge to live up to ... as our ancestors and forefathers were far more fecund in making babies than our generation. We must take pledges to raise India's population figure to 200 crores as soon as possible. A hundred years ago, India's population would have been around 20 crores. So, a ten-fold increase would be a nice achievement.

Or, should this be called "pseudo austerity?" Congressmen are basically like a flock of sheep who like to move in a herd and have a deeply ingrained "follow the leader" mentality. So, we are seeing the sudden emergence of all these various austerity measures being adopted by the ministers. Let me clarify that I am not one of those who like to villify politicians for all tha ails this country. It's certainly not the politicians' fault that this nation boasts a population of 1.2 billion — well, except, may be a few 'exceptional' ones such as Laloo Yadav. But, on the whole, as someone had said, "we deserve the politicians we have." We should not forget that after all we are the ones who have voted these folks to power. The "standard" of our politicians is merely a reflection of our standards as voters. Be that as it may, the pious proclamations and demostrations of various austerity measures are of course pretentious. But, I guess, ...