My Mind

A mile of highway will take you a mile, but a mile of runway will take you anywhere”. True that! Whoever said this has probably captured the anomaly of aviation or more specifically business aviation in the country.
India is on the road to economic development, and the reform trajectory is expected to steadily and gradually pave the way for a double digit growth over the next two decades. But what is the highway or rather the runway to development? Aviation globally is recognised as a trigger to the growth of businesses and economic development.

An empire which is toppled by its enemies can rise again, but one that is toppled from within crumbles that much faster, it could be a Trojan or a schemer or a saboteur who brings it to its knees.

Financial motivation has always been the major factor behind crime. Holding someone hostage and asking for ransom money was very common. Over the years, things have become digital. Most valuable information is stored on digital devices. Evolution of digital age didn’t stop crimes from happening. Even today the motivation is financial gain. The only difference is, the criminals hold the digital information hostage for ransom. This has led to the latest hack which affected more than 230,000 devices across 99 countries.

The green revolution was a transformational event changing our agricultural destiny from one of ship to mouth to one of right to food with home grown food. This transformation came at the time when the world was full of doomsday predictions concerning the fate of Indian agriculture and food security. For example, the famous scientists, Paul and William Ehrlich made the following predictions: 1) Sometime between 1970 and 1985 the world will undergo vast famines — hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.

Newly elected MP from Srinagar, winner of a farcical election in which 7 per cent of the voters turned out — Farooq Abdullah — waded through the political vector this week to explain one of his hobby horses — the J & K Assembly’s autonomy resolution of 2000 — and how this could become the basis for a dialogue and negotiation between the state and the centre.

On May 9, the voters of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) were called to vote on a new president. The election had to be preponed as the sitting president, Park Geun Hye had been impeached and dismissed. Park, the daughter of long time dictator Park Chung Hee, had been the first woman to occupy the Blue House in Seoul, seat of the South Korean presidents. Park had fallen over allegations of serious corruption and nepotism.

In his tweet on Rabindranath Tagore’s birth anniversary, May 9, prime minister Narendra Modi said, “Gurudev Tagore will always be remembered for his powerful thoughts and contribution to the freedom movement.” As an acknowledgment of the great poet’s worldview, it is an interesting observation considering how the Bharatiya Janata Party’s aggressive brand of nationalism and Hindutva clashes head on with Tagore’s liberal outlook and internationalism.

Former BSF DG EN Rammohan, considered one of the foremost experts on fighting guerrillas and insurgents having served in all the trouble spots, has said in an interview that the anti Muslim and Hindutva approach of the BJP in Kashmir is damaging and counter productive, “You have to tell the public of Kashmir that you are above all religion.

Under the indirect taxes structure in India, indirect taxes like VAT, excise, service tax and entry tax are levied on consumption whereas the direct taxes (income tax) are levied on the income earned. Increasing the indirect taxes makes consumption more and more expensive and, therefore, has an inflationary effect, which makes the poor to suffer the most. Because of this reason indirect taxes are usually seen as regressive, whereas the direct taxes, which targets the richer section of the society, generally seen as progressive.

Climate change brings about dramatic catastrophes. One of our problems is, of course, to be alert to the facts of history. The dinosaurs were killed by a meteor strike, or by their own avarciousness. After their extinction, or miniaturisation, life continued to evolve. As humans, we know our consciousness allows for both alertness and detachment. The elite have access to water, because they can afford to buy water. The debates on water sharing have been the most volatile of political histories of the 21st century.