Watch this - Rediff article about Inflation in India

Inflation in India? Blame it on America

What is the reason behind inflation in India?

For the answer, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the United Progressive Alliance government may read an advisory released by The Earth Policy Institute.

If prices of food and vegetables in India are soaring to new heights, blame it on the Americans.

According to the EPI statement, the diversion of US grain to produce ethanol to fuel cars has led to an increase in world food prices and the developing countries like India have already started paying for the rise in wheat prices.

Corn prices have doubled over the last year; wheat futures are trading at their highest level in 10 years and prices of rice are rising, EPI, a Washington-based environmental organisation, has said.

In India wheat prices are up 11 per cent and all of this is just the beginning. Higher grain prices mean higher food prices. In Mexico, the price of tortillas has risen by 60 per cent, driving thousands of angry Mexicans into the streets.

Food prices are rising worldwide. The US Department of Agriculture projects the wholesale price of chicken in 2007 will be 10 per cent higher than in 2006, prices of eggs will be up a whopping 21 per cent, and milk will be 14 per cent higher.

In China, pork prices are up 20 per cent above a year earlier and egg rates are up 16 per cent, the EPI said, adding that unlike in the past the food price rise is not going to be a temporary phenomenon.

In the past, food price rises have usually been weather-related and always temporary. This situation is different. As more and more fuel ethanol distilleries are built, world grain prices are moving up toward their oil-equivalent value in what appears to be the beginning of a long- term rise.

By 2008, close to one third of the US grain harvest will be going to ethanol, reducing the amount available both for internal use and for export.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining - Is it true?

This blog is written and owned by Saurabh Gupta

Mind boggling questions surround you before you hit on the road with an idea. Long list of 'What ifs' haunt you - What if I get stuck on the way? What if I don't find a road ahead? What if there is no one to guide me on my way? What if there is no silver lining to the dark clouds that surround me? What if I die fighting at this place? What if I can't make it? What if..........

Many ideas die in the hearts of millions, just because we are yet not convinced that we can spark the light on every street. We are yet not convinced that we can follow our souls. We are yet not convinced that we can rule the world.

Unconvinced by our strengths, we are still following the direction where the sun sets. I don't know whether I am making sense or not but these questions make a unrepairable damage to the instincts of bright Indian future. Provoked by these questions, we demolish the empire we make in our hearts just because we don't know the answers to these intrigue questions.

To solve the mystery, we need to know - Who has the answers? Who can guide us to our destinies? I don't think we know the answers yet and misguided we are just following the sun, heading towards west. Or, you can say, our confused souls are following the developed economies. I truly believe that there is a need for change; change of mindsets and change of ideologies and we need to understand that if we want to rise we need to rise on our own.

Don't you think that there must be an opportunity to unleash that storm that lie within us but who will give us that opportunity; nobody. We will need to grab that opportunity. We just need to make ourselves strong enough to believe that there remains a light after every long dark night, there remains a light after every long tunnel and every dark cloud must have a silver lining.

Building Nation - Is India shining?

This blog is written and owned by Saurabh Gupta

India Shining story is kinda routine term these days and politicians & media don't want us to think about the problems that the country is moving towards along with this shining wave. With service sector booming and all the BPO/KPO sector shining, we are taking the work from other countries but we are only dealing with the lower portion of the pyramid. Most of the service providers are doing the outsourced patch work jobs for the International Clients.

In a way, this concept solves the problem of population explosion in India (1.1 Billion) as there are more jobs at the lower part of the pyramid but think about this scenario in a long run. Major chunk of the profit (almost 90%) lies in the upper portion of the pyramid which is still lying in the developed countries. Surely, Rome was not built in a day and we may think same for India but we are riding on bullish world's economy and are focusing on earning money which is not self sustainable. Soon, we will be left out as focus of outsourcing companies might move to other developing countries owing to increasing wages in India. Or what if there is a recession in the market? Are we prepared for that?

We need to take advantage of this bullish market to prepare ourselves for any upcoming recession. We have great minds, great ideas and above all we have customers within our boundaries. We have it all; just need some guidance in scouting the way to the top. This is the right time to learn from our experiences and take command in our hands to show our skills to the world.

Solution lies in properly streamlining underdeveloped Venture Capital Market in India to channelize the aid be it financial or experience based. People have ideas to work on, people have skills to deliver, but what they lack is a guide/mentor who can warn them about the hurdles lying in the market and guide them to compete in the open world. The idea is to get as many entrepreneurs in the market as possible and to help them sustain with proper financial aid and other support if required.

We need to realize our strengths which lies in the numbers, we are more than a billion and if we can streamline our strengths and focus on helping the upcoming ideas, we will shine in the world on our own and there won't be any fear as we have enough customers lying in our country itself.

At present, we have exposed our customer base to the foreign companies. I am not saying its wrong as it has its own advantages as we all are noticing them but what surely we are missing is strengthening our own roots.

Think about this catch lying in the market and work over it with me.