Economics is interesting ;sometimes difficult to understand...

Interesting article written by an Indian Economist

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also, Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over 100 billions. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger. But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan , China and even India .

Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities. Japan 's stakes in US securities is in trillions. Result: The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for the US - Its The Americans who spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US ! A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China , or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US. The same is the case with India . We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India . Why the world is after US? The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US . So US imports more than what it exports year after year. The result: The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money. It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper financier. Who is America 's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan , has become its pain. Hence, what is the lesson? That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend. Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US , told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will put India on a growth curve. This is one of the reason for MNC's coming down to India , seeing the consumer spending.

'Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.'
But before you follow this Neo Economics, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend !!!

Quotes on Attitude



IF AN EGG IS BROKEN BY AN OUTSIDE FORCE..A LIFE ENDS. IF AN EGG BREAKS FROM WITHIN...... .LIFE BEGINS. GREAT THINGS ALWAYS BEGIN FROM WITHIN



WHEN YOU TRUST SOMEONE TRUST HIM COMPLETELY WITHOUT ANY DOUBT....... AT THE END YOU WOULD GET ONE OF THE TWO : EITHER A LESSON FOR YOUR LIFE OR A VERY GOOD PERSON



LIFE IS NOT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO ACT TRUE TO YOUR FACE ........ IT'S ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO REMAIN TRUE BEHIND YOUR BACK



SOLDIER : SIR WE ARE SURROUNDED FROM ALL SIDES BY ENEMIES , MAJOR : EXCELLENT ! WE CAN ATTACK IN ANY DIRECTION.



THE WORST IN LIFE IS "ATTACHMENT " IT HURTS WHEN YOU LOSE IT. THE BEST THING IN LIFE IS " LONELINESS " BECAUSE IT TEACHES YOU EVERYTHING AND, WHEN YOU LOSE IT, YOU GET EVERYTHING.


"You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments; then the wind blows your footprints away." -Arlene Blum


“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Chinese proverb



“The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.” Ben Herbste

Some quotes

Quotes

“ The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential .. these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence “
– Eddie Robinson

“Life without purpose is a languid drifting thing, every day we ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves, ‘This day let me make a sound beginning’ ”
- Thomas Kempis

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome”
- Booker T Washington

“One objective should be to get it right, get it quick, get it out, and get it over. You see your problem won’t improve with age “

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

Vedic Maths

What does mathematics have to do with Hinduism? Well, just as the basic principles of Hinduism lie in the Vedas, so do the roots of mathematics. The Vedas, written around 1500-900 BCE, are ancient Indian texts containing a record of human experience and knowledge. Thousands of years ago, Vedic mathematicians authored various theses and dissertations on mathematics. It is now commonly believed and widely accepted that these treatises laid down the foundations of algebra, algorithm, square roots, cube roots, various methods of calculation, and the concept of zero.

'Vedic Mathematics' is the name given to the ancient system of mathematics, or, to be precise, a unique technique of calculations based on simple rules and principles, with which any mathematical problem - be it arithmetic, algebra, geometry or trigonometry - can be solved, hold your breath, orally!
Sutras: Natural Formulae
The system is based on 16 Vedic sutras or aphorisms, which are actually word-formulae describing natural ways of solving a whole range of mathematical problems. Some examples of sutras are "By one more than the one before", "All from 9 & the last from 10", and "Vertically & Crosswise". These 16 one-line formulae originally written in Sanskrit, which can be easily memorized, enables one to solve long mathematical problems quickly.

Why Sutras?
Sri Bharati Krishna Tirtha Maharaj, who is generally considered the doyen of this discipline, in his seminal book Vedic Mathematics, wrote about this special use of verses in the Vedic age: "In order to help the pupil memorize the material assimilated, they made it a general rule of practice to write even the most technical and abstruse textbooks in sutras or in verse (which is so much easier - even for the children - to memorize)... So from this standpoint, they used verse for lightening the burden and facilitating the work (by versifying scientific and even mathematical material in a readily assimilable form)!"
Dr L M Singhvi, the former High Commissioner of India in the UK, who is an avid endorser of the system says: "A single sutra would generally encompass a varied and wide range of particular applications and may be likened to a programmed chip of our computer age". Another Vedic maths enthusiast, Clive Middleton of vedicmaths.org feels, "These formulas describe the way the mind naturally works, and are therefore a great help in directing the student to the appropriate method of solution."

A Simple & Easy System
Practitioners of this striking method of mathematical problem-solving opine that Vedic maths is far more systematic, coherent and unified than the conventional system. It is a mental tool for calculation that encourages the development and use of intuition and innovation, while giving the student a lot of flexibility, fun and satisfaction. Therefore, it's direct and easy to implement in schools - a reason behind its enormous popularity among educationists and academicians.

A Simple & Easy System
Practitioners of this striking method of mathematical problem-solving opine that Vedic maths is far more systematic, coherent and unified than the conventional system. It is a mental tool for calculation that encourages the development and use of intuition and innovation, while giving the student a lot of flexibility, fun and satisfaction. Therefore, it's direct and easy to implement in schools - a reason behind its enormous popularity among educationists and academicians.


Originally from :Subhamony Das. Hinduism about.com

Some nice quotes which I came across from the book of Jack Canfied. -part I

The book -"How to get from where you are to where you want to be"

1."The secret to my success is that I bit off more than I could chew and chewed as
fast I could"
- Paul Hogan Actor who porttrayed Crocodile Dundee.

2. "99% of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses"
-Geore Washington Carver(Chemist who discovered over 325 uses of the peanut)

3."Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything
in life has a purpose."
-Elisabeth Kubler Ross,M.D- Psychiatrist and the author of the classic on Death
and Dying

4. "Every negative event contains wihtin it the seed of an equal or greater benefit"
-Napolean Hill

5 "When life hands you a lemon squeeze it and make lemonade"
-W. Clement Stone, self made multimillionaire and former publisher of success
magazine.

6. " If you want to be happy , set a goal that commands your thoughts,liberates your
energy and inspires hopes"
-Andrew Carnegie

7. "Decide upon your major definite purpose in life and then organize all your
activities around it"
-Brian Tracy (one of America's leading authorities on the developement of human
potential and personal effectiveness)


8 "The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is
this: decide what you want"
-Ben Stein- Actor and Author

9 "The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss
it, but that it is too low and we reach it"
-Michelangelo

10. "Create your future from your future, not from your past"
-Werner Erhard- Foundre of EST training a nd the Landmark Forum


11. "Sooner or later , those who win are those who think they can"
-Richard Bach- author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.


12. "You weren't an accident.You weren't mass produced.You aren't an assembly
product.You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted and lovingly
positioned on the Earth by the Master Craftsman.
-Max Lucado-Best selling author.


13. The phrase "I can't" is the most powerful force of negation in the human psuche
-Paul .R. Scheele- Chairman, Learning Strategies Corporation.

14. "If you are bored with life, if you dont get up every morning with a burning
desire to do things- you dont 've enough goals.

- Lou Holtz- The only coach in the NCAA history to ever lead six different
college teams to post season bowl games and a man who also won a national
championship and "coach of the year" honors.


15. "You want to set a goal that is big enough that in the process of achieving
it you become someone worth becoming."
- Jim Ron- Self made millionaire, success coach and philosopher

16. "The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
The secret of getting started in breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks
into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."

-Mark Twain


17. "Success leaves clues."
- Anthony Robbins- author of unlimited power.

Towards a Greener planet...

"Global warming, also known as the green house effect is a topic that has
received much attention in recent years; yet our climate change is not a recent
problem. It has been morphing over many years. What is increasing is the rate
of change; it is accelerating due to the growth of the human population. The
growth of our population has increased our use of fuel, land, and
manufacturing. All of these are increasing emissions into our atmosphere that
increases global warming."
My thoughts are on controlling consumption & thus reducing wastages of all kind in our daily lives.
We continue talking about global warming, environmental degradation, making a difference in the lives of poor; unknowingly, our actions contribute to the very cause we oppose. These wastages are in different spheres of our life such as use of Paper, Plastic bags, Vehicle use, Food & eating habits,Clothing and so on.
• When we visit mall/food retail chains, we are not allowed to carry handbag and at the end of
our purchase have to carry multiple plastic bags.
• All of us buy vegetables at roadside vendors or from malls and hardly carry any bags. The
result is we carry vegetables in plastic bags which are not biodegradable....the thin ones.
How paper impacts our day to day life? How many times a day we touch paper?
-- newspapers, toilet paper, labels, money, tissues, books, shopping bags, receipts, ATM receipts,
Cash memos, statements, printer and copier paper at home and work, magazines, food packaging.
Now let’s consider following facts w.r.t. world consumption pattern.
1. The average American consumes more than 700 pounds of paper a year, -- that's the world's
highest per capita figure.
2. China, India and the rest of Asia are the fastest growing per-capita users of paper, but they
still rank far behind Eastern Europe and Latin America (about 100 pounds per person per
year), Australia (about 300 pounds per person per year) and Western Europe (more than
400 pounds per person per year).
3. But don’t get mislaid by these per capita figures, always remember that China, India and
other Asian countries are densely populated than rest of the world. Hence our total
contribution to forest degradation would be equal to rest of the world.
4. A few years back, my official usage of paper was higher than 500 A4 sheets per month for
sharing of information on products, costing, internal memos, proposals, customer letters
plus computer stationary used for MIS.
Paper today constitute a most important and primary reason for tree felling and reducing forest
area across the globe.
5. Forests store 50% of the world's terrestrial carbon. (In other words, they are important
"carbon sinks" that hold onto pollution that would otherwise lead to global warming.)
6. Two third of the world's forests have already been cleared or burned, and 80% of what's left
has been seriously degraded.
7. 42% of the industrial wood harvest is used to make paper.
8. The paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
9. Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste (and one third of municipal landfill waste)
10. Municipal landfills account for one third of human-related methane emissions (and methane
is 23-times more potent a greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide).
11. Printing and writing papers use the least amount of recycled content -- just 6%.
12. While the paper industry invests in new recycled newsprint and paper packaging plants in
the developing world, almost none of the new printing and writing paper mills use recycled
content.
Now after understanding how paper impacts global warming and reduced forest cover, which are
the areas where we can make a difference. Please consider some of the examples in our day to day
use and how associated wastages are the resultant.

Increase of consumption across Banks : Few years ago, we had bank provided pass books of
A5 size with 10-12 pages that used to last us for minimum of six months depending on our
transaction. Now with the onset of core banking/ATM, our consumption has increased by
three ways. We use ATM receipts, Statement of accounts on periodical basis and passbooks.
a. How ATM receipts are used – These are thermal printed and used for short term
proof.
b. Statements: These are used for tracking account activity movement over a period,
difficult to retain over longer duration.
c. Passbooks: they are sleek & can be retained for close to 10 years or more.
Why ATM receipts create more waste?
I. ATM receipts are of non - standard size and vary from bank to bank. Following instances
can help in understanding the problem.
i. Kotak Bank uses slip which is of 8 inches in length and matter is mostly written on
first few inches and almost 5 inches of space is blank and unused.
ii. IDBI uses a slip of almost 4 inches in length and with almost 1 inch of space which is
blank.
iii. Dena bank uses 4 in*3 in slip and there is ample space to save.
iv. Now if banks were to use ATM receipts of size of credit card receipts, will it make
any difference to users....I hope not, looking at the impact this activity would bring in
to saving of few kms of forest cover.
Statements – the need for stopping waste : why would anyone prefer statement to
passbook when they occupy large space and are available at the end of
month/quarter? They occupy large space in our files and are definitely not ready
reckoners like our passbooks are. I would request all of you to closely scrutinize
statements each of us receive from time to time and you will find that without
touching the whole lot of information, the statements can be made more sleek and
handy.
2. Cash Memo’s generated at retail chains such as reliance fresh, big bazaar, malls: Another
addition in our paper use output is obviously the long cash memos each of these retail chains,
malls bring to our life. These stores generate a lengthy cash memo whether we buy one item or
100 items. Compare that with the slick cash memo of earlier times or cash memo generated on
used paper (on another side of used paper) by most of the daily needs/kirana stores nearly five
year ago.
Please consider a case below.
Reliance fresh stores generate 1000 cash memo in my area on daily basis. Each of these receipts
is almost 9 to 12 inches long with fixed matter occupying 6 inch, blank space almost 2 inch and
variable space varying from 1 inch to 9 inch long. Now just think if one can make decrease in
fixed matter space usage by almost 10% that would result in savings of 1500 mtr. of paper at
one store per month.
Now assume that there are atleast 150 such stores opened by reliance on a nationwide basis,
that would be savings of 225 kms of paper. Further consider atleast 4 such chains working across
India that would be close to 1000 kms of paper saved each month. Imagine how this one single
action would result in savings for these retail stores whether Reliance fresh or Big Bazaar etc.
while taking us nearer to our main goal of minimizing wastage and stopping forest degradation.
How do we do this: The activity will not require too much field working, at the same time we
will be able to capitalize on our strength areas of nearness to internet. We will require a big
contribution of efforts by some of our members in arranging the audience with these corporate
houses.
We will create a website, do an campaign across corporate houses, tweet, create blogs, and
meet in person to CSR leaders across banks & retail chains to create an awareness and then let
the internal forces to these organizations help us get the job done.
What is in it for us:
• A better future for our next generation? Fresh air, Fresh water, Green earth.
• If done right, national level accolades from Ministry of Environment & Forests.
• Who knows, it might lead to global recognition by UN and other bodies tomorrow 
Thing to Ponder:
Could we have saved the ballot papers we used during our first meeting to vote?
If the United States cut office paper use by just 10% it would prevent the emission of 1.6
million tons of greenhouse gases -- the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road. I hope
same hold true for India as well.
Compared to using forest wood, paper made with 100% recycled content uses 44% less
energy, produces 38% less greenhouse gas emissions, 41% less particulate emissions, 50%
less wastewater, 49% less solid waste and -- of course -- 100% less wood.

Courtesy to Anil, as he mentioned all these points to discuss in the ILN Mumbay meet.

Are You an Inventor or an Entrepreneur?

PS: This one I came across in the HBR. A nice read.

Being an entrepreneur has more to do with a state of mind than a state of employment. And when you think of being an entrepreneur, it doesn't just mean starting a company — I've started over half a dozen successful companies but have also brought my experience to established companies. Right now, I am the President of a public company I did not start — so I may in fact be an "entrepreneur gone bad."
One of the most consistent things I hear entrepreneurs say is, "I have this great idea." And the advice they often get is to write a business plan and make it their bible. Most entrepreneurs firmly believe there is nothing better than a solid plan couples with a great idea. But don't confuse being an entrepreneur with being an inventor. Great ideas are a dime a dozen. Action is what differentiates an entrepreneur from an inventor. If you want to focus on ideas, become an inventor — not an entrepreneur.
And as for plans, entrepreneurs probably spend more time on our business plans than just about anything else we do. But business plans are often useless, even counterproductive; the old adage that "planning is everything; plans are nothing" (credited to Eisenhower) couldn't be more true in entrepreneurship.
The important thing is the process of planning — but you also have to be willing to throw out that plan. The single biggest advantage you have as a start-up versus an established business is your ability to be nimble, to act, to change. If you're beholden to your ideas or to your business plan, you will fail.
Thomas Edison is a great example of someone who most people think of as an inventor because of the thousands of ideas he came up with. But when someone asked Edison about his ideas he replied that he didn't care about his ideas. The only ideas that were interesting to him were the ones that he could commercialize. "I am quite correctly described as more of a sponge than an inventor," he said. Yet most people in fact don't realize that the light bulb was not Edison's idea; he just commercialized it. Edison thought of himself as an entrepreneur.
History is littered with great ideas — they're irrelevant to entrepreneurs. You need to be nimble and you need to act. Sony is a classic example. Few people know that Sony was founded on the idea of offering rice cookers to the masses. They failed at that idea, but Sony is what it is today because the founders were willing to give up on their original ideas and plans.
Gillette is another classic example of a company that constantly reinvents itself. Every year they come up with new products that transform their own industry. We may end up with razors that take two hands to hold, but Gillette proves that innovation is about change and progress, not great ideas.
So don't be afraid to throw out your business plan, adapt and give up on your original idea...and let your company succeed.

Courtesy : Harward Business publishing:
http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=47118093&gid=40431&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs%2Eharvardbusiness%2Eorg%2Fcs%2F2009%2F06%2Fare_you_an_inventor_or_an_entrepreneur%2Ehtml&urlhash=EJVz&trk=news_discuss