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mericurialthoughts · 5 years ago

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#HarvestingHopeInTheSuicideZone

#HarvestingHopeInTheSuicideZone:

· Name of the Book: Harvesting Hope In The Suicide Zone

· Writer: Radheshyam Jadhav

· Genre: Non-fiction, Folklore

· Rating: 5/5 (by 'Goodreads')

· Pages: 175 pgs.

· Language: English

At the outset, the writer of this epiphany book is as mentioned: Radheshyam Jadhav; an Ramnath Goenka award winning journalist and communication researcher with twenty years of experience in field reporting and PhD in journalism and communication. There are more constructive achievements received by Sir, to know which you shall buy this book as soon as possible.

The name of the book itself portrays anticipation for uneducated people who are in the lethal situation of committing suicide, but ends at the note of "harvesting hope and have make dreams come true". The name of the book is followed by a little caption "Women who challenged drought, death and destiny" which clearly displays this book is about "farmers, especially women" who are confronting the circumstances that we can't even imagine of. The place of the origin of these stories are strictly from "Maharashtra" as appallingly suicide hubs were created here.

This book includes four essential and disclosing parts; each revealing the untold stories of real struggling farmers or successful and inspirational women farmers. It highlights the word "women empowerment" and also does sir define the same word.

This book skillfully has captured the struggle of widow farmers, and opens our eye. It take's into custody the despair and battles fought by them in high consideration. To be honest, we chilling at home think that waving off farmer loans is possibly the best thing that government has done, also there are various schemes for them..what else does one need? but this book will blow your mind in such a way that you will question yourself "if really this one step done by the government is helping them?, why did the government wait for a village to become a suicide hub and then provide such facilities?, if there are so many good schemes just for farmers why are they falling under the web of debt of loans?, what are the widow farmers going through after their husbands die, because villages are still orthodox?, will women get the rights in their house after their husbands die? are various schemes made by the government being applied on the grassroot level? and what not..!

This book will show you great discovered stories of women who have gone through what not..not just by surviving against the dancing flames around her house, but also by sleeping empty stomach and no sooner working under the scorching climate on the arid fields. However, crossing the threshold of stereotype, misogyny, patriarchy, inequality, caste and what not, these feisty women claim how they can't afford the luxury of suicide as they want their children to be educated and live a life that these struggling women dreamed of!

No matter what, this book is a must read for all ones of us as it acclaims stories captured by an hardworking and ethical journalist who has given hope which keeps us and them, determined in life.

#book review #just reflecting #must read #Radheshyam Jadhav #farmer suicides #ask goverment #reality

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mericurialthoughts · 5 years ago

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#20LakhCroreReliefPackage?

Our Prime minister, on 12th May, 2020, at 8:20 PM- that is at 20:20 announced a 20 lakh crore economic package in his speech of 20 minutes.

The Prime minister merely announced it, after which our Finance minister divulged the details of the package part by part over the next five days. Come, let us find out what this package of 20 lakh crores holds for you, for a common man and for the middle class people, what are its benefits and disadvantages?, and is the 20 lakh crore package really worth 20 lakh crores?

Come, let us see

When you hear 20 lakh crore rupees, then you might assume that this means that the government will spend 20 lakh crore rupees from its coffers to aid the public. But it is not so! In order to comprehend this, you will first have to understand that there are two kinds of policies in economics- monetary policies and fiscal policies.

The monetary policies are framed by a country's central bank RBI is the central bank in India. Monetary policies basically involves fluctuating the interest rates change the supply of money in order to control inflation. This is done by the RBI. The other policy is the fiscal policy which is made by the government. The government alters its spending- which areas to spend more, alters the tax rates. These are the fiscal policies. The monetary policies are decided by the RBI and the RBI is independent of the government that is technically- in theory and the government formulates fiscal policies 8 lakh crore rupees out of the 20 lakh crores is a liquidity infusion by the RBI.

We will know about what liquidity infusion! But the point is that since it is a measure taken by the RBI, it classifies as a a monetary package. The problem is that in 20 lakh crore rupees of economic package rolled out by the government. It is incorrect to count the monetary package of the RBI. It is unfair to do this, because whenever we have talked about the economic packages of the countries across the world, we considered only fiscal packages.

When we said USA rolled out a 2 trillion dollar economic package- it only meant fiscal package entailing what actions and decisions the government took there. Germany rolled out a package of almost 190 billion dollars. That too, was a fiscal package. But the Indian government combined the monetary and the fiscal package together to show that the "government" had rolled out a package of 20 lakh crores.

At the outset, let us talk about the 8 lakh crores set to come in from the RBI. This money will come from the reserves of RBI. It is called a liquidity infusion because in economics, "liquid" means converting any asset into cash which will make its buying and selling easier. The money lying in the reserves of RBI was not in use in the economy. It is simply laying there. When RBI will make its reserves liquid, then it will seep into the economy and the people will be able to sell or buy it once it will be converted into cash. The RBI will do this by lowering its interest rates so that the rest of the banks that take loans from the RBI are able to avail loans for lesser interest and when they take loans at lower interest rates, they would be able to loan out to the companies and people at a lower interest as well and in this way, the extra money of 8 lakh crore rupees with the RBI. The reserves of the RBI would be injected into the Indian economy basically the money would first go to the banks and then reach the companies and the people. The money would come into the economy in the form of loans so the loans that RBI gives to the other banks and the interest rates that it charges them is called repo rate.

You must have heard in the news that the RBI is cutting down the repo rate, because this is the only way- through the process that I explained- RBI would slash its interest/repo rate the other banks would be able to avail cheaper loans and this is how money would be infused in the economy. This is a very simplified explanation that I have put before you for you to understand.

So basically the point is that the 8 lakh crores from the RBI would have negligible effect on the end consumer. So, out of the 20 lakh crores, 12 lakh crores remain which is the fiscal package from the government. Out of this 12 lakh crore, the government had already announced 1.7 lakh crore in the previous package. That is being recounted in this and there are several other things in this remaining corpus that the government has already announced earlier but they are recounting it in this 20 lakh crore package. An article in the New Indian Express tells us in detail the schemes that the government had already announced but were recounting it in this 20 lakh crore package.

For example, the PMMSY yojana which the government had announced in the 2019 union budget. Let us get a section by section overview to find out what this economic package entails: First, for the MSMEs- Micro, small and medium enterprises-The government has decided to dole out collateral free automatic loans worth 3 lakh crore rupees. The companies would definitely benefit- but keep in mind- this is a loan. Money is being loaned out and not given out. There would be a liquidity infusion worth 90,000 crore rupees for the power distribution companies. It is a loan/loan guarantee in a way and it is being expected that the power companies would pass on the benefits to the consumers.

Our farmers would be given a concessional credit of 2 lakh crore rupees This, again, is giving out loans at lower interest rates. A special credit facility worth 5,000 crore rupees has been provided for the street vendors. This too, means giving out loans to them. A supply of free food grains will be provided for the migrant workers for the next two months which would cost around 3,500 crore rupees and the government claims that this will benefit 8 crore migrant workers.

One nation, one ration card will also be implemented by May 31st, 2021. This is a good news but it is yet to be seen how much of it is implemented on ground. The government has also said that the migrant workers returning would be given employment under MNREGA. But have you observed how most of the things in this economic package are loans, loan guarantees or credit facilities?

Basically, the people and the companies are being given out loans at lower interest rates or without collateral. There is nothing wrong with this- it would definitely benefit some companies and some people but at the end of the day, there are merely loans being given out. Today, the person who does not have a job and is not able to bear his expenses will be able to sustain himself today with the help of the loans but someday, he will have to pay it back.

So, overall, in the long term, this is not reducing the pressure or the stress upon the public. A lot of people- At least I had expected that the government would transfer money directly into the people's accounts so that they would be benefited today- not that loans would be doled out with an expectation of repayment. The situation today has developed due to the lockdown by the government. It was necessary but not all the burden should be piled up on the people. Furthermore, such things have been counted in this economic package of 20 lakh crores which is basically your money.

For example, TDS reduction by 25%. What benefit does it impart? None, actually. Just that at the moment, you would get more liquidity in TDS, but, overall, you wouldn't get a lot of money. Similarly, EPF contribution has been reduced to 10% from 12%. This too, was your money that you were going to access later. But slashing that today would mean that you are borrowing that money from the future. This is basically the public's money being given out to the public and being counted in 20 lakh crores.

So a question would arise here is that 8 lakh rupees is from the RBI loans would be provided worth this lakh crores old schemes worth this lakh crores are being counted by the government our own money worth this lakh crore is also being counted. So how much money is the government actually spending for the benefit of the people, out of the 20 lakh crores?

The right answer of this is anywhere between 1 lakh crore and 2.7 lakh crore. Different people have made an estimation of this. Yogendra Yadav ji claims that this amount would be 1.7 lakh crore rupees out of 20 lakh crore rupees which the government will actually spend. Barclays is a famous financial services company of England. It has made an estimation that this amount is 1.5 lakh crore rupees. Care ratings has made an estimation that this amount is 2.73 lakh crore rupees. HSBC India claims that this amount is around 1% of India's GDP and not 10% of India's GDP that is, around 2 lakh crore rupees out of 20 lakh crore rupees.

So where is the 1-2 lakh rupees (that the government is actually spending) being spent? Out of this, 40,000 crore rupees would go to MNREGA which is good, in my opinion. 3,500 crore rupees would be spent on buying foodgrains for the migrants, as stated earlier which is another good thing as it would aid them. Out of this, 8,000 crore rupees would be utilized in Viability Gap Funding. That is, those projects that are not economically viable but are projects of social infrastructure which the country needs- for example, constructing roads in a village.

Overall, in my opinion, there is negligible benefits for the salaried middle class people. Furthermore, the government took some major decisions like privatizing the coal sector privatizing the defense production privatizing the power distribution and privatizing the space sector.

Now, I don't not adhere to whether privatization in these sectors is a good or a bad thing. Whether the decision was good or bad will be revealed by the implementation.

Thankyou

Content Credit- Dhruv Rathee

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl_gcq1PmuI

#money #loan #pm #Dhruv Rathee #youtuber #economic relief #Indianmoney

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mericurialthoughts · 5 years ago

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#LocustAttack!

Corona virus, economic recession, cyclone and now... a locust attack. One problem doesn't get over and yet another one crops up.

So, what are locusts? Why are they attacking us? What are the reasons behind this? Some people in our country believe that Pakistan is responsible for thisPakistan has sent these terrorist locusts to India and these locusts are basically a conspiracy of Pakistan….hahaha

No, I am not joking. Hear it out.

"India asks the weak and cowardly Pakistan has Pakistan been resorting to the locust conspiracy after the terrorist conspiracy? So Pakistan is now turning locusts into terrorists and sending them to India. Has Pakistan been relying on locusts now instead of the army in order to attack India? Not only me, the whole of India raises this question" says Arnab Goswami!

Somebody please ask Arnab Goswami how this conspiracy works….Is there a nano GPS chip fixed onto these locusts with which Imran Khan is controlling them through a remote? How does that work?

It makes me laugh to think that people like Arnab Goswami consider their audience to be utter fools That no matter what rubbish they utter, the viewers will take that to be true. That's just too much!

Reverting to the topic, we will find out the actual reasons behind the locust attacks today and what innovative solutions are being used worldwide to counter it from which we can learn something.

Come, let us see

First, let us learn something about locusts: Locust is an insect which is quite similar to grasshopper and cricket. Infact, all these three insects belong to the same family. Locusts are generally found in desert regions and the unique thing about this is that as compared to grasshoppers and crickets.

It exists in two phases- It has two forms which is not seen in grasshoppers and crickets normally. These forms are- When it is present alone.This is called the solitary phase: But when it is present in crowds, and the environmental conditions are congenial. For example, wet soil after recent rains with trees and plants in full bloom, then they transform their forms completely.

This is called the gregarious phase. This metamorphosis of form changes everything about them- their behaviour, habits, appearance. Everything is different in the solitary phase and the gregarious phase. In a similar manner, it evolves into another phase if environmental conditions are congenial.

So, we do not have a problem with the ones in their solitary phase. A problem arises when they exist in crowds and are in their gregarious phase. They are yellow and black in color. Their eating habits change in the gregarious phase. They can eat more food and more varieties of food. Their endurance increases and their movements become more rapid.Even their brain size becomes larger

What's interesting is that they can transform into the gregarious phase from the solitary phase anytime. At any point of time in their lives as long as environmental conditions for it are congenial. The apt environmental conditions are- recent rains, moist soil and lush vegetation around. The swarms of these locusts are created in their gregarious phase. And these swarms destroy everything in their way. Because, like I said, their eating habits change so much that they can eat almost everything. Leaves, shoots, flowers, fruits, seeds, stems, barks- they can eat it all. They can eat almost all types of crops or non crops- be it wheat, grass, fruit trees or date palms. This is why complete destruction follows wherever they go.

How large can one locust swarm be?

The swarm found in Kenya in 2020 was 40 km by 60 km in dimension. The swarm can be as large as a rectangle of 40 kms by 60 kms. And in a swarm, there can be more than 150 million locusts within one square kilometre. A swarm can eat as much as 2,500 people in one day. So you can imagine the extent of its scale and how much destruction it can cause. And this is why it is said that the locusts are a kind of species that have the most economic impact on the entire planet as compared to any other animal species.

You can see the regions in which this happens- Africa, Middle east, Pakistan and the western part of India. They are found in larger numbers here because of the large extent of the desert areas in this region. and these are the areas in which they cause the most destruction. The locust attack in India today is the worst in the past 27 years in India. 1993 was the last time conditions were so bad. But this is not a recent phenomena. These locust attacks have been happening for thousands of years throughout the human history. Even ancient Egyptians had drawn locusts on their tombs which tells us that there had been locusts attack even in that age. These tombs are dated around 2400 BC. This is the reason why they are mentioned in a lot of religious texts. For example, Bible and Quran mention locust plagues.

It is believed that the locust plague mentioned in Bible happened in reality in Egypt in around 1400 BC. So, this is a problem that has been festering for ages, but climate change is indirectly held responsible for the locusts attacks happening today.

The sequence of events of how it actually happened is very interesting:The Indian ocean is warming up more than usual due to the climate change;The rains become more extreme due to the enhanced heating of the ocean;Torrential rains hit East Africa around the time of December 2019;Infact, there were floods as well;East Africa includes- Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia;These countries were badly flooded during December 2019;You can see how many people were affected due to these floods;Due to floods and torrential rains, congenial environmental conditions are created for the locusts; As mentioned before; the soil becomes moist and there is abundant vegetation around due to rains; So this becomes a great opportunity for the locusts to breed and change into the gregarious phase. So the locusts began to breed in huge numbers there and a plague hit East Africa. So Around February 2020, there was a huge locust plague in Africa. After which, these swarms of locusts began to travel east. It travelled to Iran, then Pakistan and now by the time of May, this plague has begun its move towards India.

The winds of the cyclone that had hit Bengal moved in such a direction and in such a way that they. They were further pushing the swarm of the locusts towards India. They wouldn't have normally travelled this way but they further moved in this direction because of the cyclone winds and this is exerting a very negative influence on Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana.

So the question is what are the solutions to fight this locust plague?

The first and the most common solution adopted by most of the countries most frequently is simply spraying them with pesticides and insecticides either on the ground or in the air with the help of a helicopter and then they would die.The problem with this solution is that this has a lot of negative impacts. Spraying pesticides has a negative impact in general on the environment , the people and their food. It exerts a negative impact on other things as well. And pesticides need to be sprayed in huge quantities in order for it to show effect.

Another solution could be the use of eco friendly pesticides. But experts have observed that the eco friendly pesticides- the ones that do not harm the environment-do not kill them as effectively.They take some time to show effect. Hence they are not as effective.

The third is the use of loud noises. The locusts flee from any kind of noise.Djs, music on a loudspeaker or any kind of loud noise- make them scarper. This is a solution that our farmers have implemented. But the problem with this solution is obvious- It can be implemented on a very short scale. And if your drive away the locusts from one place then they are going to attack another..

But there's another unique and interesting solution which was tested out in Pakistan. This solution was tested out in a small scale in Pakistan's Okara district. Basically, the farmers were asked to trap these locusts and collect them and submit them in bags. They would be paid in return for this and then these locusts would be milled and used as chicken feed. That is, they would basically become food for chicken and help in feeding them because locusts are an extremely great source of protein. Now, this solution is extremely innovative.

Think about it- The farmers are also making profit in the form of money given to collect them and it is also generating profit when it is being used as a chicken feed. The credit of implementing this solution goes to Muhammad Khurshid. He is a civil servant in the Ministry of national food security and research in Pakistan and Johar Ali- a bio-technologist of Pakistan Agriculture Research Council. It was his idea. And he says that when he first broke this idea to the people, then everyone laughed. Nobody thought that this idea could seriously be implemented in real.

So what is the math behind this idea?

The math is that he believes that first of all, the farmers can trap them easily with and these locusts do not fly in the air at night time. So they can be trapped very easily at night. They say that when the farmers collect these locusts and deliver them in bags, then they are paid 20 Pakistani rupees per kg

In India, this would amount to be around Rs 9 per kilo. The farmers are being this amount when they collect them in bags and submit them and he also believes that the number of locusts a farmer can trap overnight.

He can earn 20,000 Pakistani rupees, (that is, around 9,000 Indian rupees) in exchange for that. He also claimed that these locusts are a source of profit for the animal feeding industry as well because when these locusts would be used as chicken feed, they have 70% proteins. As compared to soybeans which are presently used in chicken feed and have only 50% protein content. Such a high level of protein (becomes available) when Pakistan imports soybean from the other countries. So this is profitable for even Pakistan as a country. Since, it would not import then it could save up on its foreign exchange. Animal feeding industry can also save up as well by using locusts. So this idea was tested out in a small village of a district and it was extremely successful. Now talks are in progress for its implementation on a large scale. And I believe that the Indian farmers can learn a lot from this too.And please do not brand me an anti national for bringing forth Pakistan's idea. I'd like to point out even the RSS members are exhorting to take inspiration from this idea if its successful. So this is not a matter of being anti national.

They say that a successful idea should be taken inspiration from, no matter which country it comes from. I adhere to the same belief. That if an idea is so great, interesting, innovative and is successful, then we must try it out as well.

Content Credit: YouTuber Dhruv Rathee

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIJMVPpXnDo

#locust attack #solution #fightplague #dhruvrathee #india flights

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mericurialthoughts · 5 years ago

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#SinghisKing

“Dr. Manmohan Singh-hahaha...he’s legit the carbon copy of a robot” I said, until I came across this illuminating book written by Mr. Sanjaya Baru (Media Advisor of the PM).

To being with, when Dr. Manmohan Singh became the ‘Prime Minister‘ which was in 2004; I was 3 years old, unaware of : who is a Prime Minister?, what do they do?, why do they have to work in the PMO?, for how many UPA’s will one work? and etc..

Today, still naive but mentally able to understand ‘how the world works!‘ I read this book within 4 days and truly it has immensely given a new shape to my thoughts..Felt like I fed my brain the right food!

Our 13th Prime Minister wasn’t a puppet of the Gandhi family, but did have an clever brain of his own, but because of his soft heart somewhere down the line masses con-tempted him.

Before talking about his work, let me give you a glimpse of his corporeal attitudes. Dr. Manmohan Singh is a very shy, soft spoken and decent human with utmost values in life, respecting each and everything that he has. Also, a little innocent which made him say himself how he became “The Accidental Prime Minister.“ However, he was a brilliant economist!

Shifting towards his work/profession, the whole world eyed onto; there are two perspectives of the same! Firstly, Dr. Manmohan SIngh was used as a face for Sonia Gandhi to keep the Congress Party alive but securing her life by not taking the post. As a result of which Dr. Manmohan Singh was chosen. Although the above is not the complete truth. The second p.o.v is that Sonia Gandhi looked up to him as a ‘father figure‘, although not much are aware of it, correspondingly because of which people called him a “Mask!“.

Very much appalling to see how the ‘Nuclear Deal-Agreement 123‘ couldn’t be implemented... He was actually the King but the leftist tried to show him the king of sins. Moreover his attitude towards them was more mesmerizing to see, because we must learn from him; how to tackle things.

Dr. Manmohan Singh had appointed Mr. Sanjaya Baru as his media advisory himself and that was the best thing he ever did for himself indirectly because he was unaware of taking things into control as a Prime Minister. The whole nation should be thankful to Mr. Sanjaya Baru because he just didn’t do the “making and unmaking of Dr. Manmohan SIngh“ but also showed the world the reality of PMO/Congress Party/Political TURF/Leftist party/Coaliation.....

I believe that my above words are just the smell of reality! Its just the toppings of the cake that you can see here. The actual life of our Former PM is so much interesting that I would like each one of you reading this; shall read the book.

To conclude with; a quote by him that I will never forget in my life is: “In life sometimes its wise to be foolish”. I request all of you to read this book and tell the world about reality. Also pray for him to stay as much healthy...!

#dr. manmohan singh #inspiration #realization #reality #act123 #Mr. Sanjaya Baru

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