Few Stats to Consider

Earlier this year, Forbes magazine released the list of the Worlds Richest People. It is no surprise that America has the largest number of Billionaires, 396 to be exact. But the surprise was India, which almost doubled the number of Billionaires, to about 47 people.

Now consider a few facts about these 47 richest Indians combined.

1. The combined net worth of these 47 richest Indians accounted for 14.7% of India's GDP. Only Switzerland and Russia beat us in the list of countries with more then 10 billionaires
2. When you consider that India has more then a billion people, we have one Billionaire for every 25 million people living in the country.
3. The GDP per capita in India is $1091. Compare this to the average net worth of these richest Indians, about $4 Billion.
4. Add the fact that 42% of the Indian population falls below the International Poverty Level of $1.25 per day and you get a sense of how one dimensional the growth in the Indian economy is.





Data Source: Forbes List of Billionaires
Population and GDP: Wikipedia

Random Musings of Today

I dont know about you, but thats a lot of snacks for five people. With all the sugar intake, these people must be working 24/7 I would think...

With digital memory becoming so prevalent and cheap, who needs the brain

Is it enough if you become a naturalized citizen of the United States to qualify as an American in the eyes of the few. You can ask Meb Keflezighi, the first American to win the NY Marathon since 1982.

This essay for Outlook India magazine by author and activist Arundhati Roy, asks one simple question: "What is the price of progress and development?"

So Much for Austerity

The central government's austerity drive doesn't seemed to have filtered down. At least in the states which have the opposition BJP in power.

According to the BJP spokesperson,

"The timing of the austerity drive was suspect. It is an election gimmick. The prime minister has said the worst of the economic crisis is over, then where's the need for austerity now? It's all cosmetic. They will go back to their usual ways once the state elections are over."

This is the same BJP whose government in Karnataka spent Rs 1 Cr on a single cabinet meeting. Out of One Crore spent, about 28 Lakhs was spent on flowers alone. I don't know about you, but that's a whole lot of flowers.

The Life You Can Save

How much money do you spend on a bottle of water, or a cup of coffee everyday? $2, $5 or even $10. Now imagine if somebody told you that if you had donated even half of that money to eradicating world poverty, we would be able to make some serious dent in reducing the number of poor people in the world.

Peter Singer, Professor of Bio Ethics at Princeton and author of the new book The Life You Can Save makes a case of individual action and responsibility in reducing world poverty.



Also read my previous post Think Before You Spend

Whats in the Stimulus Package to Kick Start the US Economy

The American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009,aka economic stimulus package, was signed into law this week by President Barack Obama. Total size of the package is $787 Billions and includes a mixture of spending and tax cuts. Now the question is, are there enough provisions in the bill which will help jump-start the ailing US economy. Read the summary of the bill to find out.

SPENDING

AID TO POOR AND UNEMPLOYED

_ $40 billion to provide extended unemployment benefits through Dec. 31, and increase them by $25 a week; $20 billion to increase food stamp benefits by 14 percent; $4 billion for job training; $3 billion in temporary welfare payments.

DIRECT CASH PAYMENTS

_ $14.2 billion to give one-time $250 payments to Social Security recipients, poor people on Supplemental Security Income, and veterans receiving disability and pensions.

INFRASTRUCTURE

_ $48 billion for transportation projects, including $27.5 billion for highway and bridge construction and repair; $8.4 billion for mass transit; $8 billion for construction of high-speed railways and $1.3 billion for Amtrak; $4.6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers; $4 billion for public housing improvements; $6 billion for clean and drinking water projects; $7.2 billion to bring broadband Internet service to underserved areas; $4.2 billion to repair and modernize Defense Department facilities.

HEALTH CARE

_ $24.7 billion to provide a 65 percent subsidy of health care insurance premiums for the unemployed under the COBRA program; $86.6 billion to help states with Medicaid; $19 billion to modernize health information technology systems; $10 billion for health research and construction of National Institutes of Health facilities; $1 billion for prevention and wellness programs.

STATE BLOCK GRANTS

_ $8.8 billion in aid to states to defray budget cuts.

ENERGY

_ About $50 billion for energy programs, focused chiefly on efficiency and renewable energy, including $5 billion to weatherize modest-income homes; $6.4 billion to clean up nuclear weapons production sites; $11 billion toward a so-called "smart electricity grid" to reduce waste; $6 billion to subsidize loans for renewable energy projects; $6.3 billion in state energy efficiency and clean energy grants; and $4.5 billion make federal buildings more energy efficient; $2 billion in grants for advanced batteries for electric vehicles.

EDUCATION

_ $44.5 billion in aid to local school districts to prevent layoffs and cutbacks, with flexibility to use the funds for school modernization and repair; $25.2 billion to school districts to fund special education and the No Child Left Behind law for students in K-12; $15.6 billion to boost the maximum Pell Grant by $500 to $5,350; $2 billion for Head Start.

HOUSING

_$4 billion to repair and make more energy efficient public housing projects; $2 billion for the redevelopment of foreclosed and abandoned homes; $1.5 billion for homeless shelters; $2 billion to pay off a looming shortfall in public housing accounts.

SCIENCE

_ $3 billion for the National Science Foundation for basic science and engineering research; $1 billion for NASA; $1.6 billion for research in areas such as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics and nuclear physics.

HOMELAND SECURITY

_ $2.8 billion for homeland security programs, including $1 billion for airport screening equipment.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

_ $4 billion in grants to state and local law enforcement to hire officers and purchase equipment.

___

TAXES

NEW TAX CREDIT

_ About $116 billion for a $400 per-worker, $800 per-couple tax credits in 2009 and 2010. For the last half of 2009, workers could expect to see about $13 a week less withheld from their paychecks starting around June. Millions of Americans who don't make enough money to pay federal income taxes could file returns next year and receive checks. Individuals making more than $75,000 and couples making more than $150,000 would receive reduced amounts.

ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX

_ About $70 billion to spare about 24 million taxpayers from being hit with the alternative minimum tax in 2009. The change would save a family of four an average of $2,300. The tax was designed to make sure wealthy taxpayers can't use credits and deductions to avoid paying any taxes. But it was never indexed to inflation, so families making as little as $45,000 could get significant increases without the change. Congress addresses it each year, usually in the fall.

EXPANDED COLLEGE CREDIT

_ About $14 billion to provide a $2,500 expanded tax credit for college tuition and related expenses for 2009 and 2010. The credit is phased out for couples making more than $160,000.

CHILD TAX CREDIT

_ About $15 billion to provide the $1,000 child tax credit to more families that don't make enough money to pay income taxes.

EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT

_ $4.7 billion to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income families with three or more children.

HOMEBUYER CREDIT

_ $6.6 billion to repeal a requirement that a $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit be paid back over time for homes purchased from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, unless the home is sold within three years.

AUTO SALES

_ $1.7 billion to makes sales taxes on paid on new cars, light trucks, recreational vehicles and motorcycles tax deductible through the end of the year.

RENEWABLE ENERGY INCENTIVES

_ About 20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency over 10 years, including extending tax credits for energy produced from wind, geothermal, hydropower and landfill gas; grants to build renewable energy facilities; tax credits for purchases of energy-efficient furnaces, windows and doors, or insulation; tax credit for families that purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles.

BONUS DEPRECIATION

_ $5 billion to extend a provision allowing businesses buying equipment such as computers to speed up its depreciation through 2009.

REPEAL BANK CREDIT

_ Repeal a Treasury provision that allowed firms that buy money-losing banks to use more of the losses as tax credits to offset the profits of the merged banks for tax purposes. The change would increase taxes on the merged banks by $7 billion over 10 years

When he signed the bill , the President said that the bill will help save or create 3.5 million jobs going forward. A quick glance at the above summary and you should realize that the bill is top heavy with tax cuts and aid for low income Americans. The only provisions with any seeming potential of creating jobs are spending on Infrastructure, Health Care, Alternative Energy and Home Land Security. Now, whether these provisions will help in creating or saving 3.5 million jobs and kick start the economy is the Trillion Dollar question.

Will Slumdog Millionaire Bring About any Changes in the Lives of the Real Slumdogs?

Slumdog Millionaire, a feel good film about a boys journey from the slums of Mumbai to the winner of the biggest game show, has been received very well across the world. For a movie which was destined for a straight to DVD release, the movies real life journey parallels the plot of the movie, "underdog beating all odds to achieve unprecedented success".

Though the movie provides an inspirational story line, it also raises some serious questions about the level of poverty and living conditions of people in real life in the slums of Mumbai. And this depiction of poverty in the movie has raised some controversy, with even Amithab Bachchan slamming the movie for portraying India as athird world developing nation.

With all due respect to the critics, criticizing a movie and its makers for portraying a side of India that is ugly and not pretty will not make it go away. Instead, it would be worthwhile if the same time is spent devising ways to inspire these people find their way out of the squalid conditions and achieve their dreams. Ultimately that is what the movie is supposed to be about: "Achieving ones dreams, no matter the odds".

Think Before You Spend

What would you do you you were given Rs 500 today... It depends on who you ask.



Video made by The Centre for Communication and Development Studies Open Space initiative.

Link obtained from Churumuri