Left's Demise?

The left parties decision to withdraw support to the UPA government in India over the Indo-US Nuclear Deal brings to a close a four year alliance that was brought together just to keep the communal parties i.e. BJP at bay.

When the UPA government came to power four years ago, the Left parties accounted for 22% of the ruling coalition providing them with an opportunity to establish themselves on the national stage. But alas as the last four years have proven, not only has the Left been a sour team player on the national stage, it has also lost its way in its traditional stronghold of West Bengal with defeats in the panchayat elections in Nandhigram and Singur and defeats in the civic body elections

In a blog posting for CNN IBN, Sagarika Ghosh writes an Open Letter to the Left highlighting the same topic.

Biofuels Caused Food Crisis

A secret report prepared by the World Bank, which has not been made public yet, cites that 75% of the world food prices increase can be attributed to increased use of biofuels.

According to the Guardian newspaper, Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush. It is a known fact that the current US administration blames the food crisis on rising demand in China and India

Time Magazine also had an article on how Ethanol is not a clean energy source it is made out to be.

Read the complete Guardian article biofuel caused food crisis

Also read my previous posts on Ethanol

Will India's Economic Boom End?

With inflation in India hitting a whopping 11.63%, questions have been raised about the long term sustainability of India's current economic boom. In his weekly column, Eye on India for the magazine Live Mint, columnist Nirvikar Singh argues that India can continue to sustain its growth rate despite what happens to the global economy provided the right set of policies are in place.

Read the complete article Surviving the Next Crisis

What a way to run the world

In today's world of globalization and shifting powers from the West to the East, the Economist magazine in its most recent editorial raises some very real questions.

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CLUBS are all too often full of people prattling on about things they no longer know about. On July 7th the leaders of the group that allegedly runs the world—the G7 democracies plus Russia—gather in Japan to review the world economy. But what is the point of their discussing the oil price without Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest producer? Or waffling about the dollar without China, which holds so many American Treasury bills? Or slapping sanctions on Robert Mugabe, with no African present? Or talking about global warming, AIDS or inflation without anybody from the emerging world? Cigar smoke and ignorance are in the air.
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Current challenges facing the world i.e. global warming, food crisis, oil crisis and terrorism etc, require genuine cooperation and a development of trust between the different continents. Its time to stop playing the blame game and the time to recognize that every country has a stake in fixing these problems. None of these problems can be fixed unilaterally and no country should make the mistake of thinking that it can tackle these problems unilaterally. This is even more reason to include the key stakeholders from the developed, developing and not so developed world. The future of the world depends on it.

Malnutrition getting worse in India

In a special report on the rising cost of food, BBC reports on the rising malnutrition in children in India. If you are interested in statistics, then about 60% of all the children in the state of Madhya Pradesh are malnourished. Thats abut 6 million children in a single state.

Adding insult to injury, a recent article in The Times of India reports that about one million tonnes of food grains were damaged when in storage in the Food Corporation of India storage facilities. According to this article, these grains could have fed 10 million people for an entire year. In other words, the wasted food grains could have fed all of the children in Madhya Pradesh for an entire year potentially saving them from malnutrition and may be even saving lives.

This would have saved mothers of these children from making a choice between seeing their child alive and thinking about where the next meal for this child is going to come from. This is a choice which no mother should need to make.

The War in Iraq - The Role of the US Media

In a weekly commentary titled the Listening Post on Al Jazeera TV , this video looks at the role of the US media in the lead up to the US invasion of Iraq.

With the release of a new tell all book by the former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, the role of the free press in the functioning of a democracy and its role in holding the government accountable for its actions is been debated.

Lawsuit over Ban on Guns at Atlanta Airport

When you are not allowed to carry guns on flights, a new state law allowing visitors to carry firearms at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport sounds ludicrous at best. In todays world of terrorist threats, when a simple mention of the word "bomb" can lead you to be detained, I can only imagine what would happen if you enter the airport with a gun in your possession.

Also why would anyone need to carry a gun with them to pickup or drop off a passenger. If somebody is worried about their personal safety, then the best alternative is to stay at home and not be at the airport.

Read more at Guns in Atlanta airport