ECONOMICA

That moment of silence just as the 8.54 Churchgate bound train pulls into Mira Road station. The calm before the storm. The train slows down. AAAND THIS IS WAR! Having already missed FOUR trains, I steel myself and join in the fray.  “PUSH! PUSH! PUSH HARDER!”  I yell desperately as I'm struggling to get a foothold. I'll admit that I'm just not cut out to ‘hang out’ à la Mumbai. I deem my position too dangerous. Now it's a battle for survival. Then, I proceed to literally HUMP the guy ahead of me! Urging him to move inside an already over-over crowded train. Abuses, curses and expletives are being hurled at me by him. I'm far too used to this so I simply ignore him. Next, the train arrives at Dahisar station. More crowd barges in. And an even more awkward rendition of "I'm sexy and I know it" dance/hump.   One guy goes "Bharat maata ki... JAI" "Apne apne maata pita ki... JAI!" Then, another one joins in with ...

Education is essential – this much is true. Most of us abhor studying, but the fact remains- we couldn’t possibly get anywhere without it. However, there seems to be a dichotomy between studying and receiving proper education. We take it for granted - so much so that we grossly underestimate the magnitude of people who are divested of it. A country’s development greatly depends upon its people, what we call human resource. Motivated and industrious people drive a country towards progress. Without whom, a country would lag behind in its overall growth process. To elicit a change, we have to do. And any kind of action comes from knowing. Education provides us with the most important thing there is: Knowledge . With knowledge comes the power to act, and actions materialize into results. According to Teach for India, an organization that aims at eliminating educational inequity in India , 4% of Indian children never even begin schooling. 58% don’t complete primary education and 9...

One child. One Family. China has been dealing with the repercussions and restrictions of this law for over a decade. In the 1980's, China brought about a law stating that it was thereby illegal for a Chinese family to have more than one child. As the years progressed, the law was relaxed but not to a very great extent.  China then said “Hey! You can have two kids but if and only if the first one was a girl!” However, such deplorable conditions prevailed up until 2015. Quite recently that is, the Chinese government decided that it was alright for the citizens to have more than one child. So now, the law is called China’s two child policy. According to which, China now grants a Chinese couple to have two children. The rationale behind framing of such policies was the Chinese population. The population of China is said to rival that of India’s. But contrary to us, China seeks to curb the issue of overcrowding in their cities. One of the prime reasons that has caused China to fre...

The term Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) is quite unheard of. It’s one of those negative events in life that everybody would rather turn a blind eye to and hope it never happens to them or their family. However, MNT is all too real- especially in a country with a high birth rate like India. India accounts for nearly 22% of infant mortality figures worldwide.  About 138,600 children under five die in India due to various factors such as improper delivery, infection or malnutrition. Of these, nearly 200,000 deaths were caused by the contraction of tetanus by either the mother or the child within the first month of birth. Armed with a resolve to put an end to these preventable deaths, the government set a lofty target to get MNT eradicated by December 2015.  Some of the steps taken to prevent MNT were practicing hygienic deliveries to ensure no diseases were contracted in the labour process; immunization of women with the help of TT vaccines; proper incision of the umbi...

In the field of business, it is a point of paramount significance to fraternize with people. In consequence of which a person will most likely end up making acquaintances that could later on turn out to be resourceful. In situations like these where we rub elbows with people from different walks of life, it is inconvenient to familiarize ourselves with each other by reiterating personal business information each time we meet someone new. Business cards come in handy at such a juncture.  The concept of a business card proves to be a convenient tool in such a setting, operating as a memory aid. A business card, at the very least comprises of your name and contact information like your street address,social media address, email id, fax or telephone number. It can be even more detailed and include business information about yourself .i.e. the name of your company, your designation at the company and sometimes even your qualifications. In order to give your business card an edge a...

Rich Dad, Poor Dad- by Robert Kiyosaki As the title suggests, this book provides a very profound contrast between the mentalities of rich and middle class parents when it comes to imparting financial knowledge to their posterity. This book goes further on to represent how the concept of finance holds great importance in times like these. It seems imperative that such elemental sense of dealing with money matters be inculcated in the minds of their children from nascence. Undoubtedly, the approach adopted by rich parents will differ from that of the middle class (or poor) ones. This is akin to various other facets of life, where Nurture overcomes Nature and causes individual differences to occur. The writer himself had the opportunity of living through a childhood which was influenced by two father figures- his own father, a well-educated middle class teacher with a Ph.D and the father of his childhood friend Mike, who wasn't as well read. Both men were successful in their caree...