ECONOMICA

Picture from Orobel.com Looking back upon the year 2016, I am filled with a sense of dread. Will I be next? How bad would my city look after an attack? And how will we cope if an international terrorist organization were to strike on our soil? Hopelessness, uncertainty and mainly a sense of fear prevails. Personally, I fear the feeling I had right after 26/11 when my entire city was on lockdown and everyone sat clutching their hearts in their hands. I fear that we will be holding our breaths so long for good news, that it will be eons before we are safe again. I fear, Fear itself. But as I spent my year studying economies and learning market structures in detail, the one question that kept plaguing my mind was this, will our economy fall if we were ever to be attacked?  Did USA crash after 9/11? Were Paris and Brussels affected in 2016? After immense research and a lot of questions, this is what I gathered. Economies as individuals are affected after a terrorist...

Dr. Deshpande (centre) being felicitated by Dr. Desai (left) as Dr. PRakash Salvi looks on (right). On 15 th December, the University of Mumbai and Economica (the Department of Economics at Ruparel) organized a talk on Artha Saksharta (Economic Literacy) with Dr.  Chandrahas Deshpande  (Ex-Director, MC) as a part of the celebration of 168 th year of the University of Mumbai.                  The program was organized by Sharanya Pillai.  Members volunteered as photographers, videographers, to get the bouquet, for setting up the whole room, for board decoration and publicity. The program received an enthusiastic response from students.                  The program started with little introduction of the chief guest and his felicitation with a bouquet of flowers. He then started his speech. First of ...

The Cultural Department is an imperative part of the D.G . Ruparel College. With activities going on year round, our college has been a part of state level competition called Maharashtra Utsav . This year, I had the privilege of being a part of the MU Team. My role in MU was limited to one event only i.e Folk dance. The folk dance to be performed was called as Kalbeliya . It is a folk dance that belongs to the North-West State of India i.e Rajasthan.  Folk Dance in general requires lot of energy and stamina. It is considered to be one of the most hectic dance forms, ours was not an exception. My team consisted of 10 members including me. The day we reached the rehearsal hall, we were told about the dance form and also that the time limit given was approximately 8-10 mins. All of it seemed impossible during the initial days, with us attending lectures in the morning and then spending the entire afternoon rehearsing! We were extremely unsure of ourselves. Ruparel's Kalbeliya...

Assumptions are what modern sciences base themselves on. Physics might assume that properties have a consistency; Mathematical assumptions are meticulously written down before any theorem. Often these assumptions are fairly simplistic and are considered so obvious that they do not require any explanations. For an economics student, assumptions are provided before aspects such as Demand Theory as well. But there is one universal assumption that, even though disproved time and again, continues to be a pillar for Economics, Political Science, Linguistics and any human-oriented subject in general :   that humans are trustworthy creatures. Artwork by Swarada Mayekar Trust makes the cogs of our society turn. The manufacturer must trust his workers not to steal and go on rampage; the workers must trust that consumers will buy the products and they will get their wages; the consumers in turn must trust the manufacturer to create a product that fulfills their basic need and ...

Perkele! Indian society has always equated good education with "academic achievements". We can’t even stick to ONE philosophy of education long enough to see if it actually works.  We keep on trying new methods, ideas and initiatives .  We keep adding more and more to our plates without removing any of the past ideas.  We believe, “more” is the answer to all  our education problems.  MORE classes,  homework,  assignments,  pressure,  content,  after school tutoring testing and longer days !  This is doing nothing, but creating  MORE frustration.          Finland  believes less is more. It applies to both, students as well as teachers. Finnish students don't start formal education until the age of 7. Finland allows it's children to play and explore while learning, instead of locking them up in a room. Children start learning when they are actually read...

Artwork by Nikita Panicker In a world where gender discrimination exists in almost every sphere of our society, here comes the story of a woman who has achieved the top position in one of the world’s largest company. Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo has scripted a success story that showcases what American dreams are made of.  She has also proven that no matter who you are or where you come from, if you have a dream then all you need is the will and determination to achieve it. BACKGROUND Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is an India-born, naturalized American business executive and the current Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo . Nooyi was born to a Tamil-speaking family on 28th October 1955. She was educated at   Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School   in Madras and received bachelor's degrees in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics from   Madras Christian College   in 1974 as well as a Post Graduate Programme (MBA) from the   Indi...

While thinking of the Porsche 550 Spyder, the first thing that triggers in our mind is James Dean. (Although in a death wish kind of way.) James Dean’s death in 1955 made the Porsche 550 Spyder infamous as the car that killed him. While being the stopping ground for Dean as he waited for another car, this was not even the car he was after. The stories about the curse of James Dean’s Porsche are downright scary and daring to read them requires tremendous courage! James Dean in the car. While shooting for Rebel Without A Cause, James Dean decided to upgrade from the 356 to the 550 Spyder and wanted to make this car uniquely his. Dean called upon George Barris, of movie car fame, to customize the Porsche to suit his taste. He gave it tartan seats and two red stripes over the rear wheels. He plastered the number ‘130’ on its doors, hood and engine cover. He named this car “Little Bastard”, what his language coach, Bill Hickman, liked calling him. He later got the name painte...

Dr. Indradeep Ghosh from the MDAE ( Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics ) gave a speech in the college on the 14 th of December, which was informative and insightful at the same time; the talk was particularly enjoyable as it involved a lot of audience participation. The seminar started with an introduction of the speaker by Palak Jain, FYBA, who gave a brief account of dr. Ghosh’s educational details as well as his work experience. Dr. Ghosh is an expert in macroeconomics and international economics, who has spent all his professional life in the USA. He has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals such as the Global Economy Journal. Dr. Ghosh began the address introducing himself and his experiences. He went on to describe the Indian economy the way he saw it, and then proposed to conduct an experiment, sending the audience into a fit of hushed chatter. He chose 4 groups of 4 people each, and told them that they could choose to either have a high or a low lev...

On Thursday 24 th November 2016, former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh criticized the Narendra Modi government over its surprise move to demonetize rupees 500 and rupees 1000 currency. Dismissing the government’s defence that in the long run, demonetization would be good for the country, Dr. Singh said for those saying this is good in the long run, it reminded him of John Keynes words, “ In the long run, we all are dead ”. EX-PM HITS BACK             Dr. Singh further pointed out that in his opinion the way the scheme had been implemented would hurt agricultural growth in our country, will hurt small industry, will hurt all those people who are in the informal sector of the economy and his own feeling was that the national income that is the GDP can decline by 2% as a result of what had been done and that this was an underestimate and not an overestimate. A very strong criticism of the scheme that came across is ...

Our Experience with economics in FY was nice. In the first lecture we were little bit tensed but, with the passage of time it flew away. In FY, we had 4 lectures of economics in a week and we used to attend nearly each of them. Ah, not only because we liked them but if you miss a lecture you will not be able to understand anything in the next one! Sometimes while sitting on back benches we used to play games like BINGO, SOS or mobile games also. But, it's not like economics lecture was all boring. Sometimes, we really enjoyed it!           In FY (and now also), the most important thing we craved for was Salvi Sir's notes. These notes helped us a lot in understanding our syllabus and writing answers on it. Economics seems hard till the time you don't know the concepts and cannot understand them. But, once you understand the concepts, it becomes easy and fun to study. However, writing answers in exam paper within 2½ hours still remains ...

              App rating: ★★★☆☆ In today’s digital world, everything is at our fingertips, courtesy smartphones and the internet. The Prime Minister of our country has used this to benefit us and has launched a mobile app bearing his name. He is now using mobile applications to engage with citizens, which is a welcome sign of changing times. This app, aimed at keeping us updated with various schemes and plans that the government is executing, also keeps us informed about recent events covered by the media as well. We downloaded the application and explored it. So, here’s a review of the official Narendra Modi app. You begin by downloading the app from the  Google Play Store . Once you install the app, enter your phone number and date of birth. You can access the menu from the top right. The app’s layout consists of tabs, that cover media coverage, infographics and a new concept of ‘my network’. While the media c...

Information courtesy Wikipedia; compiled by lingosaurus South Asia is a complex region as observable in its flags. The ties that bind the region are a mélange of culture, colonialism, physical size and religion; ties that predate written history. It is through vexillary symbolism, then, that some of this mesh may be untangled. Sri Lanka is easily the region’s most complex flag. Critics point out that the Sri Lankan flag is less than ideal as a banner to identify friendly troops on a battlefield, but then again, the primarily Buddhist nation has no plans for war. The flag shows a lion, a symbol of might and courage in Asian cultures, surrounded by four bo leaves, symbolising four tenets of Buddhism Sri Lankans consider worthy of attention. To its left are two stripes of saffron and green—symbols of the country’s Hindu and Muslim minorities. A rich yellow border around the flag brings them all together, a symbol of unity and solidarity. Important to note are some recurrent them...

The demonetization of 500 and 1000 Rupee notes is a milestone in the history of the Indian Rupee. This is definitely a shock to the whole economy, a positive one maybe, but the nation is definitely not ecstatic. The current government has imitated many steps taken previously by other governments. This is one such step. The same decision was taken in 1978 by then Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who decided, against the will of RBI, to demonetize ₹1,000, ₹5,000 and ₹10,000 notes in a bid to combat corruption and black money. By no means am I disparaging this brilliant move by the government, but while not drawbacks, there are definitely some lacunae that eclipse the move.             Most of the rural and urban poor in India are un-banked i.e. they don’t have bank accounts.  These people—migrant labourers, landless workers, potters, contract labourers, street vendors, rickshaw pullers, and female workers— keep money sta...