ECONOMICA

Well, The Great Indian Economics festival Arthotsav is right around the corner of a corner. So, in order to make sure that our pals from other colleges don't suffer from a lack of information and assume Arthotsav to be an Art festival (on second thouhts, it does seem a good name for an art festival) we arranged for a Contigent Leader(CL) Meet. Arthotsav deals with how you can allocate your best brains to those events where the returns would be most optimum and profitable. Yes, it's just an Economics themed fest. But but BUT before you roll your eyes and start droning on how boring an economics fest would be, we've made sure that the Contingent Leaders of your college know that it's not so. The meet was scheduled in order to brief the CLs about the events and also get a feel of the huge campus. The host college team took great efforts to make the CL's feel at home. True to their promise, the CL's were very well fed and watered by Team Arthotsav. Not that t...

Queues. What is it about queues that brings about the kind of vile hostility in a civilised society like ours? It’s that one word which every Indian detests wholeheartedly. There seems to be a queue for everything that not one person willingly adheres to. Thereupon, giving rise to a syndicate of ‘lane cutters’. While others may deem it to be an unethical practice, these ‘lane cutters’ quite unabashedly, claim themselves to be some sort of VIPs.  VIP or not, the only queue they give some regard to (sans the lament about the growing Indian population) is the queue for entering the temples. There are people of all statuses and from different walks of life, awaiting their chance to seek the blessings of God. I was one among them too. I stood there, waiting patiently for people to finish giving their spiel of an extensive wish list to God so that I could supplicate my own. Then, my focus shifted to this little girl that stood right ahead of me, growing more and more impatient ...

Economics is a subject that most don’t understand. But those who do, appear extremely intelligent. So what can one do to become an economics whizz? Here’s a list of things you can do to pretend to know all about this complicated subject. Leggo’ 1. Economic Times: Have you ever seen that thick, dull coloured newspaper that comes along with The Times of India? The one that you promptly stack on the pile of recyclable paper? Well, the next time you receive a copy of the most boring paper on Earth, don’t toss it away. Instead, pretend to read it. You won’t understand most of it but, you sure will look smart and maybe just maybe, some of what you read will seep into your brain. 2. Alfred Marshall: Remember this name. Alfred Marshall, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the most influential economists (that I know of and I don’t know much.). He’s made and discovered so many theories and principles in economics that chances are, if you make up your own theory and pass it under his name,...

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...