[Marlon]

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

Most companies are on Hiring freeze for now, not really because they are feeling any pinch financially but mostly a cautious response to uncertain times ahead.

Folks still need talent, job needs to be get done right. So you would see more contractual positions opening up in-place of full time positions. If this recession happens this would be much deeper then the earlier one, is my believe as economic indicators overall are looking sluggish, and this time Asia will be of no help either as it itself is seeing downward trend.

Agree with you guys, there are obvious signs of recession. The job market is pretty bad. The IT MNC I work for usually has mass recruitments every week. For last couple of months I dont find anything happening. May be US IT projections for 2012 is not great. No emails from consultants, no sign of projects , need to be extra cautious this year. This could be the beginning of long recession. Keeping fingers crossed.

[lambuhere1]

Source

Chinese Economy Already in

China is in a hard landing. Car sales are down, cement production is down, steel production is down, construction stocks are down. It’s not a debate anymore, it’s a fact.”

Gary Shilling, president of A. Gary Shilling & Co., a Springfield, New Jersey-based consultancy firm, said on Feb. 2 that China’s economy is headed for a “hard landing” this year as weaker demand overseas chokes off exports. Shilling, who correctly forecast the U.S. recession that began in December 2007, defines a hard landing as a growth rate below 6 percent

[sgiitk]

If the jokers in power continue the way they are going, we are heading for recession and possibly stagflation.

Now even a budget document is not sacrosanct.

[issigonis]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

If the jokers in power continue the way they are going, we are heading for recession and possibly stagflation.

Now even a budget document is not sacrosanct.

>>>

sgiitk,

I would call them even fancier names given their ossified thinking and purblind vision. Our public figures exhibit remarkable sensitivity to the extreme short term to the detriment of longer term growth and economic progress- blanket subsidies for all for labour reforms or agriculture supply chain reforms or the need for a comprehensive security/defence policy vis-avis the smiling panda.

Other examples - do we need fourteen individual public sector banks with heavily unionised employees to provide low cost, easily accessible banking services to our economically lower classes? Does the government not have better things to do (such as a skills enhancement policy for our technicians) than running an airline which hoovers up thousands of crores of tax payers' money with near zero returns? Why is LIC forced to buy PSU paper which the market doesn't want to buy?

The less said about the dadagiri of respected elder sister the better; why not provide free rail travel for all and free electricity for all? I feel sometimes that the government is running some banana republic.

Regards

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by issigonis

>>>
1. I would call them even fancier names .....

2. do we need fourteen individual public sector banks with heavily unionised employees to provide low cost, easily accessible banking services to our economically lower classes? Does the government not have better things to do (such as a skills enhancement policy for our technicians)

3. .... an airline which hoovers up thousands of crores of tax payers' money with near zero returns?

4.Why is LIC forced to buy PSU paper which the market doesn't want to buy?

5. The less said about the dadagiri of respected elder sister the better; ...

1. so would I except that will be unparliamentary.

2. definitely not. But then the PSUs were not to provide service, but generate employment.

3. Then how will the babus and netas fly without paying for it. The Aviation minister will not be able to requisition a bigger plane since his daughter could not get Executive Class tickets for a trip. I have it on good authority that the latest round of price wars was triggered by AI going for predatory pricing, knowing that the tax-payer will ultimately bail them out, and driving others into bankruptcy.

To quote Margaret Thatcher, 'The government has no business to be in business'.

4. Nothing new, they have used the LIC and UTI for this for ages. If they did not like the markets going down a BUY command went out, and a SELL came on the reverse.

5. Excellent comments from Kiran Majumdar Shaw and Rahul Bajaj.
Kiran Majumdar Shaw has hit the nail on its head with her comment:
Mamata is economically illiterate: Biocon chief - Business - Budget 2012 - ibnlive

Mamata is economically illiterate: Biocon chief

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, an Indian entrepreneur and chairman and MD of Biocon Limited came out strongly against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday, tweeting that her party was going to be a "bane" for West Bengal.

"Mamta is a dangerous, populist demagogue: economically illiterate but politically astute - deadly combo!" Shaw tweeted.

"Mamta is a sad reflection on just how feudal our society and culture is - talk of human rights!" she added.

Shaw continued, "Yielding to Mamta n showing Trivedi the door is a very sad day for Indian politics - UPA Govt is in office but not in power. Mamta is behaving like a mad despot. Political leadership is in deficit with such irrational behaviour that can only harm the poor.

"Dinesh Trivedi has come out with a well thought out railway budget but shot down by a thoughtless interfering despotic Mamta Bannerji.

Meanwhile, entrepreneur Rahul Bajaj took on the West Bengal chief minister, saying, "It was a very bold budget and he is a brave man to take such a tough call of increasing fares after ten years. I would have wished to see him around as the Railways Minister. However, it is very unfortunate that his own party is now distancing him."

"It is not a happy situation," he added.

[vinu_h]

With many industrialists and corporates supporting Trivedi's budget, I'm tempted to think that the railway budget is business friendly. Although, with Mamata going against it, I'm starting to think that the budget is not in favour of the common man. If that's the case, I don't blame her for doing what she did.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by vinu_h

With many industrialists and corporates supporting Trivedi's budget, I'm tempted to think that the railway budget is business friendly. Although, with Mamata going against it, I'm starting to think that the budget is not in favour of the common man. If that's the case, I don't blame her for doing what she did.

Since when did 2p/km and 5p/km hike for suburban and long distance sleeper trains become against the common man? Your logic is fairly specious when you consider that the barometer for a budget being in favor of the common man is support from Mamata Banerjee.

Her policies are only going to make the railways more bankrupt. like Air India.

When the users of a service dont pay for it, when the service doesnt invest in itself, then the taxpayers foot the bill.

As a non-avoiding tax payer I am feeling more fed up with every passing year.

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Since when did 2p/km and 5p/km hike for suburban and long distance sleeper trains become against the common man? Your logic is fairly specious when you consider that the barometer for a budget being in favor of the common man is support from Mamata Banerjee.

Her policies are only going to make the railways more bankrupt. like Air India.

When the users of a service dont pay for it, when the service doesnt invest in itself, then the taxpayers foot the bill.

As a non-avoiding tax payer I am feeling more fed up with every passing year.

I can see your point. Just so that you know, I'm not exempt from the fare hike. I'm in it with you.

Allow me to state a few facts. Like most others, Indian Railways(IR) draws most of its profits from its commercial side and uses that to offset the loss it makes on the passenger front. Lalu himself said that, IR saw profit because of an improvement in efficiency and not bcause of an increase in fares. This leads me to believe that the users are paying for the services that they are using. This also tells me that, with no improvement in efficiency, fare hike or not, IR will go bankrupt.

These are his comments on the recent railway budget -
If I can quote Lalu Yadav - " Fare hike will not bail out IR"; " It would be a big burden on the passengers".

If I was Trivedi, I would've increased the frieght rates and kept the passeger rates as it is.

[manojas]

Originally Posted by vinu_h

If I was Trivedi, I would've increased the frieght rates and kept the passeger rates as it is.

Over the past 10 years Railways is doing this and the effect is that they are loosing freight traffic to trucks. Right now, the freight rate of railway is not justified to the services being offered and the freight traffic is in steady decline.

On the contrary, truckers are increasing their revenue

Any more increase in the freight rate will badly affect the railways.

That is the reason why the passenger rate is increased this time.

[lambuhere1]

Interesting report on India


Limits of the jugaad Growth Model

[lambuhere1]

Hope this is not true

Inside the Ring: Beijing coup rumors

Coup in Beijing, Says Chinese Internet Rumor Mill

[alpha1]

Indians (and therefore their politicians) are like small kids.

Whenever someone smart enough to understand the big picture and long term gains chalks a plan, the small kids oppose and perhaps even plan to eliminate this smart character.

Because these kids are more interested in the extreme short pleasure.
(Free this, free that ... the kids don't know that Govt's like an enterprise has revenues and expenses, and these need to be balanced)


The funny thing is that Indian growth story - perhaps has NO significant govt hand. Its just hardworking ppl (trying to attain "success") and the "rich wanting to become richer" enterprises who are churning the economic mills of India.

[Oxy]

The future apparently does not look great. Just came across this article on Rediff:

Slowdown gets serious: A grim future for India - Rediff.com Business

[srishiva]

RBI has cut interest rates. Hope it will do something good.

[lambuhere1]

Not to paint a grim picture, noticed this article. Not sure about the numbers though.

A fall of one per cent in GDP means the loss of almost 15 lakh jobs

Source : The government is not above the rule of law | Gurcharan Das

Lots of articles by him in TOI, Economic times

Can we correlate the numbers as shown in here