- Dumb ideas of 2009 #4: The demographic dividend
Perhaps the dumbest idea of the decade. Everyone is selling you the 'Youth power' mantra, but before you pass out in the rabid nationalist delirium, time to get off the train at the halt of 'WTF'. Some 35 years back, th…
Topic: Politics and Government, 2009, Google, Demographic dividend | Read more
- Dumb ideas of 2009 #3: No one is searching for how to make India better, boss
According to the big search book of Google Sir, we Indians want know 1. how to kiss (still too much sexual repression, bhaijee?), 2. how to hack (empty mind is a dangerous mind), 3. how to meditate (the pressures of ge…
Topic: 2009, Google | Read more
- Dumb Ideas of 2009 #2: Nilekeni's Unique ID Project
Take a technologically ignorant Cabinet of Ministers, an entrepreneur who made big on selling code monkey services and an army of bureacrats eager to make money from the IT spending gravy gravy train ( One has not read a…
Topic: 2009, UniqueIDproject | Read more
- Dumb Ideas of 2009 #1: MBAs Nahin Sudherenge
As if the rising costs of foodstuff was not enough for all of us. Having been burned bad by the lucrative Investment Banking and Consulting industries, almost every other of our glorified textbook clerks, aka MBAs now wa…
Topic: Say That Again, 2009, Mba | Read more
- Can anyone explain to me how sensible is the delimitation of constituencies?
Other than knowing nothing about who will vote for whom in these confusing, deliberately issue-less elections, the other thing that confuses most Indians, including this writer is this thing called 'Delimitation of const…
Topic: Indiaelections2009 | Read more
- The rising trend of Rajya Sabha as the real source of power in India
There is a valid reason why people point out that Manmohan Singh is not the people-elected leader of India. Since 1991, he is a Rajya Sabha M.P. from Assam. He has won no Lok Sabha elections in his career.
We had Rajy…
Topic: Politics and Government, Indiaelections2009, Trends | Read more
- Ten things I have learned from these Elections
So, we are giving the middle finger salute this time: The Election Commission is painting voters' middle fingers with indelible ink instead of the usual index finger. Whether this is a nod towards the quality of our po…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, India | Read more
- The Art of Building Influence in India - Part 1 - The Reliance and Infosys Way
It is very easy creating influence in India. In this occassional series, part 1 will focus on businessmen and influence. As is usual with most of my posts, I will be quick with this.
1. The Reliance way: Where you li…
Topic: Media, Politics, Indiaelections2009 | Read more
- How to start a political party in India
The Congress party was formed more than 125 years ago. When the indpendence was won, Gandhiji wanted Congress to be disbanded but they did not listen. It took another 40 years or so before a party was able to rival to ri…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Politicalparty, Howto, Simpleguide | Read more
- Poem of an election campaign worker
This Charlie Brown (peanuts) peom is about the U.S. Elections. With some modifications, it can be made for the Indian elections. After we are good at appropriating American stuff. I would recommend adding in bits about g…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Poem | Read more
- Graphic: No opinion poll is sure about who will win what in these elections
Who will win in the electionsOnly the Matpati Ka Jinn knows. The graphic from Churimuri blog tries to aggregate results from 16 surveys in by different newspapers and news channels and finds that you can rely on no opi…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Infographic | Read more
- Let a million independent candidates stand in the elections
A Pav Bhaji seller in Gurgaon is running for the Lok Sabha Elections. A candidate ran many times against Indira Gandhi and other big political candidates. Remember a man they called Dharati Pakad? Two big name candidate…
Topic: Indiaelections2009 | Read more
- How useless are opinion polls of TV news channels?
It is no secret most TV news channels in India have a political bias. Analyzing election-related opinion polls taken by two major TV news channels, Vinod Sharma says,
As is evident from the analysis above, both the …
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Survey, Indiablogger | Read more
- India: Poor country, Rich Politicians
Rajesh Shukla of the NCAER and Sunil Jain find in their analysis of wealth declared by Indian politicians that MLAs from poorer states such as Bihar, U.P. and Madhya Pradesh are not as poor as their fellow state citizens…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Corruption | Read more
- A simpleguide to 30 best Hindi films on politics in India
In the words of Amartya Sen, "Indians like to debate". If that were true, then it would be safe to say that along with cricket, cinema and corruption, we love talking about politics. As the general elections of 2009 dr…
Topic: Films, Indiaelections2009, India, Simpleguide | Read more
- Stop playing pied piper to the youth of India
I do not have the data but I say for sure that average age of our elected M.P.s must be 45+. That is more than twice the required age for voting. However, it is more than that.
The reality is it takes that much time t…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Youthpower | Read more
- Do political parties and the news media think voters are stupid?
According to a IMRB survey, 59% of the voters feel that the primary motive of most politicians is to make money. This is no surprise. But what pisses one off is, and one is pissed easily these days, is this: do the parti…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Vote, Marketing | Read more
- Why it is hard to vote in the elections in India
Westerners call the Indian General Elections "a carnival". The unsexed version of Rio, is this what they are thinkingTruth is, there are so few good candidates and so many hurdles for good candidates to spread the word t…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Vote | Read more
- On Indian journalists with political affiliations
In truth, few media outlets are really unbiased. In fact, a media house betrays its leanings right when it plays safe with regards to the establishment. Many media houses have made their names siding with whoever is in p…
Topic: Media, Indiaelections2009, Journalists | Read more
- The 13 most overrated people in India right now
Chirag Chamoli comes up with an interesting list of Indians who hog the mindspace for being famous than doing something famous, the nine overrated people in India, which this writer has expaned to 13. [the notes alongsi…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Celebrity | Read more
