Where this country is heading - do you have any hope ?

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India is almost irreversibly getting polarized. The seculars, liberals should change their views - mellow down or keep mum - Enough lynching videos available for your enjoyment.

I still think, Congress and UPA cannot win in India anymore. It's not about their PM candidate being portrayed as an Amul Baby or other reasons. The reason has more to do with toxic ideologies injected with religion as a tool by the groups who wanted India, as a land of the pure (100% suddh). When you are more interested in the WhatsApp propaganda about dar-ul-harb and dar-ul-kufr and missionaries (ayyo..IT cell calls them ricebag converts) stealing sheeps, and keeps a blind eye on the fascists, nothing can change. Most of the population *may* have became like that. After all, thousands of crores are being pumped for this propaganda purpose. It's no more the Yahoo! groups or Orkut days where a few handful of "sickular", "naxalite" calling deshbhakts. Social media is engulfed by the rightwing troll army. Fake news are spread across to your rural Rajasthan or Assam to even Tamilnadu, irrespective of internet available or not. No recovery, until perhaps 2030 or 2040. Perhaps, we may experience a famine and that too can be easily be blamed on Vatican, Mughals, Britishers etc etc.

You are ignoring the other side. An active campaign is afoot to create a fear psychosis to portray India is anti-woman, muslim & dalit.

See my post here for some perspective. What was 1990 like, did the country become irreversibly polarized since then ? Of course not. There will be waves that come and go. There is far too much diversity in this country to get everyone to dance to the same tune. This is a liability as well as an asset. Polarisation was much more visible during the cold war, ideological boundaries sharper. These days the only thing that counts is power, getting it and holding on. Some nods here and there but not any serious, systematic efforts to socially re-engineer

I don't think its a given that the UPA cannot win in India anymore. Did you follow the Karnataka elections. I support and still do support the BJP at the national level because its important this country become more than a one party only country. Not just Congress only. See how even that turned out. By 1967 congress was unable to get anything more than a simple majority only for it to swing in 1984 and then went bust in 1989. It will be extremely challenging for the BJP to win in 2019. BJP winning again does not mean congress mukht bharat by any stretch of the imagination. Who else are people going to vote for when they get tired of the BJP. So you see its not irreversible its a pendulum that swings one way and then the other and back again

How representative do you find views here on this forum of the country at large? People seem to think Modi magic is over. No modi there is no BJP. I think they can win but will require a coalition to form a govt. They won't get the same simple majority they got back in 2014. This means appeasing partners becomes even more important. How happy are the BJP's allies these days. Will they agree to get into another marriage again.

 

[Party Monger]

Fixed that for you.

They are in cahoots with and earn enough revenue from big business. Who also want said small businesses to fail so that their all-in-one mega stores and businesses can profit unhindered. This is all part of the plan. Who cares if the nation is looted as long as they and their cronies get rich and unstoppably powerful.

When you ask, what about vote banks, they've now learnt to game the system through social media and their IT cell and fake news etc. so winning elections is no longer an issue for them.

It's a win-win situation for the bjp. The real losers are we the people. Yet some simple minded foolish sheep keep blindly supporting them thinking 'positive' things and 'feeling good' about themselves...

I agree with you by and large, but till start of 2014, Modi's hold on the party wasn't that strong. The grassroots of the party still had a say and they used to help and represent businesses and their interests at various levels and worked for them. Now from 2014, those people have ZERO power. No one listens to them, cause no one listens to their boss or their boss's boss in the Party. Cause only people who take decisions are Modi and shah.

This base still hung on by using Love jihad and Hindu khatre me hai till 2016-17 till when policy decisions affects only economy at large and didnt percolate down. But with GST and demonetisation, its hitting their pocket badly. How do you convince a guy that you're good when he's only earning half the money under you, than he was before?

Now no one heeds this base. Trolls have taken their place. They know they have little to no power. This in Nagpur where you have the CM and Gadkari. Even having access to these people, the base feels alienated. Other parts its probably much worse. This will have severe affect.

 

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Yet some simple minded foolish sheep keep blindly supporting them thinking 'positive' things and 'feeling good' about themselves...

This is exactly what the previous and current NDA have created. Between feeling good and crap its obvious which to go for. The only people that feel good with the UPA are those that want handouts

The last one NDA hit by a bad monsoon. It's not clear as yet whether this one will be hit. Chattigarh, MP & Rajasthan

 

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But with GST and demonetisation, its hitting their pocket badly. How do you convince a guy that you're good when he's only earning half the money under you, than he was before?

Cannot do it. The bypolls in UP were lost because the farmers lost. The trick is more people are ahead or think they will be ahead over those that are not. Can go either way

The adverse effects of GST are temporary and will diminish over time.

Now no one heeds this base. Trolls have taken their place. They know they have little to no power. This in Nagpur where you have the CM and Gadkari. Even having access to these people, the base feels alienated. Other parts its probably much worse. This will have severe affect.

Ignore the base they will lose for sure but i'm not sure that is the case. It certainly was not the case in Karnataka. They only reason they lost there was because of factions

 

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One year later how is India's FTA with itself aka GST doing ?

http://www.opindia.com/2018/07/one-year-report-card-of-indias-biggest-tax-reform/

There have been compliance issues with small businesses who may not be able to hire consultants to ease into the new system. However, regular seminars and consultations with experts would be helpful in ensuring that they adopt the system without hassle.

Other than that, under GST the small traders, manufacturers, service providers with an annual turnover below Rs, 20 Lakh have been exempted from paying GST, thus receiving huge relief. In the VAT regime, the same limit stood at Rs. 10 lakh annually. In this year’s budget, the government introduced a bonanza for small and medium-sized businesses by reducing the corporate tax to 25% from 30% for companies with a turnover of Rs 250 crore. This has further strengthened India’s small and medium industries.

It is not just the industry that has benefitted from the new tax regime with subsuming of almost 15 indirect taxes falling under central, state and local bodies, mitigation of cascading/double taxation and creation of a common national market, but the end user has reaped the benefits of GST with a reduction in prices. Contrary to earlier belief, GST has been far from inflationary.

That underlined bit i've yet to see, it seems like there is no difference

Under the previous tax regime, producers had to pay taxes at every stage which was added to the final selling price. This was called cascading effect of taxes. This extra tax levied on a commodity eventually added to inflation and the rise in prices was borne by the customer. Now, GST replaces the cascading effect of taxes with input tax credit. Under the new tax regime, the tax paid for inputs is taken off taxes to be paid for the final product, or output. The benefit of input tax credit has been mandated to be passed on to the end consumer.

Further, the prices of essential commodities have been kept in the zero percent tax bracket under GST. Some of the examples are as follows:

• Economy class air travel has become cheaper with tax rate fixed at 5 per cent against the previous 6 per cent under the GST.

• No tax on healthcare and education under GST.

• Prices of food grains, especially wheat and rice have come down as they are kept exempt from the GST.

• Electricity generation gets cheaper as the GST council has brought down the previous tax on coal to 5 per cent from 11.69 per cent.

• Household items like sugar, tea, coffee (barring instant coffee) and edible are under the lowest tax rate of 5 per cent.

• Common use products like hair oil, soaps and toothpaste are being charged with a single national sales tax or GST of 18 per cent instead of previous 22-24 per cent tax.

• Railways: Non- AC train travel, including in local trains and metro, has been exempt from GST, while AC train travel is charged at 5 per cent tax rate.

• Eating out got cheaper with GST rate on restaurants slashed to 5% for all restaurants except those in the category of five-star hotels where the tax rate remains 18%.

• Prices of packaged cement further went down from 28 per cent to 18 per cent as against 31 per cent previously on account of different indirect taxes.

• Footwear below Rs. 500 has got much cheaper as under GST it is taxed at 5% as against 14.41% previously.

• Basic food items like milk, paneer, curd, cereals, eggs and meat have been exempted.

The fact that the GST did not lead to inflation is again unprecedented, considering that the other countries such as Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore, where it was implemented, saw a rise in inflation.

Other than the points above the GST has been instrumental in reducing corruption as well as causing seamless economic integration. It has been the most transformative tax reform ever that has made India a single market and increased ease of doing business. The scale of the entire activity has been unprecedented world over. In one go, we have unified an economy of over $2 trillion with more than 1.25 billion people into a single market. From small to big traders, all have been brought under the ambit of GST, creating a uniform system that promotes equality and values honesty.

 

[NotMyRealName]

Metro man E Sreedharan slams Narendra Modi's pet bullet train project

 

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Indian railways is twenty years behind other countries because of the previous jokers in charge. Who like their counterparts in other ministries tried to fix costs which meant next to nothing for upgrades or improvements. So when a new govt has to take over they have to increase prices and then people say where is the improvement. Listen to Piyush

 

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The state and mentality of a party speaks volumes when its own party workers troll / abuse their senior leadership. When the party workers don't respect their leaders why do you expect them to respect for the common man? And he worst part is most or all of the common people are responsible for such trolling / abuses on the internet.

Here is one theory, she's positioning herself to be the next PM. We will find out in due time.

If the BJP were to fall short of the magic number of 272 in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, perhaps she may emerge as an ‘acceptable face’ of the leadership.

Following on from #134

 

[cool_cat]

Following altnews.in (Pratik Sinha) and smhoaxslayer, quint etc are a few handful of sites that helps in finding real versus fake news. Armed with the baits and flammables posted by the RSS-BJP IT Cell in WhatsApp, we have educated people justifying RSS Raj.

 

[pratikb]

The Alt news and his gang is known urban naxalite.take your pick.

 

[Lord Nemesis]

Following altnews.in (Pratik Sinha) and smhoaxslayer, quint etc are a few handful of sites that helps in finding real versus fake news. Armed with the baits and flammables posted by the RSS-BJP IT Cell in WhatsApp, we have educated people justifying RSS Raj.

There is a difference between being educated and just being literate. Being able to read and write is enough to call somebody literate, but being educated is putting that literacy to use for gaining in depth knowledge and understanding on a variety of areas and over a course of time, wisdom through experiences. It is a life long process, but to a large extent dependent on one's attitude towards learning.

Being literate does not mean they have to be educated too. In fact, there are a lot of stupid people in this country passing off as doctors, engineers and what not, but just because they obtained some degree doesn't make them educated. In a country like India, there are a number of ways to pass an exam and earn a degree without ever understanding and learning a damn thing. For example, how many fake degree scams and degree of money rackets have we seen?

There is this science minister of ours who questioned the Darwin's theory of evolution because our ancestors didn't ever document accounts of apes turning into humans. He claims to have a doctoral degree in a stream of science. I have no problem with questioning of a scientific theory because all theories are meant to be questioned and accepted or discarded temporarily or permanently, but just hearing the logic with which this guy is questioning it, it would be very clear that he has no understanding of science at all.

Couple of days back, there was this guy who forwarded a message on Whatsapp that stated that UNESCO has recognized Indian national anthem as the best national anthem in the world. few other people in the group didn't take much time to express how "proud" they felt. This is obviously a fake message doing the rounds for over 10 years now. This guy is in his 40's and in a good job. Same for the people who saw the message and applauded. Unlike a few decades ago, they had all the means to obtain information at their fingertips, but none bothered to check. Heck, they didn't know what UNESCO is. They may have university degrees and a job, but their attitude towards learning leaves much to be desired.

These are the kind of people who endorse such fake news without ever trying to verify them. They cannot and should not be considered to be educated. When you see somebody who for example, claims to be a doctor or engineer (or whatever else), but would rather blindly regurgitate social media propaganda material even in the presence of original or authentic information, you know that they shouldn't be taken seriously and that their title or degree doesn't mean jack.

 

[Party Monger]

The Alt news and his gang is known urban naxalite.take your pick.

These guys are gods among humans serving 1.3 billion people by debunking the filth spread.

Mod Edit: Please avoid personal attacks

 

[NotMyRealName]

There is a difference between being educated and just being literate. Being able to read and write is enough to call somebody literate, but being educated is putting that literacy to use for gaining in depth knowledge and understanding on a variety of areas and over a course of time, wisdom through experiences. It is a life long process, but to a large extent dependent on one's attitude towards learning.

Being literate does not mean they have to be educated too. In fact, there are a lot of stupid people in this country passing off as doctors, engineers and what not, but just because they obtained some degree doesn't make them educated. In a country like India, there are a number of ways to pass an exam and earn a degree without ever understanding and learning a damn thing. For example, how many fake degree scams and degree of money rackets have we seen?

There is this science minister of ours who questioned the Darwin's theory of evolution because our ancestors didn't ever document accounts of apes turning into humans. He claims to have a doctoral degree in a stream of science. I have no problem with questioning of a scientific theory because all theories are meant to be questioned and accepted or discarded temporarily or permanently, but just hearing the logic with which this guy is questioning it, it would be very clear that he has no understanding of science at all.

Couple of days back, there was this guy who forwarded a message on Whatsapp that stated that UNESCO has recognized Indian national anthem as the best national anthem in the world. few other people in the group didn't take much time to express how "proud" they felt. This is obviously a fake message doing the rounds for over 10 years now. This guy is in his 40's and in a good job. Same for the people who saw the message and applauded. Unlike a few decades ago, they had all the means to obtain information at their fingertips, but none bothered to check. Heck, they didn't know what UNESCO is. They may have university degrees and a job, but their attitude towards learning leaves much to be desired.

These are the kind of people who endorse such fake news without ever trying to verify them. They cannot and should not be considered to be educated. When you see somebody who for example, claims to be a doctor or engineer (or whatever else), but would rather blindly regurgitate social media propaganda material even in the presence of original or authentic information, you know that they shouldn't be taken seriously and that their title or degree doesn't mean jack.

Hang on a sec, we have an actually HIGHLY educated person who's no better than the rabid and racist scum.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...aces-opposition-flak/articleshow/64901863.cms

From his wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayant_Sinha) :

"Sinha holds an M.B.A. with Distinction from the Harvard Business School, an M.S. in Energy Management & Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Technology degree with Distinction from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi"

 

[cool_cat]

urban naxalite

Naxalite, Maoist, Chrislamists, Vatican mafia, Jihadi Thukde thukde gang, award vapsi, adarsh liberal, anti-Hindu - More keywords are there for the enjoyment of Abrahamists. All Hindu nationalists and others should continue reading Sankhnaad, Postcard news, TFI (The Frustrated Indian), organiser and such Jihadibhagwa-ugravaadi publications. At the end, they (rightwing supporters) are the majority. They see Abrahamic religions and followers, low castes as enemies. Let the self victimization go on, bashing Muslims, Christians as the reason for the same. It is impossible to convince the inflammable propaganda subscribing common people. Educated too easily subscribe to this view. Now, they publicly opines that Muslims should go to Pakistan, Christians should go to Vatican etc. Very progressive government and people. If they are in power till 2030, we can have a Ummah starting from ancient Greece to Burma and Thailand with GHQ at Nagpur. Bolo Jai Sangh Sakthi..

 

[Lord Nemesis]

https://scroll.in/article/885897/re...e-of-eminence-status-but-its-yet-to-be-set-up
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...tag-to-jio-institute/articleshow/64923290.cms

Reliance Jio Institute which doesn't even exist yet tagged as an "Institute of Eminence" by the govt along with a few IIT's and BITS and it will get grants worth thousands of crores without even having a building or students yet, while there are other great institutes around that don't get that status or funds.

Tomorrow, there will be a new Adani Institute and it will also get tagged as an Institute of eminence without even being waiting to be established and will get tax payers money in truck loads.

Now you know where "education" is heading in India.

Obviously, getting Banks to loan their friends, thousands of crores is not enough.

 

[rdst_1]

https://scroll.in/article/885897/re...e-of-eminence-status-but-its-yet-to-be-set-up
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...tag-to-jio-institute/articleshow/64923290.cms

Reliance Jio Institute which doesn't even exist yet tagged as an "Institute of Eminence" by the govt along with a few IIT's and BITS and it will get grants worth thousands of crores without even having a building or students yet, while there are other great institutes around that don't get that status or funds.

Tomorrow, there will be a new Adani Institute and it will also get tagged as an Institute of eminence without even being waiting to be established and will get tax payers money in truck loads.

Now you know where "education" is heading in India.

Obviously, getting Banks to loan their friends, thousands of crores is not enough.

Read this on a FB post of someone who covers the education industry both as a company and a journalist that the private institutes don't receive any funding from the govt. All they get is less regulation and a more free hand at designing and implementing the courses and foreign tie-ups.
This is a guy who is constantly criticising the govt for it's ****-ups and yet, he welcomes this move as he believes it is a move in the right direction as the state of education in our country is this bad today because of our regulators and less regulation will allow much better results in innovation in the education industry.

Exact text from his post -

A lot of flak for Jio Institute being given the Institute of Eminence(IoE) status. Here is a primer:

1. The IoE status is being given for the sole purpose of being a university that can be a world class University in the years to come.
2. The public universities will get Rs.1000 crores each for the next 10 years while the private universities don't get any monetary support from the government.
3. However, an IoE status will ensure that the regulatory oversight is eased for such universities to pursue excellence.
4. For the first time, the government concedes that regulation impedes pursuit of excellence. It is an oxymoron.
5. Currently, universities cannot appoint a foreign faculty, cannot collaborate, partner, exchange, cooperate with any foreign University,of cannot innovate unless they take permission from UGC/MHRD.
6. Pursuing the dream of being a world class University is an expensive proposition. Just the right intent wouldn't suffice. HKUST, set up in 1991 is the youngest University that is world class. It had a corpus running into billions. It's research funding today is close to 700 Million. It has faculty and researchers from the top 40 universities in the world.
7. If there is any corporation in India which can fund in billions, have a grand vision, operste on a large scale, Reliance would be the first one.
8. Reliance can also ensure that worlds best faculty, Accademic and researchers looks at India in seriousness. Getting them to work in India is exoensive affair.
9. The collaborations and partnerships that Reliance can strike with the best universities around the globe cannot be under estimated. There is already a conversation of a partnership with Harvard.
10. The only thing exposed in IoE is India's grand vision scuttled down from 20 to just 6 universities. This is primarily because MoF could not find the funds to find 10000 crores. All he gave was 3000 crores after a 4 year delay.

No University in India is well funded. Rarely do we think of research. Universities in India are largely teaching shops judged on creating glorified clerk's and not entreprenuership, researchers and creators. We create consumers. It is time we change that.

For me the question should not be - 'How could Reliance got the IoE status?'. It should rather be, 'When the government isn't losing anything financially, why couldn't they give IoE status to a few more private universities and givecwings to their dreams?'.

 

[geekwithlens]

Modi government should be ashamed of themselves. Giving a status to institute which does not even exist and ignoring some of the legendary institutes which has given so much to our country already. I am now sure he can go to any extent to support Ambani and Adanis. He is trying to loot all the country's wealth to his Gujarat. He should be focused for the development of all parts of India as he is now the prime minister and not the chief minister of Gujarat.

 

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At the end, they (rightwing supporters) are the majority.

Why do you say that ? the internet has a tendency to make minorities look like majorities. I test these types all the time to gauge strength. I don't see many jumping in defense. These guys get top comments and then never reply to anything after. Job done. Move on to next place to spam

They see Abrahamic religions and followers, low castes as enemies. Let the self victimization go on, bashing Muslims, Christians as the reason for the same. It is impossible to convince the inflammable propaganda subscribing common people.

This nonsense has been going on forever. Same tropes etc. I noticed this in 2007 -08. All ended in a whimper in 2009. Trending only in the buildup to elections. Can't say i've come across much after the elections like say post 2014. Whether BJP wins or not its the same.

Educated too easily subscribe to this view. Now, they publicly opines that Muslims should go to Pakistan, Christians should go to Vatican etc. Very progressive government and people. If they are in power till 2030, we can have a Ummah starting from ancient Greece to Burma and Thailand with GHQ at Nagpur. Bolo Jai Sangh Sakthi..

Educated does not mean what it says unfortunately. Gullible is a better word. Parrots more like. Problem is the other side is no better.

Support BJP = bhakt
Anti-BJP = urban naxalite



Just mud slinging. Not for discussion, conversation etc

 

[thedeadghost]

I am currently working in Oman its a small country near Dubai. These countries in the gulf have a very good law system in place. There is fine and penalty and very strict laws to be followed. Crime rate is very low. Especially crime against women. One good reason I find is police departments and other agencies have excellent pay which motivated them to work hard and are also rewarded for for achievements. I think our home ministry should really look into our Police force pay scale and workout a plan. Ultimately they are the onces who can control crime.

 

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I think our home ministry should really look into our Police force pay scale and workout a plan. Ultimately they are the onces who can control crime.

Police reform has been a recurring topic for long. Impression i get is we have a police force that remains unchanged since the Brits were here. Not pro people, but pro system. Nobody wants to make cops more independent as it means they cannot be controlled by politicians. Also police are a cost centre, they don't generate revenue so where are the resources to increase their numbers going to come from. Quantity is no good unless there is quality some where as well. The flip side of this is if there are too many cops it feels like they are out to get you just to make up the monthly quota to justify their presence as occurs in the US.

Cop does his job he could get pulled up by his boss or transferred, doesn't do his job the public will abuse him.