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Lopsided priorities
The report by the World Gold Council (WGC) that demand for gold in India has gone up by a staggering 45% during the 12 months of the previous year must be seen as an indictment of the process of liberalisation, insofar as such a level of consumption in the country easily points to the nation's lopsided priorities. There is little doubt that the yellow metal is largely used in the form of jewellery and the fact that the nation's wealth is being hoarded in such a manner reflects poorly on the quality of the consumer.
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Reforms at long last
The Chinese government has finally woken up to the urgency of toning up its financial sector and has come out with plans to revamp the nation's central bank and overhaul the financial segment generally. This belated measure is inconsistent with the speed at which the economy has been sought to be modernised since 1978. One can hardly explain rationally why nobody in Beijing had not bothered all this long to alter the financial system in concert with the introduction of a free market economy in place of a mechanism that was centrally controlled.
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Creating an ambience for foreign investment
Opening up of Indian economy for foreign investment in 1991 has caused a quantum jump in the level of foreign investment in India. From almost no investment, we have reached a level where foreign direct investment (FDI) of about US $4 billion a year is taking place. This change occurred because the government relinquished their control and command philosophy and started welcoming the foreign investment instead of positively driving away the investors.
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Cars: Watch out for bumpers
You could yawn about the population explosion, it is so old a problem. These days, though, there is yet to be another population explosion -- this time of mechanised quadrapeds. Cars are set to take India over, if the auto expo is to be believed. New models of all description -- small, medium, big, cars for the adventurous, for the elegant, for who knows who else are going to speed down the dusty, pot-holed, unkempt, insecure Indian roads at least within 2000 AD.
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