Bitcoin Forum

There isn't an Indian Politics and Society board.

We all shy away from politics here. I spend quite a lot of time on the forum and most things i read are people's opinions here. Just wanted to share a few thoughts about the state of our economy and politics. You are welcome to rant yourself if you want.

The way things have slid down for us economically in the years of this fucking stupid government, the uncertainty of COVID, the overall sentiment of hopelessness, i feel like we are back to the 90s time of "dog eats dog" world where you save every penny so that you have something to fall back on. I had hoped that the downturn over the last 4 years would have been a time of Indian companies building, acquiring technologies and young Indians establishing real-world startups. These hopes have been dashed by this over-promising government which just doesn't have the competence or the ideology to steer a 21st century economy. I don't want to fucking start wearing Khadi, make diwali pots and start watching nukkad-ramayan again. I thought we were past that but every time i open the news, watch Arnab Goswami throw tantrum like the country's bahu and see Mr. Pradha Sevak don his ever growing Osho styled beard, my heart sinks.

There, thats a weight off my heart for now. I hope things don't really go that bad as we simply cannot afford that as a society considering our demographics.

EDIT: BTW, This is what triggered me. (https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/india-gdp-bangladesh-gdp-indian-economy-6748867/) No offense to Bangladeshi bandhus. Congratulations.

I don't see any future plan from the current ruling party to save the economy fall happening since the demonetization.They just busy with the one nation one religion one language campaign and also building the temple.People even doesn't realize that their standard is going down when the whole world is moving uo in some way.

I don't know who can make the changes!

The fact is that we have stooped to a level of no return, the economy was sinking well before the corona pandemic and now the government will blame everything on the pandemic and the media channels blindly supporting everything the BJP government will run with that propaganda. If you look at all the media channels they really do not talk about the problems India is facing all they do is to add flavor with SSR and the drugs people are taking and for the past 3 months these channels were spreading the false narrative while ignoring the failures of the government.

Thanks for creating this topic. Though we don't have a dedicated board for discussing politics happening over in our country, I feel like topic can be used as a narrative political speech topic over the years to come along (like the WO thread) instead of creating a separate topic now and then for discussions. As far as our country is concerned, we have completely ruled out the job creating culture and more focused on getting a job for monthly salary. Many of us feel like, it's more safe and secured rather than taking the risk and starting up a business. This is one among the poorest mindsets which majority of us have and has been one among the core contributing factor for our country's increasing poor economy over the decades.

For instance let us consider the common scenarios which are happening over in our country for the past 2 decades

1. In the late 90s and early 2000's there was a craze of moving over to USA for higher studies and settling there permanently. Here in this case, the student finishes off his degree and moves over to USA and settles there for a $100,000 salary. This trend continued till the announcement of stricter Visa process in the Obama Rule. These millions of students haven't contributed anything to our economy rather than sending money to their parents and I would call this scenario as the beginning of our poor economical downturn.

2. Meanwhile during the late 2000's we have seen an increase of US based companies stepping in the Indian soil disguising themselves as job providers and thereby silently increase their net-worth and market share. In this case, we should have allowed only a handful of companies and similarly should have given equal opportunity for the Indians to create their own startups with announcement of various bank loans or kind of similar things. This increase of American companies increased the slave (job) count and people started earning lakhs of rupees per month immediately after finishing off their engineering degree or whatsoever. This indeed paved way for less startups and more creation of jobs which was certainly good for that decade but had a huge negative impact for the future.

3. Destroying Indian Startups by US tech giants and government : This scenario builds up on Scenario 2. Even if the students tend to start a business before they rise up, they are being destroyed by tech giants and new rules from the government. For example, in the mid 2010-2020 there were various startups to stream Indian movies legally but government and media officials prevented them stating that they are allowed to operate only outside India. This rule changed when giants like Amazon, Disney or Netflix stepped in thereby destroying the startup in the process...

Our country and its citizens has become a slave for the foreign nationals, we are overtly dependent on tech giants like bloatware and adware OS maker "Microsoft" but on the other side doesn't know what is BOSS Linux OS (An Indian OS based on Linux kernel) - well people here don't even know what is Linux instead! We trust foreign companies more than Indian companies - we are willing to work as slaves rather than creating jobs for our fellow citizens by creating a startup. If this doesn't change, we will be creating an even more poorer economy in future.

Very well written @Heisenberg. We have indeed ruled out the job creation culture and I would say that it is completely our and the government's fault in this.
There are not many Government jobs out there and we all know what perspective do people have about the Government employees.
Also, not many people have the guts to do a startup. Most people either tend to do a business or join some company and prefer doing a job.
This is where things are opposite in foreign countries. There are so many startups getting launched each year in foreign and it is the same Indian people who go abroad for studies/job to join these foreign startups later on as they become well established.

The Indian government started the "Vocal for Local" clarion during the pandemic and things started to take a turn but we don't know yet if it has actually created an impact at large scale or not.
I found an interesting article about vocal for local and how the economic crisis in the past 2 decades destroyed our job creation culture while welcoming foreign brands in India. It quotes as below


Read more at: https://yourstory.com/2020/05/significance-vocal-local-startup-ecoystem-vc-perspective

Lack of entrepreneurial mindset
"Entrepreneurship" was a subject in one of the compulsory humanities courses they make you take during Engineering. The basic idea was that an entrepreneur has risk taking capacity. As Indians, we are inherently risk averse. This is because of the unstable society and shitty law & order. Musclemen, fourth grade policemen and illiterate politicians are our masters. In such a situation, every 90s kid knows that if you have a stable Govt job, you will have some kind of an identity that will help you or your family. So everyone just toils over books to get out of the shithole and reach a position of authority, power and wealth.

Entrepreneurial mindset akin to that found in West cannot grow without a stable society and law and order. Everyone loves American businesses but most were started by Americans who lived the best peace years through history and coming from well-read, prosperous families themselves. Its ironic that while this Govt preaches Indians about "startup India", they have created the worse societal conditions ever where people are just not feeling secure enough. In the name of anti-corruption and digitalization, we are slowly going back to the days of license-raj and tax terrorism.

Pawan's remarks here on that other side-topic we started on your raffle thread have the same answer:
Most of these "Indian devs" are IT guys in their first jobs trying to do a side project or a hustle. They may not be contributing to open source but in striving to bring some apps and products onto these alternate blockchains, they are only trying to establish some sort of income stream. While there is little chance that they will come up with something groundbreaking, you cannot simply write them off. There are a lot of passionate people out there too. They just don't have enough money to let their passion take precedence over everything else.

The BTC price crossed 12000 USD and still rising. We are just in the middle of the week so this isn't the weekend spike. Lot of bullish news had poured in for quite sometime and the way BTC price just shrugged the Bitmex incident seems to have finally given succour to the bulls. Get ready for the usual pangs of the price difference between USD and INR that almost all the Indian exchanges pile up.

Anybody knows how do they justify them? Is that an India tax?

The price increase comes from the trading fee as far as I know which increases atleast 1% spike from the market price and also competition between the traders, who gives better price will be on the top so people are rushing and reducing their profit margin to stay in the race.

Hahah there is one thing I can assure you. You are going to be declared as Anti National after this very post. ;D  I think the problem we are encountering today is polarization of citizens. Commenting on it from polticial point of view. Apart from religious polarization which obviously has been a major concern these days. Problem is that a new kind of war is emerging between so called right wing and left wing clans. Now these ideological rivalries make sense and are practiced in most of the countries like even the US but in India it is changing into extremism. Right wing people obviously we all know the clan of supporters of BJP and as per them anyone who does not follows that ideology is a Left wing or Chinese/Pak agent or Anti nationalist. Now the problem here what most of the people don't realise is that there is no end to this war. Because at the end you would merely find hatred.

Economically, I think I would not completely blame the govt for GDP fall obviously Covid was a factor but yes the recovery mechanism was absolutely poor and what was highlighted in media is nowhere near reality. Moreover the economic regimes of the government are pretty confusing. Being Right wing government their focus should be on free markets. But where on one end they are inviting big giants around the world to enter every sector of India even agriculture now and on the other hand they are banning Chinese Companies and following socialist regimes. But obviously this would lead to more income inequality becoming even more wider.

I do agree things after 2014 have gone from bad to worst. I only can see fake propoganda and fake promises and not a single development.

But, the question is "Do we have good opposition leaders to counter two powerful leaders from the ruling party?"

I do not think so the opposition itself is divided, every leader their wants to be the head of this country. They themselves are fighting with each other.

If the situation does not changes soon then you will see the existing ruling party once again in power.

That price difference is to account for the 'excessive demand' in Indian market. Even before USD/INR trading pairs were available on Indian Exchanges (before 2018), bitcoin was still selling at the premium of 5-20%. I remember selling bitcoin @ Rs. 14,50,000 on Zebpay when international price was $19,100 (Rs. 13,60,000 at that time).

So the premium is always there in Indian Market whenever bullish trend grows. But after the introduction of stablecoins like USDT, Indian traders started preferring to trade at par with the international markets. So, the traders started taking USDT/INR -> BTC/USDT route rather than directly trading BTC for INR.

Now, BTC/USDT pair has to be at par with international market. So the premium adjustment is only possible in USDT/INR or any of those pairs which involve INR as the base currency. That's why you see USD price rising steep in Indian Market whenever bitcoin falls or grow dramatically.

Thanks for the explanation webtricks. I did see the USDT/INR pair trading at >90 INR/ USD during the March dump this year. I was wondering whats up with it. Now I know. These events present interesting arbitrage opportunities to those with the wherewithal to implement them. This also opens up a Pandora's box of regulations. Forex trading in pairs that do not involve INR is not allowed. So is BTC/USDT allowed? Similarly, as resident citizens, there are multiple hoops one needs to jump to hold any form of foreign currency like USD.

If you go to a bank and tell them to deposit USD, they will ask for a source of income, passport, visa etc. So is it legal for a resident citizen to hold USDT? Is USDT just a commodity (which tracks USD) or it is to be treated as the dollar? What are implications for people using stablecoins for remittances rather than going the banking route and paying the fees?

Just some interesting questions about the Indian scene in crypto. @teosanru should weigh in.

Yeah! Every time there's a big dump in the market, USDT trades at the premium of Rs. 7-10 comparing to USD price. I have tried many times to take advantage of this arbitrage opportunity however, succeeded only once. I was able to buy BTC from a foreign resident @ Preev + 5% (although I didn't make direct payment to him). Then I sold BTC on Indian local exchange @ Preev + 18%, yielding 13% in arbitrage.

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I have read FEMA Act and the act applies trading and holding restrictions on two things - 'Foreign Currency' and 'Foreign Exchange'. Now going by the definition specified in the Act, Foreign Currency refers to any currency other than Indian currency. Whereas, Foreign Exchange means foreign currency and deposits, credits, balances, drafts, BoE, LoC and other kinds of payables in any foreign currency. So one thing is sure, FEMA Act doesn't categorize cryptocurrencies either as foreign currency or foreign exchange. Also RBI haven't classified cryptocurrencies under any type of 'security', 'currency' or 'asset' definition. So my conclusion is that FEMA Act doesn't apply to cryptocurrencies.

In the absence of any clear guidance, I don't think you have to worry holding USDT or any other stablecoin because even if its value is pegged to USD, by core definition it is still a cryptocurrency and it is not possible to directly link the value of such stablecoin with the underlying reserves. Hence, it is still a value only available on blockchain and you are believing a third-party that it is keeping enough reserves in real USD of equivalent amount.

Yup you are absolutely right FEMA Cryptocurrencies don't fall under the ambit of Foreign currency but it can be classified as a foreign asset as FEMA is applicable on foreign assets held by Indians too. FEMA can apply on any type of exchange barter. I don't think RBI needs to classify specified assets too. Will surely give it a deep look. But essentially with cryptocurrencies assets another problem is trace out the country of your tokens. Will it be bitfinex's location which stores USD or the exchange on which you hold? Cryptocurrencies will have to fight a big legal fight in this country I am pretty sure.

So the classification is Foreign Currency, Foreign Exchange and Foreign Asset. For the time being, I am not worried about holding USDT. Its just another ERC-20 token on Ethereum blockchain. Still, a lot of people are exchanging them on KYC'd exchanges like WazirX. (Consider this a "A friend of mine" story, lol) Centralized exchanges like coinbase have already shared trading histories of clients with tax authorities. Indian exchanges can easily do the same. The thing is that these are problems for a time and government that is interested in anything else than running a shitshow of politics and chauvinism. Who cares about having a dialogue with the public when you can do just whatever you want as a ruler?

Then again, People like us don't necessarily matter. A few lac INR moved by us is just petty change for the regulator to care about. As and when, the RBI or SEBI wake up to the "asset" and "exchange" part of it, we will start seeing interventions.

Yeah, they can and are obliged to share your trading history or any other information with tax authorities if needed or asked for. That's why the first thing they ask in KYC procedure is your PAN Card which is issued by Income Tax Department itself.

But that doesn't mean you are in any trouble if you are holding or trading USDT or other stablecoins on such exchanges. INR buy/sell on WazirX is only open for Indian residents. So you can only buy/sell stablecoins to other Indians (no FEMA). Moreover, it's clear that you only have to pay tax if you made profits on sales, holding coins don't attract taxes. So there is nothing to fear if you are paying taxes periodically on correct amount of profits and incomes.

The only thing you need to worry is to not hold coins on such exchanges if you don't intend to sell those instantly and earned them from the sources you can't prove. In such cases, keep such coins on the address which can't be linked to your identity and transfer them to exchange only when you intend to sale those for INR. Withdraw the amount to the bank and pay tax in the following year. Simple, right?

BTCump. Election day is going to come to an end and we will either be continuing with the old unstable guy or will be getting a new one. For the past couple of years, Western part of the globe has been silently controlling us either in the form of providing job in their homeland or by destroying Indian startups in the name of creation of a Digital India. So let us start the discussion here : Whom do you think will be winning the election tonight? Will Biden be more welcoming to the immigrants? Modi has made our country to depend completely upon the overseas companies which has a major share in Mechanical Sectors or more importantly IT sectors! With the temporary ruling out of the H1B Visa, our fellow citizens had faced major hardships in having a good stay in the US but I don't think this will continue for long enough.

But if the opposite tends to happen i.e Trump winning the election tonight in the US, I am not sure how these will be proceeding for another 4 years. Ruling out of H1B has far more adverse effect on our country. It would start with Students returning to our country after they finish off their graduation and thereby becoming unemployed. I could relate this to a worst case scenario which I have experienced last year : A known person of mine has finished his Mech graduation in UK but sadly they never got a job there and hence returned back here. Currently working for a salary of 40k INR per month.

Along with that a large volume of our citizens would be moving over to any EU based countries, Canada, Oceania and would be filling the empty spots there. This will further increase the difficulty of securing a permanent residency in the foreign lands and if this continues to happen we would be facing the worst unemployment rate of the forthcoming decade.

I am pretty much sure Trump will not get the second term. St the moment Biden is ahead of Trump and I feel it will remain as it is.

If Biden comes into power many changes will happen in America and some of those will benifit Indians. I am not certain about the economy as indian economy is completely in shamble and it will take years for us to get back to Pre covid situation.

The chances for Biden to win are greater as Biden is ahead in the number of votes received.
In my personal opinion I would like if Biden wins the presidential elections because there were somethings that I didn't like about Trump in his course of years as the President of America.
As for the India-US ties they will only get stronger even if either of them wins the elections.
Found an article on the affects of India when Biden wins the elections.

Biden as president will be good for India, perhaps not that good for Modi (https://theprint.in/opinion/joe-biden-president-good-for-india-not-for-narendra-modi/535649/)

As for bitcoin, I don't think the US elections would create a major impact on bitcoin's price.

^^ Its should be about policies, not Anti Modi/Trump/Biden. Personal relations doesn't matter much in politics.

Indo pacific and China-crisis - No matter who wins, they just want to push for more weapon deals and counter China including Indo-Rus trade  so brace for more military cooperation,they already pitched the f-18 idea (Minus Technology Transfer).

On 370 Kashmir/ Internal Matters - Biden might not want to provoke India but don't forget ilhan omar and Pramila Jayapal going to be very vocal on Kashmir issue, in short pro Pakistani narrative and its all about narrative, if you lose the narrative then no-one going to respect or care about you. Hint : Congress hearing, Nanga karke marenge wahan ish baar but i am more concerned about Kamala harris because she has no idea what POK or Indian Kashmir problem is and its tricky situation for India considering her alignment with the Omar and Jayapal (Radical Islamist). On the other hand Trump is not going to interfere on our internal matter at all.

@pawanjain : I have watched this small seminar, she was clueless when Pakistani representative raised the Kashmir question, she end up talking about POK human rights drama.

On H1B Visa : Biden is best bet as Trump policies are really bad as far as India is concerned. India could have used this crisis as opportunity because Brain_Drain is serious concern but bureaucracy is pathetic in India, No matter who sitting at the Centre.

On Trade-Deficit fiasco : Again Biden is best bet.

Uniform Civil Code is on cards so fingers crossed.

I am more interested to see if Biden change US policies on Iran_Nuclear_Deal. Trump fucked up India's interest there by ditching the Iran deal or should i say its failure of our bureaucracy. India need Iran in context of Afghanistan and middle east unless we gets hold of POK which seems unlikely.

 

I have nearly zero direct stake in the US elections but anybody can see that the orange man single-handedly brought the level of debate and discourse to historic lows in America. This has had a ripple effect throughout the world strengthening the hand of right-wingers everywhere. This whole thing started as a pushback from the working classes worldwide against the elites who keep getting richer. Unfortunately, extremists, bigots, conspiracy theorists and all form of cuckoo people came crawling out of their basements to declare themselves to the world. My hope is that with Biden winning, this lunacy will come to a balance. Just like the left-wing lunatics needed balance, this right-wing rhetoric has gotten out of hand.

Its the lack of foresight and competence of Indian leadership that they can't see this game plan of keeping India limited to being a middle-class market and a middle-class service providers. Western corp. learnt their lessons after China made rapid advances through reverse-engineering, copying, iterating and at times IP espionage. Indians waited for the tech masters to share but as was seen in case of Russia (cryo engine), France (Rafale Know-how Jaguar upgrades), USA (GE Reactors) etc, no major corporation is going to provide you any assistance.

Indian companies are on their own and they still refuse to spend on R&D. There is still an abysmal gap between Industry and academics. And to drown all these real issues, we talk about Digital India. :-\

I think it's too early to frame an opinion about the President of the US. I have seen that most of the times US Presidents don't stick to their ideologies that hard as much as they promised in their campaign speeches. Yes one thing I can agree to is that the Narrative of the whole World would once again change if Bidden wins(which seems most likely as per the current scenario). While the world started to tilt a bit towards far-right due to almost all major countries having right-wing ideology Presidents/ Prime Ministers would now shift towards the center as the US exerts a lot of pressure on world Politics. One thing I would like to see about Bidden is how he handles China. Even though he has promised that he would restore it's relation-back with China but I think they should come to some compromise from the Chinese end too. China has gone way too far in non-liberalism while expecting everyone to be liberal towards it.

About relations with India I don't think it matters much except for the fact that there would be slightly less right-wing activism. It's because US can in no way support Pakistan's claim on Kashmir at the UN due to terrorism in Pakistan and neither can it substantiate India's claim on it due to global geopolitics. So things would remain the same they were in Kashmir for the last 70 years. I am talking primarily about POK.

Talking about the Uniform Civil Code I personally like the idea of it but if it's made merely as per the fit and measures of Hindus, tensions would obviously escalate in the country once again. I think this is the reason why RSS and BJP might be having a dispute over it.

About H1B visa, I think we have a bigger problem posed by the BJP's Haryana Government:


Now forget about international immigration you even will have to look forward to what happens to domestic migration. I am not concerned about any other city but Gurgaon and Faridabad are obviously the major Economics Hubs of the country.

It was blessing in disguise for ISRO. I don't blame Russians tho, as they were in pretty bad position back then due to over reliant on US's Aid

Fair enough, but i think you are underestimating Democrats and the incident i mentioned it was not related to campaign speech but Congress hearings. They are different breed when it comes to Human rights, social outfits, overall i would say hypocrite. Although i am not worried much as its completely different from the foreign policy but i believe India is going to get a lot of bad press worldwide if Dem ruling USA and NDA sitting at the center, it was already bad during UPA tenure (rape capital etc).


On China, in short term he's not going to be as tough as Trump but Biden is wise enough to understand that China is threat to their hegemony so he will try to work toward strengthening their ties with existing allies unlike Trump, who already pissed off Japanese over tariffs threats and who should pay more  for the US military bases in Japan And Korean already fed up with the trump's childish behavior when dealing with North korea crisis. Even Aussie administrators don't have any favorable opinion about Trump.

Doesn't matter if its UPA/NDA. State should treat its Citizens equal despite their Cast,Creed,Color or Religions. UCC insures that, without this we are not Secular State but Selective Secular and yeah if you are in favor of Selective Secularism then this bill is Anti Abrahamic religion.

https://www.thequint.com/explainers/uniform-civil-code-explained-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters
https://hillpost.in/2013/08/top-7-reasons-why-india-needs-a-uniform-civil-code/95038/

On Less_right_wing_activism comment in Indian context. I agree it would go down drastically but only in news reporting. I can assure you there would be zero change on ground level. Journalist would keep going into jail, shiv sena, bajrang dal type of organisation would create their usual drama every now n then, Cow lynch is not going to reduce (its happening since our independence, century old problem) and last Hindu-Muslim riots. But hey good news is that there would be no outrage, media coverage or award wapsi so its good thing.

Its never going to change unless India focus on Law and Order. How can we expect decline or control fringe groups/crime when our police force is Understaffed_Underpaid_Overworked. For 1.3 billion Indians we have only 1.9 Million Police force, can you imagine that? If doubling the number seems impossible task then at least match the UN guidelines (222ish Police officers for every 100,000 citizens). It would be a welcome start, after that we could focus on police reforms or fund management etc.

Greator Noida/Noida and Yogi ki balle balle.  ;D

Have anyone heard of the freedom fighter Birsa Munda (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birsa_Munda). This is the first time I'm hearing about him. One of the popular Indian Amit Shah (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amit_Shah) had garlanded the wrong statue which is an tribal hunter's statue. Me as an anti-Indian ;) not knowing about the freedom fighter is not a big thing, but this Indian should know better about the freedom fighters.

Blessing in disguise because ISRO has a unique position in terms of being able to do space research having found both a market as well as a purpose. The purpose part is important because that is what ultimately drives the employees to be inventors. This kind of an approach is completely lacking in every other manufacturing sector. We need serious investment in product development for defence and civil purposes. This over-reliance on imports through JVs by private companies is not a solution to the fundamental problem.

By the way, Thank God for Biden looks to have won. Trump is going in with his lawsuits and all. Hopefully there are no surprises anymore.

Dude, Everyone has heard of Birsa Munda. Read Bipin Chandra. The tribal rebellions like the Santhal and Munda rebellion were amongst the first armed rebellions against the might of the British. Indian Tribal communities are amazing. And if you ever find a person who identifies himself as a "tribal" from the Chhatisgarh region, NE region etc, it won't take long for you to relalize their big hearts and cool attitude.

Happy Diwali to all friends living on different parts of the world. Hope the light be spread around taking away the dark. Let the festival of light end the people's suffering out of the pandemic.

Wish you all a very Happy and Safe Diwali. Hope it bring the good luck, fortune and corona free world in coming time. This has been an exceptional year and all the festivals being modified due to various restrictions and taking precaution due to pandemic. Also, for Diwali had opened a separate thread. Link is below.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5288917.0

There was a discussion in Economy section about US household income which somehow led to the topic of difference between direct transfers to the poor and subsidies to the rich. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5290880.msg55636149#msg55636149)

I think, Indians are uniquely capable to assess this. In mixed economies like ours, there were multi billion dollar programs of Govt subsidy. This meant that the poor were given access to cheap goods, rations etc through an elaborate system of supplies managed by a mix of Govt and private agencies. The businesses involved were given subsidies for delivering goods to the poor. What actually happened was that all those businesses and agencies ate away the funding. This continued for almost 70 years and now the present govt has changed this system. Transfers are made directly to bank accounts. Failures on other economic fronts notwithstanding, opening bank accounts for billions of poor and actually activating a host of direct transfers has been one of the biggest achievements of the present Govt.

The next best thing we need is for Govt expenditure to be managed and tracked transparently. Bitcoin is eminently suitable for this. While a lot of people say that bitcoin should be a global reserve currency to realize its true potential, i have always felt that Govt spending is one of the best use-cases for blockchain/ bitcoin. Of course they would NEVER do that. Imagine if PNB's loan grants were public knowledge. How would have the likes of Nirav Modi ran away with so much public money at the behest of a few officials. There can be countless applications of this from the payments made to petty contractors in public departments to multi-million rupee public tenders.

Don't call media they are terrorists i am an Indian but i believe our media is shit.

@UKprod, This links from the message here. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5339221.msg57135019#msg57135019) You are what i call the closet-Bhakt. People at this stage want to be proud of their identity, rightly so but don't like to discuss Hindu majoritarianism like all the other "good" people.

It is fashionable to "turn the cheek" and look the other way when Freedom of expression is curtailed in a country and a Govt fudges the number of deaths in a global pandemic. And when someone calls out the majoritarianism, they are subject to the typical rhetoric about "Can't I be proud of my Hindi identity?"

LOL @ Hinduphobic thoughts. This is about the government doing everything in its power to curtail democracy and a core group still supporting (along with a pliant media). The type of people who were arguing about state-center responsibility when Moduji was saying "Didi-O-Didi" while people were dying on roads for lack of oxygen.

These people will blame the state governments, indians and the population, but won't question Moduji's inept leadership. That is when it becomes about "religion". Nobody is out to shame Hindus. Hindus have shamed themselves enough in this whole episode.

@amishmanish

What's wrong with the hindu majoritism or any kind of majoritism per se? After all democracy is all about majority, right? Identity politics play big part in the India and its a big reality. Before its was Caste-Muslim-Regional block, as result we got fair amount of coalition gov and last one was corrupt af but in the last 2 general election Modi changed the dynamic by turning caste into religion. Opposition can counter this with better product, no one is stopping them but of course first they need to work on the ground. And i really don't know what makes you say that they are undermining democracy. Regional powers showing their spine and winning elections so it does look business as usual to me tbh. We have limited FOE is in India so no argument there and i don't see it changing ever, at least not in my lifetime.

We should criticize Modi on his failures but we should also remember that Center don't hold any power over States. Centre manage only couple of portfolio for the states (Defence-forgien affairs), nothing else. So if someone pointing out state-center responsibility argument when dealing with covid or any other issue then they are spot on. Playing field should be same for everyone IMO. The way i see it we as a country got complacent when covid cases went down and then second wave came, it was collective failure for all of us which includes Centre-States-Citizens.

I completely agree that overall casualty figures are under reported but i can't believe that half or millions of people died and all political rivals came together on this issue just to hide casualties reports and media also supporting them? I highly doubt it.

India as a nation is built on the ethos of plurality and "Unity in Diversity". The unique position and strength of Indian democracy has always been the fact that religious minorities have never been subject to a compulsion of conforming to the majority's point of view. This has also been because the Hindus have been tolerant and big believers in constitution rather than religion based outfits to assert themselves.

I don't know if you have followed mainstream media, SM etc over the last 7 years but under this Govt, this dynamic has changed dramatically. More and more Hindus are told that they are in danger, especially from Muslims and Christians. This is an extremely dangerous path. It started with the silence on lynchings, cow-vigilantism and open demonization of Muslims in the media. What to say about the troll armies on Facebook, Whatsapp and their continual projection of Modi/BJP as the only savior against a tide of Beef-eating, Love-Jihading, dangerous Muslims.

These are the reasons that I think this Govt has undermined democracy in ways we never thought possible. Some people disagree and think that people like us are being alarmist to be so anti-BJP. Frankly speaking, I think if this Govt continues down this path, we will be staring at an obnoxious country of majoritrians that will be a pale shadow of the India that was respected for its democratic credentials through the past decades despite its limited economic or military might. Then again, I also have hope that democracy as a concept is resilient and sheer geo-political compulsions will save India from the Modi-Shah juggernaut of absolutism.

No they are not. It was the responsilbility of central institutions to track the virulence, spread and mutation of the virus through genomic studies and a scientific approach towards managing the epidemic. Instead, Modi and his minions were busy in celebrating his personal brand and vaccine diplomacy while declaring victory over Covid.
Mumbai and Maharashtra had been struggling throughout the past year. Instead of exploring the possibility of a more virulent strain, BJP was busy in trying to single out the Thackeray Govt for "mismanaging" Covid. Taling about State-central power distribution is simply an argument to make an excuse for refusing to see that Modi was being a megalomaniac while Shah was probably busy plotting a Madhya Pradesh for Maharashtra.

Practicing secularism, maintaining diversity, following constitution, law and order are not only majority's responsibility but every Indian's responsbility. Although majority will continue to do so because its in their DNA despite facing ethnic cleansing and becoming refugee in their own country (Kashmir +North east -Reang or Bru Tribe etc). IMO Parsis, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhist, Christians are the real minorities but according to media and intellectual apologist. Sunnis Muslim (majority) are the real minority and minority in minority Shias (Ismailis, dawoodi bohra, jafferies -tweler-) are irrelevant in Indian polity because they always supported BJP silently and came out openly in 2014 and 2019, along with some Sunnis too, BJP muslim voteshare doubled in last 2 General election. There must be some reason, right? Although its still low but they started making inroads into Muslim community as well.  

I don't subscribe to Ravish-Rajdeep-Arnab kind of journalism tbh but i do volunteer work here n there and spent considerable amount of time in UP, J&K (Valley), Ladakh(kargil) under various initiatives. Only a idiot person can deny that there is no lynching culture over cow-beef etc in India but if you're saying this is only happening in Modi's India then i humbly disagree. I have said this couple of times in my previous posts, in my understanding its social disease- Law and order problem. You can deny this fact but IMHO its century old problem and not going to resolve anytime soon, no matter who sits at the centre (BJP or Congress). Unless police reforms comes into play.

Love Jihad is not propaganda tho, my half family is muslim so i have witnessed this countless time. Heck even my better half casually asked me to convert. It started as a joke at first then after some time it got serious, followed by emotional blackmail and irony is our families are friends with each others since ages. She's Yoga instructor and from educated family but kya kare bc conversion bahut jaruri hai after all gaandu ristedaaro ka syapa har jagah hai. You can only imagine what could happen to non-muslim girl.

Unfortunately common folks die on both side but apologists and certain section of media only highlight one side of stories according to their allegiance be it right wing or left. Nothing is going to change on the ground but fearmongering will disappear if BJP lose the election, although its looks tough because there is no option for the voters.

Will start panicking about democracy if BJP gets into political killing like TMC, undermining SC's judgement, facilitate ethnic cleansing like INC.

Just to cheer you up. https://twitter.com/d_jaishankar/status/1408229286213996544
https://i.imgur.com/CIgvT2A.jpg

Every political party was patting on their own back when cases went down drastically, ish hamam mein sab nange hai.

Heads up to all.

In case you didn't get the memo. ISRO’s SpaDeX mission accomplishes historic docking success. Assembling the Space station won't be a mere dream only and will become a reality soon.

Asli atamanirbhar ka kaam toh ISRO wale kar rahe hai. Ab bari aayegi Chandrayaan 4 ki.

Thanks for finding this thread.


My knowledge regarding AeroSpace limited to the movies level only so I don't really understand the importance of this achievement.

But since morning we have lot of news going on this news and shed some information why it is important. Firstly India Joins the elite club and there's only three other countries have done in the past which are US, China and Russia. Docking space is necessary to carry large cargo as well for for setting up the own space station, this will be useful for Chandrayan mission too which is scheduled for 2028.

Is it true that we will have our own space station by the year 2040?

Yeah, they laid out their plans and allocated the funds a couple of months back. The 2035 timeline is for a space station and the manned mission is set for 2040. According to their planned timelines, the process of launching the space station module should start in the next 4-5 years but need an increased share of funding and more importantly political willpower (fingers crossed) in case of some setbacks. 

The budget did increase in the last decade but is still way too low and needs at least $3-4 billion every year (atm it's $1.5-ish billion).

If Congress comes into power then I am guessing that these timelines will be extended further.
However bad BJP (Uhm, Nirmala) is, I still think it is better when compared to it's opposition parties.
Anyway, having our own space station will have numerous strategic, scientific, economic and technological benefits.

Both parties are equally bad for the middle class of India the major difference between congress and BJP is that leaders of Congress loot money under the table so-called corruption and this side BJP legally steal from the people in the name of taxes without giving anything back in return as benefits, anyway let's not go into that debate now. ::)

It's very common that projects will be kept in pending when the rule changes though...

Let us be realistic here, Congress is a centralized party and it will remain the same unless the Gandhis are removed. BJP is not a centralized party as it is working on a democratic election that is unquestionable. While RSS plays a substantial role in finding the new leader, which is good as RSS is not controlled by an individual or a family.

Coming back to economic policy, I reckon the PM of this country forgot that the current FM does not hold any constituency. If a member of parliament and someone who is part of the cabinet does not know the ground issue then BJP should not have selected her. The problem here is that none of the BJP cabinet members understand how the Indian financial system works except her as she was under the guidance of the Late, Arun Jaitley.

That is why she still holds the position and why she may continue to hold it. With so many leaks out by Congress about how much we Indians are paying in taxes. I feel we will see something good this year from her as an FM. I might be speculating with my observation but it is now evident that she has got exposed. It is where the BJP will ask her to go smart and reduce the burden of the tax-paying class.

That is why we are hearing about the implementation of a new salary hike by 2026 for central government employees. Inflation has gone so high that central government employees are unable to afford the current dynamics. It is also evident that private employees will now get a more substantial upgrade on their salary followed by big tax relief for eveyone.

Nimo Tai rug pull kar rahi hai tax payers ke pairo ke neeche se.

It looks like the new Income Tax Bill ab next week aayega. I am assuming that it's getting delayed because of Delhi Assembly election, tax payers should get ready for pikachu face. Bihar ke toh maje hai ish budget mein.

----------------
Oh wow Nimo tai!
"There will be no Income Tax payable up to an income of Rs 12 Lakh,"

But they are indirectly forcing the people to move to new tax regime altogether?

12lakh seems to be no tempting but still the old tax regime is better for high value individuals cause that is what allows the deductions for various schemes while new tax regime only offers the concessional rates.

My final question is our government doesn't want the people to invest their money? ::)

It looks like it and the name "old tax regime" should give the idea. In the long term, it might vanish completely.

Our annual GDP PC is around 2.5 lakh to 3lakh so it's a big jump and a relief to most salaried class, jo sirf ek tragedy ki wajah se barbaad ho jate hai. I'd put every single earner of 12-15 lakh in a nuclear family in the same category, it's 99% of India.

Arey bhai shukar manao ki LTCG phir se nahi badai Nimo tai ne. I don't think Gov wants to discourage investment but IMHO Jinko financial freedom chahiye woh toh invest karenge hi, no one should wait for gov's initiative.

Dekho kya karti hai woh next week jab new income tax bill aayega, uske baad picture aur clear hogi.

I was wondering the same thing. Investing in ELSS funds, taking term life insurance, NPS, PPF etc... were all the perks of section 80C.
All of these will be useless if we opt for the new tax regime isn't it. So as you say, does the government doesn't want us to do all of these ?
I guess it's more of a perference now for the people who choos new tax regime.
As JASRAW mentioned, even I believe that the old tax regime might get vanished in the upcoming years.

I am not saying we should wait for the government but if we expect to see changes in the economic status as community then it is only possible with policy level changes. Making things harder will push fewer people achieving the financial freedom. There is two way of increasing the tax revenue, one is increasing the standard of life in people and make them rich and increase their spending nature to have more tax collection and there's another one just keep sucking the tax irrespective of unemployment, high inflation, increased cost of goods and service with the indirect taxes and our government always chose the later one to increase their tax revenue.

We should be honest with the realities. The standard of living is worse even in metro cities unless you are living in a 5km radius of some premier location. Revenue and finance help but It's not a holy grail and won't solve this mess here in India primarily because we don't have a civic sense or zero political will and mix it with retarded bureaucracy, Just compare Delhi with Sri Lanka (Delhi is practically a gas chamber). Here I'll give Modi some credit. He did push for it and was the first PM or political figure in India to talk about this but nothing happened.  

Many pundits are hoping that consumption, savings and investment of the middle class will go up or improve for sure because now they'll have more money in their pockets, which makes sense but we'll find out the result soon and the jury is still out.

Indirect taxes are a pain in the ass but mainly for salaried and honest taxpayers. I don't hold a grudge against the unfortunate ones and poor section of our society but there are a shitload amount of people who hide their incomes and avoid direct taxes, might sound stretch but numbers must be around 10s of crores. You can find these people in all walks of life. Be it Babus, politicians, celebrities etc etc. It's a fool's errand but I'd like to see some strict action on these leakages. Last but not least bring the most pampered section of our society, Farmers (rich ones) under the tax bracket.  

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Edit: "Here I'll give Modi some credit...." Talking about Swach Bharat Abhiyan.

The median salary of an average Indian is 20 to 30K INR so increasing the tax exemption to 12 lakh didn't change anything when it comes to majority of the people but instead of giving tax exception reducing the excise duty of fuel will bring more changes in everyone irrespective of their earning potential.

Almost all the transactions are happening via banking from paying via chai to purchase car still our government and IT can't track these tax evaders and they only concentrate on the lump sump like 50Lakhs and above, if they increased the efficiency of IT and collect all the taxes then we can reduce GST to some extent which not including the black money which is more complicated and Indians always found different ways to keep their money under the records.

Arey Dilli walo, Kejri gayo. BJP finally won in Delhi after 27 years. Pure Delhi-NCR mein ab BJP ki Gov hai.

Ab kya expectation hongi Capital mein and what would be the priority for the BJP?

Air Pollution?
Yamuna?
Crumbling infrastructure?
Horse trading at MCD?
Hunting Kejriwal?
Illegal Rohingyas -Bangladeshi cleanup in NCR?

Modi addressed as,"Yamuna Maiya Ki Jai." also they made some daring promises while campaigning which includes

➤ Cleaning the Yamuna River and developing a riverfront within three years.
➤ Clearing landfills across the city within three years.
➤ Providing LPG cylinders at ₹500 and free on Holi and Diwali.
➤ Granting ₹2,500 per month to women from economically weaker sections.
➤ Implementing Ayushman Bharat scheme in the first Cabinet meeting, offering ₹10 lakh in medical treatment coverage.
➤ Resuming pensions for seniors: ₹22,500 per month for those above 60 years and ₹23,000 per month for those above 70 years.
➤ Free education from kindergarten to postgraduate level.
➤ Ensuring a 100% manual scavenging-free Delhi.
➤ Deploying 13,000 e-buses to reduce pollution, aiming for a 100% e-bus fleet with a ₹20,000 crore investment.
➤ Allocating ₹765,000 crore for highway development to ease traffic congestion.
➤ Constructing new colleges, with three to be completed by 2026. ..
➤ Offering ₹21,000 and six nutrition kits for pregnant women.
➤ Granting ₹15,000 financial aid for students taking competitive exams.
➤ Providing ₹1,000 per month for Scheduled Caste students enrolled in technical and vocational courses.
➤ Creating 50,000 government jobs and 20 lakh employment opportunities.
➤ Granting ownership rights to 1,700 unauthorized colonies.

Source (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/elections/assembly-elections/delhi/bjps-blueprint-for-delhi-what-modis-delhi-will-look-like/articleshow/118083031.cms?from=mdr)

I doubt they would do anything at all but they effectively ended the AAP party just because of their controversial alliance with congress in parliament election.

- I have a slight hope for Yamuna because they did an alright job with the Sabarmati Riverfront. Yamuna stretch in Delhi is around 20-22 km, not expecting them to cover the full stretch but if they can
  somehow take control of encroachment then there might be some possibility. It's tough job and needs political willpower.
- Cleaning landfills is low-hanging fruit, given every zone gets its waste management plan on order.
- Freebie stuff they will do, no matter what but with some checklist. Recently Maharastra Gov rejected around 4-5 lakh names from Ladli Behan scheme.
- Kejriwal didn't implement the Ayushman Bharat scheme in Delhi as he had some sort of scheme going on, so easy for new gov.
- Not following any news on pensions.
- Back in 2004-05 I remember paying 50-60 rs as annual fees or maybe quarterly (school fee). Still, it's a good scheme.
- Not sure about 100% manual scavenging-free Delhi
- We don't even have 10k e-buses in India so props to them if they manage to up their game, i have my doubts though.
- BJP's record is good with building stuff like roads, highways, hospitals, colleges etc.
- In regards to competitive exams, Financial aid is good but it should go to EWS only be it SC-ST-OBC-General because in the context of competitive exams, most of the time, these benefits go to the
  creamy layer (SC-ST).
- I won't mind some benefits for technical and vocational courses but again target should be EWS.
- Jobs well, it's a political promise.
- Unauthorized colonies are big votes so possible.

Anyone noticed the gold price? It just keep on increasing 600, 800 per day since the Budget and seems like the 1gm =10K is not that much far?

Also I want to initiate the discussion about the best way to invest on Gold in India? The standard method is buying jwellery but it's comes with wastage cost that makes it as the most stupid as investment the other options are buying gold coins or buying the digital gold which one you prefer especially if you accumulate on small scale.

I was going for the Sovereign gold bonds but seems like the government understood its folly of them being profitable for the investors and loss for the government so they stopped issuing them.

I also keep eyes on the gold price and buy those coins when the price is right. This patient waiting can take years so in between just spend on investing in other sectors like stocks and other bonds.

We can buy Gold coins from any jwellery with hallmark but selling them is not that easy, even pledging the coins is not accepted on banks so they are only good if we have plans to convert them into jwellery in the future. Digital gold is trusted? Almost every app such as Google pay, phone pe has option to buy digital gold starting from 100 INR but trust factor is a concern with them.

Is there any app that lets buy digital gold and allowing it to convert into physical coins if we wanted?

There is a reason Women in India hold lots of gold. Middle-lower middle class doesn't see it as an investment but as a safeguard for bad times with an emotional touch. 

We still have a tradition where close family members (rich and poor) gift gold to a bride and groom. It could go as little as a Jumka, nath, locket-chain or chuda etc.

I am still very new to traditional investing and my first major investment was in BTC back in 2017 so gold returns don't excite me much. Bought a couple of properties tho but using them for personal use so won't call it an investment.

Even in my family they always forced me to buy gold jewellery but I feel stupid whenever I bought them because I always paid 20% extra than what we are buying and it paid off too but the time period to get anything in return from gold lies from anywhere near 5 years. But as you said gold give access to money whenever we are in need cause this is the one we can pledge instantly almost anywhere.

People still fond of buying real estate but it's too complicated whenever we want to sell them and the tax is huge too from registration, annual property tax, etc.

Can you tell me what's the reason for buying gold coins instead of gold biscuits ?
While selling gold coins, they will reduce the making charges but gold biscuits don't have making charges as far as I know.
We should be aware that there's nothing printed on it and they are plaing gold biscuits which we can buy/sell at direct gold price.
After Soverign Gold Bonds, Gold biscuits would be the best way to invest in Gold but where to keep it ? There's no safe place to store it.

Nothing in particular. But I havent bought any for quite a few years now.

I know that storing them is a pain in the rear too and you have to keep them in a bank safe at the most. SGB was a good option for plebs like us, but government stopped issuing them and I am not investing in anything in that sector at this point anymore. Just plain stocks for the long term.

I don't think there's any difference at all, coins starts from 1GM and when it bigger the size changes. We can buy them from reputed jwellery with no making charges too, only we need to pay GST while buying coins and we can even buy from banks if I am not wrong.

The real problem comes with selling, we can convert into a jwellery at the current market price but when we want to sell they deduct the price not sure how much.

Arey what's happening in Nagpur? Saw videos in the news that Islamists are running riot but they are saying that it's because of Bajrand Dal or some other fringe Hindu group? Left is blaming the movie and actor for this chaos and again giving cover to Islamists? What happened to "if you don't like it, don't watch it".

---

Tamilnadu is also in the race for the Drama Cup by replacing the rupee symbol.

I am not aware of that issue


Yup but the irony is the Rupee symbol ₹ created by a person is Tamil Nadu and the current ruling party there celebrated that but now they are going against it.

I get that it's like a way of protesting against the three language policy and unexpected one too.

However, our government really think learning Hindi adds any value to the person in terms of getting employed?

This is a shitty way to protest, some time back there was a North-South divide wave, today it's the rupee symbol because of Devanagari. One might argue that what if it's just a start?

Correct me, if I am wrong. It's not that 3 language policy pressuring someone to opt for Hindi as 3rd language. One is free to opt for any Indian language so why the fuss? NEP 1968 had mandatory Hindi status and the 2020 NEP gives freedom to choose any 3rd Indian language.

For South Indian, it won't help with the job in a big way but IMO it does increase your reach to 600+ million people. One could use this to his/her advantage, be it a politician and in the interweb world sky is the limit.

This just more of the political game to prove their presence and nothing else of protecting the state values or its language.

IMO, learning one more additional language apart from English is just going to add more pressure to the kids who is already having a lot of pressure due to multiple entrance exams and their parents are forcing them to start preparation as early as possible. I would say it will be better as long as optional but only problem comes when they say mandatory because not everyone who learns that additional language will be getting any benefit out of. Let's say 10% of people might use it but why does force the remaining 90% for something that they are never going to use it.

^^
That's a thing no one is forcing something on someone's throat and it's mentioned in the document but still, DMK running its own propaganda due to its political compulsion and the worst part is it's dominating the narrative and Center failed to counter it, at least in Tamilnadu.
https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English.pdf
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/03/19/0DROP.jpeg

Hindi is spoken by almost 43% of the people of India and so it kinda makes sense if people opt to learn hindi as it will surely add value to them at some point of time.
But why would Stallin want to change the symbol of the Rupee. It's like showing they are against the government.
Actually Stallin is an anti Hindu and doesn support the Hindi people there. May be that is why he thought to change the Rupee symbol too but sadly that backfired at him.

^^ Doubt that it's backfiring on him. He hardly has any skin outside Tamilnadu and is confined to one region only so don't think he, his son or his party DMK gives any fuck about North India.

Sometimes I think in his tenure, Modi has gone way too soft on many things, this instance is another example. After being in the center for a decade Modi and BJP still don't know how to use the power. I bet if it was Congress, they would've wreaked havoc in the opposition camp.

BJP government is trying to enter South for very long with not much luck, so any wrong move will just backfire at the central government only could be one of the reason for easy going. Meanwhile, Congress had strong relation with DMK party for decades now.

I guess leaders from BJP saying that Hindi is the national language of India is what triggers whole protests in the regional language spoken states

Historically Congress dismissed elected governments on many occasions all over India (41 times), in the South as well. Still, they ruled India for 5 decades. Look at Karnataka with 4% reservation in public contracts based on religion, this is another dangerous move. Reservation is exploited heavily by the creamy layer of SC/ST and now we are creating a new monster. I am not advocating for disqualifying elected gov from the BJP but at least give warning to these types of antics.

Yeah, Some lowkey leader might have said this in the Hindi belt but DMK machinery has been exploiting language conflict since the 50s when there was no BJP.

I guess these politicians are promoting gunda raj. Just look at how the Shiv Sena people vandalised "Habitat" just because of Kunal Kamra's views on their leader.
These days, people are taking comedians' jokes seriously while avoiding the real issues happening in India.
Courts are encouraging rapista by giving them a mere 10 years in prison for raping a child while people are giving death threats to comedians.
No wonder why Indians prefer to leave India for good.

Arey gundai toh rago mein hai sanskari logo ke and we don't have freedom of speech in India so nothing new and problem is noone advocate for FOS but cherry pick based on their ideology and political affiliation. See what happen to Nupur Sharma, Samay, Allahbadi, Kangana or take example of sitting CM (Reventh Reddy) statements on journalists..etc and list goes on.

Shinde faction of Shiv Sena is just scoring brownie points because kamra is supporter of Uddav's faction. This very same guy was supporting Uddav's faction when they shaved the head of retired navy personal or when Mumbai police hunted Goswami and sent bulldozer at kangana's office.

^^ I miss India's got latent. 

Concept was good, there was no script, spontaneous comedy, contestants didn't have be to special to win — it was hatke genuine show and it got fucked because my india.

New to India yeah but he took inspiration from Tony Hinchcliffe's American comedy series Kill Tony.

I wasn't aware of India got latent show and only got to know about it when this controversy broke the internet. I was aware of Samay because of chess' streams during Covid, which i enjoyed.

Usually I find Allahbadi kinda cringe and surely not funny. Even that joke was rip off from some show. Seasoned comedian could've managed and presented this incest joke in better way but Allahbadi ruined it completely and forgot who is the audience.

Sue him for not being funny but again we have a culture taking offence and followed by violence.

The joke was surely not funny but hey, why are we even watching it if we don't like what we are hearing.
We might not have FOS but we are pretty good at becoming Gandhiji's monkey who doesn't hear bad things.
So just act like one and stop watching such videos which you don't want to hear.
Besides that, I find it funny how the police and CBI conducted "investigations" for the case.
Like there's no crime happening apart from this. Police are just politician's puppets.

^^ These guys were soft target so every tom dick harry came out in open. People in power have different priorities, itna dyan agar yeh law and order mein lagaye but nahi inki alag hi picture chal rahi hai.

There is also one theory going around that some OTT platform offered Samay to bring his show on their platform but he refused and went solo in the market, which pissed off some big guns in the entertainment industry.

Trump announced his tariff on every country, and India will be facing 26% and our government is yet to respond to that.

So let's discuss what is going to be the effect on Indian economy due to this tariff war, as far as I know the IT will take a big hit and to some extent Pharma industry too but the positive thing is the USD fall so the price of INR is standing around 85. What will be the long term effect?

Despite this chaos, Indian market seems to be reacting a bit resilient in comparison to other major markets. So, as of now it looks like a mixed bag.

Impact will be there but lot of it depends on demand sentiments in USA as new tariff policy could potentially create a recession type situation in US market and then it will have effect on the Indian service market and not in positive manner. if not, then we should be fine and survive with little to no fuss.

Pharma industry is safe and there is a opportunity in electronics and textile because our major competitors are hit harder and if India gets it acts together and manages to scale up then it could end up increasing it share. Hope States and Centre works closely in it because India badly need labour intensive sector to thrive.

Pharma stocks went up until the Trump said Tariffs will be announced soon for semiconductor and pharma.

About electronics, are we there yet? I find most of the product got the label of made in India is nothing but imported and assembled here so we still lack the core infrastructure of building complete products.

No we are not there yet but you start with assembling lines and then move into components manufacturing and it goes on and on as far as value addition is concerned.

So we are going in the right direction and it will take 5-10 years to materialize given Centre keep improving its PLI Schemes and keep focusing on reforms as sometimes it could be a miss and hit.

What are they trying to do? Congress is playing dangerous game with this " jitni abadi utna haq" scheme. Then people think why BJP comes in the power again and again.

Every political party got different priorities and want to come into power by any means and people will keep ranting about brain drain in India and why we are not hitting 8-10% gdp growth.
Karnataka caste census panel bats for 51% OBC quota, horizontal job reservation   (https://www.indiatoday.in/india/karnataka/story/karnataka-caste-census-panel-recommendations-raise-obc-quota-to-51-per-cent-horizontal-job-reservation-2708159-2025-04-12)

Vote banks matters more than anything to political parties so I don't think we will expect anything different from these parties to change in future too.

I probably take neutral stance, it's important to focus on the under privileged community and also not to compromise the merit and economic development. I still don't Fully understand the concept of reservations and quotas...

You just explained it yourself in the first quote. Quota givers and creators will always be looked upon as a messiah for the quota people. So increasing the reservations means bagging those votes for life for any political leaders. They always try to milk this bag to get votes.

Same with minority groups in other countries.

Reservations are necessary but problem comes when affalute section (obc) finds a loophole and start exploiting system by faking non creamy layer, EWS and disabilities certificate and that's what happening in existing reservation policy.

There are checks and balances but no one seems to stop this practice and feels like well oiled industry in itself. Situation is that worse that even in high profile fraud case there is no accountbility and no one gets fire.

Checks and balances and creamy layer rule doesn't apply to SC-ST. Your parents can be politicians, IAS-IPS, high ranking officer in government, army or doctors but still, you will get all the perks of reservation and face no competition.

That's right and it's fair only when we include the income rate as one of the criteria to access the reservation perks so it will reach the people who actually need not the one who exploits the system. Why I said I am taking neutral is just because I witnessed it really helped some in the quota system who deserves that but it's like 1 against 1000 that’s what the problem I guess.

I don't see reform taking place anytime soon, Some were hoping that judiciary will bell the cat but they want government to take stand on it and, centre and state has no balls to even discuss this matter. In fact, likes of Rahul Gandhi double down on it.

May be some are doing hard yards  behind the close door but atm overall narrative around it looks dangerous because of Congress antics.

Another devastating news from Palgham, Jammu & Kashmir today where f***ing terrorists shot Non-Musim tourists after checking their identity.
This news has brought a storm in India and I personally feel really angry on such an in-humane and henious act.
Those terrorists should be captured and their throat should be cut and slaughtered in front of camera to show those people their fate for such evil act.

Ben choo when I thought something good was going on in Kashmir, these fuckers comes back in the news again and look at the timing of attack. US vice president is on visit, someone must be desperate for some attention and sleeper cells came out of their holes and gunned down innocents.

This attack is a reminder that you can't be complacent.

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Edit

Indus water treaty suspended!

Bencho this case is perfect example of how clueless our judiciary is when it comes to BTC. Prosecutor, Defense, Bench or police, policymakers and politician every one is running around like a headless chicken.

One person is in jail since August last year and struggling to get a bail. From the article it seems that no one in court understand what's happening and policymakers outside the courtroom don't care, actual argument mast ho rahe honge wahan par. Bechare ko sahi treatment mil raha hoga jail mein, bet sab uski class laga rahe honge jail mein.

https://www.deccanherald.com/india/trading-in-bitcoin-in-india-is-refined-way-of-doing-hawala-business-supreme-court-3525773

Woke up today to the news of India having run a successful air-strike against Pakistan

I never support any war but this move was necessary to strike fear into the hearts of those who stand with terrorism. A bit of battle preparedness is also needed among the Indian locals as well.

Watching closely as the aftermath unfolds.

Yes, drills and awareness given to the people in case of something bad happens but there won't be any war, it's bit exaggeration.

Har 4-5 saal mein yahi repeat ho raha hai, and I am afraid its not going to stop.

5-6 saal ki peace, then terrorist attack and followed by retaliation just to calm things down. Conventional war is not an option because of nuclear so we now are stuck in a endless loop.

Imagine you gave all your gold to a bank, but the bank could decide on exactly what the properties of gold are. So one day, the government blames it for some economic crisis and passes a law saying that gold is now iron. All the banks fall in line and your gold is now a comparatively worthless base element. This is the risk that bitcoin faces.Trusting a custodian in bitcoin is dangerous in ways that custody of other assets doesn't even come close to matching.Very much so, it's absolutely defeating the entire point of bitcoin which is to eliminate counter party risk. More for you and I. The idea is to accumulate as much bitcoin as possible, and get rid of as much fiat as possible. When you stop thinking about your stack in terms of its USD value, those concerns no longer matter.When there is more bitcoin offered to be sold than demanded to be bought, seller competition bids prices down causing there to be less sellers and more buyers.
When there is more bitcoin demanded to be bought than offered to be sold, buyer competition bids prices up causing there to be less buyers and more sellers.

This is constantly happening in order to reach a state of equilibrium to "clear the market". You can determine who is changing the price by looking at who owns the bitcoin being transacted. Which is some rich people, but also a large aggregate of normal people/"retail investors". We can't really say for sure though since we can't always identify the person behind a given transaction on chain or off chain let alone every single transaction.

A good initiative from the Indian government has come into news for real estate buyers/sellers.
A new registration bill has been drafted which will overhaul the existing registration process and digitize the whole registration process.
This will reduce the paper work and middle men involved drastically and improve transparency.

It will also substantially decrease the below commonly occuring real estate frauds.

• Selling same property to multiple people
• Selling property on illegal/restricted land
• Selling property which the seller doesn't even own

Source: https://www.cnbctv18.com/real-estate/draft-registration-bill-2025-new-proposals-property-buying-india-digital-land-records-19614638.htm

If I am not wrong, the government also tried this in trial phase on a very few places and this I read years back but since then there is no update hopefully this will be the final proposal to bring. Real estate registration is one of the place where we don't see the actual value of the property and no stamp duty paid that will go black into the rich pockets. However, I doubt this will completely eliminate them because they always find a way to pay less to government and bribe the officer with some part to make them happy.

Directly connected to long term capital gain tax on property. Sellers wants to sell due to this and buyers wants to save money on stamp duty.

Isliye toh half deal cash mein hoti hai, lower-middle class ki white money hoti hai but in big deals 99% is black money, it's well oiled machine and property market crash ho jayegi agar actual reform hua toh aur lobby bahut strong hai iski. Lower-middle class will benefit the most because of affordable housing.

I believe that black money won't stop here because its just the process of digitizing the paper work involved with property registration.
It's not restricting us to use the black money in any way. Just like today, black money transactions will still be done in cash.
I can still go ahead do all the process online and pay/receive the cash when required. Nothing changes except for storing the property records online.

I am thinking of keeping this thread active for daily discussions, what do you people think?

Have any of you boarded the Vande Bharat trains? I have done so a couple of times in the past and with the unveiling of the Srinagar-katra route, I think a lot of pilgrims and tourists are going to come up in this route specially to see the spectacular Chenab bridge.

Only 2 times and on the same route delhi-katra, visited mata vaishno devi with full extended family for baccho ka mundan.

This route was already good but vande Bharat is positive upgrade for sure. I am kind of laid back person even in chaotic desi environment so nothing to complain.

RRTS ki bahut tarif sunta hun but abhi koi plan hi nahi bana Meerut ke taraf Jane ka.

Why not! We will never run out of contents when it is about economics and politics. ;D

I never travelled in trains except the local one with maximum of 10–15 minutes a few times in my entire lifetime. :-X

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Who is watching the latest news regarding India's GDP growth which surpassed Japan in the latest IMF report and currently India stands with 4.18 trillion dollar GDP and claimed 4th spot. But is it really tells us the real story? No it doesn't because Per capita Income of India is around $2000 while Japan's $33K so what it really tells us is the gap between rich and poor in India is getting wider that is a cause of concern with our financial policies towards economic development in our country which only focus on super rich and leaving the small business behind.

Real growth of a country's economy is when more people live a better life not just the 1% of total population. :)

Well the routes were started with religious sites being tourist attractions as first, I dont mind that because common people are being benefited by that as well.

However I think now they need to change their focus and improve the current systems over introducing new trains and routes.

Well either you could not travel due to some constraints in the past or that you have been flying to places, which I am jealous of because flight tickets burn hole in my pockets.

India needs a lot of work, some of which is not possible unless the root causes are eradicated, we have to work around them. Still growth is happening but some places will remain as they were even 20years from now.

If you are implying upgrading existing railway tracks then yeah we need to focus on that, at least moderately if not on war footing. We need this badly if we want average speed to go up to 170-180 atm it's 110-130.

Both things could go together and it's necessity as newly introduced trains are huge upgrade for common folks and they must modernise ( india is hot so AC coaches must be norm)and decommission old coaches. They should also go bonkers with sleeper trains and RRTS (Regional Rapid Transit System).

How do you travel to other places then ? You must be filthy rich if you are travelling through air or by road using own vehicle.
Trains are for middle class people like me. I have been travelling through trains my whole life.


Nah, it's too expensive when compared to other trains. I mostly prefer travelling in 3A/3E train.
Gareebi nikalti he nahi hai, kya kare.

I simply didn't have the opportunity in my early days due to not availability of train in my local and later I get used to the Bus Journey for longer distances, No I won't recommend domestic flight unless we can't have an option because it's shitty most of the time and you will be pissed instead any experience.. :D
And in some sectors, it is getting worse such as textile industry we used to dominate until the last decade now we are importing from Bangladesh because they can produce the same quality for much cheaper than what we do here and this list can goes on. So government should also focus on the middle class who are the milking cows of every economy to generate taxes via indirect taxes with no questions asked no matter what government impose, but if it reaches to unbearable then the economy will starts crumbling and we got enough examples from other countries.

Nah, I am not that rich, can be in the middle of middle and upper middle class. :D Almost every household owns a car now but what we can't afford is the fuel price and now the toll fares are added to the list. :-X

Expensive sure, but quick travel and decent food with good service indeed. Cheaper than a flight, of course. I think if the routes are optimal they are a good choice. You should try them if get then chance anywhere in the country. Just make sure you plan accordingly, often they will start very early in the morning and end before lunchtime so that the number of meals they serve is reduced to just morning tea and breakfast, skipping the lunch.

3A is fine, but 3E, are you serious?

The SL and SU are the best seats for me.
SU is like your own private bed, nobody is ever going to even place their butts on it except you. SL has the window but your will often find people rushing the aisle and brushing against your elbows, or even certain groups of people who will sit on your seat and have a big red smile, "thori der ki liye baithne dijiye"

But 3E with its SM seat is a hellride. I would never ride in that side.

Yeah I feel you. It is important to be satisfied with things that we get then you will not feel bad.

Flights are good for emergency transport and also if you plan long time back for a tour and buy those tickets. They average comes out close to the 2A train ticket fare during the same time.

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With bitcoin stagnating at 105k USD what are your expectations? I think the Elon-Trump issue and the inflated price leading to selling pressure is going to lead to a downtrend soon.

Yeah, I mean, there's no major difference between 3E and 3A except for that hellride of SM seat.
My all time preference is the Upper berth, I prefer it over SU because the length is more in Upper berth when compared to SU.
It's like my own bed. No disturbance from anyone.

Coming to food in Vande Bharath I have read so many complaints from people saying that the food is pathetic.
Did you seriously liked the food ? If yes, what's your opinion on such huge number of complaints from other people.

That is the biggest difference. During the day can you even think about getting down from SU to SL and stretch your legs? I cant bear it.

I think a lot of this has to do with what the passenger is expecting to have compared to what they actually have.

Personally having taken railway meals since the days I remember traveling in trains, compared to that the VB train lunch/dinner meal is an upgrade. The dal is thick, the rice is good and the veg/non-veg item is decent. They always include chapati-paratha hybrid and one cup of curd and one ice cream which are both from good brands.

However if you board with expectations of a gourmet meal from a Marriott like service, then you will be disappointed.

I remember one of my colleagues said that the food was horrible and that the ice cream was very bad. I was supposed to board the same train a week later and when I did, the ice cream was the best part of it and the food was good like I described.

Makes sense. The comparison is actually a big differentiator here. Food in normal trains is not good to be honest.
May be Vande Bharat would be serving better food when compared to normal trains.
It also depends on the price though. Does the food quality justify the price is what the bigger question should be.

We are 6 months in aur yeh 2025 year is turning out to be big panuti and distarous for India.

Terrorist attack, Mahakhumb stampede, railway station stampede, stadium stampede and now plane crash. Fuck benchoo...

Thank our luck that we are still in one piece, cant believe what it may have been for the last moments of the souls on board and the resident doctors/students in the hostel on which it crashed.

I have my opinion set on technical failure and not terrorist angle, but let us see what the black box ends up giving. Lets not speculate on the cause, it will take time to uncover.

Just for those who want to help, local blood donation camps have been set up and able bodied are requested to donate, so any of you are nearby please do.

Experts believe that both engines lost thrust immediately after takeoff could be the reason. And it went fatal due to the full fuel tank, which is around 90 tonnes.

Even I feel it must be a technical failure. May be some staff/technician didn't do his job correctly which would have resulted in such a drastic crash.
The plane had just landed from Delhi to Ahmedabad and then immediately it was scheduled for London.
Could be that the staff skipped the maintenance check or something but whatever it be, the lives are lost and nothing can revert that.
We are paying so much money for these flights and yet we receive nothing but negligence, irresponsibility and lack of accountability.

I would not say that, considering the big time gaps between two airline accidents in our country I think they are doing a fair job. This does not justify the lives lost, but should keep confidence that such incidents are rare and it will take time to uncover the details of what happened.

New media seem to propagate their sensationalized headlines as much as possible, they appeal to the people's destructive mindset.

Right now they are having a field time, since the start of the year, not having to search for news.

TRP race took all media houses to gutter level. No one actually care about reporting anymore and main focus is on breaking news every minute and to achieve this they are touching new low everyday.

When this crash happened, Air India released a helpline numbers with a disclaimer and basically saying media walo tum apna chutiyapa na karna inn numbers par.

Aur ek ajeeb sa trend chal rakha hai. Desi reporters desi news ke liye foreign news outlets ko quote karne lage hai.