THE ONLOOKER

The ballot box has been replaced with electronic voting machine in India. This is for saving time, quick counting and of course to check the misuse of ballot box system of voting. The modus operendi of false voting is well known to every voting Indian. But could this stop false voting? Perhaps not; in fact it has become easier and more rampant with EVMs; sources say. This takes place with the consent of everybody present in any particular booth. It is heard that some time the agents of contesting parties happily distribute between themselves the number of false votes.

Till recently for me holidaying meant few days of outing for travel, rest and recuperation. Well, there are several modes of holidaying like visiting hill stations or sea-shores (beaches) and for more energetic and adventurers; wild life travel or adventure tourism. It came as a surprise when someone told me about ghost hunting tourism. In fact I did not attach much importance to it thinking it might be someone imaginative one’s brainchild to befool people like me. But recently a news paper report vouched for it and I came to know that there are many operators in tourism industry all over the world are gleefully arranging such tours. There are many haunting castles spread across all over Europe, especially in Britain and East European countries. Each of those haunting castles has their own history to correlate the happenings and there are some records of them. But in the other side of Atlantic Ocean i.e. America is not lagging behind for their tour operators to sell ‘haunting travels”...

The global recession is not going to recede soon and the current equity rally is likely to fizzle out; the several experts opine this. The trillion dollars package announced by US in G20 summit to counter current global recession may induce inflationary trend in the market all over the world. In this never seen before situation, the obvious question is where to invest? In any situation when the economy of any nation went tumble tosser, gold used to be considered as safe haven for investors. Till recent months this has been true for Indian investors but with dollar price rising high; the gold price is too high to attract investment. Do you know year 2008 was a year of gold! The Indian gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) have given returns around 26.5% ; the highest amongst any asset class that gives return, during financial year 2008-2009. That to when the global economy has been reeling under the pressure of recession. Now, the gold price touching the new high $1002.2 per ounce during ...

In India, with the great democratic exercise like election being held in several installments, the fresh measure to counter global recession has been announced by Reserve Bank of India. A fresh cut in the lending rate has been announced hoping to limit inflation rate within 4% and meeting the moderate growth rate at least 6%. Now, industries can seek loans at a cheaper rate. The housing loans will also be cheaper, it is expected. How far current measure offer impetus to demands in housing and other core sectors is still doubtful; as several industrial sources comment. The reason being they say, that though there is a cut in the lending rate but Banks are reluctant to offer fresh advance apprehending further rise of bad assets.