The Thinking Indian

@thethinkingindian-blog

The Thinking Indian's views on all things concerning the country. Politics, Economics, Religion, Business, Entertainment, Health, Liferstyle, Spirituality...

191 posts

Can India’s urban future be a healthy one?

As more Indians adopt more urban lives, chronic conditions like diabetes, obesity and heart disease are on the rise, replacing malnutrition and infectious diseases as the country’s most urgent health worries. But they are not immune in the familiar confines of the village, either. The same chronic diseases are rising in rural India too, albeit more slowly than in its cities. So what really lies behind this national trend, threatening the health of hundreds of millions of people in villages and cities alike? Source: Can India’s urban future be a healthy one? | Mosaic Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/73sb2R #The Thinking Indian

India to become third largest economy in world by 2030

India is set to become the third largest economy in the world by 2030, according to latest estimates by a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report. The rapid rise of the Indian economy with its young workforce would push it up from being the 10th largest economy in 2013 to the third largest by 2030. China, the world's second largest economy, is expected to close the gap with America by 2030, while Mexico is predicted to be the 10th largest economy by 2030, above Canada and Italy, both G7 nations. Source: India to become third largest economy in world by 2030: PwC - Financial Express Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/6DxfPJ #The Thinking Indian

Deepak Chopra or Random Gibberish?

For years, famed writer and thinker Deepak Chopra has peddled his own unique brand of nonsensical pulp profundity to anyone willing to listen–and pay. While his preachings have made him a global celebrity with a net worth of $80 million, he has been widely criticized for thoroughly misunderstanding science and for making absolutely no fucking sense to anyone with a rudimentary understanding of physics. Source: Deepak Chopra or Random Gibberish? Trick Question. – The Skeptical Libertarian | Blog Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/64TYVT #The Thinking Indian

Blame India’s World Cup Drought on the Shoes

When the World Cup kicks off in Brazil, a captive audience of close to 100 million in India, myself included, will settle down for a month in paradise: long, enthralling nights in front of a television (most games begin after midnight here) and short, imaginative mornings spent calling in ill at work before tumbling back into bed. India’s current ranking in the FIFA world standings is an abysmal 154th, and India’s vast soccer audience -- now in love with the teams of Manchester United, Real Madrid, Spain and Brazil -- developed independently of any real relationship with the moribund Indian game and primarily after the satellite television revolution of the 1990s. No Indian fan seriously hopes that India will qualify for a World Cup in the course of his or her lifetime. Source: Blame India's World Cup Drought on the Shoes - Bloomberg View Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/5ypXJ3 #The Thinking Indian

I Work As a ‘Human Table’ at Indian Weddings Because I’m a White Girl

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of "White Girl Jobs" in India. Every backpacker who's wandered the pavements of Mumbai will have encountered the overly friendly young men lurking round the Leopold Cafe trying to scout random travellers for “starring roles" in upcoming Bollywood blockbusters. This is already kind of old hat. Watch any recent Bollywood film and in almost every dance, club or party scene there will be a group of white men or women inexplicably placed amid the pros, looking lost and bewildered. But now there is a new trend growing among India's middle classes. They've started to employ white Western girls to hang out at weddings doing various weird things purely because they – we – are white and Western. Jobs can include anything from greeting guests while dressed as a London Beefeater, to leading the bride and groom's wedding procession on the back of a horse, to being a human statue. Source: I Work As a 'Human Table' at Indian Weddings Because I'm a White Girl | VICE United Kingdom Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/5x6z8k #The Thinking Indian

2014 India monsoon season: The most important forecast in the world.

It’s about to start raining in India, but not quite yet. That’s big news in a country where about half of the 1.25 billion population is engaged in agriculture. Each year, 70 percent of India’s annual rains come during the summer monsoon months of June to September, when rising warm air over the subcontinent draws moisture northward from the relatively cooler Indian Ocean. This year, thanks in part to El Niño, the outlook is grim. Source: 2014 India monsoon season: The most important forecast in the world. Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think attribution is in error email us http://dlvr.it/5tJp6Y #The Thinking Indian

Toilet Shortage in India Fuels Rape

Nine of out of ten women and girls say they have faced harassment when going to the bathroom in Bhopal, the capital of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, according a report by WaterAid in 2012. About a third said they have been assaulted, the survey said, without saying how many women it interviewed. “When women go to the fields they are easy prey for men,” said Shaibal Gupta, an economist at the Asian Development Research Institute in Patna in the eastern state of Bihar. “I struggle to describe it. It’s one of the most dastardly acts imaginable.” Source: Toilet Shortage in India Fuels Rape as Women Are Prey Walking to Wheat Fields - Bloomberg Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/5t1vxl #The Thinking Indian

Modi Taps Selfie Generation to Oust Twitter-Absent Gandhis

Narendra Modi’s first declaration of victory didn’t come in the capital New Delhi, or his home state of Gujarat or even Hinduism’s holiest city of Varanasi, where he ran for parliament. It came in the form of a message on his Twitter Inc. account. “India has won. Good days are ahead,” Modi wrote to his more than four million followers on the microblogging platform, after official results released May 16 showed his Bharatiya Janata Party winning a landslide victory over the Congress party led by the Gandhi dynasty. That his victory message was retweeted over 69,000 times was as much evidence of Modi’s popularity. Source: Modi Taps Selfie Generation to Oust Twitter-Absent Gandhis - Bloomberg Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think attribution is in error email us http://dlvr.it/5kJvjB #The Thinking Indian

5 Innovations That Will Transform India in the Next 5 Years

Following the United States and China, India is the world’s third largest Internet population. The country is projected to be home to 243 million Internet users by June 2014 -– but that’s still only a fraction of the country’s 1.2 billion population. As access to the Internet penetrates deeper into the Indian population, it is changing the ways politicians campaign, companies lead and people connect. Source: 5 Innovations That Will Transform India in the Next 5 Years Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/5R1hFp #The Thinking Indian

The Constitution of India: Silent guardian, Dark Knight of democracy

The architects of our Cconstitution understood the need to protect the independence of critical institutions in a new democracy by minimising discretion in the hands of the executive. And if you want any proof of their wisdom, just observe what happened to institutions whose functioning was not explained in our constitution. You need not look any further than our bureaucracy, which is still supervised (read manipulated) by the government of the day through the archaic All India Service Rules. Sixty-four years after becoming a republic, all that we have to regulate the “steel frame” of our administration are mere rules -- not even a legislation to ensure at least the pretence of independence of the bureaucracy. It required the Supreme Court’s intervention last year to push the government towards civil service reforms. Source: The Constitution of India: Silent guardian, Dark Knight of democracy | Firstpost Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/4nCgtv #The Thinking Indian

Death and bawdiness from the Parsi tongue

Parsis don’t have the reverence for the dead that other Indians do and their irreverence is extreme, as shown by numerous Parsi sayings Source: Death and bawdiness from the Parsi tongue - Livemint Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/4m66ZH #The Thinking Indian

Indian Political Parties Are Drowning The Web With Spam Propaganda

It’s an open secret in India that political parties try to spam the web with positive representations to try and sway voters. With some digging it is easy to see how much spam these companies were actually creating on the web to further their prospects. Source: Indian Political Parties Are Drowning The Web With Spam Propaganda — Medium Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/4kfLXP #The Thinking Indian

In India men are men but women are often ‘girls’

You can't visit an Indian website or watch TV news at the moment without reading about one of several assault or harassment cases. One clear change since the outcry over last December's fatal gang rape in Delhi is that the media now devotes much more space to such stories - even without the current spate of high-profile cases. But what also stands out is that the victims are almost always described as "girls" - even when they are much older than 18. Some see this "default thinking" as symbolic of to what extent attitudes towards women remain in the past. Source: BBC News - In India men are men but women are often 'girls' Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/4Pm7Vd #The Thinking Indian

India Is One Of The Worst Places To Be Born, But This Group Is Trying To Change That

India has the highest number of child deaths in the world: More than 1.6 million Indian children under the age of 5 died in 2011, according to Save the Children's "State of the World's Mothers 2013" report. That means 24 percent of under-5 child deaths in the world happen in India. More than a third of these children's deaths are due to malnutrition. In India, 28 percent of infants are underweight at birth and 44 percent of children under 5 are underweight. Source: India Is One Of The Worst Places To Be Born, But This Group Is Trying To Change That Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/4PTV9l #The Thinking Indian

Why Do Indians Love Gold?

Indians adore gold. Newly wed brides are given enough jewellery to break their necks. Peasants store their pitiful savings in trinkets. Wise-guys sport rings like knuckle-dusters and tycoons with broken balance-sheets offer gold at temples in return for redemption. Even as economists and officials beg them not to, Indians splurge on the shiny stuff-in 2011 India imported more gold than any other country-about 1,000 tonnes, or a fifth of global annual supply. That is the same amount that sits in the central bank vaults of Switzerland. Why do Indians love gold? Source: Why Do Indians Love Gold? | Business Insider India Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/4NNlJN #The Thinking Indian

Feeding India’s Hunger for Gold

Indians imported 863 tons of gold last year, contributing to a high trade deficit. Some business leaders suggest tapping the estimated 35,000 tons of gold already in India, some of it held by Hindu temples. Banks would buy gold and sell it to dealers. The central bank asked some temples about their gold holdings but has said there are no plans to purchase it. Hindu nationalists want the temple gold to stay put. Source: Feeding India’s Hunger for Gold - Businessweek Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/40nRs0 #The Thinking Indian

India: the Story You Never Wanted to Hear

When people ask me about my experience studying abroad in India, I always face the same dilemma. How does one convey the contradiction that over the past few months has torn my life apart, and convey it in a single succinct sentence? “India was wonderful," I go with, "but extremely dangerous for women.” Part of me dreads the follow-up questions, and part of me hopes for more. I'm torn between believing in the efficacy of truth, and being wary of how much truth people want. Source: India: the Story You Never Wanted to Hear - CNN iReport Rights to all content (text, images, videos etc.) with post source. If you think these are wrongly attributed email us http://dlvr.it/3rlytb #The Thinking Indian

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