Who doesn't know Kapil Sharma yaar? He is the king of comedy now. A very talented comedian, who is spontaneous, versatile, thinks on feet, good at singing and what not? Timing and his spontaneity has won everybody's heart.

He started with his career as stand-up comedian, got rejected in some shows, then went on to win many of them. He performed as an anchor of reality shows award functions. Recently he started his own show on colors after leaving the comedy circus on Sony. From employee he went on to become the employer. This is where a person embraces risk forgoing the comfort of his fixed monthly salary. Unfortunately Kapil's journey has faced huge setbacks in the beginning itself.

·       His 22 crore set got burnt. 22 crores dude! It may be insured but still it's a huge amount of money. For an employee like me and you, the profit earned by our employers may look big. But risk? At the most we may lose 2-3 months salary isn't it? But the employer can lose his entire investment. (1)

·       A 60 lakh tax evasion notice was also slapped on him. Well this part he could have taken care of. Not sure if he evaded it. If he did so, then along with 60 lakh he may to pay the fine also.(2)

·       And reportedly some of his crew members are upset as he has not paid them their salaries since July! If this is true, then those crew members are now in even worse condition as their boss suffered a huge financial loss. (3)

·       Though two episodes have been already shot and can help in running the show on TV without gap, but he still needs one more month to rebuild the sets (4)

But the good thing is that TRP wise Bittu is the Bigg Boss! He may not have the financial backing to make his show as big as Bigg Boss or KBC, but his popularity is unmatched (5). Bittu is even bigger than Big B and Bigg Boss. Look at the TRP chart.

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Wishing him all the best, hope he doesn't lose his spirit. I am sure he will come up with same energy to win back his lost money and to win over the hearts.

They say best defense is a good offense. It is true, especially if you are a public figure. In public life you hear criticism and corruption charges on a regular basis, so you need counter allegations to nullify them. Counter charges shifts the focus. 

Take the following cases:

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Naveen Jindal was facing all kinds of charges because of the Coal scam. Zee news was tarring him further. Then as you all know he did a reverse sting on Zee News (read here). Now both the matters are sub-judice. But what a creativity? Zee guys, haven't you lost the first round?

Now moving on to VK Singh and Editor-Shekhar Gupta issue. Shekhar started this fight with a 'fake' report on that famous revolt. Then again he targeted VK Singh after Modi’s rally. Now VK Singh has attacked the Editor directly (read here). You can see his tweets below. But no media is ready to cover these allegations. 

Lalit Modi was banned for life by BCCI. Now he says he can go after them more openly (read here). Now is this not a clear-cut blackmailing? This gives an impression that till now Lalit was waiting for a clean chit from BCCI. If he got a clean chit then he won’t attack BCCI.

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Moral of the story is this- keep all facts and documents about your enemy ready. But problem is in public life you never know who is your enemy or who is your friend. So keep all the secrets about others in your pen drive. Make them know that you have all the data and a good anti-virus to preserve it forever. They won't attack attack you now. Follow H. D. Kumaraswamy to understand how to reveal the documents.

Getting the independence has been our only biggest achievement so far. 
We never bothered about growth. When we have who cares for development.

No growth, no development. Only secular nation. 

We are called the third world nation. 
Sadly we did not make use of our independence. Just indulged in some politics that has nothing do with growth. In simpler terms ‘vote bank politics’.

There is no alternative to growth. Look at this chart. This is our growth story. We are not a rich country and we have no intention to grow.

Take the case of Singapore. They were not born-rich-country. They too started were we started. In 1965 it got separated from Malaysia. During that time Singapore was almost a slum, half illiterate, poor country. Now? One of the developed, least corrupt, rich country.

How? Because of growth. Consistent growth.

Following two chart shows both India's and Singapore's story. I have compared the growth rate (%) of GDP at constant price (Data is taken from World Bank). Blue is Singapore. Red is our color. As always. They kept growing from the beginning.

The following graph shows per capita GDP (constant price). Singapore is way ahead of us. We are almost as good as the X-axis . Due to our sluggish growth and partly due to our explosive population growth.

The following chart shows our poverty. We have 27 crore poor people. That is 22% of population.  Mind you all these are based on Rs. 33 a day cut off, which again is under review. Most likely this poverty line will be increased. That means poverty figures will be higher.

Hope India too grows and becomes a prosperous country so that we can proudly say we are a third world country, but one third of world's poor are not here.

Reserve Bank of India’s brand new James Bondish Governor Raghuram Rajan has fired on all cylinders. Whether his critics like it not, he has played his cards well. 
No freebies for corporate sectors.  
CRR has been reduced, which gives some space for the banks.
Repo rate hiked marginally to tame inflation.
MSF down by 0.75%.


What was the market reaction?
Never mind, they collapse whenever they are no pampered. Will be back on normal trajectory soon.

One man has predicted his moves before announcements. He is Deepak Shenoy. His article is here. (read). 

RBIs policy | Infographics

There are very few people in the government today who are blessed with the dual skill of forming theories while forming coalitions. Kapil Sibal ji is truly one among the rarest. He has the unique skill of forming theories and also writing poems. Though there is rarely a difference among these hobbies in terms of content, often the former is more entertaining somehow.

His famous theory of zero loss is still fresh in our memories, which was subsequently applied to many scams showing zero loss to economy negating the entire CAG's robust methodology. This theory has been successfully validated on coal and 2G scams n number of times on prime time debates, bringing infinite glories to Sibal ji.

Today he gave one more theory of government not sell onions. Though this theory is yet to be validated, but the initial research suggests that it is true. As government is busy in selling other resources at throw away prices, it has no time in selling onions. However the government has already kept the public in tears even without selling onions just by its policies, hence there is zero losses to the exchequer and public. Well, as Arnab is busy tonight with his poll projections, Kapil ji is safer. Otherwise who knows he would have been forced to sell onions at subsidized rates on newshour.

Well onion prices are in limelight now. I have plotted wholesale onion prices over few months. From June onwards, prices are moving in the rocket trajectory.

Onion prices | Infographics

"Shoma Chaudhury is unable to criticize Modi on Twitter"

I was watching Big Fight on NDTV the other day. “Is Modi's anointment going to be a game changer for the BJP?” You can watch the video here(Big Fight-26th minute on-wards).

Shoma Chaudhury (Managing Editor, Tehelka) was also there, as a panelist.
If you haven't seen the above video, no problem. Let me tell you what exactly happened. Shoma was troubled with her Twitter life. She could not control saying "I can't criticize Modi on Twitter, everybody abuses". Oh No! Poor journalist. She should have been be allowed to criticize anybody. That must be so hurting for her. Yes, yes, we feel her pain. Her logic was that she gets abuses whenever she criticizes. One thing is sure. Abuses are everywhere. Modi gets them, Obama gets them. Miss America gets them. There is no rule that managing editors won't get any. But still if she gets it and she gets hurt so much then there must be some background to it. 

I know you are familiar with Tehelka, which stands for the 'independent, public interest journalism'. Well, let's just refresh our knowledge on that. Read some of her comments. On Radiagate she said  "Even Barkha’s harshest critics would concede that her actions do not count as the dark heart of the genuine media crisis in India". On Rahul Gandhi's speech after he was elected as Vice President, her response was like "His speech expressed conviction and style, and many onlookers observed that the cadre of the party felt energized with his words". If you want to read some of her articles on (anti-) Modi you can read it here and here. Her (pro-) Rahul article you can read here.

In a nutshell, now we have refreshed our knowledge on her political views. If a journo is biased then he may face criticism because of his/her adharma. Abuses are different. Criticism are based on facts or questioning the bias. Abuses are personal and illogical.
Same standard should be maintained by journos while criticizing. Rather than starting with how to criticize Modi and then finding some illogical points. 

• Use same standard which is used against 'X' on all others. Then compare. No selective targeting.
• Don't hide by saying "twitter is abusive" to cover up your agenda.
• Clearly demonstrate why passing score should be higher for 'X' than that of 'Y' or of 'Mr. Golden spoon'.

The Rajinder Sachar Committee was appointed by PM Manmohan Singh to understand the condition of the Muslim community of India. 

I prepared an infographic from this report. You can compare the parameters by yourself. Click on the parameter and compare Gujarat with other ‘secular’ states like UP, Bihar. Know the difference.

Infographics

Indian Mainstream Modia

Modi, Modi, Modi.

It is the starting word of the headlines at 9 pm prime, across all news channels. Modi is the focus point. All discussion revolves around him. Modi brings viewers. For media, TRP means Modi or Kapil Sharma.

Daily anchors start evaluating Modi on all possible parameters. From malnutrition to Muslims. If similar inspection was done by any other agencies on Modi would have got so many ISO certifications. By the way, Modi’s office got ISO.

Coming to the panelists, most of them are screaming types. They scream more whenever they run short of logic. If panelists are not fighting with each other, it’s almost like an insult to the anchor of that channel. Apart from Devang Nanavati and Rahul Narvekar who are energetic and logical, I find other panelists boring, too predictable. Even anchors also repetitive. “But what about 2002?”types.

I wonder if Modi ever took these debates seriously he would have gone mad. Like Narendra Maddy or something.

Recently Sudheendra Kulkarni was on all channels. Earlier he was invited during some election results day or else during Ayodhya verdict. Now he is the darling of media and Advani’s words are veda-vakya for Kulkarni and for media (for now).

Sad to see the nuts and bolts man of the party relegated to isolation. Learnings for Modi. Nothing is permanent in politics
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) September 14, 2013

In a major turn of events, today Advani has praised Modi. Well, this is going to hurt the media the most! Their only line of defense- “Veteran Advani was sidelined” is no more valid now. They have to invent something else now. With Advani endorsing Modi’s work, it is the media who has to fall in line.

I heard Javed Ansari of H/T this afternoon speaking on this development. He was saying that Advani has to fall in line or else he would be ignored. Anchor then asked him “What did Advani speak about Modi in his speech?”

Javed said “I was not there and I didn’t listen to the speech”

People who are political editors and who don’t even listen to the speech are giving their “expert opinion”.

If the only intention is to find fault with Modi, then it’s never going to end. “What about 2002” types will soon be finding themselves running towards the dead end.  

Sonia is the अचार and the विचार of UPA. That we all know very well. She is the person who sits on many chairs. On the chairs of NAC, INC, UPA and many other committees as the chairperson (chairwoman specifically). She got so many chairs to sit on but don’t know why she still prefers to fly always. May be the flights are also chairtered ones.

Coming back to the chair issue, NAC. It was set up to advice the PM. PM looks up to NAC whenever a major decision has to be taken. Chairperson of NAC is more like achiarya for him. Guiding force.

However she is there only to advice. That means only to take credit for populist measures, but not to take on the criticism for corruption charges. Alternatively, NAC also stands for Not Available for Criticism and Never Averse to Credit-taking. Sonia controls the PM is no secret. Good that she is controlling the PM directly through NAC than steering him from background.

Competition for 2014 will be the toughest one. Through NAC she has brought so many reformist aka populist bills. Recent bills like Food Security bills, Land reform bills have brought chair chaand to the electorate prospects of UPA. However recent Vadra’s land deals have charred her chairismatic image.

Let’s wait and see whether people of India give this chair another chance to rule or they will be dischairged from their duties?  

Recently 500 crore contract has been signed by Congress. Just to counter Modi by finding faults in him. 500 crore! Yes, UPA deals in lakh crores. But this time, only crores.

If Modi’s fault worth 500 crore, how much does his success worth?

No one knows. Montek could have helped. But he is busy, in projecting 5% growth rate. But hope is definitely in the air. Hope for a successful, decisive leader. India was becoming pessimistic country. Growth rate low. Investment low. Rupee value low. All lows except Raghuram. Who is err.. hot. (That's what Shobhaa said, don't call me sexist now)

Haan, hot se yaad aya, Modi’s promotion has heated up the whole atmosphere. By more than 10%. An outsider has been given a chance to prove. Outsider is very popular and so dabang. Because of him, the dynastic rulers and the entire system revolving around them are in danger. "Media se dar nahi lagta hai saab, Modi se lagta hai".
Media predictably playing Advani’s dissent as if it is the major breaking news than Modi's promotion. Well that's natural. Modi & 2002 was the TRP earner for them during last decade. Now how can they replace 2002 with 2014?

Present UPA government has almost lost the public confidence. Mega scams, corruption was the daily news. 2G, CWG, all G even damaadG was also not clean. Image makeover was the only option left. UPA decided to re-position its image. Manmohan is being sidelined. Not only sidelined, all the blame for UPA’s misgovernance will be attributed to him. Many reformist bills were introduced. Though these bills were mainly populist, but were projected as pro-poor. As always any good thing, Sonia and Rahul will take credit. 

UPA has two options with its PM candidate, i.e. Rahul now or Rahul later. If Rahul is projected now, Digvijay Singh, Tharoor, Maken and Sibal all have to work overnight to enlighten us about Rahul’s dynamic leadership qualities. If they as leaderless for now, then it will help Rahul to take credit if congress wins or otherwise attribute it to someone else for the defeat. (e.g. Manmohan).

Now with a man like Modi, issue of corruption and development will become the central issue.  But Congress will do it's best to keep it secular vs communal. 

Here are some of the Congress’s FAQ’s on Modi that you will hear daily:

“How can a communal man even talk of corruption and growth?”

“He will divide, Rahul will unite”

“How can he rule? He is Bhasmasur, Ravan, Hitler and Autocrat” (You may wonder: Split personality or what?)

And the eternal one “What about malnutrition and non-inclusive growth in Gujarat?”

However Modi might ask:

 “Mere paas development hai, image hai, growth model hai, kya hai Tumhare paas Mr. Golden spoon?”

“Mai kisi ka naam nahi lena chahta hun, Mr. Modi, par mere paas vote winning surname hai”

Economic outlook 2013-14 | Create infographics

Lord Varuna and India’s GDP

India's GDP grew at 4.4 % in Q2, the worst rate since 2002. However mood is changing it seems. All due to Lord Varuna. 
Ranifall is good. Kharif sowing area up by 6% this time. Monsoon distribution is also better. Production is likely to go up. This will boos rural demand. Rural expenditure will increase. This will help the economy. Chidu and Rajan can relax a bit. Rupee is also strengthening nowadays. 

CRISIL has forecasted 4.8% growth for 2013-14. If agriculture grows at 6%, then growth will be 5.2%, it said.

Progress of kharif sowing CRISIL forecast for India | Infographics

Seems like all is well if monsoon is well. Hope to see India grow at-least by 6%.