Mainstream Weekly

Does GDP add to Human Welfare?

Shyam Chand — 2013-04-07T06:28:38Z

One of the legacies of World War II is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). During that War, a system of national income accounts was adopted to assess the production capacity available to support the War effort. The War ended in 1945 but the growth in the Gross Domestic Product has become an important indicator for policy-makers to assess national progress.
The GDP, a measure of the gross domestic product, is an index of the gross market value of a nation's monetised transaction for goods (…)

- 2013

FDI in Multi-Retail is Anti-Aam Aadmi

Shyam Chand — 2012-10-11T20:14:01Z

The following article, by a Congress leader, is being reproduced from Mainstream (May 26, 2012).
Sam Walton, who created the largest and most powerful retail marketing organisation, died in 1992 as the richest man in America. Now his successors are just behind Bill Gates.
Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh in their report, ‘The Top 200: The Rise of Global Corporate Power', issued by the Institute of Policy Studies, Washington D.C., September 25, 1996, wrote: “The annual sales of the (…)

- 2012

FDI in Multi-Retail is Anti-Aam Admi

Shyam Chand — 2012-05-28T13:37:29Z

Sam Walton, who created the largest and most powerful retail marketing organisation, died in 1992 as the richest man in America. Now his successors are just behind Bill Gates.
Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh in their report, ‘The Top 200: The Rise of Global Corporate Power', issued by the Institute of Policy Studies, Washington D.C., September 25, 1996, wrote: “The annual sales of the Wal-Mart made its internal economy larger than the economy of 161 of the world's countries— including (…)

- 2012

Can Democracy Survive Capitalism?

Shyam Chand — 2012-05-18T21:03:31Z

Another name of economics is political economy; hence it is very dangerous to leave it in the hands of economists, especially neo-liberal economists who in the name of free market advocate privatising and downsizing government functions.
‘For we all are capitalists now, are we not? These days the victory of the market over the state is quite taken for granted,' wrote The Economist, September 20, 1997 (p. 17).
The market theory of Adam Smith was grounded in carefully articulated fine (…)

- 2012

64 Years and 32 Rupees

Shyam Chand — 2011-10-19T18:54:21Z

Poor people are in chains of poverty. And nobody can insult a man in chains. The definition of Rs 32 as the poverty line has submerged the Below Poverty Line into Below Pollution Line. The most valiant act of social reform in perverse! Or removing poverty?
I am not an economist to propound any theory. But I know two things. The first thing is that the strength of the chain lies in the weakest link and so is that of the society. The second thing that I put here relates to the views of some (…)

- 2011

Corporate Culpable Crimes

Shyam Chand — 2010-10-14T02:26:18Z

In case of Santa Clara County versus Southern Pacific Railroad, Justice Morrison Remick Waite of the US Supreme Court, without hearing the argument pronounced that
The court does not wish to hear the argument on the question of whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does.
Summary record of (…)

- 2010

Was President Ahmadinejad Wrong at the UN?

Shyam Chand — 2010-10-06T15:13:10Z

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked the Americans when he said at the UN General Assembly that “some segments within the US Government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grip on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime. The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view.” His speech provoked the US delegation to walk out. Delegations from 27 EU nations, Australia, Canada and Costa (…)

- 2010

Dr Ambedkar—A Conscience-keeper of Gandhiji

Shyam Chand — 2009-08-19T07:34:29Z

Dr Ambedkar was against hero worship. But the Dalits worship him as a liberator, a social reformer and a great crusader who fought for their political rights. Dalits, who have read Dr. Ambedkar and Gandhiji, not only equally revered Gandhiji but regard them like two streams that meet at the confluence to merge with each other.
It takes quite long to understand the Hindu social system and its vexing corpus. After matriculation Gandhiji went to England to study Law and then to South Africa. (…)

- August 2009

Terrorism Inc.: Nexus between CIA and Mossad

Shyam Chand — 2008-11-16T21:25:06Z

Shyam Chand's article “Ugly Hidden Face of Terrorism: Vigilance is the Price of Liberty” that appeared in Mainstream (September 6, 2008) was a good piece of investigative journalism exposing the nefarious activities of the saffron terrorists (on the basis of which the recent arrests of suspected saffron terrorists took place). The author thus did yeoman service to the nation. The following is a follow-up of that article. —Editor
When asked to define Tohra, Hilel, before Christ, replied: (…)

- November 15, 2008

Vigilance is the Price of Liberty

Shyam Chand — 2008-09-10T11:12:49Z

Human memory is short lived; hence connecting past and present events becomes incomprehensible. Before the last Lok Sabha elections Smt Sonia Gandhi's whirlwind road-show traversing India impacted people's opinion. She was sure to be the Prime Minister after the elections in May 2004.
The RSS manipulated astrologers who forecast the demise of her government before June 27, 2004. When Dr Manmohan Singh was appointed the Prime Minister, the RSS' hopes dashed to the ground. If somebody takes (…)

- September 6, 2008