My Musings

 Musings....... NYAY- Universal Basic Income (UBI)  Universal Basic Income is a government programme in which every adult citizen receives a set amount of money on a regular basis. The goals of the basic income system are to alleviate poverty and replace other need based social programmes that potentially require greater bureaucratic involvement. ( Investopedia )  This concept of a basic income for all has gained traction recently in Western countries as automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to replace workers across most sectors of the economy.  The idea of providing a basic income goes back centuries. This finds mention in thr writings of one of the proponents of the American Revolution Thomas Paine, who proposed a tax plan in which revenues would provide government income to “ every person, rich or poor”.  Martin Luther King Jr. proposed “ guaranteed income” in his book “ Where do we go from here: Chaos or Community?” published in 1967.  The...

 Musings....... The year 2020 circa will be for long remembered as the Pandemic year for centuries to come. Even though it was named Novel Coronavirus 19 to depict that the virus outbreak happened in late 2019, the full fledged effect of Coronavirus or Covid-19 was felt world over in 2020.  Looking back much has changed the world over due to the pandemic. This year showed how misplaced human priorities are- huge spending on defence while neglecting healthcare, being one such example.  We must remember our year started as a year of protests in India. The Modi Government which in 2019 was elected back with a thumping majority, started to fulfill their manifesto promises.  The initial months of 2020 saw passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NRC. The special status accorded to all the state Jammu and Kashmir was taken away and the state made into two Union Territories of J and K and Ladakh.  One positive outcome of all this was that the  Protests a...

  Musings....... The US Presidential election 2020 will be forever remembered as the Pandemic Election.  The elections held on November 4th was one of the most crucial election for the United States of America as well as for the world.  The leader of the so called free world was battling to hold on to the position. The result would have determined whether it remains or chose to uphold Nativism and Nationalism over Globalism.  The elections were for the 538 Electoral votes in which the candidate securing 270 would win the Presidency.  Two party Presidential system of Government in US meant the fight was between the Democrats and the incumbent Republicans.  Easily remembered as the party of Bill Clinton, the Democratic ticket went to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for President and VP respectively.  Remembered easily as the party of the Bushes or Ronald Reagan, the Republican ticket was the incumbent Donald Trump and Mike Pence.  In a dramatic reversal...

 Musings....... Uighur Muslims and Chinese Communist Party  The Uighur are a Turkic- speaking minority ethnic group culturally affiliated to the Central and East Asia. Within China, the Uighurs are native to the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in Northwest China.  The Chinese government recognises the Uighurs as a regional minority within a multicultural nation. The Chinese reject the idea of the Uighurs being an indigenous group.  The Uighurs traditionally inhabited the Tarim Basin within the Taklamakan desert. Over the times they remained as independent states and were controlled by many civilisations including the Chinese, Mongols, the Tibetans and Turks. Islam has played a major role in Uighur culture and identity.  Initially the term Uighur was used to refer to a small coalition of Tiele tribes in Northern China, Mongolia and Altai Mountains, which was later usurped by the Uyghur Khaganate.  The fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 842, led to ma...

Musings....... Pandemic or Syndemic ?  The great William Shakespeare famously wrote - “ What is in a name ?”.  In the present scenario we must say that everything is in a name.  Up until the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognised COVID19 as a pandemic - many did not take the disease seriously. It was when it was officially declared as a Pandemic - it positioned the virus as something that should now concern ‘us’ and became something that should be taken seriously.  Infectious disease epidemics is generally portrayed in the Western world as a problem of the post colonial “developing” third world country.   According to them “Epidemics” and “disease” occur out there !!  Recent examples include the Zika Virus in the jungles of South America, the Ebola in civil war ravaged Congo,Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in Saudi peninsula, SARS in Southern China and Nipah in our own Kerala.  However, COVID19 has challenged all these western world po...

 Musings....... I would like to write about an incident, one about which I read sometime ago.  It was the early 1990s when few corporate companies in the United States of America (USA) came up with a scheme for the pig and poultry farmers.  The Corporate company would provide Piglets to the farmers at low cost. The farmers just had to grow them in their farm and the company itself will buy back the fully grown pigs at the market price.  Superficially this looked like a brilliant plan where both sides benefitted. The farmer didn't have to run around small markets for their pigs and the Corporate company didn't have to spent the time, money and space of growing the animal.  The first year went all fine, farmers were paid the market price and everyone was very happy. The second year too went without incident. However,by the third year citing some difficulties the Corporare company halved the price of the pigs. The farmers thought this to be an aberration and bore t...

 Musings....... Keshavananda Bharati- The sage who saved Indian Democracy  Edneer Mutt in Kasargod District of Kerala has a rather inadvertent distinction of having as its Seer Keshavananda Bharati who's case turned out to be a landmark ensuring constitutional law prevailed in India.  The seer who passed away recently, moved the Supreme Court challenging the land reform laws of Kerala. He was 79.  The land reforms introduced in Kerala in 1969 deprived the Edneer Mutt of its land property - which is believed to have been founded by one of the first four disciples of Adi Shankaracharya.  Keshavananada Bharati challenged the Kerala Governments takeover of its land in the Supreme Court in 1970. The mutt had lost income, and found it difficult to manage its affairs.  The Keshavananda Bharati vrs State of Kerala case is the longest hearing held in the Supreme Court with over 68 hearings.  Legal luminary Nani Palkhivala who appeared for the seer, argued that ...