“Marriages are decided in heaven and are only celebrated here on earth”.

This was Abhishek’s trademark answer when his friends asked him about his marriage plans. Abhishek, an engineer, who after completing his MBA had just joined a big firm, was getting a salary that was more than what he had expected.As was the case with most people of his generation in India, half of his life was spent in the licence raj period where a good job was rare, and a good job with a good salary was even rarer.

This so called black money affects the inflation in the country. It defies all the theories of economics. Thus whatever action the Reserve bank of India takes to curb the inflation, it is never effective as it has no effect on the amount of black money floating in the market, and as a result the prices of the commodities keep increasing in spite of the steps taken by the central bank to curb them. And no one is immune to price rise, regardless of the amount one may be earning.
However, despite its side effects we Indians are involved in this black money market in one way or another. Some of the ways in which we contribute to this black market are:

Tweet You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women. – Jawaharlal Nehru “A curious case recently came to light in Jandli Kalan village of Haryana’s Fatehabad district. One Nathu Ram was to marry Geeta. His sister was to marry Geeta’s maternal uncle on the same day. But […]

Tweet “In a letter written to the Finance Minister last month ahead of the Union Budget, L&T CMD A M Naik expressed concerns over import of Chinese power equipment to India that totaled nearly 8.3 billion dollars, while Chinese taxation model struck down any hopes of Indian exports to China.” (Times Now 27th July 2009) […]

Indian Institute of Technology’s were created as centers of excellence for higher training, research and development in science, engineering and technology. Till two years back there were seven IIT’s in India at Delhi, Kanpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Kharagpur, Guwahati and Roorkee. However, the government has added eight more to this list and it is these newly formed IIT’s that are failing to attract students. So, now these newly formed IIT’s will have to fight with the other institutes to attract good enough students into their admission list.

“Burgers are common food items for most people in the US — surprisingly common. Estimates for the average American diet range from an average of about one per week, or about 50/year (Fast Food Nation) to as many as three burgers per week, or roughly 150/year (the Economist, among other sources).”