Hills That We Climbed: June 2019

Monday, June 24, 2019

Stats: Drop in Fertility Rate across the World and in India

Nation: Economic Loss to India as Indians Spend Abroad

I have seen two clear trends around me.

First, a lot of couples after marriage are going to foreign locations for honeymoon. If they can’t afford to go to Europe, they would not mind going to neighboring countries like Thailand or Srilanka. Basically they want to go anywhere buy India.

Image: This poll done on Twitter by Kunal Shah shows clearly where Indians are headed to

Secondly, a lot of folks are going to the US and other countries for masters degree after working for a few years after B.Tech. They pass engineering in India, work for a few years in whichever company (mostly IT) they get job in, then spend whole of this saved money in funding their overseas education. Often they also take education loans (which come at a low interest rate than other loans) in India and then go to abroad.

Both these trends are loss-making events for Indian economy. First, if Indians spent money on tourism and vacations inside India, local economy would get a boast. Similarly, if Indians did higher studies in India, the money spent inside India would help in our GDP growth. The Indian currency going outside is not helping our economy either. All those foreign counties are benefitting from the hard earned and saved money inside India, just because Indians choose to go abroad.

There are no easy fixes to reverse this trend. The biggest challenge is to change the mindset. It is often said that Indians do not show patriotism unless there is a war or if there is a Cricket match. Jokes aside, it would be very tough for India to compete with other nations in this globalized world, if Indians keeps spending money abroad. I think our government must look into this trend and do something about it before too much harm is done.

If you are reading this, try to think what your contributions are to Indian economy and how you can help our country to get better every day. Try to spend wisely, in a way which can help our national economy.

- Rahul Tiwary

Sunday, June 23, 2019

India: India Post Parcel Speed Post Rate Calculator

Do you know that India Post provides an online tool to calculate rates for its popular services like Parcel, Registered Parcel or Speed Post? I came across below link on the India Post website and you can check this feature out:

https://www.indiapost.gov.in/VAS/Pages/calculatePostage.aspx

On this screen, you need to select the type of service from Domestic or International then provide Source Location PIN Code, Destination Location Pin Code, select an Item e.g. Parcel, Book Packet, Letter, etc; then enter weight in grams, dimensions in centimeters and then click on “Get Available Services”. The website will provide the options, e.g. Parcel or Speed Post; then you can select which one you need and click on “Get Price”. The webpage will show you the monetary amount you would be charged!

Is not this service good and an important step part of Government’s “Digital India” initiative?

Use this and spread the word!

- Rahul Tiwary

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Psychology: Self-Perception

Kunal Shah has done a very interesting set of polls on Twitter; as you can see below:

Image: Poll Results at Kunal Shah's Twitter Handle

This explains that majority of people have higher or better option about self as compared to about others. They think themselves as noble and a good human being. But when we see at a macro level, the situation is otherwise.

You can notice this same behavior in discussions about corruption for example. You would see that almost everyone denounces corruption and wants corrupt people to be sent to jail. But if everyone hated corruption, who is doing corruption in the first place? Such instances indicate “hypocrisy” in our psychology. We are not honest.

- Rahul Tiwary