Anand's Blog

This is in continuation of my earlier blog on the corruption perception index released by Transparency International for 2009. I had posted comments in the   Transperancy International Blog    about the ratings assigned to Switzerland and the need to give negative ratings for such countries, which promote secret investments. While acknowledging my remark, one Mr.Neumann referred me to the  Financial Secrecy Index   developed by Tax Justice Network. Initially, I was under the impression that in the entire world, only Switzerland entertains such secret investments. But, I was surprised to know a lot many countries entertain such investments. USA (Delaware) & Luxembourg are rated even ahead of Switzerland in the financial secrecy index ranking, though Switzerland scores 100/100 on opacity. The avenues available for parking the illicit wealth are just too much.

The Transparency International(TI) has released the 2009 corruption perception index. Countries are given score on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 for the most corrupt & 10 for the least corrupt. Then, the countries are being ranked according to the score. 180 countries have been ranked by TI in the index. With a score of just 3.4, India has been ranked 84th on the list. New Zealand is least corrupt nation and Somalia is the most corrupt nation. Ratings of certain other countries:                                       It's really strange that Switzerland, which "enables" the politicians & business tycoons of a lot of countries to safely keep their corruptly earned money & wealth amassed by tax evasion, is ranked 5. I am not sure if the constitution of a country has anything to do with corruption. For example, Oman is a monarchy & Nepal was also a monarchy, till recently. But, see the difference between these two countries' rating

No one can break this world record, The same Queen-Elizabeth of England , with 11 presidents of USA ..!! Queen Elizabeth with Barack Obama Queen Elizabeth with George W. Bush Queen Elizabeth with Bill Clinton Queen Elizabeth with George Bush Queen Elizabeth with Ronald Reagan Queen Elizabeth with Jimmy Carter       Queen Elizabeth with Gerald Ford Queen Elizabeth with Richard Nixon   Queen Elizabeth with John F. Kennedy Queen Elizabeth with Dwight D. Eisenhower Queen Elizabeth with Harry S. Truman

It's now official!!! China gifted uranium and a do-it-yourself kit for Pakistan. This fact was long known. The toolkit has been casually passed to Iran, Libya & to many other countries by the A Q Khan network. The Chinese intentions are crystal clear and very much worrying. Our politicians are busy fighting with each other and China is busy building up bases around us in Pak, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Nepal & Burma. It would be very difficult for India if China & Pakistan open a two front war, which seems to be a likely scenario. The probability of such an event is increasing day by day. If the Indian politicians believe that the US will intervene, then they are definitely wrong. The recent action of Obama in refusing to meet Dalai Lama during his US visit, clearly underscores the US dilemma over angering China. Obama's action is obvious. When you are deeply indebted to a person, obviously, you have to dance to his tunes.

I like Robin Sharma's (author of The Greatness Guide) writings. I happened to read an article on getting great in life & reproduce it below: Life is a skill and like any other skill, once you know the ground rules and make the time to practice, you can get better. A lot better. If you really devote yourself to life, you could even reach a place of mastery. Some have. I suggest that there are three simple things you can do to get great at life.Pay attention to life. Make the time to reflect on what you want your life to stand for, what you have learned from your years and what your legacy will be. Time slips through your fingers -- like grains of sand -- never to return again. Use your days to realise your talents. Makes me think of that line by Erma Bombeck: "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.' Try to write in a journal each morning before you

Monday, November 9, 2009 A memorable day for me !! My wife will say that it's a tough job for me as I am weak in memorising dates. Still, would like try to memorise this memorable day... This day is memorable because I have created my own blog today. The credit for creating my blog should undoubtedly go to my friend Haricharan , who enthused me to this concept of blogs. My first question to him about blogs...."Don't you think writing blogs is a waste of time?". But, my opinion slowly changed & now, even I have started to blog. To start with, I intend to cover a range of topics in my blog like current affairs, life, banking & markets. Going forward, I may add a few more topics. Though I am eager to blog a lot, I am not sure how long this will go on...