This can happen only in India. Just when it’s chin-up time for the national women’s hockey team, the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation (IWHF) seems to have decided to give it the thumbs-down. Why else did the federation mete out the shabby treatment that it did to the triumphant hockey team that returned from a tour of Australia after winning seven out of eight matches? Not only were the girls reportedly lodged in a decrepit dormitory with dirty toilets and kitchen at the Karnail Singh Stadium in the capital, but also had their match fees and stipends suspended! It was a nightmarish experience as 14 players were stashed together in a room with no clean blankets, which left them unable to sleep and recover from tiredness. The IWHF’s explanation that the guesthouse where the team was scheduled to stay had suddenly run out of rooms is a feeble attempt at damage control. From all accounts, the players’ stipend was also stopped inexplicably six months ago, forcing them to buy everything from hockey sticks to expensive shoes themselves. As if this wasn’t disgraceful enough, the IWHF also owes the players more than an apology for choking the funds released for kit and equipment by the Sports Ministry. How could any team that is preparing for the biggest test of their lives – the Olympic qualifiers – be expected to take such intrigues in its stride and still excel on the field? It is a sad fact that this is particularly true of sportswomen in team games like hockey and football, who are seldom considered ‘star’ material or role models – unlike, say, in tennis or athletics that invariably recognises individual brilliance. As a result, some of the best dribblers in the world get to stay at hotels where even state cricket teams wouldn’t, and are still expected to play their hearts out for a paltry match fees at the end of the day. It is a tribute to the enterprise of sports people in the country that they continue to excel despite these hurdles – be it sprinters running barefoot on sandy beaches to increase speed or weightlifters substituting rocks for dumb-bells. The least that people who preside over sports bodies can do is to ask themselves why, even after successful is outings, our sports people – with the notable exception of cricketers – are ill subjected to such humiliating treatment when [...]
Archive for February 3rd, 2008
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POLLS AHEAD!
February 3rd, 2008 
krishna The much awaited revamp of the Congress and the UPA is running behind schedule. There were indications that it would happen sometime in 2007-end, but the matter has been delayed possibly because of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s indisposition. Now that she is fine, the reshuffle can take place on a date decided by her and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Wire money online to India with Xoom.com for as low as $4.99. The need to revitalize the organisation has been felt over the past few months after repeated blunders by the office-bearers and senior functionaries in charge of the states cost the party heavily. It was clear that the Congress had no strategy for the elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. But those responsible for losses seem to have got away without even a strong reprimand. In fact, they have tried to shift the focus by blaming others. Many of them have taken refuge in the fact that since Ms Gandhi and Rahul were involved in the campaigning, they are also responsible for the defeats. It is obvious that they don’t want to take into account the fact that Ms Gandhi and Rahul were-only supposed to supplement their efforts. As mentioned in this column three weeks ago, Ms Gandhi has done more than her share to strengthen the party. She not only stopped its slide in 1998, but it was only because of her that the party along with its allies was able to overcome the challenge of the “feel-good factor” of the NDA and wrest power at the Centre. If the Congress is forgetting its winning ways, it’s because those who earned her trust have repeatedly let her down. Ms Gandhi has too many tasks at hand including coordinating with the UPA allies. But there seems to be a pattern in the wrong advice she has been getting over the past few years and this has led to the Congress not doing well even in its strongholds. Take Himachal Pradesh for example. The Congress has lost power but is yet to formulate any strategy for the future. The appointment of Vidya Stokes as the Congress Legislature party leader will not help the party. Stokes, who has a very distinguished track record, was a strong contender for the CM’s post in 2003. But Virbhadra Singh was appointed the CM. She spent the next five years complaining to [...]
OVERREACTIONS
February 3rd, 2008 krishna We have been round this block before. Market turmoil, emergency rescue, looming recession. The important thing, when faced with any financial panic, is to distinguish between what is happening in the markets and what is happening in the real economy. The two are linked, of course: market crashes undermine economic confidence and may undermine growth and employment; while a strong economy will usually be reflected in buoyant asset prices. But you can have market crashes without a corresponding economic decline and vice versa. After the crash in October 1987, the world economy continued expanding for another three years, and the worst longer term decline in world share prices for a generation, from 2000 to 2003, was associated with a relative mild global recession. By contrast, until about 18 months ago, the Chinese economic boom had taken place alongside a terrible stock market performance. Since then, it has shot up; but for many years the world’s fastest-growing economy had the world’s worst-performing stock market. So we should not assume that this sharp reaction in world shares prices, even if it persists despite the emergency cut in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve, is necessarily signaling that there will be a global recession this year. Some sort of slowdown is taking place and some countries, including the US and maybe, to a lesser extent, the UK, will suffer worse than others. But the world economy is still growing solidly and it will take some time for that momentum to come off. And there is no reason to suppose that the next global downturn will be more serious than the previous three, in the early 1980s, early 1990s and early 2000s. The thing to be clear about is that the US matters but it does not matter as much as it used to. Last year, for the first time in a couple of centuries, China added more demand to the world than either the US or Continental Europe. It is not immune from a recession in the US but its fastest-growing markets are elsewhere in Asia, not the States. As for the US, the fall in the dollar has already started to correct its current account deficit and the long boom has largely corrected its fiscal deficit. So, sure, there will be a rough couple of years there, which may or may not dip into the technical definition of recession: [...]
