INDIA SHIFTS FROM IMPORTING WEAPONS TO EXPORTING THEM

          This article mainly traces out the new initiative of India being the weaponry exporter rather than then importing them and its economic impact. According to recent article in the Washington Post, India is the World's largest Arms importer. Recently, the newly elected Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi initiated a plan to making weapons (India make) in India and exporting to other countries. It seems, definitely a step in the right direction for India.

          Making India as a trade partner would be a good idea for other counties. India is a federal state with a parliamentary form of government. As per this initiative, the Prime Minister of India has planned to give multibillion contracts to Indian companies and also promoting international collaboration through partial foreign ownership. In my opinion, what Mr. Modi is doing is that the right way to go to open the sector for private companies and it's a smart way of turning things around the present sluggish Indian economy.

          I am really thrilled to the idea of India shifting from importing weapons to exporting them to other countries. If India becomes successful in this initiative, this will increase the volume of weaponry goods and lower terms of trade. Imports do benefit the economy. For the importing countries, it will reduce price and increase competitiveness. Imports help to strengthen with variety, competition and new ideas. However, one of my friends totally disagrees with my point of view. She thinks that exports benefit the economy rather than import, because you can sell goods for good price and help with demand management.

          To conclude, I like India's new initiative and I strongly believe that India will be better of producing weapons rather than importing. 

The Effects of Terrorism on Global Economy

        

   

     This article talks about  a terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a country located in the Middle East. This country became such a  lawless place and had been a base for terrorists. This article relies on its reference to secondary sources.  The definition of terrorism is “the use of threats, intimidation or violence to achieve political or religious goals.” 

           When a country is threatened, war happens at times. But, even if there is no war, people live under fear and the countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan & Syria will become defensive. When a country is in a defensive mode; its economy and their role in the world get affected. Because, the country is not going to be as involved with trade, aid to others, and other global matters.

            In addition, when individuals are threatened by terrorism, they would choose to move, and immigrate to other countries. Immigration/ migration affect economics as well. For example, due to several years of war, people in Afghanistan are constantly moving to neighboring countries such as Pakistan, Iraq and other Middle East countries. This migration could severely affect Afghanistan’s population and its economic growth.

In my point of view, immigration/migration can affect the economy in a positive or negative way. If we look at both sides of this coin, mass immigration increases the pool of workers thus causing competition for jobs, which could lead to unemployment problem. But, what about the countries that lost those workers, how will it affect them? For example, if there are one million workers in a country and half of them move to other places, what happens to the jobs those 500,000 had? In this case, there is a possibility for shortage of labor, which may lead to less productivity in the long term.

            But on a larger scale, if several countries being threatened or an entire area being under attack by terrorists, the economy of those countries are in danger and this can also affect the travel and tourism industries at a greater level. A drop in travel and tourism will have a negative impact on the economy.

            Another factor is that war is very expensive. During war times, countries like Afghanistan normally would not be trading with other countries. This gives the idea of how it kind of turns in a domino effect. One thing affects another and another and so on.

            As a final point, indeed, terrorism does affect the global economy in a big way. Definitely, the war torn countries like Afghanistan lost all of its wealth and its economy is in bad shape. If we look at the question “how does terrorism affect the global economy?” unfortunately, I personally think that there is no clear cut answer to this question.

           

            

     

!!! Geography of Foreign Students in the United States !!!

        

          Having a higher degree of education gives everyone’s greater flexibility in finding a job, or pursuing a career in today's job market. This article generally outlines the geography of foreign students in the United States (US). Theoretically speaking, this article relies on its reference to primary sources ( geographic statistics ). Being an international student is not just easy to find a job in the US due to giving their complex background in culture, language, and life style. Mostly, young students are smarter all over the world, yet they still come to the United States for higher education and to live.

          When it comes to education, I always choose the US, where I want to pursue my higher studies. It is my dream comes true, when I am actually graduating in a year from the Trinity Washington University, DC, USA. As an international student, it is just a great challenge studying in the US as well as to the new cultural adjustment. My individual and collective embodied experience is a key concept for understanding the US's culture. Since, culture is adaptive and learning, it is in fact a lifelong process. The cultural system is also adaptive to changing environmental, economic, political and social conditions. After coming to the United States, my Indian cultural habits have dramatically changed as I adapted to the internal and external pressures of this country’s culture.

            Cultural is a universal characteristic of human life that touches on everything we do. When I started studying in the United States, I experienced the term called, “Cultural Shock.”  I think, almost every new comers will experience this cultural shock when they face a completely new environment. Personally speaking, as an international student, I am blessed to study in this great nation. International students like me would love to crave knowledge about US and the world and turn that knowledge into a meaningful action in order to be successful in life.              

          

                 In terms of economics, selling higher education to other nations surely helps American economy as well. The amount of money students bring to the United States to support their education might actually help adding some billion to the US economy through tuition fees and other living expenses. To me, if you look at the geography of foreign students in the United States, several states high in percentage and some don't. I think, US should attract more foreign students to come here for quality education there by fulfilling their dreams like mine.  

!!! Impact of Lower Interest Rates on Economy !!!

     According to the study of international affairs today, it is important to study about how lower interest rate could affect the economy of a country and how well it could help the economic growth. My understanding of this article is that, the Bank of England’s interest rates would like to stay low as long as the economy is weak. This article mainly relies on its reference to secondary sources.

 Interest rates are basically the market pricefor offering money.

    In my opinion, lower interest rates make it inexpensive to borrow, which encourages spending and investments among consumers. A fall in interest rate might shake the economic growth and  business as well. Low interest rate means low inflation, which means lower income growth. Basically, lower interest rates will increase disposable income. No matter how well the business runs, it merely depends on the economic environment to be healthy. When interest rate remains low, business may borrow money willingly. And, customers have more cash after they pay their loan payments, and they can spend this extra cash to boost their spending which in turn positively affects the economy. 
    Lower interest rates mean that the costs of borrowing are less; therefore consumers will feel like they are cash rich and be more tempted to spend money in shopping and buying other things. On the other hand, prices tend to rise when interest rates are low, because it will stop consumers from spending too much money which could affect the economy in a negative way.

    Low interest rates help the economic growth in a big way. For example, when interest rates are lowered, peoples' borrowing power goes up, which lead to consumers having more money to spend, causing the economy to grow and inflation to rise.

    In conclusion, lower interest rates overall could boost the economy in a positive way.

The Cost of Ebola

     Presently, Ebola is the most popular subject among people with so many interested in learning about  this dangerous death disease. Ebola is not only spreadable, but it’s also scary and expensive to manage financially.

      This article relies on its reference to primary sources. Controlling Ebola disease could impact the U.S economy and the environment negatively. The economic impacts could be measured in dollars. As we all know, the first Ebola case was in Texas, where someone died  a few weeks ago from the disease in the United States. Government is taking all the steps to curtail the disease from being spread.  

       From a financial point of view; first, it is extremely expensive to treat patients with Ebola disease. For example, a week ago, the stocks at NYSE went down because of the Ebola crisis in the United States. Couples of schools in Texas were closed due to this highly contagious disease. If this disease spreads further, most of the parents have no choice to withhold their children from school, which means the parents will have to stay home with their children. If parents stay home instead of going to work, then the level of workplace productivity in Texas could be affected. 

        Second, numerous people may choose not to travel due to the fear of Ebola, either internationally or domestically. This can have a detrimental effect to airline and tourism industries, which can significantly harm the economy. Third, the cost involved in sending military personnel and medical team to Liberia/Africa will cost U.S. millions of dollars. 

       Fourth, the overall cost involved in managing Ebola here in the United States and abroad will be extraordinary high, if the present trend in Liberia continues. In my point of view, Ebola  is one of the planet's deadliest disease and one of the leading causes of sickness and death in society today.

The Images of 2012: New York Times

             

By Andrew Sullivan for The New York Time

According to this article, , the year of 2012 could be the year of disaster.  This article relies on its reference to secondary sources. In my point of view, the images of 2012 show us that global warming can be a reason of Hurricane Sandy. We all know that the earth as a whole is warming up. According to this image, I strongly believe that global warming could affect us economically due to the change of the weather conditions, especially in specific area. Generally speaking, if the warm weather causes hurricane, then there will noticeably be a lot of economic damages through flooding and buildings. Agriculture will also be affected tremendously by the changing weather patterns. 

Police Fatally Shoot Knife - Wielding Man in Times Square

Second, crimes affect the economy in a negative way. The knife and gun crimes also affect the economy.  One reason would be the cost of keeping the criminals in Prison, Another is the cost of treatment for the victims. 

The space shuttle landed in New York city which is pretty fascinating. When you see this picture, the first idea that comes to our mind is NASA.  NASA is the place I would always want to work once I graduate from college.  Outer space is very fascinating to me.  NASA technology provides economic benefits all across the United States.  We get the accurate weather forecast because of the satellites in the space.  With the help of satellites, we can predict natural calamities such as floods, storms, hurricanes, and some natural disasters.  Technologies are proving us the best economic benefits in several ways.  Therefore, if we look at the images of 2012, some of them are affecting us economically, and some of the images show us that we are gaining some economic benefits as well.  In conclusion, the year of 2012 could be the year of disaster as well as the year of beneficial to every individual in certain ways. 

Asia: Slow Breeders ; India's Parsees Community

An exhibition of photographs of India's ancient Parsees community, taken by Sooni Taraporevala.

     India’s culture is rich and unique in itself. The culture of India has been designed by its unique geography, long history, and diverse demography.  This article relies on its reference to secondary sources. The Parsees community is one of the smallest communities, a group of people who migrated to India centuries ago from Persia, now also known as Iran. Since then, they fully united and contributed to the economic, political, and culture life of India.  However, the sad truth is that the Parsees community is now dying off.  I strongly believe that the failure has been blamed on several factors, including migration, inter-community marriages and low fertility rate. Parsees communities have been counted separately from the first public census, since they are not a Hindu religious minority and have achieved popularity in Bombay for their significant economic and cultural help to the growth of the city.  

         Today, the Parsees community is more economically advanced and wealthy than it has ever been before.  Personally speaking, I have two final thoughts. One has to do with the issue of Parsees politics. When I was in India, people used to tell me that Parsees community is the oldest, which establishes Asians in Britain, but traditionally they have never drawn attention to themselves. That is the reason why Parsees girls will not pick Parsees boys for marriage. My second and final though would be based on the population decrease throughout each generation due to low rates of marriage and childbirth. In my point of view, Zoroastrianism will live or die depending on the selections that today’s Parsees community and Iranian Zoroastrianism make. This seems to be we are basically killing both a community and a religion by continuing without our current behavior of late marriage, non-marriage, and limited childbirth. This tragedy could be the greatest one the Parsees face today. Because of the tremendous contributions that the Parsees community has given to India and the rest of the world economically, it would be a shame for the Parsees people to become extinct. 

The creation of a Parsees settlement in India