Artha - Political, Military, Economic Strategy
Whoever imposes punishment as deserved becomes respectable. For punishment (danda) when awarded with due consideration, makes the people devoted to righteousness and to works productive of wealth and enjoyment; while punishment, when ill-awarded under the influence of greed and anger or owing to ignorance, excites fury even among hermits and ascetics dwelling in forests, not to speak of householders.
- Kautilya Arthaśāstra
The Arthaśāstra is an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy which identifies its author by the names Kautilya and Viṣhṇugupta, who are traditionally identified with Chāṇakya (c. 350–283 BC),who was a scholar at Takshashila and later the prime minister of the Maurya Empire. This section contains blogs about Indian economic, political and military history and strategy.
India's Gold
It was not until the US economic recession of 2008-2009, that monetary policy, capital flows and stock markets sparked my interest. I had always assumed that the brilliant minds on Wall Street and other financial capitals around the world were doing the "right thing". Unfortunately, prized MBAs from top business schools and competitive salaries did very little to check their greed. Armed with instruments such as high frequency trading, derivatives and naked short sells they gambled away trillions of dollars of the public's hard earned investments. Even the ratings and audit agencies, who are the guardians of financial propriety, gave their highest seal of approval to these massively leveraged products.
इदमेव हि पाण्डित्यं चातुर्यमिदमेव हि । इदमेव सुबुद्धित्वमायादल्पतरो व्ययः ॥
This alone is erudition, this alone is dexterity, this alone is good intellect - expense less than revenue.- समयोचितपद्यमालिका (Samayochitapadyamalika)
From the fall of communism to the recent tremors in free market capitalism, the dot-com and real-estate bubbles to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, it is more obvious now than ever that there is a serious lack of long-term economic wisdom in the "developed" world.
Kutnitijñā - Strategists
Book Review
Breaking India is a myth-shattering book. It exposes the façade of cultural malevolence masquerading as humanitarian benevolence. It documents painstakingly the danger to India’s political integrity and thereby its spiritual foundation from a perspective that commands respect and demands action: the perspective of objective facts – some unknown, some little known and some known-but-neglected – molded into an incisive, exhaustive and persuasive narrative.