meek-investor

........ Nor any drop to drink, goes The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge. He could very well be describing the labour situation in India. It seems to be one of perennial shortage. How can this be ? After all, India is a land of 1.2 billion people. The unemployment rate is officially at 9.4 %, but we all know that the real number is much higher. This is because of seasonal employment in agriculture and unemployment outside the seasons. Underemployment is even higher - getting some job just to exist, but capable of doing much more. While India's growth is impressive in recent years, it has created nowhere near the number of new jobs required to cater to the number of people entering the job market every year. And India is a young country, not an ageing one. More and more people join the workforce each year.  The unemployment situation is so acute that the government runs a hugely expensive National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. And yet, ask any company what their bigges...

The final Business show in a triumphant month of March features special guest Rob Cantrell! Rob made his standup comedy bones in his adopted hometown of San Francisco before leaving for fame and fortune elsewhere. Said fame and fortune includes "Last Comic Standing," "The Marijuana-Logues," and a performance film - "Metaphysical Graffiti – A Road Movie" - that screened at the Cannes Film Festival. He's a contributing writer for High Times magazine, and he's got an album called "Keep On The Grass," which was recorded right here in San Francisco. We've also got Chris Garcia, Bucky Sinister, Sean Keane, and Chris Thayer, along with comfortable theater seating, and convenient access to Cancun Taqueria. As always, admission is just five American dollars. See you there, America.

This blogger is extremely bleary eyed and prickly these days. Nocturnal slumber is not coming easy. No, we are not afflicted with the weighty travails of modern business ; we are letting younger and more energetic men and women shoulder such onerous responsibilities. (Notice the royal "we" ; high praise by this blogger in the last post has completely gone into the head ! ) No affliction of the body either. And yet, repose eludes. The villain is a certain creature that God created to inflict misery on man. When confronted with this creature, pressing matters of the business world fly out of the window. Affairs of the state be damned. All concentration is on the futile act of achieving extermination of this malevolent species. This blog therefore takes a holiday from business until this emergency can be tackled. You see, the business world has already got well into the class warfare of man against this torturer. First came coils that emitted smoke, which presumably the crea...

Something is happening in the blogworld. The female species which loves to start tags asking such earth shattering questions as "What are you wearing" seems to have vanished. No tags have been floating around for a year or so now - presumably the undying curiosity as to what you are wearing has been satiated. The holiday has now been broken by a tag from the star blogger cum author cum artist Preeti in this post of hers. No choice but to pick it up and as usual twist it to suit an allegedly business blog. The rules , I am obliged to post, are The tag has three parts..Movies,Music, Books/ Authors Write a movie, book and author with each alphabet of your first name. The book, movie or song should be one that you really liked. If you say why it matters to you, it would be great! We will all discover new songs, movies and books this way. Tag as many people as there are letters in your name. (if your name has 4 letters, you have to tag 4 people and so on) Mention that the ...

Hey guys, it's another gran d edition of The Business. This week, Bucky's new book shows up! Still Standing is another self-help book in the tradition of Get Up, his previous title. It's about addiction and recovery but with his trademark humor and sarcastic wit. Last Gasp will be there selling books so we should be able to take credit cards. But It's always easiest to bring good old fashioned cash. Confederate script not accepted. War's over, rebel army. Also joining Bucky are regulars Chris "The Cuban Divac" Garcia, Sean "Pooh" Keane, and Chris "Mind Flayer" Thayer. Actually those aren't their nicknames, but would be pretty cool if you ask me.

Readers of this blog are familiar with the mythical Ramamritham - the ubiquitous bureaucrat who frames awful rules and procedures. You can refresh your familiarity with this character here . Frequently this pest merely frames irritating rules that makes lives miserable, but rarely does he do direct harm. But this time he has outdone himself with his mischief and and is now proving to be a real menace. I am referring to the amendments he has proposed to the Indian IT Act, blandly named as the Draft Rule under Section 79 (nobody accused Ramamritham of possessing imagination) Strip away the legalese and the implications are this the government can shut down any website, including blogs, for the vaguest of reasons Bloggers are responsible to censor reader comments ; if somebody comments inappropriately, its the blogger's problem Intermediaries have to do due diligence on all user material. So presumably the ISP should shut you off if you show your finger to Ramamritham Only an idiot w...

The Business pulls a fast one this week, as we jettison three regular business men, welcome three irregular special guests and install a new “intern” ...and we do it all for you. Alex, Chris and Sean are off to make the world outside the Dark Room smile, while Buck holds down the fort with the following delightful additions: Beth Stellin g visits The Business from Chicago, hoping to make San Francisco as a-flutter about her as her home town is. She was named the Best Stan d-u p Comedian by The Chicago Reader, The Chicago Tribune has listed her as a “Comedian to Watch” and she’s the youngest comic listed on Comedy.com’s “Top 20 Stand-up Comedians in Chicago”. All this while stealing the show at Just For Laughs Chicago and running a popular show called “Entertaining Julia” Just Morgan (no t to be confused with championship skimboarder Morgan Just) is in her own words “A 58 year old transgendered woman just telling the truth...” And what truth it is. Morgan is a favorite...