Japan - The latest sick man of Asia?

The Japanese are going through an immense economic+political transformation with a collapse in the export sector in a much globalized version of recession and the more radical promises of the political parties such as increased spending on military and tougher stances on territorial disputes with neighbors which worries China.Till date, Japan's involvement in global politics, at least since the world war 2, has been only to the extent of summits which has helped Japan in promoting a soft image of itself as a global producer for many established brands. Such as portrayal did not only contribute to Japan's growth, but it benefited the entire region including China and the Koreas.

Shifts in paradigm can have some serious repercussions for  Japan and in fact it has started to face some.

Japan recorded a Government Budget deficit equal to 9.70 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2011. Historically, from 1960 until 2011, the Japanese government budget averaged -2.7% of GDP reaching an all time high in 1961 of 2.6% of GDP and an all time low of -10.5% of GDP in 2009.

The Japanese finance ministry reported a 549 billion yen trade deficit in Nov. 2012, higher than expected. The major cause of this decline is due to the territorial spat over islands between China and Japan which has in turn impacted the shipments to China, Japan's largest export market. The Chinese have initiated a strict boycott of Japanese products which has not only impacted Japanese exports to China but Japanese manufacturers who run facilities in China to meet consumer demands around the globe. 

A weak Japanese yen is not strenuous enough to make Japanese exports competitive in international markets as it is still higher than what it was five years ago, hurting exporters' profits. 

Who benefits? Using a macro lens, it's a lose-lose situation for all the stakeholders and it is just like adding fuel to fire (further exacerbating the economic crisis). Using the micro-lens, South Korea seems to be the winner in the short run. Its giants are improvising their products, both automobiles and electronics, and capturing market share in world markets. 

It can't be said that the Japanese are in a recession, unless officially announced. However, the facts and figures do not show a progressive image either.

The Dilemma of Politics In The Third World

There was a village inhabited mainly by poor farmers who relied solely upon their daily wages and some food supplies in return for the hard labor done on the paddy fields. They were governed by a  feudal lord who would sell the agricultural produce on high margins to exporters and traders. He preferred lending his profits to the work men in the form of loans, as this would increase their liability and submissiveness towards the feudal lord. He had appointed assistants to keep a check on whether the work men were re-paying the amount borrowed or working overtime in case of delays or failure in payments. The mindset of the villagers was controlled by the feudal lord and  were totally unaware of how deprived they were kept from their basic needs and rights.

The feudal lord had a son who was acquiring his higher education from a university in a developed country. After completion of higher studies he decided to return to his native village and serve the local population. He requested his dad, that he be provided with funds, which will be used to construct schools, hospitals and homes for the poor villagers. The villagers were happy to know that their destinies were in hands of a visionary leader  as the young man was more considerate towards their well-being. The father got worried when he observed such openness in his son's attitude and he decided to teach him a lesson.

The feudal lord ordered the supervisor of one of his poultry farms to halt feeding grains to the livestock. The animals became very weak, and were nearing death. The feudal lord took his son to the poultry farm and asked him, 'What do you think has happened to these animals?' The son replied, 'It seems they have not been fed their grains and we need to do the same before they die.' The son rushed to the storage, without wasting a minute, cut open the sacks and fed the animals. The father, observing his son, ordered the supervisor to double the grains fed to the livestock. The son was happy to know that his father was beginning to think his way and both father and son returned back home happy.

After a week, the father revisited the farm with his son. They observed that heaps of grain were left uneaten and were failing to catch the attention of the animals. The feudal lord asked his son, 'Why are they not eating?' to which the son replied that they are not hungry and may not eat for many coming days. The father was happy to hear this from the son and said that the nature of the villagers is similar to that of the livestock. The son was shocked to hear such kind of a statement from his father and inquired the reason for such a statement. The father replied that the villagers, like these animals, will turn away from you forgetting your kindness and generosity. Their needs and wants will never end and there will be a situation when you will fail to satisfy their excessive demands.  The moment you fail, your people will remove you from power and you will be lost in the books of history. The son was left astound and decided to consult the readers of this blog on what response should he give? 

Footballs: Proudly Made in Pakistan

Every other person wants to grab and spread mischievous news when it comes to Pakistan. Amongst, all the crap the media feeds, the optimists have to take initiatives to explore the positives existing in the state and portray it to the outside world that we do not fight, and curse Uncle Sam all day. Instead the country has relatively better to offer the world and this time its Albert, football for London 2012.

Ready to kick-off

We all know that when it comes to football, it has to be Adidas. But, a few know about the sweat of hard-working men and women of Sialkot, Pakistan. This city has the highest income per capita after Karachi and is home to some of the progressive and ever-growing industries of Pakistan, sports taking the lead.

Till 2000, Pakistan was producing 75% of the footballs for the football lovers of the world. However, the market share has reduced to 40%. This is due to intense competition coming from China, Thailand and India who have high production capacities. But, is this decline in market share really a concern to the manufacturers in Sialkot? Have they revisited their strategies or production capabilities to regain their market share? Well, the answer to this is NO! Irrespective of China, India and Thailand producing at a greater pace than their Pakistani peers, the Pakistanis do not compromise on what they promised to offer, i.e. unmatched hand-stitched quality-rich football. 


Adidas did learn a lesson in FIFA World Cup 2010, when the Jabulani (Made in China) attracted heavy criticism from the world-class players and fans from all over the world. It was high time, when the giant decided to switch back to the soccer bearing the 'Made in Pakistan' tag.

Let's all hope that we produce good quality leaders, just like our soccer balls which are resistant to unnecessary kicks.


To know more, please visit: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcxqx9_soccer-is-big-business-in-pakistan_news 

The funda-mentals of ban-king

Its been long time since I have blogged. A lot of events have taken place these days. Economists believe that it will take decades for Euro Zone to pop out of recession. The new leaders of the member states of Euro are not very much interested in saving their fellow members' sinking economies. Olympics 2012 is more about security display than athletics (here goes the defense budget!) and last but not the least the tremors and shocks the banking industry has witnessed recently.

So moving ahead, the following are the lessons which have been taught to us by this so-called banking industry:

1 - Success is down to my genius; failure is caused by someone else. When banks perform well, and achieve higher profits, the executives and bosses (the fat cats) own the credit (the bonuses!!!) for their strategic lenses and inspiring leadership. When scandals break, no executives are found personally culpable, but the organization as a whole, and mainly the tactical and operational level staff suffer as the blame trickles down the very hierarchical and bureaucratic organizational structure of banks.

2 - The laws of supply and demand are not applicable to the banking industry. In a job market, an excessive supply of labor puts a downward pressure on wages, but this is not the case in the banking industry. The wages of the executives are excessively high, even when there are numerous applicants for limited positions.

3 - 'R' for Retirement and not Resignation.When bankers 'quit' in critical times, they get paid like hell. The banks want to avoid lawsuits and bad press as it further spoils its standing in a highly competitive and 'Ir-regulated' industry. The more trouble the bank is in, the less media coverage it will want and the better the negotiation position of the 'greedy' executive.

Inditex: A strenuous supply chain

Firm Infrastructure

It was Ortega’s, the founder of Inditex, visionary management style which led Inditex towards success. It was his concept to deliver fashion quick because he was interested in revolutionalizing the apparel industry where the customers must regard clothing as a perishable commodity. To serve his viewpoint integration of designing, manufacturing & distributions were integral to the fast-fashion concept. Most of Inditex’s competitors adopt an outsourcing strategy by outsourcing all production to the external suppliers whereas Inditex maintains its production processes in house. The supply chain structure is vertically integrated.

Brands which make Inditex

Human Resources Management (HRM)

Inditex is an employer to more than hundred thousand individuals coming from 150 nationalities.Many of the Inditex’s current managers began their careers as store employees or other entry level positions. There performance was recorded and talented employees were promoted.Orientation of new employees & training of existing employees adapting to their needs is given importance in the organization.

Technology Development

Inditex achieved a competitive edge over its competitors by developing a quick response system to fashion trends & for this it had to develop state-of-the-art IT system which is integrated throughout the supply chain.

There is constant exchange of information through every part of supply chain which includes shop managers, designers, production staff, and external clothing manufacturers. Sales data, from different geographical locations, is processed & passed along to designers. This helps the designers to cater their designs to the preferences of the customers. The effective use of IT makes Inditex capable to produce very fast turnaround for its fashion designs.

Procurement

Inditex outsources less production than its competitors. Inditex outsources some of its standardardized products like cotton T-shirts which are price-sensitive to Asia as these products have longer shelf lives.

Majority of the Inditex’s supplier factories are in Spain and Portugal and these factories specialize in fashion-customised sewing. The proximity of these factories, specializing in the manufacture of fashionable garments, to the distribution facility saves time and transportation costs. This allows Inditex to respond quickly to fashion trends hence reducing its product risk.

Design

The demand in the fashion apparel industry keeps on fluctuating and any failure to meet the latest demands can be very risky and deteriorate the customer loyalty. Products may become out of fashion even before reach shelves. This can undermine the entire value chain. Hence, to avoid such a risk Inditex encourages continuous exchange of information between the store managers, designers, procurement teams and marketing specialists to ensure that the designs are exclusive & customer driven.

One of the most successful fast-fashion concept chain

Outbound Logistics

The aim is to immediately transfer the products rather than storing them. The schedule is clearly defined which focuses on deadlines on every stage in the supply chain. This helps to save costs and time by eliminating the need of intermediary warehouses to store inventory. This effective way of distribution helps Inditex maintain a strong position in the market.

 

Marketing and Sales

Inditex’s marketing budget compared to its competitiors is very less. It infact prefers to entice customers by selecting prime locations & having its new clothing displayed in its shop windows.

Exclusive clothing on display

There are reasons for this. Firstly, the clothings range changes frequently, hence any advertising activity has to be in line with the latest clothing ranges and this might be expensive. Secondly, Inditex avoids over-exposure of its limited clothing ranges & focusses on the presentation of the stores. It is interested in creating a climate of exclusivity and scarcity so that customers are encouraged to buy. 

Once upon a time in Greece

Battered Greece witnessed  its budget deficit fall to 9.1% of GDP in 2011. When George Papandreou took charge of office in 2006, the budget deficit was around 13% of GDP, way higher than the falsified figure of 5% stated by Karamanlis's government. The country currently has a debt of around USD 485 bn. There is immense pressure on the government to raise finance to pay off the debt which seems never-lasting (looking at the figure! but hope lives).

To continue to remain a member of the Euro Zone, members are required to maintain a budget deficit of no more than 3% of GDP and the debt to GDP must not exceed 60%. The current budget deficit is more than 9% of GDP and the debt is more than 120% of GDP!!! Greece is an unusual member of the Euro Zone which in the past had a two digit budget deficit and continues to have a three digit debt to GDP%.

The new coalition government, under Lucas Papademos, like the previous government plans to cut deficits, but we need to analyze how realistic these plans are fiscally and politically. The government is bound to raise taxes and cut spending on pensions, healthcare and welfare of the public. This comes at the expense of the turmoils in the form of protests and strikes campaigned by the strong labor unions in Greece. Any government in Greece is closely linked to the trade unions for political reasons and hence these unions are in a strong position to force governments to satisfy their expectations and demands. Any changes in the austerity measures will have both economic and political repercussions.

So what is the way out ? What options do we have ? Will Greece be forced out of the Euro Zone or will Greece be bailed out by the fellow EU members (mainly Germany and France). Let's analyze both the scenarios.

In the first case, we need to understand that there was no exit clause at the time of setting/joining the Euro Zone. Greece might approach the IMF like Hungary, but additional austerity measures will be required. The costs involved in switching back to the drachma from the Euro will be excessively high. The drachma would depreciate and the debt would surge as it is denominated in Euros. Hence, this is not a feasible option. Now, we are left with the second option, i.e. Plan: Bailout Greece!. It can be depicted from the chart above that France and Germany (the two leading Euro Zone countries) are most exposed to the Greek debt, hence if Greece falls, it will definitely have a knock-on effect and these countries will use all their muscles to save it. We have observed the significance of the Greek debt issue in the politics of France and Germany. The French and German banks have held significant amounts of the Greek debt and hence are a big support to its survival. 

Conclusively, I believe that the Greeks will be bailed out by their fellow EU members. We have to wait for the elections to get over in France and see the approach of the newly elected government towards this highly critical issue.

Iceland: Fish and Investment Banking

In 2003, Iceland's three biggest banks had assets of only a few billion dollars, about 100% of the nation's GDP. By the mid of 2006, the banking assets grew over USD 140 billion and were so much greater than Iceland's GDP, that there was no purpose in calculating the percentage. Many bankers, economists and authors believe that this was a phase when the banking system achieved rapid expansion. The harsh truth is that Iceland was no more a country, but a hedge fund.
The three major banks were pumping money into the Icelandic economy, driving the value of stocks and real estate crazy. Students in universities were fleeing from the economics of fishing to the economics of money.

This materialistic ambition turned out to have a downside. The collapse of the three major banks resulted in banking losses of more than USD 100 billion. For a country with a population of 300,000 the losses per person works out to around USD 330,000. The losses do not end here. Moreover, there were personal losses incurred through foreign currency speculation and collapses in the stock market. In 2011, the public debt per person stood at USD 42,714 more than USA's USD 33,555.

Learning points:

- Too much banking not good for the economic health. Do not create fake capital by trading in assets at inflated values. For example, I own apples and you own oranges. We agree that each fruit is worth millions. You sell me oranges and I sell you apples for millions. Now, we are no more fruitsellers but banks with assets worth millions.

- Give fish a chance. It will work again!

- Do not buy a Range Rover or Bentley if you cannot afford it. In the end, you are left with two options, either you burn it to get insurance money or ship it to a customer to earn in foreign currency.

Does debt really matter?

A lot of people believe or rather assume that debt does not matter as governments around the world owe money to the public, and not the aliens.

However, it matters for two main reasons. Firstly, if the debt grows at a faster rate than the economic output, it implies higher interference of the government in the price mechanism/free market economy. This results in higher taxes being levied (strict fiscal policy) to finance the deficits and we all know that taxes are bad in the current scenario as they discourage spending.

Secondly, the issues faced by current and succeeding governments. No sane government would like to lay an impression on the public that the debt per citizen is on an increasing trend. This comes with political repercussions.

This is indeed a vicious cycle and I am still figuring out the start and end points of the cycle. Kindly, assist!

The blind eye

Back in 2004, the biggest wall street banks had created the instrument for the self-destruction. The credit default swap enabled investors to bet against the price of any given bond. In simple terms, it was an insurance policy, but with a crack: the buyer did not need to own the insured asset (i.e. the risks incidental to the ownership were never transferred in actual). Consider the credit swaps the titanic and the recession the ice berg. The collision being caused by the so called sane people residents of the insane world.

We all observed the the false boom in the first world developed economies, post 2002. The economic growth was super heated and fueled by borrowing. The US national debt, alone is more than USD 15.5 trillions, and the average debt per citizen is more than USD 50,000. For a moment, imagine the global debt and the consequences that will follow up in the coming times (hope it does not). Human kind has never, for sure, witnessed this kind of accumulation of debt in world history.

Private enterprises, majorly banks, were bailed out by the local and federal governments, after all the financial institutions were big credit lenders to the governments and local bodies. The governments plunged themselves into debt and any increase in interest rates means a greater proportion of the budget being consumed to meet the interest payments on debts.

In my coming blogs, I will be analyzing the blunders in Greece and Iceland in particular. 

An Insight: The UK recession in historical perspective

UK gross domestic product is predicted to grow 1.1% in 2011, down from the 1.5% forecast in the IMF's previous World Economic Outlook report in June.

The growth forecast for 2012 has been slashed from 2.3% to 1.6%.

In order to interpret the current recession we need to analyse the earlier recessionary periods.

Interwar period (1918-1939)

UK was a dominant player in the international gold-standard system during the 1870-1914 period. The end of the first world war was followed by an international restocking boom which went into reverse swiftly. This impacted the UK exports and hence the GDP, leading to high levels of unemployment.

The recession was short lived and the recovery was weaker than that experienced by USA and Germany. 

Great Depression - 1929

During the Great Depression, the UK exports declined by 32%, but the GDP fell only by 4.8% which was less severe than the contractions faced by USA and Germany. The decline in world demand resulted in lower prices of primary products and this boosted the consumerism in the UK which was a major support to the GDP, however UK exports lost their competitiveness in the international markets resulting in high levels of unemployment

Recovery Again!

Sterling was departed from the gold standard and was depreciated to competitive levels. The BoE adopted a more lenient monetary policy which resulted in increase public spending and investments in house building. The exports, however remained less in demand due to recession in the US.  

Post-war recessions

After the second world war, consumerism played a greater role than investments and exports in running the business cycle.

1970s

This was a completely new era. The fiscal and monetary policies adopted were expansionary in nature and the banking system was deregulated. However, the oil crisis in 1973 resulted in cost-push inflation which pushed the economy into recession.

1980s

The 1979 or second oil crisis caused due to the Iranian revolution. UK experienced an appreciation in the sterling due to it becoming an oil producer. This again made UK less competitive in international markets resulting in high levels of unemployment (due to decline in productivity) and inflation caused by high oil prices. On top of all this, the fiscal policy was tightened by the Thatcher government.

1990s

Deregulation of financial institutions and consumer optimism led to growth. The consumer optimism was depleted due to the tightening of the monetary policy to support the sterling to remain in the European ERM (Exchange Rate Mechanism). 

Recovery was possible again when the sterling was withdrawn from the ERM. This resulted in the fall of interest rates which again led to consumer and business optimism. 

Current Recession

The economic growth achieved prior to 2007/2008 was mainly due to favorable demand side policies. This resulted in over-heating of the economy. The debt to GDP ratio increased rapidly, amid consistent balance of payments deficit. Credit was being easily provided and the financial institutions were not exercising self-regulation. Savings were diminishing underpinning the consumption and investment. Huge budgets were being allocated to non-productive segments, such as defense. It has to be noted, the monetary policies yet remain expansionary in nature.


Conclusion
-Depreciate of sterling to achieve competitiveness and export led growth
-Cut public debt and set priorities in budget and its allocation
-UK has good spending in Education and Health care as a percentage of GDP. It can be anticipated that the productive capacity of the UK will grow in the long run.
-Switch focus from demand management to supply-side policies, or rather both (hand in hand).


Note: The above views are personal and can be debated upon due to them being subjective and judgmental.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Recep Tayyib Erdogan was elected as the prime minister of Turkey in 2003.  He graduated in 1981 from Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Commercial Sciences.

In the current scenario, when the Balkan economy is severely hit by European debt crisis, the Turkish economy dominates and is part of the G-20, being the 16th largest economy. Erdogan helped Turkey to enter in to collaboration with world economies. Moreover, his team added spiritual strength to the Turkish economy by adding value to the currency, not only by dropping the additional zeroes and giving it a new identity (i.e. an anchor which depicts support) but by making the people realize the value of Turkish Lira in their wallets who earlier would go to foreign exchanges.

Erdogan has also been known as a diplomatic dynamo by various intellects. Be it any issue in the Middle East starting from Palestine to Syria to Iran, Turkey's input to it matters. During his tenure, the Turkish improved their economic and political dies with the arch-rivals Greece. Trade with Saudi Arabia continues to increase over time. The support towards the calamity-struck nations is highly appreciable. Not only the public has contributed towards the social causes but the ruling elite has actively led it from the front.

On basis of my brief analysis, it can be concluded that good governance can solve various issues ranging from geo-political to social to foreign policy. The Turkish model is definitely worth a look.

From Jenabhai to Jinnah

Muhammed Ali Jinnah was the son of Mr.Jenabhai, who was the most respected merchants of Karachi. At a very young age of 24 M.A. Jinnah enrolled as an advocate Bombay High Court after he passed the Bar examination. 


Very soon M.A. Jinnah's reputation in Bombay as a lawyer had become formidable. Once he was interrupted thrice by a judge who said "rubbish" on each occasion during a hearing, Jinnah said, "Nothing but rubbish has passed from Your Lordship's mouth throughout the day." He was surely turning out to be the fresh voice for Indians.

Barrister Jinnah in his chambers

Sarojini Naidu described Jinnah as " an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity."


Once when Jinnah appeared before the Public Services Commission in 1913 he was asked whether he was not concerned that under a system of simultaneous examinations the backward communities (like the Muslims at that time) would be at disadvantage? Jinnah firmly replied: "I would have no objection if the result happens to be, of which I am now doubtful, that a particular community has the preponderance, provided I get competent men." Then Islington (in-charge of India Office) further added: "It has been represented to me that further difficulties might arise if you put a Hindu in charge of a Mohammedan population. Do you think that a Hindu who got a few marks more than an educated and influential Mohammedan would make a better and an efficient administrator when he was in-charge of a population which was largely Mohammedan." Jinnah's response :" I say, that in this case you will be doing the greatest injustice to the Hindu...i do not see why a Hindu should not be in charge of a district where the majority happens to be Mohammedan."

This was the prime reason why M.A.Jinnah was made the member of the INC (Indian National Congress) and not the Muslim League....
When Jinnah sat for his entrance test, he chose Lincoln's Inn in 1893. It is said that he chose this Inn particularly because on one of the New Hall's main entrances he saw a fresco depicting the name of PROPHET MUHAMMED (PEACE BE UPON HIM) among the group of lawgivers of the world.

Credit Default Swaps: Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction

The buyer of a credit default swap receives credit protection, whereas the seller of the swap guarantees the credit worthiness of the debt security. In doing so, the risk of default is transferred from the holder of the fixed income security to the seller of the swap (oh Greece!). 
For example, the buyer of a credit default swap will be entitled to the par value of the contract by the seller of the swap, should the third party default on payments. By purchasing a swap, the buyer is transferring the risk that a debt security will default.

The Failed Corporations; A Lesson to Learn

1- South Sea Bubble (1711-1720)

Investors had no idea of how their investments were being utilized in the business by the directors. The troubles arose when Spain entered in war with Britain. Directors, knowing the situation, started selling off their investments secretly. This led to a depressing effect on the investors' confidence . As a result issuing shares in the UK was banned (until 1825) and investors started shifting their investments to the U.S. Some historians name this collapse as mother of all failures.




2 - Polly Peck International, PPI (1940-1990)

Asil Nadir, a Turkish Cypriot, took over a major share in PPI as a Chief Executive. The company was mainly in to the electronics trading, but later entered into the trading of foodstuff competing with giants like Chiquita and Dole. A millions of pounds of funds were transferred to subsidiaries in Northern Cyprus in form of payments. These companies were being run by Asil Nadir's son. The company started to default on its payments to creditors which alarmed the board and authorities.Ultimately, the company collapsed.




3 - Maxwell Foundation (1970-1992)

Robert Maxwell misappropriated the funds, including the Mirror Group pension fund, to finance his loss making ventures. Neither the auditors nor the board were able to prevent this misappropriation which led to miserable failures.




4- Barings Bank (1762 - 1995)

Nick Leeson headed the trading of derivatives' operations in Singapore. This business was being run/managed during a 'deregulation period'. There were no controls, segregation of duties and no division between front and back office. The traders were accounting for the transactions either incorrectly or fraudulently and reporting inflated profits to the head office. Nick Leeson was gambling the bank's money (or the public monies). The money kept arriving and Nick Leeson kept gambling. It was the Kobe earthquake which caused a stock market crash (which affected all the tiger economies) resulting in a loss of £800 million to Barings Bank. Ultimately, Barings bank was sold to ING for £1.




5- Enron (1985-2001)

An Energy company headed from Houston, Texas was run by Kenneth Lay, the chairman, who entered in to contracts to deal in energy derivatives. The company had set special purpose entities for off balance sheet financing, in order to channel funds into Enron without the need of reflecting the substance in the accounts, i.e. hide its debt. The company was downgraded by various credit rating agencies impacting the investors' confidence. The share prices were on a free fall and the company faced some serious issues with the cash flow. The results were the same: Wind it!

The Angry Bird Effect

We have Angry Birds branded games, shirts, applications, stationary, school bags and what more!
However, this all comes at the expense of loss in productivity which has possibly led to economic losses.


I came through an article on The Atlantic and thought of sharing this computation with you:

The above is an American-focused research and by the way I too play Angry Birds ;)

JINNAH & GANDHI

Comparing Gandhi and Jinnah is an extremely complex exercise but important for they were, or rather became, the two foci of the freedom of movement. Jinnah was a self made person. A self made person in the sense, he himself was solely responsible for his incredible political career where as Gandhi was born in a prominent family with a political background. His father was a diwan( prime minister). No such advantage of birth gave Jinnah a leg-up, it was entirely through his endeavours. 

"JINNAH IS AN AMBASSADOR OF HINDU-MUSLIM UNITY." -GOPAL KRISHNA GOKHALE

Gandhi was a master practitioner of the politics of protest. He did not do this by changing his nature but by changing the very nature of politics in India. Gandhi took politics out of the spacious halls to the soil of India. Hector Bolitho in his book "In Quest of Jinnah" writes:' Jinnah was a source of power...Gandhi an instrument of it....' Gandhi was inspired of Tolstoy ( a russian novelist) and Jinnah recognised the political impress of Dadabhai Naoraji(the first asian to be the british MP) and Gokhale(mentor to both Gandhi and Jinnah).

When Gandhi attended the Gurjar Sabha (council) his words to Jinnah were:'glad to find a Muslim not only belonging to his own region's sabha, but chairing it.' Yes, Jinnah was chairing that event. Gandhi got a very warm welcome by Jinnah who wanted to enlist his services for the Hindu-Muslim unity. Jinnah in his presidential address welcomed Mr. and Mrs. Gandhi. He impressed upon Gandhi that the greatest problem was ' to bring about unanimity and co-operation between the two communities (Muslims and Hindus) so that the demands of India (from Imperial Britain) may be made absolutely unanimously. Jinnah praised Gandhi a lot and this was greatly applauded by the large Hindu audience. However Gandhi's response was not a very good one. He said that he would study all the Indian questions from his point of view and on top of that he thanked Jinnah for presiding over a 'Hindu gathering.' This was an ungracious and discouraging response to Jinnah's warm welcome and intentions which was immensely pure and peaceful and this had a dampening effect....

We can clearly comprehend that Jinnah was the voice of India and Gandhi started off with the Hindus who were in majority.
Gandhi's leadership at this time had almost an entirely religiously provincial character and Jinnah on the other hand was then doubtless imbued by a non-sectarian, nationalistic zeal. 

These are independent views/opinions/findings and are not meant to hurt anyone.

History Repeats Itself

I was going through the newspaper a few days back and I was surprised to read that an unemployed Chinese turned to a millionaire when he borrowed money from the bank to trade in 100 tons of garlic. To my surprise he made a profit of 125%…Wow!!! so is this a better investment than gold ? My answer is YES!…
Reasons: the demand for vegetables tends to be inelastic which means whatever happens to your income there will be a negligible impact on the amount you spend on food items. The second reason which I want to bring to your knowledge is that what exactly happened in the 1930′s “Great Depression”. There was a transition in an economy , a clear shift from the agriculture sector to the manufacturing sector and then in the 90′s when the Asian stock markets (known as the tiger economies) declined there was a shift from manufacturing to service industry. So what will happen now? Is there another sector left to exploit ?NO…The present scenario suggests that most of the non-oil producing countries will gradually shift to the traditional industry – YES the agricultural industry. Russia which is currently experiencing negative growth asked its steel workers to start potato cultivation on state owned lands. China is providing its farmers with cheap credit so that they can afford luxuries in order to encourage agricultural production, and EU pays excessive subsidies (under the Common Agricultural Policy) to its farmers. Agriculture sector will further grow due to increase in investments made by Saudi Arabia in Australian lands for crops and many other Non-Agricultural industries are investing in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and etc.
More importantly this will also serve to the basic need of every human being and that is to live in an environment free from carbon, but nevertheless it will have drawbacks attached to it.