Business in Africa

Only a few years ago people were queuing up to invest in Africa. People were excited at the prospect of investing in Africa, whose population is roughly 1.2 billion.
Africa is a resource rich continent. It is the biggest supplier of diamonds, gold an many other resources. Yet the continent has not progressed as it should have because of corruption, bribery, unemployment and civil wars which have devastated the lives of the people.

Yet, Africa is much more democratic than it was before. In the 1980s, only 1 sub-Saharan government was peacefully voted out of office. Now nearly all face regular election, which are harder to rig thanks to social media.

The continent's future is in the balance. Whether it bounces back from this commodity slump or slips back into stagnation, war and autocracy will depend whether enough of its leaders keep moving forward . Two goals stand out. The first is to recognise the new reality. Given the decline in its terms of trade, Africa's buying power has gone down. Second, African governments need to keep up the hard slog of improving the basics. Bad roads,grasping officials and tariff barriers still hobble trade between African countries, which is only 11% of total African exports and imports.

Russia and it's Foreign Policy

Vladimir Putin won a famous victory this week in Syria, he is taking credit for a ceasefire and the start of peace talks.

However, when we look closer, we realize that Russia's victory is hollow. The Islamic State(IS) still remains and the peace is fragile. The average salary a month in January 2014 was $850, now a year later it is $450. In 2011-12, many citizens took to the streets to demand that their country become a modern state where elections are contested. 

Mr Putin has responded by annexing Crimea and vowing to restore Russian greatness after the Soviet collapse. With action in Ukraine and Syria he makes it look as if Russia is the equal of US. This message is very popular with ordinary Russian's. What he wants is that the democratic revolutions in Ukraine and Syria must fail or he fears that Russia itself will one day have a revolution of its own.

So far his plan has worked, fooled by pro-Kremlin broadcast media, ordinary Russians have been willing to trade material comfort for national pride. Mr Putin's popularity ratings remain above 80%, far higher than most Western leaders. However, since last October, the share of voters has fallen from 61% to 51%.

The biggest test however, will be Ukraine. If Ukraine can become a successful European state, it will show Russians that they have a path of liberal democracy. But, if Ukraine fails, it will strengthen Putin's argument that Russia belongs to its own "orthodox" culture and that liberal democracy has nothing to do with it


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Indian Education System

The Indian Education System has many pros and cons. I am going to discuss some of them.

The Indian Education System is centered around studies and co-curricular activities are given little or no importance. Though the CBSE board has made it compulsory to have at least 3-4 different co-curricular activities it has not been very effective. The portions are usually vast for the exams and excess homework is given in the Indian System, the downside of this is that children learn by rote learning, without actually understanding the topic. They also spend more and more of their time doing homework leaving less time for co-curricular and sports activities.

But, the Indian System does have it's advantages, firstly, as the system is more studies oriented the dropout rate is lower as compared to the West. Secondly, the homework which is given, although extra, do help the students in studies. Thirdly, since a lot of practice is given to students helps them get good marks in their exams. This also teaches them to work hard and prepares them for the long race ahead.

Therefore, to conclude, I would say that the Indian Education System is one of the best education systems in the world when it comes to studies,but it should give more importance to co-curricular and sports activities.                                   

Free Basics. Is it really free?

Free Basics by Facebook provides people with access to useful services on their mobile phones in markets where internet access may be less affordable. The websites are available for free without data charges, and include content on things like news, employment, health, education and local information.But, many IIT, IISc professors are arguing that Free Basics is "misleading and flawed". They are saying that, “Allowing a private entity to define for Indian Internet users what is ‘basic’, to control what content costs how much, and to have access to the personal content created and used by millions of Indians, is a lethal combination which will lead to total lack of freedom on how Indians can use their own public utility, the Internet. 

Free Basics contradicts the basic principle of net neutrality by giving free access only to fixed number of sites. Net neutrality means that people have access to any site in the internet and no restrictions can be placed  on which sites they can visit and which sites they can't. 

IIT, IISc professors are critical of 'Free Basics' and have said that the word "free" has been used as a marketing tactic .We all know that when we buy a hair oil bottle and we get a comb free, the price of a comb is added somewhere else. In the same way internet service providers will charge the non-free sites more, otherwise every site would have been free.

To conclude they are saying that allowing a private,multi-national entity such as facebook to decide what is 'basic' is a lethal combination and will spell the end of digital freedom in India.