can you beat this resume ?

CAN YOU BEAT THIS RESUME ? .......

--RESUME

EDUCATION /Qualification:
...1950: Stood first in BA (Hons), Economics, Punjab University , Chandigarh ,
1952; Stood first in MA (Economics), Punjab University , Chandigarh ,
1954; Wright's Prize for distinguished performance at St John's College , Cambridge ,
1955 and 1957; Wrenbury scholar, University of Cambridge ,
1957; DPhil ( Oxford ), DLitt (Honoris Causa); PhD thesis on India 's export competitiveness

OCCUPATION /Teaching Experience :
Professor (Senior lecturer, Economics, 1957-59;
Reader, Economics, 1959-63;
Professor, Economics, Punjab University , Chandigarh , 1963-65;
Professor,Internati onal Trade, Delhi School of Economics,Universit y of Delhi ,1969-71 ;
Honorary professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University ,New Delhi,1976 and Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi ,1996 and Civil Servant

Working Experience/ POSITIONS :
1971-72: Economic advisor, ministry of foreign trade
1972-76: Chief economic advisor, ministry of finance
1976-80: Director, Reserve Bank of India ;
Director, Industrial Development Bank of India ;
Alternate governor for India, Board of governors, Asian Development Bank;
Alternate governor for India , Board of governors, IBRD
November 1976 - April 1980: Secretary, ministry of finance (Department of economic affairs);
Member, finance, Atomic Energy Commission; Member,finance, Space Commission
April 1980 - September 15, 1982 : Member-secretary, Planning Commission
1980-83: Chairman , India Committee of the Indo-Japan joint study committee
September 16, 1982 - January 14, 1985 : Governor, Reserve Bank of India .
1982-85: Alternate Governor for India , Board of governors, International Monetary Fund
1983-84: Member, economic advisory council to the Prime Minister
1985: President, Indian Economic Association
January 15, 1985 - July 31, 1987 : Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission
August 1, 1987 - November 10, 19! 90: Secretary-general and commissioner,
south commission, Geneva
December 10, 1990 - March 14, 1991 : Advisor to the Prime Minister on economic affairs
March 15, 1991 - June 20, 1991 : Chairman, UGC
June 21, 1991 - May 15, 1996 : Union finance minister
October 1991: Elected to Rajya Sabha from Assam on Congress ticket
June 1995: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha
1996 onwards: Member, Consultative Committee for the ministry of finance
August 1, 1996 - December 4, 1997: Chairman, Parliamentary standing committee on commerce
March 21, 1998 onwards: Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha
June 5, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on finance
August 13, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on rules
Aug 1998-2001: Member, committee of privileges 2000 onwards: Member, executive committee, Indian parliamentary group
June 2001: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha
Aug 2001 onwards: Member, general purposes committee

BOOKS:
India 's Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth -
Clarendon Press, Oxford University , 1964; also published a large number of articles in various economic journals.

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Adam Smith Prize, University of Cambridge , 1956
Padma Vibhushan, 1987
Euro money Award, Finance Minister of the Year, 1993;
Asia money Award, Finance Minister of the Year for Asia , 1993 and 1994

INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS:
1966: Economic Affairs Officer
1966-69: Chief, financing for trade section, UNCTAD
1972-74: Deputy for India in IMF Committee of Twenty on
International Monetary Reform
1977-79: Indian delegation to Aid-India Consortium Meetings
1980-82: Indo-Soviet joint planning group meeting
1982: Indo-Soviet monitoring group meeting
1993: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Cyprus 1993: Human Rights World Conference, Vienna

RECREATION :
Gymkhana Club, New Delhi ; Life Member, India International Centre,
New Delhi

PERSONAL DETAIL:
Name: Dr Manmohan Singh
DOB: September 26, 1932
Place of Birth: Gah ( West Punjab )
Father: S. Gurmukh Singh
Mother: Mrs Amrit Kaur
Married on: September 14, 1958
Wife: Mrs Gursharan Kaur
Children: Three daughters

Our Prime Minister seems to be the most qualified PM all over the world.
so be PROUD of him......

What is wrong with the teaching of Economics?

An idea whose time has come again: Maybe it will take a little longer than 2040 to fulfil Goldman Sach’s prediction that the world’s ten biggest economies, using market exchange rates, will include Brazil, Russia, Mexico, India and China. But these are arguments about when, not whether, change will happen. And things could speed up…This shift is not as extraordinary as it first seems. A historical perspective shows it to be the restoration of the old order. After all, China and India were the world’s biggest economies until the mid-19th century, when technology and a spirit of freedom enabled the West to leap ahead…. There are weaknesses in some growth stories. China’s population is ageing and India’s schools are rotten….”- The Economist, September 16, 2006.

A few years ago, I predicted that the time would come when a person’s wages and standard of living would no longer be determined by the country they live in, but instead would be a result of the education they have had. Today we start to see this vision becoming a reality in India. The challenge is to extend progress and opportunity to every section of society and every corner of the nation. If government, business and non-profits continue to work together to bridge the digital divide and enable India to realise its potential to become a creator of intellectual capital. I believe you will truly become a nation where everyone has the opportunity to achieve their potential.” – Bill Gates, Outlook, 21 August 2006.



Both the above quotes show that India definitely has potential to make it to the top, but this depends largely on the quality of education.
The 8% growth-rate has become a way of life for Indians… Reforms have pulled millions out of poverty and misery… If we can achieve a 10% growth-rate in the near future, most of the poverty will vanish… How do we plug in the leakage of 2%??? It’s the crumbling infrastructure and the rotten education system, stupid…
We need to start somewhere… the first step would be to throw away the age-old books. If mid-day meals can do the wonder in rural areas, good books too can do the trick in our schools and colleges! This will surely attract students to read more and to enjoy what they are reading.

Look at our economics textbooks, there is no humour, no pictures, no colour… all you can find is tons and tons of boring statistics and meaningless sentences… How do you expect students to even read them, leave apart learn from them… Well, if anything they can surely work as a remedy for insomnia!!!
Besides they do nothing to satisfy the increased curiosity towards economics throughout the country. A curiosity aroused by the second fastest growing economy in the world suddenly having to face rising inflation and a global slowdown. The Indian economy has been growing at very impressive rates of 7 – 8 % in the last 4 – 5 years. However suddenly it looks like the rising prices would spoil the party. Many people want to read, understand and learn economics. In the classroom too it is always treated as a dry subject dealing with abstract theories. Once we change our old textbooks and the teachers get used to new tools of learning such as Internet and Multimedia, economics can become very interesting.

Now, just take a look at some good books from around the world. Can’t we too use them for learning the subject?
For Beginners…
Microeconomics by Michael Parkin – Addison-Wesley www.econ100.com
Economics – A Complete Course by Dan Moynihan and Brian Titley – Oxford Edition
Undergraduate Level…
(Indian editions are available for all the books given below)
Principles of Economics by N. Gregory Mankiw – Thomson South-Western
Principles of Economics by Robert Frank & Ben Bernanke – McGraw Hill
Economics by Lipsey and Crystal – Oxford Edition
Also the books Microeconomics and Macroeconomics by the same authors (McGraw Hill)
Principles of economics Karl E. Case and Ray C. Fair – Prentice Hall
Moving ahead let us look us some books on economics for general reading…
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
(This book has being used as a text-book at leading universities like Berkeley and Purdue!!!)
Undercover Economist by Tim Harford
The World is Flat: A brief history of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Friedman

 Happy reading !

eleven pionts on obama's india visit

Cutting through the hoopla being created by the media about the Obama visit, how should the success or failure of the visit be judged? Already, the government's spin-doctors have gone on an overdrive to dampen expectations by claiming that it will not be a big bang visit. Clearly, they do not expect anything substantial to emerge from the visit which no doubt would still occupy acres of newsprint and air-time till next Tuesday.
Yet the question is how would one be able to say whether the visit of the US president has achieved anything? From the Indian point of view, the visit should be judged on the following issues:
1. An improved regional understanding and signs that Indian and US policies in South Asia are becoming more compatible;
2. Clarity about why the US is arming Pakistan and why it has failed to pressure Islamabad to discard its recourse to terrorism against India and Afghanistan;
3. Clarity about the US end-game in Afghanistan. The current signals are that the solution being sought through reconciliation with the Taliban will serve Pakistan's geo-political interests and hamper India's participation in regional development and its pursuit of connectivity across Pakistan's western frontiers;
4. The current unrest in Kashmir opens up dangers of US interference - especially as Pakistan is pushing for it and India's diplomatic hand has become weaker. Will Obama stay away from this issue during the visit?

5. Better comprehension of Obama's thinking about the challenge posed by a rising China. This would include US attitude towards China's assertive behaviour in the South China Sea as well as vis-à-vis India and the strengthening of its presence in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK);
6. Concrete progress with regard to easing export control on high and dual-use technology to India including removal of subsidiaries of ISRO, DRDO and BARC from the US entities list;
7. Progress in enhancing space co-operation given India's credible space related capacities. While the signing of a Commercial Space Launch Agreement (CSLA) will be a positive step, will the US give any indication that it is willing to lift this co-operation from the shadow of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)?
8. On the non-proliferation front, progress in promoting India's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG), MTCR, the Australia Group and other such regimes;
9. An improved understanding on India's energy security problems and the easing of pressure on India's energy relations with Iran;
10. Support for India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council. Obama says that India is "indispensible for the US in the 21st century" - therefore, the support for the UNSC must follow from this as one cannot have a huge gap between rhetoric and reality; and lastly,
11. Giving India satisfaction on counter-terrorism co-operation. India remains dissatisfied on this count because of the revelations in the David Coleman Headley case and needs to know how much information directly related to Pakistan is the US actually sharing?

views and expectations on obama's visit

He was the breath of fresh air that would change America and the world. He raised a slogan that resonated across the globe, millions joined him and in unison chanted, "Yes we can." But governments do not run on hope and fresh air. Two years into Barack Obama's presidency, America and the world are discovering that fine oratory does not guarantee a fine presidency.
The Barack Obama who steps out of Air Force One on November 6 in Mumbai, will be very different from the one who took oath in front of a record million people at Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, even as the rest of the world looked on in awe. When he began, he was hailed at home and feted abroad, as a great beacon of hope, a harbinger of change.

Halfway through his term, Obama has delivered great speeches but has found it much tougher to deliver change. Speaking at Cairo University, he had famously declared, "It is easier to blame others than to look inward; to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share. But we should choose the right path, not just the easy path. There is also one rule that lies at the heart of every religion - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us."
Barack Obama is guilty of choosing the easy path over the right path on more occasion than one. The last minute decision to leave Amritsar out of the President's itinerary is fuelled by fear of domestic political ramifications.
Scared by the rabble rousing in the conservative American media and worried about the impact the image of a President wearing a cloth over his head would have on already suspicious citizens, the President's aides decided it was too much of a risk for Obama to visit the Golden Temple.
Their fear compounded by the fact that a latest study by the Pew Research Centre had found that one in six Americans believed that Obama is Muslim.
He could have done what he promised at Cairo, used his power to build the world he sought and set a personal example by demonstrating that wearing a skull cap does not mean that someone is Muslim and that visiting a temple of another religion does not weaken belief in your own faith.
But instead he chose the easy path over the right path, blaming the myopia of others instead of striving to rise above.
Obama has good reason to be worried. His approval ratings are on a sharp downward spiral. According to a Bloomberg National Opinion Poll, four out of 10 Americans who voted for Obama no longer support him. The Democrats have been just handed a major reversal in the mid-term elections of November 2. Life for Obama is suddenly a whole lot tougher.
Make no mistake, Obama will deliver a stirring speech from the cradle of the world's largest democracy when he addresses the joint session of Parliament. But the key question is, will Obama's visit be more about symbolism or substance. Will rhetoric triumph over realpolitik?
The litmus test for Obama's sincerity will be whether he uses the opportunity to expressly endorse India's candidature as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. So far the Americans have said the right things about India's legitimate claims to a spot in the expanded UNSC, but no guarantees have been laid out.
In a visit that lacks a big ticket idea like the Indo-US nuclear deal, which was the highlight of President Bush's visit, the UNSC endorsement could prove to be the soul stirring moment that lifts Obama's visit from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
The ultimate expansion of the UNSC may not happen any time soon, but by backing India unconditionally, Obama would have demonstrated that the Indo-US strategic partnership is not empty talk but a goal the American President is prepared to push strongly.
This, of course, could mean upsetting Pakistan, a risk that the American President is in no position to take. Given his desire to pull American troops out of Afghanistan at the first available opportunity, Obama has no option but to keep the Pakistani military establishment in good humour, even as they continue playing their dangerous double game on terror.
US military aid to Pakistan is a major bone of contention for India. Weapon systems like the Harpoon Anti-Ship missiles, P3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft or the advanced AN/TPS-77 radar system that the US is selling to Pakistan have very limited use in counter-insurgency operations and are far more handy in a conventional military confrontation, most likely to be used against India.
The recent bad blood over America not sharing the name of terror operative David Headley with India before or immediately after 26/11 has shown that there is still a trust deficit that exists between the two countries.
While both sides will outwardly strive to downplay suspicions, America's unwillingness to share specific information on Headley has revealed that while it is prepared to pass on most time sensitive information to India, it is not above holding back information that may impact America's war in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
The Headley saga has left a bitter taste in Delhi's mouth. Officials can no longer be certain of what America is hiding even as it claims to be partnering India in fighting the war against terror.
Suspicions are sharpest when it comes to weapons purchase. The US government is bearing down hard on New Delhi to purchase weapon systems made by American defence manufacturers. At stake are $50 billion dollars and the sustenance of at least 30,000 domestic jobs in the US. One of President Obama's key tasks is to actively push the case of the American defence lobby.
But the recent example of the leaked contract documents for the C 130 J Hercules transport aircraft shows that India must walk the road of defence cooperation with the US with a lot of wariness.
The US has left out five pieces of high-end equipment from the C 130 J aircraft being supplied to India next year. This is being done because of India's reluctance to sign the Communications and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement or the CISMOA agreement.
The chiefs of India's defence forces are wary of signing an agreement that gives the Americans the right to monitor whether any reverse engineering has been carried out on military hardware supplied by Washington. The Indian defence establishment believes that the disadvantages of signing this agreement with America far outweigh the advantages.
The last few decades are littered with examples of the US proving to be a highly unreliable weapons supplier for India. The apprehension about the so-called 'Kill Switches' that America secretly installs on weapons sold to foreign countries, may or may not be true, but the fact remains that domestic law gives the US Congress the right to revise any defence accord the President may enter into.
The last thing that India would want is for expensive American weapons to be rendered unusable when the country needs them the most. Given that the Russian defence industry is in serious decline and that the Isrealis do not have the wherewithal to meet all of India's requirements, India has no option but to push Indo-US defence ties further. But it is a road marked with landmines. Every dollar spent must be leveraged to the maximum extent.
The American ambassador in all his interactions with the Indian press has been trying hard to keep expectations from the Obama visit low. If expectations are contained, chances for disappointment are lower.
Obama rode to power on the back of historic expectations. No matter how hard he tries he is unlikely to fulfill them. Therein lies a lesson for Rahul Gandhi as well. But that's matter for another story.