Hello! World

"Economy depends as much on economists as weather depends on weather forecasters"

The saying is not exactly true. History is ripe with examples when men with extraordinary insights into society have sculpted, guided, challenged and changed the fundamental way in which we share and redistribute our limited resources - Economy, and laid rules and created structures to facilitate such exchange - Finance.

The ancient Greeks had Aristotle, who expounded on the topic of human production in 'Topics' and 'Politics', and laid the economic foundations of Alexander's huge empire from Macedonia to Persia. India had Chanakya, the guru of Chandragupta Maurya, who, in his great work that is regarded by many as the pioneering text on regulated economics - 'Arthashastra', helped lay the foundations of the India as a nation-state for the first time in history. French revolution had the great economist and free trade and competition advocate Jean-Baptist Say. Who can forget the great political economist Karl Marx who created a new world order that still affects the global economy. Modern economics had Keynes whose principles of theoretical macroeconomics helped shaped the US economy throughout much of Cold War. And no less important was Milton Friedman - the proponent of laissez-faire capitalism that we are all now moving towards.

The point is that economics is not about preparing the balance sheet of a nation, but about the very philsophy around which a nation is built. It is about how we live together, share our limited resources. It is about the deep understanding of very basic human desires and the struggle for survival. The communists believe in equality regardless of merit. The capitalists in merit regardless of social equality. The structure of a nation's economy is dependent totally on its social hierarchy. It is for this very reason that great economists were great sociologists first - and all we see today - the currency, the GDP, the forex, the stock markets, the private and public corporations - are all just projections on the material dimension of very abstract thinking by these great stalwarts.

"I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen, han mathon ne chae a han noston ned 'wilith."

The world has changed. Technology has brought us together in ways more than what we probably wished for. It is a collision of societies, cultures, values, but largely - of economics. And in this race for the new Economic Empire, he shall win who first understands the process of globalization - its ways, its effects, its challenges and the ways to go around them. It is all about knowledge, and as we have seen since the beginning of human civilization, discussion always leads to a higher level of understanding.

Second Year: "Reliance ka share crash kar gaya, ab kya vo internship waalon ko le jayegi?"
Senior: "Tera lab nhi hai kya aaj?"

There is also a lot of huha about corporate finance and investment banking and the daily halla-gulla about shares rising and falling which leaves most of us IITians clueless about what's going on in this world. It seems its not enough to earn a living any more. No, sorry smarty, neither is it about living an earning. Its about investing your earning.

Welcome to the Finance and Economy Blog fo IITians. Let us together explore and understand the black on brown of modern economic newspapers. Let us investigate how we Geeks can change economics and finance, and how it affects us. We shall think of things as diverse as currrency exchange rates, impediments to GDP growth, to how infrastructure can bring transformational changes in economy to finally whether share price changes cannn....u know...i mean..you do of course :)

I dream of a day when IIT interviewees shall question the fiscal distortions in the annual reports of the campusing company. Okay, that is far fetched. But trust me - Geeks shall know Greeks!