Cricket - Bidding Vs Betting

According to web dictionary, meaning of bidding is an offer (often competitive) of setting a price one is willing to pay for something. A price offer is called a bid. The term may be used in context of auctions, stock exchange, card games, or real estate.

Meaning of betting - is the activity of predicting results and placing a wager on the outcome.

Last few days, Indian news is all about betting and spot fixing.

To me, bidding or auctioning and betting has a very thin line of difference and both are not right in cricket, as human is the subject of bidding or betting.

 In first place, sport or hobby start as passion and once a person starts playing for school, college, university, state or in a highest level to home country one would get patriotic about it. One cannot say the same after being auctioned for money… I meant, auctioned. Are the entities which win auction of player’s philanthropic or nonprofit organization? I think not. Like any business entity they might look at the return on investment or maximize resource utilization :-).

Interestingly, there is so much hype and cry for betting. But, unfortunately one did not see such opposition on player bidding for huge amount. Is it because bidding is legal, while betting is illegal?. Also, read an article in a news paper about FICCI is seeking to make betting legal.

To me, as I said, auctioning or betting should not be allowed when human is the subject of bidding or betting. Once, auctioning or betting happens it could get extended into spot fixing or any other forms of fixing.

Let team sport like cricket be made to remain as gentleman game, played with passion and patriotism and not reduced to action film played as per predefined scripts.

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Body + Mind treatment = Medical Tourism.

IT back office, outsourcing including medical transcription has re-defined the outlook of India in the last 10 years or so. In today’s world one may not find top fortune company which does not have back office operation or processing in India. The other emerging field in India is medical tourism.

According to reports, it’s reported that 150,000 medical tourists came to India in 2005, based on feedback from the organization's member hospitals. The number grew to 200,000 by 2008. A separate study by ASSOCHAM reported that the year 2011 saw 850,000 medical tourists in India and projected that by 2015 this number would rise to 3,200,000.

As medical treatment costs in the developed country can be many folds when compared to India, this make prospect of international travel for medical care increasingly appealing. International health care accreditation and affiliations, medical support technology equipments and high speed internet communication make treatment effective through a collaborative approach could be a per-requisite for medical tourism. Clearly India has distinct advance here, as there are hospitals with facilities as comparable to any developed country.

Medical tourism is mostly sought for treating a critical health condition and hence it’s not just about medicine alone which can successfully treat a person. To be in good health trust, environment, and positive mind plays a critical role in recovery. India have a distinct advantage here as well, all year through sunny weather, visit to nature scenic places like Kodai, Ooty, Munnar in south, Kulu, Manali, Darjeeling in north would be so soothing to mind. On top of this, India is said to be one amongst the oldest civilization in history. Hence for those who are interested to understand life and evolution of mankind, there are supporting literature and distinct historic places of importance. All this can be so relaxing to mind.

As the journey called ‘life’ progresses, the machine called ‘body’ starts getting old it requires medical attention at times. The medicine and technology can bringing in necessary correction to keeps this body functioning. However, there is a mind game which is critical not only in recovery, but also understanding life and getting on with it. This is where India can play critical role, particularly for those who want to get deep into self realization.

To me, medical tourism is a function trust, usage of advanced medical technology to diagnose and treat health problem in a cost effective way, proper pre and post care – this is where there need to be collaborative effort between hospitals of different countries and hospitality partner who need to play a vital role to ensure that mind is at peace due to medical condition and its associated treatment.

Medical tourism is still in its infant stage and has long way to go. Clearly, India would have a distinct advantage on many fronts.

* This article is a part of Indiblogger's Modern health care touch lives contest in association with Apollo hospital. Apollo hospital do offer international patient services *

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Petrol price reduction - May 2013

In May 2012, the petrol price was about INR 77.00 Per litre and Diesel was about INR 44.00 per litre at Chennai , a whopping difference  of about INR 30. In fact, I heard petrol car manufacturing was almost stopped due to slump in demand around same time and many were focused on buying diesel car, in spite of paying higher upfront cost of more than INR 1,00,000, even though their car usage was low.

Last year May 2012, had made some basic calculation comparing year 2008 price peak barrel price of oil, exchange rate against market petrol price and posted about the about the increased price of petrol. My observation was based on the  chart below in May 2012 (i.e INR 77 /litre) is higher or overpriced by about  INR 13 then.

A year later now, there is not much change in situation, barrel price is around USD 100 and USD exchange rate is almost same. However, the petrol price at Chennai is now dropped to INR 65 and diesel per litre is in range of INR 50, with a difference of only INR 15. This should bring some cheer to petrol car users and it could well mean, my earlier calculation on petrol (overpriced) right???!!! :-)

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Water finds it way and so do the currency

It’s a known fact, that water finds it way when there is a gradient difference between two points.
One can still store the water in dam, but for any productive work like generation of electricity or towards use in agriculture or even for industrial development one needs to release water from dam.

In a globalized economy, the currency is like water and particularly when there is a marked exchange rate difference between currencies. Almost all the developed economies have very strong currencies and these currencies had become very strong in last 2 or 3 decades. Hence, like water, strong currencies are finding its way into weaker currency country for productive work, particularly when the weaker currency country has a reasonable political stability and infrastructure. The weaker currency countries, termed as developing country naturally has a higher GDP compared to developed country.

The only difference is that water cannot be manufactured, while currency can always be printed legally by Government or a government debt ceiling increased towards retaining strong currency. Though there can be short term correction to foster economic development of developed country, in long run, the strong currency would act like water in a globalized economy.

Like water flooding low lying areas, when it finds the way. The global currency, once it find its way into weaker currency country can flood it, which lead to higher rate of inflation in the weaker or developing country.

On a lighter side, none is stronger than nature.

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