ARTICLE:1 WHY INFLATION IS A PROBLEM?

Not for the reasons most people think. It may be tempting to say, "because everything is more expensive," but it is not that.Deflation can actually be just as damaging as inflation. The problem with inflation is one of redistribution: inflation makes some people worse off, but it makes others better off. This redistribution is due to three effects. PRICE EFFECT: As the average level of prices increase, some prices increase faster than others, so some people are more affected than others. INCOME EFFECT: Prices for goods and services mean income for someone else. So as some prices increase faster than others, some incomes increase faster than others. WEALTH EFFECT: Inflation redistributes income between borrowers and lenders. DIVERTING RESOURCES FROM PRODUCTION:When inflation gets to be very high, firms and consumers spend more time and resources trying to avoid inflation, and less time on productive activities. So inflation not only redistributes income, it also reduces the growth of real GDP, which has negative implications for employment and standard of living for everyone. The Comsumer Price Index (CPI) is the most commonly used index for measuring inflation. It is designed to measure changes in the prices of goods and services typically purchased by an urban consumer, so it is also known as a cost-of-living index. So the price of gasoline or milk is included in the CPI, but the price of a forklift is not.The mis-measurement of inflation by the CPI causes COLAs to be higher that actual inflation, which means larger raises for some workers, but higher costs to the federal government and thus taxpayers. A 1996 report suggested this overstatement of inflation to be between .8 and 1.6 percentage points annually. The Producers Price Indexes (PPI) is similar to the CPI, except that they measure the prices of raw materials, intermediate goods, or final goods used by producers instead of consumers. Increases in the PPI often precede increases in the CPI, as producers pass price increases along to consumers. The GDP Deflater is the broadest price index, measuring the average price level of all goods and services included in the GDP. The deflator is simply the ratio of nominal GDP to real GDP. Or in other words, this index deflates nominal GDP to an inflation-adjusted output, real GDP.The costs of inflation go beyond redistribution, and have negative implications for the economy as a whole. If inflation is low, the effects may be small. But in periods of high inflation, known as Hyperinflation the negative effects will cripple an economy. What are the macro implications for inflation?

Uncertainity:Future prices are unknown, making it difficult to plan investment and consumption decisions. This means that some production will not be undertaken because firms are not certain about profitability. Shorter Time Horizons:Due to uncertainty over prices, firms and consumers are less willing to commit to long-term plans, like a 30-year mortgage, or building a new housing development over 10 years. Again, production falls due to uncertainty. The CPI is used to calculate cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) under many union contracts, for Social Security recipients, for federal employees, and to adjust federal tax brackets for inflation. Therefore, it is important that this measure be accurate. India is passing through a very hard time nowadays. The problem of priserise has become very serious. The government is unable to control the prices of necessary goods. The rise in prices is natural in a developing country like India. But when it goes out of control, it causes great difficulties for the masses. Inflation is caused due to various Economic Factors: Increase in production and labor costs have a direct impact on the price of the final product, resulting in inflation. High taxes on consumer products can also lead to inflation.Demands pull inflation, wherein the economy demands more goods and services than what is produced. High prices have very bad effect on the people. These rising prices increase the cost of living. It is deplorable that a small group of businessmen earn a lot of money by unfair means of hoarding essential goods.In this scenario, the government needs to come up with something more than quickfix solutions. Instead of lettingfoodgrains rot in godowns, it must expand and strengthen the public distribution system as a way of providing food security for the poorer sections.Otherwise, there will be a political price to paysooner than later.

ARTICLE:2 Empowerment of Indian Women

Hullabaloo over the participation of women is made over the Constitution (84th Amendment) Bill relating to women's reservation since 1998. The problem of Indian politics is that reservation is made for women but women are not included in these policies. The countrys ruling party Congress, led by a woman and supposedly pushing for reservation for women till recently, had 10 per cent of women among the candidates announced so far. For the BJP, the proportion of women candidates is even lower at 7 per cent. Even in the case of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), only 7 per cent of the candidates are women. It is not that women are not provided major work in politics but most often, indeed, they are relegated to the "women's wing" of the party, and made to concentrate on what are seen as specifically "women's issues" such as dowry and rape cases, and occasionally on more general concerns like price rise which are seen to affect especially "housewives". Women leaders can be classified broadly into two groups DYNASTIC GROUP:(Sonia Gandhi,Vasundhara Raje Scindhia,Amma,Rabri Devi,Sheila Dixit) having family ties. HYSTERICAL GROUP:Mamta, Mayawati, Sushma Swaraj, UmaBharti. WOMEN EMPOWERMENT: The position of women has improved down the ages and there is hardly any field without a womans touch. Politics is no exception. India is perhaps one among the only few countries where women never fought for voting rights. They got it from the day one of independent India. FUTURE OF WOMEN POLITICIANS: That brings us to the larger question the future of women politicians in India. That brings us to the larger question the future of women politicians in India. President of India, president of the ruling coalition of the central government, Speaker of Lok Sabha and chief ministers of National capital Territory and UP, the most populous Indian state, are women. However, when we look into the position of Indian women in politics analytically, we find three completely different pictures. Indian women active in politics are Mrs. Pratibha Patil, Sonia Gandhi, Meira Kumar, Sheila Dixit, Rabri Devi etc. Even the greenhorns of Indian politics like D. Purandeswari, Kanimozhi, Supriya Sule, Mehbooba Mufti, Agatha Sangma In the present era, Mayawati and Mamta Banerjee, Uma Bharti and few others come under this category.They fought with the odds of the male dominance, caste politics and chauvinistic restrictions to reach to the position. After reaching the position, how far they have been s u c c e s s f u l in m a i n t a i n i n gtransparency and honesty- that is a different question. But, they have shown the road to power corridor to ordinary Indian women.

Young women who have made a name for themselves in Indian politics are : Agatha Sangma: She became India's youngest Parliamentarian in 2008 at the age of 27 and was re-elected to the 15th Lok Sabha last year to become the youngest minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet. Priya Dutt: Sanjay Dutt's younger sister has been an MP since 2005runs a charity, the Nargis Dutt Memorial Charitable Trust, and was recently the recipient of the Young Political Achiever Award from the NGO Pearls Wave. A politician and a philanthropist now that's a rare combination! Supriya Sule: Supriya Sule is an MP from the Nationalist Congress Party, having contested and won the elections last year for the Baramati Lok Sabha Kanimozhi: is member of the Rajya Sabha. She representsTamil Nadu. Harsimrat Kaur Badal: daughter-in-law of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, had represents Bathinda in the 15th Lok Sabha and won a much-publicised political battle last year to secure her seat. In March,The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) launched Shree Shakti, a platform for training women entrepreneurs at all levels of Indian society. Goldman Sachs's ambitious "10,000 Women" program aims to train and develop women entrepreneurs across the globe by pairing them with resources in the West. The Indian School of Microfinance forWomen (ISMW), for instance, goes one step deeper into the problem. Based in Ahmedabad and chaired by social activist and SEWA founder Ela Bhatt, the school recognizes that borrowing money is only one part of the triangle. Among other things, the school teaches women how to deal with the money they borrow through capacity building workshops, networking and providing knowledge resources. Simply put, it takes Goldman Sachs's global vision for women entrepreneurs and translates it into a deeper regional focus. The school's website lists 'hand-holding' as one of its goals. Participants of microcredit schemes are taught financial planning and investing techniques that they can use on the ground and in their business.

ARTICLE:3 Unemployment
The problem of unemployment is the most serious problem facing our country. A large number of educated and uneducated people loiter about in search of some job. They are willing to work but they cannot get it. There is unemployment in cities, towns and even in villages. There are two types of unemployment in India : partial unemployment and full time unemployment.

There are many causes of unemployment in India. The greatest cause of unemployment is the overpopulation of the country. The population of the country is increasing fast but the jobs cannot be increased in that proportion. So a large number of people remain unemployed. Another cause of unemployment in our defective system of education. The present education is bookish. It should be job-oriented. It does not prepare students for life. Every young man of today is suitable only for a white collar job.

At the completion of education, students dream of Govt. jobs, they rush for Govt. jobs. They are least interested in self-employment because some of the youth see more respect, glamour and comfort in jobs while some seek challenges in jobs. Prevailing corruption in our society is also one of the cause of unemployment. Machines are also responsible for the problem of unemployment. The machines are labour-saving device. These machines throw thousands of persons out of work. People rush to cities in search of employment. The result is that the cottage industries which provide employment to many, are impaired. Gandhiji warned the people against industrialization, "India needs not mass production but production by the masses."

There should be a check on the rapid growth of population. The program of family planning should be made more popular in rural areas. All efforts should be made in this direction. The system of education should be changed. Importance should be given to technical and vocational education. Education should be sound and practical. Government should create more jobs for the educated unemployment.

Cottage and small-scale industries should be developed. We should lessen the use of laboursaving machines. Banks should advance loans to the youths to set up small industries. Luckily our government is fully alive to this problem. Technical and vocational colleges are being opened. Cottage and handloom industries are being encouraged. Efforts to control population are being made. Irrigation and other multi-purpose projects are increasing. These steps will help a lot in solving the problem of unemployment.

An empty mind is the devil's workshop. An unemployment person is a nuisance to the society. A hungry man can do any wrong. Therefore, it is the duty of the government to solve the problem of unemployment as early as possible. Government should encourage policies of selfemployment. In this regard govt. policies should be liberalized.