THE CRISIS OF GREECE THAT THREATENS EUROPE.

The Eurozone officially called the euro area, is a monetary union of 19 European Union (EU) member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender.

The Eurozone  consists of 19 countries:                                 

1.  Austria, 2. Belgium, 3. Cyprus, 4. Estonia, 5. Finland, 6. France, 7. Germany, 8.  Greece, 9. Ireland, 10. Italy, 11. Latvia, 12.  Lithuania, 13. Luxembourg, 14. Malta, 15. Netherlands, 16. Portugal, 17. Slovakia, 18. Slovenia, 19. Spain. 

The Eurozone has a POPULATION of 33.46 crores with a GDP of USD 10.64 trillion.

Other EU states (except for Denmark and the United Kingdom) are obliged to join once they meet the criteria to do so.

As against the mighty Eurozone, Greece is a small nation in Europe with a POPULATION of just 1.08 crores and with a GDP of just 207 billion USD.

This means Greece accounts for only 3.2% of Eurozones POPULATION and 2% of its GDP.

Greece became a member of the European Union on 1 January 1981, ushering in a period of sustained growth. Widespread investments in industrial enterprises and heavy infrastructure, as well as funds from the European Union and growing revenues from tourism, shipping and a fast-growing service sector raised the country's standard of living to unprecedented levels. The country adopted the Euro in 2001.

However, presently Greece is creating a crisis and is putting pressure on the Eurozone. In the year 2010 Greece had a deficit of 15.4% of its GDP which is phenomenal. The public debt was estimated at 126.8% of its GDP which is crushing. The current deficit and the public debt of Greece are much higher.

The case of the Greek crisis has been a good example of how bad management of public finances can lead to an economic catastrophe. Greece has a long history of fiscal trouble, having spent much of the past two decades in default and economical inconsistency. Both fiscal and governmental corruption and contagious tax evasion lead its economy to become unstable and now it threatens the entire Eurozone dangerously. What is the problem of Greece?

Many factors contributed to the Greek economic crisis during the last decade, each of them playing an important role and have varying levels of significance. In particular, the Greek economic crisis can be attributed to some primary causes 1. The Eurozone, 2. Mass tax evasion,3. Corruption of the Government, 4. High Public Spending and 5. Inefficient Bureaucracy.

Greece was one of the weak members of the European Union and when the Global Financial Crisis broke out Greece is one of the most affected states in the European Union. The two mainstays of Greek economy, Tourism and Shipping  suffered a reverse and the economy registered a negative growth of 15% during the year 2009.

Underlying cause of the situation is that, in order to secure electoral support, Greek politicians have traditionally viewed the provision of public sector jobs and benefits as an important way to grant favours. In order to do that, Greece continued to borrow heavily from international capital markets to finance public sector jobs, pensions and other social benefits. Government expenditure has therefore been extremely high, much higher than government revenues. This created a huge budget deficit problems. As deficits and the country’s debt burden grew, the governments just kept on borrowing.

In early 2010, it was revealed that through the assistance of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and numerous other banks, financial products were developed which enabled the governments of Greece, Italy and many other European countries to hide their borrowing. Dozens of similar agreements were concluded across Europe whereby banks supplied cash in advance in exchange for future payments by the governments involved; in turn, the liabilities of the involved countries were "kept off the books" and were not revealed.

While government spending and borrowing increased over time, tax revenues which is the main sources of the government, weakened due to widespread tax evasion.

The other major causes behind the crisis were week co-ordination and organization in budget management process and inefficient bureaucracy. The implementation of financial reforms and policies are inappropriate, and the institutional, legislative and regulatory framework of Greece is unfavorable and complicated. There are simply too many laws, too many policies and too any overlapping control mechanisms that led to a systems failure.

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As a consequence, there was a crisis in international confidence in Greece's ability to repay its sovereign debt. To avert such a default, in May 2010 the other Eurozone countries, and the IMF, agreed to a rescue package which involved giving Greece an immediate USD 65 billion in loans, with more funds to follow, totalling to USD 150 billion. To secure the funding, Greece was required to adopt harsh austerity measures to bring its deficit under control.

In 2011, it became apparent that the bail-out would be insufficient and a second bail-out amounting to USD 170 billion was agreed in 2012, subject to strict conditions, including financial reforms and further austerity measures. 

The economic health of Greece again deteriorated now and it is seeking a 3^rd bailout form Eurozone and has threatened to pull out form the grouping. This is a case of utter mis management of the economy. Spend money indiscriminately and expect other countries to foot the bill. Eurozone is being pressurized as they believe that if Greece pulls out then that would be the end of a single monetary currency for Europe. Moreover, the funding given to Greece already would also go down the drain. So Eurozone is ready to give another bailout but Greece refuses to cut its indiscriminate Government spending which is a pre condition for the 3^rd bailout. 

Yesterday Greece became a defaulter as it failed to pay the IMF loan repayment of around 1.5 billion Euro. The President is holding a referendum on the 5^th of July as whether Greece wants to continue in the Eurozone. If it votes to go out of the Eurozone then the biggest loser would be Greece. The President wants a 2 year loan package from the Eurozone without any pre conditions which is ridiculous. 2 years later they can always ask for another loan. I personally feel such countries should not be helped as they are surviving on someone else’s money.

THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX AND INDIA.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic of Life Expectancy, Education and Per Capita Incomes. This index is used for ranking the countries as against the traditional model of ranking them merely by Per Capita Incomes.  

The HDI was originally an idea of the Pakistani economist Mahbub Ul Haq who gave a call for developmental rather than pure economics. He produced the annual reports for the UNDP which indicated this new trend.

Haq, used the services of many developmental economists to produce the UNDP Reports and these included the Indians Meghnad Desai and Sudhir Anand apart form others. These economists worked in conjunction with Amartya Sen who supplied the underlying framework for the HDI. Amartya Sen was initially against the idea but later he went on to help develop the HDI.   

The HDI index released in 2014 ranked 187 countries on the basis of HDI.

In the HDI Norway stood number 1 in the world, while the USA was ranked at 5. The ranks of our neighboring countries and that of India are given below.

Country                                  Rank                                                   

Sri Lanka                                  73

China                                        91

Maldives                                 103

India                                        135

Bhutan                                     136

Bangladesh                             142

Nepal                                      145

Pakistan                                  146

Burma                                     150

Afghanistan                            169

India can take consolation that it is better off than Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Burma and Afghanistan but it is far behind Sri Lanka.

After being independent for so many years India could not raise the education levels and life expectancy rapidly enough and this speaks about the failure of our various Governments.

Our political parties are more intent on criticizing each other than on national development. Everything is conveniently segmented by the politicians so that a particular category is given promises. At one time they say, the employees would be benefited, at another time they say that the farmers would be benefited, at yet another time they say that a particular religion or a caste would be benefited.

They never say that they would help all sections of the people who are at a low level of development irrespective of what caste, or grouping, religion or region they belong to. (Modi did say that in meetings but no one even noticed it). In a country poor people who cannot fend for themselves have to be helped by the state be they of any origin or beginnings. They are Indians and are therefore entitled to the Government’s help and no categorization is needed for this, the only indicator being poverty.

Why have our political parties become so bankrupt in thinking? I have never seen any political party in the opposition genuinely praising the party in Government for some good steps taken. This holds good for all political parties. Is it that all the steps taken by the Governments are always faulty and absolutely nothing is good in them? I find that the parties are utterly selfish and they are a blot on democracy. The worrying thing is that they in fact reflect the thinking of our people whom I can only conclude are utterly selfish.

  

During the time of Nehru, there were MP’s who would challenge the party when they opposed the issue which the party supported. But such MP’s do not exist now. They are extremely eager to toe the party line and are ready to support even a murder by their own party men. With experience the working of Democracy should improve but in our case the opposite seems to have happened.

The favorite saying of politicians is “law would take its own course”. But who does the investigation? It is the police or other bodies which work under the politicians. Courts can only decide on the matter depending on the material placed before them. If the material is faulty they cannot deliver justice. And who collects the evidence but the investigative agencies? How would they go against those who they work under?

Coming to law who make the laws? It is the parliament itself. They have every right to amend the law when justice is delayed. Why has the parliament not legislated regarding the number of hearings in a case by amending the necessary laws? In most cases the witness would tend to forget with time the exact events that have happened at the time of the crime and he can easily be misled to give a wrong testimony just because of the time lag. People do not clearly remember what happened say 5 years ago.  

And why has it not legislated for stringent punishment to those who give wrong evidence in the courts thereby totally misleading the judges? There is a section 193 in the IPC for this, but I am yet to see a case where this section is imposed and punishment meted out. When our legal system is made so dependent on the investigative agencies for evidence, is it not the responsibility of the Government to bring in laws and strengthen the independence of the agencies?     

There is something seriously wrong about how laws are enforced in our country. It is not the laws but their enforcement that is the concern. Unless Governments rise above party and political considerations and strengthen the hands of law enforcement agencies it is unlikely that things would improve.           

                                                                                                       

NET NEUTRALITY.

Net neutrality is the concept of not discriminating against the various bits of data that flows through the net. If the net is not neutral, then the telecom companies can comfortably charge higher rates on browsing some sights or applications. Through this the telecom companies can charge you more on sights than others and also use discriminate pricing between different sites. They have brought this to the fore now because they feel they are losing revenues on account of cheap SMS and telephony through the net. Their contention is not true and I give below the incomes and net profit of Airtel as an example.

Figures are in Rs crores.

                                     2012-13------2013-14------ 2014-15(9 months)

                                                                          

Income                           77808-------- 8715----------  69095                

Profit After Tax              2267-------- 3019-------------3511

Airtel’s revenues have risen steadily and its net profit has risen much faster. How can such companies claim to have lost profits on account of the neutral internet?  The fact is they want to make more money at peoples expense and TRAI is not doing much either. Even if they do lose revenues it means they have not modified themselves as per the new requirements          of the people and have therefore failed. To offset their weakness they should not be allowed to fleece people.

TRAI has put out a questionnaire to the people asking them to say as to how the internet should be regulated and also net neutrality. One gets the uneasy feeling that the Government wants to regulate the net through TRAI and I trying to get regulation through the backdoor. TRAI says it is open to taking comments from the public on the issue up till 24^th April. I think we have to protest against the regulation and for continuance of the neutrality of the net.

Till now, it is Government that has the power to regulate the net but has wisely chosen not do so. But now these telecom companies can regulate the net (at least in the mobile phones). If they want to restrict a sight all they have to do is raise the cost of browsing that site on the mobile abnormally. Such power in the hands of private individuals can be used easily for wrong purposes.

Such a move by TRAI and the Government should be condemned by all.        

SANDALWOOD SMUGGLERS GIVEN A REGIONAL TAG.

 On the 7^th of April an encounter took place in the Nallamala Forests just 20 KM away from Tirupati Andhra Pradesh when red sandalwood smugglers attacked the anti smuggling task force of the Andhra Pradesh Police who were patrolling. In the encounter 20 smugglers were killed. The encounter took place at 5 AM in the morning. The encounter raised violent protest in Tamil Nadu as all the smugglers that were killed belonged to Tamil Nadu and they have crossed over into the Andhra Pradesh forest area.

Chess pieces made from red sandalwood.

Model made from Red sandalwood.

The families of the killed as well as the Tamil parties claim that it is a fake encounter. A magisterial enquiry into the incident was already ordered by the AP Government and is in progress.

As per the AP Police, on that day they have received information that large gang of smugglers have entered into the Nallamala forest area and 15 policemen split into two teams comprising of around 7-8  each started combing the forest area. The encounter took place when the police came across the smugglers carrying red sandalwood logs. When the police party challenged the smugglers who were carrying axes, sickles and even some country guns they attacked the police party initially by throwing stones. The police were numerically far less and numbered around 15 while the smugglers numbered around 100. Of the 15 policemen 11 were injured and some of them seriously which makes one feel that probably the fact that they were attacked is correct. In the Nallamala forest, a number of policemen were earlier killed by the smugglers. It is very probable that the totally outnumbered policemen have fired in panic when they were attacked. 

The human rights activists raised a big hue and cry on the issue and claim that the smugglers were shot in fake encounters. But if they are indeed innocent, then what are a 100 of them doing together at 5 AM in the morning in a protected forest area? It is ridiculous to think that the policemen shot ordinary citizens who were camping in the forest. What would they gain out of doing so? 11 out of the 15 policemen in the operation have been injured, some of them seriously. If indeed it was a fake encounter how did that happen?  

A smuggler is a smuggler and should not be condoned because he is from a particular area. In retaliation to the encounter, properties belonging to Andhra people in Tamil Nadu have been attacked which I think is not correct and gives a different connotation to the incident. The protests and attacks in Tamil Nadu on the properties of people from Andhra Pradesh have continued to this day.

Now what is red sandalwood? It is not the fragrant variety of white sandalwood that is available in the forests in Karnataka. Red sandalwood as its name implies is reddish in color and is highly durable. This wood is very expensive and costs some Rs 50 lacs per ton. This high price lures many smugglers to jump into the trade. A 50 Kg log can be carried by a single person and is worth Rs 2.5 lacs in the international market. The wood is used for medicinal purposes and also for industrial purposes. It is also used as a red color dye. The wood has a very high demand in China.   

Red sandalwood grows in Andhra Pradesh and also partly in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. In Andhra Pradesh it covers an area of 4.67 lakh hectares. Red sandalwood abounds in  the Districts of Cuddapah and  Chittor, and is also found in Nellore, Kurnool, Prakasam and the Anantpur Districts of Andhra Pradesh.  

UPANISHADS.

The book Upanishads by Swami Prabhavananda published by the Ramakrishna Math, Madras in 1979 was purchased and read by me sometime in 1982 or 1983, and I retain it even now. It is very concise and gives a layman an idea of the Upanishads. I had a lofty idea about what the Upanishads say before I read the book, but after reading it, I was brought down to earth and the following is the noting I made on the inside of the first page on the book. 

“Great indeed are my expectations when I started reading this book. Everyone spoke so eloquently about Hindu philosophy which comes mostly from the Upanishads. After reading only a quarter of this I feel greatly disillusioned, for I never knew it could be so hollow. The authors of the Upanishads seem to have taken it for granted that living on the earth is a great pain. I do not know what made them think so; perhaps it was because of the circumstances prevailing in their ages. They were not able to adjust themselves properly in their environment so they ran away from it and started fantasizing that they will attain some immortal bliss after death by renouncing themselves in that fashion. They believed in afterlife and they are so scared of it that they do not want to be born again. I pity these poor creatures who never understood the sweetness of life. True these struggles and pains in life we have to undergo, but without these life becomes lack luster. 

Again, if we take it in another way the Upanishads stress that the cause and causation is Brahman himself.  So, whatever we do is pre ordained by Brahman, then where does the question of sin arise?  We are doing only what the Brahman wants us to do. The Upanishads say that one is born again because of his ignorance and the sin committed by him. If we take the above case into consideration, the Upanishads become Self contradictory. 

The greatest virtue in life is not the contemplation of Brahman or afterlife but the satisfaction before you die that you have lived your life happily and bequeathed the same happiness to your posterity in which you become immortal.”

Now I thought that I should make an even smaller gist of the Upanishads than Swami Prabhavananda and am doing so with the help of his book.  

Specifically two terms have to be clarified before I embark on this venture. These are terms that are the fulcrums on which the Hindu philosophy revolves.

1.   

   BRAHMAN: This is the Universal Self that pervades all over the Universe. There is nothing that is not Brahman. Brahman can be described as not this not this and never in the affirmative because it is beyond all senses. The moment one starts describing Brahman, the evolute is Eeshwara or the individual God.

2.     

    ATMAN or the SELF: This is the ego or the individuality of the person. The Atman is a part and parcel of Brahman and is therefore one with Brahman. But due to avidya (wrong knowledge) it considers itself to be separate from Brahman. When this avidya is removed the Self or Atman again becomes one with Brahman it always is.     

How many Upanishads were originally there were unknown but 108 Upanishads have been preserved. The 10 Upanishads on which Sankaracharya has commented are the Principal Upanishads. That is the same thought is echoed in the other Upanishads as well. The 10 Principal Upanishads are;

  1.     ISHA

  2.     KENA

  3.     KATHA

  4.     PRASNA

  5.     MUDAKA

  6.     MANDUKYA

  7.     AITAREYA

  8.     TAITTIRIYA

  9.     CHANDOGYA

 10.   BRIHADARANYAKA.

Now I am giving below a gist of each Upanishad.

1.     ISHAVYASOPANISHAD.

Life in the world and life in the spirit are not incompatible.

Work or action is not contrary to knowledge of God, but indeed, if performed without attachment, is a means to it.

Renunciation is the renunciation of the ego, of selfishness and not of life.

The end, both of work and renunciation, is to know the Self within and Brahman without, and to realize their identity.

The Self is Brahman and Brahman is all.

Explanation: Everyday life in the world and spiritual life are not incompatible   

2.     KENOPANISHAD.

The power behind every activity of nature and of man is the power of Brahman. To realize this truth is to be immortal.

3.     KATHOPANISHAD.

The secret of immortality is to be found in purification of the heart, in meditation, in realization of the identity of Self within and Brahman without. Immortality is simply union with God. 

4.     PRASNOPANISHAD.

Man is composed of such elements as vital breath, deeds, thought, and the senses. All of them deriving their being form the Self. They have come out of the Self, and in the Self they ultimately disappear—even as the waters of a river disappear in the sea. 

5.     MUNDAKOPANISHAD.

Since the manifold objects of sense are merely emanations of Brahman, to know them in themselves is not enough.

Since all the actions of men are but phases of the universal process of creation, action alone is not enough.

The sage must distinguish between knowledge and wisdom.

Knowledge is of things, acts and relations. But wisdom is of Brahman alone; and beyond all things, acts and relations, he abides forever.

To become one with him is the only wisdom.

6.     MANDUKYAUPANISHAD.

The life of man is divided between working, dreaming, and dreamless sleep.

But transcending these three states is super consciousness vision-called simply the Fourth.

7.     AITAREYOPANISHAD.

Brahman, source, sustenance, and end of the universe, partakes of every phase of existence.

He wakes with the waking man, dreams with the dreamer, and sleeps the deep sleep of the dreamless sleeper;

But he transcends these three states to become himself. His true nature is pure consciousness.  

8.     TAITTIRIYAUPANISHAD.

Man, in his ignorance, identifies himself with the material sheathes that encompasses his true Self.

Transcending these, he becomes one with Brahman, who is pure bliss.

9.     CHANDOGYOPANISHAD.

Brahman is all. From Brahman come appearances, sensations, desires, deeds.

But all these are merely name and form. To know Brahman one must experience the identity between him and the Self, or Brahman dwelling within the lotus of the heart.

Only by so doing can man escape from sorrow and death, and become one with the subtle essence beyond all knowledge.

              10.   BRIHADARANYAKOPANISHAD.

The Self is the dearest of all things, and only through the Self is anything else dear.

The Self is the origin of all finite happiness, but it is itself pure bliss, transcending definition.

It remains unaffected by deeds, good or bad. It is beyond feeling and beyond knowledge, but it is not beyond the meditation of the sage.  

WHY DO OUR IIT'S NOT FIGURE IN THE TOP 200 UNIVERSITIES OF THE WORLD?

Our IIT’s are considered to be the premier institutions and are of high standing in our country. Surprisingly they do not figure in the lists of top Universities in the world. Of course all those rankings are done mostly by American corporations and they have to be examined a little more before we accept their results.   

There are many US world University rankings but QS is more popular. Let us see what they take into consideration while ranking the Universities.

1.      Academic Reputation.  40%

2.      Employer Reputation.  10%

3.      Faculty StudentRatio. 20%

4.      International Faculty  5%       

5.      International Students 5%

6.      Citations per faculty 20%

Now Academic reputation is something very subjective. If people and professors from the US or Europe are questioned they would not even be aware of our IIT’s and therefore the institutions would score very low on this account. Only when the sample size is picked up from all the countries of the world, the awareness is normalized. It is interesting to see the breakup of the QS sample size-  countrywise to establish its credibility. Moreover, Universities like the Oxford and Cambridge have been around for hundreds of years and are well known. Reputation should be given weightage but a weightage of 40% is much too high.

International faculty is given a weightage of 5% in the rankings. I fail to understand as to in what way International faculty helps academics. Similarly I do not understand why International students should be given 5% weightage. Our IIT’s would score a ‘0” on these parameters.  

About the faculty student ratio I have seen a writeup by IIT, Mumbai students comparing the ratio given by QS with the actual and they found no correlation at all and the QS giving a much lower ratio than the actual.   

It is the citations per faculty where the top Universities are definitely above our IIT’s, but what is the reason for this? Certainly not lack talent or lack of proper guidance. It is money that makes the difference. Universities charge very high fees from the students in the US which helps them fund the research programs. Also massive state funding of Universities for research is done in the US. For example 60% of the University Research is funded by the Federal Government in the US. With our scant allocation to R&D, our Governments can ill afford to do that and citations need money.

We need not feel bad about our IIT’s not being ranked in the top 200 Universities of the world. Despite no ranking their students are very much sought after by all American as well as European Corporations and this alone is sufficient for us to consider them as one of the best in the world irrespective of world rankings. 

At the same time one has to admit that there is no foolproof methodology for ranking the World Universities and any other means can also be similarly challenged. One method for the rankings may be as good as another.  

I am giving below a link to the QS ranking of World Universities.

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2014#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search=

THEORY OF RELATIVITY IN SIMPLE TERMS-III

Similarly there is no absolute time and even that is relative. What is time? It is durationbetween 2 events. If there are no events, then there is no time either.

What is a day? It is the time; the earth takes to rotate once. Similarly, a year is the time in which the earth revolves around the sun. If there is no earth, then this time is not there either. 

What happens to time when we leave the earth? Different planets have different rotation times and different revolution times. Therefore, their days and years are very different from ours. If we move further into space into stars and galaxies, then time becomes much more confusing.

Suppose an event takes place in the US, then we can tell exactly when that event would take place as per our time in the country. But as we travel into interplanetary space, the word simultaneity loses its meaning.

For example the star Sirius is 8.5 light years away from us. So, the light that we see today emanated from Sirius 8.5 years ago. Sirius is one of the nearest stars to us. If we move further there are many galaxies which are even billions of light years away.

This means we are now seeing that galaxy as it was billions of years ago. Whether today that galaxy exists or not would be known to us billions of years later. This means we are virtually seeing through time.  Looking to this Einstein postulated that even simultaneity is relative.

For this Einstein gives an analogy. Imagine that a person is standing near a railway track and a train is passing through. Suddenly the sky became cloudy and two bolts of lightning fell simultaneously. One in front of the train at a place called “A” and another at the back of the train at a place called “B”. Another person “C” is located exactly in between “A” and “B”. As he had two mirrors in his hands he could see both the bolts of lightning simultaneously and concluded that they have fallen simultaneously.

Another person “D” is traveling on top of the train exactly in front of “C”. He too had two mirrors in his hands and he too is watching the two bolts of lightning. “D” sees things differently. As the train is traveling from “A” to “B”, it would appear to “D” that the first bolt in the front has fallen first as the speed of the train is added. Similarly, the second bolt in the back appears delayed as the train moves away from it. To “D” it is the speed of train that determines the duration between the two lightning bolts. So, the same event appeared different to two different observers. This proves that simultaneity is a myth and time is relative.

As per the theory of Relativity a time shows correct duration as long as it is stationery. As soon as it starts moving, time starts slowing down. In normal speeds this slowing down is not perceived. But when we start moving closer to the speed of light, then we perceive this change.

A person who is traveling along with the watch would not be able to recognize the slowdown in time, but to a stationary observer it is clearly visible.

For example a person goes to the station and gets into a train that travels with 90% the speed of light that is 270,000 Km/Sec. In the station before getting in he corrects the time as per the clock in the station. He gets down from the train after half an hour as per his watch, but when he compares his watch with the clock in the station already an hour has elapsed. At 90% the speed of light times slows down by half. As one approaches the speed of light, times starts further slowing down and at the speed of light time stands still. If we cross the speed of light which is impossible as per the theory of Relativity, then time starts moving backwards.   

  

Similarly objects traveling would constrict in the direction of travel. Even this constriction is not visible to the person or the object that is traveling but is clear to a stationary observer.   

Again, at 90% the speed of light the object would shrink by 50% and as it approaches the speed of light it starts shrinking further till its length becomes zero at the speed of light.  

Similarly the mass of the object traveling would increase gradually and at the speed of light, the mass of the object becomes infinite.

Okay, we may not come across persons or objects that travel at such high speeds in our daily life but in the Universe such speeds are not uncommon.

All the above narrated is the Special Theory of Relativity published by Einstein in 1905. In his Special Theory of Relativity published in Einstein redefined gravitational attraction.

                                                                                                                              

WHY THE STEEP FALL IN THE PRICE OF CRUDE OIL???

As the fall in oil prices affects all of us, I thought I 
should study more about it.The information I am giving below is culled and rewritten from an article I have read about falling oil prices. 

A falling oil price is beneficial for the World consumer and beneficial for the World economy. Transport costs feed into the price of every physical product, so if oil gets cheaper, everything gets cheaper.

The present fall in oil prices has a lot do with the growth of the shale oil industry in the US.

Coupled to the shale oil boom, the fall of industrial output in China coupled with a downturn of the European economy have also pulled down the oil prices.  Also the recent return to production of Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Iran has abetted the fall.

Shale Oil is produced from the Oil Shale rock which is rich in organic compounds. It is estimated by Geologists that Oil Shale all over the world has the capacity to produce 5 trillion barrels of crude oil. However, the crude that can be made from oil shale economically is estimated only at 1 trillion barrels.

Comparatively the known crude oil reserves in the world are 1.33 trillion barrels. Thus shale oil can be a severe threat to the OPEC countries which produce the bulk of the oil in the world and thereby control its price.

A large bulk of the oil shale deposits is in the USA which accounts for 67% of the total oil shale in the world. USA, Russia and Brazil together account for 86% of the shale world oil shale reserves.

If the oil price falls too far, the USA's recent shale oil  boom will come to an end. The approximate average price for producing shale oil is around 80 USD per barrel, but there are a few deposits in the US that cost around USD 53 dollars a barrel.

Before the shale oil boom which made the US the largest producer of crude oil outstripping both Saudi Arabia and Russia, the OPEC countries were going in for production cuts to increase oil prices. However, the shale oil has made this unworkable. So the OPEC countries now want the shale oil industry to become uneconomical and go bankrupt while they protect their economies with their financial reserves.

Saudi Arabia has changed its policy. It increased its production in September 2014 and not only fails to support the current price but seems to be actively pricing its sales to drag the global price of oil down. The country is now selling at a price lower than the level it needs to maintain state spending. It is dipping into reserves to enable it to undercut its rivals. The OPEC alliance has split and old rivalries in the Middle East are driving the current fall in oil prices.

The oil price is currently around USD 52 per barrel. It is to be seen how far the oil prices would dip before they stabilize. But a fall below USD 50 looks unlikely considering the cost of production of the cheapest shale oil in the US.