India: Shooting A Doctor For Spreading Science. A Falling BRIC

Killing A Doctor To Stop Spread of Scientific Thinking in an Indian Silicon Hub

 Pune, along with Bangalore and Hyderabad, is a center of India's booming information technology business, where operations of major foreign and Indian companies as well as start ups are located. It is also a major center of higher education with numerous colleges and research centers.
   
In this city, the former physician Narendra Dabholkar's "...goal was to drive a scientist’s skepticism into the heart of India, a country still teeming with gurus, babas, astrologers, godmen and other mystical entrepreneurs. That mission ended Tuesday, when two men ran up behind Dr. Dabholkar, 67, as he crossed a bridge, shot him at point-blank range..." the New York Times' Ellen Barry reported.

“Instead of dying of old age, or by surgery, which causes a lot of suffering, the death Mr. Dabholkar got today was a blessing from God,” an editorial by one of Dabholkar's critics, a former hypnotherapist now known as His Holiness Dr. Jayant Athavale, wrote in an editorial in his organization’s publication, Barry reports. 

Here is the link to the full article:

Battling Superstition An Indian Paid With His Life

A Falling Bric: the Rupee collapse and hot money fleeing India:

A) Typically financial markets ignore a growing balance of trade deficit till a crisis brings attention. Then, till strong measures are taken to resolve it - the balance of trade and not other peripheral troubles - the issue will continue to depress currencies and stock markets.

B) Crude oil is India's largest import. It is growing both in volume and total hard currency costs and accounts for a big portion of the ballooning negative balance of trade over the past decade and more. 
While part of oil imports is refined and exported, overall the negative hit from crude oil imports will get worse: 1) given policy measures aimed at growing the domestic auto and truck markets 2) lack, so far, of new major oil deposits in India.

And worse, since oil is priced in dollars, a depreciating Rupee means higher oil import costs.  
C) While not bluntly stated, the policies of most emerging countries is aimed at attracting hot money, in strong competition with one another. Such money helped India raise over $30 billion in hard currency bonds in recent years. Some of this money is now trying to exit, exaggerating the Rupee's decline. So, while hot money boosts capital inflows in the short term it causes much harm over the long term. 

Long term the Rupee will continue to depreciate. And putting in limits to curb foreign currency flows, as taken in the past weeks, without concrete measures to boost exports and reduce imports, ends up having the opposite effect.