The latest columnist to join the India Vs China debate is Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times. The column itself is mind-numbingly boring, except possibly to readers who are only just waking up to the India/China story. Nonetheless, Kristof is one of 2-3 of the most influential columnists at the Times and that is [...]
Among the contemporary economists I greatly admire, Paul Krugman and Jeffrey Sachs appear at the top. Much of what I know of international trade, I learnt from Krugman and Obstfeld’s book on the subject. I admire Sachs for the work he is doing in focusing attention on the problems of underdeveloped parts of the world. [...]
Uber-blogger Amit Varma’s India Uncut is Indiblog of the year. India Uncut came in numero uno by a wide margin, which doesn’t surprise us. Or anyone who’s been reading desi blogs (the Blogistan). If you haven’t read Amit’s blog yet, now’s a good time to start. Don’t just take our word for it. Vox populi… [...]
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe, said Abe Lincoln. Astonishing how much profoundly practical wisdom is packaged into that simple declaration. Time spent in sharpening the tool is time well-spent; so is time spent in thinking through a problem and thoroughly understanding [...]
Shekhar Gupta in his article Who’s afraid of the bulldozer does point out to one true bottleneck affecting India. Have you sometimes wondered why reform in some areas of our infrastructure proceeds much faster than in others? You will see a clear pattern there. Anything that does not involve real estate, moves much faster. Telecom [...]
A V Rajwade, in an op-ed in the Business Standard complains that the economy’s changing, but leaders aren’t. He covers many of the things we’ve discussed here on IEB — among them, the re-emergence of manufacturing & the (somewhat) increased interest in agriculture. However, to me the most interesting portion was this tidbit at the [...]
Whenever I surf the desi TV channels (which isn’t too often, given my lack of interest in TV time), there’s always a filmi-awards show on. Talk about self-adulation… The blogistan seems to be free from this awards hyper-inflation….so far. Thanfully. The only ones I know of are the Indibloggies. Don’t know much about them, but [...]
Anyone who has tried to provide a plan to a minister for implementing reform (market-based ones) in the public sector will soon run into the thorny issue of labour unions. It is a tough nut to crack! Ironically, West Bengal seems to have have found a way, and that too by making somebody else pay [...]
As a firm believer in the idea that – inside or outside the home, child or adult – you should always clean up your own mess, I have only one response to offer in the face of this news: send it back! An asbestos-laden French warship en route for an Indian scrapyard will continue its [...]
IEB’s posted earlier about the woeful state of education in India. On that note, Sebastian Mallaby has an interesting column in the Washington Post about changes afoot in India’s educational system, courtesy the private sector… ..the Indian school system…has experienced a huge growth in private provision. Since the early 1990s the percentage of 6-to-14-year-olds attending [...]
“What’s good for General Motors is good for America” said the the auto-makers’ executives during its heyday, in the 1960s. Not necessarily true — then, and now. However, is it possible that what’s good for India is good for the US? Charles Wheelan, in his Naked Economist column on Yahoo, thinks so and cites four [...]
Michael Higgins compares the India he saw in 2005 to the India of his previous visit, back in 1995 In 1995, there were signs that India was at the cusp of some development. My wife went on and on about all of the changes she saw. Now in 2005, I could see some changes first [...]
Pakistan and Sri Lanka develop cold feet It remained on the back burner since it was first mooted in 1995. And then suddenly two years ago, subcontinental summiteers announced that they too, like everyone else in the alphabet soup business, would form a free trade zone. And within two years. That is a blistering pace [...]
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