As a practitioner and student of public policy for the last four years, I have been pleasantly surprised at the outrage expressed in the reservations issue. Maybe I have become un-necessarily skeptical. The Supreme Court has intervened and ordered the government to table the facts related to the proposed increase of OBC reservations.
A […]
It is reasonable to suggest that new roads, power plants or water reservoirs must be built before existing ones — if they exist at all — run out of capacity. It is also reasonable to suggest that when new infrastructure is being built, it is both convenient and economical to build more than just attend […]
I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. — Stephen Jay Gould
The criminal neglect of education, in my considered opinion, is the most important charge upon which the policy makers of […]
For long Delhi had an “Essentiality Certificate” (EC) requirement for opening a school. Moreover, the number of ECs were limited depending upon school-eligible population in each district of Delhi. The ostensible motive was to regulate competition and allow only schools which were deemed “essential”. So that existing schools did not suffer the consequences of the […]
Shortages and Nehruvian socialism go hand in hand. Just take scooters, for instance. You could not just take scooters some years ago, actually, thanks to the quota permit license control raj. You had to wait for years before you could lay your hands on one. You could jump the queue if you paid with “hard […]
The Times of India reports:
In a remote village in Tamil Nadu, little Nirmala (12), rolls her nimble fingers over a sheaf of tobacco leaves, pins them adroitly into a tumti yale and seals the edges. She has to do this about 2,000 times a day, like she has been doing for over two years now. […]
From the “Don’t Know What’s the Point Department,” the new release is I am India on Google Video. A collage of images–a field of wind power generators, a soaring jet in the blue skies above a lush green field, the majestic fall of water from a dam–introduce words of ersatz wisdom: “A man’s karma is […]
Attacking targets of convenience won’t bring down the retail price of petrol
George Bernard Shaw with characteristic cynicism noted that a government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. Regardless of their specific stripes, all Indian governments, because they are “democratically” elected, naturally solve the problem of identifying the Peters and the Pauls by a numbers game: Pauls must outnumber […]
In an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Richard Wilder & Pravin Anand claim that
India is rapidly evolving into Asia’s innovation center, leaving China in the dust. Its secret weapon? Intellectual property-rights protection. In recent years, New Delhi has taken big steps to protect these rights, and the results have been dramatic.
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What is common between these films?
Garam Hawa (1940); Naya Daur (1957); Upkaar (1967); Namak Haram (1973); Jane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983); Damini (1993); Gupt (1997); Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000); Rang de Basanti (2006)
As you might have guessed, each of these films portray the socio-economic realities of India in their times or have a […]
How the private sector is slowly spreading its wings beyond the organized sector and urban India and wooing the rural and unorganized sector with innovative products, services and business models.