Comments on: India Cannot Afford Villages

By: Divakaran K

Divakaran K — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 10:04:41 +0000

Assuming one gets started and grow these are the provisions:
24% interest, 7% ESI, 12.5% EPF, 12.5% Service Tax, 10% ST. If you are left with anything after this, IT (depends on Slab). If anything is left after this then Wealth Tax. What for are we slogging?

By: The Indian Economy Blog » Dr Ambedkar on Villages

The Indian Economy Blog » Dr Ambedkar on Villages — Sat, 05 May 2007 12:04:10 +0000

[...] Responding to our Mint op-ed, a couple of readers wrote to me asking what exactly Dr Ambedkar had said about villages and life in villages. Well, Dr Ambedkar said a lot of things about villages and those who glorified it, including Mahatma Gandhi, but I did some quick digging around and found some of the most trenchant comments in Edward Luce’s excellent book, In Spite of the Gods. “The love of the intellectual Indian for the village community is of course infinite, if not pathetic….What is a village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism?” [...]

By: himanshu

himanshu — Thu, 03 May 2007 13:14:30 +0000

I keep reading that if we develop India and China villages into a developed urban life like US, we won’t have enough paper, oil, food. We can say that new inventions/discoveries will take care of that.
Life should be based on needs and not based on affordability.

By: Atanu Dey

Atanu Dey — Thu, 03 May 2007 12:44:48 +0000

Navin,

Actually the RISC idea does fit in with the larger picture of building cities. Consider the RISC as a seed which will lead to the growth of the cities by attracting the surrounding population to it. RISC is an intermediate state, a micro-city if you please. RISC is about not attempting to do things at the village level.

By: Navin Kabra

Navin Kabra — Thu, 03 May 2007 12:33:37 +0000

Just to clarify the question in the pingback above (from my site)…

A few months back you had written about about RISC (Rural Infrastructure and Services Commons). That idea also exists to try to solve exactly the same problem that your current article is talking about. However, RISC would, to a large extent, to preserve the villages.

Is my understanding correct? If yes, I am wondering whether the livemint article should have had some reference to the RISC approach.

By: smriti.com » Can India afford its villages?

smriti.com » Can India afford its villages? — Thu, 03 May 2007 08:33:37 +0000

[...] Considering that Atanu Dey is a co-author of both the above posts, I am not sure why the livemint editorial does not have any reference to the RISC idea. [...]

By: Qualifying For Success » Wordiness and Economy

Qualifying For Success » Wordiness and Economy — Thu, 03 May 2007 04:50:41 +0000

[...] India Cannot Afford VillagesThe subtext says, “The answer to the problems of our rural economy paradoxically lies in urban development.” If you are familiar with my obsessions, you would suspect that I had something to do with it. Yes. I co-authored the piece with … [...]