…with the best stats you have ever seen by Hans Rosling. This, from TED, a must see site. A slightly dated, yet, relevant link. I could not embed the video, so, for now, you have to click the link above. It is worth it…
Let’s have unilateral trade liberalisation Abi is right. Dweep didn’t go far enough. What India needs to do is to say “to hell with the WTO” and unilaterally, completely, dismantle trade barriers. For that matter, so does everyone else. Here’s Sauvik Chakraverti on the topic on TCS Daily: Unilateral free trade is a very good [...]
Earlier this year the Doha round of WTO trade negotiations collapsed (again) after the US, Europe, India, and Brazil were unable to reach a reciprocating agreement on cutting farm subsidies in the west, and lowering industrial goods and service barriers in the developing world. India and Brazil blamed the US and Europe for not lowering [...]
Changes are afoot at IEB. No, we’re not going to do a volte-face and join the gonzo lefties… Instead, we’re kibitzing ways and means to improve IEB’s layout & design, to be executed by the inimitable Madhu Menon, full-time chef and restaurateur and part-time tech guru. What would you, dear readers, suggest with regards to [...]
In today’s DNA Mukul Asher & Amarendu Nandy argue that the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is ill-equipped to fulfil its mandate of providing retirement income security. The EPFO is an unusual national provident fund in combining the features of a defined benefit scheme (Employees Pension Scheme or EPS, introduced in 1995) with those of [...]
Daniel Altman, in a blog post on the IHT, says Japan has found a new ‘client’ in India. Referring to a $100B investment project, the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor, he says this relationship is based more on economic convenience than on geographical proximity or historic ties. By way of background, Japan is cumulatively the 4th [...]
Daniel Altman in his IHT blog opines Not so long ago, there were only two countries that collected client states around the world: the United States and the Soviet Union. These days, it seems like anyone with some economic clout can join in the fun. China has Sudan, Venezuela has Bolivia, and now Japan has [...]
Amit Varma is nominated for the Bastiat prize in journalism The funny, brilliant and eclectically prolific Amit Varma is on the final short-list for the Bastiat prize. Regular readers of IEB won’t be surprised, I’m sure. And if you aren’t a regular reader, isn’t it time you became one? You can’t afford to miss all [...]
The Military Balance 2007 estimates world military expenditure in 2005 to have been approximately $1.2 trillion. A plausible estimate for current world spending is $1.35 trillion. By contrast, the SIPRI yearbook estimates 2006 world expenditure to have been around $1.2 trillion. The estimates differ largely because The Military Balance relies more heavily on Purchasing Power [...]
Why strive for excellence when mediocrity will suffice? You can’t blame Dr Manmohan Singh for telling us what the problem is. Soon after he took office, he told us that fixing the bureaucracy was crucial for India’s development. Last year, he said that the Naxalite insurgency is the biggest threat to internal security. And, now, [...]
Inspired by this: A Briefer history of time. I thought I had read a similar one on India, but couldn’t locate it (let me know if there is one) – Acorn had something similar a while back. Freedom. Exhilaration. Kashmir Incursion. Integration. Republic formation. Linguistic division. Industrialization. IIT formation. Growth stagnation. Chinese aggression. Aksai Chin [...]
Sri Aurobindo was born on this day, Aug 15th, in 1872. Among the intellectual and spiritual giants born in this land, Sri Aurobindo has a special standing. Go read about Sri Aurobindo and lament the fact that dwarfs rule the land today. Here’s Sri Aurobindo on Indian spirituality: Spirituality is the master key of the [...]
My analysis is one of hope, potential and possibilities. Although political freedom was achieved 60 years ago, economic freedom is still a distant dream for the majority of the population. It is understandable why political freedom is easier to achieve relative to economic freedom. The entire population of the nation has an interest in political [...]
We wish all our readers a happy Independence Day. IEB was launched formally two years ago this day, and we’ve come some ways since. A few changes to the list of contributors but our focus hasn’t — we remain, then and always, a forum to discuss issues facing the Indian economy. The readership has grown [...]
Bongop’o’ndit rips apart another Pankaj Mishra article: Pankaj Mishra writes an opinion piece for Outlook’s India at 60 issue , seemingly cautioning on excessive championing of and reveling in India’s current resurgence at the cost of insensitivity to myriad problem that still plague the country. I say seemingly because that’s how he starts, and then [...]
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