And in the process, discover your Inner Economist
Tyler Cowen wants to give merit-based gifts to Indians. Yes, this involves economics professors and free-market fundamentals. He has made an announcement on his blog, and it may be worth your time to check it out.
With your email, send a one sentence proposal of how the money will […]
INSEAD Affiliate Professor Patrick Turner surmises that the speed of entrepreneurship development in China is likely to erase the lead that India currently enjoys in entrepreneurship over its northern neighbour. In his view, the entrepreneurship bandwagon in both the countries has been fueled by a combination of a number of overseas residents returning to […]
I have worked in India and in Indian organisations abroad for a large part of my professional career. However when I think back I cannot recall more than 2 physically disabled colleagues during that entire time. Mind you, I am a sociable kind of person so my visual - and conversational - range extended beyond […]
What should Indian governments do to help citizens get jobs? The central government clearly has wrong ideas—it intends to impose job quotas in the private sector for ‘backward’ communities/classes, which is perhaps the second worst thing it can do (the worst being “creating” more government jobs before giving them away). And we are not even […]
“What sort of a woman are you? When this child was born, it seems she was born with your brain, so you have none left.”
These were the words of a manager I once had. Let’s call him “M”. Luckily - for me, that is - these words were spoken by him to his wife, […]
…and the twain shall never meet. It was a gathering of retired, about-to-retire and planning-to-retire Indian military officers - an amorphous rendezvous, where most of the participants were attempting a successful transition from the uniformed to the corporate life. Atanu Dey was also there and he addressed them in his usual manner – luculent, frank, […]
My first experience of seeing mental illness, beyond the one-word shorthand in Hindi ‘paagal‘ and the figurative usage ‘dimaag kharab hai‘, came when I was an engineering student. I used to visit my rakhi-brother in the medical college. Now a specialist in child psychiatry and a professor at one of the world’s leading medical schools, […]
Nitin Rao, who blogs at Next Billion sent us this guest post
I recently met a senior teacher at a small private school in Hyderabad. What differentiates her school from the neighboring schools, she proudly told me, is the superior IIT Foundation coaching. Schools charge premium tuition and teachers higher pay for IIT Coaching.
As I came […]
Res ipsa loquitur
The official figure for the shortage of officers in the Indian army is 24.1%, a shortfall of 11238 officers against an authorization of 46615.
Imagine the impact on the army budget, if all the deficiencies in the officer cadre were to be suddenly made up. The current revenue to capital expenditure ratio of […]
To many around the world, the Indian IT and BPO industry is the face of the current boom time, of India Rising or of whatever shorthand appeals to the reader or the writer. The industry is represented by NASSCOM, which has lost, through unfortunate coincidence, two of its leaders in their prime. First there was […]
Safety in numbers
Indian Army’s record has many parallels with that of the Indian cricket team; one unmitigated disaster (1962), one unqualified success (1971), two stalemates (1948 and 1965), a cataclysmic foreign policy blunder (IPKF in Sri Lanka) and a pyrrhic PR victory in Kargil (1999). The pusillanimous display by the top brass and their strategic […]
Ravikiran Rao asks more questions than he answers in the June issue of Pragati - The Indian National Interest Review.
Advocates for Indian family businesses claim that they can teach a thing or two to the rest of the world, both about family values and about running a business. But family values are not unique to […]
The Fundamental Questions
The Indian armed forces, in the broadest sense, comprise the three defence services – the army, navy and the air force; the federal or central police or paramilitary forces; and the state police forces. These categories are very broad and many defence organisations fall in either-or / both categories. The most glaring examples […]
Aaditya Mattoo, Deepak Mishra and Ashish Narain, in the Times of India, on the problem and solution for Indian agriculture:
So, here’s the paradox: the hard-working Indian farmer — one of the world’s low-cost producers — is unable to compete globally.
What is hobbling the Indian giant? A recent World Bank study finds that the biggest problems […]
Televisions don’t need sewers
Preeti Aroon, over at FP Passport, asks why the slum-dwellers of Dharavi prefer TVs to toilets.
I’ve visited Mumbai many times myself, and I’ve always wondered about the TV antennas poking through thatched-roofed shacks. How can “these people” buy TVs when their kids are malnourished and wading through sewage-infested water?
I suppose it’s a […]
Sramana Mitra, entrepreneur and consultant sent us this thoughtful piece
Enterpreneurship is a critical element of a growth economy, and India is poised to unlock a Silicon Valley like entrepreneurial boom through the next 10 years. The beginnings are already in place, steps have been taken in the right direction.
I have written extensively on the topic […]
This is an op-ed piece of mine that appeared in the March 8th issue of Mint.
Unknown Education Revolution
There is a silent and telling revolt against the poor performance of government schools
Naveen Mandava
Walking around the hot summer streets of Sangam Vihar—Delhi’s largest […]
Remember John Kerry’s Benedict Arnold speech, Lou Dobbs and his infamous rant on outsourcing and most of all, Scott Kirwin?
Well, Don Boudreaux of Cafe Hayek informs us of Scott’s current whereabouts:
Almost three years ago, Scott Kirwin was Wired’s pissed off programmer (”The New Face of the Silicon Age,” issue 12.02). Tossed from his job […]
Reader and IEB friend, Joydeep Mukherji sent us this article from the Business Standard, noting that
There is so much garbage about alleged “jobless growth” in India that this is a nice antidote. It shows how the booming textile sector in Punjab is running out of workers. The firms are raising wages, improving conditions, seeking to […]
Anthony, the third member of the Amar-Akbar-Anthony gang watched the remake of Don recently and came away with the following thoughts:
In 1978, Vijay earned 11.75 rupee after singing the whole day. In 2006, he earns 3,000 rupee in three days — that’s 1,000 rupee a day. This is an 85-fold (or 8,411%) increase. According to […]