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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 slum colony sprawled over 150 acres and home to 4 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
How much of Dr Manmohan Singh’s talk on reforming agriculture will get translated into action? Inaugurating the Second Agriculture Summit 2006 organised jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture and FICCI, the Prime Minister declared that the endeavour of his government would be to bridge each of the four deficit viz. the public investment and credit [...]
As a follow up to Edwards post titled “English language schools in Karnataka” yesterday, heres an update from the Indian Express. 15 of 30 current cabinet ministers in Karnataka send their children to, well, English medium schools. The point of contention behind closing the schools is apprently a rule dated 1994 that mandates that “children [...]
Ajay Shah alerts us to a draft volume published by the World Bank (free download) titled Dancing with Giants: China, India and the global economy. Drawing upon the latest research, this volume analyzes the influences on the rapid future development of these two countries and examines how their growth is likely to impinge upon other [...]
Farmers are killing themselves because the government has denied them economic freedom
But if the crisis is an opportunity to reform agriculture, will Prime Minister Manmohan Singh take it up?
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