Goodbye 2013

Thank you all for your kind support and being part of the Hayek Order blog. 

I will try and post more and more blog posts often in 2014.

It’s time, to say goodbye to the year 2013, as always, the year 2013 was both good and bad to me both personally and professionally. But personally, the year was more bad than good! Professionally it is actually other way around. Anyway, it’s ending finally.

Wish you all happy new year, may the almighty and the nature give you a good health, peace and prosperity in new year.

I sincerely hope to do some good work in 2014. Some new and interesting assignments have already landed!

Looking at the prevailing politico economics of India at the moment, its really disturbing in many ways. The hardcore liberals are once again disintegrating themselves and moving apart to join other parties hands. And others are in silence as usual in the past. These are bad signal for youth in India who have seen the fruits of economic reforms and globalization etc. I will try my best and do good works in my own way.

Here are my major publications in 2013:

English articles

1.State, Democracy and Development: Institutional Perspectives, Yojana Magazine (Web Exclusives), August, 2013

2.  Aspirations of emerging giants,Pragati: The Indian National Interest Review, June, 2013

3. History of Indian economic thought: the forgotten subject, Pragati: The Indian National Interest Review, March, 2013

Tamil Articles (on National Food Security Act, Amartya Sen vs Bhagwati, free market economic thoughts of B R Ambedkar, Manmohan Singh's UPA in line with Indire Gandhi govt.):

1.   உணவு பாதுகாப்பு மசோதா நோக்கம் நிறைவேறுமா?

2.   அமர்த்தியா சென் Vs. ஜகதிஷ் பகவதி

3.   அறியப்படாத பொருளாதாரக் கருத்துகள் 

4.   இந்திரா காந்தி பாதையில் மன்மோகன் சிங்

Other unedited blog post articles at CPPR.

• Factious Polity over Prosperity
• All Bucks Stops at Skilling
• Same Old Centralized Planning

Year End Posts

Another year is ending and almost a last day is left. The year gone is filled with full of changes with all kinds including many negative change! And I liked them! But the understanding gone in to it is not measurable and only the future will tell me the really use of it in life and work.

Nevertheless here are some good reading, though nothing new is discovered. The fools piece on Reimagining India is really stupid one!

Intractable, vulnerable and contestable by Subir Gokaran

The year of #outrage by Veena

India can win the gold game by S Gurumurthy

Why I’m not on social media by Akar Patel

"Fools" Reimagining India

The nunny AAP

Some interesting making of that AAP's polity.

We have called Congress's bluff 

The grand promises of local swaraj or loknit i 

a formidable electoral insurgency.

The wheels of a complicated democracy

AAP ki Tea Party

logical culmination of a movement is politics

Aam Aadmi Party is socialist 

‘If unwittingly we err, history will not forgive us’

Children of Reforms of INDIA

The current mood of Indian public is believed to be the focus of three letters: G-A-Y. and

elites of Delhi who in turn manipulate every thought, idea and design about India.....................?

Let's read something else!

How the children of reforms affect electoral politics

Assembly elections: India votes for change

Children of reform era born after 1991 to vote in first election. Can Narendra Modi benefit? 

"Our future and those of our children lies in reforming government now for rapid, sustained long-term growth. No quick fixes will work."

Let us remember Ambedkar, join hands and strive to create the India he dreamt of!

The story of Indian reforms, in Twitter-length statements, can be summed up thus:

Households in India have good reason to buy gold

"...Indian politics is riddled with stupidity, dynastic succession, public corruption, insane populism, crude factionalism, blatant pandering, naked dishonesty, extreme selfishness, myopia and other repulsive features." More here.

Let's READ them now!

Free of political dynasties and caste-based legacies The big joker........Mani Shankar Aiyar

Its too good to loose and still be stupid!

Its all about AAP and BJP

Not just Article 370 but all such special status articles must go

The Lose of Africa's greatest Madipa-Nelson Mandela

Some good reading on the passing away of the greatest human being ever to see this disguised apartheid world. He once said “I consider myself neither morally nor legally obliged to obey laws made by a parliament in which I am not represented.”

Disguised apartheid is morally indefensible

The Universal deficit

On constitutions and the generality principle

How Nelson Mandela was more different than similar to Mahatma Gandhi

In Africa, many want a new Nelson Mandela to heal wealth divide

No takers of the view that this govt is returning: Arvind Panagariya

Good read

Would 2 MPs per constituency result in better political outcomes for India?

The myth of Indian civilisaiton

"Nehru lied to Rajendra Prasad when he claimed that he (Nehru) and Sardar Patel had decided that C Rajagopalachari should be the country’s first President. Prasad and Patel called his bluff the next morning."

Indian right is agenda lite

Good reading

Electing the right Lokpal in India

"Much of the research was given by governments, but little of the research findings were used by governments."

"A moving memoir of the scientist’s early life, success, and struggle with physical infirmity"

Why science is not in our culture

Good reading

The man called Minoo Masani

The good, the bad and the ugly of India's rural transformation

Raghuram Rajan on Five Pillars of RBI's Financial Sector Policies

The god that failed: Nehru-Indira socialist model placed India in precipitous decline relative to the world

Economics 101 for RG

The poverty guessing game in India

Professor CNR Rao

Professor CNR Rao is rightly in news for right time and context. Here are some good articles on his role in science in India and the world.

Tribute to a master alchemist by R. A. MASHELKAR

Limitless Ladder: Prof. C.N.R. Rao'sAutobiography

How I made it: CNR Rao,Scientist

Making of a leading scientist – C.N. R. Rao

Science as away of life

IITs, IISc. are not the best in the world, says C.N.R. Rao

It's all about Sci-Spo-Ele-Pol

It's all about science and sports in India More than the election time politics.

I am very happy that Prof Rao spoke openly and we need more such outspoken persons in all field. I think we have enough in economics and politics.

There is a news item which says that:

• Bharat Ratna awardee and eminent scientist CNR Rao today had an angry outburst as he called politicians "idiots" for giving them "so little".
• "....Why the hell these idiots these politicians have given so little for us. Inspite of that we scientists have done something," Rao said, losing his cool.

I never liked the cricket. But it is very interesting to read Sachin Tendulkar's speech.
An interesting piece by good friend titled "Should Governments hand out civilian honors?"
A bit from Tavleen Singh's article in IE: 

• "A vision in which electricity and clean water will be basic rights and not favours from government. A vision in which poverty alleviation is given as much weight, in the formulation of economic policies, as creating a rich and prosperous India." More here.

Must read

Respected pradhan mantriji by Jaithirth Rao

Origins of Pseudo Secularism in Nehru Patel Rift by Arvind Kumar

Not just a matter of rats by Chandra Bhan Prasad

An Appreciation of B R Shenoy, Economist by Sandeep Prakash

The spirit of the NPA by Ajay Shah

‘Research in India happens in a few elite institutions’

The divide that never was by Vidya

Congress beyond dynasty by Ramachandra Guha

Happy Deepawali & some reading!

Wish you all very happy deepawali. I just don't celebrate all the time but just say it when there is some new lights in new life!

Here are some good reading for good for thought:

Misuse of Sardar Patel is result of disuse of Patel

2014 - Who holds the key?

The military is integral to the US’s understanding of itself

Gujarat’s Muslims: in a politically correct trap?

"I have charted a different course, sir"

In any literature, the most interesting area is (auto)biography. In that order, the second most interesting is a narrative like this one by Mr.Prasad in today's The Pioneer.

There is a lot to say on how Mr.Prasad has charted a different course. The Hayek's two types of individual has some answer to it.

Other useful reading:

Justice block and white

Fading judicial independent

Manna Dey and his songs

Economics of gifting 

Mohandas Gandhi Before India-I

The Man Who Would Be Mahatma

Gandhi's formative years

Gandhi in waiting and the flaw at the heart of a saintly mythology

Gandhi's 100 volumes and 45,000 books

Indian politicians, parties don’t do justice to Gandhi’s legacy: Guha the real Gandhi got lost. Guha, too, fails to discover him.

"twilight and the East India Company"

Less known India of the era 1739-1857. There is very brief interview which is must read for those who care for history of India. What interest me most is the below lines from this fascinating interview by William Dalrymple:

• "The company seems to me to be the most fascinating and sinister organisation in world history. It was not the British who conquered India; it was a public limited company. It was a company which had shareholders, which had annual general meetings, which had dividends—
• The Company begins in the year 1599, which is the year Shakespeare writes Hamlet. It’s in a Jacobean England, [at a time] when India is the richest polity in the world—what China is today, what America was in the 80s, what Britain was in the 19th century, India was in 17th century. The British arrive in India as scruffy provincial underdogs trying to get a bit of the commercial action that’s going on here. When Milton writes Paradise Lost, he takes Adam on a tour of the future wonders of humanity... and if you [were to] do it today, you’d go to maybe Shanghai or New York, but Milton takes Adam on a tour of Fatehpur Sikri, Delhi and Agra, as the supreme wonders of the world to come. So you have that early phase when the British are underdogs, scruffy guys with codpieces trying to get a bit of the action.
• In 1779 at the Battle of Pollilur, Tipu Sultan defeats the Company, takes their entire army prisoner. The power is debatable and a chance fluke in a battle can make it go either way. At this point, you get a measure of inter marriage—one in three British men in India is married to an Indian woman. As power decreases on the Indian side and increases on the British side, as industrial revolution kicks in, as a militarised, mechanised army arrives, as the British government becomes more involved as opposed to the Company, you get to see that slipping away. So from one in three inter marriages in 1780s, it goes to one in four in the 1800s, one in five by 1810, one in six by 1830 and more or less gone by the 1840s. And then you get a measure of racism setting in. The history of racism varies with the decades—it is not a solid thing. It is like fashion—like hemlines or anything else. High British racism kicks in properly in the 1830s and 1840s, and you get a completely different attitude...
•  in that The Last Mughal gives, I think, by far the most graphic account of British war crimes [in Delhi] that has ever been published. [It] revealed the degree to which the British completely destroyed a city and created what in any modern court of law would be described as terrific war crimes. In the final instance, the gates were locked, troops were placed outside each of the exits and every single male who was found in the city of Delhi—over the age of 16—was killed."

Good read

Ashok Desai says "Raghuram Rajan made me think more with a 15-minute speech than his three distinguished predecessors did with their 15,000-minute perorations. He should keep his mind ticking."

Gurumurthy says "Reverence for elders and teachers coupled with their power to punish the deviant had helped to prevent deviance. But the modern state doesn’t trust parents or teachers to punish the deviant. Fostering reverence helps to prevent deviance. Deviance cannot be corrected by law. It can only be prevented and corrected by family and society. They need to be strengthened. But modernity weakens both." Read full article Modernity has failed to stop deviance

Must read

The forgotten Bose

Rahul Gandhi's 'escape velocity' metaphor aside, Dalit migration to towns a safest route to escape caste order

Dear Rahul, NREGA is not the ‘escape velocity’ Dalits need

Nobel Prize for Economics 2013

Professor Ajay Shah has good piece on this years Nobel Prize winners in Economics. He starts with the following para:

• The Economics Nobel Prize has been shared by Eugene Fama, Robert Shiller andLars Peter Hansen. Their work ranges from the foundations of modern finance (Fama) to defects in the mainstream models (Fama and Shiller) and improvements in statistical methodology (Fama and Hansen). 

However, I really wonder what is the science in it in the stock market prices to give such a huge credit? Its just any other analysis in my view, though they all might have used well thought out innovative ways to look at it. I fear there must come time to give such a huge credit to the works of mass movements of social developmental works especially in the developing economies. The dynamic forces like the NGOs dilutes the State as well as the market forces which would in the long run create huge problems in the society.

Probably, its worth to read this interesting article on Shiller's recent book.

Mint has some interesting observations:

• This year’s Nobel shows the economics discipline in all its frustrating, admirable splendour. With apologies to Harry Truman’s jaundiced view of economists, it’s only a matter of time before the joke starts making the rounds: Did you hear about the two economists who couldn’t agree on how markets work? Yeah, they won a Nobel for it.

Few words of Actor Kamal Hassan

I am not a big fan of any one actor nor I am regular movie watching junki! There is something that need to be underlined in this blog as a matter of fact. So far I have posted twice only in this blog exclusively on his words of mouth. I am talking about the veteran actor Kamal Haasan. Here is a third one. Very interesting and powerful words.

I am not a big fan of Frontline magazine wherein Hassan has an interview. The following are a bit from that interview:

• "The most ridiculous thing we are fighting for now and the government has looked into is the Cinematography Act, which is 57 years old.
• And even in your publishing industry, you still have to send one copy to the government. How stupid it is. If the government wants to see it, it can see it on the Net. Why should you cut down trees? It is all changing.
• In today’s Internet-savvy world, pornography is part of everyday life. If Internet search engines have become more and more powerful, it is not due to science… it is due to flesh. Everybody does it secretly once or twice. And the number is exponential when you look at the world population. Of course, there were other factors that made it flourish. But what triggered it was the simple need to watch flesh. It is the oldest profession and nobody will be able to eradicate it. It is now digitised. Not yet legalised.
• We must treat adults like adults. I am not talking only about sex. I am talking about politics. There should be political freedom. The kind of freedom that was available in Periyar’s time is not there for Kamal Hassan. Even if you are bold, you don’t have freedom. 
• People think I am a closet communist. The fact is no “ism”—capitalism, socialism or rationalism—is a complete answer to social ills. Everything is work in progress. According to Carl Sagan, the human brain is work in progress. We have to go farther in the evolutionary process. We are not fully evolved in our brain part. I will say something that will shock people. Had Spartacus succeeded, both Mr Christ and Mr Marx would have been rendered redundant. Had his revolution succeeded, the whole point of view of the world would have changed." 

Must read

Why freeing up of food market is so crucial

India's inflation puzzle - not just a matter of supply, but also of demand

Why are we still fighting over 

When dynasty is supreme in Government decision-making

Mohandas Gandhi Before India

A new book has been published yet again on Mohandas Gandhi and his role in the world before coming back to India. I have expected for long time this book to come not because of who writes it but because of the kind of material/information used or studied to write the new book.

In my view, it is Mohandas Gandhi whose work helped Mr Guha to shift from hard-core marxist (no capital 'M' please!) and deadly socialist man. As far as the life of Mohandas Gandhi is concerned, Mr.Guha does a great job in the book.

Here are very interesting interviews/excerpts from the new book. I say, interesting because the prevailing time and polity and politics in India makes it more interesting to know things differently and usefully.

Why India needs Gandhi, the champion of downtrodden

Ramachandra Guha on ‘Gandhi Before India’

Gandhi before India

The African Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi's early career

Several Accidents Helped Make Gandhi

Gandhi at 45 Before India

‘Gandhi Is Alive Because He Still Makes People Angry’

Mahatma Gandhi - Experiments with eating

Interesting reading

Gold: villain or saviour? by S. GURUMURTHY

The elephant experts didn’t by S. GURUMURTHY

The upside of the falling rupee by Neelkanth

Who's afraid of a big current account deficit? by Ajay Shah

What the great-grandson didn’t learn

Making people-driven democracy by Rajeev Dhavan

Folly of totalitarianism

"What we are seeing in the Congress, instead, is a reversal of that dissent, showing how just one man, one voice, one opinion — and ironically, its leader — can change the party line. And with it, the national agenda. Nothing could be more dangerous."

The “Man” who betrayed himself by Sanjeev Ahluwalia 

Nehru AMU Convocation Speech -education

Some reading

India needs a new economic vision

A lifeline that rural India cannot do without

The other side of the demographic dividend

Small retailer never die

Finally, a modern pension system

India should follow the privatisation route that Britain under Margaret Thatcher had adopted and such a move will result in shareholder wealth increasing by almost 10 times. 

Interesting reading

Entrepreneurship or survival? Caste and gender of small business in India 

Does it pay to speak English in India?

Why do insecure rural property rights persist?

Crude political process in EMERGING NEW INDIA

This is a high time to utter a few thoughts long lingering on my head. Any political process is strictly crude if one is not democratic in his or her approach to it. Any democratic process of politics is no less comprehensive, in its nature. At best we may agree with one or disagree with other. But let's have in place, first.

I first realized the crude process of politics when I was in high school. I have also watched the crudeness of panchayat's election in the south Indian villages in India. I have participated in the election rallies run upto the 1996 Lok Sabha general election. The MDMK party in Tamil Nadu was major emerging party at least in my district (Villupuram). I still remember how vividly Mr. Vaiko spoke in the election rallies. Cut short. the blame game was rampant among political parties on all ills done by the ruling party both at the Central level as well as at the State level.

There is no end to it even now in 2013-the crude blame game among different groups especially the cult learned community perpetuates! A slice of it play even more to gain short term vested interest.The so called educated lusty adult do very stupid things like the one done by Amartya Sen, Amitav Ghosh and Ananthamurthy, recently.  I completely agree with Dhiraj Nayyar who raised very pertinent point that why these people decline to say who is the alternative to Mr.Modi. Probably, there is none! But why they dare say anything against Mr. Modi and why not others for all the good as well as bad things. I understand these people's internal feelings are no doubt misconceived by all means against the only person they are apposing. 

I am not arguing for any one person who would be elected by the people of this country. Let's have the fair process of politics to come together and argue with truths. Truth alone matter to engage in true spirit of political process to improve the lives of individuals in the country.

If we do not have the other alternative to argue, its like beating the snake before it scares us or bite.

Just that for now.
                                                                 ***

Other things I read today:

Current science by Guha

Wrong doings of Rajan, the new RBI Man by Ajay Shah

There is very interesting change emerging in the new India. This is to educate the individuals engaging in the political process to run the office. The Takshashila Institution plans to train political workers on civics. This is a good initiative. We need to educate the political workers who aspire to run the governmental job from political process. 

Laws of Indian languages

"In 1949 Dr BR Ambedkar had moved a constitutional amendment to make Sanskrit India’s official language replacing Hindi. Not only the leaders from Tamil Nadu supported the move but Mr Naziruddin Ahmed, a Muslim League member from West Bengal also signed it. It’s another story how Hindi finally got the status but the episode amplifies how leaders of a nascent, independent India thought about Sanskrit." More here.

"Say Vanakkam to Tamil and it will be instantly translated as a Vande Mataram to Mother India."

Long read

Why does it feel as if nothing is going right in the country?

Indian election and five points someone

NaMo modifies crony politics. Can he cure BJP of crony socialism?

Narendra Modi is the emblem of this vision of India.

History of economic crisis and reforms: Deja Vu?

In the twilight zone

India-"genuine union"

"in Mahatma Gandhi we had our Lincoln; in B.R. Ambedkar, our King. Nehru made better speeches than either but, in hindsight, fell short in both political grandeur and moral stature.". Mre here.

"Our stupidity is entirely self-inflicted. Our state thinks of the poor as objects of charity, as if they have no agency of their own."

"Bharati’s Kuyil Paattu doesn’t offer lessons. It’s simply a remarkable illustration of the poet’s private voice."

Indian right-wing- "spectacularly self-defeating"

Dr.Anantha has very interesting article in the Mint on Indian liberals and their stand on right-wing arguments on public policy in India. 

While in the piece he quotes a very interesting para from a recent article by Dr.Mehta, before placing his arguments. That para is really worth to read, re-read and ponder. Here is that para:

• “The problem with much of the right-of-centre economic discourse in India is threefold. First, it does not have much of a sense of history. Has any modern society evolved without robust welfare protection? … Second, the right was caught in its own bad faith. On one hand, it wanted to critique entitlements and rights per se, on the other hand, it wanted to embrace direct cash transfers as an alternative. So in the end its arguments against redistribution ended up sounding more like lawyerly bad faith than a principled position… The right has not managed to link its purely economic arguments with an effective moral framework. Third, there was a spectacularly self-defeating political language that smacked of elitism... It is cute to call the bill a vote security bill... But what are we saying in saying this? That politicians responding to what they think voters will go for is a bad thing? ... If the left can be accused of sometimes doing the poor harm in the name of speaking for them, the right can match it by its subtle show of contempt for the ordinary voter. The right will need to change its game considerably.”

A bit from Dr.Anantha's piece:

• "India’s current finance minister, when he was in the Tamil Maanila Congress, used to write a column inThuglak, a Tamil political fortnightly, explaining market economics to Tamil readers. He ceased making the case for liberal economics long ago. Another reformer took the nom de plume Kautilya and used to educate the readers of the periodical India Today on liberal economics and pro-market policymaking. Now, in the UPA government, he helped shut down mining with his environment laws and now he threatens to stop the future of manufacturing in India with his land acquisition law."

On both the cases, I completely agree!

Professor Ronald Coase, passed away at 102

Dr.Ronald Coase, was perhaps the only economics professor who lived such a long years upto 102 rather its more than a 101 economics. He passed away on September 2, 2013. He won the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics in the year 1991 for his work on "for his discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning of the economy".

I am a long admirer of his work on property rights. Prof Coase was also admirer of Prof F A Hayek's idea of choices in currencies and against of monopoly legal tender. 

Read this paper titled "Other things equal: the so called coase theorem".

His very opening line of his Nobel lecture was very candid. He begun by saying:

• "In my long life I have known some great economists but I have never counted myself among their number nor walked in their company. I have made no innovations in high theory. My contribution to economics has been to urge the inclusion in our analysis of features of the economic system so obvious that,..."

"in a 60-year career he wrote only about a dozen significant papers and used little or no mathematics, yet his impact on his discipline was profound."

Here are some obituaries links:

The life and legacy of Ronald Coase
Ronald Coase : 1910 – 2013
RONALD COASE AND THE MISUSE OF ECONOMICS

Nobelist Who Studied Corporations
Remembering Ronald Coase
Ronald Coase has died, but his individualist dogma is everywhere