Indian Economists and Economics

Dr.Ashok V Desai has written a great article on how some of the great economists studied, worked and made impact on Indian economics over the years. Every one who is interested in Indian economics should read the article.

Prof Panagariya has also given us very timely interview in IE, wherein he says very perceptively that "From the beginning, the Left has been pretty strong in India, intellectually. The kind of Right that exists in other parts of the world, like Thatcherite or Reaganite, doesn't even exist in our system. All of us are by that measure left-of-centre." 

Interesting reading

Shubhashis Gangopadhyay on Real roads to the future-Don't debate distractions, look at real changes on the ground

 Ramachandra Guha on Himalayan heroines

Jagdish Bhagwati on One cannot discuss policy differences without citing opponents' writings

Modi’s BJP blues

Can Bhagwati-Sen debate bring the same change as Hayek-Keynes duel in the US in 1932

Confronting Amartya Sen's view: Why WHO's methodology on malnutrition is hopelessly flawed for India

Timely articles, must read

Secular smokescreen by Nirmala Sitharaman

Beyond the Muslim quota By Tufail Ahmad 

India’s cocooned intellectual elite by Rajeev Mantri  and  Harsh Gupta 

Dollar’s taking us for a spin by S. GURUMURTHY

S vs B "For us Indians, it’s getting a bit too much. So, some questions."

Subbarao's tenure 'worst era of performance by RBI governor'

Interview Mania!

The print as well as electronic media is full of interviews with persons of eminent. By the way, the debate on poverty definition and the vulture of Committee is yet again back on the headline!!

Here are some list:

Need to re-define poverty: C Rangarajan

Father of poverty line takes estimates with a pinch of salt

There is nothing to panic about growth: Amartya Sen

‘Nutritional planning could have been better in food security bill’

7 things you should know in the Bhagwati vs Sen slugfest

Senist antinomies-'Honour Amartya Sen but keep him out of public policy'

Debate: Bhagwati vs Sen

"Sen is not simply wrong; he also poses a serious danger to economic policy in India."

What Hindus can and should be proud of

Read, well

Whether you like it or not, I strongly believe that one has to read between the lines to do things different in musings of once own. I simply follow as a matter of fact that unless you have something different to say or argue its better to keep mum and watch what's going around you. There are very good articles in today's newspaper/blogs etc. Here are some list:

Access to loos: Amartya Sen’s views fail the smell test

Let’s Shake Up the Social Sciences

Narendra Modi may end up making the Congress scion look less ineffective

Can China change course?

Barking up the wrong tree

The untold farm rebound story

"I said I too loved Hindi, which is my mother tongue, but that did not mean I should behave like a fool."

Poverty by polity

"Poverty cannot be removed even if gold coins are given to the poor. Giving cash under NREGA or free foodgrains as per the Food Security Bill would be perpetuating poverty. The poor would be made permanently dependent on government alms."

Beyond bootstraps

Amartya refers to Bhagwati ‘attacks’. Also see here and here.

"Povertarianism"

"He was always warmed by how magnificent India was in so many aspects and felt that his role in life was to amplify this. He was attracted towards the idea of India as a Hindu nation, and it is in the company of like-minded people that he became certain of what was wrong and what it was that needed fixing. In their company he flowered."

"Nobel laureate Michael Spence, while presenting the report of the World Bank’s growth commission that he chaired, admitted that though the commission had found the ingredients for high growth, they had not discovered how to accelerate inclusion with growth, which was becoming an increasing demand everywhere."

" The Congress party's rented intellectuals, led by the NAC, took over the entire discourse and nobody dared to question them, although some fretted behind the scenes."

• "NEVER in India's history has the economic discourse been so one-sided. In the past, there was at least the unabashedly contrarian Forum of Free Enterprise of Nani Palkhivala, A.D. Shroff and M.R. Pai. Now, we have all the venerable chambers, the CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM, hold grovelling conferences on "inclusive growth". Even in the red-hot Sixties, there was the Swatantra Party, which may not have counted for too much in numbers, and was easily reviled as a chamber of decrepit princes, but was represented by formidable parliamentarians like Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, K.M. Munshi, V.P. Menon, Minoo Masani, Piloo Mody, N.G. Ranga and Gayatri Devi."

"In India, too much credibility is given to ideology and not enough to facts, and especially on issues pertaining to the poverty industry. Yes, I have chosen my words carefully — the poverty industry complex is huge, well nurtured, and encourages corruption. Most economists, politicians and intellectuals, of all ideological persuasions, believe that the PDS system of distributing foodgrains to the "poor" is the most corrupt system in the world. Yet, this is what the FSO will enlarge, encourage and endorse."

"They say we are immoral. But they have no shame in coming and raiding the bars in order to extort money from us. What does that make them?"

Some links

The chimera of Dalit capitalism

Arun Maira slams Food Security Ordinance as unsustainable

Narendra Modi's projection as PM candidate is inevitable: Arvind Panagariya

Vivekananda’s 120-year-old 9/11 speech

10 things Nelson Mandela said that you have to know

Prof F A Hayek & Narendra Modi

"Friedrich August Hayek, the Austrian-born philosopher and economist best known for his defence of classical liberalism, seemed to think it did, claiming that market economy inevitably required cultural underpinnings in the form of a set of “modern” values based on individualism. It’s a view echoed by American political scientistYoshihiro Francis Fukuyama for whom modernization, westernization, and democratization are all part of a single, unilinear process that will conclude when other cultures essentially ape the West. As opposed to this are the theories of cultural variation, which assert that there are different roads to modernization and different conclusions to the process of modernization." More here.

Upfront attacks

Former Finance Minister of India Yashwant Sinha says "..government led by Congress has destroyed every sector of the economy and is now destroying every institution of government. It will be criminal negligence on our part to allow them to get away with it."

In his latest article in NIE, veteran Indian nationalist liberal S.Gurumurthy attacks upfront ruling party's leaders. Very interestingly he asks "Aurobindo, Vivekananda and Gandhi too oxymorons?" 

"Manmohan Singh has given up on all claims to being an economist as that would have fetched howls of derisive laughter."

Trade, Naoroji and Poodbill

"...free trade areas should all be seen as building blocks of a liberal international order that could include and embrace China. China would obviously then have a right to shape that order, alongside Western powers, but its participation would also eventually help to move China domestically towards more openness, pluralism and rule of law, as desired by a growing number of its own people." More here.

"Naoroji, five-thousand miles away in London, only learned of his son’s death through a series of telegrams dispatched from Mandvi and Bombay. One can imagine the sense of shock, loneliness, and utter helplessness he felt after receiving these brief messages, knowing full well how impossible it was to avail of family support and solace in this time of grief. A telegram reading ‘console Dad’ provided the only fragile link with family members back home in Bombay." More here.

Illusion that was called pBill. "Putting aside for a moment the wide-ranging fiscal implications of the Bill, which are clearly negative, it needs to be evaluated under many non-financial criteria. There is a clear distinction between having needs and being needy. It is nobody’s case that the needy should not be protected. But is it fair to artificially pander to well above the majority of the population?"

Very pertinent points

Indian historian on "historians (as well as citizens) may well come to regard Manmohan Singh’stwo terms as prime minister as wasted years."

SSA Aiyar on "Worse, the new judgment could set off an avalanche of political vendettas. Politicians often launch false cases against opponents, sometimes in connivance with partisan judges. This deplorable ploy may be strengthened by the latest judgement. We desperately need to cleanse Indian politics, but not in this manner." More here.

Quite surprising and shocking analysis. "Another disturbing aspect of American aid agencies is their support for violent groups like the Maoists. Maoists are able to wage a prolonged war and purchase sophisticated weapons only because wealthy nations support them with money and indulge in propaganda on their behalf. Indian Maoists receive support from Jimmy Carter and the international “human rights” lobby." 

Time to be CHANGE, yourself

I really don't think I should educate my readers rather I always feel that I should share what I (seems) read when I get time. And therefore, I don't want to write often in this blog by putting all those, if's, but's, because, yet, although, while, when, etc. on day to day uttering of politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, journalists and so on.

But let me utter something today on our nation!

Nation never waits for anyone to come up with a vision to change it, rather we the people try to change our-self every time when we feel there is something wrong in us or on others. Of course, there is always some kind of shoddy polity in any society and India is no different in this respect. But this small size and scale of shoddy polity moves across the spectrum of the society and destroys the cosmos of the basic human life. Mobs of power hungry people makes simple life into complex one almost forever for people who are otherwise lives in harmony.

Some French author wrote close to a century ago that the modern day political system was created by people who were unemployed and had nothing to do of their own. They lacked basic skills to do a simple job for basic living. At present, the ruling power in India seems to be in complete faith on the French author's description on politics.

I strongly believe that the quality of polity is quite dynamic concept when we do not have faithful leader to lead the nation.

This is high time to change the leadership in Indian polity. The one who articulates more with passion and clarity should be allowed to test his or her skills in improving the living conditions of poor not by making dependent but making people worthy by themselves.

Probably you know what I wanted to say!

Nothing new, but just read the Modi's few lines from his lecture which he gave in Pune and ponder about it for a minute!

Interesting reading

‘IIT? No, thanks!’ say 274 kids

Why have some students rejected IIT?

"I felt ashamed for a community that would starve its children and then declare they had no appetite."

Natural calamities brings back the forgotten history in India 

"India has 2.6 million personnel in the army and paramilitary forces, and 1.5 million in the police. CAPSI, the industry association of guard suppliers, estimates that there are 7 million private guards — almost twice as many as public ones." More here.

DemoNAMO and FodoCheth

Wonderful read.

"If everyone moved in one direction, would you call that a democracy?"

"VP Singh, who rode to prime"

"B.R. Ambedkar wrote about this in his lovely 1948 essay, Maharashtra As a Linguistic Province. It was written in response to a resolution passed by the Indian Merchants Chamber demanding that Bombay be made an independent state, rather than a part of a future Maharashtra."

"most pro-poor people on earth. And yet, they seem to be get-ting nowhere."

Good reading

"This still leaves unanswered the question we raised earlier: how does this help the BJP reach out to the ideologically uncommitted voters it needs to win close to 200 seats? The prevailing wisdom seems to be that Modi’s stewardship of Gujarat has been so efficient, particularly in terms of economic development, that Indians committed to economic modernity — shareholders looking for a return on their investment, corporate houses frustrated by red tape, young people looking for jobs, farmers hungry for irrigation and electricity, the urban middle classes thwarted by bureaucratic irrationality and corruption, ordinary citizens maddened by absent infrastructure — will vote for a Modi-led BJP because their first priority is ‘governance’, not an unfortunate spasm of violence that happened more than a decade ago." More here

A large section of the Indian middle class, though living in the country, is in a state of mental exile.

While we were silent

Bhagwati vs Sen

"The solutions also differ. Bhagwati has been a strong votary of free markets, and was a critic of Indian economic policy as far back as 1969. Sen is more statist in comparison. Bhagwati argues that India needs reforms to push growth. Sen believes growth is meaningless without government spending on human capabilities."

"If there is a tension, even contradiction, between Sen, the academic and Sen, the advocate, this government might, in the twilight of its tenure, do well to ask itself: did we draw our inspiration from, and put faith in, the wrong Sen?"

Basic Indian economics

"the ‘Bombay Plan’ for India’s economic development. The industrialists said, “no development... will be feasible except on the basis of a central directing authority”. This meant directing investment to desired areas."

"overnments want economic growth. Statisticians measure it, and economists define it for them: it is growth in the gross domestic or national product (the difference is income from abroad, which for India is substantial thanks to the Indians working abroad and sending money to their waiting wives)."

Food Security Bill is proof that PM is happy to go along with Sonia Gandhi's senseless welfarism

Make yourself, what you want to be

Everyone writes about what they pretend to be to do. Some build some stories, some buy someone's story as a matter of fact that someone is in power or someone is poor or for that matter someone is in better standard of living.

Here are some list:

• "all India's problems is creating a strict nanny state that hands out 'rights' to vital public services, there will be no change."
• Colloquium: Secularism and Nation Building
• A looming crisis in India
• India’s economy-Start me up

Must READ blogs/websites

Google Reader (GR) is no longer exists now. All my reading fodder was GR. I regularly read GR since 2004.

Reading helps you to create a sensible value in once actions and life. Reading right upfront and bold things of underneath of the prevailing political economics of India is something I did it for granted for all these years through GR. Now time to read directly visiting links like the one below, a few which one must read............   

1. Niti Central-BOLD and RIGHT
2. Centre Right India-right-wing political economics
3. Pragati-strategies of geopolitical economics

Good views reading bad polity

I wrote a piece on UPA government's Food Security Bill in the Tamil magazine for this month. The online version is still not out. But the crux of the matter is described by various analysts in scattered way. Here is some along with other articles published recently which might be interest of you.

• Manmonia's FSB: 3% of GDP
• Why UPA's current economic policy vigour may yet make a good impression on voters
• Poor, powerless police
• "new Galapagos is in its infancy"
• Modi's food security test
• "the people of India will continue more vigorously in the realms of ideas and action—to pursue goals loftier than today's divisive and debilitating power politics."

Why do bad for the nation?

"Some of the issues, such as the right to property, have been on the files for three decades and require examination by a bench of 15 judges."

"Freely available and properly formatted government data could be the second plank towards a “transparent state”. In the 10th Five Year Plan, the government had declared its intention to make publicly available most of its data—but this has not been achieved yet. The idea was that the Indian state should be a “SMART” (Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsible, Transparent) one."

"I think when posterity judges this period it will judge it as exactly like the end of 1960s and mid 1970s. Having said that, at least under UPA  1, things got done."

Direct Cash Transfers: What Money Can Buy