Sunday, July 27, 2014

Odd reading

At times in the dynamic world of human interaction it is good to follow a odd reading habit. I say odd with blinking  muse of three different worlds, yes three worlds within us-the society, the economy, and the politics.

I also find more useful and also peaceful to simply read things at lea-nth rather to co-opt to write and argue the same stuffs with different slang in languages.

Here are the recent odd reading:

Most of my last decade was spent working with nuts in govts.....At no point I can bear with good B.............ts as saying there are exceptions.


... there are too many people and too much paper money around.

Politics over new head of ICHR- I tend to agree more with S.Dasgupta than R.Guha.

From Guha's piece: "Contrary to what is sometimes claimed in the press, there are many fine historians in India. From my own generation of scholars, I can strongly recommend — to student and lay reader alike — the work of Upinder Singh on ancient India, of Nayanjot Lahiri on the history of archaeology, of Vijaya Ramaswamy on the bhakti movement, of Sanjay Subrahmanyam on the early history of European expansion, of Chetan Singh on the decline of the Mughal State, of Sumit Guha on the social history of Western India, of Seema Alavi on the social history of medicine, of Niraja Gopal Jayal on the history of citizenship, of Tirthankar Roy on the economic consequences of colonialism, of Mahesh Rangarajan on the history of forests and wildlife, and of A.R. Venkatachalapathy on South Indian cultural history."

From Dasgupta's piece: "as repeated controversies have indicated, history is too serious a business to be left to the “eminent historians”. For the past few decades, India’s awareness of its own past has shrunk on account of the growing insularity of its historians. Judging by the dense and jargon-infested prose, India’s historians are no longer communicating with the wider world but engaging in closed-door conversations. This has to change." 

Rajaji said to the governors: “You should not imagine that you are just figureheads and can do nothing… Our prime minister and deputy prime minister do not hold that view. They want you to develop your influence for good and they expect you to find means for achieving it without friction and without prejudice to the march of democracy.”

Monday, July 21, 2014

Some good reading

How a corrupt Judge continued in the Madras High Court-"Katju’s story, three CJIs were complicit in continuing, confirming and promoting an allegedly corrupt judge"

NGO mania in India"Between 1993 and 2012, the number of registered associations (NGOs) rose from 15,039 to over 41,844, but through all these years only 54 per cent to 64 per cent filed details of foreign remittances received. In 2011-12, 16,756 had not filed returns. Those that did had receipts climbing from Rs 1,865 crore to Rs 11,548 crore. The principal donors in 2011-12 were from the United States of America, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. "

About 53% of AIIMS graduates actually leave the country, most permanently, and you cannot really point a finger at them

Sunday, July 20, 2014

NDA's First Budget 2014

First Thought: Given the conditions of prevailing Indian political economy, the Union Budget for 2014-2015 is a good start for many new thinking of the new government. In many ways, the government has clarified the official focuses and intentions in many sectors particularly in small entrepreneurs development, infrastructure development, energy sector, and so on. The income tax and other tax saving exemptions are very important positive development for millions of people.

Sensible good people agree on all the right directions of the Budget and expose the wrong intentions. On that line here are some good points from the random experts. I do not agree with everyone on all the matters of budgeted issues/challenges.


To start with. Dr Bhalla says the "Budget 2014-15 (but not the long “everything and don’t forget the kitchen sink” speech) is one of the best content budgets of the last two decades." 


PBM says "This budget is a cross between bad elements of UPA 2 and NDA 1; there is no new Modi 1 in sight yet. The budget has no poetry and uncertain plumbing."


Dr.Desai on "the gigantic statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. I am a great admirer of him; I met him for the last time just two months before his death. But a statue of him is of the same order as the elephants erected by Mayavati, only a hundred times more wasteful."


Other useful links:


If you care about global warming, blame Keynes and follow Hayek.

What does socialism do to ethics




Saturday, July 5, 2014

Professor Kancha Ilaiah

Recently I happened to listen to Professor Kancha Illaiah. He is a famous dalit scholar in India and has significantly contributed through number of published books and public debate. He is also known for his passion and commitment for pro Mandal movements and Other backward Classes in India. That is it.

Though, i am not a big fan of his view points on many things but yet there are some great insights from his works which we cannot ignore. 

He is the only one who predicted the rising of OBCs political leaders in India and particularly predicted that Mr.Narendra Modi would become Prime Minister candidate of BJP. That is what has happened. See my post in June.

There are many other works by Prof.Kancha. We may not like most of his works but ignoring now will cost us in a big way in future. He is on to different path now and is considerably building the next generation of leftist intellectuals in India. 

Just look at some his books with rather interesting titles:

  • Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism
  • The State and Repressive Culture
  • Why I Am Not A Hindu
  • Post Hindu India

Some pondering lines from his works:

"A people who refuse to listen to new questions and learn new answers will perish and not prosper…"

As a south Indian I would take like his views on language. Some of his Asian Age columns are food for thought particularly when we wanted to see the other idea which is not in our focus or attention.

What is more interesting is the following lines of thoughts from Prof.Kancha. I fully agree with him on the following:
  • The dalit's main agenda is not reservations. My way of equality is English education. Even if 10% of our children got English education, the intellectual field would have changed. This country would have changed. My hope is education, not reservation — and I emphasise, English education. Read the full interview from here.


Good reading