Public Policies for Helping The Most Needy

In the run upto 2014 General elections Mr Dean Nelson who is news reporter for The Telegraph quoted me in one of his article about middle class voters in India. He asked my opinion after reading a article - "Defining India's NRMB" which I wrote for RGICS Blog at that time.

"This is an aspiring class which has just come out of poverty and is trying to enter the stable economic class. They are in transition and need help from the government in terms of policies to strengthen their financial position," said an analyst from the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies think tank, who asked not to be named.

Eminent Journalist Mr Swapan Dasgupta is also quoted in the article.

The full Telegraph story is here.

Educating children for application of mind and skills

I always believe that abolition of poverty and hunger is possible in long run only by having an education system which imparts or trains young minds of children with application of mind and skills.

The management of mind is quite different from learning particular matters at different age groups for all children.

Many thinkers like S Radhakrishnan, Sri Aurobindo Goshe and Swami Vivekananda have said long before that children needs psychological methods of teaching with their own natural pace of mind growth instead of brutally imposing the contents all the time till adult age.

Dr Kasturirangan who has chaired the Draft New National Education Policy Committee says very rightly that

"But to bring in Dalits everytime… even they may not like being treated like that. I know many people who are doing well in society. They are proud of living as responsible and active members of the society. I use them all the time in my mind to make sure we don’t unnecessarily draw lines. I think today, in a modern India and the way we are looking at people, these [differences] are slowly going to melt. A twenty-year programme like this for a ten-trillion economy – dalits will be enjoying probably the best status in this country with their own intelligence, efforts etc. I think they will be asking for no special concession."

And 

This is very interesting and long overdue in India that

"School teachers are going to build the youth of tomorrow. That requires a deep knowledge of child psychology, child development, questions of comprehension, environment, interfaces with society and parents. So, we think school education teachers should come from higher education institutions. Not by giving a teacher course, but it should be multidisciplinary and across the spectrum. This can come only from higher education institutions."

India's Flawed Skill Development Mission

The title of this post is a new article I have contributed in Deccan Herald on this Monday commenting of the recent Union Government Budget. 

The current Union government budget did not speak about two aspects in details, one is achievements of last five years on skilling youth and the initiative of smart cities for 99 cities. Both have received bare minimum focus, is it because the previous Modi government failed miserably? 

The institutional capacity to expand the skilling of youth has not increased as it was expected when the Vision 2022 was launched in 2015. Moreover, the quality of imparting skills to youth by different training institutions whether it is government run or private run, both were lacking the marketable skills for employ-ability.

We need to set right the institutional governance first and then we need to focus on private sector driven funding for the skilling with mutual interests.  

Must Read Books Published Recently

I like reading books like talking or walking with a close friend. Reading books which interest you are more pleasurable than anything else. It is the book that gives the world view of matter that matters man and nature, other things in between.

In the current education system in government schools in India, is such that they do not deal with books which has world views and helps them only in their jobs!

Reading books while thinking in authors views is like watching birds flying at fifty thousand feet height from the ground.

The following are some of the interesting books which I have come crossed recently, though it has been long time, five years of gaps reading books seriously.

By virtue of observations, the truths are simple but detailed in books- the ways and means of it.

Just forget the title of the books, dive into the content of it!

• agriculture is not merely an occupation in India. It is a way of life and must be protected and preserved at all costs. 

• young people in southern states, or in the north-eastern states, may have different perspectives, and this could be a very interesting subject for further exploration

• I gave Mahatma Gandhi’s example that he never went to court for his release and insisted that political matters had to be dealt with only politically. 

• Government cannot change the nation; selfless people change it

• There is a detailed narration of certain clusters as in Tiruppur (hosiery), Sivakasi (crackers) and Surat for diamonds. He also refers to what he characterises as Vaishyavisation of India or the morphing of backward castes into the business class.

• The poor Raghul Gandhi who did not know his job want to know badly others job to do good

• Yengde provides an unflinchingly honest account of divisions within the Dalit community itself-from their internal caste divisions to the conduct of elite Dalits and their tokenized forms of modern-day untouchability-

C Rajagopalachari wondered whether nationalisation was possible under the Constitution!

It has been fifty years since the bank nationalization took place in July 1969, the following articles are discuses about the major reasons and impacts on the economy and financial systems in the country:

50 Years Of Bank Nationalisation: The Banks That Were

The 1969 bank nationalization did India more harm than good

45 years after its dissolution, here's what opposition parties must learn from Swatantra Party founded by Rajaji

New Ideas for Political Freedom of Dalits in India

Mr Suraj has come out a interesting analysis on Dalit empowerment in India in way no one else has done previously shading the Constitution of India.

I really liked the Suraj's thinking on the following aspects, which needs urgent attention to make realistic understanding of Dalit leaders in India, as a matter of fact for their credibility and damages done to the Dalits in the name of Ambedakar!

"By exclusively relying on constitutionalism as a means of emancipation, this class of intellectuals argues for a utopian dream."

"But when it comes to exercising the enshrined codes in the Constitution, Dalits seem to be harming their self-worth. This is because not everybody feels this document is close to their hearts as much as Dalits. Not everyone has similar expectations from the Constitution. " 

"Ambedkar is now centralised as a sanctimonious figurehead. And in a country like India, to worship someone is to kill any critical thoughts about the person"

"The affection of Dalits towards constitutionalism is a curious subject of inquiry. No mainstream Dalit leader has dared to critically engage with the debate around the Constitution and its encouragement of Dalit passivism."

BR Shenoy’s Early Life and Association with Independence Movement and Dissent Note

In the below videos, Prof BR Shenoy's son Prof Subodh R Shenoy explains about his father's early journey into freedom movement, early education and landing at LSE to study under Prof FA Hayek. 

According to Centre for Civil Society, New Delhi "B.R. Shenoy is the only Indian economist to write a note of dissent to the second Five Year Plan. Why did Shenoy, India's first monetary economist, think that “the only hope of eradication of corruption on the current scale is a complete U-turn in our policies”

BR Shenoy - A Prophet Without Honour?

Prof BR Shenoy - A Prophet Without Honour? in his own country!

Prof Subodh R Shenoy who is a son of Indian free market economist Prof B R Shenoy who thundered the socialist planned economy of early 50, 60 and 70s.

Prof Subodh interestingly explains in this video produced by free market and public policy institute in India, Centre for Civil Society, New Delhi.

Several years ago I had published a long essay about Prof B R Shenoy's works in Mises Institute's Blog.

Good Thoughts and Good Action

"Resisting the temptation to print money and spend one’s way to growth, the finance minister has opted for incentivising private investment and borrowing abroad."

India's Draft New Education Policy "can, should and will be modified. But in doing so we must put the Indian student and his or her education first, politics later."

"Many reforms are talked about, some of them game-changers: financial reforms, agricultural reforms, judicial reforms, labour reforms, land reforms, educational reforms, administrative reforms, electoral reforms, and the list goes on.

But there’s one reform, which in my view could be the mother of all reforms: it has the potential to lead to the best of reforms in future. If not done, all other reforms will continue to produce only suboptimal results." More here.

Indian Government Budget and Others

India's latest central government's budget is the last budget for the decade first two decades of 21st century. First time, a woman Finance Minister presented without many jargans of numbers and percentages!

The below are some interesting article on the budget with new ideas:

Is the Budget WorthWhile by economist Ashok Desai

No East Asia Economic Model please, India has its own unique model of economic growth with always confusing the best thinkers

Why no more Congress please

Chakrayya was suppose to be first President of India in Independent India.

Budget 2019-20: Right Direction, But Where’s The Money?

"It’s because they are smart people who understand well that elections have nothing to do with solving people’s problems. On the contrary, it is elections that create problems for people. In fact, elections are the biggest threat to human life and well-being — bigger than air pollution, road accidents and cancer."

Indian Political Economy

The following are some of the meaningful articles which I read recently:

Clean government led by a charismatic and strong PM has redressed trust deficit between citizens and elites

The challenge of water: India’s ability to manage and govern water will determine its future

Note to the FM: India needs a new fiscal policy framework

Let’s step up efforts to get professionals in governance

To tackle TN’s water woes, revive local water bodies

I have published a article on water management in Tamil Nadu in Deccan Herald Online Opinion. My article is premises with a real case studies in Erode district which experimented reviving tens of water bodies across 14 blocks in the State, entirely led by a community led model involving farmers and local community.

"Between 2016-2018 one such community-led experiment was done in and around  Erode city in Tamil Nadu, where in a short span of three years, more than 34 water bodies were revived by de-silting, deepening and widening to increase the water storage capacity by five folds on an average. All 34 water bodies put together cover about 134 acres spread across the several blocks in Erode district. The Hindu on October 26, 2018 in Erode City noted that “...while the water storage capacity before before de-silting, widening and deepening was 56 crore litres, the storage improved to 262 crore litres after the work.” Farmers and the general public in and around of the 34 water bodies were all happy that they could witness a substantial rise of the water table in their bore-wells and wells even this summer."

Forest Rights, Third Pillar and Jawaharlal Nehru was an A-minus intellectual

Forest Rights, follow Gujarat Model says SA Aiyar in ToI:

"The folly of this becomes clear when we look at events in Dediapada taluka, Gujarat. Forest officials have been reluctant to recognise tribal rights fully. But in 2009, the bamboo forest in Dediapada flowered and died en masse. The dry fallen bamboo constituted a major fire hazard. So, the local divsional forest officer authorised local tribals to collect, transport and sell the dead bamboo.

With assistance from ARCH Vahini, a local NGO, the tribals struck a deal with the nearby JK Paper Mills to sell dry bamboo at Rs 2,815 per tonne. Between April 2014 and June 2015, the tribals supplied 96,000 tonnes of bamboo, yielding Rs 12 crore in wages and a net profit of Rs 6.5 crore, kept in a panchayat account for further investment in plantations. JK Paper Mills offered free saplings and technical advice to expand the bamboo groves."

Economist Rajan on YV Reddy's book in which he says that:

"Finally, Reddy also laments the lack of funding for the third pillar, municipal and village government. Here he faults the states for not taking Panchayati Raj seriously, and for not periodically setting up State Finance Commissions that would allocate funds between the state and its local bodies. States are guilty of doing to their local bodies what the Centre has done to them."

Natwar Singh discloses that:

Rajaji: You should have come with me to the Columbia University meeting. The boys and girls were very intelligent and asked meaningful questions as to what dharma is and what karma is. I told them dharma was universal duty plus natural order. They said, then it was socialism. I said, “Yes, if it was voluntary, but not the Indian Government’s socialism.” It was not a public meeting, so I said it. I do not want to do anything to embarrass you or the Government here.