தமிழக பொருளாதாரமும், திமுக அரசு செய்ய மறுக்கும் சீர்திருத்தங்களும்
Showing posts with label Economic Freedom and Political Freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economic Freedom and Political Freedom. Show all posts
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Saturday, December 12, 2020
Professor Walter E. Williams (1936-2020) died
What some of my economics professors could not teach about economics in schools and college, was taught by eminent American free market economist and popular professor Dr Walter E Williams who died last week. Although, I have learned a holistic meaning of economic principles from his vast writings.
"Never trying to wow students with his credentials, Williams taught the principles of economics, which he thought of as common sense. Every year, upon completing his Ph.D.-level microeconomics class (no easy feat), Williams treated his students to food and drinks. He was impatient with nonsense, but he was never impatient with the process of learning. The number of students who benefitted from his genius are too many to count. Many of them are now teachers themselves, passing on Williams’ teaching to even more minds." More here from his true student.
Here are some of the brilliant true to this greatest free market economics:
Walter E. Williams, 84, Dies; Conservative Economist on Black Issues
Walter Williams was a prophet of freedom
Walter Williams, R.I.P. and here
Walter E. Williams, free-market economist, anti-government commentator, dies at 84
Costs must be weighed against benefits
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Embracing Decentralisation to Speed-up Smart Cities Projects
I have new article in the CPPR blog about the assessment of five years of implementation of smart cities projects in India:
The main arguments are in the below para:
The main arguments are in the below para:
"The dismal performances of Smart City Mission projects are attributed to many elements such as lack of good governance and decentralisation at urban local bodies’ level even after the Constitutional Amendments made close to three decades ago. Moreover, Smart City Mission projects mainly were faced with lack of political leadership to drive effective transformations at national, state and city levels; the lethargic bureaucratic planning, project designs minus citizens’ participation; complete dilution of mission guidelines and norms of special purpose vehicles (SPVs); not including subject experts from industry and public policy practitioners in the planning stage itself; lack of transparency in detailed projects preparations by private consultancy firms; and more importantly, corruption in tendering process with political interferences, especially in Tamil Nadu. Also, there were no links between the actual projects initiated and initial reports prepared by private consulting firms involving citizens for feedback."
Monday, June 8, 2020
Cho Ramaswamy: India’s classical satirist and liberal, 1934-2016
I have a new piece on "Cho Ramaswamy: India’s classical satirist and liberal, 1934-2016"
A slice from the piece"
"Cho Ramaswamy was a multi-faceted personality, a scholar, thinker and above all, a man opposed to the tyranny of Dravidian politics. He was among the few political analysts who had a fine balance of reason and logic. He used them to impact public policy with the help of humour, sarcasm and biting satire."
Monday, May 11, 2020
Political Economy of Tamil Nadu
I have a new piece on political economy of Tamil Nadu and its high growth trajectory. A slice from the piece below:
"However, despite their divisive polity, a competitive spirit can be seen among the leaders across the political spectrum towards inclusive development and growth of Tamil Nadu. At times, it is astonishing to see a sustained progress of the Tamil Nadu economy compared to other states in India. What drives Tamil Nadu is its core competence and capacities of sectors like healthcare and nutrition, education and entrepreneurship which are the main ingredients of the State’s sustained high growth trajectory. The average growth rate in the two decades following liberalisation was 7 per cent per annum."
Monday, April 13, 2020
Tomorrow is 129th Birth Anniversary of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar
Tomorrow is 129th Birth Anniversary of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar
Leaders in the past and present time have misused the life and works of Ambedkar for the individual's vested interests, petty polity which Ambedkar clearly explained through his many works not to do ever..
the biggest sin is hero worship in the name of non believing this god or other....
more than that few even went to the extent to say, Ambedkar never said anything about free market economics or wealth creation with minimum state.... its sad some are in Jail now!!
The following are my tribute to B R Ambedkar's free market economic thoughts..... so far none could substantially disagree because i did not distorted the history like few others.
Indeed, few dalit capitalists have actually cherish over my works on Ambedkar!!
Thursday, February 20, 2020
PS Sivaswamy Aiyer: Forgotten Indian Liberal
This is my first of two part articles on "PS Sivaswami Aiyer's life and works are relevant to the contemporary public discourse but completely forgotten, even in his native state. Sivaswamy Aiyer was a prominent legal luminary, administrator, educationist, scholar, liberal thinker and statesman. He was liberal constitutionalist with a firm belief in constitutional rights, individual liberty and freedom."
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Centenary of Liberal Thinker Nani Palkhivala
This is my token of remembering the great thinker with courage - Nani Palkhivala (1920-2020), a scholar making of his own style and skills... I end with the following paras:
To advance the liberal democracy in India towards a more prosperous country for all citizens, we have to remember and foster the following Five Doctrines of Nani Palkhivala (From February 1971 Issue of Freedom First Magazine):
- The Constitution believes in the distribution of wealth, and therefore it not only permits but encourages the creation of wealth by enterprising individuals who with their vision and expertise are prepared to take risks and develop their country. That is why our Constitution confers on all citizens the fundamental rights to acquire, hold and dispose of property and to carry on any trade, business, and profession.
- The right to property is often derided as the “least defensible” right in a socialist democracy. Yet a little reflection should show that this right is of the essence of a sound body politic and of a democracy which aims at marching forward economically….. Countries, where freedom has become a way of life, can do without the luxury of a constitutional right to property. But in India where economic fanaticism has become a way of political life, it is imperative to retain the right to property.
- There are times in a country’s history when inaction and silence can be a culpable wrong, and we are living in such times. It is not enough that we believe in our national motto that truth with ultimately prevail. We must take active steps to see to it that falsehood does not have a very long inning before the ultimate moment of truth arrives.
- The survival of our democracy and the unity and integrity of the nation depend upon the realisation that constitutional morality is no less essential than constitutional legality. Dharma (righteousness; a sense of public duty or virtue) lives in the hearts of public men; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no amendment, can save it.
- National integration is born in the hearts of the citizens. When it dies there, no army, no government, no Constitution, can save it. States of mind precede States. Inter-faith harmony and consciousness of the essential unity of all religions are at the very heart of our national integration.
Saturday, December 28, 2019
A Review Of The Indian Constitution
Recently, the Indian Free Market Economist Atanu Dey has given a talk on the review of Indian Constitution at Srijan Talk, New Delhi.
His talk beautifully covers the underpinning issues and challenges of Indian Constitution and Economy both historically and in evolutionary approach.
It is a must watch for anyone interesting in understanding the art and science of evolution of humanity, wealth creation, why poor countries are poor, the rules of free society with what the State should do and should not do., etc.
The entire talk is at video. There is also a brief clip of Q and A for quick grasp.
His talk beautifully covers the underpinning issues and challenges of Indian Constitution and Economy both historically and in evolutionary approach.
It is a must watch for anyone interesting in understanding the art and science of evolution of humanity, wealth creation, why poor countries are poor, the rules of free society with what the State should do and should not do., etc.
The entire talk is at video. There is also a brief clip of Q and A for quick grasp.
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Reading on Veteran Statesman -Rajaji's 14st Birth Anniversary
On 10th December, 141st Birth Anniversary of Rajaji was celebrated across the country albeit in a small way. He was one of the great modern India's free market economic thinker Statesman. The social media attributives went too late recognizing the birthday of Rajaji!
The following are some of the major remembrance of Rajaji's great contributions to the Indian economy, society and polity by various people:
The following are some of the major remembrance of Rajaji's great contributions to the Indian economy, society and polity by various people:
From Swarajya Magazine- On Rajaji’s Birthday: Four Must Read Articles
Selected Works of C. Rajagopalachari: Volume V, 1931–35. All five Volumes are here.
Saturday, December 7, 2019
LET NOT INDIA FORGET RAJAJI-A BRILLIANT, FAR SIGHTED INTELLECTUAL
The Indian media both print and electronic are very sacrosanct about giving importance to political news and negative news for publication rather than giving a much needed importance of liberal ideas. The article like the below would not get published in right time in Indian media including at regional level. That is the sad state of affairs. Approximately, every media gives at least 60 percent of the publication spaces to the political and advertisements rather than the much needed deserving matters and things. Hence, I am producing the entire article below for record:
LET NOT INDIA FORGET RAJAJI-A BRILLIANT, FARSIGHTED INTELLECTUAL By N.S.Venkataraman
When Nehru passed away, Rajaji was devastated
and paid tributes to Nehru stating that Nehru was "Eleven years younger
than me, eleven times more important for the nation and eleven hundred times
more beloved of the nation”.
Rajaji (C.Rajagopalachari) was born on 10th December ,1878 and
passed away on 25th December, 1972.
In the month of
December, on the occasion of the birth and death anniversary of Rajaji, as one
remembers his life history that was marked by robust thinking, simple life
style, principled approach to the issues and guidance for the nation, one can
see that most of the far sighted thoughts of Rajaji are highly relevant to the
present time.
Let us highlight some
of the actions and thought process of Rajaji that have stood the best of time.
Conscience Keeper :
Rajaji had close friendship with Mahatma Gandhi that was marked by mutual respect.
While speaking about
Rajaji, Mahatma Gandhi said that Rajaji was his conscience keeper. What can be
greater tribute to Rajaji’s sagacity more than what Ganhiji said about him ?.
Gandhiji led a
glorious life of activities that was guided by his conscience. When Gandhiji
said that Rajaji was his conscience keeper, it reflected on Rajaji’s brilliant
intellectual capability combined with ethical and moral force.
Inter caste marriage :
Several critics of Rajaji, then and now, in Tamil Nadu made castiest remarks about Rajaji in a motivated manner .
However, it has been
seen that most of such critics and some politicians in Tamil Nadu pay only lip
support for inter caste marriage, though they speak loudly about the need for
it to eradicate casteism.
On the other hand,
Rajaji gave his daughter in marriage to Gandhiji’s son, though Rajaji and
Gandhiji belonged to different caste. In this process, Rajaji ensured greater
respectability and approval for the inter caste marriages in the country.
India Pakistan relationship:
Due to several historical reasons, it appears that it is almost impossible task for India and Pakistan to live in peace and harmony.
Rajaji realized such
situation immediately after independence and said that people to people
relationship was the need of the day between India and Pakistan. He said that
development of mutual good will and understanding between citizens in various
walks of life in India and Pakistan would force the politicians in both the
countries to strive for amity.
Even today, this
Rajaji’s suggestion appears to be the only way for India and Pakistan to live
without animosity in the long run.
Opposition to Hindi :
During the pre independent days, Rajaji strongly advocated that every person in Tamil Nadu should learn Hindi language.
However, after the
independence, when central government took measures that amounted to imposition
of Hindi in non Hindi speaking states, Rajaji took strong objection and started
opposing imposition of Hindi very strongly. At the same time, Rajaji repeatedly
pointed out that he did not hate Hindi language.
When central
government realized that even Rajaji was opposing the imposition of Hindi, it
reversed it’s policy.
Prohibition in Tamil Nadu :
Rajaji was a strong advocate of prohibition and wrote several articles and made speeches in support of prohibition.
Rajaji was shocked
when the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Karunanidhi decided to lift
prohibition to boost government ‘s income.
In spite of his ripe
old age and inspite of the fact that Rajaji had the status of the former
Governor General of India and in pouring rain, Rajaji went to Karunanidhi’s
house and Rajaji appealed to Karunanidhi not to lift prohibition. However,
Karunanidhi rejected Rajaji’s appeal and went ahead to lift prohibition.
Today, Tamil Nadu’s
social fabric is severely disrupted, as large number of people have taken to
liquor habit. Life of several women and many poor families have been shattered,
as many menfolk have become liquor addicts.
Many people in Tamil
Nadu think that Karunanidhi’s decision to life prohibition has become a curse
for Tamil Nadu’s future and it’s social stability and progress. If Karunanidhi
had listened to Rajaji’s appeal and refrained from lifting prohibition, perhaps
Tamil Nadu would have emerged as model state for India.
Simple life style :
It is known that inspite of the lofty government positions he held , Rajaji used to wash his own clothes everyday.
Can we see today any
politician or minister adopting such simple life style?
Population control :
Today, there is widespread concern in the country that level of population in India is increasing at alarming rate.
Inspite of several
steps initiated by Government of India over the years, population growth could
not be brought to acceptable level.
Rajaji anticipated
this problem and said that population cannot be controlled by spreading
contraceptive awareness amongst the people.
Rajaji said that with
the spread of education and poverty eradication and better awareness of the
issues involved, people themselves would realize the disadvantage of having
large family and reduce the family size.
This is already
happening in some parts of the country to some extent.
Political culture :
In the independent India, Rajaji and Nehru had serious difference of views with regard to economic development programme for the country.
While Nehru strongly
believed in promoting public sector enterprises, Rajaji was of the view that
without strengthening and encouraging private sector, Indian economy would not
improve to the desirable level. As a matter of fact,Rajaji founded Swatantra
party to spread his views and there were strong exchanges between Rajaji and
Nehru on matters of economic approach.
However, their mutual
respect and admiration remained intact reflecting the civilized political
culture of both these leaders.
When Nehru passed
away, Rajaji was devastated and paid tributes to Nehru stating that Nehru was
“Eleven years younger than me, eleven times more important for the nation and
eleven hundred times more beloved of the nation”.
Economic programme :
Rajaji strongly advocated the promotion of private enterprises in a big way and said that private initiatives are much needed for industrial and economic growth. He also criticized Nehru’s economic policies as “permit license quota raj”
Today, it is seen that
central and state governments in India are taking special care to encourage
private sector and are adopting industrial economic policies almost similar to
what Rajaji advocated.
Pride of Tamil Nadu :
Tamil Nadu has seen in the past great personalities with blemishless personal life and strongly committed to the cause of human welfare , disapproval of division of society on any ground and they had unflinching loyalty to the cause of India.
Such great
personalities who hailed from Tamil Nadu in the pre independent days include
Kamaraj, Bharathiar, V.O. Chidambaram, Periyar, Rajaji and others.
Periyar and Rajaji
were often thought by people as political adversaries. However, it was known
that Periyar consulted Rajaji on personal matters and both of them had healthy
relationships, inspite of different political views.
When Rajaji passed
away , in his ripe old age sitting in a wheel chair, Periyar went to the
cremation ground and wept inconsolably.
Today, we see in Tamil
Nadu some political leaders belonging to different parties even hate to meet or
speak with each other. They need to learn from Rajaji and Periyar about
political culture.
Appeal to indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi:
While India remembers
Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhai Patel and a few others on
their birth and death anniversary, Rajaji does not get such national attention
which he richly deserves.
On forthcoming birth
anniversary of Rajaji on 10th December, I appeal to the Prime Minister Modi to
remember Rajaji and pay his tributes to this great man that will receive
national attention and the younger generation will understand and appreciate Rajaji’s
high qualities of wisdom, honesty and intellectual brilliance and contribution
to the national cause. Such role models are the need of the day.
N. S. Venkataraman is a trustee with the "Nandini Voice for
the Deprived," a not-for-profit organization that aims to highlight the
problems of downtrodden and deprived people and support their cause. To promote
probity and ethical values in private and public life and to deliberate on
socio-economic issues in a dispassionate and objective manner.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
The great liberal VS Srinivasa Sastri (1869-1946): Silver Tongue Of India
While India is already in the celebration of 150th Birth Anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on October 2 and it forgets some of the equally important sons of this soil who had also contributed to freedom struggles.
In the 21st century, we need more people like Valangaiman Sankaranarayana Srinivasa Sastri not Gandhi!
We have many Gandhis in our everyday walk of life protesting, hunger strike, etc. But there is hardly anyone promoting constitutional methods of fighting the government's injustice done to people, environment, etc.
I am referring the great classical liberal VS Srinivasa Sastri whose 150th birth anniversary was on last Sunday. Gandhi called him as elder brother.
"Sastri was a leading statesman during the Indian independence movement"
Sastri was born ten days before Gandhi on 22nd September, 1869 at a village called Valangaiman in Kumbakonam Town in Tamil Nadu. Unlike Gandhi, Sastri was born to a poor family and rose to school teacher and later Headmaster.
After 17 years of teaching at various schools in Tamil Nadu, he become close associate of Gopala Krishna Gokhale in 1907 as part of Servants of India Society which was working for attaining freedom from British Empire.
Gokhale passed away in 1915 and Sastri was made as President of Servants of India Society. Sastri joined Indian National Congress in 1908 and left the party in 1922 due to differences on measures for attaining freedom from British.
In a major reforms methods differences erupted in 1918, Sastri formed National Liberal Federation of India or Liberal Party in 1919 to fight for independence through constitutional methods which was followed by both MG Ranade and Gokhale. In 1922, Sastri was president of the liberal party.
The other main leaders of Liberal Party was Dinshah Wacha, Surendranath Banarjee, Bhupendranath, Ambica Charan Mazumdar, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Pherozeshah Mehta and M.R.Jayakar.
Sastri was the true follower of Gokhale and not Gandhi as many would think and give wrong credit. None of Gokhale's core principles are accepted by Gandhi after he arrived from South Africa in 1914.
"in a lecture hall at Stanford, .... the eminent British historian Christopher Bayly speak on the history of liberalism in India. In a section others might well have glazed over, I heard Bayly mention Sastri’s name, clubbing him with other prominent liberals of his time: Hriday Nath Kunzru, Tej Bahadur Sapru, C.Y. Chintamani. Each of them opposed Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement because they believed the only effective opposition to the British government would come from within the constitutional process, that is, with certain deference for the law." More here.
Like Gokhale, Sastri strive from poor family to national figure after leaving the teaching profession. Both had every kind of parallels in their life and contribution to the freedom struggles through constitutional measures rather than revolutionary and direct action methods followed by Tilak etc.
Sastri was known for his masterful use of English oratory skills and diplomatic leadership role in different countries across the Empire. He was even called "The silver-tongued orator".
Sastri helped several poor students for their education. Sastri was Vice Chancellor of Annamalai University between 1935-1940. He faced the first Hindi agitation of students when Rajaji was Premier of Madras Presidency and introduced Hindi as one of the language in all the schools in the Presidency.
The following are some of the most fascinating readings about Sastri's life and contribution to India's Freedom Movements.
V.S.Srinivasa Sastri - A Political Bioigraphy
SILVER TONGUED SRINIVASA SASTRY by K. Gopalakrishna Murthy
V. S. SRINIVASA SASTRI: Hero as a Gentleman by Dr. D. ANJANEYULU
The Indian Express news report on Sastri passing away
Most of Sastri's works are maintained at Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics
Friday, August 16, 2019
1909-2019: Remember ONE NEW PERSON on Independence Day
Friends,
Yesterday was a important day for all of us. Its our Independence Day!
I have a bit of different take for this year's Independence Day.
Let's pledge each one of us to the truth that our Nation attained freedom because of the tireless life of millions of people who fought for our well being, safety, peace and prosperity. And we should not merely pay homage to only one or two who has been branded mistakenly by many in the contemporary world.
So, my humble request to all of you is to remember at least ONE NEW PERSON whom you never heard till now but he or she would have given their life to our beloved country's independence.
Past one month, I have been reading the works of several people who have done great jobs securing the constitutional methods of approach to attaining freedom from evils regimes in British India.
When I say constitution, do not mistaken me only with B R Ambedkar or the galaxy of people in the drafting committee or panels. He did great works no doubt about it but who else have done equally great works is our duty to remember faithfully that they don't merely pass away from our dutiful memory.
The independent India's intellectuals have done great injustice to many great classical liberal thinkers of first half of twentieth century. These classical liberals were the main freedom fighters unbelievably working closely with British Empire before the hegemony of Gandhi and Nehru period.
Indeed, there is quite striking similarity between the current year 2019 and 1909. For first time, the Indian National Congress was split on major reform policies evolved during 1908-1909 into two groups: main leaders were called extremists vs liberals. This split in major reform policies mindset and the ideology still hunts us in today's contemporary public policy making whether it is Congress or BJP or any other family run State level parties.
So, there is a amount of rational way of bringing reforms and policies through constitutional methods instead of protests, fasts, strikes, blacking public vehicles etc. The constitutional approach to protest for policy reforms was adopted by Dadabhai, Ranade, Gokhale, VS Srinivasa Sastri, Ambedkar, etc. The fasts protests etc were adopted by Tilak, Pal, Rai, Gandhi, Nehru, etc. Is these extremists leaders who captured the mainstream political power by ignoring the voices of the liberals scholars.
But the contributions to freedom struggles by Ranade, Gokhale and Sastri, etc. were completely ignored by every section of the society. I find this as ridiculous to continue for several generations.
The entire gamut of public policy making minds in India since the independence are the second rate category with protests, strikes etc without any differences in political parties.
We need to come out of this crude mind set of wild act without any logical reasoning on subjects. There is great amount of tragedies done through the act of strikes, protests, etc. both morally and psychically in the name of one community or segments of population or particular region.
Therefore, do take few minutes to ask your parents, grandparents, friends etc to remember the freedom fighters in your locality and also try to know some of the forgotten great souls of our freedom movements.
Jai Hind,
Chandra....
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