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.

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." 

Caste and Capitalism

"Ambedkar clearly saw the potential of capitalism in breaking traditional caste and occupational shackles. This did not happen in his time. It has finally happened after the economic reforms of 1991."

Read 1994 book on "Caste and Capitalism in Colonial India"

"Capitalism versus caste: A new order based on the market can sweep away centuries of caste discrimination"

Of that GM Food

"Indian youngsters have no idea how terrible and humiliating were the droughts of 1965-66 that made India entirely dependent on US food aid to stem starvation. Fortunately, the Green Revolution then replaced organic with high-yield farming, and converted India from a starvation area to a food exporter. Borlaug said organic farming could meet the demand of elites for superior, costly food. But it could not meet mass needs." More here.

Kirana shops or jobs

"Why do tragedies at the individual level translate into massive gains at the national level? Because if our overall aim is to have higher incomes for everybody, that entails more capital per person and newer technology per person."

Some links

"In 1991, opposition parties swore to reverse the reforms when they came to office. But once the reforms were seen to be working, these parties quietly shelved their objections." 

How can conditional cash transfers be a bigger reform than the 1991 reforms?

"template for ushering in the dictatorship of the idiotic, ill-informed majority"

Some links

Groundwater Irrigation Actually Reduces Poverty

The entire community of salaried tax payers are promptly punished with a regressive tax regime for the sins of a few. The public can have the right to vote or a rational tax system. They can’t have both.

The most hilarious example of misuse relates to the scam ending the political career of Andhra Pradesh governor N D Tiwari. Photos of him cavorting with three naked prostitutes were made public by the madam of the brothel. Why did she expose him? Because Tiwari had promised her a mining licence but did not deliver. Her expose caused much merriment. Yet it is hardly a laughing matter that in India, even brothel-owners can aspire to be allocated mines. 

Tavleen Singh has very interesting piece recounting the old days of socialist era in India. "Is public memory so short that we have forgotten that more than ninety per cent of our public sector companies have never made a profit?" 

Of that Freedom Day

Ramachandra Guha concludes in his article on India's 65th Independence Day that:

• Sixty-five years after the British departed, the Republic of India remains a work in progress. The experiment has clearly not failed; nor has it emphatically succeeded. Home to the most elevating as well as the most depressing aspects of the human experience, it inspires — in this citizen at any rate —pride and embarrassment in equal measure.

Swaminathan Aiyar on Independence Day: Why Partition was a good thing for India

Economics, politics and election in India

Why India will beat China by Swaminathan S A Aiyar. He reviews the new book Why Nations Fail by Daron and James

Chinese lessons for India by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha He analyses the emergence of Chinese economy vs Indian economy

From Chief Minister to Chief Censor by A G Noorni. He analyses the recent decision taken by West Bengal Chief Minister on buying newspaper for public libraries etc.

Blame the system and not the politician by P V Indiresan. He argues that politician should not be allowed to spent any money from their own sources for contesting election because the State i.e. the Government will bear the cost of election with certain conditions. I believe, ideas like this were very old and great thinkers and politicians like  C Rajagopalachari and Patel had profound understanding of it which many now sees to be forgotten in India.

China's eclips

"China is a keen student of economic history, and can be persuaded that multilateralism is better for a superpower: it produces world order, yet leaves lots of space for superpower bullying." 


Some one said to me some years ago when I was attending the international workshop for Young Scholars on Social Sector in China that "If you are able to read Chinese mind, well, then you can pass any exams on this earth!!".

Govt-cut

"A World Bank study by Das and Hammer found that more than half the treatments suggested by government doctors were likely to make patients worse, not better."

MFIs and Money

Swamination Aiyar on "Elementary economics says that money is fungible, and you cannot say how one single element of cash inflow is used for which spending purpose." 

English Affairs

"Lakhs of children studying in unrecognised English medium schools are not counted in most official data as that only includes recognised schools. So, the numbers could actually be much higher,"

But I do not know how many of you read the below passage.

“Annadurai was flayed in his lifetime by the Jan Sangh, which spearheaded the anti-English agitation of the 1960s. One of those agitators was Atal Behari Vajpayee. How ironic that the same Vajpayee should now boast about a Shining India based on comparative advantage in English!” 

Everything added up is not macro, yet micro

Mr.Aiyar on The Malegam Committee and what it should do in the case of “The MFIs provided enough finance, but it became too much! They engaged in gross overlending in a sad rush for profits.”

India had world class skill training system

Mr.Aiyar had pointed out in his piece in yesterday's ET. I do have some concrete research works on the arguments he made in the article about the India's past advanced skill training system, may I will post something a little later. Some excerpts:

• Economic success depends not just on economic reform but on institutional strength and historical skills — what economists call ‘initial conditions’. India and China are historical superpowers that accounted for 70% of world industrial production before the Industrial Revolution .

• They declined during 300 years of western colonialism, but are now clawing themselves back to their initial high position. Indian bankers and traders in the 17th century were bigger than the East India Company .

• Robert Clive thought that Murshidabad, which he entered after the Battle of Plassey, was richer than London in his time. Shajahan had the money and skills to build the Taj Mahal: his European contemporaries did not.

• Seen in this light, the decline of India and China in the last 300 years was a temporary blip. Africa and Latin America will find it difficult to replicate the growth spurt in China and India because of very different initial conditions.

• Lumping nations of Africa and Asia together into something called ‘developing countries’ is a political gimmick. In Africa, most agriculture was still slash-and-burn cultivation as recently as the 1970s. But most of Asia moved from slash-and-burn to permanent cultivation 3,000 years ago.

• This provided leisure and opportunity for the ruling classes to develop considerable engineering and other skills. The exploited peasantry of 3,000 years also developed a cornucopia of skills and innovative techniques for survival. Africans emerging from slash-and-burn cultivators lack such skills: their economy had no markets or mercantile skills. Indians are not inherently superior in any way.

• Its strong initial conditions range from skills developed over 3,000 years to institutional strength developed over the last 60 years. Countries without these initial conditions will find it difficult to replicate India’s performance.

President Ombaba!!

That is how my previous landlord said to me when Obama won the election in 2008. Before his visit, yes a landmark visit to India, there are lot of words burned for and against in between India and America both in terms of economic cooperation and international security to mention only two. The below three articles throws different views points on his visit and the useful of it:

1. India should not expect too much from Obama's visit by Aiyar
2. Obama's landmark visit to India by Tarun Das
3. Take the long view by Rajiv Kumar

Bush is 1 and Obama is zero

Swaminathan S A Aiyar writes (with huge speculations!):

• During his visit to India, Obama will doubtless say several encouraging things. He will hail India as a coming superpower, and say that it is a good idea for India to become a member of the UN Security Council. He will declare that Islamic terrorism must end in Kashmir and Afghanistan. He will hail India’s democratic values.

• He will talk of easing some US export controls on dual-use technology and equipment. He will talk of increased cooperation in fields like energy, education agriculture and so on. This is fine as far as it goes, but cannot obscure the diminution of India on the US radar screen. It is not that Obama has abandoned the long-term strategic interest in India that Bush initiated. Rather, Obama is focusing on urgent short-term issues and not on the strategic long-term.

• This will not impact the booming Indo-US economic partnership. This has boomed for four decades thanks to corporate decisions, not government decisions. Besides, individual Indians have flocked to the US for studies and citizenship in huge numbers. They have won several Nobel Prizes, helped create Silicon Valley, and are now prominent in every political and economic field.

• Being driven by individuals and corporations, this aspect of the relationship will strengthen regardless of Obama’s current concerns. It will stand both countries in good stead when, in due course, the relationship truly assumes strategic importance.

Every change is small and micro

Mr.Swaminathan Aiyar has interesting piece in today’s ET where he writes:

“Charging poor people 30% interest sounds terrible.”

Also read a recent very interesting piece by Vinod Khosla on the same issues which Mr. Aiyar has highlighted.

The pathetic comrades

Mr Aiyar argues very eloquently that the price decontrol is with rational logic:

• Inflation is caused by faulty fiscal , monetary and trade policies, not by price decontrol.

• Communists perpetrated mass murder of another sort, based on class rather religion, but with as little moral or factual basis.

• Communists who condemn this blindly as ‘international financial capital speculation’ are simply exposing their ignorance.

• These comrades need bogeymen to justify their life-long defence of communist murder and torture in pursuit of a bankrupt economic ideology. Rather than learn from the collapse of the Soviet Union, they would rather use old, hollow slogans to justify the unjustifiable. When exposed by newspapers like this one, they have no factual reply, but repeat empty slogans about the pink press being the voice of international financial capital. How pathetic!

Hi Chimerica!

Welcome to twenty-first century! You are a new on the bath water “entwining of the boom economies of China and the US”. You always give us the “innovation and rapidly-growing productivity”. We make use of this “to become the manufacturing heart of the world, churning out consumer goods at very low prices and taming inflation” so long live you TWO my brother!

That is what I really thought after reading Mr.Swami’s article in today’s ET.