Frost Bite: India Shining

The battle rages on........elsewhere

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 04:12:01 GMT

I am moving the "All that glitters is not gold" thread to my main blog. Its grown to be more than just linking to numerous other articles/columns/reports. I will keep up the variety of posts in this blog It aligns better with the philosophy of a link blog and also makes for a varied and interesting read.

Part 2 in the series is up!

All that glitters is not gold Pt.1

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 03:34:56 GMT

I am, quite frankly, tired of reading and hearing about how India and China are the next global economic superpowers - the cliched contrasts of abject poverty juxtaposed to astounding wealth, how inspite of the education and health sectors being in disarray India churns out "world class" graduates who are spearheading this breakout. But what exactly are these graduates good for? For joining the workforce as customer service agents? For seemingly to shine as part of technical support? Thats the impression I get from reading all thats out there on India's economic boom. I know better than to believe everything I read but in order to improve the abysmal signal to noise ratio I have decided to link to articles/commentary/essays/blogs of eminent scholars who call it like it is.

Tomes have been written about their socio-economic growth and scholars have endlessly exchanged letters and written countless books opining what they see about their (India and China) future. Though all this makes for fascinating reading, most of the recent ones have become rather cliched and often just regurgigate thoughts and ideas that have long since been accepted as the state of affairs. Of course, once an objective effort is made into investigating the claims to superior economic status of the two nations, social indices and a whole lot of other measures of development in industrial and allied areas follow suit. It is in these numbers and their interpretations that the truth lies. Hope follows closely.

In response to Smitha's comment and before I introduce commentary on developmental policies, I reiterate the importance of hanging back a second to take a closer look at various indices of social and economic development will give us a better picture than just outrightly denouncing India's apparent economic advances (whether it is as notable as it is made out to be is a matter to be seen). India is a nation that houses most of the world's poor people, life in India is stained with poverty but when a country makes rapid strides (India's growth being a documented 7% - 8%) it is important that this growth be reflected in all sections of society. Policies that try to ensure that this growth be reflected more or less equally across social strata rein in the growth rates of forward sections and invest more resources (effort, money and time) in trying to improve the lot of the lower classes.But there exist certain drawbacks of equality centric policies as they aim to improve the lot of the masses under the working assumption that the masses can be banded together as a collective. It is my personal opinion that there are deepset inherent inequalities in Indian society that preclude any attempt to address the society as though it was one. Also judging by the sheer mass of Indian society, lifting them collectively out of poverty is a monumental task both effort and time wise. As opposed to equality centric policies there exist progressive policies that recognize that rapid growth first benefits only certain sections of society and only certain regions of the country but they aim to share this growth and wealth by allowing it percolate down to the lowest classes. These policies work on the assumption that no section of sociey is denied access to this growth or denied partaking in it. The reservation I have about these policies is that by ensuring that all sections partake in the nation's growth they might be able to lift the lower sections out of poverty (poverty as defined by world bodies), but since they don't ensure equal access to growth/wealth the more progressive sections, on account of their greater accessibilty to wealth and resources pull away much faster from other poorer sections resulting in greater inequality - greater inequality even though the masses are progressively moving out of poverty. A little irony eh?

[hat tip: The Middle Stage, Pankaj Mishra's resistance to temptation]
With that I introduce few links to some excellent commentary on the very same topic. To coincide with the release of his book "Temptations of the West : How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond", Pankaj Mishra argues that the value system of the free market model that heralds us as emerging economic powers is a western one that assumes that the end result of economic growth is a western lifestyle with its attendant consumerism. Though his arguments get a little less convincing as he progresses, The Middle Stage attributes this to the difficulty of a comprehensive analysis of a topic of this magnitude. In reponse to Mishra's column, Salil Tripathi replies with his own piece arguing for a progressive economic policy. Mishra replies and Tripathi counters. I urge everyone to carefully read these essays/letters and follow up on most if not all embedded links so that you are aware of the complete picture. These essays are instructional to the novice (like me) and showcase opposing theories of India's (and China's) economic explosion.
More articles by Pankaj Mishra and Salil Tripathi.

The free market economics of "justice"

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:22:48 GMT

I've read enough free market 101 books to understand and appreciate its (free markets') philosophy and do lean towards a liberal view that the government is responsible for maintaining an atmosphere condusive to engaging in trade, one can consider this atmosphere as consequence of maintaining law and order. I have a few misgivings, unlike true free market liberals, of the morality of totally free markets and their apparent self correcting nature. I do believe that the government, as part of its responsibility in maintaining law and order, ought to protect the interests of the minorities without, I repeat for emphsasis, without getting regulatory in nature. Though the government represents the majority, the rights and interests of the minority have to be protected keeping in mind that policies framed by the majority can be very well done at the expense of minorities. Just because the majority wants it doesn't make it right. Though I have used the example of policy framing in order to make a point, the analogy can be easily extended to protecting (without getting protectionist) minorities (economically speaking) in a free market that potentially could get immoral. This fine line within which a government must confine itself is transgressed so often that it doesnt exist anymore, much like the case of many a socialist Indian government. It is when the government's policy becomes regulatory and when the markets march to the beat set by the government that everything starts to fall apart. There has been so much said about the detrimental nature of socialist indian policies that nothing I say can add any fresh perspective nor can I say it any better.

Yazad Jal presents us with a free market look at how justice will prevail in a true free market.[Link] The central idea of this post comes from the ideas proposed in "The Market For Liberty" by Linda and Morris Tannehill. The authors being true libertarians re-think the role of government in a revoultionary way and in the book, deal with "private arbitration agencies in managing with disputes and criminality, the role of insurers in providing profitable incentives for security, and private agencies in their capacity as protection services." [book review]

Though I tend to be liberal, being a total libertarian and actually believe heart and soul in the spirit of the said post is a little hard for me. Maybe reading the book and thinking of counter arguments will give me a better perspective and a convert I may become. Time (and the markets) will tell.

[Cross posted on my main blog.]

M/F/?

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 20:40:39 GMT

Through a link posted on India Uncut I found the blog hosted by Sonia Faleiro, a journalist from Mumbai. As part of a series done for Tehelka, Sonia interviews dance bar girls from Mumbai - six articles detailing their lives and times - (in her words) "the ignominy and the freedom, the pride and the pathos" of their lives. Interviewing both girls and hijdas for this series, her articles are marvelous and set an altogether high standard of journalism. That being said of her calibre, the content she serves is poignant at times and hard hitting at others. I couldn't stop till I had read all the six.
[Links] 1 2 3 4 5 6

Another article on a hijda activist: (top notch as usual!)
Gunny Bad Dreams No More

After thought: apart from it being a scitillating read, it serves as a reminder of the bigotry in our society. Our society - the world's biggest, greatest democracy - is built on oppression of various sections. The sections that live in the outer fringes of our society have no representation and as a consequence no say in policy and governence at all. The rights of those mainstream minority sections (dalits, muslims etc) are almost always exclusively given preference (sometimes given preference over sanity, as is the case of reservations in the education sector) over majority and national interests. I read this in a column somewhere (credit goes to the author whose name I cant remember) - the smallest minority is the individual. If the rights of the individual are not protected then no one can credit himself with protecting the rights of minorities. (at this point, sarcastically recollect all the seemingly protectionist policies of the government). These people (in Sonia's article) chose a life for themselves albeit unconventional and they did so without putting anyone else in harm's way. Their right to choose for themselves ought not be trampled upon and they ought not be banished from society in the way they have. They are after all, human beings.

Reservations About Reservations

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 19:09:17 GMT

I am an ardent reader of Atanu Dey's blog on India's development - mind you, there are scores of people who at the drop of a hat will launch very confidently into a monologue on India's various problems and enlighten us on the solutions to the various problems that they see. But all their apparent know how stops at rhetoric. Atanu Dey, on the other hand, writes with passion and clarity (both of thought and expression) on India's development. Highly opinionated on certain issues (you have to visit and read his blog if you want to know more), the lucidity in his writing and the logical approach of his proposed solutions are inspiring. Driven by passion for the emancipation of the hundreds of thousands that are trampled on by self-serving governmetal policies, he firmly believes that the education sector (from amongst the many avenues of failure of the government) has to be reformed and revitalised in order to reach the famed and oft hyped heights of "India Shining".

He has on many occassions outlined how he proposes to educate and transform the rural landscape. I shall provide links to all his posts that refer to the theory that he has enshrined in and calls RISC (Rural Infrastructure and Services Commons). You can read his entire theory of achieving this dream of "India Shining".

Disclaimer: the title of this post is actually the title of a post on reservations over at his blog

[Link] leading to category titled "Education"
[Link] leading to category titled "RISC"
[Link] leading to category titled "Solutions"

Recently, he authored five posts on education and the reservation issue over on Tech Talk. These are beautifully written and lay bare all the problems and implications of current education policies. 1 2 3 4 5

I urge all to explore and read with ernest all that Atanu has to say and think for yourselves what "India Shining" is all about.