Mahavir Jayanti namaskar to all sentient beings. According to Jain tradition, Vardhamana Mahavira (599-527 BCE) was the 24th (and the last) tirthankara. “In Jainism, a Tīrthaṅkara is a human being who helps in achieving liberation and enlightenment as an “Arihant” by destroying their soul-constraining karmas, became a role-model and leader for those seeking spiritual guidance.” (Wiki.)
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Author: Atanu Dey
Economist.
India Suffers from Bad Governance
India is not doomed to be poor due to factors outside its control. Yet India is desperately, depressingly, chronically, and acutely poor. Why is that so and what is missing? I explore this question in this piece which is part 2 of a series I am writing for NitiCentral.com. Part 1 was “All Men are Created Equal but Nations are Not.”
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All Men are Created Equal but Nations are Not
Why are nations unequal? Apparently a simple question but hard to answer. I am writing a set of columns on that topic with reference to India. Here’s part 1. A slightly different version of this appeared on NitiCentral.com earlier this month.
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Three Lessons of Development Economics, or Why Utsav Mitra is Mistaken
The first lesson of development economics is that economic policies matter. Even if a country has everything going for it, lack of good policies condemn it to poverty. So it is easy to believe that if only good policies were known to those in power, economic development would necessarily follow. My good friend, the globe-trotting adventurer and consultant to capitalists, Utsav Mitra, brought that lesson to mind in a recent twitter exchange on my timeline. As a student of development, I have written a bit over the years on the matter and Utsav refers to it in a tweet which is embedded below.
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Hauled from the archives: The Three-ring Anti-corruption Circus is in Town
Below the fold I quote a bit from the start of that post to lure the reader into the tent.
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Why a Vote for the AAP is a vote for the Congress
I don’t usually argue with people’s claims about their objectives but once in a while when I see a claim that is absurdly irrational, I cannot but call bullshit. So it was that I (perhaps irrationally) decided to challenge a person’s stated objective. Here’s what @ReclaimBharat’s twitter header says:
I responded. Here is a picture of that twitter exchange.
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The Iron Lady who Fought for Freedom
“Freedom, freedom, freedom . . . Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, A long way from my home,” sang Richie Havens at Woodstock. Lots of people struggle for freedom. What are they seeking freedom from? From other people. We have to remember this: People need to leave other people alone. Do what you will and don’t impose your will on others. That should be the totality of the law.
Below the fold, the text of my recent column at NitiCentral.com, “The Iron Lady who Fought for Freedom.” But first here’s Richie Havens in 2009 singing that song which he sang in the 1969 music festival held on Yasgur’s farm near Woodstock, NY.
After 40 years, the man still retains his voice. Watch him at Woodstock here.
Rediff Ballot: Who should be India’s next PM?
Go click on the poll at rediff.
I am guessing that the numbers for Modi will drop and Pappu’s number improve on the rediff poll. The #twitterNREGA people have yet to get on the ball.
Another Idiot Pinning Terror on the Poor
Most people realize after a little bit of observing and thinking that terrorism is not a matter of poverty. In most cases, the terrorists themselves proclaim their motives quite loudly which does not ever include poverty. The poor may have legitimate grievances against the others but they don’t resort to the indiscriminate killing of people as a result. Every act of terror is ideologically motivated and in most cases it is an intolerant vicious desert religion which promises terrorists rewards in their afterlife. But there are people who are either afraid or too stupid to acknowledge that; instead they blame poverty — and therefore the poor — for terrorism. That is insanely immoral.
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QUOTE: Stanley Kubrick “However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”
The complete quote appears below:
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Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 