Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

Wide-bodied Globalization

Hi from Edison NJ. Got here from Mumbai on Wednesday morning at 4:40 AM, nearly an hour ahead of schedule. Too damn early. I suppose if the flight was arriving at 11 PM, then it would have arrived an hour late. Natural perversity of the universe. OK, I am done with the complaining bits. Now for the good bits.
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Mr Kapil Sibal: Abolish the Human Resources Development ministry

It seems to be the season for focusing on education. I will do the conjecturing below but first here are a bunch of articles on what’s going on in education in India.
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Favorite bits from the archive: Types of Government

India is very widely celebrated as having a democratic government. India’s government can also be accurately described another way. A kakistocracy is defined as government by the most corrupt and the least principled. As India’s case clearly demonstrates, the two are not mutually incompatible.
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Rajeev Motwani has Passed on

I didn’t know who Rajeev Motwani was. It’s only when I heard of his passing from my friend Rajan in the San Francisco bay that I got to know of him. Rajan wrote, “To me, he is important because he was one of the few truly great Indians in the Valley (as opposed to the many Indians in the Valley who think they are great).”

Here’s Google founder Sergey Brin’s tribute to Rajeev Motwani.

Weekend Readings: Renaissance of India

Here are a few links. The first one is on Sri Aurobindo, a giant of a renaissance man. Then a few on education.
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Unwelcome Competition in Education

An addendum to the previous post on “Education and Corruption.” Here’s a story that I recently heard which illustrates the engineering of scarcity in education and the resultant bribes and low quality. No names are mentioned because the people involved are powerful people in the government.
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Education and Corruption

The Indian education sector is in distress. How does one explain the lack of outrage among the population at something which affects them so forcefully? Could it be because they are not aware of how dysfunctional the system is? That must at least partly explain the apathy. Perhaps they know but accept it with the fatalistic resignation of the type that accepts corruption among public officials? Perhaps they mistakenly consider pervasive corruption as normal. But how can they not see that government control of education, the rampant corruption, and the crippled education system are all of a piece?

Here’s a news item which reports that medical post graduate studies involve bribes of up to Rs 2 crores (around $ 400,000.)
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