Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

Mukeshbhai is good

I am a fan of Mukesh Ambani. He is good. I hope he makes a lot of money. Here’s a NY Times write-up about him: Meet Mukesh Ambani — India’s richest man.

. . . (Hat tip: Tarang_72)

Related Posts:

Reliance Rural Business Hubs

Mr Ambani’s Home

The Better Faster Way to Help Rural India

Dear Mr Ratan Tata . . .

Dear Mr.Tata,

I trust that you will take the decision to locate the proposed commercial port in coastal Orissa only after due consideration about, and the serious study of, the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle. Thank you.

Kind regards,
Atanu

[Reference.]

Water powered car

(Via R S Malapati) Reuters reports Water-fuel car by Genepax unveiled in Japan

The car has an energy generator that extracts hydrogen from water that is poured into the car’s tank. The generator then releases electrons that produce electric power to run the car. Genepax, the company that invented the technology, aims to collaborate with Japanese manufacturers to mass produce it.

Thank god that India is not alone in creating fantastic technologies (recall the sensational “invention” of diesel from swirling a few sticks in a bucket of water some years ago.) Google “water fuel” and you will get loads of quite simply unbelievable technologies developed by cranks and crooks. See this one, for instance.
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Bono, ya evil bastard!

Bono, lead singer of the rock band U2, is famous throughout the entertainment industry for being more than just a little self-righteous. At a recent U2 concert in Glasgow, Scotland, he asked the audience for total quiet.

Then, in the silence, he started to slowly clap his hands, once every few seconds. Holding the audience in total silence, he said into the microphone, “Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies.”

From the front of the crowd a voice with a broad Scottish accent pierced the quiet …

“Well, fookin’ stop doin’ it then, ya evil bastard!”

[Source.]

Talking of Bono reminds me. Here’s Jeff Sachs talking about his book “Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet” with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/sitewide/video_player/view/default/swf.jhtml

Disintermediation

Don’t thank me. As an economist, I am duty-bound to propose efficient ways of achieving goals. Here’s the current problem that I was trying to address. Sify.com reports that “ISI wants to double aid to militants.”

Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has very recently proposed to double the financial support to terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir, India’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has warned in a ‘top secret’ report.

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Why?

Universal Studios should come out with a King Kong stage that features a brand spanking new toilette that should be put into place in a movie set resembling the oval office at the White House, where it is convex shaped like a giant lunar crater telescope mirror, and the vice presidential right arm flush lever would be holding a congratulatory second place nomination prize which should be in the shape of the Mars Phoenix Polar Lander surface digging tool.
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Reliance’s Rural Business Hubs

A news item from yesterday reports:

“As part of the organised retail initiative, Reliance Retail will be creating several rural business hubs. At one level, these will be centres for aggregation of farm produce. At another level, they will engage with supply of quality farm inputs and provision of products and services to rural consumers,” Mr Ambani said.

That report also notes that Ambani is proposing to build semiconductor plants for solar energy. Good ideas, Mr Mukesh Ambani.

He’s consistent. See the post “A quicker faster way to help rural India” from July 2006. So far, I like what Ambani is interested in: building cities, creating rural hubs, investing in solar energy. More power to Reliance.

(Thanks to Gautam Patil for the link.)

The First Amendment

Mera America Mahan

Every time I see the painted slogan “Mera Bharat Mahan” on the rear bumpers of trucks, it gives me a jolt. The jolt is a mixture of incredulity, pride, cynicism and hope. Pride in my motherland forces a desperate hope that it is true while my innate cynicism dismisses the idea that India is great as incredible.

For many years I have wondered whether there was something that could make India great. Was there a single thing — a policy, a principle, an action, an accident, anything — that could guide India’s path to whatever greatness is potential in it? What if I compared India to other nations, both successful and failed — will I be able to discern that one single thing? I think I am slowly coming around to the viewpoint that there is such a thing that could be the candidate instrument I have been looking for. I think the US has it and India does not.
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