The biggest clown in the circus

I think the biggest clown in the circus must be Mulayan Singh Yadav — affectionately known among his followers as Mullah Singh Yadav — of the Samajwadi Party. He has figured out that computers lie at the root of the problems that India faces. Why?

“The use of computers in offices is creating unemployment problems. Our party feels that if work can be done by a person using hands there is no need to deploy machines,” Mr. Mulayam Singh said at a press conference after unveiling the [Samajwadi Party] manifesto.

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The War and the Circus

Perhaps most humans are congenitally belligerent and can be reasonably expected to get into fights. But it takes institutionalized big businesses to create a war machine that raises ordinary human belligerence to levels of superhuman insanity. The war machine — and one can argue that indeed there is only one such thing but with a global reach, even though its components are multinational in the sense that people from various nations participate in their creation and maintenance — is so pervasive that it seems to be as natural, unchangeable, and logical as the seasons. Like the seasons, the war machine dictates how people carry on with their lives unquestioningly. People generally accept the war machine as naturally they do the seasons.
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The Lady Who Could Sing: A Parable

There was a young lady who could sing so beautifully that she would enchant every listener. Her songs could be heard everywhere. She was very good for the music lovers.

She became rich and famous. Lots of people wanted her to sing their songs. Because she was in demand, she began demanding things — such as not allowing any of her competitors to sing. She silenced her opposition.

Time goes by, and the young lady became an old lady. Her voice had become shrill and painful to listen to. But still she insisted on singing. The music lovers are eagerly waiting for her last song because only after she departs will sweet songs be heard once again.

A certain political organization has also grown old and unbearable. Isn’t it time we heard the last of it?

Don’t vote UPA — reason #410

In a few days, Indians will vote in a general election. The result of the elections will determine who gets to make the policies for India. The Congress-led UPA performed dismally over the last five years. No surprise there. The UPA has as good a shot at winning this time around as does the NDA or the Third Front. I wouldn’t vote for the Congress for an enormous number of reasons. Here’s one reason that M J Akbar spelled out in August 2008. The original is from the Khaleej Times Online, dated 4th Aug, 2008: “Band Aid for Cancer.” I reproduce the entire article below the fold for the record. Continue reading “Don’t vote UPA — reason #410”

On Balanced Growth of India

Development inclusive of people in rural areas is not really distinct from development in general. Indeed it is not possible to have real development while excluding the majority of the people — the majority of Indians are rural.

Generally speaking, Indian rural populations and subsistence agriculture are almost exactly congruent notions. As long as that equation persists, India will continue to be underdeveloped and poor. The reason is that subsistence agriculture does not scale, and therefore the productivity is bounded by a very low limit.
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Enabling Rural Innovations

Navi Radjou’s blog post titled, “India’s Rural Innovations: Can They Scale?” in harvardbusiness.org concludes with:

I strongly believe that the only way India can sustain its long-term economic growth is by unleashing and harnessing the creativity of its grassroots entrepreneurs, especially in rural areas. But here is the challenge: these grassroots inventions don’t scale up. Indeed, most rural innovation initiatives such as DesiCrew and grassroots inventions like Mitti Cool, however impressive they may be, are sadly limited in their impact to a local or regional market of a few hundred customers, and end up employing no more than a dozen workers in the local community. What is missing is a mechanism to cross-pollinate and scale up these bright ideas among India’s 250-million-strong agricultural community which lives scattered across more than 600,000 villages.

I find the paragraph interesting. Continue reading “Enabling Rural Innovations”

Comment on a blog post

Came across this comment by someone who signs off as “d.srikanth mbbs caims”:

plz convey my suggestn 2 shri advani

y dont they use dis point in campaign

nehru family ruling our country since 50 yrs they r rich by birth ,b4 d independence
wt abt aii other freedom fighters
wt abt mahatma gandhi family

I believe that it was made in earnest. I hear claims all the time that the Indian education system is excellent. You could have fooled me.

In Praise of Dead White Men

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva’s recent accusation that the financial crisis was caused by “white people with blue eyes” at a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Brown is illuminating if not entirely accurate. [1] Everyone involved in the financial crisis certainly does not have blue eyes, although they may all be uniformly white. Da Silva claimed that he had never met a black banker. Continue reading “In Praise of Dead White Men”

“Arithmetic, Population and Energy”

I hold firmly to the conviction expressed in John McCarthy’s signature quote that “those who refuse to do arithmetic are doomed to speak nonsense.” Today I came across a set of videos which graphically illustrates the concept: Dr Albert Bartlett’s 8-part series on “Arithmetic, Population and Energy.” (See video below the fold).
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Pragati April 2009: Ideas for the honeymoon

pragati_apr09

This month’s Pragati is about “What the new government should do in its first 100 days.” I have a piece in there about the structural changes required in education. What else is new, you’d ask. Below the fold are the editorial comments for the issue. Please read and distribute.
Continue reading “Pragati April 2009: Ideas for the honeymoon”