The question was prompted by these excerpts fom Salil Tripathi‘s “An excuse called Rushdie” (emphasis added):
Only one out of every six Muslim children entering an Indian school stays till his matriculation. I use “his” deliberately; the figures are worse for girls—only two out of five Muslim girls enter schools, and fewer than one-tenth complete secondary education.
These stark dropout rates explain the malaise affecting Indian Muslims, and unless that’s addressed, all other solutions are ineffective.
Such low enrolment figures and high dropout rates mean that only one of 25 undergraduate students, …

Late one evening last week, I was asked by a well-meaning friend why did I hate the idea of “Food Security Bill” so much? Surely no one can reasonably object to making sure every Indian is well-fed and healthy? He was right. No one can reasonably argue with the aim of ensuring that our population is well-fed, literate, healthy etc etc. What I was railing against was the “means” – and the misplaced belief that subsidies are the way to solve these problems; the misplaced belief that all we need …

From Koodankulam stalled again: Sinister geopolitics by Radha Rajan, below are some figures to put the whole debate in perspective*:
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India needs 1, 00,060 MWe of power while we are generating only 1, 00, 034 MWe. Of this –

60% is Thermal power which uses coal, diesel and natural gas as fuel
25% is Hydro
7% is from non-conventional sources like solar, wind and bio-gas; and
2.9% is nuclear

World average for nuclear power is 20%. 75% of all France’s power requirements is met by nuclear energy.

20% US
18% UK
12% Germany; and
5% China

In addition …

Thanks to Sanjeev for alerting me to this remarkable paper.  It is actually more than 15 years old (!) and was published in the journal of the Delhi School of Economics. It is remarkable for it shows that Bharat was far ahead of its time in ancient days when it came to cutting-edge economic theory and Chanakya was perhaps the pioneer of classical economics, free trade and progressive taxation policies..Excerpts from the paper below (you can download the pdf created by Sanjeev here).
Kautilya’s Arthashastra: A Neglected Precursor to Classical Economics
…

Courtesy my FTI colleagues Vijay Mohan (idea and conceptualisation) and Aaryan (artwork), here is why FDI in Retail is a good idea…
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FDI in Retail
View more presentations from B Shantanu

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Comments, thoughts welcome as always.

Somewhat Related Posts: Profit is Charity – guest post by Dipinder Sekhon, FTI comes of age.. and Its all about Freedoms..

Thanks to my friend and FTI colleague Sanjeev Sabhlok for this excerpt. It comes from a speech by Matt Radley that Sanjeev has posted in full (emphasis added).
…. Now before you all rush for the exits, and I know it is traditional to walk out on speakers who do not toe the line on climate at the RSA – I saw it happen to Bjorn Lomborg last year when he gave the Prince Philip lecture – let me be quite clear. I am not a “denier”.
I fully accept that carbon dioxide …

Dear All, it my pleasure to publish this guest post by my friend and FTI colleague, Dipinder Sekhon on why businesses would do well to focus on generating profits (ethically) and enhancing shareholder value rather than spending money on charitable causes (emphasis added).
*** Profit is Charity by Dipinder Sekhon ***
Profit – legally and ethically generated – is one of the best measures of social value-add.
Clients buy services and products only when they can extract value from them. Example, if a company sells asoap for Rs 10 (when it costs it …

Dear All: Below excerpts from a remarkable “ Open Letter To Arundhati Roy“ (from more than 12 years ago) by Gail Omvedt.  What is remarkable about this piece is that Gail is far from an armchair critic. She is married to an activist, lives the life of a farming family and has been at the forefront of issues around development for more than a decade..She brings to this piece her remarkable insights combined with pragmatic and practical approach to resolving the issues of development, rural poverty and displacement related to development projects.
Her “Open …

I stumbled on this article by Karti Chidambaram – identified simply as an AICC Member – more widely known as P Chidambaram’s son, earlier today and could not stop myself from responding. In the piece, titled “Elections and the art of giving“, Karti makes some outrageous statements – which – at best reflect an amazing lack of understanding of basic economics and at worst, are a pitiable attempt at justifying cash-for-votes that is now considered “routine“ in Tamil Nadu.
Karti starts off by saying that the..
..word “sop” itself is used crudely. It …

Thanks to Sanjay for alerting me to this sharp and insightful speech by Prof Jagdish Bhagwati, titled, “This is how economic reforms have transformed India“, from which these excerpts (emphasis added):
…the naysayers, among them the socialists in the currently ruling Congress Party, have rejected the ‘miracle’ produced by the reforms by asserting darkly that the growth ‘lacks a human face’, that it is not ‘inclusive’, that the gains have accrued to the rich while the poor have been immiserized, that inequality has increased, and that India stands condemned before the …