A 6-min video snippet in Hindi on how those at the “base of the pyramid” are the worst affected by the stranglehold of ridiculous regulations…
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Comments, suggestions welcome as always.. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!

Dear All:  Below, excerpts from a remarkable report from 1908 titled, “Why is England in India at all?“. In this report, written more than a century ago, Jabez Sutherland examines the extent to which the British Raj impoverished India.. Please read and share widely. I doubt any of our current text-books mention this aspect of “history”.
*** Excerpts from “Why is England in India at all?” by Jabez T Sutherland ***
What causes this awful and growing impoverishment of the Indian people? Said John Bright, “If a country be found possessing a most …

Dear All: It is my pleasure to publish this guest post by Amitabh Soni on “A restorative Historical Account of Victorian Holocausts“…and how these Holocausts though bigger than Hitler’s Holocaust were kept a secret by the holier than thou British establishment. Read on…
*** A restorative Historical Account of Victorian Holocausts by Amitabh Soni ***
Over the past few months I have been reading horrid accounts of British Imperialism in India.  I think, the greatest achievement of British Imperialism, was to tone down the “dislike” of the Indians towards them to such drastic …

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 …

This is a short post – written as a prelude to a discussion on “Why Socialist Planning is a Stupid Idea” that I hope to host early in Jan ’12 (exact date/time to be confirmed shortly). Pl read and share – especially with the younger ones in your family. Children in our family and society are the ones we really need to focus on – to make them aware of this dangerous (and false) ideology that passes for economic theory (even to this date).
Earlier today, while reading something else, it …

Start your Sunday evening with It’s Tracking Your Every Move and You May Not Even Know by Noam Cohen:
A favorite pastime of Internet users is to share their location: services like Google Latitude can inform friends
when you are nearby; another, Foursquare, has turn ed reporting these updates into a game.
…But as a German Green party politician, Malte Spitz, recently learned, we are already continually being tracked whether we volunteer to be or not. Cellphone companies do not typically divulge how much information they collect, so Mr. Spitz went to court to find out …

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 …

One of the strongest theme in the narrative about India’s potential as a “superpower” is its youthful demographics (almost half of the population under the age of 25). Like many of us, I too have been guilty of publicly trumpeting this factor – and mentioning this as one of the reasons why this century can be an “Indian century“.
But last week I stumbled on Prof Kartik Hosanagar’s article on this topic…and that gave me cause to re-think. Here is Prof Hosanagar – in his own words (emphasis mine):
This (India’s demographic …

Dear All: It is my great pleasure to publish this guest post by Anupam Sarwaikar on the Vedanta controversy…Anupam has written previously on the blog…I am sure you will find this post as thought-provoking as his previous one, “Of False Propoganda & Goebbelsian Lies” (on the “Indus Water Treaty”). Comments, thoughts welcome as always…
*** The Vedanta Controversy by Anupam Sarwaikar ***
*** CAUTION: Long Post ***
The recent Vedanta controversy provides some thought provoking observations for those who are interested in India, India’s development and upliftment of India’s poor. Before delving deeper …