Timeless post by Varnam on why Thiru Karunanidhi and Mallika Sherawat are closer than you think.
Atanu Dey writes about a creative way to fund 50 new IITs.
And an unusual group that brings together the secular and the sacred on the US presidential election trail.
Brief excerpts from all the articles below.
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In Alaskonomics and Bihar – Part I, I raised the point about distribution of taxes and income amongst various states in India.
This matter is at the heart of several controversies – the most recent being Narendra Modi’s demand that revenues from Gujarat should largely be spent in/on Gujarat. It also has a bearing on issues such as the anti-North-Indians movement in Maharashtra. But most importantly, this analysis is key to understanding and dealing with under-development in Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, AP and MP…all of them states having large swathes of land where …

Those of you old enough to be online in the early part of this century would remember a site called “GoodNewsIndia“. I was reminded of the site in a completely different context (during the course of a call this afternoon) and decided to check it out…which led me to the amazing discovery of “pointReturn”
GoodNewsIndia was dedicated to publicising grass-roots initiatives that were directly improving the lives of millions in India. Many of these stories were of unsung heroes and little known tales of ingenuity and dedication…
A few years ago, Sh D …

I chanced upon this article in the latest issue of TIME magazine. It has some very interesting data about taxes and spending in Alaska. After about an hour of google search today, I found a little bit of data (along these lines) on some Indian states too…I will share that with everyone in Part II of this post (either tomorrow or the day after).
In the meantime, enjoy reading some excerpts from Sarah Palin’s Alaskonomics by Michael Kinsley:
…Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. …

Pl. read this in the context of the on-going discussion re. governments, economy, market intervention and liberal policies…Below is a great summary of the positions on the “right” and “left” of the economic spectrum by Prof Greg Mankiw:

The right sees large deadweight losses associated with taxation and, therefore, is worried about the growth of government as a share in the economy. The left sees smaller elasticities of supply and demand and, therefore, is less worried about the distortionary effect of taxes.
The right sees externalities as an occasional market failure that calls …

Like most of you, I watched and read about the proceedings of the last few days with a sense of sadness and great shame…Amidst all this, these words by Radha Rajan touched a raw nerve… Please read and think…(emphasis added)
*** The Nation as Draupadi ***
Parliament on 22nd July resembled the court of the Kauravas with the Speaker playing Dritharashtra. Every individual in parliament on that day, notwithstanding the party to which he or she belonged, was some character in the shameful court and I was the nation.
When the Prime Minister …

Continuing from Part I of this guest post by Ashutosh on India, Pakistan and geo-strategic issues…
A few days later (after the Tehelka Summit), I attended the book launch of the second edition of� �Natural Gas in Asia – The Challenges of Growth in China, India, Japan and Korea� by Oxford Institute of Energy Studies…
I took with me experiences of the previous week and also the knowledge that at the launch of the previous edition in 2004 (which I had attended too), the popular view�was summed up in a single sentence …

Sh. Amar Singh:

We are not wheeler-dealers…All our politics is about national interest…

Have a restful,�enjoyable weekend…

On Bal Thackeray and his call for Hindu suicide squads/ Hindu terrorists: Nip it in the bud by Offstumped. A short excerpt:
Bal Thackeray�s remarks are reprehensible. There is no moral sanction for Terrorism by any tenet of Hindu Dharma. Those responsible for the Thane bomb blast must be brought to trial and any attempts by them to appropriate moral sanction under Hindu Dharma must be denounced unequivocally. There is no room or place for Terrorism by Hindus for Hindus with Hindu Dharma as moral cover.
Terrorism is Adharma let there be …

This is beyond being “funny”
“…(Maharashtra) state Finance Minister Jayant Patil…announced in the state legislative assembly that 80 per cent jobs in companies that will now open units in Maharashtra must go to locals.
…The finance minister also defined the Marathi manoos.  It has to be a person who has been living in Maharashtra for more than 15 years and knows Marathi, he said.
I fail the test…miserably.
The problem is – in my entire life, I have never lived for 15 years in any single city or state…Who will hire me now?

And …