I like three points in the recent reading material on the Internet. I don't know source of them but they are quite hard to pass by without a glance.
1- A market-led urbanization policy is the accepted norm in developed countries and one that is recommended in theory. However, we should not fall in the trap of making a fetish of markets. It is often the case in developing countries that the markets that exist are incomplete or legacies of past colonial regimes whose objectives might have been at odds with those of present governments.
2- India is facing a challenge that the developed world never did - of driving growth around an entirely new energy model. Coal based manufacturing or oil led industrial revolution. Here everyone competes to destroy as those natural resources don't clearly belong to any individual or community. That is why it will be over exploited since conserving them is of no individual's interest.
3- Acknowledging the existence of every single citizen, for instance, automatically compels the state to improve the quality of services, and immediately gives the citizen better access. No one else can then claim a benefit that is rightfully yours, and no one can deny their economic status, whether abjectly poor or extremely wealthy. More than anything else, this recognition creates among all parties concerned a deeper awareness of their rights, entitlements and duties. It becomes far more difficult for both the citizen and the government to dodge any of these.
Nandan Nilekani's ideas for India's future:-
Nandan Nilekani, the visionary co-founder of outsourcing pioneer Infosys, explains four brands of ideas that will determine whether India can continue its recent breakneck progress.
Web links on Development :-
1- The Poverty of Plenty: In Punjab today, almost every conversation has a mention of someone ruined by alcohol and drug abuse. Because, everything Punjab does, it overdoes.
2- In an Interview of Dr. Kaushik Basu, India's Chief Economic Advisor makes a strong case for overhauling the subsidy mechanism, even as he cautions against over-interpreting growth numbers.
3- Steps in a Stages-of-Progress Inquiry into Poverty and its Causes; Rationale and Methodology.
4- Commercial Micro nance and Social Responsibility: A Critique by T Nair
5- Look into Orangi Pilot Project and Comilla Model.
6- Malin Mukti Plan : Look into sanitation scheme applied by Kerala state government (malinya muktha keralam in PDF).
Quote of the day : We've had a nirvana of anarchy in infrastructure. It's where we need the government the most, but where our government has present the least. By default than design that is the nature of growth in India It was a decision taken at the hour of crisis when only one way was left. - Nandan Nilekani
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Development and HDI
Statistician Nic Marks asks why we measure a nation's success by its productivity -- instead of by the happiness and well-being of its people. He introduces the Happy Planet Index, which tracks national well-being against resource use;
The Happy Planet Index
Weblinks On Developemt :-
Multidimensional Poverty Index: OPHI and the UNDP Human Development Report launch the Multidimensional Poverty Index or MPI – an innovative new measure that gives a vivid “multidimensional” picture of people living in poverty.
Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index : The GNH index was created using the Alkire Foster method for multidimensional measurement. The 2008 GNH index took a strong view and identified any person who has not achieved sufficiency in all dimensions and all indicators as unhappy.
The Alkire Foster Method : An Innovative Technique for Multidimensional Measurement used for measurement of the poverty.
Index of Economic Freedom World Rankings : India is ranked 24th out of 41 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is below the world average.
Corruption Perceptions Index 2009: The CPI score indicates the perceived level of public-sector corruption in a country/territory. India ranks 84;
Statistics of the Human Development Report : The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP, income). The index is not in any sense a comprehensive measure of human development. It does not, for example, include important indicators such as gender or income inequality nor more difficult to measure concepts like respect for human rights and political freedoms. What it does provide is a broadened prism for viewing human progress and the complex relationship between income and well-being. And overall India ranks 134.
The Happy Planet Index
Weblinks On Developemt :-
Multidimensional Poverty Index: OPHI and the UNDP Human Development Report launch the Multidimensional Poverty Index or MPI – an innovative new measure that gives a vivid “multidimensional” picture of people living in poverty.
Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index : The GNH index was created using the Alkire Foster method for multidimensional measurement. The 2008 GNH index took a strong view and identified any person who has not achieved sufficiency in all dimensions and all indicators as unhappy.
The Alkire Foster Method : An Innovative Technique for Multidimensional Measurement used for measurement of the poverty.
Index of Economic Freedom World Rankings : India is ranked 24th out of 41 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is below the world average.
Corruption Perceptions Index 2009: The CPI score indicates the perceived level of public-sector corruption in a country/territory. India ranks 84;
Statistics of the Human Development Report : The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP, income). The index is not in any sense a comprehensive measure of human development. It does not, for example, include important indicators such as gender or income inequality nor more difficult to measure concepts like respect for human rights and political freedoms. What it does provide is a broadened prism for viewing human progress and the complex relationship between income and well-being. And overall India ranks 134.
The Art of Writing
I assume myself as a scholar and dreaming to become a revolutionary’. I am willing to infuse soul rather than image in writing. Even after listening the lecture embedded below, I don't know what invokes creativity. Creativity might just be a term to describe accepted dysfunction of the norm.
A bad phase in writing has been going on as I am becoming compiler these days. One blogger commented also : Once you start getting 'inspired', you may never realize the extent of your 'inspiration' . The tilt between adaptation, copying and original ideas shifts from one end to another. I am writing for awareness of the whole world and gathering all existing knowledge.
I have been advised to generate some positive wave. Otherwise there are hell lots of things wrong in world and we have to pick the priority. Still, a positive news should be balanced with showcasing negativity around. Its very hard to maintain a truly moral perspective on anything in the writing. The ambiguity and randomness changes ours perspective each moment. When it comes to taking stand on the issues, I tend to focus on intention rather than outcome. That is to say, the 'attempted harm' scenario seems worse than the 'accidental harm' version. The ability to make this distinction seems to develop throughout the understanding events, however. Writing only refines in orderly way.
That Facebook and Twitter are like junk food just before dinner that blunts the desire to blog. They may be our instantaneous response but don't give us answers for the phenomenon. Blog is like a patience way of observing and documenting the world. With everything in the life, there is a place of balance. That I am seeking...
Novelist Amy Tan on creativity : She digs deep into the creative process, looking for hints of how hers evolved.
Loved final summary of the video:
As from nothingness comes something.
In randomness comes chance.
In chance comes finding but also loss.
In replacing the observer with the participator there indeed comes responsibility.
In participating with a true heart comes balance.
As seeking balance is survival.
In survival there is creativity.
A bad phase in writing has been going on as I am becoming compiler these days. One blogger commented also : Once you start getting 'inspired', you may never realize the extent of your 'inspiration' . The tilt between adaptation, copying and original ideas shifts from one end to another. I am writing for awareness of the whole world and gathering all existing knowledge.
I have been advised to generate some positive wave. Otherwise there are hell lots of things wrong in world and we have to pick the priority. Still, a positive news should be balanced with showcasing negativity around. Its very hard to maintain a truly moral perspective on anything in the writing. The ambiguity and randomness changes ours perspective each moment. When it comes to taking stand on the issues, I tend to focus on intention rather than outcome. That is to say, the 'attempted harm' scenario seems worse than the 'accidental harm' version. The ability to make this distinction seems to develop throughout the understanding events, however. Writing only refines in orderly way.
That Facebook and Twitter are like junk food just before dinner that blunts the desire to blog. They may be our instantaneous response but don't give us answers for the phenomenon. Blog is like a patience way of observing and documenting the world. With everything in the life, there is a place of balance. That I am seeking...
Novelist Amy Tan on creativity : She digs deep into the creative process, looking for hints of how hers evolved.
Loved final summary of the video:
As from nothingness comes something.
In randomness comes chance.
In chance comes finding but also loss.
In replacing the observer with the participator there indeed comes responsibility.
In participating with a true heart comes balance.
As seeking balance is survival.
In survival there is creativity.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Development of India -1
Anil Gupta: India's hidden hotbeds of invention
Employment, Investment and Entrepreneurship can change the future of India.
The institutional reform in India is usually the outcome of pressure from the middle and educated class. Opinions of poor are under represented due to their illiteracy and lack of access to information in judging good and bad systems and demanding reforms. Under representation of weak gender and lower caste is hindering inclusive growth. We have to form new partnerships on the basis of equality and not on the basis of domination. In democracy, political parties are learning it. In business and educational sector, its still out of scope.
Our government believe that they could direct economic growth in top down model. The state of India typically encompassed two aspects : as provider of goods and services and as a regulator and decision maker. But a country's economic structures are finally run by people, and power held in a vacuum- either by the state or by markets- allows them to circumvent rules and tilt decisions in their favor. That causes corruption to grow
Ignorance of ability brings disability. To be effective and sustainable, there is no need of political compulsion. Extrapolate only from what happening in present, we can expect transformation. When we start thinking of solutions in terms of the future, rather than just the present our past, it unlocks the imagination and energizes people.
Here's a simple management lesson that I follow with the money: borrow money to buy things that go up in value. Bad policy is the result of bad lobbying. In a limited and closed (localized) market, increased productivity only resulted in surplus goods and falling prices and there is no legal limit on how little you could offer a human being for their labor. Avoid both glitches to see the new incentives at grass root level.
Employment, Investment and Entrepreneurship can change the future of India.
The institutional reform in India is usually the outcome of pressure from the middle and educated class. Opinions of poor are under represented due to their illiteracy and lack of access to information in judging good and bad systems and demanding reforms. Under representation of weak gender and lower caste is hindering inclusive growth. We have to form new partnerships on the basis of equality and not on the basis of domination. In democracy, political parties are learning it. In business and educational sector, its still out of scope.
Our government believe that they could direct economic growth in top down model. The state of India typically encompassed two aspects : as provider of goods and services and as a regulator and decision maker. But a country's economic structures are finally run by people, and power held in a vacuum- either by the state or by markets- allows them to circumvent rules and tilt decisions in their favor. That causes corruption to grow
Ignorance of ability brings disability. To be effective and sustainable, there is no need of political compulsion. Extrapolate only from what happening in present, we can expect transformation. When we start thinking of solutions in terms of the future, rather than just the present our past, it unlocks the imagination and energizes people.
Here's a simple management lesson that I follow with the money: borrow money to buy things that go up in value. Bad policy is the result of bad lobbying. In a limited and closed (localized) market, increased productivity only resulted in surplus goods and falling prices and there is no legal limit on how little you could offer a human being for their labor. Avoid both glitches to see the new incentives at grass root level.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
The Sanctity of human life
I am not talking about human rights today. I am asking a burning question : Do some Lives are less worthy than others? Today, an American life is equivalent to thousands Iraqi lives. Genocide in Iraq and Palestine is taking place. And all of the world is mute spectator. Do I have to rephrase the cynical quote from Animal Farm to describe about human lives in tis situation : All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
The article War and the American Republic by Namit Sir has prompted me to write on this issue. I detest military as it shows brute force in countering the intelligent arguments. The ultimate purpose of a military is as a primarily destructive force to be utilised in only the direst of circumstances. But, as the authority resides in fewer hand in any society or world politics, military power is used to constantly wage war or to exploit millions for elite few. Embed here is the lecture of Noam Chomsky to understand power structure at global level (mostly American).
Obama, the Middle East, and the Prospects for Peace
In the interest of human civilization and progress, ideas must be subjected to logical and empirical scrutiny. They must be challenged and rejected when warranted. Idea of questioning policy of the state in in the times of war is treated as a sign of betrayal. Every ultra and irrational act is not only done and justified but also glorified in the veil of nationalism and security of religious identity.
In politics we often mistake stubbornness for strength and ideology for idealism. And we pay heavy price for that. In the words of Thucydides: "The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."
The price of liberty has never been cheap in any part of world. But, no idea is greater than human life. Even the blood of martyrs was to protect future generation, it had not flown to nourish the belief and life of the 'holy' war. Only hate and war grow on such wrong notion of ideas of nationalism and identity. Unfortunately, loyalty to an idea rather than its purpose is a recipe for disaster.
The article War and the American Republic by Namit Sir has prompted me to write on this issue. I detest military as it shows brute force in countering the intelligent arguments. The ultimate purpose of a military is as a primarily destructive force to be utilised in only the direst of circumstances. But, as the authority resides in fewer hand in any society or world politics, military power is used to constantly wage war or to exploit millions for elite few. Embed here is the lecture of Noam Chomsky to understand power structure at global level (mostly American).
Obama, the Middle East, and the Prospects for Peace
In the interest of human civilization and progress, ideas must be subjected to logical and empirical scrutiny. They must be challenged and rejected when warranted. Idea of questioning policy of the state in in the times of war is treated as a sign of betrayal. Every ultra and irrational act is not only done and justified but also glorified in the veil of nationalism and security of religious identity.
In politics we often mistake stubbornness for strength and ideology for idealism. And we pay heavy price for that. In the words of Thucydides: "The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."
The price of liberty has never been cheap in any part of world. But, no idea is greater than human life. Even the blood of martyrs was to protect future generation, it had not flown to nourish the belief and life of the 'holy' war. Only hate and war grow on such wrong notion of ideas of nationalism and identity. Unfortunately, loyalty to an idea rather than its purpose is a recipe for disaster.
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