Should India be broken up into smaller states? After the decision to give statehood to Telangana, many analysts want a new States Reorganization Commission. India today has 28 states. Assuming 20% population growth since the last census, Uttar Pradesh has […]
The economic case for creating small states Read More »
You might think from the media coverage that the Copenhagen summit on climate change is epochal. Wrong. Copenhagen hardly matters. If it doesn\’t produce an agreement, it clearly won\’t matter. But even if it yields an agreement, that will matter
A climate summit that matters little Read More »
There are two versions of the global warming story playing out at the Copenhagen summit. What you usually hear is the pop version, pushed by many NGOs and politicians. Less popular but more cogent is the scientific version, which is
Curbing carbon emissions: penalty or insurance? Read More »
Various world leaders have given their somewhat tepid reactions to US President Obama\’s proposal to increase US troops in Afghanistan by 30,000 and then start withdrawing all troops by July 2011. No formal reaction has come from Mullah Omar, head
How Mullah Omar will exploit Obama Read More »
Cynics will call Manmohan Singh’s US visit a non-event. Yet it was a breakthrough in one respect: it was a major media event. Historically, visits of Indian Prime Ministers were virtually ignored by the US media. What changed this time?
The hidden benefits of the brain drain Read More »
It\’s hard to remember the gloom and doom in India nine months ago. The Sensex had crashed along with real estate and commodities. The IMF spoke of a negative feedback loop, whereby a credit shortage caused a production shortage, which
Cheap dollars stoke boom in India, Asia Read More »
The 20th anniversary of communism’s fall is a good time to estimate the costs borne by countries like India that did not become communist but drew heavily on the Soviet model. For three decades after independence, India levied sky-high taxes,
Delayed economic reform killed 14.5 million children Read More »
The government seeks inclusive growth and access to credit. The Sachar Committee is dismayed by the relatively low access of Muslims to bank credit. Yet neither the government, Sachar Committee members not intellectuals are raising an outcry against a massive
Anjumans deprive Muslim women of microcredit Read More »
We should measure Gross National Happiness, not Gross National Product (GDP), said Bhutan in 1972. Ever since, it has been a poster child for happiness. Its pursuit of happiness has influenced many people including Nobel Laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya
Bhutan\’s happiness is large dam, fast GDP Read More »
We should measure Gross National Happiness, not Gross National Product (GDP), said Bhutan in 1972. Ever since, it has been a poster child for happiness. Its pursuit of happiness has influenced many people including Nobel Laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya
Bhutan\’s happiness is large dam, fast GDP Read More »
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