Saturday digest

In a boring piece by Suresh Menon the only good para was this

"...What makes these people special? What keeps them motivated after every peak has been climbed, every obstacle overcome? It is easy to believe that scoring yet another century would be for Tendulkar, like mountain-climbing after the Everest. Yet they do it....."

I loved this extract from Nilakeni's book though the title is dull. This is a dream of a job

This is a planning commission paper released in 2001 by Arvind Virmani and PV Rajeev. It is about reforming the PDS. Beautifully analyzed and written with neat policy prescriptions. Having read related stuff (opposition from Madhura Swaninathan at the ISI, how it is done in the US, and more )over the last month I am all for food stamps and more market based interventions now. I think it is a bit early too dismantle PDS completely coz of the vastness of the coverage, the inability of the society to take up such a spike in reforms, weak law enforcement of law etc. Starting off with 'Food Stamps'/ Food credit cards' will be good

2 much

From Rediff

"..United States President Barack Obama has appointed yet another top Indian American legal mind to a senior position in his administration.

Rashad Hussain, 30, who recently served as a trial attorney at the US Department of Justice, was named by Obama as Deputy Associate Counsel to the President...."

I am 28!

Martyrs day salutations

pic: (from pickin pics in Flickr)

First news, good news

The first thing I read this morning was Rajesh Jain's post
http://emergic.org/2009/01/29/elections-2009-i-support-the-bjp/

I am mighty thrilled. I am a fan of Rajesh. I have linked his posts in my blogs and forwarded his posts to many friends.

Honestly the post pretty much sums up my state of mind.

UGD

If we accomplish developing under-ground drainage in all towns with a population of more than 1 lakh in the next 5 years, it would be a tremendous value add to the country. There will be positive externalities in terms of savings on health expenditure both public and private. Since it is 'visible'and 'high impact', I wouldnt be surprised should it be on top of the agenda of every political party.

Health stimulus

The Chinese are thinking universal health coverage. Karunanidhi is looking to kick something similar off in Tamil Nadu. Chinese want to do it the British way with state playing the role of provider. Greedy Karunanidhi is looking at PSP in it- the American way.

The Radhakrishna committee report in rural indebtedness shows that 2/3 of the money borrowed is spent on health! Such being the case the Indian govt would do well to address this issue not just on egalitarian principles but as ways to stimulate rural spending and improve human capital. Now the 'fiscal stimulus' can lead to more savings than consumption. I feel that will be just temporary.

Will take a while

I was thinking about the resurgence of the American society and looked for an analogy in the Indian context. The American society is essentially individualistic. The presidential system is just a manifestation of that. Indian system is consensual as reflected by our culture and systems of governance.

Kiran Bedi vociferoulsy argued on TV that India should adopt a Presidential system. Some argue that 'individualism' during the years of Nehru, daughter and grandson, though in a democractic set up, helped in taking quick decisions and promoted lot of bright young minds in ministry and bureaucracy. That it arguable.

What happens if we have a presidential system now? If we elect a LK Advani, it is good. If we elect a Manmohan, it is alright. What if it is a Mayawati? And she selects her cabinet? India is not ready yet. It will take a while. But the conundrum is, is the current system going to make that 'while' a 'little long while'?

Urbane

My mind wandered about an Indias Obama and related stuff and the American society that elected him. Whom does India elect, is not a just comparison. Whom did the urban India elect is a fair enough question. I wanted to find out whom did the creme la creme of  India press the button for in 2004? The list ( later in the post) did not create a bleak feeling.

I am really looking forward to who the urbane elect in 2009. Its still going be the poor thats going to vote a lot. I hope the Obama effect inspires the elite to get to the booth. The 5 crore odd new urban voters are going to be lot of fun. The new kids are going to be what they are - whimsical, emotional and relying on word of mouth. With the spread of technology, the challenge of sifting information and the emotion that they carry forward to the booth are going to play a huge role in deciding who governs. I hope they look at the credentials of the candidate and well meaning orgnizations start educative campaigns.

2014 will sober the 10 crore up and will make better choices and new voters then will be fun again

2004 list as follows

Bangalore

Pune

South Chennai

South Delhi

New Delhi

Mumbai South

Mumbai South Central

Hyderabad

Caste

It makes sense when Gurumurthy writes "...... traditional caste, by reorienting itself, seems to be handling modernity well. It is modernity that appears clueless as to how to handle caste. The modern elites see caste as a political nuisance. But they seem to be unaware that its perceived nuisance in politics can be mitigated by promoting the economic potential of caste. Elite India’s dilemma about caste seems to be outdated."

But the parochialism that ignores larger interests of the state is hurting. I agree with Manmohan Singh when he spoke ".... Each of our national leaders had a sub-national political personality. They belonged to a region. They identified themselves with one or another section of our society. They engaged in the local politics of their province or town. Yet, they were all national leaders with unquestionable national commitment. Rajaji was as engaged in the political life of the Madras Presidency as he was in national politics. Pattabhi Sitaramayya was as engaged in the politics of the Andhra region as he was in national politics. Sardar Patel was as involved in the political life of the then Bombay Presidency as he was in national life."

Congress' RG orgy

Rahul Gandhi is a serial 'dropper outer'. Not the Bill Gates types, but the Dumbass types. The Congress is projecting him as their own 'PM in waiting' coz they feel his young face will attract the 10 crore first time voters to stamp in their favor. Venerable names like Pranabda are saying ridiculous and yucky things like ' Rajiv became the PM when he was 40, so will Rahul' and another licker from the Congress that lives in the the circa 1200 'anointed' Rahul as the natural torch bearer.

70% of our kids drop out of school before Std. X. What moral right will the god-forbid-next-PM have in exhorting the kids carry on with education. A kid might stand up and say "teek hai sir, aap bi mere bagal mein bait jaaiye". When other modern nations can claim to have their top leaders from Harvard and Cambridge we can say ours went both those, just that he dint make the grades.

The Congress in selling Rahul like the Chinese are selling spurious goods- both low quality and to the gullible customers. They sell it coz it sells, without worrying that consumers might be worse off. The FDA equivalent in goods has a hazy equivaent in politics - morality and courage to the right thing. That is sadly died in the 60s.

Thirumangalam

The by election in Thirumangalam had no overall electoral significance in the context of determining the majority in the Tamil Nadu assembly. It was an election to gain momentum for the Lok Sabha polls in Apr-May and hence as Aditi Phadnis said was a 'shdnt lose' one. DMK won, garnering 1/2 of the 80k votes. Vijayakant was supposed to show that he belonged in the big league but DMDK did not garner respectability thro absolute votes tho it did by coming third.

Though much cant be generalized from one result, it showed again that the people of the state that prided themselves for their intellect have fallen to lucre, jingoism and casteist calculations. The EC Naresh Gupta filed cases against Local Admin Minister MK Stalin and his brother Azhagiri for giving out cash to voters. Newspapers reported generous lunches served. (Of course the DMK owned Sun and Kailagnar dint show any).

The situation depressed me no end. The number of Innovas, Safaris with party flags in the front have grown exponentially in the roads of Chennai. And they drive like jerks. I was told even ward level funcationaries got vehicles for party work. The corruption makes me pukish. This sentiment was echoed by senior Govt. officals that I interacted with lot so long ago.

The election threw up a very intersting foot note. Azhagiri is now a DMK Gen Sec. The Madurai strongman who runs his mafia empire satying aloof from active party work has shunned party posts till now. But now he has obliged to his dad's dictums. Is that a collusion between Stalin and Azhagiri to stand in solidarity against the lurking foe in the Marans or does Mr. A has separate designs of succeeding the Octogenarian con artist? Time will tell who survives or Ms. J drowns their dreams. I wish a progressive party drowns them all.

As much as I appreciate the progress Tamil Nadu has attained from the Dravidian movement through lower caste empowerment in the 70s and 80s, I feel its time is up. What is being spawned now are the legacies of divisive politics that does not bode well for the state. So its time the people usher in a change like any progressive society does. They have to face up the choice of truly assimilating with the national politics by voting for the BJP or the likes. Do it TN. Time is Now and Yes We 'really' can.

Idealogies at the ivy leagues

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/economists-ideology-and-stimulus/

Often times we take every word the big deal economists for what they say. In my case the it is due to the absence of complete knowledge in econ. But looking at the above link makes me feel that these guys are 'simple human beings' with hearts which some time take over their heads and its worth the effort to gain competence to find a counter argument

New SRT

Gentlepeople, the new Tendulkar has arrived and in grand style. He is a springbok and he bats lefty. The name in JP Duminy.