Month: September 2014

“Tweak” the process transparently to deliver PM Modi’s “Big Things to Small People”

(photo credit: article.wn.com) Charismatic leaders can mould crowds like putty. Bill Clinton’s March, 2000 “US and India are natural allies” address to the Indian Parliament; Barrack Obama’s University of Cairo “New Beginnings” address to the Muslim world, June, 2009 unleashed a Tsunami of optimism and “feel good”. In much the same way, PM Modi-the man […]

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“Class” in diplomacy

(photo credit: http://www.dreamstime.com) “Diplomacy is not instant coffee” said the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs yesterday. He is right of course. If you are the “instant coffee” type,  you are unlikely to be invited to join the international high table. This doesn’t mean though that, if our MEA mandarins switch from Coffee […]

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Skills Development: putting the cart before the horse?

(photo credit: the hindu.com) It is curious that we learn nothing from experience. The World Bank, sundry bilateral and multilateral donors spent 10% of their funds during the 1990’s on developing generalized skills (also known loosely as capacity development) in developing countries before junking the program, because results were difficult to attribute to inputs and […]

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Who needs a State Government in Delhi?

(photocredit: lakechalice.blogspot.com) 97.5% of Delhi residents live in urban areas, many in slums. All 17 million of them live within an area of 1500 square kilometers. Travelling from end to end, despite the horrendous traffic, takes just two hours on average. There are five Municipalities (including the Delhi Cantonment Board) to look after their comforts. […]

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Independent regulators are good “deal” makers

(photo credit: rediff.com) Energy development, because of its scale and complexity, only happens when “deals” are struck between governments and developers. Some deals are better than others. From the public policy perspective the “deals” we should be looking for, are those which minimize “rents” and maximize welfare. In the Indian context, Independent Regulation is best […]

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IndoPak: make the mangoes rot.

(photo credit:southasia.foreignpolicy.com)  FM Jaitley’s comments recently in Mumbai, that the media did not know much about what happens inside government, riled many a media person. Expectedly, the comment was attributed variously to smugness and being out of touch with the intimacy, the media has got used to in the “chummy’ days of the UPA, when […]

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