ET2011 ⁽¹²⁾

The debates on the role of growth and growth in alleviating poverty go unabated in the real and virtual forums around the country.Read full article The capacity of Indian intellectuals to argue even when they lack data either to refute the opponents' position or support their own far exceeds that of their counterparts anywhere else in the world. This means that issues that have been largely settled elsewhere remain subject of endless heated debate in India. Nothing illustrates this better than the debates on the role of growth and redistribution in alleviating poverty, which go unabated in the real and virtual forums around the country. Thus, judge just four propositions offered in these debates against the facts. Proposition 1: Growth is not necessary for poverty alleviation. If you are a rich country like those in North America or Europe, this is surely a defensible proposition. In that case, you have already experienced more than two centuries worth of growth and eliminated abject poverty. Moreover, the high levels of income made possible by the past growth generate enough revenues to finance Medicaid,…

Suresh Tendulkar combined advocacy of economic reform with deep commitment to ending poverty, to the Left's dismay.Read full article With the passing away of Professor Suresh Tendulkar on June 21, 2011, India has lost a leading light of the economics profession and a star scholar of poverty in India. His departure has left India a little less modest, gentle, wise and forthright - qualities he embodied aplenty. I neither had the good fortune to study under Suresh nor to teach alongside him. As a result, even though I came to know him as far back as 35 years ago, my interactions with him were intermittent and brief, many of them by email. But that hardly mattered. So friendly, forthcoming and transparent was he that you could meet him once and only briefly and still walk away with the feeling that you knew him well.

India's current phase of fast growth is more golden than gilded, comparisons with US' past are misplaced. Read full article In a joint novel published in 1873, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner described the then state of the United States as "Gilded Age". The expression has since been widely used to refer to the late 19th century United States when the country grew exceptionally rapidly but also came under unduly heavy political and social influence of the super-wealthy. Deployment of questionable means to accumulate wealth subsequently earned the industrialists of the day the title "robber barons". Recently, some commentators have contended that present-day India resembles American Gilded Age. Are they right?

A few personal experiences make the point loud and clear: defrauding the customer is very easy in India.Read full article Several recent experiences have convinced me that our corporations are running well ahead of our regulatory agencies in deploying deceptive schemes to boost profits at the expense of the innocent consumer. I narrate just three such experiences, which may ring familiar to many readers. During my visits to India, I have often used an Indiabased pre-paid cell phone. On more than one occasion, I have had episodes of balance disappearing or the SIM card being deactivated between two visits but overlooked them as part of the cost of the service. But I experienced something more interesting during my latest visit. With no action on my part that I can recall, my cell phone got blessed with a service whereby every caller to my phone would be treated to a song before the phone rang. Because I only heard the ring, I had no idea that this was happening until my wife called me and having been treated to a song herself…

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