Would’ve been a great interview if Nandan had been humorous too…

This is routine practice at The Daily Show, most of the times he is humorous and writers which come to his show are always serious about the issues which they have discussed in the book. Most of the times Jon and Steven (Colbert)don’t give much importance to the contents of the book, but what they do is to introduce the new book and the author to people.

Originally, I got excited about the book when I read Nilekani’s interview with Nitin Pai in Pragati back in January. So I went to alibris to find it and put it on my wish list. And thats when I saw that it was actually available for purchase.

Since the book was available so much in advance of the US release date, I presumed I would be getting an Indian version of the book when I was buying it. But after I got it, I realized it was an uncorrected proof to be used for the US PR launch campaign. Its missing some of the things available in the official release, most notable the foreward written by Thomas Friedman.

Anyway, its a great book for those interested in learning about not only the progress that India has made, but also about some of its failures. It discusses many of the challenges that lie ahead, about government initiatives to solve those problems and overcome those obstacles, as well as solutions proposed by NGOs and the private sector when the government doesnt succeed

I find her responses ignorant and asinine and am trying not to get into her trollish comments that often don’t make sense b/c it smacks of a lot personal hatred.

As for Nilekani’s book, looks like an interesting read for sure. Although, Abdul Kalam’s “India 2020 ” sets the bar high.

the biggest detriment to India’s future (NN says getting education right) I disagree. At the risk of derailing this thread, I think the biggest detriment, is future governments at the national level not being secular enough or provide enough rights to the individual states. National Indian governments have to get the balancing act of Hindu Muslim relationship right. To the extent that education is important, teaching the fundamental rights from the Indian Constitution would be a great place to start.

I agree that balance needs to be restored, but rewriting the constituion would be a good place to start, not teaching it. (Guess you have’nt read the POS that the Indian constitution is, between the articles, directive principles, fundamental rights and fundamental duties and its deference to a stupid, outdated penal code, and the deference to just about any law passed by lawmakers. It is as secular as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is democratic. Go to the source and read the damn thing if you do not believe me)

Sure it would be nice to have a secular govenment:

Banning “religious war universities” from a view of public safely Stopping subsides to religious schools and costly sops to various communities and spend the money on a secular education, Moving to a modern uniform civil code,to prevent the self ghettoization of various communities Preventing the governmental “governance”/looting of institutions that belong to a particular religion Pandering to religious leaders of specific communities to win elections Ensuring that the all of the federation’s states have ual rights, irrespective of which religious community is in a majority. Enforcing a broken windows type policy to everyone starting a riot/ indulging in hooliganism, irrespective of religion

are all nice secular steps, but they should be a lower priority than having a strong, competent, uncorrupt and clean, efficient, development oriented, education focussed government

I think it depends on what problem you are talking about exactly. If it is hunger and starvation then I would add Maharashtra and probably parts of Gujarat to that list and West Bengal too. I see the main divide as not one of BIMARU states vs the Rest but a North-South divide. The Southern states are pretty much far advanced in tackling these issues along with literacy, life expectancy and child mortality. Kerala is famous for this but Tamilnad is also very advanced and even Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh perform significantly better than their northern peers. In the north, aside from the Green Revolution aread of Punjab and Haryana only J&K are relatively free from this scourge. Parts of the Gujarat and Mahrashtra do well, as do the major urban centres but outside that the picture is pretty weak.

The issue is mainly socio-economic; you can see it from the withdrawals that these states make from the PDS, states like UP, Bihar and Orissa which have high hunger levels and poverty don’t withdraw and distribute anywhere near as much food as Kerala, AP or TN do. There is a good study by Jos Mooij which captures this discrepancy.

I don’t think it is a ‘supply-side’ problem as such; since Kerala is a major deficit state but manages to withdraw enough food from the PDS and distribute it to those of its population who need it. If you look at districts like Kalahandi which have been studied extensively you will see that they are also food surplus areas and actually export food. This is in line with Sen’s thesis that what is happening here is not a case of FAD (Food Availability Decline) but entitlement failure.

Why this is the case is a matter of intense debate. I would say there is a certain geo-politics of the PDS which gives some states more incentives to withdraw food than others, there are historical reasons which have meant that social conflict has allowed the construction of broader coalitions of different groups for developmentt in some states than others where identity politics is much more divisive and also different political party systems and cultures have meant that things like food are an intensely political issue for political parties in regions like the South to a degree that is not true in the North. But these are complicated matters which probably don’t have a single answer, though I am working on one!

And if you don’t mind saying, what do you do?

No, I don’t mind you asking. I am writing up my PhD thesis at the moment which covers the political economy of poverty policy in India; which is why, of course, I am interested in the topics raised here.