Professional Documents
Culture Documents
STUDIES – HANDOUT
SUMMARIES
On 1 August 2009
Handout Summary Business, Government and Society
Contents
Contents................................................................................................................ 2
Introduction........................................................................................................... 4
Contributors........................................................................................................... 4
From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond: Democracy and Identity in Today’s
India....................................................................................................................... 4
Ideas of India”, “Rights..........................................................................................9
Political Parties in India........................................................................................15
India’s Informal Economy: Facing the Twenty-First Century...............................20
India’s New Entrepreneurial Classes: The High Growth Economy and Why it is
Sustainable.......................................................................................................... 24
Introduction......................................................................................................... 28
Banias and Beyond: The Dynamics of Caste and Big Business in Modern India...32
Traditional Female Moral Exemplars in India......................................................35
Pangs of Change..................................................................................................37
Democracy and Secularism in India.....................................................................39
Affirmation without Reservation..........................................................................41
Redesigning Affirmative Action............................................................................44
Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership.............................................................47
Feminization of Poverty in Post - Apartheid South Africa.....................................51
Thirty Years On: Women's Studies Reflects on the Women's Movement.............53
Explaining Sixty Years of India’s Foreign Policy...................................................56
Indian Foreign and Security Policy: Beyond Nuclear Weapons............................58
Developing India's Foreign Policy 'Software'........................................................61
The Clash of Civilizations.....................................................................................65
It’s a Flat World After All......................................................................................67
Corporations: Predatory or Beneficial?.................................................................69
Serviced From India : The Making of India's Global Youth ..................................78
Labour and Globalization.....................................................................................79
Imaginary Cities...................................................................................................83
Bangalore: Urban Lessons...................................................................................84
The Rise of the Creative Class............................................................................85
Asian Development Bank: Managing Asia’s Cities...............................................87
Everybody Loves a Good Drought........................................................................93
Political Economy of Agrarian distress.................................................................94
Modernising Agriculture.......................................................................................96
Introduction
This document is a compilation of the BGS Summaries painstakingly put together
by a handful of students of the PGP 2009-2011 Section E. Hope this is
enlightening to one and all.
Contributors
[This is one keyword that appears over and over again in this interesting written
speech, which I’m sure all of us must read for the sheer insight it offers into our
country, and its strengths that we often tend to overlook. This is why I have
extensively quoted him verbatim in this summary.]
He says that generalisations are too hard to make for a country such as India,
such that whenever you say anything about India, the opposite is also true.
Pluralism is also acknowledged in the way that
“at a time when most developing countries opted for authoritarian models of gov
ernment to promote nation‐building and to direct development, India chose to be
a multi‐party democracy”.
“Pluralism is a reality that emerges from the very nature of the country; it is a ch
oice made inevitable by Indiaʹs geography and reaffirmed by its history.”
He mentions the 4 most important questions facing all countries at the beginning
of the 21st century:
He then takes up the debate on India’s identity and democracy. He talks of H.D.
Deve Gowda who as the PM of India makes his Independence Day speech in
Hindi, reading it from a paper written in Kannada script. He says such an episode
is possible only in India, where the PM – for that matter, half the population –
doesn’t understand the national language.
He says we all are minorities in India, because our native language, origin,
religion, caste, gender, all divide each one of us into a very small bracket of
people, none of which is a majority. Ethnicity further complicates the matter,
bringing in dress, appearance, customs, tastes, language, political objectives etc.
He also says that nationalism is rare to find in India, since it cannot be based on
geography, ethnicity or religion, all of which are available in diverse forms.
He then moves on to criticise the Hindu Rashtra view of some of our countrymen
by reminding us of the concept of “unity in diversity”. “Westerns dictionaries
define ‘secularism’ as the absence of religion, but Indian secularism meant a
profusion of religions, none of which was privileged by the state. Secularism
meant, in the Indian context, multi-religiousness.”
He says that India’s secular status was made possible by the fact that a majority
are Hindus, which is itself “…a religion without fundamentals: no organized
church, no compulsory beliefs or rites of worship, no sacred book”. He says “that
the Hindu idea that religion is an intensely personal matter,
that prayer is between you and whatever image of your maker you choose to wo
rship.”
He laments that the politics of deprivation has eroded the culture’s confidence,
and Hindu chauvinism has emerged from competitions fro limited resources.
“The suggestion that only a Hindu, and only a certain kind of Hindu, can be an au
thentic Indian, is an affront to the very premise of Indian nationalism.”
He further urges us to celebrate diversity, and says that “if America is a melting‐
pot, then to me India is a thali, a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls
. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next, but they belo
ng together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the
meal a satisfying repast”.
After all, India is too diverse a nation to be confined to only one view, and
democracy is the only way of doing justice to all these diverse sections. One
encouraging observation is that in India, the democracy is embraced by the poor
who turn up in huge numbers to vote, whereas in countries such as US, it’s the
rich that participate more often in democratic processes. This has given
immense power to the lowest of India’s low. He talks of Dalit leaders like
Mayawati and K. R. Narayanan.
He sums it all up by summarizing his vision for the India of the future:
“ If the overwhelming majority of a people share the political will for unity, if they
wear the dust of a shared history on their foreheads and the mud of an uncertain
future on their feet, and if they realize they are better off in Kozhikode or Kanpur
dreaming the same dreams as those in Kohlapur or Kohima, a nation exists, cele
brating diversity, pluralism—and freedom.”
There are few questions in this period to Shashi Tharoor which are being
transcribed as follows
Answer by Shashi Tharoor: After the partition of India, Nehru decided to let the
minorities feel a sense of self-assurance that would come from having no
interference with their civil codes. There has been diversity in the civil code
which has been followed by Hindus and Muslims. Hindus followed the common
civil code across the country, despite regional variations in practice but Muslims
were allowed to retain personal law. I don’t think that we’re going to move
rapidly toward a uniform civil code, and that’s simply because the politics of this
– the politics of diversity.
Answer: I think, yes, chauvinisms tend to feed on one another and so there is no
question in my mind that the assertion of a particular identity be one group. Look
at the rest of our country, “they say “A Muslim says,’ I am proud to be Muslim,’ a
Christian says, “I am proud to be Christian,’ and a Hindu says, ‘ I am proud to
be..secular’.” Hindu can afford to say that, because there is to that degree safety
in numbers. It is identity asserted at its pettiest level, and not at the kind of level
that makes any meaningful religious sense.
Answer: Young are going both ways. There are lots of young people who are,
slogan-shouting assertions of pride and there are some who are simply too busy
seeking jobs at call centers to worry about one thing or other and there are some
who would go out in the street to defend the sorts of ideas.
Answer: I started writing fiction at age six. It is what I do; I have to do it; if I
don’t, it will be extremely painful for me. I started reading the books on my
parents’ shelves as I couldn’t figure out time to spend as I don’t have brothers
and sisters. I started writing the stories. I was blessed with a father who actually
encouraged this, and got it published. I became a bit of a recidivist. I wrote
throughout my school days. I wrote and published short stories in English in
pretty much every Indian magazine that existed in my student days, and kept
writing. I was the only author in U.N which was permitted to write as long as I
don’t violate the staff rules. I had to take considerable amount of time span of
five years between my books because in fiction we require considerable amount
of time. I still write outside the office nothing but at home, I do write a column in
the Indian newspaper “The Hindu”.
Question 6: How is the violence which erupted in Gujarat 2002 is different of the
Babri mosque demolition in 1992?
Reply: Riot, be stopped, both by administrative and police action. What has
been planned in Gujarat has been deliberately planned and executed, and
condoned by those whose job it was to stop it and elsewhere in India these plans
didn’t exist. If governments do their jobs properly and uphold the mechanisms of
law and order, anything of that nature can be prevented.
Question 7: What’s your opinion on current talks between India and Pakistan?
Question 8: Question on Indian Diaspora, the stresses they are feeling, higher
incidences of depression among Indian-American teenagers than amongst other
ethnic groups
Reply: The first, and perhaps most obvious, is that a majority of the kids to fulfil
the expectations of parents and many Indian kids are excelling in their studies.
The second kind is in deep those who don’t want to conform or feel the pressure
and who in fact feel the discordance between family pressure and the world
outside. I m sure that the experiences is different for those Indian-American kids
growing up in place where there are large concentrations of people from the
subcontinent. Certainly the identity from where we came affects the choice we
make. It may be more a difference of what it is that they feel of association with
the identity.
Executive Summary
The article goes into detailed discussion of emergence of Caste based politics
and the conflicts that were rooted in castes in various parts of the nation. In the
first half of the article Guha details various events that helped in making caste
based politics the prime face of Indian democracy, in the second half he talks
about the conflicts and insurgency in various parts of the country in which in one
form or another started as organized resistance by certain castes.
Even though with economic and social changes post independence, we saw the
weakening of the association between caste and occupation, and acceptance of
inter dining and inter caste marriages, caste continued to play a striking role in
society and politics. Most Indians were defined by the endogamous group into
which they were born.
The article is not an opinionated one; it is more or less factual and details
following events -
o Mandal Commissions
Following are the major conflicts that have happened in various parts of country
–
• Naxal movements
• Conflicts in Kashmir
Summary:
Emergence of OBC in the Indian politics in the 1960s and 1970s: These
acted as a vote bank, lining up solidly behind a politician of their caste. It was
these OBCs that formed the social base and provided the leadership of the
parties that successfully challenged the dominance of Congress. Examples: DMK
in madras, Lok Dal, the Socialist party etc. Economic power had come to OBCs
through land reforms and green revolution; political power through ballot box;
what lacked was administrative power.
• Janta Party govt. appointed the Mandal Commission which defined on the
basis of state surveys 3743 specific castes which were still backward.
These were represented very poorly in the administration and thus Mandal
Commission recommended a 27% reservation for them in all posts in
central government to give them an immediate feeling of participation in
the governance of the country.
• By the time Mandal commission submitted its report, Janta govt. had
fallen.
• Congress regime followed headed by Mrs. Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi gave
it a quiet burial
• 1992- SC dismissed the petition filed in 1990 against Mandal Report. But 2
additional things: reservations should not exceed 50% of the jobs in govt.
and caste criteria only in recruitment and not in promotions.
• Initially in 1980s CPI and CPM opposed Mandal coz believed that class and
not caste is the major axis of political mobilization. BJP opposed coz
accorded pride of place to Hindu religion. But finally in 1990s, all parties
saw the political costs of opposing it and thus accepted it.
• 1971 – Kanshi Ram had formed All India backward and Minority
Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF), an organization to
represent govt. employees from a disadvantaged background, a trade
union of SC elite. By 1980s had membership of 200000. Mainly in North,
particularly UP
• Best in UP, at the expense of Congress- BSP stood for “social justice” and
“social transformation”. Had emerged as one of the three major political
groups in the state, the others being Mulayam’s Samajwadi party and BJP.
• Increased visibility of SCs, now knew of their rights under the Constitution
and were fighting for them.
Following the increase in power of Dalits, there were numerous violent clashes
between the upper caste Hindus and OBCs against Dalits. The clashes were seen
more severe in the southernmost districts of the Tamil Nadu and in Bihar.
1970s- Maoist radicals took up the case of Dalits. Naxalites disappeared from
West Bengal where they were prominent a decade ago and now gathered
strength in the districts of Central Bihar. Formed agricultural labour fronts and
demanded higher wages, equality, end to forced labour, share to village common
land and an end to social coercion. New found self respect in Dalits - most
significant achievement of Naxalites. Other achievements
• No forced labor
In response, the upper caste and ruling elite formed senas and private armies of
their own. Infinite violent incidents between these and Naxalites. By mid 1990s-
in much of Bihar, state had no visible presence at all.
Scheduled Tribes:
Naxalites active also amongst STs. STs also called Adivasis lived in the most
resource rich areas of India. Over the years losing resources to state or
outsiders.
• Access to forests and tribals. Particularly angry with the forest department
which restricted their access to wood and non forest products.
• Were paid niggardly sum for like tendu leaves collection used for making
bidis.
Conflicts in Kashmir:
Who was caught in the cross fire? The innocent inhabitants of the valley. Cases
of tortures by CRPF, violent killings etc reported on large scale.
1990s- Assam- good news- accord reached with the Bodos, allowing for an
autonomous council to be formed in those districts where that community was in
a majority.
Manipur- had once been an independent kingdom. Chiefly ethnic rivalries and
also all ethnic groups saw themselves as non-Indians (banned screening of
Indian films) and wanted an independent state
fighters and operated from Burma making raids across the border and engaging
the army. Even govt. officials paid a monthly “tax” to the underground!
1997- church groups and civil bodies forced the rebels and govt. to declare a
ceasefire. Talks on but no agreement reached. The Indian govt. agrees to give
Nagas the fullest possible autonomy but within the terms of Indian constitution.
But Nagas want creation of a new greater state- Nagalism- consisting also of
parts of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, where Nagas live. This of course
is violently opposed by these states. Also want greater sovereignty and retention
of a separate Naga army.
Army operates under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act(APSPA)- special extra
powers to army- misused by the army. Human rights groups have asked for the
repeal of APSPA
Gender discrimination very high. Boys given more freedom and education and
rights as compared to their sisters.
Sex ratio consistently declining from 972 females to 1000 males in 1901 to 927
in 1991
1987- president’s rule and repeatedly extended by 6 months. Chaos and gun
battles killing as many as 20000 lives between 1981 and 1993, with 11000 of
them as civilians.
1992- elections to state assembly. The Akali Dal boycotted the elections and the
elected congress minister killed by a suicide bomber!
1993- Akalis returned to democratic politics. 1997- won emphatic victory in the
assembly polls. Militancy was on wane. Sikhs saw themselves as part of India.
Industrial sector in the state flourishing. This alienated community had regained
its self esteem and resumed its leading role in nation building. Sikhs commanded
some of the most important jobsd in nation was widely hailed as a sign of
Punjab’s successful reconciliation with India.
This summary introduces roles of political parties and the party system in
deepening Indian democracy specifically on their role in evolution in
institutionalized mechanism of power sharing and the promotion of inclusive
resilient state. India adopted written constitution in 1950, which features
fundamental rights and freedoms, and universal adult franchise. India is
organized into twenty-eight states and seven union territories.
India’s politicized social cleavages are of religion, Language, caste, tribe rural v/s
urban residents and class. Hindu’s are internally divided by language, caste and
sects. The broad caste clusters are Upper caste, intermediate castes and two
constitutionally recognized grouping SC’s and ST’s. Other numerically significant
religious communities are Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%),
Buddhist and Jain.
Author Theory
Linz, Argues that nation is forged by state institution; policies that respect
Stepan and protect multiple and complementary identities and that is not
and yadav limited to ethno linguistic federalism. It allows power sharing but does
not privilege to any one identity.
Chandra If ethnic categories are “constructed “ ones as are India’s SC, ST and
OBC. The danger of permanent majorities and minorities can be
sidestepped and the ethnification of parties can be redistributive and
conductive to power sharing in its operation without being
Ashutosh Argues that pressure from below (i.e. poor people) has ensured that
varshney parties promote interventions that mitigate poverty. Such policies are
politically rewarding but economically inefficient.
Paul Brass Critiques is that the consociational argument asserting that political
accommodation in democratic societies is an art not a system and
consociationalism is device for freezing existing divisions and conflicts.
Eventually fragmentation of India’s political system and the emergence
of cleavage-based parties do point to the difficulties of practicing the
art of political accommodation over time
Congress won in first four Lok Sabha elections based on plurality of votes
competing against fragmented oppositions, which varied from state to states.
In the year 1967, congress strength started declining at the national and state
levels. It lost powers in eight out of then sixteen states. Politically mobilized
cleavages emerged, including language based parties such as DMK. Intrastate
alliances of non-congress parties the Samyukta Vidhayak Dals emerged and
pooled votes to oust congress. However, due to lack of coherence in the alliances
resulted in instability and collapse of these parties.
In 1971, the congress won with 2/3 majority in the Loksabha. In response to
congress dominance, anti-congress alliances slowly emerged at the state level.
This raised Index of Opposition Unity against Congress. During 1975-77
emergency, congressed faced temporarily united opposition in the form of Janata
Party. Congress lost elections to Janata Party in 1977 but J P did not compete
against fragmented opposition. Here Durverger’s law held at national level with
two party democracy.
In 1980, janata party disintegrated and congress won the elections. But in 1989,
an opposition alliance emerged supported by BJP and other left wing parties, the
congress share of the votes dropped to 39% and seats too. The National Front
coalition of 1989-90 was novel in three senses. First learning from janata party
experiences and built common manifesto. Second, it brought in reginal parties
like DMK. Third, coalition was the first spatially compatible interstate alliance of
parties. However, this coalition had not moderated or set aside ideological
extremes.
1989 general elections signified a seismic shift in India’s party system with BJP’s
rise to prominence and Congress’ relative decline. From no more than 35 seats
and 10% vote nationally till 1989 (except for the historic 1977 election) to
becoming the single largest party in 1996, it has been a phenomenal rise. Riding
on its “hindutva” agenda and cashing on the upper-caste backlash on Mangal
commission’s report of government job reservations for OBC, BJP won 161 seats
in 1996 and came to power. But it could stand no more than 13 days. It was
perceived as a significant ideological statement on the part of a range of secular
parties. BJP however learnt a lesson and in further elections sought a wide range
of alliances in its nonstronghold states and shelved the religiously divisive points
on its agenda.
Since 1990s, alliances have more or less been based on spatial compatibility, at
the expense of ideological compatibility. The two BJP-led coalitions (‘98-‘99 &
‘99-’04) were based on both spatial compatibility (between BJP & regional
parties) & ideological compromise (the BJP set aside its hindu-nationalist agenda
and other parties ignored its communal character).The congress-led coalition
UPA gained power in 2004. UPA was based on a variety of intrastate spatial
compatibility as well as ideological commonalities (anti-BJP) and ideological
compromises (on economic policy between congress and left). Same was the
case of United Front coalition in 1996. Since the 1960s, however, alliances have
been driven by the desire to aggregate votes and not by ideology, programs or
social cleavages.
A process of bipolar consolidation at the state level was the key feature of and
driving force behind the fragmentation of the national party system: Multiple
bipolarities (viz. congress-BJP, cong-left, cong-regional parties) in state party
system empowered a large number of parties at the national level where they
wielded great power. This also indirectly led to bipolar consolidation of BJP and
Congress led coalitions at the center.
The social cleavage theory explains the formation of parties based on religion &
caste. At the same time, as congress centralized many leaders who were feeling
marginalized in congress left and formed new rival parties. (eg: in AP, TN &
Assam)
The authors don’t really affirm to the point that it is leading to a sustained
bipolarity of 2 alliances but they emphasize here the full representations of
India has a long history of forming party alliances without a match of ideology.
None of these alliances stick together since no ideological, social or policy held
them together. Initially BJP was untouchable because of its Hindutva agenda, but
then again it was conveniently ignored when the non-congress parties needed to
forge a front. Since 1998, BJP has also somewhat moderated its Hindu-ness in
order to sustain governing alliances.
The dynasty reign has been present in Indian politics since Gandhi-Nehru time
which just got strengthened with emergence of Indira, Sanjay, Rajiv, Sonia
Gandhi and more recently Rahul Gandhi. Congress has always been somewhat
personalized by these charismatic leaders. Following their steps, now even
leaders like Sharad Pawar, Mayawati have chosen to run highly personalized
parties. According to K.C. Suri, “the charismatic leaders maintain weak party
organizations to prevent challengers from emerging” is the logic behind these
personalized parties.
The benefits of dynastic politics are: 1) the leaders generally won’t face much
of challenge inside the party. 2) The dynasties inherit an already established
network and brand-appeal. They no longer need to build a political base.
The larger consequence of decline in Ideology and rise of dynastic politics is the
reduction of party organizations to mere election-winning machines. (example:
BJP nominating many film stars for 2004 elections)
Equality: While on one hand, the emergence of caste based parties have
increased the influence of minorities, at the same time anti-muslim parties like
BJP have threatened the equality for the minorities. This also weakens the rule of
the law. The rule of law also gets weakened by attempts of lower-caste parties to
use state power to further their social base’ interest in a manner
uncompromising to norms and institutions (eg: bihar & UP) Another threat to rule
of law is the greater influence and participation of criminals in politics.
The main argument in this article is that the larger part of the Indian economy is
regulated in significant ways by social structures that are resistant to change by
means of macro-economic policy. In its regulation of the informal economy, the
Indian state is not proof against the influence of these structuring identities, as a
result of which it does not work as one would expect a modern developmental
In this section, the author examines the ways in which the most significant social
structures of accumulation – religion, caste, space, classes and the state –
regulate India’s informal economy.
Gender:
The informal economy is for the most part a matter of family businesses which
are essentially structures of hierarchical authority between men. As firms grow in
size, the demand for male family labour increases; but as fertility decreases, the
number of male agnates decrease. Yet instead of drawing women family
members into these firms, women tend to be deprived of productive work and
live fairly secluded lives based on the home.
Marriages and alliances are carefully controlled to create and protect the
resources flows crucial to capital accumulation. When a family contracts a good
marriage, its credit increases. Because of these patriarchal arrangements,
competition between firms is frequently suppressed resulting in oligopolies.
Other adverse affect of keeping strong family control over young male property
owners is that they are often educated only to the level compatible with
continuing to live at home or with close kin. The reinforcement of patriarchal
relations in the class controlling local capital also has contradictory effects on the
welfare of women. Relating dowry to the social status of women, the author
argues that s the economic costs of women rise and their economic benefits fall,
so does their relative status. As the gender bias can be explained by low relative
female status arising from lack of earned income, by the costs of dowry, and by
the demand for male family labour in firms, it can be concluded that wealth
creation and property accumulation benefit men disproportionately.
Religious Plurality:
The roles of religions in Indian economy have been very specific. Religious
groups are often found regulating and distributing livelihoods, and providing
insurance and social security. In these ways, forms of noneconomic and divine
authority may be found to govern economic behaviour. eg. The economic
significance of the Jain religion is far greater than the share of Jains in Indian
population. The existing religious plurality in India has meant that the deepening
division of labour and the proliferation of new and technologically upgraded
commodities and services are easily and sometimes exclusively aligned with
religious sub castes and sects. This results in the social patterning of residential
areas and the spatial patterning of economic activity. Religions also owe their
roles in the economy in part to the secular aspirations of the state. In setting out
constitutionally independent of all religions, The Indian State has left the
economy vulnerable to religious competition in various ways, from the provision
of infrastructure to communal conflict. The Indian state has been penetrated by
Caste:
In India, most Backward Castes and Scheduled Castes form 80% of the labour
force. Backward castes are gaining ground as owners of businesses, but Forward
Castes dominate the concentration of capital. A third of all firms use family
labour alone while a further 15% will not employ labour not of their caste. So,
nearly half the firms are caste-homogeneous. The local economy is increasingly
organized in corporatist forms based directly or indirectly on caste. The
regulative roles played by caste vary with the position of individual castes and
the distribution of castes in different states.
Note: The article contains a lot of examples, this summary does not concentrate
on the examples and rather we have tried to emphasis more on the content.
The article’s focus is on India's informal economy, what Harriss-White calls "the
economy of the India of the 88 per cent". This term is used since more than 74
per cent of the population is rural and another 14 per cent lives in towns with a
population below 200,000. The remaining 12 per cent lives in metropolitan cities
(page 1). The informal economy generates 90.3 per cent of all livelihoods in India
and 60 per cent of the country's net domestic product. Her study of the informal
economy leads us, as well, into the country's black economy, with which the
informal economy overlaps at several points.
The article focuses on the business classes in their daily dealings with each
other, with their workforces and with the local state, reveals the ways in which
the local economy is very tightly - though "informally" - controlled and regulated
by these mercantile business classes. Her detailed documentation of the
business methods of these "intermediate classes", shows the ways, mainly
hidden but sometimes brazen, by which the state's control is neutralized and
rendered harmless, competition is eliminated, and new entrants kept out of the
market. (A lot of examples are given for the same).
Harriss-White argues that it is these intermediate classes that are, in fact, the
dominant segment in India's economy. She defends this thesis by arguing that
the informal economy, in which the intermediate classes are hegemonic,
"accounts for two-thirds of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)" and that "at least half
of the informal economy is `black'" .This is why she characterizes the informal
economy as "anti-social" - it is regulated by the intermediate classes and ruled
by their narrow values based on self-interest.
White further argues that the size of the intermediate classes is growing and a
"new wave of small capital, based on primary accumulation, is reinforcing and
expanding the informal and black economy, intensifying the casualisation of
labour and transferring the risks of unstable livelihoods to the workforce". The
severely exploited labour force is radically subordinated and "labour is regulated
through the social structures of gender, religion and caste, and of local markets".
Her study of the local hegemony of the intermediate classes leads her to
conclude: "Fraud and tax evasion are part and parcel of Indian capitalism.... The
bulk of the economy is beyond the direct control of the State. Countering this
literally anti-social economy calls for the emergence of a more robust and active
culture of collective accountability".
The other issue this article raises is the arguments relating to the impact of
India's religious pluralism on the structure of its economy and the question of
whether capitalism in India is proving to be the "social solvent" that it was widely
expected to be. A major contribution of this article is its discussion of the
debates on "industrial clusters" (or "industrial districts") in India. Here Harriss-
White argues that the overly positive view of "industrial clusters" and "flexible
specialisation" in India, that currently prevails, is quite mistaken. She points out
that industrial clusters are a common, not exceptional, form of development in
India. Low technology is usual in these industrial districts. Contrary to what
cluster theory enthusiasts, whose numbers are growing, claim, most industrial
clusters do not have the "developmentally positive potential" shown by highly
exceptional clusters like Bangalore and Tirupur. In fact, most industrial clusters
in India excel in the "super-exploitation" of workers, especially women and
children.
Importantly - and this is a fact that cluster enthusiasts often choose to ignore in
studied silence - a lot of field research shows that entrepreneurs demonstrate "a
complete disregard for anything other than private profit". This, coupled with
"the inadequate and negligent enforcement of effluent standards" by the co-
opted state, has resulted in vast tracts of agricultural land being rendered unfit
for agricultural use, while large sections of local populations have been deprived
of their sources of drinking water, because these are now toxic. In Tamil Nadu
such disasters have occurred in the Palar Valley (due to tanneries) and in Tirupur
(due to the hosiery industry). The state has remained indifferent or slow and
extremely reluctant to act against the entrepreneurial class, with whom it is in
close collusion. The result is that the burden of these "negative externalities",
created by highly profitable (and much admired) industries, falls, crushingly, on
those least able to bear this environmental disaster - the virtually
disenfranchised rural poor.
The article describes the strength of the powerful political and institutional forces
that rule the economy today, in unholy alliances that have institutionalised
corruption and fraud, making them an accepted, everyday part of the economy.
These hegemonic forces have created almost overwhelming obstacles to the
possibility of "democratically determined accountability".
The article is from the speech of Sunil Bharti Mittal at Center for the Advanced
Study of India, (Occasional Paper Number) on 25th February 2006. The article
outlines the story of economic development of India since independence. The
story of economic reforms in India and the associated political repercussions
have been presented by Mr. Mittal in his speech. He further goes on to establish
various factors which ensure that India’s economic growth is permanent and
sustainable.
Important Quotes
•
Profit motive was considered
unjustified
India in 1964-65; under Lal Bahadur 1965 war with Pakistan; India was
Shastri unprepared after 1962 China war;
setback for economic momentum
After 1965; Under Indira Gandhi • Shaky start; until 1969
• Bangladesh war in 1971;
Supremacy of India established
• Concept of mixed economy
floated
• By 74 politics again overwhelmed
economics
•
Some business houses like Modis,
Oswals showed up their presence
Emergency of 1975-77 Setback to business houses coming to
mainstream economics
1977; First Non Congress government Non Gandhi Government failed
in Centre miserably
Introduction
Arvind Panagariya
ISSUES IN MACROECONOMICS
TRANSFORMING INDIA
Summary
accumulates
As capital accumulates the identity of
national bourgeoisie becomes stronger.
Regional parties develop greater stakes
at the centre. Coalition politics becomes
the order of the day.
Summary by Jagadeesh
The write-up is about the flexibility provided by the Hindu religion to its followers
in terms of moral codes with an emphasis on the female deities and their
relevance to the lives of Hindu women.
The deities have been ingrained in the collective It is very common for a dutiful son to
psyche of the community. They are not perceived be praised as Ram incarnate.
to be distant heavenly figures, but are present in
most people’s lives. The gods demonstrate
standards of morality which are not prescriptive
but can be interpreted and emulated (not
replicated) by the followers.
There is no sharp divide between the divine and Vishnu’s incarnation, Ram though
the human. Gods descend to earth and allow touted to be the best of men, till date
themselves to be judged by believers and non- receives sharp criticism on his harsh
believers alike. They do not claim perfection treatment of Sita.
The religion allows its followers to rewrite and Ramayan and Mahabharat have
redefine the roles of Gods. hundreds of known versions.
The religion even allows humans to punish Gods. Yashoda punishing Krishna for his
pranks (Story)
Drought prone villages immerse the
idol of the deity in water until the rain
arrives (Reality)
Humans are allowed to be elevated to the divine Meerabai achieved divinity through her
levels for their exceptional devotion in matters Bhakti.
ranging from morality to valour. A lot of importance Ganesha won the right to be the first
is attached to people/Gods who devote themselves to be invoked in religious rituals by
to a cause larger themselves, those who are treating his parents, as his entire
extraordinarily committed towards performing their world. Pundalik through his devotion to
worldly duties. Parents and their kids are expected his parents could mesmerise Lord
to love each other more than themselves. Krishna make him stand on a brick for
a very long time.
Pangs of Change
MN Srinivas
Summary by Rithin B
The author speaks about India as a secular miracle of the world but suffering
from poor quality of democracy.
Indian democracy is one of the secular miracles of the modern world and is a
model for developing countries. Democracy is becoming deeply rooted through
Panchayat Raj and Nagarpalika Acts. Though India is emerging as a major power
the rate of growth is slow. The leaders do not seem to care about the country’s
fortunes but in spite of its leaders India is still showing progress.
education a fundamental right believing that public interest litigation will atleast
goad the states to implement it.
provided to the backward classes for education, employment etc. This results in
clashes between the dominant and the scheduled castes which will further
increase as education spreads. This revolution will not be swift and bloody but
rather long and bleeding.
Another striking but not sufficiently addressed issue is the great divide
that exists between the leaders and the people of the country. Leaders are
involved in using power to their own good rather than that of their people. As
Gandhi once said “My people are ahead of me, I must run and catch up with
them for I am their leader”. But today’s leaders are not even aware that the
people are far ahead of them.
It is a section taken by Mr. Amartya Sen from a chapter named “What is wrong
with India?” from one of the talks delivered in Cornell University. He has tried to
bring out the loopholes which still persist in Indian democracy and secularist
form of system, compared with authoritarian countries, scope of development
and merits of following the system.
He asserts that Indians should rightly learn from their errors of the past and must
not forget our social commitments based on which we galvanized as a nation,
pre independence. The same was reflected in our aspirations to set the country
free.
grew the vision seem to be plausible. But in the process, the underlying
principles suffered hard knocks. Embracing this system of government has many
a times led to frustration as it didn’t deliver as was expected. On the other hand,
Authoritarian countries like South Korea, Singapore and China seem to have
achieved much more in economic growth and enrichment than India has. India
though has tried to become a secular country but due to multi-ethnic and multi-
religious conception, it has always been a pro-Hindu country. But the “proto-
Hindutva” which is basically the group surrounding the hard core of “Hindutva”
are less extremist. There are other challenging questions like endemic hunger, ill
health, illiteracy, gender in equality, inequality of class, survival of social barriers
of caste, unequal economic opportunities etc which India should worry about.
Advantage of Democracy:
Indian democracy has been affected by violation of political and civil rights and
individual liberties. Economic growth is important in removing poverty. In
assessing the democracy we must also taken into account its impact on the lives
and capabilities of citizens. The role of eradicating famine has received attention.
The financial crisis in countries like South Korea, Thailand Indonesia took its toll
on these nations and hence, during famines the people didn’t have voice to raise
the issue. Democracy gives an opportunity to opposition to change the policies
even when the problem is chronic.
(2) Larger Chinese success in making use of the opportunities from global
trade
However, India of late has surpassed the life expectancy rate as compared to
china. In India, the rate grew three times after independence while in china it
came to a stagnation point. Kerala whose life expectancy is 75 is greater than
china’s 70 which was earlier dominated by China. It is possible to argue that
Kerala, with its left leaning politics and competitive democracy combined has the
same kind of political commitment that favored china as a whole over India.
Assessment of secularism:
The incidences of Babri Masjid case and the attack on minorities in Gujrat
(Riots), has made Proto- Hindutva group to criticize severely the secular
commitments of India at the time of independence.
(1) The statistical fact that Hindus form the overwhelming majority of Indians.
(2) The historical fact that Hindu tradition is more than 3000 years old in
Inidan history and has its imprints on Indian culture.
Summary by Ravi M V
It is dishonest for industry to talk about merit Openings are not listed in the
when most of its policies hinder the discovery of employment exchanges.
talent.
When we talk of the private sector it is clear A case could be made for
that something approaching 50% reservations limited reservations in the
makes a mockery of the private sector's status 22.5 percent range.
as private. Unfortunately reservations have an
inherent nature of escalation and expansion.
There are numerous other instruments for Licences for liquor shops and
affirmative action other than reservations. broadcasting licences will help
Another incentive should be the tax breaks for the dalits to be benefitted on
companies who implement this reservation for grass root level.
the dalits voluntarily.
Summary by Anuprakash
The article talks about the quota system that has been in implementation in
India for education sector. It dissects the existing system and exposes its
advantages and disadvantages. Further, the authors propose a new model where
the quota system, though based on caste also has other factors of
considerations.
Point-wise summary
The authors seek to analyze the current situation of women in the corporate
world and the obstacles they encounter on their ascent to top managerial
positions, popularly referred to as the C-suite1, by way of this article.
Despite progress by women in the workforce in general, (they now occupy more
than 40% of all managerial positions in the United States), within the C-Suite,
they remain as rare as hen’s teeth.
• Among the most highly paid executives in the Fortune 500 companies,
i.e. President, Chairman, CEO and COO, only 6% are women.
1
The group of officers of a business organization, who have the word "chief" in their
titles.
Hyponym: CEO
• Only 15% of the seats on the boards of directors are held by women.
We find similar abysmal figures for companies in the European Union as well.
In 1986, Wall Street Journal’s Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt gave
the world an answer. “Even those few women who steadily rose through the
ranks eventually crashed into an invisible barrier. The executive suite seemed
within their grasp, but they just couldn’t break through the Glass Ceiling”. This
was how the famous metaphor, “The Glass Ceiling” that women are purported to
face in Organizations was born.
Through the years, Leadership has been denied explicitly to women and even
Country Heads were not privy to this. Former President of the United States,
Richard Nixon, once said,”I don’t think a woman should be in any government
job whatsoever...mainly because they are erratic; and emotional. Men are erratic
and emotional too, but the point is a woman is more likely to be.”
But the authors feel that times have changed now and the Glass Ceiling
metaphor is more wrong than right. Hence, they elaborate on the need to usher
in a new metaphor to betta
1. Vestiges of Prejudice:
2
Complex system of paths or tunnels in which it is easy to get lost. In short, a maze.
However, there is little evidence that the odds are stacked higher
against women with each step up the ladder – that is, women’s
promotions become increasingly less likely at each than men’s at
higher levels of organizations. Instead, a general bias against women
appears to operate with approximately equal strength at all levels.
Hence, the “Glass Ceiling” metaphor does not hold.
This boils down to the case where women are denied the full benefits
of being warm and considerate. Because people expect it of women,
nice behaviour that seems noteworthy in men seems unimpressive in
women.
There is a real penalty for a woman who behaves like a man. The men
don’t like her and the women don’t either.
An important observation has been made here that male leaders tend
to stick to Laissez-Faire mode (concerning itself with neither of the
above two) more than women do.
The most fateful turns taken in the labyrinth are the ones taken under
pressure of family responsibilities.
Taking into account the various obstacles face in their ascent in the labyrinth
that confronts them in organizations, the following interventions by the
management have been suggested by the authors;
Change the long hours norm – Firms must not blindly consider “hours
spent at work”. This can benefit women with family demands and cannot
spend too much time at work but are highly productive
Main Idea:
Black women in South Africa have been oppressed through the ages
due to a patriarchal setup which encompasses the social, political and economic
spheres. Through, colonialism, apartheid and post-apartheid eras they have been
the lowest on the rung and have faced exploitation.
Summary:
• Cuts in social grants which directly impacted the ability of poor black
women to pay for food and other basic services.
• Reduction of tariffs, in the textile and leather industries for instance, led to
decimation of tens of thousands of jobs mostly in the low-skilled areas,
traditionally employing poor black women. This further pushed these
women into poverty.
• Minimal safety net combined with rising food prices leading to food
security crisis and presence of stunting among children.
Quotes:
“majority of women still suffer from the secondary status imposed on women in
the community and at home through a patriarchal ideology expressed through
religion, culture, customary law and tradition”
The report (data) given by committee on the status of women in India (CWSI) in
1974 lent legitimacy to protests mounted by the women’s movement and helped
them to gain state, media and public support.
Violence against women was an important rallying point for the women’s
movement in its early phase which ultimately led to the quest for legal reforms
by the women’s movement.
The efforts of this women’s movement had different foci at different points of
time in the history which include a preoccupation with protectionism during the
social reform movement, a quest for constitutional and formal equality during
struggle for independence and finally attack on patriarchy.
Rape:
The widespread campaign against Supreme Court judgment in the Mathura case
(during 1970-80) brought women’s issues on to public agenda and lobbied for a
change in the rape laws. The mass support obtained from public and media
during this protest made the women’s issues assume a political significance that
political parties could not ignore.
However, when the law was amended the latter was not incorporated and former
only partially accommodated cases of custodial rape.
One of the major flaws in the amendment was that the campaign had been
unable to dispel conservative assumptions about virginity and chastity.
Also there was a clause included in the amended law which made publishing
anything related to a rape trial an offence.
Dowry:
The anti-dowry agitation marked the feminist assertion of the personal as the
political through an activist agenda. This agitation focused attention of both
Indian and international media on the atrocities against women. It was driven by
an energy which in time was “transformed into a brand of activism which
asserted women’s agency in social change.” Some of the major events that took
place are as follows:
• The strategy which was extremely effective was social ostracism and
visible campaigning outside the house of the families that murdered their
daughter-in-law for dowry and were successful in marking them out as
murderers.
• This amniocentesis test offered a way for the families with anti-girl-child
cultural attitudes to get rid of their girl children clinically if not ethically
even before they could be born.
• They had to counter arguments that suggested that the test would be a
useful means of population control.
• It pointed out that it was ironic to talk of choices for women whose
daughters were being killed for the crime of being female.
Sexual Harassment:
The women’s movement had also highlighted the issue of sexual harassment.
This was addressed legally, though only in the context of the workplace, by
Supreme Court judgment of august 13, 1997.
• The judgment does not provide any impetus for women to come forward
and file sexual harassment suits.
• On one hand, there are women who are much poor to consider legal
action. On the other hand are professional women for whom the
description of professionalism as equality has come to mean the ability to
take what in a sexist work culture is indulgently viewed as ‘fun’ in their
stride.
Summary by Om Prakash H
This paper talks about india’s foreign policy from 1947 till date.
Systematic, national and decision making factors shaped our foreign policies
choices.
This article argues that the policymakers chose to pursue an ideational foreign
policy that left india unprepared to cope with China’s threat, which led to border
war in 1962. Now india started to think of security.
During the period of Indian Independence, attention paid to our country by US &
soviet Union was very minimal. This helped India focus on creating foreign policy
without any external influence. The imperial rule of 200 years had convinced the
masses and the policy makers that, our foreign policy should make India, an
autonomic country, and this gave birth to the non alignment strategy, crafted by
Nehru.
• The huge amount of defense spending that India would have had to incur,
had it supported either of the emerging blocs.
• His focus was to develop India, and not to waste the hard earned
independence.
India’s foreign policy had 3 key characteristics, till the time of border conflict
with PRC:
India aimed at diffusing cold wars, and also worked with Ireland to
propose a ban on nuclear tests globally, through a nuclear test ban
treaty.
2. Mutual non-aggression
5. Peaceful co-existence
India, though noticing PRC’s possible border related threat, did not do anything
significant, and when the border negotiations with PRC hit a dead-end, India tried
to guard its Himalayan border with light, poorly armed, ill prepared troops. PLA
claimed close to 14000 square miles, and it still remains a subject of border
negotiations.
After the terrible military defeat, India’s foreign and security policies had a
remarkable change. Nehru overcame his removed limits on military spending.
India embarked on substantial military modernization. But NA was still a part of
India’s foreign policy.
But things started to change after INDIRA GANDHI took over as PM. She
authorized subterranean nuclear explosions project to perform the first nuclear
test. India’s foreign policy now had 2 visions:
India’s foreign policies underwent a major change when soviet union collapsed.
This caused the Non Alignment policy, obsolete. Also, the gulf war prompted
India to stock huge amounts of oil, around 100000 workers were sent back from
Persian gulf on a very short notice, and this also caused a major dent in the
Indian exchequer. These events placed india in dire financial situation.
So, manmohan singh liberalized the economy. India aimed at aligning itself
towards US. US, on the other hand, gave india little significance, especially
because of the NPT, which India did not want to sign. This may also have led to
minimal trade and investment with India. Also, both did not trust each other.
India now started to consider the Southeast Asia as a viable exports sector, and
to encourage them to invest in India. This is the “Look East” policy. It also
focused on the Southeast Asia to prevent it from being dominated by China.
PRC’s nuclear weapons, persistent disputes with Pakistan on Kashmir posed long-
term security threats to India. This forced India to go for Nuclear programs.
Summary by Sriram C
It has been proven that Nuclear weapons are primarily political instruments and
not weapons of war. Given this understanding, and the fact that India has
concluded a landmark nuclear deal with the US ensuring nuclear autonomy, it is
time for India to look beyond nuclear weapons and focus on broader issues as it
advances in the global hierarchy of nations.
ECONOMIC RISE
• Challenge is to maintain the rate of growth over the next few years. India
can continue to be as strong a military power in the future only if it
sustains the growth it has seen in the recent past. It is one of the largest
arms buyers in the world.
INSTITUTIONAL VOID
• There is no effective and central institution in the country that directs the
foreign/security policy and strategic thinking has often been ad hoc and
unclear. The National Security Council set up by the UPA has not lived up
to its goals of anticipating security threats, coordinating management of
national security and long term strategic planning.
INTERNAL SECURITY
• India has not solved a single major case of terrorism in the last five years.
The Maoist movement has become India’s ‘greatest internal security
threat’ in the words of the PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Yet the government
has not come up with a credible policy to deal with such issues.
KASHMIR UNSETTLED
• A large chunk of the population in Kashmir has taken to the gandhian way
of non violent protests for their demand of an independent Islamic state,
closely allied with Pakistan. To tackle this India may have to adopt
international approbation.
• India and Pakistan seemed like they were headed towards a solution for
quite some time till recently when Musharaff lost the mandate to do so.
Meanwhile Kashmir was peaceful until the spell broke over a minor land
issue raised by the hindu nationalist BJP.(The Amarnath land transfer
issue) This snowballed into the largest pro independence march since
1989 in the valley
• One thing is for certain: The international boundaries between India and
PoK cannot be redrawn.
GOVERNANCE WOES
POWER BALANCE
• All of India’s neighbours, barring China, have grave internal issues and are
inherently unstable nations. They resent India’s rising stature in the region
and in the world, as India is viewed with suspicion.
IDEAS MATTER
• India needs to assert what it stands for, globally. India’s rise to the very
top of the hierarchy has been based only on its economic robustness and
it needs to be clear as to what being a global power really means.
• The Indo American deal signing process has shown that the polity is
gravely divided when it comes to foreign policy and strategic placement of
the nations concerns. There are doubts as to whether India can actually
harness the economic and strategic opportunities to its advantage.
Shortcomings:
India’s own foreign policy establishment hinders the country from achieving
great-power status for four main reasons:
(1) The Indian Foreign Service is small, hobbled by its selection process and
inadequate midcareer training, and tends not to make use of outside expertise;
(2) India’s think-tanks lack sufficient access to the information or resources
required to conduct high-quality, policy-relevant scholarship;
(3) India’s public universities are poorly funded, highly regulated, and fail to
provide world-class education in the social sciences and other fields related to
foreign policy; and
(4) India’s media and private firms—leaders in debating the country’s foreign
policy agenda—are not built to undertake sustained foreign policy research or
training.
further adds that the MEA’s in-house policy planning office is widely panned as
irrelevant, disconnected from serious policy concerns, and incapable of high
quality output. A large portion of MEA policy formulation and debate is
apparently conducted by in-person or phone conversations rather than through
careful written analysis, though this pattern may be changing.
India’s foreign policy think-tanks lack sufficient access to the information,
expertise, and resources required to conduct world-class, policy-relevant
scholarship. The Official Secrets Act, closed archives, and tight lipped
bureaucratic culture of MEA are largely responsible for inadequate flow of
information.
The following comment by a member of an Indian Think Tank is most scary, “I
can barely find a PhD from an Indian university capable of writing a single high-
quality page of English text.” The young talent is easily attracted to more
lucrative opportunities in the private sector.
India’s corporate sector has not fully embraced the peculiarly American model of
sponsoring independent research organizations and providing no-strings-
attached grants.
The extensive resources available to the private sector, industry groups such as
CII, and the media have turned these groups into leaders in articulating and
debating India’s foreign policy agenda. Yet it should come as no surprise that the
incentive structures within these organizations are geared toward short-term,
profitable, or high-profile agendas. These groups are not built to undertake
sustained policy research or training and should not be expected to fill gaps left
by government, think-tanks, or universities, even if appearing at a superficial
level to provide similar services.
Policy Implications:
Daniel further compares India’s recruitment and policy making process in the
foreign services with that of China to highlight remarkable differences. In the
author’s analysis for India to achieve great-power status, a number of
improvements to its foreign policy software will be required:
• expand, reform, pay, and train the Indian Foreign Service to attract and
retain high caliber officers
• encourage the growth of world-class social science research and teaching
schools in India through partnerships with private Indian and U.S.
investors, universities, and foundations
US had gained significant economic clout by the end of nineteenth century. Post
World War-II, US concentrated on foreign policy development and has since then
implemented a number of foreign policies and has gained influence in different
regions of the world. The author suggests that India should also follow a similar
policy as US if it intends to become a global power in years to come.
Some of the characters of Indian current Indian foreign policy is listed below:
1. Business-first:
If all foreign policies are influenced by business interests, then it can lead
to sidelining of other issues in foreign policy. According to author this
might force the Indian business to look more towards east and hamper the
India-US relations in the future.
2. Regional:
3. Reactive:
4. One-Track:
Currently India has very few staff and resources in Ministry of External
affairs (MEA) compared to other countries due to which India is able to
implement single policy at a time instead of implementing multiple
policies at the same time. If this continues then it might be detrimental to
India’s global aspirations.
1. India should increase the intake of India Foreign Services (IFS) and also
have a separate exam from IFS.
Earlier, they have been in the West mostly and have evolved from conflicts of
kings to nations to ideologies.
4. Role of west – non west nations form clusters. Eg. Asianization of Japan,
Hinduization of India
Civilizations Rallying
The Kin-Country Syndrome: Groups or States belonging to one civilization that
become involved in a war with people from a different civilization try and rally
support from other members of their own civilization. Eg:
1. Iraq getting support of the Arab nations, with the Arab nations looking
down upon the American supported Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during the
first Gulf War.
2. Conflicts in the former soviet union
3. Fighting in former Yugoslavia
1. Short Term Advantage: promote greater cooperation and unity between its
own civilization – Europe and North American components; incorporate its
culture in the European and Latin American civilizations; better relations with
Russia and Japan to name a few.
The article is an excerpt from the now-famous best-seller “The World is Flat: A
Brief History of the Twenty-First Century”. The author visited India in 2005 and in
the opening paragraphs of the article he compares and contrasts his journey to
the one made by Columbus ~512 years earlier. While Columbus concluded that
the world is round, the author paradoxically finds that the world is flat!
• Carly Fiorina former HP CEO says – ‘..last 25 years a warm-up act for
main event.. era of.. technological transformation in business, government,
society..’
• Americans must now figure out what to do and rise to the challenge.
They are not doing enough to enhance natural competitiveness. Challenge has
shifted from extreme Communism in Russia to extreme capitalism in India and
China. This has to be met with comprehensive, energetic and focused response
as Communism.
• America’s strength had been constant innovation till now. Quiet Crisis is
a result of three gaps plaguing US society: a) ambition gap b) numbers gap (due
to not producing enough engineers and scientists compared to India or China,
and no more importing from India and China after 9/11. c) education gap (in
terms of quality and productivity. The author ends that article with the
conclusion that America is facing a crisis that won’t remain long and it is now up
to the leadership to utilize the crisis constructively to maintain long-term viability
of the US standards of living.
The more serious criticism against MNCs is that they exploit the laws and
regulations of developing countries in which they operate to maximize their
profit. The following examples are offered to bolster this contention:
1. It is not that MNCs pay zero taxes – some taxes are paid, and the benefits of
employment of the unemployed and occasional diffusion of technical know-
how and better management practices from the MNCs to the developing
countries more than offset the loss of revenue from tax concessions
2. The MNC > countries mathematics is based on comparing the sales volumes
of MNCs with the GDP (value-addition in all activities) of countries, which is an
unfair comparison. If one were to look at the value addition of MNCs vs.
countries, one would find that only 2 of the top 50 economies were MNCs.
The Enron situation was invited by India which did not ask Enron to compete
with other firms for the Dabhol tender. MNCs do not have monopoly power
since countries can pit MNCs desirous of entering their country against each
other.
3. Evidence for #3 is hard to find, and this is becoming more and more difficult
to do as governance had become a concern of many aid agencies and recent
agreements have forced MNCs to be more transparent with their dealings
4. It is highly improbable for MNCs to repeat their activities of the pre-globalized
and pre-internet world without being caught and being universally censured.
In fact, a new criticism of MNCs is that they don’t meddle enough in the
affairs of the countries that they operate in
5. Shell shouldn’t be held responsible for the policies of the Nigerian govt. Also,
seizure of equipment and abduction of officials isn’t the right way to protest –
the protestors could have resorted to non-violent means. Bhagwati concedes
that if the Nigerian govt. did not have any environmental policy and that Shell
was making use of this loophole to remorselessly pollute, then the protestors
had a moral case against Shell.
6. No correlation between the wages given to workers and the final price of the
product. Also, a study of the profit performance of 214 companies showed
that profit made by firms was 6.6% on foreign assets, so MNCs weren’t
making huge profits that they can share with the labourers
7. Studies by Linda Lim of the Univ. of Michigan in Bangladesh, Mexico,
Shanghai, Indonesia, and Vietnam show the opposite result – that
multinationals pay a “wage premium” – an average wage that exceeds the
going rate, mostly up to 10%, with affiliates of US MNC paying a premium
ranging from 40-100%. If jobs are subcontracted to local companies, this
premium is possibly negligible.
8. Sweatshops are typically small-scale workshops and not MNCs – they are
most probably run by subcontractors of MNCs. But this is a problem of lack of
enforcement in the host country. Most developing countries have generous
labour laws but no enforcement because the laws were never meant to be
enforced in the first place (they’re just there for the “feel good” factor)
If a country indulges in sweatshop practice, then that country should be
declared a pariah by the WTO and the ban should apply to everyone, not only
to the MNC. Just asking the MNC to not deal with the offending country is
unfair.
9. In cases of domestic laws being less demanding that international law (say in
case of number of working hours per week), most workers in developing
countries voluntarily work excessive hours since they can make more money
– the MNC isn’t forcing them to do so. Also, international laws are quite
broadly stated and are hard to follow, as opposed to domestic law which is
narrow in definition
10.Reality is the opposite – governments have strict rules against unionizing in
SEZs and EPZs because they know that workers will not work/ will shirk work/
draw free salaries if they are allowed to unionize
So the contention that MNCs are bad for developing countries is unfounded.
• Any country that did not extend IPP (intellectual property protection) to US
companies was subject to tariff retaliation for an “unreasonable” practice
• Patent periods were lengthened to 20 years
• Restrictions were placed on poor countries such as Botswana against
importing “generic” drugs from countries such as India and Brazil
• Poor countries can’t pay the high costs of drugs anyway – they have need but
little effective demand
• MNCs make two types of drugs – those for diseases primarily in developing
countries (malaria, TB) and those for diseases in both rich and poor countries
(AIDS). The former drugs (for which poor countries can’t pay) are financed by
public grants/ charitable foundations and the latter drugs are something for
which MNCs value IPP (since the rich countries can pay). MNCs can produce
more of the latter drugs for poor countries at very little marginal cost, but
they’re trying to maximize their return by making developing countries pay
through their noses. MNCs also try to raise the effective demand for their
drugs in developing countries by lobbying other countries to offer aid to
developing countries so that they can afford the MNC’s drugs.
• Promoting bad goods: The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the US bans
certain drugs in America but doesn’t ban their export by US companies/
producers of the offending drugs to other countries
• Bads here but goods there: DDT has been banned in the developed world, but
it’s good for the developing world
• Goods here but bads there: Marketing baby milk powder in countries where
mother’s milk builds immunity in children (and milk powder does not). Also,
water is the countries in which this milk powder was contaminated, leading to
several deaths of infants
• Ambiguous goods (lethal but legal): Cigarette MNCs managed to overturn
Thai entry restrictions for their products although Thai officials argued that
MNCs were in a much better position to penetrate the Thai market (which did
not include children and women) due to their better marketing and
distribution skills
MNCs will benefit if they adopt three approaches to CSR to “offset” any harm
that they do:
Part I:
A critique on MNCs
1. Altruistic institutions like the World Bank should lend to the countries that
donot have the resources to make it own their own (instead of countries
like India and China). The solution is to redirect funds and technical know-
how to these countries since they don’t get them though private
corporations
2. We need to assert the broad aspirational objectives on labour laws like the
ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work by which
many nations have agreed to the following:
The article deals with the Work and Workers in India’s IT Industry. The
article describes how Indian Youth are becoming part of the ITES
industry.
1) Emerging Global Youth of 21st Century (different culture than
older generations)
2) Tapping the pool of “available “ youth (English speaking +
trainable=easily deployable)
3) Selling Jobs tailored for youth
4) New Opportunities , New Life : Youth access ITES
5) Training as Inculcation of New Dispositions
6) Education , Employment and Entertainment – ITES Work as
Lifestyle
7) ITES Youth are Transnational Information Service Subject
Summary Supporting quotes and (or) examples
New youth ITES employees can be easily In shopping malls , wearing ID cards ,
identified . queue in ATMs
Part of Global High Tech. Work and Global They constitute category of worker-
Consumer Industry consumers.
Emergence of new adolescences & Engagement with hegemonic global media
adulthoods & Consumer culture
Beginning of 21st century is a period of ITES employees use ICT extensively ; Indian
intense fragmentation and disjunction Youth is the single biggest source of labour
ITES means Call Centre + BPO + Back
Office (non voice) + tech support + India is back office of the world. Indian ITEs
telemarketing . cater to US , UK , Australia
Problem of unemployment of educated GOI has earmarked ITEs as a prime
youth is solved to some extent industry. ITEs declared as essential service.
‘Serviced from India’ analogous to ‘ Made Large pool of trainable labour. 440,000
in India’ engineers. Absorb into ITES workforce.
Largest Pool of Unemployed Youth from Non-English speaking – ITES cannot help
RURAL areas them at all.
Consultants , desk engineers - lucrative
designations , in reality they are routine &
Advertisements for jobs are misleading stressful repetitive work
Job Fairs , Walk Ins , recruit in huge
Selling Jobs to the Youth numbers .
Basic degree , still good pay – Freedom + Earn while learning – Youths get
independence attracted
High salaries + not dependent on parents –
new lifestyle at young age , compared to
Consumption oriented life styles other jobs
Intense Training is needed. Many workshops and modules , accent
learning , Training negates cultural origin ,
internalise the rules and procedures of ITES
industry.
9 hours / day huge stress : So ITES try to College like atmosphere , posters , Fun
represent work as LIFESTYLE rather than Officer conducts games , Casual Clothing –
labour. no formals.
Outings to Bowling Alleys ,Prizes such as Strategy to compensate and lessen
DVD players Monotony of the work.
New and Westernised lifestyle for ITES Smoking , Drinking , financial independence
youth , outside authority of parent
Industry uses skills of the youth ; Youth
Transnational Governmentality draw economic benefits
Not as workers ; but as Subjects who
ITES workers craft themselves as objectively & subjectively subscribe to the
professionals , visible consumers. logistics of the industry.
Middle class Youth – The ITES job is Issues of work identity and rights remain
transient & transitory unaddressed
ITES work is emblematic of global high tech Workers becoming subjectified as carriers
service work. of economy and consumer culture
Inference : ITES Youth are workers , without identity as workers .Still
Youth are enticed into the industry – it’s a job for them not a long term
career.
Governments are not ready to publicly confront that economic reforms can
increase hardships and inequalities for labour.
• Pre-reform era:
The article describes how with the current economic policy framework which
focuses on greater measure of integration with markets, the labour has been
impacted in terms of
Organized sector definition - all public sector and all private non agricultural
establishments employing ten or more workers.
Facts –
One reason attributed to the shrinkage: Rise in real wages as well as rigidities in
the labour market resulting from policies that prevent market dictated hiring and
firing led employers to freeze hiring and to move towards capital intensive
technologies!
However this reason has been refuted by many scholars on the grounds that real
wages have not increased proportionally to per capita income growth and in
actual terms there has been a decline in power of trade unions. They attribute
the shrinkage to increased competition due to liberalization that has forced firms
to cut labour costs. Liberalization has created environment for cutting down
salaried jobs through
• VRS
• Contractual employment
• Subcontracting
• Outsourcing et cetera
• men and women who eke out a living but unprotected by a regular salary
and job security
• salaried employees who do not have a job security, wage revisions and
other benefits
• low wages
• insecurity of jobs
1. Gujarat
2. Karnataka
• Growth rate of more than 8% in the second half of 1990s; the third
largest recipient of FDI; IT and Bio-Tech advancements and presence of
large number of multinationals; India’s Silicon valley
• Growing distance between leftist parties on one hand and their traditional
labour constituencies and trade unions on the other
Imaginary Cities
Dunu Roy
Summary by Mayank
There are several questions about the nature of “planning” itself. Who makes
these plans? Who are they made for? Do the planners take into account actual
data from the study of how cities grow? Or do they plan what they think cities
should be like, asks Dunu Roy.
Combat Law (Sept – Oct 2003) – It is a landmark judgement that held that the
Right to Life included the Right to Livelihood.
• Large sections of the urban poor habitation have been forcefully taken over
by every government – regardless of political affiliations. (Largely Slums/Informal
Sectors communities in the cities)
• The occupational space that they occupied is being transferred into larger
private corporate entities such as commercial complexes and residential layouts.
• While the driving force behind these changes is manifestly the new
globalised economy, it is offered on an environmental platter of “cleanliness”
and “beautification”.
In vicious combination these three trends are changing the urban landscape as
“homes” to “estate ownerships” in the name of LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation
and Globalisation). The chorus of the “resurgence” may conceal ugly face for a
while or keep away from gaze of the byte-hungry media, but the truth speaks
through many forms, many eyes, and many pains.
If today the presiding juridical deities are unwilling to play midwife, then there
are other conceptions, other weanings – indeed, other worlds! Because city
planners do not make cities, they only imagine them!
By 2050 over 50% of India’s population will be living in urban areas. The cities in
India are ill prepared to cater to the basic needs of its citizens.
This article is a very general brief of some efforts made in Bangalore with the
assistance of the government.
One major achievement was to bring key civic agencies under a common forum
and coordinate their activities towards a common goal. It provided the tools for
accountability and efficiency in the civic agencies. They ensured continuity in the
efforts of civic agencies irrespective of changes at senior levels
Janagraaha
A platform for citizens to engage with local government providing a space for
citizen demands to be met through collaborative citizen government
participation. Constructive Engagement: citizens can be informed and
responsible partners in the decision-making process.
Author asks -
Why are the Cities not following the Companies and trying to retain
creative people?
Creative Index
Current Situation
The creative people have started concentrating in some cities and regions
which have adapted to their needs
Creative people get paid twice the average salary
As a result regions with large size of creative class are also some of the
most affluent and growing.
To some extent such differences were always there - but now they are
more widespread and pronounced.
Chicago integrated the creative class into the city's culture and politics by
treating them essentially as just another "ethnic group" - gave sufficient space
to express their identity
Definition
Types
1. Super creative core includes scientists and engineers, poets, artists etc.
They produce new forms or designs that are readily transferable and
broadly useful
2. Beyond the core group, the creative class also includes "creative
professionals”
a. They work in knowledge-intensive industries like financial services,
legal, healthcare etc
b. Engage in creative problem-solving, using complex knowledge to
solve specific problems
c. Require high degree of formal education
Creative Centers
“Low entry barriers” for people - where newcomers are accepted quickly
into all sorts of social and economic arrangements.
Plug and play community – A community that somebody can move into
and put together a life or at least a facsimile of a life---in a week.(Get
adjusted quickly)
People can find a) opportunity, b) build support structures, c) be
themselves, and d) not get stuck in any one identity.
Thick labor markets - places that offer many employment opportunities
Greater diversity and higher levels of quality of place – Lifestyle is very
imp.
Environment open to differences – Creative people generally grow up
feeling like outsiders, different in some way from most of their
schoolmates
Nightlife with a wide mix of options
Asia’s Urban Challenge is taken from a survey report titled ‘Managing Asian
Cities’ that was published by ‘The Asian Development Bank’. The survey
SUMMARY
Asian Urban Challenge is about the challenges faced by Asia due to rapid
relentless urbanization of megacities (cities with more than 10 million
inhabitants) which is propelled by higher productivity of urban jobs. These
megacities generate employment and nurture innovation & entrepreneurship but
the negative effects of urbanization like environmental degradation, uncollected
garbage, traffic congestion, beggars and morally degraded conditions of vast
squatter areas far are some of the harsh realities that need to be addressed. The
linkages of family, faith, civic culture that are the building blocks to a city are
weakening & in order to save Asia from declining, a more goal driven mission
that maintains a balance has to be followed rather than simple technical
responses to a series of problems.
Megacities are where the global & local interconnect and new technology has
open up worldwide flows of information, capital & labor. Today, there are 12
megacities in Asia that are nation size in population. With emergence of mega
cities, development is encroaching onto more agricultural & forests. Recognition
of different city topologies, population, and economic activity is important to
understand the urban development dynamics.
1. Global cities: typically with 5-20 million and more people within their
administrative boundaries but serving very large global territories:
London, Paris, New York, Tokyo etc.
All the Asian countries have a long histories of local governance but their current
structures most of which is inherited from the colonial powers need amendments
to better manage rapidly growing cities and towns. Most decentralization has
been more of a transfer of administrative responsibility than commitment
towards local governance. Asian local government works under legislation which
determines power, authorities & functions.
Decentralization options:
(1) Metropolitan city in form of single local governance that is responsible for
all local functions. This is evolved either from a previous political
jurisdiction or amalgamation of many. E.g. Bangkok Metropolitan
Authority, administrations in Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Surabaya, and Jakarta.
This arrangement eases the coordination and implementation of plans and
programs.
(2) This is described as the ‘jurisdictional fragmentation’ where responsibility
for local services falls onto the local governments of the metropolitan area
but they lack the necessary resources and capabilities. E.g. Metro Manila
in Philippines
For this the text provides five examples of various forms of metropolitan
governance,
1. Bangkok Metropolitan Authority
2. Metro Naga Development Council
3. Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority
4. Tokyo Metropolitan Government
5. Seoul Metropolitan Government
(a) The centralized model, which has clear lines of authority, from the
central government’s ministry of the interior through a centrally appointed
head, to the municipality, which either has a locally elected or an
appointed mayor and council. The head of the region, as the local chief
executive and the representative of central government, has the authority
to overrule local councils and supervise local expenditures. Variants of this
system are found throughout Central Asia and the former French colonies
of Southeast Asia.
county and sub-county levels. This system has less central government
interference and greater local budgetary authority than the other. A key
feature, often, is the committee system of decision making instead of a
strong executive, for administering public services
The assets of a city comprise those of the administrative units— including their
financial assets, land, real estate, infrastructure, and human resources; those of
all its other stakeholders— including people, businesses, and other
organizations; and the city’s natural resources and environment. There is a clear
distinction between the assets owned by or under the control of the local
government and those of everyone else. Much of these were earlier provided by
state monopolies and typical problems were low productivity, high costs, low-
quality service, lack of asset maintenance, insufficient revenue etc. For this
unbundling is encouraged so that potentially competitive functions are under
separate ownership from natural monopoly components where there is
substantial invested capital
Examples of Unbundling
1. Electricity: Transmission and distribution split from generation.
2. Telecommunications: Local network split from long-distance mobile and
value-added services.
3. Water: Source development separated from distribution and both from
wastewater treatment.
4. Natural gas: High pressure transmission and local distribution separated
from production, supply, and storage.
5. Railways: Tracks, signals, stations, and other fixed facilities separated
from train operations and maintenance
Build, Operate & Transfer (BOT) is a befitting example for privatization in water
segment or in case of highways.
Efficient Governance
Furthermore, the report talks about coordination mechanism to work towards a
more efficient and authoritarian government by Increasing economic integration
of rural areas within the urban economic system and fabric suggests the need for
improving both cross-border and cross-sector coordination without the costly
redrawing of local government boundaries. Two prerequisites for good
governance are more public participation in decision making and public oversight
of government functions.
The report further delves upon Urban Partnerships by citing some prominent
examples.
1. Central London Partnership
2. The circle Initiative
3. Paddington Waterside Partnership
4. Building London creating Future
City Development Strategies (CDS)
In this article, the author wants to elucidate the fact that fund allocation process
for the drought relief programs involves a lot of politics and the media also plays
an important role in this process.
The author starts by stating that the benefits of drought relief programs
do not reach the people who need them. It is an opportunity for many to derive
financial benefit out of it. He justifies it by providing some figures on how at few
places like that in Maharastra, Orissa, etc the budget allocated was more than
the required. He then explains the concept of “Drought-Prone Areas
Programme (DPAP)”, under which the government has ability to include blocks
of land affected by drought. Once the blocks under DPAP, they receive huge
amount of money as well as benefits from host of other schemes, including
Employment Assurance Schemes (EAS), anti desertification projects,
drinking water missions etc. He then explains with the help of figures that
how in the past the, the number of blocks under DPAP scheme has increased
significantly and the blocks which are included had good average rainfall figures.
(Example: lowest rainfall in past 20 years in Kalahandi, Orrisa is 978 mm, which
is way above from many other districts)
He says that the poor suffer acute drought even in cases of abundance of
rainfall because ‘the water resources are colonized by the powerful’. He says
that government thinks that “by throwing money at such regions, the small fish,
who have big votes, can be pacified”.
parties including politicians, consultants, private contractors etc. take their cuts.
The places actually affected by the drought do not get much money. Since, the
basic problem is not solved, this whole process starts afresh next year too.
He then introduces the other problems linked with water, like river water
sharing within the states of India and with Bangladesh. Therefore the struggle
over water resources operates at various levels, coming down to between
villages and between castes & classes.
Finally he ends with following lines, “There are now two kinds of drought:
the real and the rigged. Both can be underway at the same time, in the same
place. As the reports that follow seek to show, they often are.”
The author believes that the reasons for agrarian distress in India lie in the
conjunction of the changing nature of agriculture and democratic politics.
Aim of the author: - To examine the inter-relationship between the structural and
economic changes since independence to the political domain and see how the
changed nature of politics and policy priorities have exacerbated the agrarian
distress.
4. Farmers don’t have any confidence on the minimum return on their labour
and investments.
1. Political parties earlier were concerned about the farmers’ status and their
problems, but slowly they lost interest and started taking farmers’ votes
for granted. This happened because farmers were not united and thus,
didn’t have enough clout to influence the government.
4. During the last two decades, we haven’t seen any strong all-India peasant
movement.
Recent change:-
Political parties have begun to speak about farmers’ distress in the wake of many
farmer suicides.
Modernising Agriculture
Arvind Panagariya
Summary by R Umesh
This is another chapter from Arvind Panagariya’s book “India: The emerging
gaint”
There is a need for external trade liberization – farmers can benefit from the
products of their comprative advantage and technological improvements forced
by compitition from world’s other efficient producers.
The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) which sets minimum
support price (MSP) and FCI (Food Corporation of India) which buys at this price
needs to be abolised. FCI storage is highly inefficent and significant loss of stock.
FCI maintains a work force of 400000 people. Instead maintain a small stock of
around 20 million tons procured at market price to meet food emergencies.
Agricultural Marketing
i. Rising income and shifting consumer tastes from cereals towards fruit,
vegetable etc. Volume of produce to be handled is expanding rapidly – not
scalable
ii. Rising income is shifting tastes toward higher quality and speaciality
produce
States have started replacing APMC, it introduce three new avenues to purchase
and sales
iii. Farners can contract to sell their produce directly to a buyer bypassing the
market.
Example of reliance fresh, Bharti, HLL, Tata, MacDonalds setting up contract with
farmers.
Food Processing
Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) aims to modernized legal framework for
the food-processing industry.
Commercial/Corporate Farming
Farms in India are becoming smaller and smaller (land owned per farmer), hence
very inefficent
This process is slow but other sectors in economy will absorb the displaced
workers.
Land
completely, because of political power of the land lords. Rent control also failed
at implementation.
No proper state issued titles. Land records were kept for pupose of
revenue collection. Whoever paid revenue was consider the owner of the
land.
Rural Credit
C. H. Hanumantha Rao notes farmers meet 60% credit through formal financial
institution and 40% through inform source.
Some state land leasing is illigal hence cannot access institutional credit
Improve credit through contract farming, big farms have easy access to credit.
Fertilizer
Ablolish fertilizer subside to improve quality of fertilizer and promote efficent use
of the same.
Ablolish subsidary and restrict politians making promises of free electricity and
water.
• He also is against the free run of globalization and wants rules in place to
prevent large economies from dominating smaller ones
• Grameen food products rely on very little marketing and hence cost very
less. The idea is to make nutrients available for everyone in the country.
• Lots of other business ventures are approaching Grameen for tie-ups. The
main intention of all this is to make goods available to the poor at
cheapest of prices without sacrificing the quality.
Improving the lives of the billions of people at the bottom of the economic
pyramid is a noble endeavour; it can be a lucrative one.
This is the theme for his views (the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid)
15 yrs from now the global economic scenario may be bleak or bright and
that depends upon the big multinational companies to enter and invest the
poorest markets. The MNCs need not thrive for the social upliftment but do their
business in a fair manner. In the future the markets are going to be saturated
and trying out this will only help them to sustain.
The developing world also needs financial aid and improved governance.
Misconceptions -
But, the real problem lies in the establishing market and distribution channels.
Untapped potential
So a huge chunk of people is being left out at the bottom of the pyramid
(financial inclusion)
That is the case in phone calls, in rice purchases, diarrhoea medication etc
So higher quality at lower prices, maintaining attractive margins with wide base
will sort the issue.
Using latest technologies and innovation will lead to the elimination of the
intermediaries and can be done by E- commerce.
Summary by
Summary by
Eric Raymond.
The Whole of the article goes around the same concept of how the existing codes
can be used to fine tune the code to satisfy the needs of the user
The Author talks about 19 points that good open software must have.
There are 19 steps to creating good open source software listed in his essay:
2. Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite
(and reuse).
4. If you have the right attitude, interesting problems will find you.
5. When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to
a competent successor.
9. Smart data structures and dumb code works a lot better than the other
way around.
10.If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource,
they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.
11.The next best thing to having good ideas is recognizing good ideas from
your users. Sometimes the latter is better.
12.Often, the most striking and innovative solutions come from realizing that
your concept of the problem was wrong.
13.Perfection (in design) is achieved not when there is nothing more to add,
but rather when there is nothing more to take away.
14.Any tool should be useful in the expected way, but a truly great tool lends
itself to uses you never expected.
15.When writing gateway software of any kind, take pains to disturb the data
stream as little as possible—and never throw away information unless the
recipient forces you to!
The Article is more of technical one in which her quotes examples of his own
experience for each one of the above points.
2. Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and
reuse).
Linus Torvalds, for example, didn't actually try to write Linux from scratch.
Instead, he started by reusing code and ideas from Minix, a tiny Unix-like OS for
386 machines. Eventually all the Minix code went away or was completely
rewritten - but while it was there, it provided scaffolding for the infant that would
eventually become Linux.
In the same spirit, I went looking for an existing POP utility that was reasonably
well coded, to use as a development base.
3. "Plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow." (Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-
Month, Chapter 11)
Or, to put it another way, you often don't really understand the problem until
after the first time you implement a solution. The second time, maybe you know
enough to do it right. So if you want to get it right, be ready to start over at least
once.
4. If you have the right attitude, interesting problems will find you.
5. When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to a
competent successor.
In fact, I think Linus' cleverest and most consequential hack was not the
construction of the Linux kernel itself, but rather his invention of the Linux
development model. When I expressed this opinion in his presence once, he
smiled and quietly repeated something he has often said: "I'm basically a very
lazy person who likes to get credit for things other people actually do." Lazy like
a fox. Or, as Robert Heinlein might have said, too lazy to fail.
Early and frequent releases are a critical part of the Linux development model.
Most developers (including me) used to believe this was bad policy for larger
than trivial projects, because early versions are almost by definition buggy
versions and you don't want to wear out the patience of your users.
This belief reinforced the general commitment to a cathedral-building style of
development. If the overriding objective was for users to see as few bugs as
possible, why then you'd only release one every six months (or less often), and
work like a dog on debugging between releases.
Granted, Linus is a damn fine hacker. But Linux didn't represent any awesome
conceptual leap forward. Linus seems to me to be a genius of engineering, with a
sixth sense for avoiding bugs and development dead-ends and a true knack for
finding the minimum-effort path from point A to point B. So, if rapid releases and
leveraging the Internet medium to the hilt were not accidents but integral parts
of Linus' engineering-genius insight into the minimum-effort path, what was he
maximizing? What was he cranking out of the machinery?
Or, less formally, "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow." I dub this:
"Linus' Law".
Here, I think, is the core difference underlying the cathedral-builder and bazaar
styles. In the cathedral-builder view of programming, bugs and development
problems are tricky, insidious, deep phenomena. It takes months of scrutiny by a
dedicated few to develop confidence that you've winkled them all out. Thus the
long release intervals, and the inevitable disappointment when long-awaited
releases are not perfect.
In the bazaar view, on the other hand, you assume that bugs are generally
shallow phenomena - or, at least, that they turn shallow pretty quick when
exposed to a thousand eager co-developers pounding on every single new
release. Accordingly you release often in order to get more corrections, and as a
beneficial side effect you have less to lose if an occasional botch gets out the
door.
And maybe it shouldn't have been such a surprise, at that. Sociologists years ago
discovered that the averaged opinion of a mass of equally expert (or equally
ignorant) observers is quite a bit more reliable a predictor than that of a single
randomly-chosen one of the observers. They called this the "Delphi effect".
9. Smart data structures and dumb code works a lot better than the other way
around.
10. If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they
will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.
11. The next best thing to having good ideas is recognizing good ideas from your
users. Sometimes the latter is better.
Interestingly enough, you will quickly find that if you are completely and self-
deprecatingly truthful about how much you owe other people, the world at large
will treat you like you did every bit of the invention yourself and are just being
becomingly modest about your innate genius. We can all see how well this
worked for Linus!
12. Often, the most striking and innovative solutions come from realizing that
your concept of the problem was wrong.
Don't hesitate to throw away superannuated features when you can do it without
loss of effectiveness. Antoine de Saint-Exupery (who was an aviator and aircraft
designer when he wasn't being the author of classic children's books) said:
13. "Perfection (in design) is achieved not when there is nothing more to add,
but rather when there is nothing more to take away."
When your code is getting both better and simpler, that is when you know it's
right.
Fetchmail Grows Up
14. Any tool should be useful in the expected way, but a truly great tool lends
itself to uses you never expected.
15. When writing gateway software of any kind, take pains to disturb the data
stream as little as possible - and *never* throw away information unless the
recipient forces you to!
16. When your language is nowhere near Turing-complete, syntactic sugar can
be your friend.
Another lesson is about security by obscurity. Some fetchmail users asked me to
change the software to store passwords encrypted in the rc file, so snoopers
wouldn't be able to casually see them.
I didn't do it, because this doesn't actually add protection. Anyone who's
acquired permissions to read your rc file will be able to run fetchmail as you
anyway - and if it's your password they're after, they'd be able to rip the
necessary decoder out of the fetchmail code itself to get it.
All .fetchmailrc password encryption would have done is give a false sense of
security to people who don't think very hard. The general rule here is:
It's fairly clear that one cannot code from the ground up in bazaar style. One can
test, debug and improve in bazaar style, but it would be very hard to originate a
project in bazaar mode.
When you start community-building, what you need to be able to present is a
plausible promise.
A certain base level of design and coding skill is required, of course, but I expect
almost anybody seriously thinking of launching a bazaar effort will already be
above that minimum.
A bazaar project coordinator or leader must have good people and
communications skills.
This should be obvious. In order to build a development community, you need to
attract people, interest them in what you're doing, and keep them happy about
the amount of work they're doing. Technical sizzle will go a long way towards
accomplishing this, but it's far from the whole story. The personality you project
matters, too.
It is truly written: the best hacks start out as personal solutions to the author's
everyday problems, and spread because the problem turns out to be typical for a
large class of users. This takes us back to the matter of rule 1, restated in a
perhaps more useful way:
19: Provided the development coordinator has a medium at least as good as the
Internet, and knows how to lead without coercion, many heads are inevitably
better than one.
I think the future of open-source software will increasingly belong to people who
know how to play Linus' game, people who leave behind the cathedral and
embrace the bazaar. This is not to say that individual vision and brilliance will no
longer matter; rather, I think that the cutting edge of open-source software will
belong to people who start from individual vision and brilliance, then amplify it
through the effective construction of voluntary communities of interest.
4 pillars of KE:
2. An educated and skilled population that can create and use knowledge
2. Democratic system
4. Macroeconomic stability
Strength of the tool- Cross sectional approach, users can focus on all
pillars equally.
Pillar Variables
GDP growth
HDI
India has performed well on some of the factors while not so well on
others, there is scope for improvement. (factors discussed in Pt. 4)
Globalization Ranking
1. Economic Integration
2. Technological Connectivity
3. Personal Contact
4. Political Engagement
Summary by Sadanand
One of the puzzles this book sets out to solve is why states should give up
sovereignty over something as fundamental as the property laws that determine
the ownership of information and the technologies that so profoundly affect the
basic rights of their citizens. The puzzle deepens when it is realized that in
immediate trade terms the globalization of intellectual property really only
benefitted the US and to a lesser extent the European Community.
A number of explanations are advanced to solve this mysterious turn of events.
The book is filled with the susurrus of the murmuring voices who provide
insider's insights into the deliberations behind the formation of international
treaties. However, a few dominant personalities stand out in the book. A small
number of visionaries and entrepreneurs were responsible for the development
of the TRIPs agreement. The chairman of pharmaceutical drugs company, Pfizer,
Edmund Pratt, was a central figure in the globalization of intellectual property
rights.
Drahos and Braithwaite are particularly interested in the operation of the patent
office. In contemporary times, patent offices have become increasingly
dependent upon funding their operations from patent fees collected from
applicants. As a result, they have undergone a cultural change, in which they
have become beholden to multinational companies. The development of the
TRIPs agreement has put pressure on developing countries to set up intellectual
property offices. The authors conclude that a number of measures are necessary