Do it yourself

Addressing the Student’s Union of London School of Economics and Political Science in 1923, Bertrand Russell said, “One of the peculiarities of the English-speaking world is its immense interest and belief in political parties. A very large percentage of English-speaking people really believe that the ills from which they suffer would be cured if a certain political party were in power. That is a reason for the swing of the pendulum. A man votes for one party and remains miserable; he concludes that it is the other party that was to bring the millennium. By the time he is disenchanted with all parties, he is an old man on the verge of death; his sons retain the belief of his youth, and the see-saw goes on.” After more than 100 years, his words not only remain true, but also equally applicable to the democracies which are not English speaking; Indian subcontinent being a classical case in point. In the past 75 years, the citizens of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal ha...

Policy Paralysis vs Policy Haste In 2014, NDA led by BJP's prime ministerial candidate Shri Narendra Modi won a huge majority in the Lok Sabha. "Policy Paralysis" of the extant UPA government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh was one of the primary planks on which NDA election campaign was built. A large majority of people, especially businessmen and capital market participants, had then celebrated the victory of NDA with great fervor. Assuming that the India's economic model based on Nehruvian Socialism (a distorted version of classical Keynesian model) will pave the way for the so called "Gujarat Model". Though not many people had clarity about what the much talked about Gujarat Model of growth is all about, and whether that template of socio-economic development could also be applied to the rest of India. Most people had expected that the new regime will at least provide a proactive, clean, responsive, accountable and business/investment friendly adm...