I am, generally speaking, quite sanguine about the long-term prospects of the world. I believe with good reason that the trends are positive, and I entirely dismiss the chicken littles that claim that the sky is falling. But my optimism tends to disappear when I have to travel. For all intents and purposes, it appears to me that the world is going to hell in a hand basket whenever I am forced to be a customer of the US air transportation system, like I was in the last few weeks when I went first to Mexico and then to the East coast. Most people in the US are unfortunately quite familiar with the unwelcome attention of the “Homeland Security” apparatus. It appears to be a farce but I fear that it will end up as a tragedy because the people have abdicated their basic civic responsibility of being watchful of their government. Therein lies a lesson which I will come to presently.
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My colleague Rajesh Jain was a speaker at the the Eight Annual India Business Conference 2012 at Columbia University on 14th April in New York City. It was held at the Low Library, a US national historic landmark building (picture on the right.) I was at the conference and had the opportunity to meet Prof Jagadish Bhagwati and Prof Arvind Panagariya. I am pleased to say that Rajesh’s talk was very well-received. Here’s what he said.
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Shubho Nobo Borsho. This Bengali new year I am spending in New York City. There’s a conference at the Columbia Business School tomorrow (Saturday 14th April). Rajesh is making a presentation there on “Transforming India.” We will also meet Prof Jagadish Bhagwati and Prof Panagariya.
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If you have been reading my blog, what Justice Katju said recently will not come as a surprise to you. “India is a nation of more than one billion fools.” Go read it. I will later put in links to those specific blog posts which make the same points that Mr Katju makes.

An article on Swami Vivekananda in the Wall Street Journal of 30th March titled, “What Did J.D. Salinger, Leo Tolstoy, and Sarah Bernhardt Have in Common?” makes for delightful reading. What they had in common was their devotion to Swami Vivekananda, the man who introduced Vedanta and yoga to America. I did not know that. But anyway, it’s the sort of positive article about a Hindu monk that would give conniptions to the leftist “secular intellectuals” in India. But the Wall Street Journal does not suffer from the knee-jerk negative reflex of the main stream English language media in India; the latter would recoil with horror at the mere thought of publishing a laudatory piece about a proud Hindu. Wouldn’t that be tantamount to endorsing — horror of horrors — Hindutva?
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I supported Narendra Modi in the 2012 Time 100 Poll. May I request you to support Mr Modi? Thank you.

Andrew Carnegie wrote his own epitaph which read, “Here Lies a Man Who Knew How to Enlist in His Service Better Men Than Himself.” He was a captain of American industry and his wealth is “estimated at anywhere from US$75 billion to US$297.8 billion adjusted for the late 2000s.” [Reference.] Clearly the man was no slouch when it came to creating wealth and his epitaph reveals an essential truth about the world — that specialization matters.
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A world-class sumo wrestler cannot possibly be even an average runner, leave alone being a world-class sprinter. The general principle is that there are endeavors where excelling in one necessarily makes it impossible to excel in others. You can be a successful politician in India, or you can be a visionary. But in India, you cannot expect a visionary to be a successful politician any more than you would expect a sumo wrestler to be a sprinter.
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My apologies to the visitors of this blog for the total lack of activity. I’ve been busy and distracted. I am guessing that this too shall pass. In the meanwhile, I offer this video of funny British animal voice overs from the BBC.
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The USGS reports (details) that the earthquake was 7.6 in Oaxaca region of Mexico. I was in a meeting at the Instituto Thomas Jefferson in Mexico City.
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A quick update to say I arrived am in Mexico City. I just checked into the hotel — Hotel Maria Barbara. The flight was fine (~4 hours) but the rest of it was bad. At SFO, the lines at the United check-in took about an hour and a half. Then security took another half hour. Upon arrival at Mexico, the immigration took another half hour. But anyhow, I am looking forward to a wonderful week here. More later.

I am off to Mexico City in a few hours. I will be back at home in Northern California in a week. My next few posts will be from Mexico. Be well, go good work, and keep in touch.

Democracy, like the other great invention of mankind, is a great organizing principle underlying modern societies. But both have quite strict preconditions to be met before they deliver the goods. Economists understand that markets fail under specific circumstances and have figured out mechanisms to guard against those. Similarly, I believe that the implementation of the abstract idea of democracy depends on the specifics of the situation. In India’s case, the outcome is what I call a cargo cult democracy (see my post “Cargo Cult Democracy” May 2004). Kanchan Gupta’s article, “Dynasty above Democracy“, illustrates one particularly ugly feature of Indian democracy — the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and its baleful effect on India. Experts below, for the record.
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There’s an article on Shri Narendra Modi in TIME. (more…)

Besides being very useful, game theory is fun. A broad liberal education should include at least the basics of game theory, just as it should include the fundamentals of microeconomics. Indeed, game theory is one of the most important tools in the study of microeconomics and political science.
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Yoga is a friend of mine whose full name is Yoganand. He’s a Hindu and I have yet to meet a non-Hindu named Yoganand, or even Yoga or Anand. Not conclusive proof that Yoga is a Hindu practice but it does lend some support to the claim that yoga is a Hindu (and the religions related to it, Buddhism and Jainism) practice. Yoga is a Sanskrit word which shares the same root as the English verb “yoke” — to join. Yoga aims to join a consciousness with the Consciousness. Anyway, go check out the debate on Huffington Post. You will first have to vote on what you position is on the question, then read the debate and cast your vote again. They want to see how many minds are changed as a result of the debate. (Note that the “before” and “after” numbers don’t really tell you how many people actually changed their minds. See below.)
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The word “liberalism” denotes two almost opposite set of ideas. To distinguish between the two, it has become necessary to qualify the term. “Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets.” In contrast to that, “social liberalism is the belief that liberalism should include social justice. It differs from classical liberalism in that it believes the legitimate role of the state includes addressing economic and social issues such as unemployment, health care, and education while simultaneously expanding civil rights. Under social liberalism, the good of the community is viewed as harmonious with the freedom of the individual.” It is social liberalism that Sam refers to in a piece on his blog. Excerpts below the fold, for the record.
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That could be the mnemonic for 3.1415926, the first few digits of pi. Have a happy pi day (3/14) and contemplate Euler’s identity.

If you have not checked out My Soup, it is time you did. It’s a tremendous waste of time but fun. (Most waste of time has to be fun otherwise why would anyone waste time?) While there, you must listen to Maria de Barros singing “Nha Mundo.” Pay attention to the sax in the background.