Atanu Dey on India’s Development

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Entries from April 2006

India’s Panama Canal

April 27th, 2006 · 6 Comments

That’s an AP photo with the caption: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and guests at the start of construction of the canal: “I’m more than happy.”
Since a picture speaks a thousand words, I will not have to comment.

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Tags: Random Draws

Box, Happy 50th Birthday

April 27th, 2006 · 5 Comments

I think that globalization could as well be called “Americanization.” Too many components that go to make up the modern globalized world are labeled “Invented in America,” from the Internet to the shipping container. Chances are that you have not heard of Malcolm McLean. Yet, his innovation has profoundly shaped the globalized world we live […]

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Tags: Globalization

Journey to Kanpur — Part 2

April 25th, 2006 · 10 Comments

Gates of IITK
It takes nearly two hours by road to get from the Lucknow airport (Kanpur does not have an airport) to the IIT campus in Kalyanpur outside Kanpur city limits. The road is fairly good by Indian standards and just before entering Kanpur city, it crosses the wide expanse of the river Ganga.
It was […]

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Tags: Development · RISC - Rural Infrastructure and Services Commons

Jagdish Bhagwati on RadioEconomics

April 24th, 2006 · 2 Comments

Prof James Reese recently interviewed Jagdish Bhagwati, listed as one of “World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals,” on RadioEconomics.

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Tags: Podcasts

Fragments — 11 (Tom Friedman edition)

April 21st, 2006 · 7 Comments

Not that I am being lazy, but I think that you should read The Datsun and the Shoe Tree, a “Florid Affairs” column by Thomas L Freetrademan.

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Tags: Friedman

Journey to Kanpur — Part 1

April 16th, 2006 · 9 Comments

There are places I remember all my life,
Though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain. . .
IIT Kanpur
In case you have been wondering about the break in blogging, wonder no more. I have been on the road. Last week, I was first in Mumbai and then I was in IIT […]

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Tags: Random Draws

Shubho Nobo-borsho

April 15th, 2006 · 8 Comments

Subho Nobo-borsho, as we say in Bengali, which is the greetings on the “Auspicious New Year” since today is the Bengali New Year!
New year, new resolve. What else to quote but Guru Robindranath Thakur’s (aka Robindranath Tagore) prayer from Gitanjali, a collection of song offerings:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held […]

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Tags: Random Draws

Fragments - 10

April 7th, 2006 · 5 Comments

Beautiful China
Via Myke’s Blog, these pictures of scenes from China are breathtakingly beautiful. This is a magical world that we live in.
Searching Tips
And talking about magic, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, as Arthur C Clarke has famously noted. To me the technology which powers Google search is magical. Almost all of the […]

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Tags: Random Draws

Fragments - 9

April 7th, 2006 · No Comments

Pippa’s Song

The year’s at the spring
And day’s at the morn
Morning’s at seven
The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d
The lark’s on the wing
The snail’s on the thorn
God’s in His heaven—
All’s right with the world!

Robert Browning (1812-1889) painted that beautiful word-picture. It has the quality of a haiku–sparse and based in the here and now. What I especially like is the […]

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Tags: Random Draws

Education Matters — Part 2

April 5th, 2006 · 15 Comments

I think it is fair to make the claim that development and economic growth are positively correlated with how educated the population is. It is also fair to say that the returns to education are positive. There are important implications which arise from the latter.

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Tags: Education

Education Matters — Part 1

April 4th, 2006 · 21 Comments

Yesterday I got a call from someone who wanted my advice. It was regarding his son who is in the 7th grade. The school required the parents to fill in a multi-page form with detailed information about the background of the student. The conjecture was that this information was going to become part of the […]

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Tags: Education

No Man is an Island

April 2nd, 2006 · 4 Comments

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were. Any […]

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Tags: Quotes

Google Romance

April 1st, 2006 · No Comments

Google Romance must be the hottest thing this April 1st. Too many people have emailed me about it. I thought it was rather lame compared to their other crackpot beta releases. (Do take their Google Romance Tour, though.)

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Tags: Random Draws