Comments on: Manufactured Shortages and Corruption

By: Anil Jacob Purty

Anil Jacob Purty — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:01:24 +0000

Dear Atanu Dey,
Just came across this website and Maybe I went to school with you at Spicer Memorial High School, Pune 1980-1985.

Dr. Anil Purty
Associate Professor
Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences
Pondicherry-605014, India

By: BigBoomer

BigBoomer — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 02:30:03 +0000

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By: ZoneWeb

ZoneWeb — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:22:54 +0000

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By: Sambaran Mitra

Sambaran Mitra — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 05:09:09 +0000

On artificial shortage, can you please go through http://www.iipm.edu/IIPM-MBA-mafia.html?
Do you have any opinion about the following? I will like to know if you have written already something about it. If not written, may I request you a blog on this topic?
I know bloggers love to hate ponytail, may be he deserves so. However, I want a dispassionate opinion on te points he made in this particular article.
Sorry if I sounded demanding.

By: Apun Ka Desh

Apun Ka Desh — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 13:32:47 +0000

Most shortages in india can be overcome, i.e if the red-taped bureaucracy and inept politicians have the will.

Read on:
http://apunkadesh.blogspot.com/

By: Prasad SP

Prasad SP — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 12:12:48 +0000

I do not know how many are really aware of the damage caused by the governemnts policy of pegging the salaries of bureaucrats in the seventies when the country was singing socilisim to please our erstwhile soviet masters.
With an ostensible view to reduce the disparity between the lowest and the highest paid govt servant, the IIIrd Central pay commission recommended to keep the salaries of top bureacrats at levels that were just 7-8 times the lowest. In other words a secreatary who used to get Rs 3000/-per mensum in the seventies- asmall fortune those days continued to draw same while for example a labouror started getting 4-5 times his earlier salary with oever time, bonus etc such that after IT deduction the salary of a top bureacrat got reduced to just 4-5 times of the lowest. The time came even running the household decently became impossible when the inflation was at double digit rate, thanks to madam Gandhi’s policies. And what stated as corruption for need evelved into greed now. I alaways felt corruption is like prostitution. Its only the first time one hesitates and soon it becomes a habit with everdeveloping skills of enterprise of reaping the returns with out investment. At the same time the poor salary structure never failed to attract the talented into the public services.People started to migrate for greener pastures.
Look at the fate of Govt hospitals. Do you see any semblance of quality of service in the hospitals. All that done by govt for the sake of poor became counter productive because persons of calibre and character shunned the services to be filled only by the mediocre to the ultimate detriment of the poor. Call me an empire apologist but the administartion was much cleaner during the preindependent times and for another two decades there after. Tose days corruption by an IAS was unthinkable and he was like Caesar’s wife above suspicion. But whats the position now. Uncorrupt IAS is rare.

By: sharad

sharad — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 09:09:51 +0000

Dear Antanu,

I went through a heavy meal of your 50+ articles over last 2-3 days. You have a lucid style and the comments your blog entries receive (though seemingly more from NRIs) too are educative as they broaden the discussion by brining in additional information and viewpoits.

Your profile that emerges from the subset of entries I have read (under multiple categories) is reasonably consistent. You carry a definite venom for commies, Indian beauracrats & politicians, Bush/Republicans, Nehru-Gandhi clan and terrorists from across the border. Many of us share some of this and hence reading your articles strikes a sympatheic chord.

Your categories (too many) are varied and entries are topical. Most of us are ignorant about economics (despite a good first year course at IIT which I had) and you educate us well on this difficult subject through easy-to-understand blog entries.

There were some places where I had an urge to post an opposite view or to request you for additional questions. I haven’t done so but may do so if I stick with the blog in the long run (even probability).

The reason for this post is to touch on two topics in your repertoire – RISC and primary education.

Another reason I read you is because it appeared that you are a man intending to act on some of your convictions. Exposed to a great mix of India and US education, culture and work ethics, my impression was that you returned in 1993 to put your RISC to test on the ground. I haven’t read your original material on RISC but gather that it is about village aggregation and a way to reduce the poverty inducing mass of 600,000 villages which by themselves are not ecomnically viable. I assume RISC involves setting up a production hub (something like MIDC) and a service/shopping center which is within reasonable distance of each village in the selected cluster. I have no idea if you have dropped RISC in last three years. There are only 3 entries in your blog on RISC. The most recent one was about PURA. I think you may be right about need for urbanizing our villages, I was interested to know what headway, if any, in the form of pilots was made to test the model on the ground.

Primary education is another area on which you write copiously and feel strongly about. There is lot of discussion on ICT, broadcast or CD based content on TV etc. Again nowhere did I find any notings on experiments on the ground that you or others may have done that are worth emulating or give us some valuable learnings. My specific interest is in adult literacy.

We have reached the sorry state of Indian social affairs because we may have swallowed the earlier ruler’s (read Congress) pontificaitons when we were young. Who till 1977 could have thought that India could even reach where we are today on gross stats basis!

This week you have given kudos to Mukesh Ambani’s Mumbai/Delhi SEZs with potential of employing 5 million each in 5 years. Whether or not India operates on free market, Ambani’s do with immense investor confidence, their own wealth and right connections. There are others like Ambanis. If there are 40+ SEZs of this size then you will have your super-RISC model implemented. My question to you is this: should we retreat to whatever we are doing (possibly continuing to be entertained by your lucid commentary on world events) and leave the poverty problems of India to private sector? Back in 80s we were too busy or unconcerned to act. Now we are wiser, see the damage and are itching to do something. Shouldn’t we let the free enterprise take its course?

Atanu’s response: Atanu, not Antanu, for now.

By: Sabarish Sasidharan

Sabarish Sasidharan — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 14:36:10 +0000

This article in downtoearth tells us how acute the shortage of medical professionals is. To quote them, based on the numbers released by WHO, there are 0.6 doctors per 1000 people in India.

By: Jawahar Mundlapati

Jawahar Mundlapati — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 04:08:38 +0000

India has the potential to become superpower provided the long pending people issues are immediately solved. Ensuring a credible basic income guaranteed system for every one will bring in dignity instead of desperation for its working poor and embracing inheritance taxes will stimulate compassion instead of collusion among individuals.