Atanu Dey on India’s Development

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Entries from November 2006

Story of my Life

November 29th, 2006 · 20 Comments


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Tags: Random Draws

Give me Peace on Earth

November 24th, 2006 · 4 Comments

Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
heart and soul
Om
My Lord . . .
PLEASE take hold of my hand, that
I might understand you . . .
George Harrison (1943-2001)

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Tags: Random Draws

Outlawing Child Labor

November 18th, 2006 · 6 Comments

My position is that child labor is not the problem, but rather it is the symptom of a different underlying problem. Merely outlawing child labor will not fix the underlying problem any more than malnutrition will be fixed by outlawing hunger.
Also see related post on Banning Child Labor on this blog.
Your thoughts?

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Tags: Alternative Viewpoint · Misconceptions

Milton Friedman: A Joke and Some Serious Stuff

November 18th, 2006 · 4 Comments

One day an economist looked up and saw a little girl being attacked by a vicious dog, just down the street. He rushed over and saved the girl by strangling the dog.
A reporter interviews him and says, “Sir, this is a wonderful thing you have done. Did you say you are an economist?”
“Yes, I am,” […]

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Tags: Incentives Matter · People

Ideas on the Road to Development

November 16th, 2006 · 22 Comments

Last Thursday I hitched a ride from Pune to Mumbai in a friend’s car. Don’t be dismayed; this is not one of those personal blog posts “What I had for breakfast last week Thursday” types.
We set off bright and early in Nitin’s Mahindra Scorpio, a largish SUV-type car. The car is alright on a well-paved […]

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Tags: Development

Tubular Belle

November 13th, 2006 · 12 Comments

Last month, while waiting at San Francisco International airport for my flight back to India, I was tickled to see a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 which was named Tubular Belle taxi into the next parking bay. It had Richard Branson’s zany sense of humor written all over it. Mike Oldfield’s album Tubular Bells is one […]

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Tags: People

Knowledge is Sorrow

November 12th, 2006 · 4 Comments

Knowledge is sorrow; they who know the most
Must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth,
The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.

– George Gordon Noel, Lord Byron

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Tags: Quotes

Advantages of Being a Village Idiot

November 6th, 2006 · 8 Comments

My favorite village idiot joke goes – please stop me if you have heard this one – this way. Once upon a time, in a particular village, when offered a choice between a dime and a nickel, the village idiot would invariably grin and pick up the nickel and everyone would have a hearty laugh […]

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Tags: Economics

Interested in Transforming Education? (Part 2)

November 6th, 2006 · 29 Comments

Thanks to all of you who have written to me in response to my post “Interested in Transforming Education?”
First, it is very gratifying to note the volume of emails I received. I will, time permitting, respond to all of them. For now, I think it would be proper to answer some frequently raised questions.

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Tags: Education

Interested in Transforming Education?

November 4th, 2006 · 14 Comments

Want to transform education? Want to re-engineer the whole system of education so that it is effective, efficient, and relevant to the world of today?
I have the business plan and the funding. I need committed smart people who want to accomplish an important task, have fun while doing it, and make a lot of […]

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Tags: Random Draws

Abhorrent Discrimination

November 3rd, 2006 · 37 Comments

A Letter to Dr Manhoman Singh
If there is one thing that makes me see red, it is senseless discrimination in general and unfair treatment of people. But when it comes to discrimination based on a person’s religion, I abhor it with every fiber of my being. It disgusts me and I feel nothing but contempt […]

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Tags: Corruption · My Belief · You might be a third world country if ...

RISC and PURA

November 2nd, 2006 · 2 Comments

Recently I got an email from a researcher in Delhi who wrote, “I have been attempting to do an extensive survey of the PURA/Growth Pole concepts. I came across your RISC concept again while searching for related literature. . . What fascinated me the most was that this was the first piece written on […]

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Tags: RISC - Rural Infrastructure and Services Commons

Found on the web - 2

November 1st, 2006 · 1 Comment

Illusions of the senses tell us the truth about perception.
That is a quote from the website 67 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena. To me the site is treasure chest.
Take for instance the Motion Induced Blindness. Pretty amazing. Or how about the Freezing Rotation Illusion?

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Tags: Random Draws