Comments on: Buildings Don’t Matter, Intentions Do

By: Atanu Dey

Atanu Dey — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 22:35:52 +0000

og, I stand by my assertion that India has been impoverished. It is true that there is stolen money sloshing around in overseas and domestic banks. But aside from that, India has lost in incomparably large amount due to government malfeasance and incompetence. See my post "Stealing is a Bad Thing - 5".

By: og

og — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:33:31 +0000

PS: Impoverished? I think not. The cash is there. It gets blown through inane+insane “tablet manias” and “building the world’s fastest supercomputer” at CDAC and IISc. It gets channeled to IIXs to build swank-looking lecture halls with bad acoustics that fall apart in five years.

By: og

og — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:30:12 +0000

My point was that the government of India is easily lured by mirages to invest in technology colleges (which are in the final stages of asphyxiation for want of adequately trained high-school graduates) than to invest from the ground up, as in primary schools and public libraries (which could prime the pump of the human resource ecosystem). When it comes to governance in India, what you could explain by malice you should never write off to stupidity.

By: Atanu Dey

Atanu Dey — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 22:24:02 +0000

og, you have a point. But we have to refer to the most basic fact about India — that India is an impoverished country. India cannot afford libraries like they can in even rinky-dinky towns such as Berkeley. I am certain that budget for the Berkeley Public Library must be greater than the combined library budgets in Mumbai (public or private.)

Just to be sure, let me repeat what I always say: India is not just poor; it’s been impoverished.

By: og

og — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:10:56 +0000

Why pick on UCB? The public library on Shattuck will put most of India’s biggest libraries to shame. You can find 1950 art movies from India there. Try that in Mumbai!

By: Vivek

Vivek — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:23:22 +0000

Thank you for talking about UCB. Among all the things in the US, I like the universities the most. If I had to choose the best place in the world, it would probably be one of the US universities. I have been to be the best Indian universities and I don’t like them.

Unfortunately, when people in India think about the US, they only see Hollywood or MNCs or the US politicians or US military actions. And, even among those who study in US universities, they use it only as a stepping stone and rarely appreciate all that has gone into making a university and rarely do they immerse themselves fully into the atmosphere.

We are quick to copy Hollywood, reality TV, accents, mannerisms, real estate property names, luxury cars, etc, but rarely do we copy the deep aspects of democracy and institutions. Its all about the cargo cult attitude. We want to appear prosperous, but we don’t want to do the hard work that is needed to be truly prosperous. Get rich quick and to hell with institutions. Why bother when one can get education, healthcare for the family outside the country?

By: siddhya

siddhya — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 06:28:57 +0000

http://siddhya.blogspot.in/2009/10/i-am-superior-p.html

i guess when the british left, people who took over the administrative services must have said to themselves – dude, we can either dismantle this and create a new, more democratic system or, or we can keep everything exactly the way it is and just slide into all the places where the british used to be. that way _we_ get to rule this country from now on. we just need to keep acting like the british officers and nobody will even notice.

i think they chose option 2

By: Suhit Anantula

Suhit Anantula — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 05:38:38 +0000

Atanu:

Nice post as always. I really like the quote from Adams book.

In my current role I see the challenge of building institutions like that. It’s actually very hard work and it is a great achievement to continue for so long as UC Berkeley has done.

However, as the Kyoto example shows it all starts with that clear intention or objective and I see that missing in so many places.

Suhit