Who woulda thunk that! This blog is now being mirrored in Hindi. It’s author is Alok Kumar and is called “Bharat ka Vikas — Atanu Dey“.
My Hindi is nothing to write home about. But even I can tell that Alok’s translations of the posts are excellent. I realize that my writing style is not the simplest as I favor the convoluted sentence too frequently. Yet Alok gets the ideas across. Thank you very much, Alok Kumar. Your work is much appreciated.
I asked him why he is taking the …

Time for you to speak up and state your opinions on whatever suits your fancy. If you wish to use the “lurker” login (password “lurking”), please do leave an identifier in the comment.

[Cartoon by Clay Bennett.]

I had to close registration for comments because of spammers. There’s a generic comment login: lurker and the password is lurking. I hope if you use it, do sign off with a real name or with a persistent pseudonym, please. Otherwise it is hard for others to refer to you in their comments.
If you wish to have a real user login for comments, email me atanudey at gmail and let me know what user name you wish to have.
Wish you a fun weekend but don’t be like …

. . . that the chief typewriter monkey has called in sick the last couple of days. Which also means that there will be no posts for the next few days. However, the management recommends the archives for your reading pleasure.

To minimize spam, comments are closed after 21 days of posting. That’s a pity as sometimes people like to comment on archived posts. The occasional open thread should help in this regard.
I have been pondering where I want to go with this blog. One idea is to increase the range by posting all sorts of things that I find interesting. One way is to post links with very very brief commentary, and every now and then post an original article. I have some requests that I should post very …

This is meta-writing: writing about writing.
Ankan wrote:
You write extremely well. You have very good ideas, but your posts are a joy to read even when I do not agree completely with the ideas.
They say good writing comes as a result of clarity of thought. Is it just that, or can one do something more to improve one’s written ability? Is there any advice you would like to give to someone who wishes to write well?
Thanks for the generous comment.
I am not qualified to give advice on how to …

If you have been lurking, de-lurk for a bit. Feedback and questions welcome.

Go ahead. Speak your mind. Stop lurking if that is what you have been doing. Bouquets and brickbats. Whatever it is, just say it. This is an open thread but like all other posts, the comments close after 21 days.
By the by, I am in Mumbai tomorrow at at panel which is discussing “Inclusive Growth.”

If you had been wondering when I will get with the new technology, wonder no more. I have created an SMS channel on MyToday.com and so you can keep abreast of announcements related to this blog and yours truly.
It’s simple. If you are in India, send an SMS saying “Start AtanuDey” (case insensitive, and without the quotes) to 575758 or to 098453 98453.
You will start receiving messages that I publish, starting with an acknowledgment message from “ATANUDEY”. What will it cost you? Nothing except whatever it costs to …

Winter solstice (Northern hemisphere) this year occurs around 6:08 UTC on Dec 22nd. Wish you all a Happy Winter Solstice. Happy Christmas as well.
I think this post is close enough to be the 1,000th post on this blog (give or take a few.) It has been a good run and thanks for your support. Perhaps it will see the 2,000th post one day.
Traffic Rankings for Business and Economics Websites lists this blog number 33 with 1753 page views a day for November. For comparison, the site notes …

In the past, I used to try and respond to all comments. Time constraints do not allow me that luxury any more. I sincerely appreciate the comments, however, and my thanks for those thoughtful comments. Some comments which call for a clarification or further elaboration of the subject, I will respond in subsequent posts.
I generally don’t censor comments and I don’t remove comments, however irrelevant to the post, unless it is pure spam. Some comments test my resolve about not removing comments. Those are the type which clearly indicate that …

This blog is undergoing change. Not just in the looks but new editorial policies will be followed. New improved looks (50% increase in the number of columns, in case you have not noticed), tags, login for commenting, and whatnots.
Form changes will be matched with content changes. Let me know how you like the new looks and also what you would like to see by way of content.

The problem with the typewriter monkeys has been solved. An entirely new crew has been hired because the older bunch were slackers and did not produce enough posts. I am back on the road, vagabonding in Paris today. Here are some pictures of my afternoon in Paris with my friend Courtenay. Tomorrow I leave for the San Francisco Bay area.
Needless to say the new crew of monkeys are going to be hard at work while I am away. Posts will be regular and well considered — none of the …

Being lost is worth the coming home, as Neil Diamond observed in his song “Stones” many many years ago. Traveling to Delhi and Patna was worth the leaving behind of those places, I feel. Now I am back in Pune, the weather is awesome, and I am fully charged up with all sorts of interesting tales to tell. Well, if not to tell, at least to contemplate at leisure since for the past ten days I have been extremely busy. For every hour of observing I do, it takes me …

Comments on this blog are not moderated. But abusive comments are out of bounds as they are not part of civilized discourse. I regret that I will, in the extreme case, ban anyone from commenting if he or she repeatedly demonstrates that he or she is incapable of disagreeing without being disagreeable.

Singapore gets it. I am at the Funan Center, a shopping center, for lunch. Besides lunch, I also get to check mail on the wireless broadband provided gratis by the city. I flipped open my laptop, connected to wireless@sg and here I am blogging away.
The availability of public goods increases the utility of private goods. It is also true that one has to sometimes compensate for the lack of public goods by a greater investment in private goods. Places like Singapore are to some extent rich because the …

Hi from Singaore, one of my favorite cities. I am writing this from the Overseas Family School (OFS) during a break in my meeting with David Perry, the man who founded OFS.
Ah, yes, the weather. The regular afternoon downpour occurred on schedule around 3:30 PM. It rained cats and dogs. David says that these days they have monsoons round the year. Climate change is definitely evident in Singapore. We did not get into whether it is anthropogenic climate change or not.
What I like about Singapore is that the …

I am going to be in Singapore next week for a few days on work. Arrive Singapore Monday 9th early morning and leave on the evening of 12th.
I have given instructions to the monkeys with typewriters in the basement to carry on with their random typing as always. Sufficient bananas and peanuts has also been stocked. So I don’t think there will be any disruption in the output of this blog. You may have noticed that of late, the output of the monkeys has gone up. That is because …

The results of the Indibloggies are in. Thanks for the votes.

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