Sanjeev Sanyal Profile picture
Oct 1, 2020 9 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Most of the discussion on Atmanirbhar Bharat has tended to focus on trade & industrial policy. This is not suprizing. However, there is an component that is less understood or discussed - #localism and decentralization. 1/n
The emphasis on decentralised systems is directly related to complex system theory. A key insight of complexity framework is that the world is non-deterministic. Hence, all top-down management is about creating simple "rules-of-the-game" that broadly work most of the time. 2/n
In complex systems, the behaviour of a component is only loosely linked to the whole. So specific outcomes should rarely be attempted top down. Instead, targeted outcomes should be attempted at the local level. 3/n
Now I hope it should be clear why the major top-down reforms are general frameworks - GST, a simple set of labour laws, etc. Specific interventions, in contrast, are localised - to a location/sector etc. 4/n
Hope that the contrast with meticulous "master-planning" is clear. Plans can be done at micro level, but not at macro level in a complex system. At macro level, one creates a general framework and "manages" the unpredictable evolution of the system. 5/n
Indian urban planning is a good illustration. Cities and buildings built before 1950 have a local character (#localism). Once standardised building codes were introduced, the same concrete boxes were built from Chennai to Guwahati with no regard for climate or culture 6/n
The result is 70 years of ugly architecture and drab urban hubs that have no link to local cultural or climatic requirements. This is why India still depends on colonial or pre-colonial urban hubs. Virtually no iconic building in any city was built after independence 7/n
This does not mean that one does not ever target outcomes. But this should be done "locally" - say a Gift City or a "champion" sector. The key is to define & limit it. A few large SEZs will work. Many small ones will not. 8/n
A key component of the above system is contract enforcement. This is what allows the decentralized components to coordinate with each other. Hence complexity thinking leads directly to simple rules and speedy legal process. End 9/n

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More from @sanjeevsanyal

May 30
Looks like the TN Bar Council has issued a fatwa against me for questioning the efficiency and vacations of the judicial system. Their main points in defence of the legal system:
1. The bureaucracy is also very inefficient. Well, I agree. Hence all the effort to do process reforms. Clearly no one in the bar council has bothered to read anything I write about government systems (or economists for that matter). This is no justification for keeping legal processes inefficient.
2. Vacations and holidays are evidently spent writing judgements. Very well, the judges are welcome to take leave like everyone else. There is no reason for the whole system to shut down for weeks on end. Incidentally, other members of society also work hard - corporate managers, scientists, politicians, journalists and even civil servants. We are all participants in building India. No one asks for the system to shut down when they go on vacation.
3. Some 73% of all cases involve government departments. Have heard such statistics thrown around before but, when I tried to substantiate it with data, I was unable to do so. I will be grateful if the TN Bar Council can give me the definite data so that we, as a country, can do something about it.

newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai…
I am hardly the only person arguing for legal system reform and the ending of the system of long vacations. Here is @bibekdebroy , Chairman of EAC-PM, making the same point Image
@bibekdebroy And here is renowned economist Vijay Kelkar & Pradeep Mehta also making the same point earlier in the week.

livemint.com/opinion/online…
Read 4 tweets
Apr 6
The new ASI dig at Rakhigarhi is throwing up some amazing finds from early, mature and late Harappan periods. Some are multi-storey buildings. These are just from a small area; there still are huge unexplored mounds. 1/n

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Sanjay Manjul and his team have also found evidence of a “stadium” with layered seating on both sides. Also piles of terracotta balls near the gates. Were these used for slings against attackers? 2/n
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A new skeleton has also been found. A deep trench at the bottom of mound 3 has found pottery at 6m depth suggesting a pre- Harappan habitation 6000 BCE (not yet carbon dated). 3/n
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Read 5 tweets
Mar 12
What happens in US universities if you do not follow the official line. This "cleansing" first happened in humanities and social sciences, now STEM. The spectacular decline of these institutions could not have faster. 1/n
My family is well known for its opposition (often armed) to Western hegemony but we always had great respect for their universities. My great grandfather Nalinaksha, a revolutionary, won a scholarship to LSE in 1920s. Despite writing part of his thesis in a London prison.... 2/n
.... he too had great admiration for Western universities. The main attraction of Western universities was intellectual freedom. In India, intellectual debates end by quoting authority and not first principle reasoning or empirical evidence; still largely true. 3/n
Read 6 tweets
Mar 10
Now that India's strong growth performance is no longer in doubt, let me deal with some common questions raised about India's economic performance: "FDI is going to Vietnam and not coming to India"; "Bangladesh now has a higher per capita income" and so on. 1/n
At the onset,let it be clear that B'desh and Vietnam are friendly countries & we do not grudge them their good fortune. Nonetheless, as shown below, India consistently gets far more FDI than Vietnam and the gap, if anything, is widening in the long run. (World Bank data) 2/n Image
Of course, Vietnam is a much smaller economy and their FDI inflow is proportionately bigger for their size - but that is a wholly different point than saying that India is losing the battle for global investment (individual instances notwithstanding). 3/n
Read 8 tweets
Nov 1, 2023
I am just making a common-sense point on the Apple alert issue. Just read the language of the notification. It is full of loaded language like "because of who you are or what you do" - hardly a technical alert. Also odd how it states "state-sponsored" without any proof 1/n Image
Email version of the alert mentions that some unnamed "experts" would be needed to help the supposed target of this "state-sponsored" cyber attack/hack. This is suspicious; surely Apple, the world's largest company, would be recommending its own support team and not "experts" 2/n Image
The message version of the alert is the oddest. It directs the supposed "target" to an non-profit called Access Now. Why would Apple ask you speak to external experts in an NGO? Why not its own in-house team? Just asking an obvious common-sense question... 3/n Image
Read 7 tweets
Oct 29, 2023
Spent my Sunday retracing on foot part of the trail that INA and Japanese troops had followed on the Kohima campaign of 1944. Beautiful place but must have been very tough in monsoon conditions 1/n
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I have trekked in many places, but this trail is very special as Netaji personally used this route into India. Even in dry conditions, sections can be very slippery because of the kind of soil. 2/n

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Also visited Ruzazhou village where Netaji stayed for 9 days. The villagers have lovingly preserved the hut and the bed where he slept like sacred relic. Among the most hospitable people I have ever met. 4/n
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Read 4 tweets

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