Why is @FT complaining? This is precisely what they & various international "experts" wanted India to do. It is inevitable if a large sum of money has to be spent suddenly. Do not blame UK bureaucrats & politicians. Hold the "experts" accountable. 1/n
Global gyaanis and columnists with zero accountability & skin-in-the-game give random advice, but never held responsible. Some of you will recall this article of mine written in response to Prof Stiglitz's comments on India's Covid response.
Indeed, the "advice" and the "assessment of success" changes according to the expert's political preferences. They will simultaneously criticise a strict lockdown & open strategies, and everything in between, without a hint of irony. 3/n
The same runs with structural reforms. The "expert" will criticise the exact same measures that he/she advocated for decades if it happens to be politically expedient at that moment.
Of all the forms of dishonesty, the most damaging to a society is intellectual dishonesty. 4/n
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Yes, your journalist did speak to me but the article does not reflect the conversation and uses an arbitrary two word "quote". Would you like to hear the conversation? I have the full audio recording.
As promised, this is the full recording of my discussion with NYT journalist Suhasini Raj about the Indian response to the Covid19. Conversation starts at 1:50 2/n
30 of 40mins was about the thinking behind India's policy response. As will be obvious, the journalist was not interested. She already had an agenda to push a pre-decided story. When I did not play along, she tries in the last 10 mins to put words in my mouth 3/n
In March, just before the lockdown, I climbed up up Dhosi hill with @ArjunSKadian. Near Haryana Rajasthan border, this hill has great historical importance as it was home to Rishi Bhrigu & his clan.1/n
The Bhrigus are both respected and somewhat feared alchemists in the Vedas. It was here that Bhrigu's eldest son Chavana invented early ayurveda medicine (including Chavanyaprash) 2/n
Dhosi is an extinct volcano & the top has a flat depression with a small temple of the Bhargava clan & the kund where Chavana is said to have been cured of disease by taking a dip. There is also a cave where he meditated. 3/n
Meanwhile Germany, which had ducked the worst in the 1st wave, is in danger of becoming the new hotspot in the second wave. It saw 23k new cases in 24 hrs, same as France, but the numbers are still rising
In memory of my father's cousin, Shyamal Dev Goswami, who was awarded the Mahavir Chakra for showing exemplary courage while directing artillery fire against invading Chinese troops during the Battle of Chusul Nov 1962 1/n
His outpost held out against overwhelming Chinese force till rest of his unit had been killed & he had passed out. SDG then struggled back to Indian lines albeit suffering severely from frost bite. Here is a description of events 2/n
The heroic resistance of SD Goswami and his unit is still commemorated in the army station at Chushul, Ladhakh. These events need to be remembered given the recent developments in the area. 3/n
Major reform announced for the ITeS/BPO industry. Here is the notification on the radical liberalization of regulations for the sector. Mark my words, this will create millions of jobs in next 5 years 1/n pib.gov.in/PressReleasePa…
The registration requirement for OSPs has been done away with altogether and the BPO industry engaged in data related work have been taken out of the ambit of OSP regulations. 2/n
Requirements such as bank guarantees, static IPs, frequent reporting obligations, penal provisions etc. have also been removed. Requirements preventing companies from adopting ‘Work from Home’ and ‘Work from Anywhere’ policies have also been removed. 3/n
This is a fundamental fallacy. History is a complex adaptive system that is not deterministic. 50k of the "brightest" minds cannot predict the new "normal" as there is no such thing 1/n
After the event, some of these 50k "experts" will be correct and these will be hailed as great prophets. However, we have no way to ex ante know which ones. 2/n
So what should we do? Invest in resilience (ie hedge for cliffs) and in adaptation. Then make a few bets that may just work, but with a willingness to ruthlessly shut them down if they fail. 3/n