Reflections

Aravind Panagriya and Jagdish Bhagwati have been painted by media (the non presstitute kind, which are fervent Modibhakts) as opposed to the last UPA government and its doings. It was with curiosity then that I took up their well-known book “Why growth matters” . In most editorial and oped columns, the book has been depicted as ferociously opposed to the UPA economic policies and it has been claimed that the book has shown how the UPA government had derailed economic growth. However when I read the book, which was published in 2013, and presumably written in 2012 , judging by the tables published, I was bewildered. Nowhere did I find any denunciation of the UPA policies. To the contrary, all their calculations have shown that the UPA government did quite well in most of the economic parameters that they calculated. Let us take for instance the question of poverty reduction. The opposition ( read the BJP) at that time made a huge hue and cry about the poverty figures and claimed t

Pokhara , where we lived and worked for 4 happy years The Nepal blockade is unbelievable. Contrary to all international laws, India is blockading a small landlocked country in an attempt to bring it to its knees . One would understand if the Hindutwits who run the Indian government thought that they were striking a blow against Islam.( as those idiots who are abusing people like Dr Bhargava think). Nepal is even more Hindu than India. The country has always been the only one in the world that lets us visit and work there with no questions asked. Some of us have had the privilege of doing so and many of us remember those times as the happiest and most relaxed times we have ever spent among some of the most friendly people on earth. It is time to speak out about this. It is totally unacceptable that India should treat Nepal in this manner. No matter what the provocation, this MUST STOP. I am reproducing an article written by Kunda Dixit in Nepal Times which may give a flavour of