Sunday Posts

Shashi Tharoor, Author and Indian Politician, has touched a number of raw nerves when he compared Churchill and Hitler, maintaining “Churchill has as much blood on his hands as Hitler does” ( See story ) in an interview with UK-Asian, an Asian community interest website in Britain, launching his new book, Inglorious Empire   (a catchy title with a whiff of Quentin Tarantino). While this has now drawn several angry responses (for example, see this one from Zareer Masani ), there is little new here. Churchill did preside over a genocide, intentionally diverting food from India and causing a famine to punish insolent Bengalis in 1943, a forgotten affair in Britain (like all other atrocities of the empire), but subject to detailed exploration in Madhusree Mukherjee's Churchill's Secret War , and even more famously and dispassionately, in Amartya Sen's Poverty and Famine . Churchill, the arch-colonialist, had actively participated in various colonial atrocities, starting w...

It may be a cliche to say this, but common sense was increasingly uncommon. As Thomas Piketty maintained, the current approach to Greek debt is driven by astonishing ignorance of history ( see here ). The fact that Germany has actually never paid its debt - not after the First World War (when it started another war not to pay) and after the Second (when rest of the world saw sense in not imposing austerity) - is important, despite the claims that German debt was different ( see here ). History is indeed the big elephant in the room. However, for many people, the question of debt is a moral one. But this, the moral question, is less straight-forward than it appears. Historian and TV Presenter Simon Schama, after the Greek vote, went on Twitter to say that he might as well vote not to repay his Credit Card debt and ask the banks to restructure it. Even allowing for British humour, this is a surprisingly ill-informed view. A country is not a person, even though Margaret Thatcher and...

During my teaching sessions on Innovation, I show students a debate between Professor Bhaskar Chakravorti and Tyler Cowen, on the subject 'Is Innovation Over?', hosted by The Economist. It is interesting to see the reactions I get after the students have seen the video, as they remain overwhelmingly convinced that innovation isn't over, given the marvels of technology they enjoy in their lives and the coming marvels they continue to expect. While Tyler Cowen's arguments (and certainly his presentation) are cogent and provocative at the same time - where is the new Budhdha, Socrates and Jesus Christ - he fails to convince the twenty-somethings that the world is going to slow down, even as they sit in London. This is why I believe Professor Chakvorti's arguments in the debate, primarily focused on the emerging world, falls short. As Tyler Cowen rightly points out, celebrating innovation in India in the form of Mitticool is actually being unduly pessimistic abou...