Praxeology: My Reflexions on India

Arvind Panagaria is a, as newspapers are describing him, renowned economist from the Columbia university. He and his senior professor colleague Jagdish Bhagwati are famous for supporting and favoring Narendra Modi's so-called market oriented economic model of Gujarat. Panagaria recently gave an interview to TOI where he outlined his main economic views for the Modi government if he becomes PM's chief economic adviser. One look at his views makes it clear that if Panagaria gets his way and becomes PM Modi's adviser, then, we are surely heading for more economic troubles. Below I present Panagaria's views immediately followed by my comments. 1. Upon asked what should be the three priority areas of Modi government, Panagaria said: End the paralysis in decision-making in the Central government, end the policy uncertainty for investors including retrospective taxation and other surprises visited upon entrepreneurs by the authorities, and replace the current drac...

So, Narendra Modi and his BJP party won a clear majority in the just concluded 16th Lok Sabha election. On Monday Modi will become the new prime minister of India. The atmosphere all around the country, mostly as seen in the mainstream media frenzy, is euphoric at this moment of so-called historic win of Modi. Most people see Modi as some kind of messiah who will save this country from corruption, economic stagnation, lack of political power and influence with her neighbors etc., etc. I want to focus here on one alleged thought that is going around mainstream media re Narendra Modi's economic vision. Many articles are describing Modi's economic vision - I have dealt with his development model in past article - as, lo and behold, "Free Market" vision (see this for example)!!! Is it really true that Modi's economic policies in Gujarat were free market policies? The best way to tackle this question is to first see the true definition of the free market, and then co...

I am back from my drafted duty of working as a presiding officer in the on-going Lok Sabha election 2014. As you all know I and thousands of others like me were forced by the Indian government and its Election Commission to work in this one of the longest rounds of election. In this short article I want to describe the harrowing experiences that I had during two days of my duty - 29th and 30th April - as a presiding officer. The Training Period Before the day of election - 30th April in Gujarat - the district collector and his other election officers arranged three training programs for election officers like polling officers, assistant presiding officer and presiding officer. Anyone who attended this training program would have immediately noticed how confused the trainers themselves were regarding various election proceedings. I have already discussed elsewhere about the kind of bureaucratic mess this election is. There are so many rules and regulations that anyone will go crazy ...