Just finished reading India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha, and loved it! In retrospect, it is surprising that we weren’t taught post-independence history at school… My own exposure to last fifty years of Indian history has been through fragmented accounts (through books or otherwise) of specific issues. This book was a revelation in putting it all together.
More than anything, it made me fall in love with India again. In spite of all the imperfections, the very survival of this country is creditable – in fact, perhaps, a black swan outcome. The book traces back the beliefs and convictions that made it so, with due recognition of the failures that happened along the way and continue to happen. Guha concludes that the idea of India as a nation belies all conventional notions of what makes a nation (common values, language, religion and the likes) and by itself offers a model of what nations of the future may be held together by – not the least the inherent plurality and contradictions within it.
While this is claimed as history of India, it is really a political history – but a good one. I am glad the author resisted the temptation, almost till the end, to broaden the coverage to other fields like business and entertainment! What would have been great is to get a deeper view of the changes in society over past fifty years – would have provided a great context for what was driving politics. In any case, a must read.
TiECon Delhi had its curtain raiser yesterday with dataquest awards. Azim Premji received the lifetime achievement award, and emphasized on organizational values as a strong foundation to build successful businesses. Rajeev karwal from Milagrow had an interesting suggestion – to bring businesses that are unwilling to compromise on integrity together under one umbrella (zero compromise) and have certificates issued to them which can be displayed. The desired affect beyond solidarity – if someone walks up and sees that certificate, they should immediately understand that this shop is closed for bribes.
Interesting thought – any suggestions on what can make this work?
Mint has interesting data from ADB on the developmental goals and how India stacks up. Despite the growth that countries like India have witnessed over past many years, we still trail on basic amenities for all.
Ministry of Finance has recently published the Direct Taxes Code proposal, which aims to simplify direct taxes, increase the coverage, and bring uniformity to direct taxes. It has also published a Discussion Paper on the same, and is soliciting rating and feedback from public.
It is creditable that there is an open consultative process that is being adopted here. Make sure you give in your feedback!
Right to Education Bill 2008 was passed in parliament last week. PRS provides MPs with legislative briefs on bills being introduced in the parliament, and I am happy to attach the brief here. Take a look at the key issues surrounding the bill, and tell us which way would you have voted, or your comments?
In future, we will put out some bills that are yet to come to the parliament, and hopefully pass back some of your feedback back to the MPs!
So vote and comment now!
Vote here:
Please feel free to leave any qualitative comments below.
An interesting report on working of CIC’s (Mr Shailesh Gandhi) office. Just other than outlining some of the process innovations around RTI, the report struck me as an account of variability in productivity in government offices – there is no reason to believe that such variability doesn’t exist in other departments/offices, and that the efficiency levels can not be increased by similar levels.
Rastrapati Bhawan has added a helpline http://helpline.rb.nic.in/ – one can lodge a grievance and get online status updates. I haven’t tried it, but hoping this works well!
Indian Express published an interesting excerpt on the usage of Right to Information. The base study has been done by RTI Assessment & Analysis Group, and their website has much more detailed information. The presentation below captures some of it.
In my view, the relevance of this act will multiply several folds as more and more people know about it, and citizens start using this rather than just NGOs and activists. Also, from the presentation, it seems clear that the OD challenges earlier referred to on nextindia.org for other governmental functions are equally relevant here – from PIOs not knowing about it, to not wanting to answer, to not having the requisite training. An integral part of this might be the incentive (or penalty) system that one can implement. It seems that the current penalty system in place lacks enforcement, partially due to the realization that the enablers for PIOs are not in place yet.
Arvind Kejriwal came and spoke to some of us about the need for local self governance and direct democracy at grassroot levels. Essentially, why it makes sense for people to take decisions collectively, rather than through elected representatives, at the local level. As a living example of potential effectiveness of such a model, he shared this video about Hiware Bazaar. Over last twenty years, Hiware Bazar has transformed itself into a “model village” and transformed the lives of people there – right from per capita income to water adequacy, afforestation, land holdings and so on. Take a look (you might have to “Download Video” to watch it in its entirety).
Alok is a first generation entrepreneur, now in the venture capital business. Alok heads up venture operations for Canaan Partners in India, with focus on internet, technology and BPO space. Alok is also a founding member of Indian Angel Network - an organization comprising successful entrepreneurs looking to invest in seed stage businesses. Prior to this, Alok cofounded JobsAhead.com, a leading job portal which was acquired by Monster.com. Alok is an active charter member of TiE Delhi. Alok is a computer science graduate from IIT Delhi and, postgraduate from UC, Berkeley.
The views expressed on this site are personal views of Alok, and do not constitute an offical opinion of any company or organization.
Congrats to Arvind and his team. This does instill confidence in the electorate and common man. The road ahead is arduous, but the answer is Arvind's style: keeping it simple, being fearless, involving a large set of people in decision making. As AAP and like minded parties grow, there would be unintentional mistakes, maybe even […]
Arvind's accomplishment, given the situation in the country and its politics is of scale which can not be measured easily. What 'AAP' has done in one year should be role model for every leadership course worth its dime. It is an exemplary display of resolve, perseverance, planning, keeping-head-grounded and most of all flawless execution. The […]
Hi Alok, Iv known you as a professional for about 2 years. This is my first ever comment on any of your blogs and it comes straight from the heart. Every word of it I relate with. When I started supporting AAP, I got questioned left, right and center. Iv never met Arvind, but a […]
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My own exposure to last fifty years of Indian history has been through fragmented accounts (through books or otherwise) of specific issues. This book was a revelation in putting it all together.
Indian Express published an interesting excerpt on the usage of Right to Information. The base study has been done by RTI Assessment & Analysis Group, and their 
(11 votes, average: 4.64 out of 5)