Observations, Thoughts and Stories as they form in the mind! Book Reviews, Art, Travelogue, Economy and Society
The bulge in the population pyramid in the age groups 15 to 35 years is the ‘demographic dividend’. While most countries are aging and have very low birth rates, India’s population will continue to grow for a decade more. However, the advantage of having a young population will not be an advantage if the education system fails us.
Concept of human capital captures years of formal general-technical education which are sufficient to measure the skill level of the wage worker. The skill sets required by majority of informal self-employed workers running small business are not captured by this measure. As the latter constitute a vast majority of worker the concept of human capital needs re-thinking.
The PhD student of today is so blessed, little does she know it. I started work on my PhD in Economics more than three decades ago. During this period I had the most interesting ‘close encounters of the statistical kind’ with data and statisticians of the National Sample Survey Office in Kolkata. This association with the National Statistical Office (NSO) and officers continues till today.
Whether you take the social norms framework, statistical framework, the political framework or the judicial framework the question is: How to design policy to improve women’s work participation in India? Social norms remains a major factor to contend with no matter which framework is used to design policies.
Tiger Woods was an American who turned a professional golfer at the age of 20 years. He won the 1997 Masters title in 12 strokes, a record breaking performance. I am not trying to be a Tiger in the Woods! I have thought of golf as a game of the leisurely rich. Then why am … Continue reading ‘Tiger’ in the Woods: Trying my hand at Game of Golf
During Work from Home (WFH) time, approximately a year and a half, I made friends with cats, dogs and peacocks on the campus (see here) where I lived and worked. Back in the office in the University I never thought I would see winged friends at such close quarters again. Or that I would make friends and empathise with them.
I watched the Hindi film Super 30 again. It is based on a true story of a mathematics teacher who runs an educational program for poor children. The film scrutinizes the ambition of parents and children in India to enter the top engineering schools known as the Indian Institute of Technology and the ethics of coaching centers.
An Ode to Dr. Verghese Kurien, The Milkman on India, on his 100th Birth Anniversary. Reposting.
Verghese Kurien (1921-2012) is considered the Father of the White Revolution in India. He is also known as the ‘Milkman of India’. He was responsible for moving India from a milk powder importing country to becoming self-sufficient in milk and milk products. He is credited with creating a series of institutions in Anand, a small town in the Western state of Gujarat, the AMUL Brand of milk products and its cooperative milk federation (GCMMF), the National Dairy Development Board to name a few. The Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) was one of the last institutions he built.
I joined IRMA in 2009 as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Chair Professor in Economics and became the Director of IRMA in 2011 for a full term till 2016. I met Dr. Verghese Kurien a couple of times during…
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Skeletons and Careers in the 'Cupboard'! Recently when my husband was clearing his desktop of old files he came across a few files of our daughter's Eleventh Grade school Science project. It was literally like finding skeletons in the cupboard! Skeletons in her career cupboard?
Our wait is finally over. Our book in-the-making for many years is published. It is available on the site of the publisher, Orient Blackswan and on Amazon in most countries, We examine what motivates women in India to operate enterprises ranging from small and medium to large enterprises?
I reflect on one of the markers of race, ethnicity, country of origin, culture and much else that became obvious in the 2000s and after, Dress or Clothes. Did it ever strike you that the clothes you wear could convey something?
Unni-Verse 