Joe Zadeh on the tyranny of time: “Contemporary society is obsessed with time — it is the most used noun in the English language. Since clocks with dials and hands first appeared on church towers and town halls, we have been bringing them closer towards us: into our workplaces and schools, our homes, onto our wrists and finally into the phone, laptop and television screens that we stare at for hours each day. We discipline our lives by the time on the clock. Our working lives and wages are determined by it, and often our “free time” is rigidly managed by it too.”
Shankkar Aiyar: “[Since 1991], Relative to its past, India has done well – from sub 5 per cent growth pre-reforms to an average of 7-plus per cent GDP growth. Since reforms, India’s GDP has vaulted ten times from USD 270 billion to over USD 2.7 trillion and its per capita income from USD 303 to 2,000. However, relative to other countries, India has lagged. China opened up its economy roughly the same time as India. Between 1991 and 2019, China’s GDP has grown from $383 billion to over USD 14 trillion and its per capita income from USD 333 to over USD 10,200…Economic growth is sustained by the virtuous cycle of income- consumption-demand-investment-growth. India has struggled to enable investment – indeed, it could be argued that deterred investment results in a large part of its consumption demand being exported. Structurally speaking, decentralisation accelerates processes yet India has persisted with a centralised system that suffers from bipolar disorder of authority and accountability. And this is worsened by the regulatory landscape…The Indian state suffers from lop-sided deployment of resources — it does too much of what it must not do and does too little of what it must do. To deliver on the promise of its potential, India needs to complete the unfinished agenda —install Gov 2.0 to enable minimum government and maximum governance.”
BBC: Past 7 years in India in 7 charts
