Sanjaya Baru: “What we are left with is a skewed educational system that on the one extreme produces pupils for the global market and, on the other, puts out poorly educated, linguistically limited, bigoted and chauvinistic youth who have to be retrained to be employed. Into the vacuum created by inadequate public investment in school education, the private sector is rushing in and now boldly demanding a change of policy that will allow for-profit educational institutions. A nation that cannot offer proper education to all will forever find population a bane rather than a boon.” FT: “The world’s most populous country could seize its demographic dividend — or squander it.”
Brian Potter on how solar power became so cheap. Part 1 and Part 2. “The modern solar photovoltaic (PV) cell was invented at Bell Labs in 1954. Early markets were almost entirely satellites, followed by other remote power uses such as navigation buoys and offshore platforms. The US led the world in solar cell R&D until the mid-1980s, when a fall in energy prices caused interest in PV to wane and funding to be slashed. After this, the locus of solar PV development moved elsewhere – first to Japan, then Germany, then China.”
Virgil Storr and Ginny Choi: “People in market societies are wealthier, healthier, happier, and better connected than people in nonmarket societies. Markets are positively correlated with economic growth. Measures of social capital are also higher in market societies than they are in nonmarket societies. Additionally, the benefits of markets do not only accrue to the most advantaged in these societies. Market societies have higher social mobility and lower income inequality than nonmarket societies. Other studies show that people in market societies have higher levels of subjective well-being and quality of life as measured by literacy and life expectancy. Limiting access to markets and restricting the range of markets are, thus, likely to be (materially and socially) costly.” [via CafeHayek]
Yamini Aiyar: “As India marks 30 years of the passage of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments — mandating the creation of elected local government institutions at the municipal (urban) and panchayat level — I am reminded of these building-less, fire-safety-ready schools because their existence is emblematic both of the rationale for local governments (and, by extension, the glaring failures of an overcentralised system) and how elusive the goal of local governance remains due to the powerful impulse of centralisation that dominates our polity….Thirty years on, the cause of decentralisation needs a different political effort led by local elected representatives and citizens. After all, no chief minister, even in today’s era of political centralisation, can stay quiet if the Government of India failed to set up the finance commission. As concerns over the state of India’s democracy grow, the battle for democratic local governments is even more urgent. Only when citizens can have governments that are responsive to their local needs over Delhi’s desire for fire extinguishers can true democracy thrive.”
