Politician vs Technician: Food Security Bill

Public Policy Making is a special case within the collective action problem. The members of collective action in policy making are subject experts, politicians, bureaucrats, and voters. (At one stage judiciary enters this list of actors but primarily carries out the function of interpretation.) It is good to observe how different opinions by experts and views by different politicians are sorted out when a bill finally gets through.

Tit for Tat Vs The Power of Forgiveness

"An eye for eye will make the whole world blind", says Mahatma Gandhi. The world has been trying to find sustainable soultions to historical faults such as 9/11, apartheid violence, communal violences in ireland and India etc. Those who emphasis forgiveness say that forgiveness need not be viewed as a principle of altruism, and it is done out of self-interest. At the same time, Tit for Tat clearly says it is a tool of cooperative game and aims to elicit cooperative behaviour from others. How do we strike a balance between these diverging strategies?

Gandhi: Many faces

There are four Gandhis after Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, says Ashish Nandi. If we take success as the parameter which redefines ethics and morality, how do we judge many of our revered heroes?

Choices: Real and Artificial

Whenever discussion on placement comes up, IRMAns talk about increasingly expensive education and constraints on working in sectors where rural management professionals are required. Whenever I hear this, I think about extremes:

1) Student pay nothing. In return student work what you are asked to. Something like military training. We will end up making another bureaucracy.
2) Tied agriculture labour. You take a loan from landlord (to have freedom of doing what you want) and pledge your labour in return.
3) Complete liberal education. Student dont pay anything the State bears all expenses and student is free to do what he/she wants at the end.

In the scenario we have three unconnected entities: loan giver who has their logics to operate; educational facilitation is done by someone else who claims of a mission; student who undergoes the course is left with artificial choices. The very fact that we are talking about 'freedom and choice' here (in the context of liberation) and not mechanically choosing from the given options, sky is the limit. I am reminded of the famous saying by Bernard Shaw: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. Unreasonable man peristantly attempts to change the world. Therefore all progress depends on unreasonable man!".

Saa Vidya Ya Vimukhtaye

What are the institutions that create counterproductive results to liberation?

Gaon Chodab Nahi

Let us identify generative themes in Gaon Chodab Nahi.

Global scale collective action requirements

Though collective action is preached a lot, often at the level of action it is failure. That is what we are seeing when the issue of climate change is being discussed by world leaders and negotiators again and again. As RIO+20 is nearing, this short video reminds us about the challenges ahead to embrace collective action in new ways to tackle global challenges.

Small group-based agrarian collectives

Oscilating between large scale collectives and individual-based initiatives, a strategy that seems to workable is small-group based agrarian collectives. That exactly is the proposition of National Rural Livelihood Mission as well.

Conflicts as signs of good collective action?

All nice people, good hand shakes, patting each other, sugar coated words. Is it the really good collective action? Do conflicts have more curative function than damaging function for collectives? What kind of curative functions are possible? How to use conflicts as instruments for better outcomes?

Collective action that transformed Chinese Economy

Yen Jingchang was a farmer living in remote rural area of China. He took lead to transform Chinese economy using the principles of collective action. This little known story is worth reading.

Outcomes of Movement4

What are the likely examples of repressions (since the ideology and means are different than of state) of movements by the state and what are the likely outcomes from this?

Outcomes of Movement3

Leader of a movement is discredited by the state when the means adopted are illegitimate, but the goal of collective action is same as that of state. What happens to the outcome in terms of achievement of aims and nature of institutionalisation in such contexts of discredited leaders?

Outcomes of Movement2

What are the likely outcomes in terms of achievement of the goals of collective action and nature of institution formed if the means adopted are legitimate but the ideology of movement is different? Ofcourse level of toleration will be different depending on what kind of political climate exists.

Outcomes of Movement1

What the likely outcomes to the achievement of aims of collective action when the ideology of a movement/ collective action is same as that of the state government and the means are considered to be legitimate? The state would facilitate. However, it is likely different outcomes happen depending on political conditionalitie and the nature of purpose around which collective action is generated.