Many perspectives, one conclusion
In his column for The Indian Express, P Chidambaram writes that India's average growth rate of 6.5 over several years is dismal and is keeping India in the group of countries with a ‘lower-middle income’ that includes Egypt, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam and Nigeria. He adds that it is time to summon Manmohan Singh-like courage to break out of the lower-middle income trap.
Why is private capital shying away from investment in India? The foremost reason is the trust deficit between the government of India and the industry. Finance Minister Ms Nirmala Sitaraman has used every arrow in her quiver, but Indian investors are not impressed by her entreaties or admonitions or threats. They prefer to hoard cash, wait and watch, acquire insolvent companies or invest abroad.P Chidambaram
Rape and victim-blaming cues from leaders, judges
In her column for Hindustan Times, Namita Bhandare writes on Mamata Banerjee giving advice to the medical student in Durgapur who was raped outside her campus. “We are not defending anyone but girls should not leave campus at night,” said one of only two women Chief Ministers in India at present. She is not alone.
In no other crime is this much scrutiny placed on the victim. Nobody asks if the victim of chain-snatching “asked for it”. Yet, when it comes to rape and sexual crimes, we have endless questions: Why was she out late at night? Why was she drinking? What was she wearing? Was she friends with the perpetrator? The answer to all of the above is: It doesn’t matter. When we ask these questions we are reinforcing the message that a woman belongs inside her house. Worse, we are making excuses for men who rape.Namita Bhandare
Why we forever remain a country with immense ‘potential’
In her column for The Indian Express, Tavleen Singh writes that India is still a long, long way from being a fully developed country despite our Prime Minister selling us this happy but perhaps deluded dream. She adds that the most important political issues in India are economic and what ordinary voters really want is jobs that would enable them to escape the degradation in which they mostly live.
So, it should not surprise us that there were 187 million applicants for 64,197 railway jobs last year. Nor should it surprise us that young people sometimes pay with their lives while being recruited for jobs in the army and the police. This does not happen in ‘developed’ countries and it should not be happening in a country that seeks to become developed when we complete a century of shaking off the shackles of the British Raj.Tavleen Singh
Beyond Gaza
In his column for The Telegraph, Ramchandra Guha writes that although the Gaza ceasefire comes as a relief to every sensible person irrespective of their country of origin, every sensible person also know that the ceasefire is merely a very modest first step, and that the road to peace and justice remains arduous and tortuous, with many hurdles to overcome. He draws parallels from two books, which were written over 40 years ago but bear recalling today.
In the course of his book, Octavio Paz at one place remarks: “During World War II, André Breton wrote, ‘The world owes the Jewish people reparation.’ The moment I read them, I took these words to my heart. Forty years later I say: Israel owes the Palestinians reparation.” Writing forty years later still, while endorsing Paz’s judgements, I would offer two amendments. First, after the Holocaust, it was not so much the world as a whole but the countries of Western and Eastern Europe in particular that owed the Jewish people reparation. Second, in the year 2025, it is even more clear that while Israel does indeed owe the Palestinians reparation, so do the countries that have supported Israel’s expansionist and colonialist policies.Ramchandra Guha
Breaking to build: What the Nobel for economics tells India
In his column for Deccan Herald, TCA Ranganathan writes that this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics may help us in India resolve a long-standing paradox: how can a country be a global growth leader and yet remain a manufacturing underachiever?
If creative destruction is the engine of innovation, insolvency law is the shock absorber. Here, India and the US are opposites. In the US, bankruptcy is a second chance. Entrepreneurs who fail aren’t criminalised; they’re often celebrated. In India, default can trigger liquidation and criminal liability. The stigma of failure lingers long after the books are closed. This matters. Entrepreneurs take risks. They cut corners. Sometimes, they fail. If the system punishes failure too harshly, it stifles the very spirit of creative destruction this year’s Nobel celebrates.
Is Gen Z, finally, ready to log off?
In his column for Deccan Herald, Mohamed Zeeshan writes that for close to three decades after the dot-com boom and the consequent bust, the world has been ruled by the internet. But we may finally be getting tired of it. The most digitally connected generation in history may now be craving human connection more than any other. He adds that the creeping pervasiveness of artificial intelligence is adding new challenges to their social development.
In an era where AI takes away lonely desk jobs, workers of the future might need to lean more on their social skills to land a job. AI may be able to write code, develop plans and strategies, and draft emails and newsletters. But it can never occupy jobs that require physical interactions with human beings. If you want to compete with the robots, you can’t just emulate them; you’ll have to present employers with the skills that the robots cannot replicate.Mohamed Zeeshan
The ugly Indian and other stories of racism
In his column for Hindustan Times, Karan Thapar tries to answer the question — Are Indians racist? — in light of a 27-year-old flight attendant from Meghalaya allegedly being subjected to verbal racial abuse twice within an hour in Delhi, once in north Delhi’s Kamala Nagar, then on the Metro.
The facts are stark and probably incontestable. We call Africans habshis. We treat them with disdain. We’re reluctant to have them as tenants and very few know them as friends...But it’s not just Africans we treat badly. North Indians call Tamils madrasis and people from the North East ch*****...On the other hand, we’re fascinated by white skin. There was a time when our marriage advertisements and our face creams betrayed our colour consciousness. Remember Fair and Lovely?Karan Thapar
On selection
In his column for The Telegraph, Mukul Kesavan contends that India’s selectors and its manager revert to the Shastri-Kohli template that put its faith in specialist batters and bowlers as Test cricket is a specialist business. He writes that the hallmark of Gautam Gambhir’s tenure as India’s coach has been tail-insurance, or the deployment of batters as faux bowlers to shore up the team’s lower-order.
For all his thin-skinned nationalism, Gambir is a timorous, risk-averse manager, determined to stuff his team with batters. Ironically, his anxiety about India’s batting is created by his propensity for selecting just four specialist batters with Rishabh Pant batting at number five. It doesn’t help India’s batting cause that giants of the first-class game like Shreyas Iyer and Sarfaraz Khan are arbitrarily discarded in favour of players with thinner resumés like Sai Sudharsan and Reddy who are then given a run of games that less indulged players can only dream of.Mukul Kesavan
With a little help from filmy friends
In her column for The New Indian Express, Namrata Joshi writes that the most radical of creative efforts are often the quietest. Like the first edition of a pioneering creative producing lab for South Asian documentary filmmakers, Doc Producing South, that took place in early September in Delhi.
For Ranjan Singh, encouraging new talent is not about altruism but common sense. “How else can a creative business sustain itself? Where will the next Kashyap or Motwane come from?” he asks...It has been happening in Hollywood for a while and gaining ground in India now. Martin Scorsese, for instance, has presented several films from across the globe as executive producer, including Neeraj Ghaywan’s Oscar-bound Homebound. Sony Pictures backs the Spiderman universe as well as The Lunchbox, a model Singh thinks Indian production houses need to follow.Namrata Joshi