Author Bios
Madhavi Bhasin
Madhavi Bhasin is a California based independent scholar. She is currently working on a project exploring the role of new social media in influencing interactions between Indians and Pakistanis. She is a regular contributor at Huffington Post and blogs at The Trajectory. One of the most difficult challenges facing the Indian state has been the inability to deliver resources to where needs exist. However, in a marked departure to the prevailing approach, the UPA is considering a phased move to direct cash transfers in public distribution system (PDS). Can this approach change the way in how government spending impacts social welfare?
Vibrant Gujarat Summit: A Triumph of Economic Rationality Over Social Animosity
(Economy-Development)
While the idiom of retribution dominates any mainstream discussion about chief minister Modi or his administration, the Chief Minister himself and the state of Gujarat appears to have stopped nursing the wounds and is investing on the healing remedies. While vibrant Gujarat may not be redemption for the violence in 2002 but it is surely a triumph of economic rationality over social animosity. Creation of Telangana can be justified on other grounds (geo-economic factors, social differentiation, political considerations) but discrimination in resource allocation and development does not appear to be a plausible explanation. Recently there has been some heated discussion on who is ‘morally qualified’ to write about India. Socio-economic changes have made India the apple pie of global literary – fiction and non-fiction – circle. While India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is attempting to highlight himself as history’s slave, his countrymen are clamouring for him to dawn Carlyle’s great man mantle Hopefully, India can work its way out of the ‘Gilded Age’ either by adopting the policies of the early Progressives or devising an indigenous approach favored by its unique historical experience. Though India’s claim to great power glory was professed much before the country achieved independence in 1947, the current phase reflects India’s willingness to work towards that goal rather than make a fortuitous claim to it. It appears that BJP continues to identify nationalism with religious nationalism and equates posturing with politics. If the BJP desires to indulge in political opportunism, the party will have to choose such opportunities wisely and construct a plausible strategy.
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