A misfortune for five men [Hyderabad]:
"The five men - Nizam's finance minister Moin Nawaz Jung, Muhammad Hameedullah, Yousuf Hussain Khan, Zaheer Ahmed and Pingle Venkatram Reddy - comprised the delegation that went to the UN to argue Hyderabad's case for independence in September 1948."
Three returned to India and the article sketches their later careers "Upon his return from the unfinished job, Khan, a historian and litterateur at OU, and the brother of Zakir Hussain, the former president, returned to his alma matar. But he soon quit his job and went to Aligarh where he later became the pro vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University.
Venkatram Reddy was arrested on his return and interned at Chanchalguda jail. He was later shifted to his residence but was kept under house arrest for a long time. Anuradha Reddy, a relative, revealed that his loyalty to the Nizam's government was unquestionable as he believed that his presence in the administration would 'save' Hindus from the menace of Razakars.
After the wrath of the government subsided, Reddy took up social work. His son Jagan Mohan Reddy became the chief justice of AP High Court and later vice- chancellor of OU during the crucial emergency years.
But the most rewarding return was that of Zaheer Ahmed. He sailed over to the Indian government smoothly and got plum postings, including a stint in the UN.
After his retirement, he served for several years former prince Mukarram Jah Bahdur - grandson and successor to the seventh Nizam. He also served as ambassador to Saudi Arabia in the early 1970s."
Monday, September 12, 2011
Dan Little revisits 'A Jobless Future'
by Stanley Aronowitz and William DiFazio in A jobless future?
Other reviews here and here
Related posts with similar themes
here, here, here and a recent post by Yves Smith The Decline of Manufacturing in America: The Role of Government Neglect
Other reviews here and here
Related posts with similar themes
here, here, here and a recent post by Yves Smith The Decline of Manufacturing in America: The Role of Government Neglect
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Friday, September 09, 2011
Some telugu words
in several places from Andhra Bhoomi in the links here, particularly in the links titled మాటల మూటలు. For example, from
http://121.241.226.28/nudi/maatala-mootalu-507
"తనివి: అంటే తృప్తి - తమి: అంటే ఆసక్తి - ఆరయిక: అంటే పరిశోధన - మెలన: అంటే చరిత్ర - చవి: అంటే రుచి - గురి: అంటే లక్ష్యం"
One of the links on the last page http://121.241.226.28/nudi/thanks-849 says
"‘థ్యాంక్స్’ అనడం మనకు బాగా అలవాటయిపోయింది. దానికే కొందరు ‘ధన్యవాదాలు’ అంటున్నారు. ఇదే అర్థంలో ఇంతకంటే కమ్మగా చెప్పగల ‘మప్పితాలు’ అనే తెలుగుమాట ఒకటుంది" but this does not seem to agree with the comment of Seshatalpasayee in అచ్చ తెలుగు పదాలు.
http://121.241.226.28/nudi/maatala-mootalu-507
"తనివి: అంటే తృప్తి - తమి: అంటే ఆసక్తి - ఆరయిక: అంటే పరిశోధన - మెలన: అంటే చరిత్ర - చవి: అంటే రుచి - గురి: అంటే లక్ష్యం"
One of the links on the last page http://121.241.226.28/nudi/thanks-849 says
"‘థ్యాంక్స్’ అనడం మనకు బాగా అలవాటయిపోయింది. దానికే కొందరు ‘ధన్యవాదాలు’ అంటున్నారు. ఇదే అర్థంలో ఇంతకంటే కమ్మగా చెప్పగల ‘మప్పితాలు’ అనే తెలుగుమాట ఒకటుంది" but this does not seem to agree with the comment of Seshatalpasayee in అచ్చ తెలుగు పదాలు.
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
India-Pakistan border
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Vernon Ruttan on the role of Public sector in technology development
The Role of Public Sector in Technology Development: Generalizations from General Purpose Technologies (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.467.8326&rep=rep1&type=pdf) by Vernon Rutton:
"Abstract: In the new science and technology policy literature that emerged in the
early 1980's it was held , while public support for science is appropriate, that
public support for technology development represents an unproductive use of public resources. The perspective that emerges in my recent book, Technology, Growth and Development: An Induced innovation Perspective, is quite different. Government has played an important role in technology development and transfer in almost every U.S. industry that has become competitive on a global scale."
Towards the end of the article, he also discusses cases which do not fit into this scheme and says "A second lesson that emerges from U.S. experience is the importance of a decentralized national research system. The structure of the U.S. national research system took its present form in the half century between 1880 and 1930. This period witnessed the formation of scientific and technical bureaus within the federal government, the establishment of industrial research laboratories, the formation and growth of public and private research universities, and the emergence of philanthropic foundations to support research and education. These institutions drew on each other for their entrepreneurship and leadership. This decentralized structure has given the United States greater capacity to adjust to changing national and global priorities, and to direct research to the exploration of commercial opportunities, than in countries in which government-funded research is conducted primarily in national laboratories or research institutes only marginally linked with universities and in which private sector research is limited primarily to large firms"
The above article is drawn from his 2001 book mentioned above and in a 2006 article, he goes further to discuss the role of military and defence related research:IS WAR NECESSARY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH?
P.S. I came across the articles though comments of E. Barandiaran in the MR post Who invented interchangeable parts?. E. Barandiaran also suggests the paper Modeling the Transition to a New Economy: Lessons from Two Technological Revolutions by Andrew Atkeson and Patrick J. Kehoe.
"Abstract: In the new science and technology policy literature that emerged in the
early 1980's it was held , while public support for science is appropriate, that
public support for technology development represents an unproductive use of public resources. The perspective that emerges in my recent book, Technology, Growth and Development: An Induced innovation Perspective, is quite different. Government has played an important role in technology development and transfer in almost every U.S. industry that has become competitive on a global scale."
Towards the end of the article, he also discusses cases which do not fit into this scheme and says "A second lesson that emerges from U.S. experience is the importance of a decentralized national research system. The structure of the U.S. national research system took its present form in the half century between 1880 and 1930. This period witnessed the formation of scientific and technical bureaus within the federal government, the establishment of industrial research laboratories, the formation and growth of public and private research universities, and the emergence of philanthropic foundations to support research and education. These institutions drew on each other for their entrepreneurship and leadership. This decentralized structure has given the United States greater capacity to adjust to changing national and global priorities, and to direct research to the exploration of commercial opportunities, than in countries in which government-funded research is conducted primarily in national laboratories or research institutes only marginally linked with universities and in which private sector research is limited primarily to large firms"
The above article is drawn from his 2001 book mentioned above and in a 2006 article, he goes further to discuss the role of military and defence related research:IS WAR NECESSARY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH?
P.S. I came across the articles though comments of E. Barandiaran in the MR post Who invented interchangeable parts?. E. Barandiaran also suggests the paper Modeling the Transition to a New Economy: Lessons from Two Technological Revolutions by Andrew Atkeson and Patrick J. Kehoe.
Monday, September 05, 2011
Shiv Visvanathan on saving the Hazare process
Excerpt from Hazare vs Hazare: A Scenario as a Warning by Shiv Visvanathan:
"The question is how do we move from the critique to construct and salvage another impressive movement from going underground? How can we prevent the good Hazare from losing out to the bad Hazare? Let us face it; every movement has the possibility of eventually making an ass of itself. His core team is not very reassuring in terms of presence or competence. I am not saying they have not surprised me so far but I have a sense that the group is heading towards the usual inertias of such struggle.
To open up the playfulness of Phase II requires some change in mentalities. First, Anna Hazare has to move from being prophet to sage, while guaranteeing that his disciples do not become the high priests of legislative reform. Second, the group must break the clichés about the State and governance. The State is often seen as wooden and unresponsive. But of late, whether on the RTI or the debate on genetic seeds, the State in collaboration with NGOs, has sought to experiment with participatory frameworks where stakeholders openly debate the politics of expertise. For instance, Jairam Ramesh in collaboration with sensitive environmental activists like Kartikeya Sarabhai at the Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad, created the dialogic possibilities of such controversy, letting scientists, farmers and seed manufacturers debate with each other. We need to create sites for such debate so that governance can also be seen as a ludic exercise at least in terms of the future.
Dogma also has to yield to method and particularly methods of resolution. The politics of movements need to be captured as ethical norms or as institutional methods. What is the goal of the movement beyond the holy grail of the Lokpal? At what level does the Lokpal operate? Or are we creating an alternative behemoth, a byzantine bureaucracy more Kafkaesque and inquisitorial than the current structure?"
"The question is how do we move from the critique to construct and salvage another impressive movement from going underground? How can we prevent the good Hazare from losing out to the bad Hazare? Let us face it; every movement has the possibility of eventually making an ass of itself. His core team is not very reassuring in terms of presence or competence. I am not saying they have not surprised me so far but I have a sense that the group is heading towards the usual inertias of such struggle.
To open up the playfulness of Phase II requires some change in mentalities. First, Anna Hazare has to move from being prophet to sage, while guaranteeing that his disciples do not become the high priests of legislative reform. Second, the group must break the clichés about the State and governance. The State is often seen as wooden and unresponsive. But of late, whether on the RTI or the debate on genetic seeds, the State in collaboration with NGOs, has sought to experiment with participatory frameworks where stakeholders openly debate the politics of expertise. For instance, Jairam Ramesh in collaboration with sensitive environmental activists like Kartikeya Sarabhai at the Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad, created the dialogic possibilities of such controversy, letting scientists, farmers and seed manufacturers debate with each other. We need to create sites for such debate so that governance can also be seen as a ludic exercise at least in terms of the future.
Dogma also has to yield to method and particularly methods of resolution. The politics of movements need to be captured as ethical norms or as institutional methods. What is the goal of the movement beyond the holy grail of the Lokpal? At what level does the Lokpal operate? Or are we creating an alternative behemoth, a byzantine bureaucracy more Kafkaesque and inquisitorial than the current structure?"
Sunday, September 04, 2011
Wired.com on Aadhaar
Massive Biometric Project Gives Millions of Indians an ID via Ed Yong. Some of the benefits:
"One of his [Nandan Nilekani's] first major coups was persuading India’s central bank to declare the Aadhaar number adequate identification to issue no-frills accounts. Bringing biometrically verified banking to the poor could lead to enormous savings in government benefit programs—for both the recipients and the state. Today, a pensioner in a village like Gagenahalli has to take a bus to the nearest town to collect his monthly payment in cash. That’s time and money lost for him. Meanwhile, more than 40 percent of the government’s $250 billion in subsidies and other spending on the poor will be siphoned off by scammers over the next five years, according to investment group CLSA. Both problems could largely be solved if instead the funds were sent straight to bank accounts held by biometrically verified recipients. “It’s like having 1.2 billion pipes through which you can send the benefits directly,” Sharma says. Connecting the poor to banks could also enable some of them to get loans to start businesses or pay for their children’s education."
See also the NYTimes article Scanning 2.4 Billion Eyes, India Tries to Connect Poor to Growth
"One of his [Nandan Nilekani's] first major coups was persuading India’s central bank to declare the Aadhaar number adequate identification to issue no-frills accounts. Bringing biometrically verified banking to the poor could lead to enormous savings in government benefit programs—for both the recipients and the state. Today, a pensioner in a village like Gagenahalli has to take a bus to the nearest town to collect his monthly payment in cash. That’s time and money lost for him. Meanwhile, more than 40 percent of the government’s $250 billion in subsidies and other spending on the poor will be siphoned off by scammers over the next five years, according to investment group CLSA. Both problems could largely be solved if instead the funds were sent straight to bank accounts held by biometrically verified recipients. “It’s like having 1.2 billion pipes through which you can send the benefits directly,” Sharma says. Connecting the poor to banks could also enable some of them to get loans to start businesses or pay for their children’s education."
See also the NYTimes article Scanning 2.4 Billion Eyes, India Tries to Connect Poor to Growth
Prosperity without growth
a report by Tim Jackson available here. A review of the later book in The Guardian
Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet by Tim Jackson
Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet by Tim Jackson
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Another song by R. Balasraswati Devi
Friday, September 02, 2011
September issue of Eemaata
has several interesting articles. Of particular interest me are
తిక్కన భారతంలో పలుకులపొందు by Bhadriraju Krishnamurthy, and
పలుకుబడి: సంఖ్యా పదాలు – 2 by Suresh Kolichala
తిక్కన భారతంలో పలుకులపొందు by Bhadriraju Krishnamurthy, and
పలుకుబడి: సంఖ్యా పదాలు – 2 by Suresh Kolichala
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Some science links, september 1, 2011
From guts to brains – eating probiotic bacteria changes behaviour in mice,can one extrapolate to humans?
Men’s spatial superiority takes cultural cues
Saffron takes on cancer
The Psychologist on Milgram and the shock of the old
Wakeup Call for College Students: New Research Finds You Need to Catch More Z's
Men’s spatial superiority takes cultural cues
Saffron takes on cancer
The Psychologist on Milgram and the shock of the old
Wakeup Call for College Students: New Research Finds You Need to Catch More Z's
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
A poem and a discussion on norms and giving
in Underground Norms via Andrew Gelman
And Happy Telugu Language Day. By some accident, my brother Kamalakar has chosen this day as his birthday since the records were not kept and he was born around this time of the year approximately a week before a cousin whose date of birth is more certain. My brother worked hard after his college education and has given much in charities while buying for himself things on sale and I join many who know him in wishing him a happy birthday.
And Happy Telugu Language Day. By some accident, my brother Kamalakar has chosen this day as his birthday since the records were not kept and he was born around this time of the year approximately a week before a cousin whose date of birth is more certain. My brother worked hard after his college education and has given much in charities while buying for himself things on sale and I join many who know him in wishing him a happy birthday.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Telugu Language Day, August 29th
in honour of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gidugu_Venkata_Ramamoorty. Some articles by Gidugu and about వ్యవహారిక భాషా ఉద్యమం (common Telugu movement)and about Bhadriraju Krishnamurthy are in this issue of Eemaata ఈమాట జూన్ 2008 ప్రత్యేక సంచిక
A few Telugu songs for the occasion
Maa telugu Talliki
Cheyetti jai kottu Telugoda
Veera Gandham
Andhruda levara
A few Telugu songs for the occasion
Maa telugu Talliki
Cheyetti jai kottu Telugoda
Veera Gandham
Andhruda levara
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Links, mostly to old stuff
Hirsch: The positional economy
The Continuing Relevance of Fred Hirsch's Insights on Markets and Morality
The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi
The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, a review by Ann Mayhew
Tacit Knowledge Revisited -- We Can Still Learn from (Michael)Polanyi
and some new:
The Inevitable Superpower by Arvind Subramanian
What is Debt? – An Interview with Economic Anthropologist David Graeber
The Continuing Relevance of Fred Hirsch's Insights on Markets and Morality
The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi
The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, a review by Ann Mayhew
Tacit Knowledge Revisited -- We Can Still Learn from (Michael)Polanyi
and some new:
The Inevitable Superpower by Arvind Subramanian
What is Debt? – An Interview with Economic Anthropologist David Graeber
Friday, August 26, 2011
Technology Review's annual list of 35 Innovators under 35
Technology Review's annual list of 35 Innovators under 35
Among the four winners of Indian origin:
Aishwarya Ratan, 30 Converting paper records to digital in real time
Ajit Narayanan, 30 Affordable speech synthesizers
and from Pakistan:
Umar Saif, 32 Improving connectivity in poor nations
Among the four winners of Indian origin:
Aishwarya Ratan, 30 Converting paper records to digital in real time
Ajit Narayanan, 30 Affordable speech synthesizers
and from Pakistan:
Umar Saif, 32 Improving connectivity in poor nations
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Research in Peace
Dangers of research into chronic fatigue syndrome
"As for Professor Wessely, he gave up active research on CFS/ME 10 years ago. He now specialises in the problems of war veterans. “I now go to Iraq and Afghanistan, where I feel a lot safer,” he says.
More discussion in 'The Loom' Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Death threats for scientists?
"As for Professor Wessely, he gave up active research on CFS/ME 10 years ago. He now specialises in the problems of war veterans. “I now go to Iraq and Afghanistan, where I feel a lot safer,” he says.
More discussion in 'The Loom' Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Death threats for scientists?
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Science marches on
Incredible Science Discoveries in 'The Big Picture' including 'printing solar panels on pieces of paper' and 'how to triple the yield of plants using only 10% of the water typically needed'.
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