Drift in US and European opinions on Ukraine

Breedlove's Bellicosity: Berlin Alarmed by Aggressive NATO Stance on Ukraine from Spiegel International: "US President Obama supports Chancellor Merkel's efforts at finding a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis. But hawks in Washington seem determined to torpedo Berlin's approach. And NATO's top commander in Europe hasn't been helping either."
via Moon of Alabama which says 
"Some Europeans, like the writers in the piece above, still see Obama as a reluctant warrior pushed to war by the hawks in his own government and the Republicans in Congress. But the surge in Afghanistan, the destruction of Libya, the war on Syria and the trouble in Ukraine have all been run by the same propaganda scheme: Obama does not want war, gets pushed and then reluctantly agrees to it. It is a false view. The buck stops at his desk and Nuland as well as General Breedlove and other official hawks concerned about their precious bodily fluids are under Obama's direct command. He can make them shut up or get them fired with a simple 30 second phone call. As he does not do so it is clear that he wants them to talk exactly as they do talk. Obama is the one driving the neocon lane."

Gender inequality index

From Wikipedia  "The Gender Inequality Index (GII) is an index for measurement of gender disparity that was introduced in the 2010 Human Development Report 20th anniversary edition by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). According to the UNDP, this index is a composite measure which captures the loss of achievement within a country due to gender inequality. It uses three dimensions to do so: reproductive health, empowerment, and labor market participation."
Relative ranks India 135th among 187.

War making and state making

War Making and State Making as Organized Crime by Charles Tilly
via Chris Blattman post Ferguson as organized crime and the failed state

Modi's office sees rape centres as a 'waste of money'

"Two rapes occur every hour in India, reveal National Crime Record Bureau statistics.

The statistics also show an 837% increase in rape cases in the last five decades with the police having registered over 250,000 cases.

Conviction rates, in contrast, remain at an abysmal 20% and sometimes lower.

Given this worrying scenario, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi's proposal to start 660 Nirbhaya Centres -- one in each of the 640 districts and another 20 in the six metros -- was hailed by women activists as a positive step forward.

...

Shockingly, the Prime Minister's Office shot down Gandhi's proposal, describing it as a waste of money and suggesting that the centres be set up in existing government hospitals.

The PMO also slashed the budget for the rape crisis centres from Rs 245 crore (Rs 2.45 billion) to Rs 18 crore (Rs 180 million) and insisted that only 36 such centres would be set up -- one in each state -- with locations being decided by the state governments.

...

"The previous (United Progressive Alliance) government had held several rounds of discussions on starting these rape centres with activist groups who had helped prepare a blueprint for the scheme. Maneka Gandhi was only going to implement a project which had been discussed threadbare in the preceding years. The present government's move has, therefore, come as a great shock," she said." from Rediff.com

Dean Baker on over-valued dollar

"I will give a quick response to the argument by Yanis Varoufakis raised in the comments. I think Varoufakis is mistaken. They are no secret conspiracies here, everything is pretty much right on the table. There are segments of the elites that stand to gain from an over-valued dollar. This includes businesses that are outsourcing to get cheap labor and retailers like Walmart who undercut competitors by setting up low cost supply chains in the developing world. Finance also tends to be happier with a dollar that goes farther overseas and less inflationary pressure at home.

The economy as a whole does not in any way need an over-valued dollar, nor does the U.S. uniquely "benefit" from some special privilege as the world's reserve currency." according to Dean Baker. For future reference since I am not sure whether the US government wants it or not.
P.S. A long term view here.

Nehru on Nehru

"Men  like Jawaharlal, with all their capacity for great and good work, are unsafe in democracy," from Rashtrapati by Chanakya (pseudonym) in 1937, reproduced in  http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/9977/2/AppendixDocuments600dpi.pdf

Two on 'sub judice'

On of the reasons given by the Indian Govt. to ban "India's dauhter" is that the case still sub judice. I looked the term. It seems mainly derived from the English practice ( it seems different in USA). From Sub judice  rule and contempt of court:
"This guide is based on UK law and was written in January 2009.....The sub judice rule regulates the publication of matters which are under consideration by the court. Matters are considered to be sub judice (Latin for 'under judgment') once legal proceedings become active.....

Both statutory and common law contempt of court are concerned with the possibility that a juror, witness or lay judge may be influenced by material which is published about active legal proceedings. Accordingly, any of the following activities could be considered to be contempt:

• obtaining or publishing details of jury deliberations;
• filming or recording within court buildings;
• making payments to witnesses;
• publishing information obtained from confidential court documents;
• reporting on the defendant's previous convictions;
• mounting an organized campaign to influence proceedings;
• reporting on court proceedings in breach of a court order or reporting restriction;
• breaching an injunction obtained against another party;
• anticipating the course of a trial or predicting the outcome; or
• revealing the identity of child defendants, witnesses or victims or victims of sexual offences.

However, it is acceptable to publish material as part of a discussion of public affairs or as a contemporary report of the day's legal proceedings."

The Indian version as reported in The Hoot seems a bit vague to me:
"3.      Can I interview possible witnesses and quote documents that are before the court while an issue is sub-judice?

 

Answer: Yes, at present there is no clear legal bar to journalists interviewing possible witnesses and quoting documents in a case which is sub-judice, however as per the Law Commission such acts may amount to interfering in the administration of justice and may amount to Contempt of Court.

....

Effect: Reporters, at present may interview possible witnesses and quote documents when the case is sub-judice however even in the absence of a clear bar, they risk being tried for contempt of court for prejudicing or interfering with the administration of justice."

Jinhen Naaz Hai Hind Par, from Pyaasa 1957

via Madhukar Shukla. Translation of the original poem

Links 5/3/15

UN report says small-scale organic farming only way to feed the world I am not sure about this. It is one of methods along with others suggested earlier by various UN agencies. But I have not read this report.
Arming the immune system against cancer
Scientists have figured out what makes Indian food so delicious "Chefs in the West like to make dishes with ingredients that have overlapping flavors. But not all cuisines adhere to the same rule. Many Asian cuisines have been shown to belie the trend by favoring dishes with ingredients that don't overlap in flavor. And Indian food, in particular, is one of the most powerful counterexamples."
Signs of intelligent life in the economics profession says Dean Baker

Video "India's daughter"

Still available here https://vimeo.com/121374149
P.S. Rahul Banerjee has a dissenting letter from the co-producer

Paul Mason on the Greek European deal

Greek European deal:where are we?"\:
"The European deal done six days ago was supposed to stabilise the Greek debt crisis. In return for a bit of fiscal autonomy the Syriza government (a) recognised its debts as legitimate (b) gave its lenders a running veto on any measures taken that might impact on the economy, the banks or the budget balance. ......
I still think the most likely outcome is that the unresolved political battle at the centre of Europe goes on being unresolved. And time is Syriza’s main enemy. If, by June, the ECB council is still calling the shots on Greek debt, then the German government – facing a growing revolt in the CDU/CSU over the terms of Greek forgiveness – will force another, bigger showdown."

Jadav Molai Payeng

More about him here " The strange obsession of Jadav Payeng" Jadev Payeng on Facebook

Beware of nudge squads

"But what if the economists—both old-school and behavioral—are wrong? What if our illogical and economically erroneous thinking processes often lead to the best possible outcome? Perhaps our departures from economic orthodoxy are a feature, not a bug. If so, we’d need to throw out the assumption that our thinking is riddled with mistakes. The practice of sly manipulation, based on the idea that the affected party doesn’t or can’t know what’s going on, would need to be replaced with a rather different, and better, goal: self knowledge." from Yes you are irrational, and yes, that's OK by David Berreby (via MindHacks)

Interview with Ha-Joon Chang

by V.Sridhar for Frontline. Long but very readable Old economics, new strings

Colour Blue

No one could see color blue until modern times
Is this a white dress or a blue dress?
Discussion of the second at MindHacks: Actually still no good explanation of 'that dress'

Links,2/28/15

Ending the creditor's paradise by Mark Blyth
When do we decide that Europe must restructure much of its debt? by Michael Pettis
Review (2010) of Prosperity without growth by Tim Jackson (A short summary)

happiness

She's 69 and hasn't used money for 15 years... and has never been happier! (via Lavanya Kolluri)

history

I never heard of Jhalkaribai. According to Wikipedia  "Born into a poor Koli family, she started her career as an ordinary soldier in Laxmibai's army, but rose to a position of advising the queen and participating in vital decisions.^[3] During the rebellion, at the height of the battle of fort of Jhansi, she disguised herself as the queen and fought on the front to let the queen escape safely out of the fort.^{[3][4]"
 via roundtableindia.}

Land

Do bigha zameen via Madhukar Shukla who has several comments.
Jairam Ramesh comments

violence

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=875657722456111&pnref=story