Vivek's Commentary

Hello everyone, today we have the noble prize winner, author, and composer of the national anthems of India and Bangladesh, Rabindranath Tagore. Welcome, Gurudev... Rabindranath: Hello Vivek. I always enjoy the discussion with young people.  Vivek: Gurudev, let me start this conversation with caste and religion in India. What do you think about the Indian caste system? Rabindranath: The idea of caste actually helps to maintain the co-existence of the diversities in Hindu Society. India's caste system is the outcome of a spirit of toleration, For India has all along been trying experiments in evolving a social unity within which all the different peoples could be held together, while fully enjoying the freedom of maintaining their own differences. But over a period of time, segregation happened and we built a social wall between the different castes. These social walls damage the fundamental spirit of freedom and create problems like untouchability. Such practices are actually ...

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s comment on too much democracy ignites the debate on democracy and development. There is a section of “thinkers who” believes that democracy can work as a barrier to economic growth. A few years ago, at the Goa conference, I had an argument with a UK based researcher. He was arguing that India should have followed the China model meaning if India had less democracy at the initial phase then India would have been better in terms of economic growth. After achieving a certain level of economic development, the country can shift to democracy. But my point was that we do have seen the countries which have democracy at an early stage of industrialization and did well in economic terms. The association between democracy and economic growth is widely debated in the literature. It is also widely debated whether democracy affects economic growth or economic growth affects democracy. Lipset (1959) suggests that per capita income or more specifically economic wealth is...