8 ISSUES AND INSIGHTS MUMBAI | 20 JULY 2019 >

down shelters, driving thousands of jobless men into the streets where some of them can A welfare state born in India still be seen, with their squalid bedclothes 50 years of and begging placards. “Today Labour are vot- How William Beveridge’s Bakargunje legacy is safe in modern Britain ing to increase benefits by more than work- ers’ wages”, a Tory poster mocked before the socialism north Calcutta. But she fell out with Keshub London’s fashionable St John’s Wood in a fur 2015 election. The Tories won by promising Chandra Sen, married Beveridge and became coat, to be driven in his chauffeur-driven to cut welfare by £12 billion and balancing t is perhaps easy for a surprisingly fierce opponent of the Ilbert Rolls to the employment exchange where he the books. “Fairness”, said George Osborne us today, in a coun- Bill establishing judicial parity between registered as unemployed. It was a legal who became David Cameron’s chancellor of I try that has been Indian and European judges. necessity for someone who was later convict- the exchequer, is “about being fair to the per- socialist since inde- Thereby hangs another tale of karmic ed of swindling a well-known insurance com- son who leaves home every morning to go pendence — and coincidence. When he returned to India in pany out of millions of pounds. out to work and sees their neighbour still which, in spite of a 1871, the Ilbert Bill’s author-to-be, my great- Great stories did the rounds in those days. asleep, living a life on benefits”. quarter century of liber- grandfather, Behari Lal Gupta, the second One was of a man who collected disability ben- But it would be political suicide to try to alisation, seems to be Indian in the ICS, was posted as assistant efits while competing successfully in body- abolish the welfare state. As Labour party growing more socialist magistrate and collector under the senior building contests. Another man — someone I leader, Ed Miliband, promised to crack down every year — to imagine Beveridge in Bakargunje near Dhaka. came upon as a reporter — maintained his on migrants receiving benefits but didn’t sur- the alternative possibil- WHERE MONEY TALKS Beveridge was full of praise for young Gupta, family in comfort on the allowance for an vive long enough to prove his courage. When ities that existed 50 SUNANDA K. DATTA-RAY but I mustn’t forget a more recent link with alleged back injury many years earlier. A Osborne did introduce cuts, Labour MPs TICKER years ago, as we nation- those heroic personalities, the younger woman with a pair of delicately trimmed chose to abstain rather than oppose them. alised the banks. We Beveridge this time. My old friend Gritta Weil Pekes said, “It’s not worth my while working” However, a bunch of left-wing backbenchers MIHIR SHARMA know, in retrospect, that uspended between many uncertainties was his secretary in Oxford during World War as she collected thousands of pounds. No won- ignored the whip and voted against the cuts. India was condemned and nervously awaiting a new govern- II (before joining The Observer newspaper der Peter Lilley, the Tory welfare secretary in One of them, John McDonnell, declared dra- to increasing statism, disruption, and authoritarianism in the S ment in a matter of days, Britain can still where she mentored me) and typed out 1992, adapted the libretto of a Gilbert and matically he would “swim through vomit” to years after 1969 — and that Indira Gandhi’s style of inner- be proud of one prized asset — the welfare William Beveridge’s massive Social Sullivan musical to tell the party conference, vote against the cuts; another, Jeremy party autocracy, her hawkishness, and her left-wing populism state that makes it the world’s envy. Not many Insurance and Allied Services report that is “I’ve got a little list/ Of benefit offenders who Corbyn, the party leader could in theory suc- would eclipse her father’s social-democratic liberalism as the know, however, that it was born — literally so regarded as the blueprint for Clement I’ll soon be rooting out/ And who never would ceed Theresa May as prime minister. preferred archetype for Indian political leadership. — in India. Attlee’s welfare state. be missed.” With the British Social Attitudes Survey But it is easy to imagine how it could have turned out William, Lord Beveridge, its creator, was People are careful not to mention the Tory paternalism was never sympathetic predicting that concern over growing pover- differently. What in my book Restart I called “India’s great the son of Henry Beveridge of the Bengal question mark that may hang over its future to welfare. An old tale had the Tories object- ty, no doubt fuelled by anxiety over Brexit, leap left” was by no means a pre-ordained outcome. cadre of the Indian Civil Service, a formida- in post-Brexit Britain. Nor does anyone ing that the working classes would use bath is rising, the controversial Corbyn can even The real reason that the banks had to go was political: ble historian and Persian scholar whose sym- breathe a word about Afro-Asians grabbing tubs in state housing to store coal. They com- claim to have acted astutely. He can cite the the nature of Indira Gandhi’s rivals in the Congress. Men pathy for Indian nationalists cost him the the lion’s share of benefits. Yet the unforget- plained of a Pakistani immigrant claiming finding that 56 per cent of the people think like her finance minister, Morarji Desai, were by conviction judgeship he hoped for. His scholarly wife, table image of princely abuse from my allowances for two wives, one in Karachi and that cutting benefits “would damage too and background sympathetic to India’s embattled capitalists; Annette Akroyd, came to India to further younger days is of the Sri Lankan financier, the other with him in the English Midlands. many people’s lives”. William Beveridge’s for the Indira bloc in the Congress, it seemed that there was female education and ran a girls’ school in Emil Savundra, leaving his lavish house in Margaret Thatcher cut benefits and closed Bakargunje legacy is safe in modern Britain. a dangerous nexus of support and financing that linked the Syndicate, the old corporate houses, and the banks those houses seemingly controlled. LUNCH WITH BS > AISHA DE SEQUEIRA | CO-COUNTRY HEAD | MORGAN STANLEY INDIA Many in the Syndicate were quite clear about where they stood on economic policy. The growth of the Nehru years had dissipated in the mid 1960s, chased away by the twin spectres of famine and war. The public sector, appropriating an ever greater share of national resources, was no longer above criticism. So it was at the fateful 72nd Congress session in 1969, at Life lessons from chess which the party’s president, S Nijalingappa, was scathing about the public sector: “We must see that big industries are not established in the public sector without due regard The investment banker talks to Pavan Lall about the value of pump that diffused targeted ther- to demand and the capacity to produce... I am told that apy that was more efficacious some industries in the public sector are so badly managed reputation, the power of inner strength, and why business is than normal chemotherapy. She that the full capacity is not utilised and that they are run was determined she would not let on very unscientific methods. I believe that industries, by never just about the deal the disease define her, de whomsoever established, should be encouraged. If private Sequeira tells me taking a bite of industries misbehaved or made undue profits they can orry, I’m running 10 minutes steeped in Catholicism, has 40 and learned that a banker’s job her fish. both be punished and controlled through fiscal measures.” late,” the message flashes on cousins and speaks fluent Konkani was beyond just the product. In the months that followed, He then produced a much-quoted summary of the dangers S my handphone. Its sender, that she is the quintessential Goa “You have to grow the business, she took time off when she needed of the licence-permit raj: “Where there are controls and licens- Aisha de Sequeira, who arrived from girl. It’s also lineage. Her grandfa- expand the pie and connect treatment but continued work- ing, there is always corruption — and the sooner we do away New York City around a decade ago ther, Jack de Sequeira, was president with the clients for the long ing, calling clients, stakehold- with licensing and controls, the better it will be.” When Indira to run Morgan Stanley, has raised of the United Goans Party. Her term because it’s never about a ers and friends, and updat- Gandhi replied to her party president’s speech, the papers some $20 billion of capital for clients father Erasmo de Sequeira owned one-off deal,” she says. Along ing them on her treatment noted that she repeatedly stressed the need for greater state in India and provided advisory serv- the local Coca-Cola bottling plant the way, clients — like status. “A lot of people control and for socialism, while Nijalingappa had not used ices for over $70 billion in M&A and was also a member of PepsiCo’s former CEO Indra asked ‘you’re a good per- the word “socialism anywhere in his 6,000-word address”. deals. Those include investments by Parliament. De Sequeira went to Nooyi — became lifelong men- son Aisha, why you’?”. De And here were the prime minister’s responses. First, the Nippon Life into Reliance Life and school at Our Lady Of The Rosary tors and friends. Sequeira rationalised it importance of self-reliance through the public sector was Reliance Asset Management, the High School after which she went to Sometime in 2007, Walid thus: For 40-odd years, “amply demonstrated by the glorious performance of the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Goa Engineering College. “My child- Chammah, a senior director she’d never asked why armed forces during the conflict with Pakistan”. Second, pri- Cellular, and more recently, the first hood defined who I am, and one at Morgan Stanley ran into fantastic things hap- vate industry was not interested in long-term projects with a REIT deal for the Blackstone Group- thing I learned was it takes genera- de Sequeria in an elevator pened to her, so why be doubtful yield. Third, she warned that a few probes into the backed Embassy Office Parks. She’s tions to build a reputation but that and said, “what do you want hypocritical now. private sector would reveal a great deal of corruption. Fourth, also fast become the face of the sto- can be lost in the blink of an eye, if to be when you grow up?”. She pauses momen- delayed approvals and inefficiency in the licence-quota raj ried American investment banking not careful.” “Already an MD, I thought tarily, and then adds: came only to ensure “nothing was done that compromised firm here leading Post college, de I’d already grown up, but “The amount of sup- India’s sovereignty”. And, finally, the prime minister insisted strategic engagements Sequeira went to Yale listened,” she says. port I received from we must fight foreign influence. with key corporate In the months University with the Chammah said, “Do you the folks in my apart- Really, this speech seems like it could have been delivered clients, and driving following her cancer intent to study eco- want go back closer to ment building was by an Indian prime minister yesterday, and it possibly was. strategy for the plat- diagnosis and nomics and public pol- home?”. De Sequeira amazing given I’d When, after the presidential election that summer brought form in India with a treatment, “a lot of icy. She audited several thought he meant just moved in tensions to a head, the prime minister sought a reason to dismiss core team across insti- people asked ‘you’re classes — sitting in on Hong Kong, and there. And the Desai, she used the long-standing demand for bank nationali- tutional securities, a a good person Aisha, law courses and more said no, but support from sation as a reason. As late as July 9, P N Haksar in his famous global in-house centre, why you’?”. De — before deciding to would look at Morgan Stanley note to the prime minister was still talking about “social control” and a private equity Sequeira rationalised major in finance, given India for the right has always of banks. But, by the 19th, the banks were nationalised and Desai business. it thus: For 40-odd her head for numbers. opportunity. Two been unwaver- was out. Later that year, the MRTP Act was passed and our long Combined with years, she’d never Right before she grad- months later, she ing.” I ask, if grey bureacratic nightmare began. Mumbai’s traffic, these asked why fantastic uated, a senior director was on a plane to she were to look Haksar had warned: “In these conditions, the competi- are all good reasons to things happened to from Morgan Stanley India. She was back, would she tiveness of market economy, the struggle to get the good things forgive her tardiness. her, so why be came to Yale for inter- also engaged at have done anything of life in education, health, jobs becomes very intensely acute.” We are to meet for hypocritical now views. It was a Saturday that time and so differently? “I think I Nationalisation did not solve these problems, nor did the lunch at the Asian and he was running the change was a lost the connection to a MRTP or any other tyrannical instrument of state control. But restaurant San:Qui at late. So when de 360-degree one. higher being along the Indira Gandhi convinced people they did, and the media the Four Seasons in Worli — perfect Sequiera went into the classroom Within a few way, which I have helped her. Here’s another paragraph that could have been given its reputation as a haven for and saw calculus formulas on the years, de Sequeira regained,” she says. written yesterday: After the prime minister took away 85 per deal-makers. De Sequeira gets in board she started to clean it up when would be mother “Prayer works.” cent of the banking system, the media reported that “poor around 10 minutes later, cheery- he suddenly entered and asked to three children Our lunch is almost people danced in the streets. None of them had ever been natured and smiling as always, and “what on earth are you doing?”. The and would be jug- complete, so we order coffee inside a bank... but they felt that at last something was being says a big hello. We exchange greet- young woman answered: “I wanted gling her career and the trials of ILLUSTRATION BY BINAY SINHA and ice-cream for dessert. done for the poor and the rich were being put in their place.” ings and get down to ordering. It’s a you to focus on me and not be dis- adjusting to a new market. “It’s What’s that one thing she [Inder Malhotra, in The Times of India.] fresh-lime soda to sip on and a tracted by the blackboard.” doable but not easy, you need a sup- my stomach,” she says. On her wants investment bankers to Such misunderstanding of the effects of populist policy Hunan-style sea bass and jasmine The interview, unknown to her, portive spouse and the whole ‘lean return she got it checked out sus- always remember? “If one company can continue to be electorally potent for quite a while. David rice for her. I opt for a bottle of aer- was to be her first and last job in’ thing works, if you just hang in pecting kidney stones, and opted for makes a specific move in terms of Lockwood quotes C P Bhambhri on the 1971 election: “A cob- ated water and a course of stir fried interview. there,” she says. a CT scan. The diagnosis wasn’t pos- leadership changes, or captures bler told me that if Mataji had not nationalised the banks, my broccoli and asparagus with vege- De Sequeira got the internship, Things were going well until out itive. She had colon cancer. It had growth or mergers or acquisitions son would not have become a watchman for the government.” tarian spring rolls. “Will you have and then when she graduated, she of the blue, life threw her a curve- spread to the liver. Shocked, de then other players can’t stand still,” Fifty years on, unemployment is as low as it was in the early wine?” de Sequeria asks. “I know I’m segued into a full-time job with ball. “I was feeling off for a few Sequeira went into fire-fighting she says. The competitive dynamics 1970s, nationalism and self-reliance is still winning elections, a girl from Goa but I really don’t Morgan Stanley as an investment months, working and traveling a lot mode, travelling to New York to see kick in on both sides. “Strategically, and bad policy is still being sold as “at last something being drink often, which surprised my banker, where she worked for 20 and had gone to Russia for a YPO Dr Nancy Kemeny a specialist at the it becomes a chess-board.” That’s done for the poor”. Truly, India is a timeless place. husband when we first met.” years. As a single professional, she (formerly Young Presidents’ Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer the part de Sequeira says she enjoys In fact, it’s not because she is lived in New York for over a decade Organisation) event and felt pain in Clinic, who’d designed an arterial the most. Universal construction company Good coffee is extinct means I’m ready for a cappuccino by Starbucks, till it shut down too, the university’s estate department and the itate cultural exchange between the two the time I reach office an hour later. neighbourhood attracting visitors officer in charge confirmed the news. The Banglas. The building was inaugurated in Office coffee sucks. Whether it is whose preference was alcohol over cof- reason being, construction of a road par- May 2018 by Bangladesh Prime Minster plain hot water and some nasty powder fee. A tiny patisserie found itself unable allel to the train track, right behind our Sheikh Haseena and our Prime Minister reserved for the underlings, or a mildly to cope with maintenance and despite house. The road if built could hardly be a Narendra Modi. offensive, milky brew off a machine entreaties to stay in business, reluctant- stretch of a kilometer. What was built, however, resembled a intended for the upper echelons, none ly downed its shutters. Another coffee We sent an RTI query to the university seven star resort (it would fit better in of it measures up to the benchmark set chain that survives has unfriendly, asking, one, whether an environment Gurugram) with so many lights in and by Starbucks. The lads in the pantry try noisy staff that spends the better part impact assessment had been undertaken around that it would warm the heart of hard to match up but have neither the of its time arguing among themselves. for such a road and, two, who would ben- any development enthusiast. Not at all in beans nor the machine to up their Most restaurants that feature coffee on efit from the proposed road. The answer the tradition of Tagore’s stress on nature. PEOPLE LIKE US game. Perforce, one must cast around their menu seem to have included it as we got after prodding the first appellate This year, on July 1, a programme com- outside office for one’s caffeine fix. an afterthought, and the indifference PEOPLE LIKE THEM authority was, Visva Bharati proposed a memorating the Bangladeshi national KISHORE SINGH Till some time ago, this was not a shows. From plenty, one is faced with a KEYA SARKAR road along the western side of the railway poet Kazi Nazrul Islam was to be organ- problem so long as you didn’t mind the drought. Good coffee has gone extinct line during 2006-08. Preliminary survey ised at the Bhavana. But days before the sizeable outlay it demanded to keep in the office hood. was done by the PWD and letters were programme, according to a press report, ow that office begins earlier body and soul in coffee heaven. To procure a decent takeaway, one bout three months ago as we sat sent to the Railways and other organisa- 19 of the 44,000sq ft structure’s 50 air con- than it used to, breakfast is a Dieticians complained the milk was fat- must now drive to a market five minutes down for lunch we heard the tell- tions. Regarding query no 2, the ditioners were not working. And the one N rushed affair, which means the tening, especially if you needed a cup, away, which is too far to ask the driver to A tale noise of tractors go past our University had another cryptic answer: To year warranties had just lapsed in May. cherished cup of filter coffee must now or three, daily. Doctors pointed out that fetch a cup that will stay intact as well as house. Used to enhanced real estate activ- divert traffic from the campus. So the venue had to be shifted to a be carried in a mug in the car to be con- too much coffee was bad for your warm. Going all the way several times a ity everywhere we would not have paid Divert traffic over just one km? But small auditorium in the University. What sumed on the commute to work. The health as well as your sleep. The char- day, however desirable, isn’t feasible. them much heed if it was not for the lately, Visva Bharati’s propensity to build I thought took the cake was the universi- cook likes to fill the mug to the brim, tered accountant refused to believe The choice, therefore, is between coffee accompanying noise of unloading not too buildings and roads has been inversely ty’s inability to fix the ACs in order to be despite requests to be less generous, so anyone could spend so much on coffee. withdrawal or bad coffee of which the far from our house. After lunch, we went proportional to the merit of its academic able to host an important programme. it requires expertise and a steady hand The office boys summoned to fetch the latter is winning right now. To remove to investigate and saw construction debris achievements. The Bangladesh government has given to balance as the driver goes over takeaway bitched about office parsimo- the taste of the brew, one must unavoid- being dumped behind a neighbour’s Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be excelling the University a corpus of ~10 crore to speedbreakers and potholes. Traffic ny when it came to pooling for Diwali ably replace it with something else, house about 200 metres from ours. in construction too, an activity that the maintain the building but since the inter- jams cause jerky stops and starts likely tips in comparison to one’s spend for which, here, means a surfeit of the kind On asking where the rubbish was com- university undertakes with a lot of enthu- est on that had not started to kick in, there to lead to spills perilous to the state of coffee-on-the-go. of stuff my wife has banned me from eat- ing from, an underage tractor driver said, siasm. Recently, the Bangladesh govern- were no funds to fix the ACs. one’s office clothes. Therefore, the cof- Then market dynamics came into ing — pizzas, fries, samosas, and in a the rubble was from some of the old build- ment gave the varsity ~25 crore to build a If this does not enhance cultural fee is often tepid by the time one man- play. First, the lovely tea shop which concession to the rains, pakodas. For any ings being demolished at Visva Bharati Bangladesh Bhavana to house a library, exchange between neighbours you won- ages to drain the contents of the mug served great French press coffees foreseeable ill-health, or weight gain, I’m University. My husband contacted the an auditorium and seminar rooms to facil- der what will. over a smooth stretch of road. This moved elsewhere. But there was still suing the coffee chains. OPINION 9 >

Volume Vl Number 51 should give equally to all its residents. MUMBAI | 20 JULY 2019 Or you can go to the fanciest buildings in Gurugram. They all float on their individual, Cities of misery giant septic tanks and diesel reservoirs — the first WEEKEND RUMINATIONS because nobody ever bothered laying down a India’s big cities are rotting, growing into massive, self-governing sewer system for India’s fanciest new post-reform T N NINAN development, and the second because nobody slums. When attempts are made to fix them, coral comes in the trusts state power utilities. You want to know how ridiculous this is? Beyond the half-century way, like in Mumbai You’d remember a phase of labour unrest at the Maruti factory a few years ago when unions alf a century after the nationalisation of 14 banks (all those with ur cities suck. The latest data from global ous. We’ve all heard in some context that famous and activists alleged that a large number of work- deposits in 1969 of more than ~50 crore), many commentators have agencies reminds us that 15 of the 20 most old exchange where Ambedkar apparently ers had been killed by the police, and their bodies polluted cities are in India. Given how rap- responded to Gandhi saying India lives in its were thrown into the gutter and sewer. The chief been debating whether it was a good or bad thing that Indira Gandhi O idly we are worsening, and urbanising, it is a mat- villages, by asking: But must it continue to do so minister asserted, in confident, self-righteous did. That’s the wrong question, but its short answer is that it was both ter of time when we count, maybe, 25 of the dirti- forever? defence, that it had to be a lie because no sewer goodH and bad. It helped spread the banks’ footprint and boosted the national sav- est 30, and so on. The Union cabinet has always had a rural has ever been built in this Gurugram. ings rate, but it has cost the taxpayer a pretty penny because of these banks’ con- Traffic in our cities crawls. In Mumbai, it is development ministry. But, for nearly five stant need for fresh capital. Nor is Indira Gandhi’s motive behind nationalisation now at 8 kmph. Bengaluru is worse. My sugges- decades after independence, we didn’t quite have his week’s National Interest is provoked (or a relevant question waiting to be settled. Everyone knows it was done for collater- tion to Google Maps: Rename it ‘Waterloo’, its a ministry of urban development. It was more like Ttriggered, which millennials prefer) by the al political reasons, but even undisguised populism can have beneficial results. The own, of course. “Works and Housing”. The “India lives in its vil- Bombay High Court order stopping work on right question to ask today is, what now? Hyderabad may be a bit better, Kolkata even lages” romanticism endures, to the great detri- Mumbai’s long-delayed coastal road project. The The starting point has to be that the government-owned banks have a prob- improving, which is a gift of its economic decline. ment of India’s cities, their poor, and at zero 219-page order written by Chief Justice Pradeep lem. Their lending record is much worse than for the banking system as a whole, Delhi will not catch up with Mumbai or benefit to the villages. Or millions wouldn’t be Nandrajog and Justice N M Jamdar is among the they have been left behind in the technological transformation that has overtak- Bengaluru soon, but is a work in progress. fleeing them. best-crafted and comprehensible judgments I en banking, and they remain less customer-focused than their better-run private Particularly if you are commuting to its twin Even during the tenure of APJ Abdul Kalam in have read in some time. The judges have spoken sector counterparts. Even retail depositors have begun taking their money to the ‘downtown’ of Gurugram and Noida. Rashtrapati Bhawan, the mythology was fur- sense on there being no conflict between the private banks. Losing the retail franchise could be the kiss of death. In these biggest metros, Delhi-Mumbai- thered by an idea called PURA, or Providing environment and development, and the need for But privatisation remains a political no-no, and in any case is not an across- Kolkata-Bengaluru-Hyderabad more than 90 mil- Urban Amenities in Rural Areas. Everyone balance and adherence to laws. the-board solution. For while private lenders like HDFC Bank have done aston- lion people live. For ease of applauded his power point presen- They have struck down the project not on understanding, since New tations on this, and sniggered on grounds of feasibility or environmental damage ishingly well, there have been failures too. The near-collapse of YES Bank’s share Zealand is the new liberal El the side. but on a technicality. The project, they say, got its price and its desperate need for fresh capital point to some of what used to go on Dorado right now, it is equal to First of all, an Indian village clearance as a road. But it involves reclaiming 90 with private banks before nationalisation. Similarly, the defaults by large shadow about 20 times the wonderful simply did not have the scale or hectares (about 9.9 million square feet) from the banks like IL&FS and DHFL, with others perhaps waiting to hit the headlines, are nation, which gave us icons like economics to build urban-level sea. It is, therefore, a building project, never mind no advertisement for private ownership of financial entities. Jacinda Ardern and Kane infrastructure. Especially as the that the reclaimed land is to be used only for pub- That said, the government’s solutions so far have not measured up. Providing Williamson. And, 150 times that political class is unwilling to lic spaces like parks, cycle and jogging tracks, and repeated rounds of fresh capital without taking steps to improve performance is of Luxembourg. Why I bring in charge the rural Indian for water, bus parking. So, the government can come back not very different from pouring money into a bottomless pit. And it is not clear that that tiny jewel of Europe I shall power, or any other utilities. And for clearances again, but as a city development the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has looked hard enough at its own supervisory let you know soon. then, what urban facilities was he project. You can’t grudge the activists their cele- processes, which allowed the mess to reach the scale that it has. The solution has Nearly 50 per cent of NATIONAL INTEREST talking about when our cities are brations. They’ve won. to come from elsewhere. Mumbai’s population live in such a disaster? Read the judgment carefully, however, and Look, therefore, at what happened in telecom and aviation. The legacy play- slums or semi-slums. They make SHEKHAR GUPTA This mindset has had deeply you may cry. I cannot fault it on law. I only high- ers were left to stew in their own juice while new private players took away the mar- great movie sets and plots for damaging and far-reaching conse- light a point where the judges say the project also ket. No company got privatised, the sector did. Many new private entrants did not “feel-sorry-for-these-poor-and- quences. Because we think cities needs wildlife clearance. survive the competition and folded up (capitalism at work), while the government lovely-wretches” liberal writing. But, think New are evil and villages are virtuous, Indian cities are Because the petitioners said coral along the Zealand again. Our commercial capital keeps a never planned. They grow into massive, self-gov- coastline will be destroyed. Studies — presented continues to own and fund the legacy players (state capitalism at work). By the time population two times that country in subhuman erning slums, along with islands created by indi- in the court — have indeed shown coral near Haji the government throws its hand in and finally decides to sell, there is usually pre- living conditions. Kolkata is no better and vidual builders, “audacious” real estate entrepre- Ali and Worli: All of two patches of 0.251 and 0.11 cious little on offer for prospective buyers. Bengaluru is making rapid progress. No other city neurs, and mafias who can work the system. square metres, respectively, or about 4 square The banking sector is getting privatised. Just five years ago, the government’s in India, not even that planned sarkari Utopia Our cities therefore grow without feet in all. banks used to have deposits and advances that were four times those of the private Chandigarh, is without slums. infrastructure. It comes later, usually The fact is, the project will ulti- Indian banks. Now the multiple is just 2.2 for deposits and 1.8 for loans. When it What is slum in Mumbai is usually an unau- over three generations. Then the mil- Nearly 50 per cent mately be built — a year later and a comes to incremental deposits and advances, the tables have been turned dra- thorised or illegal colony in Delhi. The quality of lions living there need water, power, of Mumbai’s ~10 billion costlier. I am not sure the matically. Last year the private banks took in and lent out money on a scale of two life may not be as abysmal as in Mumbai, but isn’t roads, rail, and metros, and you have population live in coral would survive, though I’d hope to three times what the government banks did. If private banks hold on to their role much better either. In any case, about the same to dig underneath them, build above, slums or it does — because people, in the con- as growth drivers, it won’t be long before they in their totality become as big as the population of Kane Williamson’s country lives as or go over the seas. semi-slums. They dominiums and slums, can government banks, and then take over the sector. “illegals” in our national capital. Our public hos- Yet, millions of cars and two- make great movie wait. Activists can savour victory Meanwhile, it has been true for some time that the most valuable private bank pitals, medical care, and education are rotting, wheelers have no place to park except sets and plots for until then. is worth much more than the largest government bank, State Bank of India. The rest overcrowded, and either of sub-Saharan quality sidewalks (where they exist) and pub- “feel-sorry-for- This is like living on Cloud ‘Coral’ of the government banks put together are worth only about as much as a private bank or demand Harvard-level scores — check out cut- lic spaces, usually blocking entire these-poor-and- Cuckooland. Or, remember one of the that wasn’t yet born in 1991. That’s because investors have made their preferences offs in top “public” colleges in Delhi. roads. It isn’t just the poor that are vic- lovely-wretches” arguments advanced in favour of free tims of this. Check out the fancy Worli- liberal writing rides for women in Delhi Metro and clear: Good private banks are quoting at steadily higher multiples of book value, while f our cities are so bad, why do millions still keep Parel development in Mumbai. buses: Luxembourg has done it. It has the government ones are at embarrassing discounts to book value. Ileaving their supposedly more virtuous villages Scores of fancy apartment- and 600,000 people, or about 3 per cent of It is not enough for the government to let this process continue to its logical and moving to the cities? Because our villages, business-towers have come up in the past two Delhi, and a per capita income of $1.1 lakh, that is conclusion, because banks are more important than airlines and telecom com- too, suck. On practically every parameter except decades, mostly on lands of old textile mills. But 55 times India’s. As long as we have our panies. Whether through merger, selective sale, or by enforcing narrow banking air quality, they would be worse than the cities. most have built their infrastructure, from water to Luxembourg and “4 square feet of coral are better restrictions on weak players, it must deliver a financial sector where health is not India may have become the fifth- or even parking to security. They nestle in the middle of than 20 million humans” fantasies, our cities will determined by ownership. third-largest economy in the world, but our old, much poorer populations native to the area, rot. And millions will still keep flocking to them mindset towards our cities is still conditioned by deprived of such comforts. This makes for a very from even more rotten villages. Entities controlled by the Kotak family have a significant shareholding in Business Standard Ltd one of the great Gandhian hypocrisies we have unequal neighbourhood, not just in terms of eco- perpetuated — the cities are evil, villages virtu- nomic status but also what the state or a city By Special Arrangement with ThePrint Barriers to potential demographic dividend Tie-break travesties be an advantage.” place, that enabled them to exploit their People’s Republic of China, the young EYE CULTURE tough ask. Federer made easy meat of He then pointed out that a larger work- respective demographic dividends. One was workforces were already fairly well-edu- SHREEKANT SAMBRANI Djokovic in the second set, winning it 6-1 force could generate more output, even if monetary systems that encouraged invest- cated by the time the “bulge” came along. with three service breaks. But the pendu- productivity was low. He introduced us to ments to flow easily into high-growth areas. The workforce could easily be skilled to uly 14 is Bastille Day. On that day in lum swung back. Jos Buttler joined Ben the basic concept of workforce: population In Japan and Korea, for instance, the rele- take up manufacturing jobs and in time, 1789 Parisians marched on to that Stokes at Lord’s and the duo steadily ratios, and explained how a young work- vant Ministries ensured private enterprise they could be skilled to enter higher-value Jinfamous jail to start the French reconstructed the England innings. The force with a “bulge” in the 15-35 age cohorts had access to cheap, abundant capital. services and R&D. Revolution. On the same day 230 years third set at Wimbledon produced long ral- could generate high gross domestic prod- India Inc. is capitalstarved and trammelled In India, about 20 per cent of the pop- later, the capital across the English lies, but no fireworks or breaks (Federer uct (GDP) for decades. It was a revelation in by regulations that hobble investors. ulation still lacks the ability to put signa- Channel, London, witnessed unbeliev- could not convert his one opportunity). itself. It was also the first, and only time, The second thing was that all these tures on paper. The lack of scale and of able sports events which the cognoscenti Djokovic again won the tie-breaker, 7-4. that I can recall a school-teacher in Calcutta countries created large, globally competi- quality in primary education makes it very may someday call equally revolutionary. Buttler got out in over 45, after a 110- VIEWPOINT (as it then was) articulating an idea that tive manufacturing bases and excellent hard to take a boy off the farm, and put Or revolting, take your pick. run partnership and New Zealand rightly directly contradicted the “book”. infrastructure. This easily absorbed the him onto an assembly line. To add to the Last Sunday, at about 7.20 pm, the saw an opening, although the English tail DEVANGSHU DATTA Many years later, looking at the apparent workforce. The “Tigers” moved seamless- woes, female participation in the work- world’s premier cricket tournament, the was fully capable of wagging. Federer miracle of the Asian “tigers”, it became obvi- ly from being agricultural economies to force is low, and falling. There are multiple quadrennial International Cricket Confe- broke Djokovic in the fourth game of the must have been about 15 when I first ous that the demographic dividend worked. becoming manufacturing powerhouses, socio-economic barriers impeding the rence World Cup, produced no winner af- fourth set, but the latter returned the com- heard “Demographic dividend”. It was Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the People’s while Japan revived its formidable indus- deployment of almost half of the potential ter months of preliminary matches, 52 m- pliment in the very next game. Federer got I the height of the Emergency and the Republic of China, Thailand and Indonesia trial complex, which had been ravaged by workforce. atches in the Cup proper and 102 overs of another service break in the eighth game accepted wisdom was in favour of popu- had all turned around economies devastat- the Second World War. It is possible to erect infrastructure in a the final at Lord’s in London NW 8. Just and won the set 6-4. Even Stevens so far. lation control. There were rumours about ed by war, civil war, famines and natural India has missed the bus in manufac- hurry, even if it’s difficult. It may even be moments before, a few kilometres south, Now to the nail biting suspense. Last forced sterilisation drives in rural UP and disasters. The demographic dividend was turing. Almost every other Asian nation possible to change labour laws, and land- at Wimbledon in London SW 19, the wor- over of the scheduled game for England, Bihar, and the urban middle-class one thing they had in common. has significant competitive advantages in use laws, to improve prospects for manu- ld’s premier tennis tournament, the All-E- 3 balls, 9 runs to get. Stokes took two on approved. Post-Emergency the outrages of forced manufacturing. India’s physical infra- facturing. But there is no royal road to ngland Lawn Tennis Championship, pro- the next ball and lay spread-eagled as he Our geography teacher was a brave sterilisation made politicians wary about structure is also barely adequate, if that. learning — it takes 8-10 years before a child duced no winner either in the men’s event scrambled home. The throw from Martin man. In a class about the economic geog- population control. By the 1990s, the demo- The fact that 40 per cent of fruit and veg- can read with sufficient fluency to under- after weeks of qualifying rounds, six ro- Guptil hit the toe of Stokes’ outstretched raphy of India, he first parroted the slogan graphic dividend had become the main- etable production goes to waste is a big stand basic technical manuals. That bulge unds of the tournament proper compris- bat and the ball sped to the boundary. of the day, “We two, our two” extolling pop- stream wisdom. It is still being faithfully pointer to lacunae in infrastructure. Roads, won’t last forever — it is historically ing 126 matches and five sets (equivalent England happily took the 6 runs wh- ulation control. Then he drew a deep trotted out every so often as an inevitable rail, telecom, airports, ports; you name it, inevitable that people age. It’s a moot point to six, since the fifth set was an extended ichever way they came. The perplexed ex- breath and said, “There’s another way of historical reason why India will become the capacity is inadequate. if India will ever cash in on the potential of 12-all affair). Both these uber prestigious pression on the face of the New Zealand looking at large populations. I heard this an economic superpower. The third common factor where India that demographic dividend. tournaments used tie-breaks they have skipper Kane Williamson seemed to ack- brilliant Harvard economist, Subramanian Sadly, this is unlikely. There were many is lacking is education. In every one of the adopted recently (really works in progress) nowledge that the game was slipping away Swamy, explain how it could prove to other variables that the “Tigers” had in “Tigers” and somewhat later, in the Twitter: @devangshudatta to decide their respective champions from from them. The fifth set at Wimbledon among the two contestants who laid equal reached 6-all after an exchange of breaks claim to the trophies. The winners were and the tie-breaker was to be applied if the both pre-tournament favourites of the score was still tied at 12-all. Federer got the are give effect to the alternative its current use. The other part experts and the ubiquitous bookies as all important break in the fifteenth game ideas and help realise the prefer- was what it would take to lure it well, but the losers won the admiration and was two points away from the cham- Defection: A Ricardian view ences of the members. to another use. and hearts of the true lovers of the sport. pionship in the next game at 40-15. If you think carefully about If these were not coincidences enough, Djokovic then amazingly won four This would not have mat- “Meri Marzi”. But the fact is that this, you will get a very strange What this means the twists and turns the finals produced straight points, handing back the break to tered so much if what I call “con- there is huge conceptual confu- Ricardian answer: They produce If this test is applied to the anti- were remarkably similar. Even those Federer. Stoic though the Swiss champion strained morality” — like what sion about the issues involved. whatever yields the highest defection law — which was the Bollywood schlock-meisters, Manmohan was, he did seem to sense he was not going economic theory calls “bounded This conceptual confusion returns. And don’t dismiss this as very anti-thesis of what classical Desai and David Dhawan, who built their to make it. These decisive moments were rationality” — not been intro- has allowed all strong central a joke just because you didn’t liberalism would demand, œuvrés almost entirely on fantastic coin- virtually simultaneous. duced in India by the 1985 anti- governments to play ducks and think of it. namely, the expression of free cidences, would have found these paral- The England innings ended at 241 all defection law. It constrained drakes with weak state govern- So for the political party, the will and choice by an individual lels outrageous. out, requiring a super over. The morality, first to 33 per cent and ments. Karnataka is the best and return is measured in terms of — we can explain the sense of Things began rather sedately. New Wimbledon match reached its predes- then to 66 per cent, of the latest example of this. power. For the members of the bewilderment that has prevailed Zealand won the toss, elected to bat, and tined 12-all score, calling for a tie-break. strength of a party’s strength in party it is measured by their since it was introduced. reached 241 for eight in their 50 overs. The super over also ended in a tie. Eng- LINE AND LENGTH a legislature. The basics sense of community, of “being The fact is this: The third fac- No fireworks or no collapses in batting, land won because they had scored more T C A SRINIVASA-RAGHAVAN This, if I may be allowed to I therefore think the time has in power”. And for the MPs and tor in the bundle of the three fac- just steady if a tad slow march (we learnt boundaries than their opponents. The stretch the analogy further, was come to take the help of good old MLAs, it is measured by their tors of political production — later that Ross Taylor of New Zealand felt flagging Federer lost the tie-break 7-3 and the “strict” constraint. Later, a economics, which, like religion, preference for pecuniary returns parties, members, and MPs and 260 would be a challenging score). The Djokovic defended his title successfully. veryone knows that if you “weaker” version was permitted has been mixing practicalities, and/or status. MLAs — has been viewed in tennis match began roughly two-and-a- Aficionados like this writer were ask the wrong question, to allow for mergers into anoth- moralities, and hypocrisies for a Thus, in purely Ricardian every way except the one in half hours later. The defending champi- deeply dismayed by these outcomes. E you will not get the right er party by a set of rebels, pro- very long time. And it has been terms, each will adjust itself which it must be viewed, name- on Novak Djokovic, and the number two Federer won more rallies, more points, answer. Nowhere is this truer vided their number came to 66 doing this very successfully. accordingly to maximise its ly, in the Ricardian way. seed and the world number three Roger more games, and yet lost. New Zealand than of political parties, their per cent of the MLAs and MPs The basic question a think- return. It is perfectly natural. It is not surprising that the Federer, played a disciplined, if unexcit- were victims of an arbitrary ploy to break members, their MPs and MLAs from that party. ing economist, and not a data- For those who have forgot- result has been exactly like ing, game, holding on to their serves. the tie. Why not declare joint winners in and, that very Indian thing, the Then the courts got into the driven AI type, would ask is this: ten their Ricardo — or, as is imposing a moral constraint on, After almost an hour, Djokovic took the such rarest of rare cases? anti-defection law. game and mucked about in their Are political parties, their mem- more likely these days, were say, a professional sportsman, first set on a tie-breaker, 7-5. That was After Westminster Abbey and The tradition, at least in the usual way. So in the end what we bers, and the MPs and MLAs fac- never taught it — David Ricardo like a footballer or a jockey. It is a when the New Zealand innings finished. Buckingham Castle, Wimbledon and Westminster type of democra- have today, in conceptual terms, tors of production? What do they was a 19th century English futile attempt at control in a England were expected to overhaul the Lord’s are the two most iconic bastions of cies, has been to focus on the is a dog’s breakfast of practicali- actually produce? economist who sought to game where the incentive struc- score easily. A commentator said that living English heritage. They tried to buck moral aspects of a political party, ties, moralities, and hypocrisies. I would say that a political analyse resource allocation in ture is completely Ricardian. while he would love to see Federer win tradition last Sunday and ended up caus- namely, what social and eco- We can argue about the rela- party produces policy alterna- terms of returns to each factor Finally, remember: Fairness three of the next four sets, he didn’t think ing grave dissatisfaction to die-hard fans. nomic values it stands for. Views tive weights of each ingredient tives, which are the essence of of production. He broke these and morality are two separate that would happen. have tended to differ on this, and come to different conclu- democracy. Its members pro- returns into two parts. notions and it is foolish to mix The underdogs clawed back then. Every week, Eye Culture features writers with which is why we get two broad sions about our preferences, duce its strength. And the MPs One part was the minimum it them up as the anti-defection New Zealand reduced England to 86 for an entertaining critical take on art, music, types of parties: Left and Right. reminiscent of the Govinda song and MLAs produce the laws that needed to earn in order to stay in law does. four in over 24, with 156 runs still to get, a dance, film and sport