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An Economic Take On Youth Uncertainty and Why Last Month's Protests in India May Have Caught Popular Imagination

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It is no secret that salaries of entry level jobs are stagnant for a few years now, while the costs of living as well as costs of upskilling have skyrocketed significantly during the same duration. Individuals who recently graduated or are about to graduate see no light at the end of their academic tunnel. As multiple commentators have pointed out, the way recent protests in India, against malpractice in competitive exams spread across the country indicate that it is not just about one exam but about the extreme uncertainty that next generation of knowledge workers are facing across the board.   There are multiple factors that lead to this situation and I would like to cover only private education for now! Education is an industry of strategic importance for any society and thus the economics underlying learning, teaching and running academic institutions is supposed to be pondered a bit to ensure that it is at a reasonable price for those buying it and is also of economic val...
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The Constitution of India - A few points from book " You Must Know Your Constitution"

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     I recently read the book "You Must Know Your Constitution" by Fali S Nariman. The author had an illustrious law career. He was the President of the Bar Association of India from 1991 to 2010.  He was the Additional Solicitor General of India  from May 1972 to June 1975 and duly resigned when internal emergency was imposed in June 1975. A man who has been not only witness but also a participant in establishment and strengthening of the edifice of law in the biggest democracy by number of citizens. The depth of this book does reflect his deep and wide career of about 6 decades. Here are a few nuggets of the books along with my musings on constitution: A few outstanding quotes I found in the book: "I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can e...
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Our Pursuit of Notifications

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Most of us are living by motto of over-documenting our under-achievements. The desire to be wowed is getting stronger than the need to learn and need to improve. Even the philanthropist in us have become considerate of "shareability" of an act and given a choice(mostly we are) we prefer being Good Samaritan in a situation in which we can be clicked over the one in which we cannot.  This behavior of "performing to gallery" is altering us, our lives and our self esteem. Apart from the obvious danger of choosing confirmation over morality, we are staring into the possibility of turning ourselves into data gluttons, consuming the information equivalent of junk food. Noah Harari, in his book "Homo Deus" talks about "experiencing self" and "narrating self". Quoting him, "Experiencing self remembers nothing. It tells no stories and is seldom consulted when it comes to major decisions. Retrieving memories, telling stories and mak...
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Some Quotes from Book Atlas Shrugged

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Here is a list of my favorite quotes from the book "Atlas Shrugged"... Two things were impossible to him: to stand still or to move aimlessly. Now they are hurrying because they are afraid. It’s not a purpose that drives them, it is fear. Describing un-successful life of a great man, “His life had been a summary of the lives of all the men whose reward is a monument in a public park a hundred years after the time when a reward can matter.” If you don’t know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn She thought “A train has two great attributes of life: motion and purpose. If this was the enemy, there was nothing to fear. She had learned, in the slums of her childhood that honest people were never touchy about the matter of being trusted…. I win by means of nothing but logic and I surrender to nothing but logic. Building is not done by abstaining from demolition. You reject your tool of perception – your mind – then complain that the universe is a myster...
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Book Excerpts - The Machine That Changed The World

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The book "The  Machine That Changed The  World" by Womack, Jones & Roos is result of an MIT study which probed into "why Japanese car makers (read  Toyota) made strides into American market debasing the vanguards of auto world". Initially the American auto industry blamed the lower wages of Japan to be the main reason of better profit margins  for the Japanese firms, but it wasn't always the case. This book is a 300 page case study of auto industry of late 1980's and early 1990's. It studied,defined and demystified the production system that world now knows by the name "lean". The importance of this feat lies in the fact that the look and feel of "mass production" with "lean production" is not much different outwardly. It took a lot of disciplined research on part of this team to figure out and call out this idea of lean production. This post is just collection of sentences from the book, with comments added here and...
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Excerpts of Shantaram - The Book With Poetic Prose

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       If you claim to have two passions: Books and Bombay...then you are supposed to say "I have read Shantaram" as a proof of sanctity of your claim. Never knew that prose can be as musical as poetry. A book that describes emotions so profoundly that you can see them unfolding right in your mind. A book that describes the city of dreams so vividly that you feel like you are walking in its streets.         For those who haven't read  the book, here are a few sentences that really impressed me. These sentences are like the sapphires used in a terrific mosaic. Trust me, the sapphires will look far more beautiful when seen in the complete mosaic, still they are sapphires and they might add a spark to your eye..... Describing Victoria Terminus, the iconic railway station of Bombay(not Mumbai) The great station – those who used it every day knew it as VT – was justly famous for the splendor of its intricately detailed facades, tower...
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