For me the real battleground between the copyleft and copyright movements is not music but higher education. This is why I am really interested and emboldened by MIT’s Open CourseWare program. This has implications for India as the hiher education system undergoes some serious reform.
Archive for the 'civic issues' Category
Internet, satellite television and handheld devices like cell phones and iPods enables us to stay ensconced in our culture even when we travel. This is creating micro-cultures. The danger of this is that radicalism can get a boost. I look at more optimistic scenario where the improved rooted-ness will manifest as a heightened capability to deal with change in areas outside of music, religion and politics. Read on…
Higher Education in India Needs an Orbit Change
Published by March 7th, 2007 in civic issues. 0 CommentsIndian economy is growing at 9% and will double in 8 years. So it will need about twice as many professionals as now. Where will they come from? The talent crunch is acute and real. Major reform in higher education is needed. Is it underway?
There is great similarity in what ails Italian and Indian culture. Cultural change is needed in both places. The good news about India is that its private sector has already confronted its culture and changed dramatically. Now India needs a similar change to transform its government.
After reviving traditional weaving and hand block printing in North India, Faith and J.C. Singh, founders of Anokhi, take on the bigger challenge of reviving a city, Jaipur. Read on…
Short, Modular Content and Its Impact on Culture
Published by January 24th, 2007 in civic issues. 3 CommentsI comment on Tim O’Reilly’s post where he says that short, modular form of content is more suitable for social production. My sense is that the improved accessibility for consumption and production of content is not only changing content is also changing people who consume it. Are we sliding towards more radicalized micro-communities or are we creating more ‘anchored’ individuals that are comfortable with diversity and change?
Foreign Policy Planning and its Similarity to Corporate Strategy
Published by January 23rd, 2007 in civic issues. 1 CommentThis discussion on Indian foreign policy in Africa had uncanny parallels to corporate strategy formulation.
Indian Infrastructure Needs Orbit Change - II
Published by December 15th, 2006 in civic issues. 1 CommentYou know that I love Andy Mukherjee’s columns in IHT. I had commented on one of columns here which led to an email exchange with him that I would like to share with you. I conclude the post with some musings on the limits of privatization and decentralization.
Indian Infrastructure Needs Orbit Change
Published by November 24th, 2006 in civic issues. 5 CommentsAndy Mukherjee is a Singapore based Bloomberg Columnist that I read in the International Herald Tribune. He is fast becoming one of my favorite journalists. His commentaries on Indian economy are crisp, incisive and often iconoclastic. Today he has an optimistic piece on the infrastructure build-out in India titled ‘The rich plug the gaps in India’.
