On the road to Liberty

Writing the foreword to the International Property Rights Index 2010 , I note that "The present economic crisis, with its root in housing and property, provides a very good opportunity for people in the rich and poor countries to take a fresh look at the significance of property rights and to renew our appreciation of a system of formal ownership of property." The International Property Rights Index is published annually by the Property Rights Alliance , an international network, based in the US. Foreword to the IPRI 2010 , by Barun Mitra The crisis that has shaken the financial world over the last two years is ascribed to many failures – from easy money, human greed or a lack of government oversight to the lethal financial derivatives created by financial whiz kids. While relevant, much of the public discourse has ignored a fundamental cause of the present economic woes. In my view, this financial crisis is the consequence of distorting or altogether disconnecting the relati...

The less credibility the climate body has, the less it can do to block vital economic development. My analysis of India's relationship with IPCC is in this article titled " India Supports a Toothless IPCC " published in the Opinion Asia section of the Wall Street Journal Asia , on February 8, 2010. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed support for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and its leader, Rajendra Pachauri, at a local energy conference in New Delhi Friday. The move has surprised many observers, but it may prove to be politically astute. The IPCC's credibility is in tatters. From climategate to glaciergate, Amazongate, natural-disaster gate, and now Chinagate, the revelations of bad science keep coming. Given all that, plus the much-publicized flap between Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Mr. Pachauri over the science behind "melting" Himalayan glaciers weeks before the Copenhagen climate summit in December, su...

Rather than focussing on reducing emissions, India can make a difference by liberalising its economy, improve efficiency, and thereby contribute to a cleaner and safer environment. On the eve of the Copenhagen climate conference, I look at the relationship between economic reforms and energy efficiency in this article, " Earth Story ", published in the Financial Chronicle, on 7 December 2009. With the opening of the climate conference in Copenhagen, India has an opportunity to change the climate of negotiations. Surprisingly, Jairam Ramesh, the minister for environment and forest, decided to play for a draw with his statement in Parliament last week proposing voluntary reduction in India’s carbon intensity. Despite his strong assertion that India will not accept any legally binding international commitment to reduce emission, he proposed to reduce the intensity of the economy by a modest 20 to 25 per cent. Just when the world of climate science was getting shaken by allegati...

The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, has become particularly poignant because of the current economic slowdown in much of the rich countries, particularly in that apparent bastion of capitalism, the US. Over the past two years, the foundation of global finance has been shaken, not because of any Marxian foresight, but because of the failure on the part of the capitalist world to appreciate the relationship between property ownership and valuation of that property. In this article, " The Writing on the Wall ", published in the Financial Express , on 10 November 2009, I try to draw fresh lessons from the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the context of the current financial crisis. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall that divided East and West Germany, both physically and ideologically, finally fell. It was a political earthquake, which signalled the end of communism. Communism was characterised by its contempt for private property, by the complete control o...

India is ranked 45 compared to China's 75 on parameters of wealth & well-being. Roger Bate & I look at the new global prosperity index, in the Daily News & Analysis, on27 October 2009. Read the original article here . Together, India and China account for 40% of the world's population and about 16% of the world's economic output. China bests India in both categories. And as home to glittering cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong, it's generally considered more prosperous than the subcontinent. But is that really the case? Just as an individual's well-being is based on more than his bank balance, a country's prosperity depends on more than rote calculations of its gross domestic product (GDP). And on these less-celebrated, but no less important metrics of prosperity, India surpasses China, on all of them. If prosperity is defined as a mix of wealth and well-being, India is streets ahead of China, ranking 45th worldwide, while China lags far behind at ...

Why does the India media blow hot and cold over China, every now and then? I look at this phenomenon in " Breaking news: TV battles China ", published in the Financial Express, on 25 Sept 2009. Apart from any geopolitical factors, there are two plausible explanations for the current focus on the China-India border, particularly on a few TV news channels in India. We are being daily fed with reports of Chinese incursions, China’s aggressive postures, China’s military buildup, China painting rocks red, and then the media is blowing hot and cold over whether the Indian military is capable or ill prepared to deal with any situation that may arise. Indian government has repeated that there is nothing unusual happening on the border. Indian military has said there has been nothing unusual on the border. But of course the media knows better. I know very little about the Chinese response to the war being waged in Indian drawing rooms. One report in Indian papers quoted Chinese offic...

The new bilateral free-trade agreement between South Korea and India is not all it's cracked up to be: there are plenty of exceptions and the package will take 10 years to implement. Chung-Ho Kim of South Korean, and I argue here that fully free trade is the best possible way of recovering from the global slump, in this article titled " When free trade means so little ", published in the Mint on Aug 6 2009. India and South Korea are due to sign an agreement on Friday 7 August that they say will cut barriers and boost trade between our two important economies. But behind the political rhetoric, the reality of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) is in the fine print. By signing a freetrade agreement that does not actually free trade, our governments are denying us the best tools to fight the global recession. They admit as much by saying it will pave the way for removing more barriers to commerce in the future, even though this agreement has been in th...