Indy Telecom & Industrial Media

Last week, I finally gave into temptation and purchased the NYT bestseller Freakonomics by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen Dubner.

After all, how could anyone resist a book titled such, especially with a cover so tempting?

Needless to say, I was quite skeptical — not because I doubted either of their credentials, but because a lot of NYT bestsellers tend to be full of utter fluff and nonsense.

However, I picked this book up for two reasons — one, because I have heard of Steven Levitt and have read other (academic) papers by him, particularly his famous, “The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime” that explained the drop in crime-rates in the US post-90s. And secondly, all the reviews that I had read indicated that the book might actually be quite an interesting read.

Fortunately, I was not disappointed.

Freakonomics is a very fun read, and Levitt and Dubner have a uniquely refreshing way of looking at things. What makes this book especially interesting is Levitt’s use of conventional economic principles to analyse and solve unconventional problems and situations, yielding some very interesting results.

The book has six chapters, each of which analyses a series of related problems and looks at causes and (on occasion) solutions. These include the incentives of cheating, information control, economics of certain nefarious activities (such as drug dealing), the role of abortion in cutting down crime, effects of parenting on education, socio-economic effects of children’s names and the like.

In fact, parts of the book discuss some of Levitt’s papers in layman terms, such as the role of abortion in reducing crime and cheating and other controversies in Sumo wrestling. However, what makes it an interesting read is in the way Levitt and Dubner compare and analyse such results with “conventional wisdom” — or what passes for it these days. To that end, this particularly insightful description that they give themselves probably sums it up better than anything else:

Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: if morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work.

It is also interesting to note that although the tagline of the book reads, “A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything”, Levitt is not a rogue economist by any stretch. He is a believer in contemporary economic theories of microeconomics — he just uses and applies such theories to unconventional socioeconomic situations and draws some interesting conclusions.

It also turns out that Freakonomics has been recommended as a textbook at several schools. To this end, there are even study guides to help the student learner understand the finer concepts within the book.

Personally, I like the Freaknonomics Student Guide by Palmer and Carlson.

This guide shows the application of various economic principles to the problems that Levitt and Dubner discuss and gives an overview of the basic economic concepts used as well as summaries of the topics being discussed.

And after a little further exploration, I also found out that there is a Freakonomics website — and more interestingly — a Freakonomics Blog where the authors discuss other things in the same vein as the book. Although I must add that the blog is in no way a comparison to the content in the book, which turned out to be a very fun and interesting read.

So, how would I rate this book? Here ya’ go:

• Originality: 5/5
• New Insights: 4/5
• Clarity of Thought: 4/5
• Language: 4/5
• Knowledge Value: 4/5
• Overall Rating: 4/5

At the end of the day, a very nice book that is a recommended and good read. Go for it!

Update: If you are interested in getting your copy of Freakonomics signed, Levitt and Dubner have a neat little idea — sign up for it and they will send you a signed bookplate. Swell!

The Indian cabinet recently approved a 27% reservation in the famous Indian Institutes of Technology. This is despite the fact that a lot of people have opposed and protested against it. And even more importantly, this is while the issue is still up in the Supreme Court of India, which is quite blatantly unethical on part of the cabinet ministers.

Reservation is a process in India by which the government allots a certain percentage of seats for certain segments of population. Therefore, if you belong to a “reserved category”, you are automatically given an admission even if your academic performance is far below someone who does not fall under the reserved category and yet did not make it. In some Indian states, this percentage is up to 70+% — i.e., 70%+ of seats are reserved for about 95% of the population, while the rest 5% of the population have access to only 30% of the seats, and they have to contend with the rest 95% of the population for these seats, as well.

For instance, Alice may be a smart kid who fell into the 90th percentile in her standardised tests. Unfortunately for Alice, she does not fall under a reserved category. So, despite the fact that folks of Alice’s ethnicity only comprise of 5% of the population, Alice still needs to score in the 95the percentile or above to be accepted.

Now, Bob is a relatively unintelligent kid who falls into the 70th percentile. But Bob is lucky — Bob falls under a reserved category, so even though Bob is way less deserving than Alice, he still makes it by sheer virtue of his birth. Alice not only competes against the 5% of the people for 30% of the seats, but also against the other 95% for the 30%. However, Bob just needs to score enough to make it into the top 70 percentile, and he automatically makes it.

So, even though Alice is way smarter than Bob ever would be, Bob gets to go to school because the Government of India discriminates against people.

And India, a nation state which claims to be treat all its citizens equally (which is even listed as a fundamental right) provides an unequal platform in the most fundamental of things for the nation’s youth — education.

However, let’s take a look against the ethnicities that the GoI discriminates against, such as the Brahmins. But before we go ahead, let us provide a sample space of Brahmins for the reader — C.V. Raman, S. Chandrasekhar, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Rabindranath Tagore. Yup, four (and only) four of the Nobel Laureates that India has ever produced. Yup, three (out of six) of the Nobel Laureates that India has ever produced. The other three are Har Gobind Khorana, won won the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Mother Teresa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize and Amartya Sen, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics.

And just for the sake of fun, let us look at their percentages:

In the 1931 caste census taken by the Colonial British government, Brahmins were 4.32% of the total population. Even in Uttar Pradesh, where they are most numerous, the Brahmins constituted just 9% of the total populace. In Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, they formed less than 3% and 2% of the population respectively

So, a small percentage of people, who for the most part fall under the middle-class category financially, but are gifted neverthless in terms of intellectual achievements. That done, let us proceed.

For the most part, reservation or no, the deserving and smart folks would find a way. However, this would do something else — the smart folks would leave the country. Oh, this is already happening. The US, for instance, is teeming with Indians, most of whom came here precisely for these reasons — the opportunity to have their talent recognised, which their country would not.

Now, this is a good thing in a lot of ways. In a way, it is the survival of the fittest — you see, the brightest of the nation were the 5%, who have been discriminated against. Now, those that can get through the already tough system are the smart ones from this 5%, and they will find a way.

However, the system will reach a culmination point where the “upper caste” (who, ironically, are being discriminated against) will no longer be in India, at least not significant enough to matter. Those that are in India will be the ones who were unable to make it; however the rest would get out of the nation once and for all. And in economies and societies like the US which encourage talent and merit, such folks would prosper.

But let’s rewind a moment and see what would happen if these folks were not discriminated against. Maybe they will have dreams, work hard and try to make India into a first world developed state. However, when the system and the government discriminate against them, would they be willing to do so? No, it would be a lot easier for them to simply move to another society that encourages their talent.

So, they are happy — they get to live in a first world country, they get to pursue their dreams and they have left behind the system that discriminated against them.

But who are the losers? Of course, India is the loser — it just lost its best brains because it discriminated against them. Remember what the Jews did when Nazi Germany started discriminating against them? They ended up working for the state that was fighting Germany, and helped in the defeat of Germany and its allies. What do you think the intelligentia that escapes the persecution by the Indian government going to do?

That is right, their loyalties change.

I’m a Brahmin, and I’m sick and tired of what India has become. The nation I was born in hates me and my kind, and there are no opportunities for us. For sins that my ancestors supposedly committed thousands of years ago, my kind are being persecuted against.

I’m not an equal in the eyes of the law, nor in the eyes of the state, even though I supposedly have a fundamental right to being treated so. Once upon a time, my kind did not have a choice — today they do.

And when the time comes, those that persecute will pay for it. If history has taught us one thing, it is that the persecutors will always pay for it. Always.

Not that I have all that many books, but I’ve been recently trying to update my compilation of books that I own.

So, here is the list of books that I own for your reading pleasure (horrible pun, I know).

The list is not entirely complete, and I still have a couple of hundred books in storage that I want to add to the list. And of course, I buy a few books every week, so no list is ever going to be up-to-date.

At this point, the count is at 461. It’s not a particularly impressive number to me, but apparently it is to some people — just last week, I had a visitor ask me if they could take a photograph of my book collection.

And on this note, I’d definitely appreciate any suggested readings that you folks may have based on what passes for my reading preferences.

Update: This one is for The Cydonian — just figured you might be interested in looking at the autographed D. Adams book.

“It’s less satisfying to punch you when you run away.”

The remarkably insightful statement above was uttered by none other than my partner-in-crime Rebecca, who has enough medals in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Muay Thai and other assorted beat-the-crap-out-of-each-other arts that they scare away half the people I know from talking to her.

And she wonders why I run away. When she’s aiming a punch at me.

Don’t you love friends? Especially when they delight in beating the crap out of you and are upset when you don’t let them?

A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long supressed, finds utterance. — Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

59 years ago, a young democracy was born from a people of such diverse cultures that nobody believed that it could last very long. This democracy had Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis; it had folks that spoke no less than a few hundred languages and dialects — it had such diversity that each part of it could be a nation on to its own.

Today, all these years later, it is a land where for all its flaws, democracy still works. Unlike its neighbour which was founded on religion, India was born secular, with an implicit constitution to accept people of all backgrounds and beliefs. Unlike its neighbour which has had military dictators overthrow democracy ever so often, it is a democracy where its 14th Prime Minister was just elected.

In a nation of predominantly Hindus, this fledgling democracy has a Sikh Prime Minister who is an economist and a professor to boot, a Muslim President who is vegetarian and a rocket scientist and a Roman Catholic caucasian female ruling party president. Despite the odds, it has made strides in every walk of life — social, economic, scientific.

There are a lot of things that make me cringe when I think of who I’m, but for all its flaws and faults, I’m proud of what and who I’m — no matter where I go or what I end up as, I will always be an Indian.

Here’s to home, and what it stands for. And on this day, celebrating the birth of India, here is something that will bring a smile to your face — something from the days gone by — Ek Titli, Anek Titiliyan!

The latest airplane terror threat has everybody up in arms. Unfortunately, this affects some sections of the population more than others — for instance, I just noticed an article on the BBC which talked about how musicians are facing hell because of cabin baggage being banned.

Now, we all know how well the baggage handlers treat our luggage. Having flown to several continents on several occasions, I can assure you of one thing — baggage handlers destroy the strongest of baggages, and it’s pretty much the same all over the world. It’s nothing personal, you understand? They have nothing against you, they just hate your luggage.

I do not know what it is with them and my bags, but almost always, the strongest of bags has something or the other that gets separated/dismembered/broken/lost. It is particularly bad inside the US — just last month, I was returning from Denver when the handle of my brand new Samsonite suitcase was broken (I had purchased the bag while at Denver and it was the first time it was ever out). How? No one knows — baggage handlers just seem to treat all baggage like shit. Just like me, they also seem to be equal opportunity offenders.

Now, imagine these folks and a 300 year old Cello or Violin worth $20,000. Or your latest $2,000 laptop with all that data. Can the airports assure me of the safety and security of any equipment that is checked in? And what about Duty Free? Would you really buy anything at any Duty Free if you could not take it with you in your carry-on?

Questions, questions, questions!