India seen from Singapore

Unless agriculture is commercialized and employment found in towns, India will never achieve its potential The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas has just concluded in Singapore, and the Singapore government had made elaborate arrangements to make the event a success. The delegates, part of the Indian diaspora from at least 20 countries, were addressed by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, as well as by former prime minister Goh Chok Tong. The legendary Lee Kuan Yew spent an hour-and-a-half on a Q&A session. There was one particular panel that was scintillating. It included Sugarta Bose, Rajat Nag, Jitendra Kumar (Wharton/NTU) and Prof. Huang Ching, formerly of Brookings. Of these, the last two were particularly brilliant. Kumar is working on two new books to be published from Cambridge and Harvard next year on Indian... [read full story]