China, India, and Problems with Gender Imbalances
Today’s New York Times had a story about how women in Williston, ND are feeling harassed. It’s one of the North Dakota communities that has seen a huge influx of men because of the growth of the energy industry. And, the women are feeling threatened. In India, a young woman died after a gang rape, [...]
Some Thoughts on India and Demographics
Demographics are the closest thing out there to a reliable fortune teller. A nation’s destiny is foretold in its people; the makeup of the population determines what work will be done, what goods will be in demand, and which politicians will take power. Changing demographics are driving growth in India and China, but they are [...]
Holidays Galore
I’m passing on this handy calendar of religious holidays, ReligiousHolidaysFY20122014, prepared by the University of Illinois at Chicago, which has astonishing diversity. What I like is the breakout of which holidays come with restrictions from work and which do not, which limits the number of excuses students can use. One of the amazing things about [...]
Intellectual Property in Emerging Markets
I’m teaching in China now, which is an intellectual property free-for-all. My students are using photocopied textbooks, and bootleg DVDs are for sale everywhere – one of my colleagues found Men in Black 3 already, which is a little disturbing. A few years ago, I attended a conference on investing in India, held at the [...]
What’s Happening in India?
The Wall Street Journal recently published an essay about India that asks why the country isn’t growing faster. The author is Raghuram Rajan of the University of Chicago, and he blames the political system. These connect to the two obvious issues, corruption and low literacy. India should be an economic giant. It has diverse national [...]
What the Gods Own
The April 30 issue of The New Yorker has a fascinating article about the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum, India. Over centuries, people have made donations to the temple’s deity, Vishnu, and a huge fortune has accumulated. As in – possibly $20 billion in gold and precious stones. Indian property law has an interesting twist. [...]
