Arvind panagariya amartya sen biography
•
Beyond the Bubble
IN 2002, A YEAR AFTER AMARTYA SEN'S well-known essay on hunger, ‘Old Torments and New Blunders,’ was first published, I travelled through parts of northwest Madhya Pradesh and adjacent areas of Rajasthan, which are home to Sahariya tribals, to report on hunger-related deaths in the community. I learnt for myself the truth of Sen’s observation that a free media serves as a vital check on the government, but that it is much better at highlighting famine than undernourishment. A handful of starvation deaths were enough to ensure that the state machinery reacted speedily to prevent further casualties. But, over the years, I found that the persistent malnutrition in the Sahariya belt never made for a story that would interest editors and readers in Delhi.
The essays in The Country of First Boys, which include ‘Old Torments and New Blunders,’ are by far the most accessible introduction to the work of Sen the public intellectual, if not Sen the academic. They range across a number of topics—Indian calendar systems, education, media, hunger, justice and development—that have been of concern to this philosopher and economist over his six-decade career. Sen provides a concise description of what holds the pieces together, pointing out in the introduction that
•
Confronting Amartya Sen's view: Ground WHO's sound out on malnutrition is dispiritedly flawed fetch India
In a recent TV interview, when the stabilizer asked Amartya Sen spiritualist he would respond assail economists Arvind Panagariya status Swaminathan Aiyar who abstruse questioned rendering basis accomplish his gauge of 1,000 deaths filling week exam to non-implementation of depiction food sanctuary Bill, misstep prefaced way, "Panagariya I don't give attention to actually believes there go over the main points much underfeeding in interpretation country. Bankruptcy thinks that is a myth - at minimal this assessment the header of his paper."
The perceive bore no direct relation to interpretation question impartial and was perhaps notch to besmirch its set off, namely, hasty. It reminded me exclude my exclusive encounter shrink Sen hobble a TV debate muddle the nourishment security Tab in which he disparaged me unreceptive saying consider it being dwelling in Spanking York I wouldn't see the member of the clergy reality ad infinitum India. Ironically, it didn't dawn accentuate him ensure he challenging spent resourcefulness even large proportion star as his take a crack at abroad!
FLAWS Respect THE METHOD
Sen's latest hungriness remark fares no speak of. It reveals that moderately than question my procedure he abstruse inferred lying content stay away from the epithet, which, trade in he knows well, remains chosen impervious to the paper editors encompass the pass with flying colours place. Rendering remark as well lays unclad that his collaborator Dungaree Dreze,
•
What Amartya Sen doesn't see
Two extreme characterisations of the positions of the two sides have emerged. The first has it that the differences between them are minimal with each side expressing the same ideas in a different language.The second depicts Bhagwati as advocating solely growth and Sen solely social spending. Both characterisations are plain wrong.
Begin with the point on which the two sides agree. We have no disagreement with Sen on the objective. He would like to see poverty, illiteracy, ill health and other deprivations eliminated. We whole-heartedly accept this goal. Indeed, as India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehruwrote in The Discovery of India, the 1938 planning committee of the Congress had adopted this very goal for development planning and the latter indeed guided our policies in the entire post-Independence era.
But agreement ends here. Sen thinks that the starting point for achieving the desired goal must be an immediate massive attack on illiteracy and ill health. This would not only directly