Author: EconHistorienne
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Quote
“I knew I could be the best in the world if I got one second better every day.” This inspired me today. Who said this?
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John McPhee’s invaluable memo on Elicitation
The piece I always turn to every time I have to head out for field interviews. Do give it a try, it teaches you something.
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Mercantile capitalism in a polycentric world
Interesting new paper on the evolution of Indian capitalism that challenges the age-old trope of exceptionalism of the West and Asia’s fall. A little brief on the paper and full download can be found here,
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Insurgent Empire
Neat review of Priyamvada Gopal’s book Insurgent Empire in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies by Dinyar Patel [citation below] Gopal frames this period as just a prelude to truly sustained and productive co-operation between colonial subjects and British anti-imperialists in the inter-war period, but such alliances had already blossomed in significant ways. By…
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Loving shout out to my brother’s film making
He made this short three years ago. Missing him terribly, sharing the work that I so love for the visual delight it is.
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Millennials are gutted but some companies are trying to uplift them
Millennails are truly gutted. I remember I had barely started my career as a journalist when the 2008 financial crisis plunged the global economy and it seems, my generation has not recovered from it yet. Blame it on economic crises after crises, and this year, we are staring into a recession even as we lose…
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Netmeds
India online pharmacy scene is hotting up. RIL has bought majority stake in Netmeds within days of Amazon making its foray into the Indian e-pharmacy market in Bengaluru. Walmart-owned Flipkart is also looking to foray in the space, which has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic. This windfall for the online pharma space in India come…
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India Unemployed
Five million salaried Indians lost their jobs last month. This is the highest figure for this year. And as the graphs show, it’s going to get worse in August. The job loss among the salaried class is not a surprise to me. I have known this for sometime as I have spent the last year…
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Bubonic Plague replay 2020
If you thought this is done with and buried by our ancestors in history, you are terribly wrong. A California resident has now tested positive for the plague, becoming the first case in five years since the disease has been detected in the state. The plague originated in Asia over 2,000 years ago and was…
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Death of a star
I was in deep trauma after the news came in and wrote this which I strongly urge you to read. Often, I am compelled to write about events that are beyond the purview of my research in economic history but I am a whole person, not just someone doing this research. When something affects me,…
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Stephen Marglin
Everyone this week has been raving about this interview and it’s not for no reason. Harvard economist Stephen Marglin talks about his India connection in this interview with Maya Adereth, Shani Cohen and Jack Gross on Phenomenal World. Interesting conversation, richly framed. Don’t miss it.
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Usne Kaha Tha
Usne Kaha Tha – a short story by Chandradhar Sharma Guleri – is one of my most favorite short stories in Hindi. “Mujhse kudmai karegi” evokes so many emotions even today. You know if you have read the story. Today, for my podcast Chausar Sakhi, I attempt reading out the story for you. The Chausar…
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Mumbai floods
Floods in Mumbai are an annual affair. I know this may hurt some people but the day I visited Mumbai for the first time, it was raining cats and dogs, and exactly 21 days later, a major flooding of the financial capital took place. Financial Times reported this last year – the headline points to…
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Ruth Alice Allen
‘East Texas Lumber Workers’ (1961) is yet another pioneering work of Allen focusing on the economic conditions of the Texan lumber country, in which Allen viewed people’s physical, social and economic environments as the most important influence on their behaviour. Besides these, Allen worked on a range of collections and monographs on the labour history…
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Book alert!
Dr John Turner and Dr Will Quinn of Queen’s University Belfast have written a brilliant new book titled ‘Boom and Bust‘, which is a fascinating account of the ten bubbles in history occurring in the 19th century Australia to modern China. In the words of the The Enlightened Economist: Each episode is set in the…
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Google All the Way and Oral History Interviews
This is a terrific and eye-opener of a report I read this past week on how Google search tricks us and cleverly keeps us on Google. Read on here to be surprised, really. Sums it up rather brilliantly: Here is a very interesting oral history interview where historian Reed Chervin interviews his doctor cousin, Dr.…
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Emergent Ventures winners
I have always followed with keen interest the Emergent Ventures awards for their brilliant choice in choosing winners. Here is the list they announced last week, which I am bookmarking to follow.
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100 years of Bombay School of Economics
Cafe Economics (and my former boss, if you don’t follow him already, do so pronto) paid a brilliant tribute to his alma mater in his Mint column last week. Click below to read:
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EconHistorienne #5: Scattered, aren’t we all?
even the best of optimism needs flickering boats and sinking in the seas once in a while…
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Times when journalism was useful for the academia
When I was actively reporting, I overlooked the academic papers that referred to my reports. As a journalist, I wrote on diverse themes – from culture to politics to economy. I remember how my academic sources would direct me to my reports referred to in research papers but I wouldn’t bookmark them. Only recently, I…
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Pandemics and Inequality
Economic Historian Guido Alfani, who studies long run trends in inequality, posted a series of tweets on pandemics and inequality this week. To sum up: Some pandemics in history helped reduce inequality, but it would be wrong to say that all pandemics reduce inequality. 2. Some pandemics may not have macro impact but can still…