Book review on “Caste as Social Capital: The Complex Place of Caste in Indian Society” by Ramachandran Vaidyanathan
If anyone understands the term social capital, then he definitely knows that caste is also a social capital. We must also realize, as shown from plenty of data points in the book, that though people from different backgrounds indulge in particular activities and retain a common idea of belongingness and identity with their own communities, this in due course also encourages them in taking up that specific livelihood. Also getting credits and risk mitigation becomes easier for them. At least in the non-organized sector, Indian business is primarily based on relationships and without any question, here caste definitely works as a social capital!
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Savings as a national drive in Indian Economy
Savings is a habit, culture, and civilization – all rolled into one. Post-liberalization, India has provided increased market access. Despite these developments, Indians have achieved higher savings rate post liberalization – a theoretical contradiction. This savings is an outcome of certain civilizational restraints and makes Indian economy, by design, to operate within certain restraints.
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Role of Family as the basic building block in Indian Economy
When culture is near-perfected with a self-balancing homeostatic mechanism – primarily family and to a small-extent community economies become sustainable over a longer period. This idea of family as the centrifugal force that controls the economic decision- making remains at the core of this book. Economic policies must be dovetailed factoring this paradigm. The question is – do governments and markets cognize this paradigm?
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Transforming the Discipline of Economics into a Study of Indiscipline
Consumerism is ultimately a ‘spiritual quotient deficiency syndrome’ that cannot be remedied by mere economic policies alone. We need to realize that it is family and family alone with its ability to restrain individuals from reckless consumption and ensure balance in economy and society. It is thus the destruction of family that has emerged to be the meeting point of Liberals and Marxists.
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Book review on Economic Sutra: Ancient Indian Antecedents to Economic Thought by Satish Y Deodhar
Considering the governance and lifestyle and evaluating the Indian and Western approaches and contributions, the overall analysis makes an easy-to-understand contrast between both the ancient and modern eras. Providing examples such as how Indian economic theory encompasses the holistic human endeavor towards the Purusharthas, the author is inspired by the Vedic cult to explain various practices that are implemented in economic sutras.
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Lower Interest Rate and Investment in Gold
Lower interest rates in an emerging economy like India, lowers consumption, and does not increase it as they theoretically imagine. Worse, Indians shift their savings from banks to avenues that offer better and probably safer returns. In the Indian context, that happens to be gold.
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Indian Business Models: Business in Ancient India
Commerce played a great role in making India the universal exporting centre of the economic world in ancient times. Not only was the corporate form used for business enterprises in Ancient India, but also for political and social purposes and went by variety of names-gana, samgha, sabha, sreni and others too.
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