yazadjal.com

Here is the full, unedited text of a provocatively titled piece I wrote for The Times of India.
Communists despise private property and idealise commonly held property. But I’ll bet Brinda and Prakash Karat don’t share a toothbrush! So let us conduct a “reductio” thought experiment as to what would happen in a city or town […]

I wrote a piece for the special year-end issue of Outlook magazine which I had titled as above, “The Death of Politics”. The article has been re-titled - but has been much appreciated by many. I am providing the link here. Hope the blogging public likes it. It does make an important point: that at […]

There’s an interesting debate on in the Indian blogistan about regulation and free markets. I may add my 2 paise later. For now, here’s a question: who regulates the regulators?
Cop show flouts 10 pm noise ban
The Mumbai police last night flouted a law they are otherwise adept at enforcing — the 10 pm deadline […]

PM Manmohan Singh has just launched an ‘urban renewal’ plan that mainly talks about ‘helping the urban poor’. This, after parliament has legislated to the government the responsibility of ‘guaranteeing employment’ to the rural poor. For how long will the poor suffer such insincere affection? Blatant ‘pork barrel politics’ designed to add to the powers […]

Blogs may not be the first place to get breaking news (TV trumps here) but blogs are faster in circulating news. Here’s a small example. Amit Varma points to a good article by Sebastian Mallaby on the auto component industry in Chennai yesterday. The Indian Express republishes it verbatim today.
I think as filter […]

I recently came across this 2003 piece by Cato’s Adam Thierer on self-regulation in the US video game industry.
In 1994, the video game industry established the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), a comprehensive labeling system that rates over 1,000 games per year and has rated more than 8,000 games since inception. The ESRB applies five […]