Ethnicity and Good Governance

 There is a lot of speculation about the ethnic Indian who is likely to follow in Boris Johnson's steps. In my own opinion, that hardly matters. What matters is how well he or she will govern the U.K.

We have had many Chief Ministers, usually local stock, who have governed various states. The one who made a visible difference in Andhra Pradesh where I grew up, was Chandrababu Naidu. He may have lost his appeal today, but he was the first to introduce Powerpoint presentations-in government! He is also said to have made one to the ISB founders to get them to set up shop in Hyderabad.

He is single-handedly responsible for getting the IT giants into A.P. - not just Indian giants, but all the global ones. That is not a  mean achievement, given Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and others were probably contenders at the time.

Good roads that are not an eyesore can be a very visible symbol of good governance. Gadkari reportedly got 50 flyovers constructed in Mumbai in a few years of ONE term, whereas we struggle to build one in that time elsewhere!

Sreedharan was allowed by powers that be to do good, and so was Verghese Kurien given a free hand. Maybe that is a secret sauce- a free hand given to capable people! 

A Wedding Party in Nagpur

Went to her wedding and met Abha Kulkarni, a former student (of IMT), for the first time there- I was the bride's guest. Must have happened for the first time. Thanks to Facebook, though, I feel that I know her pretty well. She's been a winner of some of my awards on fb. Anyway, the feeling of meeting someone in person (and seeing the radiant smile in this case) is much more than a facebook friendship. I highly recommend meeting some fb friends regularly when you can, and multiplying your joy. I try my best to meet one per visit to any city, at least. My own alumni meets of sorts.

In this case, of course, I was accompanied by my ex-colleagues Vijayakumar and Anant Ram who had taught her at IMT and told me she was a great student. It was a coincidence that her husband Rohan is from Nagpur, and enabled me to be here for the event. Found out from chatting with her parents that they have lived in Bangalore for many years. I am a fan of Nagpuri stuff like Oranges, and I also like its clean roads in the newer parts. Of course, the speedy Metro construction is causing some traffic issues, but they won't last long, as construction is progressing at 'Gadkari speed'- defined as 20 times the average Indian speed. If he'd been in charge of the economy in the 1960s, we'd never have had to face the "Hindu rate of growth".

I was also happy it wasn't too cold- I am not a fan of sardi-Dilli ki ya aur kahin ki. Just the right medicine for ending the year- Food, Friends and Thums Up, as the old ad said. Thumb's up, totally.