[Reader-list] On Delhi

[Rana Dasgupta]

Dear Taha

Don't write off MC so fast.  As you will have noticed from the article 
his fortunes have ceased to be tied to north Indian real estate.  The 
money made in the real estate boom era is being reinvested far away.  
These people are not idiots and they have access to market intelligence 
that most people cannot dream of.

I direct you, moreover, to your own posting - "Netas and babus can 
outsmart smart cards" - in which Swaminathan Aiyar expressed doubt that 
NN would be able to implement his plan because it meant dislodging a 
vast, determined system of schemes and interests.  It is not certain 
that Nilekani will become the reigning supremo. 

R


Taha Mehmood wrote:
> Dear Rana,
>
> Your piece opens up a lot of avenues for thought, however there was
> one bit which particularly caught my interest.
>
> You wrote-
>
> In truth, however, the anglicised class to which Azim Premji and
> Nandan Nilekani belong is becoming marginalised from Indian society.
> Immense upheavals are afoot, and English-speaking sophisticates now
> speak about themselves as harried and besieged. They still enjoy many
> privileges, but as time goes on they see their values and
> sensibilities disappearing from the media and the streets, and they
> are faced with the troubling realisation that they no longer rule this
> society or dominate its imagination � or even understand the first
> thing about it. -
>
>
>
> Could you please elaborate more on this, because seen from the
> perspective of the ID card story, Nandan Nilekani and his friends, his
> 'anglicised'  friends seem to have scored a point. It appears they are
> shifting the rules of the game. The land economy has gone bust. The IT
> has gone bust.
>
> The next big story in India after big dams, after global back office,
> after land and after education economy in all likelihood seems to be
> the knowledge processing industry and chip manufacturing industry and
> distribution and data maintenance industry driven by the idea of ID
> cards. And Delhi will have a new role, new players, and new lingo, I
> suppose.
>
> By saying -gone bust-, my suggestion is towards the scale of intended
> and expected investment in these sectors as opposed to investment in
> ID.
>
> And I think Delhi is slowly shifting towards that direction. Where are
> your MCs of this game,  people who knows everyone for over two
> generations? You have got a new man in Delhi, Sir! who knew no one
> twenty years ago and now he is thinking of making every bloody Indian
> known to him in the next one year.
>
> Maybe land is not going to figure prominently in Capital Gains any
> more maybe it will be over sized libido of men hawking ID's ;)
>
> Warm regards
>
> Taha
>
>
>   

-- 
"I'm an ex-citizen of nowhere. And sometimes I get mighty homesick."

Rana Dasgupta
www.ranadasgupta.com