The Federal Manifesto
1. Federalism must be a first principle of organising administration, resources, responsibilities, powers, etc. between different levels...
ashwin mahesh
My column in the Deccan Herald on the balance between state, market and society runs once in four weeks, on Sundays. In this column, I explore ways in which we can be part of all three. This is important - not because each of them includes methods of responding to development, but because the balance is a part of the definition of development itself.
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Ashwin Mahesh
- Sep 5, 2018
- 2 min
Carpenters can't fix your leaks
If there's a leak in the water line in your building, you'll call the plumber. You won't call the carpenter and hope that by a...
124 views0 comments
Ashwin Mahesh
- Apr 18, 2017
- 2 min
Swaraj in action
If swaraj is the USP of new politics, then how can we implement it meaningfully, so that individual citizens and communities feel...
105 views0 comments
Ashwin Mahesh
- Jul 18, 2016
- 1 min
Development is urban, formal and industrial.
The contours of development include higher levels of urbanisation, a shift towards more industry, and integration with formal aspects of...
66 views0 comments
Ashwin Mahesh
- Jun 19, 2016
- 2 min
With the government, within the government, and as the government.
Over the last two years I have written extensively about the emerging new idea of governance around the world. Historically in...
319 views0 comments
Ashwin Mahesh
- Oct 13, 2015
- 3 min
A new arthashastra
We need a new arthashastra. The conventional view of this treatise is that it a manifesto for kingship. But equally it is a manifesto for...
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Ashwin Mahesh
- Aug 29, 2015
- 3 min
Keep it local, keep it accountable
Who should run the government schools in the city - the Education department of the state government, or the BBMP? Who should run the...
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Ashwin Mahesh
- Aug 23, 2015
- 2 min
A bankable truth
Banks make profits by taking depositors' money and lending it to borrowers. For a very long time, public sector banks' deposit rates were...
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Ashwin Mahesh
- Aug 3, 2015
- 5 min
The President's turn
Looking back at the struggle to improve governance in Bengaluru, it is painful to see how many opportunities we have missed. Each time,...
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Ashwin Mahesh
- Jul 10, 2015
- 1 min
The whole state is criminalised
What Vyapam tells us is that the whole state is criminalised. It is true in every state. After all, we are fighting the exact same scam...
32 views0 comments
Ashwin Mahesh
- Jun 17, 2015
- 2 min
Why don't ALL schools do what the BEST ones do?
Why don't ALL schools do what the BEST schools do? It seems quite straightforward. At least, why don't all the public schools do what the...
88 views0 comments
Ashwin Mahesh
- May 30, 2015
- 3 min
Promote the principle, not the program
There are two or three ideas which, if the government embraces, we can easily have a great run of economy and society. (1) Promote the...
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Ashwin Mahesh
- Apr 17, 2015
- 2 min
Is decentralisation the way ahead?
"Can everyone lead?" The question can seem like a contradiction in terms, but increasingly around the world, people are asking whether...
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Ashwin Mahesh
- Oct 30, 2014
- 3 min
The publicly managed city
Even a cursory look at some of the problems in urban governance will reveal that the current structure of public administration and...
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Ashwin Mahesh
- Aug 20, 2014
- 4 min
The accumulation of opportunity
For a few months in 2000, I used to live in Hampton, Virginia - original home of the great space missions of NASA. But apart from this,...
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Ashwin Mahesh
- Oct 30, 2013
- 3 min
Seven 4-letter words you can be proud of
About two years ago, I said to a few young people that 'if you do the following seven things EVERY WEEK without fail for the next FULL...
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Ashwin Mahesh
- Sep 15, 1999
- 3 min
School's out, life's in.
Of all the things I treasure about my education, I value most what Dr.Anjeneya Swamy taught me in one course at B-school. He is a small...
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Ashwin Mahesh
- Jan 15, 1999
- 7 min
The promise of a different life
Thirty three years ago, in the spring of 1970, my mother and father took their infant son to the Christian Medical College Hospital in...
84 views0 comments