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Decision Making as Output and Bounded Rationality

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  The classical economics theories proceed on the assumption of rational agents. Rationality implies the economic agents undertake actions or exercise choices based on the cost-benefit analysis they undertake. The assumption further posits that there exists no information asymmetry and thus the agent is aware of all the costs and benefits associated with the choice he or she has exercised. The behavioral school contested the decision stating the decisions in practice are often irrational. Implied there is a continuous departure from rationality. Rationality in the views of the behavioral school is more an exception to the norm rather a rule. The past posts have discussed the limitations of this view by the behavioral school. Economics has often posited rationality in the context in which the choices are exercised rather than theoretical abstract view of rational action. Rational action in theory seems to be grounded in zero restraint situation yet in practice, there are numerous restra
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Quad Summit: A New Triple Entente?

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  A few days ago, the Quad hosted the first summit at the leadership level. The Quad has been an informal grouping of four countries having stakes in Indo-Pacific region. These countries are United States, Japan, Australia and India. The groundwork for Quad grouping had begun quite earlier, yet for a fairly long period of time in the last decade, the moves were tentative. The exercises planned for navy and other armed forces did hit roadblocks since Australia backtracked ostensibly under the Chinese pressure. It was only in the last five or six years that Quad has got a fresh lease of life. Under Donald Trump, the United States moved into a sort of confrontation from a denial with China. As the move gathered speed to counter China, the Quad became a tool. India too has been seeking to build up some counter though officially denied towards China. Interestingly of the Quad countries, it is only India that shares land borders with China and has had a long standing conflict with it. India
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Quad and India's Alliance Connunrdum

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  One happened to see an interesting article in the Indian Express by veteran strategic affairs expert C. Raja Mohan. The article is available here . The article highlights the Indian confusion over alliances in the backdrop of the meeting of the Quad foreign ministers in Tokyo. Currently, the Quad is more of an informal alliance between US, Japan, India and Australia ostensibly to counter China. Yet so far, there is no indication of it being institutionalised or morphing into some kind of new NATO. Yet, in the Indian strategic affairs community, the Great Indian Alliance Confusion is well underway. Rather than any confusion, it is about the reluctance to accept the changed state of affairs and the need to abandon certain dogmas. The refusal to abandon self-perpetuated dogmas might well prove to be India’s Achilles heel. It would therefore be pertinent to decode Indian foreign policy and its stance over alliance formation with different countries.   The problem with India forming a
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