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Showing posts with the label Sonia Gandhi

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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An Amery in the Congress or Night of the Long Knives?

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  The grand old party of Indian politics the Indian National Congress seems to find no end to the churnings inside and outside. Given the consecutive drubbings it has received in the general elections both in 2014 and 2019, it is not surprising to find those churnings. At the core of the churnings and discontent in the Congress is the Nehru-Gandhi family which has treated it as a family business. As a matter of fact, the ownership of the Congress by the Nehru-Gandhi family is nothing new. It goes back to 1931 when Motilal Nehru was on his deathbed. He was a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest policy making body in the party. So   were his son Jawaharlal, daughther in law, Kamala, son in law, Ranjit Pandit. Soon they were followed by Motilal’s daughter Vijayalakshmi. The control of the party by the family in many ways is close to nine decades now though it was only in the last fifty years that it was complete domination.   The current crisis began immediately
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24 Akbar Road: History or Eulogy?

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Rasheed Kidwai wrote a book on the history of the Congress or rather the history of 24 Akbar Road, the headquarters post 1978 split. The book came out in 2011 with an updated e-book in 2013. The book was titled 24 Akbar Road: A Short History of the People behind the fall and rise of the Congress . The book is supposed to be tracing the roots of how Congress came to be associated with 24 Akbar Road and the anecdotes that give a flavour of the happenings at the party headquarters including the power struggles not just at the mid level in jockeying for favour of the family but between the family and its rivals. Given the updated e-eversion came out in 2013 when the party was under siege and waiting to be killed halal in the hustings a due a year hence, it seemingly was an attempt to shore up the image of the party and its crown prince. Therefore, it can be safely believed the new chapter on the Crown Prince was added to demonstrate his suave intellectual image something he has struggling
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