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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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Deciphering Woke Capitalism

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A phenomenon that one observes in recent times is the tendency of many leading firms or what one calls the Fortune 100 firms to appear politically correct. In more ways than one, they seem to be focused on pandering to what is termed woke activism. They seem to comment quite often on social justice issues with points of view being what is dubbed as politically correct. Firms from Pepsi to Gillette among many others seem keen to go out of the way to demonstrate their woke credentials. This assumed certain important proportions when many firms decided to boycott Facebook for a month and thus not advertise on the platform. The ostensible reason is the Facebook not demonstrating its liberal credentials sufficiently and its ostensible inability to monitor what woke activists term as hate speech.   Facebook does monitor hate speech and has been aggressive in taking down offensive posts. But woke activists are not impressed enough. To them, it is a conservative platform that seems to prid
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Invoking Krishna in the India-China Faceoff

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The Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to Leh today. It was ostensibly in view of the ongoing tensions and recent clashes between India and China on the Ladakh border. The motive was to take note and conduct a first hand survey of the happenings and the ground position on the border. Besides, more prominent was to boost the morale of the soldiers serving on the border as their families back home are battling the uncertainty of Chinese virus induced flu. By all accounts, the visit seemed to have been a success. The PM’s communication skills and strategy were once again evident in full flow. There might be a talk of PM not visiting the actual border but there would be many reasons for the same including the problem of acclimatization.   Yet, what needs to be decoded is the communication of PM as he sought to send message to the aggressive moves of the neighbours. The PM’s speech was aimed at China without naming it and pointedly referred to India’s resolve in defeatin
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Indic Cultural Revivalism and Invisible Hand

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India is a land of myriad traditions. Each town or village has its own traditions and rituals often associated with deep history. Some rituals find themselves bounded in space of caste or region while some expand into multiple geographies and psychographics. With passage of time, some experience the Darwinian survival while many fall by the wayside to the vagaries of evolution. Some find themselves taking a rebirth on account of many factors, incidental or deliberate. As the people move across regions and countries, they take their traditions and rituals with them thus giving them a new lease of life. In recent years, India has seen an explosion of sorts with respect to revival of many traditions and in unexpected geographies and demographics.   There are many reasons for the same some of which would be useful to be decoded. Firstly, it has to deal with internal migration and cross cultural marriages. As people marry across castes and regions, the traditions find themselves intermi
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Tik Tok Popularity and Government Ban- Some Thoughts

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As India-China tensions continue to rise with so signs of de-escalation, India began a new front in the digital space. India has banned on grounds of national security some 59 mobile apps owned and operated and by the Chinese. These include the popular Tik Tok, ShareIt, Weibo, Wechat among others. There might be an expected reprisal from China but that should hardly deter India from taking further steps. These are the baby steps in signalling India’s intent to hit where China will feel the most. The biggest signal yet will be when India bans Huawei from it building and managing the 5G infrastructure in India. Aside of the ban, it would be interesting to see how China will feel the same. TikTok for instance is very popular in India and was expected to be big revenue spinner or in other words, a BCG star going forward. Digital apps function on a lock-in paradigm and given the Indian use patterns of Tik Tok, some feel that it might boomerang on India without corresponding impact on China.
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Should India Do a Israel 1967?

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India China tensions at the border continue to build up. Talks are on for possible disengagement but despite the apparent movement towards de-escalation, there is hardly any change on the ground. The site of the clashes in the Galwan Valley was about the Chinese obstinacy in refusing to withdraw behind the agreed points. Yet the moment clashes ended, China seem to be back at PP-14 in the Galwan valley. The tensions are far higher in the Pangong Tso area where the disengagement is around the grey area between Fingers 4-8. The Indians are moving to occupy the heights and the tensions are unlikely to subside. Given the trust deficit that exists between the two countries especially after the Galwan incidents, it is unlikely that India will scale down in response to Chinese possible de-escalation moves. On the contrary, there is hardly any optimism or even expectation that China will back down despite its humiliation in Galwan. There seems to be all the more reason for China to hit back and
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Kremer, Patent Buyout and Innovation

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The world continues to combat the Wuhan virus unleashed by China. The world at the moment grapples with two problems. The first is the efforts to discover a vaccine or a cure for the COVID-19 and the consequent distribution of the same to the global population. Secondly, it is to revive the economy which is suffering the lockdown. Theorists from Schumpeter onwards have viewed the restarting the economy being possible only through innovation. As the economy struggles, it is the new innovation that infuses life into the economy and enables it to build on the V shaped or U shaped or whatever shape the curve might posit itself to be.   Yet in the twin challenges that the society finds itself confronted with, lies a commonality and a challenge so as to speak. It is about innovation and protection of innovation and consequent prospect of monopolizing the innovation. Take the instance of a prospective discovery of vaccine or cure for the Chinese virus. The firm engaged in the discovery wo
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Deciphering Dynastic Privilege

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In the post “ Why Elitism Flourishes ?” an attempt was undertaken to decode the elitist dominance in life. It sought to understand the barriers of entry of an outsider into an industry. In the analysis, connections determined the entry into the network. Implied is merit degenerating into an auxiliary element and not the critical element.   Meritocracy often seems more of a rhetoric with the organizations and as an extension, the society, rather discouraging old boy network seemingly encourage the same. Often, membership of such a club is a sign of growth and prosperity, rebelliousness indicates an exit from the career path. Numerous instances abound of the same. It would be interesting to decipher the flourishing of the clubs.   The recent instances from Bollywood seem to confirm to a substantial degree the power of elitism and the barriers of entry in breaking through the elitism. The recent talk about unapologetic defence of privileged entry and progress in the entertainment indu
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