Can India grow without industrialisation?
Welcome to the fourth edition of 3-2-1 by Story Rules – a newsletter recommending:
β’ 3 tweets
β’ 2 articles
β’ 1 long-form content piece (podcast or book)
Each content element will have a short summary from me indicating why it is worth a read/listen.
Let’s dive in.
π¦ 3 Tweets of the week
I once heard Sohail Hashmi say that ‘architecture is humanity’s response to its environment’. This is such a glorious response (and such a fascinating thread)!
Now to remember this the next time I get hiccups.
This was seriously my routine for classes at IIMA in 2003.
π 2 Articles of the week
βa. India get the better of Australia, one flick at a time by Karthik Krishnaswamyβ
After Australia’s defeat in the second Test at Delhi, many commentators came to the um, sweeping conclusion that the Australians made a mistake by over relying on the sweep during their second innings.
Karthik from ESPNCricinfo has a nuanced take on this – he argues that given the accuracy of India’s spinners, the Aussies were stuck between a rock and a hard place:
Extract:
…here’s the thing. Australia’s players and team management know this. They know how dangerous cross-bat shots can be on pitches like this. But R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have bowled with the sort of control that has left them with few other scoring options. They’re certainly not getting drive balls and cut balls, and they’re not getting a whole lot of flick balls either.
They’ve chosen two different responses to this challenge in the two Tests of this series. In the second innings in Nagpur, Australia defended for their lives and were bowled out in 32.3 overs. In the second innings in Delhi, they swept at everything and were bowled out in 31.1 overs. Their captain Pat Cummins said their batters had underplayed their hand in Nagpur and overplayed it in Delhi.
Against spinners with the control of Ashwin and Jadeja and on pitches with both turn and natural variation, those can be the only options for visiting batters. Neither is the right answer, but there’s no real middle way either, unless the bowlers have an off day.
βb. How to manage your anxiety while presenting by Matt Abrahams (Stanford GSB)β
A good framework with ideas to manage anxiety based on whether it is situation based, audience based or goal based.
π 1 long-form read of the week
βa. Can India industrialise? By Noah Smithβ
A great primer that sets India’s economic story in a global context and lays down the key imperatives to achieve our growth targets.
Extract:
What does worry me a bit more is that thereβs not much labor-intensive manufacturing here – garments, toys, furniture, and electronics assembly. Making these sorts of products is usually where countries start on their road to industrialization – even Britain famously started with the garment industry when it first industrialized. Labor-intensive manufacturing is useful for generating employment, for moving poor people from farms to cities, and – at least, if you believe Ha-Joon Chang – for developing a widespread culture of manufacturing. And yet India doesnβt really specialize in this; its manufacturing exports are more likely to be capital-intensive things like chemicals. Contrast this with Bangladesh, which has focused single-mindedly on the garment industry
PS: This Apr-2022 interview of Arvind Subramanian (India’s ex-Chief Economic Advisor) by Noah Smith is a good companion piece to the above article
That’s all from this week’s edition.
Photo by Jezael Melgoza on Unsplash