PRAGOTI

Prof. Amartya Sen in a recent lecture ‘Snakes and Ladders’ compared the performances of Europe, China and India. He pointed out that the economic policy of ‘austerity’ pushed the developed world ‘into the mouth of a fairly hefty snake’. On the other hand though India’s experiment about democracy is relatively successful, abysmal inequality prevails here; so much so that it’s social development indicators are not only below China, but also below Bangladesh. To save developed and developing world including India from ‘hefty snakes’, state should ensure education and health security and it should act as the ‘social mediator’. Having broad consensus with Sen, Sudipta Bhattacharyya puts forward some important disagreements.