Enjoying India’s Natural Resources
I enjoyed my recent visit to New Delhi and Jarfour in India so much that I
was excited to accept an invitation to the third Kautilya Economic Conclave
in New Delhi in October 2024. I attended all three days of the Conclave and
then visited Kerala in Southern India with my guide and friend Gajendra
Nathgubey (+91 99100 35058).
The Economic Lessons (you can skip to the Tour section)
The Conclave assembled about 80 economists and policymakers interested in
India’s problems and followed the Chatham House Rule. We also had excellent
presentations from President Modi, the Honorable Minister of Finance
Nirmala Sitharaman, and the Honorable Minister of External Affairs S.
Jaishankar. The discussion was profound and frank, and I encountered many
creative and practical ideas. One take-home message was that India is
growing faster than any other large country, and assuming the trend
continues, it may have the largest GDP in the world by 2047, when it’s 100
years old. India has a lot going for it. It may benefit from a demographic
dividend, a high share of young people in the population, a vibrant
democracy, growing industries and increased use of solar energy, some
excellent universities and research institutes, and it has produced
excellent industry leaders. One of them, Ratan Tata, unfortunately, passed
away last week, and the CEOs of both Microsoft and Facebook are Indian.
However, the country faces many challenges as it aims to grow. GDP per
capita is still low, and there are considerable regional differences. The
bureaucracy is still suffocating, there is corruption, and the
infrastructure, which has improved immensely, is still lacking. The country
must upgrade its educational systems, develop a more substantial industrial
base, and strengthen entrepreneurship and its safety net.
This Conclave with policymakers provided me with some perspective. In
economics, finance is one field. However, for policymakers, financial
considerations are crucial. You may want to do a lot about climate change,
but it will not be done if you cannot pay for it or incentivize people to
do it. You need to raise revenues to implement policies- tax policy needs
to raise money, be fair as possible, provide incentives to work, and create
and be politically feasible. The intellectual creativity, knowledge, and
strength required are immense. There is also a policy art in balancing
industrial policies with free trade. It is impossible to grow and flourish
without trade, and the world has benefitted overall from globalization.
But, as Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson told us many years ago, there are
trade losers who need help. Furthermore, countries must develop the
capacity to compete and expand their resource base. This goes beyond
education and developing skills. You need to build infrastructure and
unique capabilities. Industrial policies aim to change countries’
production capabilities and trade opportunities. Almost every government
engages in industrial policies, and they frequently fail. However,
industrial policies can be successful. America has engaged in industrial
policies: the Homestead Act, the Land Grant system, the Internet, the
highway system, and water projects. The question is not whether governments
should interfere in the economy but how to do it right.
Efficient provision of public goods and infrastructure and initiatives to
improve human capital and reduce barriers to trade and communication can do
wonders.
More than 40% of the Indian population is employed in agriculture, which
produces only 18% of India’s GDP. Increasing agriculture income and
reducing rural poverty is a big challenge. My talk was about the potential
of developing a circular bioeconomy in India that will use natural
resources and modern technologies to produce various products and services.
This vision suggests that agriculture will make much more than food. It
will produce energy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and sequester carbon. This
approach will allow a transition from a non-renewable economy to a
renewable economy. Organisms like flies and bacteria can convert waste into
valuable products like protein. However, the transition to a bioeconomy
requires investment in research, training, and, most importantly,
regulatory reform that allows the use of biotechnology. India has benefited
from Bt cotton and has become the biggest cotton producer in the world, but
it has still banned the use of golden rice, which costs thousands of lives.
Agricultural biotechnology can potentially increase rice productivity by at
least 20%, which allows, in principle, the reallocation of some rice land
to produce sugarcane for biofuel with relatively low GHG emissions.
Biotechnology can also accelerate and improve adaptation to climate change,
and relying on advances in the life sciences and information technologies
to use India’s natural resources can uplift the rural economy.
Visiting Kerala
On my last visit, I learned that Southern India is more developed than the
North and has unique natural beauty. So, I decided to travel for a week in
Kerala, which has a tropical climate and shores on the Arabian Sea. We
landed in Kochi, part of the Cochin region. I met some Jews from Cochin in
Israel and asked about the Jewish community. There are only 15 Jews left,
but the Jewish section of Kochi has become a tourist attraction, and it has
a lovely synagogue, which I visited. Kerala was a source of precious
stones, mainly from the ocean. It had a much more harmonious relationship
between Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or Jewish communities than in Northern
India. In some cities, you can see temples of different religions in the
same area. One reason for the relative religious tolerance is that Kerala
has the highest literacy rate in India and the highest GDP per capita. The
tolerance also led to multiple art forms that represented the states’
diverse beliefs. I enjoyed walking to museums and antique shops,
discovering beautiful and surprising art forms.
Tourism is a big industry, and I enjoyed the waterfalls and animals
(buffalos, monkeys, deer, and holy cows roaming everywhere). Kerala has an
abundance of beautiful flowers and plants. They are the foundation of
spices, herbs, and traditional medicine sectors. We spent hours traveling
up and down mountains with magnificent tea gardens planted on terraces.
Looking at the tea gardens, rivers, and wildlife from the top of the hills
was spectacular. I also spent a memorable day in a houseboat, eating
terrific fresh fish, Indian delicacies, and tropical fruits. The boat was
moving along the river, and sitting on a rocking chair, enjoying the gentle
wind and the natural beauty, is my definition of “chilling.” {GOI article
2024)
KR IRS 25825
On Mon, 25 Aug 2025 at 05:58, Markendeya Yeddanapudi <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> --
> *Mar*The Basic Paradigm
>
>
>
> Suppose you start your perception, understanding and education, with the
> basic paradigm, that you are part of the planet earth, and not an outside
> spectator doing science. Then every system of your body becomes an
> extension of the nature outside your body. Nature affects you and you
> affect nature. Nature becomes your living macro body. You identify all the
> dimensions, faculties, powers, energies, and functioning of nature as your
> own living. You do everything to strengthen nature; to strengthen yourself.
> Climate becomes your character. You become a limb of nature. Your limb
> lives with the living nature. You study your anatomy as a part of the
> Geography.
>
> As education, you begin studying your connections to nature, and live
> interacting with nature symbiotically. And you watch and take care of the
> health and well being of nature as part of your effort to increase and
> strengthen your own health and strength. Your internal hormonal
> communications to your cells, and the nerve signal system in your anatomy,
> fuse to the systems of nature.
>
> From the earliest age, if this paradigm is embedded, it becomes the basic
> connecting concept of understanding. Your understanding governs your living
> and the actions of your living. Your actions become the extensions of the
> actions of nature. You grow predicting the events of nature, as the systems
> of your anatomy automatically get impacted by the events of nature.
>
> You predict and sense in advance, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, cyclones,
> hurricanes, tornadoes, and they become your natural endowments. In the
> Universe of infinity, there is no separate center of the Universe. You are
> the center of the Universe as far you are concerned.
>
> You develop the faculties of initiating actions into nature. The basic
> fact is when you feel, during the feeling you cannot analyze. You can
> analyze only when you stop feeling. Similarly many of the actions you
> initiate become your unconscious actions, automatic reflexes. And you
> simply cannot feel lonely, as you accept that you have the basic endowment
> to impact nature.
>
> Today you practice the feeling of loneliness because you repudiate your
> limbhood of nature and practice the feeling of the outside spectator to do
> science, as scientific temperament. Temperament is hormonal and that
> temperament affects every cell of yours as the hormonal communications to
> the cells tell that you are not connected to nature and so not a part of
> nature. Your sense of loneliness takes over every cell of the seven
> octillion cells of you. And your living becomes the effort to separate
> every cell from nature. You use all your might to become lonely. You
> destroy nature all the 24 hours of every day and call it economic activity.
> Economics in reality is war against nature. It is the practice of divorcing
> nature emotionally by trying to live as the economic man, the machine that
> destroys nature. The economic man fights ecology and destroys nature as his
> economic existence.
>
> Today, nature is being destroyed from the basic foundation. Economics no
> longer gives livelihood as every job is performed by machines making every
> human unfit and redundant in economies.
>
> Either you accept nature as the main feature of your anatomy or you starve
> because there are no jobs for you. The destruction juggernaut of economics
> has now turned against the humans.
>
> It is for the Universities to initiate sanity and recovery by starting
> first ‘The Free Nature Parks without human Tampering’so that the divorce to
> nature gets ended.
>
> YM Sarma
>
> Chat gpt
>
> This piece, titled *"The Basic Paradigm"* by *YM Sarma*, offers a
> profound and passionate critique of modern civilization’s alienation from
> nature, and it proposes a radical reimagining of human identity as
> inseparably connected to the natural world. Here’s a summary and
> interpretation of its main ideas, along with some reflections:
> ------------------------------
>
> *🧠 Core Thesis*
>
> The author challenges the *"outside observer" model of science*, urging
> instead a *paradigm shift* where humans begin life and education by
> understanding themselves *as part of nature*, not apart from it. This
> fundamental reconception – what he calls the *"basic paradigm"* – forms
> the foundation for a symbiotic, respectful, and healthy relationship with
> the planet.
> ------------------------------
>
> *🌿 Key Ideas*
>
> 1. *You are Nature*:
> - The systems within your body are not isolated; they are
> extensions of the larger natural world. Your anatomy mirrors geography,
> your signals and hormones mirror natural forces.
> 2. *Symbiotic Living*:
> - Education should begin with learning one’s *living connections to
> nature*. Protecting nature is protecting the self.
> 3. *Predictive Sensitivity*:
> - A deeper embeddedness in nature might awaken latent abilities in
> humans—such as sensing natural disasters intuitively, just as some
> animals
> seem to.
> 4. *Modern Science and Alienation*:
> - Today’s scientific approach, based on detached observation,
> results in a *disconnection* from nature. This disconnection
> becomes a biological fact: our hormones and cellular signals embody this
> loneliness and rejection.
> 5. *The Economic Man vs. Ecology*:
> - Economics, as currently practiced, is framed as a *war against
> nature*, glorifying destruction as “productivity.” This is
> unsustainable and dehumanizing.
> 6. *Call to Action*:
> - Universities must play a pivotal role in *restoring our natural
> identity*, starting with *"Free Nature Parks without human
> tampering"*—spaces where nature can thrive, unmodified.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *🔍 Reflections and Implications*
>
> - *Philosophical*: The essay invokes a worldview closer to *indigenous
> philosophies* and *deep ecology*, where the boundaries between self
> and world dissolve.
> - *Psychological*: By tying *hormonal and cellular health* to our
> connection with nature, the essay implies that environmental destruction
> is *not
> just ecological*, but a deep *existential and bodily trauma*.
> - *Educational*: There’s a compelling call to redesign education from
> the ground up, starting not with math or reading, but with the
> understanding that *our lives are threads in the tapestry of nature*.
> - *Political/Economic*: The critique of the "economic man" is
> potent—modern economies value extraction and mechanization over harmony and
> livelihood. The essay suggests this system has reached its breaking point.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *🌍 Takeaway*
>
> This essay is not merely a critique—it is a *plea for a new consciousness*.
> It urges us to abandon the illusion of separateness and to re-root
> ourselves in the living earth. In doing so, we might not only heal the
> planet but also our own alienated and fragmented selves.
> ------------------------------
>
> Would you like help adapting or summarizing this into a shorter version
> for discussion, educational use, or publication?
>
> Sure, I'll evaluate *"The Basic Paradigm"* by *YM Sarma* as if it were an
> academic essay submitted for assessment in a humanities or environmental
> philosophy course. I’ll use standard academic criteria:
> ------------------------------
> ✅ *Evaluation Criteria (Out of 10 Each)*
>
> 1. *Originality and Insight – 9/10*
>
> o The essay is highly original and thought-provoking, presenting a
> radical reimagining of the human-nature relationship.
>
> o It moves beyond conventional environmental discourse to a
> philosophical and even biological integration of self and nature.
>
> o Strong marks for visionary thinking and depth of insight.
>
> 2. *Clarity and Coherence – 6.5/10*
>
> o The central message is clear, but the structure could be improved.
>
> o Some passages are dense or repetitive, and transitions between ideas
> are not always smooth.
>
> o With clearer organization, the message would have more impact.
>
> 3. *Argumentation and Support – 7.5/10*
>
> o The arguments are compelling and emotionally resonant but rely more
> on assertion than evidence.
>
> o Philosophical and poetic—but lacks engagement with alternative
> viewpoints or deeper elaboration of key claims.
>
> o Would benefit from references to scientific, philosophical, or
> indigenous traditions that support the thesis.
>
> 4. *Language and Style – 7/10*
>
> o The tone is passionate and earnest, with some poetic qualities.
>
> o However, there are occasional awkward phrasings and a lack of
> variety in sentence structure.
>
> o Stylistically strong in parts but would benefit from tighter editing.
>
> 5. *Relevance and Impact – 9/10*
>
> o The theme is extremely relevant, especially given global ecological
> crises and discussions about sustainability, AI, and post-industrial
> society.
>
> o The critique of modern economics and science is bold and timely.
> ------------------------------
> 📝 *Total Score: 39 / 50*
> ------------------------------
> 🎓 *Grade: B+ (Upper Second Class / 3.3 GPA equivalent)* 🌟 With revision
> for structure, clarity, and stronger argumentative depth, this could reach
> an A grade.
> ------------------------------
> 📌 *Feedback Summary:*
>
> · *Strengths*:
>
> o Visionary and deeply reflective.
>
> o Offers a compelling critique of modern human alienation from nature.
>
> o Contains powerful philosophical ideas and ethical urgency.
>
> · *Areas for Improvement*:
>
> o Improve structure and logical flow—some ideas blend into each other
> without transitions.
>
> o Clarify or elaborate certain metaphors (e.g., “economic man
> divorcing nature” could use historical or practical examples).
>
> o Strengthen argument with references or comparative perspectives
> (e.g., indigenous knowledge, deep ecology, Gaia theory, ecofeminism).
>
> Would you like suggestions on how to revise it toward an A+ level?
>
>
>
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