This is Nitin Pai's cyberspace.

What I’m up to now: pursuits, talks, engagements.
Contact: @nitin.

I’m interested in coffee, philosophy, sharp objects, public policy, tech and stationery.

You are in the structured section of my domain where I have my blog posts, newspaper columns, updates on my teaching and research, and other things you had always been warned about.

▸ Check out my book: The Nitopadesha: Moral Tales for Good Citizens.⭐

▸ I have recently been writing about: ☼ information agehyperdiversityliberal democracyeconomicsCovid-19philosophy and everything else

▸ In these columns: ☼ MintDebates with my DaughtersSakalThe PrintThe HinduPragatiPax Indica

▸ Other stuff ☼ Raw NotesNow

The Acorn
Estd 2003
Recent posts:

Local governments must raise their own revenues
The post-pandemic fiscal crunch should cause municipalities, gram panchayats and state governments to start thinking about generating revenues from under-used public assets. | 11th Oct 2020

Heed Napoleon’s words as China fancies its odds of taking Taiwan
New Delhi should not distract China from getting into an energy-sapping quagmire over Taiwan. | 27th Sep 2020

It is time India gave its policy on Tibet some strategic coherence
Unless backed by purposeful policy and substantive actions, symbolism alone is dangerous and can be counterproductive. The time has come for India to review its approach towards Tibet. | 13th Sep 2020

The US-China tech war is being fought across a bamboo curtain
For India, the correct answer is some form of interdependence with both the US and China that ground realties and interests permit. | 30th Aug 2020

A retreat from global trade will hurt India’s geopolitical stature
India must resist the forces of de-globalization and lead the charge for a new, more balanced international economic order. The openness that we seek in the global economy must start at home. | 16th Aug 2020

Macabre thought experiments and moral compasses
I decided to put the trolley problem to the kids. All three readily said that they would let one person die if it saved two or more lives. But it got more complicated after that. | 9th Aug 2020

Opinion | A national vaccination campaign ought to be run like an election
A national vaccination programme is like a general election, but at much lower temperatures. | 2nd Aug 2020

Is the United Nations of any use?
I got mildly worried a couple of weeks ago when Airy became extremely knowledgeable about the Republic of Kazakhstan. | 10th Jul 2020

The opening up of India’s space sector is a big reform
Liberalizing India’s space sector is a necessary condition for the country to achieve greater self-reliance not just in space, but in the broader high technology domain. | 5th Jul 2020

India can resist China by acting in concert with its adversaries
This is the last of a three-part series on how India could deal with China. | 25th Jun 2020

The global upheaval caused by China’s premature power games
This is the second of a three-part series on how India and the world could deal with China. | 24th Jun 2020

Power is the only currency that will work in dealing with China
This is the first of a three-part series on how India could deal with China. | 23rd Jun 2020

Indian unpredictability could make China rethink its game
New Delhi must also expand the canvas on which the relationship with China plays out. | 18th Jun 2020

Pluralism is often an early casualty in a pandemic
The radical uncertainty created by an epidemic becomes a justification for expressions of hatred, discrimination and violence. | 15th Jun 2020

The role that compassion could play in India’s economic revival
The public policy challenge is to make this inner quest a social outcome. How do we create incentives for compassionate behaviour? | 8th Jun 2020

Now Holmes has become Sherlock
“Moriarty? Him? The guy looks like an investment banker. He can’t be Moriarty!” | 31st May 2020

India should prepare itself for realpolitik over a covid vaccine
Both the West and China are pouring billions of dollars into fast-tracking vaccines. India’s investment is minuscule in comparison. | 25th May 2020

Crowds at booze stores reveal an addled approach to policy
Government over-control and excessive taxation of liquor might satisfy our hypocrisy but could make real problems worse | 10th May 2020

Should people be allowed to have weird names?
Are we going to allow the limitations of computer software to determine what we can or cannot do? If that were so, we wouldn’t have made it to the 21st century, and set our clocks back every year in order not to be bitten by the Y2K bug. | 9th May 2020

How India should deal with economic investment from a politically hostile China
Modi government must quickly lift the lockdown on Chinese investments and proceed to a staggered reopening. | 5th May 2020

Get India back at work to secure the economy and employment
If we promote mass-employment when hundreds of millions have lost their jobs and there is a reverse exodus of migrants to the countryside, I cannot think of a time we ever will. | 27th Apr 2020

To open or not to open India up: a dilemma that need not be one
India needs a calibrated approach to tighten or relax controls at a local level depending on data from expanded testing | 12th Apr 2020

The early days of online schooling
"My mic is not working” is the 21st century equivalent of “dog ate my homework” | 12th Apr 2020



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