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IIMB Management Review

Document Type

Personal Perspective

Abstract

Let the market resolve it' is India's new mantra, ever since globalisation and liberalisation ushered in a new economy, and with it, a new philosophy. Our bureaucrats have shifted from the jargon of doctrinaire socialism to the far more glamorous jargon of the bornagain capitalist. But is the market really as omniscient and just as we have begun to believe it is? The market has operated for most of this century in a world where poverty, hunger, disease and need are endemic; a world poised on the precipice of war, civil disorder and anarchy. Padma Vibhushan V Kurien, India's milkman extraordinaire, who transformed the Indian dairy scene and the cooperative movement, warns that we are treading a dangerous path in uncritically accepting the market as the ultimate source of wisdom. Having worked with and for the Indian farmer for over fifty years, he firmly believes that allocative efficiency is no substitute for the just and wise utilisation of resources to build a stronger world. Our rural people and agriculture are the foundation of any hope for an equitable society and those of us who have been fortunate enough to receive a good education have an obligation to do whatever we can to strengthen the nation's agriculture.

Publication Date

6-1-1999

First Page

101

Last Page

110

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