Kaushik Basu
@kaushikcbasu
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Professor of Economics, Cornell University, & former Chief Economist of the World Bank & Chief Economic Adviser, Government of India.
New York
Joined December 2008
Religion & research both arise from the same human urge to understand the mystery of life. The religious people are the clever ones who quickly give up & embrace blind faith. Researchers struggle to find the answer till the end of their lives.
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Am sitting in a by-lane & re-reading Vivekananda’s letters. Fascinating. They show his wanderlust, his joy in meeting all kinds of people, his humor, also his vulnerabilities, & above all, his love of humanity. His Hinduism was so different from what some Hindutva groups teach.
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Swami Vivekananda in his letter to Mary Hale, while sailing through the Mediterranean: .“What am I? Asiatic, European or American? I feel a curious medley of personalities in me.”.
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Who wrote this?.“What am I? Asiatic, European or American? I feel a curious medley of personalities in me.”.
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80 years ago, today, 16 July, the first nuclear bomb was detonated. Looking up at the sky, what Oppenheimer had noted wistfully that fateful day is now a part of history: “We knew the world would not be the same.”.
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15 July 1948 is the birthday of Vilfredo Pareto, one of the great economists of all times. Trained in mathematics & physics, Pareto worked in economics, political science & civil engineering & became one of the key figures of the so-called Lausanne School.
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With Alaka in Ithaca. With all the summer foliage, Ithaca feels like an ashram.
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East River. Standing here you can see why rivers inspire songs: Ol’ man river-Paul Robeson. Mississippi-Pussycats. Ganga-Bhupen Hazarika …
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Feeling good about art spotting. Got this painting by Meena Laishram when she was a college student. Now, years later, her art seems to be all over.
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My niece, Archita Ghosh, caught on camera, in Montreal, by the celebrated street photographer, Charles Lafrance.
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If a scientist asked to choose between 6 & “less than 6” before a dice is rolled, chooses “less than 6”, it doesn’t become a foolish choice, if then the dice stops at 6. This is the mistake people make when they attack the decisions of Fauci in the early days of COVID-19.
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Consider submitting your paper for one of the largest conferences of economists—The World Congress of the International Economic Association, to be held in Belgrade, Serbia, in June 2026. Please feel free to forward this.
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My sister, Indrani Ghosh, from Kolkata, taking a break at the Commons in Ithaca.
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Alaka Basu comments on the rise in child mortality rates in the US:.Child mortality rate has jumped since 2019—report
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Chinese translation of Reason to be Happy to be published on 30 July in Taipei,Taiwan.
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My grandchildren have created a game in which the one who loses wins. They are now getting into fights because as soon as the loser claims she has won, she is being told she has lost. I am waiting for them to figure out the infinite loop problem.
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