On the Krishna Janmashtami, let's cherish the verses of Aughat Shah Warsi, a sufi poet of 20th century, in the devotional rendition of gifted qawwals Taj Muhammad Naizi & Shad Muhammad Niazi of Atrauli gharana. "Mathura basi kunwar Kanhaiya, mohan pyaare bansi dhaari" 📸 TDJ

Two of the greatest in a jugalbandi. Ustads Bismillah Khan and Vilayat Khan playing an utterly gorgeous Bhairavi thumri youtu.be/NyK4Bvj07JY?si…

Beautiful and unusual rendition of Tulsidas' Sri Ramachandra Kripalu Bhajamana by Pt. Narayanrao Vyas, guru of Pt DV Paluskar, in raga Hameer rather than the usual Yaman Kalyan made famous by MS Subbulakshmi youtu.be/9fL1JVYVINU?si…

My paper 'Conspicuous Consumption for Social Parity' has finally found a home in the Cambridge Journal of Economics Oxford Academic . This paper is a small step towards understanding the black box that makes human decision-making human, not mechanical. academic.oup.com/cje/article-ab…

Cartoons from the Indian Emergency period by the great Abu Abraham. One with a censors stamp. From an exhibition on Abraham’s work ⁦⁦Bangalore International Centre⁩

It is Krishna Janmashtami tomorrow. Here are three iconic Krishna songs performed by some of the greatest Karnatic musicians: Jon B Higgins, professor of Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan, who journeyed from the WASP bastion of Phillips Academy, Andover to become a first-rate

Venting. Many social scientists (including us economists) seem to have a uni-causal affliction. ‘My cause for Y (usually a momentous change in the human condition) makes more sense than yours.’ Does it not make more sense to see a cluster of factors working synergistically over

One of the great thumri and ghazal singers of the 20th century was Nirmala Devi. Here is a superlative performance of 'Ro Ro Naina Ganwaye' in Mishra Pilu. She perhaps does not get the credit she deserves because happens to be (actor) Govinda's mother. youtu.be/piGJZPNqAuI?si…

How much more do the poor spend on food when their income ⬆️? Not much, it turns out. In a new paper, Marc F. Bellemare, Katherina Thomas & I pool cash transfers in Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, Uganda to estimate the income elasticity of food demand 1/3 cgdev.org/blog/what-exte…

Some years ago Michael Woolcock and I argued that the disciplinary monopoly held by economics World Bank Research and other places was bad for policy (and no one listened). jstor.org/stable/27800677 Today, an Financial Times editorial makes a similar (if ‘slightly weaker’) point on whether

📢📢 We are hiring! 📢 Looking for a Research Associate with STRONG DATA skills! Join Sid George, Sid Hari, Apurva Bamezai + me on an ongoing large, exciting Bihar-based project on local governance! Apply here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…… Econ RA Listings #EconTwitter #PoliSciTwitter