In Search Of New Ethos

A HARD LOOK AT WHAT MAY HAPPEN IF EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT IS LEFT OUT OF THE BIGGER FRAMEWORK DOMINATED BY GOVERNMENTS AND ECONOMIC FORCES.

- Ankur Sarin

STUDENTS OF IIM-AHMEDABAD are spoilt for choice when it comes to celebrity speakers. But very few academicians turn out to be charismatic crowdpullers like Raghuram Rajan. His earlier books addressed a larger audience, but The Third Pillar strongly underlines his new status as a public intellectual. The ‘third pillar’, as the book lays out, is the community, which the author believes, has been neglected (at least by economists) vis-à-vis the State and the Markets. As Rajni Bakshi and Rohini Nilekani put it: Samaj, sarkar and bazaar need to be in balance. So, this is not an original insight. However, Rajan’s larger concern is that he finds the “establishment discredited”. The fact that it comes from someone who has worked in the innards of both national and international institutions with the critical eye of an academician makes the book significant.