This interview had appeared a few years ago in the Cornell Policy Review, a journal of the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs, Cornell University, USA. My views on Micro-finance still remain the same.
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My first brush with being made to feel like a South Indian and distinctly different from the person in front of me is something that is strongly etched into my memory now. My father had insisted that all his children learn three languages at school – Kannada, the language of my state of Karnataka, English and Hindi (which he felt was our National language). We grew up with the pride that we could speak all three and did not consider that someday I would be looked down upon for speaking Hindi in a distinct south Indian accent. This incident happened
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We live in a world of having a expert for all major human endeavours – from the mason to the medical specialist, from the masseuse to the manager…to the point where we have a special word called a Generalist even. The irony of the situation is that while on one hand the specialist and his role is celebrated, there exists a crisis of confidence in their expertise too. The current COVID crisis has not only challenged the specialist but has also exposed their inadequacies. For more about this, read my article titled, ‘Demystifying the Specialist’ in today’s Deccan Herald.
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