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Contemporary South Asia: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Intractable Social & Economic Problems

Prof. Tarun Khanna Harvard Business School, Morgan Hall 221

[email protected]

Course Lecture Location: Sever Hall 113 Meeting Time: M., W., 3:30–5 pm

Course TF: Gokul Madhavan, FAS, [email protected]

Course Numbers:

General Education (FAS): SW-47 Harvard Kennedy School: PED 338 Harvard School of Public Health: GHP-568 Harvard Graduate School of Education: A-819 Harvard Law School: 2543 Harvard Business School: 1266

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Table of Contents

1. Course Overview………………………………………………………….………………………..3

2. Project Component…...…………………………………………………………………………….4

3. Course Requirements………………………………………………………………………………6

4. Class Schedule……………………………………………………………………………………..7

5. Optional Course Pre-reading……………………………………………………………………….8

6. Course Outline

a. Introductory Module………………………….…………………………………………...9

b. Module I: Education…………………………………………………………………..….14

c. Module II: Health………………………………………………………………………...18

d. Module III: Financial Inclusion…………………………………………………………..22

e. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..…26

7. Section Meetings …………………………………………………………………………...…….28

APPENDIX A. iLab as Facilitator & Resource…………………………………………………………….………31 B. Fall 2011 Student Projects/Older Projects ………………….………………………..……………32 C. Supplemental Readings (by session) ……………………………………….……………….……34

Contemporary South Asia

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I. COURSE OVERVIEW This project-based, survey course focuses on several categories of social and economic problems faced by the countries of South Asia, specifically, in the realms of Education, Health, and Financial Inclusion. Each problem category will be dealt with through an overview lecture, supplemented by assigned readings, and an in-depth (typically case-based) look at one or more organizations, companies, non-profits, or regulatory interventions that have attempted to address some of the problems within that category. Supplemental readings will be recommended for those wishing to explore the topic further. The primary objective of the course is to engage students – in an inter-disciplinary and university-wide setting – with the current problems in South Asia, to prior attempts to address these problems and to immerse them in a hands-on project-based attempt at their own candidate solutions. The course is designed for advanced undergraduates as well as graduate students from all parts of the University. No prior knowledge of South Asia is assumed. The course will be listed in FAS, HBS, HKS, GSE, HSPH, HLS and SEAS other students will be able to cross-register; grading protocols have been worked out in a prior iteration of the course). The mixture of student backgrounds is important for its success. The lectures and deep-dive case studies are the core of the course, a must for all attendees; the course requirements are tailored separately to the needs of undergraduate and graduate students, with plenty of opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas and experiences. There will be an introductory module (six sessions) exploring how historical and contemporary choices have shaped the institutional context of modern South Asia. This will be followed by three modules focused on education (five sessions), health (six sessions), and financial inclusion (four sessions). A concluding session will summarize. In the lectures we will review the available evidence on the incidence, causes and consequences of the problem in question. Through case studies we will examine real world, entrepreneurial attempts to provide solutions and for each, will discuss whether and why the approach worked, how it could have been improved, and compare the effort to other ambient successes and failures. Some overview lectures might be delivered by visitors; on other occasions, the lectures might be pre-recorded, to free up in-class time for discussion. The case studies will be discussed interactively and might feature the protagonists wherever feasible. These lectures and case discussions are mandatory for all students. On occasion, we will use several available technological platforms to solicit reactions of the ‘world at large’ to the same assignments and poll questions in-class students are required to address, as well as have ‘the world’ engage in the same analytical exercise that will be assigned during class, to compare solutoins. Comparing responses from the outside world to those from in-class participants will provide another valuable source of input to class discussions. In addition to in-class discussions, there will be a weekly section, mandatory for undergraduates, optional for graduate students, for a more in-depth exploration of selected readings and, perhaps, discussions of additional interesting cases of success or failure. Graduate Teaching Fellows (TF), with relevant knowledge of the material and geography, will run the small sections. The lectures, case discussions, and sections will draw on experiences from multiple South Asian countries, featuring India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the most populous countries in the region, but also drawing on material relevant to Afghanistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Past student projects have typically focused on a problem area in a single country (note that there is nothing precluding


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consideration of a project set in a smaller country in South Asia than this set – e.g. Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal). Thus, through the weekly lectures and sections, and an immersion into a hands-on project, students will develop an appreciation for the near-historical causes of the problem; the qualitative and quantitative evidence regarding the problem, especially in comparison to various counterfactuals; its various interpretations; commonalities and differences across South Asian countries; and the respective roles of the state, civil society, and private enterprise in helping resolve the problems. Course Text Khanna, Tarun. Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures—and Yours, Harvard Business School Publishing (Boston, MA), 2007. (We will draw on several chapters of this narrative comparison of India with China, though overall only a very tiny fraction of the readings are from this, or any other, single source. The intent of the book chapters is to orient students towards a comparative way of thinking, anchored on one of the South Asian countries of interest to the course, India. It is not mandatory to purchase the book, as it will be available in the libraries, though the bookstore will hold copies.) Case Studies Packet (for non-HBS students): http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/access/14266754 Please use the above link to order your electronic packet of HBS case materials. You will be redirected to the Harvard Business School Publishing website. There you should use your Harvard email address to create a login. Once this has been completed, you will be able to purchase your case packet. Material Outside Scope of Course In the interest of greater depth, there are several topical areas that are not covered explicitly by the course, but which are touched on within the discussion of issues related to the broad problem areas education, health, and financial inclusion. Examples include urbanization, water, and environmental change, among others. Even more broadly, there are plenty of problems with roots in macroeconomic mismanagement that are left out. A broad swathe of problems related to border disputes and diplomatic mishaps also fall outside the course purview. In general, students’ project work and other assignments for the course should stay within the broad problem areas identified. The lectures, case discussions and sections will draw on a set of inter-disciplinary required readings, and a host of recommended readings will be available for deep-dives should students be interested. Additionally, we will draw extensively on video and film materials when relevant. Finally, the South Asia Initiative at Harvard, http://southasiainitiative.harvard.edu, sponsors a slew of events squarely related to this course, and students will be encouraged to participate in these and draw on them as relevant in their course-work. A list of readings that can supplement specific lectures can be found in Appendix C (expected to evolve as the course progresses). II. PROJECT COMPONENT: Graduate students will be required to develop a project report. As described below, undergraduates will be encouraged to work on a project as well, though they might choose a term paper option. In the past year,


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virtually all undergraduates worked on a project, with graduate student teams, with heartening success. The idea of the project is to present a candidate solution – this may take the form of a business plan, a plan to build a non-profit, a plan to create a regulatory intervention, all of which are equally admissible – that solves a crisply stated, and significant, problem in a particular setting in South Asia. The spirit of the exercise is that entrepreneurial action can be more effectively harnessed than has historically been the case in South Asia. After the course, but not as a part of it, teams that reach a threshold level of excellence in their project reports will be eligible to apply for funding grants (through Harvard's South Asia Initiative) to travel to South Asia in the summer term (2013) for exploratory work on their project. Last year’s grant money was provided by the Omidyar Foundation. Graduate students must self-assemble into project teams that include students from more than one Harvard Faculty (e.g. an acceptable team could not include only, for example, public health students, or only HBS students, but might amass, say, students from FAS, HBS, HSPH). See Appendix A for further information on iLab facilitation of team assembly. It is useful to look at what students have accomplished in their past projects. A simple listing of last year’s projects is in Appendix B. Please note that each of them was comprised of an inter-faculty set of students, since the mix of disciplinary orientations is crucial to creative problem solving. Several of the twelve class projects appeared excellent enough to apply for the competitive grant administered by SAI after the course. There were also numerous applicants not connected with this course. Note that it is not a requirement to be in the course to participate in this competition. Ultimately, two grants were awarded, one to the class project termed MOBILIZE!, an attempt to spread digital literacy in rural India using a mixture of lower-cost technology devices, some scheduling algorithms to ensure that limited capital investment went a long way, and attention to the behavioral aspects of getting technology adopted within the social and political structure of the village. The other Omidyar grant went to a team led by Professor Conor Walsh, of Harvard’s Wyss Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. This team, also joint between engineering and FAS, embraced students from HKS and HBS as well, and seeks to devise medical and surgical devices appropriate for use in developing countries, with India being the site of its initial experimentation. There is much room for creativity as the brief descriptions of the other class projects suggest, ranging from organizing ragpickers in slums, to embracing the science that can create a handkerchief and face mask that alleviates the effects of pollution, to helping organize vocational training. One could also imagine projects that were targeted to developing better methods of distributing much-needed medicines to inaccessible regions, an air taxi project for humanitarian purposes, better ways of incentivizing bureaucrats and politicians at the local level, socially and politically acceptable methods to distribute clean water that does not consume gargantuan subsidies and so on. The appendix B2 also features some organizations that are older, in that they have been launched in the past decade, by students from Harvard or MIT, Parliamentary Research Services, an NGO dedicated to improving the quality of democratic discourse in India, and Aspiring Minds, a talent-market analytics company providing a technological bridge (via better matching algorithms) for disenfranchised but talented youth in India, to catapult them into the economic mainstream. These examples are meant to give a sense of how things might progress over just a few years. III. COURSE REQUIREMENTS


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For Graduate Students: The three requirements for graduate students will be:

o Lecture and case discussion attendance and participation, 30% (This will include responding to the online polls and discussions wherever appropriate)

o An analytical assignment based on a data set provided by a South Asian organization. This will be distributed at the beginning of the course. Students will be asked to explore the data provided, identify trends, develop insights and conclusions, pose questions, and possibly identify areas for further inquiry. 10%

o A final project with an interim team-level report on the project. (20% interim report; 40% final report)

Section attendance is not mandatory for graduate students. Section participation can help the graduate student’s grade if she/he is on the margin between grades, but section non-attendance will have no negative impact. Graduate students may work with the TF to design an appropriate role for themselves within the sections, and, if they intend to attend section, should select into one at the beginning of the course. For Undergraduate Students: As a Societies of the World Gen. Ed. course, this course is designed to acquaint undergraduates with values, customs, and institutions that differ from their own, and help students to understand how different beliefs, behaviors, and ways of organizing society come into being.” In addition, this course is also designed to provide students with the knowledge and the opportunity to grapple with complex social and economic problems. The work expected from undergraduates is fashioned so as to meet these two goals.

o Section and Lecture attendance and participation, 40% of total grade. (This will include responding to the online polls and discussions wherever appropriate)

o An analytical assignment based on a data set provided by a South Asian organization. This will be

distributed at the beginning of the course. Students will be asked to explore the data provided, identify trends, develop insights and conclusions, pose questions, and possibly identify areas for further inquiry. 10%

o A final project with an interim team-level report on the project (20% interim report; 30% final report). Undergraduates have an option of substituting a term paper, approximately 20 pages long, instead of working on a project. In the past, very few have availed of this option. The idea, however, is that the long paper offers an opportunity to synthesize material from across the course. While the paper might take many forms, here are two specific types of papers that would be appropriate:

The first would be a detailed investigation of a particular attempt by a person or institution to tackle a specific complex social problem in South Asia. This can be modeled around one of the many case studies that will be discussed in class.

The second would be an analysis of one of the social, economic, and legal phenomena that cut across the various focus areas, as it impinges upon a particular situation. For


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example, issues such as gender, social hierarchy, legal institutions, and political structures impact every problem category and will inevitably affect any proposed solution.

In both cases, what matter the most are specificity of detail, sensitivity to context and feasibility of solution, if one is proposed. There are no particular methodological preferences for how these issues are to be tackled in the paper. Additionally, undergraduates will be encouraged to submit a 1–2 page proposal of their final paper in advance, summarizing their main argument(s). This is in order to allow the TFs to assist them with the formulation and analysis of the problem, and with the writing should they desire or need it.

Class Schedule

Week Date Module iLab Project Teams Other Due Dates

1 09/05 W Introduction 1

2 09/10 M Introduction 2

09/12 W Introduction 3 SAI Social (informal)

3 09/17 M Introduction 4 Team “Speed Dating”

09/19 W Introduction 5

4 09/24 M Introduction 6 Business Plan Session

09/26 W Education 1

5 10/01 M Education 2

10/03 W Education 3 Project proposal (2 pages)

Analytical Assignment Distributed (All)

6 10/08 M NO CLASS 10/10 W Education 4

7 10/15 M Education 5 10/17 W Health 1 Assignment Due (All)

8 10/22 M NO CLASS 10/24 W NO CLASS

9 10/29 M Health 2 10/31 W Health 3 Mid-Review

10 11/05 M Health 4 Interim Report

Proposal for Final Paper (Undergrads taking paper

option)

11/07 W Health 5

11 11/12 M NO CLASS 11/14 W Health 6

12 11/19 M Fin.Inclusion 1 11/21 W NO CLASS

13 11/26 M Fin.Inclusion 2 11/28 W Fin.Inclusion 3

14 12/03 M Fin.Inclusion 4 12/05 W Conclusion


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FINALS Final Project Reports & Papers due for all students.

Special Accommodations’ Request Any student needing academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to present their letter from the Accessible Education Office (AEO) and speak with the professor by the end of the second week of the term. Failure to do so may result in the Course Head's inability to respond in a timely manner. All discussions will remain confidential, although AEO may be consulted to discuss appropriate implementation.

Course Pre-reading (Optional)

These readings listed will orient you to various parts of the region. None are required.

D.E. Bloom, “7 Billion and Counting,” Science 333, 562 (2011), DOI: 10.1126/science.1209290.

Amartya Sen, “Secularism and its Discontents”, Essay 14, from The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture, and Identity, Picador USA (2006). Marja-Leena Heikkilä-Horn (2009): Imagining ‘Burma’: a historical overview, Asian Ethnicity, 10:2, 145-154. Anatol Lieven, “Introduction: Understanding Pakistan,” Pakistan: A Hard Country, PublicAffairs (New York, NY), 2011. pp. 3–40.

Tinaz Pavri, “National Identity and Homeland in Bangladesh,” Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, 20(1):107 - 112 (2008).

Course Pre-viewing (Optional)

The links here are to cartographic and other visual resources that you may find useful prior to and throughout the course. Some of these resources are purely data driven, others are historical, while others provide some interpretation. Together they may help orient you to the size, density, and diversity of South Asia.

Derek Thompson, “The Economic History of the Last 2,000 Years in 1 Little Graph,” The Atlantic, June 19, 2012. GRAPHIC: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/06/the-economic-history-of-the-last-2-000-years-in-1-little-graph/258676/ National Geographic MapMaker Interactive http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/mapping/interactive-map/?ar_a=1 A Historical Atlas of South Asia Edited by Joseph E. Schwartzberg, Copyright © 1978 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. Maintained by the University of Chicago's Digital South Asia Library http://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/ Maps of South Asia at Columbia Maintained by Dr. Frances W. Pritchett, Professor of Modern Indic Languages http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00maplinks/ A Cartogram of the World's Population (2007) This map is part of a series of cartograms in which the actual geography is distorted in order to demonstrate information about the countries shown.


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Graphic Alone: http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/population1024x512.png Original Post by Frank Jacobs: http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/96-a-cartogram-of-the-worlds-population

IV. COURSE OUTLINE

Introductory Module

The region we call “South Asia” today encompasses a staggeringly diverse range of natural and human environments. Snow-clad mountains, lush tropical jungles, arid wastelands, fertile alluvial plains—all these climatic and topographical settings play host to people who differ on language, attire, cuisine, faith, political persuasion, even choice of sport. How do we make sense of such variation? On what basis do we classify countries as “South Asian,” and where do we draw lines separating countries or cultures or regions? How do we remain cognizant of the tremendous diversity that exists even within each of the different countries? And finally, what measures do we utilize to understand the means by which and the extent to which governments and the people of the region have established the conditions necessary for human flourishing? A multitude of institutions—of the state and otherwise—underpin daily life across South Asia. These institutional underpinnings are a function of the activity of entrepreneurs—in business, politics, and society writ large—and they take time to emerge. To understand these underpinnings we must understand today's economics and politics, but also the historical and cultural roots of the highly contoured and variegated environment in which today's entrepreneurs must operate. Corruption affords us one “result” of the context, and we begin the course by trying to understand the institutional solutions to this problem. Corruption touches almost every nation's citizens at some time or another—often with troubling frequency—regardless of ethnicity, creed, region or economic status. The phenomenon is hardly unique to India (in terms of the region or the globe), but its seriousness and the place that it has earned within recent national regional discourse make it a compelling point of entry into the region. The next two sessions allow us to consider social and political fragmentation in South Asia. We ask how much of this fragmentation is a natural response to underlying diversity, and how much of it is an unnecessary and unwitting impediment to daily life. Sitting atop these social and political foundations are a series of investments in so-called ‘hard’ infrastructure – think roads, ports and electric utilities – and ‘soft’ infrastructure – think rule of law, unfettered information access, commitment to fairness etcetera. We dedicate one session to the exploration of each of these foundational constructs. Finally, we ask whether the effects of all these foundational elements – the social and political bedrock and the infrastructural investments atop them – should be measured using crisp measures such as GDP, or whether we should also embrace more encompassing but somewhat harder-to-quantify notions such as the Human Development Index. The introductory module will be followed by modules on Education, Health and Financial Inclusion, and by an overarching summary.

[1] Introduction – (1) Institutional Underpinnings of South Asia, Corruption & Institutional Failure in India (I-1)


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Bertrand, M., Djankov, S., Hanna, R., & Mullainathan, S. (2007). “Obtaining a driver’s license in India: An experimental approach to studying corruption.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(4), 1639–1676. Khanna, Tarun. Palepu, Krishna, G. (2010) Winning in Emerging Markets: A RoadMap for Strategy and Execution. Please read Chapter 2 and the first part of Chapter 4 (through discussion of Table 4.1). Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister, “Black Money” White Paper, May 2012 (Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Central Board of Direct Taxes, New Delhi) Ranjani Iyer Mohanty, “Why the Arab Spring Hasn't Spread to India—but Should,” The Atlantic, May 2011. Steve Coll, “Sporting Chance: Can a sex symbol and cricket legend run Pakistan?” The New Yorker, August 13 & 20, 2012

Discussion Questions:

1. In the article “Obtaining a Driver’s License in India: An Experimental Approach to

Understanding Corruption,” the authors find no evidence of direct bribes, but instead a system of intermediary “agents” who work with bureaucrats and are able to bend some rules more frequently and reliably than others. What kinds of rules are these agents able to get bent on behalf of clients? What might this suggest about potential strategies for reducing corruption of this kind?

2. What forms does corruption take in India? What are some practical solutions to mitigate corruption? Think about any anti-corruption measures you have personally encountered . Were they successful? How could they have been improved? (An example started in India that has spread to other countries is ipaidabribe.com )

3. How are the contours of corruption different in Pakistan? Can the charismatic, relatively youthful politician profiled in the New Yorker article, Imran Khan, institute meaningful change?

4. Khanna and Palepu detail a taxonomy of specialized intermediaries that facilitate the creation of new enterprises. What is the relationship between what they term ‘institutional voids’ and ambient corruption?

[2] Introduction – Social Cohesion Across the Region (I-2)

Eck, Diana. India: A Sacred Geography. Harmony (March 27, 2012). (Chapters 1 & 2; pp. 1-55). Ashutosh Varshney, “Contested Meanings: India's National Identity, Hindu Nationalism, and the Politics of Anxiety,” Daedalus, Vol. 122, No. 3, Reconstructing Nations and States (Summer, 1993), pp. 227-261. Christophe Jaffrelot, “Sanskritization vs. Ethnicization in India: Changing Identities and Caste Politics before Mandal,” Asian Survey, Vol. 40, No. 5, Modernizing Tradition in India (Sep. - Oct., 2000), pp. 756-766.


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1. Eck writes about “imaginative” mapping in Hindu traditions. What is involved in this process? How does it differ from a technical cartographic project (as undertaken by the British)?

2. In the beginning of Chapter Two Eck writes about India's “practical everyday pluralism,” and what Jawaharlal Nehru called country's “tremendous impress of oneness” (Eck 45). How do these characterizations reconcile with the kind of Hindu Nationalism Varshney writes about?

3. According to Varshney, “Nehru tried to make modernization and economic development the basis for national identity” (Varshney 239). What challenges does this pose for a place like India? Can such a project compete with India’s rich cultural heritage?

4. What are your thoughts on the idea that in modern India, “Secularism is a victim of its official success” (Varshney 245)?

5. In his article “Sanskritization vs. Ethnicization,” what exactly does Jaffrelot mean by the statement: “the ethnicization of the low castes” (Jaffrelot 758). Where does the caste system fit into the discussion of plurality and national identity? Would the caste system have evolved differently without the British policy of “positive discrimination”?

6. What connections do you see between the caste system in particular, and social schisms in general, on the one hand, and Khanna and Palepu’s idea of ‘institutional voids’ that we discussed in the last session? What do social schisms have to do with the generation of new enterprises and entrepreneurial action?

[3] Introduction - Political Fragmentation Across the Region (I-3)

Neil DeVotta (2009), “The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Lost Quest for Separatism in Sri Lanka,” Asian Survey, Vol. 49, No. 6 (November/December 2009), pp. 1021-1051. Robert D. Kaplan, “Buddha's Savage Peace,” The Atlantic, September, 2009. Lawrence E. Cline, “Insurgency in amber: Ethnic opposition groups in Myanmar,” Small Wars & Insurgencies, 20:3-4, 2009, 574-591. Sebastian Strangio, “Hope, Anxiety, and Life in a Changing Burma,” The Atlantic, 2012. Dipak K. Gupta, “The Naxalites and the Maoist Movement in India: Birth, Demise, and Reincarnation,” Democracy and Security, 3:2, 2007, 157-188. Optional Video: Screening of Bollywood film, Lagaan (225 minutes) (This film is easily available on Netflix and in many video stores) Discussion Questions:

1. Describe the dynamics of the tension that developed in Sri Lanka after independence between Tamils and Sinhalese? How did those tensions evolve over the decades?

2. Both religious nationalists, Sri Lanka’s active Sinhalese Buddhists share similar levels of

minority-directed animosity with India’s Hindu nationalists (see Ashutosh Varney’s article from session 2). However, Devotta argues that the “main impetus for Sri Lanka’s civil war is linguistic


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nationalism, not religious differences” (Devotta 1025). How is the Sri Lankan context different from the Indian and did this distinction play a role in the duration and extreme nature of the conflict?

3. Modern Burma is incredibly diverse, with eight major ethnic groupings and somewhere between

108 and 135 languages and major dialects spoken (Cline 576). Ethnically-based conflict has been ongoing since independence in 1948. Are there ways this conflict could have been avoided?

4. What drives the Naxalite movement? How different is it from some of the other regional

tensions?

5. Think again of the connection between political fragmentation, institutional voids, and the formation of new enterprises.

6. Optional: The movie, Lagaan, is set in 1890 and gives a flavor of relationships between the British and the Indians during the time of the British Raj. It also depicts the intermediary relationship that Indian royalty had, choosing between representing the colonial rulers’ interests and those of its traditional subjects. The British idea of divide-and-rule emerges through the sub-text and, as such, the movie is a nice complement to the discussion of political fragmentation in this section as well as social fragmentation in the prior session.

[4] Introduction – The Emergence of Physical Infrastructure (I-4)

Case Study: Aldo Musacchio, Tarun Khanna and Rachna Tahilyani, “Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy?” Harvard Business School, No 9-709-035, 2009. Video: National Geographic, “The Great Indian Railway” (Part 1 of 5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoPmVEXoAEc (9:59) Khanna, Tarun. Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures—and Yours, Harvard Business School Publishing (Boston, MA), 2007. Chapter 4, Fiat and Fairness: Why China Can Build Cities Overnight and India Cannot


1. What was wrong with Indian Railways in 2004?

2. If Indian Railways were a private company and you were hired as a consultant to revamp the company in 2004, what would you recommend?

3. What are the main political constraints for change in Indian Railways?

4. How would your recommendations differ from the reform plan adopted by Minister Lalu

Prasad and the Officer in Special Duty, Sudhir Kumar?

5. Will the reforms of Minister Prasad and Sudhir Kumar be long lasting?

6. What general lessons about infrastructural development can one learn from the saga of Indian Railways?


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[5] Introduction - The Emergence of Soft Infrastructure (I-5)

Case Study: Tarun Khanna and Anjali Raina, “Aadhar and Unique ID,” Harvard Business School, No 9-712-412. Khanna, Tarun. Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures—and Yours, Harvard Business School Publishing (Boston, MA), 2007. Chapter 3 – Bias and Noise: Information Accessibility in China and India ONLINE POLL 1 (Directions for participating in class polls will be distributed at beginning of the course)

1. In what area will Aadhar/Unique ID have the biggest beneficial effect?

A Distribution of public sector goods (e.g. low price food grains) B Delivery of government services (pensions, financial, getting a driving license, etc.) C Facilitation of non-government ventures, commercial or otherwise D Generalized societal transparency E No significant benefits will be realized

2. Where will opposition, explicit or inadvertent, or other obstacles, come from in the next one to two years in the Andhra/UniqueID effort?

A Advocates of privacy laws mounting credible opposition B Government bureaucrats undercutting particular initiatives C Difficulty of maintaining internal momentum and excitement of ‘startup’ effort D Technological barriers to developing scale E No meaningful opposition or obstacles will manifest themselves Discussion Questions:

1. What could Mandan Mililani’s team have done differently in the past? What should they be thinking about (differently) for the near future (one to two years)?

2. “Soft” infrastructure (e.g. institutions) can seem somewhat abstract, even nebulous, until they are absent. What kinds of institutional voids does Andhra seek to fill?

[6] Introduction – Theorizing Human Development for South Asia (I-6)

The Human Development Index (HDI) http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/hdi/ Human Development Report 2010—20th Anniversary Edition: http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/chapters/en/ Martha Nussbaum, Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach, Belknap Press (2011). CHAPTER 3 Video: Millennium Development Goals for 2015 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3p2VLTowAA Michael J Sandal, “What isn’t for Sale?” The Atlantic Monthly, April 2012


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1. What are the fundamental differences between the Capabilities approach and traditional measures of GDP? How does this distinction relate to the point that Michael Sandal makes independently in his article on things that money can’t buy?

2. What role does choice play in the Capabilities approach? Do notions of subjectivity and cultural plurality pose any challenges for the Capabilities approach?

3. In the context of the Capabilities approach, Nussbaum insists that government “must actively support people’s capabilities, not just fail to set up obstacles” (Nussbaum 65).

◦ How does this statement inform your previous assessment of the Government of India’s efforts to launch Aadhar?

◦ What policy implications does the capabilities approach have for the option of privatization of traditional government services in the face of institutional failures, such as corruption?

4. Imagine you are a key decision maker in a small, struggling town in rural India. You are deciding

between two capital improvement projects—a small school and a small bus shelter/terminal—that are equal in cost in terms of initial outlay as well as future maintenance and operational cost. How might the capabilities approach inform the way you try to evaluate which project to fund?

Module I: Education There are major differences in primary and tertiary education achievements both within and across the countries of South Asia. Smaller countries like Sri Lanka have achieved high standards of literacy, whereas the larger countries like India show such vast regional and social disparity in educational outcomes that it is difficult to speak of an "average" level of educational development. Some of the seeds of the current inequities of education in South Asia were laid in pre-colonial times, while others were established or furthered by British administrative policies. Still other problems are the consequences of the particular developmental paths that each country has chosen since achieving independence. Given the central importance of education in developing human capital, no development path for South Asia can afford to ignore the many problems associated with education. After exploring educational issues associated with different school levels (primary, secondary, and tertiary) we will look at recent experiments in the delivery of education that technological innovation has enabled.

[7] Education Module – Historical Antecedents (1-1)

J. Prabhu, “Educational Institutions and Philosophies, Traditional and Modern,” Encyclopedia of India, ed. Stanley Wolpert. Qasim Zaman, “Religious Education and the Rhetoric of Reform: The Madrasa in British India and Pakistan,” Comparative Studies in Society and History (April 1999), 41(2):294–323.


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King, “The Development of Differentiation” (pp. 22–28); “Government Language Policy” (pp. 53–59, 75–79); and “Language, Education and Employment” (pp. 88–94, 108–118), from One Language, Two Scripts, Oxford University Press, 1994.


1. Tensions between proponents of traditional and religious knowledge and those in favor of an emphasis on practical skills and knowledge have permeated debates around education in South Asia since the early 19th century—first in the context of Madrasas after the 1830s, between Orientalists and Anglicists, and in the early years of the 20th century, between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.

Think about the varying shapes and dynamics of these debates. What are some of the key distinctions between these historical debates? Where do similarities exist? Is there a contemporary analogy?

2. Despite the modern Indian educational system’s emphasis on “economic growth and material advancement rather than the acquisition of timeless spiritual knowledge” after independence, author Joseph Prabhu asserts that the Indian schools suffer from “increasing religious polarization, especially in the form of Hindu-Muslim tensions” (Prabhu 26).

Though we are just beginning study of education in India, based on discussions during the Introductory module, can you imagine specific program initiatives or structural changes to the educational system to mitigate these tensions?

3. What role(s) has education in India contributed to ideas of social cohesion?

[8] Education Module – K-12 Education (1-2)

M. Kremer, K. Muralidharan, N. Chaudhury, J. Hammer, F. H. Rogers, “Teacher Absence in India: A Snapshot,” Journal of the European Economic Association, 3 (2-3): 658-667, 2005. K. Muralidharan and V. Sundararaman, “Teacher Performance Pay: Experimental Evidence from India,” The Journal of Political Economy, 119(1), pp. 39-77, 2011. T. Andrabi, J. Das, A. I. Khwaja, “A dime a day: The possibilities and limits of private schooling in Pakistan,” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4066, 2006. Video: “Education in Rural Bangladesh – A Visionary Journey” (10 min) LINK TO VIDEO Video: "Andhra Pradesh" (PART A) LINK TO VIDEO Video "Andhra Pradesh" (PART B) LINK TO VIDEO Discussion Questions:

1. What characteristics of the Indian education milieu make increased performance pay effective, as tested and measured by Muralidharan and Sundararaman in Andhra Pradesh, without the associated undesired outcomes often associated with the practice in other contexts? Think about their finding that “the incentive program...did not change the teachers’ cost-benefit calculations on the attendance margin during the school year but that it probably made them exert more effort when present” (p.69)


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2. What are some ideas for addressing the problem of teacher absence? Would you continue down the performance pay route? Can you suggest alternative methods that have either not been tried as yet, or that you think could have been implemented better?

[9] Education Module – Tertiary Education (1-3)

Video: Screening of Bollywood film, Three Idiots, (180 minutes) (The film will be screened two times before class. Students must attend one screening.) Hasmukh D. Sankalia, The University of Nalanda, 1934. Read especially Chapter 1: The Ideal of a University (pp. 1-4) and Chapter 7: Student Life 141-178. Kaushik Basu, “India’s faltering education system”, BBC Online, 2006. Pervez Hoodbhoy, “Pakistani Universities—Which Way Out?” pp. 251–28, from Education and the State: Fifty Years of Pakistan, ed. Pervez Hoodbhoy . Julie A. Reuben, The Making of a Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality, University of Chicago Press, 1996. (Introduction, pp. 1-15). Louis Menand – “Live and Learn: Why we have college.” The New Yorker, June 6, 2011. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/06/06/110606crat_atlarge_menand Discussion Questions: 1. Each in their own way (on a spectrum that ranges from sobriety to hilarity) the readings and the movie assigned pose important questions about the role higher education ought to play in society. These positions suggest views on, for example, curriculum content, pedagogical methods, the nature of the relationship between student and teacher and the relationships among the students themselves. a. What are some of the common themes and questions expressed in this material? How do authors differ in the answers they propose? b. Are you surprised at the changing nature of the University (and college) over time, on which several of these readings focus? Compare Nalanda for example to your current conception of a University. Remember that the author, Hasmukh Sankalia, was writing in 1934. Short Assignment (1 – 2 pages: Think about how one would create an institution of tertiary learning in a South Asian country of your choosing that addresses some of the problem areas identified in the movie. (Please note this assignment is optional, however, if thoughtfully completed may be counted towards course participation grade) Two institutions of higher learning that have emerged recently are the Asian Institute for Women in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and LUMS, Lahore University of Management Studies in Lahore, Pakistan (despite its name, a full-fledged university). There is a variety of material about each of these institutions on the web. Critique one of these efforts, based on your web research, and email it to the Teaching Fellow ahead of class. Take note of both successes and challenges each faces.

[10] Education Module – Case Study -Privatization of Education, Pratham (1-4)


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Srikant M. Datar, Stacey Childress, Rachna Tahilyani, and Anjali Raina, “Pratham—Every Child in School and Learning Well,” Harvard Business Review Case Study, 2010. ONLINE POLL 2 (Directions for participating in class polls will be distributed at beginning of the course)

Evaluate Pratham’s strategy given its limited budget. Choose one option. A. Is it doing the right things? B. Is it doing too many things? C. Too few things?

Which of Pratham’s various initiatives do you think will have the most lasting impact? Choose

one option. A. The Balwadi Movement B. Balsakhi Initiative C. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) D. The Read India Campaign

When implementing its programs, how effectively do you think Pratham manages tension

between quality and scale as it implements its programs? Choose one option. A. Very Well B. Well C. Adequately D. Poorly E. Very Poorly

Discussion Question: 1. What should Madhav Chavan and the Pratham team do next? What should be the future of

Pratham? In particular, how should Pratham interface with the state if at all?

[11] Education Module – Experiments in Technology & Education (1-5)

Bill Sahlman and Liz Kind “Khan Academy,” HBS Case No. N9-812-074, 2012 Thompson, Clive, “How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education,” Wired, July 15, 2011. http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/all/1 University 2.0 – VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkneoNrfadk&feature=youtube_gdata_player Explore Web-site Udacity: http://www.udacity.com/ Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education TED Talk (17 minutes) http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html Jessica Guynn, “Steve Jobs' virtual DNA to be fostered in Apple University,” The Los Angeles Times, October 06, 2011. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/06/business/la-fi-apple-university-20111006


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K.L. Kraemer, J. Dedrick, and P. Sharma, “One Laptop Per Child: Vision versus Reality”, Communications of the ACM (2009) 52(6): 66–73. http://pcic.merage.uci.edu/papers/2009/OneLaptop.pdf Discussion Questions: Technology is enabling a range of innovations that are transforming how education is structured at all levels of academic institutions—from elementary and secondary schools to major universities, such as Stanford, MIT, Harvard, and others across the country. Distance learning is becoming an increasingly present component of education and is utilized in a wide range of ways, from supporting roles in individual classes to broad facilitation of certificate and degree coursework. Common to these innovations is need for readily available hardware, software, and internet connectivity (as well as student facility with the technology, both hardware and software).

1. How applicable is Sal Khan’s method of learning to South Asia? What is the role of the student, the teacher, and the community-at-large in this method of learning?

2. How might Sal Khan engage with various aspects of the educational infrastructure in

South Asia (teachers, regulators, parents)? To what extent will his team’s experiences with entities like LSAD be relevant to South Asia?

3. Think also about the Udacity method, as well as about Sugata Mitra’s suggestion that

self-directed learning can occur amongst small groups of children and can be even more effective with encouragement from the “granny cloud.” What do these readings collectively suggest for the Khan Academy’s future potential in South Asia?

Module II: Health South Asia faces unique health challenges stemming from a variety of risk factors such as disease outbreaks, lack of access to immunization, child malnutrition, poor maternal health, and rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions. To complicate the situation further, inequalities in growth have recently led to the spread of so-called rich-country diseases. These problems are being addressed not just by governments, but by community organizations and the private sector. We will survey the health situation across the region first, including some of its historical antecedents, and explore public health interventions, community-based care, the use of new technologies to dramatically improve access, the social and political debates surrounding intellectual property rights and finally the function of, and controversy around, medical tourism to poor countries.

[12] Health Module - An Overview of the Dismal Health Reality (Session 2-1)

Dispatch from India Atul Gawande, M.D., M.P.H. New England Journal of Medicine, 2003; 349:2383-2386. December 18, 2003 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp038180 David Culter, Angus Deaton and Adriana Llera-Muney, “The Determinants of Mortality,” Journal of Economic Perspectives. Vol. 20, No. 3, Summer 2006. http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.20.3.97 Ronak B. Patel, M.D., M.P.H., and Thomas F. Burke, M.D. ,“Urbanization — An Emerging Humanitarian Disaster,” New England Journal of Medicine, 2009; 361:741-743


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August 20, 2009 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0810878 Mohan Rao, “Human resources for health in India,” Lancet 2011; 377, pp. 587–98. Das and Hammer, “Location, Location, Location; Residence, Wealth, And The Quality of Medical Care in Delhi India,” Health Affairs, 26, no 3 (2007). http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/26/3/w338.abstract Discussion Questions:

1. Given what you know of o the history of health improvements in the West (from Cutler et al.), o current conditions in South Asia (from Das & Hammer and from the Gawande articles), and o predictions for future transformations in material conditions around the world (from Patel et

al.),

How would you advise a South Asian government on the optimal allocation of their limited resources in order to prepare for anticipated future health challenges?

2. What concrete intervention would you implement to improve outcomes at the Nanded hospital

described by Gawande? Remember that it is a public hospital and that it is serving a resource-poor population.

[13] Health Module - Public Health Delivery through Community Intervention (2-2)

R. Amin, et al., “Socioeconomic factors differentiating maternal and child health-seeking behavior in rural Bangladesh: A cross-sectional analysis,” Journal for Equity in Health, 2010, Vol. 9, No. 22, pp. 1-12. Grameen Health Initiative, “Achieving Sustainable and Affordable Community Healthcare.” A Mushtaque R Chowdhury, “Development knowledge and experience — from Bangladesh to Afghanistan and beyond,” Bull World Health Organ, Vol. 84 no. 8, Aug. 2006. Tarun Khanna, Billions of Entrepreneurs, Boston: HBS Press, Chapter 10: Barefoot Doctors and Medical Tourists (pp. 213-236). Discussion Questions:

1. R. Amin et al. show that microcredit participation by rural women in Bangladesh was positively associated with the use of trained providers. The Grameen Health Initiative model builds on this phenomenon, integrating a micro-health insurance scheme into a health care delivery system that relies on a network of household health promoters (HHP) at the ground level. How optimistic are you in the viability of the mechanisms the Initiative envisions for ensuring the financial sustainability of this critical first tier (see p.11)? If you are optimistic, why? If not, can you imagine other business models that might supplement or supplant either of these models?

2. Take a look at community based interventions in other South Asian countries, e.g. through the Edhi foundation in Karachi, www.edhifoundation.com , and through SEWA in Gujerat, India, www.sewa.org .


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3. As of 2006 BRAC (formerly Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) had had remarkable success transferring its skills and programs from the context of rural Bangladesh to Afghanistan, including its health efforts. The Chowdhury article describes this, but please consult the BRAC website for an update into its efforts at spawning community health in Afghanistan.

What strategies and/or decisions seem to have contributed to this success?

What, if anything, would you differently as director of BRAC's Afghanistan branch?

What other services or programs would do you imagine could be useful in the context of Afghanistan?

Should BRAC contemplate an expansion into Myanmar as well, given the recent opening up of that country, or is it a bridge too far at this juncture?

[14] Health Module – Intellectual Property Rights (2-3)

Rohit Desphande, Sandra J. Sucher and Laura Winig, Cipla 2011, HBS Case No. 511-050 Prithwiraj Chowdhury and Tarun Khanna, The Anatomy of Intellectual Property Theft: The Case of Chinese and Indian Herbal Patents, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University Working Paper, August 2012. Discussion Questions:

1. What do you learn about the nature of Hamied the entrepreneur in the way he has positioned Cipla?

2. Cipla is working hard to change the way we interpret global intellectual property rights in pharmaceutical sector. Is he right to do so? Has he succeeded? Will he succeed? (Think about whether India was wise to decide in 1995, when it signed the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), to respect 20 year product patents by 2005.)

3. Will Cipla survive in the long run? Will it thrive? With or without partnership of global

pharmaceutical majors? (Think also about whether multinationals’ use of “global reference pricing” to drive its strategy regarding sales and distribution activity in developing countries, such as India, is sensible.)

4. In the Chowdhury and Khanna paper, what do you learn about the relative importance of

ex post policing and litigation, versus ex ante information disclosure, as mechanisms of enforcing intellectual property rights?

[15] Health Module – Medical Tourism in India (2-4)

Regina E. Herzlinger, "MedVal Ventures." Harvard Business School Case 308-087. Indrajit Hazarika, “Medical tourism: its potential impact on the health workforce and health systems in India,” Health Policy Plan, 2010, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 248-251. Cohen, Glenn, “Circumvention Tourism,” Cornell Review, 2012.


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Cohen, Glenn. Harvard Law School. Public Law & Legal Theory Working Paper Series. Paper No. 10-34 "Medical Tourism: The View from Ten Thousand Feet." Cohen, Glenn, "Protecting Patients with Passports: Medical Tourism and the Patient-Protective Argument," Iowa Law Review. The MedVal case study will anchor class discussion. Please read it carefully and discuss it with proximate others in class ahead of time if possible. The Hazarika article will be referenced during the case discussion, as will Glenn Cohen’s work on the legal aspects of medical tourism, e.g. summary description in “Medical Tourism: The View from Ten Thousand Feet.” Also please draw on pages 1471-1504 of Cohen’s article in the Iowa Law Review “Protecting Patients with Passports’ and on pages 1-7 of his draft article in the Cornell Law Review “Circumvention Tourism.” Discussion Questions:

1. As the founding team for the potential MedVal ventures, if you were to go ahead, on what customer segment would you focus? (Think about medical tourism from the US/UK/Canada to India, for concreteness)

2. Where are the greatest pockets of resistance likely to come from, and what can you do to circumvent these, or counter these?

3. What effect will your venture have on the destination market (India)? To what extent should this be part of your business plan, if at all?

[16] Health Module (5) – Tertiary Medicine (2-5) Tarun Khanna, Kasturi Rangan and Merlina Manocaran, “Narayana Hrudayalaya Heart Hospital: Cardiac Care for the Poor,” Harvard Business School Case Study N9-505-078. Video: “Narayana Heart Hospital” PART ONE (Pre-class viewing by students) Video: “Narayana Heart Hospital” PART TWO (In-class viewing, shown by faculty at opportune time during discussion) Video: “India's Healthcare Challenge.” Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw’s interview with Dr. Devi Shetty, 2011. (10:23) Atul Gawande Big Med, Annals of Health Care, Restaurant chains have managed to combine quality control, cost control, and innovation. Can health care? The New Yorker, August 13, 2012 Discussion Questions:

1. Would you describe Dr. Shetty’s heart hospital as successful? Explain why. 2. If successful, what were the elements that made it successful? If not yet successful, what

else should NH be doing?

3. Dr. Shetty's mission, model, and impact are remarkable. Are there limits to what he can achieve? Are there boundaries for the role of private enterprise?


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4. As Dr. Shetty continues to expand, do you think he should embrace as much as he can or leave anything to the state? Think back to previous sessions in this module as you reflect on these last questions.

ONLINE POLL 3 Choose one option for each question. 1 Should Dr. Shetty raise prices on the well-off to subsidize the poor more? A. Raise prices on rich, treat more poor patients B. Leave as status quo C. Invest in further improvements to lower prices for all 2 Which of the following should Dr. Shetty pursue first? A. Expansion into other tertiary health areas in the Bangalore facility B. Creation of lower cost health tertiary health formats than even the existing hospital C. Expansion of the proven heart care model around the world

[17] Health Module( 6) – Technological Innovations in Addressing Public Health Needs, a guest lecture by Conor Walsh, Ph.D. (2-6)

Conor Walsh, Ph.D directs the Harvard Biodesign Lab which is focused on the design and evaluation of smart medical devices to improve the minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment of disease through collaboration with practicing clinicians.

Among his current research projects is the development of compact robots that operate inside medical imaging machines to enable the highly accurate placement of biopsy needles and thermal ablation probes. With their enhanced precision, these tools could help diagnose early-stage cancer by targeting much smaller tumors at an earlier stage. He is also working with collaborators to develop wearable robotic devices that are soft and pliable, unlike traditional exoskeletons that use rigid components.

Recently, in collaboration with the Harvard South Asian Initiative, he started a new program whose purpose is to interact with local stakeholders (physicians and hospital administrators) in India with the goal of identifying opportunities for innovation (by finding unmet medical needs) that can lead to new affordable medical technologies. Four Harvard students are visiting the Narayana Hrudayalaya hospitals in Bangalore for 10 weeks this summer where the students will interview patients, shadow physicians and spend time observing surgical procedures to identify clinical needs. At the end of the summer, the team will share their findings and will seek to build a long-term relationship whereby Harvard students continue to work on their project when they return.

Module III: Financial Inclusion South Asia has long been deeply enmeshed in regional and international trading networks, and South Asian mercantile communities have established themselves over many generations worldwide. This entrepreneurial spirit can only function, however, given the existence of a stable, accessible financial system that can extend credit to the deserving, and appropriately distribute risks and returns. The exclusion of vast numbers of South Asians from the financial system has had serious knock-down effects on virtually every aspect of economic life. Measures to improve financial inclusion are thus critical for development in the region. Complicating this issue are the interconnections among finance, business, and politics in South Asia. We will explore the opportunities and the barriers to financial inclusion writ large.


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Since mobile telephony has played a major role in mitigating the informational barriers that the disenfranchised face, we’ll explore the promise of such technology.

[18] Financial Module - Antecedents of Financial Networks (3-1)

Movie Screening: Guru (2007) (The film will be screened two times before class. Students must attend one screening.) Claude Markovits, “South Asian Merchant Networks”, The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750–1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama, Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society, Cambridge University Press, 2000. pp. 10–31. Sugata Bose, “Flows of Capitalists, Laborers, and Commodities”, A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire, Harvard University Press, 2009. pp. 72–121. Dwijendra Tripathi, “The Beginnings of Modern Business Instrumentalities” (pp. 139–147) and “Technology Choices in Colonial India” (pp. 247–258), The Oxford History of Indian Business, Oxford University.


1. In “South Asian Merchant Networks” Markovits discusses the various ways Indian mercantile groups thrived commercially under British rule— either because of the latter, or despite it. How did these different approaches work?

2. Indian entrepreneurs were successful in building cotton textile mills and launching the region's first phase of industrialization in the mid-19th century. In Tripathi's assessment, what mix of factors account for the lack of technical innovation in the textile industry by Indian mill owners, and later by Indian industrialists?

3. To get his start, Guru the protagonist in the assigned movie relies on a network with ties to his village to secure a job selling petrol cans in Turkey. How else do networks feature as the story unfolds?

4. Think about the roles control and corruption play in Guru’s story and his changing relationship to both. Could Guru have “played fair” and grown Shakti to its impressive size? To what extent is corruption, writ large, an inevitable feature of commercial life in South Asia? Think back to the corruption discussion in the opening session of the course.

[19] Financial Module - Modern Mainstream Financial Institutions (3-2)

“Broadening Access to Finance” and “Leveling the Playing Field,” A Hundred Small Steps: Report of the Committee on Financial Sector Reforms, Planning Commission, Government of India 2009. pp. 49–102. http://planningcommission.gov.in/reports/genrep/rep_fr/ch3_fr.pdf http://planningcommission.gov.in/reports/genrep/rep_fr/ch4_fr.pdf Banks Video: An interview with former Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Usha Thorat, on, among other things, financial inclusion and microfinance, November 2010 (24 min) http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfky9p_exclusive-interview-with-usha-thorat_news Shawn Cole et al, “Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India,” September 2011.


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A.I. Khwaja and A. Mian, “Do Lenders Favor Politically Connected Firms? Rent Provision in an Emerging Market,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 120(4): 1372–1411. Tarun Khanna, “Manna and Miasma: Meanderings Through the Chinese and Indian Financial Firmaments,” Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures—and Yours, Harvard Business School Publishing (Boston, MA), 2007. pp. 91–118. Discussion Questions:

1. Many countries struggle with the proper role of government in conducting or promoting manufacturing and service sectors. Is there something special about finance, or should it be thought of like any other service or industry?

2. In what ways might innovation (technological or financial) be important in overcoming some

problems highlighted by the readings? Does financial engineering represented by rainfall insurance seem to be a useful way to facilitate inclusive finance, or does technology hold more promise?

3. Currently government-owned banks account for approximately 75% of credit lent in India.

Should the government privatize these banks? If so, how? If not, why not? Are there any positive or negative lessons to be absorbed from the Chinese financial services industry?

[20] Financial Module - Microfinance (3-3)

“Microfinance in India: A Crisis at the Bottom of the Pyramid – After,” Legatum Ventures, May 2011. (Focus on pages 1 -3 for an overview of the 2010 Andhra Pradesh Act and a summary of microfinance in India). “Indian Microfinance: Looking Beyond the AP Act and its Devastating Impact on the Poor,” Legatum Ventures, March 2012.

(There is [1] a brief overview as well as [2] a full length report and [3] a large format infographic. Together this material provides an analysis of the AP Act's impact on the microfinance industry in Andhra Pradesh, and beyond, 18 months after the AP government passed the bill.)

Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/yunus-lecture-en.html “Is it fair to do business with the poor?” [A transcript of the debate between Muhammad Yunus and Michael Chu organized by the World Microfinance Forum Geneva, 1–2 October 2008.] http://www.othercanon.org/uploads/Is%20it%20Fair%20to%20do%20business%20with%20the%20Poor.pdf Beatriz Armandariz and Jonathan Morduch, The Economics of Microfinance, MIT Press. Chapter 4, Group Lending. pp. 85-199 (Focus on the non-technical parts of the description). Discussion Questions:

1. How does group lending work? What are the underlying ambient economic, social and political conditions that you think are most conductive to the model working?


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2. How do you think urban and rural microfinance should differ, if at all?

ONLINE POLL 4 (Directions for participating in class polls will be distributed at beginning of the course)

1. Do you feel that most of the efforts of the microfinance industry should be focused on the not-for-profit variety or on the commercial variety? Use a scale to respond, from A through E, with A indicating the bulk of microfinance should be not-for-profit, C indicating an equal split between for-profit and not-for-profit is best for the system, and E indicating that the bulk should be on commercial microfinance.

2. Consider the microfinance crisis in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh that still hasn’t been

resolved. To which group’s actions do you attribute most of the reasons for the current problems? Pick one:

A. Microfinance companies B. State organized self-help lending groups C. Financial regulators, Other civil society actors (e.g. press) D. Borrowers E. Other (please specify)

3. On which group would you focus your primary efforts to find a way out of the crisis for the poor

of Andhra Pradesh. Pick one:

A. Microfinance companies B. State organized self-help lending groups C. Financial regulators D. Other civil society actors (e.g. press) E. Borrowers F. Other (please specify)

[21] Financial Module - Technology and Finance (3-4)

Herman Leonard and Qahir Dhanani, “Roshan: Light at the end of the tunnel in Afghanistan,” Harvard Business School Case Study 9-310-041, July 2010. Video of CEO of Roshan speaking at MIT: http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/3560-legatum-lectures-karim-khoja-ceo-roshan-afghanistan Robert Jensen, “The Digital Provide: Information (Technology), Market Performance, and Welfare in the South Indian Fisheries Sector,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 2007. “Special Report: Retail renaissance—The internet and mobile phones are at long last turning boring old retail banking into an exciting industry,” The Economist, May 19, 2012.


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bKash is a mobile banking provider launched in Bangladesh partnership with BRAC just over a year ago. Explore the website: http://www.bkash.com/ Read about the bKash service launch: http://www.prweb.com/releases/BRAC/mobile-banking/prweb8660908.htm Discussion Questions:

1. Think back to the concept of institutional voids as discussed throughout the introductory module. How well is private enterprise, through its embrace of mobile technology as a service delivery system, succeeding at filling these voids?

2. How successful has Roshan been at filling institutional voids in Afghanistan? What were some of the key barriers that this entrepreneurial effort faced that you think are generally applicable in South Asia?

3. What do you think some of the barriers or challenges have been to launching bKash? How

would you get people to utilize the system?

4. What other mobile-based applications can you imagine finding success in South Asia (especially those related to finance)? Are their limits to the mobile service delivery model? Think about the uses suggested by the South Indian fisheries example in Jensen’s article, and the various approaches profiled in the survey by The Economist.

Conclusion In spite of the tremendous economic growth that South Asia has witnessed, long-standing social and cultural problems continue to plague the region. As Pavan Varma notes, “Illiteracy rates are high. Communal violence is widespread; corruption endemic. Brides are still tortured and burnt for dowry; the caste system has lost little of its power and none of its brutality.” And yet, the same resilience of cultural and religious tradition has allowed many South Asians to adopt modernity, often with unbridled enthusiasm, without suffering from sociocultural rupture to the same extent that other societies have endured elsewhere. We conclude this course by exploring these “big” questions from different perspectives.

[22] Conclusion - Community, Culture and Commerce in Modern South Asia

Tarun Khanna, Dennis Yao and Hilary Green, Jaipur Literature Festival, HBS Case N9 9-712-401 Video: “Jaipur Literature Film Festival” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7UaUZisXv8 Amartya Sen, “India: Large and Small,” The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture, and Identity, New York: Macmillan, 2006, pp. 45-72. Ramachandra Guha, “Epilogue: Why India Survives,” India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy, HarperCollins Publishers (New York, NY), 2007. pp. 733–759. Discussion Questions:


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1. How did JLF come to be dubbed “the greatest literary show on earth”? What

were the key decisions in its less-than-a-decade history?

2. Think about why there is such a deep emphasis on the democratic ethos at JLF? Commitment to the democratic principle has been partly responsible for a huge influx of festival attendees, which has created challenges, security, logistical and financial. To ensure sustainability in the future, would you

a. Move away from the democratic principle (e.g. start charging money in different

ways) b. Slow down the growth while JLF found its financial footing but remain

democratic c. Other _________________

3. Pick either the Sen or the Guha reading on India. What would each of these

authors advise the JLF? How would you adapt the festival template to work in Pakistan?


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V. SECTION ASSIGNMENTS AND DISCUSSION TOPICS Section 1: Week 3 Social Institutions and Social Entrepreneurship.

o What is the significance of social institutions such as caste and tribal affiliation in present-day South Asia?

o Does the existence of caste act as barrier for social entrepreneurship or can it be harnessed to bring about positive change?

Please bring to section examples from current news or history to shed light on these questions. Each student will introduce himself or herself to the group by making a two-minute presentation. Section 2: Week 4 Institutional Realities in South Asia In this session we will review the various themes raised during the Introductory Module. Please submit two to three questions to the Teaching Fellow (by email) on concepts or topic areas where you have questions or concerns. These will help guide the section discussion. Section 3: Week 5 Education and Teachers in South Asia. What are the fundamental problems that impact delivery of education in South Asia? If you were the head of the Department of Higher Education in India or of the Ministry of Education in Pakistan, how would you fix the education system? Please come to class with an awareness of a specific set of problems that exist and proposals to fix them. Section 4: Week 6 Nationalist Narratives Please read Sanjay Joshi's article, "Contesting histories and nationalist geographies: a comparison of school textbooks in India and Pakistan," which can be downloaded here: http://tinyurl.com/historytexts Our discussion will center around these questions:

o Comparing the history textbooks used in India and Pakistan, what are the differences in interpretation?

o Who are the different actors who have influenced the content of historical texts that are taught in schools?

o Pick one major historical event and discuss how Indian and Pakistani texts might describe it differently.

o How do nationalist ideologies inform the narration of events in both India and Pakistan? Please bring to class information from contemporary news stories to shed light on some of these questions.


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Section 5: Week 7 W(h)ither the Classics? Assigned reading: Sheldon Pollock, “Crisis in the Classics,” Social Research, vol. 78, No. 1, Spring 2011: http://www.academicroom.com/article/crisis-classics Assigned Video: http://www.academicroom.com/video/crisis-classics (first 20 minutes) What are the consequences of neglecting the study of classics and classical languages, whether Sanskrit or other regional ones? Is this neglect due to globalization? Is it more pronounced in counties that were colonized? For your assignment, please research what, if anything, China and other non-South Asian countries are doing to promote the study of classical languages and the humanities. Can South Asian nations learn any lessons from them? Is this discussion even relevant to "development" and the objectives of this course? If so, how? Section 6: Week 8 [NO LECTURES THIS WEEK] Mobilize! is the invention of four students from the Fall 2011, developed in response to the problem of lack of public libraries in poor, rural areas of India. The team’s Operational Mission is to “increase access and equalize educational opportunities for free education by creating a digital, mobile library system in India, implementing services throughout rural India to support education and technology training.” The team was awarded funds to conduct research and a pilot project in Gujurat during the summer of 2012. They will present the results of this research in this section, including successes, failures, challenges, lessons learned. **(The session may be rescheduled for the evening—and feature pizza— to allow for all graduate students to attend. The students’ experience will be of great value to teams just beginning to develop concepts for a project.) Section 7: Week 9 Public Health and Healthcare This section will focus on public health and health care issues in South Asia. Each student will make a short presentation on critical issues that may not have been discussed in lecture. As usual, please bring to class current news articles and use them as a basis for your presentation. Section 8: Week 10 Big Pharma and IPR We took a close look at Cipla and pharmaceuticals in lecture. This week in section, we will thresh out some of the philosophical issues underpinning this debate. Each student will be required to argue either for or against the motion that intellectual property rights can be trumped by a right to universal healthcare. As always please bring other examples of similar situations (especially if they pertain to pharma in South Asia). Is there a way out of this quandary? Section 9: Week 11 Medical Tourism This section will focus on some of the difficult ethical and moral aspects and implications of medical tourism, especially in those interactions between the developed world and the poorest of the developing world. Please bring two related news articles to class to form the basis for discussion. Section 10: Week 12 Modern Migrations and Financial Networks


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Having examined historical examples of South Asian labor and financial flows in lecture, we shall take a look in section at two more recent cases of labor migrations: the great South Asian migration to the (Arabian) Gulf and the even more recent IT-related migration to the United States. Please be ready to illustrate some of the differences and the similarities between these migrations and historical migrations. How did these migrations build upon older networks of labor and/or finance? What effects might they have on the future? Section 11: Week 13 Microfinance, Microinsurance, and all that After the phenomenal success of Muhammad Yunus, a whole slew of “microservices” have cropped up all over the world. Please bring one example of a company that offers some such microservice (ideally in South Asia), and present its operations critically. On what factors do such microservices depend? How do they scale? Section 12: Week 14 Since we may or may not be able to hold official section this week due to Reading Period, there are no assignments for this section. However, representatives of each project team should come prepared to share their progress with the class. The idea is to use the section time to give you feedback on your projects. Please feel free to invite your graduate cohorts to the section. This will be the last section for the semester.


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APPENDIX Appendix A. ILAB as Facilitator & Resource The iLab will serve as valuable resource to the class throughout the semester. iLab staff will host a series of short programs (outside of lecture) to introduce students to the basics of writing a business plan, assist in team formation, and facilitate project mentoring. For teams that are interested, the iLab can provide space for teams to work on their projects. Finally, for teams that submit business plans to the Omidyar grant competition and are selected, the iLab will provide long term space for them to continue work on their projects if they wish. Session 1: Introduction to Business Plan At the end of the second week/beginning of third week, iLab staff will deliver a short seminar on the fundamental concepts of a business plan, review its essential components, and be available to answer questions. Some form of take home material will also be available for guidance and reference throughout the semester. In addition to getting a primer on writing a business plan, this will be a good opportunity to mix with other students and get familiar with all of the resources available through the iLab. Session 2: Project Team “Speed Dating” Graduate students must self-assemble into project teams. These teams must include a mix of students from different Harvard faculties. (For example, a team of lawyers will not do, but mixing them with doctors or public health or public policy students will.) The iLab will host a session in the 3rd or 4th week to help facilitate this process. Prior to the event, the Teaching Fellows will publish a list of students' self-declared interest areas, so that individuals are somewhat informed before the event. This event will allow students to meet informally, explore shared interests, and assemble teams of an appropriate discipline mix. (These teams must be approved well-before the mid-point of the class.) Additionally, teams, once assembled, must make an effort to include undergraduates who would like to participate as full-fledged team members in lieu of their (undergraduate) final report. Session 3: Project Mid-review The iLab will host a review and mentoring session after midterms where teams can present their work thus far to practitioners and entrepreneurs in the field (Boston area consulting partners or possibly others from abroad) who can offer comments and advice on a range of issues. This session was very useful to teams last year. Project Team Work Space The iLab will be able to offer project space to teams if requested. It offers shared workspace (meaning student teams are seated at table that they share with other teams), meeting rooms, and access to Experts in Residence. The iLab is open from 9am-1am Sunday to Thursday, and 9am to 2am Friday and Saturday.


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Appendix B1. Student Projects, Fall 2011 Winner of Omidyar Grant from the Course MOBILIZE! (FAS, GSAS) Problem: Lack of public libraries in poor rural areas of India. Operational Mission: to increase access and equalize educational opportunities for free education by creating a digital, mobile library system in India, implementing services throughout rural India to support education and technology training. Winner of Omidyar Grant from outside the Course Global Innovation for Translation

The South Asia Initiative’s “Global Innovation for Translation” is a recently launched program that supports students from across Harvard faculties to engage in cross-disciplinary collaboration. The focus of this inaugural effort is on innovation in the area of medical technologies relevant to the region. This summer Conor Walsh, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), is leading a group of four masters and doctoral students from Harvard’s Kennedy School, Business School, and SEAS on a 10 week research trip to Bangalore India where the team is identifying unmet clinical needs in a range of settings in the city’s health care delivery system. On return the team will:

o filter needs in collaboration with Harvard faculty,

o create opportunity statements for a subset of the needs identified, and

o partner with Harvard faculty and students to develop solutions, prototypes, and patents.

Other Student Projects from Fall 2011 South Asia Education Finance (MIT, HBS, FAS, HGSE) Problem: proliferation of professional education institutions which are not financially supported by the government. More than 50% of higher-ed in India is imparted through mostly unaided private institutions. Operational Mission: to create a specialized service provider to both public and private sector lenders in the education loan market. In the long term it the aim is to increase the availability of credit in the Indian student loan market. RSBY in Bihar (FAS, HSPH) Problem: No clearly defined way to manage, track and monitor the delivery of vaccinations. Low rates of immunization delivery for children in high poverty areas. Operational Mission: to improve rates of immunization in the under-5 population among unorganized sector and below poverty line households in Bihar. Using the RSBY card based system to improve accountability and measurability of immunizations in Bihar Tertiary and Vocational Education Information (HBS, FAS) Problem: India’s youth has very limited information about education and vocational opportunities; no structured guidance. Operational Mission: is to provide an accessible platform where India’s youth can retrieve information to make the best choices about their educational future; allowing them to make an informed decision based on factors such as interest, eligibility, financial aid and career prospects.


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Bridging the Leadership Deficit in India (FAS, HBS, HKS) Problem: the lack of trained, truly democratic political leadership in India. Operational Mission: to provide youth with novel opportunities for leadership development. Exposing children in the 10-13 age group to leadership training; thereby creating a new generation of trained and dedicated civic-minded citizens and public servants. Ragpickers’ Association (HBS, HKS, FAS) Problem: The growing waste problem in India caused by a lack of reliable waste management, structured recycling systems. Operational Mission: seeking to increase the amount of waste that is recycled in Indian and improve the livelihoods of the ragpickers who dispose and recycle much of that waste. Organizing ragpickers into cooperative recycling business allowing them negotiation power and ability to pool and invest profits. Access to Essential Medicines (HSPH, FAS) Problem: Access to essential, quality and affordable medicines in the developing world. Operational Mission: Encouraging the development of the pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh (where IP restrictions are far less severe) and creating a technology and trade partnership with India to offer low cost generic versions of essential medicines. Teacher Training Project (FAS, HKS, HGSE) Problem: the lack of training opportunities available for teachers in India coupled with increasing number of students attending school. Operational Mission: To catalyze the next generation of critical thinkers in India through professional development. Providing pre-service and in-service training to teachers modeled on student-centered teaching methods. Results-based Financing (HKS, FAS) Problem: the poor state of government funded health care clinics in rural India. A highly fragmented distribution network, poor supply chain management, limited hours of operation, employee absenteeism. Operational Mission: implementing several small projects through results-based financing (money, supplies, pay for performance schemes) aimed at a mixture of specific programs that will increase health care delivery. Farming Cooperatives (FAS, HKS, HBS) Problem: Farmers facing increased financial stress and mental anxiety. High suicide rates among poor famers. Operational Mission: providing access to affordable, organic seeds and helping organize collectives of farmers to share and manage the burden and risks of farming. Creating networks and collectives to increase buying power and manage financial risk. SaafSaas (FAS, HSPH) Problem: Air pollution posing grave health risks in India. Lack of awareness/understanding. Operational Mission: Increasing education and awareness of health risks associated with polluted air - create a website which educates people and to provide affordable air filter products. Appendix B2: Examples of organizations launched in recent years, initiated by students in the Cambridge Area. 1) PRS Legislative Research (http://www.prsindia.org) PRS Legislative Research was established by a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School (then Harvard KSG) in India in 2005 aiming to “deepen and broaden the legislative debate by providing non-partisan analysis to all Members of Parliament across Party lines.” Incubated by the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based autonomous policy think-tank, PRS runs a number of programs designed to fulfill its core mission of making India’s legislative process “better informed, more transparent and participatory.” Some of these include:


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o Legislative brief: These 4–6 pages long briefs analyze upcoming legislation and are distributed among Members of Parliament, the media, and NGOs

o State Laws Project: “a searchable electronic database of all state laws at www.lawsofindia.org” o LAMP Programme: “training young graduates to work as legislative assistants to MPs” o Press support: regularly updating the media on the status of legislation

The overall goal is to connect three groups of people—the Members of Parliament who craft and vote on legislation, domain-specific experts in various fields, and stakeholders in the issues being legislated (from NGOs to the public at large)—in a non-partisan way that creates more meaningful legislative debate. 2) Aspiring Minds (http://aspiringminds.in) Aspiring Minds was dreamt up by a graduate of MIT (and his brother at IIT, New Delhi) in conjunction with professors at Harvard and MIT to bridge the ‘divide’ between the under-employed in India and several organizations professing to be starved of talent. The goal of Aspiring Minds is to offer “credible and genuine assessment to various aspects of education, training and employment.” Given the vast size of India’s job-seeking population and the scale at which Indian companies must identify candidates for recruitment, Aspiring Minds uses modern assessment methods tailored to the Indian cultural and social context to identify the appropriate candidates. These include:

o a nation-wide computer adaptive test taken by thousands which can then be used by companies to identify job candidates,

o specialized testing modules for English skills, logical and quantitative skills, computer literacy, knowledge of financial services, and the like,

o establishment of corporate talent benchmarks, in order to re-use them for large-scale recruitment, and

o performance assessment of employees to identify skill gaps, to offer input for employee training and for promotions.

Appendix C. Supplemental Readings (By Session)

[1] Introduction – (1) Institutional Underpinnings of South Asia, Corruption & Institutional Failure in India (I-1)

Arundhati Roy, “I’d Rather Not be Anna,” http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2379704.ece Madhu Purnima Kishwar, “Lokpal Bill - Need to Look Beyond Magic Wands Exaggerated Expectations Might Boomerang,” http://www.manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1530 Amelia Gentleman, “Thin ray of light shines on dark ocean of graft,” The International Herald Tribune. January 18, 2008. Amitabha Pande, “Counterpoint: Jan Lokpal: A Quack’s Prescription,” http://www.manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1527

[2] Introduction – Social Cohesion Across the Region (I-2)

Ashutosh Varney, “Are the states too strong,” Indian Express, May 24, 2012.


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http://www.indianexpress.com/news/are-the-states-too-strong/953004/0

[3] Introduction - Political Fragmentation Across the Region (I-3)

Thomas H. Johnson and M.Chris Mason, “No Sign until the Burst of Fire: Understanding the Pakistan-Afghanistan Frontier,” International Security, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Spring 2008), pp. 41–77 Mohan Malik, “India-China Competition Revealed in Ongoing Border Disputes,” Power and Interest News Report, October 9, 2007.

[4] Introduction – Emergence of Physical Infrastructure (I-4)

William Andrew, “Preface” in Extracts from Indian Railways as Connected with the British Empire in the East, London: W.H. Allen, 1884 Bayly, “State and Economy in India over Seven Hundred Years,” The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Nov., 1985), pp. 583-596. Gregory Clark and Susan Wolcott, “One Polity, Many Countries: Economic Growth in India, 1873-2000”, in In Search of Prosperity: Analytical Narratives of Growth, ed. D. Rodrik, 2007.

W. Easterly, “The Political Economy of Growth Without Development: A Case Study of Pakistan”, in In Search of Prosperity: Analytical Narratives of Growth, edited by Dani Rodrik, Princeton University Press 2007. Brazil's Largest Rubbish dump closes in Rio di Janiero BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18318714

[5] Introduction – Emergence of Soft Infrastructure (I-5)

Vishanth Weerakkody, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Asoka Kurunananda, “Implementing E-Government in Sri Lanka: Lessons from the UK,” Information Technology for Development, Vol. 15 (3) 171–192 (2009). Mahbubul Alam, “E-Governance: Scope and Implementation Challenges in Bangladesh,” ICEGOV 2007, December 10-13, 2007, Macao.

[6] Introduction – Theorizing Human Development for South Asia (I-6)

Jason Burke, “More of the world’s poor live in India than in all sub-Saharan Africa, says study: New UN index replaces simpler method of calculation,” The Guardian, July 14, 2010.

Jacques Véron, The Demography of South Asia from the 1950s to the 2000s: A Summary of Changes and a Statistical Assessment, Population (English Edition, 2002), Vol. 63, No. 1 (Jan. – Mar., 2008), pp. 9-89.

Module I: Education


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[7] Education Module – Historical Antecedents (1-1)

George Yeo, "Nalanda and the Asian Renaissance," New Perspectives Quarterly, Spring 2011, Vol. 28 Issue 2, p73-76, 4p

[8] Education Module – K-12 Education (1-2)

Naomi Hossain and Naila Kabeer, “Achieving Universal Primary Education and Eliminating Gender Disparity,” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 36 (Sep. 4-10, 2004), pp. 4093-4095+4097-4100. Gretchen Rhines Cheney, Betsy Brown Ruzzi, and Karthik Muralidharan, “A Profile of the Indian Education System,” National Center on Education and the Economy, 2006. Jacob Bregman and Nadeem Mohammad, “Primary and Secondary Education—Structural Issues” (pp. 68–101), Education and the State: Fifty Years of Pakistan, ed. Pervez Hoodbhoy

Amy Yee, “In India, a Small Pill, With Positive Side Effects,” The New York Times, April 4, 2012.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/in-india-a-small-pill-with-positive-side-effects/

* Sugata Mitra, Ritu Dangwal, and Leher Thadani, “Effects of remoteness on the quality of education: A case study from North Indian schools,” Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2008, 24(2), 168-180.

J. Das, P. Pandey, T. Zajonc, “Learning Levels and Gaps in Pakistan,” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4067, November 2006.

[9] Education Module – Tertiary Education (1-3)

“Note on School Education” (pp. 46–58) and “Note on Higher Education” (pp. 66–77), Report to the Nation 2006–2009, National Knowledge Commission, Government of India.

[10] Education Module – Case Study -Privatization of Education, Pratham (1-4)

Abhijit Banerjee, Shawn Cole, Esther Duflo and Leigh Linden, “Remedying Education: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments in India,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 122(3): 1235-1264.

[11] Education Module – Experiments in Technology & Education (1-5)

John Unsworth, “University 2.0” John Markoff, “Virtual and artificial, but 58,000 want course,” New York Times, August 15, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/science/16stanford.html

Sugata Mitra, Ritu Dangwal, Shiffon Chatterjee, Swati Jha, Ravinder S. Bisht and Preeti Kapur, “Acquisition of computing literacy on shared public computers: Children and the 'hole in the wall,'” Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2005, 21(3), 407-426.


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Module II: Health

[12] Health Module - Public Health Concerns (Session 2-1)

Video: “Global Health Challenges in Bangladesh—Urban Slums.” Global Health Bridge, 2011. (5:22) Video: “Improving Health Services in Rural Sri Lanka. World Bank, 2009. (2:36) Atul Gawande, “Medical Dispatch: The Mop-Up,” The New Yorker, January 12, 2004. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/01/12/040112fa_fact_gawande Y. Balarajan, S. Selvaraj and S. V. Subramanian, “Health care and equity in India,” Lancet 2011: 377, pp. 505–15. Rao et al, "Human resources for health in India," The Lancet, Vol. 377, February 12, 2011.

[13] Health Module - Public Health Delivery through Community Intervention (2-2)

Naomi Hossain and Anasuya Sengupta, “Thinking Big, Going Global: The Challenge of BRAC's Global Expansion,” Institute of Development Studies Working Paper, Volume 2009, Number 339. http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/Wp339.pdf Duncan Green, “Is BRAC the first International NGO from the South?” From Poverty to Power (Oxfam Blog), March 5th, 2010. http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=2047

Tina Rosenberg, “The Microinsurance Revolution,” The New York Times, June 6, 2012. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/the-microinsurance-revolution/

[15] Health Module – Pharmaceuticals and Intellectual Property Rights (2-4)

Swathi Padmanabhan, “Intellectual property, technology transfer and manufacture of low-cost HPV vaccines in India,” Nature Biotechnology, Vol. 28, No. 7, July 2010.

Module III: Financial Inclusion

[18] Financial Module - Antecedents of Financial Networks (3-1)

Tansen Sen, Buddhims, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600-1400. 2003, Association for Asian Studies and University of Hawai'i Press. Introduction: China's Encounter and Predicament with the Indic World.

[19] Financial Module - Modern Mainstream Financial Institutions (3-2)

A.I. Khwaja and A. Mian, “Unchecked intermediaries: Price manipulation in an emerging stock market,” Journal of Financial Economics (2005) 78(1): 203–241.

[20] Financial Module - Microfinance (3-3)


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Beatriz Armendariz and Jonathan Morduch, “Rethinking Banking,” The Economics of Microfinance, 2nd ed., MIT Press, 2007. pp. 1–24.

“Help Microfinance, Don’t Kill It”, A.V. Banerjee, P. Bardhan, E. Duflo, E. Field, D. Karlan, A.I. Khwaja, D. Mookherjee, R. Pande, and R. Rajan. Indian Express, November 26, 2010. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/help-microfinance-dont-kill-it/716105/0

[21] Financial Module - Technology and Finance (3-4)

“Shining a light: Think your customers are difficult? Karim Khoja must cope with the Taliban,” The Economist, March 8, 2007. http://www.economist.com/node/8810997?story_id=8810997 Wanjohi Kabukuru, “Mobile banking: Kenya leading a new revolution,” New African, April, 2010, 76-77. W. Jack, T. Suri, and R. Townsend, “Monetary Theory and Electronic Money: Reflections on the Kenyan Experience,” Economic Quarterly, Vol.96, No.1, 83-122. Roger G. Noll and Scott J. Wallsten, “An Assessment of Indian Telecommunications Reform,” Stanford Center for International Development, Working Paper No. 435, March 2011.

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