Interesting case-study on the coffee giant. It discusses how Howard Schultz brought back Starbucks from a plain coffee shop to a coffee shop with the Starbucks experience. The giant had lost some mojo in the middle and was just trying to please Wall Street at the cost of losing out its original self.
How it was brought back is what this piece discusses..
The positive side is all we know. It will create this unique identity for Indians across and enable financial inclusion etc etc.
Gopal Krishna in MoneyLife gives one the other side (dark one) of Aadhaar card network. He points how in US/UK the new Govt actually scrapped their biometric identification schemes. Before elections, the current Indian govt promised to scrap it too but has gone back on its promises making Aadhaar as the base for its manifold programs.
So what is the story here? The author says biometric card is like a modern say enslavment where govt gets to intrude in one’s life. Moreover, there are lots of conspiracy theory over this biometric info being shared for international (read US) security purposes and India being party to it.
The issue is not whether we should have ID cards. The real problem is whether Aadhaar should be a biometric ID card?
Again, we just don’t know or even reflect on the other side of any public policy project. I mean even if all this is just myth, one should be aware of it.
Joe Procopio and Nick Galifianakis of IMF have this interesting cartoon strip on the topic.
They should have also shown the colossal mistakes the institution has made in its history..
A superb article in IMF’s F&D Sep-14 edition by Simon Wilson.
He points how Beatles helped UK tide off its forex crisis for some years in 1960s. Via its concerts it got foreign exchange to UK. It also became a case for live music being exported and recognised as a BOP earning perhaps for the first time:
https://www.intelligenteconomist.com/economics-blogs/
Mostly Economics 