In 2006 the then IT minister of Odisha was in US. He was supposed to attend an IT Tech investors meeting within next few days. My friend was driving him from Baltimore to New Jersey.
During their tete a tete, the IT Minister asked - "What is Microsoft ?". In my friends own words his mind went blank, how to answer him. That's the kind of prople who run ministries back home.
But I see some positive streak here. Ignorance is Bliss. As no news is good news, no knowledge is good knowledge. Little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, no knowledge can be dismissed. Yet as we say in Odia - MANKADA HATARE SALA GRAMA, literally meaning "Lord's statue in the hands of monkey", or giving a pivotal role to the ignoramus may backfire big time.
I have seen Sobha De and Suhel Seth on panels discussing about Union Budget and macro economics. No question the lady and the gentleman are connoisures in their respective areas, but they shouldn't be expected to be experts on fields beyond their realms of expertise.
Once during a Cricket World cup the Tennis player Sania Mirza was sitting with Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee discussing details of swing bowling. Sania is an outstanding Tennis player who has earned rare sports laurels for her nation, but I was never aware of her delivering in/outswings or swinging yorkers. (There is no dearth of quality women cricketers of caliber in our country who could have been invited to the panel instead).
We have our economists Amartya Sen and Raghuram Rajan, a former Nobel Prize winner and later an aspiring one in the field of economics. Both are great intellectuals in their own rights and own fields. But rather sticking to their job and ademics, they utter utterly unwarranted political statements, creating avoidable controveries.
As we win very few Nobel Prize, probably at the rate of once in a decade, we put them on a pedestal and expect them to be a SUBZANTAWALLA (Mr. Know All) on every subject on earth. Being a Nobel Prize winner doesn't make one expert on everything, from igneous rocks to rocket science.
Raba Ramdev is a great teacher of Yoga which contributes to good health and spirit. But he goes overboard and claims of curing cancer and homosexuality through Yoga, which is at best fallacious as there there is no scientific evidence to back his claim. Next what ? Baba Ramdev addressing ISRO scientists on a symposium on rocket science ?
Bottom line - a system where generalists rule the roost and specialists are pushed to backburner can never prosper. Period. All humans are equal - they all fart and sneeze. It's the proper harnessing of human resource which makes the difference.
During their tete a tete, the IT Minister asked - "What is Microsoft ?". In my friends own words his mind went blank, how to answer him. That's the kind of prople who run ministries back home.
But I see some positive streak here. Ignorance is Bliss. As no news is good news, no knowledge is good knowledge. Little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, no knowledge can be dismissed. Yet as we say in Odia - MANKADA HATARE SALA GRAMA, literally meaning "Lord's statue in the hands of monkey", or giving a pivotal role to the ignoramus may backfire big time.
I have seen Sobha De and Suhel Seth on panels discussing about Union Budget and macro economics. No question the lady and the gentleman are connoisures in their respective areas, but they shouldn't be expected to be experts on fields beyond their realms of expertise.
Once during a Cricket World cup the Tennis player Sania Mirza was sitting with Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee discussing details of swing bowling. Sania is an outstanding Tennis player who has earned rare sports laurels for her nation, but I was never aware of her delivering in/outswings or swinging yorkers. (There is no dearth of quality women cricketers of caliber in our country who could have been invited to the panel instead).
We have our economists Amartya Sen and Raghuram Rajan, a former Nobel Prize winner and later an aspiring one in the field of economics. Both are great intellectuals in their own rights and own fields. But rather sticking to their job and ademics, they utter utterly unwarranted political statements, creating avoidable controveries.
As we win very few Nobel Prize, probably at the rate of once in a decade, we put them on a pedestal and expect them to be a SUBZANTAWALLA (Mr. Know All) on every subject on earth. Being a Nobel Prize winner doesn't make one expert on everything, from igneous rocks to rocket science.
Raba Ramdev is a great teacher of Yoga which contributes to good health and spirit. But he goes overboard and claims of curing cancer and homosexuality through Yoga, which is at best fallacious as there there is no scientific evidence to back his claim. Next what ? Baba Ramdev addressing ISRO scientists on a symposium on rocket science ?
Bottom line - a system where generalists rule the roost and specialists are pushed to backburner can never prosper. Period. All humans are equal - they all fart and sneeze. It's the proper harnessing of human resource which makes the difference.
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