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Shikha Dalmia Discusses Bollywood on The Agenda with Steve Paikin

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Foundation's senior policy analyst Shikha Dalmia discusses the history of Bollywood and the powerful impact it has had on individuals and cultures outside India.

The original link.

Air Date: June 24, 2011.

About 58 minutes

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Shikha Dalmia Discusses Immigration at 2011 Students for Liberty International Conference

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EDT

In February 2011, Reason Foundation senior policy analyst Shikha Dalmia spoke at the International Students For Liberty Conference about immigration.

Calling for open borders, Dalmia argues that immigrants create more wealth than they consume and that an increasingly globalized economy inevitably means that people, like goods and services, will be crossing borders in growing numbers. While nativists and protectionists may view such developments with alarm, allowing people to move more freely is a great advance both for human rights and economic progress.

Approximately 33.50 minutes.

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Young World Revolution! - Youth, Technology and Business with Rob Salkowitz

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EDT

What can global business leaders learn from a 14-year-old kid in a cyber cafe in Bangalore, India?

Just about everything, says Rob Salkowitz, author of Young World Rising: How Youth, Technology and Entrepreneurship are Changing the World from the Bottom Up.

Reason.tv's Dan Hayes sat down to talk with Salkowitz about Suhas Gopinath, an entrepreneur who started a multimillion dollar business out of a cyber cafe in India at age 14. Salkowitz says young, tech-savvy entreprenuers like Gopinath represent a changing dynamic that global business leaders ignore at their own peril. Understanding this "young world" is critical for making money, developing new business models and combating social problems.

Salkowitz says that the lower cost of entry in the tech world provides unprecendented opportunity to young people in emerging markets. "You don't have to work in the t-shirt factory, you don't need to work in the mine. If you can figure this out you can earn a decent living for yourself in diginified working conditions, give employment to other people, and move society forward in better and different ways."

Approximately 9.30 minutes. Shot by Meredith Bragg and Josh Swain. Edited by Swain.

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Slumdog Thousandaire

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:00:00 EST

Perhaps the only people who don't like the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire are those who compete against it at awards shows. After all, it's already cleaned up at the Golden Globes, and the BAFTAs, and it's poised to repeat these feats at the Oscars.

The film follows an Indian orphan named Jamal who grows up and hits it big on the famous game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? In important ways, Slumdog tells the story of India itself—a poverty-stricken underdog with its own rags-to-riches tales. British rule ended in 1947, and the economic woes America faces now are nothing compared to the widespread malnutrition and starvation India faced then.

Indians were enthusiastic about self-rule, but "the problem was that the Indian political leaders had this very Fabian Socialist idea," says Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst at Reason Foundation and native of India. "And that completely thwarted the entrepreneurship of the country."

For decades would-be entrepreneurs staggered under the weight of corruption and bureaucracy. Want to import a computer for your business? You'd have to get permission from a bureaucrat. Want to sell food from a small cart? You'd need all kinds of licenses.

But in the 1990s, India emerged as a high-tech powerhouse. What changed?

"In the 1990s India started liberalizing its economy," says Dalmia, "and it did three things: cut taxes, liberalized trade, and deregulated business." Although they failed to cut the kind of red tape that entangled Slumdog's orphans, the reforms did make it easier for more Indians to start businesses and hire employees.

"One IT company doesn't just employ computer professionals," says Dalmia. "It also needs landscaping services, cleaning services, and restaurants. There was this tremendous spillover effect that allowed people to lift themselves out of poverty."

Since the early 1990s, India has cut its poverty rate in half. About 300 million Indians—equivalent to the population of the entire United States—escaped the hunger and deprivation of extreme poverty thanks to pro-market reforms that increased economic activity.

Yet here in America we're turning away from market reform. Says Dalmia, "It's just this great conundrum that at the same time that deregulation and markets have produced such dramatic results in India, they are falling into suspicion in America." Dalmia's prescription for India is at odds with what politicians have chosen to "stimulate" the United States. "What India needs to do is continue apace with its liberalization effort, but expand it to include the poor. Release them from the shackles of government corruption and government bureaucracy."

"Slumdog Thousandaire" is written and produced by Ted Balaker. The director of photography is Alex Manning.

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