The Taiwan gap surprised me. You can’t build a $120 billion semiconductor strategy without a dedicated section on what happens if the Strait goes sideways. That’s not a tail risk anymore. It’s the central scenario the entire strategy needs to be stress-tested against.
Under "India Policy Watch #1: Cockroach Problem; NEET Solution", I am surprised that the article did not mention one of the biggest "first order" problems in the Indian education system (both school and higher education) -- high regulatory barriers to entry leading to an artificial constraint in supply e.g. only non profit legal entities can run schools and colleges in india.
For example, China has around half the number of private medical colleges compared to India but each one of them accepts around 1000 new MBBS students per year while the average is India is around 100 new MBBS studenter per year. The reason is due to high regulatory constraints for colleges that want to have more than 100 seats. So Indian private medical school operators find is easier to have colleges with 100 seats and run sub-scale operations. And even for meeting the recognition requirements for such 100 seat college, the project cost is Rs 400-700 crore. And wait for the clincher, the college has to be setup and run by a trust, society or section 8 (non profit) company i.e. there is no legal way to distribute profits to investors!
Simply put, the non-profit requirement for education institutions (schools or higher education) is the biggest (and completely) artificial barrier to entry which a) dramatically reduces supply and b) means that private education in india attracts the "wrong" kind of operators who are comfortable investing large sums of money through trust and societies and removing profits illegally.
Unless this "first order" problem is addressed, I don't see much hope for real reform.
🔥🔥Outstanding column. Feel bad for the students going through this. Perhaps there could be a greater role for the states to conduct the exams even if the standards are defined centrally. In Australia, 50% of the final score is determined by school exam performance and 50% by the HSC/CBSE type exam. To equalize grading standards that may exist across schools, there is a statistically validated approach to compare the school cohort’s score to the standardized statewide test and scale up or down the school scoring to equalize. Not a perfect system but incentivizes students to also focus on school work and not just one standardized test. 🙏
Thanks. Agreed, we have written extensively on this before. https://publicpolicy.substack.com/p/159-three-conundrums?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=14fm5
The Taiwan gap surprised me. You can’t build a $120 billion semiconductor strategy without a dedicated section on what happens if the Strait goes sideways. That’s not a tail risk anymore. It’s the central scenario the entire strategy needs to be stress-tested against.
Under "India Policy Watch #1: Cockroach Problem; NEET Solution", I am surprised that the article did not mention one of the biggest "first order" problems in the Indian education system (both school and higher education) -- high regulatory barriers to entry leading to an artificial constraint in supply e.g. only non profit legal entities can run schools and colleges in india.
For example, China has around half the number of private medical colleges compared to India but each one of them accepts around 1000 new MBBS students per year while the average is India is around 100 new MBBS studenter per year. The reason is due to high regulatory constraints for colleges that want to have more than 100 seats. So Indian private medical school operators find is easier to have colleges with 100 seats and run sub-scale operations. And even for meeting the recognition requirements for such 100 seat college, the project cost is Rs 400-700 crore. And wait for the clincher, the college has to be setup and run by a trust, society or section 8 (non profit) company i.e. there is no legal way to distribute profits to investors!
Simply put, the non-profit requirement for education institutions (schools or higher education) is the biggest (and completely) artificial barrier to entry which a) dramatically reduces supply and b) means that private education in india attracts the "wrong" kind of operators who are comfortable investing large sums of money through trust and societies and removing profits illegally.
Unless this "first order" problem is addressed, I don't see much hope for real reform.
🔥🔥Outstanding column. Feel bad for the students going through this. Perhaps there could be a greater role for the states to conduct the exams even if the standards are defined centrally. In Australia, 50% of the final score is determined by school exam performance and 50% by the HSC/CBSE type exam. To equalize grading standards that may exist across schools, there is a statistically validated approach to compare the school cohort’s score to the standardized statewide test and scale up or down the school scoring to equalize. Not a perfect system but incentivizes students to also focus on school work and not just one standardized test. 🙏