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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Escape velocity: Did Harvard dons inspire Rahul Gandhi?

Escape velocity: Did Harvard dons inspire Rahul Gandhi?

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published Published on Oct 11, 2013   modified Modified on Oct 11, 2013
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: Jupiter's gravity could be Rahul Gandhi's flourish, but "escape velocity" is a buzzword in macro economics and empowerment this year, figuring in the title of an influential paper by two Harvard economists studying racial inequality.

In "Achieving escape velocity: Neighbourhood and school interventions to reduce persistent inequality", Harvard's Roland D Fryer and Lawrence F Katz examine policies that enable youth to "escape the gravitational pull of poverty".

Rather similar to Rahul's speech on dalit empowerment - although argued with academic rigor - the Harvard dons ask if high quality schools can suffice in closing chronic adverse black-white gaps in America.

Their research explores the disadvantaged need not just better schools, but improved neighbourhoods as well to break free of social and economic limitations that trap youngsters and stunt their future prospects.

The empowerment theme is what the Congress vice-president referred to on Tuesday when he said dalits need the escape velocity required to beat Jupiter's immense gravity to get a better deal.

Sources said Rahul's reference was intended to highlight how dalits need to counter forces of discrimination that enmesh them in a vicious cycle of low expectations and crippling social and economic circumstances.

"It depends how a metaphor is used. Is it a general comment or a specific point? The intent was to illustrate how much harder a section of society must work in comparison to others," said a source.

While the Harvard authors see escape velocity as intrinsic to the "process of change" at Davos earlier this year, Bank of England governor Mark Carney - then head of the Canadian central bank - made a different point.

Carney's call for central banks of developed nations to use monetary policies to secure escape velocities for their economies so that they begin to steadily expand attracted wide comment and was soon seen as a hot buzzword.

More recently, well-known author on poverty, Angus Deaton's book "The Great Escape" speaks optimistically of how lives are getting better as deep-rooted problems of disease and economic hardship are being tackled, albeit unevenly.

Themes of health, wealth and inequality also inform the research of Fryer and Katz who found that while improving schools tackles inequality more effectively, better neighbourhoods reduce mental and physical health problems.

If granted sufficient budgets, policy planners will improve both. But with budgets getting squeezed, authorities are more likely to try and boost teacher and school quality in low-income areas.


The Times of India, 11 October, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Escape-velocity-Did-Harvard-dons-inspire-Rahul-Gandhi/articleshow/23930868.cms


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