Notes of Nagesh

  A Delhi High Court judge, her two children and a cascade of government briefs have opened a window onto three uncomfortable truths about India's higher judiciary: the persistence of family advantage, the opacity of empanelment, and the enduring dominance of a tiny demographic slice. HYDERABAD On paper, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma's elevation to the Delhi High Court in March 2022 was unremarkable. A career judicial officer who had risen from magistrate at twenty-four to sessions judge and later Special Judge in CBI cases, her appointment followed a conventional trajectory. What followed was less conventional. Within two years of her elevation, both her son Ishaan Sharma and daughter Shambhavi Sharma had secured empanelment as Central Government panel counsels — positions that grant access to a steady and lucrative stream of government briefs. Public records and RTI data cited in court proceedings suggest that Ishaan Sharma, who completed his law degree in 2017 and began pract...

  Many banks and microfinance companies claim that they treat everyone equally. But research shows something very different. Even when people from different castes have the same income, same land, and same education , a big part of the difference in who gets loans cannot be explained . This unexplained gap is because of statistical discrimination — lenders assume someone is “high‑risk” just because of their caste, not because of their actual financial situation. This problem is even worse in microfinance. Studies show that about 66% of Dalit applicants are rejected , even when they meet the same conditions as others. There is also a difference between how Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are treated. SCs face general discrimination. STs face a special kind of bias: even when they apply, their approval rate is only around 77% , while other groups get 85–88% approval. A lot of this discrimination becomes hidden inside algorithms used by lenders. These systems are ...

Caste as an Economic Architect In the Indian socio-economic landscape, the caste system is far more than a social relic; it is a rigid hierarchy and a "core facet of Indian cultural identity" that functions as a primary architect of economic opportunity. While the 1950 Constitution sought to abolish discrimination, these ancient divisions continue to dictate the distribution of resources, occupations, and—critically—access to the capital required for upward mobility. The Indian caste hierarchy is traditionally categorized into five tiers, each with distinct historical roles and modern-day footprints in the credit market: ·        Brahmins:  Traditionally the priestly and academic class. Today, they occupy the highest relative status in the credit market, possessing the highest levels of human capital (averaging 7.45 years of education). ·        Kshatriyas:  The ruling, administrative, and warrior class. · ...

   Ghosts in the algorithm India's financial system has digitised its ledgers but not its prejudices. A millennium-old caste hierarchy is proving remarkably adept at corrupting the code designed to replace it. Nagesh Bhushan Microfinance was once sold as a revolution. Its evangelists promised precision-targeted capital delivered to the "bottom of the pyramid" — a phrase that, in the optimism of the 2000s, seemed to imply the pyramid might eventually be flattened. A generation later, the pyramid stands largely intact. India has digitised its banking infrastructure with genuine speed and ambition. What it has not managed to digitise away is caste. The persistence of caste-based financial exclusion in an era of algorithmic lending is not merely an irony. It is an indictment — of institutions that have adopted the aesthetics of modernity while preserving its oldest hierarchies, of regulators who have measured financial inclusion by the number of accounts opened rather than t...

Espionage is often portrayed in movies as a world of flawless gadgets, perfect disguises, and unerring intuition. In reality, intelligence work is fraught with human error, bureaucratic blunders, technological failures, and sheer bad luck. History is littered with spies who were caught not because their cover was blown by a master detective, but because they forgot to change their socks, sent a message at the wrong time, or trusted the wrong person. Here is a list of common spy mistakes and real-life examples where these errors led to catastrophic failures. 1. Operational Security (OPSEC) Failures The most common mistake is failing to maintain basic operational security. Spies often become complacent, treating their dangerous profession like a routine job. ·        The Mistake:  Using unsecured communication channels, predictable routines, or failing to "burn" (destroy) incriminating documents. ·        Real-Life...