Author: Shailesh Wasti

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Shrinking Capitalism and Rising Commons

If you think that ‘technological singularity’—artificial intelligence controlling human intelligence – is leading us to the brink of civilization, it is nothing more than a Luddite thinking. Technology is, instead, making our life more sophisticated, bridging the gap between the classes, and even changing the classical economic paradigms. These things are observed, not in the complex equation of ‘governing dynamics’, not even in the dry pages of social theories but in simple every day phenomenon – we share music, movies, eBooks almost freely with our friends, exchange the ideas in the social network and share our experiences without hesitation. This is what Jeremy Rifkin, a radical economist, writes in his latest tome ‘The Zero Marginal Cost Society: the internet of Things, The Collaborative Commons, and The Eclipse of Capitalism.’
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Energy in Limbo

Shailesh Wasti
Shailesh Wasti
The most visible impact of Indian blockade on Nepal has been on the fuel crisis it induced in the country. People have to wait in queue for hours on end to get some liters of petrol and a cylinder of cooking gas. But this is not the first instance of Indian blockade: Blockade was imposed in 1989 as well. 25 years on, Nepal has witnessed radical socio-political change – it transformed from monarchy to federal democratic republic. But to the chagrin of Nepal’s polity, the state of energy still remains in limbo. Yes, the necessity and desperation fueled by the fuel crisis in 1989 did inspire a search for alternative, such as the use of three wheeler electric vehicle safa tempo. But the storm of creative search for alternatives to fuel imports from India died away after the blockade was lifted and, Nepal became dependent on ‘big brother’ India again.
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