Hacker News Reader

Comment by simula67 | Hacker News Reader

The author does not pose the most important question.

Do we need the brightest minds in India doing foreign affairs ? Or should they be entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers and politicians ?

View on HN

With a population of more than a billion I think India has enough bright minds available for all of them.

Also, with India trying to increase its influence and assertiveness in global affairs having bright people in foreign affairs seems a good thing to happen.

> With a population of more than a billion I think India has enough bright minds available for all of them.

Nope, most people aren't educated fully.

India has a literacy rate of 90% as of 2015[1], so I think the point holds.

1. http://www.uis.unesco.org/DataCentre/Pages/country-profile.a...

There's a bit more to being well educated than basic literacy though, and it's only among the young that literacy almost reaches 90%

Your link also notes that there are 255 million illiterate people in India, which is around the total population of the world's fourth most populous country.

Googling India literacy rate finds a source which says 75%. Maybe my gut experience is wrong because I live in an urban city in India, but I would be pretty impressed by 90%.

"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you." --Oscar

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-24804...

Yes, or at least some of them. India, pop. 1.25 billion, has around nine hundred (900) diplomats total in its foreign service (that is, diplomats overseas and in the country combined), and it's in a bad neighborhood with two nuclear-armed neighbors who are either not particularly friendly (China) or downright hostile (Pakistan).

Compare with Singapore, pop. 5 million, which also has about 900 diplomats!

The American historian Joeseph Ellis has an interesting take on greatness. At the time of the American revolution, Virginia had about the same population as present day Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, yet it produced Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Henry, and Marshall. This suggests that there are many many latent bright minds at the scale of contemporary populations. It also suggests that any shortage May be a resource allocation issue.

Definitely better than what the US is doing with its foreign policy towards the Indian subcontinet. The state department's south asian wing is full of ignorant and incompetent idiots.

Can you expand on this? I know Robin Raphel almost got packed off to jail...

One source: http://warontherocks.com/2015/06/how-pakistan-beguiles-the-a...

C Christine Fair is a Professor at Georgetown and at one time was offered the role of Asstt Secy for South Asia. It's a comedy that the lack of a dedicated South Asia cadre can have near disastrous consequences for US foreign policy.

Well, one I can point out is Nancy Powell (former US ambassador to India). She failed to assess the popularity of India's current prime minister on time, for instance. You can search for it on the net.

I don't understand this. I googled for a few things but only got some stories about her meeting Modi when he was in charge of Gujarat but nothing particularly interesting or related to what you said

Nancy Powell was known for her proximity with Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton on the other hand was very much against Modi getting to power.

See for reference: http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/obama-quietly-reverses-h...

The brightest minds developing fart apps does seem like a waste.

> doing foreign affairs

This isn't about diplomats, it's all government jobs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com