Amit Varma responds to critics of his recent WSJ op-ed. He also points to another article in the Times of India on how India’s interventionist government and corrupt bureaucracy are crushing the country’s chances for broad development.:

India’s loss is China’s gain, writes Gurcharan Das, describing with anguish how the attempts of a prestigious American university to set up a branch campus in India were scuttled by mindless red tape. The university eventually gave up and set up the campus in China instead.

It is with anguish that I sit down to write this column. Two years ago, I met a distinguished friend in Delhi, who is the president of a prestigious American university that has produced several Nobel laureates. He loves India and he told me with some pride that India is increasingly perceived as a future knowledge capital of the world. He thought he would contribute to this future by setting up a branch campus here so that Indians could acquire his university’s degree at a fourth of the cost in America…
(ed: details follow on dealing with two years of red-tape and corruption)
Sadly, he concludes that India is a hopeless cause and he has decided to set up a campus in China. After reading his letter I felt like weeping.