Mythili and Varadarajan Chari, B. Tech, Chem E, H2
Raj Melville called, “Chari, Thanks to you and your wife for pledging generously to the Class of 1974 Gift to IIT Bombay. Could you write a short piece telling us what led you to make that pledge?” I could see what Raj had in mind: Pour Encourager Les Autres and all that. But I dragged my feet. Raj emailed me. I still dragged my feet. I just did not want to sound insufferably pompous. What a showoff I hear a reader say. Raj kept patiently emailing me.
All right. I can’t keep postponing my tasks. It is time for me to put on my Economics Professor hat and explain why voluntary private donations to the advancement of knowledge are essential if we are to leave a better world for our children. Our class gift is intended to help support building new, sustainable, ecologically friendly, locally sourced, inexpensive housing for low-income families. The objective is not just to house some families. The idea is that we will experiment with materials, with construction methods, with location and positioning. We will learn from this exercise, and we will make the knowledge we have acquired widely available to anyone who wants to get into this type of business. That is, we will acquire knowledge and diffuse it widely. We will not let patents, trademarks or other forms of intellectual property protection impede the diffusion of technical knowledge.
This is where economics comes in. Our economic well-being depends critically on ready access to a vast body of knowledge about techniques, methods, processes. Private markets function marvelously in a variety of spheres. There is something magical about how greed in the presence of competition transforms self-interest into social value. But markets do not do a particularly effective job of providing public goods. These are goods and services which are nonrival, in that one person’s enjoyment is not reduced by another’s and nonrival, in that it is difficult to prevent all from enjoying the benefits of the good or service. The creation and diffusion of knowledge is a classic public good. These observations are typically accompanied by strident calls for government intervention, but we should not wait for that. In an enlightened society, we can all help in the process of creating and diffusing knowledge. We have all gained so much from IIT Bombay. In its hour of need, let us all spring into action and give back to a wonderful institution and a great nation a small measure of what they have done for us.
IIT Bombay 1974 Reunion 