Vaccinating India brilliantly

I have long wrestled with the role of the state in India. The state legislative Assembly in Bengaluru, Vidhana Soudha, has an inscription running across its top: “Government work is God’s work”. Alternatively, Ronald Reagan said the nine scariest words in the English language were: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”. In the US, I believe a more effective state is needed in providing infrastructure and substantially improved governance, even if it then ends up being larger. In India, I used to believe that we did not need better government, we needed less government — indeed, that less government was better government. I’ve moved progressively to the view that the Indian state should do fewer things, but