Pedigree, past & present

India's old elite networks have lost their predominance. Today, its caravan is propelled by tens of millions whom our handful of elite institutions are too small to have produced

Sir Ivan Menezes (1959-2023), who just passed away, was a wonderful man. I might have met him socially, but did not know him personally at all. I definitely didn’t, or couldn’t have, gone to school or college with him.

About his many qualities, attributes and achievements, I read in the wonderfully touching obit by his batchmate, economist Arvind Subramanian, in this paper last Thursday. I take all of them to be true. It is just that I was momentarily intrigued by the obit writer’s concluding assertion that “Aristotle would have envied Ivan”.

Now, why would Aristotle envy Sir Ivan, who rose to