Infrastructure can drive growth, but social outcomes are conditional

Photo by Kelly on Pexels.com Building infrastructure is difficult. Building a city is harder.Roads and buildings can be delivered on schedule, but a city only comes alive when its social systems, such as jobs, housing, and public spaces, work for the people who live there. Research in development economics shows that infrastructure investment supports economic … Lanjutkan membaca Infrastructure can drive growth, but social outcomes are conditional

AI can make bureaucracy faster but without institutional reform, it won’t make government smarter

Governments around the world, including Indonesia, are embracing artificial intelligence to improve public services. But international evidence shows that AI boosts productivity only when civil servants retain decision-making authority and institutions invest in data governance and human capability. Without those reforms, technology risks accelerating old bureaucratic problems rather than solving them.

Economic Growth and the Limits of Development: Lessons from Sumatra

At the national level, the imbalance is even more apparent. With Indonesia’s GDP at about IDR 20,000 trillion, an extra 3 percentage points of growth would add roughly IDR 600 trillion. Yet a single major disaster in Sumatra has already erased more than one-tenth of that additional value in just weeks. This calculation covers only one region, one disaster, and one period.

Books I Read This Year that Impressed Me Most

Reflecting on my reading this year, I recognise that my selections reveal a deliberate effort to examine and question the assumptions underlying today's society. Rather than seeking comfort or motivation, I chose books that enabled me to critically engage with concepts like progress, merit, rationality, and the moral narratives that contemporary societies use to justify … Lanjutkan membaca Books I Read This Year that Impressed Me Most