Does culture impact development?
Debaprosad Lahiri Kolkata , April 23 THERE is an important distinction between `progress’ and `development.’ The notion of `progress,’ which cannot be limited exclusively to technical `progress’ alone, implies a positive change for a better, more successful and more just system. Quoting from the Indian Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and German sociologists like Wolfgang Sachs, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Gerhard Schulze, the Director of the Goethe-Institut /Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata, Dr Martin Waelde, said: “Does culture make a difference in progress and development of a country a million-dollar question is to be answered with `No’.” Dr Waelde was addressing a three-day international conference on `Does culture make a difference? Progress and development in India and its implications for international co-operation’ organised by the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ, the German Agency for Technical Co-operation). The “global augmen
