The Times of India

Why did economic growth collapse from 9.3% in 2010-11 to just five per cent last year? Because, says Chief Economic Advisor Raghuram Rajan, India’s institutions have been unable to cope with the consequences of fast growth. Land acquisition, forest clearance and environmental clearance were manageable when the economy was smaller and growth was slower. But More >

Amartya Sen wants to estimate the number of deaths caused by the delay in passing the Food Security Bill. He thinks this may shame Opposition politicians into ceasing disruption of proceedings in the Lok Sabha. “To capture people’s attention, you have to have a number,” he says. Fine, but let’s hope Sen will also estimate More >

The Supreme Court says the government has “shaken the entire process” by asking the Central Bureau of Investigation to interfere in the coal scam. The court says “our first exercise will be to liberate the CBI from political interference”. Many of us will cheer the prospect. But the CBI chief has said, correctly, that the More >

Agricultural wages have been galloping upwards for six years, rising much faster than prices. So, the living standards of rural labourers, the poorest of the poor, have improved at a record pace (6.8% real growth per year since 2007-08 ). What’s behind this excellent trend? Many politicians and leftist analysts think it is the rural More >

The price of gold, oil and many other commodities crashed last week. The stock markets zoomed and economists smiled, suddenly seeing positive consequences in three areas — inflation, the trade deficit and the fiscal deficit. These three factors had earlier dragged down the economy to its lowest growth rate for a decade, just 4.7 per More >

The Indian price of gold has risen sixfold in the last decade, fuelling a record speculative import spree. Soaring gold imports have hit $42 billion in the first ten months of 2012-13 , pushing the current account deficit to near-disaster levels. The finance minister is wringing his hands in distress, while housewives say that buying More >

The Supreme Court’s denial of a patent for Glivec, an anti-leukaemia drug made by Novartis of Switzerland, has been widely but wrongly hailed by NGOs and castigated by pharmaceutical companies as an attack on patents and a victory for cheap medicine. Actually, the Court fully upheld the principle of patents, but set a high bar More >

The Census Commissioner has released a new report showing that 64 million people, representing one in six urban residents, live in slums with unsanitary conditions “unfit for human habilitation.” This has caused much moaning and groaning. But conditions are far worse in most villages. Romantic pastoralists may fantasise about happy green villages as opposed to More >

At a massive Delhi rally, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar boasted of the state’s major achievements after he assumed power, and proclaimed a Bihar model of development for others to follow. If we view development as a sort of Olympics, Bihar would win several gold medals. It’s a champion athlete. Yet Kumar insists that Bihar More >

Massive imports of oil and natural gas have exacerbated India’s big trade deficit, which is a hurdle to the acceleration of economic growth. Light at the end of the tunnel comes from a technological breakthrough last week by JOGMEC (Japan Oil Gas and Metals National Corporation). It succeeded in extracting natural gas from sea-bed deposits More >

Dear Rahul Gandhi, You hit the headlines last week by saying you are disinclined to marry and have kids because then “I will become a status quoist and will become concerned about bequeathing my position to my children.” Second, you said you are not in the race to become prime minister. It would be gratifying More >

“Can’t buy me love,” sang the Beatles. “Can’t buy me an election” is the theme of this year’s budget. Finance ministers usually produce freebies, subsidies and waivers in their last budget before an election. Such attempts to buy votes have very little impact, but finance ministers persist in the hope that it may work this More >

To meet a budget crunch, taxes on income, capital gains and dividends have gone up in the US, and may rise further. This has fed speculation that the Indian budget will follow suit. There is also speculation that Chidambaram will introduce an inheritance tax, as in the US. Some Indian analysts think that soaking the More >

Six months ago, the government was seen as a hopeless, paralysed ditherer, frightened of annoying anybody (especially Mamata Banerjee). But since Chidambaram became Finance Minister, the government has started looking like an activist reformer that means business. Risking defeat in Parliament, FDI in multibrand retail has been pushed through. Rail fares have been increased, diesel More >