The Times of India

Vajpayee can still smile

THE CONGRESS party has done rather well in the state elections, but Sonia Gandhi looks unlikely to come to power at the Centre. The BJP has done rather badly in the state elections, but Atal Bihari Vajpayee can still hope …

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Shadows on Indo-US Ties

EXTERNAL affairs minister Jaswant Singh has visited the United States of America, held an unscheduled meeting with President George W Bush, and returned home exuding confidence about the future of Indo-US relations. In fact, the outlook for Indo-US ties has …

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Death Of The Blue Chip

Chairman Mao once claimed to represent permanent revolution. In fact, permanent revolution is represented best by capitalism, the most iconoclastic form of economic organisation ever invented. Other systems ranging from feudalism to communism protect a decreed system, and regard attempts …

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Realistic Power Reforms?

THE HIGHLIGHT of Yashwant Sinha’s budget was not his tax changes but his promise of second-generation reforms. But implementation lies in the hands of not the finance minister but other ministers and state governments, many of whom pay only lip-service …

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Why This Secrecy?

Of India\’s many colonial legacies, the fetish about budget secrecy is one of the most absurd and anachronistic. A British Chancellor of the Exchequer once had to resign after dropping a hint that the tax on cigarettes might go up …

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