Swaminomics

Earlier Indian companies cooked their books, kept profits black, and rigged their share prices up. Once foreign investors entered the market, they marked down the price of dodgy companies while paying high prices for companies with good standards. Some Indians are gleeful about the terrible bashing China’s image has taken after a spate of scandals More >

It’s the 10th anniversary of one of the most successful international trade agreements India has signed. But nobody is celebrating it. Indeed, the remarkable fact is that few have even heard of it. This is the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) of 1997, which bound countries to eliminate in four stages, from 1997 to 2001, all More >

This is flawed thinking. First, fears of the world running out of raw materials occur every few decades, and have always proved false. Second, even if some commodities do indeed get scarce, that will increase the chances of foreign investors being expropriated by the countries in which they have invested. Third, acquiring foreign assets for More >

Recently, I was asked to speak at the Aspen Institute on India’s strategy for global economic dominance. I said I disliked the concept of dominance. India’s rise, like China’s rise, represents global interdependence, not a new group of dominators. Tata’s takeover of Corus means Indo-British interdependence, not Indian domination of Britain. More important, I said, More >

Historically, MNCs have had high profit margins arising from quasi-monopolies in technology and finance, and political influence translating into protectionism. In the US, trade unions fought for a bigger share of the surpluses, and obtained the highest wages in the world. In effect, MNCs and the trade unions shared monopoly profits garnered at consumer expense. More >

The leftist critics are right when they say India’s record GDP grow-th is bypassing rural millions. This tragedy arises from massive government failure to provide decent education and infrastructure to every village despite 60 years of gargantuan but wasteful spending. India’s cities have been connected to the global economy and have taken off. The villages More >

With the US finally climbing onto the global warming bandwagon at last weeks G-8 meeting, India and China will come under pressure to curb their energy use and carbon emissions. China will overtake the US as the biggest carbon emitter by 2008, and India will follow in two decades. India and China currently resist curbs More >

Dear Dr Singh, At the annual meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry, you eloquently argued the case for corporations to go beyond their narrow financial interests, and embrace corporate social responsibility. You urged businessmen to avoid conspicuous consumption and behave in a socially responsible manner, even if it affected their purse and power. I More >

The Prime Minister says that if we do not check stark inequalities, we will face social upheaval and violence. Now, we should try and reduce inequalities on moral grounds alone. Why gild the lily by invoking a Marxist vision of class revolution that has repeatedly proved false? Violence in India is almost entirely sectarian, based More >

The Bahujan Samaj Party under Mayawati has won a remarkable absolute majority in the UP election. Such a big victory, against all predictions, merits loud applause. Yet some analysts are going ga-ga, finding virtues in the lady which are not obvious from her track record. She has put together a rainbow coalition of all Hindu More >