Swaminomics

The Kelkar Committee report has painted a dire picture of government finances. It emphasizes the need to phase out unwarranted subsidies (such as those on diesel, cooking gas and urea) while maintaining warranted subsidies (on education, health, food) and targeting the poor. The committee has warned that India must curb its high fiscal deficit, which More >

Without infrastructure, an economy cannot grow. Industry and services cannot expand without highways, electricity, ports and airports, rail links and pipelines. The 12th Plan (2012-17) projects infrastructure investment of a trillion dollars. Alas, infrastructure has hit a wall, and been knocked semi-conscious. This has seriously undercut India’s future growth potential. No remedy is in sight. More >

Across Asia, including China, foreign retailers have proved a blessing, providing consumers with cheaper wares, and upgrading the technology of local producers to make them globally competitive. Only in India do opposition parties want to protect the aam bania against the aam admi. The worst argument against foreign retailers is that they will flood India More >

With less than two months to go for the US presidential election, most opinion polls suggest that Barack Obama is a clear favourite to beat Republican challenger Mitt Romney. A Gallup poll last Thursday gave Obama 50% of the popular vote against Romney’s 44%. However, a Rasmussen poll showed Romney nosing ahead by 47% to More >

There was much cheering last week when our cricket Test team demolished New Zealand . Yet the truly great Test and victory was in the Gujarat High Court, which imposed stiff sentences on perpetrators of the Naroda Patiya massacre of 2002. India’s institutions and civil society defeated a state bent on protecting the guilty. This More >

Opposition parties want Manmohan Singh’s head for supposed corruption in 57 coal blocks that were allocated, not auctioned. The government is under pressure to cancel the allocations. That would be politically, legally and economically wrong. Politically, it will look like a confession of crookedness. Neither the CAG nor anybody else has produced any evidence of More >

Indian politics today seems driven less by politicians and more by the Supreme Court and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). What does this imply for Indian democracy? The answer is that we are seeing a revolt by India’s institutions against a corrupt, callous state. An implicit political conspiracy ensures that all parties can, with impunity, More >

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on coal block allocations highlights the mess in the coal sector, but has led to very faulty interpretations of what exactly has gone wrong. The report exposes the pitfalls of ministerial discretion to allocate coal blocks. Market-based procedures like auctions, which would eliminate bribes and increase revenue, More >

When India’s GDP growth declined to 6.5% last year, some shrugged it off as an aberration. But drought and industrial stagnation have led financial analysts like CLSA to slash their growth estimate for 2012-13 to 5.5%. Citibank fears it could fall to 4.9%. Consumer inflation remains high. Don’t blame just the weather and global conditions, More >

Dear Anna Hazare, Frustrated by your failure to draw large crowds or sway Parliament, you have decided to convert your India Against Corruption movement into a political party. This is madness. Please abandon the idea. A mass movement can flourish on a single issue like fighting corruption. A single-issue movement can draw support from many More >